Lucy was at my feet reading books while I was cleaning today. In her animal book at every page she would say, “What’s that?” and I would respond a monkey, bear, dog, etc. She knew all of the animals, but asked anyway. So when she got to the crocodile I responded saying, “it’s a bird.” Lucy retorted, “No mama, that’s a Cayman. Caymans live in the water.” I was quite taken back; I think I was about eighteen before I knew about Caymans. What a little smarty!
The thing I love most about Thanksgiving is that it is one holiday away from Christmas!!! I love everything about Christmas, especially the tree. This year I have decided to do something new. Instead of bringing out all of our normal ornaments I have decided to make my own. Now we have had a pretty tight budget this month, but I was able to make all of these ornaments for about $5 TOTAL. I bought some oranges and apples and dried those out (needless to say, our house has been smelling Fabulous!!!!) and glued a few nuts together. So now I am up to about $4. I bought a remnant of fabric for a dollar to accent the ornaments. I had the buttons and string and made a button garland (it was going to be popcorn, but could you imagine the mess.) I made the little "gingerbread men" out of cinnamon, applesauce and Elmer's glue. Finally, the giant star tree topper--I made from sticks found on the ground in the park. So now I am all ready to decorate the tree. Sadly, I won't be doing that until the 29th of November, but I will post and let you see how it turns out. The only thing I want to add are some candy canes, but I will wait until we are on next months pay check. So what do you think? Have I given you any ideas? I was even thinking of picking up some pine cones and putting those on the tree too, but I think I will wait and see how it looks. I don't want to overload the tree. (a little side note: This is just a sampling of the ornaments I have made. I actually have a ton of each. I couldn't take a picture of all of them because the apples are still drying out.)
I was inspired by my friend Shaye. I have made myself six shopping bags to use while grocery shopping. I have gone to the store with them twice now and I LOVE them. I just keep the bags in my car and pull them out when it is shopping time. Once I have brought in my groceries I hang the bags on my door so I can't forget to put them in my car. I no longer have to worry about the tons of shopping bags that fill up my cleaning closet.
Making the bags were so easy to make that I am embarrassed that I was so intimidated about making them. I found the pattern here at the green bag lady's website. And the best part about it was I didn’t spend a penny on the bags. I used thread that I already had and the fabric was an old shower curtain (which made SIX bags, one with an extra pocket.)
The kids love having a job to bring the bags into the grocery store and I really feel like I am helping out the environment by not wasting the many plastic bags. I have felt like I have needed to do this for a long time. I am glad that I have FINALLY taken a step to improving the environment.
I get mixed responses from the checkers at the store. The first girl thought they were brilliant, beautiful and that I should sell them for $5 a piece. Another checker kept trying to put my groceries into a plastic bag, and I had to keep taking them out of the plastic bags and put them in my eco friendly repurposed bags. It irritated be at first but I will try to get use to impatience.
INGREDIENTS:
| 2 ripe bananas, mashed | 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour |
DIRECTIONS:Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a muffin tin or line it with cupcake papers. In a large bowl, stir together the mashed banana, eggs, oil, squash, and sugar. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, pie spice and cinnamon, stir into the banana mixture until just combined. Fold in the raisins and walnuts if desired. Pour batter into the prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Add powder sugar frosting if desired. For the Powder sugar frosting, mix about ½ cup of powder sugar with about 1 tsp to 1TBSP of milk.
Six years ago today, I was trying on my dress, having dinner with the future in-laws, and was so excited that I couldn't sleep. So much has happened in the last simple six years. We have moved from Lindon to Provo to Denton, Texas back to Orem, Utah 
and finally to Chadron. Who knows where we will be next year? There have been three other marriages in our family since we tied the knot: Randy and Rebbecca, Brooke and Blake, and Dad and Shirley. 
Not only marriages, but children came, too. Let's see if I can name all of our nieces and nephews that have been born in the last six years: Benjamin, Adam, Abby, Rachel, Sophia, Olivia, Emma, Daniel, Eden, Kyle, Brianne, and Alex. 
I think the best thing that has happened in these last six years is our Thomas and Lucy. They are such a blessing in our lives and we pray for them every night. We have been very blessed the last six years and we hope for the next six years are just as exciting, fun, and rewarding. I also must say how much I love James, we dated for a VERY short time and we are fortunate that we made a good
decision. We are a perfect fit! James is so thoughtful and caring, and I love having him in my life. Also, I am so glad I do not have to say goodbye at the end of the day, like when we were dating. He is with me always! I love it! So I have been digging through some old files and hope you can enjoy some pictures of us the day before and the day of the wedding. I was surprised at how young we look, it hasn't been that long, has it?
I don't know if you have ever been to the Grosgrain blog, but I love it. I always feel so inadequate when I see the amazing stuff Kathleen does, but she has inspired me this Halloween. I got the kid's Halloween costumes last year when they all go on sale after the holiday. Sadly, the only costume I could find for Lucy was a bride's dress, talk about creepy! So after seeing the wonderful dresses on Grosgrain I got a little ambitious and attempted the impossible. There were some heartaches and frustrations but I pulled through. Now it's not all that great compared to what Kathleen does, but we all learn on our own levels of knowledge. I added a pink layer under the tulle and the flowers. There also was a pink trim, but I had to please Lucy and she was not a fan of the pink trim. So this year Lucy is going to be a princess/fairy. I guess I am doing fine if she gets to wear a pretty dress.
