It's that time of year

Christmas Concert Time! Which means lots of extra rehearsals and lots of extra time in the car. Of course Daniel takes every opportunity to remind me that he could be driving now, if we had allowed him to get his license. Which I always reply to by saying, "You know what you need to do to get your license" Anyway, I love Christmas Concerts, so I don't mind the extra driving. We are getting cold weather now and it is supposed to snow on Saturday. I still did my walk today and it wasn't too bad - not very windy. But I sure could tell I had not walked since Thanksgiving Day - because my muscles were screaming!

Finding Neverland

John and I went to see "Finding Neverland" today and I thought it was an excellent movie. Warning to those who don't like movies that make you cry - this one will. Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet both did wonderful jobs with their characters and the children were great! So if you have the chance, go see it - very touching film.
The Christmas tree is up - Michael suggested that we put it in the family room this year, because that is where we spend most of our time. I didn't think I would like it, but it turned out to be a great location. Last year because of my father's illness and his ending up in the hospital in December - we didn't put up the decorations. Michael did set up his little tree on Christmas Eve, so we would have something. I don't know if that's why we were ready to get everything up early this year, but Andrew is home this weekend, so it seemed like a good time to do it together. Tomorrow they asked our family to do the first Advent Reading at church - so that will be a special time. Then right after lunch AJ has to head back to Terre Haute. I guess I'll have to change all the Cedar Rapids weather reports on my websites back to Terre Haute. It's been a wonderful Thanksgiving vacation with the boys and I am a little sad that it is almost over already. But I probably shouldn't get too used to being off work, or I won't even want to work part-time soon. I just love being home so much, what can I say? Well, Muffin just came in from outside and is demanding my attention for some serious petting, so I'd better stop or he'll climb up on the laptop. Happy Sunday to all!

One of my most favorite days of the year!

The day before Thanksgiving and all through the house,
were smells of delicious things baking! I love the day before Thanksgiving! We are supposed to have severe thunderstorms today and snow tonight! Gotta love that Cincinnati weather.
Well this is short today, because I need to get into that kitchen and start cooking up a storm.
Happy Thanksgiving to all - may you have a wonderful day reflecting on God's abundant goodness. We are so blessed!

Ready for Thanksgiving

Saturday I did the Flylady Boogie on the refrigerator and then since I had gotten all the expired stuff out - I went ahead and cleaned the whole thing! Now it is all ready for the holidays. Then I went shopping and now we are all ready for Thanksgiving (and half a week after) meal-wise. This week I saved 29% on the grocery bill with coupons. It took a week of planning but worth it.
Andrew has made it safely home and we are enjoying hearing all about his experiences in Cedar Rapids. We are looking forward to a great week!

Trusting in the Lord

Well we didn't find out a whole lot at the rheumatologist today. Daniel appears to have some type of connective tissue disease, but she wants to run more tests and observe him more before making a diagnosis. So Daniel had to endure another blood draw...and wouldn't you know that the nurse couldn't find the vein, so he had to be stuck twice. So I get another lesson in patience and trust, as I wait for a definitive diagnosis for Daniel. I think that waiting on the Lord is one of the best lessons to learn, because we have to wait for so many things. Andrew comes home tomorrow...and then we can officially start the holidays!

Tired Thursday

Long day but now it is the weekend for me. I have an opportunity to pick up another bookkeeping job that would be 4 hours per week. I need to decide if I have enough time to devote to that - we could use the money since I cut back my hours at work and I would be doing this from home...but I am afraid of over-extension when I am just getting my head above water at home. Lots to think about.

Where has the week gone?

