Giving Thanks Challenge - Traditions

2010 Hand Turkey

Traditions are odd things as you can never predict at the beginning of your family what your traditions are going to be.  The majority of traditions we have in our family are not things that we set out to make into traditions.  A lot of our traditions have evolved from the kids really having a good time at something and them wanting to do it again the next time the occasion arises.  One of our traditions I am so thankful we started is that the kids make a hand cut out turkey each and every year.  Once we had done this a couple of years we realized that it was cool way to keep track of how the kids hands grow every year.  This is the first year that we are unable to tell the difference between Spark and Dancers hands as they are so close in size.  We have all the years hanging on the wall in the hallway to our bedrooms so we can enjoy them all year long.

Homeschool Blog Awards

We are extremely flattered by person who nominated our blog for a Homeschool Blog Award under the catagory of Best Crafts, Plans and Projects Blog.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

A link to the site is on our side bar.

Giving Thanks Challenge - Homeschooling

Homeschooling became legal in our state in 1987.  It would be 10 more years until that meant anything to us and another five years until we would be affected by this law.  We are thankful for all the people who fought hard for this right so that now we just fill out a paper every year and we are good to go. 

We do not, however, take the right to homeschool lightly.  We are thankful every year that we are able to keep homeschooling.  We are very aware that many in legislative roles do not support homeschooling and would like to see every child sitting in a public school desk at the start of each day.  We hear, every now and then, about attempts to change these laws making us worry that our years may be numbered.  These rumblings remind  us to be thankful for those who are out there keeping watch and fighting for the rights of homeschoolers, such as the HSLDA and parents who are still being challenged about their homeschooling decisions in various cases.     

You have to be patient to homeschool

While I was waiting for the kids to get done with their Awana classes tonight I was talking to another mom and she asked if the kids went to school in that town.  No, they don't, I told her, and for some stupid reason I added that we homeschool.  As soon as the words were out of my mouth I thought, what are you saying, you know this never turns out well.  

Right away she says, "I could never homeschool, I wouldn't have the patience for it."  When in the world did homeschool parents corner the market on patience?  Today was one of those school days where I could have used a little, okay a lot, more patience and so it wasn't the best time for someone to say that to me.  But I smiled nicely and said, "Some days I don't either."  Dad was with and he smiled nicely and said that today was one of "those days."

I hope I didn't burst her bubble about homeschool parents.

Giving Thanks Challenge - Kleenex

I am cheap.  I usually say frugal because it sounds so much nicer but really I am cheap.  I don't pay for things with extra frills if something cheaper can do the same job.  Because of my cheapness we use toilet paper for tissues - Kleenex is brand so I won't use that when talking about the toilet paper tissues for legal reasons. 

In the car though we carry a box of Kleenex.  I may be cheap but I don't want to look like a redneck in public by having people look in our car and see rolls of half used t.p.  I can see them thinking we probably stop by a bush instead of finding the nearest bathroom when nature calls.  To set the record straight - we don't. 

This week Dancer and I have been suffering from a horrible, no good, very bad cold.  Toilet paper is hard on the nose.  Very hard on the nose.  It intensifies our suffering.  I broke down and brought the box of Kleenex from the car tonight.  Our noses are thankful for soft Kleenex.  With only three fourths of a box I fear we are going to be thankful for only a short time.

I am thankful for cold medicine as well but poor Dancer can not take cold medicine because it is loaded with food coloring.  Why, why, why do they put coloring in medicine?!!!!  Does it make it taste better?  No.   Look better?  No, and when I am suffering I don't really have an opinion on the color I just want it to work.  She takes Calc. Sulph 6X which is a homeopathic that works, but it doesn't knock you out so you can sleep like Nyquil does.

I am really going to be thankful when our colds are gone.

Giving Thanks Challenge - Warm weather

The temps here have just been heavenly.  The last couple of days have been in the 60's and the nights in the 30's.  This equates into a huge blessing for us because everyday it is nice out the furnace doesn't run and we save on fuel oil that is $2.66 a gallon as of Friday.  As the winter goes on, the price keeps climbing, so we want to buy the whole winters worth now.  It has been a challenge to figure out how we are going to pay for several hundred gallons all at one time.  It will probably be a credit card.

Giving Thanks Challenge - Parents

Dad and I are both thankful for our parents, but even more so that we both still have two parents.  We have lots of friends who have lost one or both of their parents.  This was the case in my family.  My moms parents both died while she was a teenager and my dad's dad died when I was so little I don't remember him.  In Dad's family, this is sort of odd, he had a grandpa die on his fifth birthday and a grandma die on our wedding day.  Of all the days in the year and two of them mark a joyous occasion and a sad occasion.   His last grandma just died last year when his mom was 69 years old.  Not that I expect us to still have parents when we are 69, mine would be 109 years old, but we are thankful for everyday that we have them.

