Turkey Enchiladas

If you are here in the U.S. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving yesterday. We did. I will post pictures later!

Whether or not you celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday, here is a good recipe. It can be made with chicken or turkey. My mom made something similar to this when we were kids using left over turkey and I adapted my mom's recipe to come up with this one.

Turkey Enchiladas
INGREDIENTS:
Leftover cooked turkey or chicken (either white or dark meat pieces will do, I usually do a mixture of whatever I have)
1 can cream of celery soup or cream of chicken soup
1 can diced green chilies
1 reg. size pkg. plain tortilla chips, crumbled
1 (8 oz.) pkg. Cheddar cheese, grated
1 (8 oz.) pkg. Monterey Jack cheese, grated
1 sm. onion, chopped
1 jar jalapenos (optional for additional "kick")

Saute onions in butter or margarine in medium skillet until golden brown. Add green chilies, soup, and 1 soup can full of water. Stir and simmer until heated. Crush tortilla chips. Spread a layer of chips in bottom of baking dish (about 1/2 of the bag). Scatter a layer of cooked turkey on top of chips. Spoon a layer of 1/2 of soup mixture over chips. Add jalapenos, if desired. Sprinkle with 1/3 of both grated cheeses. Repeat with remaining chips, turkey, and soup mixture; top with grated cheese. Bake in oven at 350 degrees until thoroughly heated and cheese is bubbly.

NOTE: This can also be cooked in the microwave oven by heating at medium high power until thoroughly heated and cheese is bubbly.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

I am not really here... I am probably gorging myself on appetizers and junk food before I gorge myself on turkey, stuffing, mashed taters and pumpkin pie!! YUM!!!

I just hope all of you are having a great day, where ever you are and whatever you are doing!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Songs we've heard over and over this week

Lady Bug has two new favorite songs:


Do You Know the Muffin Man
Do you know the muffin man, the muffin man, the muffin man
oh do you know muffin man
All around the town


Notice how she goes from the Muffin Man to The Wheels on the Bus song? Kinda makes the Muffin Man sound like a real player, a Romeo if you will! Too funny!


BINGO
There was a farmer had a dog and Bingo was his name-o
B-I-N-G-O
B-I-N-G-O
B-I-N-G-O
and Nemo was his name-o.


Yep Nemo was his name, even though she spells out Bingo. When I asked if the dog's name was Bingo or Nemo (thinking she would say "oh Bingo") she proudly announced "Nemo."

The handwriting expert

Lady Bug started preschool this year and they have been working with her to write her name. She does pretty well, but 2 out of the 5 letters in her name are not recognizable. I was preparing some stuff to send to my mom and in there was a piece of paper with Lady Bug's handwritten name on it. When Spirit saw it he started laughing and saying that her name didn't look right and on and on -- just like big brother's do, right? (**Lady Bug wasn't in the room so she didn't hear him) I was telling Spirit that actually, for her age, she writes her name very well. He just smiled at me and moved on.

Earlier that day,

Spirit found a math work book from last year (when he was in first grade) and he was erasing all the answers and re-writing them. I asked what he was doing and he said:

"Do you see my handwriting? It is terrible!"

When I remembered the work book incident I went looking for Spirit. I reminded him how he didn't like his writing but the more he practiced the better it got, I also told him that Lady Bug will need more and more practice to really make her name look nice. He laughed and said "I know. I just now realized that."

Weight Gain... and it isn't even Thanksgiving Day yet

I overeat in attempts to make myself feel better, I think they call it an emotional eater or something like that. I overeat in an attempt to make my problems seem less huge and also in hopes that they will go away. My problems lately are no different than anyone else's - Christmas is coming and where oh where are we going to find the money to provide for the kids the way we want to??

So, I know... get over it, move on.........

Anyway........

