Month in Review - November 2014

Spurgeon Kids - Thanksgiving Morning 2014

 I have decided to keep a journal (of sorts) our family happenings at the end of each month.  I am hoping this will make the annual Christmas letter that we try to get sent out during the Christmas season – just a little easier to write and remember.  Well, that is what I am hoping for, anyway. So here is our month in review for November.  If a journal of our everyday happenings is not of interest to you  – that’s OK – feel free to skip this post.  It won’t hurt my feelings at all; and we can still be friends.   

I don’t think that there is any such thing as a boring month at our house.  November has been quite busy for us and seems like it has gone by very quickly! 

Within the month we have had two kids have eye exams.  We found out that Zak does fine seeing without glasses; we were very thankful!  Abbey however, will be getting some new glasses here soon.  She failed her vision test when she went in for her driving permit.  Seems she can’t see much of anything at all out of one of her eyes.  I felt a bit guilty about that; but it happened at the beginning of the month and I am over it now.

Susan Marie Spurgeon joined our family this month.  She is a blue beta fish that is extremely loved and celebrated her adoption into our family with a trip to Chick-fil-a.  She was quite popular – and I have never eaten lunch in the South with that many people coming up to my table to talk to me.  (That is something that happens here in the South much more than up North – and it is one thing I LOVE about living here in the South!)  Saturday’s has an added chore for Anna – as she cleans Susan’s bowl out each week and sings and talks to her fish all through the process.  I almost think the fish knows who Anna is  - as she seems to get very excited when Anna is in the room and talking.  Rob says that is not possible.  Who knows?

Abbey ran in the Color Run this past month.  She took it all in – and came back looking quite full of color. She also beat her time from the last 5K she ran.  The color did not completely come out of her hair – despite all of her showers – and she did go to church the next day with some color remaining.  No one seemed to care.

Rob was given a free lesson from his oldest on how to take selfies.  He is always telling the kids that he thinks they take too many pictures of themselves.  His oldest decided to give him a lesson on how it is done.  He had quite a lot of fun during his lesson; teasing her with his poses and asking her if he was doing them right.  Rachel is not sure if he will ever get the “art of selfies” class down enough for her to give him a passing grade. I don't think Rachel and I have laughed that hard for a long time!  What fun we had. 

Our family enjoyed a family day picnic with the Chick-fil-A coworkers.  We had a great time!  Rob was able to do 18 holes of disc golf and I was quite impressed with how he was able to keep going.  God has really done a healing work in his body and we are so thankful.  We are still waiting for his body to be ready for the radiation treatment; his iodine levels are still too high from the CT scans that were done when they found the tumor.  We will retest after the first of the year to see if his levels are low enough. 

Anna started Physical Therapy this month and is working on getting stronger.  She has a fantastic therapist and we are thankful for her work with Anna.  We have moved from having headaches daily to none at all.  Again, we are so thankful for God’s healing and protection. 

 

The weather here continues to be beautiful!  The colors are still vibrant outside and I enjoy fall lasting longer.  The nights have gotten much colder and I have dug my electric blanket out of storage and have been enjoying using it at night.  

We enjoyed Thanksgiving together as a family.  We defiantly did not do our holiday traditionally – we decided to break the mold and try some things that we have never done before.  First, Abbey, James and I participated in the annual 5k Thanksgiving race.  Abbey ran the whole thing and beat her time from her other races – she was quite happy about that!  This was James’ first 5k.  He walked / ran the race; and did well in his time.  I walked the entire thing (OK, I jogged a couple of time for just a few seconds).  I enjoyed it very much and was glad to check “Participate in a 5K” off my list.  I am thinking though, that I could beat my time if I tried again; so, who knows, I might just have to enter another one.  (I can see where this could get addicting). 

After the race we went out for Thanksgiving dinner.  This was hard for me to break tradition; but Rob thought if I was going to participate in the race I should not have to come home and cook a big meal too.  So, we went out.  It was nice not to have the cleanup.  We spent the afternoon playing games at a friend’s house and had a wonderful time!  

I hope you and your family enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We truly have so much to be thankful for!  We are excited about December and all that we have planned for the next month.  We are so thankful for all the God has blessed us with.  God has been so good to us; and we have so much to be thankful for.

Thanks so much for stopping by - I am so glad you did.

Blessings,

~Martie