10 things.

i do not enjoy christmas songs about mary. every other song on my pandora christmas station is about mary. the worst so far: "mary's christmas baby".....a horrific cheese-fest of a song intended to replace {mock?} "merry christmas, baby". there are no words. christian radio and i have a very tumultuous relationship and it is not helped any by christmas music.

a couple months ago jake decided the girls needed a tree house. he worked on it most of yesterday and is almost finished. he says i have to paint it. then he laughs meniacally because he knows i'm terrified of heights.

tomorrow is our 12th anniversary. the other day some girls and i were talking about how if we could re-do our weddings, we'd have changed just about everything. the #1 thing i would've changed is the date. you might think that someone whose birthday is on christmas would've realized that she'd also never have an anniversary if she got married on thanksgiving weekend. you'd be wrong.

tonight is the teddy bear toss at the hockey game. right now jake is out trying to find stuffed animals for us to throw. but first he went and did our banking {my least favorite place in the world to go. seriously.}. i love that man.

we hosted thanksgiving this year for the first time. it was sort of last minute, but surprisingly low-stress. we ate ribs, laughed hysterically with our favorite cousins and watched several episodes of big bang theory. not quite tradtional, but perfect nonetheless.

i have done no christmas shopping. my kids have given me no ideas of things they want. this makes me simultaneously proud and panicked.

the only black friday shopping i ever do is at rite aid. shaving cream, toilet paper and holiday m&m's on sale? now those are my kind of deals!

i'm so thankful that my girls' best friends are all the children of my best friends. i don't think i could do this mom, wife, home-school thing without them. we're studying california history together this year and it has been amazing, fun and educational! we are so blessed!!

we did our history co-op and a math lesson this week and that's it. but we played several games of yahtzee so we'll call it a success.

i should be getting decorations and our trees out right now, but i'm stalling.

happy weekend, friends.

a girl and her hen

In early August, we went to our first 4-H poultry meeting.

The other moms mentioned that the kids have to stand in line and hold their chickens during showmanship at the fair. For an hour or more!

My heart sank. There was no way Lauren was going to be able to do that.

She was terrified of her chicken and I had to bribe/beg/threaten her to hold her inside the coop, even for 10 minutes.

On the way home from that meeting I broke the news to Lauren.

She cried the rest of the way home. And for days afterward. Every time she thought about it she'd say she couldn't do it. Didn't want to do it.

But we kept going to the meetings. I could tell she was trying so hard during the meetings to keep it together in front of the other kids who seemed to be naturals at this whole chicken thing.

She still flinched and yelled out when Elizabeth would flap her wings. She still didn't like being anywhere near the bird's beak or feet. I had to constantly remind her to put her shoulders down and try to relax.

Then one day, she went into the coop without being made to.

She sat on the ground and coaxed Elizabeth into her lap where the bird promptly fell asleep.

That was about 3 weeks ago.

It's been all smiles and hugs and soaring self-confidence since then....

At this morning's meeting our poultry leader said to me, "I cannot believe how far Lauren has come in the last month! She's a different child with that hen! I'm so proud of her!"

And I had to fight back tears. Because I'm so proud of her, too!

Even if she doesn't win. Even if her hen gets disqualified. Even if the judges don't see in Elizabeth what the rest of us do, it's still worth every second and every penny.

The things Lauren has learned have been worth far more than any blue ribbon.

Tomorrow she {and our other Fair hens} get baths.

I'm not sure who will be more traumatized afterwards, me or the hens. :)

Isaiah 41:9

I am reading my way through "Morning and Evening" by Charles Spurgeon for daily devotions and loving it. The man is just plain brilliant! Most days I read both the morning and evening selection in the morning....and I usually have to re-read it 3 or 4 times in order to digest it all. The man can say a lot in just 2 paragraphs! :) I've also heard tell that he was known for preaching 3 hour sermons back in the day! My brain would've bled from information overload! ha!

Anyway, I found today's evening devotion particularly great and thought I'd share...

"...the Lord calls us not only his servants, but his chosen ones - 'I have chosen thee.' We have not chosen Him first, but He hath chosen us. If we be God's servants, we were not always so; to sovereign grace the change must be ascribed. The eye of sovereignty singled us out, and the voice of unchanging grace declared, 'I have loved the with an everlasting love.' Long ere time began or space was created God had written upon His heart the names of His elect people, had predestined them to be conformed unto the image of His Son, and ordained them heirs of all the fullness of His love, His grace, and His glory. What comfort is here! Has the Lord loved us so long, and will He yet cast us away? He knew how stiffnecked we should be, He understood that our hearts were evil, and yet He made the choice. Ah! our Saviour is no fickle lover. He doth not feel enchanted for awhile with some gleams of beauty from His church's eye, and then afterwards cast her off because of her unfaithfulness. Nay, He married her in old eternity; and it is written of Jehovah, 'He hateth putting away.' The eternal choice is a bond upon our gratitude and upon His faithfulness which neither can disown."

P.S. You know how when you've been reading someone's blog and admiring them for a particular reason {like the fact that they're crafty or they homeschool or whatever} and then suddenly you find out something else about them that makes you like them even more? That's how I feel about Lindsey after she posted this. :)