Christmas in a Hotel

can be fun. So far this week, we have made decorations and "gingerbread" houses. I even brought the kids' stockings to decorate our room. Christmas gifts can be opened just as easily sitting on a hotel room floor as around our tree at home. Is it the same? No, of course not, but we have made it the best it can be.

I haven't actually taken any photos of the kids' creations yet, but I will.

And, whose Christmas Eve would be complete without hanging out with friends like this one? ...


We spent Christmas Eve at Sea World. The majority of our time was with the dolphins as they were a lot of fun and very friendly.

You Tube

I have likely watched a total of fifteen things on You Tube which tells you that I am NOT really into the whole thing. I have seen "Jessica's Affirmations" and something about a horn a couple of years ago but I don't really remember what that was all about. I just watched a disturbing thing about the "Bedtime Intruder" that my 8 yr old saw at a friend's house today. Yikes! He may not being playing there anymore.

Anyway, the other twelve things I have watched are videos that my trainer does. She has a whole series about making healthy eating choices and exercises to prevent/get rid of certain problem areas like saddle bags and muffin tops. Anyway, she would really like to see her stuff get out there a bit more, so I am going to promote it here.

Here are some of the search items you can use to find her --

The FIRM-inator
Step4ward Fitness
Shelley Gray

Or you can just click this link to get you started . . .

The Firminator on You Tube

Names

My 8 year old played on a fall baseball team. Most of the boys were people I did not know before the season started. By the end of the 10 game season, I felt like I didn't really know them much better. Part of it was due to having quite a few substitute players as a few of our team also played football or had other commitments and missed some or all of fall ball.

HOWEVER . . . In an email that wrapped up the season, the names of the official team were all listed and it helped me feel a bit better. See if you think you might get confused too while trying to keep at least some of these guys straight . . .

J.T.
T.J.
Brennan
Braeden
Holton
Kolton
Luke
Chandler
Robbie
Titan

VOTE NOW

From another friend, just sharing . . .

Friends, we need your help.

We recently informed you that Blood:Water Mission is being represented in the P&G Clean Water Blogivation campaign. The blog with the most votes will receive a $15,000 donation towards tackling water issues. Pamela Crane, our Africa Field Manager, wrote a blog for Blood:Water, and it is currently in 2nd place -- we need your help pushing us into 1st!

We're only 800 votes behind! But NEED your vote to pull this off. There are only 2 DAYS LEFT! A few seconds of your time can make a huge difference. Here's what you have to do...

Visit Pam's blog, read her story and vote: http://pamthenomad.com/archives/1458

**IMPORTANT** Voting takes just a few seconds, but it is a 2 STEP PROCESS:
1. Visit Pam's blog & Enter your email address and click on the ‘vote for this blogger’ button.
2. Confirm your vote through the link in the email you receive.
You MUST confirm your vote in the email or it will NOT count.

You can VOTE DAILY, and we'll need your votes everyday until midnight Aug. 27 to surpass the leading contender. Please share the link with your friends and encourage them to vote daily as well.
Tweet about it. Facebook it. Be shameless because something as simple as a few clicks could make a tremendous impact on the lives of a community in Africa.

*** NOTE: If the blog is slow or stopped loading because of the response. Please check again later in the day.

Thanks for your time. Together we can do this.

Hannah's Socks- service project

I am generally on the look out for good service projects. I particularly like ones that include action because most of the projects I look for or create are for use with kids. When the "project" just calls for a money donation, I don't feel like most kids get much out of it because most kids don't use their own money for things like. Generally it seems that parents hand out the cash or write a check that the kid carries to school or church. As is likely true for most busy families, they probably don't even talk about it much.

If the story is good enough that I can make an impact on the kids from my presentation end, I will do money or item collections. A while back I came across one that had a good enough story -it all started with one little girl- that I did use it anyway and asked for the kids to send in socks.

So, if you are looking for a service project for your family, school, church, or community group -or just want to read a heart warming story- check out Hannah's story by clicking the following link.

HANNAH'S STORY

NSTR

In case you don't know, NSTR means Nothing Special To Report. Of course, I made this up, but it definitely seems more fun to have some kind of cool code as my title instead of just putting it right out there that I have nothing juicy to share. If I used "Nothing Special To Report" as my title, people probably wouldn't keep reading.

