Thanksgiving Weekend 2020

Thanksgiving this year was so WONDERFUL!

We had a very full weekend, starting around noon on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving when I decided to decorate the house for Christmas!

Chad was actually the one who asked if I would like him to put up the trees, and YES, I loved that idea!


We got both the upstairs and downstairs trees up, lighted, and decorated, as well as getting the porch and a few other areas decorated.

It turned out beautiful!

I love the lights of the Christmas season!

Thursday morning we hopped out of bed early and bustled around the kitchen all together to make a noon time Thanksgiving meal for our guests!

Tate was in his element!!


Pretty soon we were all ready!

We had a yummy meal prepared – roasted chicken, cubed & roasted yams, smashed red potatoes, green beans and bacon, rolls, cranberry relish salad, broccoli salad, and a tossed lettuce, pear and pomegranate salad.

We had hot cider, hot coffee, and cold juice spritzers to sip as well!

Here is our traditional Team Moschel Thanksgiving photo!


Our friends arrived and while the food heated we had a time of singing and sharing!

It was THE BEST.

We ate all that yummy food, visited, played games, visited some more….and then there was PIE.

My face hurt the next day from laughing so much – that is how you know you have had a blast with your friends!


We hopped out of bed early Friday morning to get ourselves ready to travel to a wedding.

We rented a van to travel in so we could all be in one vehicle and have some space.

We loaded up around 8 a.m. Friday morning to head out.

I took my breakfast to eat along the way – and yes, it was pie!


The wedding was BEAUTIFUL.

The music was AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL!

It filled our hearts to over flowing to share in SUCH a special day for our friends!


We also got to spend some time with our dear friends who traveled to the wedding as well!


Saturday we were tired, so we slept till we woke and had a slow lazy breakfast.

Breakfast looks like this when my hubby makes it.

He makes me smile!


Then the guys decided to take all of the kiddos hunting (the littles have been BEGGING to go with them), so I headed to town to get grocery and run some Christmas errands!

It was a gorgeous day!


I clearly did not think this grocery shopping trip through because when I arrived home there was not one soul to help me unload all those bags!


We had looked forward to Sunday all weekend – it was time to have Thanksgiving with Kay’s!

We made a simple meal of soup, bread, and fruit for after church.

Then we spent the day together playing with the kiddos, chatting, drinking David’s amazing lattes, and playing games.

It was PERFECT.


Pretty soon it was time to get ready to go to a (different) wedding reception that evening.

As we got each one ready, I sat them in the office to watch Nutbrown Hare – you know, in an effort to keep everyone clean and happy and all!

As I stood there I was overwhelmed with gratefulness.


JUST LOOK WHAT GOD DID.

Our children, our grand children….I could never have imagined this season if I had tried!

What a wonderful season it is!!

Our littlest ones growing up as best friends with our grand babies.

How it love it all.

We have so much to be thankful for!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend too!!

More Birthdays!!

We have a string of birthdays in November and December!

We started with Clyde back at the beginning of November.

Next up was Briar and David!

Briar was born one day before David’s birthday!

She is now TWO years old!

It has went SO fast!

We had a little celebration at the farm!

With chicken and beef fajitas and all the fixings for dinner.


David requested Boston Cream Pie for dessert!


A couple of weeks later (this past weekend) it was Ellie’s birthday!

Our Ellie Joy is FIVE!!

Crazy as that sounds, it’s true.

We had another little celebration at the farm!

This time it was baked potato bar with all the fixings!

Birthday parties are YUMMY!


Ellie requested chocolate cake with vanilla frosting, smart girl!

She is one adorable five year old!


Next up is Chad!

Stay tuned to see what he chooses for his meal and dessert – but I know it will be yummy too!

Hopefully for Chad’s birthday I will be able to take a decent photo, ha, ha!

Please excuse all the blurry ones!

Birthday season is a great season!

What a joy it is to celebrate our favorite’s birthdays.

Happy, happy birthday Briar Promise, David Joel, and Ellie Joy!!

WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!

Well Hello November

November is here!

The holidays are upon us!

And I am SO happy about that!

The first two weeks of November brought some unseasonably warm weather to our neck of the woods.

It was FANTASTIC.

A girlfriend and I wanted to get together for coffee and a chat, but you cannot sit in any of our local coffee shops.

Thanks to that great weather I took some camp chairs to town for our coffee date.

Yes, I did!

We had our coffee date in the parking lot!

We got a lot of looks, but I bet people were thinking “why didn’t I think of that!”


The beautiful weather gave us a lot of opportunity to be outside, to go on brisk walks, and to enjoy the gorgeous sunrises and sunsets!

Ruby is NOT happy when she gets left behind!


Chad finished up a hunting blind he built and now it is for sale!

It turned out great!


