November
Tis the season to prepare for Christmas and reflect on what we are grateful for. November in Alaska brings cold weather, warm fires, and thankful hearts.
The dogs get mad when we shut doors on them and they sit outside the door and whine until you let them in the room you are in.
The back patio is all ready for winter with a heater next to the smoker and a fireplace to sit next to.
Winter and Christmas wonderland. We love putting Christmas lights on the house.
We are so glad we were able to purchase a snow plow before winter hit. Our driveway is so long, and there would be many many snow plowing sessions during the winter.
For homeschool we wanted to do a service project for Christmas the kids could be excited about. Lisa contacted friends in Ghana, Africa to help earn money for their school. Our family decided to make rice bags to sell, and donate all the money earned to the school in Africa. We were able to make about $70 to donate, and the kids worked hard on helping to make the rice bags and deliver.
There were a lot of rumors that with covid certain blood types would have a worse reaction to covid and become more sick. It made us all a little curious what the kids blood types were. I found some blood typing kits on the internet and we decided to try it out as a science class.
Derek has O+ and Sharice has A+
So what would the kids be. They really didn't want to poke their fingers because it does hurt, but in the end we convinced everyone to do it.
Since I knew my blood type I showed everyone how to do it, and how to read the results.
Turns out Kael and Eden both have O-!
Elara has A+
Connor has O+
It was a really fun activity even with finger pokes, and fun to know what their blood types are.
Even with the Derek's clinic having lots of changes, taking his board exams for pain, (which he passed in September!!) his schedule still got him home so much more than when he was in residency or fellowship. Being a real doctor has different stress factors, but we will take more time with him any day, even if sometimes he is locked in his office working still.
For homeschool our charter school requires pictures of the children doing their school work, or evidence of learning, so this year I took a lot of pictures of the kids doing their projects for school. I love being able to be with all the kids and do school together as a family. This family time has been such a blessing for our family. The older children help the younger and Connor learns so much good behavior and how to interact with the older kids. It is mutually beneficial for everyone. And I get more time with my children, which I will forever be grateful for.
While at homeschool at the Roger's house one Friday a lynx ran into their yard and their dog chased it up a tree. The wild life in Alaska is AMAZING! Always a new animal to catch your eye!
In Alaska it gets dark pretty quickly in the winter. By 4 pm in November the sun is going down. If the kids want to play in the afternoon you just go out in the dark. We did a lot of dark sledding in our front lawn. We quickly learned to purchase head lamps and reflective vests and just go out anyway and have fun whether it is dark or not.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care.
The kids after covering kingdoms and classification for science moved on to arthropods. They were able to do science reports on an insect of their choice and then present it to the class.
So much snow!
This year for Thanksgiving covid numbers were going up. We were going to celebrate with all 4 homeschool families, but the military came out with an order that only 2 families were allowed to gather together for Thanksgiving. We tried to get approval as our families do homeschool together daily anyway, but were not successful. We ended up splitting into two families each. The Green's and the Roger's got together and the Arner's came to our house.
Eden's cherry Pie for Thanksgiving.
With winter comes icicles!
Connor found the biggest icicle and the kids suck on them like popsicles.
Derek built the kids the biggest fort to sleep in one night in the playroom. I think maybe 2 kids stayed the whole night.
We like to get out and take walks around our neighborhood. Our neighbor makes incredible animals out of the snow. She says she gets a spray bottle of water and buckets and makes fun animals. A few were a walrus, bear, and squirrel. She later made a lion, reindeer and a narwhal.
This year we are thankful to be in Alaska and experiencing a new adventure!
No comments:
Post a Comment