CrazyMom is in the Kitchen

It is a typical Saturday night in our house with CrazyMom out in the kitchen preparing Sunday lunch and me back in my office “working.” I often think that we should just eat out after church so CrazyMom does not have to cook on Saturday nights, but that is just because I am ignorant of the cost difference. Take, for example, the Sunday meal that CrazyMom served the family a few weeks back.

“So, how much did this meal cost?” I asked when we sat down, thinking the number could be large and it might have just been easier to eat out.

After a moment of doing some mental math, CrazyMom said, “About $8.”

Eight dollars? I was stunned. Never again will I suggest the lazy path of eating out.

By the way, here is the breakdown of the cost of the meal:
$2.50 for the 1/4 of the ginormous turkey CrazyMom bought on sale at Thanksgiving.
$0.00 for the potatoes from the garden of CrazyMom’s brother.
$2.00 for the stuffing
$0.00 for the gravy - thank you Mr. Turkey
$2.00 for the broccoli
$1.50 for 2/3 of a gallon of milk

What Broke Today?

“What broke today?” is what I ought to say when I walk in the door from work. I think that would be better for my emotional state than walking in, dropping my bag, and collapsing in a chair just to have CrazyMom or one of the kids then come to rouse me to go fix what broke that day.

Note: We do not have destructive kids. It is just that most of our owner manuals say, “Not intended for commercial use.”

After arriving home late last night due to parent conferences, CrazyMom informed me that the dryer broke that day. In a house of nine, this gets classified as a code orange emergency. Longing to go to bed, I dragged myself into the laundry room just to find that none of the routine checks fixed the dryer. Unlucky there.

Google led me to open up the back of the unit to look for the most likely culprit – the thermal fuse. My cynical Google friends were right that the fuse had been hidden from me in order to try to get me to call service for a $10 part. Depressed, I headed for bed.

On my way to bed I passed through the kitchen. “Honey, the faucet on the kitchen sink . . . “ CrazyMom trailed off when she saw the look in my eyes. “I suppose this is not a good time to bring that up, huh?”

Tonight, after being broken for 24 hours and no part ordered yet, CrazyMom reclassified the dryer as a code red emergency. Dreaming of an easy fix, I decided to check the power to the unit. The dryer was spinning but not drying, but still, just one leg of the 220 could be down. I would have missed the problem if it were not for Miss Bookworm who was under the impression that I needed a flashlight. As she shined the flashlight on the socket I could see into the holes and noticed that something did not look quite right. Upon further inspection, this is what I found.

How does the back break out of the socket in the wall when nobody has touched the plug in over a year? Well, it just does.

Now, about that faucet . . .

Annual Christmas Tree Cutting

So this may have happened at the end of November, but better late than never, I figure.  Every year we go to the same place to cut down our Christmas tree, so it is one of those events that must be documented.  Here we are standing next to the best tree on the lot.

 

This year we also added the new sport of "Christmas Tree Dashing" to the mix.  

You Learn Something New Every Day

Do you know how spray paint cans have something in them that rattles around to help mix up the paint?  Well, my whole life I thought is was a steel ball.  Buddy was curious about what was in there as well so he cut one open today.  It turns out that it is a glass marble.  Who knew?

A Christmas Wish for You

(This was one of the "articles" from our Christmas letter. If you did not receive a copy and would like one, send me an email at welovebigfamilies@gmail.com and I will send you one.)

On a warm evening a few days before Thanksgiving the family and I headed outside to hang some Christmas lights. As dusk was giving way to darkness, I found myself up on a ladder hanging our wreath on a familiar hook, as I have done every year for the last eight years. “OK,” I called down to those on the ground, “plug it in.” As the wreath lights came to life bathing all that was around me in a warm glow, I was surprised by the wave of emotion that swept over me. It was the same feeling I get when crawling into my own bed after having traveled too far for too long. It was a sense of peace and rest. It was a sense of home.

That the glow of Christmas lights could bring forth such strong emotions stemming from a sea of countless memories of Christmas’s past should not have surprised me, I suppose. Christmas, with its blending of faith and family through rich traditions, embodies all of the same qualities that a sense of home does.

So as I go through this Christmas season looking for those moments of home amidst the hustle and bustle, I will be wishing that you would be able to find a sense of peace and rest this season. The theme of peace could be heard long ago when the angels declared to the shepherds in the field that night, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” (Luke 2:14)

Merry Christmas!

Four Square Mania

There are lots of advantages to having a large family - like being able to run two grids when you step outside to the driveway to play four square.  Over thanksgiving break, we had a lot of four-square fun by having one square be the top division (or the pros) and the other be the lower division (or the minors).  When someone lost in the pro square, he or she went all the way back to the lowest spot in the minors and the person in the top spot in the minors got called up to the pros.  You will see in the video how Anna rides a hot streak all the way to the top.  Go Anna!

Lighting the Town Tree

F.G. won a coloring contest and got to light the town Christmas tree along with two other winners from different age divisions. It was great to bundle up, head out to the town "square," and be a part of the official tree-lighting ceremony. Here you see F.G. with Louie the Lightning Bug - the official mascot of the power company that sponsored the tree. If you notice, the switch is up so F.G. had already done the deed.

Here is F.G. alongside her winning entry.

And, of course, the tree!

My Thieving Rascal

“Buddy!” I exclaimed. “What do you think you are doing?”

My wonderful chef of a mother had just baked homemade granola bars and had brought some to Miss Bookworm, Buddy and I as we labored over our studies. Once again Buddy had tried to take the rest of my bar after his was gone. Guiltily running across the room, Buddy stood head down awaiting what was sure to come. Fortunately for him, a slight diversion aroused Miss Bookworm's attention.

“No! Sodo! No! Ed Look!” she cried.

Turning around I saw in a flash that my prized possession, which moments before had almost been taken from me by Buddy was now being stolen again. The naughty rascal was merrily chomping away when I reached in the slobbery dungeon to grab the now spoiled loot. Trying not to laugh, we dealt with the thief. Buddy was a great accomplice in the theft.

(Editor's Note: Please welcome Ed as a new author on this blog!)

A Great Video from Project Hopeful

We are fans of Project Hopeful. It is an organization that is involved in "educating, encouraging, and enabling families adopting children with HIV/AIDS." They just released a great short video which is especially relevant today since it is World AIDS Day.