Live Nativity

Our church is putting on its second live nativity (December 4 & 5) and I'm the costume coordinator again.  A group of us work on the costumes and those days have been teasingly dubbed the Grace Fellowship sweat shop ;-)

(You can see a hint of the costumes to the left but that's only about 1/4 of them)

There are 80 volunteers involved this year and they aren't just from our church.  Wow!

Its fun and exhausting but so worth every minute of it.  Especially when you hear how much it blesses people and reminds them why they celebrate Christmas to begin with.

To all the volunteers..........THANK YOU!!!

What characters are my family this year?  Noelle is Mary, Kyle is a shepherd, Kirk is a wise man, and I'm a villager (so I can help where needed and take pictures :-)  Hopefully, I'll get us together (in costume) for our family Christmas photo.  Some of the families did this last year and the pictures were great!

I am taking off today through Saturday to focus on Thanksgiving and enjoying my family.  I just wanted to share while I had a few minutes.

Decorating?

Yesterday, we spent an interesting evening helping friends decorate for the Oil 150 celebration going on this week. There is a contest and let me tell you, they are out to win! An oil derrick in their front yard, no less! We started at 4:14 PM and finished the helping out part somewhere around 8:30 - 9:00 PM. We had people slowing down to get a good look (some also turned around to get a second look) and a few even parked to watch, lol.

Videos take too long to load so here are some stills from the many videos I took.

Rainbow

Noelle was washing dishes last evening. She looked out the window and saw...

Life Right Now

My life feels so strange lately. I'm sure it has a lot to do with my dad dying from cancer and him not knowing the Lord. But there is so much else that I don't share with anyone but God. Sometimes I feel trapped by my life. Most of the time I just keep moving along and leaning heavily on my Jesus, or like now, just letting Him carry me.

This morning, I was reading a book that was recommended to me. I'm not particularly fond of this author's writing style, it comes across as rather offensive in some areas. However, there is a lot of truth in what she has written. This book was supposed to enlighten me on educating my teens but instead of that, it made me realize the many chains I have on my own life. They are chains that I have no way of removing either.

With this realization, I was struck by a major need to get out of this house and go for a walk. To be out in God's creation. So, I got dressed, grabbed the leash, the dog, a water bottle and my camera. There is a route that I walk sometimes that is about 2 miles long and in the woods for most of it. It was very peaceful and Owen was grateful for the exercise as well.

The first thing we saw that made me get out my camera was this doe. She stood there and watched me get the camera out of the carrier and after the first picture decided to take off.
Trying to take pictures with a dog attached to you is a little difficult, hence the slightly blurry pictures. Here are some of the different views along my walk.Owen loves the woods, so many new smells and so little time with mom dragging you along (or keeping you by her side).I have some video I took as well but its taking too long to upload them. I'll try again later.

Sometimes getting out and about really helps you refocus and recharge.

Pymatuning

On Saturday, we decided to go to Pymatuning Reservoir.

We stopped at the car wash on the way and the kids and I took some goofy pictures.
We had originally planned to go to the deer park (actually a small zoo) but the place was crowded beyond belief (we'll go back on a weekday). We were hungry anyway so headed into Jamestown for some lunch. Then we drove over to the dam to explore.
Next we drove to the other end of the reservoir to feed the carp. Noelle has a joke she tells about how to cook a carp: Take a pine board and nail the carp to the board, cook in a 350 degree oven for 4-5 hours, take out of oven and throw out the carp, eat the pine board ;o)
Here's a couple videos of the hungry buggers:

We stopped at Family Ties on the way home and ate dessert instead of dinner. I mean come on, who has room for dessert after eating a meal? ;o)

To top off the day, we went for a walk to see how progress was coming on the community swimming pool. The plaster crew came all the way from Texas and they were swarming all over the place trying to get things finished for the opening in a few days.

All in all, a very busy day!

Randomness

Our favorite "room" and impatiens.




Some things Noelle has identified.
Owen's new kennel pad, with a zip-off cover I made from an old flannel sheet.

Memorial Day Weekend

Saturday the 23rd

I decided I needed to reclaim my front porch after doing the deck the day before. I hauled everything off, swept up all the leaves so Noelle could dump them over the creek bank, then put everything back in place and made room for our bicycles so they were ready for use.

Kirk cleaned out the fire ring so we could have a fire later in the evening. Then he and Kyle raked, mowed, weed whacked, and cleaned up the chairs for on the front porch. While the guys were doing that, Noelle and I took a planter back to the dollar store to get a smaller one for the deck table.

Dinner was eaten on the deck and it felt so good to have our *outside* room all set up. After clean up, Kirk made a fire and we enjoyed cherry mountain pies with a dollop of vanilla frosting. Mmmm...

Sunday the 24th

We decided to stay home from church and really spend time with just the family. Kirk ran to the store so I could make us all a big breakfast. Waffles, sausage, and eggs eaten on the deck. Beautiful morning!

