Inherited Traits:
What do you see in yourself that has come from your ancestors? If you have children, what have you handed down?

Immediately I think of physical traits. If I look back at photos of my Maternal Grandmother we have several common physical characteristics, including being on the short side as in under 5'5". I think 2 of my 3 girls are following in these footsteps as they are both on the small side of the growth chart. My other daughter has an interesting birth trait on ear at the top is folded down, hardly noticeable at all but the Dr. said someone in our family has to have this as it is genetic. We have yet to find that person, they may be several generations back.

Education and the importance of continuing to learn no matter your age is something I feel was handed down on the Maternal side of my family. Both of my Grandparents were college graduates who continued to pursue learning into their retirement. Both my parents also graduated from college and continue to pursue education. All three of us kids went to college. My sister and I both have degrees although my brother eventually went into the work force he has talked off and on more on than off about going back to college and learning something new. I am considering returning to college as well for an after babies career change.

The focus is that learning never ends and you are never too old to learn something new, change your career, or simply explore something you are passionate about. I hope I am passing along this passion for learning to my kids. I try to keep the focus on the journey and not so much on the road they take.
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What type of art do you like best? Do you have a favorite artist?
This is like asking a Musician what's your favorite group or song! I LOVE art and have far too many favorites to ever list just one. I also LOVE all kind of mediums painting, sculpture, photography, drawing, printmaking, ceramics etc. Art History was one of my favorite classes and visiting art museums is a real treat for me.

Recently, here in Grand Rapids we had a wonderful opportunity to see the sculpture work of Tom Otterness. His pieces were all over town and at the Fredrick Meijer Gardens.
Tom Otterness at Meijer Gardens

Kids just loved the sculptures and I remember reading that one of his goals was for his sculptures be the most family scrapbooked art in America. The most important thing I want to pass down to my kids and all other kids I can connect with is that they have been given a special gift and that gift is from God, if they use it for HIS Glory they can change the world.

This was a link to a P.O.D. Song!

Five for Friday

This week has been so busy I am looking forward to a slow paced weekend. Unfortunately, I do have some things on my to do list:
1. Winterize and pack down Pop-up Camper
2. Clean Up Craft/Shop Room
3. Cut back plants/bushes
4. ; ) Go to movie with kids
5. : ) Go to Corn Maze/Pumpkin Patch with kids

Yeah two fun things on my to-do list! Other then what is listed I plan to laze around, snuggle with my kids, play games, read, & scrapbook. I just love how I can layback on the couch or my bed with my laptop and scrapbook photos. Goal is to scrap the pictures we take Saturday at the Corn/Pumpkin place by end of night Sunday.

Speaking of Sunday this is not my week to teach K-Sunday School so I am excited to sit in church and worship God thru the awesome Praise music and look forward to being filled with the Spirit as I listen to God's message this week from my Preacher. I love to teach the kids but I really miss being apart of corporate worship with my church family.

With this being the season of Polical Ads and soon to be voting taking place I thought the following quiz would be appropriate. GOOD LUCK!

http://www.blogthings.com/couldyoupasstheuscitizenshiptestquiz/

Create your own Holiday: Hippie Hair Day ~ October 17

October 17 is the 39th Anniversary of the first performance of the play "Hair".
(original opening October 16, 1967)In honor of this momentous occassion and in keeping with the "Free Spirit" of the play a proper celebration of this holiday would include the suspension of all hair cuts for the day, bellbottom pants & freedom vests should be worn, peace, love, and happiness are the focus of the day. Planned activities would include large parties in the park with loud rock music & a lot of dancing, skinny dipping, hanging out and meeting people while sharing food with each other. Of course getting arrested would be optional.

I Love that photo of the VW Van, Oh how I wish I was driving it instead of my imported mini-van. This van is a neccesity at this stage of my life. Truth be told if I could have any car I wanted no strings attached it would be the hot red GTO below.

This song is in my head today, not sure it goes with my posting topic but that's OK.
Welcome To My Life Video by RelientK

Would you choose differently if you could choose your occupation again? Why? How?

