We have been enjoying some of the best fall leaves that I can remember in a long time. There’s beauty everywhere you look. I sure wish it all lasted longer than 2-3 weeks. We’ve also been enjoying some warm weather. I’ve even gone upstairs and retrieved a few short sleeve shirts. The temperatures took a nose dive over the weekend.
There’s been a lot of activity going on in our area fields too. The Pinsons have been combining the soybeans, and Bill Chatman has been plowing the corn fields in preparation for sowing wheat. Last night he was still at it when I went to bed.
UNDER THE WEATHER. I think it all started when Ben began coughing after we got home from vacation. This eventually spread to Vicki. Then Ben started feeling pretty rough last weekend. Next was Aunt Mar. By Sunday neither Aunt Mar nor Ben felt like going to church so I stayed home with the two of them. Vicki took Ben to the doctor Tuesday and learned he had walking pneumonia. He also missed school Wednesday and Thursday. So far Nate, Jenna, and I have stayed relatively healthy.
SPEECH WRITER. I think I have mentioned that Jenna is in 4-H. They had their local speech contest a couple of weeks ago. She really struggled with writing it, but she must have written a pretty good one as she won second place in her class. She’ll get to go to the county speech contest toward the end of January. Her speech is titled Caring for Our World.
THAT’S JUST GROSS! So Vicki and Jenna were watching TV when a commercial for some Internet search engine came on. The premise of the ad was how easy it is to find answers to obscure questions like, “What are hot dogs are made of?” This made Jenna turn to Vicki and ask, “So, what are hot dogs made of?” After Vicki replied, “You don’t want to know.” This look of horror came over Jenna’s face. Voicing her thought she asked, “Dogs?”
Well, Vicki did straighten Jenna out of the ingredients of wieners, but now they are both wondering why the food is called a hot dog in the first place. I sure don’t know, but then my preference is for another misnamed food anyway -- hamburgers.
AFTER SCHOOL SNACK. Think back to childhood. What was the first thing you did when you came in from school? Get a snack, right? For me it was a peanut butter sandwich. Well, our kids are no different, and Mom and Aunt Mar are eager to please -- too eager. I got to their house a little earlier than usual the other day and saw the whole spread. Jenna had finished eating, but Nate was still in the middle of his meal. While no ice cream was served this particular day (an oversight I’m sure) I found Nate working on a bowl of Cheerios, a cup cake, M&M’s, Reese’s Cups, and Teddy Bear cookies. And we wonder why they won’t eat much for supper.
BIG DREAMS. It’s that time of year when kids start to think about what they want for Christmas. We used to get catalogs from all the stores when I was a kid: Sears, J. C. Penny, etc. I loved looking through the toy pages in these books. It seems like Service Merchandise would print the best selection of toys in their wish book. I think they printed a special toy catalog. Well, for our kids THE book is the Toys ‘R Us catalog. They pour over it, pass it around, put it by their bed at night, etc. Since Jenna and Ben know some inside information about how Christmas works they know they’ll have a budget for picking out what they want so they are really busy trying to prioritize their wish list. What they don’t know is how much that budget is. I’m sure this will begin to drive all of us crazy soon if Vicki and I don’t decide on an amount quickly. ‘Tis just about the season!
Joe