I bet my code pulled you in though . . . didn't it? Come on, it is okay to admit it . . . it worked!

Our overnight guest is still here, expected to leave in the morning. She has done fantastically well other than a couple of times being scared by her friend's (my daughter) at home outbursts. These outbursts don't usually happen in public and NEVER at school I am told, so this is the first time our sweet friend who is a former classmate has had to witness them. They are disconcerting so I don't blame her for being uncomfortable.

Our neighbor friend has been here for a couple of hours as well. The kids all just got done eating dinner and have some various games going on at the same time- some sort of hide-and-seek/attack game. I think the girls recently pulled out of this one and are now doing tunnels and tents again perhaps. Who knows for sure? No one is crying and I hear lots of laughing, so I am assuming all is well.

Earlier in the day we went to open gym, picked up lunch at Chick-Fil-A where I got lunch for all six of us for only $2.99 (yea for coupons!!!), worked at church for a bit, came home for some quiet time, swam, and played Wii before dinner.

We had breakfast for dinner since it is Friday-- a tradition we started about a year and a half ago. Tonight's dinner was a bit different from our usual fare as I served bacon (nice and healthy, I know!), potato thingies, and fruit pizza. If someone could please tell me what the potato thingies are called I would be grateful because the kids and I are tired of me calling them potato thingies. In case anyone is reading this and wants to help, they are like tator tots but in flat rectangular form. Much like a potato wedge, but it is not a wedge shape. I want to call them hashbrowns, but for some reason my mind thinks that hashbrowns are not nice and neat in shapes rather more like shredded potatoes. I don't know! and in the great scheme of things, I realize that it doesn't matter so I am okay with that.

Back to our dinner being different tonight, our friend cannot eat plain eggs (in baked goods she is ok) so that took out some of our usual items like scrambled eggs or omelets. I didn't think french toast would work either, and we already had pancakes just a couple of days ago. So bacon, potato thingies, and fruit pizza we settled for.

As for the fruit pizza, it seems like something that was often served 10-15 years ago, but I don't see it much anymore. I have made it a couple of times in the last six months and people always seem so excited to eat it. In case you haven't made this before or just plain forget how, I will post the recipe here -->

FRUIT PIZZA
1 tube sugar cookie dough (or 2 c sugar cookie dough from favorite recipe)
1- 8oz pkg cream cheese (softened)
1 T milk
1/3 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
misc fruit, sliced

Spread the cookie dough on cookie sheet or pizza pan. Bake for 12 min at 350 degrees. Let cool. Mix cream cheese, milk, vanilla, and sugar until smooth; spread over chilled dough. Cut cookie into desired pieces. Add sliced fruits on top. Chill until serving. (Some suggested fresh fruits- banana, peaches, strawberries, blueberries, kiwi, pineapple. By cutting the cookie crust before adding the fruit, it makes for a nicer presentation as the fruit doesn't get all sliced up and/or drug all over the top.)


Well, I will wrap up my NSTR post with that sweet treat. Happy Friday, Everyone!

Life Goes On

... and not in a bad way, but sometimes it gets away from me. Obviously much time has passed since I have been here. I see new followers I don't know and some strange comments on my last post that don't seem to have anything to do with my post. Oh well . . . I guess that is what happens with a public blog, eh?

All is well in our world, but so much has happened, I don't even know where to start. Maybe I will just start with today.

We have a friend staying with us a couple of days while her parents are out of town to be with a sick relative. Adding an extra one to the four permanent ones doesn't make things harder but it is sometimes interesting fitting someone "new" into our schedule, even the relaxed schedule of summer. A neighborhood friend also joined us for much of the late afternoon and evening hours; he is here enough that he just goes with the flow.

Today was mainly spent sleeping in (we had LOTS of company last night), playing Wii, swimming, building tents and forts, eating, and enjoying a movie night.

It was the first official day of football for the season, so the man of the house stayed busy with that today. He did make it home surprisingly early (just after 8PM) but crashed in bed not much later as he has an EARLY morning tomorrow.

As I am getting tired myself, I will sign off for tonight, but I will try (really try) to come back more often.

