Turkey leftovers

We LOVE turkey leftovers! In fact, today I'm roasting another turkey just to have some more! I bought a fresh 22 pound turkey on sale at the store today and it's in the oven now. The Thanksgiving turkey disappeared too quickly! Now we'll have plenty for sandwiches and we'll freeze some for later.

One of my favorite recipes for leftover turkey is Turkey Noodle Casserole. It is very good! Here's the recipe:

In large skillet over medium heat, cook 1 cup chopped celery and 1/2 cup chopped onion in 2 T. butter till tender. (I usually skip this step and do without the celery and onion). Stir in 2 cans of cream of chicken soup, 1 cup milk, 2 cups of bite-sized cooked turkey (or chicken) and 2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese. Cook and stir until cheese melts. Cook 1/2 pkg of medium egg noodles and drain. Combine noodles and Turkey mixture into 13x9 baking dish. Top with 1 cup of soft buttered bread crumbs. Bake 35 minutes at 350. This serves 6-8 people.

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday! It was really nice to have Uncle Bill, Aunt Janis, cousins Emily and Jacob, and Nathan, Ruth and their baby Ethan here as well as my mom. We were all missing Brian and wishing he could be here with us too. We were able to talk to him on the phone and pass the phone around the table. We got to spend a half an hour on the phone with him - 15 minutes on Emily's cell phone and 15 minutes on ours. Please pray for Brian, that he would remain strong and be encouraged as he is suffering a very unjust incarceration and that God would bring justice quickly. Please pray for his release. Even though he's been in jail for over a year now, trial isn't until July 2009. But we know that God is able to bring about good from horrible things as he did in the life of Joseph. And God is still in charge and we have to trust Him.


Here are some pictures of our day yesterday as visited together after the meal, playing games and enjoying the precious new baby!

It looks like Mark and Joel are sleepy from so much turkey!!!

Uncle Bill, Aunt Janis, Emily and Jacob

Ruth, Nathan and little Ethan

Uncle Bill and Aunt Janis won the Thanksgiving Trivia Contest! They got to take home the big prize, the Turkey wall hanging - see it in the background.

Ruth watching Nathan as he plays 20 Questions. Is he thinking of Batman??!

My mom enjoyed holding the baby. He is so precious!

My wonderful husband Mark

Ethan's bib says "Handsome like Daddy!"

Jaden loves to be a cowboy! We had a Rootin' Tootin' Good time!

So excited about Thanksgiving!

We are busy getting ready for Thanksgiving at our house. I am really looking forward to having a house full! Every year my aunt and uncle and cousins come up from Virginia for the day and it is a great time to catch up with each other. This year will be extra special since my cousin and his wife are coming with their new baby! We will have 13 people around the table this year.

I found some great things online that I printed out to make the day even more fun! I found some placemats for Jaden to color as we wait for the meal. They would be great for a children's table at Thanksgiving! Go to http://www.bhg.com/holidays/thanksgiving/crafts/thanksgiving-place-mats and you can print out several different place mats for young children to color.

We will play a Thanksgiving Trivia game that I found at www.creative-baby-shower-ideas.com/thanksgiving-trivia.html I printed out the game and everyone can play this as I finish the meal prep in the kitchen. I even have a prize for the most correct answers! This game will be fun and have everyone laughing. We'll find out how fast a spooked turkey can run and all kinds of interesting things!

My son loves crossword puzzles and I found a great Thanksgiving one at http://akidsheart.com/bible/PsalmsofThanksp.htm There are 26 clues of words found in the Psalms about giving thanks. The references are included if you need the answers. This is KJV.

And just for fun, there is a word search at http://akidsheart.com/holidays/thanks/turkeyws.htm All the words are food words and will make everyone hungry as they wait for dinner!

For decorating the table, I printed out some nice napkin rings at www.countryhome.com/thanksgiving There are also other decorations to print out there too with a vintage Thanksgiving patriotic theme.

And I really like the patterns you can download at www.BHG.com/tabledecor There are beautiful leaf patterns and also labels in nice fall colors. You can use those for place cards and all sorts of things.

Every year, we use the same place cards that our kids made for the family when they were young. We put pilgrim and indian stickers on the card stock paper and Joel wrote the names on them in his 6 year old handwriting. They are so cute! And we can't help but use them every year.

We'll have the same menu as always too.

