Our Book Advent - Week 1

We started our Book Advent this past week - beginning on December 2nd.  This year, I picked only 15 books (not 24) in hopes we can actually do them all.  Weekends tend to have other activities so my goal is just Monday-Friday :-)  With that in mind, we do our book Advent in the mornings as our "Lesson" for the day.  This allows all three boys to take part in whatever activity we do that morning. 

December 2nd:

I found a cute Camel Craft on Pinterest (Just a photo) and thought it would be fun to start out with - a simple Envelope Camel.  Here is our Finished Product:

December 3rd:

To go along with "Dream Snow" we did a cute Snowy Windowpane  craft.  Here is our finished product:

I have to be honest, this was my favorite project this week.  They took more prep work on my part so that the boys could complete them but the whole "snow in the window" effect is perfect.  Also, the boys have asked to read Dream Snow every single night before bed. 


December 4th:

To go along with Mortimer's Christmas Manger we made Letter J Ornaments that looked fun.

So this was by far the favorite craft for the boys.  Glitter Glue rocks their world and we went through 6 bottles today ;-)  Through in some gems and life is good.  Ready?  This was a last minute change.  I had a totally different project picked out but just wasn't "feeling" it and didn't think the boys would get into it so I went searching for something else, came across this idea and ran with it . .. so glad I did.  Granted, I'm not sure the "J"'s will ever dry!

December 5th:

For this craft, I used my own imagination.  I had the kids draw a simple picture of a house and then we glued "snowballs" on the paper (cotton balls) to make our own Blizzard.

Lets keep it real - this project didn't go over nearly as well as I thought it would.  Josh just wanted to connect the dots he had made (while disobeying and drawing when I told him not to HA) and did NOT want it covered up with "snow".  Nate drew his picture and said, "I want snow but you glue it on mom" and the munchkin, well he loved it :-) LOL Oh well, they can't all be winners BUT Nate picked this book to read before bed so he at least liked the story.


December 6:

Today we made Christmas cookies.  I had the dough ready and the boys each cut out a few cookies of their choice; we baked them and then frosted them with decorations.

----We interrupt this week of book Advent due to the stomach flu----
Yep, I got hit with the stomach flu on Thursday afternoon and was done until Friday evening so we didn't read this book nor did we make cookies.  I have two "slots" to fill on our Grinch countdown so I'm going to add "Decorate Christmas Cookie's in one of those slots  . .. 

Food Friday - Fajitas!

Fajitas
adapted from Pioneer Woman

I love Fajitas.  Who am I kidding, I love good (American Style) Mexican Food.  Right now I am craving my favorite resturtant that serves awesomse Mexican but alas, Darryl can't eat spicy food right now so I will hold off (I might have to go to town to do shopping and eat there on my own though!! ) I saw an episode of the Pioneer Woman recently where she made Fajitas so I've been waiting to try them.  The marinade is very mild (well I didn't put red pepper flakes in mine) so it makes it great to serve to the whole family.  I will say that I would not use a skirt steak again - it was so tough and chewy :-(  Next time I would use a good sirloin.  Also, being winter here, we did not grill it, I just pan cooked it - it would be so much better on the grill - this will be an awesome recipe in the summer.  The recipe is huge - I only did steak, not chicken and I used store bought salsa this time around. 

Ingredients
Marinade:

1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup chili powder
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3 cloves garlic, minced
Juice of 3 limes
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Meat:

3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 pounds skirt steak

Pico de Gallo:

5 plum (Roma) tomatoes
3 jalapeno peppers
1/2 large (or 1 small) onion
1 bunch fresh cilantro
1/2 lime
Salt

Fajita Vegetables:

2 medium onions, halved and sliced
1 green bell pepper, seeded and sliced into strips
1 orange bell pepper, seeded and sliced into strips
1 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced into strips
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and sliced into strips
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Fixins:

30 to 40 flour tortillas
Fiesta Beans
1 pound grated Cheddar cheese
One 8-ounce container sour cream
5 limes, sliced into wedges

Directions

For the marinade: In a blender, combine the olive oil, chili powder, Worcestershire, cumin, red pepper flakes, garlic and lime juice. Next add the sugar, salt and pepper and blend the marinade until it's totally combined and smooth.

For the meat: Place the chicken and beef in separate 2-quart baking dishes or large resealable plastic storage bags. Pour the marinade over the chicken and beef and rub the marinade all over the meat. Give your hands a good wash, and then cover the dishes with plastic wrap and let them marinate in the fridge for 4 to 6 hours.

