Friday, November 28, 2008

Seven Quick Takes Friday

1.

Last week it was flour, this week.. crabapple Jelly. What will they get into next?  And the more important question... When will mommy smarten up and stop them before they make any more messes??  Please tell me I'm not the only one who never seems to notice the crazy things the kids get into until it's far too late.

2.

We went to the Waldorf Faire at the local school this weekend and it was so much fun. The kids enjoyed beeswax candle dipping, apple peeling, a magic fairy-well, candle decorating, entertainment and good food. They even had a gluten free soup on their menu in the cafeteria that made E feel so special.  (and it was GOOD soup! I need to get that recipe).

I enjoyed browsing the artisans fair in the gymnasium, and oogled over all of the wonderful craft supplies that I sadly cannot afford this year:  modelling beeswax, block crayons, beeswax crayons, wool felt, stockmar watercolors, kite paper, craft books galore.  It was a visual treat for the eyes.  At this time of the year the malls and advertisements are packed with plastics and bright, unnatural colors and smells.  This faire was enveloped in soft and natural joys for the senses.  I wanted to stay and sit in the classrooms and be a little kid again.
  
3.  

I did it!! I made my favorite Christmas time Ginger cookies into a gluten free recipe.  Yummy!  One recipe at a time, I think I can conquer Christmas baking.  These too were made out of oat flour, and let me tell you, this has made all the difference in our baking.  We have to use certified Gluten-free oats because the regular ones are easily contaminated with wheat while they are growing in fields, and being processed at the plant.  I'm going to look around online for a good source of GF oats, because right now, the only ones I can buy come in a teeny-tiny bag with a big price tag.

4.

We are finished our first term!! HALLELUIA! Just in time for advent, we will be backing away from more academic pursuits in favour of preparing for Christmas.  We will be doing some of the following: 

5.

A good friend of mine was over the other day for lunch with her little one and we were chatting about fun activities for the littles to play with.  One thing that came up was felt boards.  I am now so inspired to get back into this fun activity, but this time with real wool felt, instead of the polyester stuff in the craft store.  

I did some looking around and found some fun links:  flickr group, making a felt board from a picture frame, and travelling felt boards.

Look for an upcoming blog post on felt boards when i have more time.

6.

What do you do when you run out of grocery money, spending money and extra-special-saved-this-for-a-rainy-day money, and payday isn't for another 5 days?  

In our family we have made a pact to not go into debt anymore.  We have eliminated all of our debts except the mortgage, and we want to keep it that way.  If we don't have the money for things, we don't want to be spending what's not ours.

This has proved to be more than a little challenging.  It means we had to stop using our credit cards, and switch to cash in an envelope for groceries and spending money.

It also means that I have to be a lot more creative with the abundance of food that can be found in my pantry and my freezer.  When grocery money runs out, it's so easy to run to the store with the visa and get a bunch of stuff to tide us over, but instead, we have been eating more muffins, , making our own yogurt,  tortilla shells and taco spices, pizza shells, soup... and relying on the vast quantity of frozen veggies and fruit that is in my freezer.

Thank GOD it's Friday though.. let me tell you!!  I'm going grocery shopping!!

7. 

I'm so excited to start planing our greenhouse garden for next year.  It was a gift from my grandma, and I have no idea what we'll grow or how we'll do it, but I'm sure it will be fun, and a great way to save on those grocery bills I was just talking about.  Anyone have any experience in greenhouses?  Apparently we can either grown things directly in the ground, or build some raised benches with planter boxes on them.  

All we need to do now is find the key. Ahem.  The children were playing with it and now it's locked and the key is nowhere to be found....  

And with great irony, I just received a lovely gift in the mail from the company who sold us the greenhouse:  A lovely key chain for my greenhouse keys.  How kind of them.
 

1 comment:

laughinglioness.lisa@gmail.com said...

I love the advent links- thank-you! We'll be joining you in making a creche or 2!