Too Early?

Family plans fell through this weekend, so I was left with some extra time. I really was going to wait until after Thanksgiving to put this up. But with an entire evening staring me in the face, what was I supposed to do??? To me, the choice was clear.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Love this...pine cones, cinnamon sticks, and cranberries. This would be fun to make!

The tree topper...my favorite!

Mom relaxing with a cup of apple mint tea - after working hard! :)

A Turkey's Perspective

The assignment: Write about Thanksgiving from a turkey's perspective.

The result: Brilliance.

These are my two favorites:

Fried Turkey

Hi! My name is Wings. I am here to tell my perspective of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a very sad holiday. Mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, and cranberry sauce. Those are the words that make me shiver. Humans are so lucky. They don't have the risk of being on the dinner table! One Thanksgiving I almost got fried! Who fries a turkey? There are other ways to cook a turkey! Anyway, I was about to get fried when the human turned around. I climbed out an open window and flew out. Yes, I really flew! Thank you for coming to hear this lecture. Now I better go hide. It's almost Thanksgiving!

Turkey Interview

Before we start, let me get one thing straight: I'm not a turkey. I am interviewing Bob the turkey, so he is the turkey, not me! Okay - as most turkeys are, Bob is very nervous about Thanksgiving. It appears that the turkeys are teaming up with the cows. They want people to eat more chicken. (Poor chicken.) For Bob's safety I'm not going to say where Bob lives, but he feels it is a safe place, and even though he is hiding, he wants to enjoy himself. I can understand that. Thanks for tuning in to Journal News, I'm J.W. and this is Bob. So good day and Happy Thanksgiving!

Meet Jean.

In the midst of a whirlwind of busy schedules, Jean and I meet in her home every week or two to go through the Bible study I'm involved in this semester.

We talk about sin. We talk about our struggle with it. We talk about forgiveness. We talk about our Savior's perfect life, atoning death, and victorious resurrection that makes forgiveness possible. We talk about God's grace, and how it's only by this grace - through faith in His Son - that we can know Him at all.

It's an encouraging time. And...Jean always has something ready for me to eat. :) On this particular evening, she brought home some delicious Jason's Deli for us to enjoy.

I'm grateful for my time with her - for her words of wisdom and encouragement, for her boldness in reminding me of truths I often forget.

"For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God." ~2 Corinthians 5:21

Game Night!

...with the home group. :) Love it.

Pumpkin Bread Attempt #1: Fail

We were supposed to make this. Cinnamon sugar pumpkin bread. Isn't it lovely? Moist and gooey and pumpkiny...

Gena and I were both so motivated to make this beautiful loaf of bread - we set aside a whole evening in order to bake together. Note the excitement on Gena's face as she prepared the starter for the bread!

We stumbled through the recipe, sort of skimming through what we didn't understand. *First mistake*. Did we have a way to measure the temperature of the water before we put in the yeast? No. Did we have the correct kitchen appliances for this recipe? No. Did we have the pureed pumpkin that was needed? No, but we had pumpkin butter - that's almost the same thing, right?

The dough looked great, kneaded and ready to rise...

Unfortunately our yeast didn't activate properly, so half an hour later it didn't look much different than when we stared.

So what did we do? Were we discouraged? Never! We formed the dough into balls, rolled them in cinnamon sugar, and baked them for a half an hour, knowing full well they wouldn't rise.

Gena was the brave one to try the first bite of what we affectionately call "Pumpkin Balls". Was it any good?...

...Meh.

But at least we had fun. It was a good bonding experience. And we'll know next time to be a little more prepared. :)

Tuesdays

This semester, I look forward to Tuesdays simply because of good, quality time with my dear friend Megan.

For this friend I am grateful. She's beautiful. She's real. She's a great encouragement to me.

After my work at school is complete, I head over to join the Myers family for the evening. It's a privilege to jump into their lives - which on this particular Tuesday involved me making acorn-shaped biscuits. Obviously. When there is no biscuit cutter around, always, always go for the cookie cutters. The acorn shape was a nice touch for the fall.

After dinner and fellowship, Kc leaves for the remainder of the evening, and Bennett and the girls are left to hold down the fort...

"What is this large, black object with flashing lights she holds?"

"I do not know about this whole situation.

Mother, what should I do?"

There's that smile! Isn't he precious?

After a bath, it's bonding time with Mama! I loved hearing "Caps for Sale", a favorite of Bennett's. Megan's not really mad, it was just a very dramatic reading. :)

And after the little one is fast asleep, Megan and I have our own bonding time! Post-catching-up-on-each-others-lives, we pull out "Anne of Green Gables", which Megan recently found out I had never seen.

Unacceptable.

We are taking care of that, one Tuesday at a time.