The Great Pumpkin Slaughter

Halloween kind of came and went this year without me even noticing really. Obviously, I saw all the costumes in the stores, the kids changing their minds every day about what they would dress up as, and the candy everywhere but for some reason, I just couldn't get into it this year. Our annual Halloween Party with Anthony's side of the family usually sets the tone for me but this year it was kind of half-hearted. We combined birthdays and Halloween together. But here are the details of our pumpkin carving for the year. Or, as we call it, The Great Pumpkin Slaughter!

Well, apparently, in the ten years I've been married, I haven't done Anthony any favors in the pumpkin carving department. Here I was thinking that I could just sit back, relax and hold the baby while Anthony helped the kids with their pumpkins. I had everything ready to go. Big spoons, pumpkin knife, and a cookie sheet (for the guts).

*Time to get started!*

So, what does Anthony do? After cutting the tops out (we always did the bottom so we didn't have to worry about the top falling in), he complains that the pumpkin stinks. It must be rotting! It wasn't, it smelled like.... pumpkin. Silly man! Then he has the kids "reach in and start pulling the guts out."

And they did. I looked at them and said, "What are you doing? Have I taught you nothing about how to carve a pumpkin?"

"I don't know. I guess not. What am I supposed to do?"

Crazy husband of mine! Doesn't everyone know that you scoop the guts out with a spoon? So, after putting the baby down, I gutted them all. Well, most of them anyway. They were all amazed at how easy it was, so much better than trying to grab all the stringy things with your hands.

My family, they're so.... lovable!! I love them all.


The finished products!

Pumpkin Bread

I just made this bread last night to go along with our "Great Pumpkin Slaughter" (pics and stories to come--no pics of the bread, sorry). It came from none other than my ward cookbook. Anthony really didn't want pumpkin chocolate chip bread, he thinks the chocolate chips ruin it. Who is that man? How can chocolate ruin anything? He's a weirdy I tell ya. One time I was watching the Food Network and they had chocolate covered bacon. Sounds strange but I figure, I love bacon and I looooove chocolate so, why not? Haven't tried it yet but someday. Wouldn't that be interesting to set a plate of bacon next to your chocolate fountain and see what people's reactions would be. Hmmmm, food for thought, no pun intended.

But there I go, babbling again. Let's talk about the bread.

It was quite good and not too strong on the pumpkin flavor. I actually have to agree that chocolate chips would have been strange in this particular recipe. The flavor really was subtle. When I think of pumpkin choc. chip, I think of the rich pumpkin flavor. So, here it is.

3 c. sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. cloves
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 c. cooking oil
2/3 c. water
2 c. pumpkin

Combine all ingredients together. (It doesn't specify order so I just did the traditional combining of wet and dry ingredients separately then combining them together.) Pour into greased loaf pans--2 large and 1 small. (I don't have a small one so I just poured the excess into my 2 large pans) Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 10 minutes.

I'm thinking of trying this with a few substitutions. Maybe try a little bit of oat flour. What do you think? Or maybe even wheat flour, eek! Could be scary! I'll let you know when I try it.

Why are the lights on? Oh, it's for the baby. ;)

Are you afraid of the dark too? I am the.biggest.chicken.EVER!

The lights in the master bathroom are on every night. The door just barely cracked so just enough light creeps in to see what's going on. Why? It's for the baby, of course. He gets fussy, scared and whiny when it's pitch black.

You would think my husband would believe that, no? He knows the truth. I'm just a big sissy! But it sounds good, right? I hate the dark!

The end!

Latter-Day Homeschooling

Ok, I have a new favorite obsession! This website... Latter-Day Homeschooling. I have been clicking on all the links on this site. So much to learn. I find it fascinating to read about other homeschooling families. We're all so different!

Growing up, and honestly until my oldest was about to enter Kindergarten, I was of the mentality that only weirdies homeschooled. You know the ones.... the ones. But sending my sweet little girl to a such a big, strange environment at such a young age just felt wrong. What would she do if she was picked on? Who would comfort her when she was sad? Who would stand up for her when others tried to pin her in a corner? That's my job. No one else can do it right. I need to be her soft place to land. She's not ready to be thrown to the wolves. I need to give her wings first so she can fly.

