Life At The Circus

This year the Thanksgiving menu held some old favs and some new favs as well.  Thought I’d share the recipes so you could stick em in your box for next year, or for later this holiday season. My mom’s apple pie is by far my most favorite apple pie in the world.  In fact, I am an apple pie snob and won’t eat any other pie but her recipe.  Because, once you’ve had this one, no others compare in my opinion.  So this is a staple at Thanksgiving and anytime you want apple pie at the circus. Apple Crumb Pie 2/3 cup sugar 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon 6-8 tart apples, pared, cored and sliced (6 cups) 1 9-inch unbaked pastry shell 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 1/4 cup sugar 1/4 cup butter Combine first three ingredients; stir into apples. Turn into pastry shell.  Combine remaining flour and sugar; cut in butter till crumbly.  Sprinkl...

Is someone there? Nope…   Oh, yes there is…..   That girl sure makes me smile.  I don’t want to overdo it but I had to at least provide a link to just one more of my favorites from this series for those so inclined. Or, click here or here for more wordless Wednesday fun!

We’re taking the week off…no tutorial, no home school.  V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N! TIME! Today we made turkey cookies thanks to this post I read last night.  Rule number 1, don’t look to close at the example picture here , just quickly look at it to get the idea, then close it.  Otherwise, these won’t seem exactly up to snuff.  But, we had a blast  decorating them and they taste yummy, so who cares if they aren’t picture perfect?  And really, when is the circus family picture perfect?   It was, none the less,  a great way to start Thanksgiving week.   Thanks McMommy ! Tomorrow I hope to make these popcorn balls to bring to my parents house.  My dad loves popcorn balls, so when I read this post , I was eager to try them.  I am hoping they aren’t too tricky as we have Bible Study in the morning, a quick trip to the grocery store to make and then popcorn balls and pepperoni bread to make before Scott gets home from work and we hi...

I was feeling pretty good about myself this week.  Got a little boost of energy with week 12 and began to tame this household which I had slacked off on over the first trimester.  Finally, I can leave the guest bedroom door open as well as the master bed room.   I even cleaned out the van which had reached its height of total messiness , threw away all that trash crammed in around the car seats and brought in the plethora of coats and shoes which were strewn all over the floor.  This was also the week of the harvest party at our tutorial, which me and another mom were in charge of.  I spent all day Wednesday at the tutorial setting up, running, and cleaning up after the harvest party.  And yet I even got all, yes ALL, of the laundry washed and just two baskets left to fold and put away.  And this was the week, Scott was out of town for 3 days/nights on business.   Yes, I was feeling pretty darn good about my week.  And then I ...

When my son started preschool last fall, I told him he’d have a chance to make some new friends.  His response?  “I don’t need new friends.  I have enough friends already.”  I then proceeded to explain that sometimes maybe they need us.  It took a little while, but he warmed up and made some new friends at preschool. Hmmm… ever notice how sometimes you see something about yourself reflected in your child? How often to I close myself off?  How often do I neglect to “put myself out there” and make new friends because I feel like I don’t need them?  I am not naturally outgoing.  Truth be told, I am more of an introvert.  And I stink at small talk.  So, really making new friends is not exactly my thing either.  This fall, our family enrolled at a home school tutorial.  I remember sitting at the orientation, where I knew not a soul, and feeling very much like my son did last fall.  He adapted more easily than I did this y...

The first time Scott went away on business travel, we were newly married and when he told me he was going to CA for a week, I really thought the world was ending.  Looking back it was one of those classic examples of a couple looking at the same event in two different ways.  For Scott the trip was an exciting opportunity.  A chance to do something new and definitely a plus for his career.  Sure, he would miss me, but it would only be 3 days. To me it was 3 days… also known as the world coming to and end.  What would I do with my husband gone for three days?  How would I survive?  Looking back, I was quite melodramatic.  (clearly I wasn’t cut out to be a military wife)  But, go he did and survive I did. 8 years later and I still am not a fan of business travel.  Thankfully, he really doesn’t go all that often, a few times a year on average.     I still shed a tear when we kiss goodbye and hate falling asleep in the b...

