Happy Halloween

Bwahhhh!

Fingerprint Friday

Never been a big fan of mushrooms.
They usually creep me out.
I hate to mow over them.
It just makes me cringe.
And I hate to eat them.
They are a fungus afterall.
Yuck.

But this mushroom caught my eye the other day.
I was amazed at the intricacy.
Kinda' cute, actually.

And I was reminded that even a mushroom

is a creation of God.

Ecclesiastes 3:11a

He has made everything beautiful in its time.

Each week pamperingbeki hosts Fingerprint Friday and uses a song by Steven Curtis Chapman as a springboard. Join in. It's a great way to be reminded of God's presence.

How Did We Not Notice?

When I was looking for halloween pics,
I found this one.
Brookie and I laughed.
I suppose, at the time,
(I was pregnant with Ezzie here)
Ryan's shoes were okay?
They look a little oversized now.
Wish my legs were that skinny.
Notice I'm wearing jeans.
Smart move on my part.
Love you, babe.
Please don't be mad at me...
for letting you go out like that.
Oh, and for making fun of you.
On a blog.
That anyone could stumble upon.
That, too.

More Costumes

If anyone is like me.
Who waits until the last minute to come up with costumes.
Here's a few ideas that I've used over the years.

Brookelynn's first halloween.
I always try to have the basket match the costume.

Jake's first halloween.
He's a Royal's baseball player.
Jakie screamed most of the night.
His little face is all red from crying so much.

Brookie was a flower.
Her hat and skirt were made out of crepe paper.

Brookie is a Care Bear.
Just sweats and felt.
I glued felt ears to a headband.
Ryan drew the moon on felt.
Which I then glued to the sweats.

Jakie was a ghost.
Poor guy.
It kept shifting.
He couldn't see.
We finally made it to my parents.
It was dark.
And cold.
I wimped out and didn't want to go out anymore.
My brother took his kids and my kids
around our parents' neighborhood.
Jakie ran into a mailbox at one point.

Brookie the chef.
She already had the apron.
Made by Ryan's very creative aunt.
The chef's hat I made out of poster board
and white fabric and fabric spray glue.
I told you I don't sew.

Jakie the robot.
He looked so cute.
But he was very uncomfortable.
Poor guy.
Again.
Yes.
There's a pattern here.
Jakie and halloween are not the best combo.

And here's Ezzie as a scarecrow.
He liked it a lot better than Brookie did.
My very favorite costume?
I cannot find a picture of.
I have looked thru ALL our pictures.
It was before the days of our digital camera.
As all of these others are.
Hoping my mom has a good one.
That post might have to wait until next year, though.

Cookies

I just have to say this.
Before I do this post.
That I love this little boy.
He is watching Emperor's New Groove.
For the 3rd, 4th, 5th time within a week?
He is giggling like he's never seen it before.
So cute.
Okay.
So here is a cookie recipe that my kids love.
It is easy, yummy and quick.
Not counting the time it takes to chill the dough.
Which I don't always do.
Cuz it's usually 2:45
when I think about an afternoon snack for the kids.
Who get home at 3:15.
S.T.A.R.V.I.N.G.

Chocolate Waffle Iron Cookies
1 square baking chocolate (or 3 T. cocoa and 1 T. margarine)
1/2 c. margarine
2 eggs
3/4 c. white sugar
1 c. sifted flour
1 tsp. vanilla

Melt and stir together chocolate and margarine. Beat in eggs. Add sugar. Fold in flour and vanilla. Chill dough. Put 1 heaping teaspoon of dough in each quarter of a greased waffle iron and bake 1 1/2 minutes. Carefully remove with a fork. Frost with chocolate butter frosting. Makes around 2 dozen cookies.

I rarely have the baking chocolate squares.

Almost always use the substitute.

And I never sift the flour.

May be wrong.

But seriously.

Who has time?

Oh, and I nearly always double it.

2 dozen cookies does not last long enough.

Pretty tasty.

And after they are frosted they look like

little chocolate turtles.

So much fun.

Leaves

Need any?

We've got a few.

Lady Liberty

I don't sew.
But I also don't like to spend much on halloween costumes.
I don't have a problem borrowing costumes from people.
Who have clearly spent money.
I just don't want to spend the money myself.
I'm cheap that way.

Three years ago Brookie wanted to be the Statue of Liberty.
Here's what we came up with.

It was super easy.

I found the flat sheet at a discount store.

Just wrapped it around her

and safety pinned it in a few places.

The torch is a paper towel tube,

and a paper bowl with a hole cut thru the bottom

and some orange and yellow tissue paper stuffed in the tube.

The crown was a paper plate cut out big enough

to fit her head like a headband.

And spikes cut out of posterboard and stapled to the paper plate.

The tablet was a big hunk of styrofoam.

I etched the date July IV MDCCLXXVI on it.

The torch, crown and tablet were spray painted to match the sheet.

Warning: the spray paint does eat the styrofoam a little.

We found some witchy/monster face paint.

It was the perfect color to paint her face.

By the way, we don't do scary, gory, evil costumes.

Yucky, I say.

And there you have it.

A cheap, fun, cute, easy costume.

She LOVED it.

A Little Bit of Everything

And a whole lot of nothing.

Jakie got sick Thursday night.
Brookie got it Saturday evening.
And then I got it Sunday morning.
Yesterday evening Ezzie and Jobie got it.
Ryan?
He's escaped it.
So far.
I think it might be H1N1.
But not going in to get tested.
What good would it do anyway?

When we turned on our furnace a couple of weeks ago.
All of our fire alarms went off.
Odd.
It was like 11:00 at night.
None of our kids woke up.
Should I be nervous about that?

I'm typing this with a sick Jobie on my lap.
Makes things a little difficult.
He's one hot little boy.
But so sweet.

Our new favorite book?
rhyming dust bunnies.
Jobie found it at the library last week.
We have read it A LOT.
Pretty much memorized it.
It's funny.
And short.
Perfect.

Brookie just informed me
that since she's been sick,
her nails have gotten whiter.
What?

And, Ezzie asked me this morning:
Mommy, how many days until Christmas?
So, I counted.
66.
Oh, my.

Here's our Christmas card from last year.

Just because.

Fingerprint Friday

I Chronicles 29:11,13
Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power
and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,
for everything in heaven and earth is Yours.
Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom;
you are exalted as head over all.
Now, our God, we give You thanks,
and praise Your glorious name.

Each week pamperingbeki hosts Fingerprint Friday and uses a song by Steven Curtis Chapman as a springboard. Join in. It's a great way to be reminded of God's presence.

Tip of the Day

When you fill the tub for the little boys' bath.
Don't go into the next room to work on laundry.

Because you will forget that you left the water running.

Even though you can clearly hear the water.

And the boys' excitement escalating.

So, just remember to poke your head in occassionally.

Then you will realize your stupidity.

Be amazed by your ability to filter sounds.

And turn the water off.

Odd

I had never seen this shirt.
Until I pulled it out of the dryer.
No one in my family claims it.
And it's been far too cool
for anyone to have worn it anyway.
In the same load,
I found one of Ryan's dress socks.
It had been missing for a few weeks.

Interesting how laundry can multiply.
Yet disappear at the same time.
Only to reappear at a later date.
One of life's conundrums.

Unpretty

This is not a good day.

It's cold.
Not autumn cold.
It feels like winter cold.

I had the first day of Bible study at my house.
Ezra was very naughty this morning.
It wasn't the ornery kind of naughty.
It was the naughty kind of naughty.
The heart issue kind.
The kind that makes me cry to Jesus.

So, by the time Bible study came along...
at 9 o' clock.
Yes, only 9.
I was not in the right spiritual frame of mind.
To lead.
To start things off on the right foot.
I was weary.
Already.

We began the Beth Moore study on Esther.
Ironically, the subtitle is: it's tough being a woman.
I'm thinking: it's tough being a mom.

Fortunately, today was the intro dvd session.
We watch the dvd one week.
Then discuss the Bible study portion the next.
So, this was not the week for much discussion.
Good thing.
I didn't have the energy to put together coherent thoughts.
Discussion and coherent thoughts will happen next week.
Hopefully.

After Bible study.
More naughtiness.
More tears.

Pretty much unpretty.
Unpretty weather.
Unpretty hearts.
Unpretty faces.
But, thank the Lord.
Tomorrow is another day.
And His mercies are new every morning.

