Thanksgiving

We had a nice meal with 30+ members of Chris' immediate family. Just a *ahem* small gathering.
It's always controlled chaos, and fun for the kids. My assignment was mashed potatoes, so I didn't have too hard a time. As I was contemplating my gratitude list this year, I realize I am blessed beyond measure. Chris and I have started keeping a gratitude journal. Every night we write down something we are grateful for. It's quite a humbling practice.

Anyway, here's my TOP TEN:
10. Prozac (Well, it's actually Effexor, but the whole family of anti-depressant drugs in general.)
9. Books. Escape for the desperate housewife.
8. My fuzzy slippers, which are so comfy, I frequently find myself, unintentionally, at the store in them.
7. Willpower (I have been Coke free for 13 days and counting...)
6. Sugar (the only thing that has made it possible to give up the Coke)
5. Life's trials, yes, it's true. What doesn't kill me, only makes me stronger.
4. Friends. The spice of life.
3. Family. The good, the bad, and the ugly. I love them all.
2. Kids. Gotta love em. Joy joy joy in my posterity.
and drumroll please...

#1. Chris. Our marriage is better now than ever, and it has good reason not to be, but we've managed to stick together through life's ups and downs. What did I ever do to deserve such a great guy? I guess nothing, I'm just blessed.

To everyone--may your gratitude lists be long, and your gripe lists short!

Bum Darts

What in the world are bum darts you may ask? Only the funniest FHE game ever!!!
This is how you play,
1. Wedge a quarter up your crack
2. Walk across the room to a small container
3. Position yourself very carefully over the container
4. Release cheeks, aiming for said container.
The winner is the one who gets the most quarters in the jar. Nothing says quality family time, like a quarter up your butt.
(and no, we didn't make this one up. I actually forget who told us about this...)



I hope you can watch this, but if not, just try it, you'll be laughing hysterically in minutes.

Ancient Chinese Secret

Yesterday, Kate and I went to have a free consultation with Dr. Cao, a traditional chinese doctor. I know, asians, they just don't get it. What, did Deb take his picture? At least he opted not to have a soft pink drape in the background. But I digress, he did a pulse reading, and then proceeded to tell me what my problems were and what herbs I should take for them. I was skeptical, but something as old and well tested as chinese medicine cannot be all wrong, and hey! It was FREE. So here's the first thing he says after reading my pulse, you like sugar! Too much sugar! You stop eat so much sugar! Hmm...there may be something to this ancient chinese wisdom...
Here's my diagnosis: I am hypo-gycemic, pre-diabetic. I need to take fish oil and a combination of herbs to balance my blood sugar and reduce my cravings. Then he says, "You change diet, no sugar, no chocolate, honey, pie, white bread, potatoe, soda, juice." Uh-huh, yeah, and while I'm at it, I'll just grow another head, cause it ain't happenin' buddy! WHAT will I eat? He just cut out 95% of my diet! Can't I just exercise? Wait, no, I don't want to do that either. How about if I just take the outrageously expensive herbs and call it good? Bother.
Kate's diagnosis was that she has urinary tract problems, which she does, and I knew that, so again, he got it right on. She only has to take one pill a day though, I on the other hand have to take 16 a day! Good health is hard work eh?
Oh, and he also says my anti-depressant is bad for me, I need to take another round of herbs instead. I don't think so. The side effects may be bad, but hey, sanity is worth any price.
Well, I couldn't afford the 10 bottles of herbs he shoved at me, so I left with a bit of his wisdom, and something to think about. Perhaps the key to health and well being is just as simple as diet and exercise. If only it were that simple.

Eat Pray Love

This is my new favorite book, the journey of one woman to find peace. After a horrible divorce she takes a year to find herself. First in Italy, to find pleasure, then India to pray and find God, then Bali Indonesia to find balance between the two. In fact my new favorite quote comes from the book, and it includes the 'F' word. I won't put it in print however. Call me if you want to hear it.

But I digress, the book appealed to me because of my current yoga practice and the trouble I'm having learning to meditate. My husband has no problem shutting down his mind, he can fall asleep in 2.2 seconds. I, on the other hand, can't relax in the middle of a massage, the voices in my head just won't SHUT UP! Maybe I'm schizophrenic? I can't believe I spelled that right on the first try.

