Snowmen

Last year I saw this all over Pinterest last year and wanted to add this to my Christmas Decor this year:

I tried to be "sneaky" and just create this on the fridge but the kids caught me so I ended up with a little more than I bargained for :-)

 I created my snowman on the top of the fridge . .. but had help with the very last button . . .can you tell? 

 Josh then had to create his own snowman on the Freezer. 

 Finally, remember this from my Dining Room Christmas Decor?  Well, Josh and Nate worked together to create this snowman as well. 

All fun Christmas Decor!

Decorating for Christmas - The Dining Room

I have to say, I'm having more fun decorating this year and I think it is because I cleaned out all of my Christmas stuff back in July but totally forgot that I did it so when I unpacked stuff, I had so much less stuff and had room to add more and because I did it all once but left room to add little touches over the next few weeks. 

 This is one of my "new" fun things.  I decided to make the tree in the dining room "mine".  I picked up some pink, purple and silver ornaments and other decor to decorate it.  I do think that next year I will find pink and purple lights - I haven't found any yet - and add those.  I'm not usually a pink/purple girl but the dining room is a deep purple so I thought it would look nice :-)

 On my marble table sits two houses.  The gingerbread house is from Halmark and I don't care how many times I pack it away, the boys find it and bring it back upstairs so this tends to reside in our house year round.  It plays music and has flashing lights which makes it a huge hit.  I also have a Clayworks House which I love!

 The silver reindeer - I got them for a steal from Home Interiors; figured they would be junky but when I got them (years ago) they were beautiful and very "sturdy".  I've never found anything else like these two.

 The archway holds the adult stockings and I'm also using it to display the kids Bible Advent pictures. 

 This is Josh's creation - a very cool snowman.  There is more to this story but I'll save it for another post.  I will say that he looked at the previously blank wall and then looked at me and said, "Wow, mom, you built this plain wall just for me to decorate." 

 Last year the boys made these cute little trees :-)  I love having crafts that they made on display.

 Another craft from several years ago - Reindeer using hands and feet :-)

 What would Christmas decor be without bows ?  (Except . .. I think I need pink instead of red . . .or maybe purple . . .)

Finally the Table . . .just a simple $2.50 plastic tablecloth made beautiful by a red glass bowl filled with tealights.  Such a simple statement.

Homeschool Corner

This month, most of our Homeschool things will be based on our Christmas Activities.  I'm sharing our Book Advent activities on Saturdays in a post but everything else will show up here.  We've made  it through one week - this is what we did.

Our daily Grinch Countdown
This is the one thing I'm REALLY trying to do daily since it is, well, a countdown.  I've tried to keep this super simple (and cheap) but still fun for the boys.  The gist of it is simply that the book "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" is broken up over 24 pockets.  Each day we pull a card, read the story, and pull out the item in the pouch.  The items include a little treat, a simple craft, an activity or a small toy.  I tried to plan ahead such things as going out to see Christmas lights or going to the movies to see something fun in order to make THAT the activity for the day.  We also have a Birthday and a Birthday Party to celebrate as well.  We normally do this every day after the extra kids leave - it is something fun to do before dinner and usually gives the boys something to do :-)

This is what we had this week:
December 1st - Opened their special ornament to put on the tree
December 2nd - Lego Men
December 3rd - Finger Tip Light Sabers (these were a HUGE hit!!)
December 4th - Make Door Hangers
December 5th - Magnetic Snowman Puzzles
December 6th - I had planned to take the family downtown to the Parade but two things happened 1)Mama got the stomach flu and 2)It is super duper cold so instead they boys opened . . .Matchbox Cars :-)
December 7th - See a Christmas movie at the Theatre
December 8th  -Tootsie Roll Bank (what is Christmas without one of these?)

After looking at what I wanted to get done in December, I decided that the best scripture Advent for us was this one :

Verge Network

I really liked the simplicity of it - just paper ornaments to color and hang out our little tree.  I have been wanting to pick up a copy of "The Jesus Storybook Bible" for awhile so this gave me a great excuse to do so (You don't need that Bible - but it does give you the option to use it by giving the pages that coincide with the ready that day).  We do this first thing in the morning before our book advent.  Below are some photos from our first week

I didn't take many photos this week - while the boys were coloring their ornaments, I read the book for our book Advent and then we moved right into our craft :-)

In my "December" Homsechool post I mentioned doing some unit studies . . . well, after looking at the items I have planned I realized that to add one more thing was too much for any of us so we are sticking with the Book Advent for learning; Grinch for Fun; and Scripture Advent for bringing us back to the reason for the season. 

Things My Kids say

* Phrases heard in our house while decorating trees: 1) "Mom, I need more hookers; I think about 5 should do it." 2) "Mom, are we out of hookers?" and 3) "Mom, there are sure a lot of hookers in this house today." That is all I have to say

* Nate informed me one day that he wanted Mac and Cheese and Spaghetti for dinner. I said, "Well, you must really love pasta!" to which he replied, "Mom, I don't like Pasta at all, I just like Mac and Cheese and Spaghetti."  

* I love how Kids don't always say words right and I seldom correct them - they will learn soon enough.  Josh was trying to fix something recently so he had to go get the "Pleasers"  . . also known as Pliers :-)

* Josh and Nate are very into telling things they remember such as Nate telling the store when "Dad and Josh were babies, Mom and I went to the jungle and saw a monkey with a hole in its head."  I can tell you, we've never been to a jungle nor have we seen a monkey with a hole in its head.  Josh was looking at photos from 2012 and asked me about one where Nate was crying.  I told him it was because his hands were so cold that they hurt.  He looked at me and said, "No mom, you don't know your photos.  He's crying because he was scared of the snow."  I hate to be the one to correct him but I was right ;-) LOL

* We have entered the "never" stage . .. such as . . "We have NEVER eaten that before" (even though we ate it yesterday), "We have NEVER done that before" (even though we did it last week), "You will NEVER be ready to  . . ." (even though I'm ready to do whatever in less than 30 seconds) and "I will NEVER get to do that again" (even though they get to do it tomorrow all over again) HA!

*The boys "discovered" the outside decorations that were "leftover" in the garage the other day and quickly started decorating.  I was informed that if we didn't use them all AND put the candy canes in the ground, it would NOT be Christmas.  Oh, and then they found the one strand of lights I did not use in the house and informed me again that they had to be used.  I'm so glad they love Christmas.

*Nate informed us that we needed to wash the truck windows because they were "rusty".  (umm . . Dusty?)

* We took the boys to see a movie and afterwards were talking about where to get dinner.  We mentioned Chinese food, which Josh wanted, but then we said we were sure if we wanted to go there.  Josh said, "Why?  doesn't dad want to eat dog food?"  . . ..I laughed so hard, why?  Because our dog's name is China so Josh will ask if we are going to eat at China's restaurant when we say something about Chinese . .. so to him, it makes perfect sense that it is "dog" food.  I should also say that to him, eating Chinese food is going some place where you get to fill your own plate AND you get ice cream when you go - since the only Chinese restaurant he has been to is a buffet :-)

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!