Egg Nog Night

One of our favorite holiday traditions is Egg Nog night. We make some special snack, take a bowl of egg nog downstairs, and watch a Christmas movie.

Today I got something to make it even more fun for next year. Walmart had beautiful punch bowls on sale for $6!! I've always wanted a punch bowl set. I've never had one before and we've always used another glass bowl I have. It worked fine, but now we have the real thing! I'm so delighted.

Now I'm just looking for excuses to make punch. I have a lot. New Year's, Valentines, a bunch of birthdays....the list goes on. Now I need some new punch recipes to go with it.

A Grumpy Day

I tried so hard to be in a good mood. It just wasn't happening. There was so much to do with a super messy house and Christmas stuff everywhere. My big kids were on the ball helping and working and getting stuff done. My little kids, however, did NOT want to cooperate. Everywhere I turned it seemed that they were thwarting my plans of organization. It was so frustrating. On top of that, I didn't sleep well the night before.

I prayed and asked the Lord to change my heart. I decided I needed a nap and called a break time for everyone after lunch. I took a short nap then read my Bible. I also read a chapter in a book I'm reading titled The Mission of Motherhood.

I didn't like this book much at first. I stuck with it b/c it is my book study book and I wanted to be able to discuss it with my friends. I'm glad I did. It got better. The chapter I read talked about not viewing our kids as interruptions and accepting the fact that they will demand most of our time. It spoke about giving up the "right" we think we have and serving them wholeheartedly as we would serve Jesus.

So convicting. So timely.

I can't say that it really changed my mood all of a sudden. I went to start dinner and #1 came in to chat about her new book. That cheered me up. My little boys were playing outside, Baby Girl was still asleep, and 12yo was playing with 10yo with his new rebounder. That cheered me up too. Everyone was cheerful except me...how could I stay grumpy? I made a Rachel Ray meal in 30 minutes (Yes, I did it!!!) and put together a quick tea snack. I apologized to everyone at the tea table and passed out more chores. With dinner made, we were able to knock out quite a few chores before Honey hit the door.

The house is still not done. The Christmas stuff is still out. But...I was able to rest in the mess without throwing a fit just slowing plugging along at it as I can. The babies are happy and so is everyone else. We'll work on it again tomorrow.

Merry Christmas

We had such a fun Christmas this year. I hope everyone else did too.
We traveled A LOT (well, a lot for us) going to my parents, and then a very unexpected trip to Honey's parents. We got home Christmas Eve which left Christmas with just us. I didn't make the bed or change out of my pajamas all day.

Honey's been home today and we hit the after Christmas sales. #1 and I figured that he bought enough wrapping paper to last us for the next 8 Christmases. He was excited about his 50% off find. We had a good day just shopping and going to lunch, just the two of us. We had one return to make and there was no line.

Although it was very FUN we're ready to be finished. I can't think of anything that we could've done to make it any better. It was just one of those kinds of holidays. Honey made a good point. "The good thing about spending Christmas at four different places is that when it's over you're glad."

Yep.

The house is a mess. Honey goes back to work tomorrow and the kids and I will be busy putting the house back together.

Christmas is GREAT.

Lentils

I was soaking oats tonight for tomorrow's breakfast and for some reason it reminded me of the time we ate lentils. I'm not sure why....maybe b/c oatmeal goes a long way.

On the e-mail food loop I'm on, the ladies there make all kinds of things out of lentils. Stuff like tacos and sloppy joes and even burgers. A couple of years ago I decided to give it a try. If you've never had lentils, keep it that way. They are so gross. And the worst part is that they are some sort of magic bean. By that I mean that no matter how many you eat they will never go away! They last forever.

Not wanting to waste food, I put them on the table 3 nights in a row. Honey had had enough. I remember we had quite an unpleasant dinner conversation concerning these lentils. But what could I do? I didn't want to waste them. It think I took them to the church potluck the next day.

