TGIF & Merry Christmas!

Hi!

The kids had their Christmas Concert yesterday. I took the new camera and all the pics are blurry.  Evidently I didn't hold the camera still enough as it was dark in the room and light on stage. Here's blurry DS in the middle with the Santa Hat.

And blurry DD wearing her pink dress with her recorder.

No new projects this week. :-(  With all the snow days and getting ready for Xmas, I've just been lazy.  And I'm guessing it'll be pretty slow throughout the holidays.

So, I'll say Merry Christmas & Happy New Year now and will write more after the school vacation!

:-)

The Owlies

Another snow day yesterday!  Here's a pic of the big drift behind the house on the breezeway this morning! There was an hour delay for school today, but the sky is now clear and sunny.

Here are some pics yesterday in the storm.  

And remember, it used to look like this!

More snowy pics!  And we're supposed to get more snow and ice on Sunday!

So, last year I started a tradition to make made home-made presents for my family.  Here's what I made for DD.

The Owlies!

I was inspired by this at Martha Stewart.  I started with an old sweater of mine.  Here it is after I cut it up! 

I made the little owls, took a picture, made a label, printed it out and Mod-Podged it on a box I'd painted gold! 

 Here are the Owlies, snuggled in!

Peek-a-boo!!

:-)

Tasty Tuesday

Hi! 

We had a funny snow day yesterday with an hour delay for school and then getting out 3 hours early!  We're supposed to have more snow tomorrow so it may be another snow day!

My car isn't working so HH is doing the shopping today. I've planned 2 weeks worth of meals so I don't want to do anymore big shopping until Dec 30.  With Christmas in there and all the storms, it'll be good to be all stocked up!

Here's the plan for the next 2 weeks.

• Mon- Bean Burritoes (The Ultimate Children's Cookbook) DD helped!
• Tues- Pasta Macaroni; Collard Greens Lentils, Roasted Tomato Sauce, Arugula Salad
• Wed-Trout, Potatoes Salmon, Rice, Corn
• Thurs- Frozen Chicken Breasts (nuggets?) Baked, Collard Greens, Rice & Gravy
• Fri- Leftovers- Macaroni with Cheese Sauce, Peas
• Sat- Pizza Subs- Kids no like
• Sun- Soup by HH  (We're having the inlaws up for brunch after the kids's Church Concert.. We'll have Cheesy Grits and whatever HH makes.) Church cancelled b/c storm.  Snacky Day. Samosas for dinner
• Mon- Pasta, Homemade Tomatoe Sauce, Green Lentils Salmon, Peas/Carrots/Edamame
• Tues- Xmas Eve- Perogies & Cabbage Rolls
• Wed- Christmas- Turkey, etc.
• Thurs-Leftovers Frozen Crunchy Black Bean Patties, Potatoes
• Fri-Tortilla Pizza
• Sat- Hamburger  HH made pork with Curry Tomato Sauce, Linguine
• Sun- Lentil Soup Frozen Corn Chowder (Little Ceasar's in Charlottetown for lunch)

Last year I did the same thing and planned for 2 weeks.

• Mon- Haystacks with frozen Pintos
• Tues- Pan-fried Haddock, Potatoes, Broccoli
• Wed-Pasta & Chickpeas
• Thurs-Frozen Lentil Patties, Buns
• Fri- Salmon, Beets
• Sat-Pizza
• Sun- Leftovers (Kids to Halifax)
• Mon-To Halifax- Christmas Eve Perogies & Cabbage Rolls
• Tues- Christmas- Turkey, etc
• Wed- Home- Frozen Spinach Lasagna
• Thurs-Minestrone Soup
• Fri- Leftovers
• Sat- Pizza
• Sun-Frittata (?)

It's a nice sunny day today, but cold!  Stay warm! :-)

Monday- Apres Blizzard

Hi!

Last week the computer got some kind of virus, where a bunch of fake links showed up and for some reason I couldn't get to the part where I compose a post on blogger.  So, I didn't!

We got a blizzard yesterday!  It snowed and snowed and the kids had a nice day of taking turns playing Roblox and Minecraft on the computer.  We finally went outside about 7pm and the kids built a couple forts which  have since been blown over with snow.  There's an hour delay for school, but it's still snowing! Here's HH with the snow thrower.

Here's the front driveway.

