Update

My FIL had the tube removed and my husband was able to talk with him today. I even talked to him on the phone! We are thankful for this little forward step. There are many more hurdles to overcome but we are thankful for today.

No Weekly Review

I will not do a weekly review for last week, I really do not want to recap that week. My FIL is still in the hospital and I really do not have any new news except that he has be a little more alert the past two days.

 

Benjamin discovered aluminum foil for playing.

Here he has food in his oven.

He set up two meals this particular evening while playing. He had milk, salmon, an apple, a pretzel on one setting and the other had a sandwich, milk and something else. He has a great imagination.

 

My wonderful husband reminded me to get the little guy outside when the temperature warmed up to zero. So, out we went.

I love those eyes.

Elisabeth attempting to slide down the driveway on a snowboard sized object.

Judith’s snow carvings.

Levi taking a break.

The Big Blessings and Mom. We couldn’t get Benjamin to play along with us. He was too busy trying to slide down the driveway.

Challenges

This being apart is challenging for me and not just because he is away but because I can't be there to do the job that I usually do. That is the challenge for me.
I really don't know what update to give about my father-in-law...he has not awakened yet but he has opened his eyes a few times. Waiting is the challenge there.

This and That

This post does show that I really do try to keep it real.

Elisabeth received a new coat for Sundays.

I have already posted that my husband had an emergency trip to be with family during his Dad’s surgery and hospitalization, and that before he left he brought home a cake to celebrate my birthday a day early so he could be there.

Here are the pictures. puffy eyes and end of the day hair and all. I tried to persuade my husband to not take pictures but he insisted, I am glad he did.  Here I am trying to keep Benjamin out of the cake and talk to Elisabeth.

Benjamin blew out the candles, I just pretended with him. He likes to blow out candles. At a friends house today he wanted to blow out her scented candle…no birthday cake under there son.

Yes, I asked for a waffle maker,my Blessings like waffles.

Now onto Thanksgiving…pie. Since it was just the Blessings and myself we chose a couple of pies to make…they chose chocolate and cherry. Elisabeth and I worked on the chocolate and Judith and I made a cherry pie.

 

Chocolate pie

Cherry Pie

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!
We received a good after surgery report for which we are very thankful.

Today

My husband arrived at his destination and was able to see his Dad last night. Please pray for both of them, obviously my father-in-law more as he is ill and having surgery today, but for strength for my husband. The next couple of weeks will consist of many hours in the hospital for the family. We will know more after the surgery today.
The Blessings and I are off to a field trip this afternoon and then to our Thanksgiving service at church this evening. We have warmed up to 1 degree ABOVE zero! Yes, I am thrilled with above zero temperatures, even if it is only one degree above zero.

No Big Thanksgiving Day Meal?

You know how sometimes you know the Lord is preparing you for something but you have no idea what or when? Well, I have not been in a Thanksgiving big meal, clean the house well, work long hours making very yummy special Thanksgiving foods mood at all. My husband even found an airline deal back in October and wanted to plan a trip to visit the family in the lower 48 and I tried real diligently to work out tickets for November so we could have a southern fall and Thanksgiving time with family. We have had one thanksgiving with family in eighteen years. Well, the November flights just would not work out at all and we decided that traveling with Benjamin in the spring would be a little easier with him just a few months older.
This brings us to yesterday, A -35 degreeish Monday morning. We began our day as usual with our morning school work, an early lunch and then to drop off the boys to play at the D's while the girls and I went to get our hair cut.(sidebar here, I love the internet and the fact that we can meet very wonderful new friends online that become real life friends) After the hair cut we visited for a bit and then I took my very nap deprived boy and his older sibs to reduce the noise and child level at the D's house by half! As we pulled into the garage I could hear the phone ringing. Oh the ringing phone, often bringing happiness and then, like yesterday, the bad news. My husband's dad is not doing well and he received the call to come home and when that call comes we must act fact as it takes a while to get there. My husband went ahead and worked on his plane ticket at work before coming home, it is much quieter there than here! Praise the Lord, he was able to get an airmiles ticket for most of this trip and only having to purchase a ticket for the last leg of his flight.
Oh, that man, he came home with a birthday cake (I wondered why it had taken him so long to arrive home after he called to say he was heading home) and was determined to have my birthday party a day early since he would be gone today, today I turn 41(age is just a number). So, when we look back at the pictures from this birthday we will have bittersweet memories and red puffy eyes all around.
So, why all this jabber? I don't know but I do that we decided not to carry on with the big Thanksgiving Day gathering that we usually do and I am actually fine with that. What are we going to do? I am not sure but we have a few options. We might take up an offer of dinner with  friends or we might just stay home, cook up our ham and save the turkey for our official Thanksgiving when Dad returns home, and make the Blessings their favorite foods from our Thanksgiving menu and watch football, movies and play games. At this point, I have no idea but I am thankful for the Lord preparing my heart because He knows what I need and He is my COMFORT.
And it has warmed up to -15 or -20 today, I might just let the kids take me out for dinner at those warm temperatures!
My father-in-law is scheduled for surgery tomorrow and I am thankful that my husband will be there in time for the surgery.
One day at a time and sometimes one hour at a time...
Just a side note: Last year on my birthday we had 40 degree above zero temps and then we had freezing rain somewhere in there and the roads were horrible and remained horrible for the rest of the winter...maybe next year I will just skip my birthday!

