Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my all-time favorite holiday! I enjoy it the most because it is the kick off to the Christmas holiday! I have such fond memories of going to Grandmas on Thanksgiving. I had three cousins who were our best friends and we would play games, eat too much turkey and have too much fun!

I host Thanksgiving every year. I remember cooking my first turkey! When we were first married, I purchased a turkey on sale and cooked it for Father’s Day. It was actually a big success and when we purchased our first home, I began cooking Thanksgiving for my family. Since then we have had babies and moved, but I still cook Thanksgiving every year! I have not messed with the menu too much over the years. The faces along the way have changed a bit, and the pies served have changed a bit too, but overall, the tried and true, mashed potatoes and stuffing lead the way!

This year I am making a new variation of the sweet potatoes and I’m not serving wild rice, but otherwise, tradition rules! My sister in law will bring the green bean casserole and I will pass off the boxed stuffing as homemade. My dad was a stuffing purist, but never caught onto the switch! Unfortunately, now my dad has dementia, but he will be here, laughing and having fun and for that we are truly blessed!

So, the turkey is thawing in the fridge. It takes a good week to thaw a 24 pounder! And, God willing, we will all be together Thursday for food, family and fun!

Bunko!

One of the highlights of my month is playing Bunko with my girlfriends. Bunko is a dice game. Mostly though, playing Bunko consists of hanging out with friends and eating! 

To officially play bunko, you need 8 to 12 people. You sit at a table in a group of four and are partnered with the person across from you. You begin by rolling three dice and the first number you try to roll is a one. Each one you roll is worth one point. When you do not roll a one, you pass the dice to your neighbor and they roll for ones. This continues on until someone at the designated “head” table reaches a cumulative 21 or 25 (you set this number first). Whichever team rolled the most ones is the winning team and advances to the next table. The loser at the “head table” must step down and the winner at the other table moves up. You must, at this point, change partners as well. You then begin to roll twos, keeping score as you go, getting one point for each two is rolled. This process continues until you finish rolling the sixes. You can then begin another round, starting with ones again.

Some people play for fun, some for money and some for prizes. In our group, each person in our group of twelve hosts one month per year. We provide the place, the dice, the food and the drink. Much talk about lives, kids and husbands takes place and a fellowship prevails.

My bunko group is more like my Bunko sisters. We have been through marriages, divorces, celebrated births and passing’s. Successes, job changes, weight gains and losses.

Bunko is not just about dice, it is about LIFE!

Blog #10

Finally I am at blog #10. It has only taken me months to get here! I can’t wait to turn in my blog and first assignment! As teachers, if you are reading this, please peruse all my blog entries, as I have tried to write about of a variety of things and this particular blog entry will not have a lot to say. 

As I have state before, I have really let these blog entries get in my way. I have really tried to start doing my homework and getting ahead to finish this semester of classes!

I have really enjoyed writing again and look forward to my other assignments! I have let my children read over my homework and make comments on it. My youngest was so tickled to be asked! My oldest immediately went into teacher mode and started highlighting and x-ing things out! Needless to say, I appreciated her efforts, but stuck with my original script!

So now, even with all the distractions that are trying to via for my attention, I am working to complete blog #10! Despite my daughter playing with the dogs in front of me and knowing I still have to take a shower and take her to the doctor later, I am scrambling to come up with 250 relevant words to put on this page.  It is not an easy task. I want to go look out the window and see which neighbor is making noise outside too. Finally! I have reached 250 words! J

Random Thoughts

Let’s see, here are some random thoughts:

1. I love the fall! It is my favorite time of year!
2. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because I always get to host it! It is so neat to have the family over and to EAT! J
3. Thanksgiving is also my favorite holiday because it is the kick off to the Christmas season. Because I try to focus on Jesus during the holiday, I try to have all my shopping done and wrapped before Thanksgiving so that I can decorate over the Thanksgiving weekend and rest and focus on the Holy in holi-day and my family and friends!
4. I also do all my entertaining in November, so that December is not as rushed.
5. Still in pain, still trying to control it
6. What else do I have to remember? Hmmmm, hosting bunko twice this month. Need to prepare for the food. Need to make a list of what to serve! Then I have to make my grocery list and go shopping for all the food!
7. Don’t know what to get my brother in law for Christmas. Hope he gives me a hint soon. Think I will email him.
8. So nice to have such a beautiful day today. Taking time to wash my jacket today. Been to two bonfires in the last week and it was pretty stinky! Tomorrow should be much colder. The weather man said rain and cold is on the way!
9. How do you celebrate the holidays?? Got any good appetizer ideas?

Chronic

Living in chronic pain is a hard thing to do. I have had chronic pain for the last 13 years and it is really getting harder as I get older.

I have always thought I have a high tolerance for pain. Natural childbirth hurt, but at least the end was near. Living with pain day in and day out is a whole other subject.

No one has been able to diagnose why I have the pain I have. I thought for sure it was fibromyalgia, but apparently I have all the symptoms except for one, the one that makes it fibro. So, I try to manage the pain and hope for the best. For a while I was taking 4 Ibprofin every 4 hours, but apparently that doesn’t mesh with the high blood pressure. Now I am on a pill for chronic pain, that takes the edge off, but does not take away the pain. This pill also gives me pleasant (ha) side effects of nausea and constipation. Yeah. Should I go off the pills or stay on them? I just don’t know. When I started to try to wean off, the pain came back full force and “taking the edge off” didn’t seem so bad!

The  stigma of living with the chronic pain is tough to handle. No, I am not lazy, nor do I not care about my home or my family and , NO I am not just a whiner. Ugh. My husband has always been patient, but now that it has not gone away for a long time, he is getting tired of me dealing with it.

It is a tough place to be.

Lessons my pets have taught.

It is hard being a pet owner of the cutest pets in the world! Our family has been blessed with the best of the best of “Pound Pets” that there was to offer.

I decided when I was young, that I would be the mom that said “Yes” when my children asked for pets. My one stipulation is that the children be responsible for said pets. They have to pay for the upkeep and they are responsible for the cleaning, care and feeding of these pets. Luckily, I married a man that was willing to say “Yes” to pets too. (Although sometimes, he was railroaded by me!)

At our peak, we had two dogs, a cat, a hamster, a Guinea pig and a fish. The rodent type pets have passed over the rainbow bridge, but the dogs, cat and fish are still going strong.

It has not been easy for the kids in paying for the care of their animals. They have had to babysit and pet sit to earn the money for rodent bedding and food. I have taught them how to use pet store reward points and coupons to save money.

Can I say this has worked perfectly? No, defiantly not.  They must take turns cleaning the cat box each week and that has been a constant struggle of reminders and nagging! And when those rodent cages started to smell,  force and threats were put into action. But in the long run, my children have benefited so much and enjoyed their pets very much. They have learned about responsibility, care and loss, but mostly joy!