"Tomorrow is a New Day With No Mistakes in it" (Yet! :)

Hi Everybody! I guess it would be no use to post about Advent since Daniel is doing such a good job! So anyway, today the younger ones are still down with what we are affectionately calling The Black Plague. But never fear! We are learned in the art of bleaching everything anyone could touch. I think I have wiped down the entire downstairs and upstairs in the space of about 15 minutes after people leave, or after we have had sickness! That is one area in the many undiscovered talents of our family! (Oh! The Black Plague I'm talking about is a cough/cold sort of thing. Thankfully it is not a stomach bug! :)
Anyway, today we were supposed to have that cooking day that I described and was in charge of planning! Well, anyone that would have come to help was sick too, or else busy! (Like the Walkers who are showing a house today- actually almost this very minute!) How did it go Matthew?
Anyway, Sarah made Norwegian crunch! Yum! And I was in charge of making Mrs. Chandra Christmas's really good macaroni. At least, um.... her's was really good. Here's what happened:
Among the many other things I had on my mind, was making the macaroni, which has a saucy sort of thing that must be made on the stove.
Well, I think we were using every burner- one was occupied by a tea kettle, the other by a makeshift double-boiler that was holding a strange-smelling garlic and olive-oil tincture we were brewing for Daniel's sinus infection he has. Then one pot was boiling my noodles, and the other one I was gleefully stirring while Sarah read Pride and Prejudice to me.
Believe what you will, but I was not that absorbed in Mr. Darcy's letter to Elizabeth, but I was listening, and saw that my noodles were boiling over. So I stopped stirring the macaroni brew, and dumped the noodles in a colander, only to come back and find that my mixture had started sticking a little. It kind of smelled funny, but as I had never made this recipe before, I hoped against hope that it was just me, and I proceeded with the recipe. Despite my cold I could smell it, but I finished baking some in the oven and let Mama taste it. Whereupon she informed me that it was scorched. I wished I could have sunk into the floor- wasting perfectly good ingredients?!? Now, I pride myself on knowing how to cook and being good at it. I am confident that I shall be a wife that her husband is proud of when she brings a meal to the table, so this scorching of a project, (especially since it was scorching two huge pans full of macaroni) was unacceptable to me. Mama was not worried about it, but still, I couldn't watch as she scraped the bad-smelling mixture into the trashcan. (Why did we have to go and butcher our pigs before this incident? I would have felt better feeding it to an animal) I despise wasting almost perfectly good food, and nearly had Mama convinced that we could bring it to the Wilsons and tell them what had happened, and since most of them have the Black Plague too, they could eat one pan, and we could eat the other. No one would notice the odd flavor since they all have stuffed-up noses! But we tossed that idea and I started over. Boo-hoo-hoo. Oh well. I'll chalk that one up as the first mistake in the graduation-preparations. Please pray for Mama and Dad that they keep healthy as we all get well, because I know they don't need a head-cold on top of plans! -Rachel (Now it is the long-lost-Sarah's turn!)

Hello to All Our Faithful Followers!!!!
This is me, Sarah who hasn't written for 4 whole days!!! (Oh,la!) Sorry I haven't posted much recently, but I've been sick, busy, and I think it's a little much for a blog to have 2 new posts in one day, and since Rachel's been posting almost daily, I haven't.
Anyhow, today, as was mentioned above, we were cooking some. The Norwegian crunch turned out well, although the insides of the Heath bars didn't melt so I had to remove them and chop them up. But, Hey!:) We've gotten the boxes of Christmas decorations down from the attic already and probably tomorrow or something, we'll decorate. We're waiting to put up our tree til after "The Graduation" so we can have as much room as we can inside. Our Christmas tree isn't what some might call traditional, in one sense, but I have and always will admire it for it's warmth and cheeriness! We don't put tinsel on ours and we usually use colored lights, along with a mixture of handmade ornaments or special ones that we've had for a long time. I enjoy reminiscing every Christmas season as we decorate the tree and see familiar ornaments that we've known since we were little! Last night was the first night of Advent and with Mom reading the story by the candle's light you would think it a pretty picture, but sadly I was busied in trying to unclog our vacuum's tube and changing overflowing filters,etc. while all this was going on! Hopefully tonight we'll all be able to keep a fine tune while we sing carols, as last night only a few of us could, due to our stuffy noses or tickley throats!!
I'll look forward to posting something more soonish, but for now I must bid you adieu!
-Sarah

A Very Quick Lesson I Learned

Warning: This will be a rambling sort of thing that I hope someone else relates to!

We have had a cough-cold-feverish sort of thing this past week going around the house. I finally caught it despite choking down echinacea tincture, elderberry syrup, and all a manner of other things to prevent it. So this morning I was standing at the kitchen sink washing dishes and grumbling to myself in my mind. "I am out of humor with the whole world in general and no one in particular. Why are there so many blasted dishes? Why do we have to declutter today!"
and on and on I went in my mind until I was cross as two sticks and wallowing in self-pity. Then the Lord's soft voice entered my mind countering every sour thought I had. "You have so many dishes because you had a fun time last night with your friends at Daniel's birthday party."
He said.
"But they are Sarah's dishes from last night!" I complained inwardly.
"You didn't do your chores last night. What is more, your mother kept house all day while you and Sarah were out with Daniel. She also took care of sick children and set up for a party and made dinner which was your responsibility."
The more I thought up something to gripe about the more He gently reminded me of all the blessings I had. And finally, when I weakly ended with a self-pitying, "Well, I have a cold!"
He reminded me of what I always tell everyone else and what I told Leah a couple days ago, "A merry heart doeth good like medicine".
So I decided that it was perfectly ridiculous to try to be morose on a day like today which is perfectly lovely and seasonably cold, and I am now trying to be cheerful I say with a stuffy nose,
"A berry heart doeth good like bedicine!" :) -Rachel