Thanksgiving Weekend

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving and time spent with those dear to you. We spent ours with just about 50 family members and my cousin's friend from Honduras (it was his first Turkey day celebration), while another 40 of us of us were not there physically, they were in our thoughts. I love having a large family!! Aside from all the yum-o-licious food my favorite part if watching my boys spending time with our cousins. Life really does get in the way too much and we really don't see our family enough.

Black Friday-while I love all the great deals I did not go out shopping; we spent our day in a sunnier way (there will be more great deals throughout the seasons). We had plans with our friends over at Homeschool Camper to help them with part of their Fall Bucket List by helping paint Peanut's room (We did manage wiping down and priming the walls, painting will be done later by the Campers). One of the highlights of our visit was walking down a trail near their home. The boys and I love walking trails, but the ones we frequent are becoming "old" to us. I was a bit nervous when I heard there were hunters set up nearby, but Mamma Camper reassured us that we would be in no danger as long as we were near home by the time the sun was on the horizon. Also as a precaution for those of us who were not wearing a neon pink or neon orange coat, were accessorized with squares of orange paper on the backs of our coats. All the kids had such fun playing on the bits of ice that was on the path as well and stomping through the ice.

While on our walk (which didn't feel like it was an hour long, we were having so much fun) we marked another Bucket list activity. When I added Fall Family Photo to our list I had not thought about "who" was going to take the picture. Mamma Camper was kind enough to handle that for us and I was able to be part of our family picture. We were bundled in winter clothes so it didn't really look fall-ish (It's Michigan sometimes winter coats come out in October though). I thought we could do a play on words with it and pretend to actually be falling as a family; everyone else pretended but I was the one who had lost their balance and really was falling. We seem to be getting good at putting twists on some of bucket list activities so we can mark them off. I honestly don't know which picture I like best.

I have really enjoyed spending time with my kiddos these few past days. Actually spending time with all 3 of them at the same time for the whole day. While our schedule has kept us busy visiting with many who are near and  dear to us (and loving every minute of it); we have been able to finally slow down. While we weren't doing anything all that exciting, we were all doing "nothing" together and at our own leisurely pace. I feel that slowing down has given us a chance to enjoy being in the moment, as all too soon it will be back to our crazy rushing around everyday. Today we marked off another bucket list item (the post will go up tomorrow about it) and had the grandparents over here for a bit. We still have one more day to veg out and enjoy our "nothingness" and plan on doing just that.


Orange Rhino Update: I had been doing very well and had not yelled in the past 3 days at all. UNTIL... about 5 minutes ago when one of my lovable boys is still fighting sleep at almost 11 pm :( I'll take the 3 days and be proud of myself for that, but now my goal is to make through the 3rd day (and beyond). It's (and I) am a work in progress.


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