Charleston Vs. Booneville

Friday was our big game against Booneville.  The weather was supposed to be rainy and in fact, it had been raining all week.  So when I had the kids reserve our seats I had them also cover it with plastic trash bags.  

The game started at 7.  Gates opened at 5:15.  And even though I had our seats reserved, I decided it was a good idea to get there shortly after the gates opened.  

I was armed with a new Tiger shirt thanks to my mom and my sparkly tiger paw earrings.  BUT as we were pulling out of the driveway I remembered I forgot my earrings!  And I just decided to risk it and go anyway.  

Now there is nothing I love more than a great Tiger football game.  But great in my opinion means that you score in the first 5 minutes and continue that trajectory and mercy rule the game.

That's not how it went.  

We scored right away.  Good start.  But then it went south from there.  Incomplete pass after incomplete pass and we were losing at the half.  We caught up in the 3rd quarter (whew!) and it pretty much stayed like that for most of the ball game.  

Finally FINALLY we scored with about 3 minutes left in the game.  And OH the relief!  But 2 1/2 minutes in a final play off game is forever.  Anything can happen.  

But we squeaked by with a 21-14 victory!!!   Which is a good thing since my forgotten earrings would've made me personally responsible for the loss.  

So Friday night we are headed to Little Rock AGAIN!!  And we couldn't be more happy.  

My Christmas Reading List

I finished all my other books just in time for Christmas reading!

Here's my list this year.....

First this.


I read it every year.  It has short readings and puts a very practical spin on Christmas worship.  Sometimes I start this early just to put me in the Christmas spirit.

I love me a good Max book. 

This one isn't exactly "Christmas" but it's very much Jesus. I'm half way through and I look forward to digging into it every chance I get.

I've read A Christmas Carol lots of times and I absolutely love it.  Dickens is wonderful.  I've never read this collection of Christmas stories.  

I adore this very old book.  I hit a garage sale many years ago and found this beautiful collection of all Dickens.  Very old.  Not cared for.  Dirty with cocoons even!  Obviously stuck in some body's attic and forgotten about for years.  I got the whole set for $25.  There are 25 books in all and I consider them a treasure.  I'm looking forward to starting this in a couple of days. 

This is our Advent book we've been doing for over 20 years.  

When you open it up, there are 24 little books inside.  You read one every night and then hang them on the tree with the gold thread.  It would be considered historical fiction as some of the little books have a lot of artistic license thrown in. However, it's a good little tale of Jesus and we just talk about the real parts and also the parts that might be added in.   Think Veggie Tales.  

Now this has nothing to do with anything.  I got it at Aldi for $.99 and it's just fun. 

It has 24 tiny doors with a chocolate behind each one.  No story.  No words.  Just fun!
We have loved it all.  It's already December 5 and I feel like the month is flying by.  We are going to miss Christmas and I'm trying to squeeze every bit of fun out of it that I can!

Menuing This Week

It's been awhile since we talked food hasn't it?  

Winter is my favorite cooking season because there are no restrictions.  You can eat cold food or hot food.  No worries about using the oven and heating up the kitchen.  You can use the oven, the crock pots, and the microwave all at the same time if you want.  Freedom!!

I just planned out our menu for the next 2 weeks.  I do it twice a month because that's when my husband gets paid.  I do 2 big grocery trips a month and just pick up little things in between.  

This yellow folder holds all the recipes I need to make for 2 weeks.  It's all in one place and I don't have to figure out which cookbook, website, Pinterest pin, or newspaper cut out I'm looking for.  

So first, I have to empty the last recipes I used and file them back into the cookbooks.  My cookbooks are the 3 ring binders on the table. 

I make a big mess on the table and the whole thing takes about 30 minutes or so from start to finish.  

But that 30 minutes saves me a bunch of time during the week.  

Next I get a blank piece of paper for my "think sheet".  

I look at my calendar for the upcoming weeks to see what special events are coming up that will require special foods or different planning.  

As you can see, I divide this up into 4 sections.  

Dinners:  How many regular dinners will I need to make?

