You Don't See That Every Day

In my corner of the world this past week I ate a lot of food. Not enough to feel sick. But a lot of good tasting food. I watched my husband work on and finish the fence for the wood stove. It keeps the baby out of the area, and it is a great place to dry clothes that don't quite get done in the dryer. I put together the first celebration for our son's 12th birthday. He and a bunch of his buddies played football up at the high school for a couple of hours. A great birthday "party" - minor clean up and I got to stay home in a quiet house. I measured   baby K - looks like at 7 months old, she is 27 inches. I pondered the many blessings God has put into our lives. I introduced my kids to the movie A Christmas Story, you know the one with the classic line "You'll shoot your eye out, kid!" I ran a mile with my son. And it felt good! ** For those of you who have posted comments - thanks! I am trying to figure out a better way to reply, but I don...

playing Rummikub Certain times of the year bring out certain traditions. Holidays of course are full of traditions, family ones and cultural ones. A few years back we started a loose "tradition" of game night on Thursday nights. It doesn't always happen, and we often play games on other nights of the week. We really like board games and card games around here. candle night Another tradition my kids often remind me of is Candle Night. On Fridays during the fall and winter months we have (when I remember) supper by candle light on Friday nights (or sometimes Saturday). The kids enjoy the change - like when the electricity goes out and we have to do everything by candle of flashlight. We scrounge up whichever candles we can that fit the criteria: they have enough wick to burn, and they don't have an overpowering smell; because, really, who wants to smell vanilla bean while eating split pea soup? So I guess you could say I get a candle-lit dinner with my husband n...

Let's look at another one of the blogs on My List.  The writer of this blog is a someone I went to school with. Knit Together (Designs) is just one of her blogs! It covers her knitting projects and patterns, and I am in awe of what she does with her hooks and yarn. Maybe one of these days when I learn pick a hobby and learn to knit I will be using some of her patterns. I just love the baby hats she has made! Her other blog, which I just link to from KTD is called Knit Together. Similar I know but the meaning of the title is so cool. This blog is about her family, and on it she quotes Colossians 2:2 " That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love..." I just love this. My friend is a homeschooling mom of (gulp) 7! She is the first - and only - person I know from my past who homeschools a passel of kids like I do.  I hope you take a peek into her world.

After having time to reflect further on my day of thanksgiving, I have more thoughts. Go figure. I have hit the big leagues! After 38 years of life, and 13 years of marriage, I am The One to Cook the Turkey. On the "odd" years when we don't go to a sibling's house from my side of the family, I get to make the Thanksgiving dinner. My mother in-law did contribute to the meal, but I got the main responsibility for the meat. I used a special secret cooking technique one of my friends taught me. It includes 'massaging' the bird with butter (while the girls made gagging noises) and sticking my special digital thermometer into the turkey breast to keep an eye on the temperature. So I go by temp instead of time. And we had a lovely juice turkey to eat! -*-*- A friend posted on Facebook: "No Turkey day would be complete without a burn to the hand." In my case it's to the arm. However I must not have felt it too much when it happened. Later in the day ...

We had a lovely Giving-thanks day here at home. Grammy and Grandpa Norm came down and joined in the feasting. The table, ready for us prepping the appetizers And we had quite a spread this year for just 8 people to eat. Appetizers: carrots, celery and by request, deviled eggs; On the main menu: Turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, rutabaga, turnips, corn, stuffing, jello, rolls, cranberry sauce, gravy, and dessert - apple crisp and pumpkin pie with ice cream. We are so blessed beyond anything we deserve; we have so much and so often we take it for granted. We have a loving family, relatively healthy bodies, a roof over our head, a stable job, plenty of food and always enough to pay the bills in a timely manner. Thank you God for all of this and so much more!

Today we had the first snowfall of the season. Now I know for some of our family this is not news-worthy, nor exciting. But for us in the Pacific Northwest the first snowfall ... ANY snowfall is cause for excitement and joy. Before bed last night we kept peeking out the windows to see how much more was coming down. Excitement was already building in our little hearts. Each time I got up with the (teething) baby I peeked out again to see what was there. Nothing coming down, but it was sure bright out. This morning the girls were up first and came rushing out with squeals. It didn't take long for the rest of the house to come awake. Thankfully they ate their breakfasts and got dressed before charging out to play. And thankfully school has been on hiatus this week too. The kids played outside all morning, even though there was no more snow and the sun was starting to shine. It was still cold enough though that melting wasn't very much of an issue. Tonight the snow is still t...

I thought I was all set. Lists and lists were made for preparations of this upcoming holiday. I've gotten a couple of items made ahead of time, so I won't have to worry about those on Thursday. I have my tasks broken into certain days so I won't be doing it all on Thursday morning. I even have my weekly menu planned out. Every day except today that is. I drew a blank on what to cook for supper tonight. Usually it's Friday nights that are questionable - and we end up eating pizza. Because why cook when I can go order my favorite bacon bacon bacon pizza a few minutes down the road?! Yes, if we had no children we would support the entire staff of that certain pizza shop! But thankfully for my  health, we don't get to order pizza every night. So I had to come up with something from the cupboards tonight. And even though it is not a 'favorite' of anyone in the family but me, I went ahead and made my chicken rice casserole. It comes from a recipe my mom passed o...