Tom and Jeannette (Kirk's parents) took us out to lunch for an early 50th birthday present for Kirk. Then we headed over to the cemetery to place flowers on graves and walk around. We saw Great Aunt Jane there and talked with her a while. The kids and I also noticed that the cemetery was loaded with wild strawberry blossoms and began being careful where we stepped ;)

On the way home we stopped at my mom's house for a visit. My mom showed me the bluebird babies in the nest box and then bluebird parents began dive bombing us. I grabbed my camera and attempted to get a picture of one of them in the willow tree.

We were told to come back at 7 pm for a fire/cookout. It was a really nice evening!


Noelle, Larissa, and another little girl ran all over looking for critters and just having a blast together.

As everyone was getting ready to head home,
my mom decided we should all come back together and do it all over again Monday evening.

Monday the 25th

I needed to do some paperwork for the kids' homeschool evaluations on Thursday so Kyle and I stayed home while Kirk and Noelle went for a drive to look at trucks. The two of them also ate a late breakfast at a restaurant. Ky and I are home bodies for the most part so this was fine with us.

The fire/cookout was earlier than the night before. The great thing about the whole weekend was the beautiful weather! It usually rains (it did a little at the cemetery on Sunday but that was it) most of the weekend.

My Busy Day

Its been a busy day here. Kyle, Noelle, and I rode our bikes to a couple yard sales. I found a basically brand new coffee thermos carafe for $2, a little vase for all the flowers Noelle is always picking for me (she's such a sweetie), and some trims for crazy quilting. We got home from doing that and I decided to clear off the deck and sweep it. Got interrupted before cleaning the deck furniture to walk Noelle to the Y for homeschool gym (got over there and found out it had been canceled), went to the dollar store for a few things, then to Save-A-Lot for some more things, then walked home. Found out I needed to make a real grocery shopping trip in the van, so I made a list and off I went. I also bought some Impatiens to plant in a planters on the deck. The kids put the groceries away while I went and finally got the deck furniture hosed down and scrubbed. Came back in and made dinner. Ate, went back outside to put the cushions on the furniture while the kids cleaned up from dinner, then Kyle came outside and helped me haul all the furniture back up onto the deck. Planted my flowers, talked to the neighbors for a few minutes, then came inside and got on the computer. You know what? I'm tired.

On another note -- Kirk's mom called this morning and was talking to the machine, waiting for me to pick up. She wanted to do something special for his 50th birthday. Well, Kirk came home very early from work (not feeling well) and sitting on the computer, heard her message. I started laughing as I picked up the phone and informed her he had heard the whole thing. He said something to the effect of, "Over my dead body." Lol. Kevin's (Kirk's brother) girlfriend surprised him with a 50th birthday party last year and I was told that I better not do something similar.

Another weekend...

Friday -- walked around town going to yard sales, payed bills, perused some stores, road our bikes to the library, walked to the store for a rotisserie chicken and some Italian bread for dinner, watched The Andy Griffith Show on DVD from Netflix

Saturday -- did laundry, dishes, played on the internet, worked on my CQ square, found some cross stitch projects I started years ago and did some work on one (the bee sampler to go on a pillow for Noelle), made a pasta salad for dinner, Kirk and Noelle went to Walmart for a giant sub for dinner and to get Noelle some shorts, watched The Andy Griffith Show on DVD (another one)

Sunday -- Kirk had to work today, kids and I went to church without him, I had power point today and recorded the sermon from our guest speaker Ed Black (a missionary to Croatia), took Noelle to Walmart to exchange her shorts (dad let her buy a size too small), got home and did dishes, walked to the store, made coleslaw and chicken drumsticks for dinner, did dishes, relaxed for a while, then wrote on this blog :)

Off to bed now, night all!

Firsts of the Season

Nothing smells as good as clothes hung out on the line.
Our washer is broken and I had to go to the laundromat. I had a lot of laundry to dry but only had $1.25 left after washing it all. I used that to start the towels drying (nothing feels worse to me than a towel hung on the line soaked, only to dry like sandpaper). I brought everything home and most went on the line. Jeans and unmentionables went in our dryer at home.

The washers at the laundromat don't hold as much as mine so I don't like this option. Kirk went looking for a used washer and found one. It was $500 brand new, is three years old and they want $250 for it. We looked at new washers without fancy settings and they were $350 - $399. Still thinking which route to go.

It was very hot in the afternoon, about 85 degrees and Noelle decided to enjoy a cooling trek in the creek.
When its hot like that I do not like to turn the oven on or stand over a hot stove to cook dinner. We did a fend for yourself night and then had sherbet for dessert.

Our Saturday

Its a beautiful day out today! About 70 degrees and sunny with a breeze. It feels so good to be outside again, especially since they are calling for rain the next two days.

Kirk and the kids did yard work and I gave Owen a bath which is always a challenge. I like to clean him up using a kiddie pool and the hose because he is too big to get into my claw foot tub and then out again all wet. Then I took him for a walk and then back home to trim his toenails. As you can imagine I don't do this any more than I have to ;)

Well, off to enjoy the fresh air some more. Have a great day!