A Belated Thanksgiving: the people

Lincoln

Practicing photo-bombing

Bwak-bwak-bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak!!!

Samwise Gamgee (his preferred nickname)

My favoritest little people!

Mason, practicing for his senior picture pose...totally on his own...maybe by then we'll have figured out a way to tame his mane...

Elise

Trevor David

Jeff, soon-to-be MD

Missy the photographer

Scotty C, sooner-to-be MD

Auntie Marni

And one of me, just for good measure! Stephen was mostly working when the cameras were out, but he took a couple of days off. What an amazing week!

A Belated Thanksgiving: the food

Knowing I was going to be in charge of a very large, very important meal caused me to do some planning ahead--and this worked wonderfully well!

We also had both sets of missionaries (sisters & elders) in our ward over for the feast, so I contacted their parents to find out food traditions...hence the egg nog and "pickle bites".

I soaked the turkey in brine for 24 hours before any of this began, and it was the best turkey I've ever made! Okay, so it was my first one, but it was incredible!

Marni helped Elise make an incredible apple pie...as well as pumpkin pie. I have yet to make a pie crust. :)

Deviled eggs

My roll helper/sampler 

My incredible rolls (in my humble opinion). The secret is butter. Lots and lots of butter.

With a shortage of counter space an an abundance of food, I had to get creative with where I placed the turkey roaster and 3 crock pots. Mason and Stephen figured out how many amps each appliance pulled so we wouldn't blow any fuses. :) Scott & Marni's room smelled like turkey for a day or two...the front room like mashed potatoes and the laundry room like ham and stuffing. YUM!!!

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of our dessert: we had 8, yes, 8, different types of pie. Apple, ice cream, maple pumpkin, pecan, pumpkin, banana cream, yogurt, peanut butter, as well as an orange/cream cheese roll. A-mazing!

I think I could do this again--my master plan (and my brothers who peeled 10# of potatoes!) made everything flow very smoothly. I probably didn't need all the side dishes...but I think I'll at least keep the homemade cranberry sauce. Happy Thanksgiving!!

A Belated Thanksgiving: Aunts and Uncles

It is possible that this last Thanksgiving was my favorite Thanksgiving ever. At any rate, it was my first time ever to actually host the big day...and being grown up enough to be in charge of all the food. We even had real company come! For no other reason than to be with us over the holiday! It was simply fantastic.

My brother Scotty and his wife Marni flew in from Arizona, and my brother Jeff and his wife Missy drove up from Chicago. Missy is a photographer and took lots of fun pictures, and even brought along her old camera and taught Elise some things!

Without further ado, the aunts and uncles...

On your mark...get set...GO!!!

C'mon, Scott! You can catch them yet!

Chillin' in the kitchen

Dr. Jeff checking everyone's ears

Killer Bunnies with Aunt Missy

Couch snuggles

Possibly my favorite picture...

...or maybe this one

Neither Jeff & Missy nor Scotty & Marni have been able to have kids, so if you know anyone who needs an incredible adoptive family, look no further!

QOTD

Mason has been playing with software that changes the pitch of songs to be very high. Sammy, on hearing the resulting high-pitched, annoying songs, said, "Mason is changing all of the singing to make it sound either like chipmunks or tenors!"

Video surveillance & faith

Last night I went downstairs to do my nightly are-you-still-breathing check on the kiddos, and found a cord going from our tv screen (which was on the floor in Mason & Sammy's room) out the door. I followed the cord to...our camcorder, set up on a tripod, pointed at the stairs! I about died laughing!

Mason had set it all up so that he and Sammy could see us coming down the stairs and pretend to be asleep when we came in the room. What a kid!

***

Today Lincoln came into the dining room where I was reading, carrying his copy of the Book of Mormon and declared, "I need to read my scriptures!" After a short pause, he decided, "Well, I think I'll listen to them today." I set him up with my phone and he returned to the front room. About 10 minutes later he came back and said, "I just wanted to keep listening so I listened to 2 chapters."

***

Tonight when I was tucking Trevor in I asked him, "Do you know that Heavenly Father loves you?" He responded by kissing the air and saying, "Hevbly Fahder kiss." Then he held his little arms up in the air, like he was going to give someone a hug and said, "Can't see Hevbly Fahder. Give hug!"

