Just a Day Late

Due to a major winter storm that hit Christmas day that resulted in our losing power, along with about 200,000 other people in and around Little Rock, I'm a day late in saying this but...

Happy 10 Year Anniversary to my husband.  

 

We have been through a lot over the past 10 years.  Ups and downs, good times and bad.  New jobs, promotions, trips to Mexico and Vegas, trips to the beach with my entire family, holidays, snow storms, buying our first house,  selling our first house, moving back "home" to Arkansas with a newborn, fertility treatments, four children, trips to the emergency room, and late night runs for ice cream.  He has been with me on the happiest days of my life and on some of the worst days of my life.  He held my hand as our children were born and held me together when I was falling apart as we buried our lost twins.

 

I can honestly say I love him more today than I did the day I married him.  He is my best friend.  My shoulder to cry on.  My knight in shining armor.  Yes, at times he drives me completely crazy, but I love him, and wouldn't have it any other way.

Checking Things Off

Whew!  It has been one busy week.  I feel like I haven't sat down, other than in the car for carpool or running errands or while at the sewing machine, in days.  I have been going almost non-stop to try and get all the things done on my never-ending To Do list.  A friend at church told me on Sunday she was worried and stressed for me when she saw the extent of the infamous list.  She also kindly and rightly suggested I should cut a few things from the list.  So, after almost a week of being incommunicado while diligently working through my "To Do" items I thought I would give those of you keeping track of me a little update on my progress.

1.  Put up Christmas tree.  COMPLETE

2.  Finish Christmas shopping.  85% COMPLETE

3.  Bake goodies for the church bake sale.  COMPLETE  For those who care I made two gorgeous pecan pies for the bake sale that, I am happy to report, were sold before church even started.

4.  Complete my continuing education hours.  PARTIALLY COMPLETE I have completed 10 Hours since last I wrote, all "in person" hours.  That leaves 22 left to go.  That's a lot I know but I can do them all online.

5.  Finish the girls Christmas dresses.  Sorry to report these are still in the works.  

6.  Make the 'big kids' new Christmas pajamas.  COMPLETE  Pajama day at school was today and all the pajamas were finished.  Unfortunately, after all my hard work John David refused to wear his.  The twins wore theirs though and were very happy about it.

7.  Make Ella's Christmas tutu.  COMPLETE

8.  Make Ella's princess spelling wand.  IN PROCESS

9.  Finish and mail Christmas cards.  IN PROCESS  Hopefully these will be finished tonight.

10.  Wrap, wrap, wrap.  85% COMPLETE  Basically everything we have so far is wrapped.  All I lack is what I bought online and is in transit to us.

11.  Christmas baking and cooking.  STILL TO DO

12.  Goodie bags for the kids' school Christmas parties.  COMPLETE  Last day of school was today and the goodie bags for the other kids and teacher gifts were baked, wrapped, decorated, and out the door this morning.

13.  Husband's office Christmas party.  COMPLETE

14.  Optional vests and bowties for the boys for Christmas Eve - This has had to be cut from the list.  They both have another Christmas Eve outfit ready to go and I do have to get some sleep between now and then.  They will be at the top of the list for after Christmas.

15.  Take the computer to the Apple Store to get it updated/upgraded. - STILL TO DO but I have delegated this task to Husband.

16.  Haul the old, broken swing set from the backyard to the curb.   - STARTED - Turns out that the installer can't get the new play set put up until after New Year's so this doesn't have to be competed right away.  Husband has moved the old one to the back gate but we need to set up a big item pick up with the city before we haul it to the curb.  I doubt the neighbors would like it if we just left it on the curb for all to see for weeks.

17.  Meet the carpet cleaners at my grandmother's house.  COMPLETE  Now we just have to get the professional deep cleaners in there before she gets back in early January.  So this will be back on the new, after Christmas To Do list.

I think I have made really good progress getting everything done.  I've gotten the list down to 7 instead of 17 items.  There is always more to do of course but I'll get it done.  I still have a few days to go.  And what doesn't get done before Christmas will get done after.  I'm not going to stress over it.  I am going to enjoy the holiday with my family and friends.  After all, that is what is important.

