It's all good . . .

Thanksgiving Break Fun

Thanksgiving is a week long break from school here in Pennsylvania, but before school got out, there was still plenty of fun.  Arthur had a special dress-up day where he dressed as a Pilgrim.  My favorite thing was this crazy song he learned at school off of a video about the pilgrims.  He liked to belt it out at the top of his lungs, "They were the pilgrims!  They were the pilgrims! They sailed on a big, big boat . . ."  It was awesome.  I had to send a video of it to Kevin.

The last day of school before the kids got out for break, I had the craziest day.  I had to be at an appointment to get our van repaired early as soon as Arthur left for school.  I had to run a couple errands on my way home, and I got back to the house just as Arthur got home.  After a quick lunch, I headed outside to take advantage of the mild weather to plant about 80 bulbs that I had bought on clearance at Lowes.  I was not quite finished, when it was time to rush off to piano lessons.  By the time we got there, I was so tired, I couldn't keep my eyes open, and I fell asleep on the couch.  Yep.

We got home just in time for me to rush off to Arthur's parent/teacher conference.  While I was waiting for my turn, I got to see all of his adorable artwork hanging in the hall.  I love it!

As I was driving home from piano, I mentioned that I wasn't sure when or where I was going to be able to get dinner, and Lily volunteered to make dinner.  Wow - what an amazing girl I have!  And so at 6pm when I got home from the conferences, Lily and the boys were eating, and my dinner was there waiting for me.  Then I got Arthur tucked in, and Lily, Derek and I watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.  It was the perfect way to start off our Thanksgiving break, and to end a very exhausting day.

Tuesday was a good day.  We met up with friends and saw the movie "Smallfoot" at the cheap theater.  It was cute, and the kids just loved it.  That afternoon the boys had dentist appointments, and our way home, I picked up pizza.  And Wednesday we spent the day decorating for Christmas.  I usually spend the Wednesday before Thanksgiving baking all day, but because we were spending Thanksgiving with friends, I only had a fraction of the work, and so all I did was make the roll dough.

Thursday morning, I got to work.  I baked lots and lots of rolls.  And when I finished, I decided it wasn't enough rolls for the big group we were having Thanksgiving with, so I made more.  It was worth it though.

I also made finger jello and two pies - lemon and chocolate chip cookie.  Yum!

I finished everything just in time to head to the Neve's house.  Beside's my friend, Annalie's family, there was also the Bergs, the Palmers, and the Phillips families.  We had so much fun, the food was delicious, and the company was even better.  We only got one picture of the whole evening, taken while we were playing games at the end of the night.  It was wonderful, and such a good distraction from the fact that we were desperately missing Kevin all day.

On Friday morning, instead of fighting the crowds for Black Friday shopping, I took the kids to Philadelphia for the day.  I was able to attend the temple first thing, and the kids waited for me in the welcome center.  After I was done in the temple, I took the kids across town to the Please Touch Museum.  Lily had read about it a few years ago, and we have been intrigued ever since, and so I am glad I finally took them.

It was a giant children's museum, and although it was geared much more toward Arthur's age and younger, Lily and Derek managed to have a great time as well.

I am so grateful that Lily and Derek are so young at heart, and that they are so game for anything.  They had a blast, even though they were so much older than the other kids.  And it was the perfect diversion for Arthur - he was able to flit from activity to activity and loved every second.

One of my favorite parts was the Alice in Wonderland part, especially where the kids got to "paint the roses red."

There was a huge section set up like a town, with all sorts of awesome things set up, from construction zones, to a doctor's office, grocery store, etc, etc.  Derek loved getting to be a doctor, and I had to laugh that Lily barely fit in the monorail.

One of the other cool parts, was where the kids got to shoot off foam rockets.  Very fun.

It was a very fun day, and I am glad that I finally got around to taking them there.  We had a great time, and it was the perfect activity for our break.

