Last Week of School- Monday

We reached the last week of school for the boys. Busy week. It always is. Here's how it started out.

Beginning November

Woohoo. We've reached November in our quest to catch up on my blog. 

You know what November is, don't you? National Novel Writing Month! How appropriate that November 1 is National Author's Day. Nichole had a goal to finish the first draft of her novel before November. She reached that goal and celebrated with hot chocolate in the composition mug. 

My goal for NaNoWriMo is to read her first draft and give her feedback.

November 1 was also National Cinnamon Day. I had apple cinnamon oatmeal.

Nichole needed to go out to get pictures to make up for her digital photography class she missed during quarantine so she and I went out to Bicentennial Park on November 2 to get some pictures. It was a lovely evening. We heard a belted kingfisher soon after we got to the park and later saw it flying around. That's a bird I expect to find at that park. Love it. We also saw a turtle swimming around and plenty of little birds, chickadees and finches and such.

We had some good lighting that evening for pictures and it was a pleasant outing.

November 3 was Sandwich Day. We didn't have peanut butter or tuna fish sandwiches (remember Lilo & Stitch?). Instead, Jet and Lucky both helped me make french bread rolls from Mel's Kitchen Cafe to try out ham sliders from The Food Nanny. Mmmmmm.

November 3 was also Stress Awareness Day and yes, I am aware that I have a lot of stress in my life. But November is also a month of gratitude and gratitude can be a great stress reliever. Last year I wrote about #GiveThanks and "No-Stress November" tips from the Orem Library. I think it's a good idea to look back at the post I put up on November 27, 2020 for ideas on how to get through the stress.

Since we're talking about gratitude, I'll mention something I'm grateful for. I'm grateful I have hair. Not everyone does.

November 4 was National Candy Day. The kids finished off the candy corn left over from Candy Corn Day.

November 4 was also Men Make Dinner Day. Jr. made pizza for us.

Looking at my blog post from last year, the men made a similar dinner that day.

November 5 was Guy Fawkes Day. Alexa and I explained a little bit about who Guy Fawkes was to some of the children.

November 5 was also Doughnut Day. As I've been doing lately with any doughnut or donut (depending on how you spell it) related holiday or celebration, I made cinnamon sugar doughnut muffins from Mel's Kitchen Cafe again. I'll tell you, they are much faster and easier to make than real doughnuts and so tasty.

So there you go. The first week of November... mostly. November 6 deserves its own blog post so look for that soon.

Quadruple Celebration Plus One

I got a picture for September 20, Pepperoni Pizza Day, String Cheese Day, Fried Rice Day, and Punch Day.

I didn't get a picture for September 21, World Gratitude Day, but I did express my gratitude to my husband and my children.

And Here We Go

Things are hard sometimes. Some years are not so great during the Christmas season. Even though there are plenty of stresses, I believe I'm going into this season with a better attitude than some years. I think a lot of that is because of #GiveThanks around Thanksgiving. I am grateful for so many blessings, including the opportunity to #LightTheWorld even in little ways. Sometimes it's ideas based on the printable calendar. Sometimes it's just doing nice things for my children and changing my attitude about serving them.

*I'll note here that I started writing this blog post last night after thinking about it for a while. I was planning on what I would do for Light the World and was going to get the post up so I could do what was on the Light the World calendar for that day. Unfortunately Jet was having a hard time when I handed him off to Jeremy and I realized it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if I do these things according to some schedule. What matters is if I serve. Serving as Jesus did means ministering to those that need it when they need it. That includes my family members. My children are more important than some blog post. So this post is coming later than I was originally planning and that's fine. I currently have a baby sleeping comfortably on my shoulder as I write this and that's better than fine.*

 

We got a good start to our Countdown to Christmas scripture study with everybody participating. Good job, kids. 

We wanted to keep all the scriptures we'd be using easily accessible so I thought to put them in our picnic basket. Jeremy made the comment, "Talk about feasting upon the word of Christ." Ha Ha.

One thing we started doing because it can be done virtually is we started watching concerts from Temple Square. "The Christmas Collection Concert Series." It started with a virtual tour of Temple Square and the Christmas lights there since it's closed to visitors right now. Most nights through December 23 they'll have concerts featuring a lot of different groups with pre-recorded pieces. Tonight Jeremy commented while we were all watching together how pleasant it was in our home.

Here's what I wanted to share for "Light The World."

December 2- Hero Highlight "Who represents Christlike love to you? Highlight them on social media." I told the kids this was on the Light The World calendar and Lucky immediately told me of his hero: "Jesus should be all of our favorite." I agree. You can't top Him for Christlike love as that is who he is. Lucky and I talked about how Jesus does recognize when others do service and we watched a video about Jesus pointing out the widow who gave what she had. I'd like to share about a couple who are my heroes. Brother and Sister Ahlborn. From bringing us food when we came home from the hospital with a new baby to inviting us over for Family Home Evening pre-pandemic, bringing us fresh garden produce and home canned goods as well as giving us items for our food storage, they serve.

They gave us apple filling which helped us celebrate Mason Jar Day on November 30 when I used it to make apple strudel. Yumm. Oh, that filling was so good.

The Ahlborns don't just care for our temporal needs, they care for us spiritually as well. They encourage us to watch special messages from the prophet and make suggestions to read articles to supplement our gospel study.

They don't just do this for us, either. I know they are like this with others. It's wonderful to hear their insights on our Sunday Zoom meetings for Sunday School and Priesthood/Relief Society (and Young Women).

While I can't currently get hugs from them, I can feel their love and the love of Christ through their service. Thank you, Ahlborns.

And since this is a post about not only Light the World but about the beginning of December, I will let you know that on December 1 we ate apples for Eat a Red Apple Day and since it was also Rosa Parks Day, I finished watching the Rosa Parks episode of Doctor Who. I fell asleep when we were watching it the other day so it was the perfect day to finish it.

Of course as far as service goes, it's not been just me doing service in our family. Everyone has been finding ways to serve in our home. The other day, Nichole used our Little Women cookbook and made cream puffs from a recipe in it. Good job, Nichole. 

Jr. often takes Jet and gets him to sleep when I'm in the middle of something. That boy has the magic touch. The other day, Jr. Jr. surprised me by doing his homework without complaining while I slept on the couch. Every morning, Lucky collects a mask for his brother as well as himself before they head out the door. Jet brings joy with his laughter and cuteness. Jeremy does so much from grocery shopping to library trips to washing dishes. My family is amazing. I want to recognize that this Christmas season instead of getting overwhelmed and bogged down by some of the hard things of life. 

There will still be hard things, I will still get discouraged from time to time, there will be tears, but if I keep an attitude of gratitude, the positive can outweigh the negative and I can help bring my family closer to the Savior.

(Positive things like Nichole and I getting a new life bird- a long-tailed duck. Bonding time with my daughter... and husband and baby. Woohoo)