Yesterday I ate the following:

• A piece of toast with peanut butter
• A piece of cinnamon/sugar toast (and everyone knows in order for cinnamon/sugar toast to be really good it must be slathered in tons of butter)
• A large cup of coffee with cream and sugar
• A few peanuts
• A bottled water
• A few goldfish crackers
• A half piece of chicken
• Some corn
• A pop
• A Twinkie
• Another pop
• Handful of potato chips
• Meatloaf and potatoes
• Chocolate milk
• A spoonful of cookie dough

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Gee I wish I were! I seriously ate all that in one day. And guess what, my problems are still here today! So all that the overeating did was cause some serious digestive issues, bloating and weight gain. Nice. Now I have one more problem...how lose a gazillion pounds before Mr. Man's work Holiday Party???

Biscuits and rolls

Biscuits and Rolls for your holiday gathering or for any ol' meal!

The biscuit recipe I got from my sister years ago and the roll recipe is my MIL's recipe (my husband's favorite rolls!)

Basic Biscuits
INGREDIENTS:
2 c flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 c shortening
3/4 c milk

Stir flour, powder and salt together with fork. Cut in shortening. Add milk and stir. Knead dough on a floured board 10 times. Roll out about 1/2" thick. Cut with glass (do not twist). Bake 10-12 minutes at 425 degrees.


Dinner Rolls
INGREDIENTS:
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c oil
1 c milk, hot
1 egg, beaten
1/2 tsp salt
2 pkg yeast (I like to use Rapid Rise yeast)
1 c warm water
Approximately 7 c flour

Mix sugar and oil together in a bowl. Add milk to sugar mixture and stir well. Add egg and salt to sugar mixture. Mix yeast with water and stir until dissolved. Add yeast/water to bowl and stir well. Add flour, 1 c at a time until desired consistency. Let rise to doubled in size.

Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes.

Some much needed family time

Mr. Man has had to work a lot lately... for instance ...


last Friday he worked 8:00 am until 9:00 pm. 13 hours
Saturday he worked 7:00 am until 6:00 pm. 11 hours
Sunday he worked 8:00 am until 12:00 pm and then had to go back at 2:00 pm until 4:00 pm. 6 hours
Monday he worked 8:00 am until 6:30 pm. 10.5 hours
Tuesday was 7:30 am until 9:00 pm. 13.5 hours


(THAT is a lot of hours there!!Whoa!)


So, I called him yesterday afternoon at work and asked if he needed to work late again. He said no. I said let's just hang out as a family. He agreed that would be a good idea.


We didn't do anything fancy. I made dinner. We read together. We worked on homework. I gave the kids showers and then we went to bed. It was nice to be together though. No craziness. No whining kids who missed their dad. No naughty kids picking on their mom. No grumpy, stressed out mommy!

All I want for Christmas is...

Lefty (who is 6 and in 1st grade this year) told his dad that all he wants for Christmas is to have his kindergarten teacher come over for waffles.

He was in love with his kindergarten teacher and so were we (mostly). She was great for him. She gave him just enough push to really make him strive for more and more.

Oh, I battled with her on some things. Click here and here for more on those issues. But overall, she was so good to Lefty and he enjoyed her!

So I am thinking we get her over for waffles A.S.A.P., put a red bow on her head and that takes care of one present. Viola! Just like that!

I am kidding of course! (sort of!)

A Birthday Party Gala you won't want to miss!

You know how there is always that one kid whose mom & dad put on the grandest of grand party and no other family can top what they did?

Well, this past weekend Lady Bug was invited to four birthday parties. Three of them were on Saturday and one was on Sunday. **For the record I don't recommend putting a 3 year old through such emotional stimulation in one weekend** At the end of the 3rd party on Saturday she had a complete melt down! Through her many tears she said "Please momma just take me home. I wanna go home now!"


We left the house at 8:45 am on Saturday, just Lady Bug and I, and headed to the store (nothing like last minute shopping for said birthday parties). We didn't get back home until 5:00 pm. That is a long day for a little girl (and her mommy too!)


