Poor Neglicted Blog of Mine.

I repent.

Just a little gem to get us back in the swing of things. Several years ago...I don't remember if was a Christmas gift or a birthday gift, but Sally gave us the movie "Mary Poppins". Ellie has been particulary entralled and has watched it over and over and over without end for several day.

And as we walked down the grocery aisle today, she was singing at the top her little lungs...

...OH ITS A JOLLY HOLIDAY WITH MARY!!!! WHEN MARY 'OLDS YOUR HAND...YOU FEEL SO GRAND...YOUR HEART STARTS BEATING....LIKE....A....BIG...BRASS......BANNNNNNNNNND!!!!

...at which point she stomps her feet three times right on beat. And its pretty funny to hear her sing Supercalifragalisticexpialidocious (amazing attempt at spelling on my part) because she can only get part of all those big words...like precocious just comes out "cious" .

And tonight...I caught her standing in front of a very messy bookcase fiercly trying to snap her fingers at it. :)

Neal suggested maybe we need a break from Mary. :) Maybe. :)

Thanksgiving 2008

Well. I've spent a lot of time this month thinking about the blessing I have, the blessing I don't have, the blessings I am afraid to lose, and the blessing I'm not afraid to lose. I have thought about the blessings I have and don't have by choice...and by randomness.

This year has been rough. I hear people say allll the time: "These are difficult times." Hmmm. True. Still...I have a lot to be thankful for.

Just a smattering:

-baskets of clean dry folded laundry
-sunny afternoons
-my cozy little house (while neither grand nor big...its precious to me)
-all the nice working appliances in my home
-my furniture
-2 paid for running cars
-no accidents or major illness while in between insurances
-all the times I have gone to buy food...and done so one way or another
-fabulous schools and teachers for both my children
-all the extras above survival
-coat and shoes
-netflix
-a portable dvd player
-our computer
-my girls super fun bunk beds
-the fact that even though Neal's job frustrates me and isn't doing what it need to do...he still has it...unlike so many other families
-My precious parents and family
-My precious friends

I am blessed. And thankful. And ready to move beyond weighing blessings against not blessing to a season that is merry and bright. (Well...except that Ellie threw up this morning...and while my Christmas tree is up...we are feeling neither merry or bright...and the car she threw up in CERTAINLY is NOT smelling merry.)

Neal made dressing:

I made 7 layer Jello Salad:

Ladd (my step brother) carving one of the two turkeys we devoured:

The men of course:


The moms put together a pinata -- and had the kids line up:



However, the pinata only made it through 3 kids:



We also did stockings for all these kiddos:

It was a fun weekend. Of course, there was drama here and there...but overall...a good time.

My Munchkin

Here is my munchkin. She is fun and fabulous and silly and fast and trouble. Oh I love her.


Here is what happens when my munchkin steals my camera. Enjoy her own version of "photography":

I love being a mom. *** Updated!

Last night...Ellie was having trouble settling down and going to sleep. She ended up snuggling with me in my bed for awhile. She was chatting with me and telling me silly things. Then we had the following conversation:

Ellie: Mama...do you know what?
Me: What sweetie?
Ellie: I don't think all boys are yucky.
Me: Really?
Ellie: No. Grammy's Grandpa isn't yucky. And Nana's Grandpa isn't yucky. And Grandpa Leslie isn't yucky. And Papa isn't yucky.
Me: True.
Ellie: But Gideon (a little boy at preschool) he IS yucky. And Austin is yucky too.
Me: Hmmm.
Ellie: But Diego is not yucky. Or Boots. Or Steve and Joe. Or Blue.

Oh may you never ever ever grow out of Diego. May you never ever find the boys in your class to be NOT yucky. :)

************************************

Nov 5th

Ellie: Mom, I think maybe Papa is yucky.
Papa: *Across the room eyebrows raise over his book*
Me: Oh...why is he yucky.
Ellie: He just got too much yucky.
Me: Really? Where is his yucky?
Ellie: Deep down in his tummy. Inside.
Me: Hmmm. Maybe you can squish it out.
Neal: *** glaring ***
Ellie: Ok. *skips over to her Papa and pushes his book out of the way...puts two tiny fists on Papa's tuumy and squishes as hard as she can* Ok...now open your mouth so the yucky can come out!
Me and Addy: ***giggling fiercly and watching the whole thing***
Addy: Sometimes I laugh so hard I almost pee my pants. *runs off to the potty*

It's beautiful here.

There are no pictures I can take that would do any tree in my world justice. This morning on my drive to church, I was telling God how cool he was. I'm sure that out here in Kansas-- we can't compare to the scale of the "fall foliage" in like...Virginia. But. The trees we have...can sure hold their own. I saw a tree the other day that was sooo deeply red...it was almost purple. You rock, God. My personal fave is the golden leaves. Our yard is snowing gold. Its so fun.




