The Regency Ball

 For the last two months, our family has been preparing for a Regency ball planned by my friend and fellow Jane Austen lover. 

The whole Lyme Disease thing put a serious kink in costume sewing, but the children stepped up to the plate and learned some stitching skills since I couldn't. I should also add that I had two friends donate significant hours to help the kids with the sewing tasks. The last few days I was well enough to do some stitching myself. 

And the last few hours before we had to leave for the ball, I was hearing Mrs. Bennet's voice from my favorite Pride and Prejudice movie shrieking, "Make haste, make haste!" Even as we were driving, we were sewing buttons and hooks and eyes. The children went into the venue to help set up, and I sat in our van pinking seam allowances. 

In the end, the costumes weren't sewn perfectly, but I thought my crew looked quite handsome. And what's more, they had such a blast learning some challenging dances. Little has been talked about since the ball except for the ball. It seems our family wasn't the only one enthralled by the evening; plans are already being discussed for a winter ball. 

My crew

Tea for all! 

This was an occasion to wear his great-great grandfather's pocket watch and chain. 

The only down side for me was my eye. I did dance the first few dances, but then the eye on the paralyzed side of my face became too tired? dry? uncomfortable! to stay open. And since the muscle that closes the eye doesn't work and the muscle that opens it does work (always if I open the other eye), I spent the rest of the ball sitting down with my eye patch on and with my eyes closed. I was still able to hear the dancers' feet get the hang of each new dance as it was taught. That was a neat experience!

I call this my faux-Regency/pirate look. I swear that is really a smile.

It's Not All About Me

Sometimes I like to highlight people in my life (or people I don't actually know) who are doing things I think are cool, amazing, or interesting. Today is one of those times. (Note that I have highlighted some of these folks before, but if they continue to do things that impress me, why not?)

1.  Creative juices are flowing for my daughter. She has been writing, creating games, crocheting, and sewing of late. This morning she created a blog post about a recent creation.

Cute unicorn gift

2.  I've post before about our first-time beekeeping experiences. My beekeeping son has really put some effort into his endeavors. He's created a YouTube channel, Baroque Beekeeping, to post videos of his bees and to document what he doing and learning. (This is not a homeschool assignment.) I particularly enjoy how he's merged his love of classical (and baroque) music with his love of bees. If you want to try out his videos, choose one of the more recent ones; the quality is better. There's something to be said for experience.

I love the logo he created!

3.  My brother-in-law knits, crochets, and paints. Other people in the family do other crafty things. Last week they created an Etsy shop, Bakerz Dozen Creations, to sell their goods. (This last year wasn't good for the craft fairs they normally frequent.) They don't have everything in the shop the way they want it yet, but if you have a request, they probably can meet it-- especially if you are into amigurumi (that's his expertise).

4. I have two more friends' Etsy shops that I want to share. The first is from a virtual friend, Karen, who I "met" on The Frugal Girl. I love Karen's ability to repurpose and make beautiful, classy, and useful items. Her shop is called Fabric Speaks. (I really love repurposing!)

The second shop also brings to life old things in a different way. I hadn't expected I would enjoy buying, learning about, and selling vintage items so much, but it is another way of repurposing, don't you think?Anyway, my friend in real life, Ann, finds the coolest vintage items and sells them at Annie's Vintage Nook. She takes clean photographs of her items, and I've noticed she has excellent reviews, especially with regards to packing her items carefully. I'm so excited Ann is doing this because she has an eye for beautiful things. (She is artistic and crafty, too, but, to my  knowledge, she only sells her creations at craft fairs.)

And that's all for now, folks! 

Unsolicited Homeschool Advice

I will be honest with you; while so many other people are struggling to find the new "normal," not much has changed around our house. We are still homeschooling, plugging along as best we can. 

With so many folks involuntarily homeschooling these days, I wanted to share some unsolicited homeschool advice. 

Here it goes.

Homeschooling doesn't need to look like it does at school. Sometimes homeschooling is assigned bookwork.

