This morning I headed out the door in a sweater and capri's - I knew it might be a little chilly, but still, this was not unusual "winter wear" for where I live. I was surprised to see a light snow falling, drifting gently from the clouds and immediately melting on the ground. It was the second time in a few days we had had these fine, tiny snowflakes. I didn't bother changing to go run my errands, I was sure that by the time I was done the snow would be gone and the sun would be warming the air.

For the days after Thanksgiving when leftover turkey is aplenty and your desire to cook was left behind with the skinny notch on your belt, here is an EASY yummy recipe. One of my kid's kindergarten teachers sent this home one year and we really like it. It goes together in a few minutes and I found that I can use up the dark meat in it that the family doesn't like to eat plain.

Gobble Good Turkey Casserole

1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of celery soup
1 package onion soup mix
1 cup uncooked white rice
1 1/2 cups milk
2-3 cups leftover turkey

Combine all ingredients in a large casserole dish. Bake covered 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

At our Thanksgiving dinner my husband asked if we wanted to go around the table and say something we are thankful for. Tabitha got to go first. She got up from her seat, went around the table, and told us she was thankful for the turkey.

The month of November has gone by very fast. I have had several things I meant to post as the month went by, but alas, they seemed to be the last thing on my list. But today is a perfect day for blogging. It is raining outside, I have the smell of homemade apple pie drifting through my home, so really it is a great day to cuddle up with a book. But since having two four year olds around is not very conducive to relaxing on the couch without being interrupted every other paragraph, catching up on the blog seems to be the next best thing.

A Close Call for the Tooth Fairy

Back at the beginning of the month Gracie lost a tooth. For some reason she thinks I am the tooth fairy. In a last ditch effort to convince herself the tooth fairy is real, she decided she'd try to catch her. Luckily for the tooth fairy, all Gracie ended up with was a jar of fairy dust.

5k Fun Run

Also at the beginning of the month I reached a goal that I have been wanting to do for a long time: run a 5K. My husband and I both ran, it was my first, but not George's. He really ran just to support me, and was an awesome coach. I was worried because I am a pretty slow runner, but there were so many people there at different fitness levels that it didn't matter. Although my finish time is nothing to brag about, I beat my practice time by seven minutes! Woo Hoo! It was a fun experience and I hope to do another one in January

Fall Decorating

I enjoy decorating for the Holidays. I remember once when I was growing up Mom saying she couldn't wait to see what I decorated my house like when I grew up. I don't think she meant holiday decor as much as she meant what my house would look like in general, but every time I put up my seasonal things I wish she and the rest of the family was closer so I could share it with them. So here is the next best thing. Nothing fancy, but still fun.


Preschool Pilgrims
Tim and Tab had their "feast day" at preschool yesterday and came out in their Pilgrim attire, having eaten chicken noodle soup, corn bread, and pumpkin pie.

Traditions
We don't have a lot of Thanksgiving traditions, other than the big feast and expressing what we are thankful for on that day, but here are a couple things we do to make Thanksgiving fun and meaningful:

Tom Turkey begins the month bare of tail feathers. We leave box of feathers out and throughout the month when we think of something we are thankful for we write it on a feather and add it to his tail. Even the preschoolers do their own "writing." By Thanksgiving Day he is arrayed in all the splendor of a Thanksgiving Turkey.
This is the second year we have made these fun Turkey Cupcakes. We make a bunch and then choose the best looking ones to take to friends.
Then we eat the mutant ones ourselves.There is November thus far in a nutshell. I hope everone has a great Thanksgiving!

Every year we do these things.

Every year I end up sewing costumes for my children. Never have I made six costumes in one year, but every year I end up in a sewing frenzy and searching stores for the accessories they "need" and I have to ask myself, "Why?"

Why, when I have a box of dress ups that I can't even get the lid on, and when the costumes I spent a lot of time constructing last year still fit, do I keep doing this every year?

Mostly, because my kids are only kids once. The magic of Halloween changes as you grow up. I can't help but want them to have fun memories in the costumes their mom made for them when they were kids. But also it's partly because (lucky for them) I like to sew and just seem to be in the mood for some creativity when the weather starts to change. This year I made three costumes, two children wore the same ones as last year (a miracle) and one child chose something from the dress up box.

They all looked fabulous and, except perhaps for an overload of candy, they had a magical Halloween. Didn't I warn them what all that candy would do to their teeth?

