It's Almost Here

"Even if you win a battle, as long as the enemy's got a heart that's beating and a brain that's working, you'd better be prepared for a counterattack."
Ida B. by Katherine Hannigan

After over six years of repressing any reaction when frustrated with my sister-in-law, I reacted in October. My husband and I were trying to make some changes to our holiday schedule well in advance to avoid stress and let's just say that it wasn't received well by his side. When I spoke to his sister, I shared much of what had been bottled up for years. I don't know if anyone can relate, but I tend to hold in my feelings (with the exception of those for my poor husband) of frustration out of politeness and in hopes of avoiding conflict for so long that when they do come out, they are a bit like a landslide. While I may have been justified, I would probably have been more effective to have reacted to each incident over the years. Of course, if you feel that choosing battles is important, you don't want to make a big deal out of every little thing. Anyhow, since that conversation in October, there has been very little contact with Sis and I am waiting and waiting for the counterattack. I know it's coming. It's only a matter of time.

We've been making lots of cookies and candy around here. Yesterday was molasses cookies. The recipe is from my great-grandmother and the cookies are delicious. Enjoy!

Molasses Cookies

3/4 cup marg.
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
2 tsp baking soda
2 cups sifted flour
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

Melt marg. in sauce pan over low heat. Remove and let cool. Add sugar, molasses, and eggs. Beat well. Add flour and dry ingredients. Chill. Form balls. Roll in sugar and bake on cookie sheet 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees.

Note: I melted the margarine in the microwave - Great-Grandma Emma didn't have that option in her day. Also, I sprayed the cookie sheets with cooking spray.



Craft To Do List:
(starting my New Year's Resolutions early)

Cap for Little Man
Car seat organizer
Shopping bag with pouch
towel animals (by Princess Buttercup's March birthday)
doll
doll bed mattress (take two)
frog softie, baby bib and slippers (gift needed by April)

Yea, pictures

Above are the embroidered ornaments of the kids' hands. Little Peanut (smallest one) isn't done. Not that you can really tell, my pictures kinda stink, but you get the general idea.



These are our Christmas card placemats. The table cloth has since been removed after a chocolate milk spill, but with a quick wipe, the mats were good to go:)

Preparing for Christmas

I am still having trouble with the pictures! I keep starting to load them onto the computer from the camera and then it freezes before I can successfully download them. So, when I can, I will take that step. I have been working on some felt ornaments for the kids that were inspired by: http://sunshinescreations.vintagethreads.com/2006/11/how-to-make-embroidered-felt-ornament.htm
I had already traced their hands and was considering paper ornaments when I stumbled on her embroidered felt ornaments. They remind me of the felt ornaments and fabric sunbonnet babies that my mother made back in the '70's.

My husband and I thought it would be nice to begin a tradition of giving each child a special ornament each year in their stockings. Then, when they had their first tree, we could pass along their decorations (twenty something ornaments by then - not a bad start). This was very sweet when we had one child. Now that we have three kids and grandma is trying to downsize so she is sending special ornaments our way left and right, and considering my odd addiction to Hallmark ornaments back when I was single, we are wondering where exactly we will fit all of the decorations in 18 years!! And I don't even want to think about the possibility that my kids won't be sentimental enough to care about their collection when the time comes to pass it along (I have considered the look on a future daughter-in-laws' faces when I hand them the boxes of my sons' ornaments for their trees someday).

I also made a doll bed mattress for the doll bed that we got our daughter for Christmas from craigslist. This I will not be posting a picture of as it seems I was incapable of sewing a straight line! It will do for now until I can make something nicer.

Lastly, I think I was feeling the need to head back to childhood and made placemats with the kids. We took all of our old Christmas cards and I cut them into circles. I let Princess Buttercup (my 4 year old) and Little Man (my 3 year old) pick out their favorites and we arranged them, glued, sandwiched them in contact paper, and PRESTO!! They love Christmas crafts and glue, so we also made some paper garlands with cut out gingerbread men and did the reindeer you make by tracing their hands and feet.

I worked my day this week (actually, I subbed a half day, but I won't be going in again until after break - subbing for middle schoolers the last days before Christmas isn't the most fun ever, though they were good yesterday), so now it's time for cookie baking, present wrapping, and house cleaning. Woo hoo!!

Oh, and a few more minutes attempting to download those pictures.

Beginnings

Since I love to write and am completely addicted to the sewing blogs, vintage collecting blogs, and thrifty mom blogs out there, I decided to start one of my own. It seemed I had so much to say about 10 minutes ago, but now that I have begun the process, it seems to have vanished - probably somewhere around the time I had to come up with a name for the address and found several of them were already taken. The creativity was sucked right out of me - it doesn't take much lately!!

I guess I'll start here and figure out the ins and outs of blogging as I go. Would love to include a quote or two from a lovely children's novel I am currently reading: Ida B by Katherine Hannigan. I just don't know what the copyright rules are! I guess you can't take the teacher out of me. I quit my full-time teaching job three years ago when I had my second child (only 19 months after the birth of the first one) and here I am now staying home with three little ones preschool and under.

I ended up naming the blog for a saying coined on a morning I stuffed everyone into the car so I could go off to work (I substitute teach once a week, more or less - a dream job I am sure I will elaborate on later). The pace of going anywhere with so many youngin's is never fast. In fact, my poor girl is always asking lately: "Are we late?" Sadly, yes. Mommy has no sense of time. It is safe to say that we are always running late. A day late and a dollar short actually. And so, as we pull out of the driveway in our minivan with the broken clock, it is tradition for me to announce "Off we we go, like a herd of . . ." and all of the children who can talk respond with glee: "TURTLES!" Hey, at least they are learning figurative language at a young age (not so sure about the whole turtles traveling in herds part, though).

Well, this was my baby step of the day. I'll post and maybe figure out pictures tomorrow. Gotta move at the pace of a herd of . . .