Thankful Thursday: Thanksgiving Memories

Thanksgiving is great!  And every year, we celebrate a little differently.  The last several years we've been "out of pocket".  Three of the last four, were in Thailand, and last year we were on the road, in Michigan.

Pecan pie I made with the pecans my dad sent me.  I've been hoarding them and plotting how to use them, can't go wrong with a classic.  I've been wanting to eat this since the moment it came out of the oven!

Growing up, we took turns visiting family, and even hosting at my parent's place.  A few stand out memories for me, include the "Turkey Bowl" aka football in the backyard.  Soup and chili the night before, staying up late laughing till all hours of the night.  The year Doug met my family, he remembers all the timers. We kept setting them and hiding them as a joke.  Hilarious!

My Moma T. is famous for HUGE gatherings and inviting the neighborhood. We never knew who might show up, but it was always PACKED and there was no room to eat at the table because it was so full of food!  And if my sister had her way, we played games.  Many holidays, not just Thanksgiving included a certain "inside secret" about the collage in the back room.  *wink, wink*  Not to mention, the collage of photos, had several pictures of each of the grandkids, but somehow there are NONE of me.  So, they taped a couple on the outside of the frame.  Yep, I'm the favorite. ;)

But the best part of any holiday memory, is FAMILY.  That's what it's all about.

This year, I am so thankful that our church has embraced us, and we got an invite to Thanksgiving a few weeks back. It takes a huge sting out of being so far away from family, when you have stand in family.  So today, whether your celebration is big or small, whether your family for this holiday is blood or not, enjoy every minute.  Celebrate the Thanksgiving you DO have.  Laugh, make memories, and of course TAKE LOTS OF PICTURES! I know I will!!!

Wordy Wednesday: Following Peace

I just keep thinking about choices lately. Which is what my "Wordy Wednesday" posts are supposed to be about, but with biblical examples.  So, this post is a little off track, but bear with me. But it's something we all do a million times a day.

We make a choices. It's something we do about a million times a day. About when to get up, what to eat, how to spend our time, how to react to our kids, what rules to enforce and how.  Sometimes we know we made the "right" choice or even the "wrong" one. Other times,  our choices seem insignificant.  Occasionally, we feel the weight of a choice we are making, we know it's huge, but the answer just isn't clear.

I remember when we were in Thailand, about a week before we left, we were already out of our house.  We were staying at a place that included all three meals, and there were missionaries from all over who stayed there.  At each meal, we'd sit with a new person or family, and get to know them a little better.

At one of these meals, I sat with a single lady.  She was young, on sabbatical, visiting from a neighboring country.  I had a long conversation with her, and the thing she said, that stood out to me, out of the WHOLE conversation was to "follow the peace".  It was something her dad had taught her.

I've been thinking about that lately, and how that's what God's word, and walking with Him are all about.  When we pray, we can lay it all before our Father in Heaven, and we can trust that he will eventually give us that peace.  At times, that peace is in the strangest of places, and in the midst of outrageous circumstances. Sometimes, God waits, and waits, and then waits some more to reveal where that peace is.  Which is frustrating, no doubt.  But if you've spent time with Him, and you've turned it over to Him, trust Him. Trust that he'll answer, and trust his timing.

When we rush ahead and make a choice without him, we risk everything.  If we feel like our choices have been limited because of circumstances out of our control, and choose to give up on God, we will miss out.

Tonight as we were sitting in our living room, Doug happened to glance over and see Kora playing with my keys.  She was horrifyingly close to sticking one of them in the electrical outlet.  Doug shouted, "NO!" just in time to stop her.

Poor Kora! She got the biggest pouty lip, and then burst into tears.  Her feelings were hurt and she couldn't understand why her Daddy would yell at her like that.  But he was protecting her.  We've told our kids not to ever stick ANYTHING into outlets.  They've never attempted it, until tonight, and I'm sure Kora has no idea the risk involved.  And how do you explain that to a 2 year old?

She wanted nothing to do with her Dad.  She ran right into my arms. I comforted her, and made sure I explained that Daddy was keeping her safe, that he was worried about her.  That he was only looking out for her.

