Sledding

When school work and chores are done it is time to go out and play.

And there is no better place to go but downtown to go sledding.

This being Friday and the Thanksgiving weekend, the sledding hill was packed with kids.

Bonnie and our neighbor joined the masses of children to have fun sliding down the hill.

Just a few feet away from where we stood is the gazebo 

where a brass ensemble entertained us with Christmas tunes.

It is so cool being in town with all the lights, music, and festive spirit.

As the evening wore on, the brass ensemble was replaced with a choral  group who led the crowd in singing

Christmas carols.  I would have loved to stay to sing songs but it was time to go home and fix dinner.

But we will back for more fun.  Next weekend starts the official Christmas lighting.  The kids and I will be

participating in the lighting dressed up as Christmas characters.  We will get to mingle with the tourists, sing

carols, and have fun.

What a great place to live.

Thanksgiving

This year was the first time in sixteen years that we celebrated Thanksgiving with Todd's family.

Everyone was there minus Todd's sister, LaRee, and her husband, Bob, who live in Maine.

Todd's mom served up a grand feast of Turkey, taters, gravy, veggies, and homemade fruit pies.  We were all stuffed when we were done eating.

Afterwards, all the grandkids pitched in to clean up.  The grand finale of the day was the money jar.

The money jar is an Ells tradition.  All year long, they put all of their loose change into a jar.  After the Thanksgiving feast, the grandkids take turns putting their hand into the jar to see how much money than can pull out in one fist full.  The opening to the jar is fist wide so there is not a lot of room to maneuver around in.  Whatever the kids pull out they can keep.  Ashleigh was the big winner of the evening by pulling out $20 in change. 

It was a nice Thanksgiving.  I miss my family and our traditions but am thankful to be with Todd's family this year and allowing our children to experience these holidays with them.

Traditions

It is a tradition in my family to have homemade noodles with your turkey and mashed potatoes.  I don't know who started this tradition but I know that my mom, her sister, and my dad's sister all do it. 

This year we will be having Thanksgiving dinner with my husband's family so I am off the hook with all the cooking.  However, I do enjoy cooking a big turkey and all the extra meat and broth it provides for other meals, so I decided to go ahead and bake my own turkey just for the fun of it. 

Last night I baked my turkey, and it was my best turkey yet.  It was a sixteen pounder. We got a lot of meat off of it, and I saved all the drippings to make broth with.  Today I made noodles so that tonight we can have our homemade noodles cooked in turkey broth with turkey meat inside.  We also like to serve it on top of mashed potatoes, again I don't know why, but we do.  So fortunately, I have some left over mashed potatoes from last night as well to serve with it.

I am looking forward to dinner tonight.

Nose Hair Freezing Cold

It is COLD outside.  Zero degrees cold.  Nose hair freezing cold.  AND I love it!!

Why?

Because of this.......

..... a wood stove. 

It is so toasty and warm inside that I can barely stand it.  For so long we froze in the winter.  I would tell Todd we need a wood stove when we lived in North Carolina but he did not want to mess with it.  Now we are back in Washington and a wood stove to boot! 

 I went outside yesterday and stood outside our house to get this snapshot.  Snow has covered everything.  The branches of all the pines, furs, and spruces are all weighted down with the weight of it.  The streets are white with snow and everything looks clean and beautiful.  It is amazing how snow can even make some one's junk look pretty.

The kids built a snowman during the first snow fall.  Our yard collects so little snow due to a huge maple tree that they had to scrape the sidewalks to get all the snow they could.   Now the poor snowman has been gutted out and has been turned into a one man fort.

I keep telling them that the snow is going to be around for a few more months so don't fret.  They will get plenty of snow time.  We went back downtown yesterday, when all of our school work was done, to do some more sledding.  I really need to find a couple of more sleds.  Those round disc sleds are the best for this snow.  The kids can really fly on them.  I have a feeling we will probably head back down to the sledding hill again today. 



Another Week In Paradise

I really need to get outside and get some pictures.  It is beautiful here.  Since Friday we have had snow off and on.  Everything is white. It is not too deep, just an inch or two, but enough to make everything sparkle.  The kids have enjoyed it.  The boys have already made a snow man and went downtown to sled with the other kids in the area.  When we get enough snow we will head uphill to ski hill where they have a tubing hill and skiing.  I have a feeling that Brian is going to be my snowboarder.

This is a short week with Thanksgiving on Thursday.  My lazy side wants to take the whole week off but we won't do that.  Since we just finished science I decided not to start a new module til next week so we will drop off one subject but that is all.  Everything is on target to continue.

