Our Thanksgiving weekend...

Wow! What excitement we've had! Friday night I got an early Christmas present. A brand new 2009 Fusion! LOOOVVVEEE IT! Too bad its been raining since we bought it so we have only taken it for a short drive. :( I do love it though.

Yesterday, John spent almost the entire day (9:30-4:00) working on the garage. He came in for a short break about 4pm. I was sitting on the couch talking to him (and looking at him) and he was on the leather chair cleaning his glasses. Then I heard that dreaded sound...Snap. "Please tell me that is not what I think it is," I thought. And as I thought it, John held up his glasses in two pieces! YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING! He just got them about three months ago, unbelievable. And everyone knows John can not see without them. We rushed to the place where he bought them because they close early. Luckily they had the same pair in stock and we had to pay nothing. YEAH! That was a close call though. So, now I need to remind John to take an extra pair with him when he goes to school in January.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

My Thanksgiving oops!...

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving feast this morning! We had the juiciest turkey, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, rolls. Everything was delicious! John however, missed out on his cranberry sauce. I had even bought it, but somehow forgot it when we were eating. I feel bad (I forgot it last year too). I'm hoping to make it up to him by putting up Christmas lights outside this afternoon because its suppose to rain tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday. I'll also try to have another Thanksgiving feast in February and hopefully will NOT forget the cranberry sauce again.

Thanksgiving...

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and it will be the first Thanksgiving since I've known John that we are not going to be with either family. We are staying home. We were going to stay home initially because of John's school but after it was rescheduled we decided to stay home anyway. I've been thinking a lot lately about what I'm truly thankful for and I wanted to post a few things that came to mind.

The first thing I am grateful for is John, to me he encompasses so many wonderful things. He is kind, loving, an absolutely wonderful Dad, charming, intelligent and most of all he makes me laugh. I am grateful for everyday I've had with him and for everyday I will have with him.

I am truly grateful for my wonderful girls, without them life would be very dull. They are kind, fun loving and intelligent.

I am thankful for my parents. I wish we could see them more but when we do see them they are always so openly loving to the girls. Grandpa makes sure there are cookies, cakes or pies for them (each will have a favorite food already prepared when we arrive).

I am grateful for my extended family, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Thanksgiving is the only day I see some of them so I am sad we will not see them this year. But I hope their day is full of love and laughter (I know it will be). I love you all and miss you all.

I am thankful for John's family. They too are kind and warm and generous to our girls. We wish we saw them more often too, but time seems to go by to quickly.

I am thankful for my friends. My friends near and far, those I see often and those I've seen once in seven years. You know exactly who I am and you accept me for me. That's friendship!

I am very thankful that we are able to homeschool our girls. If you talk to John today, you would assume he had never questioned it. We are able to enjoy each other every day.

Those are just a few of my thanksgiving thoughts. I'm sure you each have your own, some will be the same and some very different. So long as we take the time to be thankful, I believe that's all that really matters.

The garage...

Finally, here is the garage! I have to admit this pic was taken right after we finished building. I was banned from the garage until late this afternoon, when John and the girls wrapped my presents. We still haven't finished everything there is to do but its coming along. Its forced us to look at what we have and determine what we really need. When its finished completely I'll put in another pic.

Joy, joy, joy...

I haven't written in a couple of days because frankly to say its been busy here would be an understatement. I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but we found out very late last week that John's class has been rescheduled to January, leave it up to the army to not send out a letter on that small item of interest. Anyway. It changed our entire line of thinking so the wheels were set in motion last weekend.

