On the day before Thanksgiving, I’m trying to cram in one more blogpost.  It’s going to be hard, since there are a million homeschool/holiday/parenting things on my mind right now!  Where do I begin?

Let’s start with our next fruit of the Spirit: faithfulness.  For faithfulness, we used a lemon.  I didn’t schedule any official school this week so we were able to focus on faithfulness and our Thanksgiving preparations (kind of–we also had doctor’s appointments and Monday was completely consumed by OCC drop-off.  We delivered 1660 boxes!!!).  I found “faithfulness” to be a kind of tricky concept to teach the kids.  I started with the story of Noah.  We read it and I talked about how Noah was faithful to God in that he stuck with building the ark even though it took him a long time, and he obeyed every command God gave him.  Then, God was faithful to Noah by doing what He said He was going to do. We listed some things that are faithful in our lives; things we can count on, like Daddy coming home from work every night (therefore he is faithful to us) and Mommy making breakfast, lunch, and dinner (therefore I am faithful by providing meals). We talked about how God wants us to be faithful to Him by obeying Him, and to others by doing what we say we’re going to do.  That night I made my chicken piccata, which is a lemony dish and the kids helped!

The verse I used as our key verse is Psalm 51:10.  It talks about having a faithful spirit and a pure heart, so at first I wanted to do a heart project, but we already did one with “love.”  So I decided to incorporate the “lemon” part of our theme and make paper lemonade glasses.  On each lemon in the glass, we wrote an example of how we can be faithful to God and others.  We made sponge-paint ice cubes, then glued straws to the glasses.

Today was definitely “cute craft” day because we also made these adorable turkey cookies for Thanksgiving, tomorrow!  Don’t you just want to gobble one up?! 😉

So I’ve been thinking about what our December will look like this year.  It’s a pretty common thing for homeschooling families to take the whole month of December off from school (and usually not take a February or April vacation) in order to make time for all the baking, events, craft projects, and Christmas units.  It’s one of the many benefits to homeschooling–to actually get to enjoy the Christmas season at a slower pace than usual!    This year I had a small part in putting together our church’s advent devotional readings.  The theme is 25 Names of Jesus and I wrote 5 of them and included a family connection and activity for families with children.  So, obviously we’ll be doing that, and I’m looking forward to it!  That’s only 5 family devotionals/activities, however, so I was feeling a little guilty (because I’m a mom, so of course) about taking a whole month off from school and not doing something a little more in-depth for Christmas.  Then I contemplated doing The Truth in the Tinsel from ohamanda.com but that seemed a little too in-depth.  So I think we might do an abbreviated version of it, which includes a piece on the different names of Jesus, so it will tie in nicely with the series we’re doing with church.  I have to admit that although I like the December plan, I don’t love it.  😉  But it’s the plan for now and I’ll keep you posted!  If you want to do the 25 Names of Jesus this advent season with us, you can find the readings (for free) here: http://www.hopechapelsterling.org/advent-readings-2016/  (Advent starts Sunday, November 27 and you don’t have to have kids to do it, the 25 main devotions are for adults!)  If you’re interested in doing the Truth in the Tinsel, you can find it on ohamanda.com.  You do have to pay for the ebook.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and if you’re in the same homeschool boat as me, have a wonderfully relaxing December and let me know what your plan is!  (I might want to steal it!) 😉