Okay, so perhaps something more than math was going on at this table. . . 

And sometimes the learning just happens without the teacher. Recognize those moments for what they are-- organic learning. Here are a few examples of what that looks like at our house.

I did assign a book for my older two boys to read-- Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France. But I didn't ask them to do anything with that. Last Wednesday, one son found something in Burke that resonated with him, and he surprised me with a little note on our whiteboard. This led to an impromptu discussion. It was unplanned, but it was learning.

We have a sad little piano in our basement. It is somewhat broken and a little out of tune. We don't have a piano teacher or lessons. I don't know how to play. But lately my students have been plunking away at favorite tunes. A few have taught themselves to read music the last few weeks by reading a piano instruction book. All by themselves and because they want to.

Sure, I teach music and music appreciation, but this was something I hadn't planned. (I promise you, I did NOT plan to hear so many thousands of renditions of "Ode to Joy" each day for the last 2 or 3 weeks.) And it has been very good for the children.

The big deal this week at our house is bees. We got a call on Monday morning from the post office; they wanted us to come pick up those boxes of bees that were waiting for us. Imagine that!

So we picked them up, and with no prior experience, my eldest installed the bees in the two hives he built by himself (maybe with some help from his younger brother) with materials he bought with his own money. 

Why bees? I don't know exactly why, but he became fascinated with them from reading. So he read more and more and more. It wasn't an assignment; it was his own interest.

So this week our entire family has learned about bees from the hands-on experience. We've learned about how to install bees in a hive. And we've learned something about disappointment.

Hello, dead queen bee.

I'm not saying that while your children are home they need to pick up an expensive hobby like beekeeping or that they need to learn to play a musical instrument. But you should allow your children to explore their interests-- on their own. Learning happens all by itself sometimes, and overwhelmed parents who are trying to work and teach school from home can take comfort in that.

While learning happens on its own, don't completely ignore your children. If you notice an interest, try to give your child time and resources like books or craft materials or free rein in the kitchen to follow that inclination. And don't be disappointed if the interest only lasts one day. Learning happened. Really, it did. 

And if your child is more interested in laying out all those educational books Grandma bought him on the floor so the army soldiers can have a better surface for combat, so be it. Yes, independent play like that can be learning, too. 

So don't stress too much. Do what you can*, and then allow your children a little independence. Learning will happen without you. I promise. 

This picture is from almost 9 years ago when I was very pregnant and had 2 preschoolers. While the boys were outside for recess, I was inside having a meltdown because I hadn't planned a fun activity for the boys to make a model of the solar system.  The next thing I knew, the boys were running inside and dragging me out to show me their creation-- a sidewalk chalk model of the solar system. And they explained to me all about it using big vocabulary words and everything. The best part was that it was completely their own idea.

*Please make sure your children read or are read to (by you or by audiobooks or by Grandpa on the phone) while they are not in school. It can be assigned by school or it can be a newspaper or an old fairy tale. Keep them exposed to words!

Life is Still Full

Do you worry? My mother did. If people could be paid for worrying, my mother would’ve been filthy rich. 

Since the pandemic situation interrupted our normal routines, I’ve found myself thinking of Mom and, to be honest, feeling somewhat relieved that she didn’t have to deal with it all. For starters, she had severe COPD. For years we avoided visits with her if anyone had so much as a sniffle. This coronavirus would have killed her, no doubt. Plus worrying about social distancing and toilet paper and money problems and the health of all her grandkids— well, all that worrying would’ve done her in just as quickly as old COVID-19.

You know, even if you’re not normally a worrier, the current situation is enough to make you feel unwell. We’re all of us a little topsy-turvy. Even homeschoolers like me who are used to being home with the kids have had to change routines. My children are bemoaning a lack of new library books while I am missing gathering together with my church family each Sunday. My husband, a pastor, has been scrambling to figure out the best way to shepherd his congregation. 

