h’ouderves:

Melted Brie w/toasted almonds and brown sugar,served w/crackers
Tortillas and salsa

Main Course:

15 lb organic free-range turkey
Homemade mashed potatos & Gravy
Sweet Potato praline casserole
Tossed salad w/homemade vinergarette
Corn bread stuffing
Dinner rolls
Cranberry Relish

Dessert:
My daughters birthday is on Thanksgiving so we will have her birthday cake and ice cream,a blackberry pie and
Pumpkin Flan in a Pastry Shell.

Drinks:

Sweet Tea,Diet Pepsi,peppermint coffee,hot apple cider and Eggnog to choose from.

Today was so much fun!!! My husband took the day off and we all went out for the day. The Kids and I had some dentist apointments and then afterwards we went out to lunch and then took the older kids to do their Chirstmas shopping. I have already finished all my shopping basiclly. We decided to stick with the 3 gifts per child..as this is how many Jesus recieved. :o)

I also filled up the kids stockings and got 2 of my SIL’s families gifts. All I have left is to print out some pictures of the kids for my mother and mother in law and then… can just sit back and enjoy the next  couple months. I really am a firm believer that you can honestly take away from the season by making yourself a busy body for the last two months of every year. This is the time to enjoy your family and relax..but often times, folks tend to over extend themselves…Waundering from store to store up until December 24th, accepting too many invitations for socials and having your children in too many extra curricular activities that keep them from spending time with the family.  It is very sad, but it does happen, I kid you not.

That said, my family has just been really uniting lately. I have cut off a few things that were occuping my time online and now find myself much more at ease and relaxed. We just hit our hafe way through the school year mark… which is really great. The kids are all doing so great and if we keep up on our routine..we should be finished by the end of March! I have already started to plan next summer in fact. We have a couple trips planned and many craft projects in the making. We will also be getting some goats then.

Nothing much more to add. I pray that you all find the real beauty in the holidays and enjoy your family and most importantly-your little ones..

I would like to suggest everyone to check out the site www.dogsbite.org If they are considering a dog.We were strongly considering an American Bulldog, but as the pitbull..there has been many USA deaths of little ones with these dogs.

We will continue to pray on the type of dog that would fit in with our family.

My husband likes the Newfoundland and Saint Bernard’s..which are said to also be very good with children..they do shed like mad though.

UPDATE: We decided we will not be getting  a  dog at this time. Gee, that was quick! lol

We  have been thinking about getting a dog for a while now but have many requirements and were not sure if such a dog exsisted. Sure enough it did though.

Some of the requirements were these….

1.Must be top dog with children, not just ours but ALL children.

2.Must look mean but be a teddybear to its master and family.

3.Would give its life for its family.

4.Must be purebred with papers.

5.Must  be white or tan. A light color, for me to be able to spot a flea or tick on it at a glance.

6.Must be next to hairless, we don’t want pet hair all over the place.

7.Must not cost a fortune.

SO there you have it. We found out that the number one dog that is great with children of all ages and also fills all these requirements is the American Bulldog.. Well, all but number 7. These puppies run for $800 dollars in our area. WOW! Too much..so we did what anyone else would do..PRAY! If the Lord wants us to have a dog right now..he will provide..

Out of the blue we get two offered to us for free! (Not puppies though but 1 years old) God is faithful!!!

We will be going to look at them tomorrow afternoon..We will see then.:o)

For those of you who don’t know what these dogs look like..Here they are.

I just spent 30 mins. writing all about it but then lost it. UGH! I will rewrite  all the details on the breed etc. tomorrow. I am excited!! The Lord has been answering sooooo many of my prayers lately..I am bathing in his glory!!! Praise the Lord!!!

I am so tired! We left this morning at 10am to drop the kids off with my SIL. All except the baby. She is still too young to leave with anyone yet. :-) Anyway, Dh was prepared, he dropped me off where there was four stores that I needed to go to. He blessed me while taking care of the baby in the van, while I shopped. She napped, watched some Tv and played.He also taught her how to give five! *sweet*

The good news is, I managed to only spend $77.60 for christmas gifts for 5 kids! WOW! Very good and was even able to fill all their stockings up. There are two stores that I do the kids shopping at. One is called Playtos and its sister store is called Once Upon a child. I got games, books,videos and DVD’s. Along with some clothing and shoes. All I have left to get, is a Dance Praise mat system for my two oldest kids… That will be their main gift because it is about 30 dollars on ebay. I try to budget $200 dollars each year for the whole nine yards.

