I Love You All, Thank You So Much

I would like to offer a very heartfelt

to all of my readers.

Your outpouring of condolences after Ellie's death made the adjustment to life without her easier.

How could I have thought for even a second that I would quit blogging?

It is moments like these that help me remember how wonderful this community is.

I truly love all of you.

We got her back today. This poem, which has meant so much to me in the past, was given to me by the kind people at Rutherford Funeral home in Columbus, OH.

Thanksgiving Aftermath

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Thanksgiving dinner is over, my parents and aunt have gone home, all is well. We actually ended up eating with very little turkey as my turkey breast was quite on the pink side even though the meat thermometer said it was done. With all of the side dishes the lack of turkey wasn't missed.

Which means that I have a huge amount of leftover turkey. This isn't a problem that I'm used to dealing with and I'll be trolling the recipe sites for leftover turkey suggestions that go beyone sandwiches, tetrazini, and hash. Anyone out there have any great recipes?

The dessert was met with much enthusiasm. Yesterday was my mom's birthday and I decided that I would make her a strawberry bavarian cream cake. I saw one on $40 a Day with Rachael Ray and thought "I could make that" and the rest is culinary history. My son ate about half of it and everyone else raved. I'll share the recipe with you soon!

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I also served blueberry cobbler, which my dad took home, kentucky derby pie (super recipes for this are available all over the web; I left out the bourbon), and pumpkin pie (which didn't get eaten at all). It was nice to sit at the table with my parents and aunt chatting for hours, watching everyone enjoy my cooking. I really do enjoy hosting Thanksgiving, even though it is a lot of cooking.

I hope you all had wonderful holidays and to all of you braving Black Friday, Good Luck and Godspeed!

A Special Thanks to all Dad Days Bloggers!

I'd like to take a moment to offer up a special "Thank You" to all of the fathers who were guest posters here on Dropped Stitches during the month of October. The entire success of Dad Days is due to the blogging dads who were generous enough to contribute their work to the blog.

Dustin Christian, author of Daddy Geek: Raising the Dungeonmasters of Tomorrow

Ben Moffat of The Angry Scot

Justin Mannato, writer of Daddy Knows Less

Barry Silver of A Life Well Lived Concludes with a Smile

Mark Perlman (not pictured), from an excerpt of the book Caring For Your Newborn

Richard Monroe, author of The Butterbottom Blog

Steve Birkett of Above The Static

Matthew Peregoy, The Real Matt Daddy

John Willey, writer of Daddy's in Charge?

Alex Walsh, author of Daddacool

and

Josh Solar of The Happy Family Movement

To all of you

They Make Me Happy

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When Will says "backaroni and cheese, please"

The constellations in the winter sky. Orion is my favorite.

Seeing fields full of Canadian geese resting during their migration

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Warmer days that follow chilly nights

Grape hyacinth buds peeking through the frosty ground

Cuddling in bed with my men, Tim and William

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A coat of fresh paint on an previously dingy wall

Feeling the sun on my face after the frigid weather of winter

Knowing that the cherry blossoms will pop in just a few weeks

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Sheep extra fluffy with their winter coat

Neutrogena Norwegian Formula hand cream - extra soothing for dry, knitty, winter hands

Waking up to find that I'm being held

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I'm Grateful: Silence

Enter my giveaway for a $50 CSN gift certificate! The holidays are upon us. Make your shopping easier!

The older kids have ditched us for Thanksgiving. I'm not really all shook up about it; they are starting to use their wings and fly further from the nest. They are all with various family members that they rarely get to see and I'm sure will be having a great Thanksgiving with them. Hubs, Will, and I will be having Thanksgiving with my parents and my aunt Carol.


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It is usually pretty loud and chaotic around here when the whole brood is home. But now that it's just the hubs, the Will, and me, it's so Silent. And Calm. And Quiet. And it will be until next Monday. The cats aren't hiding. As I am writing this, Foxy, who is usually hiding in some weird spot like the lazy Susan or our bathroom waste basket, is trying to figure out how to get onto my lap. Seems I'm not the only creature in the house who was ready for some silence.

Ah, blessed Silence.

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I received an email with a link to Tyler's Thankful story. Tyler is a 15-year-old with a brain tumor; in my years as a pediatrician I was always impressed and amazed with the way chidren and teens handle serious disease. Please read his words, and if you'd like others to know about him, please link to Tyler's story on your blog.

I'm Grateful: Moments of Frivolity

Frivolity - self-indulgence, irresponsibility, triviality, abandon, levity, foolishness.

I love to watch William play. He plays with complete abandon, few limits, and for the simple pleasure of it. And his whole day is looking for the next fun thing to do. He relishes in going down slides, vroom-vrooming cars over any surface he can find, spinning in circles until he gets so dizzy he falls down, and singing at the top of his lungs.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could indulge ourselves like three-year-olds. Often, it seems, responsibilities like finances, cooking, cleaning, working, and raising kids gets in the way of our former frivolity.

But occasionally, those moments shine through. I urge you to tango with your five-year-old, to spin in circles with the toddler, to swing until your stomach flips, just let your hair down as they say. Let the frivolity take over; you will be grateful you did.

Gratitude

This month, I'm joining Curious Girl in blogging about those things that I am grateful for. I spend a lot of time doing the "if only we had more money" thing, so when Lisa brought up this topic I thought it would be a great exercise for me.

Today I am grateful for our home. I've written about how close we came to losing it and how we danced on the edge of homelessness. But my in-laws would have nothing of that and are helping us with our payments until we are more financially stable.

I watch HGTV manically and I'm always struck by how the people on House Hunters "need" so much room in their houses. Our house is small by most people's standards, but if you compare what we have to other parts of the world, we live like kings. And we have So Much Stuff. A few years ago a photographer had a family who lived in a mud hut in Africa and an American family put everything that they owned on their front lawns and took a picture of both. It was almost embarrassing how much more the American family had.

I struggle to teach our children that life is not about more, more, more; I'm not sure how much is getting through. It took me this long to realize that we could live a really nice life on very little money, it just meant that the couch was going to stay old and stained, some of my clothes would have little holes in them, and we weren't going to buy everything in the world for our children. We have so much already, we really don't need anymore.

Our needs have been supplied and we have a beautiful home to return to every day. For that, I am grateful.