I cannot believe it is the last day of November..... oh where oh where is this year going?

I am so excited for this new month, there are several different reasons why!

ADVENT!!!!! I love the celebration of the coming King! We celebrate is birth and we celebrate that He will come again soon! What a reason to decorate and feast and give gifts!!!! We do a different craft or activity each day to get ready. I will share more on this later and update with pics and other info. This will be my third year of doing this and I enjoy it more and more each year. I am not sure if we will use glitter this year though, we still have not recovered from the glitter incident of 2007. I am sure Bowden and Evynn remember the tears and gnashing of teeth... even little Kailyn (who was only 6 months at the time whimpers a little when she hears the word glitter)

We are starting to instill a new system of chores in our home. I have been reading Managers of their Chores by the Maxwells. it is excellent and I do believe that with some commitment on my part (Keith too), we can really get our little ones headed on the right path to helping in the home. December will be committed to chore training. It really should not be too hard in some areas as we have been working on several things with Bowden already. This will be the official launch though. We will head out full force next Monday... which leads me to #3...

We are potty training Kailyn. Wooo Hooo, she seems quite interested this time (remember, I believe firmly in the one failed attempt approach). My goal is to have just one child in diapers from this point on, well that is until we are blessed with another little one... but hey that is in God's hands!

We are taking a break from official homeschooling - a LONG Christmas break! One of the reasons I LOVE homeschool!!!!B & I will still review letter sounds each day for a little bit but nothing hard. But I am really excited about starting up again in January. I needed to be a little more conservative this fall, just trying to get my bearings but I really feel that this second semester I will be able to fully embrace doing more of what I want to do. I am really beginning to believe I might be able to use the classical education model with my children and I know it will be fun along with really challenging and engaging for Bowden and his need for discovery.

On top of that, I get a whole week with Keith at the end of the month and there is nothing I love more than that!!! I love my husband more than words can say and I cherish the days I get to spend with him!!!!! It is my favorite week of the year! This is my favorite month of the year!!!