For Today… November 30,2009

Outside my window… cold…COLD… COLD.

I am thinking… it’s funny how Chrismtas decor makes the winter weather seem cozy instead of dreary.

From the learning rooms…   getting back on track after a week off for Thanksgiving.  Making letter writing a part of our regular routine. Gotta keep the dying arts alive!

I’m thankful for… my cup runneth over.  I’m overwhelmed by all the gifts in my life.

From the kitchen… simple things.  Making a big effort to include three little girls in all of the happenigns of the kitchen. I have a tendency to want to do it all myself … Miss A made her first batch of biscuits solo tonight! (well, with a little input here and there) 

I am wearing… nothing exciting. As usual.

I am reading…  this and that.  I’m in one of those phases where I don’t feel like mentally comitting to a whole book.

 I am creating…  well, the adorable ornaments are finished…now onto the rest of the Christmas projects.  I’m getting a little nervous that it won’t all be done in time; but I refuse to think about that. 

I am hearing… hombre’s channel surfing.  His A.D.D. is definitely most evident when he has the remote in hand.

 Around the house… I’m feeling a ridculous obsession with keeping the house spotless at all times so I can really enjoy the Christmasy feel.  It’s definitely an unrealistic fantasy.  To keep the craziness under control I’ve decided to move my efforts outside to the backyard.  In my opinion, a neglected yard makes the winter days feel even more gloomy.

A few plans for the rest of the week… friends coming over tomorrow (yay!)… a sweet couple invited our whole family over for dinner on Thursday (what a treat!), our ladies Christmas dinner at church Friday night … if Hombre’s feeling indulgent this weekend maybe we’ll go downtown for some more Christmas festivities!  

Here’s a picture thought I’m sharing with you…

Writing our first letters to our art pen pals.

For more daybooks, or if you’d like to participate, click here.

Or leave me a note in the comments… I’d love to hear about your day

Just one tonight…

Better is One Day in Your Courts

Hope you all had a great holiday.  I’m still recovering from a sugar overdose combined with the after effects of observing Black Friday.

Anyway, I have to share with you my most frugal find of the fall season.  Since you’ve all ridiculously stuffed yourselves with food for the last twenty-four hours I know you’ll be thrilled with my topic…

Pumpkins!

I’m sure this will not be news to some of you, but this was a first for me, so I’m talking about it.

Around the middle of October we bought three pie pumpkins for about six dollars to use as decor around the house.  My girls aren’t interested in carving pumpkins, they just like to set them out and have them look pretty.  So they decorated our tables and shelves for a few weeks.

Then, seeing as how the Christmas decorations would soon be coming out, we decided to cook the pumpkins.

Cleaning them out was a bit messy, but cooking them and turning them into pumpkin puree was super easy.

The cooked pumpkin was so much prettier than the canned stuff (not that  it really matters when you’re eating it, but still…).

I decided to be really cool and roast the seeds as well.

After that we moved on to the fun stuff…

Our favorite Pumpkin Chocolate-Chip Cookies,

yummy pumpkin bread and muffins,

and the object of everyone’s desire…the pumpkin roll.

So, my point in sharing all of this is, for six dollars I got:

• a month of beautiful decor
• a large jar of pumpkin seeds to snack on
• and enough pumpkin puree for : five dozen cookies, six loaves of bread, and the glorious pumpkin roll.

I’d say that was definitely a good use of my money!

You can go look here if you’re in the mood to reminisce.  Enjoy your holiday!