A Hectic Month

This has been just an unbelievably hectic month, but a month full of good things like caroling with church family, a beautiful candle light service at church (my favorite part of the year)and baking cookies, cookies and more cookies. My parents just moved into town so that was a busy week preparing for that and then the craziness of moving day ~smile~. I can't forget all the shopping, planning and wrapping that have gone on but I must slow down and take time to refocus and take time to settle down and remember what we are celebrating.

It's about the cross...


Blessings,
Liisa

Cookies Cookies Cookies

Tomorrow evening we are having our annual cookie exchange and this year my neighbours are hosting it. I am really looking forward to it. It is so nice to get together with friends and family. A bonus is that I will bring 6 dozen of the same kind of cookies and bring home 6 dozen different kinds! It really doesn't get easier than that for variety of Christmas baking.

This year I will be making snowballs (recipe here)for it.

This cookie exchange will give me a bit of a head start on my Christmas baking. This year I will be making....

Snowballs
Double Chocolate Mint Cookies
Shortbread
Chocolate Peanut Butter Macaroons
Stained Glass Candy
Molasses Crinkles
Peanut Butter Cookies
Macaroons
Hello Dollies
Cherry Cookies
Thumbprints
Nonpareils
Peanut Butter Cookies
Russian Tea Cakes
Iced Spice Cookies

I like to start baking the beginning of December and make something almost everyday until Christmas but this year I am working outside the home for part of each day so I will have to see how it goes this time. Hopefully enough of each of these will actually make it to Christmas! My men tend to sample and sample and sample some more! Ok.... you got me, I do it too!

I bake alot of each kind of cookie because we deliver cookie plates around town at Christmas to let people know how much we appreciate all they do for us each year. We bring cookies to...
The Post Office
Our local grocery store
The dentist's office
Our doctor's office
The hospital emergency department and the first floor nurses station
Our bank
and
Our pharmacy

This year we will also bring cookies to the seniors home and to each of my housecleaning clients.
This means lots and lots and lots and lots of cookies will be made in my kitchen this year! ~smile~

I guess I better get baking!
Have a happy Monday!
Blessings,
Liisa

Picture from allposters.com

The Best Way to Clean an Oven

My mother in law is a little German lady who worked hard all her life and always had a spotless home. She taught me alot about house cleaning and I thought I would share the way she taught me to clean an oven.

The very first thing is to not let your oven get too dirty in the first place! If you are like me you just put off cleaning it as long as you possibly can, but if you keep after it and clean it often then the chore will be much less messy and will go quicker and easier.

When you do clean your oven be sure to lay out newspapers around the oven on the floor to guard against over spray, also remember to wear gloves. Take out the racks and spray down the oven well the night before with an oven cleaner (remember the door too). Place paper towels at the bottom of the oven door to prevent drips and close it.

In the morning wipe down the oven well using paper towels. Next fill an old container or a margarine tub (one you don't want to use for food or anything) with hot soapy water. Using an old rag wipe down the oven a few times to remove the cleaner residue.

Now spritz some paper towels with vinegar and wipe down the oven one last time to remove every last trace of soap and cleaner and you are done!

This seems like alot of extra steps but it eliminates the terrible smell and white streaks that can appear when you first turn on the oven after cleaning it. Your oven will be clean, fresh smelling and shiny...well worth the effort.

Now all this reminds me that I better get at cleaning my "black hole" of an oven!

Have a happy day!
Blessings,
Liisa

Picture from allposters.com

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Yesterday morning I woke up to the first snowy day of the year. Nothing puts in me in a more "homey" mood than a snowy day!
It was so very lovely, everything all fresh and white...so pretty! That is until I tried to leave my house and realized that I had put off buying winter boots a little too long! In the spring I had thrown out my old beat up ones and meant to buy a new pair this fall but I just kept putting it off. This meant that I had to go walking in a winter wonderland wearing just a little pair of flats, getting them full of the pretty white stuff, and freezing my feet all because I knew winter was coming and yet I was not prepared.

This holds a bigger lesson for me. There is something we all need to prepare for. The end could come at anytime, any day, any moment. It could be today. We are not told when Jesus will come back but even if He doesn't come soon we could meet the end of our earthly lives at any moment as well. Are you prepared? Have you made your travel arrangements before you take your final trip? Do you know without a shadow of a doubt that if you died right now you would go to heaven?

If you don't please look after that right now, be prepared! It is easy, simply pray asking God to come into your life, into your heart, confess your sins and turn from them. God is faithful and just and ready to forgive no matter what you might have done. He loves you and wants you to live with him for ever. So why not make that choice today. If you have done this please seek out a church in your area and let someone know that you have made this decision to be ready should your end come. If you need help with finding a church or would like to discuss this further please leave me a comment and I will be happy to get in contact with you!

I am now off to enjoy the winter weather!

Have a happy day!
Blessings,
Liisa

Picture from allposters.com