How is your Christmas To Do list coming?

The Never Ending To Do List Continues

I only posted my To Do list a few minutes ago and I have already thought of things I left off.

A couple new additions.....

15.  Take the computer to the Apple Store to get it updated/upgraded hopefully before Christmas as it is necessary to be able to install some of the learning games we got the bigger kids for Christmas.  It is woefully out of date.

16.  Haul the old, broken swing set from the backyard to the curb.  I would put this off until after the holidays if the children weren't getting a new improved version from their grandparents for Christmas.  They can't install the new one until the old one is out of the way.

17.  Meet the carpet cleaners at my grandmother's house.  My grandmother, known as GiGi to my children, is out of town for the holidays.  She has health issues that she won't admit to and is really beyond taking care of the house herself.  She also won't pay for anyone to help out around the house and gets upset and offended in my mom and I try to clean for her.  While she is gone her condo is getting deep cleaned, including all the carpets, and since my mom works I am the appointed person in charge of meeting and overseeing the carpet cleaners.

I'm sure I will think of more but that will have to do.

Gotta run.
Talk to you soon.

The Never Ending To Do List

It has really hit me that Christmas is only 2 weeks away.  I can't believe it is that close and my "To Do" list is still really, REALLY long.  I keep thinking..."Oh, I have tons of time.  School doesn't let out until the 20th.  That's  ages away."  WRONG.  That is next week.  Already.  And even though I am panicking about the length of my TO Do list...am I working on it right now.  Nope.  I am sitting here catching up on my blogging.  Hey....my blog is always on my "To Do" list too so maybe technically I am working on that never ending list.

SO here is my "To Do" list with my hoped for completion dates.  I have great intentions that it will all be finished before next weekend.  We'll see how that goes.

1.  Put up Christmas tree.  We went on our annual family outing last weekend and cut down a fresh tree at the Christmas tree farm, but then husband got sick and spent the rest of the weekend in bed.  As a result, the tree is standing in a bucket of water in the garage.  I'm hoping husband and I can get it in the stand, in the house, and lights on it tonight.  Then we can decorate as a family either Thursday night or this weekend.

2.  Finish Christmas shopping.  I would almost say start Christmas shopping but I actually have started, I just haven't gotten that far.  I am doing OK with gifts for the children, but not so great with gifts for grandparents, aunts, uncles, or even husband.  We did sign up for a Parents Afternoon Out at our church for this Saturday.  The youth group is providing baby sitting for children over 2 for four hours on Saturday afternoon for a nominal charge.  We have all three of the "big kids" signed up to go.   Baby Ava isn't old enough yet, obviously, so she will just have to tag along with husband and I.  We are hoping to get the shopping finished on Saturday.

3.  Bake goodies for the church bake sale.  This Sunday, the St. Margaret's Guild (a women's group at our church) is hosting a bake sale with proceeds going to St. Francis House and Stewpot, two organizations here in Little Rock that provide food and other services to the homeless.  Last year the bake sale raised almost $2000 which I think is a lot of money for one small Sunday morning bake sale.  Since I was on bedrest with Ava this time last year, I volunteered husband to make his famous toffee candy.  Being the good sport that he is (most of the time) he made multiple batches of candy and it was a hit at the sale.  All goodies have to be delivered to the church Saturday morning to be packaged and priced so I have a mandatory deadline to be finished with my baking before I got to bed Friday night.

4.  Complete my continuing education hours.  In my former life, I worked as an auditor with one of the Big 4 accounting firms and was a licensed CPA.  After retiring I thought about letting my license expire.  That way I wouldn't have to get the continuing education hours or spend my money getting my license renewed each year.  Husband encouraged me to keep my license current just in case I ever needed or wanted to go back to public accounting.  I know this is the smart thing to do.  If something ever happened to husband and I needed to support the family I would have the license which would make finding a job much easier.  But, it does mean every year I have to get 40 hours of continuing education.  Every year, I vow I will start on these hours earlier and get them a little at a time throughout the year so it doesn't seem like a big deal, and every year I wait until the fall to get started.  As a result, I have to get 32 hours completed before the end of December, 8 of which have to be in person.  The remaining 24 can be done online.  I have 10 hours, including the 8 in person hours, scheduled to be completed in the next week.  Then I will just need to sit down at the computer and get those last 22 hours in before New Year's.  What fun! (Please note that was written with much sarcasm.)

