Friday, November 30, 2012

Cranberry Bread Recipe {Repost}


Here's a good one to enjoy when cranberries are on sale! It is my mother-in-law's recipe and we LOVE this bread at the holidays!


Cranberry Bread
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup orange juice
1 egg, beaten
1 cup chopped cranberries
1/2 cup chopped nuts
In large mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Add shortening. Combine juice and egg and add to dry mixture, stirring to moisten. Fold in cranberries and nuts. Turn into a greased loaf pan. Bake at 350° F for 60 min or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 min. Turn out to cool completely. Wrap airtight and store in refrigerator.

I hope to make this in the next few days- YUM! We make it a lot at Christmas time too. It is a nice gift to give to friends or family that "have everything"!

Thursday, November 29, 2012

American Girl class: Kit Week 6


We had another delightful class in American Girls this week! This was our final class for the fall semester, and the craft that I was most nervous about! After we reviewed the book, Changes for Kit, I explained our craft.

In preparation for making mittens with polar fleece, I had bought red polar fleece every time I was at the craft store and saw it on clearance. It was a great way to buy it! I cut two pieces of red fleece for each girl, and measured it 10" x 12". Some of them were a little small, I probably could have made them 12" x 12" and it would have been easier. I traced my ten-year-old son's hand, and my six-year-old daughter's hand, added three-quarters of seam allowance around, and made two tracer patterns for each. This worked well, since the girls were 6, 10 or in-between. I think only 2 of the 25 girls made them a little small! (Sorry, moms, I tried to encourage them to use the bigger tracers!)

 After they traced onto the fleece with a washable marker, they cut out the mittens. (The nice fabric scissors worked the best for this...) I explained that the girls needed to be sure they were cutting correctly, because I didn't have extra fleece for them if they made a mistake! Thankfully, I had moms who helped me and that made it easier too. Once the girls had their four pieces cut out, they brought them to me or another mom (thanks again to my mom volunteers that helped me sew on machines, it was so easy!)
 I left the cuff open, and the girls could add an old sock cuff to it if they wanted a cuff. I think they are fine the way they are! Most of the girls were quite happy with them, and it was a nice time of year to make them! I was glad it was an easier craft than I thought it would be... schwoo!
 Showing off their mittens!
 The 2:00 class made them too!
 For snack, we had Soup kitchen soup and homemade bread, which most of the girls enjoyed. I think one of the soups had turkey in it, since it was a few days after Thanksgiving!

I had thought maybe we could play checkers & dominoes, but we didn't have enough time. I read about "making do", quilting and patching clothes from the Welcome to Kit's World book. It was a wonderful class, but I can hardly believe that we are already finished with Kit! Next semester we'll study Molly and Julie! I'll miss seeing all these great girls over the Christmas break...

Judges 6:39
Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece, but this time make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with dew.”


Proverbs 31:13
She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands.

Isaiah 1:18
“Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Wordless Wednesday: Thanksgiving highlights 2012

We had a very enjoyable Thanksgiving away from home this past week. The past two years, we spent Thanksgiving at our home with my husband's family. This year, we decided to travel to my parents' home to visit them, and my sister was there with her little family. We ate well, the kids played together a lot, we played games, did lots of laughing and relaxed too. At the end of our stay, we were packing up my 21-month-old nephew tried to get into our car to come home with us! :-D (We would have taken him, but his parents would have missed him too much! ;-D)
  On our way to my parents' house, we stopped at this park and my daughter took some amazing pictures of this realistic bald eagle sculpture!
 My sister reading a book to my girls... love it!
My cute nephew Jakob... love him!

Our delicious turkey that my mom made... yum!

Enjoy the pics! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving too!


Psalm 69:30
I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving.

Psalm 100:4
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.

2 Corinthians 9:11
You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

American Girl class: Kit Week 5

Blogger was giving me problems yesterday... hopefully I've got it figured out, so here is yesterday's post!
----------------------------------

Since last Thursday was Thanksgiving, I didn't post about our Kit class last week, so this is the "make-up" post about Kit Week 5!

After we reviewed our book, we discussed the hobo code, and I gave the girls some more hobo code on a white board to guess. I got some more ideas from the Welcome to Kit's World book, on page 10-11. I also read the "Girl Hobo" story on page 13.

