Progress Of Plans

I thought I'd share with you how my progress is coming for the things I was doing this week.  Yesterday I did laundry and cleaned the upstairs bathroom.  I  finished washing bedding today.  Now I have to remake two beds.

 

 

I cooked today.  Here is what I made~ Pecan Pie, Peanut Butter Pie with Oreo crust, Turtle Pumpkin Pie, Clam Chowder Base, White Chicken Chili Base, Taco Salad meat, 2 Meat Loaves, 2 loaves Banana Bread and tonight's dinner~ Barbecued Meatballs, Creamy Garlic Noodles with sauted Garlic Ginger Snow Peas.

 

Tomorrow is a Thanksgiving potluck at church.  I made a Mashed Potato Casserole and Turkey Gravy to put in the crock pots, and  Frog Eye Salad.  My oldest son made a Banana Cake.

I heard from my Mom as she was getting settled in her roomette on the train.  She has a bed and a bathroom, receives a newspaper and gets her meals all from her room,  FANCY!

Making Plans

 

I was getting dressed this morning and fixing my hair in the bathroom.  I went back into my room to grab my camera and this is what I found.  I think he has a guilty look on his face.  I've caught him on beds twice today.  Not sure why he is doing that...  He knows he is only allowed to be on them when he is invited.  Someone must be giving out many invitations! 

 

The title of my post today is "Making Plans."  That is what we have been doing lately.  My Mom is coming for a visit all the way from Oregon on the train.  She arrives next Thursday and will stay about 2 weeks.  She thinks she is coming for rest and relaxation.  Can a trip to NYC be relaxing?  Maybe...

I've tried to organize a little bit for our guest.  I've got a menu and activities planned.

 

Today I went and did some grocery shopping at Aldi's.  I still need to get some things I can't find there.  This next week I am going to cook some things to make preparing meals easier when Mom is here.  Like brown ground beef and freeze it.  Make a soup and freeze it.  Make a meatloaf and freeze it etc...  I will put her in #2 sons room on the little bed and bunk the boys together on the bigger bed.  She gets to sleep with Harrison Ford.  Yes... that is because we have 'Indiana Jones' posters up on the wall in that room.  I don't think she will be sad!

Some menu items~  Beef Tips and Gravy with egg noodles, Taco Salad, Clam Chowder, Smoked Turkey and Prime Rib for Thanksgiving, Fish and Chips, White Chicken Chili, Hot Turkey Sandwiches, Fried Chicken, Meatloaf and Spaghetti.

Some things we are planning to do~  NYC sight seeing one day, one day a NYC show, Antiquing along one of our favorite drives in the countryside, Window shopping and tea in a nearby town, make christmas ornaments for our tree, decorate for Christmas and a few other fun things!

This other pile of stuff on my desk is for our annual Christmas letter.  I have copies of the pictures to enclose in the letter but am very unhappy with their quality.  If I didn't 180 of them, I'd print them myself.  But my handy, dandy super mega store processed the photos of the boys and managed to cut off #2 sons head every time. (I've taken the photos in twice to be processed.) Yes, this year the quality of our pictures is terrible because we don't know how to use our new camera.  I was reading the camera manual last night.  I think I need a prescription for a memory drug to remember ALL the things it will do.  I found out last night it will take black and white photos.  (We've had the camera for a YEAR and I didn't know that!)  ~And I still need to write the letter.  I like the format we used last year, a newsletter/newspaper.  I am going to try to get that written tomorrow.  I have our address labels coming by special order.  I've taken my address book and put it on the computer recently, a major task.  Maybe everyone will receive an address label on their envelope!

Just to share a few facts with you~

This is our 13th move in 19 years.  Some of those have been to a place across town but all those homes had a different address.  This is our 10th church to be a part of in 19 years.  We make friends (At least I hope they are friends! ) at each place we have lived.  We like to keep everyone up to date on where we are and how we are, so we send an annual Christmas letter.  Last year I sent about 171 letters.  This year I am expecting to send a few more as we just left our friends at our church in Kodiak, Alaska. 

I like sending out our Christmas letters.  I do not receive 171 responses back but we do get quite a few.  I use the Christmas cards we receive to decorate a special spot in my home.

Last picture is the kitty trying to be center of attention.  Can you get much typing done when they rub on the monitor and step on the keyboard?  It is fun to have her walk on the piano!

