A day early?

 This year we decided to do things a little differently. Normally, we have a huge Thanksgiving lunch on Thanksgiving Day. We enjoy family and friends. We have pie and go for a walk. And then we get our tree after our Thanksgiving meal. 

Well, the tree lot that we normally go to seems to get more expensive each year. We decided that this year we just didn't want to put that much money into a tree that we would let our goats eat 4 weeks later. 

So, we decided that we would buy a cheaper tree the day before Thanksgiving. We wouldn't decorate it that day, but we would least have our tree ready to go for Thanksgiving night. 

Honestly, not everyone was on board with this idea. But as we went to look for our tree and then got a McDonald's lunch and had hot cocoa together, we just had a wonderful day! It was nice the day before a busy Thanksgiving to have some time together. I think we found a new tradition!

It didn't go as easily as we thought picking out a tree would be. But that's how it is every year, of course! We went to five different places that sold trees and finally settled on one at Lowe's. 

What a great day we had together!
 

Getting the biggest turkey

 We had fun trying to find the biggest turkey this year! We dug through the freezer section and lifted them all and giggled and laughed and stood in the way of everybody, probably. 

In the end our biggest turkey we could find was almost 16 lb. Not quite big enough for this family of ours. 🙂 We bought it anyway and then Brenna ended up finding another one for 20 lb at Publix so she traded with us. So thankful for this family of mine!

 

A quick trip to say happy birthday Dad!

 I've said before many times on this blog, but anytime I get a chance to drive down and see my mom and dad I just love it! This time Beth, Micah, Callie and I brought along Brenna, Asa, and Azariah. We had so much fun!!

As you're going to see in these pictures, Asa was in love with his grandpa! Anywhere he was that's where he wanted to be.  Anything he did that's what he wanted to do. They bonded immediately and we loved it!

We had a great birthday party for Dad with our family and celebrated other November birthdays too. 

Micah asked my mom if she would teach him how to make Sherry's famous fried chicken. It was delicious! My boy is really learning how to cook.

And then we went down for a couple quick hours at the beach. It went by fast but we loved it! Asa and Azariah had never been to the beach so that was fun too. I love the sand, the seagulls, the water, just everything about the beach!

Then for Dad's birthday lunch I asked if I could take him and my mom out to lunch. Just us three. When's the last time it was like that?? 

We went to Skyline which Dad and I love! Mom just tolerates it but loved being with us🙂

And then we were able to be at Winkler Road Baptist Church with my parents that night. 

It was a great trip, went by too fast, as usual, but we made some wonderful memories!
 

The Presidential Election

 When I started this past summer planning for our school year, I knew I wanted us to do a government unit that included a study on the election process. Since it's a presidential election year, it was the perfect time to do it!

I found a great unit made by Sonlight that we loved! It was very thorough, had a lot of great history and a lot of great vocabulary and we all learned a lot. Me especially!

The day of the election we printed out a poster of the United States.

Then I had Silas, Callie, and Micah fill in the electoral votes that each state would receive.

Then we headed off to our polling location to cast our votes! Well, at least me and Beth cast our votes. Patrick had voted earlier in the week.

Even Hobbes got in the patriotic spirit!

That night we prepared a ton of snacks and watched as results came in. If a state-turned blue or red I had the kids fill in the right color.

It was quite a nail biting night wasn't it?

But then got really exciting too! We were doing a lot of praying!

We are so thankful for the results and for for America voting in Donald Trump. We are also thankful that our state stayed conservative, especially on amendment three and four. We had some pretty big things on our ballot this year!

 To God be the glory, great things he hath done!

Heroes

Heroes. We all have them. Whether on TV, YouTube or in real life. Whether they wear a cape or a mask, or the cutest skirt,  we all have people that inspire us. 

When I heard that Mrs. Jolene Sloan would be speaking at a ladies conference a few hours from us, I just knew we had to go!

 Jolene first inspired me when she was a missionary in Ukraine. Her testimony was so encouraging and uplifting and made me want to be closer to the Lord. Then when Tabitha first got married, she reached out to her for counsel. She pointed her in the right direction and made a huge impact on Tabitha's life. So I knew for Tabitha's birthday I wanted to take her to see and meet Mrs. Jolene Sloan! 

Calvary's Grace did an amazing job with the conference. It was all feminine and girly and so beautiful!

And meeting Mrs. Jolene in person was just as much a blessing as on the phone and online. She's real, she's a joy to be around, and her speaking blessed our hearts!

When we got to the conference we were also excited to see that Mrs. Trish McCoy would be speaking as well! She's another one of my heroes! We love her! I was so excited to see her again and especially to hear her speak.

I furiously took notes on the things she said and I feel like the Lord gave me exactly what I needed!

Her life story makes me want to be a better Christian and a better wife. She is inspiring!

That night when we got back to the dorm and we realized time was going fast,  we decided to bring our bag of chips and dip and see if the Sloans wanted to play Dutch Blitz with us. We were all pretty competitive and we just had a great time together! There's just nothing like Christian friendship.

Then at the conference the next day I was proud of my girls! Beth and Callie were the last two ladies standing for contest. 🙂

It was a great time away for the four of us I'm so thankful for ladies that encourage us and inspire us. They are are our heroes.

 

Ladies Pancake Fellowship

 We had so much fun at our Ladies Pancake Fellowship! Part of the fun is the setup 🙂 Callie and her friend worked on mixing all the pancake batter for us.

I had fun working on the decorations. After almost 10 years at Victory Springs, we've developed quite a stash of goodies to make things look pretty!

We had ladies sign up to bring mix-ins and goodies to put in their pancake batter. We also have lots of syrups! There were so many choices!

We had a bunch of griddles and of course threw the breakers! I think that's just tradition🙂

The ladies made lots of wonderful creations!

We ate way too much, laughed even more, play games, and had a devotion in God's Word together. It was a wonderful evening! So thankful for amazing ladies at Victory Springs!