leftover stew

So I've heard of people who make this "leftover stew" from the ingredients they find leftover in their fridge.  The idea is incredibly unappealing to me, so don't worry- I'm not about to share a recipe or anything like that....But it has been so long since I have blogged, I feel like that is probably the direction this post will take-- a bunch of leftovers, all thrown together.

First, the cuteness.  Brace yourselves.

For Halloween, we loaded up a couple of lumberjacks and headed to Storybook Forest over at Lake Arcadia...we went on a Saturday evening, because I had to work on Halloween night.  Ridge wasn't too much a fan of the beard on his hat, but dang my kids looked cute.  I mean, if I do say so myself.

So let's do a little up date on each of our lumberjacks:
Lumberjack 1, Tall and Lean-- whose jeans are all highwaters and crack busters because of his giant long legs....wonder where he gets THAT (if you don't know me well enough to have seen me in person...I measure in at just under 6 feet tall).  My eldest child has been learning about Thanksgiving here at home while we do school..I've learned so much about it myself that I didn't know before!  Mr. Tall and Lean lumberjack blows me out of the water on Scripture memory, as well....it's insane how "spongey" kids are.  In fact, our church is starting a conversational Spanish class, and Sawyer and I are going to take it together...He'll probably learn it all way faster than I will, but that's okay with me.  He is also really good at math (ahem...).  He loves science (right now we are doing a lot of hands on things like sink/float, rough/smooth, etc...and will be making some slimey gak tomorrow.  I'm really excited about THAT.  Actually, I think it will be fun; I'm kind of a neat freak, so sometimes my endeavors at science experiments end up stressing me out because the kitchen is covered in...whatever.  Ick.  Anyway...and this child can read.  Sometimes he figures things out I wouldn't think he'd know yet...things I haven't taught him (like that "ph" says "f"-- we'll get there this year, but he's already figured it out on his own)...and forget spelling things so that the kids won't know what I'm saying...The five year old gets it every time.  Ridiculous!  He's awesome.  And this week he's been using some incredibly good manners and respect, so that always makes the week go by better!  In fact, the other day, he walked in the kitchen and said, "excuse me ma'am...wherrrre is your husssss-band??? i need to ask him a quesssstion."  ha ha haaaa.  tooooo funny, that kid.

Lumberjack 2, Short and Stout (although thinning out)-- Now this kid....the dude looks just like his dad.  And inherited all of his orneriness as well.  He is really talking up a storm now, and it's funny that when he doesn't know a word, he still knows how to communicate.....For example:  If he wants to eat, he doesn't say anything about it.  He just walks up to you, opens his mouth, shoves his hand towards his mouth and makes some devouring sound.  It's funny. every time.  When he wants to go somewhere, in the car, he will say "GO!"  and then move his hands like they are on a steering wheel and go "brrrrrrrrr" and make some car sound.  Super cute, for sure.  He mispronounces some things.  Like his brother's name.  Brother is simply called "goggers"-- and unfortunately for Goggers, it's starting to stick.  And it's so funny.  My squatty little 2 year old has gone 4 and a half months without a blood transfusion.  We have not been hospitalized since January of this year.  He still remembers having his central line because we talked about it the other day and he reenacted getting a dressing change...poor kid.  He's been doing splendidly.  We stepped out in faith Monday and got him a flu shot...which is a big deal since vaccines have caused him to bleed in the past.  24 hours later, we still have not seen any bleeding signs...but I'm still waiting for him to drop off the evidence today, if you will (I know, gross.  But such is my life with this one).

Speaking of flu shots...some little known info for you if you like to keep the sickies away (which, obviously, I like to do)-- I'm not really pro-vaccinating, and I'm not really anti- vaccinating either.  I'm pro-knowing what you are doing and is it the best for your kid.  For us, vaccines weren't the way to go with Ridge. We will probably catch up on some of them if he continues to do well...we will probably completely not catch up on some of the ones we've missed, because I don't believe they are all as relevant to his health now as they would've been when he was under 2 years of age.  So anyway, to keep the flu at bay, we did go ahead and try for the flu shot this year; the rest of us get it or the mist yearly anyway.  So that's done.  I'm an avid hand washer and hand sanitizer, and I usually clean off the tables at restaurants with a clorox wipe (yes, for real.  And yes, the wait staff has told us before "we've cleaned that" and I've said, "Well...I'm going to clean it again."  Such is my life.  It's okay.)  But June-winter bring about some atrocities known as gastroenteritis...or stomach bugs.  They are one of the banes of my existence.  I hate being throw up sick, and I don't even want to imagine how it would ravage Ridge's belly.  And those bugs are really catching...so they are difficult to avoid.  So here are some things to know-- alcohol based sanitizers usually won't kill them on your hands (most alcohol sanitizers are 62% ethyl alcohol and that isn't strong enough for stomach bugs...for strep and the flu and other germies, sure...but not the tummy viruses).  So whatcha gonna do?  A couple options:  This one, which you can get online, and I love because it lasts through 10 handwashings or up to 24 hours, and is safe for kids to use, lasts forever...I even have my kids put some around their noses and mouths, because that's where sicko germs enter (I know, I'm a freak.  You don't have to tell me...you can think it, but just keep it to yourself, I announced it for you right here). Anyway, this one:
http://prefense.bigcartel.com/

