"Just So Thankful"

Jordan and I read Just So Thankful the other day.  I found it at the library and had a rush of memories of when my own mother would read Mercer Mayer to me when I was small.  Our favorite part was finding the little mouse and spider hidden in every picture.  I've read a few of the Little Critter books with my kids over the years and I'm sad that we haven't read more.  I must change that with Violet.  

Anyway.  Just So Thankful.  Little Critter makes a new friend who's rich.  Really rich.  H.H. has all the best toys, a huge house, great food, a maid, rides to school in a limo, you name it.  And of course, Little Critter is jealous.  Oh, so jealous.  In fact, he balks at the idea of inviting H.H. over to his own house because he thinks H.H. will be bored. But, at the gentle nudging of his wise, sweet, mother, he does.  And to Little Critter's surprise, H.H. not only enjoys himself but envies the life that Little Critter takes for granted.  Little Critter has a family that loves him.  He has parents that care.  His house is full of life and he's never lonely.  

And I had to wipe away tears.  

I haven't been doing the Facebook thing where everyone lists what he or she is thankful for every day.  Maybe I should have.  Instead of focusing on being thankful during this Thanksgiving month, I've been fixating on what I don't have. I'm ashamed of myself. 

I have a house overflowing with LIFE!  Laughing children, food in the fridge, good books to read, 2 vehicles to drive, friends who "get" me, a family that cares, a church family who also cares, faith in a God who's always there, and a husband who loves me.  So much, much more than some people have.  

And for all of this and much more, I am Just So Thankful.  

Thanksgiving Blessings to you all!

On biting my tongue.

Over the weekend I had Violet and Jordan in the lovely store The Dollar Tree.  We were killing time before picking Shaun up for a birthday party.  I love The Dollar Tree.  I love that everything's a dollar.  How beautiful is that?  The kids love it, too, because they always get to pick out a treat.  Anything the store, because everything's a dollar! 

I have, however, noticed one flaw at The Dollar Tree.  There are never enough shopping carts.  I don't go in there very often, but the past three times they've been out of buggies and the store isn't even that crowded.  My sister brought up the possibility that maybe the carts get stolen.  I don't know.  All I know is that The Dollar Tree is a bad place for me to have to be without a device to hold my 1 year old down.  

This time, I didn't really mind because we weren't shopping for anything in particular.  I wasn't planning on spending any money aside from the kids' toys.  So I let Violet walk.  She had the best time.  She thought she was so big and she strutted and pranced around the store oohing and ahhhing over everything.  It really was adorable.  And of course, all of the customers in the store thought she was the cutest thing ever and frequently stopped to tell us so.  Except one elderly lady who let me  know that my daughter was too little to be walking around "unsupervised".  I love it when strangers feel the need to express their opinions.  It happens to me a lot… and as someone at church pointed out to me yesterday, the older a person is, the more entitled he or she feels to share an opinion.  

I just bit my tongue.  The old me would have popped off with, "Yes.  She IS really small.  She's five years old.  We just don't like to feed her that much, what with the rising cost of groceries these days."

But, I'm going to be thirty-three next month and it seems that God has finally given me the grace to watch my mouth and stop word vomit from exploding all over the place.  Sometimes.  

Rascal?!?!

My sister and I went running the other night. Well, she ran.  I walked…I've decided that running isn't for me.  Anyway, we went to the track to exercise.  We'd gone around a few times when Lori stopped in her tracks and hissed, "Oh!  Is that a skunk??!!"  

"Where?  Where?!?!" I yelled.

And then I saw an animal rolling around on the grass next to the track.  

I stopped and squinted my eyes, trying to get a closer look.  And then Lori says, "It's Rascal!"

"Where's a rascal?" was my intelligent reply. Followed in my brain by, and what exactly is a rascal, anyway?

Rascal is my sister's cat.  

Somehow, he hitched a ride to the track with us.  This isn't the first time he's done it, either.  A few days ago he went to church with my sister's family.  Ha!  I guess his name is fitting!

We finished up our workouts and Rascal followed us around and had a grand time.  A memorable time, for sure. 

$10.69

I had another one of those "God Moments" a few days ago, where he speaks to me SO clearly.  

I was in "worry mode".  Anyone else ever experience this?  I'm such a worry wart.  Always have been.  I worry about everything.  I'm getting better, but I still have my moments.  