That's how it is with God, he can see and he knows things that we just can't comprehend.  And sometimes we may feel like he's being harsh or slamming a door in our face for no reason.  It makes us confused and we may have the urge to pull away from him.  When in reality, we should run to him, and thank him for keeping us out of harm's way or guiding us toward something better.  But it's hard to do that, when all you see is what's right in front of you.

As Kora gets older, and her relationship with her Daddy grows, she'll understand why he would react the way he did. Why he kept her from some of the "fun" things in life.

That's how our faith should grow too. In times we just can't understand what God is doing, we should trust him.  Look at the body of evidence.  He's been there in the past. He's here now, and he's gone ahead of us.  He knows things we don't.  And His love for us is greater than we can ever fathom.

If you're new in your faith, and you're feeling like Kora, like God is just a big bully.  You may not have as many points of reference to understand his goodness.  That's where the body of Christ comes in, we need each other.  Find fellow believers who have walked ahead of you, get sound advice and wisdom from those who may know him more than you.  Not because God loves them more, but because they've walked with him longer. Get a straight shooter!

I've had so many great women (and men) who have helped me grow in my faith, and the ones who have struggled the most, often have the most compassion and understanding for others when they struggle.  Don't hide your struggle, share it with someone who will walk with you, who will love and accept you and point you to our Heavenly Father.

And hey, shoot me a message, if nothing else, I can pray!  Love to all of you. Sorry I'm not exactly sticking to my "plan" on these posts.  I'm a woman, I'll get there eventually, just webbing my way back around.

Taco Tuesday: Spicy Pretzels (No bake, but you gotta shake!)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp lemon pepper
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 package ranch dressing mix (1 oz or 3 tbsp)
1 1/2 bags of pretzels (the 15 oz size, so you need 22 1/2 ounces total or around that amount, basically a gallon ziplock bag almost filled)

Directions:

Mix first 5 ingredients in a bowl.  Pour pretzels into zipper bag, pour oil mixture over pretzels. Seal bag, shake, shake, shake.

And, for added fun play "Shake it Off", Kora is obsessed with this song and wants me to play it over and over again. You can find it here.

Manic Monday: Measuring

In all honesty, I didn't do much, for this one.  My kids each have an art bucket, that has chalk, crayons, markers, tiny notepads (care of Gramee), scissors, and a ruler.  I never made a big deal about any of it, but this last week, Kees got his ruler out and started using it.   Now that he is counting everything in sight, it naturally led to measuring things.

Besides just using a ruler, you can measure how many of something it takes, laid end to end.  For instance, we could measure our couch using Kees's shoe, and then Kora's.   And, whenever possible CHART your results, if your child is old enough have them chart it.    It's also great to predict how many, or how long you think something is before you measure.  It took a couple of tries for us, but we finally figured out how to measure without having gaps between.  Might have to get this boy a measuring tape for Christmas!  Stocking stuffer!

Flashback Friday: Seussical, Sickness, and SNOW!

Friday:

My kids put on the best shows, with a variety of songs, and even wardrobe changes.

That awkward moment when you look behind the couch and realize the two year old is feeding her babies stale bread, REAL bread.  Nice.

Doug went to Winter Jam on Friday, but he was able to come home for a few minutes before he left.  So the kids got to see him.

Crazy fun night with Momma....

And I guess I'm not qualified to put the blanket over the blinds. Whoops! I did manage to fix this, but not before I had a good laugh and sent Doug a picture. ;)

Kees has been asking me to get out the massage chair ever since I used the one at Costco and told him he didn't need a turn because we had one at home.  I finally just told him, we'd wait till Daddy was gone one night and get it out.

What's with the creepy red hot tiny human feet?!

Their babies needed turns.

Dance party, take 1!

Kees got some ice, and sucked it down until it looked like a chair.

Helping Kora do who knows what....

He turned the ice upside down and said it looked like "a cow's milk dispenser". Okay, he didn't say milk dispenser, but what he said wasn't appropriate, so you figure it out.

All evening, people who were with Doug posted pictures.  He didn't post any, but I'm glad other people did!!

He's the cool guy at the concert with bright orange ear plugs.

Dance party, take 2! I had them clean up the WHOLE house, and I vacuumed before this round of fun.

Kees was able to put Mickey on his back, Goofy's legs would wrap around Kora, so we shoved him down into her hoodie.

When Kees sees open floor space, his mind wanders....must get out car mat.

