My Secret Santa

I got a secret santa gift in the mail! Look at all the lovely goodies I got! In the adorable totebag there were magazines galore. Patterns for crafty things. Candy. Cookbooks. A fun little wallet. Candy and a little book.


I got a wonderful little totebag - perfect for taking stuff to work in.
This cute little card wallet!


Some candy! I loooooove candy!


A fun little book!


I mean to tell you I made out like a BANDIT!! Woooooohheee!!!

It was such a treasure to come home after working a late night (I worked 10 hours!) and be able to open such a lovely surprise!

And he's done it...

Our middle son is 7 (almost 8) and has been wetting the bed. It used to bother me more than him. Then last summer when he wanted to do sleep overs and when his aunt was taking him camping he would just sob when he thought about the bed wetting problem.

I talked to his doctor and they gave him some pills. Which didn't work. We had worked up to the maximum dose and still it wasn't working. We had tried all different kinds of things up to this point. Nothing to drink after dinner (at one point we even did only half of a glass of milk with dinner and then nothing else). We tried making the responsibility his to change the sheets (it was clearly not a lazy issue and that is why he was wetting, because when I made it his responsibility he would just get up, take the wet sheets off, change his clothes and go sleep on the couch. Poor little guy.) We tried reward charts. We tried just about everything there is to try. The doctor suggested a behavioral specialist.... which I said no to because it wasn't "bad behavior" it was a bladder control issue. Then the doctor said he would run some tests to see if there was something more seriously wrong. Nothing. Doctor assured me it was common for kids, especially boys, to wet the bed and that each year as he grew his chances of "out growing" it became greater. Good news, unless your 7 and want to spend the night somewhere and fear you will pee yourself and that person's bed.

My little Lefty just dealt with it. He wore pull-ups every night and even then sometimes would wet through those. Then, just before Thanksgiving he kept it dry. He continued to keep the pull-up dry for a week. Then it became 2 weeks of dry. And here we are nearly a full month later and he is still dry. He asked last night if he could try underwear. I told him it was totally up to him. He said he wanted to try it, and bless his little heart he told me that if he pee'd he would clean it up. I told him he could come wake me for help and he said "No mom. I can do it. I don't want to wake you up. I will just do it myself."

That made me feel bad that he felt he needed to take on that all himself, but I just prayed it wouldn't come to him needing help. Sure enough he came flying down the stairs this morning at 6:45 and said "High Five mom! I stayed dry allllll night!"

He was so proud of himself and so excited he could hardly stand it this morning.

When he headed up to get dressed he said "Can I just wear the underwear I slept in? Because they are basically clean." *grins*

Our handmade Christmas gifts - Part 4

Part 4 in this handmade Christmas gift showcase is another really cool neighbor gift. Repurposing a 4-pack Starbucks Frappachino with the cardboard carrier. I have made these before as birthday gifts, but this year I made one for a neighbor and one for a teacher's assistant at Lady Bug's school.

I got the idea here awhile back.

Here is where I posted about the one I made for my friend's birthday.

Below is a picture of one of the ones we made this year. Lady Bug helped me do this. It is so simple and everyone just loves these!

Our handmade Christmas - Part 3

Part 3 in the handmade Christmas is these silhouette ornaments. These are made by the kids, with very little supervision from me. Once I gave them the instructions, they whipped these out and had a blast making them. We made several of these ornaments to give as gifts.

Items needed for this:
- Wooden plaques (I found a 4 pack for $1 at the craft store and it already had a pre-drilled hole in the top. I wanted to get oval shaped ones but couldn't find the right size I wanted. These rectangle ones are about 2 1/2" wide and 4" long)
- paint for the sides of the plaque
- ribbon for hanging
- scrapbook paper
- your silhouette pictures

I probably did this the hard way, but here is what I did:

I took the kids pictures from the side. After I downloaded the pictures on the computer. I used the graphics editor and used the selection tool and cropped the edges of the profile. I deleted the background. Then I printed this and used scissors to cut it out. I made sure to cut the flyaways and the little fuzzy hairs so they show up (Spirit was cracking up at all the flyaways that Lefty had until I pointed out he had a few of his own!!) Anyway, then I traced it onto black paper and cut it out again.



I made some in a frame for my room (5x7 frames), but for these ornaments I used the small plaque. I looked at getting photo ornaments, but they were quite costly.

