Homemade Brown Sugar

I was in the kitchen and realized that I didn't have enough brown sugar to complete my recipe. No worries, I just mixed up my own batch.



1 cup sugar
1 tbs molasses

Mix well and walla... brown sugar!



Quick, easy, light and fluffy. I can't believe I waited so long to try this. Have you ever made your own?

I hope you are taking time to enjoy the simple moments!

Tree Decorating

I hope that everyone had a great weekend. It was simple, slow and relaxing here. Just the way I like it!

Friday morning it was time to pull out the decorations and start decorating the tree.


Megan was super excited to begin and barely made it through breakfast.


She is old enough that she was a lot of help putting on the ornaments and


at helping Daddy troubleshoot some burnt out lights.


When it was finished we started a new tradition.


We all sat down to admire the tree and enjoy a candy cane.


Of course we had to pull the nativity and talk about the real reason we celebrate Christmas!

Each Monday until Christmas I will show you a simple, fun activity that we are doing to celebrate Christmas. I hope you are taking time to enjoy the simple moments!

Leftover Day

I hope that everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving. The fun started here on Friday with a turkey party at Megan's school.

We spent an enjoyable Thanksgiving at my parents home. Lots of food, family and laughs.

Today will be spent puttering around home. The Christmas tree will go up and of course there will be plenty of leftovers to munch on. Farm Chick from Fresh From The Farm is hosting a recipe swap on Fridays and I thought I would join in this week. Nothing fancy, just a quick, simple way to use up some of those holiday leftovers.


Spread out a package of crescent rolls and pinch the seams together. I then cover with chopped up ham, turkey or whatever is leftover and top with cheese. Roll up and then slice the roll. Bake at 375* for approximately 7 minutes.


It beats your average ham and cheese sandwich.


Christmas cards are done and ready for the mail. I love sending and receiving cards. For me it signals the start of the season.

I hope you are taking time to enjoy the simple moments!

Happy Thanksgiving

"Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow." -Edward Sandford Martin

Hoping that you count your blessings and give thanks for them not only at Thanksgiving, but everyday. Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Carmel Corn

Over the weekend I made my first batch of homemade carmel corn.

Pop 1 cup of corn (boy does it make a lot of popcorn!)

Preheat over to 215*

In a 2 quart sauce pan melt 2 sticks (1 cup) of butter over medium heat. Then add 2 cups of brown sugar, 1/2 cup corn syrup and 1/2 tsp of salt (increase to 1 tsp if using unsalted butter) and increase temperature to medium high. Stir continuously until it reaches a boil. Boil for 5 minutes. Do not stir during this time.

Remove from heat and add 1/2 t of baking soda and 1 t of vanilla. Pour over popcorn. Stir until coated well. (I used two large bowls to do this).

Spread corn onto parchment covered baking sheets. Bake for 40 minutes stirring every 10 minutes. If corn is still mushy cook for 10 minutes longer until you reach the desired crunch. (I found a recipe for this on another blog. I tweaked it just a little and wanted to give her credit for the original recipe.)

Allow to cool and store in an airtight container.

Chuck declared this the best carmel corn ever! He said he will not buy store bought again. yippee!

I will be packaging this is glass jars to hand out at Christmas.


I hope you are taking time to enjoy the simple moments!

Rice Art Turkey

Daddy was working late last night so Megan and I had some fun. I have had this idea saved for a while.

First you mix 1/2 cup rice, 5-8 drops of food coloring and 1 t of white vinegar (this will help the color set) together.


Next you spread the rice onto a foil lined cookie sheet. Make sure to keep the colors separate! Then bake at 200* for 45 minutes. Once cooled the fun begins.

Choose or draw a picture and then paint on some glue. Sprinkle the rice over the glue. I had Megan do this on a cookie sheet so when it was time to shake off the extra rice it was a little bit contained.

The finished guy that has been named Turkey Lurkey. This was a fun project and there is enough rice left over for a couple more afternoons of fun.

I hope you are taking time to enjoy the simple moments!

Thanksgiving Craft: Handprint Scripture

It seems like Thanksgiving is becoming the forgotten holiday. I really hate that. I have been trying to make it fun and I did this craft yesterday with Megan and the little guy I babysit.


I printed Psalm 69:30 on card stock and then had the kids add their hand print over the scripture.


It was a fast easy project and I made extras for the grandparents. Are you doing anything to make Thanksgiving special?

I hope you are taking time to enjoy the simple moments!

Days Go By

As the days go by I am trying to enjoy each moment.


During quiet time I have been crafting while Megan is near working on her letters. It is such a joy to watch her learn to write and realize the letters make words.

I received some peel and stick chalkboard paper from Chuck and decided to use it as my menu.


It is pretty neat stuff! If I decide I don't want to use it as my menu I can peel it off and stick it somewhere else. I think it would be great to make a child table into a chalk table without painting.