Yes, these times are more difficult for most of us, and worry comes too easily. We have been told that worry cannot add a single hour to our lives, and I know it is true. Otherwise, my anxious mother would still be alive. But she is not.

But we are alive, and that, my friends, is important. If you open your front door tomorrow morning, the birds will tell you all about it, if you’ll listen. So will those spring peepers (if you’re more of an evening person). Listen to them.

Turn off the television, the smart phone, the radio, and the computer, and listen right now. What do you hear? Do you hear your children laughing or maybe whining or perhaps jumping on your bed despite the fact they’ve been warned three times already? Life.

Or maybe you hear your husband turning the pages of his newspaper or making your morning coffee? Life.

Maybe you hear the cat sitting on the ledge outside your kitchen window meowing for some food? Life.

Even the faucet dripping, the toilet flushing, and the dishes clinking in the dishwasher are all sounds that accompany life.

Right now we have an opportunity to be still and listen. We have enough time in a way we’ve never had it before. There are no meetings, no school, no sports practices or games. 

In a time when we feel helpless to help, try listening. Listen on the phone to your friend tell the same story for the third time. Listen to your child or grandchild read from a book or recite the times tables. Listen to your spouse sing in the shower or chop up vegetables for supper. Listen to your dog snore on the rug in the evening.

Be still and soak up all the wonderful sounds of life until you are full, so full of the joy of it all that there’s no room left for useless worry.

*************************************

Speaking of joy and life and an end to all need for worry— Easter is approaching, and Easter means eggs. At our last church potluck, I had the supreme joy of tasting smoked deviled eggs for the first time. If you have a smoker and like deviled eggs, you simply must make these for your Easter dinner. No arguments; make these!

That being said, I haven’t made them myself, so I don’t have a tried-and-true recipe to share with you. However, my friend who made those lovely eggs told me how she did it (she doesn’t use a recipe), and that is what I can share with you. My directions assume you know how to hard-boil and make deviled eggs.*

Smoked Deviled Eggs

First, hard-boil eggs. Next, peel the hard-boiled eggs. Then smoke the peeled eggs in your smoker on the lowest setting for half an hour to an hour. They will be a light shade of brown.

After eggs are smoked, follow your normal recipe for deviled eggs. I don’t follow an exact recipe for the egg yolk mixture, but I do add mayonnaise, mustard, and a little of something sour like vinegar or pickle relish. My friend adds some horseradish. And don’t forget to sprinkle paprika on top; my family says it’s not really deviled eggs without the paprika on top!

*If you’ve never made hard-boiled eggs or deviled eggs, you should be able to find a basic recipe in most cookbooks or online. Or you can send me an email, and I’ll walk you through it.

**This column was printed in the April 1, 2020, issue of the Hancock News.

Five on Friday

1.  Christmas Reading.  I've been wanting to post more about books I'm reading, so here goes. Over Christmas I was able to read two books.

My Christmas reading

Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences by Kitty Burns Florey was a gift my husband gave me for Christmas because I picked it up in the used bookstore and said, "Get me this for Christmas, please!" He obliged after commenting that I was the only person who would want to read a book like that. 

Well, both of my teenage sons picked it up and read it before I did. All on their own. Then I picked it up and read it in one evening. I loved it. Florey meanders through a bit of the history of grammar instruction in the United States, falls into the old argument between language descriptivists and language prescriptivists, and lands somewhere in the middle with me. 

This book made me want to look up my 7th and 8th grade grammar teacher, Mr. Kite, and recommend it to him. Maybe I will.

The second book is Kim by Rudyard Kipling. I recently happened upon a comment somewhere online comparing this book to The Far Pavilions by M. M. Kaye. I read Kaye's lengthy novel when I was a teenager and reread it a few years ago, appreciating the historical aspect of it more the second time around. I was curious about Kim, and it didn't disappoint me.

Except the ending. The ending was disappointing to me. I wanted more, more, more. But the ending made me think, think, think about why Kipling chose it. In the end, I'm still thinking about it, and I think I like the ending better now. Have you read it? What did you think of the ending?

