How to be a (not) Good Hostess

As you all know a fabulous Thanksgiving Dinner does not make itself. I need to ask each of you to help by bringing something to complete the meal. I truly appreciate your offers to assist with the meal preparation.

Now, while I do have quite a sense of humor and joke around all the time, I COULD NOT BE MORE SERIOUS when I am providing you with your Thanksgiving instructions and orders. I am very particular, so please perform your task EXACTLY as I have requested and read your portion very carefully. If I ask you to bring your offering in a container that has a lid, bring your offering in a container WITH A LID, NOT ALUMINUM FOIL! If I ask you to bring a serving spoon for your dish, BRING A SERVING SPOON, NOT A SOUP SPOON! And please do not forget anything.

All food that is to be cooked should already be prepared, bring it hot and ready to serve, warm or room temp. These are your ONLY THREE options. Anything meant to be served cold should, of course, already be cold.

HJB—Dinner wine


The Mike Byron Family
1. Turnips in a casserole with a lid and a serving spoon. Please do not fill the casserole all the way up to the top, it gets too messy. I know this may come as a bit of a surprise to you, but most of us hate turnips so don’t feel like you a have to feed an army.
2. Two half gallons of ice cream, one must be VANILLA, I don’t care what the other one is. No store brands please. I did see an ad this morning for Hagan Daz Peppermint Bark Ice Cream, yum!! (no pressure here, though).
3. Toppings for the ice cream.
4. A case of bottled water, NOT gallons, any brand is ok.


The Bob Byron Family
1. Green beans or asparagus (not both) in a casserole with a lid and a serving spoon. If you are making the green beans, please prepare FOUR pounds, if you are making asparagus please prepare FIVE pounds. It is up to you how you wish to prepare them, no soupy sauces, no cheese (you know how Mike is), a light sprinkling of toasted nuts, or pancetta, or some EVOO would be a nice way to jazz them up.
2. A case of beer of your choice (I have Coors Light and Corona) or a bottle of clos du bois chardonnay (you will have to let me know which you will bring prior to 11/22).


The Lisa Byron Chesterford Family
1. Lisa as a married woman you are now required to contribute at the adult level. You can bring an hors d’ouvres. A few helpful hints/suggestions. Keep it very light, and non-filling, NO COCKTAIL SAUCE, no beans of any kind. I think your best bet would be a platter of fresh veggies and dip. Not a huge platter mind you (i.e., not the plastic platter from the supermarket).


The Michelle Bobble Family
1. Stuffing in a casserole with a serving spoon. Please make the stuffing sans meat.
2. 2.5-3 qts. of mashed squash in a casserole with a lid and serving spoon
3. Proscuitto pin wheel – please stick to the recipe, no need to bring a plate.
4. A pie knife


The June Davis Family
1. 15 LBS of mashed potatoes in a casserole with a serving spoon. Please do not use the over-size blue serving dish you used last year. Because you are making such a large batch you can do one of two things: put half the mash in a regulation size casserole with lid and put the other half in a plastic container and we can just replenish with that or use two regulation size casserole dishes with lids. Only one serving spoon is needed.
2. A bottle of clos du bois chardonnay


The Amy Misto Family (why do I even bother she will never read this)
1. A pumpkin pie in a pie dish (please use my silver palate recipe) no knife needed.
2. An apple pie in a pie dish, you can use your own recipe, no knife needed.

Looking forward to the 28th!!

Marney

from awkwardfamilyphotos.com

On the Agenda

I have random things on my mind, so I'm going to share them with the world. After, I'll probably read a blog post by one of those great reformed pastors with PhDs who talk about how blogging is a waste of time unless you have something meaningful to say and you shouldn't even have comment bars or something and how Facebook creates false community and instead you should REALLY be sitting in a coffee house on a plaza, building relationships or something like that. I might feel guilty then, but right now I am very content to be on my couch, while the kids have quiet time, checking Facebook, and blogging instead of driving twenty-five miles into Jackson so I can sit in a coffee house and build relationships while I sip expensive coffee and my children run wild. There. I could stop there.

But I won't.