SATURDAY:
Party #1: 10:00 am to 12:00 pm (leave a little early to get to party #2) - skating party


Party #2: 11:30 am to 1:30 pm - bowling party (louder than a Chuck E Cheese party, yes I said Louder!)


Party #3: 2:30 pm to 4:30 pm (arrive 1/2 hour early because there isn't enough time to go home after party #2 before party #3 started) - Princess Ballerina party with makeup and glitter and everything girly-girl!


SUNDAY:
Party #4: 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm - Chuck E. Cheese (enough said there!)



Sunday, after Party #4, we are driving home, just Lady Bug and I. Here is our conversation about birthdays - keep in mind this is after skating, bowling, a princess party and tons of fun at Chuck E Cheese:


Lady Bug: "I don't like cake anymore."


Me: (Laughing) " I don't blame you. You had a lot of cake this weekend didn't you?"


Lady Bug: "Yes. When is my birthday?"


Me: "You have 3 more months."


Lady Bug: "Maybe we can have my party at the gas station!!"


Me: "A gas station?? What would we do at the gas station for your birthday party?"


Lady Bug: "Wellllllll, we wouldn't get gas."


Me: "Really. What could we do there for a party though?"


Lady Bug: "Eat snacks and stuff. They have games there."


Me: "Like lottery tickets or what?"


Lady Bug: "Sure! OR we could go to Wal-Mart for my birthday!"


Me: "Wal-Mart or a gas station? Done deal girl. I'm on it!"


Lady Bug (with big smile on her face): "OK then!!!"


So, I am on it. I am busily preparing invitations to the grand gala to the gas station (or maybe Wal-Mart if we feel like really going all out for this big shin-dig!) Oh the other mothers will be so jealous they didn't plan such a big event! Yes, folks my daughter will be the envy of all other kids!

DIY Project - Dinner in a basket

I am not a teacher, nor have I ever been , but I am close to some people whose occupation is teaching in the public schools. So I know from talking to them that they work hard and put in lots of hours that we (as parents) don't know about, especially during parent/teacher conference times. They sometimes are pulled away from their families during conferences and sometimes until late into the evenings for these conferences.

So this year I decided to make each teacher a little "Dinner in a basket" gift. I picked up a few baskets at the thrift store. Then I prepared some homemade chili, stuck in some crackers, a couple apples, a few biscuits (just from a can), Mr. Man made some salsa that we packaged up and I stuck in a jar of homemade pumpkin butter. I attached a note that said "With the stress of parent/teacher conferences, please enjoy dinner on us tonight! Thank you for all your hard work!"


We are going to put together a few of these for some neighbors this year for Christmas gifts. I am thinking of spaghetti noodles, a jar of sauce, garlic bread and some homemade cookies with a note that "With the stress of the holidays, please enjoy dinner tonight on us!"

Gidget

Gidget, the new dog, (click here and here for more about the dog) did so well the first two weeks in our house. She never pooped or peed on the floor and always told us when she needed to go out. At night, we would let her out just before bed, then she slept in the boys' room all night long. About 6:30 she would wake up and need to go out.

Then we had her spayed and things changed. She wasn't feeling good, or eating right for a few days. Then when she got back to herself she would eat so fast it was scary to watch!!

There are many things that could be a factor to the dog suddenly pooping/peeing in the house:

1. Although we told the kids not to feed her "people" food, I am sure they have dropped stuff and she was eating whatever they drop.

2. If it is cold she doesn't like to go out to go potty. (She is so short that her little "wee wee" touches the cold blade of grass LOL!) If there is snow on the ground...forget about it. She would rather die than go potty out there! But if I go out with her she will find a place to do it, she does it as quickly as possible and then runs back in the house!

