Hugging a Rug

I can't believe it's the last day of November!

Before we move on to a certain fun-yet-hectic month,

I wanted to share a few random pictures from the last couple weeks

that never fail to make me smile.

I saw this sign in our pediatrician's office.

Take that, germs!

Should the owner of this vehicle call a mechanic or a tree service company?

This rug has Cici-colored splotches all over it, 

so naturally the girls wanted to hug it.

In addition to the cheese advent calendar I recently picked up at Aldi,

we're looking forward to starting on this See's chocolate advent calendar Red Grandma sent us.

A month of fine chocolate and cheese--how fancy!

And speaking of December,

don't let Christmas stress you out!

Remember to relax, take a deep breath . . .

. . . and have a little fun! (And cheese.  And chocolate.)

Math = EEEEEEEEEEEEE

When I went to Todd's school for parent-teacher conference today,

I learned a lot of unexpected things.

For example, Todd apparently thinks his teeth are his best feature.

And he's grateful that they allow him to eat In-N-Out.

He's only eaten there a handful of times in his life, 

and I think the last one was around his fifth birthday.  

I guess it made a big impression.

I wasn't surprised that Todd thinks he is good at math.

He rated most of his skills G for Good or E for Excellent,

but he rated Math EEEEEEEEEEEEE.

That's Excellent x13, in case you didn't feel like counting all of those Es.

I was kind of puzzled that he ranked Science as G/NS (Good/Needs Support) though.

Isn't science mostly math?

When I asked him about that later today, he said he's actually pretty good at science too.

He just doesn't like the writing part of it.

Daddy can relate to that.

O Christmas Tree

For tonight's FHE activity . . .

. . . we took down our Holy Week wall decorations

(which I love so much that I tend to leave them up until Christmastime) . . .

. . . then we set up our Christmas tree!

Actually, setting it up is the easy part.

The hard part is fluffing all of its branches

so it looks more like a real spruce.

Done! I can't help smiling every time I see

our beautiful Christmas tree shining in the living room.

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,

how lovely are thy branches!

P.S. I think Anna is more excited about Christmas

than all the rest of us combined.  

She loves holidays and all things festive!

Shopping with My Girls

Anna, Joy, and I decided that Thanksgiving break . . .

. . . was a great time to go window shopping.

I enjoyed spending the afternoon with my girls . . .

. . . trying on things that kinda fit our vibe . . .

. . . or kinda don't.

Bare Feet and a Boxwood Wreath

This has been a very busy Thanksgiving Day at our house.

The kids and I trimmed our front bushes . . .

. . . then I used some of the trimmings

to make a boxwood wreath for our kitchen.

Daddy and Daniel practiced their epic Christmas duet . . .

. . . then Daddy took Todd (and later Anna) for a motorcycle ride.

Joy worked on some homework out on the deck.

Warm jacket--check. 

Beanie--check.

Hot cocoa--check.

Shoes--umm . . . it's Joy.  Don't expect shoes.

Seriously, just don't.

As I was finishing up Thanksgiving dinner in the kitchen,

the kids played a fun game called "Drawful" . . .

. . . then we finally gathered for our family feast.

I don't think I'll ever attempt yard work on Thanksgiving again

(pruning always takes longer than I think it will, and I'm exhausted),

but aside from that it's been a really fun day,

and we have a lot to be thankful for!

First Snowfall

We got our first snowfall of the season last night.

Humans: "Ooo, pretty!"

Plants: "Shiver, shiver, shiver . . . wake us up in April."

Chickens who hatched last March and spent most of spring in our living room: 

"WHAT IS THAT STUFF?!?" 

Accompanying Daniel

Our family attended a PCA choir concert this afternoon.

The songs they performed were a fun mix of lively and inspiring music.

My favorite number was "Baba Yetu,"

a boisterous version of The Lord's Prayer that is sung in Swahili.

Daniel sang with this choir for the first time this season.

Although he had fun with the youth choir last year,

he feels like the adult choir is a better fit for him.

Coincidentally, Daddy used to sing with PCA,

but he is currently serving as their accompanist instead.

Some of the songs they performed today were wicked fast,

and he did a great job keeping pace

while making the music sound dynamic and beautiful.

Authoritative Tia Says "Nope"

Meme ["meem"] noun, an image, video, piece of text, etc., typically humorous in nature, 

that is copied and spread rapidly by internet users, often with slight variations.

Yeah, good point there, Boromir.

It would be better to just show a couple examples

where people took images from movies

and added some amusing text:

Example 1: A "Condescending Wonka" meme

Example 2: My favorite Star Wars meme.

Hey--how about we turn some pictures of our parakeets

into memes our family can text to each other?

Cici loves that idea!

Aw c'mon, "Authoritative Tia."

Maybe Cici can talk Tia into it.

Well, phooey.

Who Wore It Best?

Inquiring minds want to know . . . 

who wore our vintage 2007 top hat best this year?

Murphy?

Darth Jack-o-Vader?

This mysterious fellow

in a geeky Christmas sweatshirt?

Cat Overlord sez,

"I are da judge!  My hat winz!"

The Late Day of the Dead

Life has been kind of hectic lately,

so I didn't manage to bake gingerbread on November 2

for our family's version of Day of the Dead.

I considered skipping it this year, but the kids are sticklers for tradition

(the cookies may have something to do with that),

so we decided to celebrate a few days late.

Instead of just decorating a bunch of our usual gingerbread skeletons,

the kids decided to get more creative.

For example, Joy made a very dapper gingerbread gentleman.

(And speaking of dapper, Daniel really dressed up for this festive occasion.)

We ended up icing so many cookies that we plated some of them up

and gave them to our neighbors.

The (Late) Day of the Dead is a time

to remember and show love for our ancestors,

so it seemed fitting to share some love with our neighbors too.

Upgrade Fail

There are lots of things I've loved about having a chicken tractor this year:

the free eggs, the free fertilizer,

the satisfaction of learning something new,

seeing floofy chickies in our yard every time I roll up our driveway.

The only thing I don't love is that the tractor is so dang heavy.

I can rarely move it on my own,

and even with the help of family members, I've hurt my back a few times 

dragging this adorable behemoth of a tractor across our yard.

For the last few months, I've been researching ways 

to solve this mobility issue.

I considered replacing the tractor with a lighter one,

but decided it made more sense to add better wheels.

This afternoon, Anna tended the chickies as they free ranged in the yard . . .

. . . while we put their tractor up on blocks . . .

. . . and added some bigger wheels that we could lever up and down.

 Unfortunately, either the idea was flawed,

or we made some rookie mistake in the way we attached things,

because it was even harder to move the tractor on the new wheels.

So we took them back off, and we're back to square one.

Siiiiiiigh.

At least it's a little easier to roll the tractor now that the ground is frozen in the mornings.

Hopefully we'll figure out a better mobility solution by springtime

when the lawn thaws out and turns all wet and squishy.

Squishy + Heavy = Stuck