This and That

A few personal miscellaneous items going on my life these days...

We have, I believe, a new church home.  We are enjoying it very much overall.  When I start to wonder about something, it helps me realign my expectations to remember there are no perfect people, no perfect pastors, and no perfect churches.  Hunter has become very grounded in the youth group, which also meets on Sunday mornings; and Kaleigh is really enjoying her first year of Sparkies, as well as the Sunday morning class that she just started (they don't call it Sunday school there).  I have met a few of Hunter's youth group leaders - in addition to the couple that I already knew - and last week one of Kaleigh's Sparks leaders introduced herself to me and said that she can really tell that Kaleigh works on her verses at home.  So far, all of the people at church have been warm and welcoming, and that is a refreshing change.

As far as my own involvement, I joined choir back when it started in early September.  My mom was in the choir last year, and already knew everyone; without her there, I never would have gone.  We sang last Sunday morning for the first time, for the Missions Conference.  It has been such a joy, the opportunity to sing again in an organized choir, the weekly fellowship with others in praise, and just getting to know a few people on a little bit higher level.  

My piano teacher from high school - a friend of the family whom I've actually known my entire life - also goes to our church, and has inspired me back into serious playing.  I've played a few times since moving, but it tends to fall to the back burner, with everything else going on.  Now I've been inspired to set aside time every day to play, and to work on whole pieces rather than just putzing around with this and that.  And it's really just the sitting down that needs to be made intentional; once my fingers hit the keys, I can play for hours until something urgent or pressing calls me away.  It has been a much-needed escape and a good way to squeeze in some alone time.

Crafts have also taken up a large part of my free time lately.  I'm doing some crafty Christmas presents again this year, so it's a good excuse reason to start early.  I plan to make candle gift packs for Randy's employees again this year - it's been a few years since I've had the time/energy/space to do these, so I'm looking forward to it!  I haven't started those yet, because there are a few supplies I will need before I get started.  I am also making each of the kids a blanket to match their new room themes.  Last year, Ryan requested another fleece blanket, so I am just looking for a good pattern to go with his theme (Americana).  Kaleigh's colors are lavender and pale yellow, and I am making her a quilt.  Hunter's theme is space, and I haven't decided on what kind of blanket to make him yet.  I'm kind of just scouting out material and waiting to see what comes.  His might be a kind of hybrid between the fleece blanket and a quilt; we shall see.  Other crafts include a baby blanket I need to whip up for the newest addition to the family, Emmalyn; the fleece pillow covers for the boys' giant pillows; and some cards for my personal stash.

Next week begins a month of my favorite extracurricular activity of all time: writing.  That's right; Tuesday is the first day of National Novel Writing Month 2011.  I am waffling between a couple of ideas right now, and might end up working on two novels, like I did last year.  On the subject of writing, I also plan to put together some more query letters and send out some more queries to agents in the coming weeks.  That also ended up on the back burner what with moving/unpacking/homeschooling/day-to-day stuff/etc.

I guess that's enough time spent on the miscellaneous.  Time to get back to my laundry and cleaning!

St. Patrick's Day 2011 in Pictures

We started our day with green vanilla oatmeal... yum!

which we were obviously very excited about!

After doing some schoolwork (No, Hunter, this isn't a day off of school, even though we ARE Irish...) we had yummy Shamrock sandwiches and green milk for lunch.

After quiet time, we had green apples and shamrock cookies for snack...

...and Mom made us new Irish t-shirts!

We ended our day with corned beef and steamed red potatoes, carrots, and cabbage - YUM!

We hope you all had as lovely a St. Patrick's Day as we did!

Valentine's Day 2011 in Pictures

We started off with a craft: coloring the bingo cards we would use later in our V-Day game.

Then we moved on to our pizza party!

Complete with pink strawberry milk!

We played our bingo game, and enjoyed some of our treats.

Later we had the special cupcakes that we bought at the store (I could not possibly hope to make such beautiful cupcakes at home!).

After the kids went to bed, Mom and Dad had an amazing steak dinner and some treats of their own...

And here are the beautiful flowers that Dad brought to Mom :).

Friday Funday

I woke up this morning feeling like we needed a fun day.  Especially since I was starting to feel crabby, I think because I haven't slept much at all in the last four(+) nights.  In any case, we needed to do some fun things.

