Oh Christmas Tree

We had such a beautiful Thanksgiving with friends and family. The boys enjoyed decorating the tree. It's so pretty.
Luke's smile is priceless. I love my boys.

Stuffing

One of my favorite things about Thanksgiving is cooking with the boys and sharing the day with family. I love stuffing the turkey. It's just a warm filled day and although everyone's been feeling under the weather lately, I can't wait to all be together.

Ingredients

• Recipe courtesy Rachael Ray
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan
• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1 fresh bay leaf, available in produce department
• 4 ribs celery and greens, from the heart, chopped (save time and purchase celery already washed, trimmed and cut into sticks, this makes chopping fast work)
• 1 medium to large yellow skinned onion, chopped
• 3 McIntosh apples, quartered and chopped
• Salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons poultry seasoning
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 8 cups cubed stuffing mix (recommended: Pepperidge Farm)
• 2 to 3 cups chicken stock, available in paper containers on the soup aisle

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Preheat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add extra-virgin olive oil to skillet and 4 tablespoons butter. When butter melts, add bay leaf and add the vegetables as you chop them, celery, onions then apples. Sprinkle the vegetables and apples with salt, pepper and poultry seasoning. Cook 5 to 6 minutes to begin to soften vegetables and apples then add parsley and stuffing cubes to the pan and combine. Moisten the stuffing with chicken broth until all of the bread is soft but not wet.
Butter 12 muffin cups, 2 tins, liberally with remaining butter. Use an ice cream scoop to fill and mound up the stuffing in muffin tins. Remove the bay leaf as you scoop the stuffing when you come upon it. Bake until set and crisp on top, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove stuffin' muffins to a platter and serve hot or room temperature.

Happy Thanksgiving All

Pumpkin Pie

Thanks for all my new followers. I will catch up as soon as everyone feels better. We've been sick with a little bit of everything going on.

This Pie is so Good.

Libby's Famous Pies are grand.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 large eggs
• 1 can (15 oz.) LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
• 1 can (12 fl. oz.) NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk
• 1 unbaked 9-inch (4-cup volume) deep-dish pie shell
• Whipped cream (optional)

Directions

MIX sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk.

POUR into pie shell.

BAKE in preheated 425° F oven for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350° F; bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate. Top with whipped cream before serving.

 

I hope your all doing well and staying healthy. Have a nice weekend.

I haven't had the chance to get on and write in a while! My son had a school field trip and I've been busy trying to get parents to sign up to bring things in for his Halloween party. I'm the "classroom mother" so I get the joys of calling all of the parents to ask for things, yay. I'm really happy that I've found someone to do everything except for a dozen donuts which I'll probably get stuck with doing on top of my 17 goodie bags - but I don't mind.

Anyway, my son had so much fun on his field trip!! He has "two girlfriends that he's going to marry" and he just had a blast with them the entire time! We went on a hayride, learned all about different types of corn, pumpkins, and flowers and even got to take home a pumpkin. It was a lot of fun for everyone.

This is my son with his "girlfriends" on the hay ride. I got a new camera the day before his field trip and I'm so pleased with the pictures I got!


It's not letting me upload anymore pictures for now so I'll have to try to get on later and show you guys some more!

Hope you all had a great week! Let the weekend begin :o)

Since I haven't really had the time to do anything new lately I decided I'd show you guys what I've done in the past. Let me know what you think!

This is a door sign and light switch cover that I made for my niece and her step sister as a Christmas gift. I also made matching outlet covers but never took a picture.

I made this one for my nephew. He adores the movie CARS. Looking at the finished project I definitly would've gone with a differnet color for the writing. You learn a lot your first time around!

These are some other things I've worked on. The top two I made for my newest nephew who was just born in August to match his bedroom theme Jungle Tales.

The garbage can I just thought would be neat to match my newest kitchen style.

And the three outlet covers matches yet another nephews room. I figure the kids in the family are the best to practice making things for because they really don't know any better - they're excited no matter what.