3. The kids let her out to go but if she doesn't want to go potty they don't force her to. So she meanders back in the house and proceeds to pee on the floor (and sometimes poop too!) When I let her out, if she tries to come back in before she goes potty I say "No. Go potty." and she will look at me like "Fine. But I'm not happy about this."

4. She is sneaky little thing. She will wait until we aren't paying attention and disappear into a room not being occupied at the moment and potty.

Here are some things we have done to help with this problem:

• We take her out a lot. Like as much as every 20-30 minutes.
• We put her on a feeding schedule. She gets fed at the same time every day. (this took her a few days to adjust to, but now she knows when it is time to eat and that's that.)
• We pick up her food and water at 7:00 pm.
• We take her out just before bedtime (since she sleeps with the kids, this is usually about 8 or 8:30 pm).
• We take her out again first thing in the morning.

This is working so well! We are so pleased. We had also been encountering a problem with her needing to go out several times during the night. Since we implemented our changes she is once again sleeping through the night! Phew!

Water chestnut stuffing

As I prepare our Thanksgiving menu and grocery shopping and guest lists, I thought I would post my aunt's yummy stuffing recipe. My family loves this stuffing! The sweeter your onion the tastier the stuffing is, but it is good no matter what.

Water chestnut stuffing
INGREDIENTS:
1 c diced celery
1 large onion, chopped (1 cup)
3/4 c (1 1/2 sticks) butter
1 c peeled canned water chestnuts, drained and chopped
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp poultry seasoning
1/8 tsp pepper sage to taste
8 c bread cubes (about 1 lb. loaf, works great with white bread -- even Wonder Bread)
2 eggs
3 Tbls milk
raisins to taste

Cut bread cubes and sprinkle with sage. Saute celery and onion in butter just until soft. Stir in water chestnuts, salt, poultry seasoning, sage and pepper; add raisins and saute 3 minutes longer. Pour mixture over bread cubes in a large bowl; mix lightly. Beat eggs with milk in a cup; drizzle over bread mixture; toss until evenly moist.

**Notes from my aunt: Usually a loaf of bread is over 1 lb so I add extra butter, more onions, celery etc. I usually make the stuffing the day before and pack it into a bowl, cover and refrigerate. If all of it won't fit into the cavities of the turkey, I either wrap it in buttered foil or put it in an oven proof bowl and drizzle a little chicken stock over it to make up for its not getting the turkey juices as it cooks. Probably no more than 45 minutes for the extra to cook through.**

"Grandma B reminds me of Queen Elizabeth"

Spirit was watching a PBS Special about Queen Elizabeth II. About mid-way through he says Grandma B reminds me of the Queen. I asked why and he said it was because they looked a lot alike and they talk alike.

I have never heard my mother speak in an English accent, but she is quite a classy lady (I think so anyway!) My mother is also about 12 years younger than the Queen.

Here is my mom on her 70th birthday (she is the one on the left -- hee hee and for the record the cute girl isn't me. That is my neice!):

I would say it is an honor to have someone say you look like the Queen -- and I bet when my mom reads this she will indeed be honored!

A little bit of this and that for this fine Wednesday

Many of you asked where my pictures were from yesterday's post... well I had the stomach flu so the post was the best I could do! Sorry. I am still not feeling 100% today but I promise I will get some pictures up as soon as I can! Thanks for your patience!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Last night -- as I was laying in bed getting bed sores from being sick -- I heard Mr. Man in Lady Bug's room singing with her. He was singing to the tune of "Where is thumbkin, where is thumbkin...." and here is what I heard:

Mr. Man: "Where is Gidget? Where is Gidget?"

Lady Bug: "She is our dog. She is our dog."

Mr. Man: "But where is she now? Where is she now? I wanna know. I wanna know."

Lady Bug: "She is with mom. She is with mom."

Mr. Man (starting tune over at the beginning): "I love mom. I love mom."

Lady Bug: "I do too. I do too."

Mr. Man(starting tune over at the beginning again): "You love blue. You love blue."

