Very Cool!

   Did this today... dyed silk play scarves for the girls for half the price for Christmas.  It turned out just as they said... very cool!  Can't wait for them to open a box of beautiful colors to play dress up, dance with or a million other things! I made 6 of them for about $33.00, new from a place like Magic Cabin I would've spent $60 before shipping.  I will definitely do this again.

Fall

   I LOVE the fall, especially the warmer days you can get outside in a sweatshirt and be perfectly comfortable.  This was one of those days.  We only had about 45 minutes before dinner and darkness set in so very unlike us we decided to go hiking last minute.  Usually we need hours to go and explore and talk, but this day we just did it.  We told the kids only one time off trail exploring was allowed since darkness was coming and... it was great!  Beautiful. So glad we decided to enjoy the few moments we had and so thankful we live just a short drive to a trail!  Thank you Lord for the beautiful world you created!

 I love this picture!

Addison

Ahhh, what do I say?  I love this little lady!

Socks

    Our boys are always out of socks.  It seems no matter how much laundry I do we are always out.  And though we know some of them are floating around their room, others I swear just disappear!  The other mystery is how they get so dirty so fast.  I'm sure they are NOT running out in their socks without shoes like their mother does...often!  Anyways, Paul decided the other day to be good Daddy and stock up all men with new socks (partly for their own good and partly so the older two would stop stealing his!).  So joyfully we came home with many socks and all the boys threw on a pair and headed out with Dad for a guys night out with friends.  Honest... this picture was sent to me within the hour...

Those are his brand new socks!  How is that even possible??  He got his shoes wet and muddy and ta-da!  Destroyed socks!  Seriously??   Note to self, next time buy all black socks for the boys!

Veteran's Day

   We're finishing up our study on Veteran's Day and have learned so many interesting things.  We've read great books and visited some pretty cool websites.  We found a wonderful resource at a nearby library, a room full of DVD's that contain interviews of veterans' in our area.  It's a project to preserve history and the one we watched was fantastic!  It was about a young man who became a paratrooper who dropped at Normandy.  He was a prisoner of war two or three times (twice from accidentally going over a hedge and landing IN an enemies machine gun seat!).  His escapes and travels were amazing, scary, funny at times and an eye opener for our kids to realize this is not just a great story, it's real.  It's something that changed this person's life forever, changed our world forever.  We finished our week by calling family members to see how many vets were in our immediate family (not cousins and second cousins but grandparents and aunts and uncles).  They had to ask who served, in which branch and what war if any they were in.  They did it on speaker phone so all of them could hear and completely on their own.  Then they came out of the room gushing with stories to tell.  We made silver stars to represent the 5 they learned about (silver because thankfully none of them died in service, that would mean a gold star) and hung them on a banner in the front room window.

    We'll be calling those who served in our family today and thanking them for all they did.  We'll leave the banner up through Saturday because 3 of the 5 will be here for Hannah's birthday and we want them to see it.  Learning about those in our family who served and what they did made the study much more interesting.  To think,"Hey my uncle was there!", is a pretty cool thought.

  While Memorial Day is about remembering those we lost, Veteran's Day is more about thanking those who served. Take a minute today and thank the vets in your family and say a prayer for those serving right now.  Who knows, one day it might be our sons or daughters being prayed for by others.