We first thought about taking a nice vacation (John could really use one and us too!). But then we thought about everything we're going to have to pay for in the next few weeks and that seemed to be stretching it a bit too much. So...we decided to finally tackle something I've been wanting to do since we moved into the house, the garage! YEAH! We went and bought four cabinets and a pegboard with a light on Tuesday. John could hardly wait for the weekend so he took off Thursday and we started building. One cabinet was complete on Thursday, one Friday and we did two Saturday after spending the morning in Edgefield. So today we get to finish the biggest cabinet and start organizing. I'll post a pic when we finish; I know Mom wants to see a pic even if no one else is interested. :)

I have to tell you Chloe's reading has really come a long way. We were at the doctor's office yesterday and she was reading next to me, "Mom, is this word 'suggested' (she said it properly)?" "Yes, it is. Very good Chloe." I said it so calmly but inside I was jumping for joy. This means she too will be ready to start her first grade work in January like Jesse. I'm glad too because she has been driving me nuts about starting spelling. I think she just wants to get onto spellingcity.com. LOL

I finally started working on Story of the World II. I have searched the library catalog and now have a list of the "extra history reading" for half of the chapters. The girls thought I looked funny because I had my laptop in a chair beside me using the internet on John's computer. I'm sure I looked quite busy! lol I'm hoping to finish the last half today or tomorrow and start working on the chapter notes. For those who don't know, I read the chapters and review the test and make "review notes" for Jesse to review everyday to prepare for a test. I originally thought I would do this for the first two books and then let her do her own notes for the last two books. We take about a year and a half to complete a book so I think by then she'll be fully capable of completing that task on her own. We'll see.

Math, OMG...

Jesse and I sat down this afternoon to do her math and to say I was shocked would be the understatement of the year! Pre-Algebra! In a third grade math book! Yes, there we were facing down the "unknown" in an equation. So, I had to stop. The book had not even mentioned negative numbers yet, so we went over those first. She did well, but still a bit confused on "what you do to one side you have to do to the other side". We'll get there I'm sure, but really I was not prepared for that one. I'd heard ABeka is advanced but that is seriously advanced. Jesse said she "started pre-chemistry".

I want to mention a new website I was recently told about, SpellingCity.com. It is a very cool site. You can go in and enter your own spelling list. Then the kids go in and choose a game they want to play and all the words are used in the games. Jesse is really enjoying it. I actually changed her spelling schedule to add another day per lesson for her to use it as part of school. She was actually going to finish her spelling book early so extending each lesson by a day helped out my schedule.

I can't leave until I say, "Happy Birthday! To (my) Mom and Tyler! We hope you both had a wonderful day full of surprises, love and laughter! We love you both."

Days of fun...

Sunday afternoon we started another craft. This time I helped. Actually, it was a craft I did not mind doing because it did not require glue or glitter. YEAH! They are Indian corn magnets. The girls had fun making them and are using the leftover beads for their own projects.

We went to Charlotte Monday night after John got home. As you can see by the pics, the girls had a great time playing in the leaves at Grandpa's and Grandma's.

I had a great surprise tonight. We stopped at the Lowe's in Camden on the way back from my Dad's so I could run in and see if they had some things we needed to pick-up with the van later. I was walking down the main aisle by the door and who did I see? You'll never guess because I couldn't believe it! My Cousin Kevin (he lives in NC)!! Yes, right there in Camden. Its amazing how things work out sometimes. I won't see him for Thanksgiving, and maybe not Christmas either, so I gave him two hugs (one for each).

Crafty Daddy...

John and the girls made a foam gingerbread house today. The girls had a great time and are very proud!

TKD last night, a bragging moment...

The way our class schedule works for Friday night is the girls' class is first then mine. After the girls finish their class, they sit in the chairs and watch me or talk to their friends or read. Last night Chloe took a few of her books to read. One of the moms is a wonderful lady, Mrs. Nancy, who comes and watches her, now, 16 year-old. She is so sweet and always asks the girls what they have been up to in school and out (yes, she knows we home school and she thinks is great). Well, last night she apparently asked Chloe to read to her. I'm not sure if she really believed Chloe could do it. Chloe just started Kindergarten in July but she's been working on her reading since January. Well, just about the time Chloe finished reading the book we were taking a two-minute break from sparring. She called across the room to me, She just read to me. The whole book. Its a level 3. The only word she didn't know was "bought" and that's a hard word! I think she was a little shocked but mostly impressed. I have to admit I was very proud. Mrs. Nancy is not easily impressed, her two boys are brilliant! Really!

