Today I took the children to a nearby town to pick up some venison from a meat locker.  I had explained to the children that the deer we were going to get would not look at all like a deer, but rather much like the hamburger we see in the store.  When we got there and I ran in to get the meat, I was amazed to see a glass wall separating the waiting area from the working area.  Right there on big tables were deer carcasses being processed!  So I ran back out to the van and brought all the children in to see.  Isaac was grossed out and returned to the van rather quickly.  But the rest of us watched the “middleman” do his thing.  We even brought home a souvenir bone for Mac!

Once we got home and unloaded the meat into the freezer, I thought back to how much fun it had been to have an impromptu field trip.  And our reminder of the fun is a deer leg bone bigger than our little dog. 

Dear Dad,

Mom just dropped me a note telling me that you’ll be in Tokyo soon and able to check your e-mail.  So here I am to say hello and Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a nice day today.  I did almost all of the cooking, and the things that I didn’t cook were still overseen by me.  We had turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, gravy, pumpkin pie, pecan pie and a jello dessert.  Oh, and we had those biscuit cinnamon rolls that you can eat.  Laura made those!

As I think back on my day, the parts that stick out to me as being the best are the ones where the children were involved in helping.  Laura came into the kitchen early and asked, “Is there anything I can do to help?”  I thought for just a second and then gave her the job of frying bacon for the stuffing.  She did an excellent job and actually saved me quite a bit of time and effort.  It was a pleasure to be working with her.  I’m already looking forward to more times like that.  Later Amelia was eager to help, so I let her “help” me as I prepared potatoes to be boiled.  She seemed to really enjoy her special spot of helping at the sink with me.
Laura also got to make the cinnamon rolls all by herself.  She read the directions and followed them.  All I did was oversee her steps as I was busy with other things, and I did help her roll out the dough.  But she did everything else herself and had the thrill of serving the rolls at dinner.

All of the children were eager to help, and some assisted Todd as he got his house set up for our little crowd.

Speaking of serving, I let the various children be responsible for serving the food that was directly in front of them at the table.  Each child that had a serving job seemed so tickled with their food item.  Luke was so eager to serve corn to everyone.  Laura proudly served the cinnamon rolls and sweet potatoes.  Amelia was in charge of the stuffing.  As I was eating, she leaned over and asked quietly, “Mama, do you like the stuffing?”
I replied, “Yes, Amelia, I do!  It’s delicious!.”
She then asked, “Would you like some more?”
It was then that I realized her question had been not so much to find out my general satisfaction with the dish, but rather to determine how soon I would need a refill.    That really tickled me.

The other big news of the day was that today was finally the day when I would allow the children to unpack the artificial tree that has been in our dining room for the past few weeks.  I kept putting them off saying, “We’ll put it together after Thanksgiving.”  For weeks I’ve had to explain how far away we are from Thanksgiving.  Today about halfway through dinner, Mike wiped his mouth and asked, “NOW can we put up the tree???”  I assured him we would, after dinner.  The children were distracted from the tree after dinner, but about an hour before bedtime they remembered.  “Let’s put the tree together!” they exclaimed!  I couldn’t very well refuse, even though it wasn’t really top on my list of things I wanted to do.
The box was quickly dragged into the living room and a knife was fetched to open it.  The tiny 4-foot tree was lifted out by Luke, Amelia and Mike, and the two pieces were stuck together to form a little scraggly plastic lighted tree.  We plugged it in and the children were awed at it’s beauty.  We had to turn off the overhead light and admire the colored lights.  Suddenly the lights went out, so our overhead light had to go back on and choruses of “Juuuuuuudahhhhhhh” were heard all around.  We got it all put back in place and the overhead light was extinguished again.  A short time later Judah went back over and pulled the plug on the tree yet again.  On, off, on, off, and finally I’d had enough.  I left the overhead light on and assured the children that the tree was still very beautiful.  Judah finally moved on to a different form of mischief.

Well, I’m going to get back to my story.  I’m listening to “Cheaper By The Dozen” on audiobook.  I feel like I should be taking notes.  It’s such a good book.  I think you’d enjoy listening to it.  Maybe you can take it along on a trip sometime.

May God bless your efforts as you go to the ends of the earth to share the Gospel!

Love,
Christie

Tonight I took Laura to a free performance by the local Youth Symphony.  The reason we went was because there was a guest soloist playing the cello.  Dr. Nina Gordon made the cello almost dance.  Laura and I were intrigued by the different instruments.  We sat in the balcony so we could see the whole stage!  The sounds that surrounded us were beautiful.

Afterwards we made our way through the refreshment line, and we noticed that Dr. Gordon was standing nearby, so we worked up our courage and went over to meet her.  We thanked her for her beautiful performance, and we mentioned that Laura is eager to play the cello someday.  Dr. Gordon encouraged us to pursue this idea sooner rather than later.  She gave me her phone number and e-mail address, and I’ve dropped her a note already asking her what to do next.  If I understood her correctly, she’s willing to meet with Laura and see if the cello is a good fit for her.

