Savory Seeds

One of my family's favorite fall activities is roasting pumpkin seeds. It has been a fond memory of mine as far back as I can remember. I love that my kids enjoy it as much as I did as a child (still do!). We enjoyed going to the pumpkin patch for my birthday this past weekend, but we normally forgo pumpkin patch prices and head on over to your neighborhood Wally World.

Bright orange, round, shiny pumpkins. Nothing beats them for instilling the feeling of autumn (and my birthday!). So we brought our three beauties home and spent time this evening cutting them open and scooping out all the innards (good red-neck word).

Separating the seeds from the strings was a bit tedious, but we got the job done. Even if there were lots of ewwwws! and yucks!

After I spent time rinsing, and rinsing, and rinsing, and rinsing the seeds. They were finally ready to go on the pan for roasting. I tried them this year with olive oil instead of butter to make them a bit healthier and I actually liked it better. After roasting for a good hour or so, they were finally starting to turn just a bit brown.

A little while later, they were ready to come out of the oven and looked so nice in the pumpkin dish my mom gave me. Here are the kids enjoying the fruits of their labor. Enjoying their salty seeds with some homemade chocolate milk. I found a recipe for some awesome chocolate milk that is really good -you got to try it ~ Way better than Hersheys! We'll enjoy our seeds while they last and then have to wait again until next year.....

What A Day!!!!!!!

Well, sometimes taking a day off work is definitely more work than actually being at work! Absolutely the case today!

The craziness actually started yesterday afternoon. Caroline has been having trouble with the words blurring and getting headaches when she reads. So we made an appointment to have her eyes checked out. She ended up needing reading glasses. Hopefully, according to the doctor, she may not need them for more than a couple of years. Her eyes should get stronger as she gets older and she won't have to wear them forever. But in the meantime she looks pretty darn cute in them (great deal - 2 pair for $99 - can't beat that!). This morning we picked up her new glasses. What do you think?

Sassy red frames
Sophisticated gold wire frames

After this we raced over to their doctor's office for flu shots. Also found out that the cough Jack has had for about 3 weeks has turned into a sinus infection (close to bronchitis - but caught in time.). Next year, James is taking them for their flu shots. You have never seen such screaming and gnashing of teeth. Absolutely ridiculous...the pair of them.

With THAT finally over we headed to go vote. How nuts is it that we had to wait in line for over an hour to vote 2 weeks BEFORE the election. Caroline was right there with me watching everything I did. She even pushed the button for one of the people I was voting for. Good discussion about the democratic process. Jack had already gone with James last week to vote, so he was a pro.

Finally, we headed to our last stop the orthodontist. Caroline's teeth are really crowded and we wanted to see if we should start braces or not. The doctor said we could do braces, but we would have to do them again when she is a bit older (phase 1 and phase 2 braces). But luckily (for our wallet especially) they don't think 2 phases of braces are necessary. Instead they want to pull 4 baby teeth and give her adult teeth some room to come in and then do braces just once when she turns 11 or 12. Caroline started to mildly panic at hearing that she would have 4 baby teeth pulled. She doesn't lose teeth without much crying. I'm thinking James might have to take her for that one too!

I'm glad the day is finally done. It's been a wild one for sure!

Random Thoughts

I've had some very interesting and stimulating conversations lately. Ones that are really making me pause for a moment and think. Here are some snip-its of those converstations

~ Talking with a group of fellow teachers at school who are in a leadership roles and aspire to move into administration. The conversation came up that if we were paid on a truly performance basis how different would some of us do our job. If every day your pay depended on a job well done for that individual day, would you work differently and if so, what would that look like?

~ In a group of wellness coordinators from various schools - how do you motivate someone to become healthy? (I think that is an answer for the ages - because I sure wish what someone had said to me years ago had motivated me - losing weight and getting healthy at 40 is a lot harder than at 20 or 30).

~ Talking with some fellow teachers with teenage kids - How do you motivate your children to stay on the straight and narrow and not succomb to peer pressure and all the traps that can catch them up. What do good parents do or NOT do that helps or hinders their children as they grow to hopefully become productive citizens.

