Giving Thanks!

On this beautiful Thanksgiving day, I am just reflecting on the many blessings God has given us: To be living in a country with the freedoms we have and those willing to fight for those freedoms, no matter the personal cost; to have such a loving, wonderful husband; amazing kids; wonderful family; nice warm, cozy house; friends beyond measure; my salvation; being able to homeschool my children; my church and all the teachers there who spend their time preparing for their classes. There are so many little things we don't even think about as we go through life and take for granted.

I give up!!!

After much effort in trying to be festive and creative and downloading a new template, you guys are just going to have to deal with the old "dots." There is apparently a "glitch" on my account. With that said....on to more fun stuff!

Tanner's Cookin!!

I have been so reluctant about letting the kids cook. They help me all the time, but to let THEM cook--eeeekkkk!!! I am too paranoid about them getting cut, burned, or whatever. So, the new summer project is COOKING!! The oldest 2 "jibbits" must choose a recipe, check to make sure they have all the ingredients and if not, make sure the ingredients get on my grocery list BEFORE I go to the store, and cook the item(s) by themselves. They can consult and I am in the kitchen with them, but they are doing all the cooking. Talk about excited!! This week, Tanner chose Pecan Pie and Sydney chose Cherry Cobbler. Now, why did I agree to 2 desserts in 1 week??? I agreed to Tanner's Pecan Pie and then when I told Sydney we had Cherries in the freezer, she decided to make a Cherry Cobbler and I agreed because I totally forgot about the pie....HOW DO YOU FORGET ABOUT PECAN PIE?? I really don't know.

Tonight was the night for the Pecan Pie!!! Tanner had a few questions and took a few pieces of "helpful hints". He made his crust and even did the edges himself. He then went on to make the filling. I DID have to remove it from the oven because he had gone to Lowe's with "King Jibbit."

The pie was baked, cooled, sliced and tested.....IT PASSES!!!! It was so good AND it was pretty! (I messed up the edge of the crust taking the pie out of the oven :( ) Tanner is his own worst critic, he said "the crust isn't as good as it could be!" Well, like I told him, "at least now you know how to make a pie crust."

Papaw and Tanner's adventure

(Titled by Tanner himself)

Tanner and Papaw have been doing quite a bit of turkey hunting on Saturday mornings. One morning they went to Roane County and climbed into their shooting house. After about an hour, they saw 3 hens and a Jake. Tanner really wanted to shoot the Jake, but Papaw told him to wait. A minute or two passed, a Tom strutted out after the hens. Tanner took aim at the upper chest/neck area and fired. The Tom dropped!!! This is Tanner's 3rd turkey of his hunting career.

Who knew?!?

Bookshopping!! Who knew it could be sooo much fun!! A group of home school mom's went for a "mom's night out" and we had a blast. Dinner at Pimento's in Turkey Creek they have very good sandwiches--just ask LE--I have witnesses to the fact there were 4 (yes 4!!) sandwiches on her plate. LOL !! Then on to McKay's and crazy me thought " I won't get that many, I don't need a basket." Within the first 10 minutes, I had to go back for a basket. Thanks to LE's daughters sharing their favorite "friends." I think my kids are going to have a blast with these new books. Then on to EarthFare for some tea, hummus and guava nectar (?) and to Starbucks for tea & coffee. By the way, C&ace--that Chai tea is NOT caffeine free, if I had had your number I would have called you at 1am. Ha ha!! What a fun time --just talking, laughing and lifting each other up! It is so nice to have such a great group of christian friends.

Cyber world!

Well, I did it! After much prodding from my friends, I have finally gone into the world of "facebook." Still not real sure about it all and don't have an elaborate profile, yet. Just kinda feeling it out right now. This is a big step for me!!! Who really has time to keep up with it all?? I don't want to look rude though and not answer somebody's message. I can see how you could get addicted to it.

Texas

Jibbit #1, #2, & #3 and I (Queen Jibbit) headed to Texas to visit a longtime friend. She lives just outside of Dallas. It was a 14 hour trip that we did over 2 days so, not so bad. We celebrated her youngest son's birthday at Chuck E. Cheese (his birthday was in Jan but he waited for us to get there to have his party--isn't that sweet!). There was a trip to Shenanigan's, which had a bowling alley, laser tag, race cars, video games all under one roof--a little pricy but much, much fun. We played laser tag first and I wore the vest for Jibbit #3 and she did sooo good--she won. That was not handled well by the older 2 Jibbits. We also visited a children's museum that we had visited before and Jibbit #2 had put on the "to do list." At night, after we got all the kids to bed, my friend and I would TRY to sit up and scrapbook. Man, I can definitely say "I am getting older!" It is getting so HARD to stay up even for scrapbooking! I didn't get much of anything done. We always have a great time with our friends and this time we got to meet their newest family member, Smudge (their dog). He is so cute and such a good dog. We also got to visit their church, which is HUGE. I totally enjoyed the music service with the band and contemporary music (I do like the old gospel hymns too) and the preacher delivered a good message. The kids had a great time in their classes, too. Did I mention how HUGE this church was? My first trip to Texas was with my best-friend to look for a house. Her and her husband were moving and he couldn't go with her so, she asked me to go. Well, behind the hotel where we were staying was this HUGE building that we could not figure out .....was it a mall--no because there was never any cars, what was it? Well, it turned out to be a church. Since that first visit, I think it has probably tripled in size!! Very nice! It is always good to be with friends!! Thanks for being such a great hostess.

SNOW!!!

Boy, am I getting behind?!? Anyway.. no excuses available so I will just update!

We were all so glad to see a good snow. Good enough to get out and make snowmen, have a good snowball fight and have snow cream. We had the neighbors come over and join us. We all had such a good time. After playing in the snow, I was ready for hot chocolate, but I was out-voted and the snow cream won. Kids just don't get cold, do they?