whew!

well, its the last day of the year, i see.

ive complied a list of things i did this year.

im going to say it really fast **deep breath**

i:hosted a giveaway, made fresh OJ, shoveled snow, sang the praises of cream cheese, thrifted, sewed, re-awakened my love of lego building, dreamed of summer, became good real life friends with one of my blog friends,  lamented what i hate about winter, taught D knock knock jokes, planted flowers, hugged all my siblings, kissed my neice and nephew, took Ken to see Xmen, sustained a wii baseball injury, read all of the harry potter books, learned to grill, went to a street fair, got a piano, hosted the WHOLE family for a weekend, ate nachos for breakfast, grew peas, went on a school field trip, consumed many lattes, watched my brother in law at the batting cage, ate free ice cream, went to the jefferson county 4-H fair, took D bowling for the first time, roasted marshmallows and made smores, hiked, got on facebook, saw UP and made peace with the walmart pharmacy.

there was alot more but at the risk of making this post not worth your while to read, i will spare you.

heres to making this year at least as good as last *cheers*

the goodies

these little babies were a total hit at the family christmas party.

im sure someone somewhere has made these before but i have never seen it so im going to go ahead and claim that this was my idea, inspired by my sweet 4 yr old boy who will do anything at the promise of marshmallows.

he enjoys eating/playing with marshmallows and pretzel sticks, pretending that he's roasting the marshmallow on the pretzel stick. add chocolate and ...viola, a christmas treat.

we did get creative after the first few and put peanut butter at the bottom of some of the cups and peacns in others.

The boy named them christmas bells, yep, he was "ringing" our finished product like a little hand bell.

knead some dough?

last weekend i learned how to make real bread. it was really, really good. and. it took a long time. all afternoon. there were  *gasp* timers involved. i dont cook with timers. but my wise baking teacher does, so we did it with timers. im more of a put it in the oven and check it when i start to smell it kind of cook.  but the bread turned out perfect.

this is a picture of the hostess at the cracker barrel. i know we look llike sisters, right? how weird is that? we are even the same height.

wow

what a GREAT God we have! he made this.

more  outer space than man could ever imagine with our pea brains..

God is good.

not a creature was howling

the christmas music program was tonight, all the practices and rehersal was a little stressful for the boy.

when i picked him up from school he was on the verge of whiny and had already long past argumentative. he fussed about dinner (pancakes!?, who argues about that?) he cried when i closed the garage door (he wanted to do it) and let me add that on top of this i was faced with one of my least favorite weather patterns cold wind and flurries.

i managed to get him inside the house, dressed in his chapel uniform (navy pants, white button up shirt, navy socks, black shoes, belt) and back out the door without incident.

i found his teacher and a few minutes later the program commenced.

with not a howl to be heard.

randomania part 2

i was inspired by my amusement at search results that land people at my blog to post some random facts that include key words that may in fact, land folks at my blog...for no good reason.

you can make muffins using mayonaise if you are out of eggs, it doesnt work with corn bread.

although alot of people have seen the movie "Bedazzled" with Brendan Frazier, im apparently the only person who would list it as one of my favorite movies. if youve seen it leave me a comment and tell me which Eliott is your favorite, im tossed up on sensetive guy and basket ball player.

my brother claims that the best way to know if your spaghetti is done is throw a piece against the wall, when it sticks, its done. i just fish out a piece and bite it.

my most commonly used word on facebook is "you".  you gotta love that, you know it?

i would love to learn to knit.

you just know

you know its going to be an interesting evening when the teacher tells you your kid sat in time out for howling in music class when he should have been singing.

are we there yet?

stitching up these little guys is so much fun, i love giving them personality, next in the series will be a little grey mouse and last ...a little boy. these will be one of  The Boy's gifts.

every day, and i mean every day since we put up the christmas tree The Boy asks

"is it christmas yet?"

no, not yet, and thank goodness because i still have about a half a gift list to complete.

