Nov 16-It takes US afar.....

Well, so much for my blog-a-day deal...turns out that when we leave at 2:00 on Friday afternoon and don't get back home until 5:00 on Sunday afternoon, that not much blogging happens! Not much of anything happens except football and driving...and more driving and a little more driving. So, today, my thanksgiving shout out goes to Ole Faithful...

I'm seriously sooooo thankful and grateful for the reliability of our van. Sure her driver's side sliding door needs a little boost every now and then, but otherwise she's the picture of faithfulness! Not only has she taken us back and forth to many states, this fall she's taken us a lot of miles courtesy of FEAST Patriot football (and Classical Conversations, and Living Water Christian Fellowship, etc, etc, etc,)! I can't tell you how very thankful I am to not even give a second thought to getting in the car and going somewhere. Several times during this past week I've recounted to different people some of the cars that I had in high school that would randomly die...you never quite knew where or when. Not fun! Not fun as a high schooler in Bryan, TX....much LESS as a boy-toting mom who has places to be in San Antonio! So, thankfully this doesn't happen AT ALL, EVER with our van! Thank you, Lord!!

I'm also thankful for the Patriot's winning their games! So far, they've made it to the second round of playoffs! A win this weekend sends them to the championship game. Stay tuned for that!

I'm also incredibly thankful for mom and dad living in Bryan and being so willing to let us come and crash at their house (which is closer to the games over the last several weeks than our house in Castroville) and for their coming to the games to cheer on their grandsons!

11/12: They came from afar....

We were so thrilled a couple of weeks ago when Tony and Gin-gin called on Tuesday and asked if they could come for a visit on Friday! Of course we gave a hearty and resounding "YES!!!" So, off they flew from sunny Southern California to well, sunny Southern Texas. Not a bad tradeoff! And actually the weather while they were here was a lot like So. California's weather is year round. Cool in the evenings very pleasant in the daytime. NOT like So. Texas weather is mostly (even though we don't tell them that because we really want them to move here! We keep weather news happy! :-) ) Over the short, 36ish hour, visit, T&G got to see everyone play football and even got in a trip downtown to Hemisfair park. We just so love being around them and wish it could happen so much more than it does. California is just so stinkin' far away!! But we are thankful for airplanes and Southwest Airlines, especially!!

This is after Jeffrey's final game. He scored a touchdown in this game, and his team scored almost as many points in this game than in all their other games put together! (I'll let your mind formulate it's own opinions about the strength of his team from that fact!)

Jeffrey being the statue from Hemisfair park.

Josiah, with his typical dirty, bare feet, playing at FEAST before J&Js game.

J&J after their game, which they won. Jeremy scored a touchdown in this game. Unfortunately, Tony had just gone to the car to get a sweater for Gin when it happened. Gotta work on that timing a little!

Jeffrey before his game!

Thanks again, Tony and Gin for making the trip out! We had sooooo much fun, even for a short time!So, today I'm so very thankful for family that we love (and LIKE!) both near and far!

Days of Thanksgiving - 11/11

I thought about waiting until tomorrow to do a new blog post, just to make it an even TWO months since my last post...but decided against it. To say that this fall has been busy would just be an excuse, everyone's busy. Let's just say that blogging has fallen to the bottom of the barrel, unfortunately along with exercise, meal planning, pleasure reading and early dinners. But alas, there is a light at the end of the tunnel....actually it's more like the early dark at the end of the day. Fall is rapidly coming to a close along with Patriot football and Semester 1 of Classical Conversations...the two big time drains this fall. So, as we head into November, I'm going to copy a great idea and post one thing each day to be thankful for in my life. I thought about "A new blog post" as being #1...but there's more to be thankful for. I'm already 11 days behind, so I need to get with it!

I think hands down one of the things that I'm most thankful for this week is...

an early sunrise and early sunset. I remember in years gone by that the "fall backward" was my least favorite of the time changes because you can't tell a 1 or 2 year old "Honey, look at the clock, it's 5:30 NOT 6:30". But now, all my boys can tell time!! And the sun comes up at about 6:15 now, so we are all up and going by 6:30 or 7:00. Admittedly, it's easier to "rise early while it is still dark to provide food for her household" Prov. 31:15 when the sun rises at 7:45. However, (big confession alert!) I almost never did. So, I'm so thankful to get up with the sun and still have a lot of morning ahead of me! Since we still have to be leaving to do things at FEAST by 2 or 3 most days of the week, the extra time in the morning is really wonderful. Equally wonderful is the fact that everyone is wiped out and eager for bed at 8:00 at night!! Since it's dark earlier, football has now been moved from 4-6, so dinner is even earlier!! Horray for standard time!!!

"It is good to give thanks to the Lord and sing praises to Your name, O Most High. I will declare the lovingkindness of the Lord in the morning and His faithfulness by night"! Ps. 92:1-2

Sunday night football-middle school

Yeah! I found some middle school pictures! The Patriots lost their first game, but won their second. Jeffrey is #12. Here he is running in his first game. He plays QB for the B team.
He's running in this one too. He's got the football, the fourth player from the left. EDIT:: The football critics sitting next to me (alias J&J) told me that there is NO WAY Jeffrey is on offense because the down field blocking is non-existent. "Upon further review, the ruling on the field" is that they are right. Jeffrey is playing defense on this play.

At the first game, he was selected to go out for the flip at the beginning of the game. What you can't see is the face of the ref reading the flip. It was Michael! Due to a miscommunication, the refs didn't show, so Michael and a dad from the other team agreed to ref so the game wouldn't have to be forfeited. What a guy!!

Here's the "tunnel" at the end of the game. All the players get to run through. It's always fun...win or lose.

