Winter Prep

Preparation #1:  Move Reuben out of the toddler bed to a twin size bed.

 There he is giddily tucked in on the left,

not quite ready to give up his baby quilts,

thus the many layers of quilts.

We checked on him in the night

and found him all the way down here,

feeling the comfort of the footboard.

Preparation #2:  Try bunking the beds to make more space, like for a crib, say.

Reuben quickly climbed on the top,

then did his best to squeeze out some tears when we told him

he would be sleeping on the bottom,

Mr. I Fall Out of Bed Like Every Night.

Yes, this is how it shall be.

No guard rail up there.

We're counting on Peter's natural deep-sleepedness

and training him for college bunk beds.

And the bed didn't come with a railing.

He doesn't seem concerned.

 Preparation #3:  Put up the Christmas decorations.

Blah.

I so don't like clutter.

But my attitude very quickly changed
as I overheard Paul talking to the boys.

As they took items out of the boxes and
decided where to display them,

Paul explained the Christmas and Hannukah stories.

Decorating with a purpose.

I love it.

Peter is setting up the Playmobil nativity.

Being follow-the-directions Lego-minded,
we kind of had to give him permission
to set it up how he liked.
It doesn't have to look just like the box.

The boys did a beautiful job decorating.
What a great way to gear up for celebrating Christ's birth.

Preparation #4:  Process Peter and Reuben's fall pumpkins.

Our friend George scratched Peter and Reuben's names in

two of his homegrown pumpkins

and gave them to us for our front porch fall decor.

Today I finally cut them up,

baked them,

whirred them in the food processor,

drained them in cheesecloth,

and froze the golden pulp in one cup portions.

We enjoyed Pumpkin Sloppy Joes and Pumpkin Soup for dinner.

And now we're set for winter.  Hurrah.

Free Money

I got a fatty check in the mail this week.

Ten dollars and eighty cents.

Put it right in the Adoption Fund.

It came from the people at Ebates.com.

When I buy anything online, I go to Ebates.com first, find the store I want to buy from, then shop away as usual.  Ebates gives me a percentage of my purchase back in cash.

As in $10.80.

Sometimes it's 2% cash back.  Sometimes it's 14%.  It just depends on how the Ebates people are feeling that day.

Lands End is 6% cash back.
Target is 3%.
Barnes & Noble is 8%.

Anyway, I thought you might like to know about it in case you shop online.

Might as well get some free money for all that hard work.

If you are going to sign up, click through this link and we'll both get a $5 bonus.

Happy Shopping!

Yesterday Was Thanksgiving

If yesterday was Thanksgiving, then today is our Day After Christmas, wherein Paul and I sleep in and the boys get up early to play with their new toys.

  

At 2:00pm our curtains are still closed,

signaling to our town that we are not open for business today.

Please come back tomorrow.

 

 When Paul and I did get up,

we made these super tasty biscuit twists

with walnuts, cinnamon, and powdered sugar glaze.

I only make them once a year

because that wonderful crispy flakiness doesn't happen

without a couple sticks of butter.

Ugh, but so yum.

 

 And what's a special holiday brunch

without our newest Lego creations joining us at the table?

And wearing yesterday's clothes

because he fell asleep in the car last night.

Pete's still in pjs.

Just like Christmas, right?

We moved the traditional American ceremony of opening stocking gifts and wrapped presents to Thanksgiving Day instead of on Christmas Day.

{Excuse me, Reuben needs me to fold him an airplane...}

Four years ago we stopped doing presents of any kind for Christmas.  We really wanted to use Christmas as a time to honor and worship Christ.  We felt that the hoopla of presents at Christmas is so distracting from the celebration of Christ that we took that part out.  We use Peter and Reuben's birthdays to focus on celebrating them.

