Thanksgiving

Hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving! Ours was pretty low-key, as my guys requested and prefer. While I miss the boisterous and busy family gatherings I experienced growing up, there's definitely something to be said for sitting around totally comfy and enjoying time with just your favorite people. :)

As we've done the past couple years, we tried to support local restaurants in our Thanksgiving feasting. Asher picked The Original Pancake House for brunch on Wednesday. I picked a yummy charcuterie platter from The Fox & The Crow for lunch on Thursday. Nathan wanted a more traditional meal for dinner Thursday so made mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts and cornbread to go with the turkey breast (we opted for the easy route, lol) and pumpkin pie and ice cream that we bought. Noah picked Waltzing Kangaroo Australian meat pies and sausage rolls for takeout dinner on Friday. And Micah picked Kujira Ramen for dinner on Saturday. Yeah...we spread out our feasting over a few days, lol. It was all delicious!

And, throughout it all, I did a really poor job of taking pictures. I'm sad about that but thankful to have been truly enjoying the time together. We watched shows and played games and did some shopping (both online and local) and hung outside Christmas lights (on Friday when it was near 60 degrees...before the snow on Saturday night, lol). Also, on Thursday, we spent some time painting rocks as part of some Christmas gifts. 

I wasn't going to post about that given the surprise of gifts, but ultimately decided to do so...so that I can tell you how entertaining it was, watching each boy stay pretty true to form and personality. Noah picked a minimalist theme and went with it. Asher, like me, found images and replicated them. Micah just dove in with absolutely no plan and each rock turned out completely different. And the rocks all came out awesome. :) 

And apparently we missed the finger painting stage with Micah (true fact...I have no recollection or pictures of Micah ever finger painting...we definitely did with the older two boys but Noah so disliked it I think we just never did it again, lol). So, Micah had fun realizing that he could paint with his fingers. And then he decided to make a handprint...which was great for the rock...and then, obviously, he slapped himself...

...and then he started painting himself even more. Yes. Micah generally just doesn't wear a shirt at home, so at least there wasn't a shirt to clean. (His work space was considerably more messy than his brothers' lol.) Sadly, I didn't get a picture at the end when he'd added quite a bit to the last picture above...chest, shoulder, abs. He couldn't get his right side as well with his left hand and implored a brother to help but didn't get any takers. Such entertainment. :) 

And that's how our Thanksgiving went. Very thankful for our life and these people. Thankful, too, that Thanksgiving is on a Thursday...the long weekend was much appreciated for getting things done on our to do lists as we're now heading into the holiday season. 

So, happy belated Thanksgiving to you all and here's to a productive and joyful December!

Energy and joy

Last Saturday, Asher and I spent the day watching a fabulous 5 year old so that my friends could enjoy an afternoon/evening date. We had a great time...taking turns being the "bad ninja," going to a nearby park, having hot cocoa and snacks, using a number of the different costumes in his play room, and being blown up by pretend bombs quite a bit, lol.  

Notes:

• I'm very glad I brought Asher! He works with kids every day for his job and it was lovely getting to see him in action. He's good at letting kids be free while keeping an eye on safety, likes to climb things maybe more than kids do so is good at showing kids how, sincerely enjoys playing with kids' toys, and is pretty good at pretend dying.
• Little boys are fascinated by poop and farts. I have a nephew I've spent time with who recently went through the same phase. Wow. Honestly, I don't remember mine doing that. 
• Thanks to, well, many years of parenting and also having been around lots of kids including my nephews and nieces, I know just how much energy little kids can have. It's always a little impressive, though. :) 

And, so...whew. I'm so glad we were able to help out and will happily do so again and again. I'm also very appreciative of the age my boys are now and that they all had each other to keep busy and entertained. :) I miss, though, the pure joy of youth. It was just lovely experiencing it for hours. 

Five on Friday

Happy Friday, y'all! I missed yesterday's Thankful Thursday post so will list things today instead. :) Here, then, are five things I'm thankful for this week...

1. Last Thursday, my good friend Lynne had a Celebration of Life for her husband, who passed in August after an alarmingly quick battle with pancreatic cancer. It was a lovely gathering at one of his favorite local breweries, honoring his request to "just go out for a beer." I'm thankful for the outpouring of support and love for Lynne and her kids and am definitely thinking the Celebration of Life gathering approach is nicer than the more standard funeral/memorial. Having been to and helped organize funerals the week or so after death, this Celebration of Life a couple months later was actually a celebration and was less stressful than trying to set everything up during an already busy and emotional time. 

