Some good tips

Here was a good post by Holly

If you have little ones and are trying to finish up your shopping you should read this. Or better yet beg a grandma or a friend to keep your kids for a couple of hours. Or you can also take advantage of the late store openings and go at midnight

Christmas Crazy

I always say I am not going to be crazy at Christmas – but it always happens anyway. I have taken a few shortcuts to help but there are plenty of things I probably still could do to re-prioritize and focus on Jesus this Christmas.

Here are few things that have helped

  • I haven’t made candy – I usually dip pretzels and make all kinds of other candy but it takes a lot of time and it’s not good for us to eat it anyway.
  • I am not trying to be super woman in the kitchen and cook for every event. Example – we are having our small group Christmas Party tonight and we are ordering out.
  • We haven’t stressed about school this week – we did a few math lessons and some reading and that’s been about it – we are officially on Christmas Break until January!
  • Emma didn’t do ballet this year so we didn’t have the Nutcraker production. I missed seeing her on stage and the cute costumes but she and I really enjoyed just going to see it together without the stress.
  • I made time to go to my friend Stephanie’s Christmas Dinner – this wasn’t stress free for her because she made a wonderful dinner and her house was beautiful – but it was a nice night to dress up a little and hang out with some other girls. We had fun.

My mom is taking the kids this afternoon to her house to make cookies so I guess I have few hours to tie up the loose ends. I would love to say I had it all done and I could go get a manicure or soak in the whirlpool tub – but that’s not happening! Maybe next year….

Here is the result of a personality test I took.

It was fun – I like taking tests and doing surveys – I actually enjoy filling out those little registration cards when you buy something new. Give it a try and post your results

Click to view my Personality Profile page

Kidmo

Getting ready to go get all the last minute stuff ready for the kids at church in the morning. We are using a 3 week Christmas curriculum from kidmo called Heaven’s Windows. It looks great and I think the kids will love it. Hope I’m right or I’ll have 50 rowdy kids on my hands!!

Cookies, Cookies and more Cookies

Emma and I have been to 2 cookie exchanges in the past couple of weeks so I thought I would share a few ideas and recipes. Here is a picture of the cookies I made a couple of weeks ago and have included the recipe for. I think they are my favorite of all the ones I have made this year – because they are soooooooooo easy.

Santa’s Favorite Cookie

On the stove melt 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 1 stick of butter until boiling and boil for one minute. Remove from heat and stir until smooth. Line a pan with graham crakers (about 9 full size sheets) and pour hot mixture over. Then sprinkle with nuts if desired (I used sliced almonds but pecan or walnut peices would be good) Let cool and cut into squares. I doubled this recipe and it worked well. So easy and really good – people usually can’t even tell they are graham crackers.

A couple other easy recipes I have learned at these exchanges.

Crush one pack of oreos and 1 pack of cream cheese in food processor and make into balls and dip in white chocolate. I had these with mint oreos too – yummy

One more idea

On a baking sheet put a small pretzel twist and top with a rolo candy. Put in the oven set to 250 degrees and bake for about 4 or 5 minutes just until the rolo is soft – remove from oven and press a pecan half into the rolo – and tada you made candy – kids would like to help with this one

little angels and pirate ships

I took my little angels to  Barter Theater to see The Littlest Angel today.  Both Grandma and Nini went – and we had a great day!  Really cute play – not really scripturally accurate in the beginning with the little boy dying and becoming an angel and Heaven being a boring place, but a great message at the end.  It reminded us all that Jesus was sent to Earth to be human and even though we are as dirty and shabby as the old box the angel gives to baby Jesus it is pleasing to Him – it reminds me of the verse “He remembers that we are dust” (psalm 103:14) and the best part is – He doesn’t care!  He still loves us in spite of our dirt.  Anyway – I think it is still playing for a couple more weeks – so get over and see it if you get a chance.

We also made a quick trip to Walmart tonight after supper to get Drew a pirate ship.  It is a little close to Christmas to be buying toys, but we promised him this toy as a reward for mastering the poopin in the potty skill.   He put his last sticker on the chart he has been working on for months so it was reward time.  Let’s just hope it keeps working.  
Gotta get some work done – going Christmas shopping tomorrow!  

Quick weekend wrap up

Got almost all the decorations finished – I am waiting to finish outside until tomorrow – it’s supposed to 70 degrees tomorrow! My kind of outdoor Christmas decorating! I don’t like being cold -even at Christmas.

Had our small group meeting Thursday night – I love those guys and their kids – we had a great time – there was one point right before everyone left and all the kidos had reached their exhaustion point that all the little guys were crying – Drew, Grace, Ava and John were all throwing fits at the same time!!! Here is a quick summary – Grace got upset when Nathan tried to put her shoes on to go – she laid in the floor to cry – Travis decided it would be funny to lay in the floor and throw a big people (6’3″) temper tantrum to cheer Grace up – John was a little freaked out by his Daddy in the floor throwing a fit so he cried – Travis stopped the tantrum and put Ava’s shoes on signifying time to go so she cried – in the meantime Drew was sitting in the living room floor with a cup of milk and Emma walks by and accidentaly knocks it over so Drew starts crying over spilled milk – literally -I calm him and refill the milk as I set the refilled milk on the table Luke walks by says “hey, thanks” and drinks it down in one gulp – Drew watching screams in horror because he still has no milk! By this point I am laughing so hard I have to sit down and all the adults have a good laugh – and the best part is we got to send most of the crying ones home!! Now that is what you call a Life Group

Friday night Galax Christmas parade – redneck Christmas – that will be a blog post all it’s own and I have pictures to prove it!

Saturday was one of those days that only a little of my to do list got done and I stressed about it most of the day. On a good note – I took the kids to see Mr. Magoriums Wonder Emporium at Creekside in Mt Airy – really cute movie! We all loved it – great for all ages – even little bitty guys. We then rushed to a meeting a church and it was all in all a pretty hectic day – thanks Boni and Travis for letting me vent and Mike for letting me talk your head off til midnight – you guys are good therapists

Sunday – we had a great service today!!! The youth led the worship and did an awesome job – our regular praise team was a real blessing by spending their well deserved Sunday off serving with the children Mike gave a great intro to his Christmas series and John Chisum shared some good words with us and closed us out with some great Christmas music – it was Christmasy – despite the 65 degrees outside (you won’t hear me complaining)
After church Mike and I took our 3 and 3 extras to the movies to see Enchanted. Great movie – go see it!!! – a little scary in parts for little ones (Drew covered his eyes a couple of times and climbed in my lap) A mean lady and a big dragon that might be too much for timid kids
Then 20 teenagers at our house – great time with them – they are an awesome group that I feel so blessed to be able to be a part of -can’t wait to see what God has in store for them!!

Now it is off to bed – I am tired!!!!!!! Gotta get up early to go on a field trip with some other homeschoolers to Barter Theater!

A whirlwind of a week

Can’t believe it’s been a week since I posted here.
A quick recap of last week

Went to see Nemo on ice on Thursday in Greensboro

Got our tree decorated!

Emma and I went to a cookie exchange on Saturday night – fun- recipes coming soon

Almost finished my Christmas cards last night

Today doing school work and trying to get out Christmas decorations finished – and that hideous mound of laundry that keeps growing!