What To Do? What To Do?

Hello, all! I was sitting at the computer tonight and thinking how much I'd really like to be /doing/ something. Anything! I could watch a movie I stored in my Netflix queue. I could just surf the web. I could wait for someone to talk to me, or start up a conversation with someone on a social website. But I'd really rather be doing something more active with other people. Board games aren't an option right now. Our hosts are out or asleep so I wouldn't know wear to look for them and I don't dig. It's a point of honor, I guess. Two of my kids are watching an Avatar marathon (the /real/ Avatar, btw, and not the fake one with blue people). My youngest is watching an anime (Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple). My husband is surfing the web/using his tweetdeck. And I sit here, blogging. *shrugs* Ah, well. We can't always get what we want, eh?

So, what do you, my awesome readers, do for fun that doesn't cost money? What's your favorite game or hobby? What's your favorite place to go for a relaxing time or valuable conversation with your spouse/date? Try to give answers that are great for a tight budget. I can't wait to see how many folks give an answer. And please do keep it kid friendly. My kiddos are sometimes hovering under my elbows... ;)

Here are my top ten ideas for fun, inexpensive things to do with my family. The first 5 will be family activities. The last 5 will be date night activities.

1. The Zoo-Our whole family loves the zoo. The only downside is if the zoo is big or in a town that gets most of its income from tourism. We usually look for smaller zoos. Those are best for my husband (who has trouble with his knees) and much better for our budget.

2. The library-While going to the library with an active 6-year-old can be quite trying sometimes, on a good day, the library is a great way to get out of the house and enjoy some forced quiet. This can be an awesome thing when there's been nothing but noise for days on end.

3. The park-While the kids really enjoy going to the park, I'm not a big fan. We do take them from time to time but I generally like to avoid the park. We usually try to go when there are fewer children since too many children makes it very hard for me to keep an eye on mine. I'm easily distracted by conversation and sights and losing them in a crowd just isn't an option. Not to mention, crowds of children are very intimidating to me.

4. The pet store-I don't know if any of you have tried this but my kids (especially my girls) love going to the pet store. We've been avoiding it lately because our youngest wants a hamster. It's not fun when you leave the pet store with a whiney 6-year-old.

5. The Arboretum-Our 'local' arboretum is about 30 minutes away but it's free to go through it. Some Saturdays, they host a discussion about nature. The did a good little presentation on butterflies that we were able to attend. Not only is it relaxing there, it's also educational!

6. A local cafe-Our local cafe is called 'Cafe Mosaic' and it's an awesome venue for some fun conversation and a little bit of online fun. They also make a fabulous gelato! However, if you want intimate conversation and a more private venue, this isn't it. On Fridays and Saturdays, it's so packed you can hardly hear yourself think.

7. Go to a movie-It's always nice to go to dinner and a movie, even if you have to eat at McDonald's or Subway. During the dinner, you get some conversation and after the movie, you have the opportunity to discuss the finer (or awful) points of the movie. This is sometimes the jumping off point for further discussion. From a woman's viewpoint, that's always a plus!

8. Karaoke-While I've never done this as a date, some might enjoy it. I prefer to do karaoke with a larger group. It's a great adult activity and gives parents time with other adults while they take a small portion of time away from the daily grind.

9. Visit a museum-Our small town has 2 museums-a Cajun culture museum and a Cajun music museum. At least, I think the second one is a music museum. It's located in a couple of refurbished train cars, one of which is an actual caboose. :) We haven't visited it in quite some time. But both of these museums don't cost much at all to go into. One of them asks for a donation.

10. Go for a drive-There's nothing like going for a drive down country roads on a star-filled night. The music is awesome (because you choose it) and the conversation is as private as can be. It's a great way to focus on the conversation and talk about things you might not otherwise discuss. Most places have beautiful country roads that are scenic and beautiful. Talk about great ambiance!

Well, I've wracked my brain and now it's your turn. Get ready! Get set! GO!

