Monday, November 30, 2015

Cyber Monday- updated 1


Cyber Monday didn't go the way it was supposed to. I was going to be busy sewing in the morning and about 10 AM was going to post all the things I have for sale. I am making Faith and Shekinah doll dresses for their dolls this Christmas and figured I could just make an extra couple of pieces and sell them...
Instead I was paying the credit card bills, and shopping for bread flour etc with a herd of cats.
The little chicken bean bags that are almost finished are missing the "beans" because my E-bay order did not show up on Saturday. Any way here are the little last minute things that Hope and I threw together in the last few days. Shipping should be around $5 per order, unless I can put it in a large envelope then it should be around $3.
2 zippers (one hidden) 5 x 7"  $7

one zipper 6 x 7"   $6


one zipper  4x 7  $5

#2 available  $10

one zipper  5x 7  $6



doll dress, fits 18" dolls (American Girl, Generation doll)
$6

same size $7 bodice is lined- sold

I sold this particular one, but have fabric to make another
$7
pink panda PJ pants flannel $3
dotty outfit $7 sold

Pillow, pillow case and sleeping bag
$15 (polka dot is sold)
sleeping bags close with velcro and are filled with quilt batting.
They are fun to make!
Hope was busy making clutch purses out of a pile of fat quarters I picked out.
She is letting some friends have first pick and then the rest will be for sale.
These are the chickens. I have a few finished but am waiting on my pellet order.
$4 a piece or $20 for 6... 


Sunday, November 29, 2015

Our Thanksgiving



This year we had no Thanksgiving dinner invitations.
We should probably have done something more radical, but
I like what we did.
My hubby decided that each of the children should pick one or two dishes and make them for our feast. He chose the turkey and gravy.
Joe chose the mashed potatoes and cheesecake.

Hope made broccoli salad and candy kabobs.

Faith made pumpkin pie and pilgrim hats.
Shekinah made jello.

I made little chickens....actually I did make baked corn.

Much of it could be prepped on Wednesday, but the turkey needed careful watching on Thursday.
We actually only made a half of turkey that's why it looks so small.
He added apples and onions and fruit juice to the pan (he wanted cider but didn't see any at the store he shopped)

After church on Thursday Joe was chopping potatoes for the kettle
and Zeke was measuring the ingredients for corn bread.

We actually sat down by 1PM. I even pulled out some glass plates!


We might need to make this a tradition!
It was all very tasty, but we learned that pumpkin from a tin can does not taste as good as home canned pumpkin. We also learned that reading recipes is very important  1/4 does not equal 1 .Raisins are not necessary in broccoli salad at our house and "salad dressing" does not mean Ranch dressing.

The only thing that kept it from being perfect is that we were missing Ben. We had a record of 3 people dreaming the other night that Ben was home.

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Things You Learn

Today I learned that there are new ways to use your ironing board.
If you turn the board "backwards" you can iron a shirt faster. Use the square end and the whole front of the shirt is on the top of your board.
That's what you learn when you tell your friend to bring her kids over and the ironing so she can stay longer and we can solve the world's problems.


This week I improved my pizza crust!
I was reading how to make Chinese  scallion pancakes here and the author said that the trick is to "laminate" your dough. Now in the woodworking industry  laminates are sort of "fake" and "not the best"  but let me tell you, in cooking "laminating" is quite tasty.
I oiled my pan, stretched out the dough, spread a thin layer of oil on top of the dough.
Then fold the dough in quarters. Now you have 6 layers of dough with a thin layer of oil between!
Carefully pull/push your dough back out to the pizza pan size the viola! After you bake that, you have crispy, chewy layers of dough.
BTW the Chinese pancakes were tasty too!

Did you know? If you irritate your five year old she will draw house plans that  have you living separate from your spouse and she will live in yet another house (above).
BUT if you are nice, she will relent and build just two houses with mama and daddy living in one  and "me and my husband" living in the one beside.
We don't know who "T" is.

I am thankful tonight that she had her "feet hurt" fit while daddy was home and we could share duties.She ended up allowing me to rub her feet with peppermint oil and give her a dose of  "medicine". The medicine is pancake syrup in a syringe. I was suspicious that the pain was in her heart and not in her feet when the dose of Motrin the other day worked in mere minutes. I'm pretty sure that tonite's episode was set off by extreme tiredness.

