thanksgiving!

I do love Thanksgiving and I was happy that we were able to host a boisterous crowd at our house -- reminds me of the good ole' days.  We had eight adults and sixteen children, so not quite up to the Farnsworth family numbers, but it will do to help me not feel so homesick.  Everyone helped bring lots of yummy food, the two younger girls helped set the tables and make place cards, Ella made some appetizers, and Charles made a green bean casserole with no help from anyone.  The two youngest did their part with Phin busily undoing most of the preparations as they happened and Archie perching on my back not sleeping the entire day.  I am so glad that we have a time to reflect on our blessings, although I do try to do a bit of that every day.  I have so much and the season reminds me to make a renewed effort to be a better steward of what I have been given.  Here's to resolve!

I never manage to find time to write in my blog anymore -- it's so sad!  And I really don't think about it during the day, but at night I have composed some wonderful posts.  You should all come join me then, because by morning they have vanished -- poof!


I went to the dentist this morning and had to take the baby with me.  I just didn't know six months ago when I made the appointment that Matthew would be teaching at that time on Tuesday mornings -- silly me!  So I dropped Phin off at a friend's and wondered how it would all work, but baby did great.  He determinedly concentrated on grabbing a toy, with his eyes crossed for good measure, throughout most of the scaling portion of the visit, but every once in a while he would gurgle adorably and the technician would gaze at him affectionately.  This is all very endearing to a mother, of course, except that she was madly digging at my teeth with some very sharp instruments, not missing a single beat, while she looked away.  I would will her eyes back to the task at hand, but soon they would veer back to the baby, all the while scraping, scraping, scraping and coming perilously close to my tender gums -- I may be a proponent of natural childbirth, but I definitely prefer kinder, gentler dentistry.  He didn't quite make it all the way through, sitting upright on my tummy during the cleaning and exam, smiling and talking to everyone who happened by.  And who wouldn't smile at the reaction he was getting -- you would think they had never seen a baby before!  "Look at those chubby cheeks!"  "He has so much hair!"  He is pretty cute, in my own humble opinion.