http://www.pleonast.com/user/homeschoolmomma23 recent pleonast.com entries by user homeschoolmomma23 en-us http://www.pleonast.com/user/homeschoolmomma23?l=5&entryID=604396 We had a great couple of days with our family. Ruth, Larry, Lehia, Marshall, and Jordan arrived Wednesday evening in time for supper before Bible study and they left this morning. We enjoyed our time. Kelsey felt pretty good Thursday, but pretty rough yesterday. We went to do a little shopping and then the girls (sans Faith) went to see Twilight again while the guys (plus Faith) came back to the house. We played Settlers of Catan, Jordan is now addicted! and Tick and Shanghai Rummy. Settlers and Shanghai rummy are two of my favorite games. We exchanged gifts last night, since we will be unable to travel back home for a while. Simon David received the Clone Wars movie, so we watched that this morning. We ate lots of food!!! We have enough to have left overs tonight. We introduced Jordan to amish friendship bread and he took some starter home for his mom. We are thankful for our family and the opportunity we had to be together. My folks are coming next weekend. My mom and I, plus some ot... 2008-11-29 http://www.pleonast.com/user/homeschoolmomma23?l=5&entryID=603296 Today was the preliminary cooking day. Faith helped to me to make the pumpkin bread and the banana bread. We also made breadsticks for supper Friday. I made two lasagnas and they and the breadsticks are in the freezer ready to eaten post shopping on Friday. I also made some vanilla and chocolate Amish friendship bread. So yummmy!!!!! I also did laundry today, to try to keep tomorrow for just sheets to be ready for our guests. Tomorrow I will make the pumpkin and pecan pies, the pumpkin roll, and the pretzel salad. I prepare the sweet potato casserole with the topping and don't bake, just refrigerate, and then bake Thursday. I do the same with the green bean casserole-I mix the green beans, milk, and cream of mushroom soup. It tastes so much better after mixed together for a day and then I just add the french fried onions and cook on Thursday. We brine our turkey so that will be tomorrow and I'll boil the giblets for the gravy. Sometimes the cooking days pre Thanksgiving are as enjoyabl... 2008-11-26 http://www.pleonast.com/user/homeschoolmomma23?l=5&entryID=602147 We went to see the movie yesterday afternoon. (If you have to ask what movie, then you probably aren't interested in this post.) I was pleased with it. It doesn't really bother me when they change events and details from the book in the movie, to me it is more important to capture the true nature of the characters and the relationships and I felt like they did that very well in the movie. I thought the actors played Bella and Charlie quite well. I didn't like Jessica from the get go, which means she did well because I didn't like Jessica in the book. Edward was pretty good as well, I could hear his British accent coming through slightly every now and again, which went well with the book. There were a couple of times he didn't seem to agree with my idea of Edward from the book, but I am holding out to see it again before I commit to that, so don't get mad at me yet!!! Overall, highly entertaining and I look forward to the next one. 2008-11-22 http://www.pleonast.com/user/homeschoolmomma23?l=5&entryID=600306 We will be staying home for Thanksgiving this year. Kelsey will have chemo that week-we hope on Monday rather than Wednesday, so she won't be up to traveling. Ruth and Larry, Lehia and Marshall, Uncle Dave, and Jordan will be coming. We are looking forward to it. This is the preliminary menu: Smoked roasted turkeyRuth's dressingsweet potato casseroleyeast rollswhite breadgreen bean casserolemac and cheese for LehiaSaladcornmashed potatoespumpkin piepumpkin rollpecan piemaybe strawberry pretzel saladgravy How could I have left off the cranberry sauce? I like that Little Richard commercial, "mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce!!" We will eat on this for lunch and have leftovers that night. Our company will go home on Saturday, so our family may have it again on Saturday or Sunday. I am thinking lasagne for Friday supper to have something totally different. I will have pumpkin bread, amish friendship bread, maybe lemon poppy seed or banana bread for breakfast Thanksgiving morn... 2008-11-17 http://www.pleonast.com/user/homeschoolmomma23?l=5&entryID=597614 Here is the ordering info copied from an email Tim sent about the shirts. pekinpanther@earthlink.net Now that the cat is out of the bag so to speak, I am sending a general email to the entire group for Kelsey shirt orders. We have received some requests from folks who heard about our shirt project and who would also like to purchase some. We will accept orders through Friday the 14th. Below is a list of the shirts that are available and the costs. If