For the pico de gallo: Chop the tomatoes, jalapenos and onion into a very small dice. (Leave the seeds in your jalapenos for a hotter pico. Adjust the amount of jalapenos to your preferred temperature.) Next, chop up a nice-sized bunch of cilantro. Just remove and discard the long leafless stems before chopping. No need to remove the leaves from the stems completely. Place all of these ingredients together in a bowl and give it a good stir. Squeeze the juice of half a lime into the bowl. Add salt to taste and stir again.

For the fajita vegetables: Throw the onions and bell peppers into a bowl and toss with the olive oil and some salt and pepper.

When ready to cook, preheat the grill to high heat.

Cook the chicken on both sides until completely cooked through (or to an internal temperature of 165 degrees F), about 4 minutes per side. Remove it to a platter to rest for 5 to 10 minutes.

Grill the beef on both sides until completely cooked through, about 5 minutes in total. Remove it to a platter to rest for 5 to 10 minutes.

Tip the fajita vegetables into a grill basket and grill until cooked, tossing occasionally, about 10 minutes.

To put it all together: Pile the veggies on a platter. Slice the chicken and beef.

For the fixins: Wrap the tortillas in foil and warm through on the grill. Serve the chicken, beef and veggies with the warm tortillas, Fiesta Beans, grated cheese, sour cream, lime wedges and pico de gallo.

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/chicken-and-beef-fajitas-recipe/index.html?oc=linkback

 

Weekly Menu

Yes, we did eat last week, I just didn't plan ahead well since I was busy doing other things.  Most of the meals were things I had planned over the last few weeks and we never ate so that made it easy.  Now, I'm working on using stuff in the pantry and freezer - both are very full thanks to lots of gifts while my husband was so sick.  Darryl is still eating pretty plain right now but he can actually eat food now so instead of needing to make him something different, I can usually alter what I'm making just enough for him.

Here is this weeks plan:
Friday - Glorified Mac and Cheese (which is just blue box with some added diced ham or ground beef), green beans and crescent rolls. There is a parade downtown tonight that I'm hoping to take the boys to so we needed a super easy dinner! Oh, and it is possible that if we don't go to the parade, that we will order in :-)

Saturday - Our special activity today is to go see the movie "Blizzard" so we will eat at Grand Traverse Pie company after the movie.  They serve my favorite sandwich in the whole world and that says a lot from a girl who doesn't really like sandwiches :-)

Sunday - Today I have a concert with the choir I sing in . . . .so once we get home the boys will get Hot Dogs and Darryl and I will order in . . Sunday night is my pizza night :-)  Now, if we ordered in on Friday, we'll eat at home instead :-)

Monday - Pork Chops, Corn, Mashed Potatoes w/gravy and biscuits.

Tuesday - I have a board meeting so I'm leaving Mac and Cheese and/or Hot Dogs for the boys (and Darryl)

Wednesday - Breakfast :-)  Blueberry Sour Cream Pancakes, Bacon and Fruit

Thursday - Ham, Sweet Potatoes, Peas and Buscuits - I have a couple big hams in the freezer; one is for Christmas but one I will cook tonight and then use the left overs for ham sandwiches to go with soup, to have with eggs for breakfast and just to enjoy :-)  I'll probably end up freezing some to use later too!

Now, I do have some fun stuff planned - things that I really like since Darryl can't eat most sweets right now . . .. and I don't even feel bad HA!

What I'm Into - December

So I came across this fun idea over at Our Happily Ever Afters to share what I'm into right now - I think it is fun to see what other people are doing.  If I remember to do this post each month, I will but sometimes it is hard to remember a Monthly Idea :-) 

What I'm Reading
On my Kindle right now is a book by Lauraine Snelling called An Untamed Heart

Lauraine Snelling is one of my favorite author and this series of books is one of my all time favorites and this particular book is actually the prequel to the Red River Series telling the story of the early life of the main character.  After reading this I'm tempted to read through the entire series once again. 

On my night stand is this book:

This is a year long journal that is for organizing your life - every aspect.  I'm only on week one.

What I'm Watching on TV
Right this very moment, as I write this?  I'm watching :

I've watched every season and I have to say this is one of the better ones.  The people always make the show and I enjoy the people on this episode even if Bob is sporting a really weird look this time around.

