Thankfulness 2013 - Baking

I am sitting in our cozy "library" sipping tea while Jenna reads on the futon behind me.  It is snowing outside.  Our guests for Thanksgiving should be on their way to our home.  I am glowing, I'm sure of it!  How often does it happen that I am COMPLETELY ready for guests?  This is awesome!

I spent the morning baking pies and cookies, and now the house smells of cinnamon and ginger. 

Apple Crumb Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Gingersnaps

 

I did a few errands, and got home just in time to meet the girls' bus.  They got out of school 2 hours early today, and don't go back until next Tuesday, as our school district takes the first day of Deer Season as a holiday.

I am extremely thankful for this down time before our family arrives and the cooking and chaos starts in earnest.

I was also thankful to learn that my repeat mammograms, which were slightly abnormal in May, look OK now (even though the process left me somewhat sore!)

Thankfulness 2013 - Canning

All those root crops that I brought in a few weeks ago, have been in bags in the refrigerator, waiting for me to do something with them.  We have eaten a few potatoes, and plan to eat a lot more in a couple of days.  I realized yesterday, that I needed to get them out of there in order to make room for a turkey and a couple of pies!

Yesterday I peeled, chopped, blanched and froze the parsnips.  Today I cooked, peeled, chopped, pickled and canned the red beets.  I also cut up, peeled and cooked the pumpkin from our garden, I just need to mash it up to be ready to bake into pies tomorrow.

 

It is a lot of work, but I get a lot of satisfaction out of eating things that I have tended from seed to table.

Tonight I am thankful that we have SO MUCH fruit, vegetables and meat put up for the next few months.

J is feeling better, and is heading to school tomorrow as long as there is no snow day.

Stella puppy, however, is one sick dog.  She has been vomiting all day...I've never seen so much stuff come out of such a small dog who hasn't eaten for 24 hours!  She had to get another bath tonight, and I've been mopping and washing dog beds and towels all evening.

Sigh.  I think I'm done for the evening.  Even if I'm not finished...I'm DONE!

Thankfulness 2013 - 2nd Grade

I spent a couple of hours this afternoon in L's 2nd Grade classroom.  Her teacher asked me to read a book to the class and do an activity.  I chose one of our favorite books (we have SO MANY favorite books!), Too Many Pumpkins, by Linda White.

I saved pumpkin seeds from the 2 jack-o-lanterns that we made, as well as a couple of acorn squashes that we recently ate.  I searched on line and found an example of artwork using colored pumpkin seeds as leaves in a picture.  Last night I spent about half and hour dying pumpkin and squash seeds red, orange, yellow and brown.  I passed around hand fulls to the children, who used them to fashion a variety of colorful pictures.

 

The kids were delightful - attentive, interested and involved.  L repeatedly snuck up behind me and hugged me.  I had a great time, and I think they did too!

Poor J stayed home on the couch, watching movies with Grandmom.  She is feeling MUCH better this evening - even ate a little bit of applesauce and rice (her first solid food since Sunday breakfast.)  Her temp was still up a little, and her belly still seems to be a bit tender.  We will see how she feels in the morning and decide about school for tomorrow.

I am thankful this evening, for the fact that J is improved.

I continue to be amazed and thankful that both girls have adapted so well from cyber school to public school, and they continue to enjoy themselves there.

Thankfulness 2013 - Ice

It was COLD outside today, and the weather reports are calling for even colder temps overnight, as well as 2-6 inches of snow Tuesday night - just in time for Thanksgiving traffic!

JP and I had to check and change the chicken's water several times during the day, as it had the propensity to become solid quite quickly.

J and her friends got very little sleep last night.  Once everyone had left, she complained of being cold and not feeling very well.  The thermometer confirmed that she was running a fever.  She slept for several hours in the afternoon, and spent the evening lying on the couch with a bucket.

Once again, I am thankful for the outdoor wood burner, which keeps the house toasty and keeps the mess outside.

I am also thankful that J's party went so well.  Now we are just hoping for a speedy recovery for her!

Thankfulness 2013 - J Bird

Today was J's long awaited Birthday party.  The theme was Secret Agent/Spy.  The guests were welcomed to the house by this:

 

They worked on a decoding a series of spy related words, before I set them loose on the scavenger hunt for their gift bags.  The first clue was a sheet of vellum that when matched up over a certain page in a certain Harry Potter book outlined the message "This clue is laid where fowl play happens."  The second clue (in Pig-Latin, since I don't know Chicken-Latin) was in an Easter egg in the chicken house.  It read "Find this clue where babies rock."  The third clue (in the tree house) had a riddle that led them to the tractor in the barn, where they had to decipher a code, which told them "Dear Spies, Find me near the big water."  The final clue was taped to the side of the pool, and written in mirror image, telling them "If you traverse the laser beams, you will find the prize."

Here are the laser beams, which Lauren helped me activate this afternoon.  The goodie bags are all the way at the back!

We tried to make it a little bit difficult!


After dinner, and the arrival of the final guest, it was time for cake and presents.  This year, J chose a Smore's Ice Cream Cake from Cook's Country.  It has a baked graham cracker crust followed by a layer of chocolate fudge, then marshmallow cream, then chocolate ice cream (I used chocolate peanut butter swirl).  I added another layer of chocolate fudge on the top.  Halved marshmallows are the crowning glory, and the whole thing spends less than a minute under the broiler to make them squishy and golden brown.  I have to say that the whole concoction was not overly memorable.


J opened her presents, and will be taking a shopping trip soon, based on the amount of cash and gift cards she received!



The girls headed back downstairs to play "Defuse the Bomb", where I tied black balloons to their ankles, and they tried to step on and pop each other's balloons.  **I'll try to add a video here if I can get it edited.**

After they were clad in jammies, they snuggled up to watch "The Spy
Next Door."

