Snuggly jammies, warm fire, Christmas lights, Disney movie, pizza and hot wings. Is there a better way to ring in the new year? Welcome 2012! We’re glad you’re here!!!

Jeremy asked me what I wanted for my birthday this year and I said, “Nothing”. He came back with, “No, c’mon, I want to get you something.”

“I want nothing.”

“There has to be something you want.”

“Yes, I’m telling you what I want. I want nothing. Actually a couple of days of nothing would be even better.”

So that’s what I got for my birthday. Two days of nothing at a posh hotel in downtown Atlanta. It was exactly what this 40 year old body needed! Thank you, Honey!!!

The grand opening of our new retail store, Anglers Warehouse, was this weekend. The doors were officially opened for business in August but we didn’t have it fully stocked, loaded and ready to go until now.

After the crash of the housing market 3 years ago, it’s so nice to see Jeremy find his passion again. He is a smart businessman and works hard to accomplish his goals, but what he really loves is people. He is at his most happiest when he is helping someone to achieve their own dreams. Whether it’s a guy making baits in his garage on weekends finally turning a small profit, or a life long fisherman who steps up to tournament level. Jeremy is there for advice and encouragement.

The same night as our grand opening we also had a Christmas party for our pro-staffers. We were so thrilled that 75 people came!!! Some from as far as Texas and Arkansas! We feel so thankful for them because they are the guys wearing our Tshirts, hats and jerseys on the weekends at their local tournaments. Our name is getting out there! Recently we’ve had orders to fill and send to Washington, Utah and Maryland! Isn’t that amazing???

I never imagined entering the world of retail sales, but we’re here. And we’re doing pretty well. I can’t wait to see what this year holds for us! And if you’re so inclined, please visit us on the web: anglerswarehouse(dot)com for all your fishing needs!

Last year Savannah and I were invited to be a part of a group called Keepers of the Home. We met monthly with other moms and daughters learning life skills, and focusing on the things that God designed us, as women, to take care of. Since I had never heard of a “Keepers Group” at the time of our invitation, I ordered the handbook. It didn’t take long after flipping through its pages to know this was something special.

Going forward into this school year I knew I wanted to continue learning in the Keepers handbook. But I hesitated returning to the previous group. Not because they aren’t the most gracious, fun-loving, God fearing women I’ve met through homeschooling. Because they most certainly are. They are wonderful! But that group was a very large group. Twenty or more girls if everyone showed up. And I knew some personal friends who I thought would also like to be a part of Keepers. I didn’t feel that it was my place to invite them into the other group, so I decided to branch out and start my own group.

The picture at the top is our new group (minus one lovely) taken at our Christmas Tea. I hesitated planning a December meeting but when one of the moms offered to give the girls a proper “tea”, I thought it was a great idea. They got all dressed up for the occasion and each girl brought a gift or two for a family we adopted from the local ministry village. After eating and hearing the story “My Child My Princess”, the girls wrapped their gifts and decorated Christmas cookies.

I am so pleased with how this group has turned out. An absolute answer to prayer. I love the diversity of their ages and family backgrounds as much as the girls themselves. And I can’t say enough good things about the new friendships I have made with their mothers.

Some other fun things we’ve done this year include how to grind your own wheat and make blueberry muffins, we’ve made our own travel pillows, we learned some healthy ways to take care of our bodies since they are the temple of the holy spirit and we also made our own Christmas cards. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year brings!!!

What can I say about writing? I personally have a love/hate relationship with it. When I have time to think clearly, be humorous, add style and entertain people… I love to write! But these days, I don’t have time for all that. I update this blog quickly, just so I don’t forget things. It’s far from entertaining anymore. It reminds me of a checklist. And that, I hate!

But I do like to teach writing skills. With a first and third grader, we are still doing a lot of basics. Savannah has very neat handwriting and so for her, I assign a lot of journaling and some copywork. She told me once when she was quite small that she wanted to be an author some day. She’s never mentioned it again, but gosh, does she love to write stuff! She fills up notebook after notebook with her thoughts and drawings and ideas and to do lists (I have NO IDEA where she gets THAT from!). On a normal school day, I have to continually remind her that she’s done enough writing for that day and she needs to move on to her other work or it will never get done!