Other shows I'm watching are Amazing Race - love this show too!  Again, it is all about the people and the people are really good this season.  I also love Pioneer Woman.  Of course, this time of year I'm watching a lot of this:

Yes, that's right, football.  Sundays, Monday night and Thursday night and yes, even some college ball on Saturday. 

Don't forget one special that I'm really looking forward to seeing and that is this!

What I watched in the Theatre
Well, I haven't watched anything lately but we are planning to take the kids to see Frozen on Saturday!

What I'm Doing Around the House
Just decorating :-)  This year I did the bulk of the organizing Thanksgiving week and now I'm adding extra things like turning the Fridge into a snowman and actually decorating "my" tree in the Dining Room the way I want to.  I just finished all of the organizing in the boys room and the playroom - they love it and it makes so much easier to put things away now (for ALL of us).  I'm starting to work on organizing the kitchen cupboards to make them more usuable - I don't have cupboard doors right now so it is easy to visulize things.

What I've Bought
Well, Christmas Presents.  I'm about 90% done.  I just have a few odds and ends to get for stockings, Christmas Eve and a few people.  I also purchased the organizing supplies I needed for my project last week.  Christmas cards are bought and ready to go in the mail too :-)

What's on my Heart
I'm slightly disappointed that the boys will not be in a Christmas program this year.  We have been floating between churches and the one we have been attending is very large and does not do a program; the church we are going to start going to does do a program but since we haven't been going there, the boys won't be in it so I do have a burden to get us into this new church and get established.  We had really considered, back in July and August, driving to my brother's church every weekend (1 1/2 hours away) every Sunday because it is such an amazing church . .. trying to find something close to home has been hard.

What's on our Calendar
We are actually not busy people at the holidays.  The only things on our calendar are what I put on there - things like the Christmas Parade (Unless it is raining!), seeing a Christmas movie, going out to see Christmas lights, Nate's Birthday and Birthday Party, Christmas with my Family and Christmas with Darryl's family.  I also have one concert to do too.  It will be a fun holiday season.

That pretty much wraps up December!

Decorating for Christmas - The Kitchen

It is always fun to see how others decorate for Christmas; at least I think it is!  Over the next few weeks I'll share the little things I do in our home.  Lets start with the kitchen.

 To me, what makes Christmas decorating fun is lights and, in all honesty, I don't do near enough with lights inside!  Every year I wrap our small banister in the kitchen with good old fashioned tinsel garland and colored Snowflake lights.  It is so welcoming when walking up to the house in the evening. 

 This is the one wall decoration in the kitchen - a Wind Chime that I bought in my first apartment to many years ago to count.  I still love it and always find a place to hang it.

 The top of my fridge is the only place to add decorations for display.  This year I used to white procelene items - the Rocking Horse and Snowman - which I have had for years.  I love the simplicity!  The red Glass Ornament is actually from a floral arrangement that I was given 13 years ago when I had emergency gall bladder surgery not long before Christmas. 

Yes, a blurry photo!  The slider door IS our entrance so I love to hang decor on it.  I picked up this tinsel stocking last year after Christmas for a steal and it is perfect for the door. 

Normally, I put red ribbon down the front of my cabinets to hold Christmas cards but . .. my dad took all of my cabinet doors door to repaint them for me :-)  So my kitchen is much more simple this year!

A Week without Kids - Organization 101

For months, it was in the works for the kids to go to my parent's house the Friday before Thanksgiving for the week.  Those planned breaks are great for the kids to get to spend time with Papa and Nana and also for me to get huge projects done without lots of "help" :-)  A week and a half ago I shared my PLAN for the time without the kids so I wanted to follow up with what really happened.

1. Friday - By the time the kids left, I was tired HA.  So instead of getting books packed up, I worked on doing some cleaning and planning for Saturday.  Darryl and I ordered dinner in and just relaxed.

2.  Saturday - Total shopping day.  I had my list, checked it twice and even convinced Darryl to come with me - his first real outing (other than to doctor appointments) in 2 months.  It was a lot of fun and I got everything done on my list.  We enjoyed lunch at our favorite lunch spot - Grand Traverse Pie Company and got Chinese for dinner.

3.  Sunday - I had planned to do just a few things but by the time the day was done, a vast majority of the boys room and the playroom were done thanks to the help of my husband sorting lots of toys.  We finished up those two rooms on Monday.

 One of my goals in the playroom was to set up a Playdough/art station.  I picked up to 4 foot card tables and put them end to end.  I like them because they are more narrow than a standard table.  Now, the boys can play playdough whenever they want :-)

 This was also a new purchase to help sort toys.  I love that it is open and the boys have already grabbed containers full of things to play with and actually picked stuff up and put it away.

