Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving!!

It's early, the turkeys are in the oven and the casseroles are made and waiting to be baked. The smells are starting to fill the kitchen. I have cinnamon rolls ready to go in the oven when my tribe starts to crawl out off their warm beds. Oh to be snugly tucked up tight in our home together, the joy of it fills me up. No hurried agenda, no crazy schedule to attend to today, just good food, family and friends. All gathered round to be thankful, thankful for each other, our many blessings and a day spent together. I love thanksgiving. I love having it at my house. I love the preparations and cooking. There is nothing commercial about this holiday and it is so meaningful to me. I have tried to have an attitude of gratitude and when I do my world is so much brighter. I am undeserving of the many blessings God grants me daily and I am in awe when I take the time to recognize them all. So today as we gather I will try to write the memory deep into my soul, the sights, the smells, the people. It will go in my mental scrapbook of joy.
Happy Thanksgiving!!

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Is it Wednesday already??


The day before Thanksgiving is always a rush around here. I am trying to keep up some semblance of clean and get the cooking started. The kids are running around and it is chaotic. I love every minute of it. I feel so blessed to be preparing for a Thanksgiving with my family and friends. We will have about 25-30 people here tomorrow. Not everyone will make dinner but all will make an appearance for dessert. My sister and mom came up this morning to help me get a handle on the toy room. And by get a handle I mean a major dunging out. Lots of black garbage bags made their way out of the toy room without to much fuss from the under 10 set. I stress the importance of black bags. I can't have them see the toys that don't make the cut in the fight for shelf space. We made huge strides, I still am longing for some more open space but I can only do so much in one day and making the food for Thanksgiving takes priority. So today I will bake the pumpkin, apple and cherry pies. Bake off the sweet potatoes for the casserole and make the filling. Keith will come later to help with some of the cooking. Bird had practice from 1-6 and Einstein has swimming this evening. A busy day but a full and satisfying one. I am so blessed, in so many ways and today I will focus on all of the blessings in my life BIG & small. I tend to get a little emotional and nostalgic around the holidays and it is starting already. So before I start blubbering all over the place I will head back into the kitchen for some more fun.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

NYC



Last Saturday Mr. G. and I took the big kids on a bus trip to New York City. My parents, my sister and 2 of her kids plus my brother, his wife and their son went too. It was so much fun. The weather wasn't great at first, pouring down rain actually, but it cleared up after a few hours. It wasn't bitter cold so I was happy. It was Einsteins first trip into the city. Just the ride in was an experience for him. So much to see. We wandered around the city for awhile and did a little shopping. We had to stop at American Girl to pick a little something up for Princess. We had lunch at the Brooklyn Diner. Sooo good!! We ate so much but it was so good. We even tried dessert, the cheesecake was out of this world. Then we walked through Rockefeller Center. The kids wanted to watch the ice skating, it was more like water skating because of all the rain. After that we went to Radio City Music Hall to see the Rockette's Christmas Show. The tree in the foyer was amazing. It was made from crystal ornaments and the sparkle was just stunning. The show was fabulous as well. Once the show ended we had to walk a few blocks to go back to the pickup spot for the bus. We found a deli along the way to get bagels for the ride home. It was a lovely day. There is so much to see just walking down the streets. The people, the sounds, the smells, the traffic. It is an experience that every child(country mouse) should have while they still have that sense of wonder. I was so glad we took the bigger two for some alone time. A precious commodity in our house. I spent the bus ride reading the second book in the Twilight Series. I read the entire ride with my little light on. A perfect ending to a great day.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

overwhelmed

Why is it that some days even when I have it somewhat together, I feel so overwhelmed. Just swamped. Nothing out of the ordinary going on, no more than the normal chaos around here and no extra stuff. Today is one of those days. I will say that I like to come home after church on Sundays and stay home. Today we had other obligations. Fun ones, ones I wanted to attend, birthday parties for my niece then later dinner for my dad and sister. But it threw off my normal Sunday rhythm and put me into a little tizzy this evening. I have so much I am working on at the moment, lots of creative Christmas presents to finish. House stuff, trying to stay somewhat under control because we are hosting Turkey Day here. Some projects I want to get off to print this week before the big holiday rush. Just lots of details rolling around in my brain and my brain is starting a revolt. It has completely detached itself and is saying no, I am on strike. You will take the rest of the night off and go do something completely unrelated to any of it. I have been trying to fight it all evening and now I am done. I will start over in the morning with a better attitude and a few more calming breaths. So now I am off to steep in the tub with a tall glass of icy Fresca and a book. Maybe my brain will forgive me and go back to work in the morning....

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Littles

I had this to post last week, it didn't happen so I will try again. My Littles are off to post. The box was filled up and ready to go. Mr. G. took it to ship to Amy. I was so excited to pack them all up. I had so much fun creating all the littles for Club Little House. I still have so many ideas but I ran out of time. Maybe next time? So here is a little peak ...

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Ribbon production



I have been trying to fit in some crafting and Christmas gift making. This week is tough because I am doing my seasonal scrub. I pick a week before the holiday season to do a deep clean of the house. It takes me a week sometimes more but when it is finished I feel so good. The house is rid of dust and grime, at least for a little while. But back to ribbon production. I am making boutique style hair bows for the little girls stockings and for friends. They all love hair bows and I make many all year round but I am making some extra special ones for the holidays. My niece is also having her 4th birthday soon. She is having a salon style party so I made hairbows for her favors. My glue gun has had quite a work out lately. The bows are fairly simple to make and are quite inexpensive compared to purchasing them in boutiques. I have seen similar bows from $12-$15 per bow. Some of the bows are lovely satin, simple & sweet. To others I have added corkers, spiral ribbons. The pictures are for the party favor bows but the Christmas presents are similar.

5 miles

Yesterday I ran 5 miles. 5 miles...I don't think I have ever run a continuous 5 miles in my life. I feel empowered that I actually did it. I have been running 3-4 miles for the past few months and walking 5 but yesterday I ran it. All of it and it wasn't to bad. Today I did 3.5 and I am going to try for 5 again tomorrow. yippee!

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Fresh Eggs


I am so excited! Debbie has chickens and they are now laying beautiful eggs. She brought the chickens home this past spring and wasn't really sure what to expect. The girls started laying a few weeks ago, yippee! Last night she brought me a dozen of those fresh eggs. I want to have chickens of my own but for now I am happy to take any extra eggs off her hands. The eggs look perfect and this morning I used some to make french toast for my brood. Very yummy... And they look so pretty in my red bowl. Mr. G. walked in while I was taking the picture of the eggs, shook his head and smiled. I know I'm a little crazy but fresh white beautiful eggs in my favorite red bowl just makes me smile. Oh the simple things....