November Reading List

I read only four books in November, one of which I read before, but I enjoy so much that I purchased it on abebooks.com and found myself entwined in the pages of the story once again. 

The last book I read this month (and just finished today) is from a genre that I have never before even considered reading, but found myself so inspired by parts of it that I definitely will seek out other books with similar themes to broaden my understanding of  the relationship between living and nature. 

I enjoyed all of the books I read this month. In fact, I own all of them. I am finding myself purchasing books more often than I am using our local library. The selection here in Charlotte is lacking severely and I often find myself disappointed that in today's day and age there aren't more resources dedicated to investing in a resource such as a library, but maybe that is just me showing my age. Maybe libraries at some point in the future will become obsolete as technology takes over the world more and more. I hope that this is not the case, but I suppose it would not surprise me if that occurred down the line. 

Without further ado, here are my November reading selections:

2021 Book Totals:

January: 5

Feb/March: 8

April/May: 6

June: 5

July: 9

August: 7

September: 9

October: 3

November: 4

Total: 56

Thanksgiving 2021

 We spent the week of Thanksgiving up in Ohio this year. Sarah had multiple appointments at the Cleveland Clinic over the course of two days prior to Thanksgiving day. Because of the nature of one of Sarah's treatments and with the craziness of COVID still lurking around we chose to have a quiet Thanksgiving Day with just my in-laws. 

During our trip we were able to visit with my brother and his family for a hot minute or two. My kids were able to see most of their cousins with the exception of my sister's family who we did not see at all because 5 of their 6 family members came down with COVID in the two weeks prior to our trip. I did not have the luxury of potentially exposing my family to that virus no matter how small the transmission chance was. I cannot protect Sarah from every circumstance where she may come in contact with any flu/cold, but I can limit the known potential exposures. Because of this we were not able to see everyone we would have liked to. 

I had a nice visit with my parents whom I stayed with the 5 days we were in town. It was probably one of my best visits since we moved away. I enjoyed being with my parents even though we didn't have too much time together with Sarah's appointments, Thanksgiving in different locations, and then visiting with friends late on Friday afternoon; the time we did have together was nice and I enjoyed myself very much. 

My parents, my girls, and I shopped at a quaint set of small businesses on Friday morning(ish) called Grand Pacific Junction. It is one of my favorite places to shop because the shops are all independently owned and two of them are resale shops. I can usually find some pretty good items in those resale shops that I love and are an extremely reasonable price.

Friday night we visited with old friends that we haven't seen in years. It was so, so good to see everyone. Old friendships are the best in my opinion. We picked up right where we left off like no time had passed at all. 

We brought our dog Max with us and he did great. He gets along well with my parents dog and he behaved himself impeccably - which I was nervous that he would not.  I think I would bring him again (as long as staying at my parents house is an option). 

  

Week 8 of our 2021 - 2022 Homeschool Year

 We had a super good week this school week. One of our best yet.  The girls worked super hard on their assignments (with rare exception) as we will be taking a scheduled two week break to travel for Thanksgiving and then to welcome visitors and celebrate Sarah's birthday the week of December 1. 

Sarah and Elizabeth had to complete an art assignment on using geometric shapes to create depth in a piece of art. This is Sarah's work. 

Elizabeth's art assignment.

Sarah and I have been reading through the Little House series for a couple of years now. She reads to me in braille in order to help her stay fluent in braille and also to increase her braille reading speed. Some days, depending on how tired she is feeling, she will read to me a page or two. Other days, she will read up to 7 pages. 

Elizabeth learns best if she can read her material out loud to me, and so I sit with her every day and listen as she tells me all about astrology. She picked her science curriculum this year, and so far she really likes astrology which is great for me because in years past science as always been her least favorite subject. Now it is towards the top of the list as one of her favorites. 

Completed work for week 8.

Ordinary Moments: A Stroll With The Kiddos

A couple of weeks ago, on a very warm fall day, the kids and I took a break from our homschooling/college work and took Max on one of his favorite local trails so that he could run and play. 

It was a nice week day break from the normal routine and I think we all enjoyed getting out into the warmth of the sun and watching Max as he enjoyed himself immensely. 

 

Grassy Gap Trail

Andy, Bobby, and I took a hike last weekend on the Grassy Gap Trail in the North Carolina mountains. It was a beautiful day: warm and sunny. The leaves were stunning and the forest was serene. It was definitely a trail system that I would like to go back to as Grassy Gap splits off into at least three other trails - leading to miles and miles of potential hiking in a secluded and wild part of the mountains. I love it. It was goo

 

Homeschooling Week 7

 Last week was another good(ish) week of school. I got a bit distracted Friday, and so some of our school plans got delayed until Monday, but we did get through a good chunk of our work. 

Sarah and I changed up her science and instead of her listening to an audio cd of the text I am instead reading the chapter out loud to her. This way we can outline/take notes on each section as we go through it and she can ask questions as needed. Prior to this week I didn't really know what was going on with her science learning because she was doing most of it independently. She had her first science test a couple of weeks ago and we both realized that she wasn't understanding the concepts presented as well as she thought because she did not score so well on her test. Hopefully, working on her science in this new way will help her to learn the material in a way that will help her score higher on her next test. 

Other than that we just keep trucking along. We have one more week of school left before a two week break for Thanksgiving/Sarah's birthday. 

I do need to remember to take more pictures of what our days look like. I keep forgetting and only remember when I go to write these updates. 

Elizabeth's Fall Soccer Tournament

 Elizabeth's soccer team played in a tournament these past two weekends as a way tp extend their season. The teams with the best records from the two games would move on to the next round. 

Unfortunately for Elizabeth, the girls tied and then lost their very first game in weeks 1 and 2 of the tournament this eliminating them from moving on. 

It was a tough loss, but overall was a fantastic season. Elizabeth loved playing with this group of girls and she loved her coach a lot. It was one of her best soccer seasons ever in terms of growth and amount of fun she had.