~ Talking with James over a quiet dinner without the kids - what is our destination for our family and our children. What steps do we need to make to get there. (and as much as I wanted, the destination could not be Hawaii - but life in general).

~As James and I approach our 10th anniversary, what have we learned, what have we experienced and where do we want the next 10 years to take us.

~ Text messages from my friend telling me to check certain parts of the dog's anatomy to determine possible puppies. - Not really a question there, but interesting nonetheless.

~What to do in these trying times of very shaky economy, presidential change, and is moving to Canada really an option?

~That even at the end of a very hard and tiring day, walking up stairs and seeing my two children who have pushed every button I own at least 7 times each, cuddled together on the bed, with my oldest one reading a story to my youngest one, who has his head on her shoulder, is enough to make me cry, forget all about those buttons and be eternally grateful for all my wonderful blessings.

~That even when we don't know what to do, or we question things in our lives, that God HOLDS us completely. He completely covers us with His arms of love in such a way that NOTHING can every separate us from Him. NOTHING!

Happy Birthday, Princess

Happy 9th Birthday, My Sweet Caroline

My how time has flown. My sweet daughter, my angel, is nine today. Not sure how that happened - I could swear when I went to bed last night, she was still a wee little girl. When I think about Caroline I can't imagine what I did to deserve such an incredible daughter. While pregnant with Caroline, I prayed specifically that she would have auburn colored hair and brown eyes. Such an insignificant prayer. But one answered nonetheless. Bright, loving, kind, articulate, thoughtful, talented, beautiful. I know I sound like a proud mama. I admit it I am. Caroline is MY miracle.

Every time I look at her I see the love and hand of God and know that He truly loves me through my gift of her. I got married later in life and had Caroline 2 weeks before my 32nd birthday. She was born exactly 11 months after we got married. My pregnancy was relatively uneventful. She was breech the entire pregnancy and I felt like I was to have a c-section. The doctors wanted me to try and turn her. We did... We shouldn't have. I was 10 days past my due date and they decided to induce due to low amniotic fluid. When I was in the hospital, a constant feed on her heartbeat couldn't be maintained so they decided to break my water and put in an internal monitor.

When my water was broken she collapsed on her prolapsed cord and her oxygen was cut off and her heartbeat went down to nothing. Next thing I knew, a myriad of nurses and hospital staff were in my room. My family was made to leave, I had an oxygen mask put on, was being lifted onto a gurney, codes were being called and I was being raced down the hallway to the operating room. I was to have an emergency c-section under general anesthesia. I have 2 distinct memories of asking the nurse to save my daughter and praying harder than I have ever prayed for anything else in my life.

Caroline had an agar score of 1 when she was born. We were told to prepare for brain damage or other problems. She was in the NICU for 7 days. The Lord had other plans for Caroline as she came home healthy.

Caroline did not have brain damage or any lasting affects from her traumatic birth. She is very bright. Tested into the gifted program at school in kindergarten. She enjoys learning, loves to read and learn about history and has a knack for science.

This year has been an exciting one for Caroline. She is loving every minute of private school. It challenges her both intellectually and spiritually. She loves memorizing scripture and learning Bible stories, and is thriving with the rigorous academic atmosphere, (although there are times she wishes it were a bit easier). She is making friends and is even somewhat getting used to wearing a uniform every day.

She is starting to grow up. She'll tell you she is being bugged to death by her little brother on a regular basis. She loves him dearly, but is discovering that she likes to have her own space without him around all the time. She is still the dramatic little diva, who can get worked up pretty quickly. Becoming the 'tweener' she is, we are working on maintaining a pleasant attitude, even in the midst of doing chores AND homework; even when on electronics restriction (definitely not an easy thing to do!) Always a prissy little thing, although she has discovered she has a knack for physical fitness, having earned the President's Physical Fitness Award at school this past year. (I can't believe she can do those pull ups - I never could).

