I always believe that it's risky to say "I'll never ________" or "I always________". It sort of feels like you're setting yourself up to fail whatever it is you've stated.  It's like journals. I never write negative things in journals. Doesn't everyone know someone could READ your journal?? hello? Anyone with me?? 

There's so much emotional stuff going on right now. The air is so charged with despair and frustration, not just in the media and the country but sometimes at home with some difficulties we've had this season. (which are in no way near as bad as some people have it right now, they just add needles to the haystack, so to speak)

I've decided to make a list to dedicate myself to. Things I'm NOT going to do. I'll probably okay okay I'm guaranteed to fail at some, if not all of these things. But then again, the beauty of failure is that if you're still breathing, you can try again. So here goes.

I'm NOT Going to:
Stop believing in life after death. - John 3:16
Expect more of people than I am willing to give of myself -Mark 12:31
Say something negative when there's no need for it- Proverbs 21:23
Walk away from someone who needs something when I can give it to them- Matthew 25:40
Waste opportunities for hugs, from anyone-Romans 12:10
Focus on the bad things in life- Philippians 4:8
Lose hope or faith- Hebrews 11:1
Assume that I know more than God- Isaiah 55:9

I looked up the difference between gingersnaps and ginger cookies and found no conclusive evidence. Some people say gingersnaps are spicier and crispier, hence the "snap" part. Other sources said they were the same depending on where you were from and what they called them there. Across the pond they're ginger biscuits. I think I'll start calling them that here too. The complete Recipe will be at the bottom. I hate scrolling for directions photo by photo.

The cast of Characters:

The other cast of characters (this one dwindles as the process goes on)

First: Your helpers argue about who does what.

Please note that clothing is completely optional. I know of some people, who bake without them altogether. You know who you are.

Next: take turns.

Use the big mixer, her name's Big Bertha and she gets offended if you don't. (Don't forget my hidden message in this photo to the kiddies, don't do drugs! And save $ .70 on Kroger bar cheese but that doesn't seem as important)

This recipe requires several rounds of sifting, which is apparently, INCREDIBLY boring to my helpers. If I knew sifting would run them off I'd get out the flour more often.

These cookies get rolled in cinnamon sugar, with a gentle touch to roll. Isaac found this difficult so I did most of them. Then I put them on my great grandmother's cookie sheet to bake. Okay, that's a lie, I just let my steel pan get like that out of laziness but I like to pretend it's really old and that's why it looks like that. Just go with it.

Eventually you end up with delicious cookie goodness that even my picky kids ate.

This guy isn't picky. He'll probably eat 50% of these cookies before I get home from work tomorrow.

Beth's Ginger Biscuits

Ingredients:
2 cups flour 
1/2 tsp salt
1 tablespoon ground ginger (I used two tablespoons)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 egg
3/4 cup shortening
2/3 cup white sugar, 1/3 cup brown sugar (1 cup sugar total if you don't have brown you can use all white)
1/4 cup molasses
1/3 cup cinnamon sugar mixture

Preheat oven to 350
Sift flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon and salt into a mixing bowl. Stir. Sift again into another bowl.
Place shortening in mixing bowl and beat til creamy. Gradually beat in sugar (white and brown). Beat in egg and molasses.
Sift 1/3 of the flour mixture into the shortening mixture. Blend. Sift in remaining flour mixture until a soft dough forms.
Pinch small amounts and roll into 1 inch balls. Roll each ball in the cinnamon sugar mixture and place 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet.
Bake about 10  minutes, til the tops are rounded and slightly crackled. Cool on wire rack.

They sink back down flat as they cool and they are soft and delicious!

EDIT:
I just realized I said that pan was steel. I have no idea what metal it's made of. I just call it the metal pan.

*I have no explanation for the following picture, but stuff like this happens a lot at our house.

*Last weekend it was in the 70's here. We went to the park.

