week 52 in pictures

sunday: the kids, in the sunday school christmas program at church. shane played handbells, and layla and micah sang.

tuesday: it was christmas eve and SO exciting to have ALL of the candles, even the middle one, lit on the advent wreath.

also tuesday: the candlelight portion of the christmas eve service at church.

traditional after-service family photo op.

thursday: layla got a rainbow loom for christmas. it has been popular…

friday: toby is ‘helping’ shane play x-box.

saturday: we spent saturday evening with kat and cole and went to church at gather that night. after the service, the kids were glued to their respective phones and dave and shane were finishing off the communion bread.

and some big collages from christmas day:

and the cookie baking/decorating frenzy that went on that week.

Comments

someone googled this stuff and found me!

these are as is... spelling errors and all. how to use a bathroom scale seriously? how hard is it? if you want step by step instructions, read this . washing machine doesn't empty bummer dude rachel's restroom i seem to remember someone predicting, when i was in high school, that i would go into the portable restroom business some day... "locks of love" site:blogspot.com because i'm totally the authority on that sort of thing. my hair is still in a ziplock bag waiting to be mailed. http://rambling-rachel.blogspot.com/ i think you typed this in the wrong place does 2 year old talk with imagination is there any other option? SLUDGE IN WORM BIN yummy. diapers to bed well, considering the other option... yes, please! imagination and 2 years old once again. 2 year olds do like to use their imaginations. loose change in my washing machine what priceless wisdom are you looking for here? how to get some? where did it come from? what to do with it? duh! rachel joe

tater tot casserole recipe

i realized i forgot to post this last week when we had it. i actually like it a little better than the hash brown one, but both are good. it’s VERY similar. once again, this is something i’ve made so many times that i just kind of wing it now, although i do have the recipe that kate sent to me after she made it for my family when micah was born. i like to keep the recipe because it has some little ‘britishisms’ throughout, just like kate! ;-) who, by the way, rocks, having called to check up on me the other evening when she saw that the power in our area was out AGAIN! thanks kate, smooch smooch! but now i’m getting distracted… big surprise. here goes. you will need: 1 lb or so ground beef (or ground turkey) 1 chopped onion a bunch of veggies (kate’s recipe calls for a ‘tin’ of mixed veggies, but i use fresh carrots & celery if i’ve got’em, frozen beans, peas, corn, whatever). maybe 2-3 cups. 1 can (or tin) of cream of something soup (i use celery usually

beef stew recipe

another taken from the betty crocker cookbook, but i mess with this one so refer to the disclaimer … 1 tbsp olive oil 1 clove of garlic, pressed (or some good shakes of garlic powder) 1 lb. stew beef 3 cups of hot water (I probably use closer to 3.5 or 4) 1/2 tsp salt 1/8 tsp pepper 3 medium carrots, cut in thick coins 2 stalks celery, cut into 1/2 inch pieces 1-2 medium potatoes, cut into 1 inch pieces 1 small onion, chopped 1/4 tsp salt 1 bay leaf *optional: 1/2 bell pepper of your choice; 1 turnip; 1/2 tsp browning sauce (whatever that is) 1/2 cup cold water 2 tbsp all-purpose flour heat oil in large pot. cook beef and garlic in oil about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until beef is brown. add hot water, 1/2 tsp salt and the pepper. heat to boiling; reduce heat to low. cover and simmer 2 to 2 1/2 hours or until beef is almost tender. stir in remaining ingredients except cold water and flour. cover and simmer

“you should have your head examined!”

… i just did! yup, yesterday i had the thrilling experience of sitting in a hospital waiting room for 2 hours, followed by another in a trauma room. no, i don’t think i had suffered any sort of major trauma – i think that’s just what room they had left to stick me in. i mused about where we would go if they had to kick us out because a ‘real’ trauma situation arose. thankfully, we didn’t have to learn the answer to that. i guess i was a traumatic as it got during that window of time. backing up, i wound up in the hospital yesterday because micah threw some clothes on the ground. the night before i had been folding laundry in the living room. i had a couple of stacks of ‘hang up’ clothes that were draped over the baby gate in front of the fireplace. yes, it’s a christmas picture, but i knew i had it in my stash. at any rate, there’s the ugly baby gate that the clothes were hanging on. also notice the wood mantle above it that the nativity set is on.

tootin' my own horn! (for the sake of the earth)

so i'm not usually one to blab about how 'green' i am, but in honor of earth day tomorrow, i've decided to take a personal inventory of the choices i make daily that affect the future of our planet and the quality of our lives. i'm not usually an earth day celebrator since i try to treat every day as though it were earth day, and not just once a year. but i figured this was a good excuse. i've always walked a bit on the green side, but i really took a turn about a year and a half ago when i was influenced by raffi - yes, the children's musician - after reading his autobiography, life of a children's troubadour . this is, by the way, a fantastic book and i highly recommend it to anyone who has ever enjoyed his music, or even remotely cares about children's or environmental advocacy. i don't want anyone to see this as any sort of snobbish, 'i am greener than you' kind of thing, but rather as a challenge to myself to see what else i can do,

rachel's continued ramblings

Search This Blog