Lessons learned 28 Nov. 2011

Lessons I learned this last week.


Now we are going to start with Thanksgiving pictures because most of the week was spent cooking. Keep in mind that I used Rachel Rays Everyday Thanksgiving Recipes for most of the dishes.

Yes, I know this is not a great picture but look at how happy James is.

Damian is starting to love food almost as much as I already do. Here is a random lesson I learned If you use those super nice crystal glasses your saving for special occasion and beg your kids to be super careful with them don't break one in front of said kids. They will never let you live it down!

Kiss of Lemon Turkey. My husband loves to make the turkey and it turned out lovely.

Classic sausage stuffing. I cried on Friday because Rob ate the very last bite! I love stuffing and it loves to stick to my hips.

The best sweet potato dish I have ever made. Carmel Apple Sweet Potato Casserole.

Green Beans with toasted pumpkin seeds. I love fresh crunchy green beans.

Cranberry Raspberry sauce completely my own recipe and I should have made more! The kids licked their plants to get every little taste of wonderful that they could.

Turns out the boys love Turkey legs.

So we told them until they have little boys of their own they will get a turkey leg every year.

I loved doing this Thankfulness tree.

I am thinking about doing it all year by updating to different seasons. Changing these leaves to snowflakes and the ribbon to a pretty blue or red christmas ribbon. It is nice to be thankful.

This week we also sorted through a ton of the boys' things and found out out we do have a school room after all. Who knew?

The boys love this room more then they ever did when it was a toy room/library.

I love this room now too. We still do school work at the kitchen table in the mornings.

This is a miracle. I never thought I could organize anything.

Okay so I love that Damian loves to Read to his brother, but I was trying to show off our world map.

I saw a picture of a hat that my friend made. It was wonderful and she swore it was only the second thing she had ever crocheted. So I looked it up on Youtube (which is wonderful and truely evil) and began to make a hat. My first hat ever. It is not as easy as my friend claimed... Or I am not great at following directions. So here is my first hat ever.

Not bad. I could do better I am sure. I learned a lot about crochet while I worked on this hat. First I want to point out that it took me about three hours to make. I started over a million times. Really I lose count. Then I learned how to use a place marker and I didn't have to count any more. I think I missed something very important. Because look at the true size of the hat.

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Did you have to scroll down to discover my secret?I hope so.

Are you ready?

I am not

but here it goes.

That's right friends my hat fits this toy hippo and lots of his hatless friends. I think I had better try again. It seems that my idea of a great hat stayed the same size even as it was born. Lesson learned here don't be afraid to fail. Maybe next time you will get it right. I will let you know if I ever do.

I hope your week is filled with sweet lessons, happy music, Love and Laughter. Be well my friend.



Thanksgiving

So our dog came down with kennel cough and we did not want to take him up to see my mother in law because she has three dogs of her own. So to make sure that we do not get her dogs sick we are having Thanksgiving at home with our little family. That also means I get to plan the meal, which I am sure that you know I jumped in to wholeheartedly. I love food, especially special occasion holiday food. Are you ready? This is our Holiday Menu, I got it from a Everyday with Rachel Ray Magazine. I am planning on changing a few things to make it my own like making my own bread for the stuffing and casserole, also I am going to make my own cranberry sauce, the pumpkin pie is my own and knowing me I might change a few details as I see fit as I cook. Not because I think it is better but because sometimes a little of this and a little of that makes the difference between good and wonderful. That and I sometimes forget I am supposed to follow the recipes.

Kiss of Lemon Turkey
Old-Fashioned Pan Gravy
Classic Bread Stuffing with Sausage
Cran-raspberry Sauce
Carmel Apple Sweet Potato Casserole
Sauteed Green Beans with Toasted Pumpkin Seeds
Pumpkin pie
Pinot Noir (for the grown-ups)
Sparkling red cider (for the kids)

Maybe one other desert because this morning my boys(husband included) asked about more desert items. I do not want to go back to the store! Have you been there lately ever day closer to Thanksgiving the crazier it gets. Really! The only thing that would make this Holiday any better would be to have you and your family at our table.

I am going to post pictures later. If it all turns out and I hope it does.

I hope that your Thanksgiving is full of Love and Laughter and you leave with sweet memories to carry with you always. Be well my friends.