i know i have only been showing you the kids' gifts but i dont want to give away any surprises for the adults, i will say however that there are  baked goodies involved for a couple of the guys on my list

pretty gift wrap tutorial

this tutorial is in 2 separate posts, keep scrolling to get the rest.

last year i had so many compliments on my nicely wrapped gifts that i decided to do my first ever tutorial. how to wrap a pretty package.

start out by measuring out how much paper you need. i normally err on the side of caution and cut a LITTLE extra not too much extra though.

the next step is to use one of the factory straight edges and match it up to the straight edge of the box, use one piece of tape to secure the middle. too much tape starts to look messy.
bring the other side around, pull it taut, but not too tight and fold the end of the wrapping paper under, this creates a nice clean edge.
use one piece of tape in the middle.
heres where it tends to get messy, nothing a little practice wont cure. trim off any excess paper from the ends, the paper should extend no further than the edge of the box or a little less.

fold in the side that has the seam of the paper on it, secure it in the middle.

fold it down nice and sharp over the edges of the box and pull the corners into these cute little triangles.
fold them in and secure each one with one small piece of tape. crease the bottom flap so that it looks like this.
ok, this is key to making it pretty, fold the edge, like so...
then using one piece of tape in the middle and one small piece on each of the little floppy angles secure the last flap.
viola! i like to put the gift tag up in one of the corners just to make it look tidy but if you like slapping them any old place and at an angle you go for it.

update

everyone seems on board with LIKE so i will officially start using *like* as a comment.

Liz earned a *like* on yesterday's post.

LIKE

heres one of the things i really love about facebook

the LIKE

i love the like, it says i read your status updates and i validate what you have to say, but i dont have a real comment other than "thumbs up".

can i get a LIKE to use on my friends' blogs

would you mind if i LIKE you in the comments section without giving you a comment or would you be offended deeply and unforgivably? (tricia, if you say yes you would be deeply offended then i apologize in advance).

sneak peek #1`

the first 2 gifts are made!!! these fun crayon rolls are great for travel. the blue one has 8 big crayons in it for my 2 year old nephew, the flower patterned on has 16 regular crayons for my 6 year old neice. but shhhhh, dont tell them.

smile!

look what i found in my jello cup!

fall break

today and tomorrow are fall break for the boy. in his mind, this means you stay in your pajamas ALL day (i know, great idea!) he was a little disappointed when, at 2:30, i made him get dressed so we could go to Team Kids.

tomorrow, we plan on hitting the movie theater or bowling. you can do either of those things in pajamas, right?

bring on the crafting

i made a little trip to hobby lobby, the closest one is an hour away, but i got a good stock of the stuff im going to need to kick off the 2nd annual buy-nothing-christmas. a couple of vintagey fabrics, a few skeins of embroidery floss, some felt squares, etc theres at LEAST 4 gifts in this load of stuff, probably more, all i need now is to stay on the look out for vintage trim, buttons and stuff.

stay tuned for buy-nothing-christmas tips, tricks and links.

T leaves

yes, i laughed out loud at my own wit when i finally came up with this title, it took me a good long time (about 5 minutes of nonstop thinking) to weed out the cheesy, corny or obscure titles but finally it came to me. heres where you tell me how clever i am.

My good friend Tricia at clifty falls state park last thursday, we hiked a little (i dont really hike) and we picked up leaves with the plan to dip them in parrafin wax and preserve them as hanging ornaments, that didnt happen.

but i did get this fun picture.

the field trip

i and my camera went with the K4 class to Montgomery farms on the kids' first ever field trip. the trip included a hay ride to the pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin, a ride on the "cow train", and alot of fun on the play loft and in the corn box which is like a sand box but filled withcoer kernels insted of sand.

picking the perfect pumpkin proved to be quite a task.