Saturdays: If we have busy Saturdays (depending on what ball season it is) I plan simple dinners.

If we have Saturdays at home, I can plan more complicated stuff.  

Dates: Date night every week.  Special food + kid friendly fun food

Others: Extra stuff I'll make for snacks,  

Then I get busy deciding what goes where.  Every week we have pizza so that is 2 dinner slots.  Pizza night coordinates with whatever day I need to make bread for the week.  I use the dough to make 3 large pizzas and 3 loaves of bread.  

My parents gave us a deer (thanks Dad and Nana!) so I'm planning a lot of recipes around that.  

Sometimes I take special requests.  Usually not.  

I don't plan breakfast, lunch, or regular snacks.  Breakfast is oatmeal, granola, or muffins.  Lunch is leftovers or soup or beans.  Snacks is usually fruit, cheese, peanut butter crackers, or homemade something from the oven,

I have a master grocery list that I keep by my think sheet to circle whatever I am going to need for each dinner.  

Then all the recipes go into the yellow folder and I'm all set for 2 weeks of not thinking about it again! 

I love reading over every body's weekly menus so here's mine for 2 weeks....

Dinners - 

pizza (x2) 

TG dinner after Thanksgiving

Tuna Melts with veggies and dip

Taco Salads

Baked Ziti with salad and garlic bread

Molly's chicken with mashed potatoes, salad

Sloppy joes with potato salad

Fried Rice

Hobos with salad

Saturdays -

Baked Potato Casserole with summer salad and peas

Cheesy Beefy Rice casserole with broccoli

Dates - 

Steak and fries

Worcestershire chicken, fries, broccoli 

Others - 

pumpkin bread

blueberry muffins

cheese ball and crackers

candied pecans

coconut bars

protein bars

bean dip 

Playing With Her Boys

Please excuse the crummy iPhone pix with a pitiful photographer and just use your imagination.... 

See the little girl in the aqua blue shirt?  And though you can't really see her, I can assure you she is ADORABLE! 

 My sweet Mallory.

She's a feisty sweetheart born in the middle of a bunch of boys.  And while the boys love their sister, sometimes I worry that there isn't much common ground.  They play sports.  She reads and plays Barbies.  They burp and fart and laugh.  She rolls her pretty brown eyes and goes to look for her kitty.   

But lately I've noticed the boys going out of their way to include her.... and her being willing to play. 

She runs in to tell me how many touchdowns she scored and the "amazing interception". 

And when I looked out to see her playing Monkey In The Middle with Dad and the boys,  my heart just smiled all over. 

Our Texas Trip Part 2

Remember I said the boys were all about catching things and killing stuff at Nana's?  Here's what I'm talking about....

And I'm thinking this might be my new favorite picture of all time.  Somebody on FB commented that she loved this picture and everything it represents.  I get it.  Me too.  There is so much of God's goodness displayed in this one picture.

Did you see Lady underneath?  She's not to be left out of anything that goes on at her farm.  

That smile! 

This guy is a serious fisherman.  He fishes almost every day.  

BEAST!

Ever since hunting season opened Joshua's been coming home from football telling me about his friends that are hunting.  And OH!  how he wanted to go!!  

This was his chance.  He went hunting the first morning with Nana but they didn't get anything.  The next morning he went hunting with Grandpa and came home with  THIS...

So happy!!  Grandpa was the one who actually shot it but Joshua was excited to be part of the experience for the first time.  He also got to shoot one of Grandpa's big guns.  

He is still smiling. 

Isn't my dad's place pretty? 

And the camper was the icing on the cake. 

Last night was the first night that they didn't sleep in it since we got it.  And that's only because their dad said it was time to pack it up.  

Back at home the big kids were studying, cleaning, and watching movies at the other grandma's.  They still had no idea about the camper and the younger kids thought it was fun to know something they didn't.  

We came home to a big dinner in the works, a spotless house, and happy kids with a big new toy. 

Thank you to my family for such a great time! I can't wait until Christmas!!

