All is (finally) calm.

Christmas break officially began yesterday afternoon.

I think my happiness exceeds that of my children.

The few days before school lets out for the long break are full of craziness and busyness and all sorts of activity.

That craziness is behind us now though. I'm sipping coffee in a quiet house while the snow is falling gently outside.

Things are finally calm.

Very calm.

And if feels very wonderful.

Our weekend isn't too crazy either which thrills me. There are some fun activities thrown in there but nothing that compares to the week we've had!

I have a couple of links to share with you.

The girls and I made these Mint Brownies (we chose peppermint) to give to a few of their teachers along with some packages of gourmet coffee. I don't usually give food gifts, but the coffee just begged for some brownies to go with it. John and the girls said these were delicious. I wouldn't know because I didn't eat any don't like chocolate but they sure looked pretty!

We also made these "gingerbread" salt dough ornaments for Abbey's class to paint at their party yesterday. It's a typical salt dough recipe with cocoa powder added to the mix to give it a nice brown color.

I bought some Sharpie paint pens (at Michael's by the acrylic paint) and some inexpensive, plain ribbon to make a hanger for the tree. They turned out pretty cute!

(This one cracked and I didn't end up using it for the party, but my kids painted it anyway!)

If you think you want to try this, here are a few tips:
Spray them with clear acrylic spray and let dry completely BEFORE you paint them with the paint pens. The dough is very porous and the paint will bleed like crazy.

Don't make the mistake I did and assume that the ModPodge Dimensional Magic will make them all shiny and bright. It will until it dries and then it will turn milky white and you'll have to start all over again. Use a spray acrylic glaze like this one instead.

One batch of dough makes about 20-24 cut out ornaments. I made 1.5x the recipe and ended up with about 34 ornaments to paint.

One more idea to share...

The girls have been making these three-dimensional snowflakes. They are so pretty!!!

I saw the idea on Leah's blog last year and thank goodness she posted a link to the tutorial. The video is cheesy but watch it once and you'll be on your way to making dozens of gorgeous snowflakes to hang in your windows or from your ceiling!

They're really not hard to make UNLESS you try to make them with a group of twenty one kids at a class party and there simply isn't enough of you to help each kid individually. The party ended with two boys crying. I felt TERRIBLE!!! (But it's sorta funny to think that I made kids cry).

Happy crafting!

Off to pour another cup of coffee and enjoy the calm and quiet while it lasts!

Monday Schmonday

I'm trying to muster up some enthusiasm to wish everyone a happy Monday. I don't know about you all, but I could have really used an extra day of weekend before Monday arrived chock full of activity.

Our weekend didn't feel anything like I hoped it would. In fact, I don't feel like I've had a restful weekend since before Thanksgiving. That's NOT typical for us and I think the disappointment, not to mention the exhaustion, is catching up with me.

I do see light at the end of the tunnel though. This is a short week for us and then our Christmas break begins. I'm trying not to fill our days with activity. We are all tired and in need of some serious rest.

Here's some of what we've been up to lately:

School projects. I am SO ready for this grading period to be over.

Extra-curricular activities. SO proud of Sarah and her Reader's Theater group for getting 3rd place at their competition on Saturday! 

Christmas shopping. I'm gleefully close to being finished!

Baking. Oh, wait. I haven't baked a single Christmas treat. Nope not one. Not yet anyway.

Enjoying friends. We got together with four other families for dinner last night and spent some time catching up. It was good. It was very, very good.

Enjoying each other. And laughing a lot. I don't know that we've done anything to make our kids love each other but they do. They get along well 95% of the time. They enjoy each other and (for now) they enjoy hanging out with their mom and dad. I love laughing with these people. In true John fashion, he had us all in stitches at lunch yesterday. I was feeling stressed about all that I had to do and grumpy that my Sunday wasn't feeling spacious. But laughing with my peeps? The stress melted away. Temporarily.

Waiting for it to snow. Seriously, this is the WEIRDEST December we've experienced in Colorado. We've had one "big" snow this entire season and by "big" I mean about 3-4 inches. It's just weird. I like snow in December! Today it's supposed to be 60 degrees. See? WEIRD. I hope that Mother Nature sends some soon or it will be a very dry summer in Colorado. 

Alrighty. I've got to run. My stressometer is revving up and I have lots to tackle today. Hope your Monday-Schmonday is a good one!

Help?!?

I have three questions for y'all.

1. Anyone know if you can clean a self-cleaning oven by hand or with some sort of product? I'm scared to lock my oven at extremely high temps. And it is beyond filthy.

2. Does anyone have a great pie recipe? I have to make two for a dinner next Wednesday and I'm not a pie kind of girl so it must be easy and no-fail.

3. I also have to make a cobbler of some sort for Sunday. I don't make cobbler very often. I think someone is bringing peach and someone is bringing apple. I was thinking some sort of berry cobbler. Ideas? Recipes? I'm picky about my cobbler though. I don't like a doughy crust. I like it to be more pie-crust consistency. I know I can google a recipe but I prefer to make on that is tried and true.

THANKS in advance!

The Candle of Peace

Peace.

Seems elusive this time of year, doesn't it?

Schedules and finances and relationships all seem to conspire to steal what little bit of peace (and sanity) we have.

