Lots of heart blessing going on here.

In my effort NOT to make this a political blog, I refrain from most discussions that involve The Tall One, but I just have to share this tidbit of news.

The Tall One is vice-chair of the College Republicans at his University, and at this very moment is in Iowa with the chair of said group, who just happens to be the son of my state's lieutenant governor, stumping for the most electable of the Republican candidates, in my not-so-humble opinion. That would be Mitt Romney. So we spent the last week, aside from slinging paint in the living room and kitchen, outfitting Tall One with suit, grey tweed jacket, several pairs of slacks, new shoes, and wool and cashmere overcoat. Thankfully my mother was here and very kindly offered to buy a goodly portion of it. She understands tuition bills, bless her heart.

So Tall One is campaigning away while I sit at home wringing my hands worrying about snow and ice and flight delays and lost luggage. But my son, he knows me well. He called a few minutes ago to let me know he got there safely and so did his luggage. Bless his heart.

On a completely different note, and only because Adorable has the TV on in the next room and I can hear it, let me ask you this: am I the only one who absolutely loves the show Jon and Kate plus 8? I just LOVE it! Those babies are too cute, bless their little hearts!

Be thankful ~

Karen

In Which There was Much Slinging of Paint

I'm sure you've read many posts about inspiring, traditional Christmases with big family gatherings, lots of great food, gifts that keep on giving, and all that jazz.

This isn't one of them.

Just in case you were looking for something different, let me share our festive holiday with you.

It began with son Mike and I going to the store for paint on Christmas Eve. I really didn't wonder about this too much. I just do what I'm told. When we got home, Mike stopped short at the front door and said, "Well. I didn't really expect THAT," as he looked in the window.

THAT, it turns out, was a distinct lack of carpet in my living and dining rooms. THAT wouldn't be too bad if we had something to replace it with, but that's neither here nor there. Pete likes subflooring - it's easier to get between his teeth to pull out. But that's neither here nor there either. If that makes sense.

Bright and early Christmas morning when other people were gathered around the tree reading the story of Jesus' birth and opening gifts, we were spreading dropcloths and opening paint cans. And lest you think we are super-weird, let me tell you that this paint job is LONG overdue. We have had a 4x6 foot piece of bare drywall above the fireplace for two years. No sense painting if you can't find the leak, right? And the drought of the last year didn't help. No rain means no leak, but we knew it was there. Lurking. Waiting for us to paint so it could ruin the ceiling again. Well yon leak has been found and repaired, never to plague us again. We hope. So a-painting we will go. And did. Here are the pics to prove it:

Always start with ceilings, that's what the chief painter says. And try to have a 6'4" son who can cut the top without a ladder. It speeds up the process.

Beginning of the walls. Abbie looks unsure. Ben says it's the color of breast-fed-baby-poop. All I can say is, he picked it. I love it. But I'm maternal that way.

And we might as well bust up the tiled foyer while we're demolishing things.

On to the trim. The tall one even does baseboards. What a guy!

The finished product. Now that's what I call making meaningful Christmas memories! I urge you to try it next year!

Another two years and we might get a hardwood floor down. I'll keep you posted.

Be thankful ~

Karen

How many days of Christmas? In Africa?

I don't spend much of my time watching home videos on YouTube, but this one has got to be watched. If you like Christmas music, this men's group from U of Indiana has it going on. Please go watch.

Be thankful ~

Karen

Tatooed-pierce-man to the rescue! Not.

Remember when I told you about my boring errands, namely taking one math book to be spiral bound? How many of you know what spiral bound means? May I see a show of hands? Yes, that's what I thought. It means bound with a spiral, not to be confused with comb bound which is actually bound with a comb-like apparatus which comes apart and turns the comb bound book into a loose-leaf pile of nonsense every time the child turns it inside out upon itself. Now I feel quite confident every homeschooling mom reading this knows exactly what I mean.

We use a math program whose books come comb bound. I despise them. The bindings, not the books. The books are great and that's why we use them. The other day, Adorable turned her math book inside out and the whole thing fell apart. An entire year's worth of geometry lay like pick-up-sticks on the living room floor. So with great haste I gathered it all up and made a command decision: I would have the thing spiral bound.

