School Ballet

Hannah and Alyssa's school offers ballet during the school day, with the only fee being the costume and shoes.

Room Makeovers

I have been needing to update and upload pics from the camera - so to save time - not many words will be blogged...enjoy the pics:

durrraahmaaa...say it with flair!

My sweet 8 year old son is a unique child who gives new meaning to the word "sensitive." Here are 2 short stories to illustrate my point:
A few months ago he got off the bus in tears and managed to explain his poor plight to me, amidst all the tears. It went something like this:
"Mom, somebody (sob sob) called me a bad word (sob sob)on the bus." I was of course surprised by this because I know who he sits by, and wouldn't expect that of him. So I coaxed Wesley to tell me the word this young boy used and had to fight back the laughter when he responded "He called me ROBBER." I did my best to explain to him that 'robber' wasn't a bad word and that he needed to not worry about it anymore. Dave and I sure had a laugh about it later though. Fast forward about 6 weeks to the 2nd story. Again, he had just gotten off the bus and he happily informed me he had taken an extra vitamin c to school and gave it to a friend (thinking he was sharing and thus doing no wrong.) Thankfully he wasn't in trouble at school, but I did have to inform him that we can't share our vitamins with kids at school because someone might mistake it for drugs. He was very forlorn about this for a while, but understood my point. This story continued 6 weeks later (present time if you are following the timeline)when he came home yesterday and happily played outside and did his homework, spent30 minutes playing the wii...before sitting down to dinner and promptly bursting into tears about how he didn't feel good. I was immediately frustrated because here I thought my son was sick and should have been resting instead of playing around all afternoon. He said it wasn't his tummy, but said (again between all the tears) that he did something wrong at school. (I'm thinking - oh-no.) The conversation went like this:
"Mom, (sob sob) remember when I gave someone a vitamin at school? (sob sob) Well today I took some of the Mexican candy (paparindos's)(sob-sob) to school and shared it with my friend." I couldn't hold back at this point, especially because of the expression of Alyssa's face as she listened to everything her brother had just confessed to....she was trying not to laugh. I know I should have tried to keep a straight face, but really, is there anything horribly wrong with sharing a piece of candy? I love his sweet ways, but I really fear for him as he gets older - I pray that he will never be ridiculed, but let's face it, it's gonna happen, so I guess I better learn to keep a straight face when he comes home.

Thanksgiving..........

Last year Megan was in the kitchen with me while I was preparing Thanksgiving dinner. She named the Turkey "Tom" - not too surprising, although she did name the ham at Christmas Tom-Ham, and any time we roast a chicken, it's Tom the Chicken...so the name has stuck. With the great deal on Turkeys at Walmart going on all over the country (still 40 cents a pound), I stocked up and am the proud owner of 4 Tom's in my freezer. I know I'm not the only one who loves Thanksgiving, so I wanted to share a few of my memories and recipes from over the past 30 (and holding) years.

My first memory was when we lived in Ramona, CA. We had relatives visiting us that year - specifically my Aunt Kathy - I was about 10 and someone (probably my aunt because she is a great cartoonist) drew a huge turkey on paper that covered the table. We had pre-cut a bunch of feathers out of construction paper and took turns writing down the many things we were grateful for that year then gluing the feathers in place. It was a significant moment for me as I reflected on the things that I was really grateful for.

A Thanksgiving meal at my home always includes the following:
(Click on the highlighted links for yummy recipes at allrecipes.com)

Roasted Turkey
Homemade Mashed Potatoes
Homemade Gravy (from the turkey drippings)
Stove Top Stuffing (tried many kinds - always go back to stovetop) (add in diced onions and celery to the water)
Green Beans (sometimes Green Bean casserole)
Dinner Rolls
Cranberry Jello (if you can't find black cherry jello, use cherry jello)
Sweet Potato Pie
At least 1 pie per person (you may think that's alot, but there has to be plenty for leftovers)

6 years ago, we invited a new girl at church to join our family for Thanksgiving. She became very dear to us and we love having friends join us every year.

Please share your favorite memories and recipes. I would love to try something new this year for my family.