Updates, updates, updates

I have not felt like blogging on here. My other one, yes, but not this one. I just felt like it was always the same. But I guess it's time. And there have been a couple of things happening, so here we go.

Thanksgiving was good. My FIL was able to do turkey and stuffing. I love his stuffing. I had always had dressing, which is out of the bird. He makes stuffing, which is in the bird. I have been after the man for at least 10 years to come off the recipe. He finally emailed it to me. I lost it. Isn't that my way? I had to ask him for it again. Now I have it saved about a million places and printed out to boot. I filed it in my recipe box. I have it in a file in my file cabinet. I am not losing that thing again, darn it. I am exicted about trying and tweaking it. You know I cannot leave a recipe alone.

The kids had a dentist appointment Monday. They have healthy teeth and crowded mouths. Great. The dentist metioned orthodontia again for the big girl. I told her again it wasn't happening. We cannot afford it. I know, with all the overtime hubby is working we could. No, we can't. Our orthodontia benefits are next to nothing. And there's no guarantee of overtime. I don't want to get in the middle of paying for something and then it dries up and we are stuck with yet another bill. I cannot do that to our family. The only new thing is that the big girl has to have her 12 year molars sealed. That's being done before Christmas and before our benefits change.

We just got through open enrollment. I don't like that part of the year. Trying to gauge what our health situation may be for the next year is hard. It's one of those things you have to guess at. We have gone with the cheaper of the two plans. It seems like it will work for us. It is such a crazy process. Nobody understands their insurance. I'm glad I have a background that helps me wade through all the hullabaloo.

We finished Roald Dahl's The BFG. He is such an amazing writer. The only thing I don't like is that the two books we have read by him had a rather gruesome start. They got better, but sometimes the beginning doesn't sit well with us. This story is about a big friendly giant that kidnaps a little girl named Sophie. He takes her so she can't tell others about him. He takes her to giant land and keeps her hidden from the other giants, who are not so friendly to humans. They take off every night and eat "human beans." The story is about Sophie and BFG's plans to make the other giants, who are quite mean to BFG, stop eating people. It was cute and funny and we enjoyed it. Our next book on CD will probably be Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I'm still not sure. Our new after dinner book is The Incredible Journey. We started tonight, so we'll see how it goes.

Hubby and I have started volunteering at youth. We did it to be able to spend time watching what goes on at youth while the big girl is there. We had a Thanksgiving dinner with them the Sunday before the actual turkey day. We had turkey meatballs with cranberry BBQ sauce, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, rolls, banana pudding, fruit cocktail, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, and ice cream sundaes. It was fantastic. I enjoyed being able to spend time with the kids. Many of them do not have a church family or much of a family life at all, so it was nice to provide a family atmosphere, even if it was just for a couple of hours. So far, we have had a really good time with it. We hope to get to the point that the youth trust us enough to really let us into their lives.

We have the opportunity to purchase 50 pounds of grass fed, non hormone or steroid injected beef for a fantastic price. This came about from our organic co-op. We will get the meat after Christmas. Very excited we are. We're not real sure where we're going to keep it, but we have a couple of ideas. We are also getting venison from some friends. My friend's hubby went hunting and brought back two deer. She has offered to share and we accepted. She is going to give us ground venison, which I have never had before. Now I need to look up new recipes. We are also getting some stew meat and a couple of roasts. Love it! And last, but certainly not least, we are getting a turkey from my BIL. He gets one every year from his company, but he doesn't use it. It sits in the freezer at my in laws taking up space. I just made one yesterday, so we won't need it for awhile, but nice to know we have one.

The kids are particpating in some extra dance activities this season. The baby has been performing with the dance company from their dance school. The first performance was last Friday and she was wonderful. She has a couple more performances before Christmas, so all my local friends need to come see her. The kids are all going to be in the Christmas parade of our neighboring town. The big girl will be dancing and the boy and the baby will be riding on the float. The boy wants to dance so bad he can't stand it. Alas, one more year, big boy, one more year.

That's about all for now. I know there's more, but right now is not the time. This has been long enough. Thanks for letting me empty my brain. My prayer for you tonight is one of joy and grace.

Have a great day!