Off I went to Kinko's, the land of all binding options, and presented my pile of pick-up-sticks now in lesson number order. After much ranting and raving about lousy comb bindings, I convinced the young, tatooed, and multiply-pierced gentleman that I wanted my tome spiral bound. He happily agreed to do my bidding, wrote up the order and told me it would be ready the next day.

I slept well that night with visions of orderly mathematics lessons dancing in my head. And you thought it was sugar plum fairies. HA!

Next day arrives and I gleefully pull into Kinko's parking lot. I swoop joyfully into the store and declare that I am there to pick up my math book. Tatooed-pierce-man happily presents me with a full year's worth of geometry lessons.

Comb bound.

For reasons too numerous to list, I left the store with head hanging low, dragging one foot in front of the other. No swooping. No glee. How do I explain the difference between spiral and comb binding to young tatooed-pierce-man who works there and is supposed to know? *sigh*

Back to my boring errands.

Be thankful ~

Karen

Some things change, well, you know the rest.

So here I am, like FIVE days later. It's a wonder you ever come back.

But thanks for coming back.

And after five long, busy days, I still have nothing of substance to share. Maybe that's my problem. I'm looking for substance to share. Except that my substance consists of taking a math book to Kinko's to be spiral bound, raking up a pile of leaves that will not leave the corner of my yard alone, helping Elijah haul firewood to the garage, and figuring out what to make for dinner. *sigh*

There really are laughs in between, I just can't remember them.

So today my two remaining daughters are going to model T-shirts for American Life League, the pro-life organization which just happens to be not too far away from us. They do this a few times each year and it's good fun. I'll post a linque when the pics are on the internet. And we are going shoe shopping for me - always a treat. AND I will pick up aforementioned math book from Kinko's and a prescription from RiteAid. So hold on to yer hats, it'll be a wild ride!

Be thankful ~

Karen

Sometimes I miss the toddler days.

We have friends at church who have four boys. Cory is 19 and a freshman at college on the other side of the country, so he's been gone since August. Brent is 17 and in high school. Then they have 5-year-old Luke and 2-year-old Paul. All the brothers are very close, and if you knew this family, you'd understand why. They are just really nice, happy people.

Cory flew home last Wednesday, but got home so late the little boys were asleep. So Thursday morning Cory jumped in Paul's bed and Luke joined them, and the three of them just talked and laughed for an hour. Finally Paul went downstairs and said to his mama, "I just love Cory, don't you, Mama?"

Now don't lie- you know you said, "Awwwwww!"

Be thankful ~

Karen

I obviously did not plan ahead.

Well, Glory be! How time does fly when you're having fun!

When Ben and I were first married, we agreed that I would be a SAHM - a stay-at-home-mom. I had gotten my college degree in Finance and Systems Analysis, but never had a desire for a career. I think that was just God getting me ready to be content being a SAHM - it's all I can remember wanting to do. So it was no surprise that our first little blessing came along rather quickly - within the first year. I was thrilled. Then the second was born 19 months later, then #3 nineteen months after that, and #4 yet another 19 months later. That's four children in 6 years, and let me tell you, I was having the time of my life. But I'm also no dummy and knew when to quit. So I did. And then #5 surprised us three years later and while we were thrilled to have another son, we made sure we quit. Permanently.

Having a houseful of toddlers and small children is so much fun, but surely a lot of work while you're training them in the important endeavors of life, and my children worked with me every day in whatever I was doing - laundry, cooking, cleaning, gardening. We always grew a big garden, and told people we weren't so much growing vegetables as character. It was fun. The children being so close together in age was the best part. It was almost like having my own classroom full!

Home schooling was fun too, and each year we would discover how one child was different from another. One taught himself to read at age 4, the next didn't read until 7, another taught herself, the next couldn't read a word at age 10. There was always another adventure. And teaching them together was easy because I had one in every grade - it was easy to combine lessons!