My Favorite Childhood Christmas Memory

I'm so ready for Christmas. I love it! I'm really looking forward to seeing my kids open their presents. I know my mom felt the same way b/c she loves Christmas too. My favorite childhood memory was the Christmas when I was seven. I woke up to find a Barbie Dream House and a Barbie house boat!! WOW! It was incredible. The dream house had an elevator. The house boat had all these teeny tiny dishes and foods and little towels and everything my barbies could ever hope for. It was so fun. The bad part about Christmas is that the next day it is over. I'm not ready for it to be over.

This year I started "celebrating" Christmas every 25th that fell on a school day. Since I've posted about this before, I won't go into it again. But for 2007 I want to do a little more. I think we'll pull out the little fiber optic tree we have and maybe even buy a small family present. The present idea came from one of my kids as I was discussing this with them. Imagine that!! Good idea though. But the best part of celebrating it throughout the year is that every 25th is a little bit more special than the other school days. The worshipful Christmas music is uplifting, the orange rolls for breakfast always indicate a special day, and the Christmas story in Luke is nice to read aloud again.

#2's turn

My second born daughter and I made the trip to the orthodontist today for the first visit. #1 just got her braces off and now it's her sister's turn. She has a good attitude about it and is ready to start. She won't actually get braces until sometime in January. We have to do the preliminary work first.

Honey called at lunch and asked how it went. I told him that the Dr. said "We have our work cut out for us here." We think this is going to be expensive. His answer blessed me. He said what he usually says about things like this...."Well it is what it is." He doesn't worry about it so that allows me not worry about it either. Then we talked about how good it is that the Lord blessed us to be able to do this for her and how it will be worth it. She will enjoy nice teeth forever.

He then said something like "1 down, 10 to go." I jokingly reminded him that we only have 9 children. He said he was just planning for the future and added, "I should've said *at least* 10 to go!" I thought that was sweet.

As I'm getting older the realization is sinking in that I won't have that many child bearing years left. And though I don't like pregnancy itself, I do love my babies. I don't like to think of the time when the last one will be the last one. There will never be another time in my whole life to get to do this. And I will never have such an opportunity to influence anyone as I do with those under my own roof.

So a sort of miracle is happening in my heart. I'm appreciating this pregnancy more than most of my others. After all, what if this one is the last one? What if there's not another squirmy little one kicking me under the ribs? What if this is the last little guy that I get to read Goodnight Moon to? Or tie shoes for? Or teach to write his name? It puts my thoughts into perspective that these things I take for granted won't always be here.

At the dinner party last night the table conversation turned toward kids. One mom was very proud of her senior son b/c of his very high ACT score. They are hoping for a scholarship. Another mom was telling us how her daughter just won the school wide spelling bee and is headed for the big televised one.

I'm glad for them but it made me start thinking about school. I hate it when I do this and compare my kids to others. I just can't seem to help it. It puts all these thoughts into my head wondering if I'm doing enough or if my kids are ever going to win something neat or get high enough scores to get scholarships.

So I pray and ask the Lord to show me if something is lacking and what to do about it. His word says "And your sons will be taught by the Lord and great will be your childrens' peace." My prayer is that He will teach them what He wants them to know. So I just keep walking in obedience, trusting Him to teach them all they should know and leave the outcome up to Him.

I am up against a wall with one of my daughters. I'm about to have to deny her something that she'd very much like to do. The problem is that I don't have a definate reason why I have to say "no" . Not one that will please her anyway. It's a fine activity but when I pray about it, I sense the Lord's leading that it's wrong for her. Honey agrees. Not wrong in and of itself, but wrong for her for now. So again, I just have to obey what I feel the Lord has for us now and trust Him to help her to understand. It's hard to let go of wanting to be in control and just rest in His perfect love.

On a different note...
I wanted to post my homemade baby wipe recipe. It's so simple and quick and it's cheaper than buying them. If any of you have babies I encourage you to try these. They also make a good baby gift.

