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A lifetime of gratitude: What I am thankful for

23 Nov

I try to be grateful and thankful all year long, I really do. I consider myself to be very lucky on so many levels and I try to never go a day without being grateful for all that I have. However, Thanksgiving gives us a chance to focus on what we have and give extra thanks for it. So here goes:

This year on Thanksgiving I am extra, extra-thankful for:

My husband and my children. Everything I do, I do for them first and foremost.

My family, both my immediate family and my extended family on both sides. They are loving, caring and supportive and my family means everything to me.

My health and the health of my loved ones. I have been very lucky so far in my life, having been in good health and having both health and longevity in my family.

My friends. I have a large support network of friends and I know that in times of need, everyone will be there, has been there, and I appreciate that more than they know.

My jobs. In a time when unemployment is at its highest, I am thankful for all of the work that I have. As tough as times are, I always believe that there are people struggling more than we are.

I am thankful to all those who do the jobs I do not do. Not everyone can be a doctor or a police officer, a teacher or a soldier. Each of us has been blessed with different abilities and talents. Therefore, I am always grateful and thankful to those who possess the talents and abilities that I do not. All of us put together make the world go round. Thank you to everyone for all that you do.

Technology. I am grateful to be able to connect with so many who mean so much to me, across so many miles. I am not super-technological and I don’t have the best of everything when it comes to phones or computers, but I have the basics so that I am able to be very connected to those I love and miss.

My dog. Who knew I would ever be grateful for a pet as much as I am? I love my new dog very much and I have been grateful for her company this first year of my kids all being in school all day.

The seasons. I am thankful that we have chosen to live in a place where we can celebrate and enjoy the glory of each season. Fall is one of my favorite seasons. There is nothing like taking a ride through New England during the fall and seeing the beauty that we are surrounded by.

I have been very blessed and I am thankful today and every day. I wish you all the happiest of Thanksgivings, filled with love, family, friends and wonderful desserts and side dishes!

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Pumpkin Palooza BONUS: Triple Recipe for Pumpkin Cranberry Bread

18 Nov

Last week I posted a recipe for Pumpkin Cranberry Bread. It’s a recipe from my mom and I make it every year. Last year I think I doubled it and this year I tripled it. It made five regular sized loaf pans and the Pampered Chef mini loaf pan, which is four mini loaves. It was SO easy to triple the recipe and I literally used just one dry measuring cup (the one cup measure) and one wet measuring cup, with a couple of measuring spoons and one big spatula/scraper, so despite yielding so many breads, the cleanup was minimal. I took a ton of photos, so I thought I’d share the triple recipe with you and show you photos of the process as well. Recipe first, photos at the end…

TRIPLE RECIPE for PUMPKIN CRANBERRY BREAD

*I used a lobster pot type of stock pot (we registered for it when we got married, but we never do make lobster!) to do my mixing and one large Pampered Chef scraper. I don’t think my Kitchen Aid stand up Mixer could fit the amount of ingredients in the bowl, nor could it have mixed them.

INGREDIENTS

3 cans Libby Pumpkin (equals six cups of pumpkin, each can is 15 ounces)

6 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups water

12 eggs

1 1/2 cups canola oil

12 cups flour

12 tsp or 4TBL baking powder

3 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp grd. ginger

3/4 tsp grd. cloves

3 packages cranberries

The directions remain the same, but I’m pasting them here anyway. A couple of tips: I mixed all the wet ingredients in the pan together first to make sure the eggs were well-mixed. Then I mixed again after I put in six cups of flour, then added the last six and mixed again. Then I added in my spices…mixed again, and the cranberries…mixed again and then portioned it all out. Super easy.


DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease loaf pan(s). You can either use two large loaf pans or 3 mini loaf pans.

Beat together pumpkin, sugar, water, eggs and oil.

Sift in remaining ingredients except cranberries. Mix just until smooth.

Gently fold in cranberries.

Pour into loaf pan(s) and spread evenly.

Bake in the center of oven for 60 – 70 minutes for large loaves, less time (40-50 minutes for smaller loaves) or until toothpick or cake tester comes out clean. Do not overbake or bread will be dry.