Then we began our craft, which was Reporter Notebooks, much like Kit may have written in. I bought small spiral-bound notebooks on sale in August during school supply season. The girls each got one notebook, a piece of red card stock measuring 3" x 4 3/4". I also gave them a piece of white cardstock measuring 1 3/4" X 4 3/4".

First, they decorated the white cardstock with stamps and stamp pads. Several of the girls made really cute designs, and great color combinations. After the white cardstock was all decorated, they applied glue to the back and glued it in the center of the red piece. Then the girls glued the red piece of cardstock to the notebook front. The girls enjoyed the craft, and several even stamped on the inside of the notebook! If you don't have a supply of rubber stamps on hand as I do, then you can use stickers instead.
Girls stamping with ink pads...

For snack, we had boiled potatoes, pinto beans and bread, as Kit was given in jail. None of our food was moldy or cold though! Most of the girls liked the snack, even though it was plain (as it was planned to be!) One of the moms made homemade bread which was still warm! Yum!
My daughter eating her snack!

To complete our class hour, I read about the Cincinnati Union Terminal in the Welcome to Kit's World book, on page 14-15. It was another fun class, I can't believe we only have one week left-- where did our semester go?!


Exodus 26:14
Make for the tent a covering of ram skins dyed red, and over that a covering of the other durable leather.



Joshua 2:20-22

But if you tell what we are doing, we will be released from the oath you made us swear.
 “Agreed,” she  (Rahab) replied. “Let it be as you say.”

So she sent them away, and they departed. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window.

When they left, they went into the hills and stayed there three days, until the pursuers had searched all along the road and returned without finding them.

Monday, November 26, 2012

Music Monday: "Give This Christmas Away"

This is a Christmas song that was released a few years ago, and I really fell in love with it. I like it partly because it reminds me of the heart of Christmas, which is giving. I like it because it relates to the Operation Christmas Child boxes that our family participates in packing each November. I also like it because it was part of a VeggieTales video, "Saint Nicholas- A Story of Joyful Giving". I enjoy Amy Grant's music, and have listened to her songs since I was 12 years old. She has always been a favorite singer/ songwriter of mine. I hope you will enjoy this song too! May it touch your heart in this Christmas season!


Matthew West - Give This Christmas Away [feat. Amy Grant] Lyrics

What if I told you
You have the power
To give someone hope
Beyond their wildest dreams
What if I told you
It’s right there in your hands
In your hands

It’s hard to imagine
How something so small
Can make all the difference
Tear down the tallest wall
What if December
Looked different this year
What if we all just

Give this Christmas away
If there’s love in your heart
Don’t let it stay there
Give this Christmas away
And your life will be changed
By the gifts you receive
When you give this Christmas away

It’s feeding the hungry
Serving the poor
It’s telling the orphan
You’re not forgotten anymore
It’s doing what love does
Even when no one’s watching you

Give this Christmas away
If there’s love in your heart
Don’t let it stay there
Give this Christmas away
And your life will be changed
By the gifts you receive
When you give this Christmas away
For God so loved the world
That He gave His only Son
So we could be
His hands, His feet, His love
His love

What if I told you
You have the power
To give someone hope
Far beyond their wildest dreams
What if December
Looked different this year
Yah what if we all just

Give this Christmas away
If there’s love in your heart
Don’t let it stay there
Give this Christmas away
And your life will be changed
By the gifts you receive
When you give this Christmas away

Give this Christmas away
You have the power
Just give it away
Give it away
Give it away
This Christmas
Give it away
Give Christmas away
Give it away
Read more at http://www.songlyrics.com/matthew-west/give-this-christmas-away-feat-amy-grant-lyrics/#bSd13KbwdQ3YqCvu.99 

You can watch a video of this song on YouTube here. (Beware, it makes me cry!)
You can read more about Operation Christmas Child here.

Luke 6:38
Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”



Luke 12:31-33

But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.
 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.


John 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Thankfulness garland {Repost}


This is a post from November 2010, but we did this again this week and really enjoyed it again. Take time to do this with your family, it is so impactful!


Thankfulness garland

So in our family night last Thursday, we made a thankfulness garland with our kids. I took about 10 sheets of construction paper, cut them into 1" strips and got supplies ready beforehand (i.e. staplers, markers, etc.,)  Then in the evening after dinner, we sat down as a family, read Psalm 100 and began to discuss being thankful and thankfulness. We told the kids that we wanted to write down what we were thankful for on the strips of paper.

