Yesterday Allena and I went shopping for Christmas, and we left all the kids at home with Dominic.  It was almost like a date.  We stopped at a couple of stores, and while walking back to our car, this homeless lady asked us for some money.  We didn’t have any cash, but we offered to take her to get her something to eat.  She turned us down, but you could tell she was interested in the idea.

I think most people would have taken the out, but we pressed her, and she accepted.  We ended up at a Subway so we could get a hot sandwich for her.  My original thought was we’d get the sandwich and be on our way.  It ended up going very differently.  Once we got her to Subway, we couldn’t get her to order.  She wanted us to order, so we could all eat together.  (We of course, had eaten lunch just a little earlier).  I finally ended up ordering a foot-long sub, that we could share.  The guy working the counter gave her a bowl of soup – I guess he helps her out sort of regularly – and I got her some cookies as well.  I think she originally wanted to eat the soup, and just have company, but ultimately  I ate a quarter of the sandwich, and she ate a quarter of it.  We were unable to get her to take the left over half, or the cookies, or even the soup that the Subway guy gave her.  She even had a can of stew and two dollars that she tried to give us, but more on that later.

By this time Allena and I had both come to the conclusion that this lady was a little “off”.  She wanted to show us where she slept (NB: in hindsight, it was stupid of us to go with her to her little campsite – it could easily have been a setup for a mugging.  God looks after the idiots I guess).  She was proud of her cardboard, and she had a little bit of a piece of brush sticking out of the ground that she called her “Charlie Brown Christmas Tree”, and she had a rock she was really proud of – it had a fossil of a sea-shell in it that was perfectly heart shaped.  She had told us that she had a blanket and that it was hidden, but she flip-flopped on that one several times.  I think she didn’t have one.

We told her we wanted to get her a sleeping bag or some blankets.  She didn’t want any part of that.  She kept saying that cardboard was really pretty warm.  I finally told her that I was going to go get her a sleeping bag, and that I was going to bring it back to her campsite, and that if she didn’t want it she could give it away to somebody else.  So she came along to Walmart with us.  She kept worrying that we would be embarrassed by her.  Truth be told, I could see why she might worry – she said and did some pretty odd things, but nothing too bad.  My kids have done worse.

By the time we had the sleeping bag, it was after dark.  She had us take her to a place back behind a used car lot.  I guess they have a vehicle there that they don’t lock – she climbs in and sleeps in it on really cold nights.  It took her 20 minutes to finally get out of the car.  I think she really didn’t want to go.  We kept inviting her home with us, but she wouldn’t have it.

We spent a couple of hours with her all told.  We talked some about faith.  She said she’d never had time for God until she was homeless.  We invited her to church with us.  Again, she was worried that she’d embarrass us or that her clothes would not be good enough.  She finally agreed to be picked up to go to church with us today.  We all dressed down – jeans and t-shirts, so she wouldn’t feel uncomfortable.  I didn’t even shave.  She didn’t show up at the place we were supposed to meet, which we half-way expected to happen anyway.

The whole thing has had me very thoughtful since.  I’ve worried about our debts and such, but we still have a house, and 3 vehicles, and more food than we can eat, and the list of our blessings goes on and on.  This gal had the clothes on her back and some cardboard and a couple of rocks, and that. is. it.  I’ve worried about how I won’t be able to spend that much on my kids for Christmas, and she doesn’t have any one to even share Christmas dinner with.  We gave her a nice gift of a sleeping bag if you want to call that a Christmas gift, but she was worried about taking it because she was afraid somebody else would just steal it from her.

It really leaves me with a low opinion of myself.  Not the fact that I helped her out as much as I could (and as much as she’d let us).  I just feel like I must be incredibly spoiled because my worries are petty compared to hers.

What would it be like to spend a week on the street?  She said she’d been there just over a year.  Could I make it a week?  Would I beg for food or money?  I have so many other resources – family, friends, etc. that I’d have to exhaust a *lot* of possibilities before I was on the street.  Plus, I have sense enough to make use of the services available to homeless people – but how long would that last?  I think this lady’s mental problems are probably due to being alone and being scared for a long long time.

I guess I’ll close.  I still feel this swimming circles in my head, but I can’t think of anything else to say.  Say a prayer for the homeless if you read this.  And remember the phrase “there, but for the grace of God, go I”.

I think the biggest thing happening lately is that our oldest son is learning to drive.  He’s actually doing a pretty good job of it.  Last Saturday I took him driving in my little old truck, which has a 4-speed manual transmission.  The only other time he’s ever driven a stick was in his grandparent’s truck out in a hay field.  I gotta say I’m proud of him.  Not only was this the first time he drove a stick on the road, but I actually took him out on the highway for the first time too.  He does very well on the road – parking lots are a little scary.  He particularly needs to practice driving in reverse more.  I think I only yelled a couple of times :) and I sure laughed more than I yelled.  Anyone who drives a stick knows that starting off in first when pointing up-hill is tricky.  At one point he stalled 4 or 5 times trying to get out of a parking lot.  It got to be pretty silly.

William is getting to be more and more consistent with using the potty.  Only peeing so far, but going through two or three pull-ups a day is lots cheaper than a bunch of diapers.

Vincent is getting bigger and bigger – we think he’s got a tooth coming in, and he’s trying to roll.

Elizabeth will be taking first communion on the first Sunday of next month (if all goes as planned!).  Both Elizabeth and Teresa have cute new *short* hair cuts as well – nice for summer, but also nicer to brush as there are fewer tangles.

