A Great Christmas Party!

Although I didn't take any photos, I have some great memories from the Christmas Party we went to last night. Friends from church invited us to join their adult Sunday School class' party and ornament exchange. I was a little nervous, hoping to know someone there besides those that invited us. What I found was so much more than I had hoped!

As soon as I walked in the door, I saw not only the couple that invited us, but new friends that we'd been with the night before at the Homeschool Christmas fellowship event. Then I saw another woman who I'd met at our 1st (and only) homeschool meeting with the new group up here and she remembered me. Then another friend from my Wednesday night ladies' study was there. And the introductions to everyone else began. I met the most kindest, welcoming people there - and come to find out - I even knew the lady who's house it was! I'd sat at her table at the church tea. I felt like I'd known these people for a lot longer, all so sweet.

The food was amazing! There was a beef roast seasoned and cooked perfectly, all kinds of salad, potato, sweet potato dishes and more! The homemade punch was a strawberry, cranberry lime concoction that was really good too.

Desserts were great too. I made and brought a flourless (very rich) chocolate torte, and there were minty desserts, chocolatey ones, custard-like ones, cookies, homemade breads and more! Everything tasted so good.

The ornament exchange was a lot of fun too. I think we smiled and laughed almost the whole time. This group is so much fun! There were pickle and rubber chicken glass ornaments, some bath kits, tea sets, and home decor bells exchanged. They added a Yankee Swap to it which made for even more fun and innocent teasing.

Afterwards, we said our goodbyes and spent the rest of the ride home talking about wanting to try their Sunday class, even if it means getting up almost 2 hours earlier on the only day we currently get to sleep in til all of 8:00. Now we only have one dilemma: Do we finish out the Wed. study we're in - they're off til January anyway - and do double duty until they're over in late February/early March? Or just jump in and save the 70 mile trip on Wednesdays?

Either way, I feel very blessed and thankful that V & D thought enough to invite us. I feel like I have a whole new batch of friends at church now, which is quickly becoming our "home".

Peanut Butter Bars!

A friend of mine makes the most amazing Peanut Butter Bars. She made them for a restaurant where she worked and she was kind enough to give me the recipe. I can't share it, it belongs to her, but I have shared these bars with lots of people.

Jordan made these bars just about all by herself! We were bringing them to our local homeschool Christmas fellowship event. She did such a great job, they came out perfect. The crust was buttery and just solid enough to stay together, but not crunchy or hard. The frosting is peanut butter mixed with just a few other things until it's so creamy that it really is a frosting, no gritty texture at all, and it's soooo light and airy. Like I said, they came out perfect.

They were so good I'm told, that a few of the guests had to remove themselves from the snack table to avoid eating too many. We sent the rest home with friends there, but that's okay - we made a smaller tray for the kids' class party on Tuesday.

I know, they're homeschooled, so why a party? Because not being in a brick and mortar school, they've never gotten to experience a Christmas class party before, so I thought I'd throw one for them. They requested Cinnamon Rolls, Cupcakes, Buffalo Wings, and soda. I managed to grant their requests plus Bagel bites, the peanut butter bars, and maybe a few other things.

I want them to be able to kick off their school vacation happy and excited (and all that junkfood that they aren't used to getting should accomplish that.)

Tonight though, we're going to a Christmas party for adults only, so we had to "up" the dessert. I'm bringing another secret recipe from the same friend, a (gluten-free) Flourless Chocolate Torte. It's rich and thick and as a personal touch, I add a ganache layer to it. Hope they like it!

Bring on the Christmas Season!

I'm so optimistic about this weekend. After months of feeling alone up here in the middle of nowhere, we're finally going to get to do some socializing beyond the quick hellos of Sunday morning church services. We've been invited to two events this week that I know will really kickstart the holidays for me.

Friday night, we're all invited to a Christmas Pot Luck with our new homeschool group we just joined. I'm hoping there'll be some older kids there. Our poor kids are always just a bit too old for the kids in whatever homeschool group we're in. Most are K-5, but our are in Jr. High & High School. Hopefully they'll meet kids closer to their age so they'll find new friends up here on the mountain. Out here, even a 30 - 40 minute drive to meet up with a friend would be worth the drive. And we'll meet those in the group both in and out of our new church group.

Saturday night we've been invited to an adults-only Christmas party by friends of ours at church. We may not know anyone there but them because it's their Sunday bible study class that's getting together, but at least it'll open the doors for us to meet new people. We're doing a gift exchange too. That's something I've done every year since moving to AZ 7 years ago - so I'm looking forward to that too. I missed getting with my usual group this December.