Right now, I am thankful that the ruckus has calmed to what sounds like 2 voices fighting sleep downstairs.

I am also thankful for my beautiful daughter, who was much wished for, and has been a delightful addition to our family.  Although she is beginning to reach that very trying tween age, she is *usually* lovely, polite, intelligent and inquisitive.  I sat outside her practice room during voice lessons on Friday afternoon, and marvelled at her beautiful voice as well!

Enjoy the pictures!

Thankfulness 2013 - Numero Uno

I keep meaning to revisit my yearly November Thankfulness posts, but *my goodness* time is getting away from me this year!  I just realized a couple of days ago that next week is ACTUALLY Thanksgiving!  I have begun my planning and preparation for the feasting, but we have quite a lot going on even before that happens.

For example, J is having her Birthday party tomorrow evening into Sunday AM (it's a sleepover party.)  She decided, just last week, that she wanted the theme of her party to be Spies or Secret Agents.  This week I did some last minute web searching, and got a few fun ideas for games, etc.  However, I still need to put together 4 or 5 good clues for a Secret Agent scavenger hunt which will eventually lead the girls to their gift bags.

Today, L's class put on a Thanksgiving play for the entire 2nd grade, and for the parents.  She played the part of Sarah Josepha Hale, the woman who fought for 38 years to have Thanksgiving become a national holiday.  The kids all did a marvelous job, even though L at least, was terribly nervous ahead of time.

On Monday, I will be reading a book and doing a craft with L's class AND taking the van in for an alignment.  Next Wednesday, I will have my repeat Mammograms, since they were abnormal 6 months ago.  Wednesday evening, JP's sister and crew will arrive for the feasting!

As I was folding the laundry this evening, I was thinking about how lucky my girls are to get NEW clothes.  When I was growing up, most of my clothes were hand-me-downs from my older cousins, or thrift store finds.  While the girls still receive some second hand clothes from their friends, and we find a few things here and there at the thrift stores, most of their clothes (especially for J, the oldest) are new.  I am extremely thankful that we have the means to be comfortable, and not have to worry too much about making ends meet (although, as a born and bred Mennonite, I have thriftiness in my blood!)

JP fired up the outdoor wood burner this evening.  He is trying to get the floor warmed up downstairs with the radiant heat before the sleepover tomorrow night.  As of an hour or so ago, we are running on all wood heated water!  The temperatures are supposed to drop precipitously tonight, and stay low for quite some time, so the fires in the wood stove mornings and evenings will no longer quite be enough.  I am thankful for the work that Dad and JP do during the year to make wood available to feed our fires and keep the house toasty warm all winter long. 

One of my girl friends texted this evening that her middle child, who is only 5, fell and required stitches on her chin tonight.  It sounds as though her Emergency Room visit was rather short, although stressful (what 5 year old does well with getting stitches in her face?)  I realized that I have NEVER taken one of my children to the ER (knock on wood.)  Although we have had some medical issues and even minor surgeries for both of the girls, I am so thankful that we've never had to make an emergency visit to the ER for stitches or casts or surgery!

I am in the middle of making J's Birthday cake, a Smore's Ice Cream Cake.  Every layer has to be spread and then frozen before continuing.  I have 3 layers down, and 2 to go.  Those will happen tomorrow.  At this very moment, I am thankful that my back and hip are feeling better so that lying down and getting comfortable in bed are no longer excruciating.  That being said, I'm going to bed.  G'night.

Pale

I had to BUY eggs today for the first time in about 3 years!  The production of our 18 hens has been PATHETIC for most of the past 2 months, and I have gradually sold fewer and fewer at the Farmer's Market.  I haven't sold any there for over a month now.  For the past 2 weeks, I haven't even had enough to give a dozen to my parents now and then.  We have fewer than 1 dozen of our own eggs in our possession at any one time.  I'm so disgusted with those stupid chickens!

JP threatens to butcher them all so that we can at least have the meat.  Otherwise, we will continue to incur the expense of feeding them all winter long with no pay back.  Ugh.  I'm not ready to butcher and process a dozen or eighteen more hens!

I'm pretty disgusted with my youngest daughter right now as well.  L had a bad afternoon/evening.  She is so OCD about coloring (I hear stories that
she is spending recesses catching up on her coloring work), that it took her more than an hour this evening to color a picture of an ear of Indian Corn despite continual encouragement to move things along.    Following the coloring fiasco, in which she did not accomplish the things that she was SUPPOSED to do (like set the table and practice piano), she proceeded to scream and cry for the next 2 1/2 hours.  Some of that is because she wanted to practice piano BEFORE she ate dinner, and part was because she didn't "know how" to practice piano AFTER dinner, and the rest is because I sent her to bed early WITHOUT practicing piano and without a story.  Not only that, she broke (I'm pretty sure it wasn't an accident) her sister's birthday balloon that I brought home today, AND I caught her reading with a flashlight almost an hour after she was sent to bed early.

SIGH.  I did not manage to control my temper throughout this entire night, which I'm sure didn't help matters.  I feel only slightly better knowing that JP wasn't able to either.  The problem is, this child gets herself worked up to a point where any smidgen of rationality is completely gone.  Where talking doesn't work, and where the only thing that seems to get through is corporal punishment (and that only minimally.)  She is going to be a MESS in the morning.

I always feel slightly queasy after one of these terrible episodes with the kids.  I question my ability to raise children, and I eat WAY too much chocolate.  I am always broadsided by L's outbursts because it is such a Jekyll and Hyde transformation.  She goes from my sweet, loving, and mild-mannered little girl, to a screaming, spitting, and kicking monster. 

All this to say that I am feeling rather as pale as those store bought eggs this evening.  I think I'll go lie down!