November News

Pumplefest:  What a fun name for a Fall party where you have to bring either a pumpkin or apple dish!  The Wallace's moved here in July and we have enjoyed getting to know their family.  It was the tradition where they lived previously to have a Pumplefest party and vote for their favorite pumpkin and apple dishes.  I daringly tried out a new recipe of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies which were good, but weren't voted number one.  :)  We certainly enjoyed our evening of adult conversations and good food.  And the boys were excited to have a sitter.  It worked out well.  :)

Football:  It's becoming a pretty strong tradition at our house to watch football on Sunday afternoons.  In fact, the boys asked to watch football a while back when Nathan was out of town.  :)  Anyway, this past Sunday the boys were both pretending to be football players and would run from one end of the house to the other.  They wore their super hero capes which of course makes them run faster!  We had to cheer for their team and even got to watch a tackle.  Fun times.

Speaking of football, on Sat. the 3rd, my parents joined us to watch Dordt's home football game in the afternoon.  The boys did enjoy watching, but I think they were most excited about the merry-go-round that Grandma took them to.  I think Dorian was a little motion sick from the merry-go-round and fell asleep on the couch when we got home around 4:00.  He ended up sleeping from then on until morning!  The rest of us ate grilled steak for supper and then we played Settlers of Catan after Levi went to bed.  It was fun...not just because I won...but that was fun too.  :)

Christian:  Dorian's friend from kindergarten was recently diagnosed with cancer.  Horrible.  I hate cancer.  At the teacher's request, Dorian found out at school and told me later that he almost cried.  He said that it made him sad that he was going to be sick from the medicine and lose his hair.  And he told me that his mom must be really sad too.  It is sad.  But the thing that I loved about our conversation was how empathetic Dorian was.  His heart is big.  There are times when I have a hard time seeing eye to eye with him.  At a moment like this, I was reminded again of his loving and caring heart.  Please join us in praying for Christian Postma and his family.  http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/christianpostma

Election Day: With the recent time change, the boys were up before 6:00. :( Nathan took them to go and get donuts from Casey's Bakery and then he was going to take them along with him to vote. Well, plans got mixed up a bit because I was hungry and also needed to vote. So they came home first and there was still plenty of time before needing to leave for school at 8 to all go over and vote. The boys were very interested. :) Levi thought that we were going to see the president. We were thankful that there were no lines, so voting took about 10 minutes. Later that morning, Levi and I were having seconds on the donuts and he informed me that he would like to be the president some day. And moments later wondered if presidents can eat donuts. :) It made me smile!

Some other things that made me smile:
The fun file box that I bought at Target makes me happy and it made me even happier when I cleared off my side of the desk and dusted it.  So often the desk looks like a complete disaster of papers and other things that need to be taken care of.  I'm determined to keep it looking neater!  :)

Yeah!  I was excited to borrow Kerry's Cricut for a few days and finish this sign that I had started making at MOPS.  It also makes me happy that Thanksgiving is coming soon!

I'm excited about having some time and motivation to work on the boy's scrapbooks this past week!  I'm going to be caught up in their books through Christmas of last year by tonight.  :)

Dorian was very excited about his Pilgrim hat and the Thanksgiving dinner that he had at school.  So it made me happy to get an email from his teacher with this picture attached.

Last night Dorian and Levi were very excited about what they made at JAM.  Do you like Dorian's awesome King's crown?  It made me happy to see them making their usual Sunday night pizzas.

Some things that made me not so happy:
Well, it seemed like I had a cold that lasted forever (2 weeks actually) and some days it just really had me drained and worn out.  But the good news is that for the last couple of days I'm feeling myself again! 

Looking forward:
I'm really looking forward to the Thanksgiving weekend!  Nathan made stuffing and I made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies which are both in the freezer for our Thanksgiving dinner at mom and dad's house.  I have the ingredients to make 2 pumpkin pies on Wednesday for a dinner that they are having at church.  I'm working on getting a shopping list and coupons together for our shopping day on Friday.  And I can't wait to take out our Christmas decorations and have the boys help put ornaments on the tree again this year.  I did put greenery and lights on our railing already one day last week when I noticed that our pumpkins were rotting.  It was super nice out and the boys were playing outside.  It's a fun time of year!