*This week the high temps are in the 40's and 50's.  I hate the cold.

*Steven sent me to work with Beef Jerky today. I love him.

*We have a leather chair in the living room that used to recline. The kids jumped on it and broke the bottom and now you can only sit in it. No one sits in it, because it's full of laundry from the dryer that has yet to be folded, and some folded clothes that have yet to be put away. I've nicknamed it the laundry recliner. It's the most expensive hamper I've ever owned.

*What number am I on? I should have used numbers instead of asterisks. 

*Thomas has had a fever over 100 degrees for like, 4 days. He doesn't have any other symptoms.

*Last weekend all the boys were in the Children's Christmas Program at church. This year it was an actual play with lines to memorize and everything. Isaac was an extra in several scenes with no lines and Oliver was baby Jesus at age 2. The other boys all had two roles each and lines to memorize. I have to say I am so proud of them. They knew all of their lines and it went off without a hitch. I was so impressed with all the kids from our church.

*Our Envoy has some weird glitches sometimes. Occasionally the speedometer gets stuck like 35-40 mph higher than you're going. For real. If you turn the engine off it will stick at 40 then as you go, it goes up the correct increment, but you have to do math to figure out how fast you're going. Like you'll be driving and this is what you see:  (at which point you'll also think, man, I need to get gas)

*I pretty much have the best friends ever. That's all I'll say about that.

*At dinner this week I overheard one of the kids say, "How do you expect me to eat peas with a fork?" Like you eat everything else, my dear, just like that.

*When Isaac gets frustrated he says, "OH Barnacles!" 

Homework gets done
Books get read
Legos take over
Board games get played
Laptops get annihilated by boys with bottles of spray cleaner
Meals are shared
Scrap booking occurs (at least, it used to)
Gifts get wrapped
Prayers are said
Arguments are had/started/finished
Birthday parties get celebrated
Baked goods get rolled out
Coupons get clipped
Cupcakes get sneaked

I read at the end of the day.
A couple of yahoos sneak into during the night.
Everyone goes to watch tv when the other one is occupied.
I sometimes make babies. (Wink wink)
I have sat awake many a night rocking those aforementioned babies.
Long talks are had by any combination of family members.
Kids jump
Life decisions get made.
I sometimes go to bed angry.
I sometimes lay awake worrying.
Much laughter occurs.
Mom and dad go to escape, until the escape is broken up by kids who wander in to join the discussion.
I sleep.

(This is installment #1 in a new household series.)

First, I made myself laugh while coming up with the title for this post. My feelings on the subject are not THAT strong, if you were wondering.  I just like to laugh. Laughing's my favorite. (name that sort of but not quite movie reference!)

In a follow up to the previous post about whether or not you do Santa at your house this post is all about when you realized Santa wasn't real, if you grew up drinking the Santa kool-aid.  

I had suspected for awhile that Santa wasn't real. I mean, let's face it, he never brought what I asked for. Not one single time. Nor did he ever bring anything my siblings asked for, and, in fact, the stuff he brought was weird. Not that we ever complained, we were not raised to do that. And frankly, we were just happy to open presents, whatever they were.  Many a Christmas Eve my brother, Danny, and I would try to stay up late and listen for Santa. We never heard him. We had progressed to the point where I would just tell Danny to go on to sleep and I'd take watch and if I heard anything I'd wake him up.  (We all shared one bedroom)  And after he went to sleep I'd just go to sleep too and tell him, "Man, we missed it!" the next morning.
One year, I had to go to the bathroom. (okay I had to go to the bathroom lots of years . . . lol) Anyway, I got up and snuck down the hall (which seemed long but in reality our single wide trailer was tiny so it was probably like 4 feet). The light was on in my mom and Stepdad's room, glowing underneath the closed door, and they were arguing. As I was going into the bathroom, I heard my mom say, "Damnit, J.R., do you want me to stuff these damn stockings or not?!" And I remember thinking, okay, well that's what I thought. And then I used super stealth to sneak myself back to bed because if I got caught even going pee on that night, boy oh boy would I be in trouble! ha.

