Farming Mom: Thanksgiving Catch up

The past few weeks have been crazy. James is doing Taekwando two nights a week and loving it. He has moved up from a white belt two levels to a white with green stripe. He has to learn maneuvers and Korean in order to advance in the class. This means I can now count to 10 in Korean, tell you the commands for bow, kick, horse riding stance and attention. I can also say thank you. Madilyn seems to like watching brother and tries to throw punches and kicks from the side lines.

For Thanksgiving we went to my cousin Allyson and Chris' house. James and Madilyn decided to make their own dish to bring - acorns. Madilyn is a sticker peeler, she peeled the labels off of the dishwasher, peels stickers off of toys and everything else. So we harnessed that energy and had her unwrap the Hershey's kisses. Then James glued a nutter butter bite cookie onto the top of it with frosting and a "stem" made of a chocolate chip. What was most amazing was at the end of the day when I asked him to leave a few for the others still at dinner, he wanted to leave them all for everyone else. Scott and I even asked him if he was shure that he didn't want to take any home. He left every one of them but did eat the two broken ones so no one else would have to.

Today is the first Sunday in Advent, meaning that there are only 4 weeks until Christmas. We hosted brunch at Church this morning. Scott has fun cooking biscuits and gravy for everyone. This afternoon is the Advent Faire and dinner. About 20 or so crafts for the holiday, we make a quilt or two for project Linus, Advent Swags and Logs. A short Service and then a Lasagna dinner. It is a good thing we live close to the Church, we are there all day today. I came home to get Madilyn a nap (and hem my new jeans that are a bit too long) and will go back down for craft clean up and service. Also, Scott has been working hard on the Church's website so if you want to come over for any event you are more than welcome to join us. Next event is Game Night this Friday.

Baby #3 is doing well, I am aobut 17 weeks now (40 weeks is when the little one will arrive). According to one website baby is the size of an apple - 4 inches long and about 2.5 ounces. It is funny how something so small can become a walking, talking person in so little time. I have an ultrasound scheduled the end of Dec, so hopefully will put up a good photo of the little Biscuit then, we have a photo but it is grainy and looks like a blob to me since it was done around the 6-8 week time frame. All is well with this one, my blood pressure is normal, still feeling a bit sick but that was how it was with both James and Madilyn and they turned out big, strong and healthy. Doctor Carter says I can continue on with my activities as normal, just no lifting. That is a hard one for me. I had to ask someone to go with me to get hay the other day as I am not supposed to lift the bales. Asking for help is so hard for me. It was fun though, we had time to visit on the way to the off site barn (out of the flood plain) that we usually don't have as we are running different circles. We have been having lots of rain recently and the rivers have been rising. I'm really hoping we can get by this year without a flood. We had to evacuate the horse farm at least 3 times last year. I would like not to have to do it at all this year. Our worst times for floods are usually in Feb/march when the snow pack goes back up. For now, I will keep an eye on the river and keep rubber boots and a change of clothes in the truck.