More on Handprints

My hanging method

Cole's unpainted print

Robbie's completed 6 month prints

Sand Dough Recipe
3 cups of sand
1 ½ c cornstarch
3 tsp alum
2 ¼ cup hot water
Food coloring (optional)

Mix sand, cornstarch, and alum in saucepan. Add hot water and food coloring. Cook over medium heat until mixture thickens. Remove from heat and knead until smooth.

If you don't use food coloring, the dough will be a sandy gray color like my photos above.

The directions I found with this recipe just say to let it air dry, but I found that the finished product -a church project- crumbled easily. I am guessing that it can be baked on a board as in the kits I have purchased (in a preheated 350 degree oven for 15 minutes)for a more stone-like end product, but I have not verified that.

A couple of other notes- alum can be found in the baking aisle with spices and the concoction does have an odor during the cooking part, but it does go away.

Handprints

Just wanted to share one of my favorite things that I don't think gets much advertising. I know there are tons of cute, decorative baby handprint kits with all sorts of colors, fancy tins, ribbons, etc.; however, most of the kits involve using plaster of paris. It makes for a beautiful white smooth print WHEN it works. The problem is you only have a very small window of time to get your print perfect before it hardens. If you are working with a baby this is especially difficult to do.

Another mom introduced me to the Precious Prints sand dough kit of which I am a big fan! It doesn't look fancy when you get it, but I still love it. You knead the dough until it is soft and then you can do your print as many times as you need to so you like what you get. Once you are happy with your print, you cook the dough on the included board and you have a stone handprint. We have painted our boards and then hung them as is, but you could also set in a holder on a shelf or frame it. The website does have an option to order a kit with a frame as well as has two sizes available, 6x8 or 8x10.

You can order directly from the website by clicking HERE. I also think I have seen them advertised in one of the catalogues like Harriett-Carter or something.

We have two for each of our kids. One with a handprint and footprint at six months and then just a handprint at age 3 (the foot won't fit anymore!). I just did the newly turned 3 year olds today which is why you are getting this post.

I will try to post some pictures and include a recipe I have for sand dough soon.

Recipe Misprint?

I just made Chocolate Sundae Pie.

The crust and inside got put together just fine. The topping was supposed to be 1/2 cup of chocolate syrup and 1/2 cup pecans "drizzled" over the filling.

Well, I'll tell you that a half cup of syrup covered the entire pie and then some! As for the pecans, I didn't even get through half of those and I felt like the entire top was covered with those as well.

Now I don't know about you, but when I hear the word "drizzle", I am thinking cute little zig-zags or swirls of chocolate sauce with pecans sprinkled about.
Unfortunately, there was not a picture with this recipe, so I don't know if it really was a misprint or if "drizzle" was not used properly.

I know the next time I make this recipe, I will definitely adjust the amounts so that I don't spend 10 minutes cleaning up chocolate sauce that is covering the edge of the pan as well as my counter and trying to get the unused pecans back in the bag.

Good-bye to an Old Friend

For those who have been following along the last week or so, you know I have been doing some cleaning up and out. As I was packing the van this afternoon with things to drop off at our local Life Services office (crib mattress, bedding, etc.), I had to get one item back out for one last picture.

I don't know who all reads this blog, but for anyone who has known me for a long time, you might recognize this. It is the comforter I bought when I went to college. I used it up until the day I got married. When Robbie moved into a twin bed, I gave him the choice to go buy something or use this one. He chose this one, so he has been using it the last (almost) four years as well. I would say I definitely got my money's worth.

It is kind of sad to see it go, and I actually considered keeping it for extra bedding when we have company or for picnics or whatever. However, I have been at a "clean out" stage of life for the last few years, so I would rather share it with someone else who might be able to enjoy it for four years or more than have it sit in my closet.

I did have to take one last picture though!

Am I pathetic or what?!?! Getting all sappy about a comforter!

Operation Organization Update

The drawer in its purest state . . .



Unfortunately, I haven't made a whole lot of progress on the office yet. I will press on though!

Making Progress

Among the three little bodies playing with toys this morning, I was able to finish finding homes for all our new goodies while pulling out things I plan to pass along. Before we left the play room for morning snack, we even managed to get everything cleaned up. These pictures show the finished product . . . or at least finished-for-now product. I am known for rearranging often as the mood hits or as I am inspired to make things more efficient.