Pianolady32's Holiday Wish List Meme

TodaysMama and GameStop are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What is your holiday wish for your family?

I wish for a safe and blessed trip to visit with my husband's relatives. We haven't spent a Christmas with them in several years so we're really looking forward to it.

2. What is your Christmas morning tradition?

We usually just wake up, make coffee and wait for the kids to wake up. :) Our kiddos are sleepers. When the kids wake up, we gather round the tree, read the Christmas story from Scripture and enjoy opening gifts together.

3. If you could ask Santa for one, completely decadent wish for yourself, what would it be?

Ohhhhh...completely decadent...I've been pretty practical concerning myself for so long...I think I'd like to make our house and property self-sustaining. I don't guess that qualifies as completely decadent but it's something that I really, really want but can't really do.

4. How do you make the holidays special without spending any money?

We read some wonderful stories, 'The Tale Of The Three Trees' and 'The Cajun Night Before Christmas'. We might play a round or two of Surprise Marble on a board handmade by my great-grandfather. We also might make cookies or some holiday crafts. We watch a movie or a couple of movies. We just kinda take it easy and see what we feel like doing. :)

5. What games did you play with your family growing up?

We played Uno when we visited with my mother's family. I remember the laughs! We played dominoes sometimes, too. Every now and then we'd play Monopoly.

6. What holiday tradition have you carried on from your own childhood?

We read the Christmas story from Scripture and sing Christmas carols.

7. Where would you go for a Christmas away-from-home trip?

That's a really hard decision but I would so love to have a trip to Ireland. I'm not sure they'd be at their best during the Christmas season, though... Maybe Jamaica? Or a cruise might be fun. All impossible at this point in our lives, though, considering there are 5 of us.

8. Check out GameStop and tell us, what are the three top items on your GameStop Wish List this year?

Any Zelda game, PS3, Create for Wii

Really Cool Stuff

Looks like I'll get another post in before we get knocked back down to slower internet speeds. :) I'd like to share a couple of websites with y'all. The first one is All Free Sewing. The best thing about them (and the one thing that drew me) is that you can get free patterns! The also have some free ebooks you can download that are full of helpful hints, ideas and patterns. You should check'em out. Right now, they're doing a give-away for a book about altering patterns to fit /you/. I really need something like this so I have to admit to some reluctance to blog about it to you all. LOL Here's the link: http://www.allfreesewing.com/sweeps/Pattern-Fitting-with-Confidence-Book-Giveaway so that you can also sign up to win the book. While you're there, be sure to sign up for their newsletter. I have gotten lots of great ideas and patterns from them. I hope you'll enjoy the site. They didn't pay me for doing this. It does give me another entry to win the book, though.

The second place you should visit is Cupcakes and Crinoline. A great friend of mine writes it and always posts creative ideas. http://cupcakesandcrinoline.com/ Sometimes she does give-aways. She also has a shopping page with a few items. She's just recently started out so I wanted to help her get some more visitors to her blog. I hope you'll visit today and see the cute cookie ideas she posted! :) I think we're gonna try out the Christmas Caroler Cookies. They look like fun and they seem easy enough to modify. We may also try the chocolate reindeer cookies.

Well, I hope you are all having a great holiday season and I hope that it only gets better from here on in. :) I hope to talk to you soon!
Laugh a lot!

Internet Detention Looms-One More Post Before It Crashes In

Yes, folks. We've hit the download limit again. Ah, well. Such seems to be our lot concerning online time. I wanted to get another blog post in before the lockdown begins.

Does anyone else have last minute Christmas shopping to do? There was a time when I was ready for Christmas...completely...by October. I miss those days very much. Not only was it a relief to be able to take my time while shopping, it was also easier on our budget. Sadly, I had nothing but stocking stuffers by October of this year. So all the major purchases had to be done in November and December. Talk about a budget drain! But I think it will be a special Christmas, even with all the stress and strain. We'll be able to spend this one with my husband's family. We haven't had a Christmas with them in several years. We're really looking forward to it!

