"Me time"

Everyone says I need to have some of this.

No one really knows how I can get it.

It is elusive and must be stolen?

Hm.

Please read this post and then follow this blog. I love Mrs. Ward's writing.

Remember the Ostrich Mothers (Job 39:13-18)

Holiday FOODS: Buckeyes and Foolproof Fudge

What are your favorite Christmas foods?

Two must-have desserts for our family are:

Buckeyes

1 lb. butter (2 cups)
2 lbs. peanut butter (4 cups)
1 tsp. vanilla
12 cups powdered sugar

2 large bags (12 oz. ea.) melt and mold chocolates

Cream butter and peanut butter. Add vanilla and 4 cups powdered sugar. Divide into 2 parts. Add 4 cups powdered sugar to each part. Shape into balls. Put a toothpick in the center and freeze for 15 minutes to all night.

Melt the melt and mold chocolates in the microwave on low heat, stirring often. Dip frozen balls in this and place on wax paper to set.

Bonnie’s Foolproof Chocolate Fudge
(makes about 1-3/4 pounds)

3 (6-ounce) packages semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1 (14-ounce can Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk (NOT evaporated)
Dash salt
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 c. chopped nuts (optional)

In heavy saucepan, over low heat, melt morsels with sweetened condensed milk.
Remove from heat; stir in remaining ingredients. Spread evenly into wax
paper-lined 8-inch square pan. Chill 2 hours or until set. Turn fudge onto cu
tting board; peel off paper and cut into squares. Cover and store at room
temperature.

Peanut Butter (I've never made this variation; since we always have buckeyes, this would probably be peanut butter overkill in addition to those.):
Omit chocolate morsels, vanilla and nuts. In heavy saucepan, melt 1
(12-ounce) package peanut butter flavored chips. Remove from heat; stir in
sweetened condensed milk and dash of salt. Proceed as directed.

Thanksgiving ATMOSPHERE

Do you decorate? Do you play special music?

The older girls and I made a cornucopia a couple years ago. It graces our table every year during the month of November. I enjoy it.

As far as music, if you're at our house on or around Thanksgiving, you can expect to hear this song at some point:



I've been a George Winston fan for a long time, but I didn't know about his December album until I was in college, I think. I love it. The first track is the above song. Unfortunately, that is the only Thanksgiving-specific song I know of. Do you know of any?

Thanksgiving FOOD

Movin' right along...

Anyone seeing the Muppet movie when it comes out? I'm hoping it goes to Redbox relatively quickly so I can see it. :)

Movin' right along from THAT...



The holidays.... specifically Thanksgiving.

I have to get a head count, but we anticipate at least 5-10 more people here with our family for Thanksgiving this year. Dare I hope that we can eat in the yard? I won't be able to plan on it, but it would be a nice surprise. I love eating in the yard; it doubles the amount of space we have for people.

If not, we will plan to be cozy and just have to set up a couple extra tables and move some living room furniture around a little bit. No big deal.

So the food....

My plan at this point is pretty traditional: turkey, stuffing (I make mine outside the turkey), green bean casserole, etc. I hope to have our friends who are coming bring a dish they think of as traditional. My must-have is stuffing, and a couple years ago I started making it in muffin tins so everyone gets some of the crispy parts. YUM. One traditional food that we always have but that Ethan and I could live without is turkey. I know, I know... We're just not huge turkey fans, partly because most turkeys we've ever had have been flavorless and way too dried out. The last couple years when I've made turkey I've done as Martha Stewart suggests and taken it out when it is about 5 degrees cooler than it's supposed to be. The meat keeps cooking for 5-10 minutes after you take it out and will be FINE, but it seems wrong. But then when we ate it, it was perfect. So that's what I do now. One odd thing about our family Thanksgiving is that we always have way too many desserts. One year even though the only guests were my parents and one of my brothers, we somehow ended up with four pies. FOUR PIES for five adults and three children (at the time). I still don't know why. My mom's extended family gatherings always have a lot of desserts too, so I think it's a tradition at this point.

What are you having for Thanksgiving dinner? What is a must-have? What's a traditional food that it seems as if EVERYONE else has, but you pass on? And is there anything you think is odd about your family Thanksgivings but that you love regardless? :)

Thanks in advance for sharing!

What being sick taught me (or, I realized when I'm well I have no boundaries)

Every type of "work" I do is the "can do it anytime," 24-7 kind of work. I'm a wife, mother, church member, homeschooler, and doula. None of these require me to do this or that at a certain time of the day or week. The tasks involved--cooking, cleaning, loving, managing, writing curriculum, teaching, attending births, etc.--are in general not time-sensitive as far as when I prepare for them. Granted, there are usually deadlines for when they should be completed, but that is usually the only paramater.

So when I got sick the other day I realized that not everything has to be done yesterday, today, or even this week. Friday I had to turn down a prospective doula client who could not wait longer than last weekend to interview and would not budge on dates. I was going to have to drive pretty far for the interview and could tell I was starting to crash from the illness going around the house. I realized after I got off the phone with her that if my personal boundaries were not important during this part of the process, they would not be considered later either... and while the birth is about the mama, if the doula is not able to *be there* mentally, physically, etc., that is a big deal (or at least should be) to the mama. So I chalk that one up to finally standing up for myself and my boundaries and putting my own health and my family first before my professional life. It felt good.

Then today I had to ask a prospective doula client who has a far-out due date whether we could schedule our meeting/interview for after I return from vacation, fearing that if I tried to cram it in this week, just after being ill and before a trip, that I would be sick on vacation. Boundaries again and all of that. She said that would be great, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I realized that so much of the craziness I experience has more to do with my own feeling that things should already be done rather than anyone else's expectations on me. This sounds so simple, but I'm slow on the uptake.

Boundaries are good things.