Thankful Thursday Thanksgiving Meme..

I saw this meme over at Aut-2B-Home. It's fun...so why not...

1. Which do you like better: Cooking at your house, or going elsewhere? I thought it was cook at home...but I've decided...not! The dishes..oh the dishes.... (This is not my kitchen by the way. Mine was worse..)

2. Do you buy a fresh or frozen bird? I made chicken...which is still a bird. It was just us three so I made chicken thighs. Thanksgiving is all about the sides anyway! I had the opportunity to get a VERY fresh turkey...'processed' on Wednesday. hmmm.... I mean i KNOW where they come from but it just made me think a wee bit more... good thing I'm not a farmer!

3. What kind of stuffing? I made the stuff from a bag for DH and some cornbread stuffing for DS and myself. It was quite good!



4. Sweet potato or pumpkin pie? I found a great recipe for a pumpkin bar cookie! I haven't made it yet however, but I plan to this week!

5. Do you believe that turkey leftovers are a curse, or the point of the whole thing? Like I said, we ate chicken! LOL!!!

6. Which side dish would provoke a riot if you left it off the menu? Taters!!! We must have mashed taters. DS was a bit peeved that I hadn't cooked the hash browns we had bought earlier at "Meijers with J."

7. Do you save the carcass to make soup or stock? I never have gotten the hang of that. Can you say....Costco ...they sell a great boxed chicken broth.

8. What do you wish you had that would make preparing Thanksgiving dinner easier? Alice from the Brady Bunch comes to mind.

9. Do you get up at the crack of dawn to have dinner ready in the early afternoon, or do you eat at your normal dinner hour? Lets see...I was at Meijers grocery shopping for dinner at 11 am. We keep our regular homeschooling hours around here.

10. If you go to somebody else's house, what's your favorite dish to bring? This one is easy. I make a wonderful triple cranberry dish with cranberries, cranberry juice and dried cranberries! I didn't make it today because I am the only one who will eat it but my sissy is coming tomorrow and I think I will fix it up! Will blog a recipe!

11. Does your usual mix of guests result in drama, or is it a group you're happy to see? One of the reasons we stay home is that it is difficult for Andrew with tons of people. I was with some ladies last night who all have children on the spectrum....each one has a story or two about holiday gatherings and it seems to be the norm to keep it small.

12. What's your absolute favorite thing on the menu? Taters!!!!

13. What are you thankful for this year? Oh there is so much

• My wonderful family! I know that is predictable but it is true.
  
• Andrew's progress....all the whispers from God that I have seen this year concerning his development.
• My new skin friends!!! I've prayed for a long time for some friends that I would 'click' with..that would accept me and Andrew...and it happened...praise God
• For my incredible cyber friends too! I was thinking about all my mom and dad went through when I was young. They had to do it in a vacuum. I am able to turn on the internet and find a dozen friends immediately that know what I am going thru and can support and encourage.

So Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!!!! Now it is time for bed so I can hit those sales..(NOT!!!)

Giving all you have....The Best Birthday present ever

Today is my birthday.... and I just received the best present I have ever gotten in my whole life. $4.02- and a whisper from God.

Andrew is on 'detox' from his yeast issues and it has been a rough few days. As a bit of background, we have begun allowance and have instituted a 'save, spend, give program.' (Here is the program we are using.) It took quite some time for Andrew to want to put something in the 'give' envelope and we finally made it a requirement but he does it now himself. After Andrew said Happy Birthday he went to his give envelope to take some money out for me. I told him, "no honey, that money is for the church but thank you for the thought." Then...he went to his SAVE envelope and took out $3. Upon second thought he took out another dollar plus two pennies..(I'm 42 today.) I about cried because that is almost all he has in there. He didn't give just a little...he gave all he had. You can read another story about a woman who gave all she had here.

I told Mark that I wanted to give it back but of course I could not. I was going to 'dock' his allowance this week because he has not been great but of course I will not. I might even throw in an extra dollar because he has been wonderful on taking his medicine for this yeast healing. Mark drew a great corollary. When we give to God..by money, time, prayer, or helping His people, you can just imagine him showering gifts upon us. We give of ourselves and He is pleased. He loves us always...just as we always love our children, but when we give to Him, His pleasure with us increases and he longs to rain blessings upon us.

So Thank you Jesus this birthday, and this thanksgiving week..For ALL you have done for us and may we give of ourselves each and ever day, not so that you will rain blessings on us, but just because we love You and because You love us. In Jesus name, Amen!

Our Unschooling days...