Anyway, after we go through our yoga practice we turn out the lights, lie in corpse pose and *meditate* for about 10 minutes. Well, I try, but honestly, it's really a run down of my to-do list, or the voices begin, "Okay, just breathe and think of nothing...Is it garbage day today?...focus!....my neck hurts....focus!!....man she breathes loud...FOCUS!!!...oh crap,I give up. Strike 354. There's always tomorrow.

Most wise sages and yogis have learned to master their minds, shut them down completely and in so doing, have been able to 'cross over' into the 'palm of God'. I would LOVE to do this. I seriously would love to be able to turn off my brain, for even FIVE MINUTES. No thoughts, no worries, nothing, just blank silence. Perhaps this is one of the reasons I cannot stand white noise. I hate having the radio or TV on when I'm not listening. I'll often be driving for quite a while when I realize the radio isn't even on, granted, who would notice over the din of the kids, but really, the chatter in my own head is quite enough 'noise' thank you very much.

So my goal this coming year is to quite literally 'tune out'. I often take leave of my senses, but not on purpose, no, this is something different, this is an intentional act, leaving all thought behind to experience that ever elusive silence, and hopefully...peace.
May this post find you in a state of peace.

FHE

Does a free frosty at Wendy's count as 'quality family time'? Had I known that this is all the energy I'd have for FHE, I'd have forgone the 50 lessons I spent hours putting together back when Luke was a baby. I'm all for fun family time, but some weeks, I'd really rather....not. Maybe I just need to rethink my Monday scheduling. First, it's laundry day, that's always fun. Second, since I'm stuck home doing laundry all day, I might as well clean, so it's also clean the house day. Third, it's Brownies for Tess, and I have to drive. (I know, heaven forbid! I have to *ick* be in the car for 10 minutes!) Fourth, Knights of Freedom for Luke, his book group. Fifth, What? Did I hear 'Parent of the Year' Award calling? No? Oh well, perhaps I'll do better next week...

Rock Wall

It's all about who you know! Our friend Rob is in charge of the SUU climbing wall, so last night, we had a private rock wall party with a bunch of friends. The kids had a blast, pizza, climbing, and the run of the place, who could ask for more?!



Here's Kate, she didn't so much climb as sat there while Chris pulled her to the top. Then she wouldn't come down. She just wanted to hang out 50 ft. up, swaying to and fro, so Chris decided to 'get comfortable'. I don't think that's regulation belaying buddy!

Chris decided to let her down fast, I couldn't hit the button fast enough, but you can tell by her hair, she was in a free fall.

Here's Tess, she needs a little extra pull once in a while, but did pretty well.

Luke on the other hand, beat all the kids up the wall. He did one route in 45 seconds! He loves climbing, and Rob gave him a free year pass to the wall, so he's 'hooked up'.

Applesauce for brains

or that's what it feels like anyway. Monday, me and 5 friends did applesauce. I'm still recovering. Seriously, I've had a headache since then. 'Lemme esplain'.
900 lbs. of apples (yes, that's a PALETTE!)
6 women
18 kids, ages 14mos. to 10 yrs.
3 camp stoves
13 burners, going for 12 hrs. straight
15 pots
0 hot pads when you need one!
5 canners
5 pizzas, the only food we had time for in 12 hrs.
1 crib, 4 babies, only one successful nap
200+ quarts of applesauce finished
and how did it end for me?
4 Ibuprofen
1 Loritab
1 burned pinky finger
1 backache (from carrying Ella around in the backpack for an hour)
1 screaming headache I still have, but the joy that only comes from knowing that in case the world ceases to exist as we know it, my family will have applesauce for a year. I came home with 25 qts. to add to the 30 I had done already, oh and I did 11 qts. of apple pie filling. Whew!

Oh, and it was the most fun I've had in a long time. This must be why pioneers had barn raisings, the work seems like fun when you make a party out of it! We washed, chopped, cooked, cranked, filled, and timed all while talking and laughing about everything under the sun, outside 'under the sun'(the weather was a perfect 70*). And when it got dark and cold, out came the propane heaters and flood lights! The next morning we all met again to scrub our poor hostesses house for 3 hours. Most of the work was done outside, but with kids, sticky apple juice, and no end of leaves outside, the house was destroyed. I personally spent nearly 2 hours just scrubbing the stove top. Can we say "Thank heavens it wasn't at my house!?"