I had to write this down before I forgot -

This morning I was laying on the couch with Tabitha while supervising the other kids getting ready for school. Out of the blue she says:

"If we covered ourselves with peanut butter, would we stick to the wall?"

Although I don't understand it, I love the way her mind works . . .

I originally started this blog with the intention of recording sharing the joys of motherhood and the events that make up the fabric of my life with my family. Lately I have been disappointed in myself in just recording events and not so much how I feel about them. My motherhood, from deciding how many kids to have, how to raise them, where to go for guidance, and how to pick myself up and move forward when I mess up stems from the beliefs I hold dear to my heart.

I recently read a couple of posts from Jen at Amazing trips where she boldly spoke on some issues that face our society. Although I don't agree with a lot of what she said, I admire her courage in saying what she believes in. I also read in the comments on her posts many different views of God, religion, and how our own beliefs affect others. Our country wouldn't exist if not for people wanting freedom of religion - and free speech is so important to us! This post in not meant to be a rebuttal to Jen's comments. I just simply want to share a few of my core beliefs with anyone who is interested. Not interested? That's okay. Disagree? That's you're right.

I believe I am a daughter of God.

I believe my spirit existed before I was born and that I will exist after.

I believe in Christ and His atonement and Resurrection.

I believe in ongoing revelation from God - both personal revelation and revelation through living prophets.

I believe in scripture. *

I believe all mankind will have the opportunity to learn about Christ and accept Him, if not in this life, then in the hereafter - before they are sent on to their eternal reward.

I don't believe in traditional Hell.

I do not believe in traditional Heaven either.* *

I believe that we will be judged for our works in this life, the true desires of our hearts, and the extent that we accept Christ. This will determine our ongoing progress in the next life.

I believe that I came into this world with a personality and qualities that are mine, that genetics do play a role in who I am, but so does my spirit.

I believe that traditional values and traditional families are essential to God's plan and our society.

I believe the power of God on the Earth, the priesthood, is held by worthy men.

I believe in miracles.

I believe in baptism and ordinances, or covenants with God.

I believe that families are meant to be eternal, that marriages are meant to last beyond this life, as well as ties to children and parents. I believe this is possible through the power of Christ through ordinances and covenants.

I believe in Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are three separate beings.

I believe that Christ will come again to reign on Earth. I don't, however, believe that people of my own religion are the only ones who will remain alive on the Earth at that time.

I believe that God knows my name and cares about what happens to me.


If you are familiar with my religion you may have guessed that I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka Mormon). I do not intend to speak for others of my faith, only to convey a few of the things that I have found for myself to be true. Thank you for letting me share these with you. If you care to find out more about my religion you can go here.

*I believe in the Bible, but that it has been mistranslated throughout the years. I believe precious teachings that were lost have been restored by a prophet. These are recorded in the back of the LDS printings of the King James Version of the Bible. I also believe in the Book of Mormon, a record of God's dealings with the ancient people of the Americas.

**I believe in what Mormons call "The Plan of Salvation" or "The Great Plan of Happiness" which teaches that very few people will end up in a place in the eternities where there is pain and suffering. After judgement we will be placed in the "Heaven" (degree of glory) that we will be most comfortable in. This may be a little hard to understand at first, but I don't believe God wants his children to suffer forever.

Tim and Tab have learned a lot about the creation and where they came from. They ask a lot of questions about Jesus and what he created and so forth. Tonight Jeremy was telling us about a book he is reading that compares sci-fi weaponry with the real stuff (read on, this does have something to do with the previous two sentences). Eventually the conversation turned to the ultimate sci-fi weapon, the Death Star (Dun dun dun Duh duh dun Duh duh dun). After Jeremy reminded us how it could blow up the whole planet, Tim commented, "Then Jesus would sure have a lot of work to do!"

There is something about boys and dirt that are inseparable. Now that the weather has cooled off enough for the kids to be outdoors for more than a few minutes without incurring heat stroke, Tim has taken up residence in his favorite place. The sand box.
He is usually joined by one or more of his siblings, which is no problem as George built it big enough for all six kids to dig around in if they so choose.
Tim loves the tractors. Here he and Tabs have a whole parade of them going to the work site.
Often when the bigger kids are out there they will carve out lakes and rivers and fill them with water. They like to watch the water erode their castles and bridges, and have even been known to bury the hose inside a "volcano" and then turn it on and watch it erupt!

