Weekly Weekend Random

Word of the week: Neoteric- recent in origin, modern

 

Random thing about me: I am a grammar nazi. If you have bad grammar, I will correct you. 

 

Random statement: Sudoku isn't as hard as it looks.

 

Random song: Toy Packaging by Sara Groves. It's a Christmas song, and I find it pretty funny :)

 

Random recipe: Buckeye brownies. I've never tried them, but they look really good.

 

Random movie: The Emporers New Groove. It's an older one, but it's still hilarious. 

-Dakota

Thanksgiving Plans

     Thanksgiving is tomorrow! Yay! So, I thought I'd blog about my plans for the week.
     Today, my immediate family will be getting together at my grandma and grandpa's house for supper. It's really special, considering that my one uncle lives in the South and my other uncle and his family live nearly 3 hours away.
     Every year, we go to my great aunts house (as mentioned before). The whole family on my grandma's side comes, and we have a blast. We usually show up around 11:00 and wait for everyone else to arrive. When everyone is there, we pray, get our food buffet style, and sit wherever our nametag is. We usually have about six tables spreading from the kitchen into the living room. Then we eat the usual turkey, stuffing, corn, bread rolls, and mashed potatoes, plus whatever other food people decide to bring that year. My mom is going to take bean dip and pumpkin pie. (Here's a secret. I've never eaten pumpkin pie)
     Then we do whatever. The dessert sits out for the rest of the day, encouraging unhealthy snacking. Usually the guys go outside to play football, the girls talk while looking at sale fliers, and the kids run around and play together. In the evening, we play games. I usually end up playing with the kids for most of the time.
     When the day is over, I will head out with my aunt to go Black Friday shopping. This year, she will be hosting a mother-daughter pair of foreign exchange students. It should be interesting, especially since the daughter is my age :)

-Dakota

Weekly Weekend Random

Word of the week: Effervescent- to show liveliness or exhilaration

Random thing about me: I am obsessed with notebooks. It doesn't matter what kind. Just notebooks. Spiral, composition, journal, notepad, etc. I love them, but I don't really know what to do with them.

Random statement: Organizing makes you feel productive, even if you only do it for a few minutes. Organize something: your room, your closet, your little brother's toy box, your pencil case, the kitchen cabinets, etc. It works.

Random song: Run Wild by For KING & COUNTRY. (I love their music)

Random recipe: Cracked-out chicken bubble up. Look it up on Pinterest. It has biscuits, bacon, chicken, and ranch. It's amazing.

Random TV show: Doctor Who. I am a Whovian. #Unashamed

-Dakota

What I Am Thankful For

     Since Thanksgiving is only a week away, we start to think about what we are thankful for. Here are some of the things for which I am thankful:
     1. I am thankful for my family. I would be a completely different person without them.
     2. I am thankful for my friends. I have so many friends that I love very much. Sometimes when I feel upset and want to talk to someone, I can't decide who to talk to, because they all are here for me.
     3. I am thankful for God's creation. The complexity of the world we live in is awesome, and animals make great companions :)
     4. I am thankful for the necessities: food, clean water, and shelter. My family may not be rich, but we are not deprived of anything we need.
     5. I am thankful for dance. I love to dance, even when it's hard. I may not be flexible, but I'm more flexible than I've ever been before. It also lets us to express how we feel.
     6. I am thankful for books. They allow us to learn about the past and the present. When we read, we can shut out reality and go on an adventure as someone else. Books can teach us things that we wouldn't learn any other way.
     I am thankful for many things, but these are some of my favorites :)

-Dakota

I Am a Murderer

     Okay, so I'm not actually a murderer, but I did kill something.

     Yesterday, I went hunting with my grandpa. I woke up at 4:45 and sneaked around the house trying not to wake anyone up. Which was a fail. I woke up my mom, who then blow-dried my wet hair, made me put my lunch in containers instead of bags (so it wasn't as noisy), and kindly informed me that the outside light turns on by itself. I say "kindly" because it was actually said in a kind voice, even though I hit the wrong light switch and turned on the lights right by her open bedroom door...

      Anyway, we got into the woods (*sings the opening song from Into the Woods*) at 6:15 and began our hunt. We weren't out there for very long when we saw three deer come down a trail on the opposite hill. We had to wait a minute or two for the biggest one to walk into the open and give us a good shot. I had to give myself a pep talk on remaining calm and focusing on the deer. Then I pulled the trigger, and the loud bang made me nearly deaf for the next few minutes. The doe tried to run back up the hill, but she fell pretty quickly. Then we sat around for almost an hour so we wouldn't disturb the woods too much (we are not superstitious about woods. If we got the deer too early we would disturb other deer which might cause them to not come back to that area).

     That is how I got my first deer. I could give all the gory details of how we took care of it after that, but I'll let you live for now :)

- Dakota

My Thanksgiving Project

    Hello again :)
    In my family, we have a big annual get-together at my great aunt's house. I was one of the youngest kids for as long as I can remember, until a few years ago when all the older people started to get married and have kids. Now there are eleven kids under 6! I really enjoy playing with these kids, and they're always excited to see me too.
    I learned to crochet when I was 8, and I recently made a Pinterest account. I was bored one day and started to look up crochet things. I found a whole bunch of amigurumi (crochet animal) patterns and became obsessed with making them. I bought a whole bunch of yarn, crochet hooks, thread, etc. My mom constantly asked, "Who are you making that for?" when she saw me doing a project. That's when I got this bright idea to crochet stuffed animals for a few of my little cousins and give one to each of them on Thanksgiving.
    I have completed a cat with a tutu and a yellow mouse. That's it. I have a lot of work ahead of me. A few of the gifts will be for Christmas because I know I can't finish all of them by then. I am almost finished with a giraffe, a mouse lovey (stuffed animal blanket thing), and I haven't even started on the penguin. 
     Some of the patterns were free, and a few of them were only available on Etsy. Most of the patterns I have are from littlemuggles.com. It'll be a lot of fun to finish them up and give them to the kids :)

-Dakota

Hello World

    Since this is my first post, I will say a little about myself and my family. I will be going by Dakota, and my siblings will be referred to as Jeff, Chloe, and Carl. I was born a few years after Jeff, and the other two are recently adopted/fostered/who knows what. In any case, they live with us.
    My family and I moved this past year, and we are enjoying the new house. We don't live far away from where we did before, but living in town makes life a lot easier.
    I am a Christian, and I enjoy performing onstage - singing, dancing, and acting. I'm not very flexible and don't have the most fabulous singing voice, but practice makes perfect, right? In my free time I like to journal, crochet, read, and imagine a whole bunch of random situations that will never happen. I would consider myself a bit nerdy, because I like Doctor Who, Sherlock, and math. *gasp*
    I also enjoy lots of other random things too, like playing some sports, video games, drawing, and pointlessly researching things (such as famous actor's lives, or cat breeds, or the symptoms of food poisoning).

-Dakota