Post Tryptophan Ramblings

Well, Thanksgiving Day is but a memory with only tight pants to show for it!

I hope that everyone had a very great day. We spent it at my grandparent's house. My grandma is a hostess to rival all others....the original Martha! She has fancy serving dishes and goblets, plus her food is amazing! We had the standard Thanksgiving dinner, but there is something about it that makes you want to just keep on eating!

This year I am just really in the Christmas mood. Not because we have tons of money to buy everyone the latest and greatest gifts. It's just something different this year. I've been in a baking mood for the last couple of weeks, bread mostly, but I can't wait to start all of the Holiday baking: Christmas cookies, cranberry swirl bread, brownie biscotti...if I weren't so full I'd be hungry!

It amazes me the craziness that goes on with all of the sales today. Does that 60 inch plasma tv really make all the difference on Christmas morning? How have we gotten so off track? Even if you don't celebrate Christmas as the birth of our Savior, shouldn't the holidays be about helping others or at least spending quality time with family and friends? I really want to try and find some sort of community service activity to do with the boys as a family.

The constant barrage of "I NEEEED this!" is driving me crazy! What exactly is it that we NEEEEEED? Material things fade away and by January no one can remember who got them what or why they even wanted it in the first place. That's our society though isn't it?!? Microwaveable Mac and Cheese because we can't wait 10 min. to make the "slow" method from the box. Drive thru lanes because we are too busy or lazy to get out of the car and have some actual human contact. Disposable everything (from plates to diapers to marriages). We have lost all meaning of actually working at something and in that everything has lost its value. As a child what was your favorite Christmas memory? I could maybe tell you 3 or 4 presents that I received growing up that really stood out through the test of time. But the thing that is burned into my memory is the time we spent together. Even now I can taste my favorite cookie, or laugh about some silly game we played, but the best part was just the Being. We are created for relationship. It's an internal wiring that we can't undo no matter how hard we try. People are missing that and they don't even realize it. Instead they try filling it with stuff, the bigger the better, except it's never enough to fill that hole.

I'll be posting about our little service experiment with the boys this month....maybe you'll be inspired to look past your latte or over your knitting to see a need!

Saturday Funnies

Don't have much to write about....it's been one of those weeks!!!!



We were talking about Animaniacs last night with Jim's mom. I LOVED that show when we were kids! Soooo I decided to Youtube it. It amazes me how educational this show actually was!!!!! (hands down better then the junk the boys watch now!) It was great watching their faces as they watched some clips.....the biggest hit was Good Idea Bad Idea (which just happens to be Jim's favorite so big surprise!)

Busy~Busy~Busy

So much to do, so little time....mountains of laundry waiting to be folded, dishes crying out to be done...but what am I doing.....everything but!

Yesterday we decided to make cookies. These are Brown Sugar Buttons with chocolate chips as the button holes.

A couple of weeks ago, I finished my side lines sweater. I like it except for the arms keep wanting to roll. I am thinking of sewing the ends together on the "vents" to make a thumb hole. Jim had a shirt with these built in and I loved it! We'll have to see if it works out like I want it to. The yarn, which is cool in person, is a pain the butt to photograph..so this is all ya get :)

I've also been working on a quick cardigan for a gift. It's the shalom cardigan, the pattern is on Ravelry for those who go there. What a nice fast project. I had one of my mom's neighbors try it on for size the other night. I think I need to add a couple of inches of length to the body and I still have to add sleeves, but I'm planning on calling it done by the weekend!

Today is a cold dreary day so all I really want to do is make a batch of french onion soup and hopefully a good loaf of bread! (oh yeah, and I'm also making mittens and toying with the idea of creating a fire truck and ambulance amigurumi for our neighbor's who just welcomed in a new baby boy.. it would be too easy having just ONE project to do!)

Night of Firsts

Ok..so at my age, I am happy to say that there shouldn't be that many really "true" firsts. Sure, new experiences are great, but they are mostly the same....great meals, good beer, awesome "husband and wife" time, but not really anything I haven't done before. (with the exception of sky diving..although we did a backwards sky diving thing when I was in 8th grade where they stick you in a big silo with an airplane propeller covered by a trampoline type thing....very fun...was in Gatlinburg TN, but not sure if they still have it!)

So, tonight I candled my mom's ears. Very interesting! My first thought was man I wish I could reach my camera, but then again I don't know if I would like MY picture on the net with me laying down with a candle stuck into a Thanksgiving paper plate shoved in my ear! Regardless, it was pretty cool in a weird gross kind of way....hopefully it will help her ear aches and dizziness. From what I've read it might take a couple of days to feel the full effects. I'll make sure to let you know!

Well, I'm off to buy myself my own set....not sure if it's psychosomatic or what, but now my ear hurts!

Chocolate Chip! Chocolate Chip!

Chocolate chip won the vote~ 11 to 5.

Last night we had a little election night fever:

My sister called and said that she and Duane couldn't wait to hear the results of Jamie's election...so...they were bringing over pizza, pop and of course cookie dough to my mom's house (which ended up being the campaign headquarters). She also decided that we need to put up red and blue streamers to accentuate the fun!

After supper, Jamie opened the ballot box and counted his votes. Chocolate chip won! I then, being the mean mom that I am, made him graft the outcome and do a fake cookie college (doing rather large number math with the rest of them cheering or jeering the tv was interesting, but we made it through with no major melt downs!). It was really cool for him to see that even though the popular vote was one way, the cookie college could make the winner different. We based ours on the age of the person who voted since we didn't have enough to make a population based number (I know not entirely accurate, but heck, it got the point across!). I gave him the name of one of us, with our age and our vote. He then put all the ages in coordinating cookie columns and added them up. Sometimes it made no difference, popular vote went with the cookie college, but sometimes not....made for a good discussion on the political process!

This afternoon we made our Chocolate chip cookies....sorry no pics..too good to last that long! We bagged them up and took them to mom's neighbor hood to thank the people who voted....boy were they surprised! If your really ambitious here's our awesome recipe:

Perfectly Presidential Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cup margarine

1/4 cup shortening

1/4 cup white sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 sm package instant vanilla pudding

2 eggs

1 tsp baking soda

2 1/2 cups flour

8 oz chocolate chips

Cream the margarine, shortening, and sugars. Add the pudding, beat in the eggs. Mix in baking soda and 1 cup flour. By hand, mix in remaining flour and chocolate chips. Roll dough into 3/4 inch balls. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 350 for 10-12 min (cookies are white when you take them out). Let cool on baking sheet.

Enjoy and try not to eat the entire batch at once!

That's how the cookie crumbles!

Here in the states, today is election day....so in honor of that we are having our own mock election.

We are in search of the Best Cookie:

Vote for Chocolate Chip or Oatmeal.

Jamie made a ballot box, ballots, and fliers with reasons to vote for each candidate.

We went around to friends and family today to have them be part of our election. It's really gotten J interested in the whole political process. Who would have guessed that an election would provide so much stuff for homeschooling: English (writing the descriptive fliers), Social Studies, Math (counting the votes and doing a mock "cookie college" based on age), Graphs...the list could keep going on and on!

We won't know until tonight who won, but tomorrow I'll bake whom ever the winner was.