Winding Down 2023

Our year is coming to a close, and the kids are out of school for Christmas break. Life at our house is probably not what you see at a typical house with kids--things here are slower paced, less scheduled, less....busy! That's just the way we like it. No places to go, no crazy lists to check off or huge demands to fill. We keep presents simple, music on, and a candle lit as we enjoy the Christmas season.

And both kids help with chores!

Jacob won 3rd place in his first GeoBowl contest at school (geography trivia). He's already looking forward to next year's.

We found a new place to look at lights this year, it is a park decorated at a small town just down the road from us. Not a lot of houses do big displays by us, so walking around a park is much easier than driving and hunting for lights!

We all watched "A Christmas Story" last night after dinner, and tonight we will watch "Home Alone" as we all pile up with our blankets in the living room. Santa will deliver a few presents tonight, and stuff the stockings with treats to find in the morning! We have no visitors coming to see us so my boys will be all I need to be happy tomorrow. After breakfast and presents we will read from the New Testament the story of Jesus' birth.

May your holidays be cheerful and full of love, as always remember the reason for the season.

Crockpot Candy

The easiest candy you'll ever make! A full batch made about 130 approx 1tbs sized clusters. If you don't need many, feel free to cut the recipe in half.

*Pro tip: Use a crockpot liner for much easier clean up!

Ingredients:

32oz lightly salted peanuts

24oz white almond bark

2 bags semi-sweet chocolate chips

Break up bark and add all ingredients into crockpot on low. After about 1hr stir to mix. Stir again after another hr, if not completely melted you can wait another hr. When fully melted and mixed, spread large area with parchment paper and using a small cookie scoop place blobs on sheet. You can add sprinkles etc for decoration before they cool. Leave at room temp x2-3hr to harden, store in airtight container in cool spot. Enjoy!

Holiday Season, Cooking, and Craft Shows

Enjoy some pics of my family from the month so far!

Here, Jacob got to help daddy put up the Christmas lights outside on a warm day after Thanksgiving. They are on the front porch roof!

I had lots of craft shows this month to keep my side business busy!! Nick and Brad are big helpers and go with me to each one.

Our Thanksgiving feast was simple and quiet--just how we like it! I did the traditional turkey with mashed potatoes/gravy, deviled eggs, mac and cheese, roasted carrots, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, and stuffing.

I also made 2 pumpkin pies with homemade roasted pumpkin puree! Don't mind the crusts--that's not my strong point in the kitchen haha!

We took the boys to an evening at an opera house in town built in the 1800s where they had a free Big Band Christmas concert! It was neat to see inside the old building and listen to the vintage music.

And of course Cuddles is daily tolerating us all.

This is really the only "good" snow we've gotten so far this year, maybe 2-4". It all melted shortly after when the days warmed back up to the 40s. It's halfway thru December already and we are ready for the snow to get here!

Nick and I went on a date to a ballet performance of the "Nutcracker Suite", an abbreviated version of the full ballet.

I had my LAST craft show of 2023 yesterday, so I'm happily winding down my production and putting away my supplies until the shows start back up in the late winter/spring.

If you've made it this far, please say a prayer for my father--he was just recently diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer and required emergent surgery. He is now in rehab to build his strength and independence back up before he can go home!

Frugal Meal Series: French Onion Chicken Casserole

Welcome to my new series aimed at helping families on a budget with some new and cost effective ideas for meals! I aim for around $5-7 per meal while trying to highlight dishes from scratch, meatless options, common ingredients, and whole grains. My typical weekly grocery bill for 4 was $50-60 just a couple years ago, but with the current economy it has increased to about $80-90/week. This series shows you my average family dinners including cost breakdown, links to recipes, and other details to help inspire you!