Our Texas Trip Part 1

So y'all.

We have had a fantastic vacation week.  I can't even tell you.  But I will try.

First of all, we bought an AWESOME camper on Craigslist!!
Merry Christmas to us!!

We've had a dream of taking our kids camping again.  We used to camp quite a bit with our pop-up camper and little kids.  At first it was a blast.  

But then. 

God blessed our family with lots of babies at the same time.  Camping vacation turned into a ton of work trying to keep the babies from eating rocks and falling into the fire.  It was too hard and we decided it wasn't the right season for camping.  We sold the camper and raised our babies without campfire dangers.  

And now.  

Our babies are big.  And the season is right.  We found a camper in Texas that looked promising and it was an hour from my parents'.  Perfect!  And even though it was an early present, we wanted there to be an element of surprise.  So we secretly packed up the kids' stuff for a couple of days and covered it all with blankets in the back of the van.  

We told them we were going to do something fun but they couldn't ask questions.  

Our older kids were hugely helpful with this and even packed some good entertainment for the road. They weren't able to go because of school/work and we only told them we were visiting G'ma/G'pa.  They knew nothing of the camper.  

We hit the road early and gave them clever clues every 30 minutes.  They started to catch on when we crossed the TX border.  But when we pulled into a stranger's drive way, they knew there was more to the trip than a grandparents visit.  

The camper was just as it was described in the listing.  Just what we were looking for!  We paid the man, packed it up, and headed to see our family.  We told the kids everything and they were super excited.   

Texas is always a good time.  Mike and the boys slept in the camper at Grandpa's while Mallory and I stayed at Grandma's.  And because there is so much to show and tell, this post will focus on the visit at Grandma's....

Lots of western shows with PawPaw.

Visting with Grandma and Aunt Jodie

Snuggles with Great Grandma

At one point, we made a trip to Dollar General.  After looking through the sales, we headed to the toys. Grandmother and I pushed all the buttons of the noisy toys like we used to do when I was little.  I tell you, this lady will NOT act her age! ;)  She's a lot of fun to shop with.

But when she wanted to buy the dancing reindeer that sang about a cold beer, I had to put my foot down.

Meanwhile at Grandpa and Nana's, the boys were catching stuff and killing stuff and breaking in the camper.  Stay tuned for the details.....

On A Thursday

So I woke up this morning so full of hope because the temperature was supposed to be above 50 degrees outside.  And after a week of the super freeze, 50 sounded like weather that would be glorious.  Also, I did not have to take anybody to school or work until 10:00 so that also meant I could stay in my pajamas a little bit longer.  It's the little things. 

For the past 3 weeks my 5 younger kids have been studying for a spelling bee.  A real live spelling bee that has competition and a prize attached to it.  But it's not only spelling, but definitions too.  And now we are down to the last day.  The spelling bee is TOMORROW!  So I narrowed school down to math, Bible, and spelling.  And then more spelling.  And when you're done with all that, go quiz your brother on his spelling and then study your spelling words a couple more times.  I'm just a teeny bit nervous. 

After I took Lane to work and checked math and gave some spelling quizzes and pulled out a pot of soup that nobody likes and they refuse to eat, I took Joshua to our church's noonday service.  That sounds all fancy but it's not.  It's more like a middle of the week Bible study with friends and a big lunch.  It's something we look forward to all week and a privilege of being COW. 

After lunch, I dropped Joshua off at football and swung by Dana's garage sale only to find that she wasn't there.  So I helped myself to her green candlesticks and left her a text.  Meanwhile, back at home, my kids were working on their extra chore and hoping that someone would accidentally knock that pot of soup into the sink.  By accident of course. 

I got supper started (creamy chicken and rice) and folded 3 loads of laundry while chatting with my sister-in-law.  We covered all sorts of topics including Christmas presents, Dad's health, our son's cars, her sick puppy, and who I need to vote for in the upcoming election.  I was able to squeeze all that in before Josh came home from football and we had to make the trek into town for his ortho appt. 

And you know what?  He gets his braces off in TWO WEEKS!!! 
That is all kinds of exciting. 