As the days grow cooler I am craving warm, comforting foods.


After a yummy dinner and a little reading I am more then ready for bed. With the time change and early night fall I find that by 8:30 or 9 I am ready to turn in.

Another day awaits me. Today the kitchen needs a deep clean, there is always laundry and all of my babysitting kids will be here this afternoon. I hope you are taking time to enjoy the simple moments!

Veterans Day

With Bravery and Strength
they serve,
With Dignity and Pride they
stand,
With Courage and Hope they
fight,

The life they live is
Dangerous,
Treacherous,
Rough,
And Hard Going,

But when the fog clears
They are the ones who still stand.

I feel honored to be part of family that serves their country with pride. Many past veterans including my father, husband, cousins and uncles. Some from the present including my brother-in-law and several cousins. A huge thank you to those who have served and especially those who lost their life in service.

In the Spirit

The crafty Christmas spirit that is!

We have satellite TV and it has numerous music channels. I find myself listening to music often during the day and on Friday I found the Christmas music! Oh! I squealed with delight and I could just see the oh no look on Chuck's face. Much cooler temperatures, the threat of snow flurries and Christmas music is all I needed to start crafting away.

I am a list maker and started by making a listing of all the things I want to get done soon.


After making my list I hit the ground running. I gathered up all of the things I would need to complete my list.


I have several things started and was able to complete one project.


I used scraps of frayed fabric and wrapped it around a styrofoam cone. The stars were not my first choice, but I used what I had on hand. I covered the wooden stars with glue and then sprinkled on cinnamon. Oh my they smell wonderful!

I hope you are taking time to enjoy the simple moments!

Christmas Pictures

Wow, what a busy weekend! Chuck and I were talking toward the end of last week about how relaxed the weekend was going to be. There wasn't anything on the calendar and we were looking forward to an easy weekend at home. Ha! Funny how fast things can change.

While looking at the calendar for November and December I realized just how busy we are going to continue to be. In order to keep myself from completely stressing out it was decided that taking care of the Christmas pictures would be wise.

Here are a few shots of my girl. I really like the second picture.

I hope you are taking time to enjoy the simple moments!

Buried Treasure

When I was a little girl my grandparents still lived on the old home place. Across from my grandparents home sat another home. As a child I didn't think much about the house. It was just an abandoned old place that looked like it was about to fall down.

As I grew older I began to appreciate my family history and started to ask questions. This house belonged to my grandfathers parents. They had a daughter that never married and after they passed Aunt Cora lived there alone. She lived there until she was no longer able to live alone and then she moved in with her sister (my great-grandmother). Not long after Aunt Cora passed away (in 1960) so did her brother-in-law (my great- grand dad). For reasons no one knows my great-grandmother never did anything with the house. I asked why my grandparents did nothing and mom said that it wasn't their place.

Mom told me that as a child she and her siblings use to play in the house. The cellar was full of canned goods, there were old records that they use to play with and then break (gasp!) and even some furniture.

On a recent trip back to Virgina my parents went to visit the old home place. Aunt Cora's house has been bulldozed and this is all that is left.

They did a little digging in the area where the root cellar was located and my parents brought me back this buried treasure.

Saying I was giddy when I saw these is an understatement! If these jars could talk imagine all of tales they could tell. I will certainly treasure these jars.

I hope you are taking time to enjoy the simple moments!

Vote!

Just a friendly reminder to go out and VOTE today. I know that it is sometimes hard to choose. It feels like you are voting for the lesser of two evils but the way I look at is if you don't vote you really have no right to complain about government decisions you don't like. At the moment there are many decisions being made that I do not agree with.

Voting is a gift. There are many people in other countries who fight and even die for this right. A right that many Americans take for granted. The bottom line is that you should vote because you can!

Fun, Fun Weekend!

We hit the ground running on Friday and keep running until we crashed last night. Friday was Megan's first school party. It was a Farmer Party and her teacher put a lot of thought into it. For activities there were four stations.

I was the lucky mom who got to man the cookie decorating table. It was just a little messy!


Another station was stuffing a scarecrow. When the last group went to that station they had a class picture. Notice the little guy to the left at the table. He stuck out his tongue in every picture!


There was a station to shuck corn and then you were able to take it home.


My favorite activity was canning corn. There was a bowl of candy corn that the kids scooped into a canning jar and put on a sticker saying they had canned corn. I thought that was very creative. Great job Mrs. F, it was lots of fun!

Friday afternoon there was a play day with some friends we went to China with. Saturday consisted of lots of errands and then yesterday it was time to trick or treat.


Megan dressed up as a clown. Here is a picture taken in the same spot (just a little updated now!) in 1974. I am on the left and was 3 and my sister was 2.

Megan with my nieces ready to hit the road! Although busy it was a great weekend.

I hope you are taking time to enjoy the simple moments!