On pregnancy. The third time around is so different than the first and second. With the previous children, I would have these crazy mood swings where I would cry like a maniac, get so angry I would scream and in general deal with crazy impulses (e.g., "I hate these TV trays. They are in the way. Throwing them out the window would be a great solution.") Then, I was totally unaware of the irrationality of those times. I felt perfectly rational and justified in these hormonal urges.

This time around, I am more cognizant of my irrationality. It's kind of like at the end of A Beautiful Mind where Russell Crowe's character still can see the visions but he knows they aren't real. The worst one so far involved me, anger and a Baptist preacher and I didn't care one bit if I had ruined my witness towards him. ("He's a Christian," I thought, "I don't need to witness to him.") I suppose I should have clarified--mostly under control. Out have gone the pregnancy books (not one peek). I suppose I'm too busy with other things these days.

The biggest difference with this pregnancy compared to the others is the lack of sugar cravings. I've been absolutely unconcerned with sweets. It took three days to eat a milk shake Tuan brought home for me and I never finished it. We've had a small pint of Hagen Daz in the fridge for weeks scarcely touched. While I've not turned them down, what I've really wanted are savory things: cheese, Tacos from Taco Bell, cheese on saltines, grilled cheese, cheeze-its, pimiento cheese, bacon, and meditteranean and asian food.

I didn't grocery shop last week because I wanted to use up what we had. We got pretty close to the bottom of the barrel. The saved money went towards Mistletoe and it left us on Sunday night staring at the pantry, longing for something to eat. I wanted Vietnamese food so badly that had it not been Sunday night at 10:00, I would have sent Tuan for Saigon. Instead, I read our Vietnamese cookbook. I read it Sunday night and Monday morning and after that it was all downhill. I made my meal-plan for the week (all Vietnamese!) and last night we went to the Asian Market on Spillway and to to the I-55 Kroger for all the Ingredients we needed. I'm really looking forward to this week's food. For lunch we had a cabbage salad with pork and veggies with the most "remarkable" (quote, Tuan, a compliment) lime dressing. Kind of a Vietnamese coleslaw. Tonight we are making Banh Xeo--rice flour crepes filled with pork, mushrooms, onions, green onions, then wrapped with mustard greens and dipped into Nuoc Mam--Heaven!

There are five + more dishes to go after that. And, they are all mostly nourishing! Whoo--hoo.

I could blog on and on, but I will end with this: Hello Stalkers Who Don't Comment. I know you're out there--mainly 'cause you tell me you are. That's okay. I stalk blogs, too.

I think it's time for some cheese.

An All-Time Great Bargain Story

This is a slightly newer version of our double stroller and I wanted to share with you all the kind of cool story about how we purchased it.

Aubrey was due January 22nd of 2008. We had all the necessary gear gathered in early January before her birth except for a double stroller. We'd been sort of extra-jubilant and generous that Christmas and money was very, very tight. I'd had this particular Combi stroller picked out for sometime and at a retail price of 200.00 it was a bit beyond our budget. 100.00 beyond to be precise!

For Christmas that year, my mom and grandmother had given us stroller money totaling 100.00. That was absolutely all I had to spend. One January afternoon, I loaded Johnny into the car and we headed down to Magee to Hudson's. All the Hudson's had been carrying a stock of Amazon returns and I thought we might find one there. I even prayed about it on the way down. Johnny and I dug through boxes in the rear of the store and no Combi was to be found. However, I did stumble across this huge box that said, Joovy Twin or something like that. It was a double stroller that retailed for 400.00 and the stock was 75% off. Do the math. It was exactly what I had to spend!

Despite the fact that no one in the store helped me, I drug this huge box and pushed a buggy with Johnny in it to the front of the store (at 36/37 weeks, to be exact). A nice man helped me load it and I drove home with my compromise stroller.

This stroller, however, was no compromise. It was luxe. There were raincovers and sno-bibs and gadgets and gizmos galore--plus it drove like a dream! I wanted to keep it, but there just wasn't enough room in our car and our carseat wasn't compatible. The Combi was still the way to go, so we listed the stroller on ebay, sold it seven days later for 360.00 and after paying the shipping made enough to cover the cost of the stroller and fabric for the nursery!