We are also thankful that we got to see three of them this weekend. 

Giving Thanks Challenge - Volunteers

There are lots of volunteers in our life and we are thankful for each and every one of them.  Some of them are very visible and others are not. 

Our 4-H club has two leaders.  A key leader and then the leader that plans the crafts, parties etc.  The leader that does the fun planning is wonderful at it and hears thank you quite often.  The key leader goes to county meetings, fills out piles of paper work, makes sure everyone has their applications etc. in on time, makes the agenda for the meeting and loads of other behind the scenes work that no one sees.  She probably doesn't hear thank you very often.  Lots of parents also step up and fill in when needed at the club and county level.   

Church is full of volunteers.  Those on the worship team, the ushers, greeters, and Sunday school teachers are all very visible.   There are at least twice as many unseen volunteers that make the worship service and the other programs at church run smoothly that we don't see their actual work but benefit greatly. 

Homeschool events are run almost exclusively on volunteer hours.  There would be any homeschool activities if moms and dads didn't step forward to set them up, or in many cases, run them as well. 

Just about everything that we are involved in has at least some volunteer manpower.  We really appreciate it, not only so that these programs can happen, but that their volunteering makes it affordable for us. 

I only hope that the places where we volunteer are a blessing to someone else as much as other volunteers are to us.

Thankful for My Truck - By Dad

Sounds like the title of the next hit country song.

I actually mean the van or the truck or any motor vehicle.  When I drive into town to pick up feed ot run any old errand I think how easy the job is today.  Until about, oh, a hundred years ago going into town was a big deal.

We live between two small towns, one is 5 miles away the other 6 miles.  One trip is flat, the other up and down large hills and over two creeks.  Which one would you pick if on foot, horse or in a wagon? 

Most of the things I drive in for would be too big to carry on foot or horseback so I'd need the wagon.  Not only would the trip take a lot longer, the prep work and work after the trip is heck of a lot more than turning a key.  Obviously, committing to the time and work of the trip would make a person plan more and get more done in each trip.  Considering how much more time and work was involved in every other daily chore the time spent on a trip to town would be even greater.

I really like that when it's -25 degrees, before the windchill, I get to drive around in a little heated capsule with padded seats and stereo music.  Can you imagine riding in an open wagon in any temperature below say 40 dgrees with a blanket on your lap for a couple hours one way?  In the wind, the rain and the snow?  How about in the summer when it's 98 degrees, dry and super dusty out?  Mosquitos, gnat and horseflies?  I think about how many trips I make in a year after dark, and how few I would have dared back then.

I have great respect for the people back then who would go to church every Sunday, and to other church and community events, and to think I skip things because they are too early in the morning or just not exciting enough. 

I think it's true when people comment on how the automobile has changed people and our society.  For the better or worse?  You decide.

PS  My coworkers think it's hilarious that my truck has crank windows.  "I can't believe they still make those."  

Giving Thanks Challenge - Our problems

Yep, that is right, I am thankful for our problems. 

Do I like our problems?  No. 

Would I rather we didn't have any?  Yes. 

But they are what the are.

Dancer sometimes complains about her food coloring allergy and how much she wishes she didn't have it and could eat anything she wanted.  Then we talk about how it is much better than a peanut allergy or a glutten allergy or Crohn's Disease or any other host of diseases.  Any kid in a wheel chair etc. would think pfft, food coloring, I could live with that in a heart beat.  To make her feel better we go over how those foods aren't good choices anyway and this is sort of a blessing in disguise.  But she is 13, so I let her have a bit of a pity party because it does stink.  Our culture likes to give out treats at every occasion, or for every little achievement, that it is a hard thing to be strong about day after day.  The grocery store gives suckers out just for being in the check out line with your mom, what kind of achievement is that?  I got off on a little tangent there so back to the post.

Of course, as a family, like every family, we have our share of problems.  We have been quite blessed and they aren't insurmountable.  We also have a good marriage so that when big things do happen we are able to weather the storm and get through to the other side wiser, braver, stronger and more humble.

I read somewhere once, that if everyone threw their problems in a pile and could pick new ones out, they would probably take their own back. 

Thank you God for our problems and that your mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning.

Giving Thanks Challenge - Electricity

I am so, so, so thankful for electricity.  I am really a huge sally when it comes right down to it. 

I like to like to be cool in the summer and warm in the winter by the flip of a switch.  I wouldn't want to deal with the hassle of an ice box.  I love that water comes out of my tap without having to haul it from the creek to the house.  Carrying around a candle or lantern, especially when it gets dark so early in the winter, doesn't appeal to me.  It really wouldn't appeal to me to go out to the barn with a lantern, it is bad enough to do chores in the winter in sub zero temps much less do it in the dark.   I like all our electric gadgets, like my sound machine so I can sleep at night, the television, the computer, etc.  I really like the clothes washer and drier. 

