Sure, no problem, plenty of time

I got this magnet off of etsy.com (if you haven't tried etsy you should -- fabulous handmade items) It sums up why I haven't posted anything in two weeks....

All the things I said yes to were great things...we had a "full blown" Christmas program at the Early Learning Center this year. As the music teacher, I was in charge. The pre-ks (all 85 of so) sang three songs, the kindergarten dressed up to act out the nativity, the first grade played the handbells and quoted passages from Luke 2 and the 2nd graders were cowboys out on the trail on Christmas Eve. They "narrated" the Christmas story. It all ended with the Texas-appropriate song, "From Our Herd to Your Herd, Merry Christmas." It was so cute...and so much work!

At church we are finishing an 8 week study on Christmas Eve entitled "Fulfilled". It has been wonderful. I'll post some photos of our art work. We have had a different piece of art displayed every week of the series (these are 15x 10 foot canvasses) each Monday evening we move the piece to the side walls and install the next canvas. I sort of volunteered to be in charge of writing a Family Devotion guide for each week and creating several things (see above magnet) for this past Sunday and the Christmas Eve service.

Now the kids are out of school and we're ready for Christmas. The weather has been in the low 50s, cold for this part of the country, so it feels like winter. We had dinner last night at our good friends, the Carson's.

Darren is recovering from being sick (he even missed two days of work last week) I'm not convinced he didn't have walking pneumonia and we're praying no one else gets sick over the holidays. Now we're off to the mall to get one last Christmas gift for my oldest nephew. Apparently, the other gift we got him (quoting my son), "Is good, but not really fun." Wouldn't we hate it if the nephew didn't think we gave good gifts. So much for breaking the 'approval addiction'.

Beginning to Look a Little Like Christmas

This weekend, after my son's stellar debut on the fourth grade boys city-league basketball team, we decided it was time to decorate for Christmas. Isn't it amazing how many boxes of Christmas decorations you can shove up into the attic? And we got rid of LOTs of our decorations when we moved to Virginia.

To really put us in the Christmas spirit, we baked sugar cookies. It took some time to find a Sugar Cookie recipe online that didn't need baking soda -- for some reason, we have no baking soda. The kids did a great job decorating (their favorite part) but really weren't interested in eating too many. Of course, this means I'll end up eating two dozen sugar cookies!

So, the cookies are baked and the tree is up -- but it doesn't have any decorations because my daughter (who is now feeling much better) has decided we should have a "theme" tree -- and the theme should be Gingerbread Men. The only problem...we only have seven gingerbread man ornaments. But not to worry, she has a plan. It includes a trip to Garden Ridge and several hours of crafting. Until then, we have a very Charlie Brown looking Christmas tree.

Amid the boxes of decorations deemed "not good with the theme", rolls of wrapping paper with no presents yet to wrap and an ornament-less tree -- it's being to look a bit like Christmas. Hope your holidays are more organized!

Slow Road to Recovery

Well, Thanksgiving seemed to pass by in a daze. My daughter had surgery on Wednesday -- all went well, but recovery has been difficult. If she wasn't crying because she hurt and was nauseated, I was crying because she hurt and was nauseated! Thank heaven my mom and sister got here late Wed. night -- moms are good about "swooping in" and taking charge. Nanny made sure the rest of the family was well fed and my house looks cleaner now than before she came! My beautiful niece was also here from Oklahoma and she kept my son entertained.

Monday afternoon my daughter's nose finally stopped bleeding, so she went to school for a half-day today. Tomorrow we go to the doctor to "have the splints removed" (around her I'm acting like it won't be as bad as it sounds). For now, I'm just glad things seem to be getting back to normal -- or as normal as things get for being three weeks away from Christmas!

Pretty Pre-op Toes

Say a little prayer for my daughter tomorrow, she's having sinus surgery at 8:00 am. In preparation, we had pedicures. I'm not sure if the ENT will notice, but hopefully some nurse will! These are her orange toes with yellow flowers.

My daughter's had breathing/allergy problems her whole life. Having her tonsils out helped at age 3, but the doctor says it's time to fix everything else. Her surgery will fix a deviated septum (the kids in her Bible Study group are kidding her that she's actually just having a nose job like Ashley Tisdale and saying it's for a deviated septum) and opening up some other obstructions.

My mom, sister and niece will be here tomorrow night. Nanny (my mom) said she's coming, "To rock that baby until she feels better." Yes, the 'baby' is 12. Doesn't matter, Nanny is good medicine no matter the age.

Remeber us in your prayers and go cook something, Thanksgiving is less than 48 hours away for goodness sakes!

We Have a Winner

My daughter started in her first junior high basketball game last night -- and they won. The Wildcats defeated the Bulldogs 42 - 9. She has now surpassed her mother's record of wins for junior high. Yes, for those of you who did not follow the Purple Pirates in the early '80s, we lost every ball game in 7th, 8th and 9th grade. Don't you know our parents enjoyed those three years of sporting events? Now wish us luck, we're off to the first 7th Grade Girls District Tournament this weekend. Hopefully the winning streak will continue. Go Wildcats!

It's Officially Cold Season

Well, "the crud" has hit our household. Since Saturday someone in the family has had the sore throat, head full of concrete, please let me sleep 24 hours bug. It's not fun. Even less fun is being the mom with the crud. During the lucid moments between Nyquil doses you think of everything not getting done. I'm so blessed to have a wonderful husband who keeps everyone fed, clothed and on schedule. I really don't know how you single moms do it. For now I'm off to fix toast for my son, right after I Lysol-down this keyboard. Stay away from those cold germs and have a good week.

I Was Just Trying to get a Little Work Done

Our Student Ministry is having a retreat this weekend, so my husband and daughter are off at camp. That leaves just me and the boy -- and it's college football day on ESPN, so the boy is set. Hand him a sandwich or bowl of ice cream every few hours and he's in heaven.

So I decided it would be a great time to vaccuum. I do not like cleaning the floors, so I always try to move quickly when the urge strikes! But, while maneuvering through I spied a small box under the guest bed. Not sure what was in it, I left my task at hand to investigate. It's pictures! A box full of pictures. I'm not sure why they were in the guest room...but I love pictures. And many of these were old: when Melinda and Myron lived in Florida, when my husband and I traveled before kids, when I cheered for 4th grade and my sister twirled baton for the 6th grade Purple Pirates. And there were several pictures of my dad, the Rancher.

Since he inspired the moniker of my blog, I thought he deserved a little attention. That's him, my dad, the Rancher. My sister had this photo shoot "set up" on the ranch. It turned out to be some of the last photos before his cancer returned.

Of course, he'd think this blog was another one of my goofy ideas. But that's okay -- this Rancher's Daughter is always full of goofy ideas. And lots of love for her daddy.

Now go be goofy and hug the stuffing out of someone you love.