1.  Two rakes and three kids does not make for a happy equation. 2.  Make sure your kids have their shoes securely tied before you begin raking.  Otherwise you could rake a pile like this only to have your son tell you it was time to go on a “treasure hunt” to find his missing shoes in said pile. 3.  If your going to jump into the pile with the kids, don’t wear baggy jeans.  Otherwise you will find leaves in your underwear when you go inside. 4.  No one is more fun when it comes to playing in the leaves than Daddy.  See his leg under there and his face peeking out at the top?  He doesn’t care about leaves in his underwear or daddy long legs hiding under the leaves.  He’s the best. 5.  Always, always have your camera ready when raking leaves.  You never know when you’re gonna capture that  expression that you wanna hold onto forever. 

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During this stage of the game, sometimes it’s easy to forget there’s a person growing inside me.  Yes, my jeans are fitting more snugly these days and I tend to nod off on the couch each night around 10, but other than that I don’t feel all the different.  And so I go through each day making meals, cleaning up messes, and trying to accomplish lessons, errands, and other excursions and quite often forget that all the while there’s a life growing inside of me. This morning I was given a chance to take pause and reflect on that little heart beat.  It was my 12 week OB check up and I got to hear the swish swish of my little one’s heart beat.  As soon as she put the monitor over my belly I inhaled a bit and then, there was that precious sound I’ve heard before and yet haven’t. True, I’ve heard the sound of my baby’s heart beat before.  This is my fourth pregnancy so I recognized that rhythmic swish swish instantly. And yet, I’ve never heard the sound of THIS BABY’S heart beat before. Wowser...

One of my favorite parts about home schooling has been the field trips.  We have tutorial sessions on Mon and Wed.  Tues we have school at home and typically it is a catch up day for me around the house.  I try to keep Tuesdays open as I need that day to just be at home.  Thursdays we have school at home, plus BSF in the morning, and often a play date over lunch. Thursdays are busy and full.  Fridays, however, are often field trip days.  We get our school work done in the morning and then often, not always, we take field trips.  The past two Fridays have been Field Trip Fridays.  First, we went to a farm to learn about the life of the Pilgrims and Indians.  They had people dressed in period costumes as we learned about the Indians, Pilgrim chores, Pilgrim home life, and Pilgrim play.  This was topped off with the most extreme and fun hay ride I’ve ever been on and the chance to pick popping corn from the corn field.  The followin...

This year in my Bible Study we are studying the book of John.  Last week we read in John 4 about the Samaritan woman at the well.  It’s funny to me  how I can read a passage I’ve heard many times before and this time see it in a new light with fresh application.  I love how living and breathing the Word of God is.  Many things challenged me about this passage.  The Samaritan woman was looked down upon by Jews because she was Samaritan.  She was also looked down upon by her fellow Samaritans because of her adulterous lifestyle.  These two facts made it all the more startling that Jesus, a Jew approached her at the well.  But, he not only approached her, he changed her life.  She left their conversation with the understanding that Jesus was the Messiah.  And then she went and told the people of her village about the Messiah.  But, she actually took it a step farther and brought them back with her to meet the Messiah themselves...

It appears my oldest daughter is trying to prepare me for life with 4 kids.  She has taken on the job of mothering her baby doll “baby Eli” literally 24-7.  When we sit down to eat, she makes sure Eli has his bib on and a special seat at the table.  We now set our table for 7 (b/c our youngest has to include her baby Eli too).  When she’s getting ready for bed, baby Eli also gets tucked into his bed, with his own baby and she is always certain to read him his special Bible story as well.   In the morning she’ll tell me that “baby Eli had a very good night sleep”. Occasionally, baby Eli requires babysitting from me.  Yesterday she asked me to baby sit while we went to the school room for school.  She left me with a bottle, a spare diaper, his bed and his stroller.  She walked me through all the details of how to take care of him and when she returned from her “time at school” she asked how he did.  Did I change his diaper?  ...