We did go to a light parade in town last Saturday night. It was short, but it was something festive to do. All the cars, trucks and floats had lights on them and the parade was held after dark. We were going to go to another one in the nearest little town Saturday - but we'd rather go to the Christmas party.

Next week should be fun too. I'll be visiting friends at my old job and putting in a few days there. Maybe I'll earn a little so I can buy the kids something for each of them, but at least I'll get to spend a few days with friends, help out if they're busy, get warm for a few days, visit my old church & friends there, and even get to shop at the better, cheaper organic-based store I miss so much.

December took a while to get going, but it's finally shaping up to be a good month.

And it's officially winter here!

Thanksgiving morning we woke up to a dusting of snow. We knew there was a chance and Jordan's been waiting for weeks! I wasn't as disappointed in the snow as I thought I'd be, maybe just because it was the first of the season. It actually did look pretty on the bushes and on Cinder Mountain. The strange thing is that because we're surrounded by fields of tall grass, it looked like it ONLY snowed in our yard. The white of the snow against the bright yellow of the grass looked very strange and unnatural too. They say the grasses will die off soon and it'll look "normal", but you just don't expect to see those two colors next to each other in nature.

Just a night or two before, Jordan got to decorate the Christmas tree all by herself for the first time ever. She chose to use our Victorian ornaments collection. I've been collecting them for about 18 years now. I usually buy 1 new one a year, Tim's Mom buys me a few most years, and if I get something from my usual Ladies' Bible Study Christmas gift exchange, that goes on the tree, too. The tree came out very nice and she managed to get the lights on and more even than I ever did. We all listened to hours of our Transiberian Orchestra Christmas CDs too.

Thanksgiving dinner wasn't quite what I expected. Maybe it's all the stuff from this past year that led up to it. It went okay, but it was very - uneventful. Mom, Jordan and I cooked for the past 2 days getting ready, but when it came right down to it, we went upstairs, everybody ate as quickly as they normally do, then Tim & his father decided to have all the guys spend 3 hours cutting brush and stacking wood they'd hauled in the day before. No family gathering time, hardly any conversation after eating, no celebration type of feeling...While the guys were working, Jordan and I returned to our kitchen and proceeded to clean for the next two hours. Mom picked up her own kitchen and rested upstairs from being on her feet all morning.

We did get to have our friend Carol spend the meal with us, though. Scott was out of town so we had her join us. After we cleaned, Jordan & I went back upstairs to Mom's and spent about an hour enjoying conversation with her and Carol. That was the highlight of the day.

After working, the guys were sore and tired, so Tim & I watched Turner & Hooch, then Uncle Buck while the kids did their own thing (we don't have any TV stations here). Then we went to bed pretty early. I really hope Christmas is better. I hope to experience the joy, the peace, the magical feel of the holiday. We'll attend the local parade and hope to find some church programs to go to. We're not very commercial when it comes to Christmas anyway, so I hope the meaning isn't lost this year either. We won't be able to buy gifts this year, but we'll bake and cook and make what we can for those closest to us. It's not about the "stuff", it never has been. I just want so much for my children, and I feel like the past year's been a real let-down for them. I do hope they at least will learn from this experience about not feeling so secure in "a good job", will save even more than we did, and understand giving doesn't stop just because times are tight. I hope they learn that faith and family are most important.

All in all, I'm still thankful that our family is warm, dry, indoors, clothed, fed and together. It's enough.

New Scrapbooking ideas

Many of you know, I love to scrapbook. I've been doing it for almost 15 years now. With the exception of sewing on my pages, I've tried almost every technique out there. I've made pages that move, pages with stamping, digital scrapbooking, and even pages using bleach. This winter I'll get to do something different in my pages I haven't done in 7 years - build cold, winter and snow pages! I always liked the sharp contrast of bright white against the dark reds, greens and blues of traditional winter pages, but haven't gotten to make any of those since we lived in New Hampshire back in 2002/2003.

I have things put aside already to build fall pictures. I even dried some red leaves from the yard to use on my pages. I'll have photos of us in sweaters, wearing coats, by the fireplace, and probably in the snow - at least a dusting. They don't get too much snow here.

I'm hoping to enjoy a Christmas parade or two this year with the family. In Phoenix, it was at night, downtown, and we didn't go to those. In Mesa, the parade was about 15 minutes long and mainly consisted of a high school band, a Red Hats elderly group, and Veterans in uniform walking (in their 80s and 90s). The rest was just local businesses driving a car waving and people in puppet suits I didn't recognize.

