Random Life Update: November

Hello everyone! Here at the Reschly house we are covered in grease and drowning in sweets. That means only one thing – Hanukah has arrived! Originally I was going to do my traditional post about it, but as it is already the sixth night and I’m too tired to do a whole different post, I’ll just include it in the monthly update.

But first, let’s return to the beginning of November and get a lovely recap of everything that happened in this very busy month.

First off was Yoveil’s birthday. She’d been looking forward to it for months and the day turned out quite fun. It began with stuffing ourselves full of delicious donuts. Then we were off for a tour of a chocolate factory. Poor Yoveil had eaten so many donuts that she wasn’t feeling very well by the time we got there.

But the rest of us certainly enjoyed it. It was fun to see how the chocolates were made and we got lots of delicious, amazing, wonderful samples. *licks lips*

After the chocolate factory, we had sub sandwiches and then journeyed into the mouth of germs – the kid’s planetarium. Yoveil and the germs loved it so much because there is so much to touch and play with and move around. And, unfortunately, Dovid has a bad habit of licking everything. (You should see our FRONT windows. It’s really gross and as soon as we clean it off, we look over, and there he is contentedly rubbing his tongue all over the glass. 😣)

The rest of Yoveil’s special day was spent taking a walk, eating corn dogs, stuffing ourselves on the amazing cake, and opening gifts.

For most of November, the basement was still under construction. Since our bedrooms were going to be down there and weren’t finished yet, we had been sleeping in the school rooms. My beloved mattress was buried somewhere in the garage, so I slept on the only other available mattress – a baby one that was only three feet long. XD It wasn’t the most comfortable but I had my wonderful weighted blanket so I survived. XD

The hardest thing about not having my own room was that my sugar gliders were kept in the middle of the bright house instead of being safe in the quiet of my room. Plus I wasn’t able to play with them because I had no safe place that they wouldn’t escape from. *weeps* It was a full two months (since leaving Georgia) before I started playtime again!

It was really neat watching the basement come together. It was so dark and bare and gloomy when we moved in. I really couldn’t imagine that it would be a comfortable nice place to have bedrooms. But as Daddy put in walls and painted and we got carpet and the lights were installed, it was transformed. It’s still rather dark in places, but it bears little resemblance to what it was in the beginning.

Jehosheba, Mama, Nahum, and I helped to paint trim one day. After we got over the initial fear of painting (justified because only Jehosheba had prior experience) it was an enjoyable time. We listened to AIO and talked and got paint on the ugly clothes that we had picked up from the thrift store for that purpose.

Another exciting thing that happened while the basement was being finished was the getting of a table. We had sold our other one before we left GA (and we were all quite pleased because it was heavy and hard to move) and had planned to get a new one as soon as we were in Utah. As you know, it was a month before we even got to our house and then Daddy was so busy working on the basement that we didn’t have time to look for a table. But Mama eventually found an awesome conference table that works PERFECTLY for a destructive, messy family. XD It’s been really nice to once again sit around the table and share meals and play games on a solid surface.

Towards the end of the month, the basmenet was move-in ready! Daddy still has to finish the bathroom and the closets, but other than that it’s done! I was SO happy to once again be in my own bedroom! It’s MUCH smaller than my last one, but somehow everything including the two giant cages managed to fit.

It all feels really cozy and nice. I love the big window and the shelf for my little succulents. I have loved playing with my gliders again! After two months of very little interaction, I was worried that they’d forget me. Everyone (besides Yiska) seems to have picked up right where we left off which is wonderful!!

Thanksgiving was a really fun day. I woke up late and immidatly got to work on dessert. I made nutella cheese cake and cranberry pie. Both turned out really good although we may have been too full to fully enjoy them!

We normally spend the holiday with extended family (at least we used to before we left KC in 2018) so we missed celebrating with family. But we had an amazing meal at home and played games and walked and laughed. 🙂 There is so much to be thankful for and the day was a wonderful reminder. God’s blessed us so richly. ❤

The activity that took up most of my time this November was NaNoWriMo. It was my first year doing it and I approached it with much apprehension. Other competitions have shown that I can in fact write a ton of words during short amount of times – but I’d never attempted it with ONE project.

However, NaNo suprised me. I was able to finish my novel with just over 94,000 words. It was so encouraging because I had absolutly no clue that I could write that much in one month.

In other ways it was deeply frustrating. After a few chapters, I absolutly hated every word that I wrote and became much more focused on word count than the quality of the words. So yes, I wrote a lot, but there were far too many useless, filler words. I am proud of the outcome, though, and proud that I pushed my limits and suceeded. 🙂

I was extremely excited to see the callender flip to December 1st! Since October 11th, I’d been spending hours a day writing like crazy – first for the Fellowship Competition and then for NaNo. It was so nice waking up and realizing that I didn’t have to write anything…then I was bored and went to work on blog posts. XD

And now we come to Hannuakah! This is the sixth night. *weeps because it has gone by so fast*

We put our Hanukiah in our front window and every night we gather around it and watch the candles burn (and guess which one will last the longest – so far I’ve one three out of five times). While the little flames flicker brightly, Mama reads Hanukah jokes or parts of the story of the Macabees. Sometimes we listen to halarious audios or play dreidel. There is, of course, lots of food that is consumed.

(The Hanukkah cookie bake off!)

This year we got a fryer, so we no longer have to worry about burning down the house! (We had a scare in Minnesota that included a pan of oil and very large flames.)

During the day, Hanukah music is constantly playing and during meals we remember the Miracle of Light and the great victory that was won over the Greeks. It’s a special time of year and I’m so thankful that we can celebrate it in our new home. ❤

Other Fun Stuff

Christmas Music: I always love hearing Christmas music play on the radio. Even though I don’t really like the songs that K-Love plays, there is just something festive about hearing it. 🙂

Call the Midwife: YES! When we lived in Kansas City, we watched so many episodes of Call the Midwife. It was our favorite and most nights we’d sit down and watch it while Mama worked on editing photos or such things. So Jehsoheba and I were thrilled when our Nana gave us the DVD’s! We started re-watching the seasons and it was so nostalgic. (Of course it would be much more pleasant if Baruch didn’t throw a fit everytime we started a new one…)

Walks: I’ve really enjoyed taking walks around the neighborhood. We had a beautiful little lake ten minutes away and it’s so fun to walk down to it and to see the beauty of the cattails and the water with a backdrop of the lovely mountians. Yoveil, Dovid and I also had fun feeding the duckies!

I hope that your November has been as good as ours. ❤

~Hattush

Do you celebrate Hanukah? Did you have a good Thanksgiving? What are your favorite holiday foods? Have you been to a chocolate factory? Did you participate in NaNoWriMo? Have you seen Call the Midwife? What are your plans for December?

November 2020 Update

Celebrating Hannukah

A Halarious Hannukah Story