Home Tour, Advent 2008

Yesterday Alli and I had fun putting up Christmas decorations. Our family tradition is decorate our Christmas tree on the last Saturday of the church year - which was yesterday. That's the day that we get out our Christmas decorations and get the house all dressed up for Christmas. We listen to Christmas music and have hot chocolate while we work. It's fun! Even though Advent doesn't technically start until today, I like to have the house looking like the season for the start of Advent.

Here is our finished work:

The Advent wreath with the first candle lit


In the dining room. Notice that the teacups that Debbie gave me have pride of place *smile*.

We put up twinkle lights throughout the house. It gives off a pretty glow.

More twinkle lights...

The mantle with stockings. Its hard to see in this picture but there are little baby Christmas trees on the mantle amongst the candles and pinecones.
Snowman collection.

And Santa collection.

And finally the tree. We have a wimpy little tree! I have it loaded down in lights and ornaments in an effort to bulk it up *grin*!

What does your house look like? Let me know if you put up any pics.

To my American friends

Joining with you today to give thanks to God for all His good and gracious gifts, chief among them the salvation that He has won for us through His Son's perfect life, death and resurrection. All thanks and praise be unto God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

Happy Thanksgiving!

My elves

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Ode to potatoes

Tonight for supper we are having beef and peppers (2 lbs eye of round @$1.99 per pound; 2 red peppers which were 4/$1.99), mashed potatoes (3 pounds potatoes @20 cents a pound, plus say 40 cents for the milk, butter, salt and pepper) and boiled carrots (2 lbs @20 cents a pound). That is $1.06 per person, and I don't expect any leftovers! I guess that's not exactly a "frugal" meal, but it is a good price for a beef dinner. Serving cheaper side dishes brings down the overall cost of a meal when the entree is pricey. (I guess that should be a no-brainer, but it took me forever to figure out.)

The potatoes, carrots and peppers were all on sale this week. I got a lot of potatoes and carrots. My family loves them both - potatoes especially. They would eat potatoes every night of the week if I would make them. I got them this week for $2 for a 10 lb bag, which is 10 cents a serving!

So many ways to serve them too...

~boiled, with butter salt and pepper
~mashed - try using italian dressing instead of milk - it gives the potatoes a bit of a zing!
~baked potatoes - with or without toppings
~seasoned roasted wedges - sprinkle with oil and seasonings and roast them in the oven along side your main dish (I also like to grill these in the summer time)
~homemade french fries - I oven "fry" them
~fried potatoes - a good use for leftover potatoes, just chop them up and fry in some oil and butter
~hash browns - basically fried, shredded potatoes - they cook very quickly this way
~potato pancakes - serve them with sour cream!

There's more ways than that of course, but these are our favourites.

Advent 2008

Can it really be Advent in just over a week?


I don't know if it's because there's snow on the ground already or what, but it's starting to feel like Christmas is coming! The last few years we have scaled back drastically on our Christmas preparations and celebrations. I'm positively embarassed by the ridiculous amount of time, effort and $$$ we used to spend on Christmas. We went WAY over board. And when I say "we", I mean "I". Because my husband always felt I went overboard (and told me so), but he is a patient man, and even though he could have said "enough!", he let me figure it out on my own.





Oh, but Advent! I love this time of year. I love the whole "anticipation" aspect of it. Now understand, in years past I would have been baking and decorating and shopping and wrapping (and shrieking at the kids as I got more and more frazzled) in an effort to make "this Christmas the best ever".


Oh man. What was I thinking?


The "best Christmas ever" was 2000 some odd years ago in Bethlehem. Nothing I do is gonna top that one!


You know, my intentions were good. I just wanted to make things "special". I never meant to let things get so out of hand...but somehow it had the effect of obscuring the Child in the manger. He was there, but kind of in the background. And the thing of it is, if you had asked me I would have told you that for me, CHRIST was at the centre of Christmas. (Well sure He was, but he was wrapped in so many layers of tinsel and bows and paper that no one would blame you if you came to the conclusion the the Saviour was incidental to the "big day".)


