 Being thankful ALL YEAR LONG is something we instill in our son. No matter how disappointing life may sometimes seem, there is ALWAYS, ALWAYS at least SOMETHING to be thankful for. It’s my understanding that repeatedly giving thanks within ourselves creates a natural, thankful, lighter spirit of/within us, which automatically radiates outwardly. By this understanding, it seems appropriate to share ways/things I give thanks in hopes of naturally exuding thankfulness every day. Here are MY top 5 daily thanksgivings.
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 Thanksgiving holidays scream F-O-O-D!!! One of the most cooking, eating-est, food-comatose-encouraging holidays is merely days away! So, now is the time to make definitive, unbreakable plans to INDULGE RESPONSIBLY! Yes, we can nibble on a little extra here and there, but to sit and PLAN to overdo it is weak, unhealthy, and unnecessary. Let’s make plans to NOT! Portion-size and quantity of food often play a greater part in over-indulgence than quality.
Okay, enough with the lecture, right? We’ve read several lists of “traditional” Thanksgiving menus, and they mostly include similar foods. However, our traditional family meals have ALWAYS included DOUBLE the “top ten” items listed, making our traditional feast more like a “Top 20 Menu List” buffet rundown! Haha! Below, you’ll find an insight to our “irregular,” fascinating holiday gathering menu, including meals, meats, and fabulous side dishes. Bon appétit! And Happy Thanksgiving!!!  We absolutely LOVE our library! We practically LIVE at our libraries year round (we homeschool year round; see how here). Everything we need to learn or know begins in or with the library! A-N-D, most of the information is FREE! (See our “10 FREE Treasures You’re Missing at Your Local Library” article here and video here.) Not only do we love our libraries, but we LOVE our librarians! Not just for Thanksgiving "season," but throughout the year. We enjoy thanking them by showing them how much we appreciate all they do to keep our home school in progressive motion. Here are 4 ways you, too, can make your librarians love (and maybe even assist) you more!
 Some folks celebrate Halloween by basking in the terror and scaryness of it all. I’m a scaredy cat, a chicken, and I don’t care for ghosts, ghouls and goblins. We enjoy trick-or-treating, making sweets, creating pumpkin arts & crafts, all without the haunted side. To lift the spirits of the season and because we truly enjoy a good laugh, we thought we’d share with you 10 of our favorite riddles and jokes to take along with you on your trick-or-treating, jack-o-lantern, pumpkin-carving adventures. Enjoy! :)
 Halloween doesn’t have to be spooky, scary, over-dressed, overdone, or stressed! It can simply…BE! You can participate, or not. You can dress up, or not. You can engage in regular home school that day, or you could opt to make it a day (or week) of fun, creative, tasty, stress-free activities, i.e., simply the ultimate “Happy Homeschool Halloween!” We prefer to do the latter! :)
 As you may know by now, our son has a deep, fervent love for the Porsche 911 Carerra S! This Porsche has been his “baby” since his discovery of her in the Disney Pixar movie “Cars.” Yes, Lightning McQueen is “cool” and all, but NO other car on the movie (or in reality) could he dare care more about than “Sally,” the soft, powder blue “love interest” of McQueen. Now that we’ve accepted our son’s love for cars may never pass, we’ve managed to encourage his interest by reading lots of Porsche/sports car material, creating lesson plans and unit studies on vehicles, visiting several car dealerships (mostly Porsche), and visiting museums and other historic facilities that highlight the history of cars. AND, not only do we continue to feed his need for vehicular experiences, we’ve discovered active ways to make a single trip to a car dealership be quite educational, engaging, and exploratory! Here’s how we feed his intrigued need.
 We’ve been conditioned to EXPECT Monday’s to be manic, mayhems of massive mounds of disorder and chaos. I’m here to enlighten your homeschool journey by sharing with you the idea of consciously setting forth to make YOUR Monday’s be less...typical, as they may have been before. As homeschoolers, one of our most beautiful privileges is flexibility! This includes the brilliant opportunity to convert (or altogether remove) “typicalness” like heartless, manic Mondays into extra-ordinary, enlightening, or at least calmer, more mellow Mondays. Here’s how you, too, can chillax a little bit at the start of your work week.
 One simple nature study (nature walk) can open the floodgates to all kinds of endless scientific discoveries and discussions! It’s one of the simplest, most refreshing, most relaxed yet most educational AND fun ways to explore our world. Nature studies are simply fantastic, for ALL AGES, even (or especially) for the teachers/parents/adults. It’s an up-close look at things we read about, a chance to indulge in fresh, natural air and sunshine (or rain, if you’re up for it). BUT, If you’re like me, a mom who’s never really been “into” outdoorsy, bugsy, creepy-crawly type nature adventures, I’m here to share that nature walks do NOT have to be as fancy, in-depth, “scientifical,” academical as some expert home schoolers may suggest. Here’s how and why WE engage in easy, carefree, 5-step nature studies in our homeschool journey, which we've dubbed the "5C Nature Study."
 “We’ve got spirit, yes we do! We’ve got spirit, how about YOU!?” Oh... that school spirit chant... Football season is back, and I remember how much fun we had in high school during Spirit Week each fall semester around football homecoming. Do you? Even if you didn't really enjoy school, you have to admit that there was an especially energetic cloud of excitement and anticipation lurking and lingering around campus that week. After all, there was more than likely a pep rally Friday before the big homecoming football game Friday night, which meant we would at least get out of classes a little early! Have you thought about carrying over some exciting parts of traditional schooling into your home school, too? Parts like SPIRIT WEEK!!! It’s the most AMAZING addition to our non-traditional education, and you may enjoy it just as much, too!
 You’ve not engaged in one of the most fun kitchen activities at your homeschool if you’ve never made your own taste test! From writing out the ingredients supplies list to slicing and dicing your chosen tasty “test” items, this activity is sure to give you, your students, visiting members, and guests a tasty blast of pure, riveting, delicious excitement!
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