Hi My Name is Lisa and I am Addicted to Christmas Baking...

For the sake of repeating myself, this will be my last post on food for a while, I promise! 

I have accomplished all of those items on my baking list plus a few extras.  The total where it stands now is 13 recipes!  Can you see what I mean when I say I am addicted?  I have one more favorite that I would like to make but would also love to try some Christmas candy or balls.  I am a little afraid of trying new things like that...  For Christmas dinner this year, we will be having a variety of deep-fried items.  I am looking forward to that because we never have that at home.  The menu will consist of deep-fried perogies & mozza sticks, chicken wings, and homeade cream of mushroom soup.  I will add a small fruit or veggie tray to that as well.  My recipe books are definitely my friends and do a lot of the talking at this time of the year:)  I hope to try a recipe for Toblerone swiss fondue.  It has brandy in it and seeing as I have never cooked with it before, it would be a shame to ruin such good chocolate, so I will have to do some more research before I begin.  Each year I think it would be a fantastic idea to host a Christmas party where I could try all sorts of appetizers...maybe some day.  All right, enough of the food talk!!

No Christmas Baking yet...

I was totally going to start my Christmas baking at the very beginning of December but it seems as if though life doesn't just give me a day to do but rather that I will have to plan for it.  Curtis has invited ALL the boys in his class to his b-day party for tomorrow so I will be baking and cooking for that but with hopes that there might be extra to put in the freezer!  He wants X-large monster cookies for his "birthday cake". He doesn't really like to eat cake so it seems easier for me.  I will decorate each cookie with M&M's to make a number 6 on the top.  Simple but fun hopefully!  I never know how to decide what to do with kids birthdays...I really just wanted Curtis to pick someone to take bowling and that would be the end of it but I also wanted the opportunity to meet the friends/parents of the kids he hangs out with so here goes! 

On another note I thought I might share my dream baking list:

1.  Grandma cookies (shapes with colored icing)

2.  Egg-free donuts (they turned out better than the ones with eggs)

3.  2 batches of Eat-more bars cause they are a serious favorite around here

4. Oh henry bars

5.  Mars bars

6. Chocolate peanut butter slice

7. Butter Bud cookies

8.  Monster cookies

IF I get these things baked and I have time leftover which I highly doubt, there are a few more recipes that I would like to try.  (Sugar cookies, chocolate crunch brownies and maybe a Krispie roll and puffed wheat cake)  I think that would be too much but I with all my family coming out, I hope to get rid of some!  I always try to make most of the recipes on the same day so I can freeze them as an assortment and then when I need to bring something that I can just grab it and go!

When I'm Bored I Cook...

I've been a little too bored lately....it makes me want to cook all the time.  We all know what kind of cycle that starts: Dirty dishes, sticky floors, more dirty dishes, extra love handles on the hips, etc...  I love cooking and by no means am I complaining about the dirty dishes because I am so thankful that we have food.  The new recipe I am going to try this week is Pasta e Fagioli soup.  We'll see how that turns out.  I got an amazing recipe from a friend for a different kind of Chocolate Chip Cookies.  They were amazing but only one of my kids will them because they are too chocolatey....can you believe...too much chocolate for a 11 and 5 year old?  It really boggles my mind cause when I was that age I could eat chocolate like there was no tomorrow.  Now I don't like it as much either and really when I discovered that, it was a sad day:(  Anyway, new recipes is a good thing for me to try when I'm bored although I am not sure if my family truly appreciates all the newness.  I must say though that they are troopers with all the stuff I put in front of them to eat.  My pickiest eater is....ME.  So I get to decide what we eat and I figure it's kind of a bonus for me!

Tomorrow I get to go shopping with my Mom and sister!  It is really the highlight of my week.  Mom is going Christmas shopping and we get to help. (Really it's Christmas shopping without spending my own money!) I know that I will have to start my own shopping soon...hopefully next week.  The kids gave us a great list!  I love how practical they are.  (New pajamas, a lamp, Lego, alarm clock were a few of the items)  Don't get me wrong, they would love the DSi Xlarge or something like that but we informed them that a purchase like that, they would have to save their own money.  We can't keep up buying new games for the systems that they already own!

Finding things to write about has been a bit challenging!  I figured I'd add a photo to brighten up the entry.  The boys are growing up so fast!  For the Remembrance Day program at school, Sam read a poem and it was evident that his voice is beginning to change.  It took me a bit by surprise but I suppose the journey is only beginning. 
Every once in a while, I take a peek in my own stash of books at home.  I found something I hadn't read in a long while.  It's called Cure for the Common Life by Max Lucado.  I figured as I enter a new phase with no kids all day, I need to learn more about myself.  When I come up with great revelations on how to do this, I will be sure to let you know!  Job hunting has not been going so well for me.  The past 3 weeks Wes and I have taken to doing a reno job to earn some extra cash for Christmas and and few other things.  It has been keeping us busy and for that I am so thankful!  It also helps me not feel bad that I don't have a job yet.  Sometimes I think that might just be the way to do things because we can accomplish far more financially when he works than if I work.  (I have to spend twice the time in order to make what he does!)  It does really put a strain on Wes though and I don't think that's good for him in the long run. 
Well that's all for now so maybe I'll add another pic for more color!