Yesterday, our refrigerator died.

We've been anticipating it for awhile and trying to save for a new one. We had money saved but new brakes/rotors on the van the week before our trip to Arkansas, and a furnace that needed repairing once we returned ate away at most of those savings.

Financial stress immediately began to eat away at my peace.

Why did this have to happen NOW? December is already expensive without having to buy a major appliance. (Last year we bought a transmission!)

Where are we going to find the money to buy a new one? Cash is preferred, but our reserves are low and I really don't want to dip into our "Christmas fund".

Do I need to get a job? Does my husband resent being the only one supporting our family financially? He doesn't but I know the responsibility weighs heavily on him sometimes.

Stress. Stress. Stress. 

We went to Sears last night (with tired kids in tow) and perused the selection. We settled on one that was in our budget and when I say settled, I really mean that. It wasn't ideal but it was what we could afford to spend. We handed over our Sears card to complete the transaction and discovered that our account was inactive because it hadn't been used in quite some time. It's not a big deal to re-activate the account, but it just felt like a good time for us to hit the pause button.

We decided to leave, think/pray/sleep on it, and try to figure something out in the morning when we weren't tired and grumpy and impulsive.

As I was drying my hair this morning, I was reminded of the Advent candle we lit at church Sunday morning: the Candle of Peace. Hmph, I thought. I'm feeling anything but peaceful.

I was then reminded of one part of Sunday's sermon that really stood out to me. Our pastor was sharing about the importance of names and how our names shape and define us. She (yeah, we have women pastors) threw a photo up on the screen of Richard Gere and Julia Roberts from the movie Pretty Woman. I love that movie. There's some nuggets of spiritual truth in there that are too good not to share, so remind me to do that sometime.

Anyway, in one scene Richard Gere picks Julia Roberts' character up in his car and asks what her name is. She responds coyly with "What do you want it to be?" Missie used that picture and movie quote to prompt us to think about what names we might need to know God by this season. Wonderful? Counselor? Almighty God? Everlasting Father? Prince of Peace? Provider? Healer? Savior? Rescuer? Warrior? Love?

I stood there blow-drying my hair and asking God to remind me of the peace candle we lit to usher in this second week of Advent. To flood my heart and mind with the peace I know comes only from Him. To show up today as my Prince of Peace and remind me that this is going to be okay. I asked him to show me/us that He sees us and that He cares about the fact that we have to buy a refrigerator in less than ideal circumstances. (Are circumstances ever really ideal for buying a refrigerator???)

Thirty minutes later I walked into Home Depot.

I found a much nicer, bigger refrigerator (the one I secretly wanted yet couldn't afford at Sears) for a CHEAPER price and the salesman even offered me an additional percentage off because it was a floor model. I was okay with that BUT he later found one that was in a box in the back and still gave me the extra percentage off!

Of course I snatched up the deal. I used what cash we had and put the rest on our credit card. And it was sooooo much less than we would have spent had if we'd impulsively bought the one at Sears!

Wanna know the best part? I called John to coordinate delivery times while the guy was writing up my sales ticket. He told me a guy had just offered him a small freelance job that would cover the cost of the fridge. I almost started crying but instead I whispered a prayer of thanks to the One who took my concerns and gave me what I asked for: PEACE!

I share all of this because I think it's so important to share what God does for us...to give him the credit.

But it's hard too because I have so many friends who are waiting on God to intervene in their lives in similar ways. I have no formula, friends. No list of do's and don'ts. I doubt God's care for me more than I should...especially when my prayers (seemingly) go unanswered. I believe he has a time and a purpose for everything, but on days like today I just simply say "thanks".

"Smiling's My Favorite".

Last week I spent some time pulling out Christmas movies and adding others to my Blockbuster.com queue. We have lots of seasonal favorites that we love to watch every year and I thought I'd share my top ten favorites with you.

1. Elf. 
We watched this last night and I laughed just as much as I did the first and second and third and fourth time I saw it. Very funny.

2. Auntie Mame.
I guess technically this is not a Christmas movie (though there is a Christmas scene!) but it's one we watch every single year during Christmas break. One of our pastors referenced a line from this movie in a sermon last month and asked for a show of hands from those who had seen it. I was proud that all five of us had our hands in the air.

3. Miracle on 34th Street.
We like both the old and the newer version. I think the little girl in the new version is just adorable but then again, so was Natalie Wood.

4. The Nativity Story.
Beautiful.

5. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

I actually bought this last year (because it's HILARIOUS) and watched it with the kids before previewing it. There's quite a bit of language that I'd forgotten about. I think it is one of the funniest Christmas movies around but wish there was a cleaner version for families. 

6. A Christmas Story

This is another of the funniest movies around. And after watching our "VHS taped-from-television" movie for many years, I bought it on DVD only to realize that the television version had most of the language edited out. There's so many funny lines from it though. Fa-ra-ra-ra-ra. The last scene gets me every time. 

7. The Polar Express

8. Holiday Inn

Years and years and years ago, a family friend told us about this movie and it was instant love for my mom, sister, and me. I've seen it dozens of times and I still adore it. The girls watched it with me last year and I believe we launched a new tradition.

9. It's A Wonderful Life

I cannot believe we don't have this movie on DVD. That must be remedied ASAP. 

