PINS OF THE WEEK

A new weekly column of pins I like on Pinterest. Enjoy!

 

 

Food:

 

Eggs Baked in Turkey.

The recipe calls for ham, but I've been using turkey. We eat this for breakfast a couple times a week. So simple and easy.

 

 

Martha Stewart's Chicken and Dumplings.

So so so good. I make this a few times a month. The recipe calls for chicken thighs, but I usually just use any leftover chicken I have. I just made it with leftover turkey and it was delicious.

 

 

Crafts:

 

Chalk Board Hand Lettering How-To

 

This was an awesome tutorial. I made a Christmas chalkboard with it this week and it turned out great. So easy!

 

 

Kids:

 

 

Chore Charts

 

I love this chore chart. You can personalize it with your child's name and their chores. And it's a fun, cute design. Plus, I like that it says "this is how I contribute to my family."

 

 

 

Happy Pining and Happy Weekend!











A MESS

A year ago, we moved into a new home. We have lived many places, but this was the first place that was truly ours. That came with keys that had never been anyone else's, that we had picked the cabinets and the carpet, and came with a 30 year commitment. And I love this house. I love walking through the front door and seeing it. It's home in a way other houses and apartments and even the house I grew up in have not been.

Here's the truth: I love this house and I hate "the office" with a passion like no other.

There is nothing wrong with the actual room it's self, I suppose. I know we're lucky to have that extra bedroom; truly, I do. But it's become a catchall. Old year books shoved in the office closet. Wrapping paper and ribbons and tissue paper. Art supplies, art supplies everywhere. All my fabric and supplies for June November, my sewing machine, two computers and a printer and a shredded. A giant desk that we bought at a yard sale and a folding table, but only one chair, which is ridiculous come bill paying time. Kids toys make it in here. A giant shark balloon.



Oh, you thought I made that last one up? I did not.



Nothing is organized. It's at a point where I don't even know where to start. I just stand there, dumbfounded by the complete unorganization of it all.  I use the room daily and it is driving me bonkers.

I need a plan. My goal is a functioning office/play area/occasional guest room. I want this:
http://www.bhg.com/decorating/storage/organization-basics/space-saving-home-storage-ideas/

Stressed just thinking about it.

One last thing. This is the dry erase calendar in here:

This picture was taken today, two days away from DECEMBER.

 Help. Me.

SCENES FROM A THANKSGIVING

 

MENU

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love it. And I am a purist. Thanksgiving is not the time to try new side dishes, to make fancy tarts, or to, God forbid, try to be creative and new and do something horrible like not serve turkey. Thanksgiving is tradition, people. Save your fancy new ideas for New Years.

I have been making Thanksgiving dinner every year since I was married, and after trying different versions of each recipe, this menu is the one that has won out and if I leave anything out or suggest something else I get sad faces from the husband. I do sometimes, even now, make slight changes, such as some years I make homemade rolls, and some years I buy them.
Here's my menu:

Turkey with garlic and herb butter. I received a Martha Stewart cookbook when we got married and have used this turkey recipe every year. The only thing I change is the herbs, it depends what I have on hand, but rosemary is mandatory.

Mashed potatoes. I make mine with heavy cream and sour cream and a ton of butter. Decadent, delicious. The key to perfect mashed potatoes is after draining them, return them to the pot over medium high heat, and dry them in the pan until a film builds up on the sides of the pan. Remove them from the heat and mash.

And Gravy. It took me years to perfect homemade gravy. Then I found this Jamie Oliver recipe and gravy success was mine.

Green Bean Casserole. I make it according to the recipe on the French's Fried Onion box. Don't judge. TRADITION.

Maple Glazed Carrots. From a Real Simple recipe.

Cranberry Sauce. This year I'm making homemade, which is a first. We'll see how it goes.

Rolls. I normally buy pre-made  rolls, but this year I'm attempting Parker House Rolls, using a Joy the Baker recipe.

Stuffing. This is the one recipe I change up from year to year, but nothing drastic. I start with a bag of premade, usually Pepperidge Farm, this year it's whatever was at Costco because we have a big crowd coming. And then I add things in. One year I put in shrimp (that was a hit). This year I plan on using mushrooms, carmalized onions, and maybe some sausage.

And now...pie. I always make pumpkin and apple pie. But my husband hates pie because he is crazy. So I will concede to this and also make a chocolate pie this year, which is just chocolate cream in a pie shell. I make a Bourbon pumpkin pie which is a few recipes I have used mixed together along with my own touch (recipe to come, someday), a family apple pie recipe that I make in a crust instead of crumble, and another Real Simple recipe for the chocolate cream pie ( I love Real Simple). All topped with homemade whipped cream.