My head is spinning with the possibilities.  Laura would be such a beautiful cello player, with her long arms and her graceful self.  And it would be fun to have another musical instrument represented in our family.   I’ll go to bed tonight with sweet dreams. 

So, what are you going to do during this frantic shopping season which is quickly approaching? In past years I’ve done the “get up before dawn to get to the doorbuster deals” thing, but this year I don’t think I want to do that. I’m thinking about going to some of the more interesting, smaller shops around town that might have a less pushy crowd. But I just finished looking at the Meijer Thanksgiving ads, and I’m already drooling at the good deals. Hopefully I’ll manage to talk myself out of joining the throng of spenders there.

What about you? Do you shop during the Thanksgiving holiday? Or do you avoid it like the plague? If you’re going to shop this year, what are you looking for?

Michael and I have been taking Spanish class this Fall. It happened rather suddenly one day on a whim, and 15 minutes later we were committed for the duration of the Fall semester.

Every Thursday evening we hurry off to class and then sit for two hours stretching our brains in directions they haven’t been stretched before. Fortunately, our teacher is good at keeping the lessons interesting and doable.

Every Thursday night after class as we drive home, I feel exhausted. I’m tired of working at something I’m not good at. Some days I feel like I’m learning, but other days I realize how far we have to go.

Our whole family has embraced this project. We’ve purchased bilingual books, checked out Spanish videos from the library, and we try out our Spanish on our Hispanic neighbors. My favorite book so far is “Eres Tu Mi Mama?” (or in English, “Are You My Mother?” by P.D. Eastman) and we often quote parts of it. Luke likes the book so much that he checked it out of the library last time we were there. I tried to convince him that he didn’t need to check it out since we already own a copy at home. But after explaining several times that he could just read the copy we already have, I gave up and let him check it out.

Michael put our efforts into perspective for me recently by saying, “I figure we can spend ten years learning Spanish and then ten years learning German.” Wow. That makes it seem like we’re doing ok. If I have ten years to get Spanish figured out, I’m ahead of schedule!

Last Saturday morning I took Miguel to a birthday party for a little boy in our church.  Mike was so excited about going, exclaiming, “I LOVE parties!!!”  I took him out the day before and we picked out a few gifts for Aiden.  Mike had lots of fun perusing the goodies at the Gingerbread House and saying, “I think Aiden would like THIS.  Ooooh, Aiden would like THIS!”

When we arrived at the party, Mike was a bit overwhelmed, and he spent some time just sitting on the couch holding his Lil’Kinz cow (“Miss Maria”) and taking in all the activity.  Finally he warmed up and joined in the various activities.  We played with play-doh, listened to a story from a book, ate cupcakes decorated like frogs, and watched Aiden open his presents.  All in all I think Mike found the whole experience fascinating.

When we left the party Mike was handed a goodie bag to take home.  We got in the van and then Mike started unpacking his bag.  What fun to discover the silver noisemaker!  He honked and squawked all the way home.  Then he found a piece of candy which I unwrapped for him.  The mysterious box with a string on top was hard to open, so I helped Mike get it started.  Once the cardboard layer was opened, I handed it back to Mike so he could get the inside part open.  He worked and worked, and finally the treasure was revealed.

“Oh!  It’s a TREAT!”, he exclaimed.  I smiled when I realized that Mike had never opened a box of animal crackers before, especially one decorated like a circus wagon.  I pondered over what he must have been thinking as he was working on opening the box.  He didn’t know there were cookies in there.  I guess we take a lot of things for granted in life.  We assume that children know a lot more than they do.  And sometimes we assume they DON’T know a lot more than they do.    Many times my children have surprised me by washing dishes carefully, cracking open an egg perfectly, or writing their name when I didn’t know they could even spell their name!

Alas, my pondering must come to an end.  I am surrounded by children who need my attention.  Not only are my children here, but we have three little visitors who are the ages of Amelia, Mike and Judah.  I have a baby on my back, one who wants to be in my arms, and lots of other little voices and noises and questions filling my ears.

If you like, you can share with me a time when one of your kids surprised you.

Yesterday I had a brief meeting with the children. Perhaps I should call it a “school assembly”. I applauded their efforts last week in getting up on time, getting school work done, and having a good attitude. But then I pointed out two major areas in which we were weak: chores and music practice. So this week we are pushing hard to keep up with our school work but to also make SURE music is done and that chores get done each day. To their credit, the children did a great job yesterday. They each did everything required of them. As a reward, I took the older three children with me to an Usborne Books party at a friend’s house. We had a wonderful time and I spent way too much money on books. I justify my expenditures on “educational supplies” by thinking of how much money we would be paying if we put even ONE of our children into a private school. That makes music lessons, school supplies and book purchases pale in comparison. Still, I’m afraid that my dear husband will also “pale in comparison” when he see the charge on the credit card. (You aren’t reading this, are you Dear?)

Last night after the show I met my sister at Kohl’s and we both took good advantage of my coupon for an additional 30% off my total bill. I got some new jeans, a couple of tee-shirts, and a totally cool little enamel-covered cast-iron pot that has thoroughly charmed me.

