Thorburn Family

You’d THINK he’d never been fishing before this.

Lydia should be back in Houston in a few hours, and then home to New Hampshire tomorrow.  Here she is with part of the team, before boarding the plane.

Early this morning, Lydia left for Honduras.  She’ll spend about 3 days in Houston first with her uncle Dan, aunt Kerilyn, and cousin Danielle.  On Thursday she will meet the rest of her mission team and leave from Houston for a 10 day trip to Honduras!  Here she is at the Manchester, NH airport, ready to go!

We loooove smelling sauce simmering all day!  For the heck of it, here is my sauce recipe, just a conglomeration and adaptation of at least a few recipes from friends, slowly changed over 20 years till it suited us & was our own.    No tomato peeling here.. all the tomatoes are from a can.. this is “authentic” enough for us!

About the meat:   I buy 3 lbs or so of uncooked Italian sausages, cut them in half and sear them as directed below (then set aside).  I also make about 6 lbs worth of meatballs and cook them in the oven (then set aside).  Incidentally, if you use frozen meatballs, the sauce will be too thin.  After the sauce is put together in the big pot, I add *all* the seared Italian sausage first b/c it needs to cook all day, and then start adding meatballs till it is about to overflow (I need a bigger pot).  I wait a few hours for it to have cooked-down, and then add more meatballs if I want.  Obviously, I have tons of meatballs leftover for picking during the day, sandwiches, and the freezer.   At the end of the day, the sausages and meatballs have absorbed incredible flavor cooking in that sauce!  I usually serve them in the sauce, but I’m told that the Italian way is to take all the meat out of the sauce and serve in a separate dish for people to serve themselves.   I do that if I feel Italian. :) 

Here are the sauce directions:

On the stove, in an enormous pot, brown at least 10 cloves of garlic, a little oil, and Italian sausages cut in half.    Don’t cook through, just sear.  Don’t burn the garlic.  Remove the meat from the pan and set aside.  You can leave the garlic in the bottom of your big pot.  (Meanwhile make and cook meatballs)

Next, in your pot, add to the garlic and whisk well:

72 oz. of tomato paste

72 oz. of water

Next, add to the pot:

145 oz. diced tomatoes

174 oz.  crushed tomatoes

2 c. red wine (Merlot is good)

2 T. fennel seed

1/2 t. red pepper flakes

10 T. sugar

3 T. garlic powder

6 T. dried basil leaves  (I usually use a lot of fresh basil cut up roughly in addition to this)

2+ jalapeno peppers, diced

Add meat in again (uncooked sausage first, then cooked meatballs).  Simmer about 6 hours.  Do not boil.   I start the pot on med-high, stirring constantly, till it gets hot.   Then turn to simmer and let it truly simmer all day.  If you boil this more than occassional bubbles, it will scorch b/c of the sugar!

Cool completely before putting in freezer containers. 

Greetings! 

Let’s pretend this is a homemade (but glitter-free) Christmas card, containing a personal written note, a picture of the fam, and a stamp turned up-side down for love.  

In reality, business is slow, and spending a few bucks on cards and postage for mucho-addresses was something we just decided to skip this year.  In addition, our family picture was a disaster.  We are all rather yellow and constipated looking (surely a lighting issue).  Keep last year’s picture, friends!  Meanwhile, we are totally loving all the cards and pictures arriving from friends and family near and far, and feeling guiltier w/every new mail delivery!

To recap our year, we first must mention the very sad passing of my paternal grandfather, Parker Scoville, in November.   Our prayers are with grandma to whom he was married for well over 60 years.   It’s hard to fully comprehend such a loss.

It’s a year of new stuff for us all.   It became clear to us that Rich needed more help in the office (in our home), and that the best person for the job was…. yours truly.  I am sure this has nothing to do with the fact that he doesn’t have to pay me anything, and that I have a vested interest in the business thriving ;-).   Homeschooling five children well is not possible for us if I have to also be focused on the business, so we enrolled the four youngest children in a local Christian school, which eventually settled into three enrolled, two homeschooled.  Looks like a good situation all around.  We still have some big adjustments to make and projects to catch up before this is working like a well-oiled machine, and I have a lot to learn.  Meanwhile, my hard-working husband continues to work hard, though business for Covenant Home Improvements is pretty slow for the first time in years.  We’re hoping things pick up here pretty soon.

