Happy Thanksgiving!

The crowd was small but cozy at this year's Thanksgiving feast. Other than my parents and my family, only one of my siblings (out of 5) was there. But we still had a good time and definitely some great food.

Even the dogs enjoyed some social time with their cousins.

It was shaping up to be a very relaxing Thanksgiving (which if you've been to my mom's house for dinner, you would know, it's a lot of things, but not always relaxing :) She likes to keep busy and we usually have a BIG crowd). Mom was sitting with Megan looking at pictures. It had even occurred to me that Mom seemed very relaxed. I mean, it was 1:40 and she wasn't rushing around, trying to get everything done. She even seemed to be enjoying herself.
All of a sudden she said, "What time is it?"
"1:42."
"My turkey!!! No wonder I was smelling it!! I thought it was 12:25!!" Her mantle clock had stopped on 25 'til 1. No wonder she was so relaxed. Here's mom resetting the clock AFTER the fact:)









Of course, this was the beginning of 30 minutes of frenzy as we started the potatoes, made the gravy and the hollandaise sauce, cooked the asparagus and the rolls, mashed the potatoes, sliced the turkey and served everything up.
Everyone did their part.











Mom's table looked pretty with handmade napkin rings with acorns from our yard.









I just had time to snap pictures of everyone before we dug in.









We actually had a very nice afternoon after the meal and cleanup. Nicholas strew toys from one end of the house to the other.

Megan enjoyed some computer time (Thanks to Uncle Brad and Aunt Daphne for donating their old iBook!!!).











The whole family went for a walk to the neighborhood playground.












After the walk, the temperature was beginning to drop so the girls had to have their coats.










Megan and Nicholas got to spend the night at Grandma and Grandpa's house, as David and I had to work on Friday. As we left, Thursday night, they were planning which movie they were going to watch. It doesn't get any better than this.

Why WOULDN'T you wear your coat when it's cold???

So what's the deal with winter coats? Do your children wear their winter coats? We live in a climate where the winters are fairly mild. But it does get cold here. This week it has been in the upper 30s and 40s. But my 10 year old daughter wore either a sweatshirt or a poncho all week. She has a winter coat. She just won't wear it. Sometimes she even makes the mistake of complaining that she's cold. But she always has an excuse as to why she doesn't need/want her coat. Here's the usual scenario (assuming the coat makes it out of the closet) -- she carries it, at least until she can convince her dad to carry it for her.
And here's a photo with her actually WEARING the coat. I had to scour iPhoto to dig one up. And I should mention that we were in Chicago when this picture was taken.

I feel compelled to provide her with a coat. Wouldn't it make me a bad mom if she DIDN'T have a winter coat?? But after looking at a nearly new-looking coat hanging in the closet all winter, I feel ambivalent about forking out the cash to get a new coat to replace the one which she may have outgrown, but has certainly not worn out.

A coworker says she no longer requires her 12- and 13-year-old daughters to wear their coats to school. In fact, she confessed that her 13yo doesn't even HAVE a winter coat (gasp!) For me, I think I will keep buying my daughter a coat. This is partly in order to cross my t's and dot my parenting i's ("yes, your honor, of course I bought her a coat..."), but mostly because I want to continue to win the dispute we have when she tells me she's cold. I mean really, how would I counter that complaint if she didn't have a coat at home in the closet???

Field Day at Green Man Farm

Despite cold temperatures and the threat of rain, on Saturday we trekked out to Green Man Farm, which is the CSA which we belong to. We haven't been out there since last year at this time and there have definitely been some changes. The biggest change is the livestock. There are chickens, pigs, cows and sheep. The pigs and cows are for their own consumption.











The chickens are meant to produce eggs for sale. The sheep are breeders and they are planning on selling the lambs. We got to feed the chickens and the pigs.












Of course there's not much growing at this time of year, but they do have some cover crops and a few cold hardy species like broccoli rhab and cabbage.









Here's Eric, one of the owners of the CSA describing his vision for next year and beyond!









Nicholas had a good time chasing the other kids around the fields.













And Megan enjoyed harrassing her father!









If you have a chance to join a CSA, I highly recommend it! It's a great way to support your local economy, reduce carbon emmissions and get great tasting, extremely nutritious organic food. Here's a link to Green Man Farm if you're in the Knoxville area.

Look with your hands.

Nicholas can't find anything. He can't find his nose on his face. Nevermind the needle in the haystack, he can't find the haystack.

"Mom, I can't find my jacket!" he calls from the basement (where the racket emanating sounds more like playing than looking.) The jacket, bright red and smack-dab in the middle of the couch, is right where he left it.

"Where is my wand?"

"Look in the van, didn't you leave it in there?"

"I looked there!"

"Look again."

"I looked again, it's not there!"

Next day, as we're getting in the van to go to school: "There's my wand!" (plain as day.)

"Nicholas, put your shoes on."

"Where are they?"

"Try the floor next to your feet."

You get the picture.

However.

