Being Thankful

It seems to be a tradition of ours that for one Family Home Evening during the month of November, we write some of the things we are thankful for on some paper leaves.  This year I had the kids cut out their own leaves, and everyone wrote their own.  A couple of kindergartners needed some help with spelling, but not bad, eh?

Some of the things we are thankful for are: our limbs, cats, food, phones, teachers, lights, sisters, school, money, homework (that was Ryan), family, pigs, hospitals, egg nog, and dishwashers.

Graffiti

We actually have quite a lot of paper here at home.  In spite of this fact, I find writing on the strangest of surfaces.

There's this story we like to tell guests.  Once upon a time, Emma learned how to write her name.  The little darling was about 4-years-old.  One day she found a Sharpie and scrawled her name in bold letters across Elizabeth's naked chest.  Then she proceeded to tell me how Elizabeth had done it to herself, but being the smart parent that I am, I knew it had really been Emma's doing.

I think someone was trying to throw me off the scent.  Those twins of mine are pretty smart cookies.  It's a shame it doesn't actually look like Emma's handwriting.

Left-overs

Today after church we were scrambling to find food for our hungry stomachs.  The kids were going for the left-overs stacked in the fridge.  Maddie and Elizabeth decided to have some pizza from last night.  Emma asked if she could have stuffing and gravy for lunch.  I laughed, and told her, "Sure.  But that's not a complete meal."

Emma looked aghast.  "But Mom.  Stuffing and gravy are two of the major food groups!"

I shook my head.  "No.  If stuffing and gravy are major food groups, then you've missed chocolate."

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This morning's duties included finish coloring Annie's picture while she ate breakfast so she could take it for show and tell, and dragging all the blankets off Elizabeth's bed to motivate her to get up. Happy Friday!

"No, I am not going to let you read that new book I promised. You ate my chocolate truffles, so that makes us even." Christ-like parenting here, folks.

I could have used Gandolf's help today. I needed someone to say, "YOU SHALL NOT PASS into the living room while the paint is still wet."

There is nothing quite as "fun" as chasing escapee chickens back into the coop. Through rows of corn. And the neighbor's yard.

It makes me quite happy to see a mouse in the clutches of our cat.

After a day of sore throats, fever, rash, doctor visits, and sad kids, we ended the evening with antibiotics and Return of the Jedi. Here's hoping for a healthier tomorrow.

Since Ryan is doing his Administrator Internship this year, he gets the opportunity to "substitute" as a principal at other schools for experience. Yesterday he was at Annie and Maddie's school, and they came home from school yesterday full of "My dad was my principal at my school today!" and, "Daddy went down the slide at recess!" and, "I saw Daddy at lunch!" It was really cute.

As today is a teacher in-service day, we have friends over. It's cracking me up to listen to them all compare naughty students in their classes. This is a conversation that kindergarteners, elementary, and middle schoolers can all participate. Apparently if your name is Isaiah, you are predisposed for mischief.

Yesterday's quotable- "I was drawing a picture of mommy, but it didn't turn out. So I made it into a picture of daddy."

You really do have to teach your kids EVERYTHING. Tonight's lesson- we don't share used band-aids.

Turkey Preview

A few weeks ago, we had 14 turkeys alive and well.  Ryan sold four of the turkey chicks to someone at school, still leaving us with 10.  That's not even bothering to count our chickens.  I've been telling Ryan that we should reduce our poultry population, and today, he finally had time to do it.

 Catching turkeys is hard work.

 After the birds were butchered, they were scalded in a trash can full of hot water.

Because we are classy like that, yo.  I helped take the feathers off.  

Ryan gave the younger three girls a biology lesson while he was removing the guts.  This is as close as I could get.  I have yet to faint at the sight of blood and guts, but I've gotten so I can't see anything and my ears ring.  I'm getting better.  I only get trembly and shaky now.

Yesterday, I cooked up one of the 4 turkeys for dinner.  It looks awfully skinny compared to the birds we buy at the store for Thanksgiving.

But it tasted delicious, and it gave me an excuse to make stuffing and homemade cranberry sauce.  Yum.

Painting

I've wanted to paint the inside of our house for a while.  The current paint on the walls is a flat finish, and that stuff does not wash.  I can scrub the paint off the walls before the sticky fingerprints and other messes come off.  Talk about frustrating.  I picked up some of those paint sample cards, and I left them tucked under pictures and left on the wall for a couple of weeks to decide what colors we liked best.  Modest Silver was the winner, and I went to Lowes and bought two gallons.

It was not grey, like I thought it would be.  

It was purple.

Well, it was purple for about 75% of the day.  In the early morning light, it was a lovely shade of light gray like I thought it should be.  But by afternoon, and especially in the evening when we turned on the lights, it was totally purple.  We left it on the walls all weekend, hoping it would fade or cure better, but no luck.