Ah, well. I stand ever in His grace and mercy. And I may be a slooow learner...but He's teaching me.


So, Advent.


Well, this year I mean to focus on the four Sundays in Advent. Beginning November 30 I'd like to make a special meal each Sunday and invite a few last minutes guests from church over to fellowship with us. I am looking for a new Advent wreath because my old one is just about falling apart. We have an Advent devotional booklet to use to guide our devotions.


I'm also going to handwrite Christmas cards to friends and family. As many as I have time for. I may miss a few people on my list. I'll get them next year.


That's all I have planned. I hope to simply savour the weeks leading up to Christmas - with anticipation, yes, but for the coming of the Christ...not the coming of the "big day" where I show off for all my guests. Whatever else I may do - Christmas baking or decorating, or whatever -those things are what will be incidental. At least I hope so. Because I am still learning you know.

Grocery shopping day

Score! Today was shopping day and I did really well.

I always check the flyers when they come and see who's got what on sale. I have one "main" store where I do the bulk of my shopping because they have the lowest prices over all, but I will make a special trip to other stores if they've got partcularly good sale items.

Aside: my main store is No Frills in Elmira, which is a little town about 20 minutes north of us. Even factoring in the gas, they're way cheaper. They have certain items (they rotate) that they put on sale for extended periods - sometimes as long as 3 months. It gives me time to take advantage and stock up over time and I don't have to buy it all up front. Plus, the store is in the heart of Mennonite country. You get to park your car side by side with the horse and buggies. I have got to put up some pics for you!

Anyhoo, this week No Frills had pork loin roasts for $1.49 per pound!! Yippee! I bought 13 pounds. This is boneless meat with very little fat. Ordinarily I would buy another 6 or 7 lbs of it but I already have two pork roasts in the freezer from the last time it was on sale. What I bought today is waiting to be portioned into chops. We will get 6 meals worth of meat from it.

I also stocked up on ground beef which was $1.99 a pound. That's a good price around here. I got 12 lbs of it. That will be good for 6 - 12 meals (depends on what I make with it).

That's pretty much how I buy all my meat - when it goes on sale for a really good price I get enough to last about 6 weeks. I know that in 6 weeks it will be back on sale again.

Meals today:
The last of the free bagels got eaten for breakfast. The butter was gone too. It's actually hard for me to estimate breakfast and lunch since everybody prepares their own.

For lunch I had leftover stew and yogurt with granola and raisins on top. Again, everybody else grabbed from the lunch box.

Dinner: after grocery shopping I didn't much feel like cooking a big meal so we had Kraft Dinner (2 boxes at .77 each) with a can of tuna mixed in ($1.49). With the milk and butter I'd say that was $3.50. There were just 4 of us home for dinner. And, yes, I realize there's no vegetables in that meal. But there was fish, so that's good, right?

And now I am going to go make myself a hot chocolate and head off to bed. (25 cent for a cup of milk and 21 cents for a serving of hot chocolate mix. Not that I'm counting *grin*)


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Dinner at my house

Holly has been sharing her menus and what it costs to feed her family. Let me say I am SO impressed by her frugality and resourcefulness! She aims to feed her family for 35 cents per person per meal. Yes, you read that right. Thirty. Five. Cents. Egads! That's awesome!

Now I have to tell you right up front - I don't come anywhere near that. I have a little different method of food budgeting. I try to come in under $20 per day for food costs for the six of us. With four ferociously hungry teenagers, it can be a challenge. Not so much the meals, which I have control over (except of course, when they show up unannounced with their friends *smile*), but snacks cost me A LOT. They like stuff that they can grab and eat fast - fruit, yogurt, and cookies are popular. Also cheese and crackers, boiled eggs and pepperoni sticks. But I am getting a head of myself.

Here's how it works for us: First of all, I plan all our meals a week or more in advance, planning around what I have on hand and then shopping once a week for the rest.

Breakfasts - everybody fixes their own. We get up and leave the house at different times, so I simply make sure I have breakfast foods on hand and everybody gets their own. Typical breakfast meals are a bowl of cereal or oatmeal (I make my own "packets" that they can microwave), toast and peanut butter, scrambled eggs and toast etc. but not always. I've seen my kids eat leftover hot dogs, spaghetti, whatever.

