This morning I took my son to the airport to catch his flight back to Kansas.  What a wonderful surprise to have him home for Thanksgiving.  It was unexpected and enjoyable to have his company and his laughter here in the house for the week.  He’s still the big goof that I sent to the Army five years ago. 

I am trying hard to stay upbeat and remember that in 18 days he will be back again to spend Christmas with us.  It’s difficult though.  If I close my eyes I can still here his goofy laughter and his deep voice echoing through the house.  I know that the smell of his deodorant still lingers in the boys bedroom upstairs and I want to go up there every 15 minutes to just sniff and think about him being here.  Do I sound like some kind of love sick crazy?  Just a mother who misses her son. 

After I came home from the airport Jason was done with his laundry.  We played a few hands of cards and he had some lunch.  Very soon, though, it started to snow and that was the signal that he should leave also.  He has a small car that isn’t that reliable and his driving record isn’t the best.  So off he went back to school  It almost seems like the weather knows how I feel and is joining in my sadness about my house being empty again. 

After Jason pulled out we decided that MK should pack and we should take her back too.  Her school is not that far away but the drive isn’t that great when the weather is bad.  Glad we left when we did because the temp. started to drop and it started to rain and freeze.  Now it is just freezing out there.  The windows on the east side of the house are all frozen over.  The plow just went down the road and I suspect that Ian didn’t get any sleep this afternoon.  He probably got called in to work early and is out there plowing and salting the roads to keep them safe for holiday travelers who are busy trying to get home or back to where they belong.  (There goes the plow back the other way)

Glorious St. Raphael, patron and protector of travelers, lead them safely to their destinations in going and coming.  Go before them, pray for them, and protect them from countless dangers, evils, sicknesses, and accidents and guide them to their heavenly home.  In return I promise to honor and love you all the days of my life.  Amen. 

Tagged by Jess

(If you’re reading this, consider yourself tagged)

1.  Wrapping paper or gift bags?  Wrapping paper of course.  I love the pile it makes.

2.  Real tree or Artificial?  Real.  Nothing beats the smell and we have family traditions about getting the tree and putting it up that I couldn’t do without.

3.  When do you put up the tree?  December 20

4.  When do you take the tree down?  Epiphany

5.  Do you like eggnog?  No.

6.  Favorite gift received as a child?  A grown-up jewelry box that my grandmother gave me which I have since handed down to my daughter.

7.  Hardest person to buy for?  My husband.  He absolutely refuses to take any gift from me and complains about spending any money on him.  

8.  Easiest person to buy for?  My daughter.  All you have to do is buy her music, either recorded or sheet music.  She is thrilled with it.

9.  Do you have a nativity scene?  Yes, several.  I have been collecting them for years.

10.  Mail or email Christmas cards?  Neither.  We stopped sending cards since our oldest son was deployed and now use the money to give gifts to soldiers or to charity.

11.  Worst Christmas gift you ever received?  Can’t think of anything

12.  Favorite Christmas movie?  A Christmas Carol any version.  I have the whole story memorized.

13.  When do you start shopping for Christmas?  Done already.  I am usually done by the first Sunday of Advent.

14.  Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?  Never.

15.  Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?  White Trash that my neighbor makes for us every year.

16.  Lights on the tree?  Yes, lots.

17.  Favorite Christmas song?  Carol of the Bells

18.  Travel at Christmas or stay home?  I would love to be with my parents but they live too far away.  We stay home and our children come to us.

19.  Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer?  Sure.

20.  Angel on the tree top or a star?  Angel.

21.  Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?  Christmas Day.  Christmas Eve is for going to Mass and for being together as a family.

22.  Most annoying thing about this time of year?  The comercialism.  Remember what it is about.  It doesn’t matter what you give or how much you give but why you give.

23.  Favorite ornament theme or color?  No theme but a favorite ornament is a santa bell that was on our first tree and must be the first one on the tree each year.

24.  Favorite for Chrismas dinner?  Shrimp.  We usually have snacks and finger food for Christmas day but we have to have shrimp on the menu.

25.  What do you want for Christmas this year?  As many of us as possible together.  Watching my children together and how they react to each other and to what they give each other.  Just listening to them talking and laughing together.  That is heaven on earth for me.

I got these from my Cranium calandar and I thought it would be fun to share.