We'll see what they have going on in Show Low and St. John's for "Electric Light Parades" in December. And we're hoping to host a Christmas party for our local business team here at the house too. Maybe there'll even be something at our new church to attend.

All of these should produce great photos for some new and exciting scrapbook pages that I haven't been able to design for years!

My Top 10 Things to do this Holiday Season

1. Try to make my own Christmas cards. How many will depend on how many scrapbooking supplies I have.

2. Sit by the fireplace. I haven't experienced real cold in 7 years. I plan on drinking lots of tea & cocoa by the fire all winter long.

3. Making Christmas gifts. This may be baking, cooking, involve scrapbooking, or if I run out of ideas, I'll be giving out the pickles we canned this fall.

4. Experiencing the events up here on the mountain, parades, bazaars, festivals, whatever there is up here in the middle of nowhere.

5. Watching lots of Christmas movies with the kids. Besides Snoopy and It's A Wonderful Life...any ideas?

6. Scrapbooking! I miss it, have lots of space, could find time to do it, but I'm out of supplies. I haven't bought anything new for a few years so I could use up older stuff. Now I need papers and adhesives and albums.

7. Listen to Christmas music. My favorite is Transiberian Orchestra's CDs, but if I'm in a mellow mood, I've got a few Manheim Steamroller CDs too.

8. Find a church event to attend so I can meet new people. I think I'll go to the tea they're doing mid-November.

9. Do something at the house for our homeschool group, maybe host a hang-out, game night for gr. 7 - 12 so older kids have something to do too.

10. Cook a Mexican Christmas menu (even if it's the week before Christmas dinner). I love tamales, enchiladas, real rice & beans, etc.

Halloween weekend

We've never celebrated Halloween in our household. When I was growing up, I did, but I wasn't a Christ-follower then, and neither were my parents. Tim grew up as a Jehovah's Witness when he was in elementary school. When we got married and had kids, Tim said that he didn't want our kids to celebrate it, I researched the origins, and realized that if my faith was important to me, I didn't want to celebrate it either. Over the years we've asked the kids how they feel about it and although it would be fun to dress up, which they did throughout the year for other events anyway, they really didn't feel like they were missing out. They enjoyed getting home just before trick or treating hours were over, sneak into the dark house by the back door, unseen. They they'd "spy" on the neighborhood kids and comment on what costumes were creative, popular, and unexpected.

What we usually do on Oct. 31st is launch our holiday season. I usually take the kids out for a breakfast-supper at IHOP or Denny's. Then we discuss what we want to do for the holidays: menus, gifts, what we'll make for others, any volunteering we'll do, etc.

This year we're sharing a house with Tim's parents and for the past 6 years (it started when Tim's cousin Rachel lived here and did Halloween with her son Darren), they've handed out candy. There's about 30 kids that make a point to stop here they tell me, so they hand out candy. Knowing this, we decided maybe we'd try just handing out candy with Mom this year.

To hand out the candy, Jordan & Logan wanted to know if they could dress up as 80s rockers. Tim & I talked it over and agreed they could. At this age, dressing up isn't going to change their whole faith and belief system. They got all decked out, even invited their 2 friends that live nearby to stay overnight. They were ready.

Concho, AZ isn't officially a city, or even an official town. It's a community, maybe a village, whatever you want to call it, but there's no city government, no one to decide on what hours or even what DAY to go trick or treating. Everything here is run as just part of Apache County. We all played a few games of Monopoly, first the adults, then the boys. All night we waited, from about 5 - 9:30 pm, and no one came - not a single kid. Our kids were so disappointed. Their hoping they come tonight. Up here, there's a lot of Mormon families and they celebrate all holidays that fall on a Sunday - on Saturday, to keep Sunday holy. So we thought they'd come last night. Maybe since the closest 2 or 3 towns did big city-wide events last night on Saturday, maybe the kids here will come trick or treating tonight so they get to do both. There's a K-8 school within walking distance from our house, so we know there's lots of kids to potentially come here.

If they do come tonight...we'll be ready for them.

Now it's really Fall up on the mountain!

