Thanksgiving is approaching

I found this picture that I actually thought I had already posted. This is Lydia's modeling clay version of the Spinx and pyramids in the background. 

It sure has been busy around here the past few weeks. We decided to work on getting Jon-Ira into his room (his room has been our "indoor storage room" if you will) and there were several things that were left in the living room to go through that have been ever so slowly being gone through and so we have been having to work around them to do schoolwork. My step-father broke some ribs so Travis decided we should go up there and help cut up firewood. At first it would have been way to much to bring 5 children to their house as he dealt with the hardest of the recovery stage, so since they had a little bit to last a short while and then we had a slight warm spell, we were able to wait a few weeks before going. We went and were there for a very fast 2 days. It rained the first day which made it hard to do firewood, and I forgot my wrap so I wasn't very helpful at first, but ended up being able to help some when I was able to allow my Mom to enter Grammy mode and tote and love on Melissa while walking around with the other kiddos. 

Being that this is always a tight time of year with mine and Travis' anniversary, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then New Years, and then three kiddo birthdays and then right behind them are mine and Travis'  birthdays we have been trying very hard to minimize the amount of power we are using, so instead of 74 for our A/C on warmer days we bumped it up a degree to 75, and on the cooler days we just haven't turned the heat on at all, and was just using the fireplace. Well, last night it got down in the low 20's so we turned the heat on to 55 and I woke up to it on as the fire had long been out. I am so proud of my Katie Grace and Lydia, but most especially Katie Grace. Yesterday Travis was cutting firewood and she was really busting tail bringing it down to the house and stacking it up! I just hope and pray she doesn't get sick, she wouldn't listen and put on a long sleeve shirt, she had a short sleeve shirt on under her jacket and every time she would get warm would do a few runs without her jacket, and it was quite chilly yesterday. 

This morning I got up and started the fire back up and am already in just about an hours time about out of the wood that was brought in, so I guess I need to go out and get some more to bring in. Hmmmm, maybe I should make some coffee first, so my hands can warm up when I get back in. We have decided that today is going to be the only school day this week before Thanksgiving. I have too many things that I need their assistance in, and/or need my attention to be on to make sure Thanksgiving goes at least half way smoothly. We do however plan on having school Friday and Saturday. I plan on continuing the semi laid back approach to school through the first of the year and then hit it back hard after the new year. I think after how the end of our k12 times were, and for that matter how it started, lol, they deserved not quite a "deschooling" but a relaxed transition period if you will in between the k12 and our homeschooling experience. 

The girls did help me make our menu the other day. I will post it soon, and hope to have them make either a menu or cookbook to journal this years Thanksgiving dinner. I had planned on making a thankful tree on the back of my door, but I can't seem to get my ideas to make sense on paper for the trunk of the tree, I was going to use construction paper, but then you have the limbs and I'm not really thinking that I have the time to cut out limbs out of construction paper, so I may either do just a "pile of thankful leaves" or a tree with no branches, lol.