First Snow

We had our first snowfall today! 

I bundled up my little guys and we took a walk around our property.

First we walked down to the mailbox. Here's J trying to catch a snowflake on his tongue!

J2 had a hard time walking in his puffy snowsuit. :)

So cute! I have to point out that both boys are in complete outfits with puffy, warm coats, the right sized snowpants and boots and the only thing I bought was the blue coat my younger son is wearing. The rest are hand-me-downs! I love family! Snow gear is so expensive.

I know, poorly focused, but still...

Here's our dog, Jude, and his fort my husband made from hay bales. Jude comes in the house off and on during the day, but spends a lot of time in his shelter when he's outside. 

 Snowflakes! I wish I could just bring these in and use them to decorate the house!

Here's my little snowman! I try to dress my boys much warmer than myself when we go outside in the winter. That way I know that I'll get cold faster than they will and that's when we'll go back inside. I won't take them out if it's windy or more than 10-15 degrees below freezing, and only for about 20-30 minutes. Gotta keep my little guys safe and warm!

J1 loves to eat snow! His Mommy taught him how last year.

Now he's teaching J2! Mmmm!

Jude is ready for the next part of our winter exploration adventure! Come on, guys!

We went out to explore the barn. We passed the strawberries and my husband's bees on the way.

Here's the view from the barn looking east. There's not much snow yet. Most of the winter this view is completely white!

I think the age and sad state of the barn make it look picturesque. Here's the equipment ramp from the inside of the barn door looking out.

Someday this ... whatever it is ... will find its way into my house!

We wandered from the barn to the top of our little hill. This is the view west. Our hybrid willows really shot up this summer! (They're 6-8 feet tall now, I'd guess, and less than 2 years old.) Hopefully they'll help the snow drift farther from the house this winter!

Here's the back of our little country house.

My garden looks pretty sad! Soon it'll be covered by several feet of snow and I won't see it until spring when the snow thaws.

My nose and fingers were getting cold so we headed back to the house by way of the woodpile. My husband has been busy!

The wreath I fixed up yesterday greeted us when we got back to the front door. I love how it looks after its little makeover and can already tell I won't be ready to take it down in January! Maybe I could add some snowflakes and call in my winter wreath rather than a Christmas one. Right?

Hope you enjoyed our walk in the snow today!

Christmas Wreath

This wreath has been part of my Christmas decorations since I was a single girl living on my own. It has decorated the door of my condo in Las Vegas, our first home in Iowa and now this place in the country. 

When I brought it up from the basement this year, I decided it was time for a quick makeover. I removed the (dusty) red bow and the tiny decorations. Those little things are adorable and I'm sad to have lost quite a few in the moves and the windy weather. Oh well!

I wanted to use what I had on hand and wanted to make the wreath look more natural and rustic. Not exactly a new concept in the blogworld, but it's in keeping with our home's style and who can argue with free! I first fluffed up the wire boughs, then wove in some pinecones and balls made out of sticks. I just threaded the wire branches in and through and around the cones and balls until they seemed secure. Next I tied an unbow with burlap. I hung my new wreath on the wall by the door under the porch lamp. I love the new look!

 

Our Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Belated, of course, but I just have to post what we were up to. Then I'll cooperate with the rest of blogworld and and the calendar and post something about Christmas!

My in-laws decided that instead of hosting a regular Thanksgiving dinner for "only" 9-14 people at their home, they'd host a dinner at their church for 150 people who might not otherwise get a Thanksgiving dinner.

This is the main centerpiece on the serving table.

These are the simple centerpieces I did for the rest of the tables.

The goal was to make the fellowship hall look festive and inviting while using things the church or members already owned. 

I think it looks simple and welcoming!

We spent a couple hours on Wednesday setting up, then ran some last-minute errands and went home to cook sweet potatoes from our garden. 

Here she is, The Boss, as we called her on Thanksgiving. :) She planned and organized for weeks ahead of time so Thanksgiving Day ran smoothly.  

There were many volunteers from the church who came to help out instead of staying home with their families!

Here are the centerpieces with the candles lit and ready to go!

The dessert table!

Look at all that food! Church members and local businesses donated everything! A dentist from town even showed up that morning saying he was there to help! He warmly welcomed people in the lobby and disappeared without eating a crumb!

Here is a group from the rehab center enjoying the meal. They clapped for us and told us how nice it was to be treated like humans. I'm not telling you for the accolades, but so we can all realized how much we have to be thankful for!

The people standing in this picture are church members who acted as servers, bringing people hot cider, salad and pies. That really helped those of us serving in the kitchen!

We (and I say that only because I helped; this was all the organizing of my in-laws!) also sent meals to the jail and the police station. As the day wound down, we realized we had a lot of food leftover, so my father-in-law called the jail and asked if they would like seconds for supper! We dished up more and sent it out. Someone told him when he delivered the food, "It's so nice to know there are people out there who care." Doesn't that make it all worthwhile?!

