Fabulous 4

Thanksgiving weekend was a fabulous four day weekend for our kids and for Cam. I loved it. Thanksgiving was so fun and so nice to host it. No driving home late at night with tired kids. :) We ate and played games. We don't have TV...so sorry no football. Muwahahaha!

Cam did dishes...all the dishes. He rocked! Love that man!!



My MIL and SIL putting together the puzzle we worked on.



Sis and Baby George had a great time playing with my BIL and sitting on him. :)

My sister and niece. Precious! Of course Tuba is never far from the baby in the house.

Games and pie. Whoohoo. Cam talks all the kids into playing Risk. Blech! Of course they loved it.

Green Bean confession

I have a confession to make. I've never had green bean casserole!
I just know I would NOT like it! It looks terrible. I do not like those nasty crunchy things on top and I do not like casseroles made from canned soup. Blech! You may be saying "I bet you'd like it if you tried it". Ummmm, no. I do not like it. Not in a car, or a bar, or on top of a star. I do not like it with a goat or on a moat or in a boat. Yes, I have toddlers and am forced to read too much Dr. Seuss. I don't really like Dr. Seuss either.....but that is a topic for another day.

I don't buy much packed food....processed food. I like things from scratch. It's cheaper and healthier. I make pancakes/waffles, cookies, cake, etc. from the flour and sugar and such in my cupboard...not from a package. I make casseroles and soups and sauces from scratch too. I really hate canned soup...as I said earlier. It's too salty....too nasty. Homemade soup is so easy and so good.

Confession time: I will admit to a few packaged foods I like (don't criticize). I LOVE microwave popcorn. I like the Homestyle one. It tastes just like homemade. Yum. Oh, and I do love Pepperidge Farm cookies....the ones with dark chocolate and nuts on them. Yum. I also buy Costco meatballs. I'm sure they are terrible for me. They are not organic, not locally grown and full of salty badness. But, they have gotten me through quite a few crazed days when cooking dinner just didn't seem possible. So I vote them as Yum too.

The picture is my little helpers (in their favorite outfits) unwrapping butter. Sis will take a bite out of the cube when I'm not looking. She loves butter. Mr. P had school lunch last week and told me the waffles were really good. He said there was something "like butter" on them. I told him it was margarine. Ewwww. He voted Yum for margarine.

What are your favorite things to make from scratch and what are your favorite processed foods...even if they are a secret. :)

Thanksgiving is coming. Yipee. I LOVE Thanksgiving. I love the fall. I love the leaves changing and the cool weather. We get to host Thanksgiving this year at our new house. Fun! We finally have the space to have more than two people over at a time.

I love Thanksgiving for the time to reflect on what I am thankful for. I have MUCH to be thankful for. I love it for the family center holiday minus gifts that Thanksgiving is. I love it.

I love Thanksgiving for the delicious food. I love to cook. I've been planning out my dinner for a good month now. I keep all my recipes in a folder and have been adding to it as I find new things I want to try. I am a traditionalist (shocking I know). I like the same things each year but I do like to try new recipes and add a couple new twists. There will never be Greek food for dinner on Thanksgiving (that's an inside joke for my hubby :) . I am going to try roasting my turkey differently. I am having the butcher cut it up and I'll roast it in pieces in a pan. I also made homemade rolls for the first time (trial run). They were delicious! They tasted just like Cam's Grandma. Well, just like her rolls. Yum.

As for traditional Thanksgiving foods. Why does anybody like green bean casserole? I don't get it. You won't find it at my house. You will however find cranberries...from a can...jelly style. Cam and I must admit we love them. My Sis is bringing the real kind too.

Here's our menu. Turkey, gravy, whole grain bread stuffing with sausage, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, rolls, steamed green beans, cranberries, raspberry jello salad...have I forgotten anything?

Oh! Dessert!! Pumpkin pie, apple pie, whip cream, and wine. Okay, wine isn't dessert but I forgot it too. Plus sparkling cider for the kids. I'm SO excited.

What is your favorite Thanksgiving dish? Do you like green bean casserole?
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I have been thinking a lot about silence and ways to silence my mind. During my last confession I spoke to my priest about trying to find ways of quieting my mind. I have a terrible time trying to be silent....and still. It is never quiet in my house, or car....ever. In the moments it is a little quieter I fill my mind with reading, talking to Cam, listening to music, or surfing my computer...and phone. Yes, I try to quiet myself when I say my prayers. But most of the time it's with 5 little wiggly bodies. It's at night and I'm tired and in a hurry. It's not very quiet. Do I really have time? Of course I do. But, I tend to busy myself right out of it. I do not feel comfortable in silence. I do not like it. At all!
My friend suggested I spend 10 minutes a day in silence praying the Jesus prayer (Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me a sinner). WHAT?? I panicked. 10 minutes is a LONG TIME! She laughed. Okay, try 5. So the next day I tried it. After what seemed like an eternity I opened my eyes and checked how long I had done it. 3 minutes! I need more practice. Way more!
There are things we have done lately that have been great for quiet time. We canceled cable. I love it. I do not miss it at all. I used to have the TV on while I read magazines in bed at night or I'd have it on while folding laundry. I don't miss it a bit....especially all the political ads.
There is more I could do. Much more. I know it would benefit me...and others. I need to carve out the time for it. Why don't I do it??
What do you do to quiet your mind? How do you spend time in silence? Tell me your secrets so I can copy you. Seriously.
PS I'm terribly addicted to multitasking...which makes sitting in silence really hard. While writing this post I changed a light bulb, got milk for Sis, went to another website and checked my texts on my phone. Help!

