To Do Status Report

Remember that long list of items to get done that I posted before my break? Well, I thought I should report in on how I did - keeping in mind that there were snow days in there! So anything that required being out of the house was scrapped.

But here is the list with updates in italics.

• Finishing the Christmas Tree Decorations (total of 16) Finished!
  
• Finishing the furoshiki (qty 15) and fabric ribbons (as many as needed) added this year The furoshiki are finished and the ribbons are being done as needed....
  
• Finishing the hanging towels for gifts (qty 20) Finished!
  
• Finishing a baby blanket for a church baby shower (along with 2 dozen cinnamon buns, and a dozen for my family because I would never take something without giving them some first). Finished!
  
• Making fabric ribbons and a coffee cake for the Church Ladies Decorating Brunch Finished and I had a great time!
  
• Decorate our home - we put the tree up, the Advent wreath out, and the books out Thanksgiving weekend, the rest follows in the next week or two. Finished!
  
• Finalize my Amazon Christmas order and place it. Finished, delivered, and mostly wrapped.
  
• Make a quick trip to my favorite toy store for Christmas and Birthday gifts. Not done due to bad weather.
  
• Make a quick trip to Target for a couple small Christmas items (and then I am done shopping!) Canceled - I came up with a better idea that will let me just finish up with a quick mall trip that my husband has to make anyways, but we did not make it to the mall due to the bad weather.
  
• Christmas cards and newsletter done (which will be a feat because I have not started), but this can linger into mid December if need be. Oops - totally forgot about this with all the snow to play in.
  
• Start wrapping and preparing to ship stuff! In progress and will be done in earnest once I make those last two trips and finish 2 more hand knit dish cloths...which I did not mention in the original list...., but I think I am making around 10ish with 2 more to go.
  

Keeping in mind that I like to be done as much as possible before December 1, in a perfect and ideal world where nothing mucks with my plans! Actually, I like to be done the mall, but can deal with little boutique stores and online if needed.

Oh, and I have most of my Christmas baking to still do, including 2 dozen cinnamon buns for gifts.

How are your Christmas preparations going?

Marie Madeline Studios Cyber Monday Sale

I just took advantage of the great sale over at Marie Madeline Studios for today!

I ordered Indigo Denim to make each girl a pair of Tessa bloomers and also ordered turquoise bandanna to make each girl an Emerson Skirt. I realize that they have tons of pink, so should have something different.

Yes, I am making them both the same, they love to match, and it is most often Miss Pear requesting the match!

I am NOT an affiliate for Marie Madeline Studios I just really, really love them. Their fabrics are an excellent quality, and their customer service is even better. I have actually had them call me when I included a question about a match in my order and they recommended a different fabric! They are that good.

That is really the only sale I took advantage of today - did you find any deals?

Multitude Monday 21

221. A five-year-old's delight at seeing snow fall for the first time.

222. 1 st snow man for the girls that was all of 9 inches tall - our 2 year old tucked it under her arm and carried it around with her.

223. 1st snow day.

224. fuzzy mitts, warm hats, woolen socks

225. warm quilts

226. full pantry - no running to the store in bad weather

227. hot chocolate

228. tea on cold days

229. hot baths on cold evenings

230. great books to read snuggled under quilts

231. a thanksgiving paper chain that was long and mostly filled with things the girls were thankful for.

232. A Thanksgiving meal were everything turned out!

233. The joy of decorating the church with the other ladies!

234. The beginning of Advent!

235. Our homemade advent wreath

236. A time of waiting and preparing

Happy Thanksgiving Break

Happy Thanksgiving a little early!

For most families, the holiday season crunch happens in December. For us it happens now! We try to have the bulk of our shopping and all our crafting done before Thanksgiving, and everything ready to ship and mail the first weekend of December. While that may seem ambitious, much of what we mail and ship is international, so it requires being a little bit earlier, plus, it allows for a much quieter Advent season where we really do look forward to the Lord's birthday.

So the next week and a half will be spent thusly:

• Finishing the Christmas Tree Decorations (total of 16)
  
• Finishing the furoshiki (qty 15) and fabric ribbons (as many as needed) added this year
• Finishing the hanging towels for gifts (qty 20)
• Finishing a baby blanket for a church baby shower (along with 2 dozen cinnamon buns, and a dozen for my family because I would never take something without giving them some first).
  
