Etsy Holiday Sale

This weekend only...through Cyber Monday:

Free shipping on select items, pillow covers include pillow forms for FREE, and some other discounts to help you get your Christmas shopping done in the comfort of your own home. Lots of sellers are offering sales and discounts on shipping so if you have a favorite item it would be worth checking to see if it's on sale.

Check it out and buy handmade!

Real thanksgiving

Brother-in-law playing Emma theme song on the piano with a baby on his lap. My own baby playing on the floor while I embroider names on future Christmas stockings. Turkey baking; mother-in-law bustling in the kitchen. Husband rocking on the front porch with his dad. Cranberry Apple Butter simmering. At one point I was moved to tears thinking of all the good gifts surrounding me.

And yet, it's all about what we choose to see. Gratefulness is choosing to see the abundance God has given and at the same time letting all the petty inconveniences- or even the real heartbreaking situations- fall away and and become less as Christ becomes all. So my picturesque Thanksgiving was a joy, and all the other things- sinus infection, weeks of poor sleep, ongoing extended-family issues, and other things not worth mentioning- those pale in comparison to the good gifts.

I hope your day was full of recounting the tender mercies of God and that your heart is moved more toward Him and away from your troubles. The troubles will always be there- but be of good cheer: HE has overcome all of those things and He will never leave or forsake His own. What a cause for Thanksgiving!

And now on to Christmas celebrations!! My kids are so excited and it's contagious. :)

A story for the rest of us...

Is this funny, or really really sad?? Maybe both?

The Ultimate Christian Novel

At last

This week did not go as planned, and included all five of us being down at once with some flu-like illness. That's a first for us but here we are at the end of the week and we are all alive. I've been ordered to keep a low profile and not try to make up for all that did not get done this week (or last week when Baby T was sick, or the week before when I was sick...sigh...) and so we are sitting around listening to Christmas music and making Christmas cards. I think a nap is my near future.

I made a handful of these last weekend and now they are in the shop, ready to fill stockings and give to teachers and neighbors. My favorite aspect of these notecards is the simple beauty, which also makes them less expensive to make. Most of us are looking for ways to bless those we love this Christmas without spending as much, and I hope these help someone accomplish just that.

Happy weekend before Thanksgiving! Can you believe the END OF NOVEMBER is already here??? I'm excited and ready for Christmas! (Well, not "ready" in the sense that everything is finished and I can sit back and drink hot chocolate and read books all month, but you know...)

It's been a good long year, Baby T

This was an unusual week of sickness, though this time it was the baby and not me. Spent most of the week holding a sick (as of tomorrow!) one-year-old, and it looks like we may have another night of interrupted sleep as he tries to breathe through his congestion. There's nothing like a sick baby to make you put aside everything that is not absolutely vital to health and living. Having other children does make that tricky since I can't really focus all my time and attention on holding the sick one, but they were mostly patient with me/him.

In other news... in no particular order:

I came up with this genius plan to only check blogs twice a week. My thought was that if I only had two "sessions" a week I would see how much time I was really spending reading and writing blogs. But then I found myself planted in a chair for days and so I read here and there. And I posted here and there. And it's not nearly as fun to comment on someone else's daily happenings a week late. I don't have the luxury of big blocks of time to do any one thing...if I quit doing everything that happened in 3-minute increments the only thing left would be sleep (and not even that some nights). So I guess I need to come up with a better plan for downsizing time spent on the computer. Any ideas?

We spent the weekend at my inlaw's house (which is a little over an hour away) and enjoyed grandparent time, good meals, and some R&R. I worked on stamping projects and Christmas cards for hours- a real treat. I didn't cook at all while we were there and I slept in with Baby T while the grandparents watched the older two kids and WH went on an early-morning deer hunt. (No deer were even seen.)

We switched to an all-cash budgeting plan. I made these to celebrate. Although I think I may make these as a more permanent solution. Both make it seem really fun to have cash in my bag! Even carrying around an empty wallet that looks this good is better than carrying around... hmmm. Well, we're doing the cash thing and we have these cute money holders, so that's that.