5.  Finish the girls Christmas dresses.  I am making the girls matching dresses for Christmas.  I am getting close, but ran into some trouble when Harrison snuck into the guest room where I have the sewing machine set up, and messed with the knobs on the machine.  As a result, it is not currently sewing correctly.  I sew on my great aunt, now mother's, 1920's Singer Featherweight.  I love this machine.  It sews great.  It isn't fancy and doesn't do anything fancy but it is an awesome little machine.  The only problem....when Harrison or anyone messes with the knobs and changes the tension, etc. I have to have it looked at by a professional.  I usually can't undo what he has done on my own.  Thankfully, I borrowed a friends machine while my mom's was being worked on after Ella messed with it.  I still have her machine so I am finishing up on hers.  Thanks Shannon.

6.  Make the 'big kids' new Christmas pajamas.  The kids' last day of school next week is pajama day and hopefully I can get those pajamas finished by then.  I promised Ella if I didn't get them done by next week I would buy her new pajamas for school and have the ones I am making finished for Christmas Eve.

7.  Make Ella's Christmas tutu.  I haven't decided if this is going to be one of her presents or if I will give it to her before Christmas, but either way I need to get it done.

8.  Make Ella's princess spelling wand.  This is going to be a Christmas gift.  My children love the show Super Why on PBSkids.  It is a complicated story so I will spare you the details but one of the main characters is Princess Presto with spelling power.  When the kids play make believe and Super Why, Ella is always Princess Presto and she has been dying for a wand.

9.  Finish and mail Christmas cards.

10.  Wrap, wrap, wrap.  Every year it seems I save this until Christmas eve.  I vow I won't do that again this year.  My goal is to wrap a couple gifts each day so it won't be so overwhelming of a project.

11.  Christmas baking and cooking.  I love to cook and bake, especially when it means making treats for those I love.  I haven't made the final decision on what goodies will be made this year but we have a few traditional items, cookies, apple pie, covered pretzels, dipped oreos (husband's favorite), chex mix, breakfast casserole (a Christmas morning tradition), cranberry coffee cake (another Christmas morning tradition), cranberry orange bread....and the list goes on.

12.  Goodie bags for the kids' school Christmas parties.  These are partially complete and hopefully husband will help with finishing them up.  Obviously these have to be finished by the last day of school next week.  No sweat right.

13.  Husband's office Christmas party.  I guess since I am not hosting the party I don't have to do anything except attend, but it takes up one of my free nights to get other "To Do" items accomplished so I think it should be on the list.  The party is Friday night so since it is likely I won't have finished the baking for the church bake sale before we head for the party, it will mean I can't party too hard so I can come home and finish my goodies.

14.  I am putting this on here in the hopes I can get it finished.  It is the optional item.  I want to make the boys vests and bowties that will match the dresses I am making for the girls so they will all be coordinated on Christmas Eve.  If I don't get this done, I'll live with it but it would be so cute if they all matched.

Does that seem like alot?  When I write it all down somehow it doesn't seem like that much.  I guess if I didn't have to do all the regular, being a mom stuff as well it wouldn't seem like much.  Oh well, back to work I go.

What's on your To Do list?

Our Family is Growing

Our family is growing again.

This time by.....

12 feet.

Do I have you going?  Do you think I am about to announce I am pregnant again.  And this time pregnant with sextuplets (hence the 12 feet).  Nope.  Sorry to disappoint you. Our twelve new feet belong to the children's new calves.  That's right.  Baby cows.  Each of the "big kids" got to pick out a heifer calf (a baby girl calf for all you city folks like me) from my father in law's herd to have for their very own.  Johnny, my father in law, will feed and care for them as they grow, but when they start having calves of their own the money made from them will be put into the kids' college funds.  Awesome!  It's the perfect gift.  The kids think it is super cool to have their very own cow and husband and I think it is super cool that there will be more money going into their college funds.