Speaking of Christmas, what does it mean to you? Is it just a time for laughs and friends and presents and a feast? Or does it mean more to you? To me, Christmas is a time to remember and reflect. It's also a time to bring family together. Christmas reminds me that there are many more people less fortunate than I am. It reminds me I need to be giving and helpful throughout the year and not just for one month of each year. I'm going to enjoy this Christmas and revel in the magic and wonder and history and splendor. Here's my top 10 for this post...what I love about Christmas, what I'm thankful for at Christmas.

1. People are more giving and forgiving...in general, unless you're in their way on Black Friday.
2. Christmas lights-So much fun and so pretty!
3. Obscure Christmas songs-They are a riot b/c they make people give you the quizzical puppy dog look.
4. Trimming the tree-Fun when I do it alone. Interesting when I do it with my kids. But the satisfaction when it's done is always the same. :)
5. Old Christmas cartoons-I love the stop motion cartoons. Can't help it. The magic just carries over and still makes me feel secure. Gives me warm fuzzies, too.
6. Public Servants-Everyone wants a little peace. Everyone needs a break. Well, most people get one for Christmas. Sometimes we that get a break at Christmas need to remember those who don't, who still go to their jobs so that we can be safe while celebrating during the holiday.
7. Giving gifts-Giving a gift is so much more fun than getting one. I love watching a person's face light up while they open it! I love seeing the enjoyment when they like what they've received.
8. Wrapping presents-I love wrapping presents. It's a time of peace and quiet and I can get really creative with each package. Well, I can get as creative as time will allow, anyway. :)
9. Homemade gifts-Homemade and handmade items are usually a plus. However, if you don't know the person's favorite color, or what they are able to consume, get a gift card. It's not special if you made a chartreuse scarf and the person just can't wear that color at all. :( Having said that, I'm working on scarves right now...and praying the recipients will love them...
10. Stories-I love reading certain Christmas stories with my kids. We have two that are somewhat traditional. The first is 'The Cajun Night Before Christmas' by "Trosclair". (Please take note that none of the other versions can compare to this ORIGINAL.) The second one is 'The Tail of the Three Trees' a folktale as retold by Angela Elwell Hunt. We recently added another possibility to our reading list. Brian Jacques wrote a book called "A Redwall Winter's Tale" that I just love.

Well, that concludes my wordiness for this post. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you enjoy the holiday season. Remember that the most important thing is that you hug those you love. Most people, even children...maybe mostly children, don't really care how many gifts they get. They'd much rather know they are loved and that someone cares about them. Time spent together is so very special! I know there are many more people struggling this year than there were last year. I know times are tough. Just remember you are not alone. Happy Christmas wishes to all! And for those that don't celebrate 'Christmas', then I hope you have a very festive holiday season, whatever tradition you follow. :)

Baked Apple Stuff (a Recipe)

Well, this is a first for me. I have never posted a recipe. I guess that's because I'm not always too confident of my culinary expertise. However, I performed a little experiment with some apples and pears. It turned out to be a yummy experiment so I'll share it. I highly recommend organic stuff if you can get it.



Ingredients:

2 granny smith apples peeled, cored and chunked

3 red pears peeled, cored and chunked

1 braeburn apple peeled, cored and chunked

2 handfuls of raisins (organic raisins will plump back into grapes!)

1/4-1/2 cup honey (I didn't measure. But I do think it was closer to 1/4 cup.)

1/4 tsp powdered ginger

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

2 Tbsp water (I didn't measure the water. I think I put closer to 1/4 cup and thought it was too much.)



After chunking apples and pears, put them in a deep, round casserole dish that has a cover. Heat the oven to 300 degrees (or 350 if you're in a hurry). Add the raisins over the top. In a small bowl blend the honey and spices well. Drizzle the mixture over the apples. Add the water to the dish. Cover. Check periodically and stir if necessary. The dish is done when the apples are the desired tenderness.