Cool in pan on a rack for 10 – 15 minutes. Turn bread(s) out onto rack and finish cooling.

Bread may be made in advance, covered and chilled for up to four days.(When I make two loaves for us I often save one to eat and keep one to freeze to eat at a later date.)

PHOTOS

Pumpkin is in the pan, ready to go.

All ingredients are mixed, except the cranberries.

Three bags is a lot of cranberries!

I did NOT lick that. Well, that one swipe up the side, I licked that, but the rest...

Ready for the oven.

Done....

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When can I……

17 Nov

“When can I have a cell phone?”

“Can I get my ears pierced?”

“Can I get them double pierced?”

“When do I get to sleep on the top bunk?”

“How come I have to put my own laundry away and they don’t?”

Sound familiar? As soon as our kids are old enough to ask for something, it starts….and it never ends. We realized very early on that we needed to set up House Rules for the kids who lived in our house and stick by them no matter what “everyone else” was doing and no matter what the rules in their houses were.

The rules were basically set by our experiences with our oldest, since she is the one who approached every benchmark in life first, whether it was sleeping on the top bunk, or having a cell phone, or whatever the case may be. However, by setting the rules for her, and making them known to the next two girls, it’s stopped a lot of the questioning. The rules are set, they know what they are, and there’s no question. We’ve only had to make an exception on one rule, one time, which I’ll explain later.

Having set rules not only helps us stay consistent in our parenting from kid to kid in our house, but it helps us have a ready answer when confronted with a question from another parent, and gives our kids a ready answer as well, when they’re asked if they can do something, by one of their peers. They may not like the answer, and their friends may not either, but at least they can blame us and say, “That’s the rule in our house,” if they want to.

Obviously we know that nothing can be written in stone and exceptions may have to be made along the way, and things may come up that we have no rules for and need to make a split decision on, but we have our baseline set of rules and we do our best to stick by them. We also know that our rules may be different than other families’ rules.

Clearly, we’ve only gotten up to the rules for twelve years old and sixth grade since our oldest is only that far along, but it makes me curious:  what the rules are in other people’s houses? Do you have rules set up beforehand and stick by them or do you make them up as you go? Do you have rules that you’ve found helpful beyond the ones we have here?

Comment back and let me know.

Here’s a look at our House Rules

Age 5 allowed to have their first friend birthday party, at home, five friends

Age 6 allowed to have their first friend birthday party out of the house

Age 6 first time sleeping in the top bunk  (*This is a safety rule told to us by the furniture store where we bought the beds, so there was no question here.)

Age 8 ears pierced

Age 9 last big friend party out of the house

Age 10 the almost sleepover birthday party (Three friends can be invited. Kids arrive with pjs, pillows, sleeping bags and stay late but not sleep over night.)

Age 10 Bedtime is moved to 9pm

Age 10 Responsible for putting away all of their own laundry

Age 10 first time sleeping at someone else’s house other than family (This is the one we had to make an exception for. Our second daughter got a birthday party sleepover invite from a family we’re very close to and we allowed it so she didn’t miss the party or have to leave the party. However, it was just an exception for the one night.)

Age 11 allowed to have an email address

Age 11 able to stay home alone for very short periods of time on an as-needed basis only

Age 12 sixth grade we allowed a laptop (our oldest “worked” all summer before her 12th birthday as a Mother’s Helper to save her own money in order to purchase a 10″ notebook laptop)

Age 12 or end of sixth grade can get a second earring hole if they want one (Sixth grade for us is the last year of elementary school.)

Age 13 or entering seventh grade can have an emergency-only cell phone

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Thankful for those who serve

11 Nov

Today is Veteran’s Day.

Today is a day to remember and honor all those who have served for our country and all those who are still serving. Yesterday I had the privilege to attend a very special Veteran’s Day assembly at one of our local schools. The students at every grade level honored those who have served from World War I all the way through those who are currently serving, as well as those who have given their lives for our country.

