Thanksgiving Recap 2014

 For most the of the same reasons as everyone else, I do love Thanksgiving.  It's a wonderful chance to focus intentionally on teaching thankfulness (to God) to my children.  It also provides many opportunities to learn American history as well as service to others.  There's not the gimme-gimme battle that comes with Christmas, and in general it's just a simple holiday enjoyed with family.  (That being said I also love Christmas).

The past three years we have hosted Thanksgiving.  Since we've been married, I have been dreaming and waiting for the day when our house would be filled with people on holidays.  It evokes many warm feelings to have my home associated with loving memories for not just my children but for my nieces, nephews, and extended family also.  I want to be a blessing to my family and show them my gratitude for them in my lives.

However, it's also work and I'm learning as I go.  I'm a terrible planner.  Things always end up coming together in the last minute, but I'm hoping this post will help me prepare in years ahead  so I am able to enjoy the process a little more!

I try to be intentional about having my kids express thanks all the time, but it's nice to do something "hands on" for Thanksgiving week.  This year we kept it simple and just had a grateful banner in the dining room.  We do our best to just let the kids write what they want, as long as it's appropriate.  We got a lot of good things, mixed with some random things.  Nathan made a point to add all branches of the military, and Ella added Barak Obama (we obviously don't talk politics in our home).

The day before Thanksgiving has been traditionally set aside for last minute errands and making "turkeys and pilgrim hats".   The kids look forward to doing this, and it's so easy that even the under five crowd can do it.  It involves a fudge-striped cookie, a marshmallow, and chocolate almond bark.  The turkeys also need a piece of candy corn for the head.  I'm glad that my sister Amy and her kids were with us again this year.

First you take your mallow and you cover it in the chocolate.

 

Then you take your mallow and you stick it on your cookie.  Stripes down for a pilgrim hat, stripes up (running vertically) for a turkey.

 Snacking on cookies is definitely not allowed.

Snacking on marshmallows, also not allowed.

If making a turkey, add your candy corn and you are finished!  As you can see here, the stripes on this turkey are not going up and down...I tried.  I also supervised this very little and the kids were pleased with their creations.

Wednesday is also when the cleaning happens.  It's not too bad, and Matt helps out a lot since most of it is done after the kids go to bed.  I think that the problem is potatoes.

The past two years, we've done potatoes Thursday morning because that is the way my mom always did it.  However, we make a lot of potatoes!  There are usually about 30 people (some kids), and so I make around 15 pounds of potatoes.  So, Thursday morning gets overrun with trying to peel and boil potatoes (thankfully I had sisters that helped with this).  We also learned the hard way that you do NOT put peelings from 15 pounds of potatoes down your garbage disposal.  This results with Matt with his head under the kitchen sink Thanksgiving morning.  Thankfully that was a lesson was last year, like I said I'm learning as I go.

SO, this year I boiled and peeled the potatoes the night before.  I mashed them up and had them ready to be warmed up in the crock pots on Thursday.  This definitely made things a ton easier.  There's still room for improvement though as I was still up until 1:00 AM making potatoes!  

Thanksgiving morning went as planned.  I woke up at 7:30 AM and had the turkey in the oven by 8:30 AM.  I don't have room for two turkeys, so my older sister also cooked a turkey at her place.  My other duties were to make dressing and corn, and set the table.  The girls helped with table setting and my sisters prepared green bean casserole and relish trays.  All the other side items and desserts were being brought by family.  Another must is to let other people bring food!  I also had my sister bring a third crock pot (my two were both filled with mashed potatoes) so we could slice the turkey and keep it warm without overcooking it or having to eat it cold.  I'm sure I wouldn't have to do it this way if I had the timing perfected...but it worked great this time.

Finally, around 1:00 PM it was time to gather around!  The headcount has always lingered around 30.  This year we had 29, including ourselves.

(I love beautiful centerpieces, but don't understand how you have the space...our table was not decorated, but filled with food!)

Our dining room is a converted living room.  Our table only takes up half of the room, so 364 days of the year it looks pretty bare.  However on Thanksgiving we get to fill it to capacity! 

(the tables were filled, though not quite yet in this photo)

 

 I was up and down retrieving things for people most of the meal, but I did sit and enjoy dessert (pretty much by myself because everyone else was finished :).  Afterwards, of course the men watched football and the ladies did dishes.  Normally the kids would play outside, but it was freezing cold!  My cousin timed us, and it took an hour and a half to clean-up.  I was in the kitchen from about 7:30 AM until 3:30 PM.  It was work, but it was enjoyable.  It's great to have lots of family working by your side!