We spent most of the morning and early afternoon running errands around NE Columbia.

I think I wrote Monday night that Wendy E. gave me some Amish Friendship Bread starter. Today was the day to bake it. I have to admit both John and I were skeptical about my ability to do this correctly. I have attempted to make bread in the past, and when a bread maker is not involved I fail miserably. However, that being said, the bread turned out awesome! Chloe was asking for a piece to try before it finished baking; the aroma was incredible. It took quite a bit of self-control from John for him to wait for it to cool, but in the end it was worth the wait.

My only problem now is the "friendship" side of it. I have a few people I can give some too but not that many. My friend Courtney told me she makes it and skips the "friendship" aspect now. So, I've got to figure out how to do that next. John has already asked me to make it for his work Thanksgiving dinner (luckily it falls when I'm going to be baking). I'm sure my Dad is going to want a starter, so I'll take one to him when we go up next.

The week kind of ended on a good note with the laundry soap and the bread. Two things worked out well for us this week. Oh! BTW, I did the math on the laundry soap. (Remember I do buy things at the Commissary so its a little cheaper.) But for the soap, borax, and washing soap to make a five-gallon paint bucket full cost us $.73. Yes! $.73. And it will probably last us a couple of months! I was paying $22 a month, now that's savings!

If you are interested in making your own soap, you can follow the link below to find the Duggar recipe for laundry soap.

http://www.duggarfamily.com/recipes.html

A good day...

The day started kind of rough, but in the end I think everything went well.

Jesse actually got most of her school work done for today and considering she had to do most of yesterday's work also is a tremendous feat for her. Its about 8:25pm and she is taking a History test. We won't get English, Reading or Geography done today but she did awesome! Chloe did finish all of her work (except Geography, they do that together) today, with the help of John who read her science book to her tonight.

After three-and-a-half years, today I received, "Marsha, I apologize for Tuesday." I was floored! I feel much better now. Thanks for asking. lol

Okay, do you want to know what John and I did last night after the girls went to bed...of course, you do! We made the "Duggar" laundry soap! For those who don't know, the Duggars are a family of nineteen, soon to be twenty, in Arkansas. We tried to make the soap over the weekend with another recipe but it didn't work out quite right. So, we dumped it and tried again. It has to sit overnight so John is downstairs now putting some of it into an empty container I saved. I'll let you know how it turns out. If it works, our laundry soap expenses will drop dramatically.

John is off tomorrow to prepare for school. I'm hoping we'll still be able to get our schoolwork done because its not a day I scheduled off. Should be interesting, but he usually pitches in and takes one of the girls to help with her work, so I'm hoping we end the week on a good note.

Rough week...

I'm not sure what I want to say here but I do want to say something. I haven't written much this week because I'm not sure how to express myself.

Monday's book club went well, but it sure wasn't what I was hoping for with it being the last one for the year. We missed a lot of people. Since then I have found out that one of the families has had a devastating blow and considering they are expecting another child, I am very worried for them. I love this family and so do my children and we will keep thinking of them until their situation has improved.

Tuesday wasn't much better. Jesse had a low-grade fever all day but we went to TKD anyway, just to find out he had cancelled and he had not bothered to tell us (he did tell me the week before he was "thinking about it and would let us know", but I was the only mom there at the time). Did he apologize for three of us (one parent received a phone call because they were absent, the teenager was informed as she walked out the door Thursday, at least that is what he told me) sitting in the parking lot trying to figure out what was going on? No. He had called me on my cell phone after I called an assistant instructor and proceeded to insinuate that I'm lacking intelligence because he told us both Tuesday and Thursday. I don't think I would have been quite so upset but that was the third time in about three weeks he has questioned my intelligence. The first was over a December payment and when he found out I was correct (his own computer) all I got was "Hmm." This after arguing with me in front of other parents, who still think I'm nuts. When it comes to money, I remember! Then just last Thursday, during class, I had just completed my form (when in the middle of someone else doing their form) he looks at me as says "You didn't keeup (yell)." "Yes, I did." "No, you didn't." "Yes, I did." "No, you didn't." (Nine year old boy doing his form, stops, looks at instructor) "Yes, she did." Instructor, "Oh." Was there an apology for giving me grief in front of the entire class? Of course not. This is one of my pet peeves (right next to honesty) is being able to admit when one is wrong. No one, and I include myself and I'm the first to admit it, no one is correct all the time. But it is so important to be able to admit when you are wrong. I'll stop venting now.

