Looking towards December

Since my aspirations of Thanksgiving were a bit too high, I've been regrouping this week and looking towards December and Christmas. We have always gingerly approached the coming of Christmas. Again, as we approach it, I feel a bit of nervous anticipation. We want them to know that this is the time of year that the Church recognizes the birth of Christ but we will not be participating in the traditions of Santa Clause and the like. So back to my regrouping for the month, I have found quite a few ideas on line for Christmas books and activities to teach the meanings of Christmas symbols. I hope that the kids and I will come through the holiday learning more about the amazing gift that God has given to us through the birth of His Son and less about the desire to always have more. I hope we will grow to appreciate the blessing of giving to those around them and the love that God has for us.

bike trails

It's been 8 days since Peter mastered his bike and he has his own bike trail. Our friend Austin and Branden created some mountain bike trails in the woods behind our church and Peter has been anxiously awaiting his turn on the trails. It's not going to happen anytime soon for the little guy! However, he somehow talked Austin into helping (or should I say creating) a bike trail in the natural area between our houses. He is so excited about it. Peter said, "we're still working on it. Austin has to build some jumps....". It's really great. The best part is that it's going to really give the boy a work out!!!

Thanksgiving review

Well, I can't believe that Thanksgiving has come and gone. I had many hopes and vision of Thanksgiving and fall crafts but in all honesty we only completed one. Indian corn! We did do lots of leave collecting, a few leaf art pictures and spent as much time outdoors as possible. During the Children's sermon at church the Sunday before Thanksgiving, Philip asked what Thanksgiving was all about. Peter raised his hand and began talking about Squanto and how he taught the Pilgrims to use dead fish to fertilize their corn. I guess we learned a lot even if all my visions of Turkeys and cornucopia's didn't come to pass.

School is back in session though this week and we will be working with the book, "How to make an Apple Pie and see the world". The climax of course will be making and apple pie at the end of the week! I wish there was an apple orchard near us- oh well.

another bike video

Bike Machine

Peter has had quite a week- First his tooth feel out and then today pretty much out of no where he rides his bike without training wheels! This summer "teaching Peter to ride his bike" was on Philip's list of things to do. However, Peter was just not interested and frequently discouraged when they tried. So we put the training wheels back on and let the issue rest. Well, our great neighbors, Tyler and Austin (15 yr old twins) are major bike kids. Tyler is a road biker and Austin is a mountain biker. Austin has been spending quite a few afternoons a week hanging out with us avoiding starting his homework. Peter started to get more interested in his bike because Austin always has his with him. So one afternoon a week ago, Austin and Tyler came over and gave Peter a bike lesson. The training wheels came off again. They had much better success with him than either Philip or I had. A few days passed and Peter and I practiced for a few minutes in the driveway. Then this afternoon I come outside to find Peter with his helmet on and he's about to mount his bike. He asks me "to just keep him steady while I gets on and then let go". So I think why not! Amazingly, he actually rode his bike. We tried 3 more times and then Philip came outside and Peter was getting on and starting on his own. We run to Tyler and Austin's house to show them. We meet up with Austin at the church and here are the videos I took with my phone. The quality isn't that great but you can see that yellow jacket whizzing through the field.....
My baby isn't a baby anymore!

6 guys and me

That was how I spent most of my time at Pilgrimage!!! Somehow our mini-van became loaded with guys and stayed that way the entire weekend. I was a bit nervous as I noticed the make up of my passengers. I would be driving from the church to Duke to pick up Philip then on to Fayetville. I declared myself driver and not DJ so the shot gunner got to be DJ until of course we picked up Philip and then I got to be DJ...The weekend was great. I learned new words, new songs, new artists and new things about the world of teenagers. Our hotel was right next to Starbucks so I was treated with a cup of coffee a few times. I brought a book with me in hopes of some reading time but I didn't even get it cracked although we were up until 1 and 2am each night. The kids did great and my roommates were awesome.

I had a blast and was thankful to have the time away from my regular routine and to spend with other people's kids.

Our first tooth

Peter has had a loose tooth for over a month now. We went to the dentist on Monday and I happened to notice that morning that his tooth seemed a lot looser than it had been. We discussed the possibility of the dentist "helping it to come out". Peter was not interested in that idea at all. I think the apple slices at lunch time loosened it even more. The hygienist ( a friend from church) didn't even clean it because she said it would come out. The Dentist offered to take it out for Peter and he said "No". So then the dentist offered to "paint some numbing medicine on it so it wouldn't hurt" and then Peter could wiggle it out. Peter was still hesitant but I said, sure we'll try it! So out came Peter's first tooth with just a little wiggle. I still can't get over seeing his smile with a missing tooth.....My little baby is growing up!

Pilgrimage!

Watch out Fayetville; here comes 6500 youth and adults to party hard this weekend. I am 30 minutes away from my first ever youth chaperone trip. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. My parents arrived last night and are geared up to watch the kids for the weekend. We have chili in the crock pot, special projects have been started, a hike in the woods, school time with granny and a special hour of cartoon time this morning all that in just half a day. I hope my parents are up for a non-stop weekend.

So please pray- for Philip and I....for the kids on the trip. It is in all seriousness a wonderful opportunity for the kids to make decisions about their relationship with Christ. A great time for me to start relationships with the kids and other chaperones!
Pray for my parents and the kids....enough said!

Details will follow.

Peter swallowed....

A Penny!!!!

Yes, that's right. I was in the kitchen preparing my Jewish Apple cake for the Wednesday night dinner when Peter sheepishly emerged from his room. He said, "mommy, I think I swallowed a penny". So I remained calm (which really wasn't a challenge since he was obviously not choking) and proceeded to ask him what he meant by what he just said. After I was confident that he wasn't in any emergent danger I continued with a nice spiritual application of "your body is a temple of God"....I wonder if that counts as a Bible lesson for the day?

I told him to return to his room to finish his quiet time and I finished making my cake. Then I googled "swallowed a penny" and found to several links and confirming information that we'll just wait for it to "come out". Next I emailed my friend who is an ER doc for his opinion then I checked on Peter- still fine and did what every good blogger would do....I recorded this entry!!!

I'll be sure to let you know how things go!

Valued Readers

Well, I wouldn't want my fan club to go very long with out knowing what's new here...It's just not quite as exciting to post without the photos to go along. However, I did get some advice to purchase a USB cable and download my pictures that way. So I will check that out tomorrow at Walmart when I go pick up some groceries.

It was story time at the library today and we are regulars! We took up our usually seats and listened to stories by Ms. Christy. She has kept our family busy this last month with great library activities. This Thursday she is having an Indian Chief come and speak. We checked out a few library books about Indians in my hopes to prepare them for Thursday as well as beginning our discussions on Thanksgiving. I am looking forward to spending the month of November focusing on Thanksgiving and being thankful. It seems like kids are wired to be selfish and self centered so I hope to inspire them in the art of being thankful!

I tried a new recipe for dinner tonight - Split Pea soup. Emma actually had 2 bowls and I felt sorry for the Peter and Ryan so I did break out the PB and Honey! Our friend Branden was joining us for dinner so I was a bit nervous about this entree. I realized (through a divine inspiration- I'm sure) that I should make some bread with my bread machine as a go along. So I whipped out some homemade French bread. That was probably much better than the soup! Branden did have seconds and asked for some to take home with him. Philip did manage to have seconds as well. I asked Philip if I should add this to my list of recipes and he politely said, NO!

Let me know if you want my recipe!!!