dave & janet horsman ::: keepin’ it real since 1998

I wanted to let you all see me in one of my favorite positions…directing a choir. It is something I have done 3 times now since I started working at Bethany. I crack myself up each and every time because I used to make fun of my dad as he directed the church choir each Christmas and Easter. So now at each graduation, I direct the grads in their class song. This time, which was in September, they sang “How Great Is Our God”. Luckily, you can’t see my face.

I love, LOVE, LOOOOVE (imagine music notes around that last “love”) this time of year. Isn’t it wonderful when the time goes back? It’s so cozy the way the darkness creeps up on you in the late afternoon, and then settles upon you at dinnertime! It’s perfect for candlelit dinners. And why not? Here is our table all set for dinner last night…a yummy, comforting, fall meal: Shake’n'Bake chicken drumsticks, mashed potatoes, carrots and rutabaga (called turnip in Canada). The rutabaga was sweet and delicious (the boys actually ate all of it without coaxing)!

Last night I watched an interesting program about the history of chocolate on the History Channel.  Facinating stuff.  Really.

Anyway, one of the little tidbits of information I learned proves once and for all that I’m not crazy.  See, I’ve never liked the taste of Hershey’s chocolate.  “Why?” I’ve been asked.  “It tastes sour to me.” I would say.  In response I’d get a confused frown and an “Oh.” 

Well, when Hershey set out to bring milk chocolate to America in the late 1800’s, the Europeans would not divulge any of thier secrets.  So, it took Hershey almost two years to come up with his own recipe.  One of the steps in his recipe was condensing the milk, a process that took several days, and somewhere during the process, the milk would sour, giving Hershey’s chocolate it’s characteristic sour taste!    

“Today,”  a voice on the program said, “the same basic recipe is used, and you’ll still notice a slight sour taste to Hershey’s chocolate.  It’s the taste that America has grown to love!”  (not me!)

“I’m right!”  I said to myself, “I’m right!”  It was very exciting.  Wow, I really need to get out more…

When my mother was here, she loved to watch Elijah running to the bus-stop.  She savored it.  And it is cute, but in between making sure Noah doesn’t throw all of his banana on the floor, and unloading the dishwasher, I don’t have time to do that…right?

Wrong.  I have to admit, I’m guilty of plowing ahead, and forgetting that these are memories.  These precious, insignificant, and mundane things that happen everyday.  I stopped to watch Elijah running off to the bus-stop today, and took a picture to share with you all.  I know that when I’m seventy, I’ll remember this…my almost-seven-year-old, obediantly running off on a chilly October morning, excited about what the day has in store.  Such a cute little boy.

As much as Zeke misses Elijah during the school week, I think he’s really starting to revel in the fact that Noah follows him around, and copies everything he does. It’s a whole new world for him! Imagine being (willingly) bossed around by your older brother forever, and then finding oneself left with a little admirer ready to do your bidding! They are very cute, and the friendship that I see growing between them is precious. Honestly, I didn’t expect it - I thought the age difference between them was too great (that’s why we planned a fourth…so that Noah could have a sibling as close in age as Elijah and Zeke have) - but I’m very thankful for it!

Here they are this morning playing with their Thomas trains. Before this, Noah watched Zeke build a contraption with Duplo (while successfully stacking some blocks together himself), and after, he followed him out to the table to watch him play with Play Dough (no Play Dough for Noah though…he eats it).

P.S. Notice the dirty sock behind Noah’s head? For some reason, my house always has boys’ dirty socks (including Dave’s!) lying around. I mean, I do pick them up… but why must boys, in particular, remove their socks in the middle of the day, and then leave them wherever they happen to be at the time? It’s my current pet peeve.

Here are a couple pictures of our niece Ruth Mae last Friday when she was a day old . She is a week old today. My sister Bethany is livin’ la vida loca! Here is her chance to finally leave a post on my blog and tell the world how Ruth is doing today.

The only thing I don’t like about Autumn is what comes after it…Winter. Yes, our beautiful Fall is turning into a fridged Winter. I think we had our last two glorious Fall days over the weekend, and we were able to snap some cute photos of the kids playing in the leaves. I especially liked these two of Noah…

These photos really have nothing to do with the true subject of this post, other than the fact that Noah’s position as the baby of our family is about to be usurped!  In about seven months our baby Noah will be a big brother!  Hooray!