Roast Turkey with lots of gravy
Mashed potatoes
Yummy sweet potatoes (see recipe on the side of this page)
Lots and Lots of Stuffing
Baked corn casserole
Green beans
Cranberry sauce (my mom's homemade - yum! yum!)
Rolls
Pumpkin pies with whipped cream
Vanilla Ice cream
and new this year will be mini-trifles!
In small glasses, I will layer cubed pumpkin bread, vanilla pudding, whipped cream, carmel sauce and pecans.

Tomorrow will be busy baking, cleaning and getting all the last minute details taken care of. Joel and Ivy will still have school - thankfully they can do so much on their own independently! They will be mapping out Ancient Greece tomorrow and reading the Greek myths, working in their math-u-see books, language lessons and lots of home ec. time with pie making!

Have a great Thanksgiving! Psalm 106:1 "Praise the Lord! Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!"

4th-6th Grade Homeschool Choir

Here is the picture from Ivy's choir concert last night! What a wonderful group of well-behaved, homeschooled children! It was a beautiful concert and the kids did a fantastic job. Can you spot Ivy in the picture?

Snow before Thanksgiving!!! Can you believe it???!!!

We got a little over one inch of snow yesterday!!! What a surprise for this time of year! Jaden is having fun outside with Daddy today. Notice his pink mittens? I searched all over the house for mittens that would fit him - it was amazing how many right handed mittens we have in this house without their matching left hands! Ivy's old pair of pink ones fit him best so they'll have to do for now.

This snow really caught us off guard and unprepared! Thankfully I'd already bought Jaden a winter coat, snow pants and snow boots (just no mittens yet) and Ivy told me yesterday her old snow boots are too small. She's wearing Joel's old snow pants and Joel currently has no snow pants, but he has boots! We usually don't need these things this time of year.

However, we should have known..... Last night was the Hempfield Homeschoolers Christmas Choir Concert. For the past 7 years, I would say it snowed for 4 or 5 of the concerts! So this year, they decided to have the concert REALLY EARLY, before Thanksgiving and one of the reasons was that there would definitely be no worry about snow!!!

The roads were very, very slick last night and there were so many accidents all over the place. While driving over a bridge, our car slid on the ice and I braced for an impact. Scarey!!! One car in front of us did crash. The parking lot at the church of the concert was like a sheet of ice.

But the concert went on as planned and it was a really beautiful performance. Ivy sang in the 4th-6th grade choir and they did a really, really nice job. It was very beautiful! Ivy also had a speaking part and did a wonderful job. We were all able to be there to see her.

Yesterday was also Opening Day at the Sight and Sound Theatre's "Miracle of Christmas" Show! Joel performed in the opening show at 1:00 and also for the 4:00 show. I really, really, really wanted to go see it for the opening show at 1:00. Sometimes if there are extra seats, they let the child actor's family have complimentary seating. So Ivy, Jaden and I were all ready to go but we had to wait and make sure there would be seats for us. Half hour before the show, we were informed it had sold out and we couldn't watch it. SO SAD! So we had to go home. So over two thousand people got to see that performance and the mom didn't get to see it! Oh well.

Joel's high-light yesterday was that an NFL football player, the kicker for the Baltimore Ravens was there in the audience at the 4:00 performance. He arrived in a big black limo - Joel didn't get to see him but he saw the limo. All the football loving actors went out there to see it!

Today is a perfect Saturday. No rushing around going places, no frantic schedule.... Just a laid back day to sit by the fire and relax!!! The kids are all playing outside, Joel and Mark both have the day off and it's a nice peaceful day. Next week we'll be really busy getting ready for Thanksgiving. We'll have 13 people around our table and I can't wait!

Our day at the Franklin Institute

We spent the day on Saturday at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Joel managed to get off work that day - we promised to take him to celebrate his 13th birthday. It was such a fun place!!! A really great place for a field trip. Mark and I had never been there before and now we know why the kids really wanted to go! It is all hand-on, interactive exhibits. Lots of really neat things to discover and do. Joel particularly liked the Sports Room and Newton's Loft. Ivy enjoyed the Physics room and Jaden loved the Train room. Jaden also loved the room for pre-schoolers - especially the water tank that he could float boats in. He managed to get absolutely soaked! I tried to dry his shirt with one of those hand dryers but it didn't work so well!

Here is Jaden crawling through an artery.