Wednesday still did not go well. Jesse was still fighting that low-grade fever. I ended up, in the middle of the afternoon, with a migraine so bad I couldn't open my left eye. I hate those things! I tried napping but yesterday the girls did not cooperate (usually when I get like that they are very sweet). So I still wasn't feeling great when I finally went to bed about midnight (I forgot to was John's uniforms earlier in the evening so I had to get that done).

Thursday (yes I know its on 8:15am) but Chloe came into my room about 6:15am with a nose bleed. Of course, that woke me up instantly. So hopefully, the day will improve.

I do want to leave on a good note: Wednesday morning, on the way to the commissary, I thinking about Tuesday's TKD and book club (before I found out about my friends) and I just felt miserable. Usually, when I drive I just focus on the road and my thoughts. But something just kind of grabbed at me. The road I now take is a two-lane back road that goes all the way to Ft. Jackson. The trees. The trees demanded my attention yesterday. The road was lined with trees filled with beautiful red, orange, and gold leaves interspersed with evergreens. It was the most beautiful autumn I've seen in a few years. It lifted my mood considerably.

Last bookclub, first tea...

Here are some pics from our last book club for the year. This guy, to the right, is one of my favs! He calls me the "candy lady" or "pretzel lady", I don't remember exactly. I'm sure my "stalker" can correct me. :)

Book club had some glitches this month. I hate it because it was the last one. We were missing three families (two with six children each, four-teen total) which makes a HUGE difference. Well, the hard part for me was one of the ladies was going to do story time for the little ones, so I was rushing around trying to find a few books to read about half-an-hour before, but everything turned out fine. I'm not nearly as fun as the other moms when it comes to story time; I read. I'm not so artsy/craftsy nor am I good at creating games, so I read. They survive.

Julia did the "big kids" group today and it looked like they had a ball! It was something like Wheel-of-Fortune kind of. They had to answer a question about the book and if they got it right they could pick a letter to fill in on "the board". "The board" was a paragraph from the book. (See artsy/craftsy.) LOL

We also found out today that Wendy E. is pregnant! I am excited for her though I'm not sure that completely came across today. I do love babies, but I'm a little nervous about getting pregnant again (no, I'm not trying). After, three-and-a-half years away from diapers I'm not sure I want to go back to them. But I'm very happy for Wendy!

Wendy E. also brought Amish Friendship Bread starter. I'm sure I'll kill it before Friday, but we'll see what happens. It already smells delicious!

Tonight was the night. Our first tea. It was nice. We had a chance to sit and talk and it was soo peaceful. We turned on a "new age" station which was very relaxing. The four of us around a table simply talking and enjoying each others company. And to top it off the girls actually enjoyed the tea (English Afternoon, yes, its a black tea Julia). Anyway, I look forward to next week when we can do it again.

Preparing for bookclub...

Well it has been a busy two days here. Since we missed a couple of days of school last week we had school over the weekend (John was working anyway). We have now completed 62 days of our 180 required days, which feels great. Last year, with the move, we had 63 days in at Christmas. We struggled all winter to get caught up and I am determined NOT to do that this year.

Tonight we made sugar cookies, yes again, in shapes of turkeys and leaves. Tomorrow is our last bookclub for the year and I wanted to have a special snack instead of our usual grapes, cheese, crackers, etc. The girls and I spent most of the night making cookies...until they left me at 8pm for the new Hannah. I guess I know where MY place is huh? lol

John took at PT (physical training) test today and did very well. I'm so proud! Of course, I always am.