5 Miles

Friday after supper we left my mom and dad's. James had to work Friday night so we came home. It was a beautiful, warm-ish day yesterday so we decided to go ahead and get our tree. This is our first year to get it this early! We're really going to have to remember to water it!

This morning we woke up to the ground covered with snow, and more snow falling! Oh were the boys excited! Sadly, it was my Sunday in the nursery so we had to be at church early. There was not much time to play in it. They got to play in it a bit while I finished getting ready and then play when we got home from church while I was finishing up lunch. By the time lunch was ready, Alex was crying and it was time for them to come in. It got warm enough that most of the snow melted but I promised them more is supposed to come tomorrow and Wednesday.

Tonight we decorated our tree. Will was a huge help.

I could NOT get a non-blury one of Alex…he's just too active. This was the best I could do. He wasn't as much of a help…he struggled to get things to hang on the tree and liked to shake everything. He got bored after a short time and that made the rest of the decorating easier.

Oh, funny aside, Alex said to me "It's Christmas because it snowed!"  Will has remembered a great deal from last year and was telling me "After we decorate the tree Santa will come and bring us presents!" (He remembered our Christmas Countdown chain of family activites we do and I reminded him that helps us count down the number of days until Christmas Eve. And there are a LOT of days until that.)  Our new "tradation" (I know it's not a tradition the first time you do something, but we will do it again after this year) is to also light Advent candles on an Advent wreath each night before dinner. So that will help them in the excitment and prepration of the celebration of Christ coming!

James took the camera and had fun taking pictures.

Artsy one for sis:

The final product:

In the past the computer was in that corner, so the tree ended up in the dining room corner. I never liked it in there, it seemed wrong to not have it in the living room! We moved the computer back into the office/guest room this summer and now we have room for the tree. I love having it there, love our tree and love the smells and sights of Christmas!

The morning was spent playing and getting the food ready.

We went to look at the fish (and enjoy the mild weather outside).

Then it was time for a family game of soccer. Below is Alex being Goalie (notice his crafty eyes):

But, the ball went right past him.

Then it was time for our feast! First we thanked God for all our blessings…Those of us who peeked got a smile out of Alex's face during the prayer.

And then it was time to feast!

WONDERFUL Meal!

The afternoon was spent napping, watching football, playing games…

…and eating pumpkin roll and pies.

It was a wonderful time with family and a great time to remember all we are thankful for. We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well!

Grandma asked Alex "Do you want half a piece of pie or the whole piece of pie?"

"I want half!….Act-ua-lly, I want a whole piece!" (It's funnier if you hear how he says it, but I wanted to remember it.)

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Today we were having leftovers and we were all eating turkey standwiches. I notied Alex had eaten the bread and the cheese, but not his turkey. I asked Alex "Don't you want to eat your turkey?" He replied "No, I don't like turkey, it takes too much like meat."

* * *

Driving up to Grandma's House we hear lots of "When's Grandma's house?" and "When's the exit?" I try to help the kids know by looking at the mile markers, but Alex has no concepts of numbers, so I tried to tell him the cities we'd go through or past. I mentioned Anderson and Munice. Later he asked, "Mommy, are we at Mon-kee yet?"

* * *

Alex was sucking his thumb. Grandma asked him if she could have it. He looked down at it and then said "No, you can't have it 'cause it's stuck right here!" and pointed to his palm.

James wanted to get in a run today. Will's been wanting to ride his bike and loves to ride along while James runs. I told Alex we could do something together and he wanted to go for a walk and feed the fish. So we gathered up the bread and headed out.

Here's Will all bundled up and riding on the trail by the pond.

James running, Will riding:

Alex feeding the ducks. It was too cold for the fish to come up and ea the bread, but the ducks started swiming over to us the moment we appeared on the dock. In the summer the ducks ignore us, I've never seen them SO hungry!

I liked how this duck was smiling at me.

Here are a few of the ducks that were swarming around, fighting over food:

It was chilly but a nice time to enjoy the sun.

We came home and did our first attempt at a Movie Night. We had the Veggie Tales movie, The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything.  We popped up popcorn to eat while watching. Will insisted we turn off ALL the lights so it'd be dark "Just like a real movie theater" (He's never been, how does he know?) Sadly, the movie was too scary for the boys. Will kept hiding behind the couch. Alex ate his popcorn and then asked if he could play with his cars. So we turned on one of the lights and watched the rest of the moving with Will coming in and out. At the end Will was happy to see how it turned out, but told me he didn't want to see it again, it was too scary.  And that's why he's never been to a movie theater!

Sunday James piled more layers on the garden. The boys help water the layers, and had fun pretending to be firemen.

Today the kids learned about Gen. 24, where Eliezar went to look for a husband for Isaac. Here is Will's version of how the lesson went:

Isaac was really old, a man. Abraham said "Hmmmmm, Isaac needs a wife." So he sent his helper to find a wife where he came from. He went to a well and saw a women named Rebecca and she was one of the family. So then, guess what! He spent one night and went to his home with Rebecca after breakfast. They said Rebecca needs to stay here for 10 days. Abraham's helper said "No, we need to leave now." The left after breakfast in the morning.

