My little troopers....

My kiddies and I volunteered late this morning for a two hour shift for the Salvation Army. We rang the bell, wishing people a happy holiday. I wasn't sure if the kids would make the full two hours, but my little troopers did.
It wasn't as cold as it could have been and the sun was shinning so it was a great day to volunteer and my kids had such a fun time too.

My sweet pea danced as she rang the bell and one man said, "seeing her was worth a donation in itself." I would say that 95% of the people passing by donated something and just simply wishing people a happy holiday was heart warming. Now that I know the kids can do it, this will become another holiday tradition in our family. When I signed us up, I explained to the kids why we were doing this and my little man, said "can I give some of my chore money?" and so he put in two dollars.
It was a great day! It was easy to sign up too...if you are interested in becoming a bell ringer yourself, you can go to http://www.ringbells.org/ to sign up.

"Unselfish and noble actions are the most radiant pages in the biography of souls." ~David Thomas

Gratitude

Thanksgiving is upon us and we celebrated at home - it was a fun filled day/evening. I was quite surprised that most of our guest stayed well into the evening. There was plenty of food, desserts, and good company.

My parents came, as did my sister, my great Uncle, and a family friend. And it was just fun relaxing, talking, and sharing in the moment. And as thanksgiving leaves to make room for Christmas I thought what experiences have I faced since last year that I am thankful for? Well, my list is many things, simple, but many things. I'm thankful for my husband and children, of course, they are the spark in my fire of endless entertainment and laughter and what is a home if there is no laughter and joy? I appreciate the family/friends that surround my life, I may not always be the easiest person and I am thankful for those who support me in all aspects of my life versus those who pretend. And I'm thankful that I can really live...life is short and unexpected and I have come to a point where I know what I will and will not tolerate in my life. This year has been challenging and emotionally draining in many ways, but I'm thankful for those tough times because you realize who is a friend, you realize that sometimes no matter how hard you try sometimes things can't change, you realize what really matters, and that not all things are meant to have a place in your life.

It is easy to get sucked into the negative emotions and the WTF's, but at the end of the day - it really doesn't matter, life moves on, and the more you hold on to the baggage the heavier the burden is to bear. So, I look forward to the new year and leaving this year behind - lots of lessons learned.

Happy Thanksgiving...gobble, gobble!

"To Speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, To Enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to Live gratitude is to touch heaven" – Johannes Gaertner

We have eggs.....

The hubby went out to check on the hens and there were three eggs waiting for us, which is great because I checked about three days prior and there were none...so I'm pretty excited that we finally have eggs!

The kids made scrambled eggs with one of them and I think they were impressed that the eggs actually came from the hens....it really is a great demonstration of where your food comes from...the kids had heard us talking about it, but I think it finally sunk in when we got the eggs. So, it will be nice that we won't have to buy any and we will have fresh eggs...yeah for the hens!!

"The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it." - A. H. Glasgow

When we sleep...

does our unconscious mind try to tell us things in our dreams? The other night I dreamt of my Aunt Marilyn who just passed away and the dream was quite weird. In the dream, she knew that she had passed and we were sitting in a hospital chapel and I said what are you doing here...you are gone.
And she said, I'm waiting - I need to help them...I then woke up. So, in my dream I never found out who....strange dreams they are.
I've had dreams in the past of my grandparents who have died and I've always just felt that was their way of visiting me, but my recent dream just shook me a bit....

"The best thing about dreams is that fleeting moment, when you are between asleep and awake, when you don't know the difference between reality and fantasy, when for just that one moment you feel with your entire soul that the dream is reality, and it really happened." - Unknown

100 books galore and more....

I haven't been blogging lately...a lot has been going on lately...like colds, sinus infections, strep throat, and now the stomach flu...but nothing exciting to really blog about, until tonight....

We reached our 100 book goal...today is day 85 and we finished the 100th book tonight...in fact my little sweet pea read number 1-0-0...she read, May I Have a Cookie, we also read Hurry, Hurry, Have you Heard? and Happy Hanukkah!
The kids were quite excited that we reached our goal and the school is still having their book sale, so after school tomorrow they get to pick out a book.

I'm also pretty excited that an old friend from high school will be passing through and we are going to meet up this weekend. It's been 16 years since we've seen each other, we've always tried to stay in touch, but just recently reconnected after several long years, so I can't wait to see her. We have a lot to catch up on and when I thought of how long it has been I really couldn't believe 16 years....where does the time really go?

I also decided (in addition) to the consultant work I do during the day to become an independent Norwex consultant. The school was having a fundraiser and I had a party and fell in love with the products....I'm not good with home parties...I never have a good turn out, but so far things are going well. The products are really great and you can basically clean your entire house in less time with water...which I had been making my own cleaners for about a year and these can replace my cleaners, however, I still make my laundry soap.