A Snow Day & Other November Adventures

The past week or so has been full of the normal everyday adventures of life, with a little fun and the unexpected thrown in.  

Family Home Evening: We started off the week on Sunday with Family Home Evening, which is something that we do each week to really come together as a family.  We start with a prayer and a song - usually Lily site reading the song while Arthur grabs a pen (or other long and pointy thing) to "conduct the music."  He usually pretends to tap a music stand, and then he says, "Tap, tap, tap - One Two Three!"  At which point, the pianist is supposed to begin.  And yes, most of the time he gets so caught up in his conducting, that he forgets to sing the song.  Oh well.

This particular Sunday, it was my turn to teach a lesson, and we talked about how we could make the Sabbath day more centered on Christ and things related to Him, how we can interact more as a family, and try to eliminate some of the contention that seriates the house on Sunday mornings.  And afterward, we had our treat - milkshakes - and played Star Wars Life for our activity.  

Amber:  My friend, Amber, is such a blessing to me, and I am so glad that they moved here last year.  We have such a great time together, and make sure to have at least monthly lunches to destress from life.  (Usually one of us will pick up lunch from somewhere and bring it to her house, so her little kids can sleep or play, and we are free to hang out.)  Last week was her birthday, and knowing that her husband would probably be MIA, since he is an orthopedic surgery resident at the hospital, I made her birthday red velvet cupcakes and brought over lunch.  It helped me probably more than it did her, and I loved getting to celebrate her.  Getting to talk with her and hang out, really helps me stay sane.

Amazing Neighbors: I love my little cul-de-sac.  I really have fantastic neighbors, and I am so grateful for them.  One day, my neighbor, Lindsey, dropped off some cookies and the sweetest note.  And then there was the day that Kerry helped me get Arthur off to school.  And not to mention their help with snow removal (see below).  It means so much to have them all to call on for help.

Young Women's:  I love my calling in Young Women's.  Last week we were in charge of the combined activity, and we did a murder master that was based on the story of the chief judge getting killed in the book of Helaman.  The names were changed and the story was disguised enough that the kids didn't figure it out until we acted it out for them at the end.  It was a blast.  

We also had a train meeting for our new Young Women's class presidency (we have so few girls, that we only have one for the entire YW).  We had breakfast at my house and trained the girls as to what their duties are, and then we had a planning session.  I am really excited to see how this goes, now that we finally have a full and functioning presidency, and I love Lily learn and grow as the president.

Counting Down: We have made it through more than twenty days now, which means an entire row off the countdown is gone.  One down, eight to go :).

Snow Day:  On Thursday morning, school was canceled (Too bad Lily and I had already gotten up).  It was canceled, but when you looked outside, it was clear without a speck of snow.  They canceled it because of a huge impending storm, and wow, it was good that they did.  At 9am it started to snow, and it didn't stop until later that night.  

Right after it started snowing, my friend, Amber, asked if I thought she could go to the grocery store.  Since it had barely started at that point, and she has a four wheel drive, I told her to go right then, and to bring her kids over here so she could be faster.  Lily babysat them for one of her service hours, and Arthur loved getting to play with his friends.  I'm so glad she went when she did, because by the time she got back at 10:45, the roads were already getting bad.

Because we were stuck at home, and everything I had going on was canceled for the day, we decided to make the most of things.  First thing, I cut both Derek and Arthur's hair.  They had been needing haircuts, but I never seemed to have the time.  I am so glad I did, and they look so handsome.  After that, and after the Staceys left, we started our High School Musical marathon by watching number one and two.

In between movies, I sent the kids outside to play in what was becoming pretty deep snow.  They had so much fun, and I love that we have our awesome sledding hill in the back yard.  

Once the kids went out, so did the neighborhood kids, and soon there was a huge group of them.  Arthur especially loved playing with his friend, Tamia.  He ended up coming in after not too long though, because his mitten fell off, and instead of having Lily help him, he kept playing.  His poor hand was frozen when he came in.  Luckily, it wasn't something that a little hot cocoa couldn't fix.

