Thanksgiving Festivities

I had to work today (oncall) and John had to work today but it ended up being a great Thanksgiving....

After our Gratitude breakfast we started cooking and I let each kid (help) make a dish.  Emily actually did hers all by herself.  I gave her the recipe for the corn casserole and she did it on her own.  She was one proud girl!  Next John Daniel helped me to the sweet potato casserole that John was taking to work.  Then Molly helped put the Squash Casserole together...her favorite part being crushing the ritz crackers.  We made all of the above plus fruit salad with fruit dip and chocolate eclair cake.  We had it all done by noon with the kitchen cleaned!  We gathered around the TV and watched the parade...kids sang along to all the music and then we walked to the park and playground down the street. 

I started taking call but was able to take my computer and beeper with me to my parents house where my side of the family was gathering.  Both my Dad's sisters and all their family were there.  It was special for my Grandparents to have all their great grandchildren there.  We ate a feast and then had our annual marshmallow fight...which is always such a funny crazy mess!  This year my 89 year old grandfather was gifted with a shield to protect his brand new pacemaker!  My mother is so funny and creative! 

my all time favorite thanksgiving picture!

Gratitude Table

This morning we gathered around our table to pray and fellowship together...I used some ideas from my friend's design company and made the table really pretty...using burlap, twigs from the yard, and my coton colors thanksgiving bowls.  I was so excited about serving my family a wonderful Thanksgiving breakfast when John got home...We shared what we were thankful for and expressed gratitude to one another.

What a great way to start our Thanksgiving Day...think it might be our new tradition!

Cooking...

I've definitely been in the cooking mode.  It is the one of my favorite ways I can serve others..I love it!  Here are some of the latest endeavors:

Pumpkin Pancakes!

Monkey Bread

Egg and bacon casserole in muffin tins...which, by the way, John said was one of his all time favorite breakfasts!  Guess I will be doing that again!

Thankful For...

I'm thankful for the normal things that most would say...God, my family, my friends, etc...but I wanted to take the time to list the things that are "not normal"...those that may be only significant to me at times...

I'm thankful for Jesus saving me from my self and a life of sin, for His forgiveness, for my husband that leads our family, a husband that tells me to go speak to a total stranger in order to give some encouragement, a husband that has been to the grocery store for me at least 8 times in the past 2 weeks, I'm thankful for Emily's thoughtfulness, her care and concern for others, I'm thankful for Emily's motherly instinct that I depend on so much, I'm thankful that J.D. likes to take care of me when John isn't around, for his gift of helps and his maturity.  I'm thankful that Molly is now pee peeing in the potty, sleeps in a big girl bed.  I'm thankful that my kids like to snuggle up and sleep together, for their ability to make believe.  I'm thankful for a father that I can call on when my hubby isn't available and when J.D. is in over his head.  I'm thankful that my mom is retired and will take my very willful child some days.  I'm thankful that it seems like God so clearly teaches me things on a daily basis.  I'm thankful that I have be blessed to share the Gospel with friends.  I'm thankful for a home, a husband that can do most anything, a church family that loves us and misses us when we aren't there.  I'm thankful for our friends that encourage, reprimand, are honest with us and want to spend time with us...I'm thankful for ballet and the way my daughter loves to dance.  I'm thankful for a husband that loves to spend time with his children.  I'm thankful that God stopped us in our tracks and laid out the path for homeschooling for us, that I get to be with my kids most everyday all day, thankful for the book of Numbers that we are reading right now, thankful for the mess that we are some days but that there is grace and mercy and it is new EVERYDAY, thankful for Molly's smile and her very elaborate vocabulary.  Thankful for John Daniel's work ethic, and Emily's creativity.  Thankful that I get to see my kids succeed and fail, and that they get to see me succeed and fail...very regularly, thankful that God seems to give me the perfect scripture to meditate on when we need it most.  Thankful for books and the powerful message that they give us at times, thankful for good good good people that share great ideas and thoughts everyday with me.  I'm thankful for a job.  I'm thankful for the position that my husband holds and how he takes it so seriously, thankful for coffee and chick-fil-a.  I'm thankful for crafts and Hobby Lobby.  I'm thankful for Great Grandparents, extended family and the ability to sit in a public place and pray and read my Bible.  I'm thankful for a husband that isn't afraid to try new things like raising chickens and fixing a pop up camper.  Thankful for new friends and old friends.  I'm thankful that one of my best friends has a baby growing inside her.  I'm thankful that God shows me over and over ways to join Him in ministering to others....thankful that my greed and discontent seem to be fading more and more everyday, thankful that I have become a more generous person.  Thankful that I get to start over and set a new plan into action when things get messy.  Thankful that two different families have almost totally clothed my children with nice hand me downs the past year.  Thankful for truth....the absolute truth in scripture.  Thankful for the friends my children have that will be forever friends...thankful for the cool weather and camping.  I'm thankful for candles and a clean house.  I'm thankful that my husband likes to cook and pays the bills.  I'm thankful for text messaging...I know it's silly but I'm not a phone talker!  I'm thankful for my brother that always makes me laugh.  I'm thankful that I dont' have to work full time....I am thankful that God doesn't give up on me!  I'm thankful for healthy children and health insurance.  I'm thankful for John's time off and shift work.  I am thankful that reading has become a habit for me.  And I'm thankful for a place to air my thoughts...good or bad...Happy Thanksgiving! 

Thanksgiving Proclamation

Have you ever read the Proclamation Establishing Thanksgiving Day?  I had not and did yesterday....pretty cool!

Proclamation Establishing Thanksgiving Day



October 3, 1863


The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.


No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.



A. Lincoln, President of the United States of America

Old Friends...this is what we do....

We gather around in someone's home and cook together...and laugh together and play together.  Sometimes it is cards, sometimes it is guitar hero, sometimes it is just talking...

We started calling it super club.  It is usually last minute, late at night, and very casual...but we have yummy food, ALWAYS!

I've known these precious gals for most of my life.

And of course pictures of the food......