SNOW!

SNOW!

On the 26th our family went in search of snow. We had a freezin' good time. I just love when little ones get rosy cheeks in the snow--and big ones, too. Bryce also made a little "snow graffiti." (He loves me!)

New Christmas Jammies!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.......

Organic goodness

The frost came and killed our bean plants. Fortunately, we were able to harvest the last of our beans. Don't they look great?!?! By the way, they are supposed to be purple, green, yellow, and some spotted ones. Bryce likes to get heirloom seeds of unusual plants. We all like the flavor of the purple ones best. YUM! Our pea plants are frost resistant and are still going strong.

Being cool with Santa

Christion is at a funny age. He still wants to sit on Santa's lap, but needs to be "cool" while doing it! Emily, of course, brought a book. :)

Santa

It's funny. Sarah has wanted to see Santa for weeks. She has been coming home with stories about other kids at school that went to see Santa--and she wanted to see him too. Then when it's time to see him, she is suddenly Miss Shy. Whatever!

Having fun

Bryce and I wanted to have some fun....it turns out that our kids don't like roller coasters, but we do. So Bryce and I went to Magic Mountain by ourselves on Saturday and had an entire day by ourselves. No one whined at us, asked us to buy them anything, fought, or gave us attitude. We had each other to ourselves, by ourselves. It was a FUN day. Thanks to my friends that helped with the kids and were "on call" in case of emergency. Of course because we are getting old....we are now nursing the aches and pains that come with acting like a couple of kids. It was worth it though!

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas, too

I love the holidays. I love the cooking, the smells, the lights, and most of all the family time. Even though it is very hectic packing and traveling--it's a lot of fun. Thanksgiving was fabulous. I have to admit that the day after Thanksgiving I am ready for Christmas. Bring it on! We were so excited that when we got home from our trip to Fresno, we put up our Christmas tree. Considering that it is 10 feet tall--that is no simple task. This is a record for us. So even though our tree is fake, we have our pine scented candle burning, Harry Conick Jr. Christmas cd playing, and it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Fahrenheit 451

Interesting....I reread the novel Fahrenheit 451 recently and it was amazing. I taught this novel about eight years ago to a class of juniors and I felt is was extremely relevant to current society. The social commentary about technology was what I mostly focused on--the fact that people are continually "plugged in" to some type of technology. In just eight years our society has become even more reliant on cell phones, ipods, internet, etc. If we want entertainment it is literally at our fingertips. The "wall t.v.'s" in Bradbury's book in 1953, are our reality. The result of too much reliance on technology is that people are unable to communicate and care about each other. If people are continually plugged into technology, they aren't plugged in to each other. What I found even more remarkable this time around is the social and political commentary and how that is beginning to mirror today's world. In the novel, books are burned because it isn't good to have conflicting ideas. They don't want anyone to be offended, so anything that can be offensive is destroyed. The society "spoon feeds" ideas and wants the people entertained so they don't think for themselves. People are not encouraged to think for themselves--just stay plugged in and have fun....and the people don't see that the world is literally falling apart around them. I don't want to give too much away, but I would encourage anyone out there to pick up the book. Ray Bradbury had an amazing insight into what life could be like in the future. I would love to chat with him and see what he thinks about how things have turned out......

Happy 36th Birthday, Bryce!

Food Storage

One week ago I was given a challenge at church. I was asked to not go to the grocery store for one week and see if I could feed my family just out of what we already have. (then report on it) My husband and I thought this would be a great challenge since we collect food storage and try to be prepared "just in case." We also decided to take it a step further and not tell our kids and see if they noticed any difference this week. Well the good news is that the kids didn't even notice. We had good well balanced meals--I had to adapt some recipes because I was missing ingredients--but all in all it was a great experience. We keep our freezer loaded with meat and frozen vegetables and have a good sized pantry full of canned food. Some things we learned--(1) keep up on the garden. Our fall veggies aren't ready to harvest yet, so I learned that we need to put it in a little sooner. (2) Get chickens! Seriously, years ago my husband said he wanted a yard with chickens and I thought he was crazy. About a year ago I started warming up to the idea. This experience clinched it. I would like to get a house where we could have our own chickens and fresh eggs. (Our current home is zoned for chickens, but I wouldn't do that to our neighbors--we need more room.) (3) I need to be better at rotating my food. I did find some cans of food that had expired and was bummed to throw them away. I hate to waste.
The best part of this experience was that I took the money I saved from not buying groceries--and did some Christmas shopping! I think we might do this again before Christmas in order to help our budget.

Reforming perfectionist

So I have had this blog for a month, but have been fretting over the fact that it isn't "just right." Today I finally realized that it is better to just do it--imperfections and all. So here it is--The Three Hatchlings. Pictures are currently in the wrong places--I'm not sure how to fix them yet--but when my children are not sick and my friend can come over and help me, I will get it done. If I wait until it's perfect--I will never post.

Does anyone else wonder about what to put in a blog? I see such amazing blogs that have political commentary, artistic information, blogs with a purpose, etc. Other women have such poignant things to say. That just further paralyzes me--I can't compete. I think that's why I haven't blogged until now. I was so afraid of not doing it right and not being good enough that I just didn't do anything. In an attempt to overcome my issues with perfectionism, I'm taking a step and letting people see me with all my imperfections.