Countdown to Christmas!

I can't believe how fast the time goes between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  It seems like a blur at this point!  Have we shopped?  No, not really.  But we have been cooking and we did have a caroling party here at the house.  The tree is up - decorated, redecorated, rearranged... fiddled with and it is now being enjoyed.  We made the peanut brittle- a tradition- but now we need to send some off to California. 

Frank loving the snow storm we had last week.

                                                                                                                            Peanut Brittle- Tradition!!

It is hard being away from the rest of the family- we will really miss our traditions in Californa but we are in the midst of making new ones here while keeping some of the old ones.   

Pepperoni buns are on the menu for Christmas eve.   We call them West Virginia Tamales- as the recipe comes from my dad's hometown of Fairmont and they are our traditional Christmas Eve dinner. A tradition that will continue - it gives the kids a "taste" of home.    Last year we took Christimas day to go sledding and provided that there is snow on the ground we will be doing the same thing this year.  It was a fun day and very relaxing -well except for the sore muscles.

                                                                                  

You've heard of a garage band? This is the Pryer kitchen band!

                           John looking cool.

The kids were asked to perform at our churches Christmas program last Sunday.

With a week's notice- it was definitely a push but under the direction of Mary they pulled it together and the Von Pryer family players were a success.

They played a very jazzy arrangement of Go Tell it on the Mountain.  James was even able to join with them after practicing only once on Saturday.

Aaron mugging for the camera! Sam?  who knows?

sound check!

Timothy's breakfast choice- cinnamon rolls

We celebrated Tim's 16th birthday by going out to dinner at the local Chinese food buffet.  It was a really fun time and to not have to go home and fix a dinner on Sunday after the Christmas program was a real treat for me!  We were all so tired after the caroling party and the Christmas program that had we not gone out I think we'd have eaten grilled cheese sandwiches!

Well it's late so I'd better sign off. We've still got so much to do.  Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving 2009

Yesterday was a lot of fun with family and  lots of turkey!  Joe and his mother in law and of course Miss Jacey came for dinner and James was home.  It's been so nice having him here, I miss him so much when he is off at college.  He is having a great time though so I will not begrudge him this time in his life.  He loves college and he is doing well.  We are eating on our new "table."  We were given a full size pool table.  Problem is, where do you put it?  Our dining room table was not big enough for the family to sit 11 people without using a card table too.  Putting the two problems together, Mary came up with a solution.  The table is a large piece of plywood with molding edging it.  Then pieces of wood were glued and nailed to the bottom to hold the top in place so that there would be no shifting of the table top.  Mary stained the top using a walnut /polyurethane one step stain.  We may follow that with a poy resin top to give it a harder surface.  Works well and we all fit! 

I've been doing a bit of canning this year.  This is a work in progress for me and I'm learning as I go along.  We've made applesauce, apple butter, and canned pears.  I will probably do some more apples over the next couple of weeks while the price of apples is down!  Next year I hope to put a lot more up.  I froze fresh tomatoes and squash.  We also processed our own pumpkin and we've been using it for pumpkin bread and oatmeal bread in the mornings.  The apple butter is so easy that I could do much more of that and it is in constant demand around here.

We painted!  No more primer white (actually I still have my bedroom to go but the rest of the house is done)  We painted most of the walls a color called Hopsack and then accented with a color called Soul Chocolate.  It's such a yummy color!  This picture shows both colors really well.  I love that picture of Ron and his brother and sister on the dark wall.  It just pops out.  The Hopsack is a light tan color and goes well with most other colors.  Mary painted a wall in her room Posh Red - it looks really good with the Hopsack.  I will be painting my room soon I hope.  It's hard when Ron works in the room and weekends are at a premium.  We will probably have to wait until after Christmas.  I will be doing one of my walls (maybe two) a deep gray/green. 

Happy Thanksgiving!  The count-down for Christmas is on.

Now that we have been here a year, we can't say that we are seasoned veterans here in Michigan but we have an idea of where things are going! The trees are changing and looking so pretty, which means it is starting to get pretty cold here. Either I'm more of a wimp than last year or it really is colder. I seem to figure out a way to turn on the oven every single day. Not that I've had a sudden surge of home making ability but the oven warms the house up quickly.

The kids don't seem to mind much.

Mary is our resident baker, she can be counted on for cookies, cakes. and brownies. Lately I've been trying a little bread baking. I've collected a few recipes that thankfully are not too difficult! The cinnamon rolls were made for Mary's 18th birthday. I didn't realize how many it made until after I'd doubled the recipe so we had enough rolls for two Sundays. I think I may make these again but freeze them before we bake them. That way I can take out what I want and leave the rest. I ended up freezing them after baking and they were okay but took a lot of room up in the freezer.

Timothy and John checking out the cars at the Howard City Harvest Festival.

Quiz is in full swing and our kids are looking pretty good. We have eleven teen quizzers this year and 6 junior Bible quizzers. It seems that we spend a lot of time at the church, with our practices and church. We try to not have the younger kids out for every practice but we have to balance it with giving the other quizzers enough attention.

It is nice that except for quiz practice time and church services we are pretty much at home. Ron is working at home, the kids are home. I'm sure our neighbors think we are nuts with our strange schedule. Home all day and running around at night. We try to get out on non quiz weekends to do something fun or different. We are getting more and more familiar with our area. Things that seemed a long way away are starting to seem a lot closer.