The first 30 or 40 were easy, things like our new house, food, toys, clothes, homeschool, our church family, Bethany's "ni-ni" blanket, our car and van, books, etc., then we started to get creative.  Some of the things that made it on the 2nd half of the strips were: slippers, a laundry room with doors, apple trees on our property, birthday parties, my blog, Facebook, Jesus dying on the cross, our chickens, football, baseball, music, the library, our homeschool co-op, individual friends and individual members of our family. It was a great time to talk to the kids about the abundance that God has given us and get them into the thankfulness mindset. Our children do pretty well at being thankful and saying thank you, but it is important to go beyond just the little things. It is wise to talk about ALL that God has given us and realize and remember that ALL things come from God. "Every good and perfect gift comes from above, coming down from the Father of lights, in whom there are no shifting shadows." (James 1:17)

The best part of our thankfulness night was the part when we were finished with the 100 or so strips we had cut, that we still thought of more things we hadn't written down! SO we wrote on the BACKS of some of them too! I felt like then the kids really had gotten the message. It was also fun to see what the kids came up with that they were thankful for. :-D

We will leave our garland up all week and maybe part of next week. It depends if it gets in the way of the Christmas decorations! But the garland stretched over halfway around our living room! Here are a few pictures:







I hope that you will take time to do something like this with your family this week and give yourselves a visual reminder of all that you have to be thankful for too! What are you thankful for today?

Psalm 100

A psalm. For giving grateful praise.

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
    Worship the Lord with gladness;
    come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God.
    It is he who made us, and we are his[a];
    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving
    and his courts with praise;
    give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
    his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Monday, November 19, 2012

Music Monday: "Great is Thy Faithfulness"


This has been one of my favorite hymns for as long as I remember. The message has been true for me when I was 18, 28 or 38. I really like the version done by Lincoln Brewster, who is a modern worship leader and musician. We sang this song in church yesterday, and each time I sing it, I can hear my parents and grandparents voices in my mind. I hope you appreciate this song and its message-- God is faithful, today and every day.


Great Is Thy Faithfulness lyrics- Lincoln Brewster
Songwriters: FREEMAN, RONNIE C. JR. / DP,

(Verse 1)
Great is Thy faithfulness
O God my Father
There is no shadow of turning with Thee
Thou changest not
Thy compassions they fail not
As Those hast been Thou forever will be

(Chorus)
Great is Thy faithfulness
Great is Thy faithfulness
Morning by morning new mercies I see
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness Lord unto me

(Verse2)
Pardon for sin
And a peace that endureth
Thine own dear presence
To cheer and to guide
Strength for today
And bright hope for tomorrow
Blessings all mine
With ten thousand beside


[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/l/lincoln_brewster/great_is_thy_faithfulness.html ]


You can listen to this song on Youtube here.


Lamentations 3:22-24
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”


Psalm 108:4
For great is your love, higher than the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

Psalm 117:2
For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD.

Friday, November 16, 2012

Faithful Friday: Thankfulness this week


It seems like thankfulness is everywhere this time of year. You kinda have to look past the turkeys to see it, but it's there. We're reading books about being thankful, and one of my favorite books when I was a child about thanksgiving, Cranberry Thanksgiving. We've talked about it in homeschool. I often think of things to write in my journal of 1,000 things to be thankful for this year, and so thankfulness has been on my mind too.

This is some of the things that have been on my list of thankfulness this week...
890. For machines to wash and dry for me so I can have an easier day (no scrubbing on rocks by the river!)
891. Clean towels and rugs-- fresh smells!
892. Time spent chatting with my parents
893. A great birthday party to celebrate our decade-old boy!
894.Time to rest and nap with Joshua on the futon
895. Cake leftovers!/ 905. Leftover chocolate depression cake
896. Generosity of friends and family with great gifts of clothes, toys, books and games
897. Teaching Mallory what Thanksgiving is all about
898. That God is an omnipresent, hopeful God (quiet time reading)
899. For great books filled with wonderful writing to read (including this one below, which I finished this week for book club!)

900. My two little girls playing so well together

Since we had a sickie with a sniffly nose, we had some good snuggle-buggle time, which I loved.
Caleb read a book to his sick little sister... so sweet!

901. Bethy still had lots of smiles, despite her cold and "bless-you-ing".

I went through some bins of clothes this week, changing size 3T for size 4, so
902. Generous gifts of clothes we've gotten and lasted through 3-4 girls (ours, and a niece or two!)

