thankful.ness

Master Max transporting King Caiden around the Baburin's palace.

Thankful for friends. Old and New. 

I have such a full garden of friends. 

Each one blossoms me in a unique way.

And they are always a challenge and encouragement.

Some I get to see often. Some I only see annually. 

Some I only talk to when there is a new baby. 

Some I think about when I'm feeling nostalgic.

I have had a life full of wonderful, faithful friends. 

thankful.ness

I better jump on the bandwagon before it leaves without me! Can you really believe it is ONE WEEK away from Thanksgiving!!?? We all hold on tight to the end of autumn here while the retailers are SCREAMING Christmas at us. We love Thanksgiving around here. It is such an amazing tradition that brings our hearts close together. It is always the week of John's birthday...which means I get to try a new chocolate cake recipe, and we always try to focus our hearts on the blessings of the year. SO, with a week countdown...here's my thankful.ness for today.


*I am thankful for a full home. One that is always on the verge of chaos, creativity, ideas and abounding personalities daily taking form. Our little home is quickly filling to the brim with our treasures, toys, accessories, and projects waiting to take wings. It is always a balancing act between keep and leave. The boys spill over onto our climbing area in the basement when the energy can be bound no longer, and when they take to outside it is always with elation of checking up on their fort in the wooded area budded up to our property. We live in a wonderful, quiet little area other than the usual barking of dogs back and forth. There is a dog a couple of houses down that literally drags his owner out the door to come over when the boys are out playing.  We have a special stash of doggy treats just for our canine visitors. We are thankful. 

It's Beginning to Look A lot Like Christmas...

What a reward for a full & busy day of homeschooling around here :: Look what ended up in my mailbox today!!! My new HOLIDAY magazine by Matthew Mead. I am finally getting to sit down with my cup of chai to have a short time before I pillow my head to slowly drift through the pages of a winter wonderland.


*on a side note: my smart phone has cool buttons like these ~<>€£¥•{}#%^*. But it cannot upload pictures from my camera roll to my blog?!?!?! (edit. picture added from the laptop. still need to figure the phone thing out, though.)


Oh, and always be sure to double check your spelling corrections. When I was texting my sister I typed "ooooooh" and it auto corrected it to "pooped!!!" What in the world??!! Good thing it was my sistah!


p.s.   Come back later for a sneak peak inside HOLIDAY. I couldn't put it down! 

Mama Said, There'd Be Days Like This . . .

Yesterday was Monday.
It was a Monday in all its glory.
All other Mondays after this Monday will be jealous, for sure.


Here's a glimpse into our yesterday:


ICE STORM.


TREE FALLING IN BACK YARD.


GAS LEAK.


LUG THE KIDS QUICKLY OUTSIDE INTO THE COLD.
(which meant get caid up from his nap)


JOHN COMES HOME FROM WORK TO INSPECT.


GAS CO. SENDS SOMEONE OUT.


MAN LOOKS BEHIND THE OVEN. (ew).


MAN LOOKS AT BASEMENT PIPES. 


FINDS LEAKS.


WHEW, LEAKS ARE FIXED IN THE SAME DAY.


DAY IS COMPLETELY TURNED UPSIDE DOWN.


WE PUT A TENT UP IN THE LIVING ROOM.


WE READ IN THE TENT.


CAIDEN TAKES 10 STEPS IN A ROW.


WE DON'T EAT DINNER UNTIL 7PM.


DINNER WAS FANTASTIC: sausage, sauteed onions & cheese quiche, fresh asparagus w. french grey sea salt, nutmeg applesauce.


HILARIOUS STORY TELLING AT THE DINNER TABLE. *see below


BED TIME FOR BOYS.


CAIDEN HAS NO DIAPERS.


MOM PROMISES THE BOYS EXTRA BEDTIME READING IF THEY CAN GET THEMSELVES COMPLETELY READY AND IN BED BY THE TIME I GET HOME. (John was home, getting caiden to bed and working on projects that keep screaming at him) 


MOM RUNS TO THE STORE.


MOM COMES HOME TO GOOD LITTLE BOYS OVEREXCITED IN THEIR ROOM.


WE READ A FEW CHAPTERS FROM THIS CLASSIC BY BURGESS.


JOHN AND I CRASH AND WATCH THE LAST OF THIS EXCITING MODERN SHERLOCK HOLMES SERIES (you can watch online for free through dec. 7th HERE. for a lengthy & pretty good review, look HERE, but beware of spoilers.)


THE END.




* The story table was a mere survival idea to regain something back from a crazy day. I knew we needed some laughter. So as dinner was finishing, I grabbed 4 small toys from around the room. Each empty plate at the table received a toy, last nights choices being: a red (vintage) female GI Joe, a Japanese eraser of a bowl of green soup, a creche of baby penguins, an orange striped plastic spider. The rules were simple, we were going to tell a story together, one person at a time, each person using their toy to add to the story. Oh, my. It was good. I am very, very thankful I gave John the GI Joe and even more thankful he went first. That was probably key, because after the parents went, the story became increasingly sounding more and more like a sci. fi. creation. :)  Also, having a "person" or "animal" as the key figure was great. The red GI Joe (who fell into a barrel of fire paint, thus why she was red, and then had to drink the green elixir to cure her...because, as you know, fire paint is extremely flammable, and she had to go to Antarctica to get the secret ingredient from the baby penguins, and then realized she had to go kill a poisonous spider in the dessert. Whew. Good thing she was highly trained!) was passed along to each story teller.

How do you create dinner table memories? Are they intentional or accidental? What has been your favorite memories around your dinner table?  or from your childhood. Would LOVE to hear your moment(s).

// irony //

// using my Matryoshka doll measuring cups 

for our Irish oatmeal breakfast//

(love this M-CUPS set by FRED that I got as a b.day gift from my favorite person in the world.)

{Happy November}

Can you really believe it is November!?!? I know everyone says that at the beginning of each month, but REALLY!!!! Well, the weather here is certainly trying to make its point that the transition of fall into winter is quickly upon us. Only a wee bit of a flurry the other day, but it was enough to remind me that I need to go through our stockpile of hats and gloves and boots to make sure we are all prepared. 


SO, in the festivity of fall, I wanted to share this Matthew Mead link of printable freebies HERE. I am particularly fond of the OWLS and think an owl garland would be quite fall-tastic! I also LOVE the circle tags.

           

  

ALSO, news on the book-a-zine Holiday by Matthew Mead is that it is officially bound and OUT!!!!! Which means, it should be in my hands by the end of the week!!!! I am truly so excited!