Secret Shopping Tip

The Wednesday BEFORE Thanksgiving......all the sale signs for Black Friday are out and have to be honored, you have good selection, AND you pretty much have the stores to yourself. Run quick.

Better Blessings

I know people who are like this. I've been guilty of it a few times myself. Nearing Thanksgiving, a time to count out loud the things we give thanks for while gearing up for the gimme gimme's of Christmas, I think this situation gets exacerbated.

My challenge for myself this week is to not compare my blessings to others. To simply appreciate my own home, family, and health.

All She Wants For Christmas

She talked us into this at 11 am while at the mall getting a replacement Nano case (mine fell out of the car near Bethany, MO. Gah....) and she was so excited. She really was confused about asking Santa for presents though. It took her a while to think of something so he read her a book for a while. Very cool, not very busy.


So, all she wants for Christmas....are some Christmas Cookies (to share?) and a Christmas tree (ha ha Dearest Husband! We definitely get a tree this year!). She added at the last minute that all she has is a princess crown and would like a Queen hat since she is the Queen of Queens.


We do a traditional Christmas holiday. I still believe in Santa. When I had doubts as a child, I simply doubted that I was being good enough for him to visit. Now that I am older (I dare not say wiser), I fully believe that the spirit of this man lives on. His good deeds are exactly the kind of thing a good Christian would have done- he saw the needs of suffering children and worked hard to bring joy into their lives. What are you doing to bring joy into the lives of your loved ones and friends? I worry about the commercialism of Christmas and all of the holidays BUT we choose to celebrate the giving and the friendship. We are not piling the toys on the tot this year but focusing on others. She will have presents under the tree, but not so much that we have to make two trips home from Nana and Pawpaw's! This year we will share craft days and cookies with friends and offer refuge to those local mamas overwhelmed by their own stuff and chaos: just email me and come on over. Their will be a cup of tea waiting. :)

Happy Birthday (Great) Grandma!

Here are some memories and pictures from our recent trip to KC:

Happy 85th Birthday Grandma!

Grandma was one of the first women to train at Camp Dodge, IA to be an Army medic for WWII. Below are her graduation pictures, her dog tags, and her diploma.

Lil"Bug practiced and practiced Happy Birthday To You only to at the last minute add the "you live in a zoo" verse. Lucky for us, she was too excited when the time came to sing to remember the added verse! Her Great Grandma is one of our best supporters for our homeschooling decision- for that we are grateful. In the below picture, Nana (Lil'Bug's grandma) holds her while she squirms. Nana organized the whole birthday party in KC from at home in Iowa. She did an awesome job. I'd like to add here that my MIL is wonderful. I am so grateful not to have the adversarial relationship so many have with their in-laws. I feel so blessed that they welcomed me into their family!

The pinata. Lil'Bug tentatively handed back the big stick to Dearest Husband in exchange for a more appropriate sized one. Then she whacked at it with all her little might. Too cute. Later a big kid managed to bust it and it was a free for all for candy. Dearest husband gave the littles cups to aid their collection efforts and Lil'Bug got all the mints because the bigger kids hate mints. She thought she was getting a good deal, let me tell you!

I had the opportunity to meet people and family that knew Dearest Husband when he was a wee tot. I met his preschool Sunday School teacher. Her stories about him were so sweet and really capture the core of his personality. I can definitely see why he misses this particular church community.