Thanksgiving Week at the Quinn Home

It's always a fun time here when the holidays role around. I am working on taking it slowly this year and doing what we can do (while not stressing over the rest).


The children only have 2 days of school and Artie has 3 days of work. It's always better when everyone is here. I am not that mama who hates to see her kids on school holidays. I miss them when they are not here!!!


We will be celebrating Thanksgiving twice this year as usual - once with the Clary family and then again with the Quinn family. I'm still working on my menus to bring and share...



During Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas and Easter are the times I miss homeschooling the most. I am trying to figure out the best way to keep teaching the children even thought they are in school a lot of the time. We had such a fun Advent study two years ago when the girls were homeschooled. I am hoping to add in what we can this year. We will be reading an Advent book the children got at church last Sunday. BTW, I love our church. After having a couple years without a church, I sure am thankful. Ours is a giving church, always into something. Last week we participated in the Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes. This weeks begins the first week in Advent. The churches I grew up in didn't study or prepare the way through Advent, it is something I learned about over the Internet. I am glad my church teaches these teaching preparing the way. I can't wait to get to church Sunday and sing of His coming!!!


We are currently reading An Old Fashion Thanksgiving by Louisa May Alcott. I'm hoping the movie will get shipped by Blockbuster in time to watch Wednesday or Thursday night. I have never seen this movie, but hope it will be good. They are enjoying the book so far.



I'm also trying to get ready for Black Friday!!! :-) This has got to rank up there as one of my favorite days of the year!!! My mama would have loved this day too!!!! I am trying to get all the sale papers so I can make my plan. I know they are all listed online, but I am a touchy feely ad shopper. I have to hold them in my hand and circle things I like and then work from there. Always part of our Thanksgiving day ritual is to find a gas station open who still has a newspapers so I can get all the ads!!! I wish there was a week between Thanksgiving and Black Friday (and a paycheck!!).

20 Little (and some BIG) Things to Treasure

Inspired by a post at The Inspired Room.

1. A God who always forgives

2. A husband who works hard

3. Children who love to read

4. A clean sink

5. Toenail polish

6. Movies, movies and more movies

7. Time alone

8. Chocolate

9. Books by Beverly Lewis

10. Seeing my daughters cook

11. Watching sons grow into men

12. CF Diet Pepsi

13. Shiny windows

14. True friends

15. Reading God's word

16. Clotheslines

17. Empty laundry baskets

18. Time at the lake (yeah, Artie and I have a date - all day - alone - coming up this week!!!)

19. Maid service (well, I'm sure I would love it!!!) :-)

20. Exercise (okay, that one's a lie - I hate it!!!) :-)

Thanksgiving

We had such a full Thanksgiving this year. The children all being in public school this year, have picked up every type of virus going around. It has been a mess!! I still haven't caught up on all the laundry yet.

We missed Thanksgiving with Artie's family but were blessed to all be well finally the day of Thanksgiving. We went and had dinner with all my granddaddy's brothers and sisters and all their children and grandchildren. It was so much fun. I love to be around my mimi and grandy all I can!! My daddy and Karen were there and all my first cousins who I hardly get to see. I wish we all lived closer and could visit more.

Mimi is getting ready to have surgery in a couple of weeks for a hernia in her chest. We are all praying for a quick recovery for her. She has been sick for quiet a while with reflux and they are hoping this is going to fix it all.

It was good to eat her dressing and gravy for lunch. We took turkey, gravy and green beans. There was so much food. I didn't hear a count of how many people were there, I'm guessing about 50? I hope this becomes a tradition. Brenda and Emily and I have cooked Thanksgiving for 2 years now at home; but, I so love being with the big family more.

At the end of the day, we all got together and Artie lead us in a prayer to God for what we were thankful for. The children make me smile so. Terry was thankful for Thanksgiving, Brenda for family and friends which prompted Terry to also be thankful for Mama and Daddy. Bobby was thankful for Squanto :-) (see, he is learning something in school) and Troy said he was thankful for second chances. There are such moments of brightness shining through the days here and there. Artie was most thankful for Mimi and Granddaddy and being able to share Thanksgiving with them - his grandparents have all passed away, so he's adopted mine as his own. He loves them so. And I was thankful that Artie is still my best friend in the whole world. The next day we celebrated being together for 26 years (we started dating when we were in junior high).


By the way, the children have all been well for a whole week now. They went back to school two days and I already have 2 home sick with a stomach ache and throwing up!!!! There are some things I'm never going to like about public school. Mrs. Coggins (the office lady) said they had so many sick now, I had been hoping while they had all been separated over the holiday they would come back to school all well. Maybe by the end of Christmas break???

The Big Day

We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving this year!! The girls took on Thanksgiving as a homeschool project. They totally cooked the whole meal - from planning and shopping to setting the table and cooking. It was a great success. Artie was so proud - telling everyone that his girls (only 12 and 7 years old) were cooking his Thanksgiving dinner for him!! I don't think the men at work could imagine them being able to pull that off!

