>I will repost this….it is important to me. We have had our annual Thanksgiving with the Pikes (minus a few), we have traveled towards hope and comfort in Chicagoland and now we are putting up our tree…..but this is my heart even this year. I decided to share it again

It has been quite sometime since I posted a recipe….
Today I will share how to prepare for fun and Chaos in the Pike house.
This Sunday we will host 28 people including 15 children in our home, our relatively small, but blessed home….there will be tables in bedrooms, the living room and the school room. There will be fun in every room.
There are multiple steps in our recipe for fun….
First we started last night -FRIDAY
2 pans of cornbread dressing
1 pan of corn casserole
8lbs of sausage balls
Kix 106 (our local country music station)
Dancing with Husband in the kitchen
Sing with the kid
Chop Celery
Chop Onion
Boil Chicken Livers
Budweiser and few laughs that we are going to pull this off
Toss the worry about what the sisters-in-laws think, this isn’t for them right….it is for the kids, they don’t care what sort of house we play and pray in.

Second-Sleep in till 10am Saturday, let the kids play, wash Laundry with lots of Fabric Softener it makes the house smell yummy.
French Toast
Day old French Bread
Nutmeg
Cinnamon
Pumpkin Pie Spice Coffee (to drink while cooking)-I just add the spice to my filter while brewing
My favorite Pampered Chef Skillet
1/2 dozen egg
6 Hungry kids and one grateful grandmother

Sunday-We are prepared and I will pray……

Memories for my children in our home as a family are more important than I think most know.
You only know how important that is if you haven’t had it and so I will sacrifice my pride, have my children’s heart filled with recipes of love, joy, and laughter and fill this home with people to the brim, so that each of them will remember that momma put her time where her mouth is.
We are called to love one another, to be hospitable, I think Jesus must have been fun and I just know he would have loved this kind of fun and chaos with all the kids and one momma who will commit to not worrying just for one day what others think and loving, living, laughing and maybe even a little dancing.
Enjoy the recipe….
Take a stretch out of your comfort zone and have some fun, for the family’s sake.

>I have been quite the reader. Reading is what has kept me sane for season of my life. We are currently reading through The Shack again, with the children and I have just begun The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams . I will maintain a level of integrity here with my readers by letting you all know that I am just barely through the Introduction of ‘Henry Adams’.

I have asked myself of the children “Can we begin a legacy of excellence in government, society, and power at this time and place in history?” a big question that I have explored before. I am not even sure if it is important or something to be aspired to, but my question, none the less. The future is after all in their hands, the children we are raising to be adults….The Future is In Their Hands. Quite Frankly, this is daunting.

In the Education of Henry Adams or at least the intro., I am reacquainted with an age old pattern, a history greatness. That is the story of Henry Adams, his family was a founding family with many important figure heads of history, but he considered himself a failure in many ways and even asked that his book not be published until after death, his death.

Adams was more a writer of History rather than a History Maker.

What will our children be and how will they find that and can they find that in relationship….big picture Relationship?

Relationships are the root of my life, painful though that mostly is, it is what it is. Reading this after The Shack, all about relationship and seeing Adams’ relationship to history, but merely relating history not making it, I am left with another question.

What is our relationship to our children’s ability to make history, either because of our relationship or in spite of our relationships with them?

Recently we have seen a man elected to be our very next History Maker, our President of this United States of America. There is much to be said of his relationships, their is one that is strikingly obvious to me. His lack of relationship with positional power in government, society or money as a child…at least none that is glaringly obvious from my tiny bit of research. The relationships we do know about as an adult have certainly formed him and we have heard much of this and they will quite possibly be history makers and tellers, as well. But….which is better…..

A place in history where you can become an incredible somebody, history maker, President of the United States , even if you come from a family of no one important, no known variables?

(this sounds appealing to me, it is where my children are coming from)

or a place in History where Children who become adults who become a Somebody, are taught, trained, groomed if you will to do the job by previous History Makers not History Watchers.

My children wouldn’t qualify, but maybe I would be more comfortable….in relationship to my on needs and desires.

I am not making a political statement, I am not talking about the vote, I am asking a question that I am uncomfortable with.

Would I rather have the opportunity of newness or the security of understood points?

Are these either/or questions and are they static answers?

I don’t know.

I will keep reading, maybe I am raising a History Maker(s), if so will I be pleased?