Friday, November 28, 2008

Christmas Baking


I just love to bake for the holidays and have often started on the first of December and baked every day until Christmas eve. Mostly due to sneaky people who get into everything in the freezer....o.k. I admit it I am one of the sneaky people!

I like to bring a plate of cookies to the office at my son's school, the dentists office and the doctor's office along with a card. This year I will be adding one of the moose I made to the top of each plate. I am excited to see how it will look.

The rest of the treats get gobbled up by family and friends during the holidays. I always make sure though to have enough left for New Years.

Here is the list of what I will be making this year. (So far) *wink*

Molasses Crinkles
Peanut Butter Cookies
Macaroons
Hello Dollies
Cherry Cookies
Thumbprints
Nonpareils
Fiddle Faddle
Peanut Butter Cookies
Russian Tea Cakes
Stained Glass Candy
Snowballs
Iced Spice Cookies - Commonly called "Weezer cookies" around here because when my son was in grades 7&8 he really liked the band Weezer and I often made cookies shaped like the Weezer W for him and his friends as well as for the school bake sale. When a band he had played their first show I made them with the band's name on them. Now though I just make round ones and ice them in red and green for Christmas. I recently saw in a Woman's Day magazine cookies iced like ornaments so I may try icing these like that - they were very pretty!

Well, I guess that is the list - at least for now! ~smile~

Blessings,
Liisa

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

The View From Here

I thought that while the monkeys and I were out for our walk today I would take some pictures around town so that I could share a bit of what our town is like.

Here we are ready to go. Just four little ones today.

This is our house.


One of the 10 churches in our little town. This was the first one built here.

Town Hall

Our Library

The view down my street heading for home.


Quite a bit of our snow melted last night - we had alot more that this.

I hope you enjoyed the view from here! ~smile~

Blessings,
Liisa

Monday, November 24, 2008

Snowy Afternoon

This is the best way to spend a snowy afternoon.....



Blessings,
Liisa

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Fiddle Faddle

Yesterday afternoon I made some homemade fiddle faddle. It was so easy and so good so I thought I would share the recipe with you here. My hubby and son loved it and my hubby usually dislikes anything like this so I was quite pleased.


I don't remember where I found this recipe so if it is yours please let me know and I will give you credit for it.

Fiddle Faddle

6 quarts popped corn, unsalted
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup of butter
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
pinch soda
pinch salt

Cook sugar and margarine for 5 minutes over high heat.
Add remaining ingredients.
Pour over popcorn in a very large container (I split the popcorn into two very large bowls)
Mix well until popcorn is evenly coated with liquid.
Place on 2 cookie sheets and place in the oven for 1 hour at 200 degrees.

Enjoy!

I had hoped to post a picture of it but this is all that was left this morning!




Everyone really did love it! ~smile~

Blessings,
Liisa

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Some Crafting for Christmas


This is what I have been up to this week. I found this pattern for "Kris Moose" in a Country Woman magazine (Nov./Dec. 2006) and I though the was really cute. I made 8 of them and plan to use them to top gifts and the cookie plates that I take to the dentist and doctor's office.

Here is the whole herd....


I love all things moose related and these were easy to make. I have all my books out and will spend some time during the littles nap planning the things I would like to make, bake and do for the holidays.

Has anyone else started crafting for Christmas? I would love to see what you've been up to!

Happy Wednesday!

Blessings,
Liisa

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Snow!


I don't think there is anything much more beautiful than a cool winter morning when everything is peaceful and quiet. When the trees are covered in snow and everything is fresh and white. I love to go out and shovel the walkway early in the morning. I am usually out before anyone else is around and it is just so still, so beautiful with the sun coming up and everything has a kind of blue glow. It is hard to describe but it really started my day off on a perfect note this morning.

Today I am going to put away all of our fall decorations and set out all of my snowmen!

I am sure this snow will go away again before winter arrives for good but for today it is very pretty.

Happy Tuesday!

Blessings,
Liisa

The pisture above is from www.allposters.com

Monday, November 17, 2008

Three Things About Me


My sister emailed me this but I thought I would share it here and see if anyone else would like to tell us 3 Things About Them.




