Happy New Year!

Monday
I don't know when I'll have a chance to post again, so I thought I better go ahead and do one tonight (for the three people who actually read my blog!).


Christmas:
Mom and Katie came Christmas Eve, and the kids had decorated cookies for Santa.






Mom read them "The Hillbilly Night Afore Christmas," which was a little tricky because of the wording and accent.











We had our pictures made at Harding earlier in December, so here is one of those. I forgot to get a picture of just our family, but Ethan probably wouldn't have lasted that long anyway. (I'll add that picture tomorrow - it's not working tonight.)

Currently, John is working at his new job, and I am packing. I told him I think I'm doing a better job this time of getting things packed ahead of time. The kids' rooms are mover-ready, as of today. I still have a way to go, but it's coming along. My lunch came from Sonic today. I was planning to fix Spanish rice for supper tonight, but realized I didn't have canned tomatoes. We had spaghetti instead. I used a jar of tomato-basil sauce from Williams-Sonoma. That stuff is expensive ($10 a jar), but it's really good. My pantry is almost packed. I left out some cans of spaghetti-Os and snack stuff for lunches, but that's about it. I also packed all my spice jars, too, except for the essentials. I ended up throwing a bunch of them away - the ones that were still in the rectangular metal containers from 6 or 7 years ago! A couple of them were from a friend who moved away from Little Rock probably 9 or 10 years ago. Isn't that sad?

Wednesday
I was having trouble uploading my pictures - it's so slow at night. I ate lunch with my friend Christal today. I'm really going to miss her. I'm also going to miss our little church. I ended up not teaching tonight, because a guy was visiting from Southern Christian Home and spoke. The other student besides Ethan was sick and had stayed home anyway. I put my material in the classroom after church and almost cried! We'll get to see Todd and Angie later this month.
Tomorrow and Friday I'll just be stuffing things in boxes as quickly as possible. I will also do some last minute laundry and clean out the refrigerator. I was thinking today that we have way too much stuff. I've even given away a lot since last year. I've been reading Little House on the Prairie to my kids at night. You know, they didn't have much at all, and life was hard. But they were happy. When they moved, they just loaded up a wagon box, around 4 feet by 10 feet, and went. I remember my mother reading those books to me when I was Emily's age, but reading them now as an adult and mother, it's a whole different experience.
I know that I'm rambling, because I should be in bed. I'll have to write another blog about what I will miss in Fordyce. Don't hold your breath, though. I don't know when I'll get to do it!