No mommy-blogger could write a holiday post without pictures of her kids! Does he look full or what?!

Clearly this little guy's attention is no longer on the empty plate! My sweet husband spent most of the day at his parent's house with the boys so I could focus on cooking and serving.

I hope you and your family had a nice Thanksgiving. We're definitely planning to do this again! What a blessing we all received by blessing others who are less fortunate.

Framed

Do you ever have procrastination-inspired brainstorms that turn out sooooo much better than you could have imagined? 

Let me show you mine:

Now here's the story: 

I needed a birthday present for a grandparent. It had to be low-budget. As in low. I knew I had taken a couple great pictures of my boys this summer, and what do grandparents love more than pictures of their grandkids? Maybe some artwork by them? 

Enter dollar store frames + paint.

No, my little guy isn't wearing a shirt. 

Oh look, neither is big brother!

Yes, J2 tasted it. No, it wasn't toxic. We used washable tempura in 3 different colors. J2 wasn't telling if the red tasted different than the green!

J1 didn't taste it, but had as much fun painting his hand, the paper plate, the newspaper and an extra paper as he did the picture frame!

Here are the masterpieces laid out to dry on plastic wrap. I did fill in a couple spots so the frame wasn't showing, and I painted the inside and outside edges.

J1's frame has more streaks cuz he actually brushed the paint on.

J2's frame has a sponge effect because he patted the frame with his brush. I added a coat of poly and wrote their names, ages and the date on the back with permanent marker.

Here's the finished product!

Aren't they adorable?! (Yes, I see that I need to center the above picture!)

Here's a cost breakdown:

frames: $1 each

paint: already on hand

poly: previously owned

5X7 pictures: Kodak kiosk at CVS, $2 each (I know, I could have done better for 5X7s, but I love the quality of Kodak pictures and didn't have time to order from their website which is cheaper than the kiosk option.)

subtotal: $3 each

grand total for gift: $6

This will be a project for more family members in the future, you can count on that! I know they will love it. I do! 

Raw Experiment II

75% of what we've eaten the last 10 days has been raw! Can you believe it? It's been so much easier and tastier than we thought it would be. We're going to continue eating about the same way because we feel really good -- more alert and energetic.

So why not 100%? Well, we like the potatoes and squash from our garden, as well as the applesauce and tomatoes that we've canned. We like our grains and legumes cooked as well. We also don't want to raise the bar so high that we set ourselves up for failure! So 75% is what seems will work for our family.

Before we started on this experiment, I thought that a raw diet was a couple pieces of fruit for breakfast, raw carrots for lunch and salad without dressing for supper. Sure, you CAN do it that way, but I don't want to! Yes, our intake of salads has gone up, but we've been inspired by recipes I've read to add different things than we normally would--who knew we'd like fennel?! 

Here are a couple examples of our meals.

Breakfast: Nut granola with blueberries and almond milk, orange slices.

To make the granola, soak 1 cup each of walnuts, almonds and sunflower seeds (all raw, not roasted) in water over night. Rinse and drain, then pulse them in the food processor with 10 whole dates and a teaspoon of cinnamon.

It was so yummy! Our 18-month-old loved it. That recipe is enough for the four of us to eat for two breakfasts! I haven't started making my own almond milk yet, but I will as soon as I can find a place to buy raw almonds at a decent price.

Another breakfast we like is simply to take oatmeal and instead of cooking it, let it soak up the almond milk for a few minutes. Top it with raisins, dates, shredded apple, cinnamon, blueberries, whatever you want. It's delicious!

Via Recipes For Joy Blog

Lunch: Zucchini & carrot pasta with pesto, tomatoes and olives.

My favorite recipe so far is one similar to the above picture--I was so busy enjoying it both times I made it that I forgot to take a picture! The recipe I have (a combination of two, really) calls for zucchini and carrots as the pasta. I used a potato peeler to get large strips, more like a fettucini  noodle. The pesto is made with equal parts walnuts and olive oil with a bunch of basil, a little lemon and salt. I also added kalamata olives, fennel and tomatoes. So amazing!

Supper: Wild rice on spinach with tomatoes & avocado, sushi rolls.

I soaked the wild rice for 3 days, like the directions said, but still found it very crunchy. I think we'll stick to cooking rice, but I liked the avocado and tomato. I found a 'better than tuna' recipe that is basically sunflower seeds and walnuts and whatever veggies you have around all mixed in the food processor. It has a light dressing of lemon and soy sauce and we dipped it in tamari after rolling it in nori (seaweed). It was salty and good!

So there you have it! Now you can say you learned something today!

I'm Thankful For...