I could have lived fine in pre-Franklin days since I wouldn't have known what I was missing, but if I got to choose, I would choose now. 

Giving Thanks Challenge - Girl and Boy

This is our third year participating in the Giving Thanks Challenge over at South Breeze Farm.  If you want to check it out and join in you should be able to just click on her button and it will hook you right up.  Other years we have made a list on the sidebar but this year we are going to try to expand things we are thankful for into posts.

On to today's post about what we are thankful for.  I am very thankful that we have a girl and a boy.  We never found out what sex our children were going to be before they were born.  For some reason I just never wanted to know.

When I was pregnant with Dancer we wanted a girl and we were blessed with a girl.  She was great, everything we had ever hoped for.  When we were expecting Spark, we didn't have preference on a boy or a girl.  Another girl would have been great because we lived in a two bedroom house and that would mean moving would be an option not a necessity.  A boy would have been great too for several reasons. 

We are so happy now that we have one of each.  Whatever anyone says, boy and girls are not the same.  If we had had two girls there is a whole world out there we would have missed out on.   If we had had two boys there is a whole world out there we would have missed out on.  It is also hard to compare boys to girls so it eliminated the whole comparing one kid to another scenario.  We don't expect them to like the same things, or act the same way, or think the same way, or want the same things, or have the same needs, and the list can go on and on. 

Thank you God for a boy and a girl! 

The Sugar Sprite Fairy

On the computer yesterday we saw this about The Sugar Sprite Fairy and Spark was just itching to see if she was real.  Like he said, "You can't believe everything you read on the Internet."

Last night he prepared a bag of candy, with an extra scoop of sugar from the canister sprinkled on top of the candy for good measure, and set it out on the porch.  All night he worried that the cat was going to eat the candy. 

He was up bright and early to see if she had come and his bag of candy was still there.  I have never heard of her before, I told him, so I don't know if she will really make a showing. 

Dad came home from work and his candy was still on the porch.  Sometime while Dad was out doing chores in the barn she came. 

The Sugar Sprite Fairy left a Bullfrog Webkinz and a Lego set for Spark and even a frog Webkinz for Dancer who didn't put any candy out.  She was a very generous fairy.  Spark said, "Next year I am putting my whole bag out there!"  

Can you say "Candy"?

We put 17 packs of popcorn on the front step before we went into town to trick or treat in case by, some far off chance, we should happen to have a trick or treater stop by.

   

It is amazing how many house bigger kids can go to in an hour.  When the kids were little we would go to about 15 houses and they would be tired and we would go home.  When we lived in town it took us much longer to go around our neighborhood.  The vast majority of our neighbors were over 70 and so at every house the kids would have to go in, be oohed and aahed over and have their pictures taken.  I wonder what those people ever did with all those pictures?  Many of them have died since then and I am sure their kids, most who didn't know us, looked at them and thought, why in the world do they have pictures of these kids.

Every year we go to this house.  Not only do they have more decorations than probably any one else in the free world, they give out bottles of pop and school supplies.  This year they gave out full size notebooks and folders.

 Dancer is smiling

And Spark is smiling so it must be time to go home.

They made a haul - almost 20 pounds worth!  That should keep Eeyore in candy for a year!

There were 17 packs of popcorn on the front step when we got home.  Once again no trick or treaters.

Trick or Treating for Eeyore

Dancer has been firm the last few months about her decision that she wasn't going to trick or treat this year.  She is 13 and it seems to be loosing some of it's appeal.  She also can't eat most of the candy since it is loaded with food coloring so I understand where that takes away some of the fun of it.  I tend to, however, have candy snobs for kids and they don't eat the candy that they consider "duds" anyway.

I told her if she wasn't going to trick or treat she was still going to walk along with me so I didn't have to stand on the sidewalk alone while Spark ran from door to door.  Earlier in the week she said that maybe it would be too cold to trick or treat and that we should probably stay home.  No, we went every year that you were young, no matter how numb my toes got and or how blue my lips turned, so we are not going to stop now just because the fahrenheit is reading a little low.

Tonight she is sitting here watching Pirates of the Caribbean and during a commercial she turns and says that she should trick or treat for Eeyore.  Eeyore is her goat that has seizures that seem to be helped if he has a couple of pieces of candy everyday to keep his sugar up. 

So now it seems it is official.  She is trick or treating, but it is purely a sacrificial act for Eeyore.  I wonder if he will get the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups?