It was a well-liked dish for our Thanksgiving meal. I hope you all enjoy it as much as we did!

Agh! I've Been Absent Too Long!

I was amazed to see, when I logged in to my blogger this morning, that I'm up to a whopping 16 followers! Either I wasn't paying attention (most likely)or I had some new folks jump on the Mawkishness train in my absence. Either way, it's just been too long since I posted something. Wildblue satellite internet doesn't make it easy when they stick me in detention. What is internet detention? Well, it's sort of like an oubliette-where you put people to forget about them. Technically, it's what happens when you exceed your download limit or your upload limit. Since we're not /so/ into uploading stuff, that's never really been a problem for our family. Our problem is the pitiful download limit. We pay $90+ a month for a download limit of 17G. You may be saying, "Wow! That's great!" Not so much. This is the amount per 30 days...rolling. That 'rolling' thing has been a thorn in our side. As some of you know, we school our children at home. I download many resources to use in their classes. If I wanted to put them in an online class, they wouldn't be able to do it. There simply isn't enough download space. Streaming video and music is a no-go for us. It saps the download faster than a frog catching a fly. When our speeds are slow, we can't upload anything at all. So blogging can be really difficult when we're in Internet Detention. Ah, well, enough of that. I said it all to let you know that I'm back up and running at normal speeds after about 3 and a half weeks of slower than snot speeds.

And so, to celebrate this return to higher speeds, I'd like to list ten things I'm thankful for.

1) I'm thankful for my family. My husband and my children, my parents, my in-laws, my grandparents...they all mean so much to me and have contributed to the person I am today. I'm pretty happy being me and I thank them for helping me get there.

2) I'm thankful for the beautiful weather. Now, when I say "beautiful weather", I mean all weather. Last night we had a wonderful and much needed rain shower pass over us. Today the sun is shining and the wind is making the leaves dance in happiness. It just makes me think wonderful thoughts...or situation appropriate thoughts. (It rained when we buried my grandfather and it rained when we had the wake for my pa-pa. That's situation appropriate weather, IMO.)

3) I'm thankful for people like Jason Boyett, Tess Mallory and Matthew Paul Turner who all have fabulous blogs that make me laugh, inspire me and make me think and all from a Christian perspective. It's nice to know there are 'big name' Christians out there that are honest with the public about a whole life experience. Honestly, I just don't believe that we can be on a spiritual high all the time. That's just not the kind of person I am. And people who profess that...well, let's just say I have a very hard time believing they're truthful. Kinda like prosperity preachers-God does want us to prosper and be successful. But it isn't going to just fall into our laps. We have to go out there and work for it. As the old adage states, "Anything worth having is worth working for."

4) I'm thankful for a creative mind. Now, my mind might be sort of like gas molecules with ideas bouncing around wildly, but sometimes I do get good ideas. Putting them into good use is sometimes difficult or trying but if successful it's such a cool thing! I love being able to make things with my hands and using my mind to enhance an idea. I love the freedom that having a creative mind allows me. I find that artists and artisans are more open-minded than most folks. That's just my opinion, btw.

5) I'm thankful for my healthy living support group. You know, I never thought I'd need to be involved in a real support group of any kind but this group has really been an encouragement to me. I've learned about the health benefits of fermented foods and a wonderful website called www.pickl-it.com where you can get recipes and equipment for making those ferments. I've learned about the benefits of raw milk, though I haven't been able to test that out yet. Hopefully, in the future, Louisiana will allow raw milk sales.

6) I'm thankful for the freedom we have in our country, the best country ever! And I'm thankful /to/ the men and women who daily sacrifice for us to keep our freedoms.

7) I'm thankful for the wonderful friends I have who have opened my eyes to the truth of variety being the spice of life. They, too, have contributed to making me the person I am today. I love them for it.

8) I'm thankful for my followers on this blog. You must've seen something you liked. LOL I'm so random in my postings that there's no telling which post snagged your attention. And I'm so sporadic in my posting that you must be quite patient and easy-going. But for whatever reason you decided to join in, thanks! I'm glad you're here.

