Happy New Year's Eve!

We're heading to Bemidji tonight to get in on some celebrating. We'll come home Friday sometime. :)

Respect

Does anyone have any information to give me on how to get children to respect a person? I don't believe that it's that I don't respect others and they're following my example but maybe so??? I'm mostly talking of 13- and 10-year old boys in this present hour of distress.

Christmas Card

We received this Christmas post card yesterday and have NO IDEA who these people are or how they got our name and address. (Although in this day and age, getting names and addresses is easy.)

Another Day

It has been drizzling today; I am glad we did not have to go anywhere on the roads.

We have been lying low trying to get some rest and get rid of this sickness. Mine has turned into a cold now, and it hurts when I cough. It won't end any too soon for me.

Mike is working on the puzzle I got for Christmas. I got it out last night after he made a hint about wanting to do it and worked a few pieces in so I could say I helped. :)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone. :)

John 10:10-18

10. ...I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
11. I am the Good Shepherd: the Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.
12. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.
13. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.
14. I am the Good Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine.
15. As the Father knoweth Me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down My life for the sheep.
16. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.
17. Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again.
18. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of My Father.

Anniversary

Here are the anniversary flowers I picked out. They got trampled by Aussie, whom I had with me, because I noticed several stems were broken. I put them into a smaller bowl so we can still enjoy them.

Busted!!!

Tracy and I got "caught" tonight. We went to a recital and afterwards stopped at a store to get Emily a birthday gift since we had a 25% off coupon. "Somehow" these chocolates ended up in our bag, and we ate them (AHEM...ALL) on the way home. Mike caught us because I did not dispose of the evidence soon enough. :) Oh well, live and learn...and enjoy chocolate when you're alone with your oldest daughter. Hee hee hee

Gingerbread Houses

I thought I'd try making gingerbread houses with graham crackers this year so they were more "user-friendly," but it was still a big mess. I'm not artistically talented to begin with, but it was more fun eating the candy, in my opinion, than decorating. I'm just a kid-at-heart when it comes to candy, I guess. :)

Canned Vegetables

Well, I have been trying to cut back on my grocery shopping for the month and have done well so far. However, canned vegetables have gone on sale this week for 33 cents with a limit of 12. I'm sending Mike twice after work and will go myself twice when I'm in town. They're not nearly as good as home-grown vegetables, but mine are gone plus all the carrots I was given (I think I have about 2 dehydrated cups in the freezer left) have been eaten. Thanks, Camille, they were delicious! Tracy found she especially liked them when I put some brown sugar on them. :) Butter is also on sale for $1.89, limit 2, so I'll grab some of those too, to throw into the freezer.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get some school work done with the kids and then get a tiny bit of cleaning done (putting things into places.) Things have a tendency to walk around in our house.

If you think of it, please pray for my friend who's pregnant with twins. Her feet have really swollen a lot the past couple days. Thanks!

Anniversary

Today was our 16th anniversary. I cannot believe that that much time has gone by!

Tomorrow is the Annual Meeting at Mike's work. One of the door prizes is a riding lawn mower, and Mike keeps teasing that we will win that because we were just given two this year. :)

A Couple "Funnies"

It is interesting the way things work. Last night I took a look at my big container of cornstarch and had a memory come rushing back to me. The timing is funny because I had been thinking of posting it last night but did not get to it. A friend recently posted and asked if any of us had done mind-blogging. I cannot say that blog posts consume my thinking by any means, but sometimes I find myself doing something with the kids just to be able to create an interesting post and/or put pictures on here. Another friend posted about a lefse incident. I could only laugh and decided I should get it posted.

One day when I was a teenager, probably 17 or 18, my mom was making soup for our lunch and was trying to thicken it. Unknown to her, I had filled her jars with flour, sugar, cornstarch, brown sugar, whatever else she had, and since there was an extra empty jar, I put powdered sugar into it. She kept adding more and more "cornstarch" to the soup, and it would not thicken. It turns out that she grabbed the one I had filled with powdered sugar! I do not remember if we ate that sweet, sweet, sweet soup or not.

Another time is when I was younger, probably 12, and is probably something most children have done. I was given the job of making the whipping cream for the dessert we were having. I watched the cream whip and whip and whip. It got fluffier and fluffier and all of a sudden started turning lumpy. I hollered out, "Is it supposed to get lumpy?" only to find out that I had whipped it too long and it turned into butter. I think I got to ride my bike up to a little store a couple miles (?) away to get more cream and try again.

I Timothy 2:1-3

1. Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men.
2. For kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.
3. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior.