you are ordering youth shirts, there are some issues with what is available. Short-sleeve in both purple and black are available but some of the other options are hit and miss. Long-sleeve T's are only available in black except size (2-4). Crewneck sweatshirts are available in purple and black except (2-4) but hooded sweatshirts are available in both colors. I know it's confusing. Mary Beth will correct me if I missed something. Any questions, just ask. Thanks, Tim Adult Short-sleeve T's Small-XL $6.00 2XL $7.50 3XL $7.60 Youth Sho... 2008-11-10 http://www.pleonast.com/user/homeschoolmomma23?l=5&entryID=597338 My husband and I had a date night last night. We ate BBQ and went to see Fireproof. The theatre sold out!! We had arrived in plenty of time, so we didn't have any problems, but the manager came in and asked everyone to move to the middles to open up seats since it had sold out. We really really liked the movie. It was very real to me how they portrayed the marriage problems, neither one was essentially evil trying to destroy their marriage, but both were off track. I fear there are a lot more people out there, even in the church, who have marriage problems that they hide well, or maybe not as well as they think. It is not uncommon to hear wives complain or disrespect their husbands or husbands to be harsh and dishonor their wives. I wonder if they are willing to do this in public what is it like when it is private? I feel blessed by my marriage. It makes me sorrowful to see people hurt the one they should love the most! 2008-11-09 http://www.pleonast.com/user/homeschoolmomma23?l=5&entryID=596732 One of the child life specialists at St Jude remarked one day about Kelsey having a pleasant disposition and Kelsey replied, "Life is more interesting when you are happy." Simon told that story at the homeschool campout and mentioned that we should put that on a t-shirt. Well, our fellow campers did so. We got these in the mail today. Is that not just so cool???? 2008-11-07 http://www.pleonast.com/user/homeschoolmomma23?l=5&entryID=596028 Yesterday we printed out maps of the US with the electoral college numbers on them and after supper, armed with red and blue crayons, the kids and I colored our maps as the results became known. It was a great lesson for the kids on the branches of government, checks and balances, and the electoral college. For me, however, it is a different lesson. I voted yesterday, but I knew the presidential candidate for which I voted could not win. I was able, though, to vote on some things, that to me, were more important. There were two issues on our ballot, one for a state lottery and another to prohibit unmarried couples (same sex or not) from adopting or being foster parents. I felt my vote in these matters was far more significant. When we read Heb 11, we see people whose faith allowed them to rise above, to rise above WHATEVER was the particular challenge or trial facing them. And honestly, a lot of their trials were worse than Obama! My trust is not in a president or a political party. My... 2008-11-05 http://www.pleonast.com/user/homeschoolmomma23?l=5&entryID=594758 Simon David had an original idea for a Halloween costume. He created a new super hero, Duck Tape Man. Maybe Rex Guyer could come up with a story line and create a comic book and start a whole new line of Duck Tape Man toys, maybe a movie-who knows, even a Six Flags roller coaster in honor of Duck Tape Man?!?!? Faith was Rachel Elizabeth Dare, who won't mean anything to you unless you have read Percy Jackson and the Olympians books. The picture of the three kids together was at St Jude. If I can figure out how to do a slide show, I will with all the St Jude pictures. Faith picked out the pumpkin design, he sure looks woeful, doesn't he? We got our patterns from Spookmaster.com. Really inexpensive if you are into doing different things with carving. 2008-11-03 http://www.pleonast.com/user/homeschoolmomma23?l=5&entryID=587803 We are having an Indian dish tonight for supper. My folks introduced Simon and I to Indian food, and we love it!!!! It is so good. Simon loved getting to eat it daily when he was in India last year and he gets a hankering all the time for curry or any other Indian dish. My parents are coming in this afternoon to stay with Simon and Faith while we go to Memphis for Kelsey's MRI (please please keep praying!!) and so we will have Indian food for supper. A chicken dish called Chicken Tikki Masala that is chunks of chicken in a tomato cream sauce-yum!!! with spiced rice (cloves, cinnamon and ginger) and garlic naan bread. If you have never had Indian food, I suggest you bestow your patronage upon the nearest Indian restaurant for a wonderful experience. There is a great one in Memphis not far from the Memphis zoo called India Palace. We have been there several times in our stays at St Jude. 2008-10-15