Emery hasn’t been as eager to write as his sister. I’m not sure if it’s because he’s getting older or if she is rubbing off on him, but he isn’t as frustrated by it as he used to be. Neatness and taking pride in his handwriting is something I’m trying to develop in him. “It’s not just all about getting the assignment finished, son.” At the beginning of this year I hesitated to teach him cursive even though he was asking. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to do it, but I could barely read his printing. I thought cursive would be even worse! Now I’m glad that I decided to go ahead and do it. Turns out, if it’s something he sincerely wants to learn, he will do what it takes to do it right.

I don’t know why this picture is so blurry. Knowing him, he probably wasn’t sitting still! The page was taken from his writing book called Writing with Ease (Savannah also uses the 3rd grade edition). These books have been great in reinforcing copy work, comprehension skills, and story narration. We do a lot of work finding the main points of stories and then condensing those stories in our own words. This is difficult because for Savannah, she wants to retell the story in complete detail including the color of flower petals that the main character passed on her way to the farmhouse. And Emery, knowing that whatever he narrates back to me about the story, I will write down and he will have to copy, gives me only 4 and 5 word recaps! (sigh)

But overall, I can already see a huge improvement in both their handwriting and their writing skills in general since the beginning of this school year. I am really looking forward to next year when Savannah will be old enough to participate in the Essentials Writing class that is offered within our homeschool group. I hear nothing but praise about it and I think with the program we’ve been using, she will have confidence in herself and will do very well in the class.

Sadly, as I mentioned in an earlier post, Jeremy’s aunt Patsy died soon after Thanksgiving. The funeral was this weekend. Due to Savannah and I participating in Journey to Bethlehem, only Jeremy and Emery went to Mississippi to be with the family. And since it was just us girls, we headed over to my mom’s for the annual Cookie Bake.

It seems like each year there is something memorable that happens. There was the year my sister got us all matching aprons that said “Santa likes my cookies best!” And the year that Buzz Lightyear kept showing up next to the finished cookie trays in all the photos. This year was no different. Savannah, Jessica and I were decorating sugar cookies and I kept thinking something just didn’t look right. Then it dawned on me! Usually our sugar cookies are frosted in the traditional red, white and green Christmas colors. But this year there was neon blue, bright pink and fluorescent yellow. You see, Nanny became a die hard coupon-er this year and the colors on the cookies reflect the icing that she found on sale all year! Yeah, I’m pretty sure we won’t be letting her live that down anytime soon!!!

Eight or nine years ago our church began performing an outdoor drama of what the journey to Bethlehem would have been like in the time of Jesus’ birth. In the first few years there was a lot of trial and error, but now we have really great props and an awesome set-up and we really draw a huge crowd. The first 2 weekends in December, with over 125 volunteers each night to pull it off, we walk over 3,000 people through our own little town of Bethlehem and give them the message of salvation. And we top the whole thing off with hot cocoa and marshmallows over an open fire.

For several years, Jeremy played one of the wise men and in 2005 Emery was still small enough (barely) to play baby Jesus in the manger. This year, Savannah decided she wanted to participate as a villager and the above photo is her Jewish home. She has totally gotten into the role and after last night, informed me that she and a couple of other girls “wrote in” a part where she trips and “spills the soup”. Apparently there was ad libbing of her lines as well.

As for me, the non-actress that I am, you can find me at the booth next to the chapel behind our church serving steaming cups of hot cocoa and directing the way to the fire pit where you can roast marshmallows. It’s an important job too, ya know! :)

We had a great Thanksgiving out at Uncle Randy’s house this year. I have to say I did good by marrying into a family that can cook some amazing southern food! Dressing (in a pan!), gravy, butter beans, green beans, sweet potatoes, collard greens, deviled eggs, and yeast rolls. And don’t even get me started on the dessert table. Oh my!

All served with Jeremy’s specialty: the deep fried turkey.

He fried his first turkey about 5 years ago, I guess. Ever since then he’s been hooked. He injects the bird with mouth watering, buttery flavors and then dips it in the hot oil until it’s juicy and delicious! It’s the perfect addition to any Thanksgiving feast!

Because there were several family members that came from Mississippi this year, a lot of them under age 10, Papa and his brother decided to get a “Jumpy” for the day. We were there for 7 full hours and except for the 10 minutes my kids spent shoveling in turkey and dressing, I didn’t see them unless I stuck my head inside that inflatable bounce house. When it was time to go, Emery said, “Uncle Randy, thanks for getting us the Jumpy today. And if you have that again next year, I’ll come back.”

