I feel like I've been in drive-by mode this week as far as blogland is concerned.  I owe visits to so many of you!

I had intended to go full speed ahead with homeschooling this week, but when Monday rolled around I just didn't have it in me.  I think it's a combination of needing a bit of a break, being excited about Thanksgiving tomorrow, and grieving for our precious dog, Chloe, that we had to put down at the end of August (tomorrow would have been her 10th birthday - yes, we celebrate furbaby birthdays at our house).  We have done a bit of schooling this week, however.  Ds1 has been struggling with BJU Math 3 as of late.  I really thought he had mastered 4-digit subtraction, but I was wrong!  We've spent the week reviewing and taking our time with all the problems step-by-step.  He did one lesson in ABeka Language 3 for good measure and the rest of our "school" time has been spent voraciously reading The Silver Chair.  Reading The Chronicles of Narnia aloud with ds1 is my first exposure to all these books as well.  I cannot believe I never read them before!  Ds1 loves them as much as me and begs for more long after my voice has given out.  He is capable of reading them on his own, but this series we chose to place on our read-aloud list.  For art this week, ds1 and ds2 will create a birthday card to give to dh on Friday and our planned family fun event on Friday is to finish building the lasagna garden bed we started a couple of weekends ago (accomplishing a task that needs to be done and educational at the same time!).

As for my weekly Christmas update now ... I'm progressing along with ds1's ragged quilt.  I have 3 more rows to attach and then I need to stitch around all the edging, make the cuts, and wash so the cuts will fray.  I also had the brilliant (hah!) idea that we would go as a family and completely finish our Christmas shopping this past weekend.  We needed to make a trip to a SuperTarget for groceries (they have a pretty decent selection of organics) so I figured since we'd be there anyway....... 

We have very limited funds for gifts for dh and myself this year so the plan was for each of us to select several things throughout the store that we'd like for gifts from the boys and stocking stuffers and then we'd each, along with ds1, make purchases and be done with it.  You know what - neither of us could really find anything we wanted!  Oh sure, there are things we'd like to have, but price was a factor.  We are also trying our best to avoid purchasing products made in China (as I know many of you are also doing) and SuperTarget (or any other big box retailer) wasn't the best place to attempt that.  Nonetheless, we accomplished a bit of shopping, but didn't finish.

Ds1, ds2, and I did do a bit of shopping yesterday.  We finished up buying for dh and I am almost finished with ds2 (just one more stocking stuffer to go for him).  It's always great when they're young toddlers -  you can get away with buying things when they're along on the trip and then hide those items when you get home!  I still have one small item to get for ds1 and one stocking stuffer.  Of course, I still have three more homemade gifts to go ... a pillowcase for each of my boys and a ragged quilt for ds2.  (Note to self: Make a decision on homemade gifts early in the year next year and get started on them then!)

As promised, here is another goodie I'll be making for my family during the Christmas season.  Actually, I'll be making this a few times (the finished product freezes well) as it is our favorite cookie and batches disappear quickly.

Ginger Cookies

2 1/4 cups organic whole wheat pastry flour

2 tsp. organic ground ginger

1 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. organic ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. organic ground cloves

1/4 tsp. sea salt

3/4 cup organic butter, softened

1 cup organic evaporated cane juice crystals

1 organic egg

1/4 cup organic molasses (not blackstrap)

Additional organic evaporated cane juice crystals

Cream butter and evaporated cane juice crystals until light and fluffy.  Add the egg and molasses; beat well.  In a separate bowl, combine the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and sea salt.  Add half this mixture to the creamed ingredients; mix until combined.  Stir in the remaining flour mixture.  Shape the dough into 1-inch balls and roll each lightly in additional evaporated cane juice crystals.  Bake at 350* for about 10 minutes or until light brown and puffy.  Let cool for a couple of minutes on baking stone before transferring to wire racks to cool.