this super cute miniature horse tried to eat the button off of my jacket, im told its a wonder that he didnt succeed,
the kids LOVED feeding the chickens, however, you have to put a quarter in the big chicken gumball machine to get the corn to feed the chickens, i left the pumpkin farm quarterless.

fall fun

mmmmm, cupcakes.......

i know Meg's look prettier, but these were yummy, we made them as a thank you to the wonderful friends who fed Fatty while we were in Iowa a couple of weeks ago. we just couldnt resist tasting our finished product.

heres a look at a couple of the fall fabrics i have been shuffling around, now, what to make?
as an added tibit the acorn jar was a candle jar, my mother in law gave it to me a few years ago and i just LOVED the super cute lid too much to put it away with my fall decorations. it found a permanent job as the place i throw my pins when im sewing.

christmas is coming!

i saw it at Lowes! christmas trees and all sorts of tacky blow up lawn ornaments. that means its time to start thinking about my 2nd annual buy nothing christmas (well, almost nothing, mama cant make transformers, pity)

with this in mind, what was the best ever "un bought" christmas gift you have gotten in your whole life?

tell me, tell me!

im planning, bags, aprons, stuffies, hotties (whats a hottie you ask? its a grain filled bag which you microwave for the BEST warm snugglies on a cold winter night) and of course goodies.

pics to come but head over to last christmas to see some of my previous creations hea back to 2008 on my archive and check it out.

 after reading last christmas and some of the comments from my friends, i want to thank you, i may not have alot of readers but i do love you and feel so encouraged by all  of you. in addition, i promise to try to do better in the blogging department for the rest of the year.

what a week!!

whew! im glad thats over. it started out with what was to be a whirlwind trip to iowa (a 10 hour drive) to meet with some family and a few more official folks in discussing the final placement of my sweet 11 yr old cousin, who has lived with her grandpa since she was 5, but now hes like 75 and cant take care of her. Ken and i were considered a possible placement option, an idea we became very fond of. for the last 6 months her care giver has been a friend's mother, an arrangement that originally was not going to be permanent but she loves the family and they love her, and shes only a short walk from grandpas house (she gets worried about him if she doesnt hear from him every other day or so) so it seems she will stay permanently with her friend's family and have overnights with various members of our extended family often.

as we were packing our car after church last sunday for our trip, my sister called and told us my uncle , who had pancreatic cancer, had passed away. so our 3 day trip turned into a week and although i remembered my funeral clothes, i forgot to pack more stuff for the extra time we would be spending.

my mom cooked and cooked and cooked , me, my sisters, my brother in law, my dad, my step mom, my step dad and the 2 boys ate and ate and ate.  (if you go here its the family photo from august)

and thats why i havent blogged in over a week, i didnt even take my camera!! i know, i regretted it later, it just didnt seem important at packing time.

go...go on

i want you to go and visit the dumbass gourmet, right now.

she witty, she smart, and she does not have the skills required for her own cooking blog but for the sake of all newly weds learning the ropes in the kitchen, she gives us a look at how to use food before it goes bad and what to do if you mess up a little bit.

so think back to that time when you had to throw the whole dish in the trash and go get a pizza and enjoy DG's kitchen antics.

wish me luck

its the Team Kid carnival this afternoon, i would say there will be over 200 kids, K-6 grade, there. i have NEVER come home from TK carnival without a headache. im optomistic though, usually we hold the event in late may, sometimes its hot, the sun is almost always blazing and i end up dehydrated and sun burned. its suppose to be in the mid 60's today and overcast. so wish me luck in the no headache way. 

** after reading the last post of TK carnival i see that there was no sunburn of heat stroke, but i distinctly remember a headache

***update_ its now raining!!!. what the what are we going to do with 200 kids if its raining? im praying that it will stop. and the sun will come out.

when life gives you over ripe pears...

you can make this! how lucky was it that i has 2 pears about to go bad when i found the recipe for honey baked pears in a magazine?

it was even more fortunate that i already had everything (or a suitable substitute) that i would need to make it!