Joel really liked the ball cage where he could test his speed with different types of balls. Notice his new London Fletcher jersey he got for his birthday from Grandma! He was very happy to wear his Redskins jersey in Philly!!!

Ivy had fun surfing on a "wave" in the Sports room.


Mark did the wheelchair race!

Soon the Narnia exhibit will open and we can't wait to go back and see that! We got a little bit of a preview - here is one of the statues from the movie!

I really did take a nap at the Dollar Store!

After a very busy week of homeschooling, driving Joel back and forth to the theatre and all our other things going on last week I was VERY tired by Friday! I had just dropped off Joel for rehearsal and I had lots of shopping to do to fill 3 shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child.

We pulled into the parking lot at the Dollar Store. Jaden was sleeping in his car seat - lucky boy can sleep anytime he wants! I turned to my daughter Ivy and said I was just too tired to get out of the car! I needed to take a nap..... and I did!!!! I actually reclined my seat there in the parking lot and slept soundly for half an hour! Finally, Ivy woke me up, (Uh, mom, you should wake up now..." )

After my parking lot nap, I felt much better and able to shop for the rest of the afternoon. And we had so much fun buying things to fill up the boxes!!! We decided to fill a box for 3 children roughly the same ages as our own.... a little boy 2-4 years old, and one for each a boy and girl 10-14 years old.

I was somewhat worried about Jaden seeing lots of fun toys and things going into the cart at all the stores we visited, wanting the things for himself. But he seemed to understand that we were buying for children who had no toys. We even let him pick out the things and help pack the box for the boy his age.

We filled the boxes with as much toys and things as we could and also included candy and toothbrushes, tooth paste and wash cloths and also a note and picture of our family in each box. We decorated the boxes with stickers and took them to our church on Sunday where they are collecting them to send to Samaritan's Purse. But most important, we prayed over each box, praying for the children who will be recieving them.

If you would like more info about this, go to www.samaritanspurse.org It may be too late to send a Christmas box, but there are other things you can do to help needy families and children this Christmas.

a tragic accident

Please pray today for my mother's cousin Shirley and her husband Jeff. Their oldest son, Cale Kastanek, was a race car driver and died as the result of a crash Sunday night. The funeral services are today. Please be in prayer for the family.

http://www.nasaproracing.com/

I know I keep saying this, but

I LOVE TAPESTRY OF GRACE! This year is so enjoyable for me and I am very thankful that the Lord led us to Tapestry of Grace. I really believe it was His doing and it is a very good fit for our family.

There are so many things that I absolutely love about it... our whole family is learning the same time period at the same time - this week we are learning about Ancient American civilizations, particularly the Maya. And my children love the books they are reading! Like tonight, Ivy just finished her book that she was assigned to read over this week and she was so engrossed, she read the whole book in one afternoon and evening.

And I really love the flexibility!!! With Joel working full-time at the theatre this month, I can pick and choose the most important things for him to do and skip the rest knowing that in 4 years, he will be approaching this same subject again and at a deeper level. No guilt about missing things!

I love it also for me - because I'm learning so much each week! And all the organization and planning has been laid out for me so well so that my work has been greatly reduced, but the learning has increased - Wow! I love it because it helps us to really think - not spit out facts but to discuss, question, ponder, find connections and analyze. I love that! I love the discussion times and the thinking questions that cause us to really dig deep. And I love how it is all interwoven with the grace of God shining through history.

So, as you know, I love Tapestry of Grace..... but I must confess I do dislike change. And this week when the email came that the publisher of Tapestry of Grace is going through financial difficulty and that major changes will be happening, I panicked! I actually stepped away from the computer and cried! However, now that I've had a few days to process that bad news, I realize that it may be a blessing in disguise. The curriculum will probably need to be produced in a digital format if they can continue on as a company. And that will be a big change for an old-fashioned girl like me who prefers printed books over digital. But how nice it would be to store discs instead of huge volumes on the shelves! How nice will it be to just print out what we need and have everything permanently stored safely on disc - no need for page protectors and huge binders! I am actually beginning to see some good things about the change. Plus, the cost will be more affordable! That's the best thing of all! Because even though I think that Tapestry of Grace is a great value for the price, it will be really nice to pay less for the same great content.