2. A Portrait of Me.  I'm glad I didn't get one with Mommy NOT "waering clohes," right?

Portrait of me by a dear child

3. Facebook.  I've ventured into Facebook land. Last night I created a Facebook page for Sideling View Crafts. I'm still not going to be active with my personal profile because I know I'd enter that rabbit hole and never return, but I do want to grow my business a little bit. Check out the page and like it or share it or whatever-- I'm still so confused about all of it! Feel free to leave a comment giving me some advice. 

4. What I'm Listening To. (Or, after reading Sister Bernadette, should it be "That To Which I Am Listening"?)  In either case, the children have been listening to this album the last few days; that means I am listening to it also. I'm okay with that because it's Snoopy, and who doesn't love Snoopy?

5. Great Clothes Heap Challenge Update. I haven't forgotten this challenge. I even moved a few bags around and begged my husband's help. 

Have a great relaxing (or, if you prefer, productive) first weekend of 2020!

Puzzle Sale

We are back from vacation, and that means I need to put my nose to the grindstone with school and with my Etsy shop.

Something happened around August with Etsy that has caused me to have fewer sales. I also closed my shop in September because of my mother's illness and death, and that's never good for an online business.

So in an effort to jumpstart some business, I kicked off a sale on all of my puzzles-- 20% off until November 29th.

Who wouldn't want to piece this cute puzzle?

Aren't they adorable?

I'm also considering taking the plunge into social media to promote Sideling View Crafts. I've held off for quite some time because it isn't my "thing," but I think I'd like to try to step things up a bit in my shop. If that means stepping out of my comfort zone, then I might just need to do it.

What do you think? Any tips or ideas?

P. S. I updated some of my links because some shops have closed and some have changed names. Check them out because my friends might just have something you need to buy for a Christmas gift.

Neglected Summer-- Reading

This was a summer of reading for me. I read more this summer than I have read (I'm guessing) for the past 10 summers combined. I guess that's what happens when your baby no longer wears diapers? I have had no time to take tons of pictures of my reading, but I do have a couple of pictures to share.

First, you should know that this was "The Summer of Jane Austen" for me. I read all the complete novels and thoroughly enjoyed each one for its own reasons. My favorite? I really don't know. I will have to read them all again, I guess.

Second, I read something completely out of my comfort zone. It was a book my husband was reading, and it was a mystery/detective novel. I also read another one by the same author. As I felt I was steeping myself in British literature this summer, this fit right in.

I think my favorite picture book of the summer involved the flower which is one of my favorites and, unarguably, my husband's very least favorite-- the dandelion. If you have a dandelion hater in your family, this is the picture book for you.

And I read other stuff (see the word "neglected" in the title of this post).

But let's get back to Jane Austen. First I gobbled up the books I had in my house. In one of them I found this delightful bookmark. 

Have you ever seen a more delightful bookmark? I thought not. By the way, if you know anything about the history of the booksellers this advertises, I'd love to know, too. When did The Book Store in Hagerstown close?

I would like to add that I actually was not the last in my family to finish the library's summer reading club program. There have been many summers which I have not even completed it. 

Distractions

I don't know any homeschooling mom who doesn't groan daily (at least inwardly) because of the distractions that keep the curriculum from being accomplished. This year potty-training kept pulling me away from the books. Meal prepping and making, because eating is one of those necessary things in life, constantly drag me away from math lessons.

Sometimes, however, I'm able to step back and recognize some distractions as a different and better kind of learning.

While this chemical reaction experiment was part of the younger kids' science curriculum, the whole family took part when it was time to light up the smoke bomb. This was definitely a fun distraction from the daily grind. It was over all too quickly.

Our home-made smoke bomb

I'm not always good about being patient with little kids who wander off from where they are supposed to be. A few weeks ago I was trying to corral kids to the table for lunch when my preschool son was missing. "Where is he?" I asked. The children told me he was with his ants. 

"His what?!"