The Brain

 

The girls are studying Human Anatomy and Physiology this year. We are just finishing up with the brain and the nervous system.

One of the projects was to make a clay model of the brain.

Here is Elisabeth’s model.

 

Here is Judith’s model.

Just in case you were wondering, the brain is here.

And random cute picture of Benjamin with Max of Max and Ruby. He really likes Max and Ruby, or Max and Runy as he says.

Glasses

What a weekend we had. On Friday as Judith was going outside to ride snow machine she somehow broke her glasses. It was Veteran's Day so I figured that the office would be closed but it was worth a try...hooray they were opened. Of course, the glasses could not be temporarily repaired and they kept them. Big mistake on my part, the child gets headaches without her glasses. Ugh!
But never fear, Saturday night Levi's glasses broke. Double whammy! Monday afternoon I took Levi in to get the ball rolling on his glasses replacement and informed the optician that I had to have Judith's glasses back pronto. Those precious ladies found some duck tape and she has a duck taped bridge to connect her glasses. They still fall apart but she can wear them to read and keep the headaches to a minimum. So, if you see a couple of kids walking around with duck tape and packing tape holding their glasses together, they are mine. Don't make fun of them....

Here We GO

The first deep cold has struck. I just sent my husband off to work at -40 degrees. Brrrrr! is all I can say.

Our Town

A friend posted this on Facebook today, I thought I would share this with my blog friends.

Recipes and How I Roll

Okay, just to give you a peek into my crazy kitchen or maybe my brain, here I will post a recipe and then how I make the recipe and how it turns out.

This recipe comes to me from Pa-Pa, who got the recipe from her Aunt Helen.

Sweet Potato Casserole

3 cups yams (cooked until boiling)

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup coconut

1/2 cup milk

1/2 stick butter

1 tsp. vanilla

3 eggs, beaten

Mix all together until well mixed.

Topping:  

1/2 cup flour

1/2 stick butter, softened

1 cup nuts

1 cup light brown sugar

Mix with fork and crumble on top of potatoes and bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour. 

Now what I do: 

I do not measure the amount of sweet potatoes I use. I peel and chop the sweet potatoes, usually about 5-7. I do not double anything in the recipe for the potatoes. 

I double the topping and place in a 9 X 13 pan or larger. When making for Thanksgiving I use the disposable half size pans from Sam's Club.

So, I can't write my own recipes but I can mess with what others have done before me.

Week In Review--Week Ten

Monday
Monday was a rough day for me. I am having a rough time falling asleep, no problem staying asleep but tough time getting there. I can see that Mom needs to work on getting outside every day. Note to self: Get outside every day. On the downside, I didn't get up for treadmill time but I did get a short/slow walk in before lunch. The treadmill is experiencing some electrical challenges and was stuck on a slow speed. If I would have turned it off it would not have worked at all so I took a slow 30 minute walk. I also began taking vitamin D today. A little late I know but sometimes I am a little slow on these things and I have felt well until I had that head cold last week. Most of the Blessings had a great school day today. One is experiencing a rough day...maybe that Blessing and I are on the same page with our energy levels. Nonetheless, we must endure and keep going. We have made it through to school area clean up/chore time. What is for dinner? I have not a clue, but it will be something easy for sure! Evenings are my high energy time so I can put some effort into straightening up and spending some time helping my rough day Blessing finish up a few things leftover from the day.

Tuesday
Piano and home for lessons after a quick stop at the library.

Wednesday
Our Friday, Dad is off on Thursday due to Veteran's Day on Friday. Got the school work finished and every one was healthy and able to be at church tonight.