I'm praying for Lampstand Press and all the wonderful people who work hard to provide us with Tapestry of Grace. If any of you are interested in this wonderful curriculum, there are fantastic sales going on now! I encourage everyone to give it a look and consider it for your homeschool. There are even free samples for you to download or print out so that you can try it for 3 weeks if you like!

kids say the funniest things

We've been praying for Mark's Nana who recently had eye surgery. Our two year old Jaden loves to pray. But sometimes he gets the details wrong... when he prayed for his Nannie last week he got confused about which body part to pray for and he said, "Dear God please help Nannie's mouth!"

Jaden always makes us laugh!

Sasha and Starlet

I had to share this picture with you of our two cats! This is how they always sleep. They are sisters and very best of friends, and do everything together. They groom each other, licking each others faces, "hug" each other and stay together most of the day.

Sasha is the callico cat and she is much bigger than her sister, Starlet, who is a gray and white tabby even though they were both born in the same litter on January 1, 2007.

Starlet is lucky to be alive because about a year ago, she swallowed a needle and thread!!!! And it went all the way through her system and out the other end with the needle still atached to the thread!!!! I'm not kidding! Apparantly it didn't do any damage to her, although it may explain why she is so much smaller than her sister!

Pictures to share

13 Candles on the birthday cake!



A new redskins cap for the birthday boy



Jaden celebrating his big brother's birthday



Jaden loves to dance along with the Wiggles!



Here are my two boys 10 years apart!

Joel's birthday

Yesterday we celebrated Joel's 13th birthday! How fast the years have gone. It was really nice to have Mark's parents here as well as my mom to celebrate with us. We all had a wonderful day together and a very happy day, although I had some tears now and then as I reflected on this milestone birthday. After everyone went to bed last night, I got out the baby book and looked at Joel's newborn pictures of his first few months. I am not sad that he is growing up... he is growing into a wonderful young man and we are so proud of him!! And we are very thankful to God for giving him to us to love, teach, nurture and guide through life. It is a huge responsibility to be a parent, but what a joy and blessing it is!

Flexibility

Our oldest son is an actor and the rehearsal period for the upcoming Miracle of Christmas show at Sight and Sound's Millennium Theatre is now in full swing. That means that our whole life for the next couple of weeks has to revolve around the rehearsals! Each night, we listen to the next day's call.... the hours are different every day and we don't know from day to day what the next day will hold. And the hours are always iffy - like today, he was called to work 10-6. At 5:00 tonight, he called and said he was done and needed to be picked up. Thankfully we only live a half an hour away!! But we do need to always be ready to go at a moment's notice. It makes homeschooling a bit more challenging too, but thankfully Joel is a quick learner! He does take some school work with him to the theatre, but many times he doesn't have time to work on it because the breaks are very quick.

So this month of November, there are no appointments scheduled. Everything is "pencilled in" and subject to change. No plans can be fixed permanantly. But soon, once the show opens, life will be back to normal for us with a schedule that we can anticipate. Opening Day is Saturday Nov. 22!

Come see the show this season! For more info, click on the link to Sight and Sound Theatre or go to www.sight-sound.com

Salt and Pepper

Did you see the Fireproof movie? If so, you'll recognize this analogy! Mark and I are definitely salt and pepper! We are so different from each other, yet we go together nicely (most of the time!) This week on Focus on the Family, they were talking about the book The Two Sides of Love and the basic temperaments: Lion, Otter, Golden Retriever and Beaver. It was a great two days of broadcasts and if you missed it, go to www.family.org to listen.

Anyway, being totally opposite as usual, Mark is VERY HIGH in the Beaver category with a bit of Golden Retriever in him too. I don't know which one I would fit in the most, but I do know that I am LEAST like a beaver! So we could clash quite a bit and sometimes we do! But the key, the secret to a long happy marriage, I think, is appreciating each other's differences. Sometimes it is hard when you have two opposite people, but like salt and pepper, we go together. We are a team! And we need each other's differences.

Last night, we were told of an opportunity to go to a dinner theatre show tonight - just the two of us and it sounded wonderful to me! Yet my wise beaver husband knows that if we did that tonight, we'd be stressed out tomorrow with all that needs to be done this weekend. So for the sake of our sanity, specifically MY sanity, he decided that we should not go. Sometimes my balloon does need a string and Mark is a very good string! And I thanked him. He is right and I'll appreciate being less frazzled tomorrow.

A new kind of music

Last night during the discouraging election coverage, we heard the piano being played. The unusual thing about that was that all of us (except 2 year old Jaden) were in the family room and the piano is in the living room. And it didn't quite sound like the kind of piano music that Jaden usually plays.