Jacob grabbed the camera the other day. I had to post a couple of his photos, just to prove we don't take ourselves too seriously around here.

That's right. It is officially pig week at our house. Somehow, without really planning it, we are eating the other white meat everyday. Ham is one of the foods that everyone in my family will eat. If I buy a big enough one I can get about three meals out of it. Usually I'll cook the ham and then freeze the leftovers to use later. Not this week.

When I went shopping for this week's food I had planned on buying some chicken that was on sale to break up the monotony of ham leftovers. When I got to the store they were down to the last two packages of chicken and they didn't look that fresh, so I skipped. But the big fat pork chops that were on sale looked great!

So here is our menu for the week:

Monday: Ham and Cheesy Potatoes
Tuesday: Breaded Pork Chops
Wednesday: Homemade Split Pea Soup made with the ham bone and leftover ham.
Thursday (tonight): Farmer's Casserole (Shredded hash browns, eggs, cheese, onions, and of course, ham)
Friday: Per Jeremy's request - Waffles and Bacon.

Perhaps we will pigs in a blanket (with pork hot dogs of course) on Saturday, just to round off the week. It's just like Thanksgiving, only with pork instead of turkey.

My friend Monica and I were lamenting the other day how our youngest children seem to act so much older than our oldest children did at the same age. Being youngest in a family has got to be a totally different experience than being among the oldest. Tim and Tabitha have a different view of the world than their older siblings did. They are exposed to a lot more activities, movies, and people and places than they were. Not just more, but different.

Although they do still posses the innocence of little children, they have a tolerance for things that would have terrified their siblings at their age. They will sit calmly through the movie Jurassic Park and then draw pictures of rainbow colored dinosaurs when the movie is over. We would NEVER have shown this movie to our three oldest at this age. Jeremy used to hide behind the couch and cry when Pooh Bear got stuck in Rabbit's front door.

In some ways this worries me. They are much more graphic about things at a young age also. For example they have been known to sing, "Three little monkeys jumping on the bed. One falls off and cracks his head and blood comes out." I swear they don't watch anything gorier than Jurassic Park (the first one, the least disgusting of the series). And here is a lovely picture Tabitha colored at church. It is supposed to be a picture of two kids sharing. Her interpretation: Tim is sharing his blocks with me and I am throwing up on them. Notice the rainbow colored barf?
And of course they pick up language. Luckily we don't use any expletives in our house that would warrant embarrassment if a little one blurted them out in public, but it really cracks us up when one of the twins stops in their tracks and exclaims, "What the heck?" And they are great name callers, "You poo poo!" being the most prevalent insult.


It's not all bad. They have a lot of confidence and understanding of the world around them and how things work. They also have a strong grip on what is reality and what is pretend, hence being able to watch Jurassic Park and not be traumatised. They learn how to do a lot from their older siblings from teasing to acting like they are doing homework. They get to tag along to their siblings' activities and schools and see what the world is like after preschool. They look forward to doing the things that the big kids do, and "practice" being big kids through their play.


There are other things that are different that I just can't seem to put my finger on, but make me wonder, "Did my other kids do this, act like this, were they interested in this, at this age?" Part of it could just be personality. Both have strong personalities and opinions. But I think experience has had an impact too. Ever since Grandpa Mac passed away almost a year ago Tabitha has asked many, many questions about him and where he is with Jesus (Is he in outer space?). She talks about Jesus a lot and asks if he created this or that (cars, flowers) and if he knows what we are thinking. Some of her questions seem awfully deep for a four year old.


Drawing out all these examples in writing makes me worried that they sound like disturbed children! Then, just as I typed the last sentence, Charity walked in the room and confessed she ripped Tabitha's night gown. How? "I was trying grab her and stuff paper in her mouth." Okay, so maybe they really are just learning from the best. Or maybe they are all disturbed.

Did I do something wrong?

Oh, man! I'm busted!

"Don't worry, it will grow."

She is totally unconcerned about the damage she did with the scissors today. I was mourning the loss of her lovely locks and she comforted me by saying, "Don't worry, it will grow." I'm not exactly sure how we are going to do damage control on this one. I know a couple of beauticians that could probably be creative. I think I'll just pull it back in the front until I can figure out if we can get a cut that would hide it.