• Making fabric ribbons and a coffee cake for the Church Ladies Decorating Brunch
• Decorate our home - we put the tree up, the Advent wreath out, and the books out Thanksgiving weekend, the rest follows in the next week or two.
• Finalize my Amazon Christmas order and place it.
• Make a quick trip to my favorite toy store for Christmas and Birthday gifts.
  
• Make a quick trip to Target for a couple small Christmas items (and then I am done shopping!)
  
• Christmas cards and newsletter done (which will be a feat because I have not started), but this can linger into mid December if need be.
• Start wrapping and preparing to ship stuff!

On top of this we plan on going to the local Children's Museum and Art Gallery next week. I am so excited. And celebrate Thanksgiving part 2.

Therefore, I will see you after Thanksgiving.

Have I mentioned I LOVE having 2 Thanksgivings?

Have a blessed and gratitude filled Thanksgiving!

Multitude Monday 20

208. The joy of rain and cool weather where I can clearly justify...

209. ...wearing beautiful sweaters I have had in my closet for more years than I care to count because it was too warm in Southern CA for them.

210. ...a pot of delicious soup with homemade bread.

211. ...a cup of hot tea any time of day, even with a book sometimes!

212. The joy of most people knowing how to drive in the rain around here - in Southern CA we would often choose to stay home when it rained because other drivers often made it dangerous!

213. The joy of friends.

214. The joy of feeding people - love doing that!

215. The joy of praising God with His people.

216. The joy of hearing His Word faithfully preached.

217. Little girls who squeel with delight when grabbed as they go by for a tickly, snuggly, huggy, giggly squeeze.

218. Good health care for the girls.

219. Friends who faithfully pray for us, especially praying for the girls and their health.

220. A Lord who is faithful and trustworthy.

Preparing

It seems like I am always preparing for something:

• the next meal
• the pantry for winter
• presents for Christmas
• baking for a baby shower
• baking for Christmas
• Oh, yes, Thanksgiving
• Advent - our family celebrates it!
• Did I mention Christmas and all the crafting we planned this year - fun but lots of work.

In the midst of this preparing, it is easy to miss some important preparing:

• One's heart with Thankfulness for the Lord's Provision
• One's heart to celebrate the Lord's Birthday

There is only one way I really do well at this, and that is to have the bulk of the outside the house stuff done before Advent so that Advent really is a time of preparing our hearts and looking forward to the joy of our Saviour's Birth!

Much is done, much more needs to be done.

Tomorrow morning we are heading to a book store to find some new Christmas reading. Each year we add a book for each girl and so does my husband's mom who is so dear to us - she also supplies the Advent Calendars each year!

So what books would you recommend we add to our library this year?

I will share my list next week....

Tradition

Today is Remembrance Day in Canada - the combination of Veterans' Day and Memorial Day. The whole country all but shuts down, and we always watched the ceremony of Remembrance from Ottawa. My husband's family did the same thing, except they also baked Christmas Cake today.

So today the girls and I made what has been renamed Candy Cake in our house. It is a blond fruit cake, or the fruit cake before it is soaked in liquor, and is very delicious. We make 3 loaves of it, and they will be carefully wrapped and stored in the fridge until at least the first week of December - it is the only way to make sure there is any left for Christmas.

It is a fun tradition, and after the cake is in the oven, the phone calls go out. This year we were about an hour behind the rest of the family - which is impressive considering we are 2 hours behind according to the clock!

Gathering the Fragments

One of my favorite features of More-With-Less Cookbook (World Community Cookbook) and Extending the Table: A World Community Cookbook is the Gathering the Fragments section - using up the leftovers!

We have found that with the CSA box we do need to have a plan to use up the leftover veggies, although the fruit never seems to be a problem! There are the standbys of stir fries and soup, which are always good. You can always roast veggies for a lovely remake on them. Or you can make this casserole from Eat, Shrink & Be Merry! Great-tasting Food That Won't Go From Your Lips to Your Hips! (Although my favorite book in the series is still the original: Looneyspoons: Low-fat Food Made Fun!):

Viva Las Veggies
(Yes, all the recipe titles are punny in these books)

2 medium tomatoes, cut in chunks
2 medium zucchini, chopped
2 large portobello mushrooms, chopped
1 medium red onion, coarsely chopped
1 tsp garlic (I go with 1 large clove)
1 tbsp each olive oil and balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp each fresh herbs such as rosemary, basil, oregano, or thyme (can substitute dried)
1/4 tsp each salt and pepper

1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp thyme

In 9x13 mix first group of ingredients - I usually just keep the zucchini the same, add some kind of onion and then just throw in what I need to use up. Mix this well.