Interesting quesion for me since I have been thinking alot about going back to work. When should I go? What type of job/field would I look to enter? Etc. So to answer this I need to tell you first about where I have been.

My college degree is Graphic Design which I did for several years after college. My career began to morph at somepoint as I took on Marketing and PR type projects and eventually I was hiring out the graphics and concentrating my time on Marketing and Strategic Planning. I worked for a health care organization so part of my job involved promotion of health care careers and I worked with student High School age up thorough college. I really enjoyed helping students find the health career that was right for them.

It's been seven years since I held down a full-time job other then MOM that is. I have worked part time as an Art and Computer teacher for a Private Christian School and I absolutely LOVED that job.

So Now What? I have been asking myself that same question over and over. I had thought I'd be working part-time by now with Olivia in Kindergarten but with Amelia's arrival those plans got pushed back. I have been looking into returning to college to get a teaching degree as Secondary Art Teacher. The market where I live is not the best though for teachers there are so many of us. So much so that to substitute teach in my area you must have a teaching degree, then you wait on a list to be called. I have several teaching friends who have only been called a dozen or so times to sub.

We do have a large number of hospitals and a Medical School so going back into that type of work might be possible. Just harder on the family due to the working hours for health care centers.

I go back and forth and back and forth and don't know what to do so I do nothing. Not the best of plans I know. I figure I really don't have to start making any decisions until next year! As to would I choose differently my occupation/career? I'd have to say NO, I love Art and Art College was a wonderfull experience. I do however wish I would have taken the additional teaching classes so that I graduated with both a B.S. in Graphic Design and Secondary Education.

Today we woke up to the first snow of the season, I can't believe it but we got 4 inches. I have been spending time checking out digital scrapbook sites and art sites. It is amazing how many people are out in the world creating and sharing. It gets my imagination reved up looking at what others have created. I have taken on the role of "Odyssey of the Mind" Coordinator for our school. This will take up a good amount of time over the next couple of months. Not sure how much scrapping I will get done. I hope some. Anyway I will try to post some photos here I hope it works I haven't been able to get any to post lately.

After reading everyone's posts about TV I decided to write about this too. I don't have one show I have watched continually over the years. I tend to hop around a lot.

Current favorite is Amazing Race because I would LOVE to compete on that show. As long as I don't have to eat stir-fried crickets or fish eyes UGH!

I think the TV is on a lot as white noise because my MOM was so strict with us growing up. We had TV tickets that we got at the beginning of each week. They were good for 30 minutes of TV time and if split even over the 7 days added up to 1 hour of TV a day.

You had to turn in a ticket to watch a show and it had to be an approved program. The only exception was Sunday night we got to watch "The Wonderful World of Disney" for FREE.

I know her plan was to teach us to be choosy about what we watch and to encourage us to get outside and play. I think it backfired though because all three of us watch more than an hour a day. I am the worst - probably because I am so stubborn.

Many of you mentioned Little House on the Prairie I too loved this show. I still enjoy it. I was in LOVE with Almanzo. My sister and I would argue over who got to be Laura when we played the show. We hated Nellie my whole family would literally "Boo" her when she came on. I cried when Mary went blind, Albert ran away to the big city, and Pa almost lost the farm. YES that was good TV.

Topic Given: If you procrastinate, what is your most popular excuse and why?

PROCRASTINATION v. To put off, defer, or postpone to a later time

This is all I have talked about for the last two days! Asking myself why do I procrastinate? Asking others if they procrastinate. I went nuts yesterday, my house was so cluttered. Seriously, every horizontal surface on the first floor was covered with papers, bills, school stuff, scouting items, tackle box from the weekend fishing outing, baby toys etc. The floor of the living room had stacks of laundry some folded some not as well as two large mounds of items to price for a huge sale my MOPS organization is having in a week or so.