Here are the teams praying after the game. Jeffrey is #12.

Here's the team running through the banner. Jeffrey is SURE that he is the one on the far left with long white socks. (He recognized his cleats....hmmmm I guess I'll take his word for it!)

Both the middle school and high school team photographers have put their photos up on a shutterfly website which makes it very nice and easy for those of us with a lame camera (or having a very nice conversation on the sidelines!) to have access to great photos. Yippee! Good clear shots! Makes for nice blogs!

Sunday night football

So, I found the cords to my camera!!! Here are some football photos from the last couple of weeks. I hope to share game shots on Sunday evenings from the week's games. Some of these were taken by the official team photographer so they are...well....good photos. It won't be hard to tell which is which! :-)

This was from their first game...this is the team running through the banner. Below is the shot that should have come first...the banner.

The Patriots won this game.

This photo was from the second game which was played near Houston. Michael's dad and sister got to come for this game. The Patriots won this game as well.

Somewhere saved on my computer....can't find them!....are pictures from the next three games. We won one and lost two. Below are photos from yesterday's game. We won 68-19. Jonathan scored three touchdowns, Jeremy scored two (and two the day before in the varsity game) and blocked a punt. There were a couple of plays where Jonathan and Jeremy's "twinness" was displayed. Jonathan would be nearly sacked (as QB) and pitched up the ball seemingly into nowhere and out of nowhere would come Jeremy to catch the ball. One of those turned into a touchdown. The coaches on the sideline thought it was almost spooky! But loved the points just the same!

Jonathan throwing a pass....

running...
Here's Jeremy blocking the punt...awesome!

Jonathan shaking off a defensive player...

to score a touchdown.

Here's a couple of shots from the game in Houston. This one is Jeremy.

Jeremy catches this guy for a great tackle.

Jeffrey also played and won on Thursday, but I didn't have my camera and I haven't seen any photos from that one yet. Hopefully next Sunday there will be some.

Football has been lots of fun...lots of time away from home and late nights, but very fun!

Now we have 3!

Well, I couldn't find the cords for the camera....after losing the camera for a few weeks! I searched high and low, low and high, yet still they evade me! urgh!! So, Jeffrey took it upon himself to make a video of himself with his newest addition...braces, lime green braces! He's been looking forward to this day since the dentist told me for sure a month or so ago that he was going to need them for sure! Well, he was excited until two weeks ago when we went to the orthodontist and he got his spacers put in. Ouch! But now spacers are gone, braces are on and thankfully his mouth is not hurting much at all. I even planned a dinner last night with lots of soft foods. In fact, it was a "thanksgiving"esque meal...roasted turkey breast, dressing, sweet potatoes, "pink salad" and pumpkin pie. And after all of that preparation making all those soft foods, his mouth didn't even hurt! But that's ok 'cuz guess what...in order for Jeffrey to eat without pain, he has to take SMALL BITES!!! It's an answer to this mama's prayer! Jeffrey has a "chipmunk habit" while eating....he stuffs huge amount of foods into his mouth, shoves it to the side so his cheek bulges while he eats. After about 1 zillion times of "Jeffrey, please take smaller bites!!!!", it's still a bad habit. Now maybe that habit will be broken, at least for a while!! Now THAT'S worth the price of braces! :-) Well, almost. Braces X 3 ain't cheap! We are so thankful for how God provides for our family....even braces! And given the choice of Michael's teeth (who needed braces) vs. my eyes (who needed glasses), I'd always choose the teeth. Braces go away after a couple of years, glasses hang on and on and on and on!

Josiah's bummed that when his turn comes there won't be anyone (in his words) "in the pack" of Dagerath's with braces. Here's hoping that's true, Josiah! Can't imagine 4 in braces!!

The superfood...big lessons from small things

Ahhh, broccoli. The powerhouse food. Packed with nutrients and life-giving goodness. We learned a big lesson from broccoli today. The lesson: don't flush it down the potty. Yep, it doesn't fit through the pipes. It WILL stop up your toilet! So, in case you don't ever see broccoli on the list of things NOT to flush, you can just add it to the mental list!

This was a real life Monday scenario around Dagerath Academy today. One of my beloved children decided that he would flush his broccoli down the toilet instead of eating it. I know, I know. "You don't have toddlers", I hear you saying. "You have grown children!" Believe me I KNOW! I couldn't figure out why on earth the toilet wouldn't flush. I tried the plunger...several different ones in fact, but couldn't get it moving.

Michael got home and after dinner took a look at it. Asked all boys if they knew why the toilet wouldn't flush. No one knew. After getting various unnamed (b/c I don't even know what they are called!) plumbing tools out and using them, guess what floated up to the surface....yep. Bright.green.broccoli! Michael came into the other room and asked me what the boys had eaten for lunch. I started the list....green smoothie, cauliflower, pizza, broccoli...he stopped me right there and asked me to come into the bathroom where I saw the offending superfood doing no one any good floating in the toilet! We called in the only person (besides me) who had chosen broccoli as the veggie of choice at lunch and as we were walking in he said "Ok , I admit it, I flushed my broccoli". It had really not occurred to him that the broccoli would stop up the toilet. Oh boy. There are just some moments that you wish the parental instruction manual would pop out of the sky! Well, we did what we thought was best made him eat the broccoli out of the toilet.

No, I'm kidding! That's gross folks! But he DID get to clean all of the potties in the house before he went to bed and got some personal instruction on the consequences of deception...and he will be right by my side tomorrow and for the forseeable future. But all along, we've prayed for the boys to learn big lessons from small incidents and if growing in truthfulness and humility is learned by a little broccoli,even broccoli from the toilet, then broccoli truly is a SUPERfood!