November 2024 Recap

It’s hard to believe we have made it through another month of 2024. And with just one more month to go and it will be 2025. This does not seem possible!

I am thankful to be on Thanksgiving break this week, and to have three whole days at home with Theo and the kids. Our community experienced a loss this week that has hit hard and while we grieve, we also have hope in Christ and the days we will finally get to be in heaven. While it’s hard to be thankful in the midst of a tragedy, it is also a reminder of how precious life is and how we can choose to live it to the fullest.

Here is how we lived life in November:

What We Are Eating for Thanksgiving

Ok, I have a confession. We scratched Thanksgiving this year! My parents are out of the country so my family isn’t getting together. Theo’s family long ago gave up on trying to get together over the holidays. There are too many of us and we live too far apart to manage holiday times off and travel. Since no one in our family really likes Thanksgiving food, we are literally just skipping Thanksgiving and spending the day together. And I couldn’t be more thrilled! So, what will we eat? I honestly haven’t decided yet…haha!

What I’m Loving

We got our family photos back this week and I just LOVE them!

What I’m Not Loving

Where is the sun? I’ve learned over the years that I can actually deal with the cold during the winter. But it’s the lack of sunshine that really gets to me! The dreary, gloomy days have started, and they will stick around until March.

What We’ve Been Up To in November

Honestly, our months really slow down once November hits! We have less animal chores and more cozy days inside. We still managed to have lots of fun in November, though! Theo was out of town the first week of the month, so that threw our schedule off a lot. He then randomly got a couple of days off on other days of the month.

We made cinnamon rolls to celebrate that Theo was home on a Sunday! This happens maybe twice a year and it’s a REASON TO CELEBRATE! Also, I have officially “arrived”. My daughter can now make cinnamon rolls mostly by herself.

We chased down some hot air balloons that we saw filling up just down the street from our house. It was kind of funny because we watched one take off and kinda crash. It just bumped the ground and then got going again but it was like watching a slow motion accident. I’ve always wanted to go in a hot air balloon, but now I’m like…maybe I’m good on the ground. Plus I think I’ll save the $900 ride lol.

I joined a Christian accountability challenge and did great for the first two weeks, then got slammed with a terrible sickness that had me in bed for a couple of days. I totally fell off the wagon after that.

We did a lot of schoolwork in November. We are TIRED of schoolwork, y’all. I’m so thankful for the break this week!

We also had our first fire in the fireplace this month! We try to mainly heat our house with wood, so from November- March we typically gather in our living room since it’s cozy and warm. Lots of books, lots of coloring, lots of crafts and yes, there is even some wrestling going on.

Tera had a sports banquet for volleyball and each girl received recognition from the coaches. It was sweet!

I waited in line for 1 hour and 47 minutes to do early voting! I read my book the whole time haha. The amount of comments I got from people…it was like they had never seen someone reading a physical book before! They were amazing that I could stand in a moving line and READ. Haha…lots of practice at home reading while I cook dinner, brush my teeth, walk around…haha.

We have of course continued our hiking tradition! We did have to pull out the coats this month, though.

So, for the past 18 months I just keep wishing that I had a jogging stroller. But I didn’t want to buy a new one and I didn’t have any luck finding one second hand. Well, imagine my surprise when I was driving to the library and I saw this in someone’s trash. I grabbed it so fast. It had a flat tire so I had to order a new inner tube…but voila! I finally have a jogging stroller…and it was FREE.

Ori and I both spent about a week this month feeling under the weather. I don’t know what we had, but I ended up with a major sinus infection and needed both antibiotics and steroids to kick it. Thankfully once I got the meds, I was back on track! I took this picture of my bed because I finally wasn’t IN the bed, I was out of it! Ha. And we missed two Sundays of church from that illness!

This month, we celebrated Ezra’s 6th birthday!!! Hard to believe that my little newborn baby is 6 years old. We celebrated by having a little friend birthday party after school on the playground. It was simple, sweet and we loved celebrating Ezra and his zest for life!

We took a quick trip to Jungle Jim’s Market, which is an international food store about 40 minutes away. They have all kinds of exotic and interesting foods, and you can find food from pretty much any region of the world (although I’m always a bit disappointed in their “Africa” section….there are so many different regions of Africa and they only have two aisles for all of Africa…c’mon now).

We crawled into Thanksgiving break with a super busy day at school…we got our first snow, my class had a visit from police K-9 dogs, we built our huge community village project, and we had a Thanksgiving party! It took me about three days to recover haha.

What I’m Excited About

I’m actually getting excited for Christmas this year! I often feel some sense of dread about the holidays, especially when Theo has to work. This year he is off and we will get together with my family, which is rare and a big blessing! I’m already set on teacher gifts this year and we made the hard but incredibly freeing choice to not do any Christmas presents this year. I just feel so much more refreshed and less pressure this season.

What I’m Reading Lately

My monthly book review will be published on Saturday, but here is a sneak peek of the books that I will be reviewing:

What I’m Listening To:

I usually listen to podcasts when I have the opportunity to listen to something! I wrote a whole blog post on podcasts that I listen to, but here are two that I highly recommend:

The Newsworthy- this is where I get my news, every single day!

Raising Boys and Girls- I have really been enjoying the parenting wisdom and insight that I get from this podcast!

What I’m Wearing

As part of that Christian accountability challenge, I actually tried to take an outfit photo every day this month! Well, I totally quit when I got sick and was stuck in bed for 5 days, but at least I did great the first two weeks of the month!