Thanksgiving

One of our kiddos asked
"Mom, are you going to laminate the turkey before you cook it?" : )

~Something like that but not exactly! LOL : )

I brined it before I cooked it.

Thanks to the help of The Pioneer Woman and her brining directions and these spices from Williams Somona

the brining worked. It was one moist and flavorful turkey. A bit hit.

Our tradition is to invite bachelors over for Thanksgiving dinner since all our family members are so far away.

One of our guests was terribly disappointed that I didn't serve a pumpkin pie. He teased me all day and night about it...(but my hubby isn't a fan of pumpkin pie so I just left it off my list of things to make this year) See if I ever do that again!

By the end of the evening, I told him, that if I HAD a pumpkin pie, I would be ready

to throw it at him! : )

(he's like family, so I can say that!)

Anyway, we had lots of fun!

Our English guest brought Christmas pudding which was very interesting to try.

My hubby and I played a serious game of Wii tennis and I actually won. Miracle!

All the food turned out well. Hooray!

Cooking a turkey and 6 side dishes and having them all done at the exact same time on Thanksgiving day is like a science isn't it?! Gracious! It's a science I'm always trying to perfect.

When I pulled out my holiday recipes this year, I found a note written to myself that said Thanksgiving '08 and it had everything on it that I was suppose to cook

and what day and time I was suppose to cook it. It was too funny. I was thrilled. I labeled that note Thanksgiving '09 and I'm going to do it all again... Except I'll add a PUMPKIN PIE! : )

~Becky

Thanking God

"Suppose for a moment that God began taking from us the many things for which

we have failed to give thanks.

Which of our limbs and faculties would be left?

Would I still have my hands and my mind?

And what about loved ones?

If God were to take from me all those persons and things

for which I have not given thanks,

who or what would be left of me?" ~Patrick Henry Reardon

Isn't that an awesome quote?! I hope to keep this in mind all year long. : )
Have a wonderful day giving thanks!
~Becky

P.S. My blogging break is ending sooner than I planned. My family wants me to get back to it! : )

Popping back in ....

I'm back to show off my hubby's craftsmanship...

Remember this? Our future coat rack?

He finished it!

I think it turned out beautifully!

Building something like this is a first for him. I think it's gorgeous.

Did I mention that already?! : )

70% of it is made from leftover pieces of wood and the rest we bought. The whole thing cost us $60. (including the hooks and mirrors)

He finished it tonight, except for a piece of trim that he wants to put along the bottom of it eventually...

It's so much fun to look at that I took the coats off ! : )

*Thank you, Honey!!!!!!! I love it!*

~Becky

New season

I love, love, love blogging but I'm going to take a break.

I feel like I need to spend more time enjoying my "olive plants" because I know I'm going to blink and they will be my olive trees!

I spend a lot of my day telling my kiddos to do their math and finish this and make sure they do that and I don't think I spend enough time just enjoying them.....

So, that's what I'll be up to.

I hope you have a wonderful holiday season!

Blessing to you and yours,

Becky

Haircuts

After church on Sunday, we had lunch with three families and the men were sharing money saving ideas.

One shared about how he cuts his sons' hair with this:

Anybody remember commercials for the Flowbee*?!?

Oh my goodness! We didn't believe him at first.

It looked so hokey on the commercials! Back in the what? The 80's?!

Well, my hubby asked for a demonstration and it was too funny.

We picked Andrew to be our victim, I mean model. : )

It did a great job and it attaches to your vacuum so there is no hair to sweep up afterwards! Whoo-hoo!

When Andrew came out alive : )
one of the other men decided he wanted his haircut too.

We were threatening to send all our guys over to their house every month.

It really looks mistake proof and that is something I need. I can cut my hubby's hair but I'm not usually brave enough to try the boys so I end up taking them to a barber.

When Zach was a little guy, I cut his hair and made a mistake and my friend had to come over and fix it.

Remember how Jesus told the adulterous woman to "Go and sin no more" well, right after this happened Zachary said:

"Mom, go and cut no more!"

LOL! It was good advice.. : )

On the way home, we were talking about how much fun we had with these families and then Andrew piped up and said "Accept for me. I had to have my hair vacuumed!"

~Becky

All things crafty

Who knew that you could make something so cute out of cut up sweaters?! Aren't those the cutest pincushions you've ever seen? Joy says they really beat that "old tomato we have." LOL

I found Betz White's book at Michael's the other day and thought everything was so adorable. I thought she made these things out of felt but after checking it out at our library I found out that she uses 'felted wool.' There's a process you do to wool sweaters in your washer and when you are done, they are 'felted' and will not unravel when you cut them up. Pretty neat!