Thursday
Dad and Levi went moose hunting...no moose today.
The girls and I baked cookies, made no bake cookies and I attempted a chocolate roll cake...epic fail.
We had our final sign language class. I had neck pain and stayed home with ice on my neck and Dad took the girls. The boys and I enjoyed an evening home alone even if I was down and out.

Friday
A day at home and an evening out. I just did little things here and there (like cleaning under and the side of the stove) and enjoyed the day as it came. We left after nap time and ran Judith's broken glasses to the eye DR's office before heading to a birthday party.

Saturday
I was given the gift of sleeping in, which I obviously needed. After sleeping in it took the rest of the morning to get moving. Once I got moving I got busy with cleaning chores and some baking. The Blessings went outside for some snow machine riding and Dad did whatever he does out there for a while. He is sick though, so he didn't stay out all day, just part. There was some football watching taking place and pretty much a lazy Saturday with some good work thrown in for good measure. We were all home so I am glad. I think my husband left a couple of times for things like a trip to the dump  but I was home all day...bliss for me.

Week In Review—Week Nine

Monday

Mondays at home are becoming some of my most favorite days, no distractions, just me and my Blessings and our lessons.

Tuesday

Away from home all day.

Piano in the morning then a quick stop by home to drop off backpacks full of school and piano books and pick up bags full of baby shower supplies. Then, off to grocery shop. I figured I should just make this a full day out of the home to avoid any other days out of the home…I am glad I made this decision.

Getting this shower together was so much fun. I have not worked on anything like this in a while so I did enjoy the process.

Wednesday

Before I got out of bed, I knew I was sick. Just a head cold. I functioned through our morning but by lunch time the Blessings were sending me to bed as they could tell that I was not feeling well. Off to bed after Benjamin made it down for a nap. I did not get up again until after I had eaten the soup that my precious husband brought to me. Everyone else headed to church and I hit the couch and spent the evening with the TV. I haven’t watched TV in quite a long time! The Bee Immune I had taken earlier in the afternoon had begun to help and I began feeling a wee bit better. Laptop arrived today!

Thursday

Felt much better when I woke. Still moved slow but functioned through the school day and managed to make dinner.

Friday

Older Blessings worked on school work until time to take Benjamin to library story time. Back home for lunch, naptime and finishing up school work for the week.

Saturday

We spent the day at home with some cleaning and a little cooking. We became wireless today with much thanks to our friend who came and set us up. The menfolk were out hunting for the day. I had to make a quick trip into town for a few things and then we were home for dinner, ironing, baths and bed.

Biscuits

 

 

Since beginning my quest for all things whole grain, I have unfortunately failed in the biscuit department. The good news is that I am now on my way. I have tried a few different recipes with little or no success. Then, last week, my Blessings and I were planning to invade and increase the noise at the Queen of Brussels Sprouts home. Since we were going and I had unsuccessfully attempted Kendra’s southern biscuits. (Shame on this southern born woman but not too much shame, these are whole wheat and what southern woman makes whole wheat biscuits? None that I know of, now biscuits made with White Lily Self-Rising flour, a totally different story). Back to the biscuits. That morning I ground up some soft white pastry wheat berries and took the flour with me to Kendra’s home. I watched her make those biscuits and low and behold they turned out just like mine….it was my flour!

Fast forward a few days and I try again at home. This time I used flour that I had ground from Prairie Gold white wheat berries and I put the biscuits closer together and I think they turned out pretty great. So, that pastry flour might be great for cookies, quick breads and anything else but it is not that great for biscuits. Now I know. 

A Baby Shower

I love it when we have babies on the way at church. I often get the opportunity to help with baby showers (or baths, as one of my friend's sons said).

We went with the woodland animals theme for the shower and thanks to the wonderfully creative people who post about their events we were able to take what we saw and run with it. 

How cute are these stands and just made of fire wood from my woodpile.

Mom and big sister had their special seating in front of branches from my yard.

More of the wooden stands loaded with yummy "mushroom" cupcakes.

And the banner! Isn't it lovely? I am very fortunate to have such creative friends, Angela took time from her preparing for her husband to arrive home for his R&R to make this for the shower, thanks!

More food table.

We had:

bacon wrapped little smokies

white pizza dip

spinach dip

veggie tray

caramel apple fondue

and

cupcakes

caramel apple fondue!

Our drink offerings:

lime punch

coffee mocha punch

A Winner

I used random.org to generate a winner for the Beautiful Girlhood giveaway. And the winner is Adorning Grace. Thanks for entering!