Reading Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food. I hadn't rushed to read it because (not to sound cocky) but I knew I agreed with the premise and we have already made a lot of food changes around here. However, it's fascinating. I read half of it last night and if the baby keeps me up tonight, I may finish it by morning. I really needed another book to get me fired up about food. You might not want to talk to me for a few days unless you want to hear all kinds of mindless food history facts. It would be more fun for you to just read the book yourself.

I'm off to bed. Hope you had a great weekend! I'll leave you with these pictures of the birthday boy. I would say that I can't believe he's already one, but it's been a good, full year and we've loved having him in our family.

Why we want to farm

As usual, she says it better than anyone...she has a way of bringing me to tears, and this was no exception.

In Defense of Food, Land & Our Children

Another one bites the dust

We've whittled our way down to milk and tea (and coffee for the adults, of course) as the main beverages around here, but I still buy orange juice and let the kids have about 4 oz. a day. It's not much, but it seemed like a small morning ritual I didn't want to take away from them.

Until I noticed that my "from concentrate" juice came from many other countries. My goal: the juice needs to come from my same continent. Not real high standards here. I started buying "Not from concentrate" juice that was only from Florida oranges...still a far cry from the juice my dad used to squeeze from our three orange trees out back. I repent in dust an ashes for not appreciating that more, Dad. Pulp and all.

So, thinking that this was the better choice, I was willing to fork over the money for the pricier juice. We're not going through it very quickly anyway. And then, I had to go and read this:


Just reading the interview and the process of how juice is stored in massive tanks, stripped of everything, and then flavor packets of essential essence and oils are added back in- makes me want to swear off the stuff for life. And this is the process used for "not from concentrate" or "fresh" juice. It's SO HARD to find real food these days!

As a native Floridian, I found all the history behind orange juice- it's production, processing, and how it became a world-wide custom to drink juice for breakfast (only in the last 50 years, btw)- fascinating. I know, I'm a dork. But maybe you are, too.

Back on track

After a week of having the flu followed by a birthday weekend, and escalating general disorganization, I think I'll get back on track with this:

Print out your own for free. Isn't it sweet?

This will help, as will folding some of the mounds of clean laundry. Thank goodness for a spare room in which to hide it all.

Here are a few (poorly lit) pictures from the celebration. We had a joint party for WH and Baby T since both birthdays are within about a week of each other...that and the fact that the baby wouldn't be having any cake so a party just for him would have been anticlimactic.

Party

Today is the birthday of my favorite husband!

(As a side note, my sister-in-law once told her husband he was "one in a million" and her numbers oriented husband told her that wasn't really a compliment, considering there are over 6 billion people in the world...)

I've only known my husband for seven birthdays. Here we are, not yet engaged...I think we'd know each other for a few months, but this was our 4th time seeing each other. We would get engaged 2 visits later.

Next birthday: Married for a few months and enjoying the life of newlyweds. He gets a huge piece of luggage from Duluth. (Thus begins a trend.)

Third birthday spent with my husband: We have a 2- month old baby and I think we went out to eat and came back for cake with our sweet friends (who also provided babysitting).

4th year of birthdays: Pregnant with baby #2 and mostly laying around. Coop delivers the present in his little cart. He gets a messenger bag from Duluth.

5th year of birthdays: I had to fly out the morning of his birthday to go to my grandfather's funeral. WH spent his birthday with said sweet friends who made him a special dinner and a cake. I miss those friends. He gets a tool bag from Duluth.

6th year- A little over a week from giving birth to baby #3 but his 30th birthday is celebrated with friends and more friends... which was fun...

and also a cover for a surprise visit from his brother. We had an incredibly nice meal- one we still talk about (hehehe).

This year, we will have a quiet evening with homemade pizza and WH will indulge in his hobby of brewing- something he doesn't have much time for these days. Tomorrow will be a family party with all the local extended family; the sheer number of the group makes any get-together a party. The steak and potatoes and chocolate peanut butter mousse cake will help, too.

Happy Birthday, to the love of my life!

Peeps

"I peeped my eyes open during the prayer and saw that (Sweet A) had her eyes open; but then I peeped them right back closed."