Recipes

I need help. I'm looking for your best Thanksgiving/Christmas recipes - the ones that all your friends and family want from you. HELP!!

Example

It was a long day and I'm emotionally spent. My friend Alicia's mom lost her battle with cancer and today was the funeral. It's been a 8 year struggle on and off again with a couple of different cancers. I knew that the day would be intense and emotional (both things that I find draining).

The world is lesser place having lost Donna. She genuinely loved and cared for people, lived a genuine life - what she said is what she was. Something so many of us long to be - open and honest in all that we are and do. I'm doing okay on the honesty - still working on the open part.

It was a beautiful service - lots of music, a few chuckles at memories of Donna, and personal tributes from her children. I was SO proud of Alicia and I'm sure her mother would have been to. Alicia boldly spoke what she and her mother found most valuable - their faith. When asked how they were making it through - she simply said because her Savior lives and that's how they face tomorrow.

So much of today brought back memories from my dad's funeral and the immense peace that God gave us. I saw that in Alicia's family today. God is good and gracious - in the face of death, cancer, loss, and grief He continued to provide for all of our needs.

Farewell Donna - we look forward to our reuniting in heaven.

Full House - So I thought

I've been preparing the house & fridge for what I thought was a house full of guests coming from out of town for the funeral and visitation this week. We run off the envelope system and since it's the end of the month - they are pretty empty. So I decided to go to the store and use the debit card (which we try not to do). I started at Aldi's, or local discount, bag your own grocery store. I shop there once a month to get the basics. Well, there were a lots of basics plus stuff for having house guests for a couple of days. Came to $100!!! I was shocked but it was a huge cart full. I pulled out my wallet to realize the debit card got left in my purse at home. The line of customers behind me is not looking happy. I manage to scrape together $65 out the other envelopes which meant finding $35 of discount groceries to put back. I was so embarrassed.

So I'm all stocked up, the house is mostly clean - and I find out now that there is only going to be 2 people for one night. The fam is going to be eating good for a little while.

At lunch today I let Ty have a good time feeding himself. I've selfishly been holding off on letting him do that because it is so much faster to do it myself... but he needs to learn. I've started playing a kids praise and worship CD at lunchtime and that has helped decrease a bit of the meal time friction. That and we have a bird feeder outside the kitchen window and the birds seem to entertain the boys a bit as well.

Ryan saw me taking pictures of Ty and decided that he needed to have his own photo shoot as well... Had to make sure that the herbs ended up in the picture too!

Sadness & Relief

I just got word that my friend Alicia's mom passed away tonight after a long battle with cancer. My heart breaks for the loss that the family is experiencing but there is such relief in knowing that she no longer suffers and is with her Savior. Donna lived a life that taught so many of us so much. I'm glad I had my chance to say goodbye a few weeks ago.

Pray for their family as they deal with all the necessary things this week. Pray that Alicia's brother Jacob would be drawn back into relationship with God through all of this and release his bitterness.

Is There Such A Thing As Too Many Parties?

Saturday was a FULL day. We had three birthday parties for kids. The first party was 10 - noon at Chuck E Cheese for my new step-nephew. My brother married his mom and didn't bother to tell anyone for 5 weeks earlier this summer. Needless to say, it was a party I was less than enthused about. The invitation said "Please no toys (gifts)" which my husband and I went around on. As a nephew I wanted to give him something since we give gifts to other nieces/nephews. My husband convinced me to honor their wishes. I walked in to see that everyone else brought a gift. I felt pretty stupid. I rallied and offered to send him a subscription to National Geographic for Kids and that it would be coming to his mailbox in his name soon...

We left from there to party #2 for my niece's 1st birthday party (same side of the family). It was a nice time. It was slightly awkward at gift time when my niece had a present to open and the nephew who had not gotten one was sitting there. Luckily I think it was only awkward for me. The kids hit meltdown stage and we headed home.

After our poor attempt at getting kids a nap we headed out for party #3 for Ryan's friend Chloe's 3rd birthday. It was a crazy time with lots of kids everywhere and our kids without naps were a bit done. Ty was rather cranky and that made Andy a bit cranky as well. Nice party but we were all done and headed home early. I really wanted to stay and hang out with friends - but it's that conflict of what you want to do and what is best for your family.

I've decided that parties are fun, but I'm thinking 3 (with all the sugar and chaos) in one day is just a little much.

To Laugh or Not To Laugh

At monday night football we have several friends over and the kids were playing downstairs. Luckily I knew they were playing with the play tool set.

Part way through the evening, Ryan came up holding his cheek crying saying "Alayna screwed me" over an over again. At first I thought I heard wrong. Then I had to contain my laughter long enough to deal with the screwdriver injury. As soon as the kids headed back downstairs the room erupted in laughter. For a few moments we lost track of the game.

Catching Up

Here's my poor attempt to try to catch up...

1. Ryan seems to be doing well with pre-school and I'm loving the time off. I'm extra looking forward to tomorrow as this was one of the roughest mommy days in recent history. I know fatigue and the crazy last week has a lot to do with it, but still a long day.