I didn't even PLAN this week. We did plenty. I made sure we did math and speech every day. Part of the reason we are 'unschooling' is that we started Andrew on a new 'anti-fungal' parade. We are only on the first 'band' at the moment; nystatin. Andrew has many gut issues with candida being one of them. The nystatin is a relatively safe medication that can help get at that. We will also be starting on some enzymes. The 'problem' is that when you push yeast out of your system you don't necessarily feel all that great. Andrew is 'extra' out of sorts. Think...um...PMS. It effects his mind and his body. My hope and prayer is that healing the gut will help his attention and also increase our ability to eat additional foods that are currently restricted. Although he is not currently himself, I have noticed some really positive things such as his willingness to eat a variety of foods including fresh spinach leaves!!!!!


We have continued with Friendship Circle this week- both at home and at the center. Here is his friend that we meet up with at the center. His name is Josh. We have a new friend Evan that comes to the house and I will do my best to remember to take pictures the next time he is here. We have been skipping Enrichment Hub because it is just too much for a Friday. I am spent at the end of the week.


We managed to play in the snow this week!!! And today had several unschooling moments. First, at breakfast, Andrew noticed that his 'miralax' medicine was not all gloopy in his cereal. I had mixed it by shaking it with his rice milk first. So...we actually did the solution science experiment that I've been wanting to do for ages. Andrew is also writing his Christmas lists which involves copywork. We are working on a Thanksgiving Lapbook and have read several wonderful books on the subject including Squanto. I had no idea the 'real' story of Squanto. I bought some new 'schooling' software at Costco. I was suckered in by the coupon but I think it will help me figure out where Andrew is grade wise for some subjects. Not that it matters really... "it is what it is." But it is also a way for him to do a bit more 'school' before computer games.

So there you have it.... this is what we have been doing.... some days lots...some days not so much. Works for us! I homeschooling and so thankful that it is not only legal but easy to do in our state. I can adjust Andrew's education day by day depending on his needs.

Wordless Wednesday...First Snow!

For my Southern Friends...come visit!!!

Thankful Thursday

Just a quick one today. I just tossed Andrew a Disney 'workbook' on money and time and told him to pick a page and do it. I was walking back him when I saw him discover the answer key in the back. I said...'ah ah ah' ...and he just grinned and peeked out of the corner of his eye at me. I just thought that was so cute. He KNEW what he was doing LOL! and he was busted... so that's my thankful Thursday.

Weekly UpdateS for 10/31 and 11/7

I have some disturbing news to report...I am suffering from HSPD... Homeschool Split Personality Disorder and you can read more about this hideous condition HERE. We have been doing our math and trying to keep up with Christopher Columbus so that we can finish by Thanksgiving. We've been doing our new Money Management Books and tools from Dave Ramsey. And we've been practicing our 'social skills' at Friendship Circle, E-hub and playgroups. And much much more...i just didn't track it... and you know what....it is freeing. The pendulum is swinging however with my HSPD.... and I am beginning to have a need to plan.

Politics!!!!!!!!

We have been working on our lapbook for well over a month and wanted to share with you now on Election Day...assuming I get this post up tonight..I'll add some resouce links at a later date..
Our cover was red and blue... under the Elephant and Donkey tabs are the names of the Presidental candidates. Andrew also listed his platform which included many things such as "peace (from mom) during video games and work on computer every day."



The inside flap has a small book on political animals which includes of course the donkey and elephant but also words such as lame duck and dark horse! We read parts of the book "See How they Run." The vocab book is in lift the flap style and has democracy, campaign...etc.. In the upper left we had a flip panel of "fact vs. opinion."


Our middle section included a brief overview of the democrat and republican platforms and a few more vocab words. We did a fun math exercise where we figured out what year Andrew could vote and when the first Presidential election he could vote in would be. We played with those numbers quite a bit and it was a great exercise in skip counting by fours.


We did some number puzzles and Andrew did quite a bit of clip art cutting and pasting which was fun. We also practiced alphabetizing political terms.

How is it that the above picture is correctly oriented in my computer and it flips here?? just turn your head.... The final activity of interest is the calendar where we mapped out the year of when the primaries are in various states and when the conventions are held.


And here we are voting!!!!!!!!

101 Things to do with your Halloween Candy

............Besides eating it that it. Andrew is on an allergen free diet. And even if you aren't, all that candy is BAD for you! OK this list isn't 101 ways. Feel free to add some ideas in the comments. I'll gladly add them to the list.

Estimate how many pieces of candy
Estimate how many types of candy
Estimate how many 'm&ms' or 'nerds' are in a box
Read the wrappers
Tell jokes from the Laffy Taffy wrappers
Build a Candy City
Pretend Jumba and Lilo (or whoever) are eating them.
Talk about what they 'look like': ie: a tootsie roll looks like an eraser, or it could be used as playdough....
Practice fine motor unwrapping the candy
Smush the tootsie rolls before you practice your handwriting (then throw them away.)
Play 'nerd' (or M&M) tic-tac-toe
skip count using candy
graph who got what and figure out percentages
graph candy type and figure out percentages
weigh all the candy (again - could do percentages)
weigh each type (and percentages)
compare the heaviest amount of candy to the actual 'amount' of candy