Now fast forward.

Number one child starts community college at age 17. Goes on to UT for two years and struggles mightily. All but flunks out. We move to Virginia. Meanwhile number two child gets married. Number three child wants to go to college at age 16 and actually gets accepted into the School of Music at her first choice of Universities. Number one comes home and spends a year at the community college, changes his major, then transfers to the same University as number three, turning his degree program into a six year project. That's ok, we have two kids in college, but at least they're at the same school. That's nice. Number one will graduate in May. THIS May. That's important. Because now number four wants to start at the community college. In January.

Yes, folks, I will have three children in college AT THE SAME TIME from January through May.

May God have mercy on my bank account.

Be thankful ~

Karen

The New Me!

Or at least a different picture. In the interest of full disclosure, I thought you should know I don't wear red sparkly gowns all the time. This one includes my neighbor's little boy, Bailor, who I take care of occasionally. I used to be his full-time nanny, but found I couldn't get my kids educated so I had to quit that. Bailor still likes to come over when he needs a dirt or mud fix - his mother is opposed to little boys digging in the garden and finding worms and all that, ewww, outside stuff. So we take him out, roll him around, smear it in real well, then give him a bath before we send him home. It works for all involved.

Be thankful ~

Karen

The Great Macaroni Disaster

You may know that on Wednesdays from 4 - 7 pm I help cook for a group of teens. Anywhere from 25 - 50 of them. There are three of us doing the actual cooking, and the teens help clean up, do dishes, put tables away, that sort of thing. We've been doing this job for a little over a year, and things have always run very smoothly.

Until yesterday.

Karen K., the lady-in-charge, was running a little late and still needed to go to the store for a few things. Cindy is diabetic and having a problem with her feet, so we try to let her do things that allow her to sit some. KK also works at the church school, so sometimes she has other things on her mind, as she did last night. Most times I get there first and, in anticipation of what I know the menu will be, I get some things started. But the menu had changed, so there wasn't much I could do. KK finally arrived and informed us of the new plan: sloppy joes, mac & cheese, green beans, salad, and the dessert lady was bringing cookies for dessert. We always eat promptly at 6 because church starts at 7 and it takes that long to devour food and clean up.

Let me take this opportunity to tell you about our very old gas stove. It is commercial grade, but not worth the cast iron legs it stands on. We'd be better off with an old wood-burning cookstove. Seriously, I've never witnessed a pot of water taking so long to boil - 45 minutes to an hour and I am not exaggerating. So Cindy started browning 15 pounds of ground beef while I got two pots of water on the stove for macaroni. Meanwhile, I put the two 2-lb. boxes of elbows on the shelf above the stove, and got busy doing other things while waiting for the water. Defrosting a large chunk of green beans in a sink full of hot water, getting out plates and plastic-ware, making lemonade. Forty-five minutes later the first pot was finally boiling and I grabbed a box of pasta. As I did so, the bottom fell out of it (something about the heat softening up the glue that holds it together) and two pounds of macaroni poured out like hail on the kitchen floor.

Let me stop right here and confess that I did not have the presence of mind to take a picture. I TOLD you I was a lousy blogger! The thought that I had missed a precious opportunity hit me later, but I'll get to that.

Cindy immediately grabbed her purse and left for the grocery store - if you've ever watched 40 kids inhale macaroni and cheese, you know that one 2-lb box is not nearly enough. Her son, Josh, was helping me clean up, and we had the following conversation:

Me: I can't believe I didn't take a picture of this for my blog!

Josh: (in his very helpful voice) We can dump it all out again!

I declined his offer of problem-solving and continued sweeping.

We got the food made, and the last pan of mac & cheese didn't go in the oven until 5:40, but somehow teens don't care. We could throw them hunks of raw meat and they'd be happy.

So once again I am confessing my underwhelming performance in blogdom. I'll start wearing my phone on my belt.

Be thankful ~

Karen

What could be better than proving an old theory correct?