She was disappointed at first, she wouldn't get to ride the bus. Once I explained that she wouldn't get to ride the bus anyway (the school is right down the street), she was fine with it. We've still got a long way to go. I don't have all the curriculum I want/need yet, but we're making due with what we've got. And it's been so fun to watch her grow. Not just her, all of them (I do have 5, I promise). I love that they all LOVE to read and be read to. All I ever hear from their friends is how much they hate reading. It warms my heart to see them reading to each other and having so much fun with it.

What a blessing it is to be home with them. I couldn't ask for anything more.

the first snow

One thing I absolutely love about homeschooling, besides the fact that I don't have to wake up early and try to get 5 kids out the door on time to take 3 of them to the school, is that my kids don't miss out on getting excited about things such as the first snow of the season. Do you remember those days? I remember waking up when it would snow for the first time. I would be so excited to play in it.... after school. The problem is, by the time I would get home, all the snow had melted. We would always have to wait until later in the season when it was colder and the snow would stay on the ground.

Just two days ago, my kids got to experience the first snow of the season. All the neighbor kids were at school. My three girls got dressed in their coats, hats and gloves and excitedly ran out the door to make a Mickey Mouse snowman.

**2 of my 3 girls. The one not pictured actually helped build it too but got in trouble (for lying) before I took a pic.**

So what that we got started with our school work a little later than usual. It made made me happy that they were so excited to experience the snow again after the long hiatus. And sure enough, just a couple hours later, all the snow was gone.

Being able to snuggle in our warm beds just a pinch longer than normal on these cold fall/winter mornings is yet another item to add to the ever growing list of reasons to love homeschooling. There's no rush to get up and get going. It's a comfortable atmosphere. I just love it. :)

Thief! (or thieves) ?

Our family has been getting dairy products (mostly, among other items) from Winder Farms for the past couple of months. I can't explain to you the great feeling it brings when you run out of milk and cheese on Monday night and NOT have to run to the store for more because you know it'll be there, on your front porch bright and early Tuesday morning. It comes in the form of a Winder Farms delivery truck and the driver plops it right into your Winder Farms cooler (or coolers in my case) so you can wake up and VOILA! There it is. No more running to the store late at night, at least not on Mondays. Sure it's a little pricey but oh so convenient and tastes so much better!

Every Tuesday morning, we wake up to fresh hormone-free milk, eggs, cheese, etc. and have us a nice, big ol' breakfast fit for a king. We have them bring, among the things already mentioned, bacon, orange juice, and apples. Or, as is the case for what should have been waiting for us this morning, chocolate-covered donuts, pizzas (yes they have pizza), breads, salad, and cheese curds. That last item was my husband's idea of a great snack to go along with the Boise State game tonight. Too bad that won't be a reality for today's game.

As it turns out, someone (or more than one someones) decided to swipe our food, coolers and all! Someone out there is enjoying OUR donuts, pizza, milk, etc. Not happy! Grrrrr, I say!! It better have been someone that needed it, although I'm sure it was probably someone that just saw it as an opportunity. BIG MEANIES!

I am sure we were a sight this morning, as we had that exact scenario play out. The last of the milk was drunk (is that right?) by my 9-year-old daughter just before bedtime, but no one cared because we knew there would be more waiting for us when we got up this morning. My husband heard the WF truck at about 2:00 this morning, figured we'd grab it when we got up, rolled over and went back to sleep. Did our two BIG dogs hear anything? Who knows? They're just about as worthless as a couple of warts! They didn't make a peep. And what about when the thieves snuck up to the porch and took the coolers... 2 of them? Nope, nothin'! They're always barking at nothing, and never barking at something. Make sense?

