I got to spend the afternoon with my friend Rosa last week!!! I loved our time together! We visited the new Whole Foods and then had pizza from MOD for lunch!!!
And because snow was in the forecast, the kids ordered snowman pancakes!!!
Ashlyn and Austin love to play together!!!
Mike and I went on a quick drive on Saturday and got our first peppermint milk shakes from Chickfila!!! What a treat!!!
We had a sisters day out also last week! Mindy and Mim both have November birthdays! We celebrated at Rachel's Crepes!!! And the Thanksgiving Dinner crepe did not disappoint!
This is Thanksgiving week. I've been tempted to kinda skip through Thanksgiving and go straight to Christmas because I just keep having all the Christmas feels and smells and décor! But, I decided to again hold back and embrace the Thanksgiving Season! (I'm not down casting those of you who already have all your Christmas décor up and your shopping completed and your wish lists prepared!!! We are turning the Christmas songs on here at our home! The movie The Star has been watched over and over again. I did put fresh greens on the porches. I am burning a fir candle most days here at home. I started my books focused on the most wonderful season of the year … Christmas!!! I'm just holding back on the home décor and baking and lighted tree because I want our family to never, ever miss the focus of Thanksgiving Day!!!) Thanksgiving Day has become a holiday that is much more than eating turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes and a heap of cranberry sauce!
Thanksgiving Day is still a day that we get together with the people that we love!!! Mike and I have always done this every Thanksgiving Day! We gather with family and appreciate our parents and siblings just a bit more on that day! But, we did start our own little family tradition a few years back and we plan and are preparing for that tradition to continue for years on end! We started sitting around the dining room table as a family and making a family meeting that consists of some goals we would like to see accomplished throughout the next upcoming year. Maybe you do this at New Years but we do it Thanksgiving morning. For the first time last year, we all prayed and came up with a WORD for the year for us personally. I always keep notes at our meeting so that we can reflect and go back to see if our goals and resolutions are being accomplished. Last year, my personal word was "fearless". I was going through some things personally that I just felt like I needed to trust God more and stop being fearful! I knew Hadassah would be driving soon and I was determined to not let that freak me out! I just wanted to stand on being fearless and become more daring in life in my spiritual life and stop making life so serious! Don't misunderstand me here!!! I know it is very serious when a teenager doesn't drive safe on the road … that is dangerous! I also know that there comes a time and day that I need to give my worries and cares over to the Lord and stop fearing of the "what ifs"!!! Laugh more! Have more fun!!! Make the every day tasks a little bit more enjoyable!!!
We already mentioned to the children to start thinking of another WORD for 2019! I can't wait to sit down and reflect of our past goals and then make new goals! We will then spend time with family and will eat turkey and pie and play games!!! Thanksgiving Day is a day that we think a lot of being grateful and thankful for all our blessings! We do stress this in our family that being thankful is not something we just do on one specific day but every day! It's a really good reminder of all God has blessed us with and with that comes a responsibility to bless others in need around us!
We are excited about upcoming school parties and dressing up like Indian and pilgrims! We are excited about having some "no school days"! We are excited to do some late night shopping! We are over the top excited about digging out the Christmas décor and decorating the house with our nativity set, ornaments and fresh greens!!! I cannot wait to turn on the radio and hear Christmas carols! We plan on drinking lots more peppermint hot chocolate!!! We can't wait for more snow!!! And yes, we did already have our first snow fall last week!!!
I have this picture in my mind of a family photo session done in snow! I was excited to hear of some snow falling last Thursday and made plans to get some family photos done in the snow!!! A long story short … it ended up snowing too much and the roads being so bad that we never got any family photos taken!!! I was so disappointed and I kinda missed out of the snow excitement because I was so focused on getting this photo thing done! It's still on my mind and I still would love to get this accomplished but sometimes being practical is the only option! There just was no way of getting from point A to point B just for some photos! Safety first and I was so glad when our evening events got canceled and Mike was finally home and off of those horrible road conditions!!! It ended up snowing a couple of inches and giving us our first two hour school delay the next morning!
We have some home projects still going on here! Mike is still working on getting the basement completed. When we remodeled our home three years ago, there was a new part of the basement added. It was never completed and made into living space until Mike began dreaming and working down there any spare chance he's got. Projects around here take a long time but he's really doing a great job and it's going to be a really nice room in our home once it's all said and done! On Saturday he went and rented a sand blaster. There is a beam that had to be installed when we redid our home and he doesn't like the look of just a regular steel beam going through the ceiling. He wants it to look old and wants the new steel look to leave. He started up the sand blaster and only minutes after blasting, he realized that this was NOT GOING TO WORK!!! A cloud of dust and dirt went flying everywhere!!! All over the basement and throughout the house. Plus, it wasn't giving him the look he wanted! :/// He returned the sand blaster and I got to cleaning and dusting the house! I also was outside blowing leaves! Mike just laughed because if you are close friend you probably already know that Mike doesn't shovel snow, we pack! He thought it was so funny that I was out blowing our leaves in the lawn when there was still snow on the ground. But I knew the wind would help me out and it did make a difference where I blew and where I didn't blow. We chuckled at our differences!
Hadassah is off to more volleyball practises! She's joined a volleyball club called PAelite and is super excited to see how she can improve more and get more playing time!!! Matthew had his first basketball tryout/practice and he is also excited to see how their team will perform and play! Ashlyn is still doing piano but it's a chore to get her to practice. Austin loves to get my pots and pans and play drums.
Hadassah just spent the weekend at the cabin with the youth from church! She loves her friends and has a great group of kids to hang out with! Matthew also did something for the first time with his friends. Petra Church had a all night rally which included a concert, time at Spooky Nook and then an early morning breakfast at Shady Maple. He had a great time but came home totally exhausted and slept most of the day on Saturday!
Our days are always filled with things to do and now with Christmas being just around the corner, there will be extra things that we plan on doing. Baking cookies, chocolate coating, ordering cards, stamping envelopes, attending programs and banquets and blessing others around us!!!
Join our family as we stop and spend some quality time focusing on the blessings that God has blessed us with!!! We are healthy! We are one of the wealthiest countries in the world! We are blessed with so much! We have family and friends that love us! We have a group of believers that share the same faith and we call that church! We can worship God freely!!! We have full pantries and fridges and cellars! We have money in our back pockets! We have a Christian School that teaches about Jesus in the every day school life! And without all these wonderful blessings, we still have Jesus Christ that fights for our battles in life! He died for our sins and makes us clean! He directs our paths and heals our diseases and hurts and wounds! He is the rock of our salvation!!!
Thanksgiving Day is approaching us! Don't forget to stop and say THANK YOU!!!