Nate came with us because he wanted to do some Christmas shopping and he actually knew what he wanted to buy and had money in hand.  Bonus!   But first we pulled into Savers because Joshua needed football pants, and Nate and Z needed winter pants too.  11 pair for $36.  Plus the entire trip took 15 minutes included the time in the dressing room.  15 minutes.  Because boys are all about getting it done when it comes to shopping.  

We made it home before dark.  Dinner ready.  And all my people home except Lane who was (and still is) at work.  We ended the day with boys playing xbox football with their dad while I played and lost an exciting game of Clue to Mally and Zeke.  Then I read a chapter of their Thanksgiving book before bed.  And just when I thought they were not paying attention, Mally set the record straight by telling me they were not called Pilgrims.  They were actually 2 groups and they called themselves Strangers and Separatists. 

So I actually ended my day with a 2nd grade history lesson.

A Heavy Heart

I woke up this morning to read about the Jewish worshipers who were killed in the Jerusalem synagogue.

Oh Lord Jesus!  Please come quickly!!

The last thing on my mind on a Sunday morning is whether or not I will be gunned down in church.  I live in a country where I don't have to worry about such things.  I have unlimited freedom in almost every area of my life.

And yet, I take it for granted every. single. day.

I have ease and comfort on every side and more free time than any generation before me.  And I'm squandering it.   I spend my time being mad at stupid stuff, setting worthless junk before my eyes, serving myself, saying mean things, and not loving God's people like I should.

I am part of the over-fed, unconcerned, North American white church that is filling itself up with self love, tearing down our own pastors, and delighting in airing our opinions on Facebook instead of loving each other and seeking the face of God.  And while we fight over worship styles, carpet colors, and money, Muslims are taking over the world while we watch people race into hell.

My mind is full.  And sad.  And I'm looking for change.

Instead, I should take full advantage of all this time and convenience and freedom to work out my own salvation with fear and trembling.  Living a holier life, studying, praying, and loving His people.

And while I certainly can't change the world, I can do better in my own house.  In my own life, in my kids' lives, and (Lord willing) in other kids' lives soon too.  I want to set an example and teach my children to guard their eyes, NOT celebrate evil, learn to forgive and love, and share our faith openly.

Today I've been praying for Israel, for America, and for my own little piece of the earth.   There is a day of judgement approaching.  This won't go on forever.  And I want to be found to be an approved workman that is not ashamed.  

Billy Graham says, "Where there is life, there is hope.  The Spirit of God is knocking faithfully at the door.  If we repent, mend our ways, throw off our sins, we can yet be used of God to bring healing and help to a dying civilization."

Snow flakes

It's freezing outside!  So I decided to pull out a Christmas craft I saw on Pinterest. 

We planned to do this while Nana was here but we ran out of time.  And today turned out to be perfect for hot chocolate, movies, and snow flake craft. 

  

 

Working so hard!

 

 Glue

 

 

 Glitter

 

 

Popsicle sticks and lots of sparkly

 

Ta Da!!

 

Our tree will be extra fancy this year!

6 Good Things

#1.  Seeing my bees warm makes me happy.  I am planning to go one bale higher on each side and squeeze one in the front.  At $5/bale this would not be affordable for a big apiary unless you did your own hay, but for me this year....I'm loving it.

#2.  We went shoebox shopping with Meg. Then some shopping around town.

We hit the big Savers sale but guess what I got?  Pretty much nothing.  And it's all because every single thing I picked up was vetoed by the girls...

No Mom, you can't wear that. 

Put that back Mom. 

That looks like something a witch would wear. 

That looks like banana pudding. 

Ummm No mom.  

Who invited them anyway!?  :-) 

But I saw these hilarious pictures.   My grandmother used to have these when I was little.  I guess they were popular back in the day.  But now....who would ever?!  

#3.  We had some marshmallows in the freezer left over from the summer.  I bought some rice crispies and made rice crispie treats.  My kids said I was their favorite mother.  

