Oh, where is my bead?

Sophie loves doing puzzles!  I took these pics on the 3rd, but didn't have time to download them.

What an eventful day!!  We have had a great start back with homeschooling!  Of course, we go to the dentist tomorrow, so we may not be as productive then.  I was going to post our picture of the day as Sophie helping with laundry.  Can you tell she loves her blankies?  Everytime she saw one in the dryer, she held on to it, dumping the rest of the clothes in the hamper.  She finally ended up with three blankies.   But as cute as she is, the event that occurred next was no match..... the green bead.

Oh, where is my bead?  Oh, where is my bead? (The song of Larry the Cucumber losing his hairbrush kept running through my head the whole afternoon.)  Well, after being shown this lovely bead during rest time, I thought nothing more...until.... Chloe mentioned that Naomi had been complaining of her nose hurting and one nostril was running profusely.  By God's intervention, the remembrance of that lone green bead came to my mind.  I asked Naomi where it was and she said, "I don't know.  I lost it."  The look on her face told me otherwise and she finally confessed to putting in her nose.  After some blowing of the nose, phone calls to the doctor, and Chloe confessing that she put her finger up Naomi's nose to try to "help" get it out, we headed out to the ENT for some additional help.  Naomi was so brave through it all and with a few tears, the bead was removed safely.  We now all know that anything smaller than an elbow should not be put inside of our nose.

Last of Christmas?

Is this one of last glimpses of Christmas?  I certainly hope not.  Even my sweet Naomi prayed tonight, "God, you are such a great God.  You came as a little boy in a manger, but you can save everyone because you are so big!  Thank you, God!"  May your Christmas not be over, but continue through this new year!

New Beginnings...

Looking back over this past year, I would definitely say that it's been one of the hardest years of my life.  Learning that my parents were moving back to Japan, selling our house (not exactly with a willing heart), moving with three children, and homeschooling two of them with the third being a very busy toddler destroying everything she can possibly get her little hands on, would give me reasons to call this year a time of learning, with lots of mistakes, lots of tears, but so much joy! 

Three precious girls in their Sunday dresses

I am already breaking one my resolutions by staying up too late writing this post, but you know what?  It's ok because they are really goals, not resolutions, that with God's strength, I am going to strive for and only by His grace will I ever reach.  
A few of my goals for this year are to ...1.  Read more to my girls2. Go to bed earlier (oops!)3.  Read through the Bible again in a year4.  Read a book a month (can you tell that I want to read more?)5.  Take a picture every day of something that I'm thankful for (it may not always be posted on here, but I'll do my best.)6.  Run another 5K or 8K7.  Memorize Colossians 1 & 28.  Declutter...

Thanksgiving Blessings...

1172.  a hug from a friend
1179.  a full gas tank when running late
1184.  mis-matched pajamas
1196.  a morning at home
1210.  evidence of Jack Frost
1217.  red velvet cheesecake for two
1221.  the reminder to savor the moment with my children
1223.  the raking of leaves
1224.  umbrellas, jump ropes, & imaginative minds
1231.  frozen pizza
1234.  cranberry candles
1236.  one open window
1238.  cotton fields with a background of trees ablaze
1251.  my little one's pom-pom curls
1257.  a day set aside to remember & give thanks

If life could only be like a green smoothie...

The other day as I was making the girls their green smoothies with clutter all around me, the calendar bursting at its seams, I thought to myself, "Why can't life be more like green smoothies?"  If you've never tried a green smoothie, you are missing out.  There are many different recipes out there, but our favorite is my mama's recipe of three ingredients:  spinach, pineapple, and green grapes.  That's it.  So simple.  So healthy.  So energizing.  

With Thanksgiving and Christmas approaching so rapidly, I already feel myself gasping for breath at the busyness, clutter, and craziness that often seems doomed to come along with my two favorite times of year.  But it doesn't have to be this way... why can't life be more like green smoothies?  Simple.  Three ingredients.  I don't have three magical ingredients for life that will solve everyone's problem for this, but I do know that if my eyes stay focused on Him, the simple reason for celebrating in the first place, I have nothing to fear or dread.  

"Thanksgiving only becomes thanksliving when the thanks for His vertical, coming-down grace — is expressed as a horizontal, reaching-out grace." - Ann Voskamp

When life gives you lemons, you make buckwheat pumpkin cinnamon rolls?

I was so excited last night at the thought of making healthy pumpkin cinnamon rolls, vegan too, I might add.  But after I mixed the dry ingredients together, I noticed the flour had an interesting smell.  Then I read the tag on my flour bag... buckwheat flour... oh... So I gave it a shot.  

Well, needless to say, the response from my children was not so good this morning.  Chloe enjoyed the powdered sugar icing and the cinnamon filling.  Naomi took one look and not a bite.  Sophie ate half of hers, but she is like her mother and will eat almost anything, even if it tastes like cardboard.  So, I'll try it again one day, but next time without the buckwheat flour.  (I'll most likely try my cream cheese icing instead of the plain powdered sugar icing too, in which it will no longer be vegan.  Oh well!)

Faces of Fall

Happy Pumpkin!

This week, instead of continuing on to the letter "H", N and I took a break and jumped to the letter "P" for pumpkin!  Throughout the week, we read lots of pumpkin books, went to the pumpkin patch, and made pumpkin muffins.  But one of my favorite activities with her when on Friday when she made pumpkin faces in drawing and literal form.  She is too funny!




                                                                                                  

Silly Pumpkin

Angry Pumpkin?