3 THINGS ABOUT ME.....

THREE JOBS I HAVE HAD:


1. Filler Operator at a salad dressing factory - YUCK

2. Spa Manager

3. Childcare Provider



3 PLACES I HAVE LIVED:


1. Hornepayne Ontario

2. Montreal Quebec

3. The Pas Manitoba


3 SHOWS THAT I WATCH:


1. 17 Kids and Counting

2. Wife Swap

3. Trading Spouses




3 PLACES THAT I HAVE BEEN:


1. England

2. Bolivia

3. Argentina


3 PLACES I HAVE BEEN THIS WEEK:


1. Church

2. Walmart

3. Dollar Store

3 PEOPLE WHO E-MAIL ME REGULARLY:


1. My sister

2. My hubby

3. My Mum


3 OF MY FAVORITE FOODS:


1. Lasagna

2. Chicken Fingers

3. Anything Mexican


3 PLACES I WOULD RATHER BE RIGHT NOW:


1. There is no place like home

2. Up North

3. Scotland

3 THINGS I WOULD RATHER BE DOING:


1. Snuggling with my hubby

2. Sewing

3. Living up north.



THINGS I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS YEAR:


1. Growing in my faith

2. Reaching out to others

3. Holidays



Who wants to play..........

Happy Monday!

Blessings,
Liisa

Picture from www.allposters.com

Saturday, November 15, 2008

On Tonight's Menu


Shepherds pie made with ground moose rather than ground beef.

We have been blessed by my hubby knowing many hunters who like to share their bounty with us. We have been given ground moose, stewing moose, and moose roasts as well as deer steaks and just last night my hubby was given a large deer roast.

My hubby and son are planning to hunt for themselves next season. Mark (hubby) used to hunt alot when he was younger and now Andy(son) is looking forward to going. He never had an interest when he was younger and we did not force him as he was quite upset about the whole idea but now as he is rapidly approaching manhood he is anxious to take the hunting course and get out with his Dad. We have hoped that he would come around as we believe that learning to hunt and fish are valuable skills for a man that may help him later on to feed his family.

Not so many years ago all boys learned to hunt and fish from an early age and it was just part of life. I think that we have lost too many of the old skills. I have purchased many books on old time skills and hope to learn all I can. I think we lost something special and important when we became so completely reliant on modern conveniences and grocery stores.

Blessings,
Liisa

Ladies Night


Last night I was blessed by opportunity for fellowship with some wonderful ladies. Normally this weekend we would all be at the First Love Ladies Conference in Niagara Falls but for various reasons none of us were able to go. My friend Eunice came up with the idea that we should invite all the ladies who have been to the conference with us in the last few years to a get together. So we had a wonderful evening. We had dinner together, I provided a lasagna, Eunice made a salad, heated up some wonderful red pepper and scallion bread and she made a beautiful peach cheesecake. How can you go wrong with any event that features cheesecake! ~smile~ Eunice shared that she made her own topping with fresh peaches, sugar and an "eyeballed" amount of cornstarch. I make my own cooked blueberry pie filling but it never occurred to me to use that or make own topping for cheesecakes. It was an ah ha moment for me! Eunice also made a delicious salad dressing. Oh it was so good I had to have seconds on salad! I have asked for the recipe and when I get it I'll share it with you...it's too good to keep to myself!

After dinner we watched the Embrace Grace DVD that I purchased after the conference last year. Liz Curtis Higgs was the keynote speaker at last year's conference so it was nice to revisit her this year! When we were done with that some of the ladies had to leave but the rest of us carried on for two more hours chatting, visiting and discussing ways that we can reach out to others with the gospel.

All in all a wonderful evening!

Blessings,
Liisa

Picture above from www.allposters.com

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Trains


Today is kind of a chilly rainy day here so we spent a bit of time this morning watching the I Love Toy Trains videos. My son (who is now 17) loved these movies when he was small. I mean LOVED them - he just couldn't get enough! The little monkeys loved them just as much this morning. They are such simple movies but really hold a child's interest.