Roast uncovered at 425F for 25 minutes.

Mix remaining 3 ingredients and sprinkle evenly over top. Return to oven for 5 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve hot.


How do you like to use up your veggies that are at the end of their prime?

Multitude Monday 19

Totally forgot to post this last week until Wednesday, so I just continued adding....

193. Another mom I was talking to at Classical Conversations just happening to know 2 excellent realtors in the area for us to talk to as we get ready to start looking for our home...and she would know, she was an agent for years!

194. She also asked if I would be interested in organic fuji apples at $0.60 a pound. Did I mention they were organic? I tried to not jump and down and squeal with delight as I requested a case.

195. Our new friends. It is hard to make new friends, but I see now how God is bringing them my way.

196. My 2 year old singing the first half of the nominative pronouns cheer. "I, you, he, she, it!"

197. Miss Pear singing the Lord's Prayer.

198. Baby joining her on the "amen"s.

199. My husband's very successful business trip.

200. The very delicious coffee from "Eataly" he brought me after carefully reading all the offerings and choosing the one he thought I would like best - he was right!

201. That everyone is on the mend from the yuck.

202. God's encouragement through His word.

203. The excellent doctors Baby will see this afternoon for her hip dysplasia check up - at this point she should just need to grow and as she does the hip socket should just catch up.

204. God's encouragement in prayer.

205. That God will never leave or forsake us.

206. The hugs of daughters.

207. The understanding of my husband who took care of so much when I was sick last week and kept sending me to bed early as he did dishes and tidied up.

Christmas Wrap

For many November is all about Thanksgiving, but in our house, with so many gifts needing to be in the mail the first week of December, it is also about getting things done for Christmas. Plus, to be truthful, I like having all my shopping, crafting, and shipping done by the end of this month.

The past couple years I have been looking hard at my thoughts and ideas about Christmas. Particularly the gift giving and the wrapping. Accepting the fact that I was raised with impossibly high standards that were sucking the fun out of it I decided to start over. (One credo was that you must never be able to see the tape, and ribbons and bows must be used in a plethora of abundance that overwhelms.)

In starting over I discovered a few things:

1. Costco has the best deal for me on wrap because you get this huge thick roll that is double sided at a very reasonable price. It may not be the cheapest, but it is a great help for me.

2. I like making my own ribbons with that wired ribbon. Costco's price in the past couple years has even beat the after Christmas sale when comparing yard to yard. These ribbons are beautiful, creative, and last wonderfully from one year to the next. They make me very happy so it is worth it to me.

3. I love furoshiki! (The link shows you some different ways to wrap with it). It is basically a square of cloth where you put your present in the middle, fold in 2 opposite corners, then fold in the other opposite corners, tying a neat knot. I always keep my eye out at the quilting store for fabric this time of year and try to add some new ones each year, yes the quilting store, the fabric is thicker so it holds up better and is harder to see through. If you buy a yard and a quarter you have a large square that you can then cut into 4 squares. A quick hem around the edge and you are done. Once your present is wrapped you can always add some ribbon. This is my favorite way to wrap books! It lasts beautifully year to year.

These 3 things compose the bulk of my gift wrap stash. I do have a lot of gift bags that were given to us, or I collected when we traveled at Christmas, but I am not really a fan, and I most often use these to give gifts outside our home.

The thing that has been the biggest learning curve for me has been gift tags. I was raised that you had to have the fanciest ones and that you had to write a LONG message on each one.

Yeah, not so much.

I like the sticker ones a lot, and we do have some fancy ones that we just reuse year to year because they basically just say to and from.

I have made some of my own, but my favorite make it yourself ones are the ones I print and the girls color - they may not be fancy, but they are made with lots of love.

Here are a couple links I will be using this year:

What are your secret weapons in your Christmas wrap stash? Do you have other links for colored tags?

Lessons Learned

It has been an odd week around here. Miss Pear got sick on Sunday, I got sick on Tuesday, and yesterday it appeared that my dear husband was not going to escape this either.