Now I am off to relax and cook the night away..It is my turn to provide lunch for our church group tomorrow. I am making a pot of Stephs cheeseburger soup in the crock pot, homemade buttermilk biscuits and a couple pumpkin rolls for dessert. Hopefully that won’t take more then a couple hours..I also found the Video Santa Clause for a dollar and we will be watching that tonight for family movie night!
Like I said though, I am sooo tired..hopefully I will be able to keep my eyes open.

Today we studied cinnamon. I bought some sticks in which the kids all took a lick and then grounded up some to make cinnamon..then stirred a stick  into some hot cocoa. Great dreary day for it!
 I really had no idea that cinnamon sticks were nothing more then pieces of evergreen pine tree bark. It is rolled into cinnamon sticks and dried. That is really neat!!

In medicine it acts like other medicinal oils and once had a reputation as a cure for colds. It is also used to treat diarrhea and other problems of the digestive system. The essential oil of cinnamon also has antimicrobial properties, which aid in the preservation of certain foods. Also, cinnamon has been reported to have remarkable pharmacological effects in the treatment of type II diabetes and insulin resistance.
An urban legend holds that it is impossible to eat a tablespoon of powdered cinnamon without choking or vomiting…If you look on youtube, you will see many crazy teens trying to do it without success. Lol Maybe it is true? I do not want to try it though.
It you love cinnamon..and enjoy adding it to sweet and savory dishes..continue! Your body will thank you. If you do not like the taste of cinnamon, you can but it in a caplet form for under 5 dollars.

This is the exact set that I have but in BLUE.  My husband bought it for me a while back off of HSN.com

I love enamel. The insides are cast iron and the outer sides are enamel.

 Cast Iron must be seasoned for it to last a life time. If you have new pans, they will need to be seasoned BEFORE you use them. Otherwise you should maintain your pans a couple times a year. The worst thing you can do to your cast iron pans is place them in the dishwasher or use soap on them. My grandma use to clean hers with hot water and salt..but I know some folks just use salt to wipe them out.

Ok, lets begin…

 Heat the oven to 300′ degrees

 Coat the pan with shortning, lard or bacon grease

Don’t use a liquid vegetable oil because it will leave a sticky residue and the pan will not be properly seasoned…. Place the pan in your preheated oven for 15 minutes, then remove the pan & pour out any excess grease. Then place the pan back in the oven and bake for 2 hours.

 Repeating this process 2-3x is recommended and it will help create a stronger seasoning bond. I usually do mine 2x.

The first couple times you use your now “seasoned” pan..it is good to fry something fatty in it..to bond the season even moreso. You might want to fry some bacon or sasage in it or maybe some hamburger.

This morning the kids and I woke to find a suspious looking man walking down our dead end street into our woods. A few weeks ago we noticed a man in a white van living in the woods but he was not bothering anyone that we saw so let it be. Today it got freaky with a man looking all about while he was walking, as to make sure that no one was watching..and becuase there was no car in our driveway he probably assumed no one was watching out their window. So, I decided to call the police. They came by about an hour after I called which was fine. I told the officer all the details and she said that most likely it is a hunter. Hunters hunt in ALL woods around here. She also told me that muzzle (sp) season just started this week so be sure to keep all my kids close by. She said everyone hunts around here, regardless of there age and they don’t stop and look before they shoot. If they see something move..they shoot. That this is a busy time where kids and animals get shot by accident. YIKES!

SO, for me to keep the kids either on the porch or deck..no where near the woods or up on the hills.

She drove down at the end of the street to talk to the folks whos land the man and van were on. She was down there for about 15 minutes and then drove back up the street and went on her way.

SO there you have it..I feel better now and so do the kids. You just never know.

If you like Monopoly, you’ll love HOMESCHOOLOPOLY!!