It was such a cool thing the way that worked out. We were so grateful for the unique way God provided the stroller we needed and then some! He is so, so personal in his provision for us.

epiphany for a dummy

Oh, I almost didn't share this . . . .  

Since the kids are still sharing a room, we're planning to use the third bedroom as a guestroom. It will be decorated in a very girly way and will one day be A's room. While we are waiting for a double bed mattress to magically appear or go on a deep sale, it's a catch-all room for  sewing supplies, linens and I know not what. Sometime ago, I had this brilliant idea to set up J's train tracks on the floor of the closet. That way he could spend some nap-times playing with trains and we could leave it out. Since we've moved, that's the way it's been.

However, as we've been working through the bric-a-brac, I had reached the point where things just needed to be stored and stacked until a mattress magically appears. This afternoon, I was moving things around, stuffing boxes under tables and throwing shower curtains over said tables to conceal the junk. It looked ridiculous. I opened the closet to put something on a shelf and just about smacked myself in the head. "Stupid Hobbit! Why am I not using the closet for all these boxes, crates and pack-n-plays?" 

Out went the train tracks and in went the stuff. The room is much cleaner now and a set of tracks on the floor make far more sense than a jumble of other stuff. I was mentally kicking myself the whole time for not thinking of it sooner and am so embarrassed to even admit it took so long. But it was such a good lesson for me to not get stuck merely because there is a brick wall in my path. 

If there's a metaphorical brick wall in your path, take a moment to see if you can walk around it, climb over it, knock it down, or, gulp, move it. : ) This was so cheesy. I am sorry, but I'm not going to delete this after having written it. So, there.

Moving . . . "aarrugghhem"

I once took a seminar at Summer Conference that Bebo Elkin taught. It was titled "Heros of the Faith" or something like that. Anytime he would mention a "hero" he'd follow the name with a low guttural groan/mutter.  "Jonathan Edwards . . . ." he would say and then you'd hear that "aarugghem." I suppose the meaning was that these are intimidating people. I think I'd follow thoughts of Elisabeth Elliot and Nancy Wilson with that sound!

While I've held onto the true purpose of the seminar, I've also kept that sound effect, too and frequently add it onto my thoughts. Moving deserves an "aarugghem," I think.

We are settling and then unsettling and then settling some more. Having this much space is just marvelous! This is the largest house we've lived in since we got married and while we were content in the Lake House (but for storage), and possibly even dreaded leaving our little home, I have to say that the first or second night here we sat down in the living room and felt this great sigh of peace come over. Comfort and space! What richness! 

There are still things to get used to, but I truly only miss one thing about the old house: windows and light! That aside, I do want to share what I am loving and giving thanks for with the new house.

1. The Attic and Storage Room. We've never had either and it is just amazing. In the old house everything was stored under our bed and in our closet and a closet at Warner and Becky's.  It is a marvelous, marvelous thing to have tools in the storage room and not in the bedroom!

2. Our dishwasher. TL replaced the old one and I was skeptical of this particular model at first, but now that I've learned how to load it--I LOVE IT! It cleans so well, although it is so loud, I'm sure our neighbors wonder what we're doing over here.

3. An updated faucet. The faucet is the accessory of the kitchen and we have a lovely, new one!

4. A deep sink! The Lake House sink was so shallow you could put a fork in it and it was overflowing . . . . Okay, that's not wholly true. It was shallow, however, and this one is delightfully deep. I just want to give a shout out to the fellow who damaged the old sink while trying to remove the faucet--we love our new sink. Thank you so much.

5. Closets and bedrooms and bathrooms, Oh my!

6. A laundry closet that is solely a laundry closet!

7. A covered carport. Unloading groceries is easier as is cleaning out the car and keeping things out of the elements.

8. Neighbors! It's nice knowing someone is next door and having folks to talk to and kids for our kids to play with.

9. We now live in the country. There are woods behind our house and we have a place for a fire. I only thought we lived in the country before. 

10. Our own mailbox. Just 'cause I love to check the mail. 

I think I could go on and on. I love the little Lake House and am so glad that Zack and Kristen are moving into it. I hope their time in it is as wonderful as ours was. But for now, as I get overwhelmed at the things on the "to-do" list and the boxes that keep appearing, I will count my blessings. And, soon, there will be pictures!