Anyway, these are just some things I've done during my free time! I mostly enjoy sewing but I've done more with painting I suppose. Let me know your thoughts! Please try not to be too cruel, I haven't been painting for years. Thanks guys! :o)

Fall Leaves..

Me and my husband are planning on getting a new camera for Christmas since Anthony broke ours months ago. I'm really hoping to get one a lot sooner than that so I can take some pictures of the beautiful leaves outside to show you guys! I go through my blogs every day (or try to anyway) and see pictures of all of the yummy treats and things you guys do every day and I wonder why it seems like I have no time whatsoever for any of that. I guess I get 2 1/2 hours of free time while Anthony's at school and Lucas is napping to do what I please, but that usually consist of writing on my blog, and posting things on craigslist(which takes forever). I really need more time for things that I enjoy.

I did get time to cut my sons hair this morning before school. He was bumming out because "he likes it long" and I cut it too short. When he got to school his girlfriend wasn't friendly which made it even worse (yes, my almost 4 year old has a "girlfriend"). He holds her hand and introduces her to all of the kids in the class since she's so shy. I think she was acting weird towards him today because they had a 3 day weekend and she was back to her shy self. Hopefully it's not because I cut his hair too short! :-X

Plans for tomorrow must consist of me trying to bake something yummy for the kids, or work on some crafts, or something fun! Hope you guys had a great day!

I had such a busy but great day yesterday. I spent a few hours at our first annual Oktoberfest. I live in a tiny town so it was nice for us to actually have something going on for local vendors. There weren't too many craft tables set up, but enough to enjoy the day. The kids got to play in blow ups, get their face painted, free helmets, fishing, etc. It was just a great place for families to spend together.

After Oktoberfest we threw a surprise 60th birthday party for my father in law. We had family come in from out of town and it was just really nice to get everyone together. He was so surprised and happy to see everything everyone had done for him. The kids had a blast playing with eachother since it's not often that they can all get together and play.

It was just such a lovely day all around, reminding me what really matters most in life is friends and family.

bullying in schools

As I was flipping through the tv this morning I landed on one of the morning talk shows where they were discussing bullying classes in schools. Personally, I wasn't "bullied" in school. When I was new to a school in 6th grade I did get picked on for the first few days for "dating" one of the popular girls ex boyfriends. It was amazing how quickly the popular girls became my friends once I broke up with him. I'm sure at the time I considered it bullying. Thinking back, when it did occur there was a teacher around who didn't do or say anything when it was going on.

So it makes me wonder, would bullying classes be a good idea in schools? Well, I have a three year old who started pre-k this year and even though he is so young I worry about bullying as he grows up. I do think that kids learning what is happening to other kids around the world that are getting bullied might help slightly. I don't think it will resolve the issue anywhere near as much as it needs to be. In my area it seems as though even the teachers are bullied. They don't know how to control the kids who act up, so they give them OSS for a few days - which is like a vacation for a 13 year old. Then it raises the issue as to why do these kids act like this?

Is it the sole responsibility of the teachers and principals to get these kids under control? No. Parents aren't doing their job either. There is a reason why kids do the things they do. I hope to God neither of my children are ever bullies, but if by some chance they get lost along the way and are these are the steps I would take. For one, they would be grounded. I would re-evaluate the kids they were hanging out with. Children are so easily influenced that it's sad. I think I would also have my child talk to a therapist depending on how far the situation went. There are just certain things a child will tell someone they don't know and think they can confide in than they would share with their parents. I think I would take as many necessary steps to get my child on the right track as it took. But some parents encourage the bullying. Some of them encourage the bad life.