Homeschooling obviously did not happen yet this week, except the lessons that occur naturally in life and our regular morning Bible reading time and bedtime family worship.

But this has been a great lesson for me.

So often I feel like I am chronically behind on everything, but this week that has not happened. Upon reflection I realized that by not homeschooling in the morning I have tons of time. We are certainly not going to quit homeschooling, but at least now I know where my time goes, and it is a great investment! I am encouraged to try to stay more on top of things though.

I learned that my girls are really good friends. Baby has been trying to nurse her sister back to health, and it is so sweet.

I am reminded that there is very little a squeeze and a cuddle cannot fix, especially when accompanied by a good story book.

And I am reminded why I love being able to stay home with the girls, a blessing not to be taken for granted.

CSA Box

It is time for another yummy box today, and we had to make a change. We have switched to getting the bigger box every 2 weeks because I find I am buying more to add on than I would like, so we will see how that goes. We can switch back with an email if it ends up being too much produce.

This week we are getting:

Broccoli, Organic - 1 each
Leeks, Organic - 3 each
Green Bell Peppers, Organic - 3 each
Red Bok Choy, Organic - 1 bunch
Brussels Sprouts On The Stalk, Organic - 1 each
Bunched Baby Carrots, Organic - 1 bunch
Green Leaf Lettuce, Organic - 1 bunch
Gala Apples, Organic - 6 each
Valencia Oranges, Organic - 6 each
Red Flame Grapes, Organic - 1.25 pounds
Bartlett Pears, Organic - 6 each

We are getting broccoli instead of potatoes which are forbidden in our house, and I substituted green peppers in place of spinach. Spinach is one of those things I am learning to like. I kind of like it sauted in oil with garlic, but if you have a great recipe for spinach could you please share it with me?

I have never had red bok choy before, but love bok choy so I don't anticipate a problem. I do anticipate a stir fry though!

Some hesitation lingers in me over the brussels sprouts. My experiences have not been stellar, but I am hoping that like everything else it will be much better directly from the farm. Plus, my husband loves it, so this is basically suck it up time if nothing else. In order to prepare for this I consulted on of my favorite cooking people, Alton Brown at Food TV and found 2 recipes of his to think about:

• Basic Brussels Sprouts which is currently ranking last, but it is good to know how to prepare them simply in case we love them. Reading this makes me think the ones I tried that turned me off for good were over done.
• Brussels Sprouts with Pecans and Cranberries which could be the recipe to convert me, but also plays up the "hey, they are just little cabbages" angle.

I am also a big fan of Ina Garten so I checked out her recipe for Roasted Brussels Sprouts because I really do like roasted veggies, and this might be a winner too.

If this were arriving on your door step tonight what recipes would you be considering?

Coconut Oatmeal

Now that the weather is turning cooler I find myself making this recipe a lot more. Often for lunch with fruit. We love it so much I bought a case of coconut milk from Amazon at a great price, and cinnamon sticks! What recipes are you pulling out for the fall and winter?

Coconut Oatmeal

4 cups whole milk (2% works fine)
14 oz can coconut milk
1/4 – 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1/4 tsp salt (optional)
3 cups oats (rolled, instant, either work)
1 tbsp butter (optional)

Bring milk, coconut milk, brown sugar, cinnamon stick and salt to a boil in a large, heavy saucepan, stirring with a whisk.

Reduce heat to moderate and stir in oats. Return to a boil. Cook while stirring for 2 minutes.

Stir in butter, then remove from heat and let stand covered for 5 minutes.

Remove cinnamon stick and stir oatmeal before serving.

Sunday Morning Breakfast Experiment Week 2

Sunday morning's breakfast was not as well prepared as last week's. My husband had left for a business trip on Tuesday and with flight delays returned Saturday just in time for supper.

Not wanting to spend the evening getting brunch ready I pulled out the griddle so it just had to be plugged in come morning, measured my homemade baking mix into a bowl and covered it so it was just waiting for milk and eggs in the morning to make pancakes.

We definitely enjoyed it, and with all the preparation done it was not a whole lot of work!

Definitely an idea to keep in rotation!

Gingerbread House

Guess what we are making for Christmas tree ornaments this year?

You can find the pattern free to download here.

I may also have to make some of these! Or just save this for next year when the girls can do yet more!

If you cannot tell, the crafting bug has bit me again!