Monthly Archives: January 2012

menu plan monday ~ january 30, 2012

We were highly entertained Sunday afternoon watching the twins wrap “presents.” They spent over an hour cutting gift wrap, pulling tape, wrestling with the packaging…so much fun! Pa got a bow, Ma got a box of cereal, Auntie got a box of tea and Sissy got a bowl of chalk. Serious business! They (and we!) […]

chicken taco chili

This Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili was a new recipe for me. See the link for the original recipe. I did change some things, so I’ll show those changes below. I had planned to make the chili in the crock pot as the original recipe does, but didn’t have all the ingredients in time to […]

menu plan monday ~ january 23, 2012

Happy birthday to my sisters, Mary and Margaret! I hope you both have a lot of fun celebrating your birthday today! Our son’s family came over for dinner yesterday. Afterward, the twins helped Pa make cookies. There was a little taste-testing going on, too… It’s 45* today, but windy. A good day to stay inside […]

chicken linguine…with spaghetti

I’ve been trying some new recipes and gave Chicken Linguine a try last night. Everyone gave it a thumbs up, so we’ll be having it again. I did make changes to the recipe, though. You can find the original at the link, and I’ll post what I did below. Spaghetti with Chicken and Broccoli (See? […]

spring, is that you?

No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow. ~ a proverb I know the winter hasn’t seemed that long or harsh this year, but I am so ready for spring. The daffodils are already three inches tall, which is about two inches taller than this time the past few years. And soon, […]

menu plan monday ~ january 16, 2012

The three grands stayed over night Saturday. The twins spent a lot of time cutting with Ma’s scrapbooking scissors. They had a ball! It was interesting to watch their totally different approaches to cutting. Always fun to have the grands. Following is the menu for the week. I’m trying a couple of new recipes. I’ve […]

decoupaged ornaments tutorial

In my last post I shared some of the decoupaged ornaments I’ve made over the past few years. This post is a tutorial to explain how they’re made in case you want to try them yourself. Here’s what you’ll need: Clear ball ornaments Paper Scissors Mod Podge (or white craft glue, mixed two parts glue […]

decoupaged ornaments

I’ve made several different decoupaged ornaments over the past few years. I enjoy crafting them and I keep thinking of new kinds to make. Here are a few samples. These are ornaments I made for the Christmas Notebook ornament exchange in 2006. They were decorated with pictures of our home decorated for Christmas and pictures […]

house concert 2011

During December, we were delighted to host Nathan George, Ross Sermons, and Mark Stoffel for the fifth year as they presented a house concert of wonderful Christmas music. Nathan With 62 guests, some had to find seats on the staircase, which is actually a great vantage point. After the concert, guests had time to speak […]

menu plan monday ~ january 9, 2012

My side of the family came over for our family Christmas party yesterday. The party had been scheduled for December, but my mother was hospitalized the day before we were to have the party, so we canceled. She passed away a few days later. We missed her at the party, but were glad for the […]