I can’t believe it’s finally time to get ready to go North!

We’re busy this afternoon packing the car. We’ll leave directly from church tomorrow afternoon.

There’s a storm that’s supposed to come through – we’re hoping that things will be timed just right and we’ll drive through after it. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit nervous, but God will take care of us. Neither of us is new to driving on snow, so that helps a lot.

It should be an interesting trip. We’re driving over night with two kids, one of whom has never been on a long car trip before. We’re thinking the trip will take us about 16 hours, unless the roads are really bad. My favorite part though – the car laptop adapter that we were just given. Now whichever one of us isn’t driving can watch dvd’s. How fun is that?

We’re not planning on stopping somewhere overnight, but we’re prepared in case we have to. It’d be nice to just get there – but safety is more important.

Hopefully the next time I post, it will be from my mom and dad’s house.

Have a Merry Christmas everyone!

The other day Stephen made some biscuits. He was trying to conserve the wheat flour that we had in the house, so he used all white flour.

The biscuits didn’t taste good. Sure, they were soft, moist, and flaky – everything a good biscuit should be – but we didn’t like them.

He’s been making them with wheat flour for so long (he uses half wheat and half white, if I remember correctly) that we now like those better than the all white flour ones.

He was going to make some for breakfast this morning, until we remembered that we need to get milk. Oops.

Funny how tastes change. I never thought we’d prefer wheat baked goods over white, but we do.

Wow – making gifts is keeping me busy!

I worked on jewelry off and on all day yesterday. There were some orders that needed finishing up, and I had a few gifts that I was making for family members too.

I’ve been making a lot of these pendants lately.

The one in the picture is mine, but I’ve really enjoyed seeing the different birthstone combinations in everyone else’s. I hope that my family members that receive them will like theirs!

After the boys go to bed, I’ve also been working on their John Deere pajamas. I’m trying to figure out how to post a picture without Samuel seeing it – he’s usually nearby when I’m on the computer. They turned out SO cute! Samuel’s are almost completely done – I just need to sew on some buttons. Caleb’s are cut out, but that’s it. Then I have two pairs of flannel camouflage pants to sew for our nephews, and John Deere pajama pants for Stephen. As long as I can get the kids’ pants done, that will be good. Oh, and a necklace for our 4-year-old neice.

Now that all my music events are pretty much done, I’ve actually had the time to work on finishing up making gifts. It’s been another busy week, but at least it’s a staying-home-and-keeping-busy kind of week instead of having to run a million and a half places.

Then, this weekend, we leave. I’m getting SO excited! I really will be home for Christmas this year.

Well, tonight’s events pretty much guaranteed we won’t have a family Christmas picture taken, at least until next week. Or later.

Samuel was playing on the floor and grabbed a chair. He tipped it over, and it came crashing down onto his forehead.

Poor boy. He has a massive goose egg on his forehead. He’s never gotten one quite this large before. It shouldn’t be so swollen in the morning, but it will definitely be bruised. It was a nice shade of purplish blue when he went to bed.

Not to be outdone, Caleb fell and bonked his head when I was holding Samuel trying to calm him down. His is just a little mark, but his bump is in the exact same place on his forehead as Samuel’s is.

What fun. I have two boo-boo boys. :O) I know that’s life, but it’s got to hurt.

Well, this is it. Tonight is my piano studio’s Christmas recital. I am so excited. The kids work so hard – and now they get to show off a bit. I’m hoping to get some recorded, and maybe put one of my arrangements here on my blog. We’ll see about that though!

Well, I’d better get off here! I need to go get ready. There’s still a good bit of stuff to do.

Starting with brewing a pot of coffee. Yeah, that sounds good. :O)

Today there was the neatest surprise in my mailbox.

There was a letter with no return address. Actually, it was a Christmas card.

Before I could open it, something fell out. It was a $100 Shell gas card. I just stood there in shock with my mouth hanging open.

The card wasn’t signed. There was no writing in the card at all.

The handwriting seems familiar, but I cannot place whose it is. It just looks familiar. But you know what? I don’t really want to know who sent it. It was a great surprise, and it’s more fun not knowing.

We’re driving to Michigan in 10 days to go visit my family for Christmas. This gas card is SUCH a blessing.

I don’t know who God impressed to send it, but it sure was a blessing to me today. I just wish I could tell them thank you!

Isn’t God GOOD???

This week’s menu is not very thrilling, and honestly, not the most healthy week we’ve ever had either. It is, however, an insanely busy week (thanks to my music playing schedule), so easy is the key here. I’m about to pull my hair out learning music and getting to rehearsals, so the less thought given to food, the better.

Sunday – Burger King. We thought going through the drivethrough would be fast. It wasn’t. The food was ok but we’d have been better off just eating at home.
Monday – ham and cheddar stromboli (wheat)
Tuesday – crockpot vegetable soup
Wednesday – beanie weenies
Thursday – chicken parmesan and brown rice
Friday – my studio recital. Unless I make something ahead, we will eat fast food, and then have dessert at the recital
Saturday – hamburgers

You can read more menu plans over at I’m an Organizing Junkie.

Samuel has done a fantastic job learning his letters. There are only a couple more that he hasn’t learned at this point. The other day, we introduced the letter v.

I had just set the letter and picture card on the table when he saw it. Sometimes, instead of saying the letter name, he says the sound instead. That’s what he said this time.

“Capital Vuh, little vuh. Vuh says vuh, vuh, vuh as in GUITAR!”

At that point I realized he had never seen a picture of a violin before. It sure was funny though.

All silliness aside, he is doing very well with phonics. He is even starting to read three letter words. I’m thrilled with his progress. Watching him as he starts to make the connection between seeing letters and actually reading words is priceless.

My piano studio’s Christmas recital is next week. After the recital, we’re having a punch and cookies reception (and hot spiced cranberry cider. YUM.). I asked each of my piano families to bring cookies for the reception, but I started making some today to bring.

Samuel and I made Buttery Spritz Cookies. Here’s a picture of him putting the sprinkles on the Christmas trees.

He had an absolute blast. It was fun to see how creative he got with the different sprinkles and colored sugars. Then as my piano students arrived tonight, he met them at the door and asked almost all of them if they wanted a cookie. :O)

We froze the nicest looking ones, and kept the really creative ones for us to eat. I don’t think they will last that long though. We didn’t keep many out for ourselves, so they’ll probably be eaten by tomorrow.