I was driving into town on Friday in a quiet car.  I just had Violet with me and she was fast asleep.  I hardly ever have a quiet car anymore, and I used the time to pray.  I just finally flat out asked God to give me a sign that we(my family)are on the right track and that everything is going to be okay. What I wanted was an audible answer right there in my car.  I wanted God's voice in my ear.  Of course, that didn't happen.  So I went about my business.

My business at that point in time was purchasing a belt for Shaun's chorus outfit.  We had bought everything else the day before…pants, shoes, shirt.  But we forgot the belt.  That morning, as I was searching for something in my wallet, I found an old gift card from Ross. The balance on the card was $10.69.  I was excited because I figured I'd be able to find a belt for just a few dollars more than that.  I found a belt and took it up to the cashier.  She rang it up and the total was $10.69.  She laughed and said something like, "Your card had just enough.  That hardly ever happens."

I just smiled.  

And that my friends, was way better than God's audible voice in my ear.  Just sayin'.  

NGCC

Shaun was in his first performance with NGCC on Saturday.  These kids have been practicing so hard, and we could definitely tell!  They sounded so beautiful.  This "performance" was actually more like a practice run for their first official performance coming up on Friday night.  It was at a Christmas craft festival, so our kids weren't the center of attention and the sound system was less than desired.  It was great anyway, and gave the kids a chance to practice in front of an audience.  

I love this picture of Jordan and Chris getting video footage of the concert.  

And this picture of Violet asleep in my dad's arms.  She loves her Poppa and just started saying his name last week.  She was sound asleep but holding on tight to that necklace. :)

We all had a good time and were in Christmas mode when we left!

Firsts: Thanksgiving and Haircut

The kids and I had a really good day on Friday.  First of all, we had our first Thanksgiving meal of the season.  My friends Kendra and Cindy put together a Thanksgiving lunch for our homeschool group.  They did such a great job!  The activity room was beautifully decorated and the food was delicious.  I didn't take a single picture.  I was too busy talking and running after the kids.  All of the kids ate like kings…they love Thanksgiving food! I hope this meal becomes a tradition for our group!

We cut out a bit early from the Thanksgiving celebrations because Violet had an important appointment.  Her first haircut!  Her hair wasn't really long enough for a true haircut, but it needed a little shaping.  Especially in the back.  She was in danger of the infamous "baby mullet".  Ugh.  We had to stop this before it went too far!  Ha!

My friend Katrina offered to do the honors.  Thank you, Katrina!  I had the boys take pictures of the whole thing.  This was the best picture they took.

Most of the rest were blurry selfies.  Those stinkers were bored!  Anyway, Violet sat pretty still and didn't scream or cry.  Katrina was able to remove all traces of a mullet.  

Here's an "after" photo.  Violet's hair looks great,but how about Katrina's hair?  Isn't it gorgeous?

After the haircut, we had a pretty normal day.  A trip to the grocery store and then a visit with my sister and the cousins.  Later on my dad took both boys to see the Trojans play their last home game.  I'm pretty sure he deserves the "Wold's Best Pop" award for this.  It was a good day. 

Our Traditional Halloween, 2013

As most of you know, we generally don't make a big deal about Halloween.  In the past we've made the rounds to various family members houses to show off the kids' costumes and then went out to dinner.  It worked for us.  This year, the Hubs wanted to do something different.  He wanted to "really" Trick-or-Treat.  Not that our kids needed anymore candy… the Fall Festival at church provided tons of that.  But he thought it would be fun to go to a subdivision and "really" Trick-or-treat.  At strangers' houses.  This was a first to me, but I went along for the ride.  

We drove to a local subdivision and it was crowded.  Really packed.  Cars were lined up and down the street so we parked at another subdivision across the street and walked to "the" subdivision.  We walked up to the first house and were greeted by a zombie jumping out of a casket as the kids' took their candy.  The boys loved it, of course.  I worried in the back of my mind that we would all have seizures from the massive strobe light.  Of course we didn't, and as we were walking away to the next house we ran into two of our football families.  It was nice to have female conversation… us moms and Violet hung back and talked while the dads and boys had a ball Trick-or-Treating.  It was fun.  We will most likely do it again next year.  

I tried and tried, and this was the best shot I could get of all three.  I should probably explain why Shaun doesn't have a costume.  He thought he was too old to dress up since his youth group was having a White Out the day before Halloween.  The only costume he needed was a white shirt.  At the last minute, he decided that he wanted to be a kid one more year and go to Kidpak.  It was too late to get a costume, so he improvised.  He was an injured football player.  Get it?  Ha!