So there you have it, that's my story. What's yours??

It's December. In fact, there's 22 days til Christmas. I have one gift for a child and one gift for an adult and that's it. Needless to say, I'm nowhere close to where I need to be. My tree is up, and the nativity is out. That's good, right??

We don't do Santa at our house. We never have. I don't have anything against doing Santa, I grew up with the whole Santa thing. I will say that when you don't do Santa, it gets awkward for the kids at school because they totally teach it at school here. And if your kids don't believe and they say something about it to other kids, then their parents get mad and oh boy, have you opened a can of worms!  When our kids ask about presents we tell them that we buy them. When Thomas was like, 4 some lady in Wal-Mart asked if Santa was going to bring him anything this year, and that really irritated me. First off, what if we were really poor and couldn't afford to buy gifts? Thanks, stranger for making it harder. Second, what if we were a different religion and didn't celebrate Christmas at all?  Anyway, Thomas answered her, "My mom buys my presents." and the lady looked at me like I was SO MEAN. I get it that you love Santa, lady, but I don't have to love him too!

The reason we don't do santa is two-fold. One, I want the main focus of Christmas to be about Jesus and his birth. We give each other gifts in celebration of His birthday.  Secondly, I'm sort of in the middle of teaching my children our faith. You can't necessarily "see" Jesus, but He's real. I don't want my kids to associate an imaginary person who knows if you're good or bad with a very real God who knows all. What's to stop them from thinking, well, Santa was one fairy tale my parents told me so Jesus must be one too.   I don't want to lie to them, especially when the lie requires elaborate staging. I don't have time for elaborate staging.

Yes I think kids can have imagination. If you knew my kids and how much of our lives and conversations are built around fantasy play, you'd know we're not lacking there. Ha. One thing I do tell my kids is this, many children do believe in Santa, and it's a family tradition for them. So even though you know he's not real, it is not necessary to point that out to other kids. Just let them enjoy their traditions. You don't have to lie if they ask you if you believe, but there's no need to ruin something for someone else.

So, do you Santa or do you not? Like I said, I'm good either way, we just don't here.

Your Xanga Name and Meaning

Well right now it just sounded cool and I wanted a change so that's what I went with. I batted a couple ideas around with the Steve and some friends and ended up with this one. I'm not totally sure I like it, to be honest. ha.

How long you've been here?
I've been a Xangan since January 12, 2005, so next month will be 8 years. Um, wow, that went fast.

Do you have more than one account?
Not that I can remember.

How many times have you changed your name?
One time, not that long ago. I used to be Bethro78. I may go back to that someday. I wanted a change but, as women are famed for doing, I changed my mind. When it comes to this name changing thing, I'm an emotional wreck, apparently.

Name and tag 10 people that keep you here and why, not just bloggers that you like to read/etc, but people who really and truly MEAN something to you . Tell us what they've done for you, how they've inspired you, how they've been a friend/cheered you up, say something nice about them. (these are in no particular order) I am doing less than 10 because honestly there are WAY more than 10 people who keep me reading xanga. Seriously. And I have nice, meaningful things to say about all of them, But these are here for a specific reason.

