Day 329: Leftovers

The beauty of a meal where everyone pitches in, is that no one is stuck with all the leftovers.  Lol.  But today, I'm going to talk about a couple of different kinds of leftovers.  First, I want to apologize for every blog post that doesn't quite make sense.  I often give the blog my "leftovers" of my day and can't think straight.  I'll have great ideas during the day, but then I sit down, as I did last night, and I can't put many words together correctly.  Or pictures I want to post don't load correctly.  Therefore, I'm starting this blog post at 10:36 AM instead of PM, lol.  It reminds me of some of the journals my mom wrote when she had newborns and would write how much we ate or what we did.  She often wrote them in the middle of the night, and even she couldn't tell what she wrote when she read them, lol.  I say, it's better to get something down, even when it's not perfect.

Meanwhile, another "leftover" I'm thinking about is all the "leftover" stuff we have just sitting around the house.  We went through a major purge this year, but when we started unpacking, I did find I could give away just a tad more.  That being said, that stuff I put aside hasn't left the house yet, but is still in a box by the front door.  I'll be adding to it, though, up until the New year.  We are going to do what I've heard called "Reverse Advent" where you get rid of 1 item per person per day leading up to Christmas/New Year's.  Not trash or papers, but actual items someone else can use.  If even 4 out of 6 of us does that this year, we'll be 100 items lighter before Christmas.  Yeah!  We've also done a big purge before the "birthday season" in May.  Except for Abishai, the rest of us have birthdays between May and September, which bookends our summer months.  So, I'll try to keep up that tradition.  After Christmas, I might even keep up my 1 item per day routine because I do want to continue reducing our stuff.  Every time I go to the garage or to the storage barn, I am appalled at how much stuff we still have.  I do have several groupings of items I did not go through, like old taxes/bills, books, and my clothes, so I'll start there.  I do not want my kids to have the burden of cleaning out my stuff like my siblings and I had to do for my parents.  I won't sacrifice teaching time or taking care of my kids' daily needs, but I don't want that to be the excuse either.

Therefore, as I thought about Christmas wishlists, I also think about giving experiences or consumable gifts and encourage the kids to be happy with getting zoo passes or gymnastics lessons, etc.  Food is great, too.  Or buy a cow for a family in Africa!  Those are awesome, too!  I'm off to get started on Christmas decorating and decluttering.  Hopefully I'll get the rest of the pics off of my phone today from the last few days to share.

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Success!  Hats and mittens are put away, lights are on the tree, jackets are hung up, kids gave away a few things, and I'm a bit more organized overall.  Yeah!

Pictures from Wednesday on our way to Michigan:

Fries or Hashbrowns? He choose fries! We put them in the same bag as the hashbrown though.

Brother, where did you go? Come out and play!  Poor Justin, he can never get a moment's peace!

After just seeing Hacksaw Ridge on Tuesday, seeing Grandpa Cook's hat just reminded me that he did serve in WWII.  He served as a communications person in Africa and was not on the front lines, praise the Lord.  But it was neat to see how the kids made the connection with what we've studied with someone we know.  Thanks Grandpa Cook for your service!

Grandma Johnson talking tenderly to Grandpa Cook.  Gary knows how to talk with anyone, including those that some of us aren't sure how to approach.  He grew up with his parents taking care of his grandmother and was the one at his mom's side when she passed.  Tenderness.

Some of us were hovering around Grandma and Grandpa Cook when they left.  We just want to care for them and know that we never know when the last time will be that we see them.  They grew tired much more easily this year.  Grandpa can still eat and drink and communicate with nods of the head and smiles.  He's doing well considering that he had another major stroke this year.  Grandma's dementia is a bit worse, and Jared was not sure if she recognized him.  She did look a little lost at times, and pretty quiet.

Abishai is becoming very interested in mirrors and himself lately.  Handsome little guy and he listened when I told him to let go of the mirror.

Jared wasn't sure if he could get us home without major amounts of caffeine.  Um, no, he didn't drink all of this, but I find it interesting that he found this in Meijer.  So, you can't brew your own coffee, people? He did say it tasted burnt, and I agreed after taking a sip.  Gary calls Starbucks coffee, "Charbucks."  Lol.  I'm sure they are talking about the normal coffee, not the fancy coffees I get that are brewed when I order it.  I'll get my annual peppermint mocha in a couple of weeks.

Speaking of coffee, look what we found!  Tim Horton's!  Boy do we miss it!  It was closed of course for Thanksgiving.  They are going to build one in Indianapolis at some point and we can't wait!

A little out of order, but we went to Bob Evans for dinner Wednesday night.  Stack of pancakes of course for Justin.

Abishai was so hungry he was eating all the lemons!!  And yes, they now use ball jars for serving drinks!

We had to hurry home after Thanksgiving dinner because this happened!  Jared and Justin were majorly blessed with really expensive seats from someone at church.  They were only a few rows up from the players!  Incredible!!  It was the first time the Colts have played on Thanksgiving (I think) and the game didn't start until 8:30 pm.  They had a blast!

Oh my goodness!  No need for binoculars or watching the jumbotron!  Remember, the Colts stadium holds more people than the whole city of Charlottetown has for population, 50,000 people!!  Incredible! 

Fancy tickets for up close seats.  And the Colts lost to the Steelers.  Let's just say that EACH seat cost more than 1 round trip airline ticket from NH to Indianapolis.  This was a once in a lifetime event!  And only the 2nd time Jared's been to a Colts game in his almost 27 years (minus 4 in Charlottetown) of living here.  He doesn't like sports much, but can appreciate such a generous gift.

Look, Mom, it looks like a candle!

These two are always good for a snuggle.  In fact, Keturah ended up staying in Abishai's bed all night last night.  She said she didn't sleep well, and I told her, that's her own fault for not getting out of Abishai's bed.  She claims that if she did, he would scream.  He might for a moment, but I'm sure it would have been fine.  I told her no snuggling tonight and to stay in her own bed.

Abishai refuses to try to say "Keturah" and when we tell him "say Keturah" he says, "Sissy" instead without hesitating.  Dance time on Sissy's bed.

Dance time on the coffee table to Christmas music.

Dancing to the Piano Guys on YouTube.  They play the piano and cello and do covers of lots of songs.  They are super talented.

A good night for a fire.

I might add another small set of lights on the bottom, but the first set is on and the tree was finally fluffed out properly.

Nice big logs for the fire from a friend.

I guess Abishai thought Daddy needed lots of company while he worked.

So today, I was changing Abishai's diaper and he started saying his name and looking up.  He wanted me to show himself in the mirror.  And when I did, he smiled big and said his name, "Abishai," "baby," and "me."  He loves kids and I think he loves seeing another "kid" smiling back at him.

Aww, another baby!

Giving kisses!

This is a new trend it seems, little baby fingers or toes sticking out from under the door when one is using the bathroom.  Too cute!

One more day until the concert!

And 3 more days to shop Lilla Rose's annual Black Friday sale!  Lots of items 20-60% off!  Lots of new items and lots of favorites!  Some items are already sold out, which tells you how much everyone love their Lilla Rose flexiclips and hairsticks and headbands.  Take a look over at www.lillarose.biz/melindaj  Sale goes through Monday at midnight (Pacific Time).  Don't forget, you can buy gift certificates through me (not the website) as well.