2. Kicking myself because I forgot to take a picture, but last Saturday a group of friends and I managed to get together to catch up. It was our "we used to all homeschool together" mom crew and we miraculously got 9 of us together at once. (I don't know that we've ever managed that before, lol.) It was lovely hearing about each other's kids...kids that we all watched grow up together...and catching up on everything else. So thankful that we survived homeschooling, that we did it together, and that we're still in each other's lives. 

3. Micah's not a fan of winter. His arthritis definitely gets worse with the cold weather, and the drop in temperatures here lately has reinforced his desire to go to college in southern California, lol. In our attempts to make things more comfortable for him, we recently added a space heater to his room. He'd refused our offers in the past, because he prefers to be cold when he sleeps. But then trying to get him out of bed in the morning was work. So. We got one of those smart outlets with an app and a timer so that he can program the heater to turn on at a certain time. Voila! The boy has been toasty when he wakes up this past week, and it's noticeably better. Whew.

4. I got it in my head recently to go through our medicine cabinet and purge things. I ended up throwing out a bunch of expired medications. I'm thankful for that...because having a bunch of expired medications is indicative of the fact that we don't go through very much medication, definitely not enough to use it up before it expires. Since that's all because we don't get sick often, I'm thankful. 

5. I see on social media that apparently November is National Adoption Month. It's not something I've really ever celebrated with a specific month before, but I'm definitely thankful for adoption. I'm adopted, one of my brothers is adopted, one of my sisters is adopted, a number of my cousins and friends are adopted, I have friends who have adopted. Adoption = good. :) 

So, that's my list. And, because I feel like cheating (on the "Five" part of my post), here's one last thing...thankful for the beautiful snow this morning...

Wasn't thrilled with the single digit temperatures; but, when the sun came out, you just couldn't help but appreciate the beauty. :)

Thankful Thursday

Okay, need to catch up a bit. Working backward(ish) from the most recent stuff, here are some of the things I'm thankful for...

1. Senior pictures. I took Micah and a friend to take some senior pictures earlier this week. Like his brothers, Micah didn't really care about senior pictures but humored me. :) We headed up to Horsetooth Reservoir...to a bouldering area...and took a bunch of pictures. They're not the greatest but they'll do for what I'm looking for (mainly for the graduation announcements). Saving the better shots for later, but here are some of the outtakes... 

(Unlike his brothers, Micah has no issues about posing, lol.) Thankful to have at least some pictures (we may take more later but at least we can submit something to the yearbook for now) and thankful for the time with my boy. 

2. Voting conversations. Nathan, Noah and I had a nice time discussing and filling out our ballots before I took all our ballots (plus Asher's) to a drop-off spot. I appreciate that we can and do have discussions. 

(Sidenote: Nathan would like to request that the next round of ballots come with self-sealing envelopes rather than the type he has to lick to seal. Apparently they taste awful. We may all have had him lick ours, too, lol.)

3. Time with friends. I've been blessed to have some awesome time with friends over the past weeks. Sadly, I didn't take pictures at all of them but have spent a lovely afternoon shopping with Deanna, enjoyed some day-drinking and lunch with Renee, and got pedicures with Molly. Yay for friends! 

(Here's Renee and me over lunch a couple weeks ago.)

4. Appreciation. A couple weeks ago, Micah submitted his first round of college applications and got me these flowers as a thank you for my help in editing essays and such...

Awww. Nice to be appreciated. :)

Okay, need to get going for now. Feels like it's been busy around here...demo team performing at a promotion, Micah attending his first concert down in Denver, meeting Micah's girlfriend's parents, Nathan's annual well check, Noah helping at a race in Loveland for work, starting to gear up for the holidays, and plenty of other stuff. Hope your November is going well!

Happy birthday to my oldest!

Yesterday, my Noah turned 22. So thankful for this firstborn of mine! 

He got off work a bit early and we took the opportunity to got climbing--him, Micah and me. (With Noah's work schedule and our preference for climbing earlier in the day, we haven't climbed altogether in awhile.) Then, once Asher got home from work, we all went out to dinner at Music City Hot Chicken and stopped at Whole Foods to grab some desserts to take home. (We couldn't all agree and Noah didn't just want a cake, so we each picked something, lol.) At home, we enjoyed our desserts and played some new Jackbox games and just basically had a lovely evening all together. I didn't take a single picture. :( 

Given that our days of height comparison photos are past...and given that I've got a number of other things I should be doing right now, lol...I'm just going to share this collage I made when Noah turned 20...

We're enjoying watching Noah's journey and the young man he's becoming. He's happy with his banking job right now, recently got a promotion, and has been responsibly taking a number of financial steps for his future. Beyond that, he's been learning about photography, working to get back into an exercise routine, and helping with cooking duties around here. :)

Happy birthday!