I have a special connection to the Ron Gill Jr. Foundation. Ronnie Gill lived in our city and he gave his life for our country. His family has ensured that his legacy lives on. Please check out their website to see all that their foundation has done, helping families send kids to college for more than four years now, since Ronnie’s death. To date they have given out almost $100,000 in scholarship money.

Today I also give thanks for all of the military spouses and families whose family members are currently serving our country or have served in the past. If my husband is gone for dinner one night, I feel his absence. I cannot imagine him being gone for months at a time, a year at a time, many times over. I cannot imagine not seeing my own parents for months and years on end. Those military spouses, children and families sacrifice as well. I am thankful for their strength.

Finally, today would have been my grandparents’ anniversary. By my count, I think they would have been married 68 years. Two years ago my grandfather passed away, but my grandmother is still living. So today, I am remembering them as well. This day has always had dual meaning for me.

No matter how you spend your day, be sure to take at least a moment to give thanks for your freedom.

 

 

 

 

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Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

3 Nov

I’ve posted this on my personal FB page before, but I chose to move it onto my blog today because I love the simplicity of it. The recipe is easy and the cookies are delish!  Enjoy!

I love this recipe! I found it years ago. I always double it. Below is the single recipe.  Batter is safe to taste– no eggs.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup mini chocolate chips ( I never have mini, I used regular. To double, I only use 1 1/2 cups chips. 2 is too many.)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Beat butter and sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy.

Beat in vanilla.

Add in flour and salt. Beat until well combined.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Divide dough in half and press each half into an ungreased 8″ round cake pan. (I don’t have those so I use a cookie sheet and I roll it onto that.)

Bake 12 minutes or until golden brown (It takes longer for a double recipe, almost double the time. Just keep an eye on them.)

Score shortbread with sharp knife and cut or break into triangles (for round pan, and square for cookie sheet.)

Let pans stand on wire rack for 10 minutes.

*photo of chocolate chips from Google Images Editor at Large

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Life lessons learned from Halloween

1 Nov

I just uploaded some pictures of my kids from Halloween onto my personal Facebook page. As I looked at the pictures, I was feeling so proud of the girls, I just had to share.

Here is the one particular picture I uploaded that got me thinking…

This year's costumes: a dancer, a doctor and a Face Book

The reason this picture got me thinking is this:  it may sound terrible, but we won’t go out and buy Halloween costumes. We outright refuse. Our reason is that our kids all take dance and have for ten years, eight years and five years, respectively. That means we have A TON of costumes in our basement, very beautiful but very expensive costumes. We average about six costumes per dance year, one year I think we had eight or nine. We also have costumes from dress-up clothes (we have several of the princess costumes) and costumes that people have handed down to us (and no we don’t have a costume bin, if you read my prior post about our bins!) Basically our basement could be a costume shop itself. So a few years ago, we decided that we would no longer spend money in the fall on costumes. They had to be whatever they could be with whatever we already had down there. One year my oldest daughter, Caroline, made her jazz costume into a poodle skirt. Last year, Elizabeth was a ballerina in a gorgeous dress combined with the bright blue Airbender mask and matching blue swords, an interesting combination, but she liked it, while Alex was something different every Halloween party or event we went to. Each time, she’d just pick something off the hook down there and put it on.

Halloween 2010 an Airbender Ballerina, a witch and a blue jay

This year, Caroline decided she didn’t want to wear something we had, and in all fairness to her, a lot of what we have down there no longer fits her since it was already hers in the past. She’d already done the witch costume a couple of times, and nothing from dance this year appealed to her. But, she didn’t ask for something new. She didn’t even tell us she wasn’t wearing something we had. She went on- line, Googled “Homemade Halloween Costumes,” saw the Face Book costume on a website that came up, and she was off and running. Between her and Don, they got the materials they needed and he helped her make the costume. I loved it!

She wore the costume to the “Lock In” at dance earlier this month and she was absolutely beaming when she came home with “Most Creative” out of all the costumes there. I was nervous that she might not want to wear her costume, being that it was homemade, (and I have to admit that although we stay strong on this, I was in fact, feeling guilty) but she brought it and won. I was so proud of her!

