Comfort and Joy

Every year, our family reads a devotional book called Christ in the Carols. It is such a blessing to read our beloved Christmas tunes with fresh eyes and cause us to consider the words that we re singing. They are typically doctrinally rich and worthy of a deeper treatment than is often available when we sing them.

I go on Christmas Carol kicks. I find one that resonates with me and that's the one that I play most. And then I will scout around for all the variations of the song I can find. Which is why I own eleven versions of O Come All Ye Faithful (last year's favorite). This year, my carol is Veni, Veni Emanuel. I'm up to five versions of it. And it brings me to tears-not that this is a big surprise to anyone that knows me. It automatically sends me to places where the scriptures promise that HE would come. And not only would He come, but He would to choose to come in the meekest estate, and know pain and poverty.
C.S. lewis put it this way:

"The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation. They say that God became Man. Every other miracle prepares for this, or exhibits this, or results from this. . . .

In the Christian story God descends to re-ascend. He comes down; down from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity . . . down to the very roots and sea-bed of the Nature He has created.But He goes down to come up again and bring the ruined world up with Him."  

(from: Miracles)

"Say to those who have an anxious heart, "Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you."
Is. 35:4

I hope it's magical!

Let them eat cake

Selah really looks forward to Wednesdays when she can play with other kids her age at preschool.

So, when I was asked to make Jesus' Birthday cake for the class Christmas party, I couldn't have been more thrilled. I really wanted to make it special.  I dug up a easy & yummy chocolate cake recipe, which is always a pleaser...

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/too-much-chocolate-cake/detail.aspx

I wanted to add special embelishments, but since I didn't have the ingredients to make modeling chocolate, I  decided to go with fondant. I have messed around with fondant before, but I didn't want to buy a  whole ten dollar tub when I only needed a little bit of it. So, I went online and used this recipe, and was grateful that it only required three ingredients that I always have on hand.

Here ya go...

http://candy.about.com/od/fondantcandyrecipes/r/basic_fondant.htm

~just a word about this recipe, I kept dusting my hands with powdered sugar because it gets rather sticky the more you handle it.

Hard to believe this will be opaque and pliable, but it will.

We poured our fondant onto a pan and let it set. When it was tempered enough to touch, we made a figure eight motion in the pan and sure enough, it started turning white & forming a ball. Don't worry if it's crumbly,

just knead it like bread dough and allow it to rest.

Moldable. Now knead in food color.

Gabe made baby Jesus.

Ice cream cones make wonderful trees!

Graham crackers would have worked better for our manger but, since we had none, we improvised with gingerbread,

it was heavier and took longer to dry, but it worked. We used toasted coconut for hay.

We made gifts by covering mini wheats in fondant and making ribbon with fruit roll ups.

Thanks-for-giving.

Have you ever stopped to think that Jesus is thankful for you, Christian? You are a precious gift given to Him by the Father. And the Father only gives good gifts. And He doesn't change.Or take His gifts back.
Why? Because Christ's atonement is perfect and finished. And if He purchased you, He also hides you (Col.3:3).  And so, by God's grace, we live a life of thankfulness, because He loved us first.

Thank you, LORD for John 17: 6-12

For the month of November, we are making a Thankfulness Tree.

 We cut out handprints, write something we are thankful for, and tell the Father how grateful we are for it. So far, it's sweetly fruitful. And I will be sure to make this a tradition from now on.

Here's our girl, thanking God for her books.

Brining: I'm sold.

I started brining our holiday birds about seven years ago.  I went on foodnetwork.com and took copious notes. I settled on the Good Eats recipe, and meticulously duplicated it at first.

You can get the 411 on turkey brining here: Alton Brown is usually a reliable source.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKr1rByVVCI&feature=related

After a few years of tweaking different recipes here and there, I finally came up with my recipe that my family likes the best. Not only did it flavor the meat nicely, it rendered beautiful dripping which in turn, produces amazing

gravy.

I use my trusty Home Depot 5 gallon bucket

3 jugs of cran-apple juice

1/2 gal. orange juice

1 Cup of Kosher salt

2 Tbsp whole peppercorns

ice water (to cover) this will vary depending on the size of your bird.

I remove all the giblets and such and thaw right in the brine about an hour per pound.

I keep this in the basement meat fridge. Typically, I start the process 3 days ahead.

Butterball has good thawing resources:

http://www.butterball.com/tips-how-tos/how-tos/thaw#one

 Don't fret. Your bird will be pink.