10. A Charlie Brown Christmas

I know, I know. It's not a full-length feature film but it's a MUST-SEE Christmas favorite around here. I always always always cry at the end when they sing Hark the Herald Angels Sing. 

Runners-Up:

The Bishop's Wife

Bells of St. Mary's

The Family Stone

Love Actually

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

What are some of your favorites?

Ah, Saturday

I'm not kidding when I tell you that I live for weekends. Especially during the school year and especially when they follow a busy week in December. Ah, Saturday. I love you!

Saturday morning is really the only day that I get to sleep in, and it doesn't happen with the frequency I want it to. I blame it on getting older. I seem to wake up around 5am whether I want to or not. But today? Today I slept until 8:20AM and it was glorious!!!

Our home is more quiet than normal today. Will and Sarah are at Wyldlife Snow Camp this weekend. It feels weird to only have one child at home, but let me assure you she is LOVING it. I'm pretty sure I heard shouts of joy as their bus was driving away yesterday afternoon. Her Royal Highness definitely has an agenda for the weekend.

One thing on our weekend agenda is to get our Christmas tree put up. The hard thing about traveling during Thanksgiving break is that you really don't feel like you've had a break and when you get home, BAM!, it's December whether you're ready or not. The only decoration we have out right now is our Advent wreath but that is all changing this weekend. We're going to put our tree up tomorrow afternoon but we're waiting for our campers to return before we put the ornaments on. It's a family event for us.

I was pleasantly surprised by the survey results that show I'm not the only one who doesn't have a Christmas tree up. Roughly one-third of you don't either. That makes me not feel so completely off my game. I was also surprised by the number of you (about 65%) that said "O Holy Night" is your favorite Christmas song. Wow. Only ONE respondent mentioned my favorite, "Hark the Herald Angels Sing". I'm dying to know who wants the Flowbee Haircutting System for Christmas this year. Or who it was that only wants sleep! Those two made me laugh out loud.

Moving on...

I'm sad there is no Razorback football on today but I'm NOT sad that they're going to the Sugar Bowl!!! (I guess we won't "technically" know that for a couple more days but it's looking likely. Go HOGS!) I want to watch the SEC Championship game later today and as much as it pains me I'm cheering for Auburn.

Well, the "princess" is calling and there are no siblings here to distract her so I guess that means that I must be at her beck and call today. Hope y'all have a GREAT weekend!

By the way, I said "y'all" one day this week on the way home from school and my youngest asked me to please not use that word any more. What in the world is wrong with that girl?

some schtuff and some photos

Warning: I cleared my camera's memory card the other day so this post contains lots of random pics and lots of scattered thoughts.

My friend gave me a SUPER FUN gift yesterday. A pair of fuzzy warm Glee pj pants. Aren't they cute? I nicknamed them my "gleejays" (instead of pjs) and can't wait to wear them to pajama Bunco this month! By the way, I'm loving some of the mash-ups from Glee this season--especially the Singin' in the Rain and Livin' on a Prayer ones. Wow.

Know what makes me jealous? My husband can play the piano very well. And he can play by ear. Sarah was practicing Deck The Halls last night and kept missing notes. He wasn't even paying attention to the keyboard and was telling her things like "It's D, Sarah." or "Try hitting G". Not fair.

Our library is amazing. I mentioned the cool Playaway audio books they have available but last spring I discovered another fabulous resource they offer: the Book Club Collection. Your book club selects a book to read from their lengthy list of offerings and then you reserve as many copies as you need for your group. No more buying every book we read for book club! You also get to keep them twice as long as you would a normal book. One person checks them out for the group and they come in this cool bag. I'll find out later today how much I owe for all 8 books that are now overdue. Oops.

I'm loving eating by the light of our Advent wreath this week. Tonight we're going to our church's soup supper and Advent service. I love this season so very much.

My kids found my old OBU student ID card the other day. Hilarious. Love the preppy sweater vest. I betcha I also had on khaki shorts and white Keds.

Do you remember when I planted basil seeds? It's been growing like crazy (this pic is from a month ago) and I've been cooking with it. Delicious!

The girls found these rocks in the backyard one afternoon. They thought they were so funny. And they are. They gave them to me to keep because I'm the big 4-0.

A few weeks ago, I was searching high and low for a photo to show my Bible study group. I never found the photo but I did find the medallion I got when I ran my first (and probably my last) marathon. I didn't run all 26.2 miles but I ran 7+ as part of a relay team. It was a fantastic experience and the cool part is that it was Little Rock's first ever marathon! Great memories with great friends. Love you Carol and Carol and Terry!

A couple of years ago, John bought me a Caphalon skillet from Williams-Sonoma. The non-stick coating started peeling off a few months ago and I stopped using it because I was afraid of ingesting it. John reminded me that the skillet had a lifetime warranty, so we took it back and they replaced it (NO hassle!) with a new and improved skillet. That's the best customer service I've seen in ages and I thought you should know. You get what you pay for and in this case it is quality and superb customer service!

I still want to post some pics from Thanksgiving but Blogger is giving me difficulty and I really need to get moving. Later, friends.

My Grown Up Christmas List

I feel a bit like a broken record but I'm going to ask y'all to do me a favor (again) and pretty, pretty, pretty please with sugar on top link your email and your Blogger profile.

