Watch-It Wednesday: The Man Cold

Several of us girls are battling colds after the crazy Christmas preparation week (and the crazy week of preparation that's going on right now...but you'll have to wait to find out about that!). Fortunately, none of the guys have caught it, or we might have this scene on our hands:

Pull out the chicken soup and tea, and have a healthy Wednesday! :)

The Best-Most-Biggest-Favorite Parts of Christmas

1. The gift that made me smile the biggest:

Mama gave all of us Kelly dolls! Originally, just the Twinkles were going to get them, but mama told me that she soon realized we all would want one "And no one gives them to you any more!" So...I got the "Princess" Kelly doll. And, *grins* I LOVE it!! Isn't she a sweetie?

2. The note (given to me by a student who claims to despise the piano) that gave me the biggest grin:

"Thank you for teaching piano to me. Even though I really don't like piano it has been rather fun learning new songs. Merry Christmas."

3. The gift that I (and a few others) have already gained the most weight from:

The note with this delectable gift read "This could be a year's supply...but it doesn't have to be!" Haha, Josh. :)

4. The most hilarious duo in the kitchen from the day:

5. The absotively-posolutely favorite gift we, the children, gave our parents:

A weekend at the Portland White House bed-and-breakfast. Yup, they were suprised! :)

6. The most-wrapped-items-for-one-ultimate-gift present we gave daddy:

6. The gift I've already enjoyed the most (again, thanks to Joshua!) :

Chris Rice Hymn Arrangement Book Lovely, beautiful arrangements.

7. The gift that got the most screams:

To "the Coder Ladies" from "their gentleman friend." Mmm-hmmm. Think Ben has good taste? :)

We had a lovely Christmas. I so enjoyed the focus that going to church in the morning gave. In fact, a couple friends and I are scheming to organize something for our church to do on Christmas next year. We'll see if we succeed, but it is a testimony to how much we like celebrating as a church family! Praises to our King for His unfathomable, incomprehensible, selfless, mind-boggling gift. He is so good to us.

One Runner's Thoughts

Photo Credit


When the rain is pounding on the roof so hard it pounds your head,
When the cold and wet and dark have no appeal for you (in bed),
When the wind is howling up a storm,
When this is now the weather's norm,
Then you'll find that, as you sit up, your limbs are made of lead.

When you show great strength by swinging out your weight-feet to the floor,
When you overcome great distances from bed's edge to the door,
When you've put an end to brother's sleep,
And borrowed sweats that stop rain's seep,
Then you'll find that this delay has just encouraged rain's downpour.

When you persevere and don the sweats, and tie on running shoes,
When you tell yourself that going out does not mean that you lose,
When you, sighing, leave the quiet house,
With the rain's one mission: you to douse,
Then you'll find your comfort thinking that the right thing you did choose.

In no time you're a-running 'round and 'round the sopping track,
While the wind is pushing ever, try'ng to blow you sliding back,
And with little droplets, pointed shards,
It cuts you face with every yard...
And you find the wind a-soaking, pulling, like a stubb'rn pack.

But you run your miles, pressing on, contin'ing to the end,
Expertly dodging puddles as you round the final bend,
To finish fin'ly, gasping air,
And head toward warmth with fix-ed stare,
The while saying "I'm crazy - this habit I must end!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What's the definition of insanity?" Ben asked the other morning, zipping up his top-most layer of protection again the torrential rain and driving wind. I was shivering too hard to answer at first, but finally managed, in a small voice, "Doing the same thing over and over again, while expecting different results?" "Yeah, well," he replied as, with hoods already dripping we reached the track, "Something just got added to the list."

Watch-It Wednesday: The Three Little Pigs

Do you know how dangerous it is to just assume things?

Wishing you a tasty Wednesday! :p

And the Answer Is...

*sigh*

You guys are all obviously much better at the picture game than I am, or ever was.

A LOT better.