Today the weather is getting under my skin!  We have had rain for 3 days straight (lots of it) and today to top it off we have wind that could blow the North Pole right into my front yard!  It is ridiculous.  The weather somehow doesn't seem to motivate me to get stuff done.  I am thinking I should go out and apply for a few different jobs like maybe Canadian Tire or Sobey's or something like that. 

I was volunteering in  Curtis' classroom this week and I read with the kids.  It really astonished me how some kids can read.  One girl in particular had finished all the Grade 1 levels and is totally capable of reading chapter books even though they don't offer them in Grade 1!  Wow!  My Curtis is not nearly there and if fact I am feeling quite discouraged about the whole process because they get certain sight words home and he's had the same ones at home for 3 weeks and gets them right every single day but as soon as he takes them to school he gets nervous and flops on one of them.  I can't help him not be nervous at school but I am sick and tired of him not being able to learn new ones.  It feels like a waste of time!  The books he brings home are no challenge for him but they don't give him harder ones until the sight words are at a certain level.  SO I'm stuck.  I was reading Dr.Suess with him yesterday for extras and he did really well on some of it so I'm thinking we'll have to get some of those books to help us along.  I need to be patient at least that's what Wes tells me:)   

A little bored...

Today, I am BORED!!  They turned off the water for the morning and so that really limits house chores/showering.  So I am thinking of what I could possibly do to pass the time.  I thought I could go for coffee but I already have to go out 3 times this week so staying at home is just smarter.  On the weekend we rearranged our basement and gave the kids their own room.  (up till now 2 were sharing but 1 was complaining that the other snored too loud)  I suppose I could make my Christmas baking menu but it seems a little hasty.  I really should be racking my brain to think of good ideas for Christmas presents in an affordable sort of way:)  I have lots of ideas that cost an arm and a leg but their will be no such spending at our house this year! 
In a weird way, I am looking forward to winter.  When I was a kid, I LOVED winter.  All the sledding and snowmobiling were my favorite things to do.  Then when I got older and had kids and had to dress them all, that novelty sort of faded.  Now that the kids are a bit older, I find myself getting excited for it again.  (Yes i do realize how much harder it is on vehicles and older bodies such as mine:)  I also really, really enjoy baking and cooking in the winter! 

Some ramblings...

Grace Awakening by Chuck Swindoll is what I read over this last year. I have never had another book impact me the way this one did.  It has helped me to pray more for what I really wanted to become.  In my heart, I know that God has called me live in a way that honors Him.  It disturbs me that I don't think that I would totally be submissive to His calling for my life or worse that I don't feel like I have a calling besides mothering.  As the kids are getting older, I found that calling to motherhood has become more profound than it ever has been.  I feel like that is one area I want to screw up as little as possible.  In becoming a more gracious women, I sort of thought that I could pray for it and it would just happen to me.  I realized today that just like praying for patience, He doesn't just hand it out, rather, He gives you opportunities to practice.  Just like that I have been given countless opportunities to be a gracious woman.  My children have been that opportunity for me and so have other things in life that I have been pursuing and haven't been working out.  It seems like God is helping me to let go of things that I think are important and replacing them with His ideas.  Praise God that He never gives up pursuing all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.

About a Month Ago...

When the kids went back to school, I thought it would be a great idea to spring clean (fall clean actually) our house.  It is now Oct 4th and I have not started!  I just started noticing dust bunnies and dirty windows.  It sounds like a great idea but the thought of starting makes me feel overwhelmed.  I already organized all our closets which are probably getting messy again! 


So maybe just maybe I will start this week???

A Little Apprehensive

This weekend we are going on a retreat with Wes' work.  There will be about 100 people there.  I will know a few but none of them very well.  These kinds of things always make me nervous.  I'm sure once I get there, I will be fine and likely enjoy myself but it's a lot of people!  I also feel a bit like we're wasting a good opportunity for a weekend out by ourselves seeing as we have a babysitter and all.  I know that is entirely selfish and I never intend to be selfish...  It has been a long time since Wes and I have gone away together without kids so maybe that will have to be our next excursion!

Changing TImes

Changing times are upon me!  I am grateful for the opportunity and feeling a bit overwhelmed all at the same time.  My youngest is now off to full-time school and I am having a very empty house.  I have been filling my time with organizing, some coffee dates with my sisters and a little bit of scrapbooking!  Mostly I have been on a job hunt.  I have handed in a resume for 4 different places and have had one interview.  The interview went well according to my thinking but to no avail.  I am confident that I can trust Christ on this one.  We have been praying for a really long time and God is so good that I want to trust Him for the right thing and in His time!  Having a job in the right hours would be crucial to me making the decision to taking it.  Financially, this would benefit us seeing that the boys are pretty much eating us out of house and home! 
I am truly looking forward to what God has in store for our future!

I'm Back at It!

I quit blogging a few months ago because I was freaked out by some weird comments.  I erased my blog and didn't know if I should start again.  It has become a fun hobby and so I figured I'd continue for now!  We took some pictures of the boys for school pictures but I had the setting wrong on the camera so they are slightly blurry.  I will post this one anyway!