The One Where She Spills Her Guts

Okay, not literally. I don’t know if I have ever told you this, but I never throw up. Well, almost never. The amount of times I have thrown up in the last 35 years: One. Number of times I plan to throw up in the next 35 years: Zero. Just so we’re clear.

So figuratively speaking, here is what is going on in Victoria world.

1. Church. I am going to be teaching the 11-year-old girls, and doing their twice-monthly activity days. I think they realized that having someone who has made so many children cry teach the six-year-olds was probably a bad move. Despite the fact that I am a boy mom, to which Cambria can attest, as she has suffered the consequences for these twelve years, I think I can handle five 11-year-old girls, and we should get along swimmingly. Raising six sons has to prepare one for something. What is that something? I haven’t figured that out, yet.

2. Sing Noel. Sing Noel is a Christmas music program that our church hosts for the community the first weekend in December. It is sort of big. There is an adult choir of over a hundred, a young women’s choir and a children’s choir. I will be playing for the adult choir again this year, and the rehearsals begin the second week of October. Performances Dec. 5th and 6th. You’re all invited. That means I will actually have to practice.

3. Family. Casey is my Number Three Son (rankings determined by birth order, not by popularity), and he is currently serving a mission for our church in Texas. He is teaching about Jesus Christ to the Spanish-speaking population in the downtown Dallas area. He has also been teaching in ASL (American Sign Language), not for the first time during this two years. He told us that he had to say his first prayer in ASL on Sunday. He said it was “stressful, because everyone was looking at him.” He cracks me up. Ethan is my Number Four Son (again, determined by birth order… no offense intended) and he is currently stationed at Little Creek Amphibious Base near Norfolk, Virginia, attending the armed forces music school there. I mention sons #3 and #4 because it is their absence which leaves a hole in my family…which hole is going to be filled in December. We have had overlapping missionaries for the last five years, and so in that five years, I have not once had all of my family together. Casey finishes his two-year mission December 9th, and Ethan will be home for Christmas, making possible a kind of McDaniel family Perfect Storm. Am I a little excited? Yes!

4. Food. Yes, I have been eating. And cooking. And I have a new project. It is not more catering. I will not be catering again in 2009… unless someone with whom I share blood (or my bed) requires it. So what is the project? If you have downloaded any of the recipes I have posted in the last week, you will notice that I have changed the format. I have been going through all of my recipes and adding photos and tips. By the end of October I plan to have my seventy favorite recipes, complete with my own photos, so that I can print them into a recipe book. I have a friend who is getting married, and I hope it will make a very special wedding present. My current thought is to print them and put them in sheet protectors in a binder. I could actually print a bound book, but I kind of like the sheet protectors, since I tend to splatter everything in the kitchen. Thoughts or suggestions from my creative readers?

5. Music. I have jumped off the deep end, and started a project that I will complete by the second week of November. It is very, very exciting, and is going to require all of the time leftover from taking care of my family and completing numbers 1-4 above. I am not quite ready to announce it, but you can look for me to do so in the next ten days, and (hint) you will be able to pre-order said project.

6. Blog. In November my blog will see its first birthday. It will probably be due for a makeover. I have worn out “The One That…” and maybe the blog title as well. What do you think? Any great makeover suggestions?

7. Pets. I am going to buy Skippy a dog.

8. Just kidding on Number 7… sorry, Skip.