“The secret of true happiness consists not of having…
but of being…
Not of possessing…
but of enjoying.
It is a warm glow of the heart at peace with itself.
Man is the creator of his own happiness.”
~David O. McKay
Have a good weekend…
Sparkly Stars
We threw a shower for Lyndi and baby chomp this last weekend. Don’t worry, as soon as she picks a real name, we can stop calling this sweet baby “chomp.” Anyway–it’s scary to throw a party for the girl who worked for years at Partyland. She’s the celebration queen. But we knew her weakness and ran with it…the girl loves STARS! No, really. She thinks that stars belong everywhere–her ears, her hair, her wallpaper, her wrists, her toast. There’s no end.
You probably think stars are suppose to be yellow–but depending on what you are decorating for–Autumn, Winter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, the color is up to you. Adding sparkle to anything never hurts. The shower invites were pink and blue so naturally, we chose shades of pink and blue. April raided her scrapbook files and found double sided paper–four colors for the price of two. Except it was free.
First, Jillian and I took turns tracing the stars while we watched both dvds of Jane Eyre (Masterpiece Theater–the only true version). It was wonderful and took our minds off the fact that we were cutting out six million paper stars.
We used a cardboard pattern, a cookie cutter and a notepad to draw our cutouts, and took turns again cutting them out. The next day we got down to the real fun. Even Rhen, who normally shies away from sticky, messy stuff, couldn’t resist the glitter part. He just kinda showed up saying, “So–what’s up?” Next thing we know, he has his own glue bottle and has become a crazy man slathering Elmer’s everywhere. Be careful who you invite to play with some of this stuff. It can get ugly.
Next, we mixed regular and translucent glitter in a Pyrex baker. When the kids finished hosing the star down with glue–in whatever pattern suited them–they dropped them into the glitter pan… sometimes on top of each other…which is to be discouraged. Duh.
Since I needed to feel ultimately in charge of the world at this point, it became my job to shuffle the gluey stars around so they were well coated with the sparkly stuff. Note: This job can make you a tad punchy after a while–no doubt having something to do with the repeated shaking motion and an otherwise perfectly good brain–so take frequent breaks or let go of the “total control” factor and trade off.
Spread them out to dry–better than we did, or you will get lots of accidental “constellations” rather than individual planets.
After they dried, we punched a hole in the tips or crooks and strung them with cotton string–all over the house.
This would be a great activity for many different age children–you would just need to match the job to the ability. Tracing, cutting, gluing, glittering, drying, punching holes, stringing up…tons of age-friendly stuff here without the fear of messing up. It’s just paper. All my guys are older–but it’s nice to know that even teens can be attracted to glue and glitter. And before you know it…there’s all that happy chatter and messing around that makes it one of those, “Remember-when-we-made-all- those-goofy-stars?” kinda moments. We need lots of these.
Millions and billions of sparkly stars…and a day to remember.
Priceless…
Homemade Holidays
Here’s the list…
Don’t be afraid. It’s not a nasty old “to do” list. Well, wait…maybe it is. But not the nasty part. It’s the fun kind. The sitting-in-front-of-a-good-movie-with-a-project-on-my-lap-kind. These are some of the things I’m taking on for Christmas. A few are actually in the works and some are still just on paper. And I admit, a couple will likely never see the light of day. But I’m gonna make a valiant attempt. Because I think, homemade stuff is just…better.
When I was a kid, every few years my mom would say, “Let’s make presents for each other this Christmas.” At the time, I’m sure I thought, “Not a chance,” so the projects would never even get started. Ultimately, we’d end up buying something for each other at Woolworth’s, a few days after the school break. It wasn’t until I was a bit older that I realized that those words were mom’s attempt to rein us back in from all the craziness that holiday commercials can suck a kid into. That, and to keep us from spending every penny we had when we had so few. Sadly, we didn’t cooperate too well with her good intentions–if I remember right.
It’s different at our house now.
“Handmade,” to me is such a sweet word–beautiful even. My children have given me so many gifts over the years. Surprisingly, most of the home crafted ones are still around. Probably, because the gifts made by the hands we love, are sheltered, and guarded and kept safely treasured—held carefully close–just like the sweet things that created them.
Thankful People
We are an enthusiastic bunch where I come from, and that means taking advantage of every opportunity to celebrate any good thing that comes along. We start hanging colored lights before Halloween and resist taking them down till after Valentine’s and we’re perfectly willing to put up banners and flags and balloons for anything in between.
I suppose one explanation for this party-people-type behavior is that we really, truly, love to gather, and play, and sing, and dance, and nibble, and feast for a monumental day. . . or for no reason at all.
But even coming from the original “Whobilation,” place, I’ve noticed a strange thing. People everywhere–not just here–are starting the festivities way earlier than ever before. Now don’t get me wrong. I love that I can turn on the radio, right now and find just as much Christmas music as I want. I enjoy the lights coming on all over the neighborhood, and I even get a kick out of Christmas ads on the radio. But…
…what happened to Thanksgiving?
I’m not actually ready to skip it, even in the mad furry to get to Christmas cheer.
I want this time to feel grateful. I need it, because it makes me a better person…or at least it keeps me trying to be. I want to remember the things that really matter…and be grateful for them–always.
So, I may put up my lights before the next storm. And I may play my Grinch cd before we make all that stuffing. And I may move the nativity box a bit closer to the garage door. But I utterly refuse to submerge myself in the “magic of Christmas”– until I’ve filled my cup to the brim with pilgrims and leaves and cornbread and turkey…and the joy of giving thanks, for all of it.
“The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.”
~H.U.Westermayer~
Marvelous Pumpkin Bread
I’m about to say something that may be shocking to you, so be brave. I’m taking a deep breath…letting it out. Here goes.
I don’t actually like pumpkin pie.
I know, weird. I do like a lot of other stuff made with pumpkin, but the pie doesn’t do it for me. I love the look of it and the smell of it, but alas–it tastes raw, so I skip it. It must be because after some serious research, we found–to my dismay–that my family is pretty much the only one in America whose forefathers did NOT come over on the Mayflower. I figure it screwed up the pumpkin pie enjoyment microchip in my brain. At any rate, in order to keep the scent of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg wafting through the house at this time of year–as it should–we make pumpkin bread. It is a fabulous replacement for pumpkin pie and P.S…it doesn’t taste raw.
Word to the wiser-than-me…Don’t double this batch. It comes way too close to sloshing over the side.
One more thing…
I usually make a bunch of little loaves, rather than 2 huge ones. For two reasons–First, I think it feels more like a delicacy to have tiny bites of something special.
Second, whenever I use 5 or 6 smaller pans, I put them all on one cookie sheet–because it’s easier to get them in and out of the oven. But what I’ve found is that the loaves are so much more moist when baked this way. I haven’t tried the cookie sheet thing with the bigger pans, but it works perfectly for the little ones.
Pretty dang good exchange for the aforementioned undesirable pie.
Heh, heh.
Pumpkin Bread
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup water
3 cups white sugar
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1- 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease three 7×3 inch loaf pans. Shake cinnamon sugar into pan and coat all sides.
In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin, eggs, oil, water and sugar and blend well. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.
Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Marvelous Pumpkin Bread
Ingredients
- 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- ⅔ cup water
- 3 cups white sugar
- 3½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1- ½ teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Grease three 7x3 inch loaf pans.
- Shake cinnamon sugar into pan and coat all sides.
- In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin, eggs, oil, water and sugar blend well.
- Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger.
- Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended.
- Pour into the prepared pans.
- Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven.
- Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.