Resolutions - Single Word Mantra

It’s no secret that the majority of New Year’s Resolutions fail, but instead of discouraging you with those dreary statistic, we want to suggest an alternative that has proven worthy of trying! Try choosing a single word to sum up your resolution(s) (i.e. wellness, fitness, simplify, prioritize, etc.). This single word will guide your year and serve as a mantra to help shape your choices for the next 365 days, so put some thought into it! Once you’ve got it, share it with us below!

My family does something similar for our year. Here are our past years.

2015 is going to be Legend (wait for it) dary
2016 is Astounding
2017 is Triumphant
2018 is Joyful
2019 is Dynamic
2020 is Balanced

It's amazing to see how each word comes to pass and we can see the word come to play with different experiences.

2021 we have decided on 2021 is Exploration which my husband thought of. Most likely travel will still be limited this year, but we are hoping to explore new foods, new local places, our new neighborhood, new friendships and more.

I shared this idea with a friend and her family has chosen Adventure so we're hoping to do some wonderful things this year with them.

Christmas Break 2020

Our Christmas break started off pretty simple. They decorated a gingerbread house which we try to make a yearly tradition even before the kids were born =D

We went outside on the 21st to see Jupiter and Saturn with my camera super zoom lens. They look like hearts. I'm hoping we can invest in a telescope next year.

Finally figured out a recipe for not dry Rice Krispy Treats!

*6 TBSP butter instead of 3
*12-14 oz. marshmallows instead of 10
*normal 6 cups Rice Krispies

Christmas Eve 

We have several traditions for Christmas Eve.

My husband's parents came and brought Sugar Cookies for the kids to decorate for Santa. They got to eat one and then give one to Santa. This was nice that I didn't have to make any this year =D Though my MIL just made stars where I make all the Christmas shapes haha. I love variety.

After we read from Luke 2 while they colored nativity scenes. Usually they play with our Fisher Price Little People Nativity. We always have this out all December to play with as well.

On Christmas Eve, their elves  brought them their gifts of new pajamas!

Then our tradition is to watch The Polar Express.

Then we read The Night Before Christmas, actually my grandma does with a recordable storybook.

Christmas Gifts

They received lots of games for Christmas for homeschool. Thankfully all games, MagnaTiles were reimbursed through our online charter, My Tech High. More info on them on my first post about homeschool plans.

My oldest's favorite gift was his Ping Pong Travel set which can be used on pretty much any kind of table.

My husband received Werewords for Christmas since we love One Night Werewolf. The kids quickly loved this game too. We can't wait to play with a bigger group. 

This fun balancing game was Suspend; even the 3 year old was able to give it a try. 

They also received the Osmo Genius Kit which they all like to play. We got the Kindle edition, but found out later some of our Kindles are little old to support the apps so next Christmas they'll be getting a new Kindle to share and fit more of the games/apps unless of course a Kindle breaks before then.
I love how many different games are offered with this. 

We received new Expansion Packs for our Exploding Kittens game. Barking Kittens and Streaking Kittens! This game has been a family favorite for several years now.

More MagnaTiles, always a favorite. They youngest two even received some glow in the dark MagnaTiles.

Sleeping Queens is a new easy favorite game in our family. Kids got it from my parents for Christmas  

My youngest's favorite gift was this Tornado Toy that he received from his grandparents. He has loved tornados for a long time and can see tornados in every day things.

My oldest's words about this week.

"A gift I got was a Portable Ping Pong set to use for my PE. I played Ping Pong with my sister and my mom. My mom destroyed me, and I beat my sister quite a bit. It was really fun because we can play on almost any table. One fitness goal I have is to be able to do 2 pull-ups. We have a pull up bar to practice on."

My daughter's words about this week.

"We played a new game called Sleeping Queens. To get a Queen, you need to play a King or steal a queen from someone with a Knight. You can play to win by getting the most points or the most Queens. You can also play a Sleeping Potion to put someone's Queen back to Sleep. The Wand can counteract the Sleeping Potion and the Dragon can counteract the Knight."

Cold Fall - Happy Halloween

Brrr it's cold this week! We got snow on Sunday, just a dusting, but lots of wind. It makes me want to huddle up at home. Good thing we did a lot of outings the week before. 

Lots to catch up on with blog posts, a vendor event, continuing I Love my Life event with a healing plan week, and general life like lots of laundry! Luckily my oldest has been really good about doing dishes and cleaned the bathrooms a couple times ---- all so he can earn more computer time or stay up later.

 

MONDAY

We completed our Morning Routine.
This week our affirmation is "I am smart and bright!"

We made Air Packs for their Among Us Costumes with duct tape and 2L bottles. 

They listened to an audio book while coloring Halloween pictures.