For the past 7 years we've had 2 seasons, summer and not summer. Now we're back to having 4 seasons and it feels very strange. It's down to the high 60s during the day and between 35 and 45 and night. We're going shopping in 2 weeks for warm clothes! Adam & Jordan don't own coats, I, along with them, don't own hardly any long-sleeve shirts! We haven't worn socks, sweaters, hats, gloves, any of that, since we lived in NH when they were little. I think at least for the 1st winter, we'll see it as "fun". We'll see dustings of snow - but it'll melt the same day. We'll get to enjoy sitting by the fireplace when we do our History and Literature Discussions for school. We'll get to sip hot cocoa wrapped up in my favorite Mexican blanket to stay warm, cuddled up with a good book. The kids' reading spots have already changed to "whatever chair is in the sun". And if we're lucky, I'll get to take photos and scrapbook the kids making small snowballs, shoveling (mostly just for fun, an inch or two of snow), and I'll get to use up those winter stickers and patterned paper I've kept all these years.

Fall here means there's a few trees here, more in town, with their leaves turned yellow and bright red. The green grasses have turned a golden brown. The sunsets are yellow, gold and orange instead of blue and purple, the garden is all done, canning pickles is done (finally), and October means tarantulas blow into the pool we don't use. Here's some pictures of fall around here - just know that in real life, the colors are brighter and more vivid. The red vine is usually green except this time of year - it's called a Virginia Creeper.

It's the beginning of fall.

Up here in the mountains, you can tell it's the beginning of fall. A few of the plants are taking on that reddish tint to their leaves, the nights are colder, and our daytime high is in the 70s and low 80s. The hummingbirds have slowed down and we're harvesting from the garden out back. Anyone need any cucumbers?

I'm not sure how we'll do this first winter. Maybe it'll be exciting because it's new all over again. Maybe it'll be harder than we thought - most of us don't own warm weather clothes anymore and the last time I bought coats, the kids were 5, 7 and 9 - now they're 12, 14 and 16!

Either way, I'm enjoying a quieter life now. There are moments when I feel bored or lonely for a friend, but it's not that often. Mostly I'm thankful we aren't in a 1000sf condo for the 5 of us, there aren't strangers walking by my front door, I'm not listening to the neighbors fighting (again), and my kids are safe here, and oh yeah, you can even drink the water here!

Fall will be a time of freezing veggies from the garden, canning pickles, dressing in sweaters and sweatshirts I haven't worn in 8 years (I'm smaller now, yeah!), and cuddling up next to the fireplace with my snuggie and a cup of cocoa. And I get to use the griddle on our stainless industrial stove! It takes an hour to heat up and several hours to cool down, so we only plan on using it in the winter. I can't wait for that either!

This Christmas we're all trying to figure out what to make for each other. It'll be a thoughtful holiday with effort going into the gifts we make and give to each other. If you have a safe, warm house, surrounded by family, a beautiful tree in the corner to commemorate the season, what more do you need?

I'm also looking forward to having a fall tea sometime soon. Lots of goodies with pumpkin, cranberries, oranges and cinnamon. So what will you do to bring in the fall?

Concho's 5 Senses: Part 2: Sight

There are so many amazing sights here you just don't see in the city. There's way too many that I don't have photos for, but here's my list:

1. Our family feeding hummingbirds, sometimes almost by hand. They're amazing little birds that are so active that often I can't concentrate on my reading on the back porch because their wings buzz so loudly.

2. Incredible sunrises and sunsets. You need lots of big, open, unobstructed sky to really appreciate the true works of art in God's world. They're amazing to see when there aren't buildings, wires and trees in the way.

3. The animals! Since moving here we've seen elk, deer, rabbits, eagles, hawks, snakes, lizards, squirrels, and the cutest little prarie dogs!

4. Double rainbows brighter than any I've seen through the smog in the Valley or the pieces peeking out between too many trees in NH. It goes back to the big open sky thing.

5. Incredible lightning storms! You can see them rolling in from miles away. They always look like they're hitting so close - sometimes they do - but it's an amazing sight to see up here. Maybe because at almost 6500 ft. elevation they're closer?

6. Raising tadpoles to frogs. This was interesting. With more rain than usual, the disfunctional pool filled with water, then a few frogs found it and laid eggs. We watched what looked like a thousand tadpoles turn canibalistic until there were just a few hundred. Then they looked like mice, all brown and puffy w/long tails. They grew back legs - we were so excited! - then front ones. They turned into tiny little frogs. We threw 10 of them into the golf course pond to save those because we found out how dumb frogs are...they either end up drowning (how does that happen with plenty of pool bottom out of the water?), or they sun themselves til they shrivel up and get eaten by the ants, or they get attacked by the remaining 50 tadpoles. As homeschoolers, it was a neat learning adventure.

7. The wildflowers! I know purple thistles are on the Ferguson family crest, so I was thrilled to see them growing here. There's also wildflowers in oranges, purples, whites, yellows and pinks. I've never seen any of them before. Most are tiny flowers. I also like driving down the road and the black-eyed susan daisies will fill a field until all you see is a carpet of green and yellow.