1 tsp lemon juice

1/3 cup honey

1/4 cup warm water

1 cup crushed graham crackers (we used 1/2 cinnamon teddy grams and half ritz crackers)

1 tbsp brown sugar

3 tbsp butter

2 pears cut into 1 inch wide spears, core removed

mix the lemon juice water and honey in a little bowl

mix the crushed crackers sugar and melted butter in another little bowl

lay the pears in the baking dish

put half of the cracker mix on top, pour on the honey mixture, top with the rest of the crackers, bake for 15-20 minutes (until pears are tender when stuck with a fork) at 400 degrees.

as you can see we ate ours with vanilla ice cream.

i did finally leave the boy alone so he could enjoy his dessert.

a few life rules

rule #1 repurpose what you already have. as in the relish tray repurposed into my drawer organizer.
rule #2 a little dirt is ok, you can clean it up later

Rule #3 go for the color!
Rule #4 it tastes better fresh

i still have a couple a unanswered questions, and i wouldnt want to disappoint my throngs of adoring fans (hahaha)

Diana askes

What influences your style? what types of things are you drawn to?

the first thing that influences what im drawn to is, cost, or better yet, lack of cost the kind of thing you find on the side of the road. if money were no object, oh, the fun i could have at the lumber mill antiques.

i like stuff that looks ...well...used, i guess, probably because im so accustomed to stuff thats used. but good used stuff mind you, not junk, not stuff thats broken or used up, just stuff that has a worn spot where Granny's hand rubbed the paint right off after 30 years of use. i also live to repurpose. my Rath Packing Co. lard bucket makes the BEST biscuit server its nice and deep so you can fit alot of biscuits in there.

most of you know i love vintage, i love vintage because it feels less stressful, it feels like back when the tv wasnt on all the time, back when people popped over after church on sunday, back when women cooked pot roast and baked pies and made Jell-o salads.  or maybe just what i think it was like back then.

arrr

arrr, matey, don't ye be forgettin, its talk like a pirate day.

if i be hearing that you you didnt speak a single word of of the sea speak, you'll walk the plank scurvy dog.

have fun my friends!

you asked #2

Amanda asked

what are you passionate about?

Teaching kids how to rely on God and have faith in Jesus Christ as their savior.

i work with kids in a program called Team Kids on thursday afternoons we pick up the kids from school in our team kids bus and take them to our church. there we sing our memory verses, play games and feed the kids a light dinner. in some cases this is the only experience that the kids have had with church. Team kids memory verse songs stick with kids forever and by this program we are able to plant seeds.

Holly asked

are you and your husband planning to have more kids?

i am not planning on giving birth to anymore children. i love my son with all my heart he is such a blessing, i have loved watching him grow and learn, but im not a baby person. the 100 percent reliance on me is too much pressure, plus theres the lack of sleep. Presented with the opportunity to adopt an older child, i would be all over that, i can get on board with raising a child who can feed and bathe themselves and needs us for the love, guidance and discipline aspects of parenting.

Marci asked

if there were a movie about your life what would it be called?

good question, right? i actually had to think about this one. I came up with "his eye is on the sparrow" there have been so many times, looking back, that i see where Gods watchful eye has been on me.i  wont say that no harm has ever befallen me but i do see where some situations could have been so much worse but they never were. non believers may call it a charmed life but in my mind theres only one explaination. everything in my life has been leading up to RIGHT NOWand he continues to provide for me and comfort me as i now recognize him as Lord of my life.

you asked...