Pray for Ben's decision making: He is considering a ten day stint with Samaritan's Purse in Greece before he comes home. Pray that if he is to come straight home it is clear to him and all doors are firmly closed.


Monday, November 9, 2015

My Learning Curve and other Fun Stuff

This year I was a bit on edge during the month of October because last year Shekinah did a lot of crying during October, it was also the 2nd anniversary of her leaving everything familiar.Last year daddy and I went away for a weekend in September and the children stayed with their cousins. I always sort of wondered if that had anything to do with it.   This year she is in Kindergarten and I really wondered if that would help or make things more difficult. This year we also had an out-of-state wedding to attend in September, so we took Shekinah with us. October raced on by and I really didn't think I was noticing any extra crying or grieving. The dreaded "my feet hurt" that I heard over and over last year, didn't show up until last week.
My heart sank when she sat on the sofa at nap time and pointed her toes and said "my feet hurt". I cuddled her and read her a book. After her nap I asked if her feet still hurt, she gave me a grin and said "no".
Yesterday our congregation had an ordination for a bishop. Our Mennonite churches (maybe all Mennonite churches) use the lot to allow God to choose the man that is to be the next minister or bishop. Anyway, it is a very sober service and yeah, we decided to take our children with us. After all the big kids can sit and the little one will be sleepy and she will probably crawl into my lap and sleep. Right?
Well part way through she started her funky sighs that she makes when I know she is building up to something. I settled her a bit, and then "my feet hurt!" After awhile I decided we need to do a bathroom break and see if we can slow the coming storm. Her little feet pitter pattered with no pain down the steps to the bathroom. Even tho she didn't "have to", she did. I asked if her feet hurt only when she is sitting. She didn't answer such a silly question.  Finally I realized that this she is worried, she really didn't understand what was going on and it worried her...it really wasn't about the snap on her purse or the velcro on her shoes. I knew if I didn't settle her soon I would miss the whole reason we came to the service.
I sat her on my lap and quickly thought "how do you explain an ordination to a 5 y.o.?...they are going to make a bishop ( I know that is a very PA Dutch phrase)...no that won't work, she can clearly see they are not making anything up there. They are ordaining...no that takes too much explanation." So I settled on, " they are waiting to see who God picks to take Dwayne's place, you know they are going to Thailand, watch, the men are going to put those books up there and then Dwayne is going to open the book, can you see?"

Now her attention was caught, she had been off-balance ever since we sang a song in the middle of the service , "mom we going home now?" Strange church, different minister- he had a ringing voice and a missed afternoon nap. I almost didn't catch the next worrying thing, after the book was opened and we realized who God had called, she glanced at me. "Mom why you crying?"(There were really only a few tears) Then she looked up front and all the ministers had gathered around the new bishop to pray for him and his wife. I have no idea what was going through her mind. She looked worried all over again. I tried to explain what she was seeing. Then finally we sang and the service was truly over. We made it!

I have seen her pull things together a lot lately, I'm not sure if it is just maturity or does it have something to do with the vitamins and probiotic we started her on? Whatever, I am just thankful that not all the hard stuff comes at once.


Things she is learning:  "mom that is a NEW-nited States flag"  "That sign says four-zero"  "Did you know that people need to give the mail even if it is raining or snowing every day, but not Thanksgiving" "The teacher has a Toyota."
"When this baby came to me his name was 'Zel, now her name is Teddy."
And tonight she brought home papers with the words "mud" "man" "men" and "mop". She will soon be reading!


Things I am learning: There is a place called Office for Vocational Rehabilitation who very well might be able to help us figure out how to fund some very expensive driving lessons and adaptive driving evaluations that a certain son will be needing in the next year. We were very thankful to find out about them.  I also learned that it is illegal, at least in PA, for a person to drive using a prosthesis. Meaning that the prosthetic limb cannot be touching the controls of the car. I also learned that it would be illegal for me to use the adaptive driving paraphernalia in a car unless I am trained to use it. (Updated: Apparently the person that gave me that information was misinformed. You do, however, need an evaluation before you can drive with a prosthesis.)

I also would like to see someone write a piece contrasting self- esteem and self-worth   also, humility and worthlessness.