Weekend Recap

BE SURE TO CHECK OUT MY GIVEAWAY! Click here to enter!
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Last Friday Lady Bug woke up with a rash. It started on her face and within an hour of being awake she was covered. I kept her out of school, but had to go to work for a little bit. By the time we left my office at noon ... no rash. It was gone. Weirdest thing. So she and I ran errands. We got home the same time that Mr. Man and the boys got home, about 3:00 pm. The boys brought home report cards and both did excellent so we decided to reward them. We rode our bikes to Dairy Queen for a small ice cream cone. Then we went home, while the kids played outside for a little bit, Mr. Man and I raked leaves (the never ending leaves!!). We called my Mother and Father-in-law and decided to meet them downtown at the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. That was SO much fun! What a treat!

Saturday we went downtown again for the Veterans Day Parade. After that we headed home for lunch and more outside play time for the kids and more raking for us! Saturday night we watched movies and ate popcorn.

Sunday was mostly cleaning and attempting to fix the leaking washing machine, more raking, more cleaning! Spirit had a friend come over for a couple hours and Lady Bug and Lefty went next door to play with the new dog our neighbor got!

Overall a wonderful weekend, we had 78 - 80 degree weather all weekend! It was wonderful. Now it is time to go back to fall/winter and we may get a a storm or two this week. It was chilly and windy this morning!

RACHEL RAY COOKWARE GIVEAWAY

When I was contacted to host a giveaway for Rachel Ray cookware...how could I say NO??? I mean, seriously!?!? I think I might have even squealed with delight - fairly loudly!

I can't tell you how long I spent looking around at all the stuff I wish I had. Like the Egg Buddy.... how stinkin' cute is the name of this??? Or this oh-so-purdy 12 oz casserole dish. Please click here to view all the Rachel Ray cookware.

Now on to the giveaway.... just in time for the holidays... guess what I get the privilege of offering to you all? I can hardly contain my excitement...

Drum roll please...

This very awesome and very beautiful 4.25 Qt. oval covered casserole dish in the oh-so- fun yellow!

To enter to win I am not going to ask you to become a follower (you can if you want to) or subscribe or any of that, nope this is a super easy giveaway (that's what I'm about don't ya know) all I need you to do is click on one or all of the above links and look around. THEN, come back here and tell me how you would use the casserole dish over the holidays if you were to win it.

Good luck and happy cooking!

The giveaway is open until November 15, 2009 at 5:00 pm (Mountain time). Please be sure you leave an email for me to contact you at (so I can get a hold of you should you win!) Winner will be chosen randomly and announced sometime on Monday November 16th.

**YOU DO NOT HAVE TO HAVE A BLOG TO ENTER. JUST BE SURE YOU LEAVE AN EMAIL SO I CAN CONTACT YOU IF YOU SHOULD WIN!**

Friday Recipe - Pumpkin Butter

This recipe is for Pumpkin Butter, similar to Apple Butter for toast and such. This is a great fall/winter hostess gift or a gift for teachers, neighbors, etc. I usually make up a batch and we keep one small jar for ourselves. This is excellent on toast, muffins or biscuits. I usually attach a small tag tied with raffia or ribbon to my jars saying what it is and what to put it on.

It makes the house smell yummy too while it cooks!

Pumpkin Butter
INGREDIENTS:
1 (15 oz) can solid pack pumpkin (for those of you who cook your own pumpkin it is about 1 3/4 c pumpkin)
1 c applesauce
3/4 c apple juice
1/2 c brown sugar
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Mix all ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Transfer to sterile containers and refrigerate until serving.

**NOTE: I reuse jars so I don't know what size my jars are, but I can tell you that this batch fills about 3 smaller sized jars. The recipe can easily be doubled or even tripled if you want to make more. The cooking time would need to be increased as well.**

Thursday

For this fine Thursday in the first week of November....well I got nuttin' to share really. It has been a quiet week in our house.....next week the chaos begins with birthday parties, parent/teacher conferences, holiday craft making and baking, holidays, school closures for said holidays, holiday parties, etc....

But, as for this week we are all relishing in the quiet and just waiting for the storm to begin!

Have a happy Thursday!

Making your lists

I am participating in another Works For Me Wednesday tip sharing hosted by We Are THAT Family. Click here for all the wonderful holiday tips being shared.

What works for me is to have a Holiday Notebook. It starts with Thanksgiving planning and runs through Christmas planning. I have used spiral notebooks before, but the last 3 years I have used a small 1" binder.

In January I print off these pages and then I put them in the notebook. As I come across ideas for handmade gifts, or recipes I might want to try out during the holidays then I print them off (or rip out of magazines), 3-hole punch them and stick them in my notebook. I start adding in names in July to our list of who we need to make or buy gifts for (adding in teachers, new co-workers, new babies in the family, etc) and then I can start, little by little, making things or buying things as we can afford to.





This is what works for me!

The blood curdling scream...

... and I'm not talking about Halloween.

Let me set the stage for you. It's 2:40 am (that's two o'clock in the MORNING!) and I am awoken to a horrific scream from the room across the hall. It was Lady Bug. "Moooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmm" I leap out of bed as quickly as I can and go rushing in to her room. She says "Mom. You forgot to turn on my CD last night."

Me: blink, blink

Lady Bug: "So don't forgot again. Ok mom?"

Me: blink, blink

Lady Bug: "mom?"

Me: "Ok. I won't forget. Now go back to sleep"

Lady Bug: "Ok. Love you."

Me: blink, blink

I head back to bed wondering what in the world just happened. Did she REALLY need to scream like that only to point out I forgot to turn her music on some 6 hours earlier?

Getting a jump start

With all the falling snow we had last week (closed down the city for two days...) it really got my husband and I in the Christmas shopping spirit. Over the years my husband has learned not to wait until the last minute to do his shopping (thanks to all my nagging!) We (the whole family) were running errands and we found some stuff on clearance and he didn't even hesitate to throw 'em in the cart. When we got home he was commenting on how good it feels to have a jump start on the Christmas shopping and how it will be so nice to be done early! I told him if we plan to do just a little bit with each paycheck we should be in good shape.

Each kid had made a wish list a few weeks ago (yes I said a FEW WEEKS ago) and so we sort of had an idea of what we were going to get each kid already. The items we found on clearance were on our minds to get them anyway so it feels like an even bigger score for us!

THEN, Mr. Man announces to me that he doesn't know if he can wait two months... I guess that must be why he always was a "last-minute-shopper". I told him I am going to wrap the presents up and then he won't be able to give them to the kids early!

Then the other morning Spirit was laying in our bed and out of the blue Mr. Man says to him "Don't even try looking in our closet for Christmas presents!" - I looked at him and said "WHY in the world would you have even suggested that to him?" He just hung is head and said "I don't know." -- Apparently he should stick to being a last minute shopper! Sheesh! Needless to say, I am hiding the presents in a new spot and not telling Mr. Man where they are! :-)