I read a book by Laurie David, called "The Family Dinner", which I got from the library.  It talks about spending more time with your family at the dinner table.  So, this weekend, we did that!  Saturday everybody helped with cooking (DD made dessert (from another library book The Ultimate Children's Cookbook), DS made spicy potatoes (from the library book "You Can Cook" oops we checked that one out too, but the recipe came from the other Ultimate Cookbook!), HH cooked some ham and I made pizza). We set the table, lit candles, talked, ate, read rhymes from "The Real Mother Goose" and even sat thru dessert!  The last 2 dinners at home, we'd missed DS because he was sick on Wed. and Thurs. he didn't want to eat.  Yesterday we again lit the candles and sat thru dinner & dessert.  A few years ago, my MIL gave us a candle with numbers on it to count the days to Christmas.  You light it and the numbers burn away.  I remember we really enjoyed it!  So, this kinda works too.  The candles are nice to have when the days are so short.  Usually after dinner we are rushed to watch the news at 6, and we eat dessert in front of the tv.  I'm not sure if I'll keep this up thru the week, but I'd like to do it on the weekends so at least we'll have some good weekend meals and times!

  Have I worked on any projects lately?  Well, I put a new shelf in the pantry.  

I guess I've never shown the inside before, but I only had the bottom two big shelves (plus the bottom) and the little upper one.  I added the smaller second one from the top so my good dishes aren't piled up too high on top of my others. And I put in cup hooks for the tea cups.

I also did a more permanent closet rod in the master bedroom.  Along with putting up the curtain rod and the header for the closet door space.

Now I need to do some drywall!

DD decided to put some more ornaments of the tree.  Here it is all awesome with google+!

I must get out and take some more pictures of all the snow today!  Have a great week! :-)

Tasty Wednesday

Hi!

I went shopping yesterday without a real meal plan.  I just didn't feel like making one....Here's what I put down.

• Mon- Tube Pasta, Primavera Sauce, Red Kale
• Tues- Rice Noodles,  Kung Pao Veggies (based on a chicken recipe from Taste of Home from the blog Steamy Kitchen.  The recipe is from a book, Healthy Asian Favorites, so it's not online, but it's similar to this.), Egg Rolls
• Wed- Lentils, potatoes (maybe shepherd's pie?) with leftover beans 
• Thurs- Frittata with blueberry muffins Can't remember what I fixed, but it wasn't this!
• Fri- Leftovers
• Sat- Pizza
• Sun- Beef Stew by HH

Last year's meals.

• Mon- Spaghetti Pie
• Tues- Crockpot Chicken, Rutabaga puree, Frozen Brussel Sprouts mix
• Wed- Mac & Cheese, Sweet Potatoes
• Thurs- Chicken Tom Kha Gai, Rice
• Fri- Home-made pizza
• Sat- Chinese Take out
• Sun- Eggs, Chinese

Enjoy the rest of the week! :-)

Oh, Christmas Tree, oh, Christmas tree...

We got our tree!

We went to the woods behind our house and chopped it down!  The kids hate it and wish we had a fake tree with more branches.  HH & I love it!  I guess the kids will have "fond" memories of the crazy trees mom and dad always got for Christmas!

Here's a pic from the kitchen.  I made the garland out of the leftover bamboo I had when I trimmed the blinds.  I kept the leftovers for some project, I just wasn't sure what until now! 

Here are all the decorations.  It doesn't look like so much.

Since nobody likes the poor tree, nobody wanted to help decorate it....  Maybe I'll have to do it myself.  Or maybe we'll leave the tree as-is with just the lights and some beads.

HH and I went to Charlottetown Saturday night for HH's school Christmas party. It was nice to see some of his classmates I'd already met and to meet some new ones.  

We also went to Cottage Industry, where I finally ordered a rug for the front room.  I got a gift certificate from there for Christmas last year!  It was hard for me to make a decision of what to buy. So, I was glad to finally decide!  HH helped by saying, "That looks like a good rug."  ;-) They had to order it and it'll be in around the 23rd or 24th so we may get it after Christmas!  This is what I remember the rug looks like.

We had a rushed start to the morning.  Mondays always seem to be hard on the kids to wake up.  Both kids were slow to get up so I blasted the radio!  That got DS up so he was able to have breakfast and get ready.  DD still didn't wake so she didn't have time for breakfast or brushing her teeth.  I just gave her some gum to chew!  Then, when it was time to catch the bus, DS actually missed it because he won't walk out to the bus if it's already waiting.  DD caught the bus since she doesn't mind walking out! Missing the bus drives me crazy!!  Although, it's only a 5-7 minute drive to school.  I told DS he owes me $3 for the ride.  He wasn't happy!  Well, I wasn't either, although I'm trying to get over it. ;-)

Hope your week is fantastic and everybody catches the bus on time! :-)

Christmas Decorations

Hi!

This week we got out our Christmas decorations.  You saw some in the post about the wooden Christmas trees.  Here are some pics of the rest of our decorations.

Looking out into the hall from the kitchen, you'll see a little Santa sitting by the door.

  

We've got some stuff in the kitchen.

 And on the window shelves.