Many of you have asked for the details on my pregnancy.  Some you will just have to infer for yourself as this is a family friendly blog  :-) But, as for the rest….I am around 11 weeks pregnant.  According to a site I read online that gives me the update each week, this week my baby gets his/her irises and finger nails and he or she weighs in a whopping 7 grams! When I was pregnant with my son, I told my third grade class when I was around 9 weeks.  Because it was my first child and I was good at keeping things quiet for a whole two days.  I remember telling my third graders and their response was, “I thought you looked pregnant.”  (Hello kiddos, the baby is a size of a grape, there is no way I look pregnant)  They then preceded to move their desks farther apart in case I needed more room to fit through the aisle.  When we told our children there was a baby in Mommy’s belly, they kind of laughed at first and didn’t believe us.  “No way, t...

For all of you who have bought something from Amazon and done so by clicking through my site, congratulate yourselves.  I checked my Amazon affiliate account today and I have earned $50.00 thus far!  As you may remember, Scott and I decided to match whatever money it earns (up to the first $200), so tonight I wrote a check to World Vision’s Sudan Relief Fund for $100!  Whoohooo!   I know I just got through telling you that I don’t want to rush the Thanksgiving season, by thinking of Christmas.  And I don’t.  I plan to start my shopping the day after Thanksgiving.  BUT, for those of you who like to get a head start on the Christmas shopping, I thought I’d take this time to remind you about the Shopping for Sudan project we’re working on here at the circus.  Because if you are like me, shopping online is a much preferable choice to dragging your kids in and out of their car seats, waiting in long lines, and trying to stay jovial while keepin...

Long before the costumes and candy were even consumed for Halloween, stores already had their Christmas products on the shelves.  I saw Santa and Jack-o-lanterns literally across the aisle from each other at Target a few weeks ago.  And now, while the candy still lingers in our pumpkin bowls,  if you walk into any department store, mall, or craft store, you’d swear it was December as the sights, sounds, and smells all tell of Christmas. But, what about Thanksgiving? Thanksgiving is too often forgotten in our culture.  Perhaps because it is an attitude of the heart and not something which can be bought or decorated.  A true spirit of thanksgiving must be cultivated, not consumed.  And this takes time for both thought and intention.  Hmmm, all things we seem to lack in our consumer drive, instant gratification seeking way of life. I know that personally, I struggle with truly taking the time to stop and reflect and genuinely give thanks for the ...

OK, so Halloween was 6 days ago, and I gotta tell you this circus mom has had more than her fair share of the loot.  The kids are doing quite well with an occasional piece after a meal here or there.  Mom on the other hand seems to go for the candy bowl come nap and bed time and she rarely stops with one.  The other morning when the kids came out to the living room my son spotted a few candy wrappers sitting on the couch.  (seems someone didn’t dispose of the evidence before falling asleep on the couch at 9pm) He said, “Hey, someone had too much junk food last night!”    I’m thinking someone needs to gain control before the kids resort to more drastic measures. Am I alone in this or do I have some fellow candy sneakers out there as well?  Fess up, make a pregnant mom feel better about herself!!

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Remember my confession back in May about my hefty library charge ?  I am happy to report that I’ve actually gotten much better about returning library books since then.  And no, it’s not because I’ve stopped going to the library.  Sure, I’ve paid an occasional fee here or there, but nothing close to the $42.09 I paid back in May.   Perhaps they won’t be naming the local branch after the circus family after all.   Today we had the carpets cleaned by Stanley Steamers… b/c it may sound like the circus here on a daily basis, but I was sick of it looking like the inside of a circus tent.  When the cleaners moved my couch, you’ll never believe what they found? The missing library books!!!  I was fairly certain they were gone for good, especially when they never showed up even after the crazy cleaning frenzy I went on all summer long.   But there they were, all along, under the couch.  I am fairly certain I won’t be able to g...

Super Girl    Bumblebee the Transformer And our Little Kangaroo We had a wonderful time playing with and visiting with our neighbors, dressing up in costumes, and begging for candy.