And there I found him on our front walkway, lying down and observing his ants. He was even kind enough to feed them at the Ritz for lunch-- or at least to feed them from the Ritz cracker he'd wanted for a snack.

Peter's ants

While he's not yet tied to the books for formal schooling, this sort of learning is priceless. He observed for hours over the next few days and told me there were two groups of ants fighting.

The longer I teach my children, the more I realize that these "distractions" are the best learning. Many people call these times "teachable" moments, but I am starting to realize that sometimes I need to stop trying to teach and put on my child-like wonder and learn next to my students.

Easter Eggs

Ever since I was a teenager, I've wanted to dye Easter eggs with natural dyes, with foods and such from the pantry. This was finally the year. Although I faced opposition from some children, they eventually got on board when I assured them that it was only for this year, that it would be a fun experiment. I also showed them tons of cool pictures on Pinterest. 

These are the results.

I was quite pleased with the results. I'm not sure I'd get the exact results again because I used a few different methods and didn't measure the time or the ingredients. 

I used, starting at yellow and going clockwise, turmeric (yellow), coffee (brown), onion skins (rust), beets (tan on the outside, light pink on the inside), purplish gray (blueberries), and purple cabbage (oh-so-pretty blue!). 

The epic fail was green; I used spinach, green tea, and nettle which produced an almost totally white egg. My son, who was in charge of the green, made the executive decision to dump a good bit of green liquid food dye in because he wanted green. I agreed because there was just nothing appealing about that non-green egg.

The other experiment of the year was trying to get the imprint of flowers on the eggs by using pantyhose/tights and rubber bands to hold a flower down while in the dye bath. The results were mediocre (at best), but we think the little girls' tights were too tightly woven. However, the neat egg effect you can see below was produced where the tights were twisted and rubber-banded on the opposite side of the egg from the flower. It was a fun discovery in our little experiment.

If I were to do this again, what would I do differently? Well, I am wondering if the eggs in the beet dye were in the bath too long because they were light pink for a while. Same goes for the blueberry one; however, it was a deep, dark purple when it originally came out of the bath and changed later. I would completely avoid attempting green.

Which were my favorites? That's easy. I loved the colors that resulted from the purple cabbage, the onion skins, the turmeric, and the coffee.

Have you ever experimented with Easter egg dyes?

Five Quick Things

1.  Little Girls. I'm not sure this next picture needs much explanation.

2.  Wholly Holey.  Last week when the weather was so nice, I saw this. 

I guess this tree is multi-purpose for birds-- a place to live and a woodpecker buffet.

3.  New Blog.  Afterthoughts isn't actually a new blog, but it is a new-to-me blog. It is a homeschool-y blog. I think it's a keeper for me. I haven't actually listened to any of the podcasts she does because I never have quiet time to listen to podcasts, but the posts are helpful and link to other things I sometimes like wasting time reading.

4.  Favorite Blog.  The Frugal Girl is my favorite blog. Hands down. She shares frugal tips. She shares recipes. She shares hilarious pictures of clothes she tries on. And she posts several times a week. She makes money from her blog, but she's not overly commercial (which is the problem I have with most blogs that are constantly pushing things). 

5.  My Daughter's Blog.  I don't let my children do a lot online, but my oldest daughter begged for a blog so that she could share her love of nature. (I steal some of her pictures sometimes.) She doesn't get to post often, but she wrapped up winter in her latest post on A Nature Girl's World.

Spring!

Now, you might all be thinking, "She does this same post every year-- crocuses, robins-- how boring!" But there is something different for me this time-- a homeschooling freebie!

Anyway, three days ago, I felt spring in my bones, so I took a walk outside with my camera to dig through the leaves to see if the crocuses were up. And they were so close to being open, but I didn't think I could count this as the official spring indicator.

See? Not quite open yet.

Well, the next day, the children found another sign of spring and hollered for me to grab the camera.

Do you see them?

Maybe this one is a little better?

