with blog posts lately.  Seems there are too many other things to fill my waking hours.  We went to my Dad's ranch this weekend for an early Thanksgiving.  Always an enjoyable time.  We were even able to hunt arrowheads, a favorite pasttime on Sunday afternoons when I was growing up.  I didn't find any arrowheads, only pieces of pottery and petrified wood.  I was able to share the experience with my kiddos, pointing out to them the signs of long ago Indians in the area, specifically the gray "burnt rocks" indicating there had been a camp/cooking fire.

We expect to move Mom into the back house this week.  She's begun bringing boxes over, but we need to get the final certificate of occupancy, hopefully Wednesday. 

School - I'm looking forward to next semester, hoping things will be more settled by then.  We've learned a bit about the Hittites, Cretes, etc this week, coinciding with our study of Israel preparing to enter the promised land.  We're also studying communication.  I'm pretty sure I didn't do a very good job teaching about telecommunications, lasers and satellites.  Science is my weakest subject and it shows! 

C had a good math week.  We use MUS with her, but she rarely enjoys math.  This week, though, she got the concepts quickly, aced most of her work, and even said math might be her favorite subject! 

I'm keeping this short so I can get some prep time in for school tomorrow.  Hoping your Thanksgiving week is filled with reminders of God's faithfulness. 

Miss Dog Lover has developed a festive, somewhat non-traditional beverage just in time for you to be able to serve it to your guests at Thanksgiving Dinner. That is, if you are bold enough to be first.

Last evening at snack time I walked in the kitchen to hear the iced tea she was pouring for herself making odd, non iced tea, sounds. I asked what she was doing and of course she said, "Just getting some tea."  Hmmm.

My maternal instincts went immediately to red alert. I took a closer look and listen and noticed the empty poprocks packet.
The somewhat noisy and unpredictable combination of iced Mandarin Orange Celestial Seasonings and Strawberry Poprocks was such a hit Miss Dog Lover chugged it and made herself a second.

Let me know how it goes over with your guests if you give it a go. Me? I'm wondering how it would work to add poprocks into the stuffing of the big bird before baking. Could be an explosively good Thanksgiving at our place.

I can't believe it's Thanksgiving week.  We bought a 25lb bird this year, so I had to put it in our fridge Saturday , which is way early for me.  But it just made me realize how close Thanksgiving really is.  I'm going to make a list today of all the things I want to get done this week.  I usually bake my pies on Wednesday, still have to practice cookies with Sarah, that will probably be Tuesday.  It's things like that I need to make a list for, otherwise I'll forget the things I need to get done, and only do the things I want to do. 

I will be finishing up our Christmas cards today.  Well, the cards are done, pictures developed and yearly letter printed out.  I just need to sign the letter, put the kids ages on the back of the pictures, then put it all in the envelopes.  Maybe I'm a little optimistic on getting that all done today, but it's my goal.  We also have a bible study tonight, so we'll see how much I get done.  I just made a mental list of all the things I need to bake this week, I'm tired all ready. 

We finished school already.  We have this whole week off, makes things easier for me.  But the kids doubled up on their school work on Thursday, and had Friday off too.  Which was nice.  I helped out decorating our church last Thursday, it was lots of fun.  The kids were so good, and finished all their school work while I was gone.  (Proud mama here). 

Friday was a great day.  I went to a new woman's bible study I'm going to on Friday mornings, and it was such a blessing.  Then in the evening the kids both had homeschool outings to go to, so Paul and I had a date night.    We went to the Olive Garden, and had such a nice time.  We haven't had a date in a couple of weeks, it was very nice.

Saturday we decided to brave the stores and do our grocery shopping on the Saturday before Thanksgiving.    It was a bit of a mad house, but it was fun.  The hardest part was the cold, blowing wind.  We all just wanted to get home.  I thought I had gotten everything I needed and wouldn't have to go back out to the store before Thanksgiving, I was wrong.    I forgot to get a big thing of cool whip for a fruit salad I'm making.  Can't make it without it, so I guess I'll be running back to the store real quick on Monday.  Then I won't enter a store again until after the weekend sometime.  I stay clear of them all during this time of the year.    We don't do the black Friday shopping, and I just read today how they limit those 'specials' anyway.  Like those tvs or something big on sale.  Only 4 can be sold from the whole store!    Only four people will get that big deal.  Ugh, so not worth it to me.