We will be going to a tournament in Indiana at the end of this month.  We will be staying with our friends.  It will be a fun time and hopefully this time I'll get some pictures!

Howard city Harvest Festival

This Old Ice truck was part of the car show  

Faith peeking out from under the tractor!

The last of our tomatoes.

yep!  That's an engine! 

End of Summer and on to Fall.....

pumpkins from our garden!

Kids at the top of the trail... sniff sniff... no James!

Can it possibly be September already? How in the world can it have been so long since I posted?

view from a trail near Sleeping Bear Dunes


Facebook has kept me in "touch" with the world but it occurred that while those little blips of "what's on your mind" keep me connected with my friends and family but it isn't the same as sitting down and having a conversation. So this is my side of the conversation you can add yours in the comment section.

Aaron being Aaron!

We have been here a year now and while I am anchored here in a very tangible way there is still so much of me left in a place I will always call home. I hang on the pictures, the sights, and the day to day goings on of my old life. I check my face book and for just a little while I'm there again. The blog kind of brings me back reality. I live here now and love it- but that doesn't change the fact that I miss my friends back home.

The Pryer Teen Quizzers

We are gearing up for yet another quiz season, this time with 10 quizzers in teen and 7 Junior Bible quizzers. Of course this makes it difficult with one quiz box but we will manage. We are at this point doing stations and cycling the kids in and out. We have 4 coaches working in the different stations so for now it is working.

The campus of Trinity Bible College

James is off at Trinity Bible college and if the lack of communication is any indication having a great time. Honestly he is enjoying himself and loving the classroom. He's made friends but he is another person to miss in my life and boy do I miss him. I have to constantly remind myself that this is what is supposed to happen and I'm rearing adults not children. He is such an neat guy and I'm proud to be his mom. Even if he doesn't update his facebook or call his mother.

James settling in to his dorm.

our living room band class!

Mary is hanging here at least this semester. She wants to start her own band class and will be doing so here at least! She has also been asked by a couple of people to teach their children guitar so she will be taking on a few private students. She is seriously looking into Valley Forge or North Western because of their music programs.

Thomas, John and Aaron being themselves.

We started back to school on the 24th of August so that has kept us busy. Right now they are out having "P.E." They spend about 45 minutes to an hour playing basketball or baseball. It keeps them active. We'll have to figure out some other activity for bad weather. Maybe chucking snowballs at each other? They like playing street hockey when it is icy outside- kind of a combination broom hockey and football.



being themselves again!

The kids are going to a football game tonight. They will watch the team from White Cloud play and then return to the church for the "Fifth" quarter, where they will have snacks and a bonfire. The youth has scheduled these bonfires for all the home games. The kids have a great time, playing games like "glow stick" tag. It is so dark here at night the only thing you can see is the glow stick!

Faith and the first pumpkin of the year!

I love fall and it just continues to be my favorite time of the year. The trees are just starting to turn and we harvested 7 of our own pumpkins yesterday. I will be baking the pumpkins and freezing the pulp. We are getting about 6 red tomatoes each day, I will be freezing them as we get a big enough batch. We bought a half bushel at the produce store and processed them this past weekend. The garden also brought a ton of zuchinni and summer squash. Some of that is shredded and frozen in my freezer thanks to Mary. If this keeps up we won't have room in the freezer for meat! I may have to figure out the whole canning thing.



The noise of our "band class" is starting up in the living room. I may need to go to the store soon for something.... anything....

Mary leading the band!

May in Michigan

It has been quite a while since I posted last (facebook gets more attention than my blog... sorry) but I wanted to get some pictures up of Mary's graduation. Her plans are to attend community college for the next year and work. In the fall of 2010 she is looking at Masters Commission. Right now she is content playing with the worship teams at New Life.

Mary played guitar with the senior choir

Graduation Day!!!!!!!!

Memory board

James is planning to leave us in the fall. As much as I will miss having him around on a day to day basis, it is time. He will be attending Trinity Bible College in North Dakota. He thought it was cold here ..... hee hee....

hiking on the nature trail looking

for mushrooms

James has been called into the ministry and last Sunday he got the opportunity to preach the Sunday morning sermon. James' message was well recieved and more than that very convicting. Grandma came for the graduation so she got to see James give his sermon. James and Grandma have always had a neat relationship.

Sunday morning message.


Our quiz team qualified at regionals in Bowling Green Ohio to go on to nationals in St. Louis Missouri. We have been blessed to have Jonathan Barthuly living with us this past year and he is quizzing with our team.

(Coach) Donna, Mary, Thomas,

Jonathan and Samuel

Assorted looking cool pics!

Rusty and Frank are much happier with the ability to go outside on their own. They now sport collars that keep them in the electric fence. We were "shocked" that they worked, but not as shocked as Rusty and Frank.

John turns 13! Where has the time gone?

Ron, Grandma, and Faith

We are enjoying the spring here. It seems as though the landscape changes daily and the weather is always a question. We planned an open house for the graduation and were blessed to have a beautiful sunny day. That's not always a given. The next day our gazebo just about blew off the deck and then we had a couple of days of rain. The temperatures have been around 70-

75, my kind of weather!

Faith on the nature trail

Aaron on the trail

See you next time, we are putting in our garden and hopefully I'll get some pictures of it and all the happenings of summer around here.