Snowy Thanksgiving

We had our first snowfall of the year on Thanksgiving morning. DoorMan and Arch went to Mass, then over to DoorMan's brother's house for Thanksgiving dinner. BamBam was running a fever, so he and I stayed home. It was a quiet, peaceful day.

New Book: Toy ABC

I am so proud to announce that my son's new book, Toy ABC, is available for purchase exclusively at lulu.com. You can see a preview of the first six pages there. Arch (age 9) drew a toy for each letter of the alphabet, and I scanned them into my computer and we put the book together. He made it for his little brother BamBam, age 3. Makes a great Christmas gift, if I do say so myself!

Minivan Mania

I finally have a minivan!!!!!

This is very big for me, as I have really, really wanted one for at least three years now. Really.

My car is a goner. We scrapped it.

And all I had to do was to get stuck on the side of a road, in a park with no houses around, with my sons and four fish fry dinners in the trunk, and my cell phone forgotten on the charger at home. And it was getting dark and it was very cold, and the engine wouldn't turn over at all. God Bless stranger Beth, who stopped on her way to walk her dog, and drove back home to call my husband.

My new minivan is a lovely blue which matches Doorman's work van. When we were first married, we coincidentally had matching paint on our cars, too. How sweet!

I will say, that to temper all of this unbounded joy, I had to offer up not being able to pick out, see or test drive my van. Doorman's work van is only a two-seater (and he doesn't let me drive it anyway), so he had to do all of the driving and deciding on my new van, and all the running to the insurance company and the DMV. The first time I laid eyes on it he was pulling it into our driveway all set to go.

By the way, I should mention that new around here means "new to me." No one in this family would dream of paying retail for a brand new vehicle when you can get a used one sooooo much cheaper.

And God Bless Doorman's Mom and Dad! Although they are now with Our Lord, it was their money (which came less than three weeks ago) that allowed us to pay cash for our new vehicle. The money we got (which was a total surprise, we weren't expecting to get anything from the estate until next spring) was within $400 of what we had to pay out. God is good. As my Mom put it: the minivan is like a gift from them. Very nice to think of it that way, and remember them.

Back from Break, and So Blessed!

Well, I am back in the blogosphere, after breaking for 40 Days for Life.

I am thankful for many blessing. I'll post more later. I have a heap of stuff to get through on the dining room table, and the boys will want dinner soon (the change back to Daylight Savings Time not registering with their tummies yet!).

Blogging Fast

As if I wasn't quiet enough, I am giving up blogging (reading and posting) for the 40 Days for Life 2007. Check back after November 5.

That We May Never Forget...

Eternal Rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May their souls, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the Mercy of God, Rest in Peace. Amen.

Fruits of the Field

Okay, not my field. We stopped at a terrific farm stand on Sunday and bought a bunch of yummy fruits to can and preserve. We made 16 half-pints of jam (Fredonia grape and peach) yesterday. Tonight I am drying watermelon slices. They will (supposedly) come out like salt-water taffy. I'll believe it when I see it.

August Carnival of Children's Literature

Here.

Accent Quiz

Eerily accurate. I'm from Queens.

What American accent do you have?
Created by Xavier on Memegen.net

New York City. You are most definitely from New York City. Not New Jersey, not Connecticut. If you are from Jersey then you can probably get into New York City in 10 minutes or less.

Take this quiz now - it's easy!

We're going to start with "cot" and "caught." When you say those words do they sound the same or different?

Different Same Same, no wait I mean different, maybe, a little bit different...

Planning and Organizing

I am a great one for plans. I like planning more than doing.

I am working on Holiday Grand Plan this year. This is week #1, and we are supposed to finish our lists and clean the front porch. I am about half-way on my lists, but I see no reason to clean the porch in August for company in December. It'll probably be buried in snow anyway. And I haven't any ideas for my children's gifts yet. But I know how many to get each and an approximate budget.

I am also trying to clean the dining room this week, because it is our school room, and school starts next week.

Update: Here is a post on my dining room progress so far.