When you picture Thanksgiving you picture a golden brown turkey, stuffing, gravy, the works, All this abundance is laid out on a big long table with a beautiful family sitting around it. They all bow their heads in prayer to give thanks.

This is where real life enters in, because this blog is about being real. Thanksgiving used to be a dreaded holiday in my childhood home. Either the taverns were closed on that day or the man of the house succumbed to the great pressure of the woman of the house, to stay sober, on that one day of the year when we would all pretend to be a happy family. It was exhausting! There were usually tears and loud voices as people bent to the strain of it all. At the end of the night there was a little girl crouched in her bedroom with her hands over her ears and the dog(ironically named “Happy” was hiding under the bed). That kind of sums it up; Happiness was hiding under the bed.

When I met and married my husband, I came to this celebration of thankfulness with a guarded approach. He had a big crazy, amazing family. I am happy to say that, after many years with my  “knight in a baseball cap and jeans”, the new, wonderful memories have replaced the old. I am proud of us, my husband and I. We have broken the chain of dysfunction for our kids. It wasn’t easy to break that chain. It was Celebrate Recovery, surrender to Jesus, hard healing work. The rubber really met the road when I was called to live with, and care for, my father in his time of illness with Alzheimer’s disease. My husband, myself, three rambunctious boys and a baby on the way were all part of the Master’s plan for healing. No wonder I turned out to be a determined out of the box thinker!

So around this time of year I see all the bloggers coming up with the perfect Thanksgiving content. The right recipes(involving pumpkin of course). The right attitude, of thankfulness, of course. The perfect table setting. The most amazing turkey(raised yourself on green pastures)! I think to myself “How can I introduce a little real life here?”

Then it comes to me; I can show them what I am struggling with on the urban homestead, which is roaches and rats! No kidding! This is real life people! I bet the pilgrims would cheer a whole hearty amen to a post about defeating those two varmints! I bet half their thanksgiving meal went to either or both of those critters. So If you are still with me, then I have the most amazing hack to destroy roaches in your kitchen! This is the most satisfying trap, especially if you have a flock of chickens to feed them to!

Get a mason jar, grease the sides with bacon fat(any type of grease), put bait(I used wet chicken food) in the bottom, go to sleep(have amazing restful dreams) wake up to your nemesis at your mercy at the bottom of a mason jar! Wait it gets better…. take your jar(with your enemy in it and feed them all to your chickens, which ironically will give you more nutritious eggs. I know! It is too good to be true!

Moving on to rats. Again, real life here. In the city there are very few natural predators left to eat these villains. If you use poison then you might just take out the last struggling predator of these disease carrying rodents, the owl or hawk. Poison is not the answer, trapping them is. Pay attention now, because not all live rodent traps are created equally. My sister recently had a varmint breach the walls of her homestead and they ordered many different traps until that chubby, hairy, long tailed beast entered my favorite trap. That solved the problem in short order! One warning; DON’T give this to your spouse for Christmas. Well, I would probably like it, but then I think I might be a bit different then most gals;)

What do I do with these evil, sharp toothed rodents once we trap them? Well, I don’t release them in the neighborhood park that’s for sure. I am a mom of 4 boys. I will just leave it at that.

I hope you have enjoyed my take on a reality based thanksgiving. I myself will be forever grateful for my husband and his amazing, crazy family for dragging happiness out from under the bed for me!

I love you ..My Knight in a Baseball cap and Jeans, Hunter Rian, John, Camden, Sarah and Elijah, Don, Elizabeth, Connor, Judy, Jimmy, Veronica and Lawrence, Nita and Jim. Sammy, Hannah, Jerod, Caleb, Mammo, Shirley, Brian, Cash, Briley, Aunt Shirley, Michael, Melissa, Dean, Ro, Tyler, Aunt Jane, Freddy, Cindy, Eric, Tiffany, Blake, Delane, Lorraine and David, Papa Hunter and Jaynie, Uncle Lowell, and those that have passed on to heaven already.

I bet you didn’t know that you taught me what the word family meant. Well, now you know! I am grateful and thankful and blessed! Thank you for making my Thanksgiving fun and lively and something to be remembered when I think of my favorite things!

Have a blessed thanksgiving, Dash.

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