Today started out as one of those days. You know, the kind you wish you could rewind. Or start all over. Because if you just fast forward, the bad stuff still happened anyway. Needless to say, if another chair breaks someone is sitting on the floor, because we don't have extras anymore. And thankfully that carpet really does get stains out very easy!
So, it seemed maybe out of the house was a better place for us today. I took the kids to the paint store, so the boys' room could get a second coat. And they actually were very good helpers. Several of the workers even commented on how well they helped. Since Liam (yeah, the 4 year old!) was begging for us to learn about Brazil this week, I decided today would be a good day to do that. We picked up some supplies from Hobby Lobby, came back home, and actually finished out the day nicely.
Here is a picture of what we made with our supplies from Hobby Lobby:
Brazilian Rain Forest Diorama
We didn't glue down the animals and the person because the kids wanted to play with it. I bought a glue gun for this project and figured I had used enough glue that it should be okay to play with. They were so excited that they ran and told their neighbor friend. He came and played with it for a bit too. It took me us about 2 hours to do. Fortunately, Sarena slept the whole time. Otherwise it would have been a lot longer.
Kieran and Liam surprised me by knowing every animal we put on there. Kieran learned about the canopy, understory, and forest floor while we did this. The very top is the emergent layer. Anyway, it was neat and the boys were very disappointed to learn that Rio de Janeiro is not the capital of Brazil (not since 1960).
One more picture and story from today. I was busy in the kitchen and I heard Liam sounding out m-o-m, mom. I look into the living room and he is at the front window with a piece of paper and pen. So, here is what he did:
So, I wonder if I should start teaching him how to write.....
Kieran made a pinata in his World Cultures class at homeschool co-op on Friday. We gave them some candy to put into it and they gave it their best whacks last night. Brett got a few whacks too.
Brett after getting hit by a blindfolded Liam.
Standing up might help
We made the kids pizza for dinner and put them to bed early. Then Brett and I ordered out some Thai food. We had a nice candlelight dinner for two. (We should do that more often.) I found the fortunes in our fortune cookies to be most interesting:
I don't know why I've waited almost 5 years to try this. Ice cream made from snow? Crazy. And fun! Yesterday we had a fresh snowfall. I told the kids we'd try to see if we could get enough snow in our (clean) bowls to make some snow ice cream. We were only supposed to have an inch. After about half an inch the snow started melting, and we were pretty sad. But, I told them we'd just wait and see what it was like by dinner. The weather turned a bit cold again and snow fell once more. By dinner we had plenty of snow!
Basically you take clean snow, milk (whole is best), sugar, and vanilla, and stir it all together until it has the right consistency. It'll be a bit more like soft ice cream. The kids thought it was great! I would suggest trying not to get ice clods with your snow (since it melted a bit we had ice mixed with snow in our bowls). I really need to find a way to make chocolate, maybe chocolate syrup instead of vanilla?
If you have snow you've got to try it. This morning I was jumped on by two very excited boys saying, "Mommy, we have more snow!! We can make more snow ice cream!" Obviously they enjoyed it.
Today I am going to try something else new. Friday at our homeschool co-op, one of the moms brought sugar cookies. They were quite tasty- and made with avocados instead of butter. So, today I thought maybe I'd try it. But, then I found this recipe instead, and well.....chocolate wins out every time. I mean, we don't have to have hearts for Valentine's Day, right?
I promised before that I would post our Christmas letter as it contains very pertinent information to our future. We weren't able to share our Christmas cards with everyone, but we wanted to share our future plans with as many as we can. Some of you may know exactly which country we are referring to, but for now, we'd ask that you not publicly disclose that information on this blog. Our letter has been edited accordingly.
The last week or so, we have been working very hard at getting rid of as much stuff as we don't need, and only keeping the essentials, as our home will go up for sale in a few weeks. This has been an interesting time for us. It is so nice to purge ourselves of all the things we thought we needed, and really didn't, as well as the junk that we've just been wanting rid of for quite some time. I've found that, although we've tried to live simply, we have at least 5x as much stuff as we really need. In a way I feel so free! But, I'm also a bit sad that it took the reality of selling our home to get us to realize and act on this. I'm also sad, that now the house is just about the way I've wanted, and needed it to be, it will only last for a short time until, God willing, it is sold. We intend to keep very few possessions, and I think we really will find out the freedom and blessing that comes from having our food, raiment, and shelter - and with that, let us be content and thankful.
For those of you who did receive our letter, don't skip too much, we have some links in the letter for you to check out if you'd like. We will be trying to get some links up permanently on the side of the blog. But, I am new to this whole blog thing and trying to figure it all out.
As for the letter, I'll let you figure out who wrote it. ;o)
Dear Friends and Family,
It has been a very exciting and busy year in Rochester,
Minnesota for the Dempsey family.
Between four kids six and under and general surgery residency, there is
never a dull moment. If it seems dull,
better check on Sarena because she is probably into something.