Almost every time I post, I get comments that I want to respond to but cannot do so because the profile/email aren't linked. I suppose I could always go to your blog and respond that way (and I often do unless your blog is private or you comment but don't have a blog) but it would be so much easier if I could just hit "reply" from my inbox. 

Here are detailed instructions for how to do this. 

I'm going to go out on a limb and thank you in advance. Grin. 

A little curiosity about Christmas

Just for fun, I created another survey for y'all and this one is all about Christmas.

It only let me create 10 questions. I had sooooo many more.

It's a short and easy survey and if you're curious too, click here to take it.

Home and Happy and FULL!

Good Monday morning! It's snowy and cold here this morning and I was thinking that a delayed start to our school day would have been a nice surprise. That didn't quite work out the way I'd hoped it would though. I am thankful for some snow--we're way behind snowfall totals for this time of year.

We drove in from Arkansas on Saturday. It was nice to have yesterday to get unpacked and caught up on rest...and laundry...before we entered into the craziness of this week. My week really isn't crazy, it's just pretty full. Full of good things.

We had a perfect visit with our families over Thanksgiving. We spent the first part of the week with my family and the second half with John's. We love them so much and hate that we live so far from them, but for now this place is home and I dearly love it. Sometimes I wonder if that might change one day...only God knows.

I always feel so torn when we go to Arkansas. On one hand we feel at home in that place and it would be wonderful to live close to our family and friends there, but we also love it here in Colorado and feel very much at home. As I was sitting in church yesterday (I love Advent) I was thinking about home and all that it encompasses and I guess I decided we have the best of both worlds. To feel at home in two places is a beautiful thing.

I have much more on my mind this morning but my to-do list is calling! I'll check back in soon and I hope to post some pictures! Happy Monday. Here's to a great week!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's some of what our family is thankful for this year...

A nice home
Family and friends
Great neighbors
Dusk
Coffee
Jesus
James Michael (our new nephew/cousin)
Parents and Siblings who love me!
Dogs, rabbits, horses, butterflies, giraffes, zebras, and hippos
Teachers and school
God saving us
Wyldlife
Jack
Our church
Date Nights
Television
Food
Mountains
Snow and blizzards (because we get out of school!)
Our trampoline
Football
Creativity and imagination
People with hearts so big that they need surgery (Our friend, Katie, is having surgery next month for a heart abnormality. She has the biggest, most beautiful heart!)
Answered prayers
Books! Books! Books!
Campaigners, Confirmation, Bible study, and devotions
Music
Smart kids
Electricity
New sod in the backyard
Turkey and other foods

...and much, much more. Amen.

A Rambly Saturday

It's a happy Saturday around here!

We're cleaning and packing and getting ready to leave for Arkansas. It's crazy expensive for a family of five to fly at Thanksgiving so we're driving--and I dread the long car ride--but once we're on the road I can sit back and relax while John does the driving. Thanks, honey!

I downloaded a bunch of new stuff from iTunes to keep me occupied and our library has these cool Playaway audio books you can check out so we've each got a couple of those to take with us as well. Here's a pic of one of my playaways. You just plug your own earbuds into it and listen away. (I love this book and I've seen the movie no less than 10 times. It's one of my faves!!!)

I like leaving my house clean when we go on a trip, but I have even more incentive to leave it clean since we have someone house-sitting/pet-sitting for us. I'm pretty anal about a clean house but have had to let my standards go a bit lot since my vacuum cleaner broke last week. The motor quit and I'm sure I could have it repaired, but I don't want to. It was a cheapie vacuum to begin with. I really wanted a Dyson but we didn't have the money (we're cash people) to spend at the time so I bought a Kenmore and I've hated it ever since. I'm definitely going to buy a Dyson this time, but I'm waiting until the Black Friday sales. In the last week, I've had overnight company, a neighborhood coffee at my house, and now another houseguest on his way and my floors are being cleaned with the equivalent of a dustbuster. Shudder.

Last night, the girls and I went to see our neighbor friend's drama program. Her group performed selections from Camp Rock and it was awesome! The other groups performed selections from The Sound of Music, Oklahoma, and The Jungle Book. I LOVE MUSICALS! My parents had almost every musical soundtrack you can imagine (vinyl records) and I grew up listening to them all the time. I think I knew all the words to all the songs they sang last night--Sarah and Abbey were quite surprised when I was belting out the Oklahoma tunes on the drive home. Our kids are pretty familiar with The Sound of Music but I think over Christmas break I'm going to introduce them to some of my other favorites...Fiddler on the Roof, The Music Man, and Camelot!

I had much more stuff rambling around in my head when I sat down to blog but evidently it wasn't important enough to remember because it's gone now!  I should probably get up and switch out the last load of laundry so I can finish packing. My goal is to get it all finished by the time the Razorback game starts. Go Hogs! I'm really hoping they finish the season 10-2, and I think it's entirely possible! We're taking my laptop with us this week so maybe I'll pop in and blog. If not, I hope you all have a very happy Thanksgiving. If you're like me, you have so very much to be grateful for.

Preparation: How to Make an Advent Wreath

I'm sure it doesn't shock you all to know that I'm a planner. Planning is as natural to me as breathing. Sometimes it's good for me to let things go and be spontaneous, but most of the time I prefer to have a plan, and if I'm *really* honest, I prefer to be the one making the plan.