Several weeks ago, after our trip to Chicago, I couldn't find my glasses. I wear contacts most of the time, but especially early in the morning and in the evening, I like to take out my contacts and wear my glasses. And my eyesight is bad enough that if I have no glasses, and I take out my contacts, that's it. My only options are read (I can see close up) or go to sleep. So when I got home and couldn't find my glasses, it was a crisis. I looked. I unpacked. I looked some more. I emailed my friend with whom we had stayed the last night (I knew I had had them at her house.) She looked, but didn't find them. I went through all the suitcases again. No glasses. I considered getting some new glasses, but they are not cheap and I just couldn't resign myself to the fact that they were gone. Had my friend really looked hard? (I knew she had.) Should I look through the suitcases again? (They had been all put away.) Where could they be?

Yesterday, I pulled out a tote bag for Nicholas to pack as he was spending the night with my sister. Ironically, I got the tote bag out because NICHOLAS COULDN'T FIND HIS SUITCASE :).

He was packing his clothes when he came running in holding my glasses. Yes, they were in a pocket of the tote. The whole time. And Nicholas (aka, "These Glasses Are Just for Show") had found them. By looking with his hands.

Thanks Nickel!

Would you still call it a splinter?

So the call came in from the kids' school about 11 am. Nicholas had gotten something -- "a piece of straw?" -- stuck in his foot and the teachers had tried to remove it but he wouldn't let them because it hurt too much. So as I drive over to school, I'm thinking, "I can't believe I have to go pick up my son for a splinter." I get there, and he really can't walk on it, so we head over to my mom's (who lives very near.) She breaks out the tweezers and the hemostats, along with a warm water soak, some alcohol and some numbing spray. I decide I'm not going to let a little screaming and crying stop me from pulling out the (admittedly large) splinter. I mean, it's easy for the teachers. THEY just have to make a phone call and the problem goes away. I'M the one who has to sit in the ER all afternoon. So we got all set up, I try to grasp the foreign body with the forceps (there is NO part of the object sticking out at all) and ---

I couldn't get it out. I tried. He screamed. I tried again. But then I realized that this is going to take causing more pain to my baby than I'm prepared to offer. Better let the professionals handle it.

This is what it looked like before treatment.







And here is a closeup.




After some discussion about whether the doctors' office could handle it or not (they were at lunch, natch, so we couldn't actually ask them) we decided to head straight to Children's Hospital. We have had very good treatment there on two other occasions (stitches), and we were not disappointed this time.

There was the ride in the wheelchair (the nurse actually popped some wheelies).

And the x-ray (Nicholas held VERY still).









And of course the cartoon watching. When he was telling the story at the dinner table tonight, the entire tale was punctuated with "and the nurse turned the TV down" and "then we watched Nickolodeon some more" and "the TV was on, but we weren't watching it."











We did read an I Spy book. And one of the nurses read it with us while the Physician's Assistant dug around in his foot.

The worst part, of course, was getting the lidocaine injection. However, when we saw the offending object, we all realized that the pain caused by numbing the area was WELL worth it, and that no teacher, mom, or nurse grandma would have had any luck getting this SPLINTER out. It took the PA at least 20 minutes to work it free.

It is fully 3/4" long and the entire thing was lodged inside his foot. Nicholas was most enamored of the fact that it was "painted" with his blood. He will be presenting it for show and tell tomorrow at school.










He's feeling much better, thank you for asking.

Anyone in the Knoxville area interested in a CSA membership?

As some of you may know, we belonged to a CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture, this past year. Basically, you pay up front for a regular supply of fresh, organic, locally grown produce, which is supplied on a weekly basis throughout the growing season. We had a WIDE variety of fresh vegetables ranging from several types of greens to beans, watermelon, tomatoes, chard, and much, much more. My favorite part was opening the box each week, it was like Christmas!
And I really like the challenge of trying some new ingredients which are often not even available in grocery stores. There were a few items which we found not as tasty as their commercially grown cousins (cauliflower, broccoli and celery come to mind), but for the most part, the food was delicious and very fresh. All summer long, my kids would ask at dinner, "Was this grown locally? Did this come from our farm?" I was always very happy when I could say yes.

The amounts were generous and the value almost always exceeded what the produce would have cost to buy a la cart. Here is one week's vegetables:









We are going back up to Green Man Farm next weekend for a field day and to help feed the pigs some of the thousands of acorns we have in our yard. We are definitely going to renew our membership. I think we'll be able to take even better advantage of the bounty after having a year of experience under our belts. We will have a better idea what to expect, and we already have some tried and true recipes to go to. Eric, the farmer, informed us that there are still membership slots available, so for anyone in the Knoxville area who is interested (or if you know someone who is), please check out Green Man Farm and come to the Field Day, November 15 at 2 pm. The address is 875 Clinchview Lane, Washburn, TN 37888.

Halloween has gone to the dogs

When Megan decided to be Luna Lovegood, we took one look at our dog Kisses and knew that the perfect costume for her would be a thestral. She's black, skeletal, and she has no hair. All she lacked was wings.














Look, she can even fly.











Every year, Ivy dresses as the same thing. At least this year, she has accessories.


Nicholas pointed out that she wears most of her costume everyday.











Luna, well, she's the moon. Aren't her visitors cute?


















And, of course, if you put Luna and Ivy together, you get The Cow Jumping Over the Moon. Although in reality, in this case, the moon is probably more likely to jump over the cow......but that's a different story altogether.