Following dishes, the ladies like to look through the newspaper...ads, ads, ads.  Everyone likes to make their plan of attack for Friday shopping.  I honestly was not that motivated this year and so just followed my sister like a puppy.  The end result was that I mainly just bought clothes on sale for myself :)

Finally, Saturday morning the kids got to break the wishbone.  Since we had two Nathan and Ella broke one also...but  I missed it.

There it is Thanksgiving 2014!  

These times make me miss my mom like crazy.  She was the eldest in her family, always poised and in control. I wish she was here to help teach and guide me as I try to do what she did so well year after year.  But, I have been blessed beyond measure, and to my savior Jesus Christ, I. am. thankful.

Oops, I Did It Myself.

 Our house has a lot of blank walls.  Hopefully that doesn't speak to the condition of my mind, but it probably does speak for my lack of decision making abilities...and also Matt's dislike of putting any holes in the walls.  

So, amongst other things, I've been wanting something for behind our dining table.  I used to have three 16x20(ish) size Ribba frames (from Ikea) here holding different coordinating fabrics.  However, our kids like to run circles around the table and inevitably a shoulder would hit a frame as they were running by.  It happened not only once, not twice, but three times.  If you've ever seen a cheap Ikea frame hit the floor, you know the end result.  All three of them busted at the seams.  We tried some gluing, but to no avail.  I learned a $45 lesson in picture placement (and quality), and for almost a year the wall has sat blank.

 I didn't want to just put up three new frames (like I said I learned that lesson), so I waited for something larger.  The nails were still sitting in the wall, so I wanted to be able to just use the nails to hang up a new picture that would span the space of the three previous frames.

I'll try to cut to the chase...art is expensive.  Even "cheap" buy-it-at-a-big-box-store art in the size I wanted was over $100.  AND it was hard to find something in the colors I wanted.  So, after seeing this on Pinterest, I decided to go the DIY route.

I bought a canvas at Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon.  I wish I could remember the dimensions, or muster up the energy to go measure it, but I went big.  I also went for the thicker one because I wanted it to be nice and beefy (and not look cheap).  It was still somewhat of an investment.  I think I paid $35 for the canvas after coupon.

I then went to the craft section and picked out four acrylic craft paints.  These were each a little over a dollar.  

Then later after the kids had gone to bed, I just went for it! I started with dark on the bottom.

I used a three inch paint brush and was very casual about it.  You don't even want to clean your brush in between colors because you want the colors to mix and blend together.   So, I would paint a little then walk away for a little bit and then come back...I remember it was game 7 of the World Series, so I had to keep checking on that.  Total time I spent on it was probably around 30 minutes.

Here's the final result!

  I wasn't even trying but both Ella and I observed that it looks like an abstract painting of the sea, land, and sky.  It's not perfect (nor is it suppose to be), and perhaps it's just hard for me to really love something I made myself, but the great thing is that it's acrylic paint and you can always paint over or do touch-ups if you wish.  What I do love about it is that I got to choose my favorite colors (shades of blue and green which are pretty beachy).  You could choose any colors you love to match your home.  I also like that it cost $40, so until our kids are all out of college and we can afford great art, this will do.

{side note:  For whatever reason while painting this I kept singing "Oops I did it myself" to the tune of Brittany Spear's "Oops I did it Again"...hence the title of this post.}

Autumn Beaut(ies)

 One more Fall post before I have to admit that Winter is here!  

Raking is a still a great time at our home.  All the kids enjoy raking and helping out, and if they get tired of it they climb a tree or play in the leaves.  We lost half of our mature trees in a storm two Springs ago, so the load is lighter, which also helps!

I love the Fall; it's crisp and gorgeous.  Once the leaves are down though, it's hard to deny that the weather is changing.  Winter is definitely a beautiful season in its own way, but I'm thankful we could enjoy the Fall weather one last time!

 

 

Apple Orchard.

I can hear the wind whistling outside and see the evidence of the "white stuff" here and there.  Granted it's November and winter must come sometime, but it always catches all of us off guard.  So, today I think back to only a few short weeks ago when we picked apples in our short sleeves!

We were blessed with a haul of apples both from a friend and from my Dad (and don't forget we harvested one ourselves).  However, we eat about six apples a day here, so we go through them pretty quickly.  I snagged up an online deal for a local orchard and we were able to get about 50 lbs more (in two different trips).

Ready to go!

It was a short walk to the trees.  Evelyn rode in the wagon most of the way, until Nathan and Ella took off (literally) running for the trees.  She then was all about pulling the wagon.  She pulled the wagon around most of the time while we were picking. 

