It has hit....

The holiday craziness, that is.

Last night I made pork and saurkraut for dinner, along with 4 batches of sugar cut out cookie dough. It is depressing when you realize a quart jar of homemade saurkraut is no where near enough to feed a family of 4 and that the 8 jars that I have left from my 2008 saurkraut canning spree will not be enough to get us through until next fall:(

Tonight, I have to bake 16 dozen sugar cut out cookies. I'm taking 8 dozen of them into Tyler's class and letting the kindergardeners decorate them and take them home to their families. The other 8 dozen? Tyler and Jessie will decorate on Saturday. Ought to be an experience.....

I still have some shopping to do. Mostly for a friend of Jessie's who just lost her mom after a sudden and 2 month long illness, and the family is struggling financially. A group of us are "doing" Christmas for the little girl and her dad. Todd and his friends will be trying to shoot 4 deer this weekend to give to the family so they will at least have meat on the table. And a group of us are giving them food (I took over about 60 lbs. of meat out of our freezer, a friend did snack foods, another friend did canned goods). Makes me realize how blessed I am.

Fortunately for me, the kids have not asked for a lot of things this year. Other than the usual cell phone and Nintendo DS for each of them. Which I told them already isn't happening. They need to be outside playing instead of on a video game (and they already have a Wii courtesy of great-grandma) and when are they ever somewhere that an adult is not with them?

I'm still madly knitting on fingerless mitts. I have the last 1/2 of a mitt to finish up tonight to give to Tyler's teacher tomorrow. This is the 6th pair I have made.

But....today is my last day of work until next year, except for swinging through here twice a week to check the mail, phones, and email. It will all get done, sooner or later.

Have a happy Thursday!
Kris

Hello again!

I know I said I'd be back shortly but......it's been hectic here.

Some pictures of all my Christmas gifts that I have made. And I still have 1 more pair to make (in purple) for Tyler's teacher to match the scarf I made a few months back. All of these patterns are from A Friend To Knit With. Very simple, very quick and very perfect!

Toasty made out of Debbie Bliss Donegal Tweed - 1 skien and 3 hours (this was the last pair I made - I think I'm getting faster!)

Toast made out of Berroco Jasper & Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK (the dark grey is the cashmerino). I was afraid I wouldn't have enough with 1 skien of the Jasper (and I wouldn't have) so I used some leftover cashmerino as well.

Toasty made out of Debbie Bliss Donegal Tweed - 1 skien & 5 hours!

And of course, a hat for me. I'm not a big fan of hats, but let me tell you - when you are outside using a hose to rinse off a steer and then spend an hour + drying him with a giant hairdryer, a hat works wonders on your ears!

Bananna Republic knock-off hat made out of Rowan Big Wool - 1 skien and 3 hours! And P.S. - NEVER try to take a photo of yourself in a semi-dark room at 11:30 at night - it just doesn't work well!

We also had Thanksgiving dinner at Todd's parents on Sunday, and the kids made these wonderful gingerbread houses. I'm going to have to keep an eye on Tyler, as he wants to EAT it in the worst way!

We did get our Christmas Tree up Saturday night - I was hoping we could get a real tree after we get back from Columbus this weekend, but I was outvoted. And actually, now I am just glad that it is up and done!

Last night was Tyler's Kindergarten Christmas concert at school.

Here is his entire class. I sat right down on the floor in front of them to videotape the whole thing (Todd and Jessie were sitting in the very back row with some friends of ours, and I couldn't see well enough to video tape him or take pictures). I thought I was going to have a riot on my hands when they saw me! Mrs. Bair take MY picture! Mrs. Bair take MY picture!!

I have tried and tried and tried all morning to upload a video of a really cute song they sang - "No L." However, I cannot get it to load. I'll try again later, and if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know how I do this!

Have a great day. I'm off to wash and dry calves in the 30 degree weather!

Kris

Christmas is coming....

the goose is getting fat

pleased to put a penny in the old man's hat.

If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do

if you haven't got a ha'penny then

GOD BLESS YOU!

I think that is how it goes....

Is anyone else thinking about Christmas yet? Specifically, christmas gifts?

I've started thinking....not much has been done but I do have 1 possible gift that could be given to someone if the mood strikes me. Again, this year, I want to make as many gifts as I possibly can. So I guess I'd better get it in gear and get moving, right????

This scarf was a super quick knit when I needed a break from the sweater I'm working on. And with only 24 stitches across and a 4 row repeat, I could knit a 4 row repeat at a time very quickly, which pretty much guaranteed that I would not loose my place.

I love the changing colors of this yarn. I am still thinking about keeping it for myself, BUT....I always seem to get tangled up in scarves - or catch them in the door on the truck - so I'm thinking this needs to be the first christmas gift that I have done and ready to gift to someone - namely Tyler's kindergarten teacher. If I could find more of this yarn, I could knit her the matching mittens but......I think this yarn is several years old.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The new calves still don't have names. Jessie thinks Theodore would be good for her steer?!?! And Alvin for the heifer and Simon for the steer we will going to be picking up in a couple weeks. I mentioned that Alvin might not be a good name for a heifer, but the boy who showed one of our heifers this past summer named her Roscoe (to go with Jessie's calf Daisy and his pigs, Bo and Luke) which she immediately pointed out.