Then last year Peter read through the Little House on the Prairie books and learned about the tradition of hanging up a sock to be filled during the night.  He asked if we could do that.  So we talked about when a good time would be to do that.  Valentine's Day as a way to show love to each other?  Thanksgiving to show we are thankful for each other?  I think since Thanksgiving was coming first, he decided that was to be the day.

Yesterday morning the boys had a giddy time of exploring their stocking treats.

Then we headed south to feast with Paul's family:

his parents,

his brother and girlfriend,

and his sister's family.

We all met at a church to have some family pictures done.

We won't be making copies of this one,

thank you funny Peter.

Reuben with his cousin Samuel.

 The Secret Agents.

When Peter gets together with his cousins

Aidan and Benen

they put on their agent gear

and zip around Nana's house in stealth mode.

You probably can't even see them in this picture.

Just plants.

So we supped and enjoyed the day together.

 Then we drove home in the snow.

With about this much visibility.

Welcome Winter.

And that brings us back to today.

The Day after Christmas.

Snow on the ground.

Legos and K'nex scattered around.

Laziness and leisure.

Let's Sew

Peter declared that it was time for him to make a quilt.

A log cabin quilt.

So we are making a quilt.

 We went through my stash of fabric and he chose these reds and blues.

He was really drawn to my Chinese fabrics,

which are eight of those.

He wanted to cut out Pooh characters for the center square.

 Ironing so we can cut the fabric into two-inch strips.

SEWING!

The part we've been waiting for.

 Love pushing that (race car) pedal.

Pressing the seam out.

Two strips sewn around the center!

This is very exciting.

Notice the bandaid on his right pointer finger.

After nicking me with the rotary cutter,

he got himself.

Yes, sewing is dangerous.

We also learned about the dangers of leaving the iron

flat on the board.

This is good.

Makes sewing adventurous and manly, right?

More pictures to come as we progress.

Feels Good

I'm not pregnant.

(But now that I think about it, today marks exactly nine months since our homestudy was done and our wait to be matched with a baby began.  So, that's neat.  Which might explain...)

But I did wake up with an intense nesting sensation.  I must clean.

Paul and I (he's so great) spent three hours decluttering, which led to a painting project, throwing gobs of stuff out while the boys were distracted by www.armorgames.com, and reorganizing galore.

It felt really good.  Like a boot camp workout.

But in the midst of the fray, Paul went to the post office to mail a package and pick up our mail (no home delivery for us in this here town of a thousand) and now we don't know where our mail is.

So if you see it could you let us know?

Thanks.

He's Home

And the volume just boomed.

Running, wrestling, chasing, squealing.

And comments like:

"Dad, will you fight me?"

and

"Dad, throw stuff at us."


Paul was gone all day, past dinner, at the hospital.

We had a fine, calm day, the boys and I.

It is amazing how Paul excites and riles the boys upon his arrival.


Don't I need to go somewhere?  There must be a group of moms getting together somewhere tonight, dipping into chocolate fondue and talking about their upcoming midwinter vacations on various warm islands.  Moms... Where are you??

It's Like She Knew

Yesterday afternoon I got an email from Nolan's mom asking if I could watch him today, even though she knows it's our protected family day.

But she said, "I just figured if perhaps Paul was going to be gone or something maybe you could make an exception."

Paul and I talked about it and decided we were going to stay in town and not do much and it would be fine for Nolan to join us.

Then the phone rang his morning.  A couple in our church had been in a car accident and are now in a hospital in The City.  Broken vertebrae and spitting up glass.  So Paul declared today a work day, grabbed his laptop, and headed east to spend the day with the family in the hospital.

How did she know "Paul was going to be gone or something?"

So the boys and I are enjoying chocolate chip pumpkin pancakes for breakfast and will make chocolate chip caramel apples in a bit.  I may even sacrifice some of my mint M&Ms to crush and use as a topping.  Doesn't that sound nice?  Then I may attempt to cut into two pumpkins to process into pumpkin puree.  Have you done that?  It's quite a chore.  But I've got time today.