 

 

 

Two Wheeled Adventure

 

We spent a little time with my friend Allison and her daughter Sienna this afternoon.  Allison was happy to share homemade chocolate chip cookies and hot cocoa with us.  It is a little chilly here but not uncomfortably chilly (it's about 44 degrees.)

Random Thoughts

 

(Thanks onehappymomma for this idea )

 

Outside my Window...It is a beautiful fall afternoon.  The leaves are falling like rain.  The ground is covered with beautiful, colorful leaves.  My favorite colors are the deep reds and brilliant oranges... but I also am partial to the yellows!

I am thinking...about the election results last night.  I find comfort in the verse:  

" If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."

II Chronicles 7: 14 

From the school room...Today, and this week, a lot of review.  Today was review of colors we have learned.

I am thankful for...A whole LOT...My home, husband, children, salvation, church... and more!             

From the kitchen...Tonight will be hamburger gravy on cooked white rice and spiced green beans, maybe with a small green salad.

I am wearing...tan skirt with striped cream top, with long socks (planning on wearing my dress boots tonight at church.) 

I am reading...Mysteries.  I just finished one last night and will start another tonight.

I am hoping...there are many things I hope for ~ I'm praying about most of them.

I am creating... my blog...thinking about creating some watches (I'll have to post pictures of the watches soon)

I am hearing...the clothes dryer bang and clang.

Around the house... My bed is made.  Kitchen counters are clean.  There is a load of clean dishes in the dishwasher.  There are no rugs on the floor in the bathroom, (They are white and get dirty fast!)

One of my favorite things... laying in my bed with my mattress warmer turned on reading a good book and munching on homemade popcorn.

A few plans for the rest of the week...Tonight is the start of Missions Conference at our church.  It will be fun to see slide presentations and hear some great preaching the next three days. I am bringing food for the missionaries and our Pastors on Saturday morning: scrambled eggs and fried potatoes and Sunday: a GREAT big green salad.

I am sharing... more pictures of the view from my kitchen window.

 

Halloween Alternative

 

We do not celebrate Halloween.  We do not even try to do 'holiday' alternatives.  Our favorite Halloween times were spent at a church we used to attend.  Looking to spend an evening where we wouldn't be at home to answer the door, we had planned a potluck meal at church.  The next year a few more people were going to attend.  The Pastor heard what we were doing and he suggested we have 'Popcorn Preaching.'  Every man and boy could present a 5 minute message or read verses of scripture or people could sing, AND we'd have potluck.  Needless to say, we had sooo much fun.  Popcorn preaching night ended up being on New Years Eve also.  I wish our current church had something similar!

Tonight we are having a Mama made potluck of all sorts of sinfully good things.  Vegetable pizza, crackers, cheese, cheeseballs, summer sausage, baguette bread slices, spreadable cheese, spinach dip, grapes, apples, caramel dip and chocolate marshmallow dessert.  We are also having Fake Orange Julius mocktails.  Yummy!

We are also watching movies Crusade (about a time traveler) and The Golden Compass (this is to compare to the book on tape we 'read'.)  FUN! FUN!

Wishing you were here!

 

Did It Again

 

 

We've learned a few things taking pictures the last couple of days.  One thing we learned is we used a different camera last year.  The other thing we learned is that it is always a good idea to read the instruction manual before you set out to take 100's of pictures.  We headed out to one of the same spots to retake a few pictures yesterday afternoon.  A storm was coming to the area and we had a lot more clouds than on Sunday.  I changed blouses as I did not think the the other was very flattering to me.  We changed a setting on the camera but the pictures still turned out imperfect.  I doubt we'll go take anymore.  After this storm blows through we'll probably not have the pretty backgrounds anymore and the weather is definitely getting chillier.  We managed to get a few good pictures.  That we'll use for our Christmas pictures.  Enjoy some more OOPPSS pictures!

 

 

 

More Beautiful Fall

 

We don't claim to be experts on anything we do.  We took some pictures yesterday for our annual Christmas letter.  We didn't mess with the setting on the camera before our little photo shoot.  I had the camera set up to take pictures for my blog.  Therefore when we zoomed the lenz to get close up shots of our  faces we lost clarity.  So we are going back out this afternoon to take a few more shots with different camera settings.

Enjoy these OOPPSS pics!