My daughter, Abbie, has always been the curious type. Like the time she wanted to know what bones looked like on the inside, so she broke the ones in her arm to get a good look at them. One scar looks like a slug; the other looks like railroad tracks. But it's not all bad - they help her tell left from right.

So when she asked tonight if it's really true that spaghetti sticks to the wall when it's done, I looked in the other direction. Here's the proof:

Just in case you were wondering.

Then she wanted to know how long it would stick and I had to put my foot down. If anyone knows the answer to this question, I'd be much obliged if you'd share it. That strand of pasta doesn't go with the decor.

And since Abbie is undoubtedly the most creative of my children, she offered the following excuse for not having many arbs (that's backwards lingo for unmentionables - this IS a family blog, you know): "The pink one is old and stretched out, and the dog ate my black one."

Oh, really?

Unfortunately, this is true. Pete is no respecter of chew toys - he'll take whatever's handy. Our biggest struggle with him has been trying to keep him from raiding the bathroom trash can. It's like a box of chocolates - his favorites are the used tissues. So we thought we'd get smart and put a baby gate in the doorway. No such luck. He found Abbie's trash can. That's not where he found the black arb - that was just an extra he grabbed on the way by. Our next idea is to buy those trash cans where you step on the little thingy and the lid lifts up. If he can figure those out, I'll start throwing used tissues in his food bowl and call it extra fiber.

And finally, our friends David and Rie are adopting again. They have four children of their own, and one adopted son from Kazakhstan (I have no idea if I spelled that right). They are trying to adopt a 14-month-old Polish girl who is blind. She's absolutely beautiful! They've asked us to pray that someone would pick her up and love on her every day until they get her. Would you pray with us?

Be thankful ~

Karen

Confessions of a Pedantist

I admit it. I'm a grammar pedantist. Maybe I need to start another self-help group.

Today we were eating lunch (term used loosely) at a KFC in southern Virginia. While waiting for our order, we stood back away from the counter and I happened to glance at the sneeze shield above the buffet. On it was a sign that read, "This is a eat in buffet only." Huh? A eat in??? And what was I thinking, not taking a picture of THAT?? I couldn't get past the mental image of customers sitting in the buffet, gorging themselves and messing up articles.

Then later we stopped for gas and I was staring absently at an advertisement for cigarettes above the pump. I knew something was wrong, and it took me a few minutes to figure out what it was. See if you can spot the error:

They're supposed to be named after that town in Wyoming - Cheyenne. It's spelled correctly on the pack, but not in the huge, pull-the-customer-in letters at the top of the ad. Gives new meaning to the phrase, "Here's your sign."

Be thankful ~

Karen

Assorted and sundry drivel for your perusing pleasure. Or maybe not.

Like a true scientist, I have proven a theory by thorough experimentation. Scrumptious Sundays have fallen by the wayside, over the cliff really, since the second week. Or did I ever make the second week? Even I don't remember. You know those commercials about life coming at you fast? They base those on me. And speaking of commercials, have you seen the new one for a pregnancy test? While the nifty test stick is being shown at close-up range, the serious-sounding announcer is saying in the background, "The most technologically advanced piece of equipment you'll ever pee on." I don't know, maybe it was just the lack of sleep, but that cracked me up just a little.

Ahem. Back to Scrumptious Sundays. I think I'm up to four recipes owed now. I might catch up, I might not. The suspense is killing you, I know, but that's the best I can do. Tomorrow we will drive 2 1/2 hours to visit our friendly orthodontist and to have Adorable's senior portrait done. And 2 1/2 hours home. Oh, the sheer excitement of it. Then Tuesday we have another visit to our dear doctor's lawn down the street to remove leaves. My joy knows no bounds. Wednesday we might get some school done, then off to cook for 30+ teenagers. Somewhere before Friday I need to get a piece of plywood cut for the top bunk in the boys' room. I stole theirs to put under my mattress and it's the next best thing to a new bed so I refuse to give it back. I put one on Ben's side too, but that was an extra we had in the garage. I'm rambling, aren't I?

OK, so it's looking like no recipes for you this week. In lieu of my own favorites, I share this link, where I find a lot of them, and maybe you will too.