After a while, I started getting stir crazy, and decided to shovel at least the front walk.  After that, I tried the driveway but it was so deep and heavy, I could barely make a dent.  I gave up for then, especially because I knew my neighbors would probably help me, because they are awesome.  And guess what - as soon as they got home from work, one of them came and used his snowblower to clear my driveway and sidewalk.  I looked outside after 5pm, and it was done.  What an amazing blessing!!

The next morning, there was a two hour delay to allow the rest of the roads to get cleared and ice to melt.  The plows had come though our street late the night before and managed to cover up the entire end of our driveway, making it impossible for any cars to come in and out of the driveway.  Lily and Derek were awesome though, and they each grabbed a shovel and cleared away the giant chunks of snow.  They are such awesome kids!

A New Great Niece:  My nephew, Scott, and his wife, Aubrey, just had a beautiful little baby girl.  They named her Avery Caroline, and she is so gorgeous.  It is crazy that I have two great nephews and three great nieces now.  I must be getting old ;). 

New Sister Missionary:  We love having the missionaries over for dinner.  They always bring a special spirit into our home, and having been a starving missionary back in the day, it gives me great satisfaction to feed them.  Our new sister, Sister Baroldy, just got out in the field, and she is great.  And we already love Sister Hem.  We had so much fun getting to know the new sister, and then they gave a wonderful spiritual thought.  And it was even more fun, because we had Amber and her kids over for dinner as well.

And so it has been a good week, full of the good, the mundane, and the adventures.

Life in November

Fall has come to Pennsylvania, and our neighborhood looks so beautiful right now with the trees all ablaze with color.  I know it won't be long until the leaves are gone, and so I am soaking up the beauty while it lasts.

The beginning of November has also been full of beautiful weather, and although it is starting to get cold, last week was gorgeous and in the 50's and 60's.  The kids loved getting to spend time outside.

Arthur has been learning all about nursery rhymes at school, and so I taught him how to play "London Bridges," and he got his siblings to play with him.  It was pretty funny.

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And my flowers are still going strong - especially this amazing yellow mum.  I planted it last year, and it came back gigantic this year.  I love the gorgeous pop of yellow.

Inside the house, I also have some flowers.  Before Kevin left, he bought me the prettiest roses, and they are still so beautiful.  It makes me happy every time I see them.

On Sunday, we had our Young Women in Excellence celebration.  I truly love working with the Young Women in our ward, and we may be a really small group, with only six girls, but it is a wonderful group.  I sure do love these girls - Geri, Lily, Ryley, Lillian, Nikki, and Natalie.

We started things off with a dinner - we kept it pretty simple, with pulled pork we had cooking in our Instant Pots during church,  I brought a giant batch of homemade mac & cheese, and the girls brought dessert. It was perfect.

After dinner, the girls presented the things they have been working on over the past year.  Lily shared a lot of the stories she has been writing lately, which was fun.  The whole thing only lasted 45 minutes, which was awesome.  It was a wonderful evening.

Tuesday was Election Day, and even though my Monday was insane, and I was still playing catch-up, I picked up my friend, Becky, and we went to vote.  I am so grateful to live a country and at a time where I have the right to vote. 

The rest of the week was still a bit on the busy/hectic side, between music lessons, meetings, appointments, etc.  We are finishing it off with a really low-key Saturday though.  Thank goodness.  The kids did their chores, and when Arthur got home from his primary program practice, I gave Arthur a little vacuuming lesson.  He tried his best, and I ended up finishing the room, but hey, you've got to start somewhere.

Once they finished up, we made a quick trip to the library, and then it was time for relaxing - and eating bread that a neighbor dropped by.  Yum!

