Wednesday, December 26, 2007

You Better Watch Out!

Christmas eve, we sprinkled "reindeer food" on the lawn.

Today, as J, Moo, my brother, and I returned from the store, it was fairly dark already. As we walked through the yard to get to the front door, Moo warned us, "Be careful! There might be reindeer poop on the grass!"

Monday, December 24, 2007

BELIEVE!

At this time of the year, many Christian children are focused on two people - baby Jesus and Santa Claus - one very real and the other real, but in a very different way. How do I reconcile my belief in Jesus and Santa Claus?

Jesus is very real. He is as real today as he was yesterday and as real as he will be tomorrow. He is the reason for everything in our lives. He was born that Christmas day to save us from our sins. He gives us hope for our lives here on earth and our lives to come. My belief in Jesus is essential to my entire life. He is part of who I am.

I also believe in Santa Claus. He was once a real person - St. Nicholas. My belief in him is that of his spirit - the spirit of giving. Although my belief in Santa is not essential to my entire life, my life will be richer with the spirit of giving.

It is important for us to BELIEVE. First of all that God sent his son to die for us and secondly that through God we can make a difference in the lives of others through the giving of ourselves.

Matthew 22:36-40

36"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Bird Story from AU Chapel

Talking with my brother today, I remembered a story that I heard in a chapel service while I was attending Anderson University. I searched the Internet to find a good retelling of it. This story has a good lesson at the end. Here it is...

It was back in the old days when birds still flew south. A bird was late about deciding to fly south so it was cold when it decided to fly south. It was so cold that politicians could be seen walking around with their hands in their own pockets. When the bird flew into a storm its wings started to ice up and it started to freeze. It fell to earth dying. It landed in a barnyard and lay dying on the frozen ground.

When a cow came up and pooped on it. The dung was smelly, but it was warm and the bird started to revive. As it revived it stuck its head up and it smiled. It noticed the sun started to shine and there was food all around so it started to sing merrily.

A barnyard cat heard it singing merrily and came over and cleaned it off, then the cat ate the bird.

The lessons learned are...

1. Everyone who poops on you is not your enemy.
2. Everyone who gets you out of poop is not your friend.
3. When you're in deep poop, it's best to keep your mouth shut!

Monday, December 17, 2007

Ambitiousness and "Some Mint" Frosting

Being a teacher and a mom, I don't always get to do things exactly the way I would like to. For example, when Moo came home the other day and told her teacher that we would make gingerbread boys to go with their gingerbread houses, you should have seen my face! How on earth would I accomplish that? Oh yeah, the gingerbread mix... but it only makes 20 and what if I burn them and what if I make them too big and... When?!?!?!?

Here is the letter I sent to her teacher.

Dear Mrs. B,

When Moo told me, that she told you, that we would make gingerbread boys for the class, I thought, “Yikes!” That was a tad ambitious of her! (Plus the mix we have only makes 20.)
So, I did the less ambitious thing and sent J to IGA to buy some gingerbread boys. Not exactly homemade, but pretty good anyway. (And under 100 calories!)

Oh yes! One more thing. On the way home from church Wednesday night, Moo informed me that you would be putting the gingerbread houses together with “some mint” frosting. I just had to laugh!

Michelle

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Pudding Cookies

Yesterday, I tried out a recipe for Pudding Cookies. They are so easy and pretty yummy! They almost have an addictive quality to them. I was looking for a fairly easy recipe to use for the cookie exchange at church tomorrow. I found the recipe in a cookbook that the Medina Library puts out each Christmas. Yesterday, I tried it with a vanilla pudding mix. Today I made three more batches with orange creme, lemon, and chocolate pudding mixes. I honestly can't classify the recipe as a fairly easy recipe - or even a very easy recipe. I must classify it as an EXTREMELY easy recipe. And I'm not sure if I can say that they are from scratch either. Here's the recipe and I'll let you decide.

Submitted to Medina County Library Holiday Cookbook - Volume 13 by Dianna Wertz

Pudding Cookies

3/4 cup Bisquick
1 package instant pudding
1 egg
1/4 cup oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix ingredients until dough forms a ball. Shape into 1 inch balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten to 2 inches around. Bake 8-10 minutes.

I think with the Bisquick and the instant pudding, I can't really count it as "from scratch." Anyway they are easy. I made them even easier by using my Pampered Chef one-inch scoop to put them on the cookie trays. I dipped the orange ones into colored sugar, the lemon ones into Christmas sprinkles, and stirred chocolate and peanut butter chips into the chocolate ones. The recipe says that it makes 24, but I only got about 18-20 from the orange and lemon ones. The chocolate with the chips did make 24.

My cookies are now packaged and ready to take to church tomorrow. The extras will soon be devoured by Moo and my hubby! I've eaten about five already and need to call it quits!

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Our First Snow Day 2007-2008!

I love mornings like these! How it works is I get a phone call between 5 and 6 in the morning and the voice on the other end says that we have a 2 hour delay. An hour or so later, I get another call that says school is closed! Today I had to turn on the tv to find out if Moo's school was cancelled as well. I was dreading the idea of getting out of bed to take her to school.

Once I found out she had the day off too, I went back to sleep until 10:00. Now I have time to get a few things done. I've already worked on the kitchen for about half an hour. Next I think I'll sit myself down to grade some papers. There is a possiblitly some cookies (from scratch) may get baked today also!

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Another Saturday at Home

This morning we got up and went to a sale and then came back home around 11:00. We had plans to go out and ended up staying at home. I did some dishes and laundry. J's mom came over and helped with our Christmas decorating. We now have the tree up, as well as most of our other Christmas decorations.

That's about it. Not much to blog about, but sometimes uneventful is good!