I've been making some plans for Advent. Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas and is a focused season of expectant waiting. As believers in Jesus, we await Christ's second coming, while remembering his first coming--as an infant in a manger. I love celebrating Advent because it shifts the focus from the commercialization of Christmas and emphasizes the underlying reason we celebrate this holy day. It's being very intentional for the four weeks leading up to Christmas instead of just a few days before.

One thing that helps us stay focused during the season is an Advent wreath. We always had one growing up, and my mom gave me one after I was married but I'm pretty sure that John used it at one of the churches he pastored and somehow it never made it back home. I didn't realize that until I decided I wanted to begin the tradition with my own family and couldn't find it!

I found some different ones for sale, but didn't love any of them so I decided to make my own. And you can too!!! Advent begins this year on Sunday, November 28, so you still have time to do this if you're interested.

Here's what you need:
4 candlesticks/holders or an Advent wreath frame (something like this)
4 candles (I'll talk about colors in a minute)
1 candle for the middle of your wreath
some kind of greenery

Here are some pics of mine:

 I use these heart-shaped candleholders that I bought at Goodwill one year for .25 each. The greenery covers them up (thankfully!)

I bought 4 taper-type candles last week at Walmart (cheap!) and I'm using a jar candle that I already had for the center of my wreath.

Traditional Advent candle colors are purple (3) and pink (1) and the center candle, which you light on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day is white. Last year I noticed that our church used blue candles, which is the modern church tradition. Purple is used throughout the season of Advent because it represents royalty and the coming of the King. Pink represents joy. It isn't always easy to find those colors this time of year so I just use what I have or can find. I think last year I used red and green. I'm such a rebel.

My greenery is a circular form that I bought one year at Michael's for about $3. Evergreen leaves symbolize everlasting life, and the nuts/seeds/cones/berries are symbols of resurrection. I love that. 

I keep our wreath in the center of our table so we can see it throughout the day and I like to put it on this round, woven placemat that I have.

I dearly love our wreath and think it's beautiful, but you know, they can be as fancy or as plain as you want them to be. I'll share some pics at the end of this post of some others I found online.

Below is a picture of our wreath from last year. On Sundays during Advent, we light a new candle and work our way around the wreath gradually (the third Sunday in Advent is when you light the odd colored candle if you have one). The gradual lighting represents the gradual coming of Light into the darkness of this world.

As we light each new candle, we read a scripture or say a prayer or sing a song--Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus and O Come, O Come Emmanuel are two of our Advent favorites. We turn out all the lights in the kitchen and let the candles illuminate our dinner table while we eat. It is a very calming and centering ritual. I love it.

We only light new candles on Sunday, but throughout the week we continue to light the same candle(s). The center candle, or the Christmas candle, is traditionally lit on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, but since we're rebels we light it in addition to the weekly candle(s) as well. It just looks so pretty! And smells sooooo good. 

Here is a fantastic link I found that explains better than I could how to use an Advent wreath. It even has suggested reading for each week. 

Here is a link to a post I wrote about Advent last year and it has links to lots of other resources, and here is a link to a fun and easy Advent calendar you can make. 

Honestly, I just love this season and I want everyone to love it and celebrate it too! Being intentional requires some preparation...and I hope in some small way this post will be a starting point for you if you've ever been curious about Advent or if you'd like to try to make an Advent wreath for the first time.

Oh and here are the pics of some others I found online. Let your creativity spur you on!

(Love this one in the wooden bowl!)

Just Ducky

Our middle child, Sarah, is probably our most artistic child. If she isn't reading, then she's usually creating something or dreaming up something she'd like to make.

A couple of weekends ago she asked me for some duck tape. But she didn't want just any old silver/gray duck tape, she wanted the bright, colorful kind like she'd seen at our last visit to the craft store. 

John offered to take her on a quest to find some and they came home with three rolls. She borrowed my laptop, googled "duck tape wallet", found a tutorial, watched it twice, and then whipped out wallets for herself, her sister, and her friends. Ta-da.

(I blurred out all the "personalization" so that's why the peace pattern looks weird.)

Here's a pic of the inside...she figured out how to make dividers and pockets. Smart girl.

And then she made bracelets and a case for her cell phone.

She had enough duck tape left for a pink purse.

And then because I'm a huge believer in encouraging kids' creativity, I bought her some MORE fun duck tape and she cranked out more wallets to sell to her friends (she has some entrepreneur mixed in with all the imagination!) and another couple of purses. 

She did every single bit of this all by herself.

Creating isn't just fun for her, it's a craving. Right now she's in the other room doing cross-stitch with some stuff she found in my closet. At least twice a week she makes something awesome with polymer clay and asks me to bake her creations. She took a sewing class a couple of months ago and got bitten by that bug as well. She's always drawing or designing or creating something. Anything. 

Can I just tell you how much I love it? She's never asked for a video game in her life; her favorite place to shop is Michael's or Hobby Lobby. Her Christmas wish list includes fabric and more art supplies. Makes this mama happy!

I love her creative mind!!! She inspires me. 

Ready, Set, Go!

I'm giving myself 10 or 15 minutes to sit here and write somethin' so here goes...

