Ordinary Time

2020, that is. I'm almost afraid to wake up tomorrow to see what happens on the very last day, because certainly, dealing with a child who knocked out their front tooth was not on my 2020 bingo card. Before we get to the tooth, I have to set the stage and begin with last night. Bear with me, we'll get to the tooth, I promise. The only thing TM really wanted for Christmas was a winter camping trip with J. J. likes camping and doesn't mind winter camping, so the two of them planned for an overnight trip last night. This would be before the weather forecast came out. It turns out that yesterday late afternoon brought our first real winter storm and the accompanying storm. If you enjoy winter camping, then snow just makes it better, so they loaded up and headed out. At least it wasn't horribly cold. By all accounts the trip was a success and was enjoyed by both parties. Setting up camp at dusk in the snow TM The morning after I'm told it was a little tricky to get out o...

I skipped posting our menu last week and as a result my children complained that they didn't know what was going to be for dinner.  Tuesday, Dec. 29 Pot pies      These are ready made. I needed something easy tonight and everyone thinks frozen pot pies are a treat. Cost-wise, they certainly are. I can make pot pie from scratch for a fraction of the cost. Canned pears      Home canned Wednesday, Dec. 30 Sausage biscuits and gravy      People have been badgering me to make this for months. With the snow falling outside it finally seems appropriate, rather than in August when the badgering began. Applesauce      Home canned Thursday, Dec. 31 (New Year's Eve) Grilled cheese sandwiches      This is just something light in anticipation of a night filled with eating Tomato soup And then for the party (which is just our family): Bacon-wrapped jalepenos      These are jalepenos we grew in the garden th...

We are in that amorphous time of year between Christmas and New Years when not much happens. I love it. So, I'm going to take advantage of it and do a bullet post since Friday is when Christmas and New Years fall as this year. Hydrants that don't freeze is a wonderful thing. J. put heat tape on the hydrant in the barn a week and half ago and then we had above freezing weather. I held my breath on Christmas Eve to see what would happen with sub-zero temps. When I pulled up on the handle... liquid water! It was beautiful.  The surprise winning gift for R. this year was a game called, Feed the Woozle . R. is tough to buy for. She has a limited amount of things that she actually enjoys playing with; most gifts are either ignored or become an issue when she loves them so much that she cannot stop playing with them. It makes it hard to figure out what to get her. The game was one I found when I was out doing other shopping and decided it looked like a possibility. It is a cut-out of ...

We had a wonderful, though unusual, holiday. Even though we couldn't do the things that we usually do and missed seeing family and friends, we were all together. Every year we can manage that with adult children is not something I take lightly. Plus, it was possibly the first year in possibly forever that there were no tears or seizures during the entire Christmas Eve/Christmas holiday.  We started out with attending our church's Christmas Eve service. I didn't think this would be in the cards for us this year, but they added a 4pm candle lighting service outdoors. I was thrilled that we wouldn't have to miss this even if it was going to be different. It was cold! At one point I think someone's phone said windchill -4 (F). We had all (well, most of us) dressed warmly, so with the big fire pits our church had put out, we weren't too uncomfortable.  We then broke with tradition and had ordered take-out Vietnamese food for dinner, having discovered a somewhat local...

We are nearly ready to celebrate Christmas. The gifts are wrapped, cinnamon rolls made, groceries bought, oxtails simmering for tomorrow's dinner, house is (sort of) cleaned, P. is home and B. is on his way, Jesus' birthday cake is in the oven, Vietnamese food is ordered for dinner, and children are at loose ends. I still have to set the table which means figuring out exactly which tablecloths work on our bizarre square table. I also have to upload photos of the Christmas picture book that L. wrote to accompany the Swooping Eagle. I promised her it would be up before Christmas, and she has been informing me I am cutting it pretty close. I'll be signing off for after Christmas as soon as I do that. If you have finished your own to-do lists and are looking for more Christmas content to read, here is a list where I compiled a lot of past Christmas writings. Christmas posts From our house to yours, have a very merry Christmas!

I bought some crystal goblets today. Yes, I already have quite a few crystal goblets, but these would coordinate nicely with what I already have and were a very good price. As I watch my children grow older, I see a need for more goblets at our fancy formal dinners as they outgrow their little silver mugs.  I have seen so much china and crystal and silverware for sale recently. I understand that times and styles change, that storage abilities differ from situation to situation, that what is important to one person is not necessarily important to another, but I will admit it makes me a little sad. I love all the beautiful things designed for a table. Some of my children might say I have a bit of a problem with it. I do have less than I used to as some of it had to go when we moved because I didn't have storage for all of it. (Yes, that made me sad, too.)  I bought the goblets today from a woman who felt her children were too small to have these things about. I made understandin...

Well, for me and J. that is, and it wasn't even something that was on our list. Welcome to adulting. J. got the new parts on the range installed, but it turns out that it was an electrical component which was sparking at odd random times and generally not working. He thought he got it fixed enough to limp through the holidays, but after a couple of dozen pumpkin muffins went in the oven, it never got hotter than 175 degrees. (Pro tip, even at 175, things will bake if you give them long enough, over an hour for muffins.)  So, having repaired enough appliances over the years, we have learned (sometimes the hard way) that there are certain repairs that are not worth financing. This one seemed to have reached this category. J. went to the store today and brought home this. Gas stove and oven (because it seems that while it would be a very simple thing to make dual fuel ranges, they are considered a high-end feature, you know because the average person can't have nice things... yes,...

We made it!! We are now officially on Christmas break. I'm pretty sure that I need it more than the children. In honor of our last day of school, we had a bigger art project. We haven't had one of these in a while, so I think everyone was happy to have something different. We were making winter landscapes on pizza circles. Well, we used cake circles because that's what I could get. It turns out that pizza circles are flat cardboard while cake circles are glossy cardboard. Watercolors do not adhere to glossy anything so we had to punt a bit. We used Cassie Stevens' video and instructions . (If you are not aware of her, you should scroll through her web page. I have used a lot of her ideas.) Everyone worked hard and turned out some really interesting art. Here's what they made (in age order). TM, who decided to join us H. H. H. (She liked this project) R. (She liked the paint) K. Y. Y. (who definitely took the minimalist approach) L. L. G. I am now about 99.9% done wi...