#4. Cold days = a little more xbox time.

#5.  Cheap shaving cream makes bath time perfect.  And makes for a nice smelling bathroom too! 

#6.  Nana came!!  And we had the best time shopping, eating, talking, watching movies, and just being together.  She let Josh drive her car and he is still smiling! 

Bee News

I just got home from our monthly bee club meeting and I WON!!!

2 TIMES EVEN!!!

There used to be a 50/50 split with money.  And that was fun.  But now it's changed to a free drawing and a few experienced bee keepers will donate prizes.  Tonight the prizes included candy blocks (for feeding) and inserts made from that peg board wood for closing off screened bottom boards.

I WON BOTH!!
And in case you couldn't tell, I'm just tickled to death.

In the interest of full disclosure I should mention that I only won one of those things.  But Mr. Hardin gave Zeke his ticket because he is awesome that way and Zekey won the second one.  Z was so excited that he was quite the show and everyone had fun watching him.

I've already installed my bottom board insert.  Like as soon as I got home in the dark.  Also, someone gave me their mouse guards that they didn't need.  Happy!

My bees are looking good.  This will be my 2nd winter and rumor has it that it will be a hard and cold winter.  Tonight we learned some good tips for winterizing hives.  I needed that.

Both hives appear to have plenty of honey for awhile.  But this winter I plan on checking them any day that the temp gets above 55.

I learned a lot of different things that I didn't need to know last year.  I split a hive and caught a swarm.  Both of those are pretty huge.  Mr. Hardin also taught us how to build frames.  But I also learned some preferences that are working for me. Last year, as a brand new bee keeper, I just muddled through the best I could and learned as much as possible.  This year I've figured out what is working better and the things my bees seem to like.

1. They do not like upper entrance queen excluders.  This prevented them from making as much honey.

2. Starting in early March they need to be checked a LOT for queen cells.

3.  Double brood chambers mean lots of bees.  Lots of bees mean I can afford more die off in the winter.

4.  Hive beetles are an issue that I need to figure out.  Keep the grass super short and make sure those hives are in the sun.

5.  Using wood chips in my smoker keeps my smoker going longer than pine needles.

I love my bees!

10 Things That Make Me Smile

1. Taking Mally to Dollar General just for fun.  And it was fun.  She talked through each aisle and exclaimed over every little thing that I would've never noticed. 

2.  The whole reason she wanted to go was to get Damon a birthday card.  We recently learned that she and Damon share a birthday.  Mally has the unique gift of picking out perfect little presents for people.  When she learned they shared a birthday then she pulled out some money to buy him a card.  Her thoughtfulness makes me smile. 

3.  Little boys that are having a blast playing with shaving cream that I bought them at Dollar General.  My bathtub will smell so good when they are done.  In the meantime, they are laughing it up and having the greatest time. 

4.  A new keyboard that LB's boss gave us when he cleaned out his garage.  Now we might not have to take ours back and forth to church every Sunday and Wednesday. 

5.  Jes's piano playing. 

6.  Josh giving him a sincere compliment on his piano playing at the last youth service. 

7.  2 surprise checks totally almost $30 that Josh received as "add on and premium" from showing chickens at the fair.  A fair lady texted and told me they'd be waiting at the court house.  Don't even ask me what that means or why he got them.  And just to show you how confusing the fair stuff is, when I texted my man to tell him about them he said "Did they say checks or chicks?"  And then I had to think about it and read it again because I had no idea what they were talking about.  I still don't.  But my boys is happy with his money and will be able to start helping financially with his chicken feed. 

8.  Also his chickens are laying enough that he can start selling a few eggs. 

9. Our van is fixed! And it wasn't nearly as bad as originally predicted. 

10.  It's Friday! 

Hope you have a great weekend!! 

Some Of This And Some Of That

Part of my sporadic blogging has been because school has been so busy.  We've added new things and it's been a good semester but GOODNESS with all the work already!   Yesterday was easier, not because the work load has decreased but because I tried some new organizational tricks.  What this means is that I have the time, and most importantly, the energy to do something besides nap in the afternoon.  Hello messy kitchen drawer....I'm looking at you.  And now I can even blog a little bit more too. 

