1. Advent
Christmas as a holiday is fun and memorable, but when you add in the religious aspects, it becomes magical and wonderful. We were blessed this week to be able to celebrate Advent together as a family. We celebrated mass together on Saturday and got to see the first Advent candle being lit. In homeschool this week, we listened to some religious Christmas music on Amazon Prime and even Ben sang along when the lyrics popped up (which rarely happens with him) In our Family of Faith workbook, we had the most beautiful work of art to discuss together called Mary Consoles Eve. The painting depicts a remorseful Eve placing her hand upon a pregnant Mary’s belly and shows Mary’s hand on Eve’s cheek as she lovingly consoles her. Ben really enjoyed discussing all of the symbolism in the painting and answered about 90% of the questions correctly, so that made me happy:)
**This past week, Ben and I went to see The Grinch and it was really cute movie, but what I really loved about it the most was how they only played religious Christmas music in the movie (which is really unusual in our society today) so that was especially refreshing to me.
2. NaNoWriMo
I mentioned in an earlier post that I participated in a novel writing event in the month of November and promised to try and write over 30,000 words. (I actually ended up with around 28,500 words by November 30th, but finished the final chapter this past week. My only excuse is that I chose to write a mystery novel and struggled with how to write the ending. Trying to decide between killing off the murderer or sending them to jail is tough!)
I consider my experience in this challenge a blessing because I had so much fun and learned a lot about what makes a good novel and way too much about writing dialogue. I also discovered that I really enjoy writing fiction. I have always been more of a reader, but getting to decide the characters and who they get to become during the novel is so much fun. In fact, one of my goals for next year is to polish up this novel and self-publish it….which is really scary and exciting at the same time!
**The only drawback to this blessing is that I have been noticing the quality of writing in some of my favorite books and it is a tad bit distracting, but hopefully that will pass eventually.
3. It’s a Wonderful Life
My daughter is playing Aunt Tilly in It’s a Wonderful Life this week and I have been so blessed to see her in her element during the many grueling hours of rehearsal they have been putting in lately. Acting has really helped her find her groove in life over the past few years and it has also brought about her interest in the performing arts. Besides having fun and learning a ton of stuff, she also has found a wonderful group of people to be friends with as well. **I have always heard that theatre people are wonderful and quirky, so I guess that it true:)
How were you blessed this week?
The Thrifty Educator 