I also think that maybe if the school had more activites for children to do outside of school it might help a little. I realize this takes money that a lot of schools don't have at the time. At my sons school (my old school) they obviously have the sports, but they also have builder's club which is a place for kids to help other people. They rake leaves, go to a nursing home to spend time with the elderly, etc. I can't really think of much else that they have, but at least it's something I guess. I think teachers should try to encourage the kids that they know are trouble makers to join things like these. If they can get one of them to join, chances are a few more of their group will join. Maybe they could throw in a few fun activies that don't involve helping people, something just for the kids. The problem at my old school is some of the coaches of certian sports would help get the kids out of trouble if they were essential to that sport. That one bothers me the most...

What makes someone think it is okay for a child to misbehave, disrespect authority, and treat their peers like crap just because they are good at a sport? What is the world coming to? Are sports really THAT important? They're supposed to teach GOOD sportsmanship. Teach kids how to trust their teammates and be there for each other. At least that's the way it was for me when I played basketball...


So it leaves the question, do YOU think bullying classes are a good idea? Would they help bullying stop?

The Homespun Raven

I've been searching through etsy today and came across The Homespun Raven shop. I absolutly love it! There are so many cute and funny signs that I could buy that my house would end up looking cluttered. I've been looking for a cute sign for my parents for Christmas - something about nana's & papa's. She has so many wall hangings to choose from that I'm sure I'll be looking all day!

Even though we haven't gotten past Halloween or Thanksgiving yet, I somehow find myself getting overly excited for Christmas. I don't really care about the gifts, I just love having the special day to spend with my family. This year my son is going to be 4 so I'm sure I am going to enjoy watching him get so excited to make cookies for Santa and impatiently wait for him to arrive! Last year he was more scared than anything.

I love this wall hanging! The primitive look is so appealing to me. I can already see myself spending too much money, although the prices are great for them.


Today I'm watching my nephew Connor, so I think I'll spend it spending time with the boys and looking up Christmas gifts! (even though I have yet to buy Halloween costumes)


Have a great day everyone!!

It's a rainy day here in NY today. Days like these make me want to snuggle up and watch tv all day long without getting anything productive done for the day. Unfortinatly, today I had a lot of stuff to get done at the house, take my son to pre-k, and I have this killer headache that not even sweats and tv could cure.

My son Anthony got his "drivers license" (according to him) at school today. He looks so handsome! It's a little school ID card that I'm a little sad I never got when I was in school. Everything about his days at school get him so excited. He only goes for 2 1/2 hours so when I go to pick him up he's never ready to leave. Yesterday he said "bon appetite, it's time to eat!" I love seeing everything he learns every day it's so great to see his intellegence grow.

I still have a lot to get done today even with this miserable headache. I think I'm due for another relaxing sewing class!

My nineteen month old son decided it was time to sleep in his big boy bed. He's climbed out of his crib before but always returned to it when he was actually ready to go to sleep. The past two nights he has just decided that he's not going to sleep in there at all. He shares a room with his 3 year old brother, so without him in his crib bed time actually turns into play time. I actually got him to fall asleep in his toddler bed last night and he slept in there until about 2 am when he woke up crying and he decided he would be better off in his crib for the remainder of the night.

Needless to say, I didn't get very much sleep at all last night. When one child wakes up, the other one does and it turns into a very long night. I think I will give it a few more nights leaving his crib in his room and once he decides he's fine with just his toddler bed I'm going to take his crib out of his room. It'll make for one long week of "get back on your bed's" but hopefully he'll get the hang of it sooner rather than later!

Now I'm going to spend time with my beautiful boys before I have to take my oldest to pre-k! Have a good day everyone :o)

first day of sewing class

I went to my first sewing class last night. I've gotten into sewing and painting recently as a side hobby but the sewing machine I have didn't really work that well. At my class I got to see what a good sewing machine runs like and I was so impressed. It was so much fun especially compared to hand sewing which I've resorted to due to the crappy sewing machine I've been working with. This is what I created at my first class.

If you can't tell, it's a very small pot holder. The lady giving me my lessons supplied me with scrap material that she had laying around along with some batting. It's not the prettiest thing by far (especially with my shadow hovering over it) but it was something I created on my own - with a sewing machine! How exciting! :o)