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Cotton Gin Festival

Today Savannah and I traveled to Bostwick, Georgia for their annual Cotton Gin Festival. Papa Jim enters many of his tractors in the parade each year and they are driven by family and friends. A few of the tractors have trailers that the youngin's can ride on. When Savannah found out we were going she couldn't wait to put on her cowboy boots and hat.

All day she referred to herself as "Jessie" (as in Jessie, the cowgirl from Toy Story 2) and would correct anyone who dared call her Savannah. After we ate lunch, we sat for a minute listening to a live band. Here she is doing the "Watermelon Crawl":

And of course this entry would not be complete without a picture of one of Jim's tractors. This one is being driven by my niece, Rachael. Her Uncle Jonathan is riding on the back.

Friday Funny

Recently there were 2 additional chores added to Savannah's responsibilities: helping me put away groceries after we go to the store and emptying the dishwasher. Both of these things are something she might get involved with from time to time, but now she is expected to help anytime either of these tasks are being done.

Sometimes I think it is a harder adjustment for me than her, because in the back of my mind I am thinking that I can get this stuff finished in half the time if I just do it myself. But I realize that 2 things happen when I allow her to get involved. She is learning about responsibility and what it means to be a part of a family, and I am learning patience and that there can be more to household chores than the speed in which one can be accomplished.

This morning the dishwasher needed to be emptied. Savannah was watching TV and I told her when that show was over, to come to the kitchen, I needed her help. She agreed.

When she came to help out I told her that I wanted her to empty the dishwasher by herself (this was a first...usually I am right there helping). I asked her to put away the things she could reach and I would get the rest when she was finished.

Then the drama started! As I was moving furniture out of the kitchen (it is "floor duty Friday", ya know), she is whining and crying. "I caaaaaan't doooo thiiiiiis". "I bummmmpppped my head on the doooooor". "Mommy, my noooooose is ruuuunnnning". "I need a tiiiiiiissue". "You neeeeed to heeeeeelp meeeeee".

Thankfully, I didn't fall into the whining trap with her. I kept my cool and just repeated to her that it was her job today to take care of the clean dishes, and she could not do anything else until that was done. I continued with the floors and maintained that I really didn't care if she sat next to the dishwasher all day, I was standing my ground on this one.

I'm not sure how long she sat there feeling sorry for herself, but eventually she did get up and put away all the things within her reach. When she announced she was done and asked if she could go to her room, I said "of course" and told her I was proud of her. A few minutes later I went up to her bedroom to see what she was doing. She had taken her clothes off and climbed into bed.

"What are you doing?", I asked.
With a big sigh, she replied, "I am going back to bed. I am really tired after all that hard work."

Love is...

Peak Season:

Check out these colors! Aren't they beautiful? I thought we'd have to travel up to New England somewhere to see trees this vibrant.

These pictures were all taken in my own yard. The first one was shot from my garage, looking down the driveway. I took the 2nd one from the bottom of the drive, looking back toward the house. The third is just one of my personal favorites showing all the seed pods that will be flowers on my Crepe Mrytle in the spring.

I don't remember the last time central Georgia was producing this much color. I am seeing it down every street I drive. It is just so beautiful! I can't get enough of it!

**Love Thursday created by Chookooloonks**

Hebrews 11:1

Weekly Memory Verse: "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."

Happy Halloween!!!

As I sit here writing, I am chowing down on the Reese's peanut butter cups that were not given away as Halloween candy, and drinking a Dr. Pepper. Yes, sleep might be a long way off for me tonight with all the sugar and caffeine we consumed in the past 4 hours!

Tigger and Cinderella are already fast asleep. Exhausted from the combination of fresh air, lots of walking, and inflatable air slides as far as the eye could see. Plus the candy. LOTS of candy! And Cokes. Oh, and my personal favorite...the funnel cake. I feel like I could hurl!

Cinderella's dress has definitely seen better days. Santa Claus sure did get his $20 worth out of that thing because it has been worn to every princess party, including the ones thrown in our very own playroom for yours truly, at least twice a week, and now to 2 Halloween festivals this year. After tonights events that included shuffling around in an animal pen chasing after bunny rabbits and guinea pigs, climbing (and climbing, and climbing) every slide she could find, and then tumbling down to the bottom, her dress looks more like what Cinderella was wearing after the royal ball when the clock struck midnight!

Tigger was perfectly happy just to be walking around amidst all the people. He did not share my enthusiasm for funnel cake, but instead preferred slobbering on suckers all night. And woe to the Mama who tries to take the empty stick out of his mouth for fear of choking! Temper, temper, young Tigger!!!