It was getting towards the end of the season.  The apples were still good, but there were a lot on the ground.  

Nathan is more about tree climbing than apple picking, although he was able to do both.

Monkey see, monkey do!

Here's Ella doing likewise.  

I like this shot because it shows how short these trees are.  So, when I say tree climbing, it's more like tree stepping into.

Still going with the wagon.  

It pulls a little harder when loaded with apples.  I think this is also about the same time Ella and Addie bailed for the port-a-potty.

This tractor made me think of my dad.  He's always been a simple, humble man with a heart for a good, old tractor.

We have a rule when picking apples.  Everyone must eat one to make sure they're good.  But, just one...don't get greedy!

Always love to look at all the bins of pumpkins and gourds.  Each season is full of its own blessings.  

Once we were finished picking apples, we decided to walk near the other end of the orchard.  They have a barn with ponies, goats and chickens.  My kids have never been much into animals (meaning they are very much afraid), but they have been making great improvements in the last 6 months...or so I thought.

There was one crazy black goat that was out (and you couldn't put it back in because I saw it jump over the fence).  He was mainly just walking around minding his own business and letting some other little girl feed him apples.  Nathan and Ella were cool, but Evelyn and Adeline definitely did not like this goat being so free about them.  It was high anxiety with lots of clinging.  I convinced them however, to sit on some hay to take a photo.  It's safe I assured them, the goat isn't over here.  About the time everyone was seated, the goat got bored with before mentioned little girl and decided to trot (though not aggressively) to see what we had for him.  He then jumped up on the hay stacks about 15 feet away from where they were sitting.  Oh. my. word.  You would have thought someone was chasing my children with a chainsaw. 

Ella, who is actually now quite fond of animals, tried to distract the goat away from Evelyn and Adeline (both of whom I was holding), and the other girl there tried to chase it away also.  It was very heroic!

After all that, I didn't get the original photo on the hay like I wanted.  However, Nathan and Ella were willing to try it again, and Addie even participated with some convincing.  Evelyn, not so much.

You see how Ella has her hand on Addie's knee?  It was a mix of "it's going to be ok, I'm here with you", and "You're not going to run away".  She'll be a good mom someday! :)

And of course, when apple picking you wear your red high heals.

These are her most beloved shoes.  We may have to get her a new pair.  There's no way these fit anymore, but she doesn't want to give them up!

Stick a fork in them...

I ended the last flooring post on a note of frustration, so I wanted to update that the floors are DONE!

It took Matt a few evenings to hand make the two needed transition pieces, but we're both really happy with the end result.

 

Here is what they looked like before:

To start, he routered (is that a word?) the new floor so that the edge was straight and even.  Then he used a leftover piece of floor board and cut it to fit into the groove and sit on top of the floor.  I made that sound simpler than it was, it definitely took some careful planning, lots of measuring, and a steady hand! 

We since have spent the last couple of weeks cutting and painting trim boards.  We bought new trim boards because we knew we wanted something a little more substantial than what we already had. We also had oak trim before and it pains Matt to paint any wood he considers of quality.  So, we bought some cheaper, wider, pine boards (we can reuse the old trim in the basement).  Matt cut, I painted, Matt nailed them in place.

  So nice to finally have it look finished (though the children concurred that they liked the '80's carpet better...we resist change around here)!
 

Now we just need to decide what the next big project should be!  Bathroom? Kitchen?  Basement?

Halloween, 2014.

 Another Halloween come and gone!  

My kids love the idea of dressing up in costumes and having people give them candy...and why wouldn't they?!  Though there are definitely things I don't like about Halloween, I do like that we get to meet and visit with people in our neighborhood.  We purposely stick within a block or two of our house, and I think each year we meet someone new.  We also have enough retired neighbors nearby that know our kids (at least who they are) and appreciate seeing them (or at least I like to think so).  Unfortunately, we don't hand out a lot of candy since we're out of the house, but I also think it would be fun to stay home and meet and bless the people who come to our door.  I envision passing out hot cider to the adults and having neighborly conversations.  It just seems like an easy night to "love your neighbor".

This year was also special because Grammy and Grandpa Joe were here for trick-or-treating.  They came in to celebrate Addie's birthday a few days late so that they could be here for Halloween as well.

The afternoon of October 31 was spent as it should be.  I was making last minute costume adjustments and the kids were cleaning out their pumpkins!  Usually Matt is the carver, but since he was working it was good grandma and grandpa were here!

Evelyn was very much into this pumpkin thing.  She scooped out that pumpkin like a champ!