So, this morning as I went to the front door, with a little bounce in my step I might add, and I noticed the coolers missing, my bounce died! And with the kids following behind (we love Tuesdays) we were more than a little disappointed. A couple of the kids, along with my husband, sat on the stair looking out the front door window, with their chins in their hands and their elbows on their laps. The rest of us stood behind them with the same glum looks on our faces and our arms folded in defeat. My 6-year-old looked up at me and said, "Don't they know you have a bunch of kids that are starving?" At this point, this was more true than you know. I won't go into too much detail but let's just say, we're between paychecks right now and can barely get diapers and gas. My kids are soooo sick of spaghetti. Just sayin'.

Lucky for us, WF was more than generous and will bring us two more coolers at no cost and our order that was stolen. Thank you Winder Farms! Now, THAT'S customer service! Take that, thief!

Talents

I'm on a mission! A mission to discover my gift... my talent. I just know it's in there, somewhere.

The other day, after discussing gifts and talents for our family devotional, and explaining that every person has at least one God given gift, my 9 year old daughter came to me with a question. I could tell she was trying to be as gentle as possible. She came to me and asked, "Mom, you know how everyone has a talent?"

"Yes."

"What's your talent?"

It was only slightly crushing considering that I already have been struggling with this. I have tried and tried to figure out the answer to this question. But try as I might, I can't come up with an answer. To think that even those closest to me can't see anything that I'm good at, kind of hurt! So, it is my mission at this point to figure out what I am good at. The scriptures tell me that I have one. I believe it's true.

Ruling certain talents or gifts out is easy! First and foremost is music, especially singing. NO ONE wants to hear that. You would cry, trust me on this one. I played the violin for a few years in elementary and jr. high school but I wouldn't say I was particularly good at it. I wasn't terrible but I had to work at it. Definitely not something that came naturally. Piano is another instrument that I tried my hand at as a youngster but again, it didn't come naturally to me. I took lessons for a few years and my kids are already almost caught up to where I ended after only about 5 months of lessons. *Sigh* It's kind of sad. They still think I'm pretty good at it because I taught myself a couple of songs (right hand only) a few years ago. I have yet to add the accompanying hand. Someday...

Once upon a time I was pretty good at dancing. I was always asked why I didn't try out for Dance Company in high school. Grades! That's the answer. Also, I was kind of self-taught so I wasn't bad but I didn't know the names of moves and I didn't ever learn how to do the beautiful leaps, splits, or more complicated turns. Given the chance, I think I could have been pretty good. So, let's rule that out too.

CRAFTS! Every Mormon mommy is good at that, right? Ummm, no. Not this Mormon mommy. I can copy certain things but coming up with things on my own is another story. And I can only copy very simple things. I just don't have a creative mind. I forgot to stand in that line in heaven.

Let's just say that I don't fall under the category of "gifted" in the tangible gifts/talents area. I'm not intelligent enough to fall under the "gift of smarts" category, and I certainly have a lot of growing and learning to do in the spiritual category. There are a lot of stories I don't understand or even know about in the Book of Mormon and Bible.

So, where do my talents lie? I'm going to find out! I will, someday.

General Conference

Don't you just LOVE General Conference weekend? Not only do I NOT have to get my 5 kids ready for church by 9:00 a.m. on Sunday but I get to hear the inspired words of our great prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, and his apostles. It's so nice to know that if I have any questions or doubts or anything of that nature, they will be put to rest over the weekend of inspired counsel. Being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the greatest blessing in my life. Without it, all my trials and tribulations would be too heavy to bear.

What a blessing to know that my Heavenly Father is there to guide me and direct me in my life. And an even greater blessing to know that there is life after this one. It's such a comfort to me, especially since my sweet Grandma just passed about a month and a half ago. I know I will see her again someday. Love you Grandma!!

I think I need to make some treats for such a great event as General Conference. I've always wanted to do what I hear about from other families. It seems so many have wonderful feasts as they devour the words of the Prophet. So, I best be on my way to get the baking started. I'll be listening to conference as I bake. And then, I shall bake some more...