Thankful for Ordinary Things

I have just learned about an important teaching moment.  I young mother of four daughters wanted her children to appreciate and learn gratitude for ordinary things that we all take for granted.  This is how she decided to do it.  Each night she presents one thing at the dinner table and then for that night and the next day they do without the particular thing.  She started with the gift of Light.  For dinner they dined by candlelight which the children loved.  One particularly active child began making silhouette animals from the shadow of the light but most were very attentive and caught the principle.  They played flashlight tag after dinner with flashlights.  At bedtime they read stories by the flashlights.  The mother said it was the most magical time with very quiet and peaceful children.  It went so well that she is now going to incorporate "stories by flashlight" into their regular bedtime routine.  Next she plans to teach about water.  They will only be using water brought in from the hose outside.  Can you just imagine the learning and the appreciation those children will have from this lesson?  In this month of gratitude I am so grateful for light and air and sun and heat and water. I don't ever want to be without any one of them!

For what are you grateful ?

Quick Gift idea

I needed a little gift the other day for two birthdays of friends and this is what I came up with. It is pretty fast and can be personalized to any event or occasion.

Here's how I made them:

1. You just need a small bottle of any shape.  I found these at Target (where else?) for a dollar.

2.  You choose your saying from the rub-ons found at any craft store.  I bought these from my cute Stampin' Up rep.  They have every imaginable holiday and sentiment on them.  Then you rub on as many or few as you like onto the outside of the bottle.

This one says Special Times with Special Friends (it is not a Stampin' Up rub-on)
3.  Fill with candies.  I think ones that are not too sticky work best.  I used Lemon Drops that our local grocery store sells in bulk.  You need light colored candies to be able to see the sentiment.  (The first one I gave had candy corn in it and you couldn't read the lettering until it was empty!  I learn by trial and error).

4.  I like to top it off with something. I choose these suckers that you can buy individually and they come in all different flavors-hence, different colors.  Tie a coordinating bow onto the sucker stick and push it into the candies in the bottle.

5.  Package it pretty in either cellophane or a see-through sack with some crinkle that matches the ribbon on the sucker.  Then tie with ribbon or wire.  This yellow wire is purchased by the spool and after you have tied it onto the sack you wind it around a pencil, pull it through and it curls, which is kind of cute.

Variations: If you didn't want to fill the bottle with candies you could just put some flowers in it (real, or fake-not my personal favorite) and add the ribbon onto the bottle outside.

I plan to make these as Christmas dinner favors and use these blinged up words that Michael's has right now in their dollar section.

Be warned:  They are a little tricky getting the letters on straight.   I think they would look cute with white gumballs, and red or green ribbon.  What do you think?

Happy Birthday Ashley

November 9th

Many years ago we lived in Michigan. I was pregnant with our third child.  My mother had just retired from teaching so for the first time she was able to come help me with my baby.  She came on my due date for the birth.  The next day she fell down our backstairs onto the cement floor and ended up in the hospital.  I faithfully visited her for 8 days in the hospital.  She was finally released the same morning that I went into labor.  My husband took me to the hospital, admitted me, went upstairs and filled out papers for my mother then took her to our house.  He raced back to the hospital in time to put on a gown and come into the delivery room to see the birth of this beautiful girl:

Happy Birthday Ashley!!  And now she has a sweet one of her own.

A   ttractive and astute=(clever, smart, intelligent, crafty, artful, discerning, clear-sighted, sharp)


S  tylish


H  elpful and honest to her customers


L  oving (especially since she has had cute Hudson 6 months ago).


E  ntrepreneur  (she started her own business and has made it successful even through these rough times.)



Y es, I'll take three!--her favorite words heard from her customers.


I am so thankful for that special, unusual day and for the wonderful woman Ashley has become. (My mom was allright after all the trama with  not a broken bone) .

Foodie Friday--Mini Molasses Pumpkin Cakes

 

Perhaps you saw these Pumpkin cakes on the cover of Southern Living magazine last month.  I finally got around to making them last week.  It is the best tasting pumpkin muffin recipe I have tried!  It has a deep spicy flavor that is so good and different from most pumpkin bread-like recipes.  Probably because it uses molasses and just ginger for spices.  Their stem and leaves are made with caramels molded into the shapes.  I just glazed mine as I didn't have the caramels to work with.

Mini Pumpkin-Molasses Cakes (makes 4 pumpkins)

1/2 cup butterr, softened

34 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 large egg

1 cup canned pumpkin

1/4 cup molasses

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. ground ginger

1/4 tsp. salt

Beat butter at medium speed until creamy; gradually add brown sugar, beating well.  Add egg, beating until blended.  Add canned pumpkin and molasses, beating well.

