Welcome to Winter

We are having a cozy Thanksgiving weekend at home this year, since we are getting freezing rain on and off.  It didn't seem to bother this squirrel though, since he was busy eating this hedgeapple he held real still so I could get his picture.

The last few roses, covered in ice.

The house is a wreck, as I'm deep in Christmas decorating.  Thankfully we had enough leftovers from yesterday I didn't have to cook much today.  It's been a good time of doing puzzles, playing with old forgotten toys, and watching movies.  We have lots to be thankful for.

A Red Transferware Thanksgiving

 

The food has been prepared, the table is set, and we are ready for Thanksgiving tomorrow!

 

 

Each place setting is a different pattern of red transferware.

I started collecting red transferware dishes about 15 years ago, and now have enough

for our 8 member family, plus a few extra. (:

 

For a centerpiece this year I went simple and rustic, with deer antlers, leaves, pumpkins, and candles.

 

This Pilgrim platter was a gift from my Mom this year and will hold lots of turkey tomorrow.

 

Awhile back I bought these fun Pilgrim and Indian placecard holders at a yard sale,

they are fun to pull out every year.

 

I hope everyone is hungry tomorrow!  Something different we did this year was let each person choose a side dish to go along with the turkey.  So here's our menu:

 

Turkey

Mashed Potatoes and Gravy

Cornbread Stuffing

Green Bean Casserole

Tuna Pasta Salad

Corn

Red Cinnamon Pickles

Cranberry Bread

Corn Muffins

Apple Pie

Pumpkin Cake

 

Makes me hungry just thinking about it!

 

I am including the recipe for Cranberry Bread below (pictured above), it is a yearly favorite around here, and can easily be made gluten free by substituting gluten free flour.  You can also easily double or triple it.

 

Cranberry Bread

 

1 egg

1/2 c. orange juice

2 T. melted butter

2 T. hot water

2 c. flour

1 1/2 t. baking powder

1 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

1 c. sugar

1 c. raw whole cranberries

 

Beat together first four ingredients, then blend in remaining dry ingredients.  Gently stir in cranberries.  Pour into greased loaf pan.  Bake at 325 for 60 min.  Let cool 15 min. before removing from pan.

 

 I am joining Home and Garden Thursday and No Place Like Home

What a Trip

 

This last weekend we went out to Colorado to visit Andy's side of the family.  One day we took a little trip over to Utah to see Arches National Park.  It was a beautiful day, not too cold, and just perfect for hiking to see a few of the arches. 

 

It had snowed a day or two before, and the snow with the red rocks was just beautiful.  We really enjoyed our time there.  This is Landscape Arch below, it was my favorite one.  Part of this one broke off back in 1991 while people were underneath.  That would be scary.

 

 

It was good to see all the grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins again!

 

Then came the trip home...  It was definitely one of our most adventurous trips.  First we had to cross the mountains, where it was snowing.  The roads were wet and slushy most of the way, but part of the time they were more snow packed.  Miss E threw up all over her clothes and blanket about half an hour after we left.  At Vail pass there was a wreck so we had to wait 30 minutes there.  The sun was peeking through the clouds on the snow covered mountains and it was really beautiful.  The picture is not nearly as good as it was in real life.

 



 

As we came out of the mountains we got ahead of the snowstorm, but then we ran into the thunderstorms.  The sky across the plains of Colorado was really pretty, you could see just where the storms were- no need for radar out there!  As we were coming into Kansas this thunderstorm was building up and I told Andy, Colorado might have mountains, but we have clouds!  Famous last words...

 

Because a few minutes later this tornado came out of those beautiful clouds!

 

 

We pulled over to the side of I-70 and watched it cross the interstate.  It was really amazing.  After living here for 27 years this was the first tornado I've ever seen.  It was probably about 5 miles away.  Thankfully it didn't hurt anyone, it was pretty small as far as tornadoes go.

 

All of that made the trip take about 14 hours instead of the usual 12.  We were all very glad to be back, and thankful to God for getting us safely home!

Little Girls' Woodland Tea Party

This morning my Mom and I hosted a tea party for Miss E's Sunday School class girls, their moms, and their grandmas, at my parents' home.  We had a fun time preparing for it so I thought you might like to see what we came up with.

