8 Weeks To Real Foods with Vintage Remedies

Want to make some changes in your eating habits?  I mean, honestly, who doesn't?  A great way to establish healthier eating habits is to sign up for Vintage Remedies FREE, yeah, who does not love FREE, 8 week course.  If you want to sign up, click on the Vintage Remedies link on the side of my blog, scroll over to "events" and the drop down menu should show "8 Weeks to Real Foods" click on that.  The page that comes up gives some info on the course and allows you to put in your email address.  That signs you up for the course.  Do it!  It's free and it will help you start the new year off right!  Because remember the key to maintaining a healthy weight is not by lamenting what you eat around the holiday season it is establishing healthy habits all year long.

Being Read Today

Thanks to the library we have these two books to read in addition to the Christmas books that we own.  The Little Drummer Boy is beautifully illustrated pictures that go with the words to the song The Little Drummer Boy.  A Christmas Like Helen's is a delightful story of Christmases in America in years past.  The book is written by the granddaughter of Helen.  

Being Read In Our Home Today

A favorite of ours.  This is a great story that explains the origins of Hanukkah along with a bit of early American History.

I Declare

I declare today to be a day for cleaning out!  And for wrapping presents.  With Christmas fast approaching, it is time to go through the bedrooms and playroom* and get rid of the toys that accumulate but that aren't played with.  Or are broken.  Or unwanted.  Or that annoy me that don't seem to facilitate creative play.  ;)

In the past we have had each kids clean out their room prior to their birthday to Christmas.  That habit was set aside as sometimes clean out times were needed even when a birthday or Christmas was not approaching.  But we need a clean out day!  And today is it.

Plus, when cleaning out is paired with present wrapping, the kids are much happier and motivated.  They get to each take a turn at the present wrapping station that has been set up at the kitchen counter and wrap the presents they have bought or made for family members.  When they aren't wrapping presents they get to go through toys and decide what to part with.  So far we are making swell progress on both cleaning out and wrapping presents.  The cleaning out has come along ways from this time two years ago!

*We are on a break from school.  I notice that when we are in the full swing of school I call the space upstairs the schoolroom.  When we are on a break I tend to call it the playroom.  Occasionally I will call it the playroom/schoolroom.  Just a quirky little personal observation.

The Tree or A Lesson in Acceptance

Here is our tree for 2011. Yes, that is a garbage bag sitting under the tree stand. We still need a real tree skirt. I have tree skirt ideas stirring in my mind...time will tell if we actually get something. In the meantime, an old white bed sheet will likely be our fill-in for an actual skirt.

So, how do I really feel about the tree? Well, it has its own charm. It is quite kid-decorated and full of their sweet ornaments from past Christmas seasons. That is obvious, right? The bubble lights have a vintage charm, but they are unevenly spaced on our tree. And the tree seems to be an awkward height, neither sweetly petite nor gloriously tall.

Part of me dreams of a beautifully decorated tree. Don't get me wrong, there is beauty in this tree, but it is that "a tree only a mother could love" sorta beauty. The beauty of this tree is not readily apparent to most people. I still dream of someday having a tree that looks like it lept from a Pottery Barn catalog. A tree with a theme. A tree with fantastically gorgeous ornaments and garland and a star on top that isn't crooked.

But then again, when the day comes for a tree like that, I will miss the little hands that decorated this tree. I will miss their ornaments that will likely move on with each child as they grow and move on. Though, I still think I will love having a gorgeous tree. And life is meant to move on, so when the time comes for the kids to move on, that will be a good season too.

For now, this is the tree we have. I have not said things to cause the kids to suspect that my tree hopes are not fulfilled in this tree. Why be discontent and pass that on to others? Why steal their joy? Since this is the season for joy, I delight in their delight in this tree and I delight in the possibility that someday there will be a tree that makes me gasp with happiness. After all, I want them to remember me as someone who delighted with them. I hope that someday when they are grown and they walk into my house at Christmas time they will gasp with wonder that mom has such a gorgeous tree! "Who knew she had it in her?", I imagine them thinking. Because sharing delight is the real point. How fun that we can delight together over uneven bubble lights and cheesy ornaments and that we can learn together to appreciate the beauty that another eye beholds.

Books For the Season

During a recent visit to the library we discovered these two books. The book We Three Kings by Gennady Spirin is the classic song, We Three Kings, written on beautifully illustrated pages. The artwork is truly stunning.
This sweet gem of a story was published in 1992. It is the story of a boy, whose family celebrates Chanukah and his friend, Elijah, who celebrates Christmas. Not only does Elijah celebrate Christmas, but he has devoted his hobby of wood carving to carving things that are from the Bible. When Elijah gives the boy an angel, the boy adores it but is concerned his parents won't want him to have it. He then learns a lesson about friendship with a person who has a different faith.

Butter!

The kids have had the opportunity to make butter by shaking cream in a small jar and watching butter form. It is a fun activity and a good learning experience. But I have wanted to try it on a slightly larger scale.

Thanks to the kitchen aid, a blog that I have not been able to find again, and Mother Earth News, it was fairly easy. I froze the butter and we used it at Thanksgiving. Yum!

The butter was made and written in mid-November. I have a bit of catching up to do with my blog.

Pie and Kids

For Thanksgiving we made the apple pie that I have made for years. It has evolved into an apple-marion berry pie.

Little hands helping make the pies. Now that makes me smile. The extra mess sometimes makes me forget to smile, but that is why I take pictures. The mess is forgotten in hindsight.

The mess is also forgotten when they declare, "This is the pie I made!"

Then there is this beauty of a pie that my girl with hands that are no longer so little made. Wow, it looks amazing and it tasted delicious too.