Gobble gobble

My mom sent me a picture of a turkey wreath. So I thought I can make that and offered to make her one. I bought some yarn and tulle and got to work. About $10 later and 2 hours of time. Here it is. 

Think it came out cute! This little turkey helped out by throwing tulle and pulling yarn everywhere. 

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Fall is all around

We're a bit behind on fall activities. Last week was not good and I didn't get around to anything. This week we worked on some fine motor skills with some leaf lacing. Jman didn't really well at this. 

I changed out our sensory box and added some beans, dried peas and popcorn. He wasn't a huge fan last year of just the leaves and pine cones. So I vamped it up for him. So pretty! Wish fall looked like this. 

Success! He played for an hour. Lots of scooping and pouring. He shared with me and RC. 

He then started sorting the peas with the leaves, all on his own. He was matching colors. 

He also did some fine motor work by stringing the paper through the bottom of the funnel and up. I love watching what he comes up with this year. All these new activities that are not mine, all his own. 

We also tried a new activity today. Thank you Amanda for sharing it. I gave him a package of cups that have been lying around since his birthday unused. We used them as blocks  and built large towers and knocked them down. Good thing about that no one gets hurt and it isn't   loud. Then they were monster truck obstacles, and bowling pins. Who knew cups were so fun? 

RC joined in the fun. He was not impressed. 

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My Exploring Buddy

We went on a nice, long, exploring walk today. I love these times with my boys. Jman finds the neatest things and RC just goes for the ride (for now). When exploring there are always two things on our list to find: deer and deer poopoo. Unfortunately we only saw one of those today. My boy is all boy, looks for poopoo and sings songs about it. Hmm what can you say. Boys. 

We grabbed our 30 cent bucket ( thank you target clearance) and gathered several finds today. Here is our loot. 

We actually found a red and yellow leaf. Not sure where they came from since all the trees in my neighborhood are green. 

I pressed all the leaves, so J can keep them and look at them. And a feather we found. It's black with a pretty blue stripe. 

My little explorer is quite the busy guy. 

RC chillin. 

The best find of the day was..... This guy

I totally missed him, but Jman was watching closely. He spotted this guy and watched him for several minutes. I love watching him experience new things and the patience he has to observe. He watched him all the way across the sidewalk and into the grass. He was even shouting at the cars passing by "everybody there's a caterpillar!" He didn't want anyone to miss this. 

This may have also been a great find. Superhero mask. 

I love stay home days. They always end up the best. 

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Thankful Heart

I didn't do the 30 days of thanks on Facebook like I usually do. We were busy doing a "thankful tree" in our home. Jman is only 2 but I learning to be thankful and show gratitude starts as young as you can, if you want it to really matter. Everyday we talked about things we were thankful for and created this. 

Jman pretty much picked everything on this tree. We would write it down and add a leaf to our tree. Some days he needed a little encouragement and some days he would name 3 things to add. With doing this tree I noticed his prayers change and he would add more to them. We always say "thank you God for God, daddy, mommy, Jack and Reed" and now he adds to that. He used to only pray with an echo prayer, now I start it by saying "Dear God" and he takes the rest. This month he also started saying thank you for things we would do for him. For example when we went to the zoo "thank you for taking me to the zoo" or "thank you for taking me to target". It touched my heart. 

Being thankful is something that should happen all year round, not just one month and certainly not one day. Kids learn from those around them. If you want your kids to be thankful and giving to others they need to see it in you, hear it from you and do it with you. I think our thankful tree should stick around all year or some type of thankful jar. 

I've been so heartbroken by the shopping craze this year. It wasn't so much the people having to work issue. There's always people working on holidays. Usually people they are serving others. Like my sister in law. Shes a nurse and had to work last night. What upsets me is that people couldn't wait to buy stuff. Stuff you don't need. People couldn't stay home one day to be thankful and appreciate what you have. They had to run out to buy something because it was on sale. Who cares! It makes me sick of some stores. There was no need for Michaels to open at 4 yesterday!! I will not be returning there anytime soon. Next well see stores open on Christmas to add more junk to the pile of presents you ungratefully opened just that morning. Anyway that's my soap box. Back to our thankful tree. 

Here's our list, only 3 of these are mine, the rest Jman. 

1. God

2. Daddy

3. Mommy

4. Jack

5. Reed

6. Gramma and Pappaw

7. Grandma and Grandpa

8. Cousins- Lauren, Mckenna, Everett, Sam, Jakob, Carsen

9. Church

10. Friends

11. Bears at the zoo

12. Apples (food)

13. Toys

14. Flowers

15. Park

16. Grace and Nathan

17.cookies (specifically Grace Cookies)

(My 3)

18. Jack hugs

19. Reeds cheeky grin

20. Kevin's devotion to our family 

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My Granny- one of a kind

If you know me well you know I express myself best through writing. Whether its happiness, praying, or sadness. I love to write.  Writing is how I cope. This post is mainly for me as I grieve. 

My grandma, better known as Granny passed away on Friday. She was known as granny to everyone, but I am proud to say she was my Granny. If you ever met her, even for 10 minutes, you know exactly what her character was and how kind she was. If you never had the privilege to meet her, let me share with you about her. 

First off funerals are hard. Duh everyone knows that. I have been lucky to only attend a handful of these in my life. The last big one was my grandpa was when I was 6. 6, believe me, I had no idea what was going on. This was the first one that really hit me, open caskets- not a fan. That is not how I want to remember my granny. It was a nice service though, a LOT of wonderful things were said about my grandma. A lot of people loved her and that was shown in words, flowers and a packed house. She is a beautiful woman who will be missed dearly. 