4-H Halloween Party

 First there was a little pre-party carving for the pumpkin contest.  The kids started this morning when Dad got home from work and by the time I came out to the kitchen the whole house smelled wonderfully like pumpkin.

 There was a haunted walk through the host's backyard.  When the kids weren't on the walk they colored pictures.  I went on the walk with the little girl in the lavender jacket, we were walking along with her holding my hand and she kept saying that is not real or that something was scary and was doing pretty good job holding herself together.  Near the end of the walk a very scary something with a chain saw came after us.  Her reaction was to turn around and climb right up the front of me so I carried her past the scary part.  Good thing she is just a little snippet of a girl.

 The pumpkins lined up for judging.  Spark and Dad's in in the front there gnawing on little, weaker pumpkins.  Their pumpkin won second place.  Dancer's is on the right.

 There was a Halloween quiz show - did you know there are blue pumpkins?  There was also costume contest, a spider craft and a guess the weight of the pumpkin. 

For the pot luck we brought gallstones with intestinal parasites (spaghetti and meatballs) with dandruff flakes (cheese) to put on the top.  It took a couple of years to collect enough dandruff for that size jar.

The kids and some of their friends.  The leader who put the party together one of the most fun people we know.  By day she is a nurse so Dancer dressed up as her.  Her name badge read Jan F. Super Nurse.  Jan got the biggest kick out of this and kept saying all night how cool it was the Dancer dressed up as her.  She also thought that Dancer should have won the costume contest.

Rub a Dub Dub

there's a pumpkin in the tub.

Link - The Legend of Zelda

Spark requested to be Link for Halloween.  I prefer that we go to the fabric store, they pick out what they want to be from the pattern books and I sew it up for them.  There are no patterns for Link out there that we found, so I had to make one up.

I found a pattern for a tunic.  It is Simplicity 3647, a Grecian Toga Pattern.  This was so so simple.  The whole thing can be cut out and sewn in about an hour.  I made it out of heavy drapery fabric that my mother, I think for our wedding, made new drapes for their house. 

I made it a size larger than he is because here it is not unusual to have to wear your coat under your costume.  Actually, it would be unusual not to have to wear a winter coat.  If your costume isn't big enough, kids end up wearing their coat over their costumes where only the bottom of them show.  That is fine but since I always make their costumes I want them to show.  It's a proud mom thing. 

For the hat I measured around Spark's head and added an inch to the measurement.  I folded the fabric over (right sides facing), measured out half the size of his head along the bottom, went up about 30 inches and drew a line diagonally from the edge of the fabric where I marked half the size of his head and up to the 30 inch mark.   Sewed the edges together and voila! a perfect Link hat. I thought I would have to put elastic in it to stay on his head but that wasn't necessary, it fit find without the elastic. 

The two belts were ones that we had, one Dancer's and one Dad's.  The shield and the sword were a souvenir from the Renaissance festival a few years back.  He is going to wear gray sweatpants for the leggings tucked into his snow boots that conveniently are brown. 

The best part of the whole costume is that it cost $.99 cents for the pattern on sale.  Everything else we had on hand.  When my mom brought up the drapery fabric I thought, oh good grief, what will I ever do with this, your just trying to get it out of your house and clog mine up with it.  Little did I know years later it would come in handy.  

Actually the price isn't the best part, the best part is that Spark loves it and was all smiles when he tried it on.

News travels fast

I grew up in a town where if you were doing something you shouldn't be, your mom knew about before you even got home.  It's the nature of the beast in a small community.  We live in such a community now but I thought we would be immune to the gossip since we are transplants and our kids don't go to school so I didn't think that many people knew who we were. 

The kids are going to AWANA for the first time this year but not at our church.  They are going at a church in a different town but it is the same denomination.  We never said anything at our church that they were going to attend this other church's program and we don't really know anyone who goes to the AWANA church. 

About the third week, when I was waiting for the kids to get done, I started talking to one of the ladies in the entry way.  I told her my name and she said "Oh sure, my sister-in-law told me your kids were coming here for AWANA."  Really?  How in the world had news traveled down one town and back up again in three weeks?  With us saying nothing or knowing no one at this church?   We may not know them but they know us and the grapevine is alive and well around here.

As I talked with her more I found out that her sister-in-law's husband is cousins with someone else at our church who's husband's sister is our neighbor.  Obviously we aren't going to able to talk about anyone either, they are all related!

We're not claiming to be Michelangelo

But we are painting our ceilings.  This summer I opened a cupboard door and a jar of V-8 juice fell out on to the counter, the cap cracked, it did another bounce on the counter and about a quarter of a cup splashed up and hit the ceiling.  You wouldn't think a quarter cup could cover to much space but it sure did.  The only way to clean it was to paint.  Since our kitchen, dining room, living room and hall ceiling are all connected we are committed to painting the whole thing.