Chestnuts Roasting On an Open Fire

Nick is gone right now chopping wood. This only means one thing...FIRE!!! One thing that sold us on this house was the natural fireplace. I love the looks of gas fireplaces, but there's just something about seeing smoke coming from a chimney. It's so comforting. I love the fall and winter when we can start a fire, snuggle up, and enjoy our evening together.

Now we can go from this...


to this...


Happy Fall Everyone!!!

Reason for Delay

I don't know what happened to my week or weekend, except to say I had to do this!

This is for my college class. I mentioned in an earlier post that I'm taking Children's Literature for my alternative certification. One of our assignments was to come up with a poem (we didn't have to write it), decorate a poster board like we'd decorate a bulletin board in our classroom, and teach our fellow students the poem like we would teach our class. We also had to come up with an activity to do with our fellow students that we'd do with our class to help them remember the poem, or learn it's concept, etc. I know that was a long run-on sentence!

I chose the poem, "Gray Squirrel, Gray Squirrel". Here's the poster board I made.


It says,
"Gray squirrel, Gray squirrel
Doesn't make a sound
As he buries acorns
Underneath the ground.

Later when it's cold out,
And food cannot be found
The gray squirrel will dig
His acorns from the ground."

So, I had motions to teach to my class and I also decided we'd make dough"nuts" for our project. They're supposed to look like acorns. You buy doughnut holes, peanut butter, chocolate iciing, toffee bits, and pretzel sticks.

This is what they look like. Aren't they cute?


I was so happy with the way they turned out. I couldn't wait to show everyone in my class tonight!

So, I headed for class early so I could make sure I carried everything up there in time, and guess what! My class was cancelled:( I was so upset! I worked so hard on their dough"nuts" and now I couldn't even present. So sad:(

I ended up taking the pretzel sticks out and freezing them, so we'll see how they turn out. If they don't, I'll be sad. I just wish I would've known we weren't going to have class. I would've waited to make them.

Oh well. Good lesson for Pre-K teachers...gotta be flexible:)

Overcome with Emotion

I heard some very sad news about an old friend last night and I am overcome with emotion.

Without naming names or going into too many details, I heard this friend is getting a divorce/already been divorced. I'm so shocked by this!

I used to be very close friends with this person and I'm so sad to hear that his marriage is over. My heart aches for him and his wife/ex-wife. I can't imagine him making the decisions he did to end his marriage. I am angry with him , but I cannot help but just offer his situation to the Lord. I don't know all the details myself, but it hurts when a friend is hurt.

I pray that the Lord will bless his future and show him the way to true happiness with Christ. I pray that the Lord will comfort his wife/ex-wife while she deals with this.

I just pray. There's nothing else I can do.

The Promise of a Future

A dear friend of mine used this quote in her blog a few days ago when she was speaking of a friend of hers. I loved it and all the possibilities it brought to my mind.

Nick and I have some friends that we just really started hanging out with this summer and it has blossomed tremendously! They have two kids already, with another on the way, so they are extremely busy and it always makes things chaotic, but they definitely give us "the promise of a future".

The way we connect with them is something I haven't experienced in a long time. We have shed tears together and many moments of laughter, and living in a town where you don't know many people and your husband's friends have all moved away, this is rare and special.

Poetry

I am taking a college class at our local community college for my alternative certification...Children's Literature. I love it! It's helped so much. I'm learning about good authors to read to my students and finding out so many different kinds of books there are to read. We are discussing poetry right now and I came across my old Shel Silverstein books. I received these books in the 4th and 5th grade from my parents for Christmas and I was reading them last night and thought I'd share a few of my favorites.

"Early Bird"
Oh, if you're a bird, be an early bird
And catch the worm for your breakfast plate.
If you're a bird, be an early early bird -
But if you're a worm, sleep late.

"Scale"
If I could only see the scale,
I'm sure that it would state
That I've lost ounces...maybe pounds
Or even tons of weight.
"You'd better eat some pancakes -
You're skinny as a rail."
I'm sure that's what the scale would say...
If I could see the scale.

"The Monkey"
1 Little monkey
Was goin' 2 the store
When he saw a banana 3
He's never climbed be4.
By 5 o'clock that evenin'
He was 6 with a stomach ache
'Cause 7 green bananas
Was what that monkey 8.

By 9 o'clock that evenin'
That monkey was quite ill,
So 10 we called the doctor
Who was 11 on the hill.
The doctor said, "You're almost dead.
Don't eat green bananas no more."
The sick little monkey groaned and said,
"But that's what I 1-2 the 3-4."