What we do the day after Thanksgiving is put up all our Christmas decorations.  As most of my regular readers know, we put up our decorations the day after Thanksgiving, and take them down the day after Christmas.  But we really enjoy setting them up.  We eat Thanksgiving leftovers, drink eggnog, and watch It's A Wonderful Life.  My kids really enjoy that movie.  And it really is a fun, relaxing day.  We are pretty mellow with our decorations, so it only takes a few hours.  Hanging the Christmas lights in the kids bedroom takes the longest, but it's what they love the most.  Falling to sleep with their Christmas lights on.

Well I should get going and work on the Christmas cards.  It's snowing pretty heavy out right now.  We need to go out tonight, I hope it lets up soon.  But it is so pretty.

The room is done!   There is even some furniture moved in already.  It came out great, a little bit smaller than we had hoped for, but GREAT none the less...  The whole experience was great!  The contractor was super GREAT!   The workers were great! The project came in $600 under the proposal so we had some additional work done.  Our contractor went out of his way to get us deals.  He went two counties away to get us bamboo floors that were sitting in a barn ~ the leftovers of a business that had gone under.  We got them for $1 a linear foot ... they retailed for over $5 a linear foot.  They are perfect!!  He also looked our house over and found a few things that were in desperate need of repair and fixed them for almost no cost.  Let's put it this way.  Part of our home had to be jacked up because of a failing support beam.  He did the job for $76 ~ the cost of the beam and a little extra to pay for his helper.  The mess was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be ....  So, you all want me to stop carrying on about how great it was and let you see the results for yourselves!?!?

Yay! Well, this is all you are getting right now.  The big reveal will be just after Christmas.  This year we are giving no toys (except stocking stuffers) so that we can decorate the children's bedrooms.  I'll show you all the rooms once we have curtains up and such.

In the meantime we will be painting the rest of this room.  We decided to paint the floor insted of refinishing the wood becuase it is so costly if you have a professional do it.  My dh has refinished two floors in our home, but it was a really grueling project, and they have not held up as well as we would have expected.  So for now we will paint this floor instead.  We will need to do all of the trim work and no furniture can go on it for a week. 

That is all for now!  

Blessings,

Dawn

 I write you sitting comfortably in my home - although that may not sound surprising - I have been without use of my pc/internet access for what seems like forever.  But tonight, it is working again, and I am sitting on my couch with my laptop, watching The Sound of Music with my family at the same time.  I do hope to visit with all my friends, but before I go around and visit, I wanted to at least finish my post of Biltmore Estate.

 

 

 

Have you ever visited the Biltmore Estate in Ashville, North Carolina?  If not, it is worth the effort if ever given the chance to visit it.    The house covers 4 acres, totaling 175,000 square feet. It consists of 250 rooms and  includes 35 guest and family rooms, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces, and three kitchens.  The old fashioned kitchens are my favorite rooms in the house.  In fact, I love everything in the basement - the 70,00 gallon indoor pool, the old fashioned laundry rooms, and the multiple pantrys.  I wish I had pictures to share of all this, but you are not allowed to take pictures once in the house.  Also in the basement is a gymnsasium and a bowling alley. 

 

 

 

 

.A favorite room of my children and husband is the two story library.  This is an amazing room filled with old books and beautiful woodwork.   

 

 

 

 

Upstairs on the third floor, in addition to more bedrooms, are areas where guests once
played parlor games and took afternoon tea, as well as rooms formerly occupied by ladies’
maidservants.

.

Fully electric and centrally heated, Biltmore House, at the time of its completion, was
considered one of the most technologically advanced structures ever built.  It used some of Thomas Edison’s first lightbulbs, elaborate indoor plumbing for all 34 bedrooms and even had several elevators (that still work today.)

 

 

So that's it - now I'm going to see if I can come by and visit and say hi!

 

I apologize for my previous post.  I wrote it half-serious and half tongue-in-cheek.   I am over my self-pity party now.  

 

Physically I am feeling a little better, and the sun is out today, so things are looking up.  I wonder if I should go get one of those lamps for people with Seasonal Affective Disorder?  My attitude really takes a dive when the sun is gone for 5 full days in a row. 

 

Ryan is feeling better as well.  No one else is complaining of an ailment at this moment, so perhaps we will be able to have a nice weekend. 

 

We are planning to go up to see Jeff's mom tomorrow.  If the weather cooperates, we may get to take a walk along the beach.  

Sunday after church we hope to put up our Christmas tree.  We've never put it up this early, but I knew it would make my husband really happy if we put it up early this year.  He's so into everything about Christmas. 

 

 

I hope you have a lovely weekend, whatever you are doing. 

Blessings,

Jenn