When we compared the walls and the paint in the can to to sample card, the paint was more purple than it should have been.  I was pretty mad.  All that work.....

Monday, we went back to Lowes.  Lowes was gracious, after awhile, and refunded us our money.  We looked at all of their greys, and with this new undertone revelation of ours, we decided they didn't have a single grey without a major undertone.  So, we went back to the beige-y standby, this one called Vanilla Steam.  It's much better.  We also grabbed some paint for the front door, and some white for baseboard touch ups.

So, our walls are well-coated in semi-gloss paint.  The front room and kitchen have been painted (and it washes!!!!), and I am working up the courage to do the family room and the kids hallway.  In the meantime, I painted the front door:

This is what it looked like, with me on my knees in some old and ugly sweats, when our neighbor Dan dropped by to borrow some eggs.

New Dresses

I've noticed how rough it is on siblings when it is someone else's birthday.  To keep the tears to a minimum, I usually find something small for the others.  This year, at Annie and Maddie's birthday I threw that all out the window.  The girls all got new Christmas dresses, and they all wore their new dresses to church today.

This picture also gives a sneak peak at a project I started on.  I started painting!  More on that soon.

Farm Life

I don't much care for seeing mice around here.  I know we live in the country, and I know rodents are a fact of life.  I just don't like seeing evidence of their existence.  However, seeing one of our two cats doing their duty pleases me.

So, today I saw that Merlin had caught a mouse, and was slowly torturing it to death.  Along came momma turkey and her 7 turkey chicks.  (The turkey chicks were born a couple of months ago and have been wandering our yard ever since.  This is the first batch set by the momma turkey, and not incubated by Ryan.)  Merlin and Emrys have a healthy respect for momma turkey, and when Merlin saw them come around, she dropped her mouse and ran away.  I was just about ready to give Ryan a piece of my mind about his darn turkeys keeping my cats from doing their job, when two of the turkey chicks resumed torturing the mouse to death.  One turkey would peck at the mouse, pick it up by the tail, and then run around the driveway being chased by another turkey who wanted his turn.

It was kind of interesting to watch.

In the end, the dead mouse was left on the driveway.

Ew.

Annie and Maddie turn 6

Something happened over night.  Suddenly my two 5-year-olds became 6-year-olds.  Annie and Maddie have been counting down for the past month or so.  They knew that Halloween was coming, and that their birthdays are "three days after Halloween."  They told everyone.  We had lots of opportunities for math.  "What's 7 days plus three more days?"

The girls went to school very excited for their birthdays.  Our district does not allow home baked goods, so they took Oreos to school to share.  

As it turns out, Annie's teacher totally forgot Annie's birthday.  Annie was very perturbed over this.  It was all she could talk about when she got home for a while.  (We had to wait until Dad got home before opening presents.)

Luckily, the girls got some birthday wishes over the phone while they were waiting.

Present time!

 Annie and Maddie were quite excited over their Elsa and Anna dolls.

After a dinner of crepes, it was cake time.

 I think Annie and Maddie were attempting to mimic their cupcake smash from birthday numero uno.

Happy birthday, my girlies.

Happy Halloween

Once the kids got home, there was candy and excitement and a race to get dressed up.

 I know this is kind of a random shot (thanks, Ryan) but I realized this was only the picture that really showed Maddie's Elsa braid.  And my fancy hair too.

 Annie- angel, Maddie- Queen Elsa, Emma- a Studio C shoulder angel, Elizabeth- vampire

 The neighbor goats were really intent on watching us take pictures.

 If you are unfamiliar with Studio C, it's a comedy sketch group that's family friendly and a favorite around here.  Do yourself a favor and look them up on YouTube.  I was kind of bummed that Emma chose to be a shoulder angel, because that was my first pick.  Emma spent the evening jumping into spot and saying, "Poof!"

 Ryan was a good sport and allowed Emma to do the correct shoulder angel pose.

 I wore a dress my grandma made years and years ago.  It's a copy of a dress that she found in a family history picture from the 1860s.  I wore it when I was Amy in the Little Women play back in high school.  It was hilarious to watch, I'm sure, me get my skirt and wedding petticoat into the van and under the steering wheel.  Ryan is getting more use out of that awful mullet wig.

 Kendra, Emma, Kylie, Maddie and Annie.

 Maddie and Jane

 Elijah, Elizabeth, Noah, Annie, Maddie, and Kennedy

 Cake walk

Ryan got to hang out at the bishopric carnival booth after dinner.  If the kids could toss a penny into a glass, they could take the glass home.

After the carnival, it was time for the trunk or treat in the parking lot.

Happy Halloween!