On Monday night I had just put dinner on the table when Sis screamed and came running into the kitchen....blood running from her head down her face. Ugh! She had jumped off a chair and hit her head on the fireplace hearth. Of course Cam was at work...working late...of course. I grabbed a towel and pressed it on her head. I started to cry, started to freak out. Then I noticed Mr. P was freaking out. He asked if he should call 911. I wanted to say, "YES". I knew I had to look at her head to assess it but I did NOT want to. I'd really rather call 911 and let the pros look at it. I also thought I could run her next door and have a neighbor look at it. In the few seconds it took me to think all these things I realized I had to suck it up and look at it myself. ARGH! Sometimes being an adult and a mom is hard! I quickly pulled the towel off and looked. Ewwww. a gaping wound. I then called Cam quickly to freak out a bit and ask if he thought she needed stitches....I offered to take a photo and send it to him. He calmly told me to take her in. Ahhhh....the voice of reason.

I then called my MIL...who lives 3 blocks away. Thankfully she was home and got to my house in 2 minutes flat. The thought of taking all the kids with me to the clinic was scarier than looking at Sis's wound. Busy Guy was such a great help. He held the towel on his sister's head while I got ready to leave. I grabbed Sis and Mr. P (he wanted to come to help me) and off we went.

At the clinic it was busy. Flu season. Lord please keep us from getting the flu today was quickly added to my prayers. Sis's head had stopped bleeding and she hadn't cried since the first couple minutes it happened. She sat on my lap and from time to time would wince and say it hurt. Poor girl. She was tired and hungry and in pain. The wait time at the clinic....2 hours.

The nurse did get us into a room after about 30 minutes so they could assess her. Mr. P was very anxious and wanting to go home. At one point Sis's head started to bleed again and that caused Mr. P to have a major anxiety attack. It was terrible. Poor guy. Meanwhile Cam was on a bus trying to come home from the city.

Finally Cam arrived....after 1.5 hours at clinic. He took Mr. P home and I stayed to have Sis stitched up. She is THE bravest girl in the world!! She laid perfectly still and looked right at the Dr. for the whole procedure. Amazing! She has 5 stitches. The good thing is it's right along her hairline so I hope the scar won't show. No, I'm not a mom who thinks scars add character. :) Also, it was school picture day on Tues. Awesome! Not!

The next morning she woke up and announced, "my owie is ALL better". Then she took off at warp speed and hasn't slowed down. Ugh. I on the other hand have had a huge headache. 



Doodles

While cleaning up after carving pumpkins I saw this. We had the table covered in the day's newspaper. My first thought was that Busy Guy had drawn this. Nope. My next thought was that Cam had done it. Nope. I didn't believe either of them and asked them numerous times. I also asked Mr. P.  Nope they didn't do it. I finally asked Sis if she did it. Yep!
I hope it's not offensive to anyone but I found this to be hysterical. I could not stop giggling. I cut it out to put in Sis's baby book. She is good with a pen!

Pumpkins

I've got my posts out of order a bit. We actually did pumpkin carving the night before Halloween. Oh, well. My camera battery was dead so I took these photos with my phone. I took lots of photos but of course we were all nude...okay, in various stages of undies, pjs and...undies. :) I have to confess that I have never carved pumpkins with the kids. Cam has always done it and I've watched and taken photos. Well, this year we had lots of kids who wanted to carve so I figured I'd join in. It was SO much fun. I remember it being REALLY hard to carve a pumpkin....from way back when I was about 10 years old. But, it was actually super easy. We have these awesome carving tools (thanks Nana!). We had the kids draw the faces on the then Cam and I carved. Mr. P got to carve his own this year.

The face on Busy Guy's pumpkin! Love it!

Sis had a great time coloring all over her pumpkin. We decided her pumpkin was a girl and it needed eye lashes. I love this pic of her staring at the lit candle. Precious.

Mr. P did the whole thing himself. Awesome! He even put pj's on so I could take his pic and post it. :)





The last pic is all the pumpkins lined up and lit up. From left is Cam's, Baby George, Sis, Busy Guy and Mr. P's. Works of art!

Happy Halloween

The kids had a wonderful Halloween. We had a Batman, a princess, a Transformer, a GI Joe, and a witch. The weather was great...clear and not too cold. We had our annual Halloween night at the kids' Godparent's house. Dinner was yummy and trick-or-treating was great. The kids were thrilled that the lady with the big snake was handing out candy again this year! Yep! A big boa. Blech!! Nasty. I stayed WAY far from the snake. All the kids pet it. Blech!! Other than the snake I had a great time. Now I'm feasting on all my favorite candy. Mmmm....mini candy bar heaven.