Home Sweet Life ~ Week in Review

Has it really only been a week since last Friday? It seems much longer than seven days since I wrote the last weekly wrap-up, but the calendar says its just been a week.

Our week included a lot of the changes to our loose routine that a holiday week usually brings, but that is ok, because we expected to take the week off...at least I did! :)

Saturday morning found all four of us hard at work going through the house and adding things to the giveaway pile. When everyone pitches in this goes so much faster! While we have a designated giveaway spot in our home, at least a couple times a year we make an effort to dig deeper and declutter on a bigger scale. 

Since it had been 75 on Friday, and we woke up to about 28 and some spitting snow on Saturday, our plan was to bring down the cold weather clothing from the attic. Besides the things we each knew we needed to find in the attic, we also took time to go through all the clothing totes and see if there was anything to add to the giveaway pile. 

Saturday afternoon Emily treated us to a movie.It is kind of weird when your children get older and get a paying job away from home. They end up with a little spending money of their own. It was really nice to be treated to a movie. If your children are still little, just trust me on this. It is different when they grow up.

On Monday, Arlene and I loaded up the car with the donation pile, heap, mountain and took it to our local Christian Center for their homeless outreach and resale shop. We hope others can be blessed with the warm clothing we no longer wear. Then we headed to the library. Arlene is studying Indiana history during this, our Bicentennial year, and some of the history books she is reading are reference books and cannot be checked out from the library. That is OK with me because the special Indiana reference room is usually pretty quiet. I took my laptop along on our trip and used the time to crop photos and get some posts ready for the blog.

That afternoon Arlene cooked our turkey. We knew we were not going to be home for Thanksgiving dinner, but who wants to pass up turkey for only $0.79/LB?! We have had plenty of leftovers to enjoy all week long!

Tuesday found us at the gym again so Arlene could get in some more swimming and I could work out. We really enjoy the blessing of being able to swim indoors year round, even if it is a bit of a drive to get there. When it gets cold, my joints have an affinity for the hot tub, even if I do have to wash my hair and skin twice just to get the chlorine smell out. After the gym we headed to my Mom's for lunch and them picked Em up from work on our way home. 

Are you getting the idea yet that this was a non-schoolwork week, because I am-LOL! That is pretty normal for us around the holidays. I've been enjoying my time off work this week, and I'm pretty sure Arlene has enjoyed a few days without her schoolbooks. That is one of the simple joys of home education - scheduling a vacation break when it fits your schedule, and not having to follow a schedule laid out a year or more in advance.

Wednesday was a baking and cleaning day for the girls. I spent a good amount of the morning working on getting things ready for the blog. Because my time off of work is limited, I wanted to make sure I got a few things ready to schedule out, but I wanted to do it when the girls were busy with other things so they wouldn't feel like they were competing for my time. We all enjoyed a slower day in preparation for Thanksgiving.

Thursday was not out typical Thanksgiving dinner with our extended family because Kurt had gotten us tickets for the Steelers/Colts NFL football game that night. Our Thanksgiving dinner was at the tailgate with a couple dozen other Steelers fans we know. The weather was cold, but the food was delicious. (Yes, we still had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie.)

Since this was the girls' first time to attend a regular season game, and because it was getting downright chilly, we went ahead and packed up the tailgate party a little early and headed to the stadium. Our girls had never been in Lucas Oil before, although we've driven past it numerous times  when we visit Indianapolis. It was really fun to watch the Steelers win - even if we did get home really late! Part of the way through the night Emily commented about how much different it is to watch the game live versus seeing it on TV.

Today we slept in - hooray! Well, Arlene and I slept in. Kurt and Em headed to work. Arlene and I had already decided that there was not anything in the local Black Friday ads to tempt us to get up early after being out late, so we just took our time this morning. I'm actually writing this after lunch while waiting for the oil to be changed in my car. 

Nothing extraordinary happened with Arlene's schoolwork this week, but we made lasting memories with both of our daughters instead. That is something to be Thankful for this week!

We hope you had an great week!

Linking up at: