Thanksgiving this year was celebrated at Mike and Jonalyn's house.  I'm not sure if the highlight was the bacon-draped smoked ham or the recently completed man cave.  Either way I'm thankful for them both.  Turkey is overrated. Perhaps if you draped bacon over it...  Anyway, after gorging on the ham we made our way to the man cave.  I thought it was awesome watching movies on the HD projector.  That experience pales in comparison to playing Wii on the HD projector.  We played one of those dance games intended to make you abuse your body while humiliating yourself in front of your family and friends.  Up until this point I didn't realize just how bad a shape I was in.  Actually, I am in shape - a pear shape.  Even so I have some pretty good dance moves (you can't tell from the pictures).  Despite nearly losing my lunch (perhaps this shouldn't have been a post lunch activity) and being out of breath for the better part of half and hour we had the best Thanksgiving in at least a year.

Martha busting some moves


Me getting down with my bad self.

We were having a family discussion the other night about riding bikes without training wheels.  As a motivation we promised them a new bicycle when they reached the goal.  Emily was the first to learn.  Remarkable she did it mostly on her own.  Courtney picked up the skill shortly after Emily.  The thought of a new bike really got them fired up.  Benjamin, however, is a different story.  I asked him what would get him excited about riding his bike and that we want to put a "carrot" out there to get him motivated.  He said, "I don't like carrots.  Put a Wii game out there."  I'll give him points for honesty!

Oh the fun of little girls and giggling moments. Tonight the girls asked - more like pleaded - for Jonathan or I to please paint their finger nails. I was busy putting dinner on the table and thinking about all the things I still needed to do before I could go to bed... the list of things that never end. So while eating dinner and listening to the retelling of their day I decided the long list would just have to wait. We finished dinner and I told the girls to go get the nail polish. Admist the screaming and giggling they ran helter skelter up the stairs to retrieve the precious bounty. Oh how I love that sound... However, Half-way through painting their nails I received an important phone call and asked the girls to wait until I was finished with my phone call to finish the painting. They were a little disappointed, but took it really well. It took me longer than I anticipated, but when I got off the phone the girls - with radar on - came running so I could finish the most important task of the day - NAILS! I decided it was time to amp up the excitement and started singing a made up song - "we're doing a toe party, yes we are" to the tune of "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands". The girls started giggling, laughing and dancing with abandon to my little ditty. Then after singing and dancing for a bit we got down to business. And after all is said and done, the nail party was sooo much more fun and more lasting than meal planning, grocery list making and laundry.

 So to all you busy Mom's... take time out to enjoy the nail parties... They are sooo worth the giggling and laughter.... Next I will have to fight a Star Wars character with light saber in hand to hand combat agains my son.... Oh the life of a Mom, and the MANY hats I wear in a single day.

You think you know your kids and then they throw you a curve ball.  The other day we were watching "Nim's Island".  It is the story of a 10 year old girl that lives with her father on an island out in the middle of the ocean.  Aside from a satellite internet connection they are pretty much cut off from the world.  They have supplies dropped shipped several times a year.  For the most part they live off the land.  In one scene she is making dinner out of various eatables indigenous to their island one of which was mealworms.  Of course I had to ask the kids if they would eat worms:

Emily: (head shaking "No" vigorously)

Courtney: (Huge smile and giggle) No!

Benjamin: (Long pause...deep thought) Well...only in the soup.

I should have asked a long time ago.  We could have saved a fortune on groceries! 

I'm not sure which is more astonishing - the amount of ignorance out there or the number of people that like to put theirs on display! The Dugger's are expecting another grandchild and of course anything child-related with the Duggers is always in the news. I was reading some of the comments posted about the story this morning.  I couldn't, nor did I want to, read them all since there were over 2000.  Many of the comments were dripping with hatred, sprinkled with judgement, and based on contrived "facts".  Even though most of the commentators had no idea what they were taking about they felt compelled to tell the world.   At first I was irritated at their audacity but then it turned to sorrow.  I started to think about the lives of those making these statements.  How many of them have never experienced the love of God?  How many are devoid of a personal relation with Jesus Christ?  It was a reminder that we live in a dying world in desparate need of a Saviour.