Edison & paper cups

Sambo and Edison found some small paper cups that I purchased a while ago and have been busily making towers and pyramids. This morning Edison pulled out the cups again and started making 2- and 3-dimensional pyramids. I started asking him questions and eventually he posed the question: "I wonder if there is an equation to explain this?"

I thought of the 3-dimensional equation as 1^2 + 2^2 + 3^2 + 4^2 + 5^2 + ...x^2.

Edison whipped out the following for 3-dimensional pyramids:

var number = 0;
var stack = 5;

for(var i = 0; i <= stack; i++){
    number += pow(i, 2);
}
fill(255, 0, 0);
text(number, 100, 100);

And for 2-dimensional pyramids:

var number = 0;
var stack = 5;

for(var i = 0; i <= stack; i++){
    number += i;
}
fill(255, 0, 0);
text(number, 100, 100);

If you enter the above into Khan Academy, changing the "var stack" number to whatever you want the length of one of the sides of the base of the pyramid to be, the answer of "how many cups will you need?" will appear in the box to the right. Go and try it!

How I'm doing

Today was a great day. Yesterday wasn't so hot, but I guess what I'm feeling is normal--the ups and downs and unproductive days mixed in with my normal cheerful productiveness. My kids are so sweet--in perfect sincerity they each asked me sometime today how I was really doing. Mason, when I was tucking him in, asked me, and commented that this morning started off rough, but I seemed to be much happier in the afternoon. I love that they notice things like that, and take the time to check in on me. :) 


I've decided that trying to hide my feelings and why I'm acting so irregularly isn't good for me, and that it is okay for them to see me struggle. Giving myself permission to not be perfect has been very freeing for me since my downs are further down than normal.

I've also started really answering people when they ask how I'm doing or how my mom is doing. Because frankly, I'm sad and scared and worried and I need people to talk to to help me make it through this--but I am okay because I am going to make it through this. 

My mom is still in the hospital (since Monday) due to a doctor's mistake that caused a lung to collapse, but she should be home tomorrow. She'll start chemo in a couple of days and we are all anxious about what that will do to her. 

Saying things like that out loud to people who care is painfully healing. To actually say the words is scary because it makes them more real, but it is wonderful to know that people really truly care and will let me cry when I need to cry. I feel closer to everyone with whom I share my real feelings. 

I've also decided that I'm just going to cry sometimes. The more I try to hold in my tears the more scrunched up my face gets, and I don't want it to get stuck that way. :) So I just let the tears roll. It's wonderful how loving and understanding people are!

Slump

From Dr. Seuss:

Wherever you fly, you'll be the best of the best.
Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don't.
Because, sometimes, you won't.

I'm sorry to say so
but, sadly, it's true
that Bang-ups
and Hang-ups
can happen to you.

You can get all hung up in a prickle-ly perch.
And your gang will fly on.
You'll be left in a Lurch.

You'll come down from the Lurch
with an unpleasant bump.
And the chances are, then,
that you'll be in a Slump.

And when you're in a Slump, 
you're not in for much fun.
Un-slumping yourself is not easily done.

For the last couple of weeks I have been in a Slump. Nutcracker is over, Gifts of the Heart is over, my mom is sick and I am most assuredly in a Slump. Sleeping in, wasting time on Facebook, reading brain candy books, letting the laundry pile up, staying up late watching shows, saying "sorry I can't do that" too often. Not award-winning behavior, especially for a homeschooling mother. :)

As I was thinking about my Slump today I decided there are a couple of reasons why I'm here. One is simply that I don't have any looming big projects, and I am recovering from my most recent projects. The other is the news about my mom.

I think I am trying to keep myself from thinking. Because if I sit and think about what could happen I start to get all weepy, and I hate being weepy. It's so much easier to not have to use my brain at all, and goodness knows there are plenty of things waiting to waste away my time!

NO! 
That's not for you!

Somehow you'll escape 
all that waiting and staying.
You'll find the bright places
where Boom Bands are playing.

On and on you will hike.
And I know you'll hike far
and face up to your problems
whatever they are.

This week my goal is to do that: to face up to my problems, whatever they are. To give myself permission to think about the worst-case scenario and accept that it might happen. To pull myself out of this Slump and start accomplishing things again. To look beyond myself and see what those around me need.

So...be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray 
or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea,
you're off to Great Places! Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So...get on your way!