Amanda asked

if you had to have one kind of pet but you would have 500 of them what would you have?

i would learn to be a bee keeper because then at least i would get something good to eat out of my many "pets" 

Tricia asked

have you ever danced on a table in a hookah bar?

 whats a hookah bar? im not really one for dancing on tables, in my experience most bar tables are wobbly and uneven, making a fall very probable (can you tell im not a risk taker?).

more answers to your questions tomorrow, im still accepting questions.

before you accuse...

i have recently been accused of neglecting my blog and only paying attention to my face book. its not that i dont have anything to post, i do, but busyness=facebook, its faster.

im going to try to do better.

so we are going to have a little fun, ask me a question, any question, im not saying i will definitely answer it. i always love these posts when Amanda does them so im going to do one.

a tale of change and a garage sale find

lets talk about the garage sale find first.....

yeah, it was a little more than i usually fork over at a garage sale but this kitchen stool was definitely worth the 20 bucks. it came to us a worn metallic tan, not my color, so with 3 bucks worth of Krylon she lives in a more vivid shade of turquoise to match the little folding chair behind it (youve seen this chair in other posts).
the change is.....
the book shelves moving into the dining nook so we can turn our third bedroom back into a bedroom. more to come on this transformation which will include a new paint job and some thrifted furniture.

before this week we had a long dresser against this wall which served as storage for paper towels and table linens and mostly junk. i had to clean all that out and find new homes for things we needed and trash what we didnt need. i think i like the book shelves.

hey, we're from Jewett

this weekend while i was visiting my mom, i took the kids down the bike trail and over to play at the play ground that still exists in the old Jewett school yard. i went to school at Jewett from the last month of kindergarten all the way through fifth grade. they closed Jewett 2 years ago when they open a bigger better elementary school, one with air conditioning.
this poor old teather ball pole looked so lonely, oh for the days when Lynette White and Brandy Gilson would whoop your hiney every day of the week at teatherball. i was no good, the swings were my thing.
its where i got my first concussion right here. i was running up when the bell rang holding hands with Christy Feller and well, fell. my mom likes to remind me that on the way to the hospital i barfed in her car.
and here we all are Mrs Lantz's second grade class i graduated with most of these kids. you already know who i am you saw my second grade picture last fall, the girl directly behind me in the blue dress is Christy, the girl next to her in stripes, Brandy and the boy on her other side, one of my very oldest friends Aaron he was in first grade with me, my mom went to Jewett elementary school with Aaron's dad Andy.

the only person in this picture who's face i ever see is Jenny Mccarty, bottom left, she's my sister in law's step sister now, we have a couple of facebook friends in common.

it was sad to see my old school getting overgrown and vandalized, i peeked in the windows, the art room was the same, except the tables had been moved out, the clock was still on the wall. if theres ever an auction, i want that clock.

who wants chocolate?

sorry, that title may have been misleading, but if you want to SEE chocolate go to Megan's blog. you will not regret it the most beautiful chocolate shop pics ever.

whatever, i'll do what i want!

this was my breakfast, yum, nachos!

then i decided to paint my bedroom, until today, all 4 walls were white. i painted one wall. it took all of one hour, but its something you just cant do with a kid around.

the paint smell brought back to me the first time i recall ever having smelled latex paint, i was about 9, we were helping my dad's friend paint the new cabin he had bought it was about 15 minutes from the town of Independence, IA on the Wapsi river. i know how far it was to town because my step mom LOVES to tell the story of a certain 9 year old girl that flat out REFUSED to pee in the woods. Dad had to drive me in to town so i could use the bathroom.

the really cool thing about the cabin was that in the bedroom, the cabin had been built around a tree, so there was a BIG tree growing right up through the corner of the room.
the color that i painted my wall was tropical coral by glidden, it was a free sample quart. go and see it, because this picture, nothing like the real color.

WHAT YOU SAY?

a day to myself? pictures and full coverage to come.

you know you want it

go here, the madison chautauqua website for a chance to win 2 nights at a B&B and dinner at a local restaurant on the weekend of september 26 & 27. also, if you win i promise to show you around town and buy you a latte.