So without further ado, let me introduce to you the newest members of our family.

Meet Chloe.  A beautiful black heifer calf with white stocking feet (sorry...didn't get the stocking feet in the photo) owned and adored by Ella.

And here comes Sally.  Another beautiful black heifer calf with a white spotted face owned and loved by Harrison.

And third we have Wonder Red.  This beautiful little girl is all black with the exception of her belly which is a rusty red color.  John David is head over heels for her.

And this is my cow.  Husband gave her to me around the time we got married so she isn't new to our family but she wanted some spotlight too.  Her name is Sunshine, which was and still is my dad's nickname for me.  As you can see she isn't black like the majority of our herd.  She is blonde, like me.  She is actually part Charlois, which is a type of cattle that is white, and part short-horn, which are red & white.  (Husband used to show short-horn cattle at the county fair.)  You might be wondering....why is she white when all the rest are black.  Good question.  A neighbor's Charlois bull broke out of his pasture and  fell in love with Sunshine's mommy, one of husband's former show calves.  Hence our one white cow in a pasture full on black, angus cows.

So there you have.  Our three new additions.  Don't worry.  None of these girls will be headed to the slaughter house or made into hamburger.  We will be keeping them around for years to come.

Welcome to the family girls.  

A Time for Goodbye

God is our hope and strength,

a very present help in trouble.

Therefore will we not fear, though the earth be moved,

and though the hills be carried into the midst of the sea;

Though the waters thereof rage and swell,

and though the mountains shake at the tempest of the same

There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God,

the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most Highest.

God is in the midst of her,

therefore shall she not be removed;

God shall help her, and that right early.

Be still then, and know that I am God;

I will be exalted among the nations,

and I will be exalted in the earth.

The LORD of hosts is with us;

the God of Jacob is our refuge.

(Psalm 46)

We have had sad news in our house.  Husband's uncle Duane passed away Tuesday evening.  He had been very ill with a horrible, incurable, lung disease for a while but it was still somewhat of a surprise.  We spent Thanksgiving with husband's parents and his aunt and uncle at their house in Springdale.  He was hospitalized with pnuemonia the following week and never recovered.  I am so thankful we were able to spend that last holiday with him.  As you can imagine it was a loud, rowdy, cluttered Thanksgiving with our four children and their toys all crammed into Uncle Duane's small house, but Duane said that the noise, chaos, and floor littered with toys made him happy.  That was what made it a home and a holiday with family.  He loved it!!  And I am so thankful we got a couple of pictures of the children with Duane before he passed.  

O God, whose mercies cannot be numbered:  Accept our

prayers on behalf of thy servant Duane, and grant him an 

entrance into the land of light and joy, in the fellowship of

thy saints; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth

and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now

and for ever.

Amen

(Book of Common Prayer: Burial of the Dead Rite One)

Goodbye Duane!  We love you!  You will be missed!

A Time to Be Thankful

Let me just say, I love my church!  It is truly a loving, caring, giving place where I feel God's presence and see his work done every day.  We only joined this church less than 2 years ago so we are still rather "new" but we have been welcomed with open arms and brought into the church "family."  I love how warm and welcoming everyone is.  I love how children and families, and the noise and chaos they bring, are celebrated and not shunned.  I love the music, the prayers, the friendships, and the generosity.  I love how there are so many ways to get involved and give back that it is virtually impossible not to get involved.  And I love how generous with time, talents, and money the church is.

Our church helps to support a ministry for the poor and homeless here in Little Rock called St. Francis House.  Before Thanksgiving our family helped pack boxes of food for the needy.  These boxes were given to St. Francis House who distributed them to those in need.  It is such an easy way to help those in need during a time of year when we have so much, and it is a great way to involve young children and teach them about giving to those less fortunate than ourselves.

We gather together

to ask the Lord's blessing;

he chastens and hastens

his will to make known.