Facing the Giants

I rarely see movies anymore. For one thing, there is not a lot of them out there that interest me enough to pay $8.00 for an hour and a half of entertainment. And as far as watching movies in the comfort of my own home, just ask my sister who has loaned me a ton of her favorite movies, with rave reviews ("you will really like this one", "this one is so funny", etc.), only to call me months later asking for their return and me whining, "but I haven't watched them yet".

I used to like to watch rented movies on the weekends before my children were born. But now there really is no such thing as "weekends". I am a stay at home mom. Every day is the same. I wake up at the same time, we have the same routine, I am in bed by 10:00. If I'm not tired, that is when I read. Sunday through Saturday, same ole thing. The only thing that changes is what we do during the day, but I can guarantee this one thing...at no point during the day do I have 2 hours to sit down and watch a movie with no interruptions!

Then a few months ago I heard about a new movie coming out called "Facing the Giants". It was written and produced in south Georgia by a couple of brothers who minister at Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany. It is actually their 2nd movie.

Since I am a huge fan of football and because I wanted to support the film, I decided to make an effort to get out to see it. I am really glad I did. The coach is in the midst of overwhelming circumstances at work as well as at home. As he begins to "let go and let God", the blessings start pouring in. It's a real tear jerker all the way through, but with enough game time to keep it from being labeled a "chick flick".

I give it both thumbs up! And when it comes out on DVD, I will add it to my little collection of "movies to watch when the kids are gone or I am too sick to get out of my bed".

What's Cooking?

It's the biggest question of my day. Here recently a couple of people have asked me how the monthly cooking extravaganza is working out, so I thought I would let ya'll know right here. It is a really, really great concept. My grocery bill was less than half of what it usually is. And that age old question, "what's for dinner tonight", could be answered by simply checking the calendar in the kitchen drawer.

Now, all that being said, it still takes pre-planning. PRE-planning. And that is still what I am lacking. My plan fell apart when I filled in at the office a few weeks back, and I have yet to make out the menu for November.

But it is good to know I am not alone. This week in the trenches of the motherhood addressed the same thing. Several readers left comments with suggestions for their own way to organize and plan meals, and here are 2 that interested me.

First, Big Oven. This is software that you purchase for your computer that helps you to organize your recipes by entering them into your system. Then you can drag and drop them to your monthly calendar and it automatically gives you a shopping list for the week. That is really cool.

But the other site I liked, All Recipes, is free. So let's start here, shall we? It has a lot of the same concepts of Big Oven. I can enter my favorite recipes or browse their selection if I want to try something new, then select which ones I want for the week, 2 weeks, month, or whatever, and it gives me a shopping list. It also has a great search feature that can help me if, let's say, I thawed pork chops for a particular dinner, but then didn't plan enough time to make them. I can search "pork chops" and it will give me suggestions for what I can do with them in the time that I have left to fix something.

The biggest negative I can see is the time spent up front learning all the features and putting in my personal recipes. But if I can really make use of it, I think it will be wonderful in the long run.

And I'm not sure if I will be cooking once a month again. While that was a huge time saver during the rest of the month, we did eat a lot of the same meals. And a great number of those meals included lots of processed foods, which I try to keep at a minimum in our house.

Some ideas I will take with me from my freezer full of 30 meals though, are the sauces or meat bases that I use frequently are easily doubled or even tripled. Instead of making one small batch of spaghetti sauce, why not get out the stock pot and make 4? Then freeze 3 extra's for any last minute meal. Also, I think making one big trip to Walmart a month (and little weekly trips for fresh fruits and milk) saved me a lot of money.

And, of course, all this takes.....say it with me....Pre-Planning!!!! Wish me luck!!!

Just for You, Mom

Ya know, who can we count on more in our lives than our Moms. Mine is no exception. I can count on her to read my thoughts and ramblings every day on my blog. I can also count on her to complain when I haven't written anything "in 6 days".

Sorry, Mom. I actually did write on Sunday, but blogger wasn't allowing me to post my picture of Savannah doing her "pole dance". I read that they were having some issues with photos, so I waited and waited and waited. And kept trying and trying and trying. Every so often I'd go by the computer and try to download, and although it would say my picture was there, I can tell you it was not.

So I thought that I would take this opportunity to stay off the computer for a few days and focus on my house and family. And it's been nice.

I am working on a project for Jeremy's birthday on Nov. 11th and there is also a little something I am making for my dad's birthday this month. On Tuesday Savannah and I snuggled up at nap time in our recliner in front of PBS kids for an hour and yesterday, we made these super soft sugar cookies "dressed" like pumpkins.

I also made another big batch of potato soup and steam cleaned my carpets. My, it's amazing what I can get done when I'm not browsing the internet!!!

So anyways, Mom, hope this explanation is satisfactory. I will go ahead and publish Sunday's entry without the picture of Savannah, because even though I have just uploaded 2 pictures this morning, I still cannot get the other one of her to post! I give up!!!