Mr. Man: "No I don't. No I don't."

Mr. Man: "You love pink. You love pink."

Lady Bug: "It is rosa. It is rosa." (**She has Spanish twice a week at her preschool**)

I was pretty impressed with her ability to come back ... in song no less ... in response to what he was singing to her!

It was pretty darn cute!!

"I am so gonna blog about this..."

The other day I got out the camera and was getting ready to take pictures and Mr. Man said:

"Be careful guys, you're gonna be on the internet tomorrow! Mom must need something to blog about!"

He was right. I wanted newer pictures but not for my blog (necessarily). The kids sort of rolled their eyes and appropriately posed.

After I got my pictures taken, I told Mr. Man and the kids that I really was just wanting new pictures but now they forced me to blog about the eye-rolling and muttered comments.


So there family. I blogged about you today! Ha ha.

It's a small world

Beth at A Mom's Life is hosting Miracle Monday. Go check out the stories there.

I am not sure you can call this a Miracle really, but it definitely shows how God works in awesome ways!

This is an incredible story of what a small world this can be and how it changed a woman's life and touched my heart deeply:

I met a woman at the summer Vacation Bible School our church hosted this year. This woman was often my helper and we had several minutes after each group to sort of get to know each other throughout the week.

She told me she had a rough childhood, parents died when she was 4. She never really told me who raised her, but I suspected (based on other things said) that she was in foster care. She told me she had been on her own since she was 16 yo. She said she was into drugs and alcohol and got pregnant young. Her daughter is now in college. She said a few years ago her apartment building caught fire and she lost everything she had, even the few items she had from her childhood.

She also told me some positive things, she had at one time owned her own business, she had been a loan officer at a bank and had recently gone back to school.

Near the end of the week, we had really gotten to know each other. She is such a likable woman. She is so strong. I remember the tears in her eyes when we talked about the baby I lost. This woman didn't know me, she didn't need to cry for me. But she did.

She told me what brought her to our church and her story was so amazing and so touching:

She had been really depressed, started drinking and decided to kill herself. She grabbed a 9mm handgun and started driving to a remote place. She failed to use a turn signal and was pulled over by the cops. She was arrested and taken to jail. She spent almost a month in jail, where she started reading the Bible. One day during her time in jail, a woman from prison ministries came in and they talked a lot about God and the Bible. She said just before the woman left the woman told her "I don't care what you did to get yourself in here, I just want you to know you will be in my thoughts and prayers for when you get out."

After she got out of jail she did two months in drug/alcohol rehab. One day, while at a gas station, she bought a few food items and came up short. The man behind her in line gave her the money to pay for her items. She was thanking him and they got to talking and he ended up inviting her to church. After coming to our church a few times, that man's wife invited her to a ladies Bible study class. She connected with several women there and was attending regularly. After one of the studies, one of the women invited her to go to lunch with her and her mom. They met at the restaurant and she was seated next to the woman's mother. As she sat listening to the mother talk, she thought "I've heard that voice before." Before lunch was up she realized that this voice belonged to the woman from prison ministries! At first neither one could believe it. The mother leaned over, hugged her and said "I never thought I'd see you again but I have been thinking about you and praying for you ever since I met you!"

Can you believe that? What a small, small world.

A Night to Remember

Well, actually I would prefer to forget it and not experience another one like for a long, long time.

Here is how my night went last night:

8:00 pm - while reading books to the kids I feel a headache coming on. Since I am prone to migraines (and you can never tell if it is going to be a full blown migraine until it becomes full blown) I took some migraine medicine.

9:30 pm - fall asleep

11:09 pm - dog starts scratching at the door to go potty

11:14 pm - back in bed but can't fall back to sleep

12:30 or 1:00 am - fall back to sleep and start to have bad dreams

2:31 am - Lady Bug starts crying. I go into her room and she proceeds to throw up all over her bed and into my hands. Nice. I call for Mr. Man to come help because the dog is trying to lick the throw up and I am gagging. We get Lady Bug cleaned up, her bedding changed and into the washer and put Lady Bug back into her bed.