To round off our evening we read every Dr. Seuss book we had, in preparation for Seussical.  I forgot that I have "Horton Hatches an Egg" up in the closet, and I really wish we would have read that one again before the show.

Saturday:

I slept late, ate pancakes that Doug made, ran to the store, and then we got ready to go to Seussical!!! I love Kora's hat, perfect!

And they came up with this pose on their own...

Walking into the Kroc center!

There were several failed attempts, but this one finally came out...

Trying to get all 4 of us.

Intermission snack, not sure about their faces in these, but they crack me up.

Doug had to check the OU score, and listen to part of the game.

When Seussical was over, the kids and Doug stayed to play at the indoor play place, and I made a mad dash to gather up goodies to take to the Ladies Pinterest party at church.  I didn't do any crafting, but I brought my massage chair, and nail stuff, plus treats of course.

I used the Sally Henson nail sticker thingies.  People were interested in how you apply them.  They should not ask me, because just a few hours later, I had to re-do 5 of them, and by the following evening, less than 24 hours later, I was back to old school nail painting.  I think my nails are extra-oily, or I am just terrible at applying them, or both.

Sunday:

Sunday morning!  Hooray!  We went to Sunday School, and then worship, but Kees and I left after the songs so I could teach Children's Church.  

Kees shared equally with Marvel.  I thought it was so funny because he did this for a long time, and if Kees kept it in his mouth for a long time, he made sure Duckee had a longer time too.

In Children's church!

Memory

Getting served some delicious food!

After church, we had a delicious lunch, sweet soy chicken, sticky rice, and cucumber.  Then I took a nap, and it was time to head back.  We've been helping in the youth on Sunday evenings. This week we played balloon dodge ball.  Hilarious!!

When everyone started crouching down, I couldn't help but think they looked like a show down in Twilight.

We're terrible parents.  Our kids are always starving by the time we get home from church on Sunday nights.  I'm gonna have to start sending them with sandwiches and fruit or something.  So we had late night macaroni!

Taking her stuff to the dirty clothes hamper.

Hide and Seek!!!

Monday:

Miss Renee sent us home from church Sunday night with cinnamon rolls and chocolate milk.  So delicious!

This week Kora has been bringing me her bible book, and we read it together first thing.

Can't even remember what they were playing....

Growing a garden for their inmates.  The red mega blocks are red chiles.

Reading time!

The ladies from church and I, volunteered at a nearby shelter. We wiped tables and chairs, swept, served dinner, chatted with some of the residents, and helped clean up.  I ended up not being that much help with the clean up after because I got too busy chatting with one of the ladies.  But it was great to spend time there, and I hope we are able to go back again soon.

A cross in their chapel made out of railroad nails or whatever you call them.

Kees was saving this, I may have accidentally knocked it off when I was wiping the table, whoops.  He was a good sport about rebuilding it.

Tuesday:

Early morning reading with Kora, and the beginning of my sickness.  I started out feeling crazy tired. So I didn't even think I was sick, just worn out.  Needless to say, I managed to make it through the day, but I didn't take very many pictures.

Doug reading to the kids.

Wednesday:

I woke up earlier than usual Wednesday morning feeling sick to my stomach.

I laid around all day, but managed to get a few pictures here and there.  And Doug took some of the kids making toast for me.

Kees looking at his USA map from Aunt Kristee.

Making toast, I took a few from where I was sitting, but all the good ones of them making the toast, Doug took.

After bath, Kees hiked his pants up like Steve Urkel. Pretty sure he doesn't know what that is, but hiking pants up super high, is one of my dad's favorite things to do. He passed that love on to Kees.  Always good for a laugh!!!

Thursday:

We woke up to SNOW!  And unfortunately, I was still sick.  Doug stayed home so the kids would survive the day.  I was so, so sad to be sick on our first real snow day.  I missed all the fun, but they took pictures for me!

Playing with their babies.

Kees teaching Kora to play War. Wish I would have recorded him explaining it to her.  He talks so sweetly to her, melts my heart every time.

They were outside quite a while. I heard them laughing from my window.  So glad they got pictures for me! Here is a funny video of Doug attempting to push them down the hill in a box.  Kora says, "again" at the end. So cute.

Here's hoping my sickness has passed and I will be 100% able to stuff my face on Thanksgiving.  And also, let's hope no one else at my house gets sick!