Her book is full of cute ideas! She suggests finding wool sweaters at thrift stores, which is what I will have to do if I make one since I only found one wool sweater in my closet. (maybe because we live in Florida!)

So, if you have some old wool sweaters you may want to give this a try!

Her website is http://www.betzwhite.com/ and her etsy site, if you'd just like to buy one of those cute cupcakes is http://www.betzwhite.etsy.com/.

My sweet knitting buddy and I have been having fun chatting and knitting together. But I think two boys I know just might 'die' if they have to spend anymore time in the yarn aisle at Michael's. ; )

It's scarf-mania here since that's all we know how to make.

Now don't look too close....or you'll see all kinds of mistakes.

I did this one with the really big needles. (size 17) It was fun.

I made this fuzzy, soft one for Joy. Fuzzy yarn is my friend!!! -It hides all those mistakes. Love it!

I'm doing one now with a cute yarn that reminds me of my sister...so even though it isn't cold where she lives, ; )

this is for her.

I haven't finished the quilt for my little namesake, but here is what I have done so far:

My hubby says it reminds him of Bask*n Robbins. Is that good or bad? ; )

~Becky

Great Christmas reading!

I thought I would tell you about some of our favorite Christmas books because if you'd like to read them
then you have to plan ahead!

These wonderful books are to be read through the entire season of Advent. I was unfamiliar with Advent until we read them. The reading schedule starts on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. (the reason you have to plan ahead)
You also need some candles... It's all about the candles. : )
-Which is great fun if you are a candle fanatic anyway, and I am!

We got started reading these because so many of our homeschooling friends were raving about them. This was 6 or 7 years ago, I'd say. And here I am still raving about them.

The first one in the series is this one:








and in my family's opinion, it was the best. We were often left on the edge of our seats wishing we could read ahead...
The story led to some really great spiritual discussions!
Sometimes it was a little too exciting for a very young Andrew and Joy, who spent a couple of the nights in their room playing but would always rush back in to be apart of having the privilege of blowing out the candles...
The story would end on Christmas morning having given you a unique look at the birth of our Savior.
We have lots of fond memories of our times reading these books, except the time that little Andrew blew the candles out so hard that the hot wax flew up in his little face. SO SAD! : (

Every year we wish there were more books in this series...
But since there are not, we keep the traditions we made because of them.
We read a book aloud by candle light every night of the season that we can,
while eating a Christmasy snack or drink using our china dishes.
I got started using the china as a way of letting the kids know what a special season it is as we remember the Lord and as a way to remind them of how special I think they are.
Little ones and china were risky but we amazingly enough never broke any dishes. (just chipped a few and I think they look all the more special now!)

Here we are coming up on another wonderful season of Christmas and I'm at a loss as to what to read this year.
Any suggestions?
What are your favorite Christmas books? I know what I'll be serving though, lots of eggnog! : )

~Becky

It passed!

Amendment 2 passed! Whoo-hoo!!!!!!!!
PTL!

Do a "small something!"

This sign is VERY disturbing and misleading and unfortunately there are a bunch of them in my neighborhood.

This might sound crazy but I had this very vivid dream the other night.

Maybe it was because I am a home school mom studying the Declaration of Independence with my kids...but (I kid you not!) I dreamt that one of our nation's Founding Father's saw what was going on in America today and he had something profound to say about it! What he said really touched my heart. Weird, huh?

I woke up knowing that I had to find a way to get involved in Amendment 2, even though I didn't have a CLUE what amendment 2 was even about and had only seen all those "hurting Florida's Families" signs in my neighborhood...

Well, I know what it's all about now!

And I'm glad I had that dream.

Amendment 2 makes marriage between a man and woman part of our constitution so that it can never be overturned by a liberal judge.

That is all it does.

The other side is telling people that a "YES" vote on this amendment will take away "health care insurance, hospital visitation, and medical decision making from all unmarried couples. It will permanently ban civil unions and dismantle domestic partner benefits that seniors, teachers, police officers and firefighters rely on." (hence the "hurting families")

That is NOT true.

Their claims are scare tactics.

On November 4th you can decide what you think will 'hurt Florida's families.'

I am voting YES! Yes to Marriage being between a man and woman.

If you don't live in Florida, and the definition of marriage is hanging in the balance in your state, be sure to vote and you can still find a way to get involved because doing something on Nov. 4th is not too late.

I've never been involved in an election in any way before other than the casting of my vote, but we are going to do a "small something" for this election.

My kiddos and I are going to place "Yes on 2" signs at voting sites. It will be easy! It's just one way to help although I think it's going to take some donut-bribery to get them up early enough to place signs around town by 7:00 AM. ; )

I want to be able to look back and remember that if "all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is good men to do nothing" (Edward Burke) then at least I did a very "small something."

That's a privilege we can thank the Founding Father's for.

~Becky