A great little holiday video to watch if u have time...

In+the+Spirit+of+Thanksgiving

"And ye shall thank the Lord thy God in ALL things..."!

Random Thought

These are just a few of the random thoughts going through my head today.... because it's cheaper than seeing a therapist.

1. Yes, I did forget the visit from the tooth fairy last night. My excuse to Chloe was that her room was so messy that the tooth fairy probably couldn't find the tooth so we should clean up tonight and try again. I do feel kind of bad for that little slip... because it's not the first time. Also, when did the tooth fairy start bringing a dollar bill plus a little toy? The neighbor got a Little Pet Shop animal when she lost her tooth so Chloe was sure to point that out to me. Seriously gonna thank that Mom for the over expectation she planted in my daughters head.

2. I don't want to go to the grocery store but on Mondays the kids have pretty much cleaned us out over the weekend and leave things pretty bare. It's cold, I just wanna stay inside.

3. Where did all this laundry come from? On Friday it was all done and I was so proud of myself. Now, the battle with the laundry beast begins again.

4. I need more friends. I need girls to do things with from time to time. I need girl talk and fun away from the kids on occasion. I seem to have them, just not close ones I can spill my guts to. I wonder why most of my friends are virtual these days, does that even count?

5. I'd like to stop sneezing soon. Really... this is getting crazy. Achoooo.

6. Why do I have such a bad attitude about the upcoming holiday? Oh yeah, it must have something to do with the fact that I've done it so many times before. I actually feel really good about being difficult this year and not helping at all with anything. Completely do NOT care. Like last year, all the planning I did and all the food I bought (not cheap) and then the last day of guests somebody lost their temper over something and all the effort I put forth to make things perfect came crashing down around me. My bubble was burst and still is. For some reason that really hurt me and I thought I was tough. I should forgive and move on but I think that is gonna take another year.

7. No Money... need I say more. What is Christmas gonna be like? Do I need to get a job? I haven't had an out of the house job since before my son was born 15 yrs ago. Not an impressive resume.

That's pretty much it. Nothing profound. I just needed to get that off my chest early in the week and move on. Here's to happiness!

Today I am grateful for:
A warm house
Healthy kids
Faith
Freedom
Family

Hero

I received a call last week from my daughter Chloe's teacher telling me that she was going to be getting a "Hero Hunt" award at school. She wanted me to know so I could be there to watch and only a few kids from each grade get them. I was so excited for her. The school was assembled and grade by grade they called students up to get their honor. Kids were jumping up when their names were called, all very excited. (They do these assemblies once a month at this school).

When they got to 3rd grade, they called my daughters name as well as another little girls name that is in her class, but there was silence, no one jumped up. No Chloe. I'm thinking like a grumpy mom does, what is wrong? Isn't she listening, why isn't she going up there! Then her teacher walked over to her and grabbed her hand and lead her up to the front. She stood up and followed her and then I saw the reason.

Chloe's other hand, the one not holding on to her teacher, was attached to her friend who is handicapped & delayed. The same girl she helps all the time at school and loves so unconditionally. Both Chloe and that girl were called and Chloe was NOT going to go up without her friend!! This girl didn't want to go up front because she was being shy.

The gym was silent, everyone paused. I choked back tears. What a sweet thing to do, what a sweet and devoted friend, and how selfless of her to stay put until she had her friend along to accept this honor. I was so proud, but not that she was chosen... more about how she accepted. She truly is a hero.

Pecan Tarlettes

Here they are... yummy. If you enjoy pecan pie, these are your new best friends. It made my house smell like Christmastime. Ahhhhhh..... love it!

This is my assistant, still in her pj's... that's how we bake at our house. She is holding our "tamper" which I never used before this recipe. It's so much fun to use!

First, you make a small dough ball and put it in our greased tart pan....

Then the assistant takes her FLOURED tamper and squishes the ball until the sides of it come up the the top of the pan. Flour after each press into the dough!

Then we bake the "shells" for 10 minutes at 325 degrees. Then take the pan out of the oven.
Spoon the filling into each tart and bake again for 10-12 minutes .

Here is the recipe if you'd like to try!

Pecan Tartlettes:
Crust:
1/2 cup soft butter
1/2 cup sugar............mix
1 egg white...........beat by hand to fluff
1 1/4 cup flour
Bake 325 for 10 minutes, remove and add filling:
Filling:
2 eggs
2 Tbsp melted butter
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans.
Bake at 325 an extra 10-12 minutes.

***FYI: I double the crust batter because the filling goes a long way!

The Big Day

My Butterfly....

My Dark, but glamorous fairy...

The Black Cat...

The bottles I made for halloween bowling with pumpkins (that we never used)

Trying to do a better face painting than I did for her the day of her school party...

Striking a pose...

On their way trick or treating.... Sprayed them all with sparkles, husband too.

My trick or treaters... only 3 this year. My oldest hung out with his gang of buddies :( He is not a fan of candy these days, not attractive to the ladies to have candy bar face! It was a nice warm evening here though which I am grateful for! The littler kids went out and had a good time. I stayed and passed out candy from home. The kids picked out really simple costumes this year. SO simple I almost felt like a bad mom! I have a whole box of fancy costumes and they just wanted wings and ears so I guess I got off easy but I'm not complaining! On to Thanksgiving!

Halloween Spirit

A few pictures from my 8 yr old who definitely has the Halloween spirit. She LOVES to draw and oh baby does she love Halloween.