John and I went on a date last night. One of his favorite writers was reading and speaking at The Tattered Cover bookstore in Denver so we went. I love LoDo and 16th Street Mall. We grabbed some dinner beforehand (Mellow Mushroom...yummmmmmm!) and had a fun evening together. I think dates are so important!

The last time we were down that way was in late July and I was still in a lot of pain from my hip flexor injury. I was reminded again how thankful I am that I'm back to normal these days. Two of my hiking friends are nursing injuries and I'm trying to tell them (they're not listening very well) how important rest is to rehabilitation!

Today has been a good day and expensive day. John worked from home so I could use his wheels while my van was in the shop. A chunk of change later and Minnie-the-van has new brakes and pads. I also got my hair cut and highlighted. Cha-ching! I only go once every 3-4 months but it's sooooooo worth it to me. There's not much that a good haircut can't fix.

I've been doing some Advent planning. I'm working on a post about Advent wreaths and how simple they are to put together and use...but that will have to wait until another day. And if any of you writers or wanna-bes need a topic for a book, let me suggest an Advent resource book. There is practically nothing out there on that topic. Believe me, I've searched high and low for something useful and have found next to nothing.

I actually woke up super early this morning (the hour hand was still on the 4--ugh) and am afraid I'm going to need a nap if I'm going to stay awake for my Girl's Night Out later. So excited to have two nights in a row off from dinner duty!!!

We're traveling next week for Thanksgiving. I'm excited to see my family, especially my new little nephew and our kids are beyond excited to meet him!

My time is up. Peace out, ya'll!

Giveaway Winner

Using a highly unscientific method (I asked John to pick a number between 1 and 26), the winner of the autographed copy of Touching Wonder is #4:

Liz

John and I started laughing when we realized it was Liz because she is a friend of mine and her brother was John's roommate in college and lived across the street from us for several years in Arkansas. Today is Liz' mom's birthday (Happy Birthday, Nancy!) and she said that this book would make a great gift for her.

I'll get it in the mail to you in the morning, Liz! Congrats.

For those of you who didn't win, Touching Wonder is on sale at Amazon for only $5.20!

Confessions of a Twitter Quitter: Why I Pulled the Plug

I mentioned earlier this week that I deleted my Twitter account. Several people have asked me if I would share why, and I thought it would be easier to just answer everyone here.

Please know that these are MY reasons. Lots of people love Twitter and I'm not out to try to change that. I'm just sharing my thoughts and my personal experience with it. If you have no idea what Twitter is then you should probably just skip this post altogether! (smile)

Here goes:

1. I really don't care what everyone is doing every minute of the day. I really, really don't. 
And I have a hard time believing that people care what I'm doing either. I don't care what the temperature where you live is or what kind of coffee you're trying today or what you're eating for lunch or what your agenda for the day is. I really don't.

2. I felt like Twitter had such a needy vibe (see #1). 
Hey, look at what I'm doing! Hey, look at what I've accomplished! Hey, look where I am going and how cool my life is! Hey, look at who I am and what I can do. SEE me. VALIDATE me. Me. Me. Me.

I'm guilty of all of the above. I've done it blatantly and unashamedly. I've done it with absolutely no agenda but also with a need to garner attention. I like attention and have an unhealthy obsession with myself. Guilty as charged. But you know what? It began to get really, really old. I felt like I was spending more time tweeting about my life than actually living it. And that's not what I want to be about. It was a waste of my time and energy and purpose.

I have a good idea of what God has called me to do in this season of my life and I don't need validation from anyone other than Him when I'm doing it. Sure, it's nice when others validate us but Twitter just felt like a place where validation from others was openly solicited and I didn't like how that made me feel.

3. It's "noisy" and addictive.  
It seems like more and more people are losing the ability to just "be". Sometimes being alone with my thoughts is scary and things surface that I don't really want to deal with, so I keep myself busy...every moment...with things like Twitter and Facebook or television or tasks or conversations or some other kind of "noise"--basically anything that allows that which lurks beneath the surface of my heart to stay pushed down. Twitter was a fabulous diversion and a ginormous and addictive time-suck. So many times I'd ask myself if I didn't care what all these people were doing all day long, then WHY in the world did I just spend thirty minutes reading people's tweets?

4. It brought out a side of me that I don't like.
Snarky. Judgmental. Mean. Twitter seemed to bring out the very worst in me. Here's an example or two.

I might read a tweet that said: Long awaited date night with my husband. Woohoo! And then that person would proceed to tweet the details of their date continually throughout the evening. Know what I'd find myself doing? Rolling my eyes and making snarky comments under my breath. It took great restraint not to reply: Yeah, how's your husband enjoying the date night you're sharing with him and all of your Twitter followers??? How's that working for him?

I would also tend to judge people based on their Twitter activity. Wow, that person must really like to hear himself talk or wow, she's really addicted to the computer/smartphone because she's posting on here all the freakin' time. See? Snarky, judgmental, and mean! Those aren't the truest things about me, so why in the world would I ever want to pursue something that caused those things to surface? It just created a very unhealthy pattern of thinking and I don't need or desire that.

The bottom line here? Nothing Twitter has to offer is life-giving for me. So on impulse, I yanked the plug.