We chatted with Alex's teacher and she said he was really interested in the camels that were in the pictures. One of the pictures had Abraham pointing to the ground and he wanted to know why he was pointing down. The other teacher said "He got new shoes". We stay for two services, James said the second service teacher told him Alex had some leadership skills…they were playing Simon Says and it eventually becomes Alex Says. (So Leadership Skills = Bossy. Good to know I have two boys with those skills.)

Today the boys helped James with preparing the ground for our future garden.

(And I played around with my new telophoto lense.)

It was a bit chilly but they had a great time helping James. They put a layer of newspaper down. Next will come a layer of woodchips, leaves & compost and another layer of newspaper and another layer of leaves/grass clippings. We're doing a lasagna garden where the layers slowly decompose and make for fertile soil. Then we'll be trying to plant a garden in the spring.

So, we survived that last week. Seriously, that was one crazy week with all the meetings we had. Where I left off, we had just survived Monday. Tuesday was my MOPS night and I had promised I'd have the directories ready to pass out. Those got done and were passed out. I have to thank my fellow steering team member Mindy for all her help…she got there early and colloated them for me so it was easy to get them stapled in time for the meeting. 

Wednesday was our last night at AWANA for the season…I was very excited about that. I was a bit concerned I'd be so ready to be done that I'd rush over the the last meeting or have a stressful time.  The night went well and we all had a fun time. 

Thursday was our catch up day (laundry and then my crazy idea of roasting a pumpking and pureeing it, then making pumpkin muffins to make sure the pumpkin puree was good). We also watched some friends boys and the kids all had fun playing.  

Friday was Will's Thanksgiving Feast at preschool. Sadly we got there about five minutes late and missed most of his play.

He was a pilgrim. Do you notice the Indian feathers in his friend's hair? We're talking low budget production here!

Then we had our feast of Chick-fil-a nugges, mashed potatoes, mac 'n cheese, corn and fruit/veggies trays. A feast fit for preschoolers!

After the feast and naps, we went and got the items for our Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes. We started to pack the boxes when we got home.  Our MOPS group had also done some boxes and I had taken items there and had extra to bring home and put in our own boxes.  I pulled the bag out of the closet and found inside it, along with the soap and washclothes, my camera cord I'd hunted so much for last week.  So now I have 2.  I'm trying not to be too annoyed.

Well, of all the lost things, I can say I found my shoes!

We canceled the debit card and I'm getting a new one. Since it's lost, it's a $5 charge. But I was able to go to the bank & deposit the checks today, when it was open (boy are we spoiled by ATMs!). (Well, now that I think of it I could have used the night deposit box, I forgot about it!)

I bought a new camera cord today so I was able to download the 180+ pictures off my camera and get them organized. Sadly, the new cord was $29–Yuck! I'll be much more careful with that cord! And if I find the old one (as I'm sure I will), at least I'll have a second one now!

I was able to get most of the database updated and pictures loaded for the MOPS directory. Tomorrow will be the printing & putting together day. The boys are excited to go with me to the church while I make copies. I'm glad they're excited and not dreading it.

We had our team meeting for Kenya tonight. I felt pretty prepared for it–we didn't have as much time to talk about the VBS as I'd like, but several questions and jobs were filled. It's great to go to the meetings, I start to feel excited about the trip again. I know we didn't get letters out to everyone again. We created a group on Facebook–if you're a part of that and not listed as a friend you can request either James or I and then find out more.  We are going to try to send out update letters to people who are not apart of that group.  Right now we're asking for prayer as we prepare and get ready to go. I'm starting to get a tiny bit concerned about Alex and his lack of sleeping through the night (usually it's because he wants to snuggle me) and what he's going to do when I'm not around those 2 weeks. James hopes it'll help break him of the habit.  BUT–I do feel better leaving him now then I did last year…while time is still a hard concept for him to grasp, he will at least understand more that we're going to be gone and we're coming back. Not sure how much of that he would have gotten last year.  I know it'll be easier for his Aunt/Uncle to care for him. And thankfully his Aunt will be in the 2nd Trimester of her pregnancy so she won't be as tired–God has great timing!

I'm stuck. I want to put up pictures showing you what we've done the last few days but I can't find my camera cord to download the pictures to the computer.

I need to work on the directory for my MOPS group, but have half the pictures of the women on my camera (see previous line). (This directory is supposed to be printed out/copied by Tuesday.)

I need to work on planning VBS for our Kenya trip but I can't find my notes from our June meeting. (We have a meeting on Monday to work on details, so I need to do this soon.)

I need to deposit some checks, but I can't find my bank card.

AND…somehow my black shoes disappeared between taking Will to preschool and going to pick him up yesterday.

I'm quite annoyed. And tired of searching for things. So I've stopped looking and started trying to organize the office in hopes things will turn up. So far, no go.