• @down_onthefarm  - I write this gal actual, snail mail letters. We've met IN PERSON. I hope to vacation in her state maybe next summer so our families can meet. I can't say that about many people. I her. She's one of my circle letter gals and my life would be less without her.
• @sassykat1213  - This gals is one of my longest xanga pals. I have already vacationed with my family to her town in big ol' Texas. Her 5 boys and my 5 boys  hit it off, (and so did our hubbies!). We lament regularly that we don't live closer to one another. I treasure her and her sweet boys. Our children even survived a semi-traumatizing event together!
• @Sidzwife  - She's the reason I joined Xanga. We went to college together and were good pregnant pals together right after! (okay okay, DURING!)  She and her pastor hubby moved away and xanga helped us keep in touch. She used to babysit my Alex when he was little! Our friendship was there before xanga and will be there after it.
• @fourkidsonemom - She makes the third point in the circle letter group. I started following her years ago and have kept up ever since. I'm impressed by her cooking, and the way she runs a daycare out of her home.  I'm half wondering how she does it and if it's something magic why she hasn't sent me some of it.
•  @grace_to_be  She's hilarious. She's heartfelt. She lives in Canada. She watches Duck Dynasty. What else IS there?
• @Bricker59  Well, we are very different, but the guy always makes me laugh. I find myself rooting for him and his daughters to make it out there in this crazy world. Also, in Canada. What's up with you Canadians being so cool??  Also, my username used to be Bethro78, so we had a similar name thing going on there until I changed it to the name he hates!
• @apalolly You are such an observant person, which I admire, because I'm not. You make me laugh and you are very down to earth and I can relate to you, and almost every single thing you write.

 If you ever leave, will you say goodbye first?
I guess, It totally annoys me when people leave, though so I wouldn't want to do the thing I hate when other people do.  I have another blog that I'd probably write more on if I "left" but I'd most likely keep this one going. I mean, I've got almost 8 years in here. I'm no quitter!

Do you have any xanga crushes?
Are you kidding me with this?

Are there people on xanga that you actively avoid?
If you count a couple of weird stalkery people then yes. If I think you're some kind of weird stalker, I'm going to block you and ignore you. Otherwise, no.

Do you troll-(if yes) Are you good at it?
Define "troll". Because, see, my husband and I disagree about what trolling actually means. We had a no holds-barred argument about this very subject.  Do I leave hilarious, sometimes snarky comments just to be silly? Absolutely. Do I look for ways to be rude or argue with people? No, I don't.  Do I read people's blogs without leaving comments? Sometimes yes.

Has the community been there for you in times of trouble/pain?
Sure. I have written about things here, and I do all the time that I don't publicize in other places or write about in other places. You guys are cool peeps.

This was originally done by @LKJSlain and @MyxlDove tagged me.

Oliver is spending the night with his Mema. He stayed last night, with Isaac for the first time ever. He did great. I miss him. He likes to sit in my lap and make me guess his animal sounds. Oooh, it's a kitten! Then he switches and I say ooh, it's a puppy! We round it out with Oh no, a baby DINOSAUR!  (maybe you have to SEE it to really get it, in which case, I'm sorry I made you read that)

If you want to take your sweet injured 6 year old out for lunch as a special treat, be prepared. People at McDonalds give you the stink eye when your kid has a black eye and an arm cast. Just so you know.

I'm so anxious to read a book in a series that I love. The problem? It doesn't come out til March 2013.

I made my own laundry soap last weekend. It's working great. This makes me like, 33% granola now, doesn't it?

I have to go buy more black duct tape. To tape up the bumper on my car. It's totally embarrassing to pull up with not only duct tape, but a bumper that's hanging off because the duct tape is coming loose. I think driving it around and parking it at social events should be some kind of character building exercise. 

One of my good friends is practically my music and books twin. Our taste in those areas is almost identical. I introduced her to a new fave song of mine, and she HATES it. I can't believe it. Has the earth come off of its axis?  What happened? She actually said to me, "I forgive you for making me listen to that because you're my best friend and I'm choosing to overlook this because of our history."   Harsh.

Elijah is doing much better. He's still having trouble doing stuff like going to the bathroom, etc. but he's getting there.   He's sleeping with me  at night right now because I don't want him falling out of bed in his room. After our sleepless night in the hospital we have slept like rocks the last two nights but I'm still waking up totally exhausted. Maybe it's just the stress of the whole thing.

He was well enough to play on the computer yesterday, ha!