Afterward we made some trains on tracks for our craft time. We glued Popsicle sticks into tracks and I drew and cut out some trains for them to color. Here is a picture of the trains all finished.




They really enjoyed this one. I like to tie a craft project into a story, video (like this morning) or something we are learning about. For example the other day we were talking about hamsters, learning what they eat, where they live, looking at pictures of hamsters online then we watched the hamster dance video online and colored hamster pictures. They seem to really enjoy how things all tie together into a sort of theme day. ~smile~

Blessings,
Liisa

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Works For Me Wednesday- Saving Money on Lunches


It has been quite awhile since I participated in Works for me Wednesday at Rocks in my Dryer but I just have to share this!

When I was reading through the fliers a couple of weeks ago I noticed how much cheaper per pound whole hams were than deli sliced ham, the same is true for chickens, turkey, roast beef etc. It is certainly alot cheaper for us since we buy our meat directly from the farm. So it occurred to me to cook our own meats, slice them up and use them for lunch meat. It is much healthier, less expensive and easy. I just cook it, slice it, leave out enough for a few days and freeze the rest in small freezer bags (portioned for enough for a few days) then I can just pull out packages as we need them.

It works for me! For more ideas please visit Rocks in my Dryer.

Blessings,
Liisa

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Lessons Learned


Today I learned two valuable lessons. I decided that I would vacuum out all the vents which I meant to do before we had to turn the furnace on. Lesson one don't procrastinate, lesson two watch littles like a hawk when they have crayons.

When I got to the living room vent I found a lovely and very colorful clump of melted crayons in the pipe artistically sprinkled with cheerios.

I spent several minutes chiseling it out of there and scraping wax off the pipe and vent cover thinking how glad I am that I did not put it off any longer!

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly little monkeys can cause mischief even when you are in the same room with them! ~smile~

I hope you are enjoying your day!

Happy Tuesday!
Blessings,
Liisa

Rememberance Day


Lest we forget.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Preparing Ahead


As much as possible I like to prepare ahead for the things. This really helps me with my house full of little ones. One little thing I do that helps is every morning I set up the playpen that gets taken down each day so that it is ready for nap time and I don't have to wrestle with it when I have a tired little one waiting to get into it.

I also make their lunches in the morning so that all I have to do is warm it up and set it out. Hungry little monkeys are seldom patient!

This goes for the start of the week as well. I like to have the beds changed, the house all clean, baking done and laundry finished on the weekend so that I can start the week with everything fresh and clean and done. I used to have Mondays as my day to change the beds and do laundry but I found that on Mondays the monkeys are a little too wild for me to get much else done which caused me to push those chores back a day, sometimes even two which threw off the rest of the week. Preparing ahead and having all those things looked after makes for a much smoother start to the week and much less stress.

I also like to make my to do list for the next day the night before. This helps me get to sleep because if I don't do this I lie in bed thinking about what I have to get done the next day.

I would love to menu plan but my hubby likes to choose what we will have for dinner the night before. However I can still prepare ahead by making sure that our cupboards are stocked and I have most things on hand that I will need to make dinners. I love to stock up when there is a good sale and we have a pantry cupboard downstairs as well as shelving where we store canned and dry goods. We also have a stand up freezer downstairs which has a quarter beef and half a pig in it as well as several free range chickens. We also have fish frozen that my hubby catches for us. So we are prepared ahead with lots to eat. This may not be possible for everyone but I would encourage you if you are able to purchase your meat in bulk from a butcher shop or right from the farm. Going in with others is a great idea too. You will save so much money though it requires spending quite a bit all at once. I also like to start dinner preparations in the morning - anything I can do ahead so that dinner preparation is easier and less rushed as that is about the time I have little ones getting picked up.

There are so many ways to plan ahead. Shopping sales and second hand store bag sales at the end of the season for clothes and items for next year is another way. When my son was little I was always able to get his snowsuits for the next year at a bag sale at the end of the season or during the winter on sale for the next year. This saved so much money. I also like to pick things up when I see something I know someone will like for their birthday or for Christmas and store it away. You can save alot of money by doing this and spread your shopping out throughout the year thus avoiding big spending in December and possible debt.

