The weirdest thing!

On Saturday, I thought we were being invaded! Thousands of black birds kept circling and landing, circling and landing in the trees, weeds, and on the barbwire fence of the lot next door. As they flew over our house I was reminded of the picture of the locusts that the pioneers fought until the seagulls came to the rescue!




















It seemed choreographed as they took off in groups, some leading, some following. It was amazing! I wondered if it had something to do with the weather change? I don't know what brought them, but I enjoyed watching them. That is until I thought about our plans for a big garden, fruit trees, and berries!

Thanksgiving traditions

One of the blogs I follow asked for ideas for Thanksgiving traditions. As I responded I realized I haven't recorded here the things have become part of our month of November. We have two traditions that my kids absolutely love! A few years ago we made tukey hats. We put on some music with a good beat and danced. That particular song will forever be the "Turkey Dance Song" at our house and we do the turkey dance every Monday night during November. I had no idea it would become a cherished family tradition, as silly as it is!

Don't pay any attention to the laundry in the background. We put everything on hold to Turkey Dance!

The other tradition is to make a thankful tree. I just got some brown and white craft paper at the craft store, drew and cut our a brown tree and glued it onto the white. Our is about 3'x4'. Then I went and had it laminated. This way I don't have to make a new tree every year. I have also seen a branch stuck in plaster paris used as well. I like to paper one for storage purposes. Then we take leaves (I save time by buying big packs at Oriental Trading because we go through about 150 every year) and throughout the month write things we are grateful for and hang them on the tree. On thanksgiving afternoon or evening, after we are finished with extended family activities, we read all the things we wrote outloud as we take the tree down to get ready for decorating for Christmas.

When all I have are weeds

Unfortunately our house was finished too late in the season to plant any flowers or trees that would expode into fall glory. What we have is a whole lot of dirt and 2 lots worth of weeds next door. So when I wanted something for my front porch, something large, something seasonal, I decided to work with what I've got. I figured if people can put dried cornstalks on their front porches I can put weeds!

I used duct tape (everyone's friend) to tape two #10 cans together, covered them in construction paper to blend better, weighted it with rocks, and added our weeds. The kids had a blast helping me gather them, bringing me new and different weeds to see if they would look good in the arrangement. We talked about texture, color contrast, and fillers. As you can well guess, we needed some pretty heavy gloves for some of them. When we had it "just right" (couldn't fit another weed in the cans) I arranged some of my pumpkins and an artificial mum that were already on the porch to cover the can and add more color. It was a fun project. I like how it turned out, and the best part, when I get tired of it, I can just toss it all back in the field!

On Tuesday, I am sending this to the DIY day over at A Soft Place to Land and Get Your Craft On over at Today's Creative blog. Then on Wednesday, to the Works for Me Wednesday carnival over at We are THAT Family. I have also added to 31 days of Autumn Bliss over at the Inspired Room.  Go check out what other people are doing!

Stop for a good blower

Today, we went on a bike ride around the track behind our house. Even Emma was game with her little training wheeled bike. I pulled Jenna in the wagon.

At one point, as I approached Emma on the track, I saw that she was off her bike hunched down on the ground. My first thought was that she must have crashed and gotten hurt. I called to her, asking if she was hurt. She looked up with a grin and it was then I saw that she was hunched over a perfect specimen of a dandelion gone to seed. It was begging to be blown. With a smile of pure pleasure she took a deep breath and blew. She watched the fluff float away with delight, then mounted her bike and took off shouting a challenge for a race.

I looked around and realized that I hadn't even notice the great blowing opportunities around us. I picked one and handed it to Jenna. I was equally fascinated to watch her tentatively reach out one chubby finger to slowly touch the soft fluff. The look on her face was one of wonder and delight. Her persistence in trying to blow hard enough to make the seeds fly was a lesson in itself.

As we continued around the track I found myself wondering how many "good blowers" I was missing in my daily life. How many times do I stop amidst my daily race around in circles to notice the good things? The things that lighten my heart and make me smile. Taking time to enjoy tickling one of my kids, playing hide and go seek, really listening to made-up songs or looking at "special" rocks. I forget to notice how blue the sky is, or how the breeze carries the smells of fallen leaves and the approach of winter. God has given us so much beauty, laughter, love, and daily miracles. Unfortunately, I spend much of the time staring down at the track as I daily circle around again and again, cleaning, laundry, meal preparations, etc. Only to find myself coming around to the starting point again, ready for a new day to begin, lost in the monotony. Not realizing the beauty, laughter, excitement, and connections I could have enjoyed but have missed.

WWEEE ARRE HHERRE!

One million Brooke points if you can name the juvenile novel my title came from? It's my favorite novel!

Anyway, If you can't tell, we have moved in and have officially been here 2 weeks today! Hooray! We are loving our new home and we are settling in nicely. Now, my first wish would be for someone to magically find a place for all this stuff! After having everything in storage for almost 6 months, I forgot how much crap... junk... stuff... meaningful memorabilia we have collected in almost 13 years of marriage! My second wish would be for a builder fairy (is that an oxymoron or what?!) to come and build me some shelves for my storage room cause stacking open boxes on their sides to display food storage is just not working like I planned. Then I would wish for some lawn to decrease the amounts of mud entering onto my beautiful new tile!

All whining aside, I have to say, this is really a dream come true. It was ALMOST worth giving birth in Puerto Rico! Boy, when I think back on all the things we have done to get us to this point... sacrifice is so worth it! But, I'm rambling again. Suffice it to say that we are loving it here. Our neighbors are great and Jordan has his "very best friend" right next door. (He had a hard time finding friends to play with in the old neighborhood.)

We are so grateful to all the people who came to help us move. Some even came twice! I hope your backs have sufficiently recovered. We are touched by the welcome we have received into the ward and neighborhood. And we so appreciate all the help and support we were blessed with during the building process. We are especially grateful to my parents for putting up with us crashing around in their basement for 5 months (minus 1 week). We miss you already.

If I could just finish ONE thing

I am finding that lately, I tend to move from one project to another without completing any of them. This morning, I was walking through the house, looking at piles and boxes, and mumbling "Brooke" ('cause I talk to myself a lot lately), I said, "Brooke, you've just got to pick SOMETHING you can FINISH today!" Then I spotted my Jenna sitting diaper clad on top of the coffee table and with a smile (she's so dang cute) sheepishly admitted that to finish getting her dressed would be a good place to start!