1 roll of Bounty or Viva papertowels cut in half. (Viva is better)
2T baby soap or baby shampoo
2T baby oil
1 1/2 C. water

Put half of the papertowels in a container with a tight lid. Save the other half for next time. Mix the water, oil, and soap together and pour over the paper towels. Close the lid and let sit a little while. When you're ready to use them just pull out the cardboard tube and pull wipes from the middle.

Cutting the paper towels is the hard part. You need a good sharp knife. The hand saw doesn't work. I like to get the hard part over with and cut 2 or three rolls at a time. This also enables my kids to make wipes since the rolls are already cut.

My New Dessert

Here's what I made for the party tonight. I made two so my kiddos could enjoy it too. We'll have it tomorrow for tea. Since you make it in a 9x13 it goes a lot farther than a traditional pie-type cheescake.

Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake

Crust:
1C graham cracker crumbs
3T sugar
3T butter melted

Filling:
5 pkg crm cheese
1C sugar
3T flour
1T vanilla
1C sour crm
4 eggs
1/3 C strawberry jam

Preheat oven to 325. Mix crust and press into 9x13. Bake for 10 minutes.
Beat crm cheese, sugar, flour, and vanilla until well blended. Add sour crm and mix well. Add eggs one at a time and beat after each addition until well blended. Pour over crust. Microwave jam for 30 seconds. Drop by spoonful over filling and swirl with a knife. Bake 40 minutes until center is almost set. Refrigerate 4 hours.

It is a very pretty Christmas dish with the red swirl effect. It was one of the only homemade desserts on the table. Most everything else had the store bought plastic bubble over it. Doesn't anybody cook anymore?

The party was a great time. (Thank you Honey for inviting me!) I was WAY over dressed. Oh well, Honey kept telling me how beautiful I was. What else matters?

Update to the New Washer and Dryer

I am posting the picture for the missus.....

Here's part of the group with the new appliances. I am thinking of cancelling our DishTV subscription. This is by far WAY more entertaining.

tonight

Honey has his company Christmas dinner tonight. In 11 years he's never wanted to go. This year he changed his mind. So he asks me to be his date in such a sweet, romantic, almost formal sort of way. Of course I accepted.

I ask him what I should wear. Of course he doesn't know. He's just going to wear the same clothes he wore to work. That usually means jeans. That doesn't help me any. For some reason I think it's a big dress up affair. That still wouldn't matter to him. He'd still wear the same thing he was already planning. It's so much easier for men.

I don't like to dress up...especially when I'm pregnant. I had nothing to wear. So I prayed about it and found this BEAUTIFUL dress for only $25!! It's so pretty it almost makes me enjoy dressing up. It's sort of fancy and flowy and so pretty. My girls fell in love with it.

I keep asking him who's going. He doesn't know. Really I just want him to know so he can ask someone else what to wear. No help though.

This morning he just asked me if I can bring a dessert. What? It's a POTLUCK? No, he says, we just need to bring something. Now I'm thinking this dinner is more casual than I thought. I think I'll be overdressed and everyone else will be in their jeans.

He says, "Don't worry about it. You'll be beautiful." He'd say that no matter what I wore. I have no idea what to expect! Oh well, I'll just be happy to be out with my handsome Honey.

Shepherds

If I could've been anyone the night that Jesus was born I would like to have been a shepherd. There they are going about their usual business of tending sheep when something so extraordinary happens that they'd never forget it. Just a regular day of regular work until...."an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified." Wow. I can't even imagine what that must of been like.

Every time an angel appears to someone in the Bible it is followed by words like "they were terrified" or "do not be afraid". To see an angel has to be a most amazing thing. They aren't those cute chubby little baby things with tiny wings or pretty ladies dressed in flowing gowns....that's nothing to be afraid of. But mighty warriors and messengers of the Lord that are truly something awesome and scary to behold!