Our day started with a standoff on the interstate, not far from here.  Long story, but around 4 a.m. two people in a stolen car ran out of gas by the side of the road and when cops approached, refused to get out of the car, eventually waving a gun magazine out the window and telling them he would shoot them if they came near the car.  There were city police, county sheriffs, SWAT, and a canine unit at the scene; the entire freeway was shut down in both directions, and people who had been sitting in traffic for 2-1/2 hours were finally turned around and rerouted to the other interstate.  The whole thing didn't end until after ten, and we were pretty much glued to Channel 4 news until then.

After that excitement, I got Hunter started on his school work, and I got out the Christmas tree.  Kaleigh and I put up and decorated the tree, and Hunter finished up a health assignment and took his math and spelling tests.  (Okay, school work isn't necessarily fun, but he needed to take those tests and the fun part was that I didn't make him do every subject!)  Then we made a yummy lunch - something relatively new (similar to another dish that I make, but put together a little differently, which the kids loved).  We had a little quiet time, then headed over to the mall.  We did some shopping, saw some kids playing in an orchestra concert in the rotunda, and headed over to pick Ryan up from swimming.  When we got home, Kaleigh opted to work on some of her craft gifts (Christmas presents for relatives), but Hunter chose to play with toys instead.  (Fine by me - as long as he was having fun!) 

Now we have stuffed crust pizzas in the oven, and the kids are picking out their movie for tonight.

In all honesty, it wasn't the day I had in mind.  I originally envisioned more craft time, a game, a little more time out of the house.  But the kids didn't seem to mind.  Hunter's eyes when I told him he was done with school for the day, and Kaleigh's facial expression when I turned on the Christmas lights....  they made today a fun day for me.

Holiday Preparation

Well, the kids and I have been continuing our morning devotions, but I have been so busy of late that I haven't had the chance to type them up as posts.  We haven't even been to the Y in the last couple of weeks, because we've had so much to do that I worry about not having that extra two hours every morning to stay on top of things.  I'm hoping after next week (my brother and sister-in-law are coming for an early Christmas), we will be able to get back into the swing of things.

Because of the values we want to teach our children about Christmas and gifts, we decided to put some guidelines on the adult gift-giving as well.  We always put a limit out there (some are better at following it than others.  Just sayin'.), but this year we also added a "creativity" caveat.  Now, some of us will be better at following that than others, too.  Some of us are having a lot of fun with that, too.

Yesterday, the kids and I went to Michael's to search for Thanksgiving crafts.  (Wait til you see what we came out with.)  And of course, in traditional Michael's style, the first aisle (the main aisle, the aisle you have to walk down to get to all other aisles) was fully stocked with a variety of Christmas crafts.  So, after retrieving the supplies for our Thanksgiving crafts, we returned to the main aisle and each of the kids hunted down a project they could make for the members of their extended family (4 calling grandparents, 3 French uncles, and an aunt in a pear tree.  Or, maybe not.).  Anyway, they had a blast; they've never picked out individual gifts to give people before (last year, Christmas was a little...  weird.  And stressed.  Very stressed.)  I'm hoping they will learn something about giving this year, rather than focusing on "what I'm getting."  

In other holiday preparation, I have to say that while I was feeling guilty about being glad that my mother basically ordered me not to make a single thing for Thanksgiving dinner, I am completely over that now.  She assured me that she wants to make it all, and I assured her that I am more than happy to not have to worry about it this year.  Also, I bought a box's worth of assorted wines as my offering to the festivities, so that certainly didn't hurt in helping to assuage my guilt.  

Ryan will not be with us this year for Thanksgiving; we get him every other year, and this is not our year.  In the past, when he has been with us, he has spent time at my mom's house during the day or two before the big day, helping to prepare the big feast.  Last year, he spent two nights, making his brother very jealous.  Well, this year is Hunter's turn.  Tomorrow, he gets to go to Grandma's house and spend the night, helping her with all the cooking and baking.  He's very excited.  I'm rather excited myself.  I wonder if I can find anyone to take the other little monster.

Just kidding.  Sort of.

Actually, she and her daddy are going to spend some much-needed time together while I camp out at the bookstore and catch up on the writing that I've gotten sorely behind on this week.

Well, I guess that's all there is to share on the holiday prep stuff, at least for now.  There actually is a lot more that I really really want to share, but can't, since it would spoil the fun for a few of you.  You know who - oh, wait, no you don't know who you are.  Buahuahahahahahahaha.