I just set that up as if I had something very important to tell you that I've been waiting forever to finally put out there.  But you will see that's not the case.  I will just bore you with another post of phone pix......

 First of all.  I'm officially old.  The reading glasses says it all.
 

 

 The Tower Of Babel with math manipulatives.  Because it's more fun to do that than math.
 

My kitchen window sill.  On the left, pumpkin sprouts growing from the pumpkin. 
This was a Pinterest thing.  It's been fun to watch it grow but the pumpkin part is starting to rot so it'll be on its way to the horse pasture soon.  The middle one is my attempt to grow lettuce in a bowl of water.  And the right is a cactus that Lane bought for me that should bloom again sometime soon. 

My husband made some comment about me killing everything I try to grow.  But I feel that is entirely unfair considering I haven't killed a single one of his kids yet. 

Now I'll leave you with this text from Meg.  It still makes me laugh....
 

 

Have We Really Not Talked About Football All Season?

Where Have I Been???!!!

 

I woke up with a determination this morning to catch up on some blogging.  It's been way too long because.....

 

1.  Football

2.  School

3.  The rest of life that happens in between those things.

 

So let's discuss some football, shall we?  Last week was HUGE for jr.high/sr.high football. 

Our neighboring town, Booneville, is a 3A school this year which meant we got to play them for the first time in something like 17 years. 

 

Both Booneville and Charleston were undefeated in junior high AND senior high.  So yeah, it was a big deal.

 

The junior high game was in Booneville and my friend Mr. H came to sit with me and cheer on that good looking kicker of mine. 

 

 

I love this picture.  This is my favorite angle.

 

 

But I really LOVE this picture.  An extra point attempt out of the hold of Mason. 

 

 

Our boys played a hard game but just couldn't pull off a win against the Bearcats.   And this picture is precious.  Praying after the game with coaches and team mates.  I tell you Charleston has the BEST coaching staff and I'm thrilled that 3 of my boys will benefit from that next year. 

 

 

The next morning the kids all got a text from their coach telling them that God gave them a new day , that he (Coach S.) loved them, and he would see them at school.  Have I mentioned how awesome these coaches are? 

 

And here's a picture of one of my favorite ball boys.  He and Jes had a lot of fun doing this for their brother's team. 

 

 

And then it was Friday night. 

You gotta love a town that postpones trick-or-treating festivities for a high school football game.

 

Both teams undefeated.  Big pep rally.  Super excited town. 

 

And after last season, I never thought I'd miss a Tiger game.   But I'm ashamed to say I didn't make one single game at all.  NOT ONE.  And I blame it all on little league football because it's CRAZY!! 

It has killed most of our family time this whole football season and so we soak up our Friday nights at home. 

 

And we actually thought about missing this one too except somebody asked my man to go special to take pictures, Christian said he COULD NOT miss this, and Mr. Storey let our kids in for free. 

 

So we made a last minute decision (meaning 3:00) and I called my teenagers to hurry to the field to tape down our blankets on the seats to reserve our spot.  The stands were full of blankets that were put down days before.  Even Booneville's fans drove up to reserve their seats in advance.  And of course my favorite spot that's half way up on the 50 was long gone.  The best they could do was the first row on the 50 which was plenty good enough at times like this. 

 

I also had Lane drive up an hour and a half early to wait on our seats because OF COURSE!!  And even then she had to park at the library because everything was full. 

By kick-off time the entire stadium was surrounded.  There was not even standing room!  And our 50/50 split had an all-time high of over $1000 that was won by a Booneville fan.  Meaning it was not me. 

Now I've kinda wondered all season if I would really enjoy the game the same way since I didn't have a son on the field.  And ....well, it wasn't the same.  But it was still the most fun I've had in a long time.  Love me some Tiger football!!

Well I'm happy to say that our big boys did awesome and are STILL undefeated.  Looks like another state championship in the future and I don't plan to miss it!