Step 1 of saving money on your grocery bill is to MAKE A MENU! Once a week I sit down and write out a dinner menu for the next 7 days. I take into account what I have in the freezer, what our schedule is like for that week, what the weather is (hot/cold), and any leftovers. It also stops everyone from asking "What's for dinner??" From this you can easily make your shopping list to only get the items you need while keeping an eye out for any markdowns/clearance items you can stick in the freezer for a different meal. I do 90% of my grocery shopping at Aldi as I find that they have the best prices on most items. For a few other remaining items I go to Walmart.

Some meals I make are easy, some are more complicated. I mostly stick to tried and true dishes that I know everyone likes, but occasionally I like to try out a new one and experiment! I cook many style from American to Italian, Chinese, Mexican, and lots of Tex Mex. Variety is the spice of life!

For my cost breakdowns I will show real or estimated prices of items (based on current prices in western NY), but I don't include typical pantry ingredients i.e. spices/oil/butter/milk etc. unless it's a significant amount.

For this meal I made French Onion Chicken Casserole (approx 6+ servings)

Total cost of meal for 4: $5.52

Cost per serving: $1.38

Price breakdown (for entire casserole):

4c cooked brown rice: $0.75

2c diced cooked chicken: $2.50

1c French Onion dip: $1

1 can cream of chicken: $0.75

1c shredded cheddar: $2

1/2c chicken broth: $0.25

1/2c french fried onions: $1 

Recipe found HERE.

This delicious casserole was an easy and filling way for us to use up some leftover Thanksgiving turkey! Otherwise you can use 1 large chicken breast for it. After your rice is cooked (the recipe calls for instant but I use regular brown rice) it throws together very quickly and is hot and ready out of the oven. You can pair it with many yummy sides, I usually do steamed veggies. Depending on your portion sizes, this can easily serve 6 or more people. For the 4 of us we have seconds, and usually a bit leftover. If you like the taste of french onion dip, I highly recommend!

School Pics and Crafting

My boys are growing up so fast! Look at these adorable but WAY too grown school pictures

And my sweet boy Jacob got the Eagle Pride Award for grades and behavior, as well as an Attendance Award! So proud of him.

This is my busy crafting season--I have craft shows going, online sales, and a weekend market starting from Thanksgiving until Christmas at a local greenhouse to all keep me pretty busy! And of course I have ideas for new products, so that just gives me more to do haha!

If you are interested in seeing what all I've come up with and maybe try some stuff out, you can shop my store online HERE and btw I'm offering free shipping until the end of Nov!

The latest creation I've come up with is a custom blend of teas made with herbs from my garden! I've been offering smaller packets of individual herbs, but I thought a blend for tea would benefit certain people looking for something more. I have a Wake Up blend, Digestion blend, and Bedtime blend! In the works I will also add on a Womens blend soon...

I also started a new line of scents for my soy candles just for the holidays in new gold tins...

A fresh infused oil in the making! This one is rosemary in almond oil, which is the base for my Lavender Face Salve (pictured below).

I hope everyone has an amazing Thanksgiving--my next post will be our little celebration at home!

Closing out Autumn and Preparing for December

Fall is definitely in the air, and we have been working hard to enjoy the last sunny days when the grass is visible and trees have a bit of leaves left on the branches!

I was very happy to identify this Gingko Biloba tree in our town--and since then I have found 2 others! I harvested some beautiful leaves and will be making some more home remedies with it.

I finally caught my grapevines in time before they turned woody and I made my first grapevine wreath! It's now drying in the attic to harden, and I will decorate with cute decor to hang in the spring.

I harvested my small garden and got a basket full of beets and multicolored carrots! They all turned out a bit smaller than expected but I still cooked them all up! 

A carrot that identified as a beet!

I make pickled beets for the first time and they turned out SOOO GOOD.

In early Nov we took our old Halloween pumpkins to my friend's farm on the edge of town for her Angus cows to enjoy! They scarfed them up as the boys hand fed them, then we went to play with the chickens and chase the ducks.

The nights are getting colder, warm comforters are on the bed, and Thanksgiving in NEXT week! The year is coming to close, I hope 2024 will be amazing.