 New art work!  Another goal - to actually complete the room!!  I picked up some great art work pieces at Hobby Lobby for 50% off :-)

 This unit was in my dining room but it is a much needed addition in the play room instead.  I had purchased a different unit but, after an hour of struggling to put it together, I returned it (Amazon has the BEST return policy EVER!)   The tool chest was in the boys room but I made room for it in the playroom.

 A perfect home for the baskets of stuffed animals - under the tables!  Oh, and new art work on the wall :-)

 Just to keep it real - this is the one area that is not completely done.  The bottom shelf in the closet holds the games.  All of the baskets on the floor? I need to get containers - stackables with lids - to put that stuff in so it can be put in the closet neatly.  I will finish that project before Christmas since I know they are getting more of those items as gifts :-) 

 Of course, they must have their kitchen - which they still love :-)

See that big empty space?  Don't worry, Art Work is coming - I have an art project planned for the boys to do this coming week.  I promise to show it once it is done.

 Moving on to the boys room.  I was finally able to do some finishing touches in their room like hanging a few more pieces of artwork (the Car Canvas with the red stripes). The boys each got a framed picture of them with Papa and Nana on their bed plus a basket to hold all of "their" personal stuff.

 The curtains!!  I happened to see some curtains on sale at Walmart that were shorter (the old ones hung to the floor and were always messed up) so they could hang nicely.  I am so much happier with these curtains :-)

 The boys like to hang drawings on their wall so I just rearranged them to be a little neater.

 The book rack is new.  The boys have some favorite books so I put those in this rack to keep in their room.  They can actually see the covers making it easier to read books.This has also led to a new habit of each of the boys picking out a book before bed for Darryl to read.

 This is one of my favorite areas.  The boys love big trucks but I have struggled for several years of how to store them.  I had "light bulb" moment and picked up two bookshelves.  All of their trucks fit on the shelves and there is a little room for growth (which is a good thing!).  It makes their room look so much neater and they will be able to use those shelves for years.

The closet.  This is still not perfect but it will have to do because I am not redoing the closet with a new hanging system right now.  I do have ideas for the future but that is not a necessary project :-)

4) Monday - My main goal today was the dining room AND to get all of those books packed up.

 Now that the 9 cube storage shelf was in the playroom, I had to pick up one more black bookshelf similar to what is in the boys room.  This is my weekly school storage and scrapbooking area.  I love that it is so much neater and self contained.  The "not in use" school stuff is in the basement now.

 I was able to move the marble table back to a more prominent place.  I love it here.

Just to show off my photos :-)

5) Tuesday - Finishing the Basement

 This shelf WAS full of books.  Now it houses school supplies, craft supplies and some extra storage bins. 

 I still have one shelf of books - mostly some favorites, bible study books and lots of kids books for the future.

 The train table use to be in the playroom but I moved it back to the basement.  In the summer the boys can always haul some toys down here to play.  The drawer carts are for over flow scrapbooking supplies

Even the cedar chest was cleared off AND I hung pictures.  Because I put 16x20 photos of the boys in the dining room, I need somewhere to put the "old" ones.  I have decided to put them in the basement so I can always see them :-)  Notice the stacks of boxes - all books to go to the used book store!  There are actually 13 total boxes.

Tuesday evening Darryl and I drove into town to deliver all of those boxes of books and enjoy dinner.

6) Wednesday - On Wednesday I focused a couple of things.  One, I went through the house and put away all of the little things that were still out.  Ending with vacuuming all of the floors.  I put up some Christmas lights outside and also did 90% of the Christmas Decorating.

I was beyond thrilled with what I got done during the week and enjoyed a relaxing holiday after all of that work! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm taking the rest of the week "off" from Blogging :-)  My kids are gone this week so I'm working like a crazy woman on some organizational projects, decorating for Christmas, and getting some paperwork done.  I haven't even thought about a menu for next week nor do I have a recipe to share this week since I haven't done much (exciting) cooking lately.  When we finally sit down at night, I'm enjoying evenings with my husband now that he is starting to feel better - we have watched a lot of football lately which is something we enjoy and are even going out to dinner tonight because, well, we can.

So with that said, Happy Thanksgiving and I hope you have a wonderful week with your family!  I'll be back next week with lots of photos to share of everything from what I organized to how I decorated for Christmas!