About a month ago, my mom was diagnosed with lung cancer. This past month has seemed like a lifetime, but today is the day of surgery to remove the tumor--possibly the whole right lung. As I type, we're in the waiting room, waiting for Mom to go into surgery. The first surgery of the day took 4 or 5 hours longer than they anticipated, so Mom's was bumped back. It should begin today around 5:00. Please be praying that they'll be able to get all of the cancer, that Mom's body will respond well to the surgery, that her heart and left lung would be strong, ... It's been a LONG day already! I am sooo thankful that we know the Great Physician, the Prince of Peace, and that we have such a wonderful, supportive family!
Here's my niece Jacquie doing Mom's hair. We all wait our turn for her to beautify us! I'm sure she gets rather tired of it, but she's a good sport about it.
And the star of the weekend was my brother's son, James. He was the only little one to make it home with us, and he got a LOT of attention! We kinda think he's a genius...and just a bundle of fun! Here he is checking out some of the first big snowflakes of the year. 
We're having lots of fun at our house getting ready for the holidays. The kids and I are crafting and baking! These stars they're making are called "Waldorf window stars"--may be a little early, but they're already making our windows look festive, and the kids so enjoyed making them.
Sarah helped me make 4 dozen cinnamon rolls the other day for Thanksgiving (breakfast) with my side of the family. She did great--we froze them before baking them, so we had to sample a thawed out and baked pan this morning--not bad at all! Sarah is a great help in the kitchen. (I have us wear these bandannas to keep hair out of the food, but the kids think we're the coolest pirate cooks ever!)
I found a tutorial here for these cute no sew flower headbands (I did mine all with a glue gun b/c I didn't have Fabri-Tac). Made a couple last night and Sarah thinks they're fun, so I might have to make a few more--maybe a few for gifts. They're so easy and basically free--I just used scraps of material I had, and I've got plenty of headbands. This is her "gameday" headband...
...and her super fancy pink and green one. She loves it!
In other news, our puppy Jake has become an almost exclusively-indoor dog this past week. (He's spent much of his life in our backyard because the weather has been so nice and his sister--neighbor's dog and litter-mate-- plays out there with him.) He's doing great about not having accidents, and is actually becoming our dream dog! So glad we got him!
