Multitude Mondays

963. first snowfall

964. mad digging to find mittens, boots, snowpants that fit
965. Christmas music
966. playing guitar
967. making Jake laugh in the car
968.  Grandma Sinnaeve's tradition to take each child out for their birthday, spending time with them one on one
969.  playing Turkey dice game @ the Sinnaeves

970.  watching Landon & Chaney in Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat - love it!!

971. siblings helping one another get BSF done and helping Mom by doing it

972.  playing Up & Down the River @ the Oesterles', laughter, teasing, fun, singing tunes from Joseph & Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat with Cheryl

973.  Risk take-over in our home....almost every day, sometimes many times a day, the game will be spread out and kids will be taking one another on... Nate has become a real threat in this game and he and Isaiah are often battling it out for who is the winner  (check out Nate's face....he loves it when he's winning, he hates it when he's loosing)

974.  If it's not Risk these days, it's some other board game, like Monopoly

975.  celebrating Isaiah's 13th birthday with awesome, close friends!!  Goofing around, playing Capture the Football forever, teasing the dogs...

976.  boys growing up....friends that have grown up with them

977.  Making birthday calazones and slush with no birthday cake b/c we all knew we'd be filled to the max on 'zones and slush!

978.  Neighbor boys who come over any time of the day to play more Capture the Football

979.  more Risk!

980.  making gifts....knitting potholders to felt up and give away, baking Snowflake bread for neighbor

981.  eldest offering to make cookies
982.  eldest growing in serving others and doing another's chores for him
983.  beautiful REAL wreath from our friends in the woods

Christmas Cookie Maddness

This year, I decided to make 3 different recipes of Christmas cutout cookies, so our family could decide which one they liked the best.  In the running was my Grandma Monroe's recipe, my neighbor- Amy Grice's recipe and Better Home & Garden's recipe that Ted has said he always liked.

So in the course of two days, we made about a bizzillion cookies and the kids were on frosting burnout.  We watched Elf and Voyage of the Dawn Treader while we frosted. Ben was the first to fall out and stop decorating.  He laid curled up on the floor with Maggie.  Madeline and Nate were close second, still sitting in their chairs, but unmoving with a dazed expression in their eyes, and holding their sticky fingers up as an offering to God.  Jake was the trooper, decorating until we had one cookie left and no more frosting!

 After the last cookie was frosted, I instructed the kids to choose a cookie from each batch and conduct a taste test.  If you can imagine, after stealing cookies and licks of frosting throughout hours of making them, my kids weren't that hungry to do a taste test.  But the results eventually came in:
1st place:  Amy Grice's recipe (Isaiah, Madeline, Nate, Charli & Ted)
2nd place:  Grandma Monroe's recipe (Jake, Ben)
last place:  Better Homes & Gardens recipe

I could kick myself because I didn't take any pictures of all the cookies we made or any pictures of the kids eating them in the next few days.  The sad part is that I don't think they even lasted a week!  The kids ate them all the time!

Here is the top two recipes:

Amy Grice Sugar Cookies

2 c sugar

1 c shortening

3 eggs

3/4 c sourmilk/buttermilk

1 t soda

3 t baking powder

1 t salt

4 c flour

Chill dough 4 hours or overnight.  

Roll out and bake @ 350 for 10-15 min.  

Iced with powdered sugar icing w/ hint of almond flavoring.

Grandma Nettie Monroe's Christmas Cookies

Mix - 3 eggs, 2 c sugar, 2/3 c milk, 2/3 c shortening

Combine dry ingredients and then mix with wet mixture - 1 t baking soda, 1 t nutmeg, 6 c flour.  

Roll out to 1/4" thickness and cut.  

Bake @ 350 for 6-8 min.  

Decorated with powdered sugar icing.

Christmas Traditions

As I watch my children pull out Christmas decorations, it reminds me of my childhood.  Did I drive my mom crazy too with my haphazardness in what I wanted to get out first?  Once the tree is up, the kids want to look through their boxes of personal ornaments and see who can get their's on the tree first.

Then comes the nativity box which contains 5 sets of nativities and all the kids want to set their's up somewhere, but mostly the end up keeping them on the toy shelf and playing with them.

Then pack away everyday frames and nicknacks to make a room for Mom & Dad's nativity set.  It's ironic how we have to make room for Jesus, just like so long ago in Bethlehem.

There's always the random fun things as well, like Ben modeling a fashionable treeskirt/manskirt...

and Jake serenading us all with a wooden recorder he found (and driving us a little crazy with it.)

Then it's time for our traditions....our Mary's Starpath.  This tradition has been with us since our first kids were little.  At the beginning of the Advent season, our stars are lined up as a winding path under our tree, big stars marking each advent Sunday and they lead to the wooden stable.  Each night as we prepare to move Mary & Joseph to the next star, we light a candle and sing this song...

On the golden starpath walking,
Mother Mary travels far.

Brings to us the light of heaven,

Brighter than the brightest star.

Moonbeams shine for Mother Mary,

Bells of heaven sweetly ring,

All the earth is hushed to listen,

When the angel voices sing.

Soft her footstep on the starpath,

Stardust sprinkled in her way,

Mary brings to us the Christ child

Brighter than the brightest day.