As I looked around at all the chaos in front of me I felt like the actors in the movie "High Anxiety". You know the one, where they start freaking out about some phobia and behind them on the screen is a spinning black and white circle target and they are grabbing their head like they are gonna scream. Oh yes this was me in my living room chanting PROCRASTINATOR ~ PROCRASTINATOR ~ PROCRASTINATOR ~ you've done this to yourself.

I turned into a mini tornado at that point. Large garbage bag in hand I traveled from area to area throwing things away like crazy and reveling in the release of stress with each new clean spot. Kids were given marching orders to get their clothes and other stuff to their rooms PDQ! I got a large wash tub and put all my hubby's stuff in it with a note explaining this tub is a way station only and nothing should remain in the tub longer then one week (I put it in his closet).

It took several hours but when I was finished I felt such a sense of relief and accomplishment. Amazing ~ I do have furniture. One benefit of all the piles of stuff was I didn't need to dust because the dust didn't have any furniture to land on.

I wish I could say with confidence that I would not let PROCRASTINATION enter my living room again. I know HE will be back on some day when I'm too tired or too distracted or too busy and I accidentally let HIM in the door. HE is very sneaky that way!

Topic ~ Describe a relationship with a Sibling

I have both a younger sister and brother, however my relationship with my sister has seen the most dynamic changes from childhood to adulthood.

We were very close as children but were very competitive with each other as well. I have so many memories of those early years together playing dolls, running in the corn field and making forts, riding bikes, running away to the big tree down the lane. As the "Big Sister", I was followed constantly. This was fine when we were younger but became problematic as I entered my pre-teen years. She wanted to dress like me, do all the same activities, have the same friends etc. I'm sure you can imagine how well that went over with me. This was the beginning of a time I refer to as "The Tribulation". I think if you asked my parents they would say there were times it felt like a living (H E double hockey sticks) at our house. I was very dramatic which of course meant my little sister had to be ubber-dramatic (remember the competitive thing).

However mean we were to each other or irritated by the constant one~up~men~ship we protected each other from outside criticism or attack. I remember my sister smacking a kid on the bus who pushed me and said something mean. Another time I carried her home when she fell and cut her chin on a rock while being chased by the neighbor boy. (I think those were her first stitches). A cruel as I could be to her during those teenage years I still stuck up for her around school and with friends. ( I am sure she has some story when I didn't nobody's perfect but for the most part I had her back even when she didn't know it).

During the worst of "The Tribulation" there were battles over stealing clothes, stealing friends, stealing boyfriends (do you see a theme here). Eventually, we went our separate ways and became very different people much to my relief. I don't know why it bothered me so much that she followed me and copied me, looking at it now I should have been flattered. Ok, truth be told I wanted to be myself, different, creative, an individual hard to do that with a tag along who seemed to want to copy every move you made. By the time I headed to college we had virtually no relationship we had settled into a state of you ignore me I'll ignore you. We didn't see much of each other during those college years as we lived far apart from each other. Getting together only during holidays which seemed brutal at the time. Slowly we came to a sister understanding and began to get close again so much so that I asked her to be my maid of honor.

Our relationship grew the most when she moved in with my husband and me after graduating college. She lived with us for several months while she looked for a job and a place to live. It seemed each time she crossed the threshold of a shared experience were grew closer. Graduating college and living on her own, getting married, buying her first house, having a baby etc. Eventually, we were living parallel experiences but as two unique individuals with our own styles, desires, personalities etc. I truly believe it was the shared experiences that brought us back to a close relationship. Just as in childhood, shared experiences drew us together and over time bonded us to each other in adulthood. How does someone understand the ups and downs of marriage until they are married. Or the joys and horrors of first motherhood if they haven't had a child yet? The financial strain of saving for your first house cannot be fully understood by someone who hasn't been there yet. Many times I was the first to cross these thresholds but there have been times my sister bravely walked through a new door and I reluctantly followed behind. She was the first to find a real faith and relationship with Jesus Christ and has taught me much about how to walk in faith. What matters is not who moves first but that we bring each other along for the ride and share what we have learned the good, the bad and the ugly. "We were born sisters but we choose to be friends", may be an old saying but for us it is so true.

