PRIDE AND PREJUDICE READ-THROUGH

We had a read-through of the Pride and Prejudice Script with our cast. It went exceedingly well. The show is going to be exceptionally entertaining.


The entire cast did a wonderful job of their first time through. I can't wait to see what they do after they rehearse some!

Some of the lovely Bennet ladies.

AND INTRODUCING SOME OF OUR CAST . . .

For Pride and Prejudice auditions, we took a picture of each person with their name written on a marker board, for casting purposes later. Some of our cast were a little more creative than expected.


Mr. Bennet . . .

. . . and Mrs. Bennet (what a pair).

Mrs. Reynolds . . .

. . . and Mr. Gardiner.

Petunia . . .

Mr. Wickham . . .

Lydia (not Jenna Light) . . .

and I don't know who that is (but I think I wash those jeans regularly.)

. . . and this is NOT Bob Brown!

TASTE AND SEE THAT THE LORD IS GOOD!

Once again, the best recipe in town was at the Pioneer Woman's Cooking Blog.
Her Christmas Cookies won our personal cookie taste test.
I think it was the teaspoon of lemon zest, along with her sense of humor.

And Ree Drumond's Best Ever Cinnamon Rolls really are!
They have become a Holiday Tradition, including the tradition that John has to make them.

John really is the best baker we have in the family, and several of us aren't too shabby either.
Aren't those beautiful.

WHITE CHRISTMAS . . .

The boys felt cheated. . . the rest of the nation was covered in several feet of snow, and we only got about an inch. However they made the most of it, rolling down hills inside blue barrels, since the sleds wouldn't work. Because it was 20 degrees out with gusts up to 40 MPH, I didn't take pictures of the fun in the snow. I did get two pictures before this little eskimo headed out for the frolics.

"Are you ready for fun, Glory?!"

A PARADE OF PINK PERSONALITIES

The Lights came for art lessons last week, and the girls were delighted to discover that they were all wearing PINK!
This is definitely cause for a picture (although Meredith wasn't sure about her face needing to be in the photo.)

THANKS ALANA ! ! !

I once again find myself in the strange postition of trying to do something nice, and finding it turns out to be no sacrifice and all blessing. A newly married couple from church, Matt and Alana Brown, both homeschool graduates, have recently been included in a lot of our family activities. Wednesdays are long days for Matt at Missouri S & T and at work, so Alana has been coming over to spend time with real people. She plays with the kids, helps them with their school, cleans up and then leaves saying "Thank you so much for letting me come over!" ??! Thank you for what? She just made my life so much better!

Especially this week, when she made sugar cookies with the kids, something I would love to mark off the list, but haven't actually done the last two or three years. The kids loved it, and I think Alana had fun too. What a "win-win" blessing!!

FELLOW MISSOURI VOTERS --PLEASE EMAIL AND CALL SENATOR CLAIRE MCCASKILL

Encourage her to vote against the excessively expensive Health Care bill, as she stated she would.
You will probably just need to leave a message.
Senator Kit Bond's office assured me that he would continue to oppose the bill.



Call any or all of these local offices:
Cape Girardeau Phone 573-651-0964
Columbia Phone 573-442-7130
Kansas City Phone 816-421-1639
Springfield Phone 417-868-8745
St. Louis Phone 314-367-1364

And her D.C. office:
Washington D.C. office(202) 224-6154 FAX (202) 228-6326

And email at:
http://mccaskill.senate.gov/contact/

EXTREMELY HUMOROUS CHRISTMAS DECORATION. . . (the man is fake)

Story from the creator:

"Good news is that I truly out did myself this year with my Christmas decorations. The bad news is that I had to take him down after 2 days. I had more people come screaming up to my house than ever. Great stories. But two things made me take it down. First, the cops advised me that it would cause traffic accidents as they almost wrecked when they drove by. Second, a 55 year old lady grabbed the 75 pound ladder almost killed herself putting it against my house and didn't realize it was fake until she climbed to the top (she was not happy). By the way, she was one of many people who attempted to do that. My yard couldn't take it either. I have more than a few tire tracks where people literally drove up my yard."

JORDAN !! . . .Jon and Julie's cutest child

She stands . . .

. . . she flops . .

. . . and she never stops smiling!

A DREAM COME TRUE

Joy has been reading about, talking about, thinking about, dreaming about horses for a very long time. This last week , we loaded "Pablo" up in the trailer and brought him to his new home.

Joy has been rather giddy ever since.

Anna has been rather tickled too (and their mom had a delightful ride around the pastures on Saturday morning!)

We welcome Pablo onto the farm.

A PSALM -- FOR GIVING THANKS . . .

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before Him with joyful songs.
Know that the LORD is God.
It is He who made us, and we are His;
we are His people,
the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving
and His courts with praise;
give thanks to Him and praise his name.
For the LORD is good and His love endures forever;
His faithfulness continues through all generations.

Psalm 100

FINE LINEN KIDS

Fine Linen was asked to provide some entertainment for the State-wide Birthright convention. Our younger actors were happy to oblige.

They performed a medley from Annie, and enjoyed it more than even the audience.

The four songs they sang were: Hard-Knock Life, Maybe, Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile . . .

. . . . and of course - Tomorrow.

ART CLASS

The serious artists worked on ducks, Abby Ymker . . .

Adam doing a demo while Joy watched . . .

and John holding his mouth just right.