Thanksgiving

Yes, I know this is late. But late is better than never.  Thanksgiving was great this year, almost. We had originally three thanksgiving dinners, but we only did two. The first one was at my cousin’s house. When I was younger, my mom’s family use to get together for every occasion (birthdays, holidays, just cause), but after my grandparents moved out of town it became less frequent and then when my grandmother died they became non-existent. So this year, my cousin decided to invite the entire family for Thanksgiving. It was great! I truly miss seeing them all. This was the first holiday the boys have spent time with my family, besides my mom and brother. I think they loved it. There was a group of young kids that included a 6 yr old, 4 yr old, 3 yr old, and 3- 1 ½ year olds. Yes! 3 kids who are 1 1/2 year olds. It was crazy, but so much fun.

Our second dinner was with my in-laws, it was a very traditional sit down family dinner. We had the traditional spread of turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, pink salad, rolls, sweet potatoes and a relish tray. Which is very different from my family’s free-for-all buffet dinner. I always enjoy having family dinners because it was something that I never did as a child.

I am thankfully for both of my families, their drama and all.

Review of Living with Confidence in a Chaotic World by Dr. David Jeremiah

Since I love to read, I decided that I would sign up to be a book review for Thomas Nelson Publishing. The first book I selected was Living with Confidence in a Chaotic World by Dr. David Jeremiah. This is not a book is not one that I would have gone to the bookstore and picked out on my own. As I usually lean towards Amish Fiction or family focused. This book however was a very good and easy read. I became engrossed in the every page with all details in facts, solid Bible referencing and humor. He was able to grasp the questions I have been having about where the world is and was able to give me ease in what I have been feeling. His focus on the “One and Another” ministry and the sacred need as Christians growing through the one on one and small group ministries, truly touched my heart. As Christians, we should be focused on God and preparing those around us for our journey home.

This book is great for those who feel that they have lost everything, those who have questions about where this world is going, and for those who are looking for reassurance in God’s plans. I will definitely be passing this book along.

To Bear,

With your sudden and unexpected early entrance in to this world three years ago, you have melted our hearts and filled us with uncontrollable laughter and hugs. You entered our lives as our first born, though we never knew that we could love someone so much, we have.

Planes, trains and automobiles abound with enough dirty hands and faces to always make life interesting. The music of thomas the train, caillou, wonder pets, sesame street, and bob the builder stuck in our heads. The tremndous crashes and scrapped knees. You are the quintessential boy.


You are becoming a strong and polite big boy and no longer a baby bear. You will always be our baby bear. May you have a wonderful birthday and many more to come.


Happy Third Birthday!
Love Mommy and Daddy

Just because its Monday..

We all need a little laugh...

Volunteering

I commit to activities with the notion that they are jobs and obligations. I “stress” over these activities and plot them out in my day planner to the minute. Yes, my planner drives my life. I am a mother of 2 small kids, wife, full-time employee, friend, caretaker and volunteer. Really, can anyone do these without needing a planner without going nuts???

Volunteer is a hard word for me to say I am. Instead of thinking of being a Sunday school teacher, a member of the staff council and staff council executive committee as volunteering, but as responsibilities. About a week ago during one of my drives home (which I do a lot of my thinking then), I realized that I was stressed out about everything I was doing because I was thinking of them as needs to do no longer as fun things. I had not notice that my mindset had changed towards these activities to where I was resenting them. Truthfully, I just wanted ME time and need a vacation by myself. Well that is just not going to happen… Well maybe I can plan a day trip somewhere.

So when you think about your life, is your mind, heart, and soul in the right place? I can truthfully say now, yes mine is.

So anyone up for a day away?

Oh Boys! Cont.

After spending close to 45 minutes playing on the John Deere, we headed off to the next farm. This time Bear was asked which one he wanted to go to, with an overwhelming response of COWS, we headed to the cattle farm.

The cattle farm was fun in different ways than the dairy farm. We walked through the barn to view the cows, which Bear was not really interested seeing. This was not what I expected from the reaction in the car. The barn cat however, was a highlight and not only for our clan. There was plenty of farm equipment to look at including a “mac” truck. But the tractor tires filled with corn, wheat and soybeans were by far the best. The boys (yes all of them) took their shoes off and hopped right in. They moved from one tire to the next and back again. I knew that Bear enjoyed playing in corn at Aunt Marla’s and Uncle Ron’s, but I did not realize it was not a one-time thing. Which I am sure Marla is still finding corn all over her house a year later. We finally got everyone’s shoes back on and headed off to look at other farm delicacies. When Bear would not leave his nose alone and began crying…of course I just assumed he was having a little allergy to corn dust (because he gets really stuffy when they begin to plow corn). Finally, I stopped him and looked up his nose….He had a soybean stuck up there!! Seriously how do you get a soybean stuck up your nose???? So with that we ended our farm tour and headed home to find a snot sucker. After a “I think we got it”, a nap and dinner on the table; did I realize “We did not get it”. I was able to cut the end of the snot sucker larger and got the soybean out, with several tears.

Oh boys!

This is late...of course. A couple weeks ago, we took the boys to the Hancock County Farm Festival. It was a tour of 4 different working family farms and they open up their farms to allow us “city” folk to see how the farms work. The tour included a dairy farm, cattle farm, horse stable, and grain mill.

We decided to take the boys to the dairy farm first, just because we thought it would be cool. (Yes, we are big dorks!) It was a very interesting experience and the boys loved it. They had us put on plastic boot covers over our shoes before entering the grounds. This was such a great idea to protect both the cows and us. We walked through the barn and got to see a baby that had been born that morning, as well as several that had been at the state fair. In one area they had several “ladies” waiting to be milked and at the end of their line was a door with a rope across it, with a very either lonely or nosy cow sticking her head in. One of the owners, said that she had already been milked and probably had a friend in line. Who would have thought cows would break out into “cliques”.

After laughing a little and watching someone make ice cream by generator power churns…we headed over to play on the John Deere. All the boys enjoyed getting to play “farmer”.