Saturday, January 01, 2011

1-1-11 - New Year's Day

It's always fun to have the older kids home.  I wasn't very surprised to be the only one up at 6 a.m. I finished writing the second week of homework prompts for James.  Zander woke up - writing waits. 


We started the day with breakfast. Stacia managed to work this out well. 
The kids had great fun changing our calendar to a new month and a new year! 
Today is the 8th day of Christmas  - and the day we had decided to have a family gift exchange. We started by talking about God gifting us with family and sharing what about family caused us to be thankful. 




 I asked Mike to take a photo, as I thought I'd be absent in many photos of the day. LOL 
Twenty lbs lighter, 35 to go....Lookin Great by 48? Feelin Great by 48?
Josiah and Jamin bought Zander and Nolan very cool RC helicopters. They are SWEET. 
No Comment....

 
 Can you tell there are earbuds in the strings of the hood? She was sort of saying, "Oh, that will be interesting." I told her you just stick the ends of the strings into your ears. I told her you put your ipod in your pocket...but Arielle doesn't have an ipod.  ::snort:: Wasn't that a great way to totally surprise her. 

Coin Rack to display military coins
 Jared and Arielle got me this stain glass.
We cleaned up. We played games and played with toys. 

Josiah enjoyed teaching the boys how to fly their copters.  

We gave the kids a Wii....they were SURPRISED. It was very affordable for us as that was IT - and for 5 kids, day after Thanksgiving sale....it worked well. We were surprised when we couldn't find their other gift ANYWHERE. We had given each child a Wii game. WHERE could they be????? It was a bummer - but Josiah and Jamin had given them a game, so they are enjoying. We realized the Wii isn't going to work great with the projector - thinking of work arounds. 

I worked on go-withs to accompany the slow roasting turkey. I'm trying to use up as much as possible from our chest freezer while the big guys are here. They eat - and I love it. 

They're ending the day playing Mario games. I'm going to edit as much of I can of my writing. I'd like to make copies tomorrow at chapel. I'm working on getting our James Study together. 

Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

New Year's Eve 2010

New Year's Eve and the boys weren't home....but we knew they were on the way. 


We prayed  God would provide someone who understood English and would take the time to explain the train system to them. We knew this is THE big travel week in Japan. 


The boys called to say they were getting on the train and would be arriving in Hachinohe in a few hours. We headed out to meet them. When the flight was cancelled two other guys joined up with them. All were to be on the flight to Misawa. One is new to the Air Base and the other is a contractor who knows his way around Japan. He speaks fine English and Japanese as well. ::snort:: Not only that but they traveled together to Tokyo station and on to Hachinohe. God answered better than I thought to pray. 


We got home and fed our young men who hadn't eaten in 48 hours.  Then we visited and waited to ring in the New Years.  Stacia asked if we could have ice cream to celebrate Josiah and Jamin being home. THEN she asked if we could open our Christmas Stockings. We agreed. 




Mom - he loves these and began working on them immediately. 


Some of us had a hard time staying awake until mid-night. 

Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Buttermilk Biscuits (Barb E's)

These have been my favorite biscuits since I first ate them in Hardin, MT. 

Preheat oven to 450*.


Mix together: 
3 C flour
2 Tbs sugar (or rapadura)
4 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt


Cut in:
1/4-1/2 C shortening (butter)


Add:
1 C buttermilk
Stir quickly  until mixture forms a soft dough and leaves sides of bowl. 

On light floured surface, knead dough 10 times (don't over knead your biscuits or scones).  Pat dough into a 7 - 8 inch square. Cut into 9 squares.  Bake 12 - 15 minutes or until golden.

Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...