Thanksgiving is quickly approaching....we were going to head to MN for Thanksgiving, but decided to stay home and the hubs is going to cook. He really enjoys preparing such a big meal and he does a great job. I found some great non-traditional recipes to add to the fare.

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes." - Charles Swindoll

Halloween move over, it's the Holiday Season

We couldn't have asked for better weather for trick-n-treat night, it was a mild fall night. The kids changed three times because they couldn't decide what they wanted to be....I'm really thankful that we have a handful of costumes aka "pretend dress up play" that we didn't need to buy any costumes this year. I was in the midst of making my sweet pea's costume (she wanted to be a peacock), but towards the middle of the month she decided she was just going to wear one of the "princess dresses" and my little man had already said he was going to be a superhero. ***Tip**** when the store costumes go on clearance, we typically buy one for each of the kids and either save it for Christmas or their birthday - they love playing dress up year round and they love getting stuff like that when they don't expect it.

Anyway, the kids had a great time, we only hit two streets. On one of the very last houses, I see this man hunched over in a lawn chair holding a candy bowl, I immediately knew what was going to happen, but before I could say a "peep" the kiddies ran over and thankfully he took it easy on them and only said "boo!"
They sure got a fright, but laughed so loud as the kids were leaving they shouted, "thank you scary man!" And really they don't see that - out of most of the homes giving candy out, maybe two or three were decorated or people in costume and it definitely could be that we happen to live in a neighborhood with more older residents than younger, but I remember growing up all the homes were decked out with scary decor and there were some I wouldn't even approach because I didn't want to get scared.
The kids ended the night only eating two pieces of candy and we had a great time with friends that joined us....it was a fun filled evening.
So, today after we hit the science center we quickly ran to the store and sure enough all the Christmas decor was out. My sweet pea looked at me and said, "when is Christmas, is it next week?"
Well not exactly! Do stores think the sooner they get the stuff out, the more things people will buy? If most are like me, by the time Christmas actually arrives, you are burned out from hearing the music and seeing all the holiday stuff that you want to hide.
I don't look forward to the holiday season in the slightest bit....I do think it is getting better now that we have children and children always think that season is a magical time, so I do find it getting better, but it's hard because we can't seem to make everyone happy, but besides running away for the holidays, I did bring it up with my husband as to what the plans were, which he said he wants to stay home again, so I think that is what we will be doing.
I did find some really great ideas for Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I'm hoping that I will have some spare time to work on these projects before the holidays.
One for Thanksgiving is making outlines of leaves and cutting them out - have the kids decorate them and then write one question on each leaf...such as "What are you grateful for, Which season do you appreciate the most, Is there someone at the table you have a reason to be thankful for, Is there someone not at the table you have a reason to be thankful for, and How do you show your thanks (gratitude)....."
So afterwards, you put the leaves in a bowl or jar and at dinner time, pass the jar around the table and each person takes a question and you answer the question. I know my kids will love this, they love when we ask questions at dinner time, so I knew when I saw this idea that it was something I'd love to do.
Last year, I had a jar and during the month of November we would write down things we were grateful for and on Thanksgiving morning, we read them.
The kids loved it so much, that afterwards the kids decorated a jar and turned into a thank you/wish jar - so we would write down things we were thankful for the day or a wish. My little man of course is just beginning to write out letters and such, but he would sit at the table and draw a line and tell me what he was writing. I think what they enjoy the most is looking back and reading what they write and of course when I get to the "lines," I simply interpret and then ask my son "is that what it says?" to which he will either say I'm wrong or right.
I also got some great DIY gift ideas that I'm excited to try out. And one of my goals this holiday season is to host a cookie exchange, I wanted to last year, but didn't get around to it, so I'm hoping this year to do it...so we will see how that goes.

Hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween!!!!

"Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight, make me a child again just for to-night!" - ~Elizabeth Akers Allen

Book Challenge Update....

Well we have hit day 60 and we have been in super charge mode and are up to 75 books...so 25 books left in 40 days....I think we can do it!!!! The kids were so excited to hear what we hit and I told them that as long as we hit that challenge, we will have a "shopping" spree (up to two books) to the bookstore.
I've order some books already for Christmas and have a couple more that I want to order via the kid's scholastic book order, but these are books that I pretty much pick out that I want the kids to learn, such as I'm ordering a Hanukkah book, a book about the meaning of "Christmas," and then there is a book about what's in my body and I also am ordering "The Story of Ferdinand" I loved that story growing up.
So when we go to the bookstore, they get to pick out any book, which I'm sure one will be on superheros and the other on princesses....oh the life of a child!
Once we are done, I'll take a photo of all the books we've read to get a visual...so far it's been hard seeing all these books laying around.

"He liked to sit just quietly and smell the flowers.” from Ferdinand the Bull