2. Youth Conference - nothing earth shaking and new but good reminders and refreshers for getting back into the grove. I've been doing this youth worker thing for about 9 years and routine can become a passion killer. I did grasp something new about the 10 Commandments, but I'll save that for another post.

3. Mom's Birthday - had an open house on Sunday to celebrate my mom's 70th birthday. She ended up with a really long guest list so we were a bit concerned. It went really well. The kids were REALLY shot without naps, and Tyler managed to cut his gum open. Other than that - it's a relatively tame family/friend gathering. My oldest brother was out on the road (truck driver) and didn't make it. His new wife had health concerns and didn't come either. Really I think she didn't want to come without the hubby. But it was probably less stressful without them.

4. House - we have footings in the big hole and the walls are on their way this week. Things are taking shape and so are some of the decisions. I just need to trust myself on my decisions.

5. Depression & Anxiety - For the first time in so many months, I finally feel like I've got a grasp on things. The new meds seem to be really effective. There are still moments of anxiety and stress, but they are proportional to the situation at hand. I'm learning what my limits are to help balance the rest. It's good to feel pretty good again.

6. I made an announcement in church on sunday about the women's christmas outreach called "holiday hints" that I'm helping put together. I bluntly said for those that weren't interested that it was "not about you" but about needing to reach the lost. I know that the words were controversial for some of the older ladies that may have been convicted by the statement but I really felt God leading me to say it. If He was leading, he'll help me to address any issues that my words created. All in all, I'm really excited about the event and the opportunities to combine my passion for Christmas, decorating, & sharing about my great God.

Hope you all have a great week.

Whole New World

Tuesday was Ryan's first day of pre-school. I did very well with it and so did he. He had a momentary fear of entering the classroom, but the play-dooh table ended that. He posed himself for the pictures.














After Ty and I picked up Ryan from pre-school, we headed out to the property so the boys could watch the excavators work clearing the land for the house. Ryan was so excited when the "worker man" asked him if he wanted to help run the bulldozer. They pushed some trees and dirt around. It was a great time and then off to McDonalds to wrap up a great morning.

I Love Fall

Last week it was in the mid 90's and very humid. Today it's been in the high 60's with a bit of rain on and off. I actually wore a light sweatshirt outside this morning playing with Ryan. Fall is my favorite season. I love long sleeve shirts, sweatshirts, sweaters, apple anything, football, colorful leaves, the rustle of leaves in the wind, hot chocolate or cider, donuts, orchard trips, pumpkin desserts, and the list goes on.

It's officially starting to feel like fall with the return of Monday Night Football. We had our first party of the season tonight with friends plus our new neighbors/landlords. It was a lot of fun. My friend brought an incredible fruit salsa with cinnamon chips. I'll get the recipe to post.

And on another positive note, my fantasy football team did quite well in week number one. There's a lot more to go, so I'm not predicting a successful season yet, but winning sure is nice.

This weekend we're heading to IN for a youth leaders conference. I'm praying to get re-energized and creative again. We've been doing this for so many years with the same couple that it is really easy for me to get complacent about things and reactive. The kids deserve more than that, but our lives are far more complicated and committed that it was 6 years ago when we attended all sorts of sporting & school events and put together super creative events all the time. There has to be a middle ground somewhere. It should be a good time, plus we get to go with friends and without the kids overnight! That's pretty close to a vacation in our world.

Head Over Heels

Tonight we made a quick trip out to the property to check where the builder had staked out the house. There was rain in the distance so we knew we had to hurry. I brought the umbrella stroller for Ty since I was having a hard time holding him. I managed to burn a 4 inch section of my arm when I dropped a curling iron today. We trekked up the 300' winding driveway. We were partway through our tasks when the drizzle turned to rain. We took off running. Andy grabbed Ryan and I was pushing Ty. About halfway down the hill it turned to pouring rain. Almost at the end of the driveway I hit a large tree root with the stroller. It flipped over and Ty landed on his face. The impact sent me flying over the stroller landing on my shoulder and neck. Now mind you the dirt drive that the bulldozer left had already started to turn to mud. We were coated.

Poor Ty was more scared than hurt - but did have a small cut on his forhead (that we found after cleaning through all the dirt). I ended up pretty dirty and mighty sore. The best part of it is we were suppose to be heading straight from the land to the pre-school open house. We raced home to clean up and head on out. The worst trama of it all was that the picture that Ryan colored for his teacher this morning got muddy. After a few tears and another colored picture - we were off to the open house and actually made it on time.

I'm sacked out on a heating pad trying to deal with a stiff back. Can't wait to see what I'm like in the morning. I guess it's one of those memories that we'll take away in the house building experience.

New Additions

I didn't intend on color coordinating my new technology but I guess my love of the color red has come through. I'm loving my new laptop and the freedom that comes with it. However, still getting use to Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007. I'm a creature of habit and the new structure of the software is throwing me for a loop. Sooner or later it will become second nature, but I'm guessing it will be later than sooner.

So I'll continue relaxing on the couch with my feet up while I surf the web. I love technology.