I can't believe almost a whole week has gone by since my last post - but then again I can. Spending much less time on the computer and more time on the Christmas presents that I am trying to finish....so if you don't find a new post on here, you can hope I am working on something for you!
We are still a little shocked by the results of Daniel's blood work and will be glad to meet with the rheumatologist on Friday for a full explanation. We have been trying to get to the bottom of his headaches and fatigue since the spring. Now other things that he has complained about and I just dismissed as "growing pains" or his making a bigger deal out of something than it was - well those things just may have a part in all of this. We are looking at indicators of some kind of auto-immune disorder (possibly lupus) but really don't want to speculate too much and are waiting to talk to the doctor. Keep Daniel in your prayers. Also please pray for safe travel for Andrew this weekend as he leaves Cedar Rapids and travels home for Thanksgiving. Then it will be back to the books for him as he begins the winter quarter at Rose-Hulman and leaves the corporate world behind for awhile. Michael could use your prayers also as he barely recovered from the pneumonia before finding himself back on antibiotics for a sinus infection. The doctor thinks that coughing the stuff up from his lungs has contributed to this infection and I am sure that he is weakened from the pneumonia. He stayed home for one day, but is back at work today. Hopefully the children will not pass any more germs to him. Well it is dinner time again and I need to do an inventory in the kitchen before making out my Thanksgiving grocery list. John is bringing the turkey home Tuesday night, compliments of John Morrell - so I also need to make room in the frig. Now we are really up a creek on Wednesday evenings...John likes "Lost" and so we tape it for him but it comes on at the same time as Smallville - which becomes a problem when Daniel goes to youth group and wants me to tape Smallville for him. We have two vcrs - so this would be possible, except we do not have cable and only one tv is hooked up to the antenna...so the reception on the other tv is not good enough and the tape we taped last week was so full of static, we couldn't stand to watch it. I have to laugh about all of this, because it is such a silly thing and there are such a thing as re-runs that we can wait for...guess it brings home the fact that we are so spoiled in the US. We certainly take many, many things that others would love to have a chance to own or experience for granted. We could spend all day next Thursday listing our blessings.

Flying on Friday

Thanks to Flylady, I can see the top of my dining room table and it is all decked out in it's Thanksgiving finery! Bit by bit I am de-cluttering and getting my house back under control. I still have to tell myself that it is okay to do this in baby steps and not to get frustrated that I can't do it all at once. I also figured out how to add links to my blog...so that was fun. I did some research online for patterns that I was looking for to make some Christmas presents - I love Google....it always comes through for me.

First Hard Freeze Tonight

I'm glad I was able to work out in the garden this weekend because the cold weather is coming! I have almost all of the plants that I am trying to winter inside and a few on the porch that I will bring in when I am done "blogging". Guess I'd better cover my pepper plants, which are still growing and doing well. I meant to dig a couple of the small ones up and pot them and try to bring them inside for the winter, but ran out of time. I also need to either make green tomato relish or wrap the tomatoes up in newspaper to ripen inside. I have two big baskets full! Michael is on the mend, but now I hear Andrew has a bad cold. Guess it's that time of year.

Finally Blogging Again!

For some reason I haven't been able to post for three days...but I'm back! Let's see, so many things to "blog" about. Of course I was thrilled with the result of the election and it was as I had told so many - what people say to pollsters and others is probably different than what they choose to do in the privacy of the voting booth - glad reason kicked in.
The rain has finally stopped, so I went to the garden today and got two huge bowls full of tomatoes and another of peppers - so I am back to canning again. Making Italian Stewed Tomatoes out of this batch. Tomorrow I will pick all the green ones - as the cold weather is on its way and I want to close up those beds. This was a great year for the garden! I think I will sow some barley or alfalfa in some of the beds as a cover crop for winter.
Michael has been sick on and off all week - I thought it sounded like he had bronchitis. So today I dragged him to the doctor and he has pneumonia!! We have him on strong antibiotics, but if we can't get his fever down and his breathing doesn't improve - he'll have to go to the hospital. Daniel is away in Kentucky this weekend on a Youth Retreat. He is on new medicine also and more blood work is being done to check him for an immune problem. The doctor says if the blood tests do not turn anything up, then he wants us to see a neurologist since the headaches and the exhaustion is persisting. It turned out that he is only slightly allergic to cats...so we just need to keep them out of his bedroom. The zyrtec, flonase and singular seem to be helping the allergies.
So that's the news from the Toth house for now...hopefully everyone will be on the mend and I will get to spend tomorrow outside in the yard.