Today we had Thomas' birthday party. Thomas had a really fun time and we hope all the other kids did too. The theme was kind of Dr. Seuss kind of book party, but it was just a good ol' fashion party. We played lion cub, pass the parcel, I love..., ring around the rosies, and duck, duck, goose. This party was a bit different in that everyone brought a book and we swapped them. So the kids were all able to go home with a new book. Kids can never have enough books. Anyway, it was lots of fun! enjoy the pictures!
Today is a red letter day, a day that will go down in the history books, a day that I will look back at with fond esteem. It is the day I beat James at chess!
Don’t get me wrong, I have beaten him in chess before, but it wasn’t the same. Before, when I would win, I captured all his guys and I just had to pin down his king—which I ALWAYS need help with. Tonight was monumental because not only did I put him in checkmate but I completely caught him of guard. I said “checkmate” and his response was “no, wait, it’s not checkmate; I can get out of it.” And yet he couldn’t! James is now saying that he will not play chess with me ever again—I doubt that. Anyway, for 6 years I have been losing at chess and still playing. I guess it’s because “I is now a college student.”
It seems that when my house is messy my life seems more chaotic than it needs to be. The other day Lucy dumped out the itty bitty rubber bands for hair, and when I say dumped out I mean they were EVERYWHERE in our family room. I didn’t clean the room up right away because the rubber bands were mixed with toys dirty socks, pillows, blankets and snack rubbish. You know all those things that end up in the TV room. So today I finally cleaned the room. It is like a burden has been lifted off my shoulders. I have had a really stressful and crappy weekend and if I would of just cleaned up I think I would have felt tons better. I hope I can remember this for the next time I am stressing out. Do you stress out when your house is messy? Or am I just ranting?
INGREDIENTS:
| 1 bag of microwave popcorn Some candy corn and peanuts | 6 tablespoons butter 5 cups miniature marshmallows |
DIRECTIONS:
| 1. | Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish. Set aside. |
| 2. | Pop the popcorn in the microwave. Put popcorn in prepared pan. Add some candy corn and peanuts. |
| 3. | Melt butter In a medium saucepan over low heat. Stir in marshmallows and cook until melted, stirring constantly. Pour marshmallow mixture over popcorn and mix with spoon to coat evenly. |
| 4. | Let mixture cool slightly. Smear butter on your hands or spray with non-stick cooking spray. Mix popcorn with your hands so that it is evenly coated. |
| 5. | Form popcorn into 8-12 balls. |
We got a GINORMAS crabapple crop this year. Last year the blossoms froze so we didn’t get any apples. But this year, look out!
Lucy loved picking the apples!
We filled our five gallon bucket and only found three worms.
I made six quarts of crab apple jelly.
The picture doesn't do the color justice. It's a deep red but in the light it almost has an orange color to it, it's really pretty! I changed the recipe a bit, it’s more like spiced apple jelly. The jelly tastes like Christmas- if Christmas has a flavor. The last time I made it I gave away most of it. Big mistake! So if you want to come over for homemade bread and jelly just give me a call.
Ingredients:
1. 1. Remove leaves and blossom ends from crabapples and rinse well. If you soak them in water the worms float right to the top. Place them in a large stainless steel or other non-reactive pot or saucepan. Add enough water to be able to see, but no so much that the crabapples are floating. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium, and let simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. The apples should soften and change color. I like to boil them in an old pillowcase, because it will save you time later.
2. 2. Strain the apples and juice through 2 or 3 layers of cheese cloth. Do not press. Discard pulp.
3. 3. Pour one cup of juice to every one cup of sugar back into the pan. Bring to a simmer, and watch carefully because it could boil over. It happened TWICE to me. Skim off any foam that comes to the top. Add cinnamon stick or sachet. Continue cooking at a low boil until the temperature reaches 220 to 222 degrees F (108 to 110 C). Remove from heat.
4. 4. Pour the jelly into sterile small decorative jars leaving 1/4 inch head space. Process the jars in a hot water bath to seal.
For the Spice Sachet: I sewed a little pocket with some fabric scraps. I then put in about 1-2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon, some ground cloves, ground nutmeg, and some pumpkin spice. (Basically whatever I could find in my spice cabinet.) I sewed up the pocket, making sure that the stitch was really tight.
This is my attempt at a “chain link fence.” Lucy’s hair is too fine to do it so I did Thomas’ friend, Malia’s hair. I am still a work in progress.
I have solved the crab problem. He no longer tries to get out of the fish tank, ‘cause he died. I am starting a foundation for the research of sudden fish death syndrome. All across the world, fish keepers struggle with the loss of fish and crustaceans for no apparent reason. With my new foundation, people can know why that 28 cent fish never stood a chance against a 4 year-olds feeding schedule. To contribute to my fishing foundation, contact your local bank and tell them you would like to donate to the Personal Fisheries of America Foundation, and then tell me what they do.
