Veterans Day

Today was a good day to teach our children about service and sacrifice. 
Many, many men and women have given of themselves for our great country, not to mention their families.  My dad served, both of my grandpas served, my aunt and uncle served.  Thank you, thank you!
I am so thankful and I want my children to GET IT and be thankful to our service men and women also.  Who knows, maybe one day they will enlist. 
I would be a proud Mama to see my children grow into a livelihood that is beyond themselves.

After Home League, we all lined up in front of the Corps building to watch our Veteran's Day parade. 
David and Elijah made signs that said "THANK YOU" and "WELCOME HOME".
Hannah and Ann decorated them. 
We all had little flags to wave, including Mary.  
A couple of our church ladies and a few of our staff also joined in to watch the parade. 
I love when we all do things together.

I am reading an excellent book right now "To Try Men's Souls: A Novel of George Washington and the Fight for American Freedom" by Newt Gingrich, William R. Forstchen, and Albert S. Hanser.  I checked it out from the library.  I am loving it because it tells the story.... not just a bunch of facts that my head can't keep straight... tell me a story and it sticks for good.  Anyways, when I meet these guys up in heaven, I will be thanking them for paving the way for my own freedom.  Talk about BRAVE men and women. 

I won the lottery being born an American.

Thank you, Lord.

More Books....

  These are our bookcases. 

The kids also have books in their rooms, probably about 100 between the two rooms.  They have many of the books that I read as a child plus additional ones they've been given or bought over the years. 
I also have bookcases in my office with maybe about 75 more.  
And oh ya, there's my nightstand with about 15 more.
We also have a set of Encylopedias that Paul used when he was a kid.  Now we use them often to look up any question that comes up at the dinner table.  We also keep a 18inch thick dictionary by the dinner table, courtesy of Paul's late grandmother.
And a set of Jacques Cousteau Ocean World Encyclopedias.
Us Chouinards have a lot of books. 
Many of them have to do with our ministry studies so I don't feel so bad about our collection, after all, they're for Jesus! Smile!
I am always lending them out or just plain giving away the ones that I'm done with so I feel like I get a lot of use out of them.   I will usually do a big purge about twice a year.  I'm needing to do another soon.
We also use our library, probably at least twice a month but we keep those books in one special spot so that they do not get mixed up or "lost".

     I have been working on a list of "required reading" for my children, either to read on their own or my reading to them.  My hope is that they read them before they move out, but with my list growing and growing over the years, they may not get to finish until their early adulthood! And by then I may only be able to "suggest"!     The Books that mean the most to me are those that have somehow stuck in my head even years after reading them.

Ones that have "struck a chord" in either my imagination, faith or understanding.   

Below are  4  more that I've been thinking of a lot lately.  I recently bought used copies of the two I don't already have because I want my children to read them and would rather save the 5 or more trips to the library I'll need to take when it comes their time to read them! 

"Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc" by Mark Twain
Mark Twain had an amazing way of telling this story that we've all heard time and time again.  The writing style is unique and truly a piece of art!  Joan of Arc is a lesson of endurance, steadfastness, faith and ultimately, martyrdom.  She is a hero for anyone, and I especially look forward to reading this book to my little girls.

"Angela's Ashes: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt
I had seen the movie several years ago, but then my Dad gave me this book and said "read this".  I read anything my dad says too. He is always right-on.   I still cry when I think about this book.  As I was reading it a few years ago, I told my children a lot of the stories so that they would get what it really is to be dirt poor.  Especialy when they complained about dinner.  This book is full of lessons about poverty, desperation, family, addiction, depravity and much more!  There are still a lot of ""adult" only situations in this  book, so I would recommend it only for 16/17+.   

"Tuck Everlasting" by Natalie Babbitt
I read this book in 7th grade and loved every minute of it.  This is quite an imagination book and is good for any age although I think older kids follow it easier.  It is full of wonderment and adventure! 

"Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand
I need to be upfront here and tell you that I found this book very difficult to "warm up" too.  I didn't really get into it until about page 100 or so, but  after that.... I was hooked!  This book is thought provoking to say the least.  I think this should be required reading for every highschooler, maybe then there would be more common sense in our government and collective public thinking!  Even though this book is not "Christian" and niether is the author who was a self proclaimed atheist (I'm sure she's not anymore, poor thing), reading it reinforced my own understanding of personal responsibility given and expected by God.

Random Pics...

In the Fellowship Hall. 

I find pictures like these on my camera ALL the time!

Below, you will see Elijah "easy baking" with Hannah.

Something got stuck here.

Off we go!

My curly haired girls.

Momma holding her baby boy.

Sunday

Last Sunday was our United Divine Service Sunday.  It is our Youth Sunday when the Troops get awarded all their badges, sing special music, recite their pledges, and do the entire church service.   We had over 25 youth participate.  I had lots of pictures of them, but should only share my own children....

Only when I downloaded this picture did I realize...

Hannah has no shoes on! 

Anywhoooo...

here are Hannah and Ann among the other Moonbeams

singing the Call ToWorship, "This Little Light of Mine".

David gave the first part of the Sermon. 

Three other faithful children followed him.

They all did so well and I could tell they really practiced,

including our Scripture Reader,  *A*!

Elijah did the Welcome and Announcements. 