903. For time to spend with God each day

904. Fresh, warm flannel sheets on my bed

906. My two girls splashing and playing in the tub together

907. Caleb hit two home runs on his new Wii baseball game!

What have you been thankful for this week? Have you told God about it? I'm sure He'd love to hear from you!


2 Thessalonians 1:3

We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters,[a] and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing.

2 Corinthians 9:15

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

1 Corinthians 1:4
I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

American Girl class: Kit week 4

After we reviewed our fourth Kit book, Happy Birthday, Kit, we discussed penny pinching and what Kit's birthday party looked like. For our craft, we made paper lanterns, paper hats, and tissue paper flowers. The girls seemed to like making these crafts just from paper. Most of them said that they had never made paper lanterns before. I found directions for the paper lanterns here. Directions for the newspaper sailor hats were found here. Directions for the tissue paper flowers were found here

The crafts were all pretty simple and easy, only requiring construction paper, staples, a hole punch and yarn. It was pretty easy to complete the three crafts in our one hour of class time. I let the girls color on their lanterns and hats too. (But we ran out of paper in the second class! Oops!)

For snack we had Tea sandwiches and depression cake. Depression cake is a cake with no eggs. We found a good recipe here.
 Cutting the lanterns...
 You can see the completed lanterns on the table, and the girls were folding their tissue paper for the flowers.
 The girls cut the piece of tissue paper in half before stapling it. Most of the girls put them into a circle, so that it was a stand-alone flower with no stem.

 This girl put her flower on top of her lantern-- so cute!
The 2nd class didn't have the tea sandwiches- which were just sandwiches with crusts cut off, filled with "fancy" fixings, such as egg salad (which they may not have had much of in the depression...), chicken salad, or sliced cucumbers and cream cheese. Our snack mom used turkey and swiss cheese for the sandwiches, and the girls really liked them! They liked the chocolate cake too!

It was another great class day, it's hard to believe we only have two weeks left!


Proverbs 13:11
Dishonest money dwindles away, but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow.


Matthew 6:24
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.


Hebrews 13:5
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Wordless Wednesday: Caleb's 10th birthday!

(Well, almost wordless!)

We had a delightful time celebrating our son's 10th birthday this past weekend with a Denver Broncos themed football party! His actual birthday was last Wednesday, so it was a few days between the actual day and the party. We gave him a few gifts on his birthday, but he had to wait for his party for most of them. Family visited for the weekend, and we had a good time with them. Enjoy the pics!
 The number pumpkin pancakes on the morning of his birthday!
 In his new sweatshirt from mom and dad...
 A Peyton Manning shirt (not really a jersey) that he LOVES!
 A nice sweater from Grandpa and Grandma...
 A new SF Giants hat...
 A Nice shirt and slacks from Auntie Allie...
 A new Nerf Gun from Mom and Dad!
 The jersey cake-- number ten for the year...
Grandma reading a bedtime story to my two little girls. So sweet!

He's already been enjoying all of his gifts-- a new football, kicking tee, card binders and card holders (which has kept him quite busy filling them!), books, games and clothes. Thank you to our friends and family for coming and for spoiling our boy a little bit! We can hardly believe he is already TEN!


Colossians 1:3
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,


Psalm 127:3-4

Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him.
Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth.



Luke 18:15-17
People were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Making me smile...

Recently, we had a "family game night" with our kids. We do not do this enough. We all usually really enjoy it, and it is a good bonding time. On this particular night, we played Yahtzee, which is a game that we haven't played too often.

 My youngest daughter, age 3 1/2 wanted to "play" too, but we couldn't very well have her score her own paper. I gave her one score page, which she wrote on with her pencil. After a few minutes, she still wanted to play. I gave her one die to roll for me, and she liked that.
 Our six-year-old needed some help too, and she was on a team with Daddy. She did great writing her numbers and trying to keep score.

Showing off her score card...
 Bethy keeping "score" on her own score sheet...
 Rolling with gusto!
 YAHTZEE!! She helped Mommy roll one! YEA!
These pictures make me smile. I know before too long she will be scoring and writing her own numbers, but for now I am glad she can be on my team and share in the excitement of a good roll with me. I think we got some good game-players growing up in our house! That is a good thing, since we love to play games!



Writing prompt #5- Tell about something that made you smile this week.



Deuteronomy 11:18-21


18 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 20 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, 21 so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...