Getting in the Spirit

I think I am the last person to know about Eddie Ross 's fabulous wreath. I love the simplicity of the wreath and it is very easy to craft (click on his link for the how to). The hardest part for me was positioning of the bow. I am still not satisfied with it, but I love overall how the wreath turned out. My word of warning, it took a lot of ornaments. My ornaments were smallish and it took 72 to make this wreath. I read on someones blog that they went to the dollar store to get their ornaments. Great idea!

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing you all a Blessed and Happy Thanksgiving!

Menu Wednesday #2

The big turkey day is fast approaching. Here is a list of our menus for the week. Hope everyone has a Blessed Thanksgiving Day!

Wednesday: Soup & Sandwiches (keeping it simple)

Thursday: Thanksgiving Dinner
Turkey
Ravioli's (an Italian tradition in our family)
gravy
mashed potatoes
dressing
green beans with bacon and onion (everything tastes better with bacon!)
shrimp salad
homemade rolls
homemade cranberry sauce
homemade pumpkin pie
marionberry pie
tums! (just checking if you are paying attention)

Friday: Leftovers! (probably hot turkey sandwiches)

Saturday: The Great After Thanksgiving Enchiladas
green salad

Sunday: spaghetti with meat marinara
salad
garlic bread

Monday: roasted salmon
rice pilaf
carrots
salad

Tuesday: Grilled teriyaki chicken
rice
grilled vegetables

Keeping Busy

The kiddos have school off all this week. Do you remember as kids, we only got Thursday and Friday off. So, that means I need to find things for the boys to do. I spent this morning finishing up my Thanksgiving day shopping and doing the rest of my planning. I decided to take the boys to Sky High Sports for the afternoon with some of their friends. What fun! The boys were able to jump until they were exhausted. The huge space is filled with trampolines galore. They have one section just filled with a huge trampoline space, another space with trampolines and a foam pit and finally a trampoline dodge ball section. Guess what my boys liked? You betcha, the dodge ball! I remember playing dodge ball as a kid in school. Not always the nicest playground game sometimes. However, this was pretty tame and the boys had a blast. I think Hubby would love to play it as well. Maybe next time.

Menu Wednesday

Recently I have been trying to be more organized with my families meals. I have started writing down a weeks work of menus at a time. My normal way would be to make a haphazard list and menu and then hope for the best. I thought it would be fun to start posting my menus online as a way of keeping track and hearing what you might have to say. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment. I am always looking for new menu ideas. So here is goes:

Wednesday: Chile Chicken with Cashews
Rice

Thursday: Chicken Vesuvio
pasta

Friday: Baked Penne
Salad
Garlic Bread

Saturday: Fried Rice
cucumber salad

Sunday: slow roasted pork
rice
sweet & spicy roasted veggies

Monday: Leftovers

Tuesday: Leftover Soup (turkey noodle & black bean)

Blog Land

I love bloggers! I love being a click away from fantastic ideas and wonderful inspirations. I think that is why I started my own blog. It started with wanting to share ideas and having one place to put all those ideas down. I try to go through some of my favorite blogs a least every other week. I love getting that kernel of an idea and then running with it. I have discovered some new to me blog sites that I wanted to share with you. Happy Inspiration!

Snackpicks mom ran website that is all about snacks for the family

This Week for Dinner great inspiration for new menu ideas

Ravenhill Very cute blog on family and crafts

A Bushel and a Peck A mixed media artist and family life

Betz White felting, family and projects

The Magic Onions adorable felted projects

The Vintage Pearl stunning sterling silver jewelry artist

Lettres from The Blissful life and french decor

Testosterhome I love her blog, it is about raising boys

American Papist catholic blog

I hope you will enjoy these bloggers as much as I have.

Soup Update

Okay, okay, I know the picture is not the best, but don't let that deter you from trying this soup. It is very good. I posted the link in my last post. I came across the recipe in the latest Food Network Magazine. You know I love my slow cooker and when I saw this recipe I had to give it a try. The recipe calls for a smoked turkey drumstick. I don't like eating or feeding my family the whole nitrate/nitrite stuff. I was able to find an organic smoked turkey thigh at Whole Foods from Diestel Farms. My only criticism of the soup was the pickling spice I bought. I really wasn't wild about the flavor of the spices. I would absolutely make this again and I would add my own spice mix and omit the pickling spices.

Fall Colors

We awoke this morning to a beautiful cold clear day here in Northern California. These are the days I hope for all year long. I love how clear and blue the sky is and how crisp and cold the air is. My lantana's are sprouting gorgeous colors right now. I have a beautiful black bean soup in my slow cooker and we are off to a day of soccer games. Just another lovely fall day.

Countdown to Thanksgiving

Oh my goodness were these good. I found the recipe at Little Birdie Secrets. It is a version of the crescent rolls. I made a trial run last night for Thanksgiving dinner with the rolls. They are soooo good. The kiddo's and I couldn't get enough of these yummies. They were easy to make and they made quite a bit of rolls. Just a word of warning. This is a really sticky dough. Don't panic when you see how sticky the dough is. I read the warning at Little Birdie Secrets and I tried not to panic as I made them. They go though two rises and once you turn the dough out onto a board dusted with flour, they roll out just fine. I will definitely be making these on T-Day.

Harvest Festival Fun

Our school puts on a harvest festival each year. Each classroom makes an item to sell at the country store to earn money for that classroom. It is a way for the class to earn extra money and with the state of the economy, it has become essential way for the teachers earn money for their class for just basic items like paper and pencils. For the last four years I have helped organize the country store for our harvest festival. I love seeing all the inventive crafts that the classes come up with. One of the crafts that a class did was from a book I had checked out at the library. It was called EcoCrafts by Susan Wasinger. I loved the coffee bag tote! I was excited to see this craft and loved the environmental aspect of recycling tied into our harvest festival. There was shrinky dink jewelry, cookie mix in jars, lavender mint tinctures, calendars, hot packs and fairy cradles. Very fun and crafty!

Our local Whole Foods saved their coffee bags and donated them to our school.

One of my sons class worked on felted heart pins and fairy cradles.

I loved how the fairy cradles turned out. We had a parent cut walnut shells and then the kids put in the wool roving.

Another parent came up with this cute poem for fairies.

Happy All Saints Day!

Today is the feast day for All Saints. It is also my sweet little boys birthday. He would have been 13 today. You can read about him here. I hope everyone has a blessed day!