I like to jam my puppy with lemons, rosemary, thyme, onion and even a few apples

to build my gravy flavors. There I go with the gravy again. It's the best part of the meal, IMHO.

Lastly, I butter her up, throw her in the oven, and throw on the Christmas music!

Well hello there, Mr. Turkey.

Don't laugh, but we really like the can-shaped cranberry sauce, and nothing else will do at
Thanksgiving. Oh- and there's a shot of the gravy that I love so much!
Gobble, Gobble! 

Milestone at Six Months

Look what the baby did today!

It happens so fast.  

She's got a thing about princesses...

What is it about girls and princesses? Is it all of those beautiful dresses? Or, the wonderful castles, and the birds that land on their fingers and sing just for them? 

Maybe it's all the love and attention they get?

I suspect it's a little bit of everything; but I think it goes deeper than a

superficial desire to be fussy and frilly; it is the ingrained desire to be loved and cherished.  It's a hunger that we have for GOD, King of the universe. He is the only One Who can meet all of our needs, and treat us like the princesses we were created to be.

The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: "I have loved you with an everlasting love;

 I have drawn you with loving-kindness.

Jer. 31:3

My Selah has totally tapped into her princess gene. She loves all things

princessy!

Here's the movie that started it all. Cinderella is her very favorite.

I picked up a set of Princess cookie cutters, which I use all the time. She has had princess

 french toast, pancakes, and modeling chocolate. I recently pressed

out sandwiches for her tea party dolly luncheon.  

Dolled up

She love to get her toes all pretty!

Her Princess Creations

I have a permanent set of Selah lip prints preserved in lipstick on her froggy craft. 

Selah really loved putting together this 3D foam castle that we found at Michaels craft store.

http://www.michaels.com/3D-Foam-Princess-Castle/gc1563,default,pd.html?cgid=products-generalcrafts-foam&start=11

I'm posting this because it kept her busy for an hour and a half!  The pieces fit together like a puzzle, and was easy enough for her to do independently, which made her feel very proud! But *be aware, Mama! You will need to assist in the assembly of the minarets. And since the kit doesn't come with glue, you will need to have some handy. Also, if you don't feel like standing there holding the cone shapes in place while the glue dries, you might want use a few rubber bands or laundry clips to help hold the shape.

Basically, my kiddo is up for anything crafty. Here's a little birdhouse castle for princesses

 of the feathered variety.

This is a wonderful book for the little princesses in your life.

I love books that encourage character development, the core of true beauty.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0784719640/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Falling for Fall

What did we do this fall?
Lets explore...

(her eco-friendly initials)

Outback in the keaves

Warm enough to bake.

Made Cookies

Preschool treat

(thanks to LivingLocurto.com for the inspiration!) 

Our date to Coffee Traders

this blog brought to you today thanks to this content baby....

awwww!

Fall to do

Fun Reads:

My little pumkins

Oh silly Mama..toddlers and faux suede just dont mix! Time for for rehab with a little vinyl!

I got soooo tired looking at these scuzzy things!

 Foue repolhstered chairs= $17.50 and two hours of my time. Ahh! Much better.

Bird Nerd

Someone was teasing me the other day, saying I was too young to be into birdwatching, and if I really wanted to party it up, I should go down to the retirement community and enlist some birding recruits. We could have quite the rockin' club!  (Little did they know that in my head, I'm like, 'YEAH! That's a great idea!') But, I'll put that on pause for the time being. Actually, I have always loved birds. Listening to them, watching them, reading about them, borrowing song-bird albums from the library...a total bird nerd from the start.

When I was younger, I had a favorite book that I still keep called, Andrew Henry's Meadow. The jist of the book is that one by one, a bunch of misunderstood kids ran away and built little homes for themselves. The homes they built were a reflection of what they loved to do most. And among them waas a fellow bird nerd named Alice. She had the coolest house high up in the trees so could be around birds all the time. "That was the life," I thought!

My dream house at six years old..

Fast forward twenty-nine years, I had a dream come true of sorts.

I found myself in the woods of Montana and my front door was a flight up. The house has four 4x5 windows, and a 6ft. bay window flanked by two smaller windows that crank out. We have a deck that wraps around the front and back, which makes it ideal to put up and maintain a few birdfeeders. And because there is plenty of habitat for little birds to fly to for cover, the birds definitely visit and they visit often.

"Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will
 give you the desires of your heart."
 Psalm 37:4

Our little visitors come in all shapes

and all sizes, too...

Project to keep me busy this fall

Fall projects to keep me busy.

No sewing required!

Next up! Make plenty of headbands to coordinate with Thanksgiving and Christmas!