3:00 am - I still can't fall asleep.

3:30 am - not sure if I was asleep or not. If I was, I hadn't been asleep long. Lady Bug cries again. Mr. Man goes into her room. She had thrown up again. He hollers for my help. This time it got in her hair so I start a bath. Then I change the bedding again.

3:50 am - Lady Bug is in bed with us. We just start to settle down when the dog scratches the door to go potty (again!). Mr. Man opens our bedroom door but doesn't take the dog out to go potty. She is gone for a while then comes back. I had a bad feeling about that so I got up and smelled the poop immediately. Guess what? Dog has diarrhea. Nice. So I get that cleaned up and crawl back into bed.

4:15 am - Lady Bug jolts up and says she is going to throw up. False alarm. So we crawl into bed and at some point fall asleep.

6:30 am - boys get up for school and dog is ready to play.

6:32 am - I drag myself downstairs to find some coffee.

So tonight, we are all going to bed early. I am exhausted. Mr. Man has the day off so I bet he takes a nice long nap! Boo hoo for me! **Edited to add: At 2:30 pm I spoke with Mr. Man. He had been at the boys school all day putting together fundraising packets so he didn't get a nap either. I guess we are ALL going to bed extra early tonight!

Now, read the post below this which is my Friday recipe for slow cooker french dip sandwiches.

Slow Cooker French Dip Sandwiches

I made this the other night. It was so yummy on a cold evening. We love these. Or should I say, Mr. Man and I do. The kids grumble about them. They will eat the meat without the bread though. I know, they are weird kids, what can I say?

Slow Cooker French Dip Sandwiches
INGREDIENTS:
3-4 lbs beef sirloin roast
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 beef bouillon cube
1 bay leaf
1/4 tsp dried rosemary
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp garlic salt
pepper to taste
1 pkt of au jus mix (optional)
hoagie rolls

Remove fat from roast. Place the roast in slow cooker. Add to the slow cooker soy sauce, bouillon, bay leaf, pepper, rosemary, thyme, and garlic salt. Add enough water to almost cover roast. Cover, and cook on low heat for 10 to 12 hours, or until meat is very tender.
Remove meat from broth, reserving broth. Shred meat with a fork, and distribute on bread for sandwiches. Used reserved broth for dipping. If broth isn't flavorful enough (which sometimes Mr. Man says it isn't) then you can add in a packet of au jus mix to broth. Sometimes I do this and other times I don't.

Wall words

I have been wanting to get some of those vinyl wall words, for...well, like forever! I've seen them all over the internet and even a craft store nearby. Then my dear friend Aubrey over at The Fam Five, told me her husband would make some for me. She had been experimenting in her house with them, so I gave her two sayings I wanted. He got the font all set up and got them printed and cut (or whatever he did... I really have no idea HOW he did it!)


Here is one that is from our kitchen, leading to the sunroom.





Here is the one we put at the top of the stairs. It is at the end of the hallway. It looks so cool from the bottom of the stairs from our front room! I am so pleased with how these turned out. Now I am looking for more and more to do!




When I first was telling Mr. Man that I wanted some of these vinyl things he would joke with me -- he would see a blank wall in our house and say "Maybe we need to get a vinyl saying for the wall?!" Ha ha. Very funny.
But now, now that we have them up on the walls, he loves them and is serious about getting more of these things! He was pointing out an area in our family room that he wanted to add some vinyl too and in our laundry area! The vinyl bug has hit our household!




**Wanted to add here, in case any of you noticed, that the HOME one is slightly crooked. Well, we are aware of this major problem and I have since begged my dear friend's husband to please make me another so I can take that one down and replace it. um, ya, I bet that will cost me BIG TIME! (Do you think he might take applesauce as payment? Because I have a lot of applesauce!!)

