One hundred two Pilgrims left Plymouth, England in 1620 to find freedom in the “New World.”  When they arrived at Plymouth Rock in November, they had no food left and only hard work and hard soil ahead of them.  By November 1621, there were only 52 Pilgrims remaining.  With assistance from some Native Americans, these determined people had built houses, planted crops, and finally reaped a grand harvest.  Despite their devastating and severe losses (almost half their original number), a time was set aside that November to give thanks to God for their first harvest.  Along with their Native American friends, they prepared a feast and celebrated for 3 days.  What an accomplishment they had achieved, and yet what a price had been paid.

These Pilgrims, though certainly there must have been much mourning and grief during that first harsh winter, did not give up, nor did they forget the reason they had come in the first place.  They did not bemoan their hardships, but were thankful for what they had.  We too are reminded by the tradition that they started to be thankful for what we have.  No matter what hardships or losses we may have suffered, we still have blessings for which we should thank God.

I helped my 3 year old son make a paper chain of things to be thankful for.  He came up with many of the things, and asked other people for things to add, as well.  I wanted to share our list with you: my family, our home, my sister, my brother, hot dogs, Mammaw, Pappaw, Justin, flowers, cookies, flashlights, TV, truck, things to keep us warm, our kitty, vegetables, food, drinks, car, bread and ham, movies, airplanes, and pictures.  The very first one that he said was “my family.”  He also wanted to add “my sister” then he said that if his sister could talk she would say she was thankful for her brother !  And, for those of you who know us well, “our kitty” was suggested by one of his cousins (we don’t have a kitty).  When you really begin listing out big and little things to be thankful for, you could make a paper chain all the way around the house and still not list all of them!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and that we will remember to give thanks throughout the whole year.

Unfortunately the vendor fair that I was going to be in has been cancelled.  I will be doing my party another time, but I  haven’t rescheduled it yet.  That’s OK…one less thing to do tomorrow.

I am still going to make a special offer, though:  if you place an order at Skylar’s Toys now through November 30 you will receive a free gift with your order.  Your gift will have a minimum retail value of $3.99, but the more you order, the more valuable your free gift will be!

I’m going to have a new experience this week, and I would like to invite everyone to join me!  I am going to be a vendor in an online vendor fair Thursday night.  If you aren’t familiar with online vendor fairs or parties, they are basically like the home parties that Tupperware is famous for having.  These parties, however, are online; you interact through a chat room.  So you can sit around in your pajamas in the comfort of your own home, shop, and have fun!

My husband and I have been looking for ways to build up our side business, which is basically selling cool things on websites.  So, I am going to try this online vendor party.  There will be a special offer for purchases made during the party, and a prize given away.  The website that is hosting my party features a really neat chat room where the person selling things can show the pages of the website within the chat room.  That way the guests can see the products while the conversation is taking place.  So, you don’t even have to navigate the site on your own; just sit back and watch!

If you want to join me for my first vendor party, go to http://www.wahwomen.com/chatroom.html.  There are simple instructions on this page for downloading the chat room shortcut in order to enter the chat room.  I have downloaded it, and I can tell you it is perfectly safe and easy to do.  The fair I am going to be in is this Thursday, November 16, and the theme is “Kids’ Nite.”  My slot is 10:00 PM EST, (have to wait till the kids are in bed ) but you can go to http://www.wahwomen.com/vendorpartycalendar111606.html to see if there are other vendors that night that you would also like to join.  If you like shopping online, give it a try!

While looking at the moon in the sky one night, my 3-year-old son commented that there was a “whole moon.”  I said that it was almost a full moon, but not quite.  He asked, “Where is the rest of the moon?”  I explained that it was still there, but we just could not see it.  Of course, his next questions was, “Why?”  Not wanting to undertake a discussion of astronomy with my 3 year old, especially since I am a bit rusty on that information myself, I told him that he would learn more about it when he got bigger.  He said, “I don’t want to learn about it when I get bigger.  I want to learn about it when I’m little.”  So, I found some pictures and explanations of the phases of the moon online (thank you US Naval Observatory).   I got out an orange ball to represent the sun, a blue ball for the earth, and a white ball for the moon.  We looked at the pictures and I told him the official names of each phase of the moon.  Then we used the balls to show how the earth goes around the sun, and the moon goes around the earth.  He could then see that sometimes the earth is between the sun and the moon, so that no light gets to the moon.  We can only see the part of the moon that is able to reflect the light of the sun.  I mentioned that there are also other planets, which he already had some knowledge of, but he wanted to know the names of them.  Before we were done, we had our own little solar system on the kitchen floor made of balls.  I know he didn’t get it all, but he at least has a basic understanding.

This incident caused me to think about why I originally answered him the way I did: “you’ll learn about it when you get bigger.”  That’s just the easy way out!  Did I think that he couldn’t understand it?  Was I afraid that I couldn’t explain it?  Did I not want to put the time and effort into teaching him about it?  It was probably a little of all three reasons.  It is hard to explain orbits, planets, and phases of the moon to a preschooler. But, he doesn’t have to be able to understand every detail before he starts to learn about things.  Almost any subject can be discussed so that he can at least understand something about it.  The hard part for us as his parent is to figure out how to explain it on his level, and making the effort to do it.  We have a curious, inquisitive, intelligent child, and we try to explain everything that he asks and that we want him to know.  Sometimes it is harder than other times.  Taking the time and making the effort to teach him is so important!  We are trying not to be parents who brush off questions as if they are unimportant or as if we don’t have time to answer them.  We may have to do some research, find some visual aids, and put off whatever we planned to do until later…but our kids won’t wait, and they’re worth the effort.