Identify the following dishes at Thanksgiving dinner:

1.  tubers with decreased viscosity owing to application of force

2.  cramming copious amounts of something into an enclosed region

3.  land formerly ruled by sultans

4.  inpudent remarks from a bog fruit

Answers:

1.  mashed potatoes,  2.  stuffing,   3.  turkey,   4.  cranberry sauce

Outside my window….. the sun is trying to shine and it is 35 out.  There is snow covering everything.  The weatherman is calling for another 3-6 inches tonight.  I am glad that I don’t have to pick up any college students until tomorrow morning.  I know that I can count on my snowplowing son to keep the roads clean for me.  (my road anyway)

I am thinking…… how nice it is to have one more of my children in the house, P Obrien came home yesterday to surprise us, and tomorrow I will have two more home.  A full house if balm to heart and soul of this mother.  It goes a long way to lift the darkness that has been covering my heart.

From the schoolroom….. the door is closed and classes are cancelled this week.  We are celebrating Thanksgiving in a big way and celebrating most of us being together again for a short while anyways.  For all of you out there, when your family grows up it doesn’t happen that often that you are all together.

I am thankful for…….. so many things that I cannot list here.  I am thinking of an old song from when I was young…..”my cup runneth over with love”

From the kitchen…….. I have a turkey and a spiral ham thawing.  We are going to friends for Thanksgiving but we will cook them here also in order to feed this crew throughout the week.  I think I will freeze some for meals after I have my surgery too.

I am wearing……. jeans, green tee shirt, warm fuzzy slippers.  I think I need to build a fire in the stove.

I am reading……. finishing up Let Me Be a Woman by Elisabeth Elliot

I am hoping…… to get the last of my Christmas presents made this week and get them all wrapped by Saturday.  I like to have it all done by the first Sunday of Advent.  I am feeling the crunch now that I have a date for my pre-ops and for surgery.

I am hearing……. silence!!!! Matthew is on his computer and the sergeant is getting dressed to go outside.

Around the house…… laundry is washing, sewing is getting done. 

One of my favorite things……. going to bed at night and knowing that my family is near and that most of them are safe and sound and near by.

A few plans for the rest of the week……. get Mk from school and help her get her Christmas shopping done, have Matthew get his wrapping and sewing done so we can clean up the dining room.  Finish all of my projects and commissions and get them out of the house.  Make some plans for Doug and Matthew’s meals for when I am in the hospital and after I come home.

A picture thought that I am sharing with you……..

The bull that we borrowed named Jason, with his head in the chicken coop door eating the hay that is stored in there.  Matthew almost panicked when he saw him there because he thought that his head was too large for the door and he would be stuck in there.  Fortunately he wasn’t and he was just innocently eating the hay that no one had discovered.

This is my workspace.  Periodically throughout the day I will sit here with my computer.  My son does his schoolwork at the table beside me and the kitchen is in the next room.  My sewing machines are set up on a table in a little side room off the kitchen.  Everything is central so that I could teach the kids, cook, and work on sewing projects easily.

Those of you who may be interested in making this Christmas less “commercial” and less “materialistic” for your families may want to check out the following link. 

http://www.thepreemieproject.com/

This is a good way to give and to encourage others to give and to serve “these, the least of our brethren”.  When my oldest son first went to Iraq we stopped sending Christmas cards and, instead, used the money for the soldiers.  We have done that each year since because it seems I have had a son somewhere since that Christmas.  When we did that we explained to family and friends that that was the reason we were not going to be sending out cards.  Many friends were generous enough to give to me the money that they would have used for the same reason to send more packages to the soldiers.  Now I have a son over there who feels he is not in need of that type of caring.  Since I came across this particular charity I believe I will be sending items to them instead. 

This type of project is good to get your kids involved in also.  My daughter and son enjoy doing things like this that they know will be helping others less fortunate than themselves.  They never complain or even speak about there being less under the tree at home because they know that there is more in their hearts for having given to others.

God bless you all.

This morning life is almost business as usual.  I think that I may have inadvertently found a key to not being depressed.  All you males out there can keep your laughter to yourselves.  I was getting a shower last night and noticed (my husband says imagined) the beginning ravages of the cold weather and being forced to stay inside all of the time.  My thighs and butt are getting jiggly again.  I swear it is an ongoing struggle this weight thing.  Anyway, as I was saying, I noticed the ravages of having to stay inside all of the time.  Ordinarily I am outside most of the day and I get a mile or two walk in a day, sometimes more.  Now that it is cold; I don’t tolerate the cold well especially with a bad back, I am inside all the time and don’t get the exercise that I should.  So in retaliation I jumped on the treadmill and did a couple of miles.  This morning I notice immediately that my mind is clearer and I feel better, more upbeat.  Must be those endorphin.  Most of you are thinking about now, use the treadmill all the time and you won’t have this problem.  Not so.  The back specialist doesn’t like the treadmill because of the impact.  He says it is more on there than it is walking outside and therefore bad for my back.  What do I know.  The benefit to my mental well being may outweigh the risks to my back though.  Especially since I will be having surgery shortly and then I won’t be able to use it at all.  We will see.