Yes, Robin Redbreast graced us with his presence, and so did all of his friends. That's pretty much the official beginning of spring in my mind, right there. But, I cannot ignore my crocuses, so I took a walk to the backyard again. Et voila!

Definitely official

My husband gathered the troops to re-make one of our raised beds. It is now smaller and taller, and sand the masons left in a pile is in it because this is our attempt to improve the soil for planting garlic later this year. I want to grow enough to make a braid. Or two.

All ready for planting

And while it is officially spring in my bones and my heart, a peek at Sideling Hill reminds me that winter might not be through with us yet.

If you look closely, you can just see the ice still on the south side of the cut.

Now, for my first freebie.

Education.com reached out to me to offer a freebie to post on my blog. That was several weeks ago, but when I saw the worksheet, I knew I had to wait for my flowers because it is a spring word search (and answers). I hope you like these, and if you have difficulty accessing them, let me know because this is the first time I've done such an endeavor.

Spring Word Search

Spring Word Search Answer Key

Thank you to Education.com for providing this fun addition to my little blog. They asked that I post the following, and I'm happy to do so; I know lots of homeschoolers (and other educators) benefit from the site. 

Learning opportunities are in full bloom with this spring-themed word search. Kids will have lots of fun hunting for words while they reinforce their spelling, vocabulary and word recognition skills. Even more fun learning resources are just a click away at Education.com!

Back to Jody's words-- I would also say this word search is one of those quick and easy activities that a mom who is homeschooling many sometimes needs to keep some busy while others need a little extra help. Enjoy!

Handmade Christmas Shopping

I recently realized I had neglected to add a link to my friends' Etsy page. I wanted to share the link now especially because they make so many cute items that would be perfect for somebody for Christmas.

The Kovals of Koval Kreations make hand-sewn clothing and baskets. Because they go to our church and because I've seen their wares at a craft fair, I can tell you they are really well-made. They also do custom orders.

Check out their Etsy shop here (or a link is now available on the left sidebar of this blog).

For more handmade Christmas shopping, I'd love to recommend my own Etsy shop, but there's not much handmade there except for a couple of crocheted bonnets. However, if you love the bonnet style but none of the colors, we can custom-make something in a color you like, too.

You can find more handmade items at the other Etsy shops on my sidebar. Katie (at KTsQuilts) has a lot of handmade items. She's really talented, and she's my cousin. (I'm not saying those two facts are related, but you are free to draw your own conclusions.)

Happy shopping!

Thursday Things

The weather has been so warm here the last few days that the kids were outside in short-sleeves playing. Some were even begging for the air conditioner to be turned on! That didn't happen. At least it feels cooler this morning.

I've been too busy to blog much lately, so I've saved up a few random thoughts.

1.  Wonderful Wednesday. Yesterday was a lovely day. I was able to spend some time outside with the kids. Reading a good book (E. B. White's Trumpet of the Swan) aloud to your children in the woods with sunshine on your arms does wonders for a body.

I also saw pretty things outside which cheered me up. All of these added a touch of color to our brown "winter" world.

Bluebird house

Tulips popping up

My yellow crocuses! (Or is that croci?)

And if all that pretty was not enough, later in the day after a quick shower, God gifted us with this rainbow.

2.  Child Development.  The baby is at that funny/cute stage where she likes to "hide" by sitting in plain view and covering her eyes. We crack up every time it happens, and that is several times a day. If she can't see us, we can't see her! (Note: I fully recognize that my "baby" is actually a toddler, but she is still the baby.)

3.  Bookish Podcast. My high school BFF recently joined together with some of her co-workers to created a podcast about books they read. It is called Unabridged, and you can find it here. In their words:

Unabridged - Four Teachers Take on Books is a podcast that comes from the desire to share a love of reading, cultivate a reading community, and invite students to become lifelong readers. 

I have listened to a couple of the episodes, and I wish I had more time to read. I also love hearing more of Jen's voice since we don't get to talk often. I am making a prediction that she will never not love a book they review. If you listen, you will learn that she is a real book lover.