Are you tired of seeing the same things here in our little scrapbook?

School, books, and food on repeat!

Hope not – because here are some more photos of those three things!

School has been wonderful – we are still studying Brazil!

I bought a guava for us to taste because of that fact.

We must not have let it ripen enough.

It was very yucky!

I gave it to the hens when we didn’t like it and they did not touch it either!


My trio and I do spelling every school day with a curriculum we have been using since Kayla was little.

My husband tells me often to not try to fix things that are not broken – and this spelling program works like a charm!


The two littles are learning about Flying Creatures in Science this year.

Birds are fascinating!

I absolutely love this illustration and narration that Eliza did!

Read what she wrote!

She is CUTE.


Lane is a Math whiz.

As seen here by his pre-algebra grades.


Tate still will ask what things are – and he has been immersed in the English language for five years now!

This day he said “Mom, what is a Doug?”


I know I take too many photos of the cute ways that they sit.

I can’t help myself!!


Another thing I have a ton of photos of!

Littles in God’s Word.

You can’t blame me though, I just know you can’t!


Our afternoons are still full of the same things too!

Read aloud, books, games, time outside, and a movie once in a while.


My days are fullllll.

Same things as always!

I cannot imagine anything better than running this little nest called Twin Oaks and schooling these beautiful children!

Food prep – well, I talked about food prep in a post here.

Food prep is just a big part of life!

I am glad I have helpers!


We bought a case of bananas recently for all the smoothie and chunky monkey making!


Bible study with my girlfriend turned into more of a chatting and bread making get together this last time!

She brought her bread machine and some 1 to 1 gluten-free flour to see if we could make a good loaf of gluten-free bread.

We loaded that bread machine, she headed home, and the rest of us headed to Clyde’s birthday party.

When we got back home at 9 p.m. the house was FULL of smoke and this is what we found had happened to the bread.

YIKES!

We are so thankful the dogs were ok, and that there was not a fire!

It took three days to clear the smoke from the house!


I pre-ordered the new Bible Recap book months ago, and it arrived this past week!

I honestly ordered it to support the ministry, but I LOVE IT!!


Speaking of supporting people – there is a boy from China who lives in California with his forever family.

He is built a lot like our Tate.

Ryker just had a BIG surgery at the beginning of November.

We bought some sweatshirts they were selling as a fund raiser to help with their medical bills.

We love these sweatshirts!


Did you all vote?

We did.

CRAZY WORLD.


Eliza came upstairs one evening and told us she was supporting Trump.

We died laughing.

If you need some JOY in your life, hang out with children all day!


We work on building relationships here through chores sometimes!

I have Lane and Eliza as the bed team this year – they wash all of the sheets every Tuesday and remake the beds together.

Team work teaches SO many lessons!!


I had a celiac reaction last week.

I’ll spare you the details, but it had me in bed for the better part of two days.

I was so thankful for everyone who did everything I normally do, and for kiddos who like to be with their mama!


Last but certainly NOT least…my Bible time.

The last few months God’s Word has just come alive for me!

It’s exciting!

And life-changing!

I’m so thankful for my Bible and the time I get to spend reading and studying and memorizing it!

If you are not a Christian, read the book of John.

If you are a Christian, read your Bible!

I promise you will never regret it!

It has such eternal value!


One more thing.

If you are spending lots of time watching media and news – STOP.

Please stop!

Open your Bible instead.

The BEST way to face this craziness in the world right now is WITH THE ARMOR OF GOD – His written Word!

Take your thoughts captive to CHRIST.

Live for Him!

Let your light SHINE in this darkness!!

God’s plan will prevail!!

Amen and amen!!

Happy November, everyone!!

Clyde Strength is FIVE!!

I seriously had a melt down when Tate and Eliza both turned five…but now our oldest grand baby is five, and his sister will be five soon too!

HOW did that happen so fast??

A week ago Thursday, we all headed to the farm to celebrate Clyde’s birthday with him!

First we had a yummy meal and then it was time for gifts.

My photos are mostly blurry, but I am still adding them here – because the memories captured mean more to me than my photography skills!


Clyde had asked for chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and his mama made him just that!

I love this series of photos – they show our Clyde’s personality so perfectly!


What a sweet little celebration it was!

Clyde is full of enthusiasm, JOY, inquisitiveness, and energy…but has the softest heart and fills his first-born-big-brother roll perfectly.

He is an amazing willing helper to his Mama!

He fills my heart SO full!!

For those of you who are already in the season of being a Grandma, you know how full my heart is!

For those of you not quite there yet – JUST WAIT.

What a gift to see your own children be parents, and what a blessing to be a part of your grand children’s lives!

Clyde Strength – we are SO grateful you were born!!

WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!

Happy, happy birthday to you, Clydey boy!!