Kieran turned six this November and is in first grade (taught
by mom). He enjoys reading (he reads a
ridiculous amount of books), going to Ice Hawks (junior hockey) games, Patch
club at church, playing with Liam, wrestling with Dad, and playing Wii (Mario
Kart) occasionally. He is also a big
helper with his sisters.
Liam (or Lime as we call him) is four and half and is also learning
with mom. He enjoys being read to
(Curious George), wrestling with anyone, and being a comedian. When Liam is out of the house, the other kids
are bored out of their minds because he is the family energy. He also enjoys going to hockey games as well
as reenacting these games (fights included) with Kieran (for playing) and
Eliana (for checking of course) in the kitchen.
Eliana (aka Els)
turns three at the end of December.
Eliana enjoys hanging out with the big brothers and bossing around
Sarena. She loves princesses, gaudy
necklaces, and anything pink or purple.
She is also the family hugger.
Sarena (aka Nena) is
seventeen months. She is a combination
of a ninja and a princess. One minute
she is the lady of the family, the next minute she is throwing punches. She enjoys snuggling with mom and dad, trying
to catch the older siblings, and eating M and M’s (she climbed on the counter
tonight and cleaned out the entire bag while I was in the other room). She may be small for her age, but she is the
toughest one in the family. She and her
sister both have Dad wrapped around their fingers.
Meghan spends her time homeschooling the boys, teaching ESL
to several foreign physician wives, managing the general craziness of the
house, and keeping Brett out of trouble.
In the little free time that she has, she enjoys reading and being alone
when she can (it doesn’t happen very often).
She also enjoys learning how to cook new international foods which we
all enjoy.
Brett is in his last year of general surgery residency at
the Mayo Clinic and will be done in June.
In the almost five years that he has been here, he has managed to put on
some weight, lose some hair, double his family size, and gain a little bit of
surgical knowledge in the process. In
his free time he moonlights at the Federal Medical Center (fancy name for a
federal prison infirmary and yes it does break his heart when his four year
cries that he wants to go to prison too).
He also serves on the church deacon board, and tries to make it to the
gym (most of the time unsuccessfully).
He enjoys time with the family especially the Ice Hawks games as a
family.
The Dempsey family, however, is headed for some drastic
changes. Brett’s residency at Mayo ends in June and he will be unemployed.
This leaves us with two options: one join the Occupy Wall Street
movement, or two do something else.
Being that the Dempsey family doesn’t enjoy camping in the middle of the
city, we chose the latter, something more drastic. We believe that God has called us to full
time medical missions. We started
residency with that intent and we are still on the same path. We have been accepted by World Medical Mission (a division of Samaritans Purse) for two years and are currently
working with ABWEto stay as long term missionaries. We are planning to head to a Christian hospital in Southeast Asia. We currently
intend to spend the first year in language school in one of the major cities and
then head to the hospital three hours to the south. This area has
a huge medical need and the hospital we are looking at desperately needs
another surgeon. Some of you are saying
right now to yourselves that we are crazy, but if you read the first few
paragraphs of this letter you already knew that. We hope to leave sometime between the end of
2012 and the fall of 2013. We would ask
that you pray for us as we prepare for this journey. If you want to partner financially with us in
this task, we already have an account with World Medical Mission (a 501c3) and
feel free to contact us.
We’ve also started a blog recently. If you’d like to keep up with our journey
please visit brettandmeghan.blogspot.com. We hope our blog will be an easy way
for you all to know what’s going on with us and for us to hear from you.
In summary, God has blessed the Dempsey family tremendously
this year and for that we are truly grateful.
We hope that as you celebrate this Christmas you remember the true
reason for Christmas. There is no
Christmas without Christ.
Yesterday I was cleaning out my closet, trying to get rid of some things and trying to properly organize others. Trying to get a home ready to sell is proving quite the task! Anyway, I noticed my sewing kit on the shelf and thought about packing it away in a plastic tote. I haven't opened that in at least a year or two. I also noticed a pile of material on top, some pieces nicely pinned and cut out. About 3 (or more, I can't remember now) years ago I thought about making a bag/purse. Or maybe a diaper bag? I bought some material on clearance to try it out. I had no problem picking the pattern and cutting it out. But, as is often the case with me and sewing projects- it didn't get past that. It has been sitting in my closet waiting, waiting, and waiting.
As I looked at the fabric I thought, "There is no way I'm going to finish that. I might as well toss it. I haven't had my sewing machine out in a couple years. And the last time it was out, it needed major work." My sewing machine that is older than I am. The one my mom gave me after I was married, wondering why in the world I wanted that old thing when she could get me a new one. Well, now she has a new one and I am sure she has used it way more than I have used mine since my marriage. But then a thought crossed my mind, " Why not? Yes, why not finish it!"
So, down to the basement to drag out my sewing machine! Upstairs to rearrange my kitchen table to reach an outlet, and try to keep my kids from grabbing pins, scissors, and stop tripping over that cord! I had to go online just to figure out how to thread my machine. It took me a bit longer than I had hoped- those straps were such a pain to reverse. But, I did it!
It's not perfect, and I didn't get nearly what I had planned to accomplish yesterday done. But, it felt so good to do it and see the finished product.