Here is Brenda breaking up the biscuits for the dressing


and with the cornbread. Mimi's dressing turned out sooooo good. Definitely one of my childhood favorites.


Artie carved the turkey - always his job. He likes to sneak in and eat the turkey skin. I told the children they were gonna have to have their own house and cook there own turkey there before they will be able to try some turkey skin. It's all Daddy's here!!! :-)


I think Terry's ready to eat!!!


The girls did such a great job setting the table. After Artie carved the turkey, we ran everyone out of the dining room to prepare. Artie's job was to clean up the little boys and have them all ready. The girls were busy setting the table, finishing up the rolls and changing into presentable clothes (original clothing slightly covered from the day cooking!!). The candles were lit and the gentlemen were invited in.


The girls pose with their table.


What a pair!!!


Just before the blessing. Troy's dying to eat!!! You would have thought he hadn't eaten in weeks. God's been so good to us this year. It was so wonderful to have all the children around the table.


Me and Brenda


Artie and Brian

The Day Before....

Thanksgiving plans are well underway. The turkey is thawing (hiding in the oven - our cat is terrible about getting into food thawing!!), the pies are setting up in the frig (Brenda cooked 2 peanutbutter pies yesterday in school), and the living room is cleaned. Still a long way to go, but we've started. I've got Chris Tomlin playing in the background. The Amazing Grace song is definitely my favorite right now - and seems so perfect for Thanksgiving!!

I went to Goodwill today and bought some new dishes and glasses. I got the dishes all mix and match, but all in yellows and blues. They look great together. I also picked up some new drinking glasses for everyone. You might not believe it - but dishes and glasses don't really last long around here. :-) Paper plastic plates are fine for everyday, but I wanted something pretty for lunch tomorrow. I read the best article yesterday on at Large Family Mothering on "we don't cry over spilt dishes". It was a mother of 12 talking about this same thing - she said... "I have found a solution that works, at least for us. I just buy whatever looks "cute" to me at garage sales and the Goodwill--no matter if it matches or not. It is so fun to shop for dishes and mugs now. I came away with 15 new mugs from the Goodwill today for an average of $.20 a piece! They had all sorts of patterns, and the kids helped me pick them out. We enjoy our dinners with an array of color choices, sort of an eclectic "country" look."

ladyofvirtue.blogspot.com/2007/11/we-dont-cry-over-spilt-dishes.html

So, I spent less thank $10 and got 10 plates and 8 glasses. All the glasses have tall stems and look really pretty. The littles are very exciting about the "fanciness"!! :-) Brenda is even exciting and waiting on the dishwasher to finish to get them washed up.

So, we still have lots to do today. We will cook the cornbread and biscuits for the dressing, put the green beans and potatoes in the crock pot, probably peel the potatoes and have them soaking in the frig, clean the dining room and kitchen and then there is the usual meals to fix today and clothes to wash. We'll save the turkey, macaroni and cheese, corn, and bread to fix tomorrow. I think we aren't eating until about 4:00 - Brian's gonna be able to come - God is good!!! (he's also coming today to take Troy out for lunch and spend some time with him)

I'm hoping to do a little shopping tomorrow and a lot on Friday morning early!!! (is there any other time to shop on Black Friday?) I'm working really hard to keep it Black Friday and not turn it into RED Friday!!! Cash only again this year!!! Praise God for teaching us so much about debt and money!!

Okay, enough time here, I'm off to wash, cook and clean!!!

Thanksgiving Homeschool

We found a fun site that Brenda enjoyed yesterday in our study of Thanksgiving.

http://www.plimoth.org/education/olc/navigation.html

We also listened to a great broadcast on Focus on the Family. It talked about how schools now teach children that Thanksgiving is where the pilgrims thanked the Indians in stead of the pilgrims thanking God for all His provision. It sparked some interesting conversations with all the boys when they got home from school.

Our Thanksgiving Meal

Thanksgiving turkey
Originally uploaded by master phillip

Brenda and I just planned out our Thanksgiving meal. Here is a run down of the Quinn Family Thanksgiving. All our favorites...

Turkey
Mimi's dressing
Mashed potatoes
Gravy
Green beans with little potatoes- yummmmmm (Brenda's favorite)
Creamed corn
Mimi's Macaroni and cheese
Rolls
and of course sweet tea!!

with Mimi's Peanut butter pie for dessert. Kinda looks like it's gonna be Mimi's thanksgiving doesn't it!! :-) Mimi and Granddaddy will be eating thanksgiving with my aunt Trisha this year again.

We also just had Thanksgiving with Artie's family Sunday afternoon - it was yummy too. We took mashed potatoes, broccoli pasta, and a soda. With so many of them, we don't each have to fix a lot.

A different Thanksgiving turkey!!

A different Thanksgiving turkey!!
Originally uploaded by chrisbest