But the best part was my "date" with Lily.  While Kevin is gone, I am going to trade off taking the kids out.  Lily's choice for dinner was Chipotle, and so I picked up dinner to go, and then we settled down into the basement to eat and watch the Broadway version of "Newsies," on Netflix - which was so very good, by the way.  (Derek made Kraft mac & cheese for his and Arthur's dinner, and they watched a movie upstairs.)  It was the perfect way to end the week, and a great way to reward my amazing Lily for all the help she has been for me since Kevin left.

Choosing Gratitude

Monday started out like any old day.  In fact, it actually started really well - Arthur got to be a van rider for the first time, I got in a really good workout, and then I went to Costco in Lancaster with my friend, Becky.  It was when we stopped at Chick-fil-A for lunch, that everything started going downhill.  

We got our food, got in the car, and it would not start.  The lights lit up, but then there was a terrible clicking noise instead of the engine turning over.  I was just sick inside.  We had a car full of cold and frozen food, I had an appointment that afternoon for the piano tuner to come, we had plans with friends that night, not to mention the fact that my kids were going to be coming home from school and have no idea where I was.  

It was not good.  It was a bad situation, but it could seriously have been so much worse.  As everything was going down, I prayed so hard for help.  And help is what I got.  The car did not miraculously start, but things fell into place to work out for the best, in spite of the bad stuff.  I was tremendously blessed, and although it was a very hard situation, I decided to choose gratitude.

I am choose to be grateful for:

*The fact that when my car broke down, we were sitting in a parking spot at Chick-fil-A, and not out on the road.  I can't even imagine if it had died while we were driving on the highway.

* That Kevin just happened to message me as everything was going on, so that he could give me support and love, even half a world away.

* That even though it didn’t work to jumpstart my car, there was a jeep full of really nice firemen who tried it – and in the pouring rain no less.

*That it was 50 degrees and raining, and not cold and snowy.  That would have made things so much worse, especially since I had to sit in my car for hours.

*That my friend, Jennie, was able to come pick up my friend, Becky, who was with me - as well as take all my cold and frozen food that I had just bought at Costco, so that it could get put away in my fridge and freezer, and I didn’t have to worry about it going bad.

*That even though it took three hours for the tow truck to get to me, that they did get to me and take me to a mechanic before they closed. I guess they were super swamped with calls, and some people they weren’t going to get to until tomorrow. So blessed that they got to me.

*That there was a Honda dealership within the allotted 11 miles of towing that my roadside assistance covered. That means I don’t have to pay a dime for the towing. What a blessing!

*That my phone stay charged enough that I could read a book during those many hours of waiting.

*That even though it was almost closing time when I finally got to the Honda dealership, and even though they were slammed with customers, they took pity on me, checked out my car, and discovered the problem.

*Not only did they have a new alternator in stock, but they stayed late to put it in my van so that I could go home tonight and not have my car sitting there for a whole other day.

*That my sweet and amazing daughter not only made sure her brothers got their homework done, made dinner for them, and switched over my laundry so that it was all done by the time I got home, but when I got back, both boys were in their PJs and she was reading to Arthur. What a tremendous blessing!

Six and a half hours after the car first broke down, I was home with my sweet kids.  Thank goodness!  And yes, this was definitely  not the day that I had planned, but in spite of all the craziness, I had guardian angels watching out for me. I know that all these blessings were  because of the prayers that all of you have been offering in our behalf, and I am truly grateful.

PS. Once I was finally home and the kids were all set for the night, I got myself some bread and jam for my dinner and watched a Hallmark Christmas movie to cheer myself up.  Good times.

 

Answered Prayers

With Kevin's deployment, the person I was most worried about was Arthur.  Unlike his older siblings who have been through this all before - more times than they can count - Arthur, on the other hand, was a baby the last time Kevin was gone like this.  He has no memories of it at all, and other than a week here and there, hasn't been apart from his dad.  And he and his daddy are very close.  So I was worried.

On the surface of things, Arthur has actually been doing very well.  He appears to be cheerful and his normal self, but just under the surface, he is a bundle of raw emotions.  He starts crying at the least little provocation, and is often breaking down and crying at school.  And at the bus stop, which is a whole other thing.

