Surprise!!

Well, yesterday I got a little curious and decided to take a pregnancy test.  No big deal, I keep a spare in the house just to reassure me when i get to wondering.  I always "fail" the test.  Yesterday I passed.  Yikes!  I've never had a baby that I didn't plan!  The control freak in me kinda went numb.  I was thinking about having another baby.  Maybe we'd work on that this summer.  God, apparently, had other plans.  He has pressed us into a position where we must let go and trust Him.  Financially it will be a challenge.  Physically it will be a challenge.  Emotionally it will be a challenge.
All that said, we are excited despite the hurdles that will need to be overcome.  Everyone thinks that it's time for us to have another girl.  I'd like that.  So now it's on to eating more healthy, exercising with purpose and getting things organized for a new baby.  Wish us luck!

The "finalized" Thanksgiving Plans...

Well, the preschool teacher in me has kicked in and I've planned excessively for our family visit. In the spirit of this blog I'd like to list the ideas I have in case you'd like to use any as your own. I'm borrowing a little bit from the past and hoping to create some new traditions for the future.
Because I love Mexican food, Wednesday night we'll have a Mexican food buffet available as our family arrives in town. On Thursday I think I'll gift the children with their own Christmas catalogs from JC Penney's. Since there are a ton of kids coming, they may have to share a bit. Maybe I'll give them each their own color of Sharpie so they can clearly mark what is on their wish list. Of course, Thursday would be Thanksgiving which means it's the day of wearing elastic waist pants! :) We'll cook, bake and eat til we nearly pop! I thought we'd finish up with a cup of coffee or cocoa or cider by a bonfire in the lower pasture. We've been collecting branches and other yard debris throughout the fall so we should be plenty ready.
On Friday we can do any number of things! We can do a little shopping (since our options are limited, I doubt we'll do that), we can visit Gilstrap Brothers Winery for a tour and tasting, do kid crafts, Christmas baking, play games or watch Christmas movies. If there's snow on the mountain maybe we could go up to Anthony Lakes and go sledding. We may just sit around and talk while the kids play and that would be ok with me, too! I'd like to finish the day with the Brazil's coming to do a little bluegrass jam at our house tho. They're so fun to watch and listen to!
The Saturday after Thanksgiving at our house is traditionally the day we go to the tree farm and cut down our family tree. We'll spend the day decorating the house and the tree. I'm hoping to convince Donna Marie to take our family pictures that day, too. Maybe even a picture of ALL of us... cousins, aunt and uncle, brothers and sisters.
Sunday, before everyone leaves, we'll have a send-off breakfast... I think I'll post the menu's I'm planning later this week. If I'm REALLY good, I'll have a basket for each family to take home with them. Farm fresh eggs, fresh bread and something we canned this year like jam or applesauce... maybe some salsa. Ambitious, aren't I? I plan on enlisting lots of help to get ready for the holiday. I just can't wait!

Peace in the Valley... everyday life

The last few days at our house have been so peaceful. I find that, that peace brings me hope. Joe stayed home from work feeling a bit ill the other day. Seems like everyone has come down with a little something lately. It was a great day, tho. We did science experiments and read in our history books. Janie and I corrected her algebra test and Mitch and I played a game of fraction bingo! It's the time of year when we always have a fire in the woodstove and everything feels so cozy and comforting. It was lovely to have everyone in the house for the day.
Yesterday we went into town to my great friend, Jackie's house. She helped me with some homemade sausage that Joe and I had taken too much fat out of. She is really smart and I'm lucky to have her as my friend. She took Mitch and her kids to the library for homeschool story time while I took Janie up to George and Lucy's for her weekly Spanish lessons. George and Lucy are friends that have adopted my children as their very own grandchildren. I picked up Mitch from the library and we went up to enjoy their company one last time before they head to Arizona and Mexico for the winter. George made balloon animals and did magic tricks and made us lunch as the snow started to fly outside.
It's a snowy morning today and the fire is burning hot. I finished up some sewing and made a special breakfast for my family. Janie is snuggled up on the couch feeling a little under the weather... is she really sick or is it that she doesn't have her Israel report finished? Hmmmm....
Well, greetings from the mountain! Hope your day is as cozy as ours promises to be.

Your Thanksgiving...

