Yesterday's moment's in the cook pot weren't a waste.

We enjoyed a wonderful meal at the Leader's house. Busily running to sit in front of the tv and talk about the wonder of time and how we have spent it so far. We had far too much food and too much sitting.

I was totally expecting to gather my chicks in the morning for somesort of aerobic activity. Gravity has set in. I talked myself out of that sentiment, saying that I spend far too much time outdoors with my babies and I don't need to pay my body anything for the gluttonous feast that I indulged in.

I spent the day putting a book together for my "apple-dumpling gang". I gathered prewriting sheets and covered them in plastic and tried to punch holes and use my machineless binding system. It was to no avail and it was a futile endeavor to comb those things into the plastic. I would have thrown the whole idea out of the window, in my anger. Patience prevailed and I got something together with tape and pinching. Not what I wanted, but it was, at least a monument of the level of effort that I put into the process. I do hope that the children will use it and I hope that I can figure out a better way and quicker way to put these items together for them.

My Ari motivated me by her perserverance trying to complete those Cc's. She just kept at it, over and over, with such little progress and so much determination that I had to complete my book, if only for her.

I also was working on some Christmas crafts, just for my own entertainment. This is a luxury that I hardly get to do. Christmas trees was the theme. I did some plain ones and I am working on a Christmas tree maze decoration. It is all in my mind and I am using a stencil to guide my completion. I got 85% done and took a break and now I can't find the exacto knife that I was using. {Isn't that always the way?}

Intermittently, I picked on some turkey and lasagna and rice and macaroni, etc. My breakfast was a delicious sandwich of turkey and cranberry on pumpernickle. I don't know why I don't cook like that every week to free myself up to do more crafting?

Who knew that an adult Thanksgiving, could be such fun?

Not to mention, catching up on my blogs and new photo above...

If you are not watching the Macy's Day Parade right now...You should!

They have a 360 view of it on Youtube! I am so excited about it! Please watch while you cook!

Thankful for God's Faithfulness!

A False alarm for the SAT. TODAY?

We woke early and I gathered all of my peptalk words and calming influence for, what we thought, was the day of Ethan's SAT. I always get sentimental on the SAT day. I always go back to my SAT moment and then flood in all of the stories of my experiences with the SAT's. Perhaps the compilation of our family stories is a book brewing. The years have stolen much of the details of many of the stories, so it won't be a book of mine; still, they flood my mind on the day that I am praying for my student in their SAT ambitions.

My husband and I always find some conflict in terms of preparation. Which is the most important thing to say and to bring and to do and to eat? We always discover something new that we differ on in our family traditions on such things. We are not from a test-taking emphasized culture. We have grown to become a family that lets the test come upon us, unawares. We can't say that this is unintentional, because this is the 5th time we have taken the test with our children. It is a tradition to forget, perhaps. We never mean it to be, it just is.

Today was no different. One thing we had forgotten or neglected or didn't really understand. {Only Heaven can discern the difference in our intentionality} I gave my peptalk, Ben gave his. We prayed and sat in the car and Ethan said, I haven't any identification. The steam from my head was filling the car and my silence was to keep from yelling. Ben never yells about such things. He preaches. And that he did. We had our family drill for Ethan's SAT test. It comes around on Dec. 3rd. We do hope we are able to acquire an identification card by then. Disappointment and sad unfulfilled expectations fill our hearts and our homes and we are trying to distract ourselves from just kicking the wall and expressing the interjections that fill our minds. Well, our eyes now look to the next attempt. I take back my peptalk!

I Have Found North Carolina to be a place that delights in "Blessing"

Psalm 109:17 As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him. Is that us, Lord?

Bless Your Heart!

At my first introduction to the culture of NC, I felt repulsed. It was so different from the "live and let live" attitude of the NY state of mind.

Why do they always say that? IS it really genuine? Is it authentic?

The southern sweetness was everywhere. I felt like somebody had emptied the sugar bowl and given them sugar, instead of the snow that we have in NY. The Holy Spirit would hold me up as I held my nose and greeted the people, I would accidently meet. I can't deal with this was my emotional response. Are we really supposed to be that nice to people that we don't know? I think these people are a little extreme with their southern sweetness.

Now, I am sure that heaven allowed NY to be bereft of normal human courtesies so that the healing of our hearts could be documented in the history of our nation. We are a culture of pragmatists and the sweet verbal blessings that are part of our southern neighbors are icing that we feel we can do without. Are we Christians who "don't delight in blessing our neighbors, out loud"?

"Lord, Heal our every flaw"Please!

My baby is a teenager! Make a wish?

First week of Senior Year over. Thank God!

I get a call from the superintendent of school, which is not that unusual for the early parts of the year. This call, however was unusual. Mr. Jolley resigned today, he said.

The Principle of the year 2016 and a transfer from Northwest Cabarrus High, couldn't handle a week with Concord? I am shocked!

All the best to him in his future pursuits, we pray. May Mr. Jolley find a good place to serve and grow. God bless the faculty and friends of the Concord High School and the IB program especially.

First day of Senior Year for my Ethan

Good Morning, Senior year for Ethan. Glasses, proper paraphernalia in your bookbag and off you go. This is the adventure, we've been waiting for! You could've picked a pair of jeans without holes, but you didn't.

"go figure"

Setting our sights for home after dropping the baby girl...

I do believe that the highway to Chowan is 5 hours of riding in the sky.  The sky comes down to meet you.  I really didn't think Mrs. Day would be on cloud duty.   My surprise was great on the way there in that she was not just on cloud duty, but she was intent on entertaining me with delightful creatures doing and dancing all around us.  She has become quite the animator, in my years of getting to know her.  She was rejoicing with me and all of the mothers who know that they may never live to see an empty nest.   Each movement in that direction is a moment of progress.

I had to giggle a few times at the allusions to the Olympics that she made.  There were creatures diving and playing sports, running, etc.  Once we got to the campus, I lost track.  The last lap around the campus before we left her was spectacular.

You could see this beautiful storm brewing in the distance.  It looked as though you could see the first half of our trip's weather pattern.  The dark, dark cloud formation looked like a little praying child in a "mea culpa" stance on the knees and the big cloud was a huge welcoming face.  They got closer and closer to each other until the forehead of the little one became one with the forehead of the big face.  The silver lining was radiant and the angel slides were coming down from the formation at regular intervals.  I remember thinking, I do hope we are not going that way.  When we got to the highway and we were certainly going that way, I was grateful for the warning from heaven.  It was beautiful, even with my heart heavy from departing from my little chick.

Ordinarily, the cows have something to say about our departure trip.  This time it was an instructional visit about how to eat and how they keep their strength up by eating every half hour or so.  I didn't hear them for my talking.   Ev told me that part.

Well, before the tempest,  I looked to the right and there was a young man whose eyes seemed aware of the danger we were entering.  He looked more fearful than I am.  It was right to be fearful.  The wind kicked up and the water sounded like it wanted to tear the roof off of the car.   We just pulled over to the shoulder, until we could see again.  We went through lesser and lesser storms until the rain and the dark clouds were behind us.  A beautiful pink and orange sunlit sky was to our right.  That is the side that reminds me of "footloose", for some reason.  It was brighter than neon and a little dark cloud pattern looked like Santa and his sleigh was in front of the curtain of neon.   I hope that means someone got saved and heaven is rejoicing greatly.

Of course, we didn't have a camera!;)

Rainbow Season...