Todd's school however isn't have "school" Tuesday or Wednesday although they are still meeting.  Evidently they are doing educational activities those days but not in the books.  So at least he will get a little break from lesson planning.  Last night, he spoke for the community evangelistic association, and said it went well.  Today he gets to head to Wenatchee to get new tires for the Blazer.  I will feel a whole lot better when we get those on.  It is a bit slick here but that is another thing I like about Leavenworth. The whole pace of life slows down in the winter.  People drive slower and are more cautious.  Unlike Michigan, where everyone still tries to drive like speed racer with snow and  ice on the roads.

Oh, well....here we go off to another fantastic week.  God bless

Oh..btw...the bite on our house fell through.  bummer.  still praying for a buyer or renter.

Did I Bite Off Too Much?

Sometimes I wonder what I was thinking when I open my mouth.

Here we are in our new church and already I find myself volunteering to do things that maybe....well....
The Christmas season is coming and I thought it would be great for the kids to put on a Christmas program.  We don't have a lot of kids but enough to do a small production.  Production might be too big of a word.  Presentation might be a better one. 

Basically, the kids are going to act out Luke 2 and Matthew 2.  Susan, my mother in law, will read through the passage and at certain points the kids, dressed in character, will enter the scene and  make their way to the stable which will be on center stage.  A different points in the scripture, we will have the congregation sing Christmas hymns.  I have given the kids verses to memorize for the characters, such as, the angels will say their verses and the shepherds will say theirs. 

It should go over well.  I know the parents are really excited about it all.  The church already has the costumes and I made a barn for VBS this past summer so I feel pretty confident that I can build another one for the stage.  We have most of the materials on hand and I have asked the teens help me to build it.

Today was our first practice and I though it went well.  I have to give a big thank you to Lori Lawing and Karyn Haddox who directed our Shakespeare plays for the past four years in NC.  Watching them direct really helped me to know how to direct this group.

We have three more Sunday morning to practice and hopefully it will go well.  We shall soon see.  If I let myself think about it I get scared that I bit off more than I can chew.  But then I think back to VBS and how I bit off a big project of constructing the VBS props and in the end it turned out so well.  So I figure you never know if you don't try. 

Quick Review

Ok...so I have about ten minutes before school so here is a quick flash back to our week.

In school, we have been studying the cultures and religions of ancient India.  Primarily, we have focused on Hinduism and Buddhism.  It  has been a really good study.  All three children wrote comparison/contrast papers on the two religions.  With the study we have been reading the book, Buddha Stories.  Buddha has several stories that all end with a moral, a lot like Aesop's Fables.  What was interesting to note was that all of his morals are also found in the Bible.  So what is the lesson?  Satan wants to lead us astray from the Truth so he puts a lot of fake religions out there.  Just like in art, the real deal is priceless and the fake is worthless, so it is with what we believe in.  God and His Word is the real deal and is priceless.  All the other stuff may look like Him, may sound similar to Him but it is nothing but a fake and worthless.

Today, Bonnie and Brian finish module four in science.  They have been learning about simple machines and will start studying for their test.  Bryce finished his chapter on birds and will be tested on it today.  In math, Bonnie is dealing with positive and negative numbers while the boys are both working on the metric system.  All in all a pretty descent week.

In other areas, we have been busy moving all the split wood that Todd had hauled out of the mountains to his parent's house and stacking it in their shed.  They now have a full shed and all of the extra is at our house.  We still are not sure if we have enough.  He might head back in the mountains tomorrow to get one more cord, that is if the snow isn't too bad up there.  The weather man is predicting temps as low as 0 next week so we want to stay warm.

With our church, we are still hosting a Monday night Bible study in our home.  We had a great discussion this past week.  The people who come are really searching for answers and have a desire to know God more.  Wednesday night is Awana and I got another Cubbie, making my total of Cubbies six.  Not bad for our size club.  Thursday night is our youth Bible study.  We are doing the series, Dare to Be a Daniel   which is put out by the Billy Graham Evang. Assoc.  We average ten teenagers which is pretty awesome.  The first night we met I was really concerned that nobody would come but we had nine kids show up.  They say they really enjoy it but I would appreciate your prayers over this group. 

That brings us to today.  Today we start studying ancient China and will keep progressing through our other studies.  Bonnie and I have been invited out to lunch with some ladies from church and then this evening Bonnie is having a couple of girls over to spend the night.  They have informed me that they are going to take over the living room so I am trying to get prepared for it.  Looks like I will need to run to the grocery store and stock up on some snackies.

Well, my ten minutes are up and I need to round up the crew, pour myself a cup of coffee and get our day going. 

O...btw....we have another bite on our house in NC.  Please keep praying.