The wicked oppressing

now cease from distressing.

Sing praises to his name, 

he forgets not his own.

Beside us to guide us,

our God with us joining, 

ordaining, maintaining

his kingdom divine;

so from the beginning

the fight we were winning;

thou, Lord wast at our side, 

all glory be thine!

We all do extol thee, 

thou leader triumphant, 

and pray that thou still

our defender wilt be.

Let thy congregation

escape tribulation;

thy name be ever praised!

O Lord, make us free!

Text of the hymn We Gather Together written by Nederlandtsch Gendencklanck & translated by Theodore Baker

Technical Difficulties

Sorry I haven't been posting this week.  I've had some technical difficulties.    You see, I have been happily blogging away posting tons of pictures of my children, because let's face it, they are adorable, but not thinking about the size of the pictures I was uploading.  Ooops!  Anyway, I hit my data limit because I was uploading huge photo files without even thinking about it.  As a result, I ran out of storage space.  I am working on fixing the problem but I'm  not a "tech-y" person and between that, the Thanksgiving holiday, taking care of the four children and husband, and getting in gear for the Christmas holidays, I just haven't had the time to sit down and fix the sizing on all my pictures.  I'm working on it though.  Slowly but surely.

I will be back soon with new photos.  In the mean time just know I have been working away making the girls matching dresses for the holidays, making tutus for birthday and Christmas presents for the daughters of some of our friends, and working on that Christmas shopping.  Matching pajamas for all four of the children is next on my list.  Hopefully I can get those done before pajama day at school.
 

OK.  Back to work.
Talk to you soon.

Pie Week!

This week has been Pie Week around our house and I have been baking up a storm.  I have made a total of 5 pies in the past three days.  The tally...3 pumpkin, 1 pecan, and 1 apple.

I made two of the pumpkin pies to give to the kids teachers at school.  Just a little way of saying thank you.  I got the idea of making a Thanksgiving pie for each teacher from my mom  You guessed it.  She's a teacher.  The Parent's Association at school where she used to teach gave each teacher and staff member a pie for Thanksgiving.  It was a way of saying thank-you, but I also saw it as a way of helping out.  Since the majority of teacher's were women and mothers they were likely doing the cooking on Thanksgiving.  By giving them a pie, I always saw it as a way of taking one less thing off their To Do lists when it came to making Thanksgiving dinner.  And so I have "stolen" the idea from them and have been making pies for my children's teachers since John David was 2.  I have only missed one year, the year we lost our babies Lane & Reese.  I was still reeling from the loss and recovering from surgery and just skipped it.  I even managed to revive the "tradition" last year when I was pregnant with Ava and on bedrest for pre-term labor.

So....pie week in a nut shell.

Make crust

 














Repeat..In my case 5 times.  Here are the two "teacher" pies.

Just for fun...get fancy and decorate the crusts with leaf cut-outs.

Make the filling.  Here is the pumpkin filling.  Sorry no shots of the apple or pecan.

Add filling to crust and bake.

This is the "teacher" pumpkin pie before baking.

 

And this is the family pumpkin pie while baking.  

Lastly, the apple after baking.

   

Sorry...no shots of the pecan pie.  It was still in the oven when I sat down to write this post.

  

Some interesting pie facts obtained from the Huffington Post

*  The first pies were filled with meat and called coffins.

*  Mini, sliced and half pies make up 24% of pies purchased

*  Recent growth in the popularity of blueberry and cherry pies can be attributed to the increase in the public's desire for antioxidants

*Pies are slowly starting to challenge cupcakes for the "trendiest" desserts

There is something so American about pie.  Whether it is apple, pumpkin, pecan, or banana cream. 

According to the Huffington Post the 9 most popular pies this Thanksgiving are: 

1.  Apple

2.  Strawberry

3.  Pumpkin

4.  Cherry

5.  Blueberry

6.  Pecan

7.  Lemon Meringue

8.  Chocolate

9.  Chess

According to chacha.com the top 10 pie flavors are:

1.  Apple

2.  Chocolate (French Silk)

3.  Coconut

4.  Pecan

5.  Berry (all types)

6.  Key Lime

7.  Lemon

8.  Pumpkin

9.  Cherry

10. Banana

My personal favorites....apple, pumpkin, and key lime.  Husband's favorite....probably pecan, although I didn't ask him before posting this.   

