December 13, 2008

Mommy makes up the pretzels	It was a bit nippy Sunday morning.  We went to church.  Wendell preached a good sermon on "Promoting Sound Doctrine".  We came home and made up a scrumptious dinner of ham biscuit roll-ups with cheese sauce, broccoli, and sweet corn.  We all had good naps in the afternoon then for supper Ina Sue and Carolina made us soft pretzels.  They were so good!  We played a family game of "Memory" which is quite interesting with a two-year-old.
Carolina Sue salts them	I was fasting again on Monday.  Went off to work with no breakfast while Ina Sue started the laundry.  In the evening we went to church to hear our chorus present their Christmas program.  I enjoyed it.  There were quite a few visitors from the community there to hear them including Tracey from in at the shop.  After church while we were visiting Landon came up to my wife crying and holding his arm.  She came and got me and we were pretty concerned that he had broken it.  Evidently he heard Ina Sue say something about it because then he kept insisting "bwoken"  He would holler loudly if you so much as bumped his wrist.
and we all eat them.	Ina Sue held him on her lap as we drove home and then I held him for about an hour and tried to distract him.  Finally I decided to make a splint for his arm to immobilize it until the morning when we could get it checked out.  I went out to the shop and cut some splints but when I came back in he was vehemently against it and waved his arms vigorously.  It seems that somehow in the meantime God had "healed" his arm and it never seemed to bother him again.  We wonder if it maybe had been out of joint and somehow slipped back in???
Company supper & games Wed. evening.	Tuesday was a lovely day.  The children played outside without coats.  Ina Sue finished the laundry and did some cooking for tomorrow.  I spent the day on service calls at work.  After I got home we ate a quick supper of breakfast burritos then we set down and watched a video.  The International Bible Society sent me a two DVD set for Christmas.  It is entitled "Acts" and is a dramatization of the book of Acts.  Amazingly, every piece of dialog is taken directly, word for word from the NIV translation of Acts.  You could listen to the DVD as an audio recording of the book without the video.  I was pretty impressed.  After we put the children in bed I went back in to work for a couple of hours.  Ina Sue vacuumed house and washed the floors all while holding a fussy baby...  What a wife!
Joyce Yoder is the "Pampered Chef".	I stayed home on Wednesday to help my wife get ready for our company Christmas banquet.  We spent several hours cooking together then I had to run a quick call down to the Town of Allendale to get them going again after their server crashed.  I took Carolina Sue and Landon along with me.  They behaved admirably.  I was proud.  After we got back home I spent the rest of the afternoon cooking and cleaning up.  Our supper was at 6:30.  We had 12 adults and our two little ones along with Tracey's 1-year old Anna.  The menu was honey baked ham, homemade rosemary bread, cottage potatoes, baked pineapple, broccoli/cauliflower salad, and a chocolate trifle with thickened cherries for dessert.  After supper we had an enjoyable time visiting and playing games.  I have a really good crew to work with!
The appreciative crowd.	It was after 12:00 before I got things kinda cleaned up and put away.  Thursday morning I headed off to work while Ina Sue finished up the clean-up.  She did some sewing and played with the children during the day.  I forgot about our plans for the evening and didn't get left from work until about 6:30.  Ina Sue had to rush around and drive the two oldest children over to Ms. Thelma for babysitting then come back and pick me up at the house.  We went over to Andy Korver's for a Pampered Chef party.  The men were invited to this one so there was quite a crowd.  Joyce & Milford Yoder from North Dakota hosted the party.  A nice time!  (Our minivan turned over 200,000 miles this evening)
A milestone for our minivan.	Friday was pretty routine with cleaning for Ina Sue and work for me.  It cooled off quite a bit during the night.  The children played "ship" inside on the couch.  Ina Sue said they showed a lot of imagination as the "fished" and went through a "terrible storm".  After I got home from work Ina Sue and the older children worked for a while putting together their gingerbread house.  I kept Savannah and made up a great big batch of party mix.
Making the gingerbread house.	Saturday was a nice day shared at home.  I made us breakfast of eggs in ham nests then worked on various small tasks around the house.  Ina Sue and the children finished decorating the gingerbread house.  I went in to work at 1:00 and worked on accounting until about 6:00.  Ina Sue found time in the afternoon to clean and scrub our back porch.  It looks great.  When I got home I washed the van in the cold and dark...  Not fun!