I don't know why I failed to get a photo of the finished pumpkins...

Nathan decided that pumpkins were too smelly and instead played his Nintendo DS.  On a typical week he only gets to play with his DS Friday through Sunday, so rare is the Friday afternoon when he doesn't ask to play it.

With pumpkins carved (and seeds reserved for roasting), we ate some chili for dinner and then prepared to hit the streets. 

Here's my crew:  tree, Captain Rex, the Incredible Hulk, and a giraffe.

Bonus, you can see all the pumpkins in the above photo!  Addie's is on the top (it has distinct features like ears and a uni-brow), Ella's is in the middle, and Evelyn's is on the bottom.  The girls drew the faces on the pumpkins with marker, then Grammy and Grandpa Joe carved them out.  I'm guessing Evelyn had a little help, but I think the mouth was all her design.

Here is Nathan as Captain Rex.  

I really don't know who this is.  All I know is that he is from Star Wars and either a Storm Trooper or a Clone Trooper (is there a difference?)  Nathan has never seen Star Wars but for some reason has a wealth of Star Wars knowledge and may be slightly obsessed.

Ella as a maple tree.

Ella decided a few weeks ago that she would like to be a tree.  She had a few elaborate ideas as to what this would look like.  With Ella the fancier the better.  However my general rule with Halloween costumes is that I don't want to spend money on them, or a lot of time.  So we collected leaves and Mod Podged them, then hot glued them to a headband.  Thankfully we already had a squirrel and some birds that we could just stitch to a brown jacket.  Ella decided to ditch the birds, apparently my sewing skills were not up to par.  It's totally simple and so much more could have been done, but in the end it worked and Ella was satisfied.

Here is Adeline as the Incredible Hulk.

 

This summer we had some neighbors move, and we were the recipients of some old costumes that no longer fit their eleven year-old son.  So, that is where both the clone trooper and Hulk costumes came from.  It worked perfectly with my "no time no money" costume rule.

It was humorous to me, though perhaps appropriate, that Addie chose the Hulk.  She practiced yelling "Hulk Smash" a lot.  She wasn't brave enough to say it to anyone while out though.  She also loves princesses, but  I think it came down to hearing Nathan talk about the Hulk and wanting her big brother to think she was cool. 

 

Finally, here is Evelyn giraffe.

I still remember buying this costume when Nathan was a year old.  I bought it at Babies R Us, questioning the $20 price tag (which I used to do A LOT).  However, this is now the seventh time this has been worn by a Thompson!  Everyone has worn it twice, except Ella. Sadly I think it may retire now, but it will always be special to me.

Evelyn was also good at the awkward trick-or-treat lingering.  She discovered at a few houses if you just keep standing there people will feel obligated to put more candy into your bucket!

We try to emphasize thankfulness when trick-or-treating.  To help with this, Matt and I established a rule that if you don't say "thank you" we take a piece of candy.  We remind them of the rule before we start, but then not again until we are all finished. (Nothing is more annoying than saying repeatedly, "what do you say..." at every house).  It may sound harsh, but it works.  The three oldest said thank you at every.single.house.

We finished up about 7:20 p.m.  It sounds early, but it had been dark and cold for much of our walking.  Once the sun went down Nathan kept complaining about his cold hands, and Evelyn kept calmly repeating, "me scared."

Don't worry, there was still much loot brought home!

Nathan, of course, counted his.  

I believe he came up with 84 pieces...or something in that ballpark.

We don't typically keep candy in our home, but we also don't get rid of (most) Halloween candy.  We try to live by an 80/20 rule, which basically means that we eat  healthy unprocessed foods at home, but if we're out or pick up an occasional pizza we don't have to freak out about it either.  So, the kids get about one piece a day as part of the 20.  The problem with this rule is that Matt has developed somewhat of habit of declaring much of what he eats as part of his 20.  My 20 may or may not be consisting of mini Snicker bars.

Addie decided to sort her candy as she counted it. She definitely had the most M&Ms! 

 

Ella didn't count hers because it's not super important to her.  Evelyn can only count to five, but she was just excited to eat candy.  Addie and she are definitely the reasons the treat buckets are stored on top of the kitchen cabinets!

The unanimous favorites of the night were the can of root beer and the homemade popcorn ball by our neighbor Miss Betty.

End result, it was a fun night!  I definitely respect others who choose to not participate in Halloween, and have considered that approach myself.  For now though I'm thankful that it can be a fun, safe, night out in our neighborhood.  In the future I want to humbly ask God for ways we can use this night to make fun memories and bless others...not just gather hoards of candy!