Good luck!!!

work it

i been working my boohiney off! and apparently i smell like it.

i was faced this morning with a slightly embarrassing predicament. 

after doing physical labor yesterday in the super hot and stuffy loft area of our shop i was HOT and SWEATY and apparently very, very stinky. when i got to work this morning a co worker, bless her heart, had put an antiperspirant/deoderant near the place where i store my purse. i saw it and thought, certainly she didnt bring that for me. how embarrassing to smell so bad that my co workers try to help me. so i had to decide what i would do.

should i 

A) ignore it

B) use it

C) explain my allergy, and humbly apologize for my BO, telling her the horrors of stopping up your sweat glands with toxins not intended to be in constant contact with the human body.

i went with C it seemed like the least embarrassing choice. i spared her the crazy rant about toxins but did let her in on the fact that for years i did not know why i had bumps and rashes in my pits (her daughter has this very problem) but when they went away shortly after ceasing to use anti persperant i made the connection pretty quickly.

i read up on some pit stink home remedies and HOPE i can fix my stinky pits, for my co workers' sake.

all i can say is "sorry guys"

what would you eat?

lunch bag battle has begun.

the last 2 days the main player of the lunch bag has returned home with 2 bites taken out of it, i guess sandwiches just arent fun enough to warrant The Boy's attention i need a good alternative to a sandwich, it has to be something that is healthy, but not so healthy that its kryptonite to a 4 yr old. he will not eat: 

apples that have brown on them

raw broccoli

ranch dressing

broken crackers

egg salad, chicken salad or any other mayo based salad

swiss cheese

whole grain bread

any kind of nut

bagel chips

hard boiled eggs

he sometimes will eat:

celery

baby carrots

plain crackers

raisins

turkey

mustard

if i left the kid to his own devices he would pack nothing but nutri-grain bars and string cheese, however i dont think that would stave off the hungries for very long.

HELP me my friends, i need a new star for my kid's lunch, since the sandwich is old news.

wonderfully boring!!!

life has been so wonderfully boring for the last few days, i did some house work (hate) and went to a church pot luck (love) and just bummed around a little.

this i where i sing the praises of not having cable.

if we had cable i would not have laid in bed yesterday afternoon for an hour reading while the boy played  in his room and ran in occasionally to show me how cool Optimus Prime is when he changes into a truck.

i would not have sat out on the front and chatted on the phone with my MIL.

i would not have decided to make red potato salad for my dinner tonight (you gotta let that stuff chill overnight).

i would have watched whatever was on, whather i wanted to or not, because thats what i do when i have cable.

just for you holly...

because i know you love first day of school pictures and we most certainly are NOT going to post my second grade picture again.  

a disturbance

D: Hey mom, whats disturb

Me: disturb is when you bother someone or distract them from what theyre doing.

D: mom, if we had a remote control wif a round button, and we had a rocket and it had fire on da bottom, if we pushed da button while we were at church would we disturb people?

Me: yes, i think we might.

family fun

the family started rolling in on friday afternoon. let the whirlwind begin. 

being born and raised in a drought region my BIL Sean had never done sparklers before, good thing i had a box leftover from the fourth. he also never had the opportunity to catch lightning bugs, i made him a bug jar and he set out to capture a few, he got a little too rough in the handling though and ended up with a phosphorescent thumb.

this is the whole family, they were ALL at my place although the first night my mom and step dad slept at a hotel. theres me, then my mom, step dad, brother David and his GF Caitlin, and Ken the next row is Sean, my sis Katie and their little boy, my step mom and my dad and on the ground Dominic, my other sis Lindsay and my neice Stella.
and heres what we look like when we think noone is clicking the shutter.
and the food was excellent, my mom got elected head chef but my dad and my brother mostly took the lead on this grilled smorgasbord.

i tried to cnvince my mom to stay another day but they couldnt. so its super quiet now and i have ALOT of laundry to do. but thanks to Lindsay i dont have any kitchen cleaning to do today she cleaned my kitchen after i went to bed last night, yay! its my least favorite thing. thanks, Runt.