Someone had a birthday this month...
It is hard to believe this cute boy is now a big one year old!
He enjoyed ice cream and his first chocolate cake on the big day. What better way to eat ice cream...just pick it up and shove 'er in!
I'd say he was pretty happy about the whole thing!
That night, a friend of ours gave him a cute snowman cake, which he had the next day. I guess he had learned the first time around...why waste time with spoons or fingers?
TODAY is actually Rachel's birthday...anyone want to guess how old she is??? (Hint..its a monumental year!) I'll be sure to share pictures of the fun things we did with her once I get them uploaded.
In other non-birthday news, we snapped these pictures of Justin and Dad out playing basketball. I promise they were completely unstaged...they didn't even plan to match. Tell me if you think they look alike or what!
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| Um...I promise, they were NOT dancing in this picture! (But what a weird way to play basketball!) |
I read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
during November. Always a fun read! I enjoy reading all the crazy turns of events...even though I know what happens, it keeps me in suspense! Lizzy’s quick wit is humorous, I wish I always had the right thing to say like she does!Whenever I finish a Jane Austen novel I always want to dive right into another one...I almost have to make myself switch to something different! The style of writing does not necessarily make it easy to read...you really have to read each sentence carefully to understand its full meaning. And the language is not always commonly used today. But these things make me feel more intelligent after reading these books, haha! That is not something you can usually say about contemporary fiction.
My other book this month was Elizabeth Elliot’s Passion and Purity
. I make a point to read this every year...but as you can see, I put it off until nearly the end of the year. It is a fantastic book full of thought-provoking truths and challenges, but it is also a hard one for me to read. I do, however, love to read the real-life love story of Jim and Elizabeth Elliot, and glean from the wisdom and maturity they showed. The biggest lesson that stuck out to me this time through was the idea of offering my struggles up as a sacrifice to God. “He gives us material for sacrifice,” Elizabeth Elliot writes. If I could view everything I am given - even the hard, trying things - as material for sacrifice, just another way for me to offer my life up as a living sacrifice, what a difference it would make in my outlook! She goes on to say, “The loneliness itself is material for sacrifice. The very longings themselves can be offered to him who understands perfectly. The transformation into something He can use for the good of others takes place only when the offering is put into His hands. What will He do with these offerings? Never mind. He knows what to do.”
Every time I read this book, I use a different color highlighter to mark the new things that stand out to me. It is getting to be quite a marked-up book! I am thankful for the willingness of Elizabeth Elliot to put her story out there, to be used by God in my life.
At mealtime, we’ve finished up the Little House Series. This month we finished “The First Four Years,” which tells the story of Laura and Almanzo’s early married life. As I mentioned last month, it is my least favorite in the series, because Laura never finished the manuscript. But it does give a peek into what happened to them after “These Happy Golden Years
.”
Next, we’ve started “Little House on Rocky Ridge
.” This is the first book in a series about Rose Wilder, Laura and Almanzo’s daughter and only living child. We happened to find this at a local thrift store, so it is the only one in the series that we have. Perhaps in the future we’ll be able to pick up more!I have some plans for what we’ll be reading in 2013...hope you’ll still be following along with us!
My goals for November were:
For December, I’m only setting these goals:
Prepare for Christmas
Survive Christmas
Visit with family
Do you think I can accomplish all of that? :) I really have other things I want to do as well - like set my 2013 goals, finish those printables, etc. - but I don’t want to stress on them. I want to try to enjoy Christmas. So far, I just haven’t been able to get into the christmas spirit...so I just want to be able to relax, get things ready, and then enjoy it. We get to spend about 10 days in Maine this year, which is more than normal, and I absolutely can’t wait!
So there is a recap of the happenings of November! What did the month look like for you? Was it busy? Stressful? Fun? Any birthdays in your house?
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