Merry Christmas!

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. " Isaiah 9:5-7

thankful thursday

Today I am thankful for my three boys.

Yes, they are crazy and loud and demanding of my time and energy, but they are such a joy!

This month, in an effort to s-l-o-w down our frantic pace of life, we've been sitting by the light of the Christmas tree after dinner snuggled up under blankets, sometimes with a cup of hot chocolate and a bowl of popcorn, listening to the first book in the Chronicles of Narnia series on CD. They have [I have] really enjoyed this time together.  Thanks, Dad, for letting us borrow the CDs!

I am getting excited for Christmas now because I know how much fun these guys will make it. 

What are you thankful for today?

Christmas Crafts

Disclaimer: Family members who may or may not be receiving these as Christmas presents, you may wish to skip this post, a.k.a. DO NOT OPEN UNTIL DECEMBER 25th! For those of you intent on peeking {JILL}, try to act surprised for the boys' sakes when you open them...

These gifts are fun and easy projects to make with your kids [at least school-age]. I cannot take credit for them. Evan actually made them when he was in kindergarten and it has taken me two years to get around to trying our own versions.

For the first project, you'll need Christmas balls, tree hooks, white acrylic paint, a sponge brush, and various colored paint pens.

Use the sponge brush to spread white paint over the fingers and palm of one hand of your child.

Have them hold their hand with their fingers flattened out and place the ball in the palm of their hand so that their fingers will be on the sides of the ball when it dangles. Have them slowly place their hand around the ball and set aside to dry. I say SLOWLY because you run the risk of creating two-headed snowmen if your child moves their hands around ~ trust me, I know :)



When the paint is dry, use the paint pens to draw snowmen faces, coal buttons, and scarves. You could also add your child's name and date on the back if you wish. Once that paint is dry, add the tree hook, some ribbon if you like, and it's ready to gift.

For the second project, you'll need empty film or diabestic testing strip canisters, white acrylic paint, sponge brushes, black paint pen, orange ribbon or felt, glue, glitter, pipe cleaners, pom-poms, and tree hooks.

First you have to paint the empty canisters white. Don't worry too much about coverage ~ you'll be covering them
with glitter later.

Once they're dry, use the paint pen to draw eyes and a mouth. Cut the orange ribbon or felt into a small triangle and glue on as a nose. Let dry.

Using a q-tip or small brush, spread glue on the entire canister, avoiding the eyes, mouth, and nose. Sprinkle with glitter, covering completely, and let dry.

Cut pipe cleaners to about an inch to an inch and a half and bend into an arch. Using a glue gun, attach pipe cleaners onto snowman's head and add pom-poms over its "ears." Add tree hook to top of earmuffs and it's ready once it's dry.

These make great family or teacher gifts. I must say as a teacher that I still have every single ornament a student ever gave me and I love getting them out every Christmas and remembering who they are from.

Happy Crafting!

thankful thursday

Today, I am thankful for my handsome hubby, Mark.

He is my best friend and a wonderful husband.

He is an excellent daddy to our boys.

We know he loves us dearly.

He's a hard worker.

He loves the Lord.

We know he'll be there whenever we need him.

And he's a handyman to boot! T-Minus 24 - 48 hours until our heater is up and running again [keep your fingers crossed!]

Who could ask for anything more!?!

wordful wednesday

I interupt this regularly scheduled "Wordless Wednesday" for an emergency "Wordful Wednesday."



It has been entirely too long between posts lately and I'm so excited to be spending the evening baking and blogging! It's funny how as I look back at my post counts over previous months, I can gauge the craziness of my life at the time.

Few and far between posts = CHAOS!

And yes, we've had some chaos around here. Nothing earth-shattering, but still chaos...

I had to finish up my grad class, which included a research review paper.

[Insert gagging emoticon here]

Nathan had the stomach bug followed five days later by stomach cramps so severe we thought he had appendicitis and spent 5 + hours at the ER to find out it wasn't. Did I mention that this was the same day my paper was due? Yeah...

Money seems to be flying out of our bank accounts at warp speed lately.

And frankly, I think my hands have been too cold to type. In the coldest spell we've had in a long time [0 degree wind chill], we have not been able to use our heater. Why, you ask? A little problem with MOLD in the ductwork! It's a lovely mess that my wonderful hubby has taken on with gusto. And to the tune of $600, we [read: he] are replacing the fiberboard ducts with aluminum ones. Thank God we have a wood burning stove and a gas fireplace. Even with those and the space heaters in the bedrooms, though, it has been TOUGH to get out of bed in the morning!

Did I mention that this paper was 12 pages long?

Oh, and to top it off, my sinuses have been horrendous [MOLD, perhaps?] including a bulging eardrum which has been painful and annoying.

At work, my colleague is retiring next week and I've been coordinating a surprise retirement breakfast for her this Friday. That's 50 - 60 people plus all the food and drinks we'll need plus collecting money for a gift and putting together a little scrapbook for her.

Yep, life is crazy! :)
Hope you're enjoying crazy, too!

Can't burn my cookies....and in honor of the usual "wordless" post, I'll leave you with this photo...

quote of the week

About two months ago, when Mark was cleaning out our unfinished basement, he brought up a present for the boys....

a 4 foot long snake skin.

The boys, of course, thought this was pretty cool.

I, however, did not.

I decided that a 4 foot snake skin was reason enough to avoid the basement altogether. That meant sending Mark down to bring up decorations and sending Evan and/or Ryan down to get things out of the freezer. I know, I'm a great mom, aren't I?

Don't get bitten by any snakes while you're getting the frozen peas out for dinner, okay?

Fast forward to tonight. We decided to make s'mores by roasting marshmallows by the woodstove as an after dinner treat. I figured it's been a while since Mark discovered our snake skin and we haven't seen any more evidence that he's living in our basement, so I joined the boys and had some yummy s'mores. Who could turn down s'mores made with Carmello bars?

While we were down there, Mark turned off the lights to better set the mood and Ryan begged him to turn them back on.

R: Dad, I do NOT want to get bitten by that snake! He's going to get me!

Nathan turns to him with an 'are-you-kidding-me-look' and says:

Ryan, snakes can't open doors!

DUH!

I think my fears are subsiding, but I'm still going to be on high alert for any signs of snakes in the basement :)

wordless wednesday