"I felt bad that I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet"

Are you familiar with this saying? I know it's old; so old it probably seems cliche'.... and yet it really hit home with me this past weekend.

Yeah, I've been feeling a little sorry for myself, what with the holidays coming, and not being able to spend them the exact way we'd like.... not to mention how we're crammed in this tiny apartment with most of our "things" in storage because they won't fit here, and it seems like every time we go to someone else's home for a Bible study or something their homes are enormous!! I mean, seriously, not even 'normal big' but huge!! (Okay, what do all these people do for a living?? They are mostly one income, homeschooling families, just like us ... and yet.... I guess these women married better than me, lol!!)

So - last Saturday my little family took the dog for a quick stroll just before dark along this walking path they have here called the W&OD (that's for Washington and Old Dominion, I guess the path runs along the old train lines or something). Well, it's quite woodsy there, but since it's hardwood forest and the leaves have mostly fallen now, you can see pretty far in. In the very short distance we walked - since it was nearly dark - we saw at least a dozen tents in the woods, where it was very obvious that people we not just camping but living there. Yeah. So it got us all thinking that we are so very blessed, and we've been pretty ungrateful to have been thinking the way we have. How can I be thinking how horrible it is to have to eat at a restaurant for Thanksgiving when those folks may not eat at all that day??

So, tomorrow Kiwi and I will tidy up the apartment and shop for some groceries to make a special breakfast on Thursday. We bought some supplies to make crafts on Thursday while daddy is camped out on the couch watching football, and we bought a log so we can have a fire crackling while we play games together. And most of all, I plan on being THANKFUL for the wonderful life that I have.

Something Wicked this Way Comes

It's called - The Holiday Season!!

Okay, just kidding... I love the holidays. Thanksgiving, Christmas.... they make me happy. Usually. This year is a little tougher, being so far away from home and family. Kiwi is so upset about not being able to do all the "traditional" things that we usually do.

I'm trying to have a good attitude about it. There must be a million cool Christmas-y things we can do here. Then, we are flying to Idaho for Christmas, so at least we'll get to spend time with the ones we love.

Thanksgiving is going to be the wierd one. I'm used to the big get-togethers - lots of family, a handful of friends who didn't have anywhere else to go, ("strays" in my family's vernacular!) hanging out after the meal to make puzzles and play games.... that's what the day means to me. This year, well, we're 2,500 miles away and it's too darn expensive to fly two months in a row (heck, it's too expensive to fly once! We're only able to do it for Christmas because that is my MIL's gift to us this year). My husband has a cousin near us, and he and his wife invited us to go out to dinner with them on Thanksgiving. Now, going to a restaurant on Thanksgiving seems like so many shades of wrong!! It's not even a buffet - just a "plated meal".... now, how the heck do you do Thanksgiving without going back for 2nds??! I made my husband promise that we would find something different and interesting to do the rest of the day since the meal out is only going to take a couple hours... I refuse to do our 'regular' stuff the rest of the day (ie: sit in front of the tv and feel sorry for ourselves). Okay, a little tv for football, that's fine.... but that's all!

What do all of you have planned for the big Turkey day??

Speaking of turkeys, we saw a wild one hanging out on the side of the road a few days ago! It was so funny - and then, I saw a news article about that same guy on MSN news! Crazy bird.

Don't Wanna Homeschool No More

Seriously. Can I be done? I want to get a job and put Kiwi in a full-time school.

So far, 12 is not my favorite age-of-my-child. She swings back and forth between being my sweet little girl to being.... well.... some snarly, nasty, angry little thing that is so not fun to be around.

I thought this year would be fun. Yeah. Call me crazy. Or, naive. I thought we'd go see all these amazing historical places and museums and just enjoy our time together...uh, yeah. Basically it's more just whining about how awful it is to live here and how much she misses her friends and she wants to go back home. Now. Today. With or without me and her dad. As if she'd last one day; but she thinks she's all big and grown up. Honestly, if it wasn't for the fact that airfare is completely out of my reach, I'd send her off, if only to teach her a lesson. Or, she really would be happy and I wouldn't have to deal with her.... either way, it'd be win-win.