Combine dry ingredients and add gradually to pumpkin mixture.

Spoon into a lightly greased pumpkin-shaped muffin pan, filling three-fourths full.

Bake at 375 for 24-26 minutes.  Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then remove and cool completely.

 Cut rounded tops off muffins to make them flat (They were a very tasty snack)

.

Invert top muffins onto bottom muffins, forming pumpkins.  I used pretzels for the stems.

I put a little of the glaze in between the top and bottom to "glue" them together.

Drizzle glaze over pumpkins.

 Caramel Rum Glaze

1 cups firmly packed brown sugar

1/3 cup butter

1/4 cup evaporated milk

1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

1 Tbsp rum

Bring first 3 ingredients to a boil in a 2 qt. saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly; boil, whisking constantly, 1 minute.  Remove from heat; gradually whisk in powdered sugar and rum until smooth.  Whisk gently 3-5 minutes or until mixture begins to cool and thickens slightly.  Use immediately.  Enjoy!

To find more tempting recipes click here for Designs by Gollum.

 

Ways to Give Thanks

After posting about gratitude yesterday I was reading through some of your posts and Kristen @ We Are That Family has a wonderful idea to use with your family.  It is a Thanksgiving Countdown Calendar with sweet I am Thankful cards to fill out each day and place in the cute numbered sacks.  She has the instructions to make it and some printable forms for the cards.  Check it out here.  She also wrote some thoughtful insights into the holiday too so go visit there today.

Here is another idea I'd like to share.  Give each person in your family little "calling cards" to leave when they do a good deed for another member.  The cards are little 3"x3" colored card stock.  Each person has their own color of cards so the color indicates who left it.

My family had a good time personalizing their color with stamps.  Now the fun begins as little deeds of goodness are done and make way for the cards to be left anonymously.

I am so happy and grateful that our weather is so warm and pleasant this week. I am thanking God for each day of Indian Summer that we have.

  What are you thankful for today?

November is Gratitude

It is always nice when November rolls around.  The spooks,zombies and skeletons have gone home, we pull out our plaid and flannel throws and make our homes cozy and warm.  But it is also a time that we have to really concentrate on being grateful for those little and big things, people and blessings that we have in our lives.  I say we have to work on it because I think we are not prompted and guided in our thought processes to do so by the media or retail establishments.  Gratitude isn't something that we can hand our hard earned cash down on any check-out line with a cashier eager to take it, and so many stores would and could just as soon sweep Thanksgiving under the carpet and ring the bells as loud as they can and run ad after ad for the next big profiting holiday--Christmas.  That is why stores are all decorated in red and green, and all the orange, red, rust and tan have been packed away with the leftover Halloween merchandise.  It is up to us, those who have grateful hearts, to love and celebrate this day of giving thanks for everyday blessings by giving it and the reason behind it priority in our busy lives.  But, we can do it without support from any retail establishment and without commercialism because we can do it right in our homes with our families by quietly sharing our feelings of gratitude together. And we lovingly teach our children and grandchildren by example to cherish who they are, with what we have been blessed.  I, for one, want to take the month of November to count my blessings each day and share this gratitude with those I come in contact. To make everyday a day of thanksgiving!  Thanks to each of you for coming here today.  I am grateful for you too.

And the Winners Are...

 The winners have been selected
I have been excited to see who the lucky winners are for my recent giveaway for my 100th post I had last week.  I used Random.Org and the winners are: (1) #28--Autumn @Tum Tales,!
Autumn is a very new blogger with two adorable children. Go visit her and give her your best advice for new bloggers.  I'm sure she'll appreciate your wisdom. 

(2)#68 Doylene @A Gracious Home and

Doylene is a busy mom and grandma doing her best at taking care of everyone.  Visit Doylene and congratulate her today.

(3) #97 Michelle @Treasure the Moment.

Michelle is a very brave mom having just been through cancer treatment.  Visit her and wish her well.

 Winners please send me your addresses so I can get these gifts in the mail to you and thanks for participating.  I hope you enjoy your banner/or apron!

In response to Amber @ Friend Makin Monday, she asks which candy is your favorite.  Since I really like chocolate and sugar together, this is a hard one to answer.  I really like this one because it is so creamy

But I also can eat one of these at any given moment

But right now, this minute, I would like one of these. ( And I didn't eat any on Halloween!!)

I am not alone in my choice because my grandson took a poll at school and in his neighborhood and Twix won as the favorite of most of those he asked!!

Have a great week!