(And, just so you know, I did not take these pics this morning in the middle of all of this. Ezra took these himself many days ago. He loves to play with the camera.)

Sniff, Sniff

Just looking through some old pics this morning.
I miss that long hair.
And those curls.
Tell me.
Why did we cut it?

Winter is approaching.
I'm letting it grow.
It needs to be long for winter.
Too keep them warm.

Fingerprint Friday

God knows how many leaves are on each tree.
Year after year after year.

God knows the colors those leaves will turn in autumn.
Year after year after year.

God knows precisely where those leaves will fall.
Year after year after year.
Job 25:2
Dominion and awe belong to God;
He establishes order in the heights of heaven.

Each week pamperingbeki hosts Fingerprint Friday and uses a song by Steven Curtis Chapman as a springboard. Join in. It's a great way to be reminded of God's presence.

Two Things...

I love about fall.

One.
The smell of the fallen leaves.
Have you gotten a whiff yet?
Get closer.
Mmmm.
Great scent.

Two.
Long pants.
Why?
So I don't have to shave as much.
Not that I'm great at it anyway.
But now I can put it off even more.
My poor hubby.

I'm sparing you the picture here.
I'm considerate like that.
You're welcome.

Soup's On

Fall is a great time for soup.
Ryan is not crazy about it.
But he often is at the mercy of my whims.
And sometimes soup is my whim.

Here's one that I created a couple of weeks ago.
My kids all liked it.
That's pretty amazing.
We'll call it Rice and Ham Soup.
Because coming up with creative names
is really not my thing.
So, if any of you have a great name.
Let me know.

Also, this might be a little unconventional.
I don't cook normally.
So I will tell you what I did.
Change it however you want.
That's the beauty of recipes.

My hubby's aunt heard this quote the other day:
"A recipe is a map,
if you want to have more fun,
go off the map."

I must like to have a lot of fun.
I go off the map all the time.

And, without any further ado.

Rice and Ham Soup
1 box long grain and wild rice (I used Kroger)
4 cups water
2 tsp. chicken bouillon

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup chopped green pepper

1 cup milk

1 cup diced ham

1 cup frozen corn

Four hours or so before serving place rice, seasoning packet from rice, water and bouillon in crock pot on low. About one hour before serving, cook onion and green pepper in microwave for 1 minute. Add to crock pot along with milk, ham and corn. Total cooking time about 4 hours.

There it is.
Pretty simple.
You could probably add it all in at the beginning.
But this is the way I made it.

Oh, and I actually used banana pepper.
Instead of green pepper.
Because I have them growing like crazy in my garden.
But I'm sure green pepper will be fabulous in it.
And I don't know how easy it is
to get banana peppers in the grocery store.

Let me know if you try it another way.
Or with an added ingredient.
It would be good with cheese in it too.
Swiss, maybe?
Yummy.

And I'm serious about a name for it.
Ideas, please.
There's gotta be something better than
Rice and Ham Soup.
b.o.r.i.n.g.

Monday

Put up your dukes, Monday.

We've got too much to do.

No time for post-weekend blues.

No knock out punch from you today.

Fingerprint Friday

I've been thinking about God's love this week.

I was in the middle of making supper.
It had been a busy day.
Jobie had not had a nap.
He was sitting on a stool watching me.
He looked like he was about to fall asleep.
So I picked him up.
He laid his head on my shoulder.
I took a break.
Sat down with him.
He fell asleep almost immediately.
It's been awhile since he's gone to sleep in my arms.
As I was looking at him,
I thought my heart could burst with love.
And I began thinking about God's love.
How He loves me more than that even.
How He sent His Son for me.
How a perfect God could love a sinner.
Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates
His own love for us in this:
While we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.

John 3:16
For God so loved the world
that He gave His one and only Son,
that whoever believes in Him
shall not perish
but have eternal life.

Each week pamperingbeki hosts Fingerprint Friday and uses a song by Steven Curtis Chapman as a springboard. Join in. It's a great way to be reminded of God's presence.

I'm Safe

I feel so protected.
Spidey and the Hulk showed up yesterday.
Along with Squishy the dinosaur.

Scary name, right?
Squishy.

And they are all on the merry-go-round.
Which makes them even more frightening.

Don't mess with this dynamic duo.
They might sic Squishy on you.
POW!
WHAM!