Planning a Holiday

Thanksgiving is around the corner and usually I am pouring over cookbooks, recipe sites for new ideas for a wonderful celebration meal. Thanksgiving has always been about celebrating our family and friends who often become family when you are as lucky as we are to be in the Military and far from any relatives. I love spending two or three days just baking, slicing, cooking, and roasting. I am not the only one who loves this, Rob loves to make the turkey each year, and the dressing. It is a warm family affair. This year we are going to My mother in laws too enjoy the holiday. My kids are super excited to see their Nana and ask him everyday what day we are leaving. They are making a list and asking me twice. Our we taking the dog? Me~Yes. Our we going to take the cat? Me~No. Mom, we need to get litter and more food so that Chole will be okay. Me~Okay. Mom should we make Thanksgiving Cookies for Nana? Me~If you want. Mom, should we pack our bags now? Me~No. These questions go on and on. They are excited to travel. They love getting to spend a few days with Nana and then they are happy to come home. I think that Thanksgiving question are all a secret cover up because they Know what Holiday is next on the list.

I also want to report on our Thanksgiving tree that my family is working on. I love asking what everyone is Thankful for. James is thankful for candy, cookies, cake, the cat, dinner(if it is good), and mom. Damian is Thankful for everyone he has ever met and will spend fifteen minutes listing everyone of them, he is also thankful for the same things as James. Rob is Thankful for his Wife, and good meals. I am Thankful for all the things mentioned (minus the wife plus a husband) and for all the little things that the rest of the family overlooked. To remind them that we have a lot to be Thankful for.

So here are some pictures of our tree so far.

I am not the best at tying bows but I like it all the same.

Well I tried to add a little color other than yellow.

I really like how this tree is turning out. I have twenty more leaves to add but they are hard to write on once they are tied to the tree.

I used pencil to write on the leaves. But if you squint a little you can see what James is Thankful for.

I love the ribbon. It has four word repeated on it so when it is tied it says things like Give Thanks, Family, Blessings, and Tradition. Which I think this tree will become.

My ceiling is a light green. I love the leaves. I miss having an Autumn show as the season changes.

I hope that your week is filled with love and laughter. Be well my friends.

Ideas for November

Today between trying to convince a three year old that learning to read is both fun, and important, convince a seven year old that finishing his "school" work early leaves him the rest of the day for playing, and reading, I am printing out next months unit studies we are going to do two A Thankful Thanksgiving and 25 Days of Thanksgiving lapbook, I am reading Sakuntala and Indian play, I am making dinner crock-pot potato soup, and finally I am looking for some great ideas for a whole month of Giving Thanks. It is a lot more multitasking then I can really handle so as long as you don't look into the fact that cleaning is not on the list for today I think we will be fine on this little adventure. Besides it is all of November school work for both boys, so everything works out nicely.

 I found a neat craft here http://thecraftingchicks.com/2010/10/thankful-tree.html called the Thankful tree. You gather some pretty branches and put them into a vase decorated or not (I am going to buy some pretty autumn leaves from hobby lobby, and maybe some ribbon. Maybe I will buy some pretty ribbon and tell the boys in my life That Moms are girls and we like pretty things to look at.) then you print out leaves, or buy some already printed leaves and have the whole family write what they are thankful for on a leaf and tie it on the the branch with ribbon or tape or maybe just glue it. I love the idea that the whole family does this together. I will take pictures when I get everything together. Maybe I can be Thankful for the Whole month of November.

The units studies and lapbooks, I am excited to start these. Everyday is a bible verse about being thankful, and everyday the boys will get to think of things that they are thankful for for 25 days. This is the lapbook. The unit study is about pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving. I am looking forward to doing both of these with the boys. Here is the link to where you can find them http://www.currclick.com/product_info.php?products_id=43106&it=1&filters=0_30558_0_0_0_0_0
http://www.currclick.com/product_info.php?products_id=25801&it=1&filters=0_30558_0_0_0_0_0
Right now Currclick is having a trunk or treat sell where you can find deals for up to 75% off on a lot of wonderful unit studies and lapbooks. http://www.currclick.com/index.php

Back to Sakuntala for me. I hope you have a wonderful week filled with love and laughter. Be well my friends.