I loved watching this peacock wandering around the zoo yesterday, it reminded me of a park we frequented in Austin that had peacocks and peahens wandering around in it. We had some wonderful times there.

Today was a lovely day. It started with sleeping in a bit and some chocolate chip pecan pie for my breakfast. (The girls had healthy breakfasts) How can a day that starts with chocolate chip pecan pie be anything other than amazing?

BG, MG, and I were baptized this morning, which was a truly amazing experience. My heart felt so warm, and I felt such joy! The girls described it very similarly. LG is not old enough to be baptized (you need to be 8 ), but she watched happily. One of my step-brothers came to the baptism, as did my dear friend Nanny Ogg and some new friends from our church family. It was an experience I can’t describe well, because it was just so awesome.

My step-brother came back to visit with us at the house for a few minutes (and did some guy work of removing some proof that our cat is a huntress). After he left we had some lunch & desserts, and then Nanny Ogg arrived and agreed to eat some dessert. Then, of course, we went geocaching! We found 3 caches, and also found a path that led to another 3 caches, but figured 11 minutes until sunset wasn’t enough sunlight to to walk a half-mile and search for caches. We saved that path for next time. We figured that finding the cache from the place we were kicked out of last time was good enough.

LG spent all day asking to go to the grocery store and get chips, so after our geocaching, we went to the store to buy the 4 major food groups - soda, potato chips, bananas, and hot dogs. Those supplement the full pantry and freezer. Eggs would’ve been a smart idea too, but since we have the van!, we can get more Monday.

Finishing the day with some turkey noodle soup (with nummy turkey stock) and some experimental cinnamon-craisin bread was perfect. And more chocolate chip pecan pie, of course!

Today was a joyful day, and I am so grateful for the many blessings of family, friends, food, and our new church! May all of you have many days filled with joy!

This was our Thanksgiving dinner, thanks to all our friends - one friend who brought a box of root veggies, another whose agency gave us some gift cards to the grocery store, another friend who came with some pantry staples to stockpile, and another who helped with a paypal gift that covered the rest of the groceries. Their generosity was amazing, and brings tears to my eyes.

And just like no dinner would be complete without dessert, this Thanksgiving wouldn’t have been the same without the incredible support, love, and friendship of so many people. So many amazing and wonderful people have helped or inspired us, helping us along a road that isn’t an easy one.

We were lucky enough to share our dessert bounty with a couple of young women from the church, it’s always wonderful to share joy. And it sounds better if you have 6 people and 5 desserts than 4 people with 5 desserts!

I appear to have done too much, so I’m in some pain. Hoping to go to the zoo tomorrow, though! It’s freeeeee!

My wonderful blogging friends have helped me so much this past year.  I feel so blessed, and wish many many blessings for all of you! May you have a day filled with friends, family, good food, and joy. May you also get great Black Friday Deals from the comfort of your own home.

We will be well fortified by our meal, and spiritually fortified by our guests at dessert. I will have a few recipes to post soon, too! This is our first Thanksgiving as a family of 4 rather than 5*, so I wanted to be special and still have our favorite foods.

We might have dietary restrictions with allergies and celiac disease, but we don’t let that stop us from eating well!

Dinner:

• Ginger Butternut Squash Soup
• Bread
• Stuffing
• Candied Yams
• Cranberry sauce
• Mashed Potatoes
• Roasted Brussels Sprouts
• Gravy
• oh, and Turkey!

Desserts:

• Apple Crisp
• Chocolate Chip Pecan Pie
• Pumpkin Bars
• Pumpkin Pie
• Peach Pie Cake Cobbler

I hope all of you have a wonderful feast!

Read the rest of this entry »

We were lucky enough to receive a wonderful hand me downs yesterday, and each girl got some things she loved from some friends we’ve known since before M was born - she is 2 days older than her friend. 

As we do some home reorganization, we needed to winnow down the numbers - you don’t need 14 long sleeve dresses.  And most people don’t need more than 2 weeks of tshirts, either.  Unless they are special.  :)  So we put together at least one bag for donating, and that feels good.

We’ve packed up some outgrown clothes & boots for a little girl we know, and it feels so good to be giving things we loved to someone who will appreciate it!  Some of the girls’ clothes are just lovely, and I feel better giving the really nice clothes to someone we know.  We also started winnowing down some of our books, so we have a nice bag of paperbacks to donate, too.

When we are receiving gifts, it is such a blessing to have something we can give.  We have also made cakes or muffins for friends, and that helps me feel like I can give back something to the people who have helped us so much.

Our family is still living with struggles right now - emotional, financial, logistical, etc.  Our lives feel unsettled - we don’t know when help will arrive, so we live a bit on edge, not knowing what will come around the corner.  But when we give to others, we feel more secure, trusting that if we give, we will receive what we need.  Not necessarily what we want, but what we need.

Our faith is growing stronger each day, and that is not a struggle.  That is a path that looks like it has been lit from above. It is wonderful to have faith, knowing that we have help during our trials and tribulaltions.  We feel His love in our hearts, and know that we are on the right path through the darkness.

I’d still like to have a map so I can see what troubles will lie ahead, and when the current struggles will end!

Our family is in the midst of some transitions and trials right now in our family, and this time is filled with challeges.  However, whenever we travel a road with chalenges, our friends help to lighten our loads.

We have been lucky enough to have made many wonderful friends over the years, and they have found a myriad of ways to help us during this time.  There are long-time friends who have become closer again through our shared trials, and there are new friends who have helped lighten our hearts and bring smiles to our faces.  Whenever I think that we have come to a problem that cannot be fixed, a solution appears, and a hand helps us along.

Today we had a dinner with two new friends, feasting on food that was brought to us by friends we have known for years.  It felt so good to be able to share our good fortune, and it felt so right to share food received in friendship!

We will never be able to say thank you enough for everything that we have received at the hands of our friends.  But we are very, very grateful for these wonderful friends, and feel so blessed that we have these friends.  We are so glad that we have opened our hearts to love from so many directions!

May your life be shared with as many different wonderful friends as ours is, and filled with as much love as we have around us!

Today we continued some housecleaning.  We are working hard to make our home a place we love to be and to invite people inside.

Our oven has been broken for a while,but today we were supposed to get a new oven. Sadly, the eejits at Lowe’s went to the wrong house. Yeesh.

However, we got some flour ground and ready for making sugar cookie batter this evening (so it can chill overnight), and then bread tomorrow. Mmmmm bread!

Homeschooling today included coloring states red and blue (or blue stripey for states that changed from 2004 to 2008). I was amazed at how many of the states the girls remembered! They have truly cared about the election, and loved watching the Tina Fey episodes on SNL and watching The Daily Show. I have wonderful kids!

My daughters are thrilled that there will be children their ages in the White House. I’m just so so happy with the person we have chosen to be our 44th President. January 20th is going to be a wonderful day!

We have a couple church activities this weekend, as well as laundry and a lot of writing. I’m sure that our weekend will be full! Maybe we can take a walk with Ra, too - these pics are from a walk we took a couple weeks ago with Nanny Ogg and her flock.