So, first I printed a version of The Christmas Story using a fancy font. I printed it out and we cut it the same size as the rectangle plaque I am using. I had the kids add a small amount of modge podge to the rectangle and place the verse on top. Then we added a little bit more modge podge over the whole thing.

When that was fully dried, we put a tiny bit of modge podge on the back of the silhouette and carefully placed it in the center of the rectangle on top of the Christmas story. Then carefully covered the whole thing with more modge podge.


After that is fully dried, we took some Christmas scrap book paper and cut it to fit the back side of the ornament You could use paint, but I had some scrapbook paper so I decided to use that on the back. Again, using modge podge to attach it.

After that had dried overnight, we attached a ribbon hanger and the kids wrote their names and the date on the back. I forgot to take a picture of the back. I thought I did, but I can't seem to find the picture and unfortunately all these that we made for people have been sent off, given away or already wrapped up. But the scrapbook paper on the back is red and says Merry Christmas all over it.

BELOW IS A PICTURE OF THE ONES HANGING IN MY ROOM. I WANT TO GET SOME RIBBON TO ACTUALLY HANG THESE FROM, BUT HERE IS THE WAY THEY ARE HANGING NOW.

Meal Plan for December 12 - 18

This week's meal plan (December 12 -18):

SATURDAY:
Breakfast - Huevos Rancheros
Lunch - Chicken nuggets / fries / fruit
Dinner - Lasagna / garlic bread / salad

SUNDAY:
Breakfast - Cereal / fruit / milk
Lunch - potluck at church (I think I am going to take Taco Soup)
Dinner - Cheesy Potato Topped Meatloaf / fruit

MONDAY:
Breakfast - Cereal / juice
Lunch - meat roll ups / fruit / cookie / chips
Dinner - Chili / cornbread

TUESDAY:
Breakfast - Cinnamon Toast / milk
Lunch - left over chili
Dinner - Creamy Chicken Pasta (bought the stuff for this last week and we didn't get a chance to eat it)

WEDNESDAY:
Breakfast - Cereal / juice
Lunch - meat rolls ups / fruit / crackers
Dinner - Quesadillas (Lady Bug has a program at school so we need to eat quick!)

THURSDAY:
Breakfast - Cereal / milk
Lunch - PB&J / chips / cookie / fruit
Dinner - Ranch Broiled Chicken / applesauce / corn / french bread

FRIDAY:
Breakfast - Baked French Toast / fruit / milk
Lunch - meat roll ups / fruit / chips / cookie
Dinner - Hawaiian Meatballs / steamed rice

Friday Recipe - Chocolate Refrigerator Cookies

These are a Christmas tradition in my family. They are one of my favorite cookies! (Notice I said ONE... I have lots of favorites!)

Chocolate Refrigerator Cookies
INGREDIENTS:

2/3 c. shortening
2/3 c. butter
1 c. granulated sugar
1 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
3 1/4 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/2 c. cocoa
1 c. nuts, finely ground

Mix shortening, butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla thoroughly. Stir in remaining ingredients. Turn onto lightly floured board. Shape dough into ball with lightly floured hands, pressing dough into compactness. Cut dough in half. Shape each half into roll 2" by 8". Roll dough onto wax paper, twist ends tightly and place in refrigerator. Cut into 1/4" slices and bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes. Makes about 90 cookies. Can be refrigerated up to 1 month or frozen up to 3 months.

I like to frost mine after they are cooled. I usually make a simple vanilla frosting, but store bought frosting would work too.

Butter Frosting
INGREDIENTS:
1/3 c unsalted butter, softened
4 1/2 c sifted, powdered sugar
1/4 c milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
dash of salt

In a bowl beat butter until fluffy. Gradually add 2 cups of the powdered sugar, beating well.

Slowly, beat in the milk, vanilla and the dash of salt. Slowly beat in remaining sugar. Beat in additional milk, if needed, to make it a nice spreading consistency. Tint with food color, if desired.

Our handmade Christmas gifts - Part 2

Part 2 of the handmade Christmas gift showcase is a totebag for Lady Bug's teachers. Lady Bug is in Pre-K and learning to write. So I had her take a pencil and write on a totebag (I helped her decide what to write!) Then she and I sat together and embroidered it. We just did a basic back stitch with embroidery thread. She got a real kick out of making this.

We completed this in two evenings. The first night after dinner she wrote on it and we started sewing it. Then we completed it the next night. So again, this was an easy craft and not too expensive. The totebag was only $3 at the craft store. If our time and budget allows I will put in some school supplies in the bag before we wrap it up for the teacher.