Because ya'll guessed it - no big deal.

I'm just going to take one moment to feel embarrassed for announcing my apparently-unique incompetence at this game to the entire blogging world.

*silence*

Ok, moment's over. Yes! We got an organ!! We still have to figure out exactly where it's going, but we are already having so much fun playing with it!

Here's the beauty (full pic) *grins* :

Now, does anyone have any suggestions for good curriculum with which to teach oneself the organ?? I'd love to hear them! :)

My New Toy!

Did you ever play that game where you have to look at a close-up picture, and then determine what the actual object being photographed was? I loved those games, but I was terrible at them. However (or maybe consequently?), I have decided, for your viewing pleasure, to post just such a picture. And because I always struggled so with this game, I decided to give a hint, and post two. *crowd goes wild*

This is "my" newest toy, which some friends just dropped off this evening. I'm so excited! Can you guess what it is??

The Weekend of the Apples

We in the Coder household have just lived through a momentous time. Not the Year of the Scorpion, not the Month of the Dandelion (you like that? No, it's not a real thing, I just made it up. But, yeah, it's good enough to have been a real thing. Maybe. Well, you may thing this is just another totally random and non-essential parenthetical rabbit trail. But I don't want to put thoughts in your head) - oh no. Our past few days have been prodigiously dubbed the "Weekend of the Apples" *queue dramatic music*. Yep. A week or so ago, a crazy trip to Hood River resulted in this: 

(In case you're wondering, the smell is heavenly)

Namely, twenty-seven hundred pounds of apples taking up residence in our garage. (Actually, originally there were forty-five hundred, then some friends came and picked up their two bins, leaving us with three, two of which were ours, the third belonging to a soon-to-be-named, family of friends who, upon taking their aforementioned third left us with two, the weight of which was approximately eighteen hundred pounds - but I'm getting to that.)

What does one do with hundreds of pounds of apples, you ask? Allow me to inform you: "One" makes apple cider! 


Soo yum!

Where was I? Oh yes, the Weekend of the Apples *queue dramatic music*. With hundreds of pounds of apples, and mouths watering for a sip of freshly-pressed cider, we invited our awesome friends the Spaffords over for a little cider-pressing fun...

                 

...which soon turned in to some friendly-competition-cider-pressing-fun...


The Little Girls' Team (Megan, Madeline, and Ania)



They were a wee bit short for the wheel, so their
heroes (the big bros) had to help

  

Then The 14-Year-Old Team (JT and Kayleen)



(In case you're wondering why Ben and Jonathan are in almost every shot and seem to be doing...something...with every team: they were necessary to stabilize the press because of the great speed as which the teams were cranking out the cider!)

The Mama Team!!!

Aren't they great? :)

The Awesome-ness Team (haha - that'd be me with the...hair, and
Charae with the beautiful smile!)

 
This is "The Boys Team" and - though I know this breaks your heart - it is my unpleasant duty to inform you that they beat the stellar, unbeatable time Charae and I set. But, rest assured, if we were them, we could have beaten us, too. :D

In the end though, the ultimate, Cider-Pressing Champion was (drum roll, please), Daddy! Single-handedly, he schooled "The Boys" by having the the best time by 30 whopping seconds! Sadly, the only picture I have of this strapping specimen of a man is at the beginning of the post, pouring cider for the taste-testing! We made over 15 gallons Saturday, followed up by another 10 or so Sunday afternoon. It was truly a crazy, yummy, full-of-fun, Weekend of the Apples *queue dramatic closing music*. Now we only have about 500 pounds left to process! I feel a "Weekdays of the Apples" coming on.

*queue dramatic music*

Watch-It Wednesday: A Series of Uneventful Episodes

We've done it now. Made it public. What really goes on when parents double-date and leave 19 kids at home? Absolutely nothing worth mentioning, of course...just a bunch of uneventful episodes.

Wishing you an uneventful Wednesday!