UNFORTUNATELY, all the toys (and bedding) I pulled out for sharing are hanging out in our "office" and need to be organized to be ready to pass along. There is also some more packaging (read- trash!) to deal with now that all toys have been put away.


There is also this drawer to deal with . . .

This drawer is the home to playing cards, card games, and misc. little toys like bouncy balls and such. Because there is extra space in the drawer and it's location is central in our house, it also is the place where I put random game and puzzle pieces that get left behind during clean up. Therefore, every couple of months I go through the drawer and return the collected items to their real homes. It is definitely time to do that as the drawer is close to not being able to shut.

Sidetracked!

One of the things I did earlier this morning was go to Stillwater Bedmart to put an order in for another set of bunkbeds. All four kids have been sleeping in the same room for a couple of months now, but the little ones are still in their toddler beds which they are quickly outgrowing (...especially Cole).

At the shop, I was told they actually had one last set of bunkbeds in the store room ready to go home with me. The one mattress I needed to buy was coming in on the noon truck. They had the "bunky boards" and everything. I paid the cost, and went home with the good news.

The next several hours went like this . . .

Take apart toddler beds and let the people who are waiting to have them next know that they are available.

Did some of the toy sorting, arranging, etc.

Made lunch to feed hungry little people

Went to Wal-Mart to get the extra bedding we needed to make up four twin size beds

Headed back to pick up the bed and supplies

Let the man of the house assemble the new bunk beds

Did four loads of laundry including old bedding we don't need anymore, new stuff that we are using, and old things we will continue to use

Made dinner

Cleaned up dinner

Put bedding on all four bunk beds . . . for anyone who has made up a bunk bed before, you all know this is NOT EASY . . . Whew!

Bathed three kids

Did a whirl wind pick up of the rest of the house

Put four kids to bed

All this to say, that I got sidetracked today from my main goal of taking care of toys. Like I said, I did make some progress in the toy area. I will work on it more tomorrow while the little kids are playing and my big kids are back at school for their first day of school in 2010.

And, for those smarty pants out there, who want to tell me I didn't HAVE to bring home the bunk beds today -or at least did not have to set them up today- just because they were available, well, you just don't know me very well! :)

Mission Accomplished!

With some serious help from Rob, we managed to get all decorations boxed up and put in the attic, floors swept and mopped (where needed), trash hauled to the curb, the last of the laundry cylced through (though still waiting to be folded), regular decorations back in place on freshly dusted shelves, and all new toys at least in the toy room.

As mentioned previously, tomorrow I will do the toy exchange.

Whew!

I feel like things are much more under control now which means I can rest much easier tonight, and I will feel more motivated to get up in the morning because the end is in sight.

Sometimes things get worse before they get better

Case in point . . .

Our dining room


The play room


All in all, though, progress IS being made! Just a few more decorations to be rounded up, and then the boxes can vacate the premises to go up to the attic. And, tomorrow is trash day, so then we can say good-bye to all the packaging mess.

Still laundry to fold and put away, and the big toy exchange where we put get things ready to share that we don't need (not that we need any of it) and find a place for all the new things.

Our House

currently also known as a "DANGER ZONE"!

Play Room

Living Room

Entryway

Living Room

Kitchen


We got back from an eight day stay in Dallas at 1 a.m. on Sunday morning. We all slept in on Sunday morning, and when we awoke we celebrated Christmas AGAIN (the third time) as presents from Indiana/Illinois family managed to get under our tree while we were away, delivered by our own personal Santa (a.k.a., Grandma Kroll).

Between our luggage, laundry, bowl gifts, additional Christmas gifts, the first two rounds of Christmas gifts, Christmas decorations which are still up, and all the packaging of above mentioned gifts, our house is a WRECK! Thank goodness my day baby doesn't come until Wednesday.

All I managed to get done Sunday was put away travel things and get most of the laundry washed (but it has yet to be folded or put away). The amount of things to get done makes it very hard for me to start. I think I have decided to start with Christmas decorations, but first I had to take some pictures. I hope what you saw here makes you feel better about how your house looks like!