There you have it! Yeah Thanksgiving! Happy eating, y'all.

FOR THE LOVE OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE

"I've never quite figured out what I get from children's literature that I don't get from adult literature, but there's something." -Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project

 

 

I love books. Everything about them. I will read anything. If I get caught somewhere, say at the doctor's office, with no book or magazine in my bag, I will read pamphlets about heart disease or old issues of Highlights magazine. It might be a bit obsessive. But there are worse habits.

 

And while I love books written for adults, I have a great love of reading children's and young adult literature. There is something there that is lacking in many adult books. Perhaps it's the fact that many children's books have the theme of good vs. evil, and the good will prevail, even in the darkest of stories. So many adult books seem to be focused on the flaws of the characters, showing us how evil does win and doesn't change and there is no hope, ever.  Children's literature shows the characters' flaws, but shows us how they come to terms with those flaws and what they must do to prevail despite of them.

 

I mean, is there a better character then Anne Shirley Blythe from the Anne of Green Gables series? (The answer is no.) This is a girl who inspires those around her to be better, who makes mistakes but readily admits to them and tries to fix them, who loves gossip but never speaks ill of anyone, who does her best to lead a good life and raises children willing to go out and try to make the world better. Can you think of any character in an adult book that that can be said about?

 

The Hunger Games trilogy might be the best thing out there written about PTSD and the effects of war. The heroine, Katniss, is flawed, and the books are insanely violent, but in the end, good prevails. It has similar themes to The Giver, another children's book that simply tells a story of what trying to achieve a "perfect" society can do to the real people living in it. The Harry Potter books also showcase a war against evil, and taking a stand for your beliefs. The characters are complex; those that seem completely perfect have faults, and those that seem to be horrible bad have some good in them. Even the most evil of them is given a human side in his background story. And Number the Stars (written by the same author as The Giver), is a fictional account of a true good vs evil story, where a young Danish girl and her family risk their lives to help their Jewish neighbors escape the Nazi round up of Copenhagen.

 

The Little House books are true American stories. Not just the stories of pioneers, but the simple life lessons in them: honesty, hard work, listening to your parents, not complaining or giving up when things go wrong. Farmer Boy especially provides such a good male role model, which many children's books seem to be lacking.

 

"Where is Papa going with that ax?" might hands down be the best opening line of a book, ever. And the story of Charlotte's Web is such a beautiful portrait of friendship, it is near perfection.

 

And yes, even the Twilight books. Which, I know. They are not the most profound books out there. But it's such fun. This was a series I got caught up in, and couldn't wait to see how it all ended. People complain about how ridiculous they are how, how backwards for woman. But a girl choosing what she wants, at any age, and knowing that it's what's right for her? Well, there's nothing backwards about that, no matter what those choices are. And that's what the character Bella does. She knows what she wants and goes after it in every one of the books.

 

There are so many more, with such wonderful stories. So read adult books, of course. But remember the children's books. They have so much to offer.



VOTE

It's election day. I went to vote this morning and I took the children with me. Neither of them had ever seen the actual voting process; we've always voted absentee because we have lived out of state for previous elections. I had my oldest watch some of the debates and explained to him who each of the candidates were and how they both wanted to be president because they had different ideas of how best to run the country. He nodded his 5 year old head solemnly, watching the screen.

This morning he told me who he would vote for.
"Why him?" I asked.
"I liked his tie when we watched them talking on tv." he replied.
"Most Americans try to think of other things then just his tie when they chose to vote for someone." I said.
"Well, I liked his hair better too." he said, thoughtfully.
"Most people try to think of things other then ties or hair before they vote for someone. They like to think about what they said and what they think..." I tried to explain.
"I don't really understand what they said. It sounded like a lot of words to me."

Sage, this one.

The debates might just be a lot of words; there's little denying that. But the vote matters. We are very lucky to live in a country where we can not only vote for whatever candidate, proposition, or measure as we see fit, but that we can do it safely. My husband is in the military. He has assisted in elections in a country where it can be dangerous to go to a polling place. Where making your voice heard and trying to better your country is very hard. We are so very blessed to live here, in a country where the vote is the thing that made us who we are. We are a country built on the idea of voting freely.

So go out and vote today. Or don't. Because that is also your right. No one here will force you to vote for a certain person, idea, or at all. But it is your right to have a voice. Using it and teaching your children that is a gift that we are so lucky to have.

SCENES FROM A HALLOWEEN