This is something I wrote a couple hours after her death, while rocking my sweet baby. Like I said, I write to cope. I was very honored when my dad asked if he could read it at the service. Honored and scared. I knew I wouldn't be able to control my emotions once he read it. And nope I sure didn't. Here is the best description I have of this beautiful woman.  

"A beautiful lady met Jesus last night. My grandma, my Granny was a beautiful soul. She was kind and generous. She loved everyone she met. She didn't care what you've done or what you looked like, she loved you with an unconditional love that she proved over and over. She was the type of person that literally would give you the shirt off her back If you needed it, the money from her pocket and the food from her pantry. She made the best gravy in the world. I will continue my quest to make it like her but I know it will never be the same.  She was talented, she could crochet, paint, sew, make handmade dolls, quilt.  Many of these things I will always cherish. You may have walked into her humble house as a stranger but you left as family and with a full belly. A very full belly. She has left behind many people who love her. Wonderful kids, many grand kids, great grand kids and great great grand kids. She leaves quite a legacy. 

Last night, she was reunited with the love of her life,  my Pappaw, the man she has missed everyday for 25 years. That had to be quite reunion! I can imagine that when she met Jesus that she asked him "are you hungry? What would you like?" I hope He said yes because she sure can cook, hopefully a big bowl of Granny gravy and pile of biscuits is what He got. 

I'm glad my boys met her, and although they won't remember it, I will. Granny you will be missed by many, thank you for all the love, hugs, stories, and memories. Hug my Pappaw for me. It is an absolute honor to be your grand daughter.  I love you. "

Here are some things my grandma taught me. 

Granny Gravy- she made the best gravy! Oh I will miss it! Gravy, biscuits and a pile of bacon. I was always so full after breakfast and not eat until supper. One of my favorite memories is sitting at her kitchen table as she told me the directions and then gave me a cast iron skillet, because it can only be made in that. My aunt also has given me first hand lessons. This is the trick with gravy, that I still haven't timed right. When you think "it's burning" it's not keep cooking. The second time you think "ok it's really burning", its NOT keep cooking, then you think "oh my it's going to catch on fire" then it's ready, add the milk! 

Serve your family. My grandma had a servants heart. She was always helping others. She LOVED her family and was always serving them. Mainly with food. She would cook you anything you wanted. That big breakfast I just described was one of three huge meals you will have in her house. She makes everyone their favorites when you are around. She always took care of her family, whatever their needs were. She was a mother of 4, grandmother of 8, great grandmother of 16, great great grandmother of 2!

Forgiveness- she forgave like Christ. That seventy times seven, she believed and did. There were many time people would hurt her and I was always shocked she would move past it and forget. I would think they're going to hurt you again. But she truly forgave and forgot. What an amazing quality. 

Remember Birthdays- she would always call and sing Happy Birthday. It always made me feel special. Who will do it now? :( I think Sam should take it over. 

Reuse- she is from a time where they grew their own food and cooked it from scratch and used every bit of everything. They didn't need to recycle because they used it all. I will always remember don't throw any food in the trash. It was always put out to feed animals. If there was any trash, it was burned, not thrown out. 

Dinner- breakfast is breakfast, lunch is dinner and dinner is supper. Confused? Yep I always was. Why would you plan dinner before lunch? Because dinner is lunch. Duh. 

Love- she loved like Christ. Overflowing, unconditional, unpreduice love. She poured loved on everyone she met. She made everyone feel like part of the family. I never met anyone who didn't love Helen Carpenter. 

Humility- she came from a very humble time. My grandparents were one of a kind. The pastor at her service said there was no one like them. My granny often said "after my generation is gone, this world is ruined. They can't even boil water". Sadly she is true. She came from a time where hard work was the key to everything. You cooked for your family, you provided for them. My mom and dad also did the same, three meals a day on the table, work hard for your loved ones. I hope I can carry that out. I hope I can instill in my boys the values my parents and grandparents did. Hopefully my boys will help this generation. Hard work is still important, you aren't  entitled to anything. Work and earn it. 

Give- ask and you shall receive. My grandma gave, gave, gave. Whether you asked or not. If you asked she gave you more than you asked for. Many times we would go to visit and come back with something- money, a doll, food, a recliner, a rocker. Small or big she would give it. She bought extra groceries in case someone needed it. 

If its a dollar you need it- my granny would have loved dollar tree. She loved garage sales and always found lots of treasures. :). She one time bought 5 clock radios, because they were a dollar. She didn't need them, but she said they were only a dollar. Haha. I thought this was always funny. 

Dream- you are never too old to dream. She always was planning, to do things, to go places. Even in the last few months she would say I'm coming to San Antonio. I want to see y'all. We knew she couldn't come but she never stopped dreaming. 

Put God first- she was a strong Christian woman and you knew it. I know she is dancing in heaven. You never had to doubt her faith. She showed it everywhere she went and to anyone she met. I hope people can say that about me. 

Pray without ceasing - she was always praying. I would hear stop on a conversation and shout "Jesus" or "Halleljuah". She would pray over someone. Always praying. I admire her praying out loud. I pray a lot, constantly throughout the day, but I have little courage to do it out loud. 

Show Gratitude- she was always thankful for anything she got. She would exclaim "this is the most beautiful gift in the world" every time she got a gift.  She truly appreciated anything you gave her. It probably came from having so little for so long. Her gratitude was always genuine. 

No one leaves hungry- you walked in her house, be prepared to eat and eat and eat. No one could say they were hungry after being in her home. 

Granny was a remarkable woman and will be missed dearly by many many people. You will forever live in our hearts and I hope I can leave a mark like you did. 

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