It was SO funny...  background:  afterwards the church all met up at Spooky's afterward, a tradition for the first Sunday in November.  On the Bulletin, I put "no-host" lunch big and bold.  Elijah must've overheard me talking to Paul about my strict policy of... you pay for yourself at Spooky's or don't go... because we've had problems with "confustion" on this in the past.  I had wanted to be real clear on this with our people, but NICELY so I called it "NO-HOST".

So anyways... Elijah, my Mister blunt-untactful-speak-your-mind child who is STILL in the process of learning appropriateness... is giving the announcements, tells the congregation excitedly about lunch at Spooky's after church.  Then he stops dead, stares down the congregation and firmly says  "BRING  YOUR OWN MONEY AND PAY FOR YOURSELF!"     Oh my goodness!  gasp and gulp!  Thankfully, all I heard from our people was giggling!  Thank God! 
Now, it's just plain FUNNY!  And yes, for all the hyper-parents out there.....  I did have a talk with Elijah about this especially because as diligent as Paul and I are to either not speak about Corps(church)  issues or just speak real vaguely, he still needs to have some judgement about what gets repeated and what doesn't!

All in all, it was a great Sunday.  Great Church Service, Fun and great Fellowship at Spooky's (have I mentioned what a great church body we have?!?), we went to Elijah's last soccer game,  and then the kids and I watched a documentary on the underground, persecuted church in Vietnam.

Now THAT's alot of children!!

Click HERE  to see some good pics from the other day on my friend Stacie's blog.
She did such a great job capturing the moment!
I didn't even know she tooks pics of messy caramel faces, I must've been busy with my jabberjaws ;). 
We always have a wonderful time together. 
Like I say, when we're with the Brown's, there is always someone for everyone. 
Together, we have 11 children under the age of 11. 
They always do so well with each other. 
Us grown-ups behave ourselves too!

Our Halloween

Hannah -   Ballerina Princess

Mary-  Duck

This costume is tradition. 

Each one of our babies has worn this costume on their first Halloween. 

It still quacks when you squeeze the tummy.

Two years ago when Hannah wore it,

she was photographed in Daddy's arms

during the downtown trick-or-treat

and put on the front page of the newspaper. 

Ann-  Bride

Me-  What happens when you eat to much candy Lady

Paul-  Invisible Man

Elijah-  Jawa

David-  X Wing Fighter Pilot

It was VERY windy on Halloween. 

We had a terrible time keeping the pumpkins lit, so we finally just gave up.

I'm still wondering how we ended up with 10 pumpkins when there are only 7 of us?.

We've done this everywhere we live.  We both like to take the kids out trick-or-treating so we leave a big bowl of candy with a sign to take 2.  It always works out so well! 

Then when we get home, the kids rush to the door every time a trick-or-treater comes. 

They LOVE to pass out candy! 

(It was really hard this year for me, not hearing Buster go crazy

over the door bell every 10 minutes. 

He is still so missed.)

We trick-or-treated the day before Halloween in our downtown area too.

Our first stop is always the Corps and Thrift Store so the kids can "show-off"

their costumes to their second family... staff and church folks.

Paul and I love going around downtown because its like a great big costume party!

We just love looking at all the different costumes!

Class Harvest Party and Coat Distribution

Elijah's class Harvest Party was Thursday afternoon.

Alot of the kids brought in treats such as cookies and candies.

I ran the games!

Party!! Party!!

First we played "Wrap the Mummy" game using double rolls of toilet paper.  The kids had a blast.  I've posted the pictures of Elijah doing it and a couple of the kids who aren't identifiable because they're wrapped head to toe in toilet paper!!  Haaa! Haaaa!

Then we played "Eat the Donut from the string" game.  I ran the ribbon through each donut ahead of time and stored them in zippy bags so that when the time came, all I had to do was slide them on my big stick.  I was able to get 6 kids at a time to take a turn.  The big plus.... was that I used powdered, jelly filled!  The kids had powdered sugar and rasberry jelly all over their faces, hair, clothes.  What a great big fun mess!!

 (I brought baby wipes for the kids to clean up after)

Elijah piggin' out.

Coat Distribution.

Every year, we, The Salvation Army, does a big Coat Distribution day. It is a LOOOOOOT of work to get ready for. This year, we had over 600 coats donated and stored for the big day. Plus hats, gloves, scarves and even some snow suits.

I hung exactly 10.  Do you know why???  Because we have an incredible group of a few ladies who are worker bees!! *N* *K* *B* headed up the force and *C* *L* *R* weren't to far behind.  They started hanging on Monday and continued straight through Wednesday and then 2 of them stayed and helped run the show on Thursday.  What a blessing it is to have people that are so willing to help out and have great attitudes to boot!

I told the ladies they turned our Fellowship Hall into a Department Store!

This entire pile was hung, folded or nicely boxed up by Thursday.

This year, we even had a sock table.  *N* arranged every pair "just so".

I was nervous every time I walked by them that I'd mess them up!

In all we served over 100 families in about 7 hours. 

St. Vincent De Paul supplied many coats and some distribution day workers as well.  (Thanks!)

 We will continue to give out free coats and warm things throughout the winter through our Social Services.  We had such an abundance this year, that noone in The Dalles should be cold this season!

Thank you Lord for your provision!