A House Blessing

We had a church service auction and our minister auctioned off a House Blessing.

This weekend our family will be blessed.

 We have about 25-30 people coming-all church friends. 

After the House Blessing we will have a cookout and some swimming in the pool.

 I've pulled together my linens for the table and some shish-ka-bob skewers.

 My friend Tracy gave me these canisters.

 I removed the lids and will use them as plastic ware servers.

I also bought lots of candles for the House Blessing Reading, some blue gems to put in water for those that want to speak of blessing in their lives and have purchased a small gift for our minister. She has been an Interim but has blessed us this passed year with her wonderful ministry. The house blessing is this Saturday. I'll be sure to post pictures of the event.

We are so fortunate to have a wonderful UU church community.

Burundi Arts and Crafts

Today we returned to church around 3pm. We were hosting a potluck and arts and crafts to some Burundi families. Many church members drove to the city with borrowed car seats to pick our guest families up and bring them to church. We started the event with Santa's arrival and family portraits. Here's a picture of Santa arriving. We had all kinds of arts and crafts set up and ready to go thanks to one of our other homeschool moms and fellow church member. The kids were able to make beaded bracelets, homemade yo-yo's, cinnamon ornaments and stamped silk scarves. I was in charge of silk scarf stamping. It was lots of fun and another church mom Allison used the heatgun to dry them.

Tae in his new silk stamped ascot.

Morgan Stamping

The two creating

Tae all smiles. He loves arts and crafts.

The Fashionista in the finished product.

For the past several weeks the entire church has been collecting blankets and household items to give to these families. Also donated were crates of fresh tangerines. We collected coats, hats, scarves and mittens for the families to choose from. In the past, our church has always adopted a needy family but this year our RE director decided to reach out to many more families. So many are in need.

After crafting it was time for story telling with Rosie. Rosie is 85 years young and has been involved in the theater all her life. And yes, our pet chicken was named after her. It's a very prestigious thing to be named after a chicken. I'm pretty sure it's Holy. Here is Rosie and the Burundi interpreter reading the story. The picture doesn't show the huge crowd sitting in front of her. I had to crop it because so many kids faces were showing. Rosie is the best story teller.

When the story was over then the big potluck meal came. The entire church cooked and what a spread it was! Everything was delicious and our host families so appreciated all that there was. We used two banquet tables for food and everyone pitched in from doing dishes, to serving to making our guests feel welcomed.

If you sit back and listen at these events you can hear some great things. Here are a few tidbits from tonight. Oh and here's a self-portrait-taken-photo of Tae. He looooves the camera.

• "What is that gray, gunky stuff?"


• This is crazy. "Yes, but a good crazy, not crazy, crazy. "


• Oooooohhhhh, I love meatballs!"


• "Why does Santa look so familiar?"


• "Where did Santa park his sleigh?"


• "He doesn't use his sleigh until Christmas. I think he hitchhiked."


• "How does that big belly fit down the chimney?"


• "My mom never let's me drink soda."


• "Are we only allowed one helping?, because that's all my mom allows."


• "Beans make your farts stink."


• "I hope they paid the dishwasher good 'cause she's gonna be here all night."

And lastly, I find that the kids always have the spirit of the season down and understood long before adults seem to get it. There was a small boy, maybe 6 or 7 sitting close to us when we were eating. I watched him fill 2 plates full of food and eat everything. He filled his plate for the third time and as I was helping to clear dishes I saw him with his head down and almost tearful. I asked him if he was ok and he said, "Jesus taught us to only take what we need. I have filled my plate too full and cannot finish it."

I told him that that was a very important lesson but perhaps Jesus brought us all here tonight with all of this food and friends so that our bellies and hearts can be full.

"Yes", he said. "I think that is it-thank you."

And just so you know, no my kids don't always behave at church. Take a peek at these two pictures that my husband snapped while I was clearing dishes.

Yes, it is a wrestling match and it appears that my youngest is winning.

They were only pretending...check out their smiles!

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Jam Packed Weekend

My Oldest

Our Decorated Chicken Coop

Our First Egg!

Tae behaving at Church...Not!

Not a hen .

First Snow and Snowman

The Tree Felling

My 3 Kiddos

Morgan Looking Goofy

Tae my youngest looking cute. Or He might be in trouble and trying to look innocent.