Or this one, which you can buy at WalMart, grocery stores, and which are buy one get one half price right now at Walgreen's.  There was also a coupon for $1 off in this week's paper.  This one is a lotion, and our pediatrician has it in her office.  Obviously, it won't stay on your hands for 24 hours, it's just like normal hand sanitizer, only a lotion...and kills stomach viruses.
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&sugexp=ppwl&cp=11&gs_id=1u&xhr=t&q=gold+bond+hand+sanitizer&tok=bRYyt4LOL_DoaV9KLjlP3w&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=1680&bih=916&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=5122802507542871227&sa=X&ei=FUC5TvbaGu2CsgLx0I2iCA&sqi=2&ved=0CH8Q8wIwAA
The difference in these two are their active ingredients...Wet Ones brand wipes also contain the active ingredient to kill stomach viruses.  Just an FYI to all of you who want to avoid the pukies.

In addition, clorox and lysol wipes do not kill those tummy bugs....it is recommended you clean surfaces with lysol spray or bleach/water mixture....which means if a tummy bug comes through your house or classroom or sunday school classroom or whatever, those would be the most effective ways to clean up the residual germs, which have been shown to remain living on surfaces from one to three WEEKS.  for reals.



So enough of that-- keep your hands clean with the proper stuff....and don't touch your nose/mouth and you should be well on your way to staying well.  Unless you kiss a sick person. And I can't help you with that one.



As for the one I kiss, he's been spending as much time deer hunting as he can (which still isn't as much time as he'd like).  So far, no deer.  Of course he wants to get a big deer, and so do I, because that's pretty much free meat.  And if you've read this blog for long, you've learned I'm all about frugality.



As for me, I'm still teaching night classes 3x a week and really like it.  I have a different schedule next semester, where I will still be able to teach 3 classes, but no longer teach on Saturdays (hooray!).  I'm still tutoring some as time allows, and I'm sewing and crocheting (they should really have spelled that word differently. really) in every spare moment, trying to get caught up on requests from customers...so that I can get to work on Christmas gifts for family/friends.  I've been making a lot of the beards/beard hats like the boys wore for Halloween...Santa beard hats, beards only for kids who want to be like their daddy, James Harden wanna be beard hats for Thunder fans...really, the beard hats are hilarious.  Anyway, it is really busy here right now.  I tried to paint our kitchen...about 2 months ago.  I got like 1/10 of it finished. Fantastic.  So 90% of it is green. The other 10% is lookin cute like this: 

Maybe one day I'll finish the rest of the kitchen. I bought the paint and everything.  Oh well.  Homeschooling, night classes, sewing/crafting, keeping up with two crazy kiddos, half painting my kitchen, busy busy life...oh, and I got a tattoo. Yes, I did.  It's okay-- I'm the same person inside I was before I had one.  So for those of you who don't like it...that's okay, because I do.  I got a tree on my wrist with the words "life abundant" underneath, because lately John 10:10 has just been really big to me.  I had the artist put a little bird in the tree as well, because my friend was getting the same bird on her wrist that day, in memory of her mom.  So here it is, shield your eyes if you don't want to see it.

I've wanted a tattoo for about 15 years.  So...I figured the desire wasn't just a fad I'd outgrow.  So now I have one. And I like it.  Sometimes more with every passing day. 

Not much else is going on here-- what's new with you?  What were your kids for Halloween?  Any good Thanksgiving recipes you want to share?  We are actually getting to go to family Thanksgiving this year.  What about Christmas?  What are your plans?  Any stellar gift ideas for your kids/family?  I have some cute things up my sleeve for my extended family, I have no idea what I'm getting husband, and my kids aren't getting a lot from us this year because well, frankly, they need nothing, and they will get a lot from friends/family, and we just have chosen not to go overboard in our own house this year.  But I am going to make one thing for the kiddos that I'm really excited about.  I'll share after it's finished...because there are a couple of other kiddos out there that I'm making one for, as well...so I don't want to give it away before Christmas! :)  We are really at a point in our life (we being my husband and I) at wanting to be sure the true meaning of Christmas isn't lost in all the gifts.  I do want my kids to get presents...but I just don't want to overwhelm them with that in our house...so we will make sure they feel special, but we intend to also spend the holidays doing things as a family as well as doing things for those in need in our community.  I figure that showing my kids needs that we are able to meet for those around us, because of God's provision for us,  I will be able to teach them a lesson that has taken me much longer than childhood years to learn.  It's difficult to not want to "be like everyone else" and keep up with the Joneses...but we are doing our best to throw that mentality out the window and give our kids opportunities for true joy-- joy in their own hearts by doing something that brings joy to others.

James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

I'm sort of getting distracted by Sesame Street in the background...and I figure I've typed enough for awhile...so if I don't "see" you again before Thanksgiving, have a Happy Thanksgiving!