Duluth Trip

We made the trip to Duluth in good time. It was dark by the time we got there, and the kids enjoyed seeing "all the lights" of the city. For us, it really IS a big deal seeing that many lights, and especially the hills. This picture is looking down on part of the city.


There were a few ships coming and going so I snapped this picture even though it's blurry. There was so much fog due to the cold and heat of the air and water. Lake Superior does freeze over in the winter.


Here is the lift bridge. It was colder than freezing so we had our "picnic" and then took off for home instead of staying to watch it lift for the ships--we'll have to plan that for the summer. :)

We made it Home!

We are a day "late" due to a snowstorm, but here we are. I'll see if I can get back into some type of routine on here tomorrow or Wednesday.

Friday's Lunch

My side of the family is celebrating Christmas this weekend. We are spending a night in a motel in Duluth, MN and then are heading to my mom's house for two more nights. I do not think she knows what she is getting herself in to!!! Anyway, we are having a mini "Subway" buffet for lunch Friday on our way home from the motel. I cannot imagine that anyone will be hungry though, after the big buffet breakfast put on by the motel and yummy ham and potatoes and green beans Thursday night, not to mention all the appetizers my sister is making. :)






Anyway, your choice of onion or Kaiser bun topped with your choices of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, olives, pickles, mayo, onion,

Swiss cheese, American cheese, turkey, ham, Canadian bacon, or pepperoni will be what you get.



We have a relish tray and were going to make a fruit salad of sorts, but I could not find any fresh strawberries at the stores (no roast beef at either store either.) I did buy bananas and grapes...





So far I have packaged everything into throw-away containers. It may not be "green" to think of actually throwing them away, but in this case, convenience counts. :)

Cookie Tray

Here is the cookie tray I am sharing with my family down south of us. Hopefully this will be my last "sweets" picture. :) I keep making myself hungry. Next I'll be working on the vegetables for our sandwiches meal. I saw the cutest little "individual" veggie trays at the grocery store today and really debated about getting a couple of them to go along with my bag of carrots since not many will eat the raw vegetables anyway. I think carrots are about the only vegetable my kids will eat raw.

The Culprit

One of the van's tires kept going flat so I took it in today. I determined I'd rather be stranded at home than on the road between here and Duluth. Below is the picture--just a tiny thing and ever-so-thin but a problem nonetheless. It reminded me of some verses in James.

James 3:5-10
1. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles!
6. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.
7. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind.
8. But no man cane tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
9. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God.
10. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.

I personally have problems with this. Too often I say things before I think and end up hurting someone.

Luke 2:1-7

1. And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.
2. This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria.
3. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.
4. Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David,
5. to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.
6. So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered.
7. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Some Sugar Cookies

The movie we ordered from the library came today. While Mike and the boys were watching that, the three little girls and I made some sugar cookies and frosted them. Tracy got home from playing violin for a dinner of some sort at a big resort near here. She helped frost some when she got home also. :)

A Cold Morning

Mike said it got down to -18 this morning.

Livin' the Good Life

The dog has been sulking ever since he came home from his visit at Grandma's house, but I had to laugh when I saw this a bit ago.

Fudge

Here's a batch of peanut butter/chocolate caramel fudge I made this morning. The holes are compliments of Laura. :) (I had already taken off what I was saving.)

Spritz

Mike pressed us a batch of spritz cookies last night. I made them plain, old vanilla since the kids always complain when I put almond in things. :) Anyway, he had the joy of trying to work with the three little girls and all their "help" and questions. Below is a "Behind the Scenes" picture.

Peanut Blossoms

We made a batch of peanut blossoms today. I also had a bit of "healthy" cookie dough so we added chocolate stars to them. Jason designed the heart.


Oh, the sandwich did fill Aaron! He even shared, and this is what was leftover. Tonight we had green beans with a bit of leftover hamburger plus gravy from Thanksgiving so the boys ate the rest of the sandwich for supper.

Almond Bark

Here are the chocolate peanut butter Ritz. We don't get too many to store when seven "samplers" are hanging around. I will be making another batch of these; they are a favorite at our house.

Truffles

My friend beat me to posting about these. Mine are different, however. Mine are already baked cookies and some cream cheese inside. :)

Hungry, Anyone?

I made this peanut butter and jelly sandwich for Aaron for supper, hoping it would fill him. :)

Almond Bark

Here's the first batch of almond bark with peanut butter Ritz sandwiches.

Pecan Tassies

miniature pecan pies

Chocolate Crazies

We started baking some "Christmas" cookies yesterday. We shared a few with some friends, sampled some, and put the rest away. We're supposed to bring some to my Mom's house next weekend so hopefully they'll last that long. :)

Christmas Decorations

We've been putting up Christmas decorations.