Imagine my surprise when I walked in there to find Jaden WALKING across the keys of the piano!!!!!!

My first two children would never have even thought of doing that!!! Jaden definitely strives to do what no child has ever done before around here!

Anyway, although we couldn't laugh in his presence (walking on the piano is a big no no!)it did give us some humor on an otherwise depressing night!

Neighborhood Fall Block Party

We really like our neighborhood! A new family that recently moved in hosted a block party on Saturday night and the whole neighborhood was invited. Everyone had a really good time.




Jaden had fun in the Moon bounce while the big kids played games and did crafts.


There was a pumpkin pinata for the kids








All the grown-ups enjoyed talking together while the kids played. It was a great evening!

Reformation Sunday

Our church celebrates Reformation Day every year, remembering Martin Luther nailing his 95 thesis to the door of the Church and beginning the reformation across Europe. Our church hosts a Reformation Conference in which a distinguished speaker comes for the weekend and teaches several sessions and preaches both services on Sunday. This year, we had Dr. Carl Trueman, a professor of church history and academic dean of Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. He is originally from England and both his sermon and his accent were wonderful to listen to! He spoke on God's sovereignty in the salvation of His people.

And today for the first time, I was able to recite the Apostle's Creed without looking!! It took me one year and two months to memorize it! I was the last in our family to be able to recite it from memory. I say that I have SOOOOOO much in my brain already, it is really hard to cram more in there!

Costumes for Trick-or-treating

Ivy and Jaden were Egyptians. Originally, Joel was going to be an Egyptian too, but changed his mind. (We studied Ancient Egypt the first three weeks of our school year).


Joel decided to be Jim Zorn, the Redskins head coach!

A very busy week!

I love Saturday nights! I always look forward to Sunday, particularly Sunday morning worship. And a relaxing afternoon as a family. This week has been so extremely busy that I am really looking forward to our Sabbath day of rest tomorrow!

Monday began with the WHEE homeschool group - a great morning of classes and prayer and share time for me. I love the time with the other moms each week! And then Monday night was a huge blessing - a Mom's Night Out for the moms of the Hempfield homeschool group! It was wonderful! A very encouraging evening and lots of chocolate!

Tuesday was busy with schooling, lesson planning for my Kindergarten class and numerous other tasks.

Weds. was Joel's costume fitting at the theatre. He has several costumes and a wig and various head coverings. I'm always amazed how totally transformed he becomes when he is in costume and wig. Barely recognizable. He is very excited about the upcoming show season which starts in just 3 weeks!

Weds. night was a fun fellowship with the ladies Bible study. We ate delicious foods and played games and fellowshipped. Very nice!

I already wrote about awful Thursday - after being up most of the night Weds. night. Somehow by God's grace, I made it through that day of teaching!

Friday was busy getting Ivy's and Jaden's Egyptian costumes ready for Trick-or-treating. We also had a very full school day closing out our week of study of Ancient India. Joel had a science exam and scored an A plus!! That made the day extra happy!

Friday night, Mark took the kids trick-or-treating and I stayed home and got to sip warm apple cider, read a book and give out candy to the occaisional trick-or-treaters. Living on a culdesac off of a dead end street means that we don't get very much traffic or trick-or-treaters here. We have lots of candy left over... I always buy too much.

Today, Ivy served as a volunteer at the Water Street Rescue Mission in Lancaster. She and her GEMS teacher and some of the other girls sorted clothing at the thrift store at the center. It was a mini-missions trip for the girls and I was happy that Ivy was able to serve. She really enjoyed it and hopes to do it again.

Tonight was a Fall Fun Block Party for our neighborhood! Most of the block turned out and we had a good time. There were games for the kids, a moon bounce, crafts, bobbing for apples, a pumpkin pinata, and lots of food - everyone brought a covered dish. The weather has been absolutely perfect - it was in the low 70s today! Great day for being outside. And the leaves are about at peak too.

The only bad thing of this day was that one of our children (who will remain un-named) broke our bedroom window with a ball. It was inevitable - we knew it would happen sooner or later. We have warned about it many times, but alas - it most likely will never happen again! Our child felt very bad about it and will be buying us a new window.

So it was a very busy week! But I am very thankful for the extra hour of sleep tonight! Don't forget to turn your clocks back one hour!