 Here's the back of the kitchen island where I put the Christmas stockings I grew up with for my 3 brothers and me.

On to the back room.

Here's a wooden craft my mom (and maybe dad?) made back in the 1980's.  Probably 1982 or 83, so about 30 years ago!  It's for candles. 

  

Each letter has a hole in the top for a candle, although I don't use it that way.

The heart is another candle holder made by my mom and the little figures are also from my childhood!

We will probably get our tree this weekend if it's not too rainy! 

Have an awesome weekend! :-)

Wooden Christmas Trees

Hi!

Yesteerday was a snow day!  The weatherman was calling for rain, but we got this instead!

From this a few weeks ago!

Here's the back all pretty in white. 

And before, all sunny & crooked (?)!

Here's a tree in the back. 

The snow was wet and heavy. 

So, this week's old project is the wooden Christmas trees we I made last year to give as gifts. Like the wreaths, I had 2 different sizes.  The little ornament ones were made from the wood that holds cedar shingles together!  And the bigger ones that go on a table were made from leftover 2x2's. I cut the angles on the miter saw and glued them together with the indoor/outdoor wood glue.

The kids painted the trees green and brown and then painted on the gold, silver and red ornaments.  I made the little star/hook holder from a wire.  I drilled a little hole in the top of the tree and stuck the extra wire from the bottom of the star in with glue.

We gave away all the other little trees,

but kept a lot of the bigger trees.  Here's one that's barely painted with green.

Here are the rest painted.  I made stars for all the trees, but only put one star out.  The stars are made from cedar shingles, jig sawed and painted gold. 

 

The trees are part of my front room decoration.  Don't they look pretty in front of all that fluffy, pink insulation? ;-)

:-)

Tasty Tuesday

Hi!

I;m in a rush to get to the store before it starts to rain this afternoon.

HH will be gone Thurs and Fri nights so my meals are more for the kiddos.

Here is the plan for the week.

• Mon- Penne Rigate, Fire Roasted Tomato Sauce, Broccoli
• Tues- Chicken Enchilada (with leftover chicken), Enchilada Sauce
• Wed- Salmon
• Thurs- Haystacks
• Fri- Bubble Pizza (frozen with extra cheese & Pepperoni)
• Sat-Leftovers
• Sun- HH's Soup

Here's what we ate last year.

• Mon- Morroccan Salmon, Potatoes, Pumpkin
• Tues- Salsa Rice Enchiladas
• Wed- Salmon Frittata, Blueberry Muffins
• Thurs- Lentil Shepard's Pie with carrots & potatoes, Rutabaga Puree, Frozen Brussel Sprouts
• Fri- Tortilla Pizza
• Sat- Leftovers
• Sun- Frozen Tuscan Bean Soup

Happy Eating! :-)

Wreaths

Mornin!

We had a pretty good weekend.  We got enough snow Saturday night so that the kids (and parents!) could slide down our dirt hill.  We'd been inside most of the day yesterday, after a nice church service.  We watched Minecraft: The Story of Mojang and then had some computer time. Finally about 3:30, HH got the kids to go outside.  So, we all went and got some fresh air!

Most of the time Sometimes, I don't feel like going for a walk.  Today was the first day I wore my snow boots (along with jacket, snowpants, hat and gloves- no scarf because it's not that windy!).  Anyway, I can't walk as fast as I'd like because I'm not sure how icy everything is.  I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to do my walk to the PO in the mornings.  There's not much snow on the side of the road now, but soon it'll start to be plowed too much for me to walk.  I guess I'll have to get out the cross country skis or snow shoes and pray for lots of snow! :-)

I got a some little Christmas crafts done. I was gonna let the kids help, but I sorta took over!

Here's what I started with.

A bunch of sticks!  I chopped them all on the miter saw into little rounds.

Then I arranged them into little wreaths. 

I made two little ones to send in the mail.

  

The rest are bigger and have pinecones.  Before I give them away, I'll put an evergreen sprig in between the pinecones.

Here you can see how the little ones look compared to the bigger ones. The bigger ones are about 5" round and the little ones only 2.5".

Here's one with glitter pinecones hanging in the kitchen!

I was inspired by this.

But then I couldn't find it online. When I searched again I found this on someone's Pinterest.

Since I didn't have a whole bunch of wood, I went with the second.  Plus, I'm not sure to whom I'm exactly giving these and I wanted something small. I still like the first one and may try to do it for myself! :-)

Today I think I'll get out the Christmas decorations.  Yesterday HH moved the outdoor Christmas lights from a tree in the courtyard (where we entered the house last year) to a tree closer to the front.  Can you see the lights on during the day?  On the bigger tree to the right?

We also put out our little snowman family we made last year.

Have a great week! :-)