We had a jam packed weekend. This past Friday I went out with 5 other of our homeschooling mom's for Diva's night out. We went to this place called Clayground and did ceramic painting. Yeah- I know- wild night out on the town. But considering we hardly ever get out without our kids this was a real treat. We had a blast-good wine, good snacks and good company. We're going back in February and can't wait. I made a huge pasta bowl and painted sunflowers on it. Very Tuscan.
Saturday morning we went to cut our Christmas tree at our local tree farm (yay Big John Leyden's) and then spent the afternoon untangling lights, decorating and rifling thru christmas boxes for the items we needed. I then baked 2 huge pans of Enchilasagna, our new favorite dish. It's like lasagna except with echilada sauce and black beans. The kids love it. One pan for us and the other pan for the potluck at church on Sunday.
Sunday was very full too and we woke up to a blanket of snow-the first of the season along with some bitter cold. I think I elbowed Larry around 2 am to throw somemore wood on the fire. I was cold! We had church in the morning where I was worship partner, the church craft fair after service where I bought some delicious pepper jelly and really cool stone trivet that was made by one of our other homeschool moms.
When we got home, we decorated the outside of the house with the window wreaths and garland around the door. And yes, even the Chicken coop got a wreath. Doesn't everyone decorate their chicken coop? The kids were delighted with the snow and made the first snowman of the season complete with carrot nose. He didn't last long though as Mr. Snowman apparently was the quarterback for an impromptu game of snowball football. Mr. Snowman got tackled and then lots of laughter followed.
Then it was back to church for Christmas caroling and the family potluck. Tae mostly climbed in and out of the chairs (we don't have pews) and chimed in on a few rounds of Jingle Bells and Frosty the Snowman.
I brought the kids home (Larry bailed on Christmas Caroling-something ridiculous about a football game-gheesh) and went out to take care of the chickens. I changed their water and fluffed the nesting boxes and there it was! Our First Egg...a creamy pink perfectly oval egg. Took them long enough-only 20 weeks. It was smaller than usual but they'll get bigger as the birds mature.
Whew-I'm wiped!

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Can You Hear Me Now?

It's been a few days since I've written. It's September and life is busy once again. Soccer season has started, the homeschool group is busy and life has punched us in the gut this summer.

Saturday, Larry's mom came home from rehab after having her knee replaced, got very sick and ended up back in the hospital. She's very ill with c-diff colitis. Problem is she is allergic to the antibiotics she needs to help the infection. She's lost so much weight. I'm having difficulty with this as it brings back horrible memories of my own mother's illness.

After my Dad died, Mom deteriorated so quickly. It was a short 18 months after Dad died that we lost Mom. Larry's own mother is showing those same signs. She is so frail all we can do is pray.

His father is in a bad spot. His mind has been showing signs of dementia for some time and he is not functioning without mom there beside him. It has become apparent how little he can do for himself without mom there. Larry is struggling. It's been a busy week and he feels like he's abandoning his mom.

He's wanted to travel to see his mom really bad but tomorrow is a big day. Last month Larry had his cochlear implant placed and tomorrow is activation day. It's been 6 weeks since he's had any hearing at all in his left ear. The anticipation is killing him. Tomorrow we will travel to Providence to see Troy the audiologist for Larry's first mapping. I'm bringing my camera to take pictures so that I can show his mom. She's been very worried about him so we are praying this works for Larry. It will be his first time in 38 years that he has not worn hearing aids. We are very hopeful but trying to not have any expectations. Not sure that is possible but it is all we can do.

Our church year is off to a great start. In true UU fashion our church goes to lay ministry during the summer and with me being ill with Lymes disease I wasn't able to attend. Our first service is water communion. The entire congregation brings water from their summer travels and adds it to the communion bowl. It is a symbol of coming back together, a symbol of our travels leading us back home and a wonderful time for everyone to hug and get back together.

In June I did my first sermon with a few other people on our Small Group Ministry program. It was a great service and really wonderful to be in the pulpit. In November, I will be doing a sermon on Organ Donation with our minister. I'm so excited and hopefully can find some other opportunities to be in the pulpit. There has always been a secret love to go on to Seminary, but money, time and life will not allow right now. These are the busy years with the kids so for now I will fulfill the need with cameo appearances.

Our church and congregation really uplifted and sustained us this past summer. The Caring Circle at church brought us meals for two weeks when I was unable to cook because of the Lymes. We received so many cards, phone calls and offers of help for both Larry and for myself. They gave me rides to the doctors office when I couldn't drive and they came on pastoral care visits to cheer me. Our minister also came and I so enjoyed giving her a tour of my gardens when they were at their peak. It was delightful to be able to walk with her and listen to the birds and waterfall from the pond. A few dragonflys flitted by and the koi lipped the surface of the water to greet us. Small moments this summer that were a delight and respite for me. Larry has joined on as Vice-President of the church this year. I think he's starting to realize why I devote so much time them. He's getting it-he saw it this summer with the care we recieved.

Despite the hardships this summer we are very blessed in all that life has given us.