So they say, "Don't be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people." Gospel means good news. The shepherds were the first to hear anyone proclaim that the Word was made flesh. What good news! And oh yes, what great joy indeed.

So not just one angel but a whole host appeared praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." (!) What a show that must have been. It gives me chills to think about it. We have a little children's book in which the illustrator draws the angel in front of the shepherds. The angel is a figure of amazing bright light and the shepherds are teeny tiny in comparison. That's sort of what I imagine them to be.

They hurry off to find Jesus and are among the first the welcome him. And after seeing what they saw, how could they just welcome Him into the world without welcoming Him into their hearts as well? I doubt they wrestled with the common thought of today about the Lord.

After they see Him they go off and tell everyone they see about their night. And when everyone hears it, they are amazed. I wonder if they wanted to hurry off to go find him too. There were no inhibitions, no fear of men wondering what they would think. They were so in awe of what just happened to them that they could not help telling everyone they saw. Here's one of my favorite parts. "The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God..."

That is how I want to be after celebrating Christmas. I want that renewed hope and joy that comes from meeting my Savior just as the shepherds did. I want a lasting spirit that glorifies and praises God as I go about my own usual business. There is no gift that could ever compare to that.

My guess is that they didn't sleep much that night. If I were them, I would constantly be thinking, "why me?" Just a shepherd going about my work, nothing amazing, and God chose to tell me first. What a precious and humbling thought. Maybe someday in heaven I can ask them about it.

A Clean Cookbook

Yesterday I cleaned out my recipe book. Basically it's just a 3 ring notebook with tabbed dividers that holds all my favorite recipes. Whenever I try a new recipe out a cookbook, newspaper, whatever, and it is a success I copy it down in my recipe book. It saves me time b/c I never have to remember which cookbook a recipe is in. It's always in my big notebook.

My notebook needed some work. Some of the dividers were broken. Some recipes weren't in page protectors. Some recipes were stuck in the pockets to try later. I cleaned it all up yesterday and fixed and reorganized the whole thing. I added two new tabs, one labeled "favorites" to put all those recipes in that we reach for time and time again and one labeled "to try later" so I didn't need to stuff those in the pockets anymore.

The whole thing took about ten minutes. It was one of those nagging little things that I've wanted to do but didn't get around to it. Not a big deal but it feels good to be done with it.

I think I'm going to start a book for each of my big kids of all their favorite recipes and the ones they like to cook themselves. I'm glad my printer makes copies.

We're having company for dinner tomorrow night. I'm looking forward to trying out all sorts of new recipes on them! Honey says that's dangerous.

Baby slings

I'm baby sling shopping online. Baby Girl loves to be in the kitchen with me while I cook. With the ring sling I have now I can not put her on my back. She can only ride in the front or on my hip. Well since she likes to help that won't work. She wants to grab everything. We have a baby backpack but that's too bulky. I'm looking at the Didymos wraps.

If you have ever used one or have one for sale (size 6), e-mail me. I'd love to buy a used one b/c they are so expensive.

On another note..we did all the laundry yesterday and there was none left for today. The kids were actually disappointed! #1 did wash her new jacket on the hand wash cycle and it came out perfectly.

When we went to mom's, she had a bunch of clothes that someone had given her to give to me. It was someone that I don't even know. Isn't that neat? The girls picked out quite a few things, including the new jacket. I'm always glad for #1. Being first born she doesn't have the hand-me-downs like her sisters do. I like for her to see how the Lord provides for her. When we pulled out winter clothes this year she had everything except jeans. We went to Thrift Town and bought 5 pairs for $25. We were both thrilled. They were expensive jeans and looked brand new. Today a friend came by and brought little girl clothes for LB. I can't wait to show them to her. She will especially be crazy about the sweater with the feather zipper pull.

