Celebrate Families Retreat

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The best part about the weekend was worship this morning. Despite the chilly temperatures, we met in the amphitheater to to praise God. Jon read scripture and directed the remembrance of the Lord's Supper. Caleb led, 'This World is Not My Home." Dave led the worship services. It was great to worship by the lake in the woods.

Saturday's activities include classes reinforcing qualities of Fantastic Families from the same titled book by Joe Beam. Jon taught the class on commitment, I facilitated activities for the communication class. Frankie helped with Jon's class and Caleb helped with mine. Abigail served as the intern to our Youth Intern Chad in the Handling Stress class. During free we were able to rock climb, shoot BB guns, shoot bow & arrows, make candles, lots of great things. My favorite part of the evening was the camp fire at the end of the day. We sang camp fire songs and worship songs, the kids enjoyed the part about making s'mores!

Friday we kicked off our Celebrate Families Retreat. Jon and I have been working with our Family Life Minister, Dave Stevens to plan this weekend for months. Jon took off work on Friday so we could arrive early and set up. The kids enjoyed playing board games with our family and with friends. Frankie was the master of Uno. Caleb dominated at Monopoly, and Abigail especially enjoyed Clue. Every family enjoyed their own cabin, it was a very nice camp. Of course this weekend there was a serious cold snap, but it didn't damper our activities at all! Padme' spent the weekend at the 'puppy hotel'. I think next year we will bring her with us!

Very Blessed

Our big adventure today was to South Dallas. Cornerstone Baptist Church feed the homeless community. Their facility is very crowded and can’t accommodate the line of people outside their facility. The kitchen provides meals twice-weekly. They have on-going projects for transitional living quarters for homeless people who find shelter under nearby bridges and abandoned buildings. We took homemade muffins to the guests. It was incredibly sad. On a lighter note, Caleb said today, that if he was ever homeless, he would rather be homeless in North Plano than South Dallas.

Figaro, Figaro, Figaro

Jon and I treated Caleb to the sequel to the Barber of Seville, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Marriage of Figaro. Caleb loved the characters in The Barber of Seville (we saw it 2 years ago) and in this opera they are all grown up, with grown up problems that have to be resolved in one crazy day. There was also a teenager with a major crush, a tipsy gardener, and schemers and dreamers looking for love. It is hailed as one of Mozart’s finest and funniest operas! This opera was considered revolutionary – both musically and politically – the lively romantic comedy begins with Figaro and Susanna preparing for their wedding night, not realizing how many people they’ll have to maneuver around in order to fall into each other’s arms! The four hour opera, in Italian, with English supertitles, is probably not what most eleven year olds would pick . . . but Caleb had a ball! He was singing the whole way out of the opera house!

Thank You to Our Heros!

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Today we honored the men and women who have provided our freedom! Along with our homeschool buddies from church, we cheered as veterans from our various wars, National Guard, Red Cross, Jr. ROTC groups and many others participated in the Dallas Veteran's Day Parade. The kid held up signs, waved flags and applauded as these brave men and women passed by. Granddaddy was 'old Navy' during WWII, and my other Grandfather was an 'army man' in WWII. Jon's father was an 'army man' during Korea.

Home Video of the Parade
(this is in a low-resolution so that it will load quickly)

Dinner Reservations

My mom treated us to the best steak in the world, bar none!!!! We had a fabulous dinner at Ruth's Chris Steak House. We started off with a sweet red pepper calamari, then moved on to baby arugula salad, sauteed mushrooms, fresh asparagus with hollandaise sauce, garlic potatoes, fresh broccoli served au gratin, blue cheese crusted filet mignon and prime rib. . . . oh, and did I mention we finished with a delectable Chocolate Sin Cake! It was an exceptional dinner and just as phenomenal lunch on Saturday!!!

Wild Things

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This morning my mom flew in from Tulsa for a visit. Our first stop was the Grapevine Mills Mall. We enjoyed visiting as we wondered from store to store. Each of the kids built an animal at the Build a Bear shop. Abigail built the sweetest black bear with Hannah Montana gear. Caleb built an orangutan in army fatigues. And Sissy selected a pink bear with hearts. The kids had so much fun creating their animals, and selecting clothing and accessories for them. What a neat experience! Once we completed their new friends, we enjoyed lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. All of the waiters are park rangers, the restaurant is decorated in a tropical rainforest theme. The animals come to 'life' and sing. Big day!

Stinky Cheese Fun

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Today we enjoyed another fun performance at Casa Mañana with the presentation of The Stinky Cheese Man And Other Fair(l)y (Stoopid) Tales. This was a hilarious reinvention of the story from the Brothers Grimm.

It begins with Jack who just wants to chop down his beanstalk in peace, but the little red hen, the princess, the wolf and a host of familiar fairytale characters keep getting in the way and then there's also that annoying Stinky Cheese Man. Instead of the gingerbread man who is chased by all those wanting to eat him, this story stars the cheese man whom everyone runs away from because he smells awful. Other twists include the Ugly Duckling growing up to be a really ugly duck, the Princess kissing a frog only to end up with a mouthful of slime, and the odd tale of Cinder-Rumplestilkstin.

The musical was adapted from the award-winning picture book by Jon Scieszka who wrote the same titled book to entice the reluctant reader to enjoy and even aspire to write their own stories and it doesn’t have to be a ‘Once Upon a Time’ or ‘Happily Ever After’ book.

Stepping Up

We volunteered time today at God's Food Pantry. We bagged up rice & beans into individual packages. We also sorted thousands of donated canned goods. The pantry receives so many donations this time of year just before the holidays. In the next few weeks they will be getting boxes ready for Thanksgiving.