Thursday, November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving

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Today, we celebrated Thanksgiving with the Dickmann side of the family at my parent’s house.  Mel and all three of my brothers and their families were there.  God gave us beautiful fall weather; the sun was shining on a cold crisp day.  We all got there early so we could play games in Grandpa’s game room.  Mel and I got in a game of ping pong.  The boys played air hockey and pool.  We all shared a time of worship during which we shared some of the things for which we are thankful.  Mel and I took a walk around the circle with a bunch of the littles. 

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Mom set the kids a table in the basement.  The table was set with pretty Thanksgiving paper plates and napkins.  She served them sparkling cider and grape juice with their supper.  They were very impressed.

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She set the adult table upstairs with her fine china. 

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Stanley has been learning about the indians and Pilgrims in school.  This is his Indian bag and headdress.  He loves crafts, and I love how excited he gets showing me what he has made in school.  It makes me so happy that he gets to enjoy doing those things. 

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Here is Stanley in his Pilgrim costume after the Thanksgiving Festival at school. 

Thursday, November 03, 2011

A Miracle has occurred {Grocery shopping}

I’m probably not alone in my quest for frugality while grocery shopping. Since I had twin boys about two and a half years ago, my quest for sanity outweighed my quest for frugality somewhat. So I usually shop with the twins only at grocery stores with a double cart. Hence, NO Aldi. I have run into Aldi using our double stroller from time to time, but I can’t fit an entire week’s worth of groceries in it, so it feels like a lot of work for not much gain. Today, I decided to really go for it. I brought the baby back pack for Marty and was going to push Mike in the cart. It is chilly out and is misting. I load on the backpack with Marty in it, get a cart, get Mike situated, put my reusable grocery bags in it, and open my purse to get my list. It’s. not. there. At first, I think I must have just left it in the car, so I head back through the rain to the van and search it as well as I can with a 20 pound baby on my back. I cannot find it. At this point, I am not sure what to do. I do not want to go through this ordeal and just have to go out again, because I forgot half the things on my list. I feel like sitting down and crying, but yeah, that’s not going to happen. I decided to get what I could. I could say this was my trial run seeing how I like the whole baby backpack/cart deal. Here’s where the miracle comes in. I prayed that God would help me to remember everything on my list, and He did!! Seriously, that is a miracle. Usually, even when I bring a list I forget something that is staring back at me in black and white. I found my list at home (I had brought it in, accidentally, with some baseball cards I’d found in the backseat) and was amazed when I read through it to discover I’d actually gotten everything on it. So, anyway, I am super thankful.