Just when I was ready to throw in the towel...

This morning started off terrible.

First thing - I overslept. I typically like to get up at least an hour before the rest of the family so I can have some "me/mommy time". So since I had overslept my "me time" AND the spare time to get everyone dressed, fed and out the door was gone. I woke up at the same time that we are normally just finishing breakfast and getting ready to leave.

Second thing - I didn't get my morning coffee and I am grumpy.

Third thing - I locked the house up and shut the door, then realized I didn't have my keys. Thankfully, one of my little children forgot to lock the door to the garage so I was able to get back in the house. **Ok, I do realize this is now a positive thing, but at first I was upset!**

Fourth - I didn't get my morning coffee. Period. Or any chocolate for that matter!

Fifth - Lady Bug decided to have a melt down because we forgot her nap buddy for school and since I was late I wouldn't go back. **Yay for the teacher who offered her a Pooh doll. Phew**

All over the sudden, just as I am ready to call it quits, call in sick and go home to crawl back in bed. Lady Bug rushes over to me at the door of the classroom. She grabs my leg and says, in the sweetest little voice "Bye momma. I love you." I bent down to hug her and she whispers in my ear "You're my girl."

Awwwwwwwwwwww, I melted. I kissed the top of her head and that is when I realized THIS is what gets me through the tough days! When I can't figure out how to go on one more second, one of the kids will do something sweet like that and the bad stuff melts away!

Dinner in honor of our country

For those of you who may not know (ha ha), today is the day to vote on our next president of the United States of America.

In honor of our country we are having a dinner party tonight as a family to watch and listen to the polling as the numbers come in.

What better meal to honor our country than a traditional fried chicken meal? We are making my sister's famous oven fried chicken and I am making some mashed potatoes and gravy to go with it. We are going to have applesauce and some corn and then brownies and ice cream for dessert. OH, and of course some sweet tea to drink!

No matter how I feel about the candidates or who ultimately wins I thought it would be fun to get the kids involved a little bit. The boys have been hearing some stuff at school and asking questions about how this process works so why not make a family event and have fun.

Reconciliation

I have said for a long time that it isn't worth holding a grudge. You never know when someone can be taken from you and so you need to cherish every moment. BUT, my husband's youngest sister and I have fought and battled since before I got married, so we are talking 10-12 years. I was holding big grudges with her. I hated going to family functions because I knew we would fight. She would criticize my clothes, she would criticize what I ate, she criticized everything. (I did things to her too, but I'll spare myself that embarrassment!)

One time at one of these family get-togethers she cornered me and screamed at me with her finger in my face for about 10-15 minutes. I cried and screamed things back. It was ugly. None of the other family members stopped, they just let us fight.

So anyway, we have fought and bickered all these years and in the last year or so we started to mend the relationship. Slowly. Little bits at a time.

Last night I had a huge project to conquer before the night was over so at 6:00 pm I realized I could not get it done by myself. Mr. Man was working so I couldn't get his help. I immediately thought of this particular SIL. I called her and I explained what I was working on and when my dead line was. Without me even having to ask, she said "Want me to come over and help?"

We worked together for 4 hours and finished my project. During that time, after I got the kiddos in bed, we started discussing things. The fights we had. The time she screamed at me -- turns out all a big misunderstanding! She heard through the grapevine that I had made a nasty comment about her (translation: the thing I said had gone through many, many people and by the time she heard it the whole wording was flipped around, upside down, backwards and sideways!) So we worked that one out. She apologized for things she said and did, she said there are so many things she wasn't proud of. Then I apologized for things too, I even had to confess to things she didn't even know about (no, I am not proud of those moments!) We hugged. We cried. We hugged and cried more. It was so good in a weird way to get this cleared up and out in the open. Such a relief!

ON a sad, sad note.... there are only 52 days until Christmas....eeeeekkk!!!!!