It's been exactly one week since I (permanently) deleted my account. Have I missed it? Nope. Not one bit. The surprising result??? My mind feels so uncluttered and free!

Some of you may be wondering if I knew that I didn't have to follow people on Twitter that annoyed me. Yes, I did know that and yes, I did unfollow people but that didn't solve the entire issue of how Twitter affected me.

Others might wonder if Facebook stirs up the same stuff for me. Yes and no. I definitely use the "hide" feature when I feel the snarky stuff start to surface. I'm not as inclined to follow suit and disconnect from Facebook though because it has been such a positive tool in reconnecting with some very old and dear friends.

Soooooooo...that's the long and short  of it. And again, my purpose in writing this isn't to bash Twitter or those of you who use it. There are lots of good folks on there and lots of good things about it, but I've come to realize that it just isn't good for me. 

10 on the 10th

I made a swift and executive decision about the 10-on-the-10th last night while I was racking my brain for some kind of list that wouldn't bore both of us. The decision is that this will be the END of 10-on-the-10th.

Honestly, I'm just bored with it. Sure, it's fun, but it's also takes up mental space and time that I could be giving to other things. I may pop in from time to time on the 10th of the month with a post of 10 things, but it won't be a regular thing with a linky. 

That being said, here's my list.

10 Nuggets of Wisdom I've Learned in my 40 years

1. Don't procrastinate. 

2. You don't have to like everyone. 

3. Life isn't fair.

4. Guilt is never a good reason to do anything.

5. I'm stronger than I know.

6. Honesty is always the best policy.

7. As much as I want to be friends with everyone, I can't. I do best with a small few.

8. It really is the little things.

9. Give it away. 

10. There is nothing you can ever do to make God love you less, and there is nothing you can ever do to make God love you more.

Wanna add your wisdom to the list?

If you want to link up, you know the drill. I'll be by to read your posts as soon as I can. Today and tomorrow are BUSY!!! It's been fun, y'all.

Lazy and Discombobulated and a Giveaway.

Today is my Monday. The kids were out of school yesterday for a teacher work day and it was super nice to have an extra day at home with them. I asked them what they wanted to do yesterday and they said, "Nothing." That worked out nicely for me because that's exactly what I wanted to do! Win-Win!

I love three day weekends, but I've decided that I much prefer my extra day to be on Friday. When it falls on a Monday I spend the rest of the week trying to get my brain to remember the correct order of things I'm supposed to be doing and I end up feeling so discombobulated. I really like that word, just not the feelings associated with it. 

Moving on.

I closed my Twitter account over the weekend. A couple of (very observant) friends noticed right away and emailed me to ask why. I have lots of reasons...none of which can be shared without sounding snarky or condescending. It all goes back to that statement I made not long ago about believing there is such a thing as being "too plugged in." I pulled yanked the plug on Saturday and haven't had a single regret. 

Did I mention it's supposed to snow this week? Yep. I think I'm finally ready. 

Have I mentioned that I have the best neighbors? Yep, I do.

Could someone explain to me how we got to November NINTH so quickly? Wow. This month is fah-LYING. I was trying to get some scheduling stuff figured out yesterday and realized that we only have two more Sundays before it's Advent. Wowza. I am not ready.

Speaking of Advent...

I have a great book to get your heart and mind engaged during the Christmas season.

I know I'm a tiny bit biased, but I truly believe it is THE BEST Christmas/Advent devotional book in the world.

And...

I'm giving a signed copy away to one lucky reader.

If you want to be entered in my drawing for this book, leave me a comment. You can tell me what you're most looking forward to about Christmas this year, one of your favorite Christmas traditions, one of your favorite Christmas carols or foods, or you could suggest a topic for tomorrow's 10-on-the-10th post. Just don't comment and tell me that you've finished your Christmas shopping because that would stir up all sorts of jealous and competitive feelings in me, and then I'd probably have to work doubly hard to NOT draw your name. ;)

I'll randomly choose a winner next Monday, November 15. I know lots of you already have this book but you can still enter to win; I'm sure you know someone who would love to read it! So, good luck, and peace out.

The Top Five

The top five things I'm thankful for today...

1. John will be home soon! Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock.
He's been in San Diego since Monday. I've probably said it umpteen bajillion times before, but neither of us is our best when we're apart. Traveling is a necessary part of J's job but we're both happiest when we're together.

2. Coffee. Coffee. Coffee.
I sleep very little when John is gone. And by very little, I mean a few hours each night. I'm so thankful for coffee to keep me going because I am a walking zombie without it. I'm afraid to tell you how many cups I've had each morning this week. Your productivity level soars when you begin your day at 4am with massive amounts of caffeine. Just sayin'.

3. Our gorgeous weather.
This is the first time in the 7+ years we've lived here that we didn't see snow in the month of October. We've had some cold days and we've begun to dip into the teens and twenties at night BUT this is the mildest fall we've had in ages. I am not complaining one bit. I like snow but I'd love for it to hold off a little longer! Our winters are long.

4. I have the whole day at home!
I think I'm going to finish up the few things on my list I didn't get done between the hours of 4-7am (ha!) and then read. I have three books beside my bed: The Hunger Games, The Heretic's Daughter, and The Namesake. I can't decide which to read first. Suggestions? Of course if I sit down to read, chances are good that my eyes will close and I'll be able to nap. If the caffeine wears off.