We've also been saving one our butterflies we let go last week. It was so cold, so we brought this guy back in and hopefully he'll live until it warms up in a few more days and he builds his flying strength.

TUESDAY

Morning Routine

Harry Potter audio book with more Halloween coloring 

Wii Sports

Exact Path  - my daughter did mostly language and reading ones while my oldest did mostly math.

My boys helped make our copycat Zuppa Toscana soup. 

My youngest put in all the potatoes that my oldest and I cut =)

 

WEDNESDAY

Library - my youngest came with me and helped put all the books in the return bin.

We got to borrow a game that has been suggested by many, Sleeping Queens and a STEAM kit! I'm excited to be able to use these resources!

Exact Path - my daughter didn't fight with me on any of them even when one of them wasn't a good test of knowledge and took the whole family to pass (Weak to strong words). 

Outschool Game Design with Agent Cubes online. My son had a frustration with some of the code and had to start over. 

Mini bookshelves were set up in the basement to display our library books instead of keeping them on our bench. 

I spent the day organizing the Basement again and going through things to donate or throw away. The kids cleaned up other areas of the house.

I finally got around to carving our pumpkins. My oldest helped get the seeds out. My husband loves to eat baked pumpkin seeds.
Who else has Among Us?

I had the Homeschool Support Group tonight - Mother Mentors. Here are some of my notes.

• What's your idea of homeschool look like?
• Read, Write, Basic Math
• Quiet Time - where Mom reads - no talking, could draw
• Teach them to be resourceful and where to find things they need
• You don't need to memorize so much only if it's something they love
• Interview your kids at least once a month to see what they want to do and feel like they should do
• Inspiration --- get $5 worth of coloring and activity books at the $1 store for the kids to do while I read aloud. 
• Marlene gave me a shoutout that I'm doing really good after I shared my resources of Night Zookeeper, Penpals, Big Life Journals and fun journals as a suggestion for writing and handwriting skills. We don't do them everyday, but we do them several times a month at least for right now.

THURSDAY

 Hair colored for my daughter and Halloween. She's lucky to have an aunt who can do her hair for a lot cheaper. Her aunt has her salon in her basement almost finished. 

FRIDAY

Their Fall Break - Since I went into work to help set up for Boo Thru, today was their fall break especially since they finished their list pretty much by Wednesday.

After my husband was done with work, we headed to the Boo Thru. It did well being socially distanced. Life almost felt normal in the outside world. Most people didn't know our costumes; maybe 4 did. I was impressed when a mom guessed correctly. The worse guess was Teletubbies haha.

 

Happy Halloween!

Here are our Among Us Halloween costumes =)

So glad it was warm today to go trick or treating.

 

Valentine Giant Cards Tradition

I saw this idea somewhere, probably on Pinterest, and thought we'd start the tradition. Last year I bought the Jumbo Giant Valentine Cards and every year we'll write a little note of love to each other and to our kids. Then  you can  go back and see past years. This could easily be done for birthdays and other holidays too.

My son chose the dog valentine for himself and the bears for his sister. My husband and double up on the hearts one since there wasn't that many choices left for the Jumbo Cards.

Valentine "Diamond" Kiss Rings

Thanks to the idea from Keeping it Simple and the tutorial at Mom on Time-out, I made these fun Valentine Rings for my Young Women lesson on adversity a couple years ago.

One thing we talked about was coal being turned into diamonds through intense heat and pressure for a long period of time and how this relates to trials and adversity.

These rings were a little treat to remember that they are each being turned into diamonds by our Heavenly Father. Trials are needed to help us grow, learn, and progress.

Valentine's - Princess and Super Hero Suckers

Last year for Valentine's Day, I bought these bows and bottlecap necklaces for $1 each from Little Bit's Hairbows. She is doing the special again this year until February 1st. She also does Easter Basket sets.

Then I saw these SuperHero suckers from Keeping it Simple so I got creative.

I made the SuperHero suckers using my Silhoeutte- but only sticking to the ones that actually have capes =)

Then for the girls, I clipped their bow to their sucker for "Princess/Diva" Suckers  for the girls

I stuck them all in a small box with holes made with my Crop-a-Dile.

With the superhero suckers for friends, I added the super hero bottle cap necklaces. =)

For his teacher, I followed Keeping it Simple's example and made Hershey Kiss Roses. Her use of the pencil worked so much better than another tutorial I tried to follow about 3 years ago. I added a paper wrap to make it even prettier.

Since his preschool teacher also does gymnastics in her curriculum, I wrote this poem.

"Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
You're a great teacher
and awesome at gymnastics too!"

His teacher is pregnant this year, and she can still do cartwheels weeks before she's due!