She would say the worst day this year was when we had to sit down and have the Birds and Bees talk. She can't imagine for the life of her, why anyone would want to do that!.

She still loves Auburn (good girl that she is). She currently has plans to become a veterinarian when she grows up. Of course she wants to be a veterinarian that also does Irish dancing and plays the violin. Could make for an interesting career!

Caroline is becoming a really cool kid that I enjoy hanging out with and find a lot of fun to be around. Becoming such a beautiful young lady, inside and out. Not a day goes by that she doesn't take the time to ask James, Jack and myself how our days went. She also is always so good to remember things we have mentioned going through and asks about them. She keeps a little prayer journal so she can remember others' prayer requests and is faithful to pray for them. She is a joy to her family. She is MY miracle....one I thank the Lord for every day.

Red Door!

This week our home got a wonderful facelift. James' parents came down last weekend and as a wonderful gift to us, painted our porch and did something I've wanted done for quite some time. They painted my front door RED! Here is why I think a red door is so cool. In early America a red door was a sign of "welcome." When people had to travel by horse and buggy they had to stop often. If they came upon a house with a red door that usually meant they would be able to spend the night. There is even rumor that a red front door was used in the under ground railroad as a sign for the slaves traveling north that that house was a safe house. Pretty neat, huh?

In addition to the painting on the front of the house, James and Jack worked hard to kill weeds in the front beds and lay down lots of nice pine straw!

Check out Jack's HUGE gloves. He had to have them, so he could be just like Daddy.

They all did a great job, don't you think???

Caroline Meets Mollie

If you have a 5-12 year old daughter, you probably have at least heard of American Girl dolls. Chances are good, you have at least one residing in your home. I think American Girls are awesome, and am only bummed because they weren't around when I was little. What's not to love about girls who have cool clothes, determined and faithful personalities, from all different timeperiods of American history with their own books that allow you a glimpse into their times and lives.

Caroline received her first American Girl doll when she was six. Her first doll, Nellie, is from the 1900's and is an orphan from Ireland that is now living in America. Caroline loves her because she is Irish and even knows how to do Irish Dancing (much like Caroline).

She received her second doll about a year later. Emily is from the WWII era and is from England, but living in America to escape the bombing of London. Caroline loves her because she looks so much like Caroline with pretty red hair.

Today, Caroline and I made the trek to the American Girl Store north of Atlanta. It was quite a drive, but was really worth it. The store was amazing. Caroline brought her Emily doll to have her hair done in a brand new hairstyle at their Doll Salon. She also had money from my parents to buy a new doll for her birthday. She went into the store thinking she was going to get one doll from the Depression Era. But as we walked through the store her eyes got bigger and bigger. It truly was a magical, wonderful store. The perfect place for a daughter and her mom to hang out together creating memories.

As we went through the store, reading about the different dolls, admiring their clothing and discussing the different time periods they lived in, it became more and more difficult for Caroline to decide which doll to pick. Finally, she settled on Molly. Molly is a part of the family that takes Emily in during the bombing of London in WWII. Caroline loves her patriotism and the fact that she wears glasses (Caroline has an appointment with the eye doctor for possible glasses in a couple of weeks) and she dances. I think it is so neat that each doll was chosen with a specific reason in mind ~ because of a commonality with her. Each one cherished. I asked her while we were eating lunch today, what she will do with the dolls when she gets older, (too old to play with them) and she said she will keep them for her daughter to have one day. As she is such a 'grown-up', her words went along the lines of "well, seeing as how they are collectibles, it would be a good thing for me to keep them and take care of them and let my daughter have them someday.". I'm pretty sure she isn't going to be nine this week - more like 19.

After meeting Molly, we of course spent the rest of the day shopping for clothes. What mother/daughter trip to the mall would be complete without that????? As we made our way home, she made my day when she told me that this was such a great day, even better than a birthday party. She said partly it was because she got a new doll - but mainly because she got to spend the whole day with just me. How did I get so lucky to have such an awesome daughter?