This morning Matthew and I drove up to the place where they towed Ians truck.  I take all of my permit driving teenagers to see wrecked vehicles when there are learning to drive.  Especially if the accident involves someone they know.  I think it helps them get an idea of what it means to wreck a vehicle and, in this case, how close he came to losing his brother.

I didn’t get a good shot of the glass but it is shattered on the passenger side where the heifers horn hit it.  Thanks be to God that it wasn’t on the drivers side and that it didn’t come through.  Perfect evidence of what happens when you hit an object standing still in the middle of the road.  Ian said she rode right up over his hood and then slid off the roof back onto the road.  The parts to the grill are in the back of the truck.  I’m not impressed with how much plastic was in that vehicle. 

Today the insurance adjusters get there to look at it and decide whether it is totalled or not.  Then he should have a check soon.  He needs to be able to get his other truck on the road by the middle of next week.  I keep thanking God that it wasn’t any worse than it was. 

 After their spanish test today I decided to give Matthew and Brett a little break and let them do something different.  I often tease Brett that he isn’t really friends with Matthew so much as he comes for my cooking.  One of the things that he likes is homemade bread.  I have to give him credit though, he is not your ordinary boy.  He is as interested in how to make it as he is in eating it.

So I had them get out the ingredients and the utensils and set them to work making bread doughs.  This is not a first for Matthew but practice does make perfect. 

This is the result of Matthew’s efforts.  Brett took his loaves home with him when he left.  I do have to say he is a quick study.  His loaves rose up higher than Matthew’s did.  His dough was better.  But Matthew lives with the cook so maybe he has an excuse for not excelling.  Now Doug has some more bread for his PBJ tomorrow.

Maybe we’ll tackle my spaghetti sauce next time since he keeps asking about that little secret.  Actually there is no secret to good spaghetti sauce.  Just be good to your garlic.

 Chocolate Zucchini Cake

2 1/4 c sifted all purpose flour

1/2 c unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 3/4 c sugar

1/2 c ( 1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 c vegetable oil

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 c buttermilk

2 c grated unpeeled zucchini  (I am generous with the zucchini, it makes the cake moist)

1 6-ounce pkg (about 1 cup) semisweet chocolate chips

3/4 c chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 325.  Butter and flour 13x9x2 inch baking pan.  Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt into medium bowl.  Beat sugar, butter and oil in large bowl until well blended.  Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.  Beat in vanilla extract.  Min in dry ingredients alternately with buttermilk in 3 additons each.  Mix in grated zucchini.  pour batter into prepared pan.  Sprinkle nuts and chocolate chips over.  (nuts then chips on top)

Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 50 minutes.  Cool cake completely in pan.

Talked to the people who own the animal that Ian hit.  They happen to be friends of ours, still.  What a blessing!!!!  It wasn’t a steer it was a heifer, minor detail.  The son came out as the husband was deciding to shoot her and begged for her life.  She has a broken leg but is comfortable so they are letting her live for now.  She has a history so I can kind of understand the reprieve, sort of.  When she was born the mom didn’t want her.  Then she got licked so much by the other animals or another animal in the herd, I cannot remember which, that her ears literally got licked off.  She was bottle fed by the kids in the family due to her poor start so she is kind of a pet. 

Mark says Ian’s truck is toast!  I feel bad for Ian because it is his precious truck that he bought new when he was stationed in Germany.  He has always been very proud of that truck.  He has also take VERY good care of it.  I think his father and I have been the only other people that he has let drive it beside himself.  It was for that truck that he first borrowed money.  Anyway, Mark says the radiator and grillwork are all gone and the hood is up near the front window.  That is what can come when a Chevy Colorado hits a white face heifer standing on a snowy road. 

Ian is fine.  He is busy making phone calls this morning.  The usual round of insurance company things and talking with the DMV.  This is one case where I say better him than me.