I keep a little notebook in my purse with the measurements of my windows, doors etc. so that I am prepared should I find curtains, even a screen door etc. then I will know if I should purchase the item or not - I also carry a small measuring tape. You could also put a dab of the paint in each of your rooms or a paint chip or wallpaper snippet so you will know if an item will match your color scheme.


I like to think about what I can do early in the day to free up more time later on. I am a morning person through and through so that is when I have the most energy and ambition so I try to do everything I can early. ~smile~

Life is so much easier when you prepare ahead. What are some ways you do this?



Happy Monday!
Blessings,
Liisa

Picture above from www.allposters.com

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Baby Gift


Here is a picture of what I have been working on lately. A lady in our church is expecting so I wanted to make something for the wee one. I made a baby blanket with a small ruffle around the edges and a hat with booties to match. I really like the yarn it is a natural color cotton with flecks of other colors in it. I didn't have a pattern so they are pretty basic but I hope they like them. ~smile~

Blessings,
Liisa

Monday, November 3, 2008

Quick Project

In my entryway there is a cold air vent in the floor. It had gotten quite neglected and became dusty and rusty. I am quite embarrassed about this since it is right in my entryway and everyone sees it when they come in.

This morning I picked up a little can of gloss black paint at the dollar store and spent a bit of nap time getting that vent fixed up. I can't tell you how much better it looks and what a difference just that small project has made to the overall look of the entryway.

So for one dollar and a bit of time the project is done!

Here are some pictures of the work in progress and finished. Yikes! It was awful wasn't it! So much better now!





Blessings,
Liisa

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Being Good Stewards



In this day and age where we are constantly fed images of "perfect" homes and "perfect" lives through the media it is very hard to resist the urge to spend far more than we really need to on things that don't really matter and in reality don't bring us much closer to attaining that "perfect" life. There will always be one more thing, one more must have item.

I am prone to pouring over these pictures of beautiful homes and trying to see what would work in ours. If I am not careful this can lead to a feeling of discontent and longing for more money and more things. That is when I need to step back and be grateful for what I do have. However by reading these magazines and studying ads I know what to be on the look out for in the second hand stores. I have been able to find almost everything I have wanted for our home by being patient and waiting to find a really good sale like our living room rugs that were marked down and then on an unadvertised sale for 75% off the already reduced price or finding it at the second hand store.

Recently I was on the look out for a full length mirror and I found one tucked behind some tables in the second hand store an paid only a fraction of what one would cost new. Now on my list is a swag for over the mirror in my freshly painted entryway.

Another area besides the media that we can get pulled into spending more than we need to is through our friends. Thursday morning my friend told me she was making some cute new winter curtains for her kitchen. This got me to thinking about my valances in my living and dining room. Some of you may remember my post about them. I love them. I was so excited to get them and they are lovely. But when I was talking to my friend and hearing about her new winter curtains I was suddenly not so thrilled with my floral valances with winter coming and I was thinking about how much nicer it would be to have a more wintry pattern that flowers for the coming season. I was still thinking about this when I went out later that day. I found some lovely fabric at the second hand store that would do very nicely and it was only $6 for several metres and was a very good quality fabric with a beautiful pattern. Oh I was tempted but you know even though it fit my criteria of being a really good deal I did not need it. I love my curtains, I was very blessed to get them and they are just fine for year round use. Winter curtains never even occurred to me until I was talking to my friend. I am grateful for what I have and the money I would have spent on new fabric is better spent on things we do need.

I am not saying that we shouldn't talk to our friends about things they are doing to make their homes nicer for their families on the contrary I have been so inspired and encouraged by this and by reading others blogs. I just need to be careful to evaluate the things I do or buy and make sure they are right for us. It is easy to get swept up in the idea that I NEED that or I MUST do that so it is important to step back and evaluate whether it will really benefit my home and my family or whether it is wasting money or time that could be better spent elsewhere.

Blessings,
Liisa

Artwork from www.allposters.com