Occasionally we have a little trouble getting the truth out of Tabitha. And occasionally she still doesn't quite make it to the bathroom. Today was a day we had trouble with both. To her credit she tried to clean up her potty mess as best she could without me knowing so she wouldn't get in trouble. When I found what was left of the mess I asked her, "Tabitha, who wiped poop on the bed?"

"I don't know," she answered, in spite of the fact that she, for some reason, had changed clothes.

"I know Tim didn't do it," I said, "and the big kids didn't do it. Who did it?"

She paused for just a second, looking oh so innocent, then said, "Daddy did it."

I recently redesigned my mom's blog for her. I had so much fun creating her header and picking out the color scheme. In the midst of the project Charity (age 9) came over to where I was fiddling away at the computer and said, "Mom, you should do something else besides the computer, like sewing, or your brain is going to get fried." I guess my allotted "screen time" was up.

I have been a little AWOL from the blogging world of late, but things seem to have settled down now that school has been in session for a week. The first two weeks of school around here are kind of slow, easing the kids (and parents) back into the routine. I have one more back to school night to attend and then it will be official; homework will start coming home and I'll have to be more diligent in checking backpacks and asking questions.

I welcome a little more organization to the day for the kids, getting up at a certain time, having time to play, work, and do homework set aside, and a regular bedtime as well. We all seem to be a lot calmer.

One thing that I have been really wanting to do is get back into the habit of is reading to my kids each night. We started back up a few weeks ago with The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo and have moved on to others since then (look at the sidebar to see what we are currently reading!). I read from the hallway where all the bedroom doors converge while the kids are in their beds. I am surprised at how much the four year olds look forward to it as well, even though the chapter books are above their "level." (I read them their books during the day) Perhaps they will acquire large vocabularies. Seven year old Gracie interrupts a lot to ask what a certain word means, so I know she is improving her vocab and understanding as well.

Mostly I love it because I love books. I love sharing what I love with my kids. When we can talk about a book together or laugh as we make real life comparisons to something we have read, it creates a fun connection in our relationships. What's that old poem?


You may have tangible wealth untold;
Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.
Richer than I you can never be --
I had a mother who read to me....

-Strickland Gillilan

Jacob is taking orchestra at school this year and is very excited to be playing the violin. He had some instruction in violin last year in elementary school; he was able to retain some of what he learned over the summer. He brought a violin home from school today and excitedly brushed up on his skills. Here is a little performance for your enjoyment.


Perhaps he and Charity can do a duet sometime.

It's barely the middle of August, and although it will be another month at least before cool Autumn breezes grace my spot in the world, the kids are back at school. This morning two rode the bus off to intermediate school and two walked down the the elementary school. The other two start preschool tomorrow.

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow, for two and a half hours I will be alone. I will have the house to myself. I will have my thoughts to myself. I can open the pantry or fridge without someone declaring they are hungry and need a snack. I can sit on the couch without having someone ask me to read them a book. I can walk out of a room without someone instantly calling for me the minute I step out. I can even go to the bathroom in peace. For two and a half hours, I will be alone.

I used to feel guilty about the sigh of relief I let out when school starts up again, wishing I was a mom with the talent to always be "on" as a mother: homeschooling, letting the kids climb in bed with her every night, never too busy to read a book or listen to a complaint or work on a messy art project. But I know myself better now, and I know my kids. School is good for the kids. And me, I'm not anti-social or anything, but my personality has always leaned towards spending time alone with my thoughts, needing space to regroup and organize myself. Going for long periods of time when my thoughts are constantly interrupted is jarring to me. The school year brings balance, gives me enough space that I can feel collected enough to give my children more of myself when they are home than I am able to when I feel constantly bombarded by their needs.

I admire those women who homeschool and are with their children almost 24/7, and I admire the mom's who send their kids off to school every day with a hug and a kiss, and the knowledge that they are loved, priceless jewels that their mothers could not live without.

Four of my children take piano lessons. Two have sung in choirs. One has instruction on violin and xylophone. Four have had instruction on conga drums in school. But I never imagined one of my children would be musically talented this way. Welcome to Musical Gargling.

Inside Tabitha's mind:

Boring, boring boring -- the same old pink shirts and denim skorts. My wardrobe needs some pizazz! Maybe Charity can help me. Look how cool her outfit is. She has a real flair for fashion!

Hmm, white felt with a price tag embellishment and a bit of dryer lint. No, it just doesn't "pop."