Shugah In The Soup and The Thanksgiving Tree 2014

We are having a great weekend. The weather is beautiful...cold and crisp and sunny. LOVE IT. The meteorologists are predicting super cold temps this coming week...even a possibility of snow flakes maybe by Saturday! Eeek! You can bet this girl will be as prepared as I can be. There's no way to control the weather...but there are things we can do to prepare for it to the best of our ability. Of course, if your power goes out...that changes everything.

Yesterday at lunch, Jim was eating some of the re-runs left-overs from the Chinese food we'd had earlier in the week. It's always a big production whenever Jim fixes a meal, because he has to have everything.just.so. Well, in his hurry, he accidentally put Sweet'n'Low in his Wonton Soup...instead of in his tea. And he yelled out, "OH NO!" and Joshua cracked up laughing. And he laughed and laughed and laughed. It's one of those things that Joshua will never forget, and will be asking all of us in years to come, "remember that time in 2014 when Dad put shugah in his SOUP?"

We have stayed around here all day, with the exception of an hour and a half that Holly and I went to Target and Home Depot...and then we all went to dinner at U.S. Pizza. We had the Texas A&M/Auburn game on this afternoon. Aaron-the-son-in-law was cheering for Auburn, since his family is from Alabama and his parents both went to Auburn. I, however, was cheering for the Aggies because of my pretend internet friend, Melanie. Gotta tell ya, seeing the Aggies upset the Tigers gave me renewed hope that maybe my Razorbacks can pull out a win before our season is over.

It's a sliver of hope, but it's all I've got at the moment.

Aaron wanted to watch the Alabama/LSU game, so we had to beat it back here IMMEDIATELY after dinner and we still missed the kick-off.

Have I mentioned that Holly and Aaron don't have cable at their house? They used to have it, but canceled it to save money. Aaron works all day and Holly is in nursing school. She studies a lot at night, so they just didn't think it was worth it. I love that they come over here to watch football with us. :)

So, Aaron and Joshua were watching the game. Holly and Faith were in the kitchen, painting wooden boards and gettin' their craft on. Faith had even coerced convinced Clark into helping her. He was making a big mess and may or may not have ruined one of my best brushes but whatever. They were having fun. Jim was working on something on the computer. I put some "whop" cookies in the oven. You know, the kind already in a long roll that you whop on the counter and bake in the oven?

Lots of noise, laughter and fun.

The other thing I did was that I started our Thanksgiving Tree. Every year, we take all of the Christmas cards we receive from our friends and family, and tack them up on The Big Board in our kitchen. We keep them on there until November of the following year...when I take them all down and we put up our Thanksgiving Tree.

It's not much...just a brown construction paper "trunk" tacked up on The Big Board...and then I cut different colored "leaves" out of construction paper. The leaves are in a bowl, along with a black Sharpie, and anyone can come up at any time and write things they are thankful for on the leaves, and stick them up on The Big Board. As the days lead up to Thanksgiving, our board gets FULL of leaves. We've done variations of this since my kids were really little. We've used tape to stick leaves on a wall or a door or a window.

The first thing that happened was that Clark said our Thanksgiving Tree wasn't "theologically correct," because we had a leaf with "God" on it and a leaf with "Jesus" on it...and NO "Holy Spirit" leaf. We always place God and Jesus at the top of the tree (DUH), so Clark made a "Holy Spirit" leaf and arranged the "trinity" all in a row at the top of the tree. Because that's how leaves grow...in a straight line. NOT.

I don't remember what happened, but Jim was trying to make some sort of joke...when clearly he knows that I am the funny one, NOT HIM. He proved this point when he said, "YOUR MOM has always had a flair for the dramatic," and then sat there and grinned like he had just said the funniest thing ever.

To which I say, "nuh-UHHHH."

AND to which, in a spirit of thankfulness and maturity, I went over to the Thanksgiving Tree and took his leaf down from where it had been placed in the top part of the tree...and placed it wayyyyyyyy down at the bottom of the tree. At the very bottom. Like, as far down as it could go. 

Joshua said tonight that we should put a leaf on the tree for all of the PETS we've loved and lost...who were a part of our family but now they are dead...but we are still thankful for them. (sigh) He said we should do it "in memory" of them...so he went over there and wrote "in loving memory of Sassy, Jake and Lacey," and placed it at the very bottom of the tree. Like, as far down as it could go.

That's where I placed Jim's leaf.

And then later on tonight, Jim tried to be funny AGAIN and said, "when did we start using FOOTBALLS on the Thanksgiving Tree instead of leaves?"

And that's how Jim died.

Because I have never claimed to be an artist. Years ago, when I was an energetic over-achiever young mom, I got an oak leaf from my yard, painstakingly traced it and cut out a billion of realistic looking leaves to use for our Thanksgiving Tree. But two years ago, when we moved here, I wasn't able to find one of those leaves that I had saved for a pattern, and had to go scavenging out in the yard for a leaf like I was Laura Ingalls or something. And the leaf I found and chose to use was a small, oval-y leaf...and it may slightly resemble a football, but IT IS NOT A FOOTBALL.

So, when Jim said, "when did we start using FOOTBALLS on the Thanksgiving Tree instead of leaves?"...and looked at me and tried to get the kids all laughing (good-naturedly, of course)...I didn't get mad. I didn't say anything. I just quietly walked into the kitchen, found the Scotch tape in the junk drawer and tore off a small piece. I went over and took Jim's leaf that I had placed at the very bottom of our Thanksgiving Tree...I took his leaf off The Big Board...and I walked over to the wall on the other side of the room...and I taped Jim's leaf over there.

I may or may not have posted a picture of this on Facebook and Instagram (martythemoose).

And now I just want to say that I am very thankful for Jim, and I CLEARLY DO NOT HAVE A FLAIR FOR THE DRAMATIC.

"Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:18