Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Whatever your traditions are for today, I hope you enjoy them.

And I hope all of our hearts are turned a little more towards the Lord and filled with thankfulness for all He has done.

This year we will spend Thanksgiving with Brian's family.  I am thankful for that, and I am thankful that I will miss my family today.  Wouldn't it be kind of sad to not want to be with them?  It's a good thing to want to be in two places at one time and even though I can't, I am grateful for both!

Here are a few more pictures from the preschool Thanksgiving program, which was really cute and really funny!

She made this face a lot.  Nerves? 

There were little pilgrims, too, on the other side.

Notice the Mayflower and Plymouth in the background.

I loved that all the kids could be there.  A definite benefit to homeschooling!

A "Now I Get It" Thank You

When I was a kid, I struggled with asthma.  Mostly in fall and winter.  We spent a good bit of time in the ER with an occasional overnight stay in the hospital.  I remember that feeling of trying really hard to get a good breath.  I remember the sound of the wheezing.  I remember my mom driving me to the hospital on nearly empty roads in the middle of the night.  I even remember her driving me from house to house on Halloween so that I could trick-or-treat even when the doctor said I needed to be inside. 
Now that I'm older, November/December are getting to be minorly tricky for me again when it comes to asthma- nothing like it was when I was little but enough to remind me.
And now that I'm a mom, I wonder what it was like for my mom.  I know the mental ping-pong that goes on in my own head when my kids are sick:
Do they need some medicine?
Should I call the doctor?
Is this going to get worse?
Should I let them outside?
The thing that sticks out most about my mom during those asthma moments is that she always seemed calm.  If she was rattled, she didn't let it show.   I just kind of knew that she (or you, too, Dad) would take care of things.
I realize 30-some years later that keeping calm when your kids are struggling is no easy feat.  And so I really want to say
"Thank You"
from one mom to another
for keeping it together, at least on the outside, and doing what you had to do.
What a wonderful example for me.

Getting Stirred Up

"Do you think he'll like a baseball?"
Would you, if you had never had one, ever?
Our baseball lover smiled slightly and said, "Yeah, I would."
I don't know why that got to me.
Maybe it was Sam thinking about a boy somewhere in the world.  A boy who doesn't have much by the world's standards.  A boy who in some ways is very different from Sam and in many more, so much like him.
Maybe it was knowing that my children want for nothing.
Maybe it was the thought hope that Sammy's own heart was being stirred up.
And not just his, but all of ours.
"Help us to get enough money so that we can give it away," one prayed.
"Help the little kids know Jesus," another prayed.
And I just got choked up and listened.
All from putting together a couple of Christmas shoe boxes.

Latest Sewing Projects

Brian and Jack have left for Jack's first Boy Scout camping trip. 
It's raining. 
I'm really hoping it turns out to be a great trip and dry in the morning.
The rest of us are home, cozy and warm.  While I made spaghetti for dinner, the kids watched Andy Griffith.  That is one show our whole family loves.  It was a good evening here.  We took some pictures of some of Kayla's latest sewing projects:

She made this little bear last week.  It even has a cute little tail.

She made Lucy this little rabbit.  Lucy's holding up it's floppy ears.

Here are all the pillows she's made.  I already posted the first one, made from a t-shirt.  The other two were for Sam and  Jack.

Now this one.  

Isn't it said that when you can teach something, you really know it?

Kayla and Sam spent the better part of two hours one afternoon working on this little thing.  She taught him a few things and he did it all himself.  Love it!

Cranberry-Apple-Oatmeal Goodness

I'm guessing there were more than 20 people at that Christmas dinner.
I don't remember if there was snow outside but inside Brian's grandparents' kitchen it was warm and there was a low hum of conversation among cousins, great-uncles, siblings, and probably more.

 

That's where I had this cozy, wintery dish.

A perfect blend of cranberries, apples, and spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves

Add some oatmeal, sugar, and butter

Then eat it while it's hot.

I always think of the Waters' clan when I make this but I also think of elementary school.  Strange combination, huh?  I think it's the cloves.  In our school, parents would do all sort of crafts and put them in a little Christmas store so that children could buy little gifts for their families.  It must have smelled of cloves in that room in Dutrow Elementary because I am immediately taken back each time I make something with cloves.

Anyway, Brian's great-aunt Helen gave me her recipe.

And here it is for you.  Enjoy!

Cranberry-Apple-Oatmeal Goodness

1 bag of cranberries

2 granny smith apples, pealed and diced

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup chopped pecans

1 T each of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves

1 cup oatmeal

1 stick melted butter

Mix all the ingredients and bake in a covered dish at 350 for one hour

*I used 3/4 cup of each sugar and think I'll try a little less next time.

*I also don't include the pecans, since we have a nut allergy in the family.

Solar Eclipse

I heard about this morning's solar eclipse last week.  We are studying astronomy this year- how could we not take advantage of this opportunity?  I woke the kids up at 6:30- which really wasn't so bad since we "fell back" over night.  It was really 7:30, right?

We drove to a church parking lot just outside of our neighborhood where there is a pretty good view of the sunrise.  Yep, I'm in my robe and Jack is wrapped up in a blanket wondering why he is in the van and not in his bed.  I think Sam must have taken this picture.

It was fairly cloudy which made for a pretty sunrise but difficult eclipse viewing.

When the sun peaked over the horizon, it came up fast.

I snapped a picture then got out our "pin hole viewing box."  No staring at the sun!

The eclipse didn't seem too grand but we could see a slight shadow on the sun's image in our box.  It didn't take long for the sun to rise up behind the clouds but it was fun to get out and at least try to experience the eclipse.

Wonder what they'll remember about this?

Halloween Costumes, 2013

This year's Halloween costumes were great- they required very little from me!  There seemed to be more kids out this year, and we met some new neighbors while out walking.  It was a pretty fun evening.

Jack in full camo

Sammy as Spiderman.  He LOVED having muscles on his costume.

Lucy wanted to be Superman.  Nothing girly for this one!

Kayla as one of her favorite book characters, Hermione Granger