Monday's Musings

I know of no better time for "Monday's Musings" than after a long holiday weekend.  I hope I'm not the only one whose brain is a jumbled mess as I pull myself back into reality.  Actually, we still have house guests, so its only a partial reality.

• This weather!  Oh wow!  We're just about to make it out of November and its been so mild.
• There is a cute, in a nerdy sort of way, little boy (3rd grade?) that I see nearly every morning dropping off Avery at school.  With his glasses and backpack and pants a little too short, he is always in a full sprint to get to school, as if he's going to be late but he's not.  He never fails to make me smile.
• So proud, that for my first time ever I de-boned the turkey carcass and made turkey soup.  I felt so homemaker-y!  And really, it was not hard.  And that word carcass?  Nasty!
• I feel like I should be cruising around the internet this Cyber Monday but its too overwhelming to even think about.  Still...online is my kind of shopping!
• Amanda turned five yesterday.  Yes, five!  And my first born niece/nephew is turning 13 this week.  If he is a teenager then that means I am not and so I am very confused!
• Like most I've talked to, I'm wondering if everything can actually get squeezed in this coming month.  Here's an excerpt from something I read this morning:

I know that I drop things all the time. I drop people, I drop emails, I drop responsibilities and relationships. These are things I SHOULDN’T drop, and I get mad at myself when I do, but I can’t help it.
Sometimes my hands are full of other things. I am learning to put things down {obligations and schedules} so that I don’t drop the very things I do have in my hands. I don’t want to drop friendships because of my unwillingness to put unimportant things down.
And then other times, I drop things because I’m being independent. Or I’m trying to be. I’m not asking for help when my arms are too weak. I’m not accepting it when my life just doesn’t work right.
I used to think that dropping things was just part of it; that those things were acceptable losses that are a part of simply living in this busy world. Friendships drop off and emails don’t get returned: that’s life. But now I wonder if “dropping things” wouldn’t happen as much if I learned to put other things down and to accept help when it is offered.


Praying your week is filled with blessings and productivity.  We can do this!

Project 365, Week 48

Well, craziness is in full swing...I'm sure you are all feeling it too.  We've had beautiful weather which we've been savoring and any week that Avery has four days off from school is a good day.  :)

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving and a good time with your families!

November 20

Couldn't resist going out to watch the guys play football.  The kids and I love the excuse to be outside in the sunshine.  Poor Uncle Nathan took an elbow to the face...he ended up leaving early to go get some skin glue on his lip.

November 21
No picture.  I worked and worked and then worked some more.

November 22
We're fairly sure Amanda has Mono.  Here we go again....feel so bad for her.  At least this time we know a little bit more what to expect.

The boys hanging.

 November 23
This day was a frenzy of cleaning, grocery shopping, and cooking.  I also went to Avery's school to take pictures of her class making butter and bread.  She brought hers home and was so happy to be contributing something to the Thanksgiving meal.

Shaun's grandparents arrived from Florida and got right to work reading to and playing with the kids.

 November 24
Thanksgiving Day Manchester Road Race.  Lots of friends and family ran too, included two SILs and two sisters and a niece.  Good times!

 So was dinner with Shaun's family plus a couple friends.  Love having a full house!

November 25

The day after Thanksgiving, which in this house is officially known as "let the Christmas season begin"  day.  Avery was SO excited about it and so were the other two once they got up from their naps.

 Basketball season is starting back up, something else the kids are quite excited about.

 November 26
 We went to see the Muppets with Shaun's grandparents.  Aiden's first time in the theater...he did great.

 Then they took us out for a Hibachi dinner.

 Aiden is smiling here, but mostly he was just scared and jumpy....a little too close maybe.

Thanksgiving, Part II

Ah...Thanksgiving Day!  One of my favorite holidays of the year.  Its easy, its quiet, its chock full of tradition.  It a time when Americans pause, if only for the briefest moment of time to recognize what they have.  

So often I am just overwhelmed by it all.  Like when I am standing with 20, 000+ other people, my right hand placed deliberately over my heart, standing tall (well, not so tall) and proud, watching that beautiful flag blowing in the breeze singing that song that always causes me to stop and say, thank you.  Thank you Lord that I live in America.  Thank you.  For it all. 

Weather plays a large factor every year in the Manchester Road Race.  This year it was divine so people came out in droves....somewhere between 15,000 and 25,000 runners, with spectators lining both sides of the 4.78 mile course.  Its always such a festive atmosphere and costumes, music and smiles are in abundance.

There was a flyover before the official start.

Sienna and I at the starting line, which we crossed nearly nine minutes after the gun

My two sisters and my niece, in her rookie season.

This house is in the first mile...very questionable thing to be up on that roof having consumed as much alcohol as they have by 10 AM.

A dozen or so musical groups line the way, the bagpipes are among my favorite

The ever popular safety man...a staple.

Back at home, people were beginning to gather and Shaun had the turkeys well underway.  The girls were both pretty disappointed that I hadn't run the race.  :)

Shaun's sister and company were away so we had a smaller gathering (we missed you guys!) but we were so thankful to have the rest of Shaun's family there, particularly his grandmother and grandfather.

The kid table...happy to be with cousin Alayna.

 We watched a little football, a little UCONN basketball, played games, read stories and ate entirely too much.  Aiden said grace and summed it up well...thank you God for all the peoples here.  We are so very blessed.

Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.

Colossians 3:16

Thanksgiving, Part I

For several years now my side of the family has celebrated Thanksgiving the weekend before the actual holiday.  It makes it so we can all be together and then also with our in-laws later in the week.

This year Amy and Colombo hosted again.  It was a lot of good food and good times.  With 15 little kids it is crazy, for sure, but its a wonderful crazy that I know we will always remember fondly.  All the cousins just adore each other and play really well together.

 The four 2 year-olds.  Four really sweet, really good boys.

 Deep kitchen conversations.

We also took the opportunity to celebrate the Q4 birthdays.  Elizabeth made an adorable cake.

Which was  so very tempting!

The birthday people:  my mom, my dad, Amanda, Nathanael and his mom, my sister.

 Only on special days can you eat only one bite of a roll and still get a plateful of cake and ice-cream.

 My brother joined us for dessert.  He had chaplain duties at two different send off ceremonies for the military.  :(

Joyfully you'll pull up buckets of water from the wells of salvation. And as you do it, you'll say, "Give thanks to God. Call out his name. Ask him anything! Shout to the nations, tell them what he's done, spread the news of his great reputation!

Isaiah 12:3