Canning season is OFFICIALLY over. Can I get an AMEN SISTAH?!

Evil Witch

Well I thought Halloween was over, but forgot to put that box of costumes away. Kate ran out at me today cackling like a mad woman, shouting, "I'm an evil witch! You should be scared of me! A ha ha ha ha!" Wait a minute---I thought I was the evil witch?! I guess I have competition. What was I thinking dressing her up as Minnie Mouse, when her 'true' character, the evil witch, was just dying to get out! Guess Chris wins, she does take after me... as for making it official with costume, well, maybe next year.
PS. I did go as my true self this year, hat, cape and black lipstick, but where did I put that broom?...

Bullies

We rented Bridge to Terabithia tonight. It was a good show for the 8+ age group. It had some important lessons on bullying in it, which was fortuitous, since Luke had a bullying incident today. A couple of the boys in his class tried to push him down a manhole of sorts and when that didn't work, they jumped on him, to which a few other kids shouted, "Dog pile!" and piled on too. He apparently blacked out for a few seconds because he couldn't breathe. He told me this over dinner tonight, rather nonchalantly, just a by the way sort of comment. I had a hard time controlling my emotion, seeing as he was calm, I didn't want to make it worse by over-reacting. After getting the details out of him, my first thought was to call the little brats mother and tell her in no uncertain terms that if her child ever touched my child again she would have serious problems with me. Since she is the cubmaster in Luke's troop however, I thought I'd run the idea past Chris, my voice of reason. He concurred, but thought he'd talk to Luke first. After that conversation he decided that since Luke doesn't have a regular problem with this kid, and they are in fact friends sometimes (this kid is a jerk, but only sometimes I guess), and the school had promptly put the kid in detention for 3 days, well, we better not make it personal. Personal? Someone bullying your child is not personal?! @#$&*!!
Big deep breath, okay, so I'm not the most rational person I'll grant you, but I'd like to have 5 min. alone with the kid in a closed room.... good thing we marry our opposites. And, he's probably right. Luke is already afraid the kid will be mad at him for telling, I guess making it worse for him at home won't help that situation. Hopefully, he'll regret his actions, and leave it at that. And hopefully Luke won't start developing the migraines again. Poor kid. I really don't get it, he's nice to everyone, and he's not ugly or stupid, he befriends all the misfits...life's lessons come to some earlier than others I guess.
Oh, and another revelation today, Luke has a crush on the little girl in the movie. She sings the theme song in the bonus features, and Luke was practically drooling. Hmmm, his first crush. I'm just glad she's a movie star and not the girl next door. I don't think I'm cut out for parenting tweens, I'm already feeling an ulcer coming on.

Good Old Fashion Values

My kids have discovered Little House on the Prarie. It comes on PBS at 6pm. They LOVE it! And after watching a few of the episodes, it hit me, what has our society come to?! The Ingalls family goes to church every Sunday, they pray over every meal, the children are respectful to adults and they know how to work. These values are sadly lacking in TV these days. Have you ever sat down to watch a Hannah Montana show? She treats her parents like they are idiots, and they ACT like idiots! Forget respect, religion is no where to be seen, and the clothes they are wearing, while not necessarily too immodest, aren't what I'd want Tess dressing in. I must be getting old, but I think I'd rather have my kids learn values from the old shows.

BFF's

This is Kate and her BFF, Mary. Or, Mary Mary quite and trary, as she refers to her. They have the typical 'love-hate' relationship of 3-4 yr. olds. Late one night Chris was putting Kate to bed he said, "Kate, you're such a good girl." to which she replied, "Sometimes I'm bad."
"Oh? When are you bad?"
"When I'm mean."
"Who are you mean too?"
"Mary."
"Why are you mean to Mary?"
"Because Mary just makes me so mad I have to be mean to her!"

Well, that makes sense.
Most of the time they get on swimmingly, and it sure is nice to have a good friend, even when you're only 3.