A bittersweet moment from this year’s Thanksgiving was having Papa’s sister with us. Aunt Patsy lives in Mississippi but had been in Atlanta for several weeks fighting an illness. Her husband and kids came to see her for the day, but had to leave on Friday to go back home. On Saturday Patsy took a turn for the worst and was not able to recover. The family drove back out yesterday and were able to see her one more time before she passed away.

I didn’t know you well Aunt Patsy, but I know you were passionate about your family. I never spoke to you without hearing all about your kids and grandkids. They were the light of your life and I know they will miss you terribly. I am glad you got to see them all before leaving this place that was causing you so much trouble. May you find peace and healing in Heaven, with your Lord and Savior.

One of my favorite things to do during the holidays is take our annual Christmas card pictures. I try to do something creative each year. Something a little more “us”. Of course I’m not above stealing cute ideas. I’m always on the lookout for cute photo-ops!

The subdivision we moved into earlier this year is a gated community. The gate itself is black, attached to gray stacked stone, and then the remainder of the picket fence that goes out to the road is also black. It’s very pretty with lots of nice landscaping.

But the one thing I noticed almost immediately was the perfect climbing tree just inside the entrance. I’ve known for months that this was the spot where I’d take the Christmas cards pictures this year.

I had an image in my mind of what I wanted the kids to wear, but when I went shopping, the stars were not aligned. I couldn’t find a thing I liked that matched! So I went with plaid, scarves and hats and silently thanked the photo editing software people that I could easily make all the pictures black and white, so as not to temporarily blind unsuspecting friends and family members.

Later that night I edited until my little heart was content. I liked the way the cards turned out, but something continued to bother me. As much as I tried to push it out of my mind, it remained.

You see, after our house fire last year, I was fortunate to be able to salvage most of my scrapbooks and photo albums. All of my kids finished albums were in a safe and the unfinished ones were in a room with smoke damage. The pictures were in boxes and most were able to be kept, or at the very least (thanks to online photo storing sites), reprinted.

When we moved into this house in March I unpacked every box and some things were missing. Most of the things were in my scrapbooking room. A Disney photo album filled with all of our family’s trips to DW beginning with the first time my sister took me, 8 weeks pregnant with Savannah. A 12×12 box where I had been saving pictures from Jeremy’s side of the family, some were old family pictures given to me by his grandmother. And there was a Christmas album where I recorded something special from each year that Jeremy and I have been married.

Each year I saved a Christmas card for myself and put it in that book. There were a couple of years where I wasn’t able to do a card due to being enormously pregnant or moving, or both! Those were the years I wrote about family traditions. Letters to Santa or cookie bakes. It didn’t matter. It was a special book to me and I looked forward to filling it for many Christmas’ to come.

Now, eleven years into it, I’m saddened to think I have to start over with this year. And there is a nagging part of me that says “let it go, it’s not important”. And I do know that. I know that insurance companies make mistakes and loose things. I know that I should be grateful for all the things I do have instead of focusing on the very tiny number of things I didn’t get back. But I’ve resolved within myself to grieve the loss. And I will eventually let it go.

I think it will help the process along that I have such great memories of this year and these pictures to put in a new album. As a matter of fact, just writing this post is making me feel better already. Merry (early) Christmas everyone!

This week we had an opportunity to visit The Rock Ranch in The Rock, Georgia. I was so excited when I heard about this field trip within my homeschool group because I have been wanting to go. Another family I know went a couple years ago and spent the night. They have a huge bonfire in the evenings and when it’s time for bed, campers get to sleep in COVERED WAGONS! Just like the pioneers! How cool is that!?!??!

Now for our field trip, we didn’t get to spend the night, but there is plenty more to do at the ranch than sleep. We had a guided tour that told us all about traveling across the U.S. in pioneer days, what people ate, and how they survived. It went on to show us their permanent homes, log cabins, when they settled. Then we got to grind our own cornmeal, with stones, so that we knew how much work went into making something simple, like cornbread.

We tasted cornbread muffins, fed barnyard animals at the petting zoo and went for a hayride, before hearing about the Native American way of life. Then we were off to a picnic lunch, followed by free time on the ranch.

Free time included underground slides, a jumpy pillow, volleyball, and a kid-sized pioneer town complete with pharmacy, church, jail, dress shop, barn, boarding house, and more. It was so cute! All the children had a great time and I would seriously love to go back on a weekend when they have even MORE to do! And this time, I wanna sleep in a covered wagon!!! :)