Julianna is really starting to talk more and more.  She asks for things and is starting to use multiple words together.  She also likes to sing “Old McDonald” and will sing out “E-I-E-I-O….COW!” :)

Allena has been running with me (and on her own) too, and is beginning to see the results with some slimming down.  We’ve both been trying to eat a little healthier too, and I think that’s helped.

On the farm, we have one doe left to kid, and one ewe (maybe) left to lamb – we’re not sure about the ewe.  I also managed to pretty much destroy the chicken coop trying to move it.  It’ll have to be re-built.  Meanwhile the chickens are all pretty pissed off.

So, that’s the update – anything going on in your lives, oh loyal readers? :)

My running is improving – this week I went for 35 minutes at a time, and ran for 5 minutes / walked for 1.  I only ran twice last week (I’m going to try to run today, hopefully that will work out).  I’m at the point where I *think* I could run a full mile without stopping (gasp!  how amazing!  lol).  Of course, Week 7 calls for running 2 miles.  As I said, I had to step back from the training schedule so that I’m only running 3 times per week instead of 4, to keep my shins from aching.  Week 7 may have to have a week 7a, 7b, and 7c just to build up to that full two miles :)

In other news, William has started using the potty with some consistency – he still goes through several pull-ups per day, but he’s using the potty as often as not.  Woot woot!

In other news, we went to the zoo today.  Springfield has a small but nice zoo and we bought a family pass so we’ll undoubtedly be going back before long.  I took several pictures with my cell phone – we’ll see how they look when I upload them.  I was able to get some remarkably close shots – the animals just felt like being near the observation points I guess.  If any turned out good, I’ll put ‘em up.

Well, our latest child failed to show up in time to save us a bunch of money – we’ll just have to pay the deductibles again. Easy come, easy go. He also failed to show up early enough to be “first baby of the year” which would have been a conversation piece at least. No, he’s decided to take his own sweet time and just come when he feels like it. I guess all babies are that way really, but it sure is making Allena uncomfortable.

We didn’t do anything exciting for New Year’s Eve – we figured out several years ago that the kids get up early even when we stay up late, so we were in bed by 10:00. True to form, Julianna was up at 6:00am, so our strategy paid off.

Anyway, I hope 2010 is a wonderful year for everyone, filled with many blessings!

It was a white Christmas for us here in Southwestern Missouri, but coooooold!  Brrrrrrr!  It was about 15 degrees today, and the wind was howling.  Needless to say we did not go outside to play in the snow.

It was also kind of a humble Christmas for us.  We did things a little differently this year.  We didn’t put up our Christmas tree until the 24th.  Heck, we didn’t even do any Christmas shopping until the 22nd.  We opened the vast majority of presents on Christmas eve – St. Nicholas only brought candy and one toy – a “Little People” nativity scene for the two youngest kids (although the older girls still play with it too).  Our Christmas day dinner is just a roasted chicken, with mashed potatoes, green beans, and some cranberry sauce.  We didn’t have lots of family over, or go to their house either.

We tried very much to keep Christmas (the day of Christ’s birth) separate from all the other things that we tend to get caught up with in the holidays.  Sadly, we weren’t able to go to Mass today – the roads were not in good shape, and Elizabeth was running a fever of 102, so we wouldn’t have gone regardless.

In any event, I thought it was a nice day…we’ll probably do it again this way next year too.

Once again, Merry Christmas to everyone!

After the appointment, it was near lunch time so we stopped in at Panera Bread, which is a nice bakery/sandwich/soup/salad type cafe.  They’re all over the place – most likely you’ve seen them.  We had soup and some delicious bread, and Dominic had a gigantic cinnamon roll, and the girls had some pastries, and everybody shared with everyone else.  Somehow the subject of how French people eat in courses and such came up, and the kids all agreed they’d like to try that.  So we bought a couple of extra baguettes at Panera to bring home, and tonight we ate like the French.

We started with fruit – slices of apple and pear, and bunches of grapes (hey, not a whole lot of variety this late in the season!).  Wine was served – a Chardonnay in the “table wine” class, but nice all the same.  We even let the kids try some.  Theirs was predominantly water with a little splash of wine in it.  They were *still* not impressed.  lol

Course number two was baked brie with almond slivers on top, served with the aforementioned baguettes.  We haven’t had that in a long time, but let me tell you it’s fantastic!  I’m sure it did terrible things to my cholesterol levels, and it was worth it all.

The third course was soup.  We actually found the recipe on line for Panera’s Broccoli Cheese Soup, and I must say it’s a very close match.  Highly tasty.

For desert, we got all the ingredients for crepes, but everybody was full by that time so perhaps we’ll make crepes for breakfast tomorrow?

It’s nice to eat in a different manner once in a while.  Dinner was at a very leisurely pace – we spent over an hour at the table just talking about food and things.  I can see why the French enjoy dining this way.

We still haven’t gotten around to making hasenpfeffer yet, but perhaps tomorrow night we’ll extend our international dining experience to cover Germany.  Anybody know how the typical German family sits down to dinner together?

Oh.  My.  Goodness.  It is NOT rabbit stew.  The recipe looks WONDERFUL, and we will be trying it soon.  It’s apparently one of those dishes that everyone cooks just a little differently, but every recipe we looked at sounded outstanding.  Check out the Bavarian Grill for just one variety.

So why all this interest in hasenpfeffer?  Well, because we butchered some rabbits on the ol’ ranch last night (five of them) and we were searching around for good ways to prepare them.  Allena has fried rabbit before, and rabbit stew would be easy enough to figure out but we like to try new stuff.  Hasenpfeffer is definitely on the list – we only lack some dry wine to cook the sauce with and that will be acquired today.

We probably won’t make it until the weekend, but I’ll definitely let you know how it was.  Bon Appetit!