As I was just looking for a link so that you could see what my little pot looks like, I heard a crash downstairs, and now Isaac has informed me that he was throwing a ball and he broke one of the light fixtures. I guess I should go help clean up the mess. Meanwhile, you just sit there and imagine my cute little orange pot.

……………….

OK, I’m back.  Yes, there was glass all over the living room.  Isaac was good about helping me clean it all up, which is good since it was his fault in the first place.  I’m afraid that someone is going to step on a piece of glass that I missed.   Maybe we can insist that everyone wear shoes for a while until we get a chance to move furniture and sweep even more thoroughly.

So, while I was gone, did you imagine the little orange pot?  It’s really quite cute, and at this very moment I have some rice cooking in it for lunch.  Not only was it on sale, but I got another 30% off with my coupon!  I’m sure my hubby is glad that I get so tickled over a cooking pot. 

Thanks to our broken glass incident, our fifteen-minute break has stretched into a fifty-minute break.  I suppose I should corral everyone and get back to work.

Have a great day!

In case I haven’t already said it, I love my kitchen!!!  Today as I was cleaning up in the kitchen, I ran two loads of dishes in the dishwasher, I cleaned the sink, I washed and put away dishes too big for the dishwasher, I wiped down counters, I turned on lights and turned off lights, and in general, I had a wonderful time!!!  Now, you may be wondering exactly who I am and what I’ve done with Christie… but I assure you it’s really me here!  Yes, I enjoyed cleaning my kitchen!  After so long without a real kitchen, it’s a luxury to be able to use a sink and sink sprayer, to turn on a garbage disposal, to put dirty dishes in a dishwasher, and to have a real place to put things.  It’s also amazing to me to have not only a light directly above the sink, but also to have a light directly above the stove!  I get so tickled when I can flip the lightswitch and have it actually do something.

I realized today that I’m truly grateful for my kitchen.  I really like it.  Please allow me to take this opportunity to thank my hardworking husband for making my kitchen so fun, and to thank God for teaching me so many lessons along the way.  And here’s a big thank you to all the friends and family who have helped us and encouraged us along the way.  We still have more to do, but the biggest parts are done.  It’s a dream-come-true.

Much to my amazement, my new school schedule is working! We’re actually getting up early in the morning. The kids are actually getting school work done. And believe it or not, no one is really complaining about it much! I was only grumpy on the first day of the schedule. The last few days I’ve been surprised how cheerful I’ve been despite being quite busy.

One thing I miss is the slow lazy days where I could do what I wanted to as long as the kids stayed out of the way. But the guilty feelings that chased me around my day weren’t fun to dodge. Still, feeling guilty isn’t quite as frantic as being busy!  (Laziness does have some rewards.) 
I’m eager to share with you what is working for us, just in case it might help you.

Kids have to be up by 7 a.m. Then they have an hour to do what they need to do before school starts at 8 a.m. They can’t have breakfast until they are ready for the day. And once school starts, they can’t keep eating breakfast.

At 8 a.m. everyone starts school. Since we’re using the ACE curriculum they each get started in their paces and I go around helping kids, listening to reading, solving dilemmas, etc.

During school there is to be no talking. As you might imagine, it’s impossible to have NO talking, but I am rather strict that they sit quietly and work. If they need help they are not to interrupt me while I’m helping someone else. All of this is taking some getting used to, but it’s working!

We take a break at 9 a.m. The kids have to run outside (while the weather is nice) and I get to spend a few minutes checking my e-mail, etc.

It’s working well for all of us, and I’m eager to see if we can continue. Amelia is getting my attention each day and she’s doing great on her learning-to-read curriculum. Luke is reading each day and I can really see wonderful progress for him. Isaac is reluctantly making progress in his areas, most importantly in math and handwriting. Laura is doing great with grammar and math.

Alas, I must cut this short. My 15-minute break is almost up, and I need to keep on schedule.

Have a great day!

If you read my blog regularly, you know that I am not terribly organized, I don’t like to get up early, and I don’t keep up with my duties as a mother, teacher and housekeeper. So no doubt you’re not surprised at all to hear that my efforts at schooling the children are somewhat sporadic. We keep trying to get a regular school schedule going, but it keeps falling by the wayside.

Today I again attempted to turn over a new leaf and get everyone back on the straight and narrow. We’re back on the wagon! (Any more cliches I can use?) I explained to the children that I realize I have not been consistent, and that I might even fail this time again. However, I must continue to try to make progress with schooling.

They were all a good sport about it. They jumped into their academics and did a great job, considering my neglect in this area. It actually went pretty well, despite the fact that I felt overwhelmed by it all and I got rather grumpy before the day was half over.

All’s well that ends well though, and tonight I go to bed optimistically. I took the oldest three kids to the library tonight as a reward for working well. Luke signed up for his own library card and proudly checked out the five items I limit the children to. I turned a blind eye to the pile of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles DVD’s he found and instead took joy in the fact that his stack included a solitary book. I hope he’ll be able to read it to me tomorrow.