Times are hard and we tell our kids all the time that they will be older and remember these days when people were losing their houses and their jobs, when restaurants and stores were closing and empty, and I know that some day they will be telling their kids, “My parents wouldn’t buy us costumes for Halloween,” but hopefully when they do, there will be some good memories and life lessons learned, attached to that sentence.

Trick or Treat!


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Are we *that* family?

31 Oct

Today is Halloween. Each year we struggle with the same decision many other families struggle with. No, it’s not what to wear, the kids are pretty creative on that end. The question we struggle with: what to give out for our “treats.”

We get about 100 trick or treaters in our neighborhood, so whatever we give out, we have to stock up on quite a few of it. We knew right away we were not the “full sized treats” kind of house. We have to give out too many to be able to afford a full sized anything for anyone. We’ve done mini treats before, and last year I bought Dum Dum Lollipops and three boxes of tissues and the girls and I wrapped every lollipop in tissue, tied a ribbon and drew a face, making little ghosts.

This year earlier in October, I happened to be walking through Aldi’s, one of our local discount grocery stores (I *LOVE* Aldi’s by the way,) when I came across these and I knew I’d found this year’s treats:

Mmm.... Halloween Fruit Snacks...right?

I thought this would be the perfect treat, a little bit healthy and even better if there were treats left over, I wouldn’t want them myself the way I would a bowl of peanut M&Ms but I did think they’d be a perfect lunchbox snack for school for weeks to come. I was so proud of myself, I think I even gave myself a pat on the back.

Until…we watched a recent episode of one of the girls’ favorite shows: “Good Luck Charlie” on the Disney Channel. On this particular episode the family was getting ready for Halloween and Teddy, the oldest sister, had decided that this year her family was going to give out a healthy snack: carrot sticks.

“Oh, so you’re going to be *that* family,” her friend commented to her.

And that’s when it hit me: Were we going to be *that* family too? Is our treat fun enough, “cool” enough and healthy enough without being too healthy? All week I have been wondering. I mean it’s NOT carrot sticks (and no, I never even considered that,) but it’s not a full sized Twix bar either!!

So it made me wonder…what are YOU giving out for Halloween treats this year? Are you a full sized family, a ghost lollipop family, a popcorn ball family or a carrot stick family? Comment and let me know!

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My love-hate relationship with The Bins

29 Oct

The Bins

Today’s the day. I knew it was coming as the season began to change this month. Three weeks ago, it was Columbus Day Weekend and it was almost 90 degrees; my kids were in bathing suits. Two nights ago I was putting away laundry and there were still shorts and t shirts in the piles of clothes I was putting away. But, I knew it was coming.

One of my aunts calls the fall and the spring “The Black Holes of Fashion” because you never know how to dress. It might be chilly in the morning and hot by afternoon or cold at night and warm all day. It’s a constant game of layering outfits when I get my kids dressed each day or even myself: short sleeves and sweatshirts or long sleeves and leggings but no jacket.

Usually I look for a long weekend to do my bins, to switch my closets over, but judging from last night’s weather forecast for this weekend prior to Halloween, I told my husband, “It’s time,” and up into the attic he went last night so that when I arrived home there were stacks of bins halfway to the ceiling, full of clothing.

I am grateful that we have three girls and lots of girl cousins because get lots of hand-me-downs and we hand everything down after we’re done, to pay it forward. I can’t even imagine having to buy all new clothes for a boy and a girl for example, every single year, as my mom must have had to do. When you have “one of each” you can’t hand anything down from one to the other. But, having three girls and so many hand-me-downs to store, presents an issue: where do you store all those clothes for years and years, and how?

Originally when we had one daughter and no idea who was going to be born next, we saved everything and we had one stack of bins in our garage. I stored them labeled with a Sharpie marker by size and by season since here in New England we are lucky enough to have all four seasons. I narrow it down to Winter and Summer, lumping spring and fall in there as well. As we had more and more daughters however, and acquired more and more clothes (the outfits seem to multiply like the proverbial rabbits) we had to come up with a better way to store it.