After last nights halter breaking episode, I think Ezmerelda would be good for her.....

We are off to a steer show tomorrow in Medina. Ought to be interesting as both Jessie and Tyler will be showing. Have a great weekend!

Kris

In a slump....

Not just the markets, but we are too:) Add in the fact we are looking at needing to make a major lifestyle change in how I cook, snacks we eat, etc.....I really need to work to combat it.


So I'm wondering just how I can stock my pantry to our best advantage. I've never been a big menu planner, but I think that has to change now. For the girl who up until 3 or 4 years ago thought the perfect mac n cheese came out of a box..... Hamburger helper used to be a mainstay in our diet.... - this has to be an attitude adjustment. A good one, I think.....

So I have a question a couple of questions for everyone:

• What are some items in your pantry that you consider essential to cooking from scratch????
• What do your kids eat for snack foods? I need low sugar, healthy snacks now....
• Is there any value to a freezer inventory? I pretty much have an idea what is in there right now...but don't know quantities.....with 2 big chest freezers and 2 refrigerator/freezer combos....we've got lots of storage space.
• What in the HECK do I do with dried mixed beans and dried kidney beans (other than bean soup, chilli and baked beans?)
• Any good down home cooking cookbook ideas......
• And most importantly (to me) give me some good, quick, easy recipes for dinner. We are SICK of the same old stuff.......keeping in mind that Todd is really and meat and potatoes kind of guy.....and my cooking style could best be described as the lazy cooking from scratch style...

I know....these aren't difficult questions at all.....right?? haha

Kris

A Homemade Christmas

Here is the post of Christmas Gifts that were made:

A lumberjack tote for my Dad:



A bag for my Grandmother:


Coasters and mugs for the teachers:


PJ pants for the kids:




Sheet quilts for the kids:




Messenger Bags for both kids:


A jacket and beret for my niece:


Pillows from my Grandfather's bed quilt from when he was a boy (Sara, I do have your's!!):


An apron and potholder for my brother's girlfriend:


And I think that is the majority of the gifts. The pillows were the easiest - they measure 18" square. And I made 10 of them total. I don't have pictures of the sheet quilt I made for my Mom (still in progress) and the fleece vest I made for my niece, Avery.

And I am starting in January for the 2009 Christmas gifts!

Kris

We would have gotten 8 eggs today

but I broke 2.

Apparently, turning the dogs' water bucket upside down and jumping up and down on it while you have 4 eggs in each pocket is NOT a good idea.

Off to wash the coat.........

Note to self - next time, take the stupid basket with you or even better yet, run the eggs into the house before doing chores.

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Ok, I'm back. And I'm busy making shepherd and angel costumes for the church's Christmas play. Not terribly hard, but not terribly exciting either. Fortunately, it's just 3 shepherd costumes and 2 angel costumes. I've had Jessie's and Tyler's costumes done for some time now, but have to get the others done here before Wednesday. Tomorrow would be better but.....I'm not counting on it.

And here are what the teacher gift coasters will look like:

I tried to make the coasters coordinate color wise with the mugs (and also use fabric from my stash. This fabric is left over from my tree skirt.). Obsessive compulsive, yes.....

I decided on a mug, a coaster and a packet of either hot chocolate mix or cappucino mix for all 4 teachers. Quick, simple yet nice looking. The mugs I found at Pat Catan's for $1.00.

And Tyler and Jessie painted salt dough ornaments a couple weeks ago - I'll attach one of those to each mug. Voila.

In fact, I just may have to make a coaster for my computer desk. Being oak - it would sure benefit if I wasn't setting a hot mug of cappucino on it 24/7......

Kris

I'm color blind

Jessie and I went to JoAnn's last night - to get a bunch of little stuff to finish up some Christmas presents (web strapping, snaps, zippers, thread....you know, the boring stuff)

I needed black double fold bias binding - I grab 2 packs. As I'm working on the gift today (can't show a full picture - the person will know what it is) I realize - I grabbed a pack of black, and a pack of grey. DUH! So back to JoAnn's I'll go at some point.

But, I've gotten lots done today in addition to the gift above:

Jessie's Messenger Bag - except for the snaps. I'm not sure where to put them/if this needs snaps....

2 hot/cold therapy bags. I still need to fill the muslin liners with rice - but at the moment, I don't have enough rice in the house. And I need to make a fabric basket to store these in....

Next up is more quilted pillows, and Tyler's Messenger bag out of these fabrics:

Oh, and here's a picture of Jessie and Blair dressed up as little pilgrim girls:

And yes, you are seeing correctly - one of their little friends is making rabbit ears behind their heads.......

Stay warm!
Kris