The Nutcracker

All dressed up and ready for the ballet!

My Dad took me and my niece Malorie to see The Nutcracker ballet last night. The evening was fun and Mal did a great job of being a little lady! Thanks Dad!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! We are in Texas this week, enjoying friends and family and good Mexican food. Molly is at home with my parents. Don't worry: this is a win-win situation. Molly is not terribly excited about traveling anywhere, for any reason.

Have a happy week and give thanks to whom all blessings flow.

George Winston

Aaron surprised me with George Winston concert tickets! What a fabulous husband! We attended the concert last night at the Belhaven Center for the Arts. It was amazing. He is such a talented musician. He played the piano beautifully, but also creatively. He also played the harmonica and the guitar. I was blown away with all of the music and suggest everyone see him in concert!

And here is the best part: a friend blessed us with free tickets. Thank you! It is a true gift to be to be the recipients of such a wonderful gift.

Destruction is my middle name. . .

You decide- guilty. . .

or innocent?

Destruction is definitely in Molly's character. I hope the evidence shown above proves this point.

However, I would like to share that "Clumsy" is my middle name. Three wounds to the fingers in three days. I still have a band-aid on my thumb from the deep cut.

What I'm Reading

Adopted for Life: by Russell D. Moore. This was my pick for book club this month. It has blessed my life and given me tremendous knowledge. It has brought me closer to my Lord in understanding my standing as an heir of Christ.

Here is a brief summary from cbd.com: The gospel of Jesus Christ — the good news that through Jesus we have been adopted as sons and daughters into God’s family — means that Christians ought to be at the forefront of the adoption of orphans in North America and around the world.

Russell D. Moore doe s not shy away from this call in Adopted for Life, a popular-level, practical manifesto for Christians to adopt children and to help equip other Christian families to do the same. He shows that adoption is not just about couples who want children — or who want more children. It is about an entire culture within the church, a culture that sees adoption as part of the Great Commission mandate and as a sign of the gospel itself.

I wish that everyone would read this book. Maybe I am too close to the topic of adoption, but everyone is touched by adoption in some way- adopting, adopted, friends, family, supporters or adopted by our Heavenly Father.

On a side note, the author is actually going to be in town this Sunday at my brother's church. I am making plans to go to church with them. What a providential blessing!

What I'm reading

Diary of a Rabbit: I found this sweet book at the library the other day. It was published in 1982, written by Lilo Hess. It begins with the birth of some bunnies, including Daisy, the main character. It has some very sweet pictures of a growing rabbit and the story concludes when Daisy becomes a mother. Factual yet fun. I love it.

Prodigal God: by Timothy Keller. I read this for book club last month. It focuses on the story we think of as the Prodigal Son, but Keller explores the depth of the parable. The prodigal was lost, the elder brother was lost, I was lost in sin. But our Heavenly Father seeks us out and draws us to Himself. I never really understood this parable before- I am an older sister and always thought the elder brother was justified in his anger. I am grateful for Rev. Keller for writing this book and explaining the radical nature of this parable.

Flower results

Mom's wreath- absolutely gorgeous!
Arrangements for the cemetery

My wreath- it is made up off all the left over flowers

Here are the flower arranging results! Molly did help a little, but I was on my own for all the hard parts. :)

H is for hat

Today we were on the letter H. We read a book about hats, A Hole in my Pocket, and Robin Hood. We played with The Cat in the Hat stuffed animal. And we made hats. Enjoy the results!

Molly the helper

Checking everything out- looks good to me!

Molly eating the berries

My mom and I need some autumn wreaths for our front doors. We picked out some great flowers and I started tearing them apart and putting them into arrangements tonight.

Well, along comes Molly, all ready to help! First she had to smell everything. Then she decided to nibble on a few things. The berries were her favorite. Finally, Molly decided to move everything around. She's a mover that girl! Enjoy the pictures of my flower decorating assistant. :)

Marty McFly

Well, last week was homecoming at my husband's school. There were theme days and he even dressed up for two of them! He was Dwight from The Office while his boss was Michael Scoot on Twin/Duo day. My favorite was the Milk and Oreo duo and Ron Weasley and Harry Potter.

But my favorite was Decade Day- you could dress up as anyone from any decade 1980s or earlier. So, somehow we were talking about Back to the Future and Aaron mentioned that he saw a puffy vest advertised somewhere. So, last Thursday I got up early and helped him tight roll his jeans, hook on his suspenders and took some pictures. This was the happiest I have ever been at 7 in the morning! He was classic McFly with the high tops, jeans, suspenders, denim jacket and puffy vest- I can't believe we actually pulled it off. Homecoming fun at its best.