We had a woodland theme, so my mom made place card holders out of sticks, and we gave acorn Christmas ornaments as favors.

Each place setting was unique.  We had fun matching the tea cups to the dessert plates.

And speaking of dessert, we had these strawberry shortcakes with butterflies on top, served in my mom and sister's green depression glass custard cups.

These little cheese hearts were fun to eat!  I just bought some thickly sliced cheese from the deli and cut them out with a cookie cutter.

I also made acorns out of a chocolate chip, a mini Nutter Butter, and a Hershey's Kiss.

My mom designed this beautiful woodland centerpiece, complete with fairies, pink bottle brush trees, a path, trellis, and around back...

the fairies are having their own tea party!

 I also made these little stuffed cherry tomatoes, and since the recipe was requested, I will share it here.

BLT Bites

16-20 cherry tomatoes

1/2 package bacon bits

1/2 c. mayonnaise

3 oz. cream cheese

3 T. parmesan cheese

1 T. parsley

1/4 t. onion powder

Cut tops off of cherry tomatoes and scoop out seeds.  Combine remaining ingredients. Using a baby spoon, stuff filling inside of tomatoes.  Refrigerate several hours before serving.

I am joining No Place Like Home and A return to loveliness today!

Fall Crafts for the Kids

 

Yesterday my mom came over and did some fun fall crafts with our youngest 3 kids, and since they were simple and fun to do I thought I'd share the ideas with you all.  The first one was preserving fresh maple leaves.  My mom had freshly picked leaves off the tree, and the kids painted them front and back with Mod Podge, and then we hung them up to dry.  They have since curled up a little, but they have kept their color really well.

 

The second craft she had for the kids was making leaf animals.  The original idea she found here, where there are lots of great examples.  But our kids had fun using the different shaped leaves to create animals and people (and aliens, of course).  For this craft you just need to press a variety of shaped leaves in a book a week or two ahead, then glue them on a paper and add legs or eyes or whatever you need with a marker.  The kids had lots of fun, so thanks Mom!

 

I'm joining Home and Garden Thursday

Smartness

Remember back when you were in school and grades were so important?  Well, maybe they weren't important to you, but they definitely were to the teachers!  With five kids in school we hear about grades quite a bit these days.  Those kids that do get good grades are praised for being so smart but those that don't are badgered and put down for not trying.  

Personally, I think our school system doesn't do a very good job of judging how smart someone is.  I think everyone is smart in some area.  One of our kids can read people very well. He is very intuitive about how people think and why they do what they do.  Another one is very good at finding lost items because he has an eye for detail.  Unfortunately no one ever grades you on those things.  Have you seen this cartoon before?

Isn't that the way it is?  It makes our job as parents a lot tougher because while we know our child is smart, the school tests ask all the wrong questions, so the child who isn't school-smart always feels like they're dumb.  It's kind of sad.

I wish that in about the eighth grade the school would sit down with the parents and child and figure out where the child's talents lie, and then have different career tracks in high school to prepare the child for life.  But since they don't we have to be more proactive in helping our kids realize what area they are smart in and what talents God has given them, so they can figure out what type of work they would enjoy in life.

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. 

1 Peter 4:10

Tidbits

 

Our harvesting is done and our wheat is planted!  We are thankful to God for giving us a good harvest this year.  He has blessed us in so many ways.  I really enjoy farm life, and one of the reasons is because we live so close to the land.  We are completely dependent on God to send us rain at the right times.

 

I decided to delete my Facebook account.  It was just getting to be too much, if you know what I mean.

 

The trees are getting bare around here, the leaves that are left are mostly just brown now.

 

I am really looking forward to Christmas this year!  I am playing Christmas music already.  For a change I'm going to put my Christmas village under the tree this year.

 

We are going to make a trip out to Colorado to visit family pretty soon, so we are all looking forward to that.  Hopefully the weather will be nice, you never know at this time of year.

 



I was reading some old newspaper articles from our small town from 1918-1920 that I found online.  Our small town now has a population of about 200, but back then they had a revival that lasted several weeks, and they had 1400 people attending each night.  So many of the small towns in our area are looking pretty sad these days.  I wish we could have a revival like that again!

I haven't felt seizurish for a couple months now, thankfully, so the family is starting to let me drive short distances again, yay!