It's almost January and that means we are going to be discussing all the things of winter this month. As well as trying to get outside as often as we can to enjoy all the changes in our yard since fall. 
​
In our family, we love to read and so we will be intentionally reading books about winter, snow, snowmen, snowflakes, etc that we can get our hands on. Here is a list of books that we are reading in our home and a list of books that we will also be getting from the library if we can find them. If we cannot get them from the library and I can find them at an inexpensive price I will grab them on Amazon or Half Price Book Store.

November, like any other month of the year, seems to have been very busy for us. It is surprising to me that in the effort to slow down intentionally that we are still very busy. It is a good kind of busy though and we enjoy what we are doing.

In October, I finally managed to land Joe in a spot of a local(ish) nature co-op. The classes are weekly and take place at a beautiful marsh that is about 45 minutes away from us. The leaders follow the Exploring Nature With Children curriculum which I just adore and can never seem to stay on track with on my own. Joe absolutely adores the classes and loves being able to meet new people and friends.​

​Joe also lost his second tooth at one of the classes. Just casually turned to me and handed me the tooth and then turned back to resume listening to the teacher speak. 

November brought us a mix of extreme temperatures. We had days of so cold it seemed our furnace couldn't keep up with the cold and days that were so warm you could almost consider breaking out the summer clothes again lol. We had one very beautiful day that we took a trip to the zoo. It was a spontaneous trip. Joe and I were having a rough morning so I got us together and got us out of the house. We always have so much fun when we are at the zoo. Whether we are with friends or on our own it seems there is always an adventure to be had. This time when we had gone the zoo still had some of their Halloween decorations up and we had some fun. Also, note the gorilla in the picture below. He (or she) had a whole relatable mood going on.

In the month of November, we continued with learning about Vincent Van Gogh and also learned all about Mammals with our virtual co-op group through My Little Hands Learn. (affiliate link) He is almost finished with Math and Language Arts grade level one. So we keep plugging away through them both. I have to say that going through his Language Arts and learning all about the different rules for letter sounds, blends, etc that I am glad that we took the break we did at the end of last year. He came in swinging and is reading fairly well already. I had originally started him off with The Good and The Beautiful. I love their curriculum, but it was too stringent for him so we made the move to Masterbooks for his Math and Language Arts. It was a really good move. He is thriving with it and it is good. For all the other subjects we follow a "curriculum" guideline from Ambleside Online. It is a Charlotte Mason style of learning and one I lean more too. The curriculum guide is free to use.  You can support the contributors by using the links to the suggested books to make purchases. They use the money from this to maintain the site they use and their goal is to make it as affordable as possible. This means they also link free resources you can use versus buying the recommended books for reading. They also have a pretty amazing Facebook community.

Not directly related to school, but we also spent time with family for the holidays. Dan's mom has not been doing well so we are trying to be intentional about spending time with all of our parents. We want to be sure to give Joe quality time with them so that he has memories of them when he is older.

We also made the trip to the library several times this month. One of those times Joe made slime. We went a couple of times in October for a homeschooling group get together that the library hosts, but were not able to make it to any of the scheduled events in November. Fingers crossed for December.

We also went to see some Christmas lights with friends that do not live as close to us Thanksgiving weekend. The light display is in West Bend and is hands down my favorite display ever. 

There was a small amount of snow one of the days and though it was not much, Joe purposed in his heart to make a snowman. I did not stop him, but let him get outside. I'm sure, soon enough it will be much colder and our time outside more limited.

That about wraps up our November. My favorite part of homeschooling is that it isn't just about the books, but about the fun memories we get to create while learning.

I am so far behind in my life right now. I even went to the extent of creating not just one, but two book trackers because I forgot that I had already created one. That is how life goes when you enter the holiday right? I have been working very hard this year in slowing down a lot. It is one of the greatest messages I have learned from this pandemic. Slow down. I do love the hustle and bustle of the season, but honestly, I enjoyed the forced slowdown that we had last Christmas and I want to repeat it. Every day! 

Can you believe that November is just a few days away? I cannot. I simultaneously feel like the year has been gone by fast and will never end lol. I long for the slow days together as a family, a beautiful garden, warm sun kissed days. I am eager to be rid of this pandemic, world wide sickness, political craziness and hate. Right now I am gearing up to make plans for my business in 2022. I have so many ideas bouncing around in my head that this year I will need to make a structured plan. Do you reevaluate your current goals and set new goals for the new year in November?

I'm also excited about all the amazing events that happen during this time of the year. Family get togethers, Christmas light shows, reflecting about the goodness of Jesus and sipping hot cocoa while reading some good books.

Hey friends! Can you believe that we are midway through September and that October is right around the corner. Next week Saturday we are going to be throwing a birthday party for Joe. He will be five. I'm struggling with my emotions on this. I don't want to be the weepy mom that cries each year that her kids get older, but I also just want to keep him little and all mine for just a little longer.

But I digress, one of my passions in life is reading. Not only does reading foster learning, but I love that it opens up the door to broader thinking and imagination. Reading inspires me, teaches me and helps me to see other peoples perspectives. My one big goal in homeschooling Joe is that I can encourage an environment and love of reading. They say reading is fundamental and I couldn't agree more. It opens up a whole new world for you and teaches you to think for yourself.

I have several reasons for why I joined Thirty-One. I am not a fluff it up and tell you how easy it has been to build my business and make money from home. I have worked hard to develop new skills, learn about marketing and most of all about learning how to build relationships and invest in people.

It has been worth it in so many ways. There has been so much that I have learned from Thirty-One and from the leaders that have been placed in my life because of Thirty-One. But there is so much more.

This month's customer special is the one and only Small Utility Tote. This tote has quickly become one of my favorites. It is so versatile and can be used for so many uses. I love the size of it because I do not always need a Large Utility Tote to carry the things that I need. 
Thirty One blogged some of the possible uses for the Small Utility Tote. They listed 131 uses. I'm going to highlight just a few of my favorite uses.

I don't know about you, but the O'Brien household has been in purge/organize mode. It is crazy, the amount of "junk" you find when you start to dig through stuff. It started when I opened up our blanket closet. That's right. We have a closet that I called the blanket closet because it was crammed full with blankets. We ended up filling up the back of my husband's SUV and I mean, it was filled with blankets. This left a crazy amount of room in this closet for other things and I still have twelve (yes... I said twelve) throw blankets for any warming needs that we may have. This sparked operation purge more and organize mode  in me.