Be thankful ~

Karen

My life has been touched by a celebrity!

Not counting the time I served fish and chips to Charlie Daniels, I don't make a habit of running into famous people. Maybe it's because I've always lived in places with populations under 1000. Some of them significantly less than 1000. Our last home in TN was so small we didn't even qualify for a post office. And that old saying about not needing your turn signal in small towns because everybody knows where you're going? It was never truer than in Noodleville.

When Ben called yesterday morning and yelled, "HI!" into the phone, I knew he was a tad spun up, but in the good sense. So I gave him an energetic, "HI" right back. The following conversation ensued:

Ben: Guess who was in the gym this morning!

Me: I don't know. Who?

Ben: Karen K. (a gal from church)

This did not impress me and I wondered why he was so excited about this. I see her in the gym all the time. But he was still talking loud and fast, so I decided not to write him off just yet.

Me: OK.

Ben: Guess who else was in the gym this morning!

Me: No idea.

Ben: It's a New York Metropolitan!!!!

Me: You mean, of the baseball variety?

Ben has been a die-hard Mets fan since the age of 9 when they won the World Series, then proceeded to stink until 1986, when they won another World Series and went back to stinking.

Ben: (shouting now) I MET JOHN MAINE IN THE GYM THIS MORNING!

Me: Isn't he a pitcher?

Ben (if I could caps the caps I would to show how loudly he was shouting at me. Surely everyone in his building at work was listening to his end of this conversation.) YES!!!

And he proceeded to tell me how he walked right up to John and said, "Hey John, tell Omar (the VP or maybe the manager or someone important in charge of paying players) to save the 12.5 million and pay . . ." I can't remember the details, but they conversed about who was getting traded, who was getting hired, why they didn't need another pitcher, etc. And he was clearly on cloud nine. I'm sure no one else in the gym knew who John was (I wouldn't have) and the poor guy thought he would get in a quiet workout. But never fear, Ben is near.

Be thankful ~

Karen

LBA or Lousy Bloggers Anonymous - anyone care to join me for my first meeting?

My name is Karen and I'm a lousy blogger.

I try. I really do. But life happens and four days go by and I miss three Scrumptious Sundays in a row and I wind up on the deficit side again. *sigh*

Somehow the days get away from me, but when I sit here and try to think of something interesting to write, nothing comes forth. Maybe my brain needs more fiber. Sorry, that was too graphic.

Saturday we raked at least five trillion leaves into the woods around our yard. Today the wind came and four-and-a-half trillion of them are back on the grass. The kids keep asking why we have to do this and I have no good answer. Because our ancestors did? Somebody help me here. Then we went to a bridal shower for a couple in our Sunday School class which would have been fun except for the shower game we played. We divided into teams and each team got a few packages of tissue paper and a roll of tape. One person was the bride and the rest of us designed a bridal gown on her. Oy, veh ist mir! I am SO NOT creative! Our bride looked like a child who runs through the sheets on the clothesline and keeps going with them flapping in the breeze. But the award went to the team with the least pathetic version and that just happened to be US. Don't tell anyone the judge was a 7-year-old.

Sunday we went to the kids' U. to hear Leah's holiday concert. A small-ish orchestra played with the U. Chorale and they performed Vivaldi's Gloria, and let me tell you, words will never do it justice. It was the most fun I've had at a concert yet, because I remember singing that when I was in college, and I could even hum along and remember some of the Latin. When the two sopranos sang Laudamus Te I got goosebumps. After intermission the whole symphony played along with the Chorale for some Christmas carols and they were wonderful. Of course, they wouldn't have been nearly so good without that violinist in the fifth chair. *wink* They really are an incredibly good symphony.

After that we went out for a lightning-fast pizza supper and off to church 10 minutes late where Leah's friend, Jenny, was getting baptized. It would have been a perfect end to the evening except that we had to drive two hours home. Drag.

Hopefully this week I will catch up on my deficit of Scrumptious Sunday recipes and you will forgive my inattentiveness to my blog.

Be thankful ~

Karen