Outside/inside

A foot and a half, more or less.

I'm thankful for my husband, who worked so hard to get the snow moved.

I usually try to be as helpful as I can outside, but today between falling and pulling a muscle and working from home, I was more the indoor supervisor.

Love my button organizer. 

Zippy didn't bother with the outdoors either.  Can't say I blame him.  It certainly looks like Christmas now!

Christmas Homemade: Upcycled Mittens

My husband gets two pairs of mittens for Christmas. The base layers are an old coat that I upcycled, the top layers are upcycled wool sweaters.  He knows about them because I had him try them on so I could make them fit perfectly.  He loves them.  He'll act surprised, I'm sure.

The first of many homemade gifts...more coming! 

Chocolate Pastries: Fudge Filled Foldovers

Thankful for this recipe from JoAnn (thank you!). She made these every Christmas season and gifted me the recipes of her cookie sampler collection (Still the best gift ever!). They are so good. Adapted from Good Housekeeping December 1983. Pics of the girls making them below.

Fudge Filled Foldovers

1 1/4 cup flour

13 oz pkg cream cheese, softened

1/2 c. sugar

1/3 c. cocoa

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg yolk

1/2 c. walnuts chopped finely

1/2 cup + 4T butter, softened

Pastry:
Combine flour, cream cheese and 1/2 c. butter (keep 4T for later) in food processor.  Shape in ball, cover, refrigerate for an hour. 

Filling:
Combine sugar, cocoa, vanilla, salt, egg yolk, 4T butter until blended. Stir in nuts. 

Roll out pastry on lightly floured surface.  Cut into squares. Place a scoop of filling in each square. Fold sides in. 

Bake 350 for 20 min. 

Our sitter

Adrian had his very first babysitting experience.  Audra had an appointment bright and early, so I asked Adrian to care for Anna-Kate.  He was very worried how he was going to manage to entertain a puppy and a little sister, but decided (with trepidation) to try. (He wasn't truly alone, his dad was upstairs sleeping). Clearly, Adrian not only managed, but did well.  I came home after an hour and twenty minutes to this:

Once we returned home, he announced he needed a break and retreated to his room. I might just call on him again for another babysitting job.

Animals

Justin and I realized that the kids hadn't been out of the house for nearly 2 weeks.  He brought them for a McDonalds cone just to do something. They do not complain at all about being home and I think a lot of that is because of our critters. The girls spend a ton of time with the animals, which frees up time for Adrian to draw without interruptions! All three kids take such good care of all the animals daily.  Copper is growing so fast!

(For the record, this was her idea. Copper is so good that he is hardly ever in there.)

Swingset

Today's post comes along with a story. 

For years we had a swingset out back, which the kids did enjoy.  However, in the heat of summer, it was in direct sun with no shade for any reprieve.  They didn't go out there much when it was hot.  In the winter the way the snow drifts, it was hard to get to it with a lot of snow.  It didn't get used much in the winter either. 

We received it second hand from a friend and had been reinforcing it and replacing boards steadily trying to get it to last one more year.  When we were in Florida a few years ago, it blew over and was too broken to be worth it to fix. Here's a pic below, with little Audra swinging, wearing an apron I made her.

Believe it or not, I somehow found a 'swingset in the box' kit at the thrift store for $15, all the hardware and swings included, just add the wood. This project has been on our to do list for a few years and I struggled thinking where we should put it. I knew I wanted it to be on the north side of a tree for summer shade but I also wanted it to be visible from the kitchen.  

I dreamed a little dream a few years back when this maple self seeded. I trimmed around it, added manure and spent hours after hours removing the multiflora rose from this site (and have scars to prove it). I said "Someday this could be the shade tree I was hoping for."  Well, look at my tree below!  Coddled and tended by me, finally taking off to be the shade for their swingset. I can see them while I hang my laundry. I can see them from my kitchen sink. I can see them from the barn.  It's close enough that it's not hard to get to. It's right by the barn for chicken fun. Many thanks to my husband and his friend for making this happen!

They are so happy!

I think we might try to put some woodchips or something down next summer, but for now, they are enjoying it as is.

Tomatoes

 This summer, when I was at camp with the littles, my husband was home with the garden.  He said 'What should I do with all the tomatoes?'  I told him to toss them in the freezer.  Which he did, literally.  I have a ton of grocery store bags brimming with whole tomatoes. 

While it would be a million times easier if he would have taken the core out ahead of time, freezing is a very easy way to take the skins off. I'm going to try to cook a bag down to sauce once a week on the woodstove for a bit.  In this picture below was just ONE bag of the several I have.   Nothing like summer tomatoes when there's snow on the ground!  Eggplant parm was today, with our summer tomatoes.