Isn't the Lord good? I was thinking on these things today and so thankful for my new appliances and clothes. Something else came to mind. #1 had a party to go to today across town. 2 friends offered to take her and bring her home and I don't even have to get out today. Not a big thing...but something that is very helpful and much appreciated. It gave me time to put the gingerbread house together with the kids and help them plant their new bean plants (with a special message printed on a bean!). I'll ask Honey to post those pics later.

It's a beautiful day and my kids are outside playing. #1 started dinner before she left and there's no laundry to do. I think I'll take a nap......

It's here!

Our new washer and dryer are here! They are fantastic! We decided to go ahead and get the dryer too. Funny thing is that it was working ok, slow but still ok, until Honey left to buy the new one. Then it started acting up too! I think I actually like the dryer best. My old one took a long time, then overdryed the clothes. This one has sensors and the clothes have come out just right in only 30 minutes. It's actually faster than the washer.

They are front loaders with the window in the front. The first load was a big show. We all crowded in the laundry room to watch it work. It spins so fast that you can't even see it. It was fun. I'll see if I can post the picture.

This is funny. We just got home from TX so I haven't done laundry in about 3 days. I have so much today that I can separate it by individual colors. So in addition to whites and towels, I can do greens, purples, reds, blues, and so forth. My new washer and dryer come tomorrow. Too bad there's so much today instead of tomorrow.

We had a fun time in TX visiting my mom, dad, and grandmother. My grandmother looks younger every time I see her. It's amazing! She just had her eyebrows and lips tattooed. Can you believe it? Grandmothers getting tattoos! I'm glad for her though. She had breast cancer when she was young and her eyebrows were something that never grew back. Before the tattoo, she had to pencil them on everyday.

My dad has a guest house that had plenty of room for all of us. That made everything so much easier. Baby Girl even endured the long drives with quiet noises. Wonder of wonders! She had an older sibling on each side of her to cater to her every whim. And the most amazing thing of all is that we made the whole drive down there with no stops and only one bathroom stop on the way home.

We hadn't been there around Christmas time in a long time. It was good to be there. Now it's good to be home. No more trips for awhile. Just home for Christmas, New Years, 5 birthdays, Valentine's Day, then BABY!!

Who's that?

My 10yo son had a writing project where he had to retell a familiar story in his own words. He couldn't think of what story to use. I suggested Goldie Locks and the 3 Bears. He stood there for a minute with a blank look on his face, then said "Well, I'll go ask LB who that is." On his way out he turned back and asked "Golden who?"

While cleaning up the cookie cutters yesterday we ran across a Mickey Mouse toast stamp. He asked what it was so #1 was telling him how we could use it to put a picture of Mickey Mouse on the little boys' sandwich. He didn't quite get it and asked "Why would someone want Super Mouse on their sandwich?"

Super Mouse? Golden, who? Doesn't everybody know who they are? I guess that is one of those "gaps" in homeschooling that I hear about.

Making Cookies

Instead of our regular tea time today, I set out lots of sprinkles, icing, and cookie cutters. What a great time they had! The older kids helped their little buddies and the result was a bunch of cute cookies. I remember doing this with my mom at Christmas time when I was little. Whenever we dropped something, our dog Gypsie would quickly lick up the mess. I remember wondering how people would ever clean up such a mess if they didn't have a dog. Somehow the kids cleaned up our big mess even though Joey was outside!

We're Getting A New Washer!

You should hear this horrible loud noise it is making. You can't even talk in the kitchen when it is running unless you close the door! Just when I thought it couldn't get louder...it did. Today it sounded like it was going to just bang itself through the floor.

We've been looking but haven't decided yet. The new ones are neat. They use so little water and hold so much. They even use less soap. We're trying to find the one that holds the most and lasts the longest. Our washer does about 20-25 loads of laundry a week so it has to be a heavy duty one! Ours is about 18 yrs old. That's pretty good I think. I hope the new one lasts that long.

Honey came in tonight while it was running it's last load of the day. He said that the time has come. I guess we'll do some shopping this week......