4.  Another Place to Shop.  Recently a new family has been coming from afar to our little church-- and they have children! That's always exciting for a small church, you know. Anyway, their three older girls are crafty and have started a business. It is called KovalKreations and can be found here or on Etsy.  Right now they have some beautiful girls' clothing and baskets. I am in awe of their skills.

5. Vintage. And speaking of Etsy, after a long Christmas break so we could arrange things in our updated home, we jumped right back into Sideling View Crafts. I finally sold one pattern in January! And because we have developed an auction habit, I started listing some vintage items.

I'm still listing things because I have quite an accumulation of stuff and not an accumulation of time. Below is a cute vintage children's book I listed this week.

And that's all for Thursday because my family needs to eat breakfast!

Winter, Inside and Out

Last week we had ice. I tried to capture how the sun shining on the ice on Sideling Hill made everything look like a fairy world, but I couldn't. I'll show you the results anyway.

Meanwhile, inside we dealt in cold things, too. For my kindergartner, we are studying one picture book each week. We read the book aloud each day, and do some activity that connects to it. Last week was Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost, illustrated by Susan Jeffers.

One day we focused on the "and downy flake" page. We talked about snow and how each snowflake is different and has six sides.

On this day we did our "fun" activity for the week; we made tortilla snowflakes.

First we folded flour tortillas in half and then in thirds (to make a pie slice shape). We cut shapes in the sides, unfolded them, and baked them in the oven at 350℉  until they were crispy (not burned). Next they were brushed with melted butter and sprinkled with powdered sugar. This was a fun and tasty activity I plan on repeating with the younger two children!

I'm not sure we'll enjoy more winter around here, and most of us are still holding out for a big snow. But at least we found a way to enjoy the little bit of white stuff that we had.

**This book was a lovely book. The children learn a classic poem, and the delightful illustrations add another layer to the poem. I highly recommend it. It is also an easy one for memorizing.

Last Christmas-y Post

Sorry, folks, I don't have any pipers piping to show you for the 11th day of Christmas, but I do have a few highlights of our Christmas this year.

We didn't have a place to put a Christmas tree before Christmas, and the flooring wasn't finished until the Friday before Christmas. We didn't return home until late that night. On Saturday, my husband headed out to do some needed shopping. He looked several places for a small Christmas tree and finally found one just right for us this year. He left it in the Suburban until the children were in bed, and I decorated it that night so the children could be surprised in the morning. 

I picked out one ornament belonging to each person in the family plus a couple of extras. I made a construction paper star for on top, and found a scrap of ribbon in my sewing stash that one son said, "really made the whole tree perfect." It wasn't our usual big get-up, but not one single person complained.

I splurged on a coffee treat for my husband. Coffee By Gillespie makes a 1517 Reformation Roast plus a few other theology-themed blends that I couldn't pass up for the pastor in our house. He's tried the Reformation Roast, and while we normally prefer a different roast, this blend is quite the palate-pleaser and smooth. We can't wait to try the others in the sampler.

On Christmas Day we did have enough of the house put together to enjoy a nice dinner, but we had no special dessert. That problem was remedied by a kind church lady who gave us a box full of tasty and prettily decorated mini-bundt cakes. Everybody had the chance to pick lemon or chocolate AND taste part of the other flavor. 

This dessert was the perfect opportunity to use my new (old) snack plates and cups that I bought at an antique place. I had been looking for a few more sets because my husband found several (but not enough for our entire family) at a yard sale this summer. I was thrilled when we found them on our pre-Christmas date (provided by the kind baby-sitting of a church member for several years running). If you're interested in the pieces, I found a blog post by a collector that shows a vintage photo of ladies using these.

We put a Hershey's kiss in the ashtray part of the plate, and eggnog was a perfect beverage for our cake treats. I can see me using these trays so many times for special tea parties or snacks with the kids. 

And that's our Christmas round-up. Enjoy the last two days of the Christmas season.