Addy was trying to catch them while they were falling from the tree today. And then decided she needed a leaf collection. So precious.
However, my big blessing of the day is my laundry. While it sure gets cold here at night, and we have had our first couple of frosts...God has really left a lot of warmth in the day. Such a blessing. Which means...my fairly recent attempts at line drying our laundry has been very fruitful.



I wish I could tell you it was allll about going green. (And to be honest...I will probably never go back to using the dryer 100 percent.) But I started doing that because our last electric bill was absolutely absurd. No one told me that the little town we moved to is NOT on the power grid like the rest of America. No no. They use GAS generators to generate all our electricity. So not only do we have to pay for our expensive electricity...we also pay for the $3 a gallon gas it takes to operate the generators. I about passed out when I saw our bill. It was almost $100 dollars above the bill we received in the peak of summer at our previous home. I am out to cut our bill in half. We'll see.

I have since discovered that I LOVE to hang our laundry outside. We have a fenced in little private area in the back...so its perfect. I enjoy the time outside..even when its cool. I enjoy the rhythm of hanging out the laundry. I love way it all moves in the breeze. I love the smell of the wet woodish clothespins. I love the crunch of the leaves under my feet while I work down the line. And I love the way the laundry smells.

At first I resented it. But now I LOVE it. And I use the dryer on each load 5-10 minutes.

And the lingering warmth outside God is providing is such a huge blessing. The clothes do much better with a little warm breeze and some sun. The cool 50's work ok too...but this is sooo nice.
One Saturday, a friend asked me what I was going to be doing that day.

"Well...its warm and windy. So I'm doing laundry."

Harvest Celebrations: Part 1

I HAVE taken time to enjoy the celebrations of fall and harvest the past few weeks. Those few moments of sheer delight were such welcome breaks during the havoc of October.

The big day was of course Halloween. And I really enjoyed my girls. And Halloween in special time for my mom and I to connect and enjoy the season. And here are the most 2 fabulous reasons why. An angel and a cheerleader. Addy made a beautiful angel...(and I MADE that costume!!!--with some encouragement from my mom!)





And Ellie wanted to be cheerleader like last year. So she was super cute as a little USA cheerleader girl.






The morning started out with this "head" room mom joining Addy's class for a parade around the school. The kids are all so cute and I love being able to check out all the costumes in the light. Then we headed inside for a fun party. One mom had made cute little skeleton cookies. And they made cute little candy corn guys.

I volunteered to spend the day at the school and help out with the Harvest Day Festivities. A friend of mine had her husband give a talk about farming. He had made a really neat video about harvesting soybeans. I had never seen a soybean plant up close. I thought it was really cool. The whole school broke up into groups and went around to centers. The kids got to ride in a horse drawn carriage...take a hay ride through a local park...make a fall snack mix...do a fall dance...make trees...paint huge mural pictures with seeds and beans...sooooooo fun. I got to eat lunch with Addy and have her be my helper sometimes. I loved being at school with her. And I thought the kids were very well behaved and did great! Part of me is regretting not being a teacher. I'm thinking about being a para.

In the evening, we joined my mom for a traditional Halloween dinner of rice cooked in milk with brown sugar and cinnamon on top. MMMMMMMmmmmm. Then we took pictures and headed out to trick or treat with friends. My mom came too, which was a HUGE blessing! We stopped by a church and did "trunk or treat" and then went to the fire station and around a neighborhood. We got LOTS of candy...and a lot of GREAT candy. We hit pay dirt with chocolate. :)

See! I like to call this Snicker Mountain.



And just for fun we sorted it all by flavor!


The silliest part of the night was when Ellie shoved most of a Reese's Cup in her mouth...gagged on it...spit in my hand and said, "Well. That didn't work. I need to try again!"

The girls had a blast and we came home exhausted. It was a fabulous evening.

Well.

It is November 1st. Wow. I wasn't sure that I would live through this past October. This last month was a really tough one.

My brother in law RWR gave me a heart attack developing what we thought was West Nile, then Meningitis, then I'm not sure really what they decided. I paced my kitchen floor for several hours until I was sure I didn't need to rush to see him one last time. Goodness.

My dad spent awhile in the hospital battling blood clots in his lungs. Wheeze.

My daughter is battling a nasty round of bronchitis. Worry and Fret.

The economy has ran over my family like a mack truck. Flail.

And many other things that have seldom allowed me a moment to stop sobbing or barfing all over the hem of the Lord's robe. Frankly, I'm amazed to raise my head from his now severely stained garment to discover its November.

And I confess to being quite frustrated lately thinking about the upcoming holiday. Thanksgiving in particular...not sure I can manage to accomplish a grateful feeling this season. Not to mention...there is no Gary and Kim to share it with. Gulp.

So. I have decided to use my blog this season as sort of a blessing journal...a small way to move my weary heart towards healing and fullness.

So...I am on a journey to thanksgiving. Fun.