Arthur, partly because of his autism, and partly because he is five, has hyper-focused on being the first person on the bus in the morning, and the first person off the bus in the afternoon.  He was making me walk to the bus stop extra early so he could line up and be the very first person in line.  Unfortunately, the few times he wasn't first, he completely fell apart, which set him into a total tailspin.

And then there were the older kids that ride the bus, who decided to make sport of Arthur's distress by making a new line for the bus in the morning, or rushing ahead of him to get off of the bus.  It was turning into a very bad situation, and I felt like I had no control over any of it.  And then on Thursday, Arthur collapsed to the ground as he was getting off of the bus, because he was so sad not to be first.  Lily had gone to pick him up, and he would not move, he was so upset.  My friend had to help move him, so that the bus could drive away.  I found myself praying, once again, to help me solve this problem.

And then on Friday, I got a call from Arthur's principal with an idea.  In our area, besides the busses, they also have vans that pick kids up and take them to school, and she found a van on our route that had an opening.  And would I want Arthur to be a van rider??  I almost cried on the phone, as I was so grateful for this amazing answer to prayer.  When I told Arthur about it, he was so excited that he ran around the house yelling, "Hip, hip, hooray!"  I guess he liked the idea ;).

And so this morning, Arthur got to ride the van for the first time, and it was perfect.  I am truly grateful for a loving Heavenly Father that answers the prayers of his children.

Halloween Adventures

Although it is always sad when Kevin is gone for Halloween, which has happened quite a bit, we still managed to have a great holiday, and the kids had a blast.

We started things off with a special Family Home Evening Halloween party we were invited to at the Badten's house.  The Bergs and Goulds also came, and the kids had so much fun decorating pumpkin cookies.  We also played charades and ate lots of yummy Halloween themed food, like mini mummy dogs, deviled egg eyeballs, and punch with a floating hand in it.  And lets not forget the spiderweb chocolate cake.  Yum!  We had such a fun night, and it made the first Sunday with Kevin gone fly by.

On Tuesday night, for our youth activity, we went trick-or-treating for canned food in the neighborhood.  We had so much fun, and were able to collect so much food to take to the local food bank.  Not only that, but the kids loved having another excuse to wear their costumes.

Speaking of costumes, we had a Legend of Zelda theme going on, with both Arthur and Derek as different versions of Link, and Lily dressed up as Zelda - she even made her own harp.  Kevin made Derek's blue tunic, and it turned out so awesome!

Arthur also got to wear his costume to school, which he loved.  And I loved that they didn't have a Halloween party for me to plan and carry out ;).

After school, Arthur got home and had earned a special bee for "being responsible, kind, and following the rules."  And the best part was that he got to FaceTime with his daddy and show him.  Can I just tell you how grateful I am for technology?  What a blessing to have moments like this.

For dinner, we had our traditional meal of mummy dogs and jack-o-lantern oranges.  It is so easy to make on such a hectic night, and my kids just love it.

We were so blessed that it was gorgeous weather on Halloween.  It was in the sixties and clear and warm.  If only it could be like this every year :).  the kids looked great in their costumes, and they were raring to go.

I decided to do something different this year, and I sent Lily and Derek off on their own, while Arthur and I went by ourselves.  That meant that the older kids could go as fast as they wanted, and I didn't have to spend the whole night yelling for them to wait for Arthur.  It worked out so well, and they were even able to stop off at the haunted house on the other side of the neighborhood.

Arthur and I had so much fun, and he was awesome.  My favorite thing though, was when he was "fighting the bad guys" at people's houses - everything from giant spiders and spooky ghosts.  It was seriously the best.

When we all got home for the night, we separated the candy, pulled out what we need for our candy train in December, and I let them eat some as well.  It was a great night, and we all had a lot of fun.  I would say that it was one successful Halloween adventure.