Thanksgiving could be my favorite holiday. I think the only reason that it isn't is that it's kind of the kick-off to a very busy, sometimes hectic, over-commercialized Christmas. I LOVE Christmas, don't get me wrong! I love the music, the decorations, the festive spirit everyone has. I love giving and getting and traditions. I can't wait to set up a tree for the first time in 3 years, and I'm looking forward to NOT traveling this Christmas so we can be home to enjoy it. 

But this was about Thanksgiving! Well, I love Thanksgiving because it's pure. You can't do much to take away from the meaning of it, the beautiful, historical significance, the focus on family and abundance instead of commercialized pressure to have more and get more. My one complaint about Thanksgiving is that it's crammed between Halloween and Christmas. You know? Couldn't it be on it's own so it gets some attention?!

So in my universe, we'd skip Halloween altogether (soapbox, so I'm not getting into it unless you ask!) and have Thanksgiving in October before the Christmas rush. Then we'd get to focus on Thankfulness and have plenty of time to get ready for Christmas after that!

Anyway, this year for Thanksgiving we're headed to my in-law's in Missouri. They are hosting Thanksgiving Dinner at their church for families who don't have much to be thankful for. Isn't that beautiful?! Instead of sitting in their comfortable house, eating too much food and probably taking the warm house and delicious, abundant food for granted, we'll be working hard to make sure others have a happy Thanksgiving! I love it! I can say that because it wasn't my idea.

My family is bringing sweet potatoes from our garden. We had a bumper crop this year and they're delicious! I'm also bringing the centerpieces for about 15 tables.

This is it:

Canning jar candle holders!

I selected a random assortment of canning jars, jelly jars and baby food jars, added about an inch of rocks to the bottom, dropped a votive candle on top of the rocks, then added some twine and a dried leaf. 

My inspiration was a Real Simple magazine about 4 years ago. They used sand in their jars, but it was expensive to buy at the store! I looked for decorative rocks and just didn't like the selection, so I went to the pet section and got aquarium rocks!

Since then, I've been known to use dried split peas and other beans. Because I'm doing so many jars for the church's Thanksgiving Dinner, I'll probably use a combination of the rocks and dried beans. You could use rice or whatever (nonflammable) filler you have around.

The centerpieces at the church will be smaller too--I just don't have that many jars and I want to help in more ways than spending an hour lighting the candles!

I'm thankful for being able to GIVE this Thanksgiving!

I'm participating in this party:

Heartbeat! (Week 14)

we got to hear our baby's heartbeat today!

The whole family went out to breakfast then had our first visit with our Midwife. I can't believe that 2 years have passed since we first met Kathy! I like going to her house and not a clinic, and I feel that the care is so personalized. We talked today about the medication I take and ways I can help the baby NOT grow so big! J2 was 9lb 12oz and while I didn't have gestational diabetes or anything, Kathy gave me a list of foods to be careful about--dairy (not a problem since we're vegan!), refined carbs (white flour, white pasta, sugar, etc), and several kids of fruit and veggies. 

After answering some questions and talking about how I felt and the symptoms I've experienced during this pregnancy, Kathy used her handy-dandy chart to see approximately when Baby 3 is due: May 17, 2011. That is 41 weeks because both of my boys were born between 41 and 42 weeks, and that means I'm 14 weeks along right now. So exciting!

whattoexpect.com

Then Kathy whipped out her fetal doppler device and while Daddy listened and big brothers watched with big eyes and big ears, we heard the shoo shoo shoo of the baby's heart! It was at 140 today. I even recorded it on my cell phone to text to my Mom & a couple close friends!

J had lots of questions afterward! He is very curious about 'our brand new baby'. He asked over and over what he looked like, so tonight I showed him images on the computer. J also wanted to feel the baby moving in my tummy, but I told him he'll have to wait awhile before he can feel that. We pulled out J's baby book to look at his ultrasound images and how he looked when he was a newborn. It might help him know what to expect when the new baby is born, but he couldn't quite grasp that that baby in the pictures was him!

I am doing well. My 'morning sickness' which is actually in the afternoon and evening for me, cleared up about a month ago and I have a lot more energy now. I am starting to have to use a rubberband to do up my pants and am wearing some maternity shirts because they are longer. It's getting uncomfortable to sleep on my tummy too. I feel so much less apprehensive about this pregnancy and delivery! It's nice to know what to expect and to be completely happy with our caregiver! Kathy reassured me that 2nd deliveries (remember my 1st baby was a c-section, my 2nd baby was my first natural birth) are usually about half as long and much easier than the first.  Kathy lives an hour away from us, so she urged us to call her as soon as labor starts!

My one small complaint is that our insurance does not cover nurse-midwives, even though she is licensed and legal in our state. We don't mind having to pay out-of-pocket to be able to have the kind of birth experience we want, but we won't be having an ultrasound. I'll miss seeing those black & white images, and baby's gender will be a surprise!