It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

The day after Thanksgiving, we dressed our house for Christmas.  After discarding four strings of lights that worked when we put them away last year but won't bother to come to life this year, we got the tree all glittery and the kids gobbed all the ornaments onto it (why they put all of the ornaments in one area I don't understand, that's just how it is).  It was lots of fun.

We also made our first Christmas craft this week.  One of our traditions is to light candles for our nightly scripture and story reading during December.  We have had a couple of mishaps the last few years involving spilled wax and screaming ("NO, I get to blow out the blue candle!!") so we opted to try to handle both problems with one fun craft.  These cute cans should collect the wax and everyone has their own (with identical candles) so there should not be as much fighting (I hope, I hope, I hope). 

Then, this morning we woke up to snow.

Lot's of snow.

I tweaked my back something fierce helping to push a lady in a little compact car out of the drifts (I don't know how much help I was, I think our sweet Spanish neighbor did the bulk of the work, but man I was sore!). 

My incredible husband had already shoveled our driveway and sidewalks even though he had to leave for work before 6:00 am, so I enlisted the kids to help shovel our two neighbors out and then we were done.  It was a crazy morning. 

The kids were excited to go outside and play in the snow. Well, mostly. Parker let the dogs out to play and they knocked him down and then sort of buried him in the snow, he was not thrilled with that. Logan, after realizing that snow is cold, decided that he wanted no part of it and came inside.

Ellie was not involved in the snow.

I have learned better than that.  Also, I am not sure she is tall enough to breathe if I let her into the white fluff. 

This is definitely a memorable start to our Christmas season. 

Thanks

I know it is incredibly cliche given the upcoming holiday, but I am feeling SUPER thankful lately.  My little family has been so richly blessed that I can't help but feel deep gratitude.  From family to friends and neighbors and even people we don't know, our lives are tickled by incredible people who make us want to be better.  I told Josh that we should just print up a gigantic "Thank You" sign and hang it in the front window because there is no way we will ever remember to thank every person who has enriched our lives.  He looked at me like I was an idiot (which just may be the case) and said no.  I'm sure he is right, he is the more sensible one in the relationship.  So I'll have to make do with posting it here on my cyber front window.  Know that every one of you has blessed my life and influenced my family for good.  I am very, very grateful.  Have a wonderful thanksgiving holiday.  We wish you the very best.

Thank You!!

...Thinking...

Today's musings...

*Why is it that the more days Ellie is on antibiotics for her ear infection, the more grumpy and sad she seems to get?  She is one unhappy baby.  Poor thing.

*What in the world are we going to have for dinner tonight?  I usually plan the weeks menus before I go grocery shopping on Mondays...but no, not this week...we are flying (or eating) by the seat of our pants this week.

*I don't want to do the dishes...how expensive do you think it would be to use paper products for the rest of our lives?

*I need to find some more fun, free things to do with my monsters while they are off track...especially since Josh will be working his second job a lot this next month so we really need to stay busy.  Any great ideas?

*My mom gave me a pile of books that she was going to throw away (and no wonder because they are STUUPID....Logan: "We don't say stupid!") so why do I feel obligated to read them all?

*Aubrey and Gavin are blaring Christmas music in their bedrooms and I feel alternately thrilled at the upcoming Christmas holiday and mortified because it isn't even Thanksgiving yet.

*Ellie is still screaming...what am I supposed to do for her?

*Mental note: don't forget to catch up on the laundry, but check all the pockets because an MP3 player is still missing...so is my camera, I guess I should keep checking for that too.

*We watched an animated video about the first Thanksgiving last night for family home evening and now the kids are all pretending to be Indians...no one wants to be a Pilgrim and everyone is bothered that no one else will be the Pilgrim.  Funny kids!

Anyway, it is time for a trip to the library.  We'll see how it all turns out.  Should be exciting.  I really do love being a mom!!!

The Chickens are Restless

Crazy!

You'll be happy to know this little hen is now happily deposited in the coop of a kind neighbor who proclaimed her to be an absolutely beautiful fowl.  Whatever, a chicken is a chicken to me, I just don't want them in my shed.  She was a very sweet bird, and we are glad she now has a wonderful home. 

Books

Hooray!  This week I finished my 52nd book of the year which means that this year I actually met my goal of at least one book a week.  YIPPEE!!

That said, one of the books I read this week was "The Kite Runner."  I was looking forward to this one because everyone seems to rave about it.  Yeah, I didn't like it...AT ALL!

It did have some really beautiful imagery and texture relating to Afghanistan and its rich culture...but pretty much everything else I hated.  I do NOT recommend it.  I will NOT read it again.  It was incredibly over foreshadowed (the author could not have laid it on any thicker) and the characters were shallow, they had no depth at all. 

Still, I couldn't manage to write a novel so kudos to the author for that.  And lots of people seem to like the tale (what is this world coming to?)...(no offense to all of you out there who bought a personalized mahogany box to encase your copy of the book in because it is so dear to you...to each his own.  After all, you're talking to a lover of Barry Manilow and professional bull riding). 

Anyway, thank heaven for books.  I love to read a good one and I feel so torn as I near the last pages of a great story, such mixed emotions because I want to know the ending but I don't want the book to end.  However, I also enjoy reading a book that I don't love because there are few things funner than complaining about a rotten piece of literature. 

Which reminds me, I watched a movie this week "84 Charring Cross Road" about a woman who loves books.  I swear she is me plus 30 years (I hope I don't have to move to a tiny apartment in New York and eat Yorkshire pudding).  The movie was sensational, but maybe that is just because I saw in the main character a kindred spirit (that's right Anne of Green Gables, I said kindred spirit).  You might want to check it out if you are addicted not just to stories, but to the books themselves.  There is nothing like the dusty, earthy smell of aged pages.  A book is a beautiful thing.

Forgetful Jones...I think?

Once upon a time I used to have a fabulous memory.

I almost never wrote things down because I didn't need to, I just remembered.

.....

.....

Then I had six children.

Now my world is littered with calendars and post it notes, and even that doesn't always fix my absence of memory.

It's sad, really.

For example, two weeks in a row I went grocery shopping and once I got out to the car and started unloading I realized I had things on the bottom rack that I forgot to put on the check out belt so I had inadvertently stolen them. 

Great!!

After everything else was loaded, I packed the kids back in the cart and trucked my little behind back into the store to pay for the illegally obtained items.  Who knew I was a closet shoplifter!

Also this week, I lost my good camera (although I don't know if that is my forgetfulness or my children's curiosity and can't-keep-our-hands-offedness).

Play dates, library activities, wedding receptions...I am a mess anymore.  I blame the kids, but maybe it is early onset Alzheimer's.  Yikes, should be a fun next fifty years.  Hopefully Josh will keep from any extreme flubs, I'll have to suck up and be extra nice so he'll take care of me in my mind lapsing state. 

At least I didn't forget Halloween (not that I could with six little monsters to remind me every day).