Lunch - everybody packs their own, but it is a little more structured than breakfast. I make and keep lunch options available and everybody grabs what they want for their bag lunch. I posted about how I do that a while back.

Snacks - I do the same thing with snacks as I do with lunches. I keep snack options available that I try to vary every week. I used to do a lot of baking when I was at home - cookies, muffins, quickbreads, etc. - but I don't do nearly as much as I used to. We have a bakery thrift store close by though, which is where I buy cookies, crackers and bread. My kids are like most kids - they will eat chips and junk food if it's around, and I do buy "treats" each week - but not a lot - too expensive! The "treats" are always the first to go and then they can choose from the list.

Dinner - I try to keep dinner to $6 per meal - so $1 per person. Here are some recent dinners:
Last night we had farmers sausage (on sale $1.99 for a package of 6), hash browns (3 lbs of potatoes @ 30 cents a pound, peeled and shredded and cooked in a little vegetable oil with salt and pepper, so say $1 for the whole thing) and braised cabbage (half a head of cabbage @ 99 cents a head, cooked with a little oil and seasonings, so say another dollar) so that works out to 67 cents a person. I was actually very surprised when I calculated out the cost. I really thought it would be more.

Tonight we are having beef stew. 2 lbs of stew beef was $7.98; 3 lbs of potatoes - .90; 3 lbs of carrots - $1.05; half a rutabaga - .35 , plus say 50 cents for seasonings. This made a giant pot - I estimate there will be 20 big servings - so that works out to .54 a serving. I will serve this with my free bagels.

I am fortunate in that even though I work outside the home during the day, I am home in plenty of time to make dinner. I usually have about 2 hours before my husband gets home, so I have enough time to cook "scratch" meals. Even so, I do keep a supply of "quick to fix" products in the house. Canned soup, dried pasta, etc. When the kids show up with an extra friend or two, a meal can usually be stretched by adding another side dish - I keep a container of biscuit mix at the ready (recipe here) for just such occasions! I also bring out leftovers. *grin*

It's how he shows his love

Came home today to find a paper sack full of bagels waiting for me on the front porch.

My dad must have stopped by...

My only hope

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,

let me hide myself in thee;

let the water and the blood,

from thy wounded side which flowed,

be of sin the double cure;

save from wrath and make me pure.

Not the labors of my hands

can fulfill thy law's commands;

could my zeal no respite know,

could my tears forever flow,

all for sin could not atone;

thou must save, and thou alone.

Nothing in my hand I bring,

simply to the cross I cling;

naked, come to thee for dress;

helpless, look to thee for grace;

foul, I to the fountain fly;

wash me, Savior, or I die.

While I draw this fleeting breath,

when mine eyes shall close in death,

when I soar to worlds unknown,

see thee on thy judgment throne,

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,

let me hide myself in thee.

Words: Augustus Toplady, 1776. Music: Thomas Hastings, 1830.

I get to wondering about the funniest things...

Don't know what made me think of this.

I noticed when we visited Debbie that her kids (even her oldest daughter in her 20's) call her "mama". I thought that was so sweet. Around here, the name "mama" is typically only used by very young children. Then the normal name is "mommy" or "mom".

My own kids call me "mum". When they were little, they used to call me "mummy" - Brent still calls me "mummy". It's so sweet, he doesn't even realize he still calls me that. He'd probably be embarassed if I pointed it out to him.

"Mum" or "mummy" is not commonly used around here though. I got it from my own mom (mum!) who has a British/Scottish background.

What do your kids call you?

From sorrow to fury

Edited: I have removed a "nickname" that I gave to the soon-to-be president that, while an accurate description of his attitude towards the unborn, was, well...not very nice. Trying to put the best construction on it...

Heard on the radio this morning that he'll be making a visit to the Oval Office and will have a little sit down with Bush. That's nice. What will they discuss? Well for starters, there's his intention to repeal some key Bush policies, including overturning the restrictions on embryonic stem cell funding.