Okay, I probably wouldn't. That would be mean. Right? Bad mommy-ish? Ah, but for some peace and quiet!! The real problem, bottom line, is that I am an introvert and Kiwi is an extrovert. She craves being around people; I want to be left alone. For awhile. Being that she is stressed from the move, lonely without her friends, and suffering from the mood swings of tween-ager-angst, she is more clingy than ever before, and what I need, given those same circumstances (okay, yeah, my mood swings are more of the pre-menopausal sort, but still) I just would really, really like to have some time alone, for-the-love-of-all-that-which-does-not-suck!! This is how bad it is - when I go to the bathroom - which, you know, really ought to earn ya some alone time - she follows me into my room and flops down on my bed so she can talk to me. Cripes. The only reason I'm on here now without interruption is because she is 10 feet away from me on the laptop. sigh

Homeschooling. What was I thinking??!

Deer and Cream Puffs

Today, Kiwi and I took the dog for a walk into town (For mochas, of course! What else could inspire me to walk so far?!) On the way there, we saw a groundhog ("cream puff" in Kiwi-eese - we didn't know what they were when we first moved here, so that's what she called them). On our way home, we passed two deer, right on the edge of the wood - like, maybe 30 feet from us! A mama and a young one... the little one just snacked, while the mama watched us closely, but didn't move - even tho I had the dog! Guess it didn't bother her. We stood there for about 5 minutes, until a large truck rumbled past and she trotted off into the trees. It was soooo cool! See, in Idaho, we have lots and lots of wilderness, so the wild animals don't hang out right in the midst of town.... we aren't used to seeing them if we aren't out camping somewhere.

Rain rain rain.....!!

My gosh! It is very wet and pretty dang chilly today! We need to get some wood for the fireplace (yeah, our apt. has a woodburning fireplace! How suhweet is that?!!) The not-sweet deal is having to take the dog out on her leash to...uh...do her business. I swear I'm gonna make a doggy-litter-box out on our balcony for the winter! (Watch me!) Because it's only gonna get wetter and colder, I'd imagine...

Currently girlie-dog is laying on her mat intently watching out the patio door - squirrel patrol, you know. The one thing that makes her crazy, and this apt. complex is loaded with them! Because of walking her, I have tedonitis in both elbows! I'm so not kidding. She never learned to properly walk on a leash. I tried, honest... I think it's her puppy brain damage, the poor dear. It's just one of those things she doesn't "get". Good thing she's so dang sweet :)

Recipe!! Dinner in a Pumpkin

Alrighty, as promised, here it is! You know this has to be easy, because cooking is about my least-favorite-thing to do. (not baking, I like baking...)

First off, let me say you need to use a good "eating" pumpkin, like a pie pumpkin, or sugar pumpkin... don't use a huge ol' jack-o-lantern carving one!

Also, you can use 3 - 4 small pumpkins if you want - that's what I did this time, so we each had our own to eat, which was fun! It took just about as long to cook, tho.....

Takes 2 hours/1 hour prep

Serves 6 (or 3 little piggies, like us! Well, we did have leftovers for lunch the following day.)

1 medium pumpkin
1 onion, chopped
2 TBSP veg. oil
2 lbs. ground beef
2 TBSP soy sauce
2 TBSP brown sugar
1 (4 oz) can sliced mushrooms
1 (15 oz) can cream of mushroom soup (NOTE! this is what the recipe calls for, but as far as I know soup doesn't even come in 15 oz cans... there are the little 'regular' cans, or the big 'family' cans, and 15 oz would be right in the middle. I used one 'regular' size can.)
1 1/2 cups cooked rice (I like brown basmati; nice flavor)
1 (8 oz) can sliced water chestnuts

• cut off the top of the pumpkin and thoroughly clean out pulp and seeds. Butter and salt inside of pumpkin
• preheat oven to 350 F. In a large skillet saute onions in vegetable oil until tender
• add meat and brown
• drain drippings from skillet
• add soy sauce, mushrooms, brown sugar and soup
• simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally
• add cooked rice and water chestnuts
• spoon mixture into cleaned pumpkin shell(s)
• replace pumpkin top and place entire pumpkin, with filling, on a baking sheet
• bake 1 hour or until inside meat of the pumpkin is tender
• transfer pumpkin to serving plate
• remove pumpkin lid and serve meat
• for your vegetable, scoop our pumpkin and serve

That's all there is to it! Sorry I don't have any pics for you.

Time for bed

So, I was going to post something interesting... or at least maybe my Dinner-in-a-Pumpkin recipe... but I just spent the last hour IM'ing with a friend from Idaho... so, instead of interesting, you get "good night".....sorry!