Then the youngest children take turns taping the star passed onto our starry sky.  Each advent Sunday we read a chapter from Mary's First Christmas.  Another tradition we've done since the kids were little.  It always makes me cry.  Each Sunday, part of our nativity scene grows as well, one week I add the shepherds, one week the sheep and cattle, one week the wise men travelling across the room. 

What would Christmas be without homemade gifts as well.  It is one of my favorite memories from each year....sitting w/ a knitting project in my lap, while the other children are knitting close by and we listen to audiobooks like The Christmas Carol, Narnia series, and many others from Focus on the Family Radio Theatre.  Here is a project I worked on, knitting up potholders then felting them so they would be tight.  I love making these!

Another tradition we have is baking and making treats.  I've shared already about the Christmas cookie challenge we did this year.  I think that did us in for making sweet treats, so I decided to make Snowflake bread for our neighbors.  The kids helped make it, they love to knead the bread, and then they delivered it late one night in the dark, down Crocus Trail to our five neighbors who bless our life day in and day out.

I used our much loved bread recipe and made it Snowflake bread by adding a cut snowflake on the top.

Multitude Mondays

Today I am determined to write down what I'm thankful for, even if that's all it is - less or no pictures, no effort in trying to make it complete since the last time I took count of my blessings.  I find lately that my life and thoughts are overwhelmed with frustrations and hurt, with small mixes of joy.  I keep praying that God would give me the eyes and ears to see Him around me, to help me to see the blessings, but there is a strengthened foundation when I journal them in written form, otherwise they disappear with my next weary sigh.  Tonight as I sat in BSF, these are the blessings I scribbled on a paper.  Our lecturer said tonight, "Praise is the proper response of those rescued by God's grace."  This is my praise to You Father!  Thank you for rescuing me.

941.  being asked to lead 40+ kids in worship at Ezone with Jake & Isaiah.  No matter how weary I am, I never am weary of singing with joy and fun to my Father in heaven
942.  being one in spirit with gangly 5th gr. boys, self-concious 4th-5th gr girls, rambuncous 2nd 3rd gr boys and sweet K-3rd grade girls.....having fun and yelling
943.  seeing Jake serve and bless these kids at Ezone....he had a group of kids flocking to his table to play and watch Jenga...hearing Jake talk to them, encourage them, build them up, love them....then hearing in the van how much fun he had doing it - enough to make my heart burst!
944.  God's Word...pure and simple...where would I be without it?
945.  BSF....no matter how dry I sometimes feel the questions are, once at class - the opportunity to rethink, to ponder, to listen, to have a quiet enough space in my head to hear the Holy Spirit whisper into my heart things I need to learn
946.  family gatherings....I so take for granted being at a family gathering and having love shared freely and the commonality that everyone loves the Lord....
947.  each teenager who came to the Youth Worship practice...that they want to do something for the Lord....I pray that I can get past some of the critical things they say of the worship I lead and just gently guide them to grow in their walks in all areas of their lives
948.  good report of my dad's health - most recent check-up - a negative PSA #!!!
949.  my dad's smile TO me.....I love my dad's smile...he has permanent creases on his face where his smile lines are....but recently I stopped by their house to pick something up and my dad greeted me and something special happened....he said hello and I back and then I just grinned at him b/c he was so cute with suspenders on and he gave a grin back that I felt like was his joy at looking at me too....hard to explain....that he finds joy in me....
950.  Allie....her kisses goodbye on Sunday as we drop her off after church....her hugs
951.  Caleb & Sam Hodgson - for being such good friends to my girl, Maddie
952.  unexpected hug from a friend
953.  time spent up at Charis'....how I cherish our relationship
954.  walks along Crocus Trail w/ Amy....catching up...trying to help one another get active...
955.  MAC computer...(sorry window lovers)
956.  unexpected phone call from niece and nephew to share with their aunt how God orchestrates events to fill his purposes...
957.  coffee dates
958.  songs we can't get out of our heads...."Grovel, grovel..." "Go go go Joseph You Know what they say"...."Joseph whatcha gonna do?".....(our nephew and niece were involved in a school play for Joseph & Amazing Dreamcoat and since then we've been waking up singing songs.... even at Thanksgiving with the extended family you'd hear a tune be sung randomly throughout the day!)
959.  a person at church who always helps us tear down and pack up all the equipment....God has given me such a thankfulness for his quietness and servant's heart....how I can't look at him now without seeing him thru God's eyes!
960.  kids playing tricks on one another....Nate came down one morning totally oblivious that his sibling had drawn a mustache on his face in the night....

961.  fellow sister in Christ teaching me how to make homemade soap
962.  being around happily married couples...

I Thank Thee

O Thou whose bounty fills my cup,

With every blessing meet!

I give Thee thanks for every drop—

The bitter and the sweet.

I praise Thee for the desert road,

And for the riverside;

For all Thy goodness hath bestowed,

And all Thy grace denied.

I thank Thee for both smile and frown,

And for the gain and loss;

I praise Thee for the future crown

And for the present cross.

I thank Thee for both wings of love

Which stirred my worldly nest;

And for the stormy clouds which drove

Me, trembling, to Thy breast.

I bless Thee for the glad increase,

And for the waning joy;

And for this strange, this settled peace

Which nothing can destroy.

--Jane Crewdson (1860)