The bond of sisterhood is stronger now then it has ever been and I am proud to call her my best friend.

Topic - Favorite Fall Recipe

Butternut Squash Soup

This is a family favorite, we call it Jeff's Yummy Soup cause he gave us the recipe! If you serve this soup with a loaf of French bread and a small salad it really is a complete meal.

Large Butternut Squash (2.5#)
3-4 Granny Smith Apples (peeled and sliced)
Med. Onion
4 cans Chicken or Vegetable Stock
1 cup heavy whipping cream
5T. butter
3-4 slices white bread
Salt & Pepper to taste

Slice squash in half and scoop out seeds, pre-cook in microwave with small amount of water to soften squash. Let squash cool then cut off rind.

In Soup Pot melt butter and saute onion, apple slices and torn up bread slices over low heat. Add peeled, cubed squash, stock and spices. Bring to a boil, simmer about an hour till squash is very soft.

Let soup cool off then puree. (I like to use a hand held blender directly in pot.) Add the cream, blend well and bring temperature back up to your desired eating temp.

This is a very thick and hearty soup ~ you can top the soup with fresh grated Parmesan cheese or a dollop of sour cream and fresh chopped scallions. Serve soup with a crusty French bread and a lite salad.

Freezes very well so make a lot you will want it again, I promise!

My oh my life has been hectic and busy, busy, busy. October is here and with it the cooler temps and rain. Fall is absolutely my favorite season, always has been. The crisp air, changing colors, warm sweaters, apple crisp and cider put me in a great mood. I remember riding our horse in the fall into the woods behind our farm, crunch, crunch went the leaves. The air smelled so refreshing it keeps you alert and you seem to notice things you looked past just weeks before. A strong sensory memory is waking up to the smell of homemade applesauce rising up from the kitchen. Mom always put plenty of cinnamon in it.

Halloween was a favorite holiday at my house. Our first Halloween at the farm Mom didn't know how many kids we'd have so in true MOTHER fashion she made enough snacks for several neighborhoods. Halloween night a huge storm spoiled Trick-or-Treating for everyone. My sister, brother and I were so upset. Being creative we came up with a great plan to save our night. Our kitchen had a huge swinging door into the sitting room, so we pretended it was a Trick-or-Treating front door. We got into our costumes and knocked. When Mom opened the door we yelled, "Trick-or-Treat!" She of course filled our bags with treats. Excitedly, we ran upstairs. Then one of us (not sure who - but probably - ME - as I am the brains of the family) decided we should get dressed up in some other kind of costume and knock on the door again. Not only did it work once, we wore out the hinges of the swinging door that night dressing up over and over again in every piece of clothing/accessory we could come up with. We had a blast and saved our Halloween, Charlie Brown would be so proud!

Traditions I have started with my kids include carving pumpkins after visiting the farm to pick the best ones for our porch. Hay rides, corn field mazes and fresh hot cider donuts. What's not to LOVE. Don't ya think it is so cool that God gave us seasons like he just knew we would get bored and needed to be renewed periodically. This year we are going to participate in Trick-or-Trunk at our church. The idea is everyone parks their vehicle in the church parking lot, then you decorate it, be original. They plan to have inflatables, face painting, food etc. Then at dusk the kids walk around the lot coming up to people's open trunks. They yell out, "Trick-or-Trunk" then they get a treat! Sounds like a lot of fun. Somewhere in my garage is a portable generator I plan to have lights as part of my decorations. I hear there are prizes!

My kids are still debating what they will be for Halloween. My youngest has no choice she will be a red hershey's kiss because that costume took forever to make and one more kid will wear it before I pass it on to someone else. Last year a friend sent me a ladybug costume for her it was adorable. I prefer the homemade costumes and like to encourage my kids to be creative in this endeavor as it their only chance to dress wild at school. One rule though no scary costumes as I won't be responsible for putting that out into the world.

One wish for this year is no SNOW till after Thanksgiving. Can you believe this?