Thanksgiving

Well, we spent our first Thanksgiving at home without extended family this year. Our friend from church, Ed, did come to share our 22 lb turkey with us. It was a nice, quiet sort of holiday without any rushing around. Except for the rushing to the Mall on Friday morning to watch Santa arrive on the big red tractor, which he did not actually do. We kept waiting and waiting with the other people outside the mall, then someone let us know he was already inside. BIG BUMMER!

And "quiet" is not exactly accurate either. Our hot water heater leaked on the Sunday morning of Thanksgiving week. So from Tuesday until the following Sunday we lived with 3 gigantic, industrial type fans and a dehumidifier to dry up the water in the carpet and the drywall. We did actually turn the fans off during Thanksgiving dinner and a couple other times.

All in all it was a good holiday with much to give Thanks to God for....like employment, fans to dry carpet, emergency funds for emergencies, good health, ability to educate our kids at home, for our children, and each other!

2 Kid Funnies....

After church today, we took the kids to eat lunch at Pizza Hut. If you've been to Pizza Hut during the Holiday seasons, you know they set out board game cards for customers to "play" while waiting. Great marketing plan! So we were playing this game where you give clues to a word to one person to guess the word. I was giving clues for "belly button" to Sophia. It was a pretty poor clue, I must admit. I said, "You are born with this." Sophia readily guessed - original sin?! We were happily impressed!

Our local Pizza Hut has also installed flat-screen TVs in the corners. Will was busily watching basketball. But what really caught his eye was the Super Juicer! He giggled and said how much he wanted one of those! My children are so innocent as they never watch commercials:):):)

Welcome, Autumn...or Winter!

October was a full month for us here in west-central Nebraska. We had 3 BIG snows amounting to 30" of snow. Keep in mind that our average seasonal snow total is 29"! This probably doesn't bode well for a mild winter.

The first unseasonal snow dumped a ton of snow on our parish's annual Pumpkin Festival. Thanks to last minute scrambling and quick thinking on the part of the committee in charge, we were still able to have a successful Pumpkin Fest INSIDE church. (Start praying now for autumn weather for next year!) The next snow was a couple of weeks later. Kids made a snowwoman, which I failed to photograph. That foot of snow melted as fast as it fell. The last snow pretty much closed down our small burg the day before Halloween. Michael couldn't even get the car out of the driveway to get to work. VACATION DAY! We now know why our town has so many jacked-up trucks ... just to navigate the snow. The city did actually plow our street on Halloween. Not complaining here, but that created a HUGE pile in the middle of the road. Fortunately by Halloween night, it had warmed up and melted lots of the snow so we could trick or treat with some friends.

On to other family updates, we are in the 12th week of school here. Sophia is making real progress in her reading program this year. When I get frustrated, I know I need to cool my jets and remember that she is a young 1st grader. She is zipping through her math program. Tonight we are going to prepare for her Science Fair Project next week. She has completed one session of a Homeschool PE class at the local gymnastics club. Hoping that the program will continue! She is also taking part in a monthly science presentation at our local children's museum. Some 60 kids participated in the first session in October! Michael has started training for the spring Triathlon. Will is training Nicholas in the art of being a little boy.

Looking forward to a quiet, dare I hope dry November!

Below are some of our pictures from the month of October.

Nicholas as The Dragon, Will as St. George of Merry England

and Sophia as Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha