Thanksgiving Update

Joshua takes a nap on the couch with Max.
Joshua is sitting up quite well!

Tommy drew this picture and said, "Mommy look. It's my dancing boy." How cute!

Well, after a few hours in the kitchen sink, the turkey did thaw adequately. My cousin, Jeanne, helped me prepare it and it came out just right. Thanks, Jeanne!

It's a quiet weekend around here. We're hoping to put up some Christmas lights--probably tomorrow. We need the clips that attach them to the shingles. It seems they got thrown away last year. On our "date" tonight, I'm sure Stu and I will pick some up. Jamie comes home tomorrow. He was missed by all! Currently, the two youngest are napping. Yay! I'm doing laundry and a some light cleaning. I signed up for twitter. Look for updates in my sidebar. It seemed interesting, so I thought I'd give it a try!

Joshua 6 1/2 months old
Eden, 2 years old

Thanksgiving musings

Okay, so hey, it's Thanksgiving on Thursday. I have only had it at my house once (in 1993) and I didn't cook the turkey. So we embark on the adventure that is preparing a turkey. My Dad calls me yesterday to remind me to put it in the fridge to thaw. Ok, that's done. But today it seems no more thawed than yesterday...mmm. Well, just have to watch and see what develops. I'm going to do green bean casserole, a potato casserole that Stu loves, rolls, and pumpkin pie. We have another family joining us and my cousin is supposed to come, too. It should be a nice little gathering.

I'm still worried about this turkey. Mom of 7 cooks turkey. You'd think I would know how to do these things. Time to visit the allrecipes site and check out what to do!

I have a new love...caffeine. Never really thought that much about it before. I'm really liking McDonald's sweet tea. I get to have one every now and then. And Celeste treated me to Starbucks today. That mocha truffle espresso was REALLY good. I don't own a coffee maker, but I could see the benefit to it. I swore off caffeine in 2003 when I was taking more care with my health. I don't see it as a good thing, BUT I sure do have more energy when I consume it! Not a down side to that proposition!

This Week

My girls--Celeste, 17, and Eden, 2.
All of my cowboys--Max, Tommy, Dan.

Celeste & Jamie

Little Mr. Mischief

Joshua cut his 2nd tooth (bottom front left) and started crawling for real. He turned 7 months old this week! I can't believe how big he is already! He is pulling up on things, too! The problem is his poor balance. Many crashes later, he still hasn't learned his lesson. Joshua is consuming 4 jars of baby food a day and 5-6 bottles. My prediction: another Max. My pantry shudders in anticipation...

I had a wonderful visit with a good friend, Katrine. She is 5 great boys ages 9-2. My boys really had a blast running around her 2 acres outside and I enjoyed "adult time." (Although we were interrupted on many occasions!)

Jamie flew to St. Louis today by himself. He is spending the week with his Dad. I'm sure he will have a super good time. Celeste is working like crazy. She has 2 exams and 2 papers due on Monday for classes, so there won't be much social time. She's a bit stressed out. Please pray for her. She lost her glasses a week ago. We thought they would turn up, but haven't. New ones are not in the budget, so I'm just praying they'll magically appear. She wears contacts, but can't wear them ALL day. I'm not sure what we'll do... Pray God would provide an answer.

Joshua Eats

Joshua started eating solid food yesterday. He's been taking 7 bottles a day and waking a lot at night, so I just couldn't do it anymore. Check out his little blog. Celeste found a very pretty black dress for our church Christmas social for $40 today. It was fun to go shopping with her!

We're off to a ladies' meeting tonight and Jamie is cutting up some ham for our simple dinner. We're having Ham & Black-eyed peas. I get three cans of the peas, 1 circular thing of ham diced, and 2 1/2 cups of rice and mix them together in a pot on the stove on warm. We're just having broccoli with it, too! The kids love it. I put a little ketchup on mine :).

A tooth

Joshua cut his 1st tooth yesterday! He is 6 1/2 months old. He ties Dan (now 9) for being the earliest teether. I will start with baby food soon. He is consuming lots of bottles right now, so I'm thinking growth spurt. Also, he has been horribly constipated (sorry if that's TMI) since going on Good Start formula. I have been giving him a bit of diluted apple juice to help with the problem. Hopefully, that will improve.

I'm not going to say much about the election. What do you expect when the government is training the minds of tomorrow?!? See this article.

Arachniphobia

My son, Jamie (14), made this spider cake in his culinary class at high school. His group of 5 students made it early in the week last week. All the students from the culinary classes judged the cakes and this spider cake won. It's really cool! (Then they ate it!) Jamie came home with his first report card today from high school--5 A's and 1 C+ in honors geometry. Great job, Jamie!

Homeschooling is going better than expected. Life is busy. Right now Celeste is at work at the local grocery, we've got Eden in bed, the boys are getting ready for bed, and Stu is rocking the baby. There's also loads of laundry going. I'll be folding while I watch 17 Kids and Counting tonight!