5. A date with my favorite 8-year-old girl tonight.
We have big plans to shop for things to fill her shoebox for Operation Christmas Child. She's also requested an ice cream stop. I just can't say no to her sweet little freckled face so that's on the list for tonight too!

Hope your Thursday is off to a great start!

Our Thankful Turkey Centerpiece

Yesterday I mentioned that I was thinking of changing our traditional Thankful Chain up a bit. Typically, I keep strips of cardstock in a basket and every night during the month of November we each write something we're thankful for on a strip then staple them together making a simple chain. The chain usually stays up in the kitchen (over the curtain rod, across the top of the kitchen cabinets, etc) throughout the year as a reminder of all that we have to be grateful for. One year I even used our thankful chain as a last-minute Thanksgiving centerpiece! I save and hang all of our old chains downstairs in the basement on a coat rack. It's quite a sight.

The thankful chain is a great idea, but I wasn't feeling the love for it this year.

I started looking for ideas along the same lines and found this turkey. Instead of writing on strips you write the things you're thankful for on the turkey "feathers".

 It's cute...but I didn't have any yarn on hand.

So, I brainstormed a little.

I have a grapevine pumpkin on my kitchen table that I won in a gift swap at a friend's Fall Party last year and I knew I could make it work as the body of a turkey thanks to our beloved Mr. Turkey. If you click that link, prepare yourself. I got a little teary-eyed because my kids were sooooo little in that picture. 

I pulled out my Silhouette and used the curve shape tool to design and cut some feathers--large and small. Please don't ask me how exactly I did it because I can't remember. If you want me to email you my Silhouette feather file, I'll happily share. 

I taped toothpicks to the back of the feathers so we could stick them down in the grapevine pumpkin.

Next, I downloaded a turkey body from the Silhouette store, cut it out, then used glue dots (I'm a huge fan of glue dots) to secure it to my grapevine pumpkin.

Voila!--our Thankful Turkey centerpiece. I LOVE it!

I cut 40 "feathers" to use throughout the month, but I decided today that I'm going to cut 40 more and use double-sided tape to adhere them to the back, covering up the tape/toothpick. That way we can write on each side of the feather and the back and sides of the turkey will have some interest as well. I'm so pleased with how it turned out! I need to write on one of the feathers that I'm thankful for my Silhouette!

Misc-o-random thoughts on a dark Tuesday morning

I am soooooooooooo ready for the time to change this weekend. It's just wrong to drive your kids to school while it's dark and the streetlights are still on. Not only that but it's super hard for me to wake up when it's so dark outside. Yesterday, John woke me up at 7:45AM. On a school day. I never sleep that late on school days. I completely slept through Will and Sarah leaving for school. I never do that either. I blame the darkness...and the rain.

I got all of our Halloween stuff put away yesterday. Halloween is one holiday that I'm usually more than ready to pack away. Will and Sarah still have one more outing that they need their costumes for (kinda weird after Halloween is over) so I didn't pack those away, nor did I pack away our pumpkins. They transition nicely into November, don't you think?

I wish I could have packed the candy away (aka thrown it all out) as well. I'm not tempted by it (unless it's Bit-o-Honey or Hot Tamales and my kids didn't get any of those), but my kids are certainly tempted by it. We're only a few days into the begging/pleading/whining for candy, but it's making me crazy. Will's 8th grade team partnered with a local dentist in a candy buy back program. Will told me he was opting out of that. Sigh.

I'm actually on my third day of no sugar. I'm joining Megan again this year and fasting from it until Thanksgiving. I'm still in the detox phase and it's hard, but I know how much better I feel when it isn't in my system so I'm persevering. Let me re-iterate what a good thing it is that no one in our neighborhood handed out Hot Tamales or Bit-o-Honey.

Confession #1: It's shameful how much I love Fantasy Football. I'm afraid I'm hopelessly addicted and know more stats about professional football players than I ever dreamed imaginable.

Confession #2: I'm about to give up on Glee. I'm two episodes behind and I'm not loving the storyline or the direction it seems to be going. They're definitely pushing "my" envelope.

Anyone else happy it's November? I think it's my favorite month that ends in "er". November is a nice change of pace between the busy months of October and December! I usually try to start our family's Thankful Chain on November 1, but yesterday I decided to change it up a bit. I'll share more about that soon.

Parenting is hard. Parenting teenagers is hard. Certain things in my little world are changing and I'm not sure I love it. It's another post for another time though. I have to let my heart catch up before I can begin to write about it.

I must get this day started. I'm going to vote, run errands, have lunch with two beautiful friends, run the crazy afternoon carpool, and hopefully find some time in between all of that to do some laundry. We'll see. I'm pretty sure the laundry will still be there tomorrow.

Peace out, peeps.

A fun, full, and exhausting Halloweekend

Halloween movie party | Halloween tie-dye | Booing our neighbors | Sleeping in Saturday & Sunday | Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins | Friends | Hayride | Carnival at church | Sick child 100% better | Trick-or-Treating downtown | Dinner out with the family! | a Razorback win | Trick-or-Treating with friends | Fantasy football | PERFECT weather | An impromptu pizza party for six hungry, teenage boys | Not nearly enough rest, but LOADS of fun! |