"Leave" it simple!

I love to decorate for the fall holidays. My big thing this year is to do it on the cheap so I chose things that do double or triple duty by covering autumn, Halloween, and Thanksgiving. My way of doing this is by using fall things such as pine cones, leaves, acorns, squash, gourds, and pumpkins. All of that passes nicely for Thanksgiving well after Halloween is over. Makes sense to me! I do have a few things that I put on our porch for Halloween that are definitely only for Halloween because it's fun for the kids but inside I stay simple, just add and subtract a few things from the porch and our fireplace mantle. The above are just a few ideas that I put up around my home. Now I'm done until after Thanksgiving and don't mind these decorations at all for a few months.

Farewell

I had a few ladies over today for lunch with my neighbor as a guest of honor. She is really going through some tough stuff. She has moved and it is just hitting me how different things are going to be without that little family down the street. She and her family are still in town but not as conveniently close as 3 doors down.

I was really struggling as to what I could do to help her. She has never asked for any help and does things quick and secretly so no one will figure it out and come to help. It just hit me that I needed to just get a group of her friends together and shower her with love. I hope she felt our love and concern today. I was left with a big rock in my stomach because of how worried I am for her. Once in a while we all have to endure a really tough farewell.

I made a good comfort food though! If you need comforting, try it. It reminds me a bit of the soups at Olive Garden but more home style.

Tortellini Soup:
2 tbsp olive oil
add 1 medium onion, diced.
1 Roll of mild sausage, such as Jimmy Dean. Then cook sausage and onion in same pan, breaking apart sausage into small bits then add:
6 cups of chicken broth
1 (28 oz) can of crushed tomatoes
1 (15 oz) can of kidney beans, drained and rinsed.
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 tsp each: dried basil, oregano, and black pepper
Bring to a boil, stirring often.
Add:
1 package of refrigerated or frozen cheese tortellini (approx 19 oz)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups fresh baby spinach cut into small strips
Boil about 5 minutes uncovered before serving.
(I like to sprinkle cheese on the top of individual bowls also). Enjoy!

Fabulous Four

Sadie turned 4 years old yesterday! It's amazing how fast those years have gone by! We had such a great day. She had a speech test in the morning then I took her for lunch and ate outside by a fountain at a place she likes.

We came home and decorated and wrapped presents and then 4 of us took her to the Corn Maze and petting farm. We had lots of fun running through the corn and trying to lose Christian but that big brother always found us. We came home and ate dinner and then had cake and ice cream. WARNING: Never buy a cake with navy blue frosting (we all had blue teeth after which was pretty funny. Really funny to see 90 yr olds smiling with blue stains. Not so fun for any of us to get rid of).

Spooky Root Beer

If you want to try this I would advise you that it makes a lot of Rootbeer. It's a lot different than the rootbeer you buy on the shelf, not as carbonated, but we had such a fun time making it!

Added this whole bottle of extract (that we just bought at the grocery store) with 5 gallons of water and 5 lbs of sugar. We used our tall drink thermos container with the spout at the bottom. Then we added 6 lbs of dry ice, which you need to make sure to not touch or have the kids touch with their bare hands or it will hurt really bad (just a reminder). Also, when the dry ice is added it starts to bubble like crazy so do NOT cover until all the bubbling stops.
Bottoms up!!!
Oh, and if you want to try something different, we also did this with vanilla extract (same amounts of sugar and dry ice) instead of rootbeer and made some killer cream soda!

Honored

Six months ago my son undertook some community service to achieve his Boy Scout Eagle award. It definitely wasn't an easy task. It takes a minimum of 70 hrs of service and a bunch of paperwork. I think my son put in 115 hours on this project, almost enough for 2 awards. We received an invitation in the mail to a celebration of the completion of the Heritage Center. He painted the inside of the center which took a full week. It took a couple groups of people to complete the outside. All of those who worked on the undertaking were honored at a picnic the other day and my sons name is on a plaque inside the building. After doing this project with the forest service he seems really interested in working for them someday but must be 18 first I guess. Here are some pictures from the event.

In front of the Heritage Center.... brrrr.

These fine people work for the Forest Service.

The head of the area Forest Service presenting Christian with a book of the area.

This Forest Service guy (Jake) that helped Christian set things up with the Heritage Center. Please note the fine paint job in the background. He did all the rooms, cupboards, and ceilings.

The plaque with his name on it (that they mispelled as Christen instead of Christian).
Oh well, we know what they meant.

Frozen HOT Chocolate

What a delicious contradiction!
It's an icy, cold fall treat. I watched a review of a restaurant in NYC that specializes in this (the name of the place is Serendipity), so I had to try it for myself and now we are hooked. I'll post the recipe but just for your information, you can go to Dairy Queen and get these too. They are not on the menu but they make them and DANG they are good. HOT hot chocolate always upsets my stomach so I like it in the frozen form ALOT. Yummm....

There are a lot of recipes for this on the internet, but my version is simpler.
Try this...

Add to a blender-
2 scoops of powdered hot chocolate mix
1 cup of crushed ice
1 cup of milk
1 spoonful of hot fudge topping (from the jar)
1 cup of vanilla bean ice cream OR 1/2 cup marshmallow cream
(if its too strong add more ice, ice cream, milk til it's to your liking)

Blend it up and top with whipped cream and shaved chocolate if desired. Easy!