8. A deep green garden in the usually brown high desert...I can't take ANY credit for that one. I kill plants. I feel like I'm the only one on both sides of my family that can't grow things. The rest of this family however, has grown a beautiful, deep green garden full of green beans, corn, squash, carrots, potatoes, melons, cucumbers, and a few peas. I love eating organic so this is a treat I'm very thankful to have. My part is properly freezing the leftovers for everyone.

9. Green everywhere! This year had more rain than any of the 6 years Tim's parents have lived here. The drive anywhere here is beautiful. Miles and miles of open, rolling green fields and hills. I expected the usual brown this year, being desert, and we're above the tree line, so green is a scarce color here. I'm thankful for all the welcoming green our family's seen this summer.

10. REAL cowboys. They wear hats, boots & jeans, they sing old Cowboy folk songs, they play guitar, live on lots of land, their word is important to them, they're patriotic, can shoot a fly off a fence at 100 yards (or however that saying goes), and they respect women. I wish there was some kind of Cowboy Revival. Our country needs that.

Logan's 8th Grade graduation

It's so hard to believe it's been 2 years since we gathered at the Phoenix Homeschool Convention for Adam's 8th Grade Graduation. Now it's Logan's turn. These past 2 years were full of changes. I had to go find a part-time job (twice), we moved to a whole new demographic area, we had Tim go from working all the time in sales to being Self-Employed in our Monavie business, and we entered the world of our 16 year old - moodiness, silence, dating, etc.

It scares me to think that in just 2 more years, not only will it be Jordan's turn, but that same weekend, Adam will be graduating from 12th grade and I'll be down to homeschooling just 2 of my kids! It's been my God-given purpose for so long, and at times I've had to fight to save it with everything in me, but too soon it'll be over. What will I be purposed to do then? I hope it's still teaching. Maybe a small group setting? Maybe a Ladies' Bible Study? Maybe tutoring? It's too unnerving to think about.

Logan's graduation was this past Friday night. He was so handsome in his shirt, tie and dress pants. The funniest part was the dress shoes. For some reason, he admitted, he walked different in them...more like a salesman walk than a student. He couldn't explain it, but it was really obvious. What genetics will awaken in him later on in life?

I was happy to see so many of our friends graduating with Logan. His friends Joey, Austin, Lauren, and Colin graduated with him. They were all in drama together for years. I've watched them grow up too. Time goes so fast! We were also blessed to have been able to share this moment with Nana, as well as Ken & Arleen Burke, friends we've known since before he was born.

This has really been a great time in Logan's life. He's stepped up and become more trustworthy and responsible lately, a true hard-worker. He almost never complains about doing all the physical jobs - he almost seems like he enjoys it - like he knows the secret is that it'll make him strong with a washboard stomach (he's already got one with about 0% body fat). I'm so proud of him.

I'm going to really try to savor every single moment of the next/last 4 years of homeschooling him.

Summer So Far...Part 2 of 2

Here's the second batch:

July - 4th of July parade in Show Low, Jordan & Logan carried the sign for the AZ Rangers and Tim's dad was on the horse on the left, fireworks are set off on Cinder Mtn. right out the front door, we went to Club 61, a local eatery, to help celebrate a friend of the family's bday. About 7 people showed up w/guitars and played old cowboy songs together (very old west), Tim & Logan played with them. Then we have our friends' wedding, Gabe & Steph. The shots of us, Tim's parents & Logan are from the wedding, then there's an amazing sunset, a hummingbird (they live in the bushes behind the house), a rainbow that we could see end to end, our cat, wildlife on the side of the road in Springerville, and a closeup shot of a dragonfly I took - looks like a science book photo.

Photos of my summer so far...Part 1 of 2

I never know what order the pictures will load to my blog but here a rundown of what I posted:

New House - my industrial stove, my private living room & kitchen (there's a family room w/a fireplace in a common area), the hall w/5 bedrooms off it where the kids are, Tim & I are in the in-law apt., just the 2 of us, it's great!, and the "atrium", it's a room with 3 glass walls and it's our classroom, scrapbooking room and dining room.

June - Jordan at Lyman lake, my friends Moni & Gloria when they came up to visit, Tim & me on Cinder Mtn. on his bday, the lavender farm, and Mom's Red Hats float in the Concho parade

May - me & Tim the night before moving, my bible study friends when we had tea together one last time, my cousin Melody had a baby girl named Lexi, my family (at work), and Logan's baptism that he had both our pastor and Tim officiate.