I am stunned.

Doesn't this man know how to use the internet? Does he not know that there are several non-embryonic sources of stem cells, one of which has shown itself to be scientifically more successful than embryonic stem cells??. Doesn't he know that embroyonic stem cell research is now pretty much obselete?

I bet he does. And I bet he doesn't care.

Yeah, I'm bitter.

4:30 in the afternoon and it's dark already

You know what that means...

Time to break out the No, No, November!!

Itchy feet

I like to travel, you know it.

Every now and then I just get this urge to get out of here and go on an adventure. This must be what Bilbo felt like.

Since I don't have Bilbo's riches at my disposal, I have become the diva of travelling on the cheap.

I know where all the cheap hotels (preferably with free breakfast) are in Niagara Falls, thank you very much. And quite a few along I-95, too.

I noticed the other day that I am getting dangerously low on Jimmy Dean sausage. I think a trip to Buffalo is in order...

What else is there of interest in Buffalo, you ask? Oh, not much. Except pizza, wings, Bills football and, oh yeah, Galen and Jenny's NEW BABY GIRL!!

Since an invitation to visit and meet said baby has not been forthcoming, I guess I'm just going to have to invite myself *grin*

(Yes, Galen. I AM ribbing you. Maybe. Heh heh)

Trying to find a date that works for our clan can be difficult, but I'm up to the challenge!

Strange sorrow

Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Psalm 124:8

Alli and I were talking last night, and somehow the conversation turned to the US election. The results were just starting to come in at this point and it was still anyone's game. Alli wondered who I thought would win.

"Well I hope John McCain wins, but I think probably Barack Obama will."

"Why do you want McCain to win?" She's heard the media disdain for McCain and Palin, I and know she was wondering why her mom wanted "that guy" to win.

I had to wrestle with how much I should tell my daughter. She is 15, but she is still very much an innocent. She barely understands the Canadian political process, let alone the intricacies of US politics. I wasn't in a position to explain to her the ins and outs of Obama's policies – frankly, I don't know them. I only really know his record on abortion. That's all I have to know.

Alli knows about the reality of abortion, of course, but in an abstract, sterile kind of way. At 15, does she really need to know that every year over a million babies in the United States are aborted, and that Obama favours putting as few limits as possible on the slaughter? Did I really want to discuss with her horrors of partial birth abortion, and that Barack Obama voted against banning this barbaric procedure? I didn't want to explain to her that sometimes babies survive abortions and that Obama helped block a bill that was designed solely to protect the life of infants already born, and outside the womb, who had miraculously survived the attempt to kill them during an abortion. No, I really didn't want to have to burden my daughter with this awful knowledge.

But. I do want my daughter to think critically about these matters and not just accept at face value what the media, her peers and her teachers may be telling her. I want her to use discernment, and hold the matter up to the light of Scripture and test it for its truthfulness.

So even though in my heart I wished I could protect her for just a little longer, I talked to her about the holocaust of abortion that is occurring – in the United States, and in our own country – and the political landscape that allows it to continue. And we wept together, and prayed together: for the lost lives, for our countries, and for ourselves.

Today I am grieving. By the time I went to bed last night, I was pretty sure that Obama would be president, but I still prayed for a miracle. In the morning when I saw the news, I burst into tears.

It seems strange that I should be so grieved at the outcome of an election in a country that is not my own. (We elected our own national leader just three short weeks ago, but it barely made a blip on my radar…though to be fair, the outcome of the election was to keep the status quo – we re-elected the Conservatives to another term.) I guess I just thought that the tides were turning and that maybe the end of the atrocity of abortion was in sight. I saw in McCain and Palin a real possibility of dismantling the abortion industry. Many times, what happens in the US trickles down (or up, as the case may be) into Canada. And I got my hopes up.

This is a lesson, it seems, that I am destined to learn over and over again: When you put your trust in that which you should only be trusting in the Lord for, you will inevitably be disappointed.

Our help is not found in any man, or political process, or legislation. Our help is in the name of the Lord.