9) I'm thankful for internet resources that help me learn and explore new and exciting things. Where would we be without our sense of curiosity, our need to explore and observe the things around us? A life without curiosity and learning would be so boring! Having said that, sometimes I learn things that I wish I'd never seen or heard or read. But in the end, I have to be thankful for those things, too. Bad things exist in this world whether we accept that fact or not. And I'd rather know about them so that I can fight against them. You can't fight what you don't know. I guess I'm thankful for Sun Tzu, too. LOL I really should read 'The Art of War' for myself. I got my info from my husband who read 'The Art of War For Leaders'. I'd like to read the original book.

10) I'm thankful for the peace in my soul that comes from my personal belief in a God that cared enough to remake, recreate and reform me. 'Born again.' 'Saved.' Those terms are so well used they're a bit ragged around the edges. But they apply to me. The truth of the matter is that the other three words are really /more/ accurate. Choosing to serve God is a life-changing and ongoing thing. It isn't something that occurs once and then you go on as before. It's something that should be constant and never ending.

I've been in a kind of slump lately, feeling like I don't really know what to do next. Wondering what my purpose is. Getting bogged down in "what if's." What I need to remember is that perhaps this is a time when I need to be resting. Perhaps my purpose for now is to take a breather and refocus. Maybe, just maybe, God is telling me to be still for a time. And I have to snicker because I'm just as bad at being still as my 6yo!

So Many Goings On!

It's been a few weeks since my last post but it seems like several months! So much has been happening lately. Since my last post, our internet was cut back. Again. This time, we only had two weeks at normal speeds before being cut back. I impatiently await the day when we can switch to a better system. I've taken to calling this down time 'Internet Detention'. Our Redwall Feast didn't happen at the usual time this year. Too many things happened at once and I just was not ready. So it looks like we'll be having a Mid-Winter Redwall Feast. I hope we'll have our wood-burning stove installed by then. That would be so wonderful! TheRo had a birthday this past weekend. It was a small affair with a pleasant number of gifts that she greatly enjoyed ripping open. :) For Halloween, we don't usually do trick or treating. We have done it a couple of times in the past but it's usually more trouble than I care to deal with, mostly because we have to get rid of all the candy. (I have a new friend who has a great tradition that might help me solve this problem in the future, though.) So yesterday, we had one kid who was very upset not to be going trick or treating (our 9yo) and one who could care less either way as long as she gets to play (our 6yo). LOL The girls did dress up and went over to Grannie's house to trick or treat. This they enjoyed very much and I enjoyed it because I knew they were safe and also that Grannie knows what they can and can't eat. :) What a joy! My only regret is that the camera had no battery power so I have no pictures to commemorate it for the first time in 14 years. :( Well, I'll have to be on the ball for next year.

I've been extremely slow about lots of things this year! I can't believe how badly I have fallen into a slump. The things that I normally enjoy give me little or no pleasure these days and I find myself just functioning, surviving, whatever. Those costumes I talked about before (at least, I believe I mentioned them on this blog...Princess Mononoke, Merle and Able Nightroad) are still in the planning stages for the most part and not cut out at all. And I'm still working on a necklace for a friend that should've been complete long ago. I came to the conclusion that I needed to set some new goals for myself. For right now, setting new goals is as far as I've gotten on that. LOL Can you say 'procrastinator extraordinaire'? The girls got some money for birthday/Halloween and they used part of it to get some yoga gear so we've gotten back into doing some yoga during the work week. I'm hoping we can keep it up. I do feel much better when I start my day with some good, calming yoga. That seems to help a lot towards getting me motivated for the day. Well, speaking of motivation, we still need to do the yoga routine for today and I have Pickl-It jars to fill and dishes to wash and laundry to get done and patterns to cut out and Christmas to plan for... Well, you guys get the picture. :) Wish me well and I wish the same for you all. I hope I can remember to post again soon. LOL
Laugh a lot!