Our solution was to have someone come in and access our attic for us. We were unable to do a pull-down stairway method, so every spring and fall my husband brings in a ladder from outside, sets it up in our bedroom and up he goes to take down the bins. Then I sort through all of the clothes, sending off anything that we’ve grown out of for good to the next lucky girls, and then sending him back up into the attic with the bins re-labeled for next year’s season. It’s a whole weekend process at least.

Currently we have ten bins and three bags of assorted clothing ready to be sorted this weekend. It’s a grueling process, but I will say this: I have an odd attachment to their clothes. I get very sentimental as I put them away each year and I get a slight thrill each fall and spring as I take the clothes out of the bins. I find myself saying, “Oh I loved this outfit on your sister!” as I pass it down to the next daughter. I love to hear them be excited when a certain outfit is now theirs, something that they always admired on their older sister. Or, as I pass down the special occasion dresses, I remember the photos they took or an event they attended in a particular dress, and I do get somewhat misty-eyed, I must admit. In fact, when it came time to give away my baby clothes for good (only saving the dearest and most special pieces) I photographed every single one. I have a folder with 42 pictures of baby clothing in it on my Kodak Easyshare site.

So as much as I am dreading my task this weekend, I am thankful to have the abundance of clothing to pass down to my girls, thankful I only have my oldest daughter to outfit each season, and I am looking forward to seeing what clothing is going into the drawers this year that we’ll be oohing and aahhing over this time around.

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I’m a Guest Blogger!

26 Oct

You can find me this week on the Good Parent Good Child Blog!

I’m so excited! This week I was asked to be a guest blogger on fellow author/blogger/mom Rebecca Jackson’s Good Parent Good Child Blog.

I was asked to talk about cooking for a large family with a variety of tastes. I provided her with five tips we’ve discovered along the way as well as one yummy recipe that my family loves.

I hope you’ll check it out! You can click on the underlined title above and go right to my post!!

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What would your message be?

21 Oct

This was me, just before my presentation began.

This week I was asked to speak at our local community college to a writing class. A friend of mine from college works there and she asked me to come in and speak. I was very excited, I love public speaking even though so many people do not. I also love speaking to students, although this was my first time speaking to college-aged students. Usually I speak to upper level elementary students or to middle school students.

I was asked to speak to them about how writing has influenced my career, but the prompt really got me thinking. There was so much more I wanted to tell these students before they leave their college life behind and go out into the “real world.”  There was so much that I wanted to share, things I had already learned that I felt important to tell them.

My speech was about 20 minutes long, maybe a half hour. I had a power point presentation to go along with it, and I brought lots of samples of my writing with me as well, some hands-on things for them to look through.

The college years: once a writer and snacker, always a writer and snacker!

I talked all about my decision making process in college, trying to decide where I wanted to go in life, what I wanted to “do.” I told them about my days as a teacher and my desire to be home with my children once we started our family 12 years ago. I talked about running a home-based business for eleven years and about how I happened upon my job as a reporter and photographer at a school event three years ago next week. I talked about winning my journalism awards and how fantastic that was, about writing books and being an author and how fantastic that is as well.

However, I what I tried to  emphasize the most and what I hope they took away with them was this:

Don’t think you have to do just one thing in your lifetime.

Don’t be afraid to reinvent yourself over and over again, should the need or desire to try something new arise.

Doing what you love is so important.

In this day and age, with the economic times as they are, think out of the box. See what else you can do with your skills and your hobbies, even if it’s not exactly what you went to school for or what you thought you wanted to do for a career.

Don’t be afraid to say yes to something new, and to see where that takes you. Opportunities are around every corner.

Don’t be afraid to put your family first, if that is something that is a priority for you (as it was and still is, for me.)

And most importantly, writing is so important. If you can write and write well, even if you don’t love it the way I do, you can do anything.

I hope my message got through to them and I hope my presentation makes a difference for at least one of those students.

It makes me wonder though, if you were speaking to them, if this was your one chance to inspire this next generation, what would your message be?

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