What's you favorite?

Happy Pie Week everyone!

A Better Late than Never Happy Halloween

It is horrible that I am just now getting around to posting Halloween photos but that's the way it goes around here sometimes.

We had a great Halloween.  Really this isn't my favorite holiday.  I just don't think we need all that candy around the house.  The kids don't need it.  Husband and I don't need it.  It is just too much of a temptation.  Plus, our neighborhood really doesn't have many trick or treaters and we are never actually home on Halloween so I don't buy any candy.  I learned the hard way the first year after we moved here that there weren't any trick or treaters and was stuck with one of those jumbo bags of candy.  Not good for the waistline.

We actually trick or treated twice this year.  Once, the Sunday before Halloween at our church's Trunk or Treat, complete with spooky organ concert and hay ride, and then again in my parent's neighborhood on Halloween.   My parents neighborhood is the BEST for trick or treating and people all over the city have figured it out.  My parents easily give out 400 pieces of candy and still turn their lights off before 8 pm.  Anyway, here are a few pictures of the gang in their costumes.

Helping big brother adjust his chaps.

 Say cheese!  I'm a doctor just like John Robert and Jessica

(Thanks for the authentic Cincinnati Children's scrubs)

This cowboy needs a moment to reflect.

The two cowboys talking things over before the festivities begin.  I think they are plotting the best strategy to get the most candy.

So...you been farming long?

Cowboy JD giving directions to the hay ride.

Little sister the pumpkin... just along for the ride.

Have cauldron will trick or treat.  

Ready for the candy.

Tried to get one of all four of them plus the dog but Ava wasn't interested.

And off they go.

TRICK OR TREAT!

Happy (late) Halloween from our family to you!

Autumn on the Farm

THROUGH the ample open door of the peaceful country barn, 

A sun-lit pasture field, with cattle and horses feeding; 

 

And haze, and vista, and the far horizon, fading away.

~Walt Whitman~

All photos taken by me and the property of 501 Housewife

Four Little Pumpkins

So much has been going on around here lately that I am woefully behind in posting.  In addition to the regular "goings on" of life with four children , we have had family in from out of town (twice), a weekend on the farm, parent teacher conferences, and dinner parties.  In the midst of all that we took our annual trip to the pumpkin patch.  This was something my family always did when I was growing up and is a fun tradition we have continued with our children.  And this year, since my brother and Jessica were home visiting for a few days, they and my parents joined in the fun.  My poor mother was sick so she didn't have quite as much fun as the rest of us but she was a trooper and toughed it out anyway.

As most of you parents out there know, the pumpkin patch is more involved than just picking your very own pumpkin out of the field,although that is an important part of the "experience."  Our pumpkin patch experience also included a small petting zoo, hay bale maze just the right size for the children, sunflower maze for the "older" folks, a corn pit and hay ride. 

Seeing how much he has grown in a year.  

And here he is last year, just for comparison.  Boy he has grown!  And not just taller...he looks so much older than he did last year.

The whole gang.  It is impossible to get everyone looking at the camera at the same time.  

The boys petting the miniature pony.

Some fun in the corn.

Ava had to check out the corn too.

Hay Ride!

And now what we have all been waiting for....time to pick out the perfect pumpkin!

Found it mom!

We all had a fabulous time.  It is days like these that I truly treasure.  No matter how much of a hassle it can be to get the car packed with mud boots, changes of shoes, extra towels for wiping off seats and muddy hands, and those "just in case" items every parent travels with, as well as everyone dressed and out the door, it is so rewarding in the end.  I want to make memories with my children that will last their whole lives.  I want them to remember the family fun and pass it on to their children and grandchildren.  It is worth the "hassle" when you see their little faces like this....

Thanks Pumpkin Patch.  See you next year!