A significant experience we had this year was the fostering of a little baby boy.  He was born drug addicted and we were in the hospital with him for some time before he could come home.  We had him until he was 17 weeks old and love him very much.    While it was tiring, profoundly sad, joyful, and maddening at times, caring for this sweet baby also made the main things in life and death far more clear to us.  We became more determined to not waste our lives on meaningless things, and became even more confident in the power of the gospel, that is, the “good news,” as effective for every situation on earth in which we may find ourselves.   The message of the cross, this good news, is the ultimate answer for sweet baby, for his parents and all involved, and for us.   It is the same message of Christmas: that Jesus Christ came to free people from their sins, pay the debt we owed to a holy God, and to give a new life of purpose and hope for God’s glory.   He has saved us from a “futile way of life” and, in Christ, has provided hope eternal, life everlasting, and a road map for the rest of our days on earth.  All who have a burden of sin and need a Savior can freely receive his gift of salvation, for which He paid the ultimate price.

A quick, disjointed update on the kids:

Lydia (just turned 16):  homeschooled junior, started to drive this year, worked for the hospital all summer, and is looking fwd to a possible missions trip to Honduras in 2010.   She’s been busy crocheting, playing guitar, and sewing on top of a full academic load (Spanish 3, Functions/Statistics/Trigonometry, Anatomy & Physiology, Test Prep Course, and World Views #3&4).

Jubilee (14) has benefited from the school change, and we all agree that in her case, it has been strengthening for our relationship to have homeschooling off the table this year.  She’s really growing up!   Jubilee is looking forward to being in the Christmas program at her school.  She looks forward to doing the Dare To Care program at Mount Ascutney Hospital and volunteering there this year.   Still devouring books and loves to sing.

Valerie (turned 14 last week) is thrilled to be back in her art class with Linda Hammond now that she is homeschooled again.   Still baking, painting, crafting, and loving her pets (which now include only a lizard and a kitten).  Went through the Dare To Care training at Mount Ascutney Hospital and volunteered many hours on the critical care unit feeding patients and wheeling people around.  Loves to sing w/her sisters.  Along w/her sisters, Valerie was an immense, immense, incredible help when we had our sweet foster baby.

Jesse (10) has not lowered his energy level and continues to need a short leash and parents who are 5 steps ahead of him!  Still doing karate. He loves school and is not lax on class participation :).  Jesse has spent a lot of time splitting and hauling the nearly 20 cords of wood we use each winter to heat our big old house (two woodstoves), and somehow he still has the energy to be our chief entertainment.

Benjamin (6) has bloomed the most this year.  Much of his therapy has been discontinued, and he is just routinely evaluated for speech.   It is hard to believe he’s been our son for only 1 1/2 years.  He seems completely attached, is delightfully funny, and except for having a pretend friend named “Mary,” he’s marginally normal :-P    Ben is doing karate as well, and competed in his first tournament this Fall.  He’s memorizing the book of James along with everyone else and making good progress.

Looking ahead to the new year, Rich and I are looking forward to celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary (March 2nd).  It’s hard to believe it’s been that long!  We still love each other a super big awesome lot :-)!!   God is gracious.

If you made it this far, bless your heart.  Hope you all enjoy your Christmas and New Year!   We’d love to hear what’s up with each of you so drop us a line!     With love, Anna for the family

 anna@thorburnfamily.com

rich@covenanthomeimprovements.com

Just in time for me to spend too much money on a <head hung in shame> paper calendar and address book to try to reconstruct my outrageous life from memory……

As it turns out, I have a bum battery, not a crashed computer.  Well, it is about time… I’ve only had that battery in continuous use for 4 whole years!   I will wear the shame forever, for spewing such nonsense about crashing Mac’s in my last post!!!   May such filth never cross my lips again.

I cannot get a new Macbook battery right now as business is slow and it’s not really a necessity.  However, just looking at my sweet lil Macbook that has served me so faithfully for 4 years….brings a little Christmas tingle to my heart.   Meanwhile, absence makes the heart grow considerably fonder as I am forced to use Rich’s <clear throat, spit> PC whenever I need to do anything.   I wish I’d known I’d have to stock up on pity parties and electronic diaper wipes, for all the sorry ways PC’s need babysitting every 5 minutes.  

 I can’t even talk about it.   Ugh.