For Thanksgiving we are blessed to have lots of family showing up for the event this year! I can't wait! I'm looking for all of your input on what Thanksgiving means to you. What traditions, food and such that just "say" Thanksgiving to you. For me it's always a massive dinner around the table with extended family, eating til you think you're gonna burst and falling asleep in front of a football game (the Cowboys, of course!). It's also the day that kicks off the holiday season for me. As a kid I'd go through the Christmas catalog and mark all of the things I wanted. Whenever I'd try to show them to my Dad he'd say uh-huh a lot but whenever I looked up he was more than likely to be watching TV instead of looking at the hundredth thing I wanted to see under the tree. :)
Ok, so tell me about your perfect Thanksgiving... I'm dying to know!

The New Normal

I know you've heard about my friend, Lisa. She was killed on September 11 in a brutal and terrible way. Slowly but surely we are learning how to live again. We're trying to get back in the "groove" of life when everything seems to have changed so much.
I've learned so many great things and met and reconnected with so many wonderful friends during this tragedy. As hard as it's been I can look back now and realize that God was preparing me for what I'm sure He knew was inevitable. Scripture that didn't seem to make sense at the time but was clearly preparing me for the stressful time ahead.
God placed David in our lives. He protected Lisa to the best of his ability and now protects our Elizabeth. He also gave us Sarah, our legal "interpreter". Sarah keeps me steady when all I want to do is freak out. Tammie. Because we were both so close to Lisa I can say things to her that she understands like no one else could. I'm grateful for my new friend, Leslie. Lisa wanted us to meet and so now we have. It's like her gift to me... someone with a sense of humor as off course as mine! :)
It's amazing to me how God takes care of every little thing. How He places people in our lives and how He anxiously awaits me to allow Him to give comfort in my time of need.
So now we are on to the new normal, as my friend Elaine puts it. Realizing more and more the impact Lisa had on our lives and being thankful for it. The lesson we have learned is that life is short and we only have today to make our impact on people. There were 400+ people at my Lisa's memorial. That's the kind of impact that I want to have. What kind of legacy do you want to leave? Today is the day. Tomorrow may never come.

School is going great, but...

Well, Max has been into EVERYTHING lately! Yikes! I do a lot more hands-on teaching with Janie this year and Max seems to be constantly pushing buttons on the tv, eating chips, climbing on things, playing with the computer, whining or making a general mess. Ah, the "terrible twos"! So, in true Dorene style, if this were your kid I could tell you exactly what to do and I would be right. :) With my own kid, tho... well, I need you to help me focus. What do you suggest I do with him when he's driving me nuts or, better yet, how do I head him off before he drives me nuts?

It's a Country Sort of Day...

It's a busy day here! The children woke up to their mama gently coaxing them to get out of bed and put on their best lumberjack gear! We were going to cut firewood! We set off with a mug of coffee, a pitcher of milk and some yummy doughnuts! The kids were great helpers. I kept reminding them how lovely it will be to wake up to a warm fire on those fabulous but cold winter mornings in Eastern Oregon. We were able to get a cord today and will head out to get another one tomorrow. Our permit allows three cord so we'll have to plan another day to get the last one. Due to the fire season we aren't allowed to use power saws in the woods after 1pm so our time is limited each day.

Once we got home, the kids and Joe unloaded the truck while I started on lunch and got a couple of loaves of bread started in the mixer. Within a short while everyone was eating, the bread was rising in the bowl and I had a load of clean laundry drying on the line in a gentle breeze.
I called my Mom and she stepped out to the garage so I could hear the "sideways rain" that they were getting at her house! I'd like a good storm here, but I'm not over-anxious for it just yet.
Joseph worked again at trying to get the crab apple, hot pepper jelly to set up to no avail. We've had the worst time with that sort of thing this year. He had doubled the batch which probably wound up being the issue. There are plenty more crab apples to attempt another batch.
Joe made dinner tonight which is always a special treat for me. He made stuffed green peppers. All ingredients came from our garden save the rice and the beef. Don't know that I'll ever have rice patties but growing miniature herefords is something that's piqued my interest of late, I have to admit.
As is my habit, I called my Mom as I went out to do the evening chore of putting the chickens "to bed". No eggs tonight but I noticed that Janie had gone to check for some earlier today and brought some in. The chickens seem to be noticing the cooler weather and the shorter days already. Four of the seven are more than a year old... middle aged for a layer, I suppose. Seems there are fewer and fewer eggs every day. Won't be long til we're putting a light on a timer in the hen house to maintain some level of production!
I pulled the last of the clothes off the line in the dark and brought our old kitty, Cali indoors for the night. Tonight the low is supposed to be near freezing and her old bones just can't handle that kind of cold anymore. Hoping my tomatoes make it through the night...