Monthly Archives: November 2011

FIR ’11 Question: How do you encourage readers?

Posted on by

Fall into Reading @ Callapidder Days

November is nearly over, guys. Like literally, tomorrow it won’t be November anymore. One more month until 2012 and only a few more weeks left of Kat’s Fall into Reading challenge. How are you doing with your challenge?

So far I’ve read 5 books (not all from my original list) and I’ve started my 6th book. I have a feeling I’m going to finish this challenge with the 6 predicted books and likely not the 8 I was shooting for.

Anyway, as part of the Fall into Reading challenge hosted by Kat @Callapidder Days, Kat will be asking a weekly reading question for us to answer at our blogs. Because what’s better than reading a great book? Talking about reading! It’s also a great way to get to know the other challenge participants in between reading. And you know me, I can’t pass up a chance to talk about myself!

This week her question is :

In what ways do you encourage others to read or support their reading habits? How do you share your love of reading with others?

I think I probably encourage other people’s reading habits often, though not always on purpose. I definitely purposely encourage my kids to read by reading to them at bed time and naptime and keeping lots of books around the house for them to read – and showing them how enthusiastic I am with reading my own books (though with most of my reading happening when they are in bed, I’m not sure how well I do that one).

Bottom line, there are so many books in our house, both children’s and adult that I think it’s obvious to the kids that their parents are reading nuts. And so far it’s worked, both of my children are often found reading or pretending to read in BB’s case.

I have been known to pick out books I think Dan will like and nudge them his way also. He often will look through my shelves and find something interesting though now that we both have Kindles he has been reading a lot of the free classics available instead.

And of course by writing book reviews on here occasionally and mentioning all the books I read, I like to think that gives ideas to others for good books to read. I also keep an account on goodreads.com where my friends there can get recommendations – and try to leave reviews often on Amazon.com after reading a book also. Word of mouth is the best way to find great books to read!

How about you?

Our Advent Activity Box

Posted on by

Growing up, I always loved Advent Calendars. Opening up all the little pages to find a treat and count down to Christmas Day! It really doesn’t get much better than that.

Now as an adult, I want to continue the tradition of advent calendars with my kids, but being the quasi-crafty sometimes over achiever that I am, I decided I could do better than the two dollar boxes at the grocery store. Pinterest didn’t help.

I’ve been seeing beautiful Advent calendar ideas for months now and kept humming and hawing about which fun project to try. Like:

And many, many more. So many great ideas to choose from – some costing more money and time than others, but all of them fabulous and enviable, but in the end I decided to be my own drummer and make my own version entirely, mashing up various ideas from around the blogosphere and putting my own spin on it.

Here is our Advent Activity Box!

I literally just gift wrapped an old Amazon box with fun Christmas wrapping paper (and I didn’t do a great job either – fancy wrapping skills? Not required for this project. Just get it covered).

Then I took a leftover scrap of gift wrap and on the back wrote “Days Until Christmas” then taped it to the box. I folded it up so that it was fairly straight edged and somewhat nice looking. I’m not a complete slacker.

Inside the box I have 24 envelopes numbered 24 through 1, so one envelope for each day until Christmas. On December 1st we’ll open the Envelope that reads 24 and so on…

Inside each envelope is a fun activity to do that day to celebrate the holidays. Everything from make ornaments to drive through town and look at the lights, sing Christmas carols and celebrate mommy’s birthday on the 24th. I spent a lot of time going through the calendar to make the activities realistic and put each of said activities on my google calendar to give me a little notice for things that need more planning.

I decided to be dorky and festive and draw little illustrations on the cards, too. Some are better than others. I won’t embarrass myself by showing you my pictures of donuts or birthday cakes. But I’m pretty sure the kids will get a kick out of this craft that didn’t cost me a dime. MM is very into the concept now of “how many days until….” and he’s super into all things Christmas so this is just combining those two things into one month-long extravaganza of planned Holiday goodness.

I’ll let you know in a few weeks if I was way in over my head with this idea!

Trimming the Tree.

Posted on by

On Black Friday when most of the US was recovering from crazy shopping expeditions (hope nobody got too trampled this year), we were trimming our Christmas Tree – a new tree in the new house! We picked up this inexpensive 6 1/2 ft tree from Walmart a few weeks ago for just $40 in an online special. Talk about a bargain!

The tree was ridiculously easy to set up compared to others I’ve assembled over the years. And I’m thrilled to have a full sized tree after several years of using a little 3 foot tree set up on our Coffee Table. We’ve come a long way.

Dan was a little disappointed at first, having grown up with live trees (maybe next year) but after I fluffed it up and we got it decorated, he agreed it looked pretty nice, especially for the price. Plus, I promised him we’d do the live tree thing soon – so he’s really just biding his time and making the most of things this year.

The kids were both very into the whole decorating process, eager to help and hang ornaments. Especially MM who SO gets the whole thing this year. He is going to love this Christmas season.

Included in the price of our tree was a package of shatterproof red ornaments. I won’t think about what they were made from or how eco-friendly they are – I’m just embracing the non-breakable miracle right now. I shouldn’t have to panic too much about this tree with the kids. It’s light weight and decorated with mostly non-breakable ornaments (the nicer stuff is on the top).

And the gorgeous red ornaments are so simply and chic in their design and glitter and sparkle from across the room so beautifully. I love just sitting in the living room and gazing at the tree all lit up and stunning.

Clearly I don’t get out much.

But that’s okay – the view from inside is pretty great.

A Bokeh Wonderland in fact. I won’t bombard you with ALL the bokeh pictures I’ve been taking this year, now that I’ve figured out HOW I’ve been having a field day. Just think, I’ve got all season to perfect my Bokeh skills….

All we need now is something to top the tree. Coming soon…

love.bug.I submitted my Christmas Tree pics to Love-Bug’s Photo Show Off – you should check out her photography, it is ah-mazing. Got some pretty Christmasy pics you want to share? You should submit yours, too, here! You have until December 5th to enter.

Our Holiday Playlist for 2011

Posted on by

I love Christmas music but when the radio stations and shopping centers start bombarding me with it constantly, I tend to get grumpy. There is a lot of bad holiday music out there and nobody wants to hear it on repeat 24/7 for two months. Especially when there are so many good choices out there – why listen to the worst rendition of Baby It’s Cold Outside when there are such good versions?

So a few years ago Dan and I started putting together our own Christmas Mix CDs, seeking out great new tunes to add to our collection little by little and I have to say our 2011 Holiday Mix is pretty fantastic – so fantastic, I decided to share our playlist (with links to purchase most songs) with you so you can enjoy some great tunes this year, too!

Your Welcome.

Our Holiday Mix CD for 2011

What’s your favorite Christmas / holiday song?

Daybook: November 28, 2011

Posted on by

Today

Outside my window: it’s another cold, grey morning here in Wisconsin. The weather has been fairly blah lately with some rain and some blah. We’re keeping warm indoors and enjoying the colors and lights of the Christmas tree. I know it’s not even December yet, but I’ve been in the Christmas spirit since like September this year, so I’m ready to just embrace it and enjoy!

This weekend: was a long Thanksgiving weekend! Thursday we had a Turkey dinner with some good friends. The morning was spent cooking and playing tic tac toe with the kids.

Then in the afternoon there was placemat coloring while we got dinner ready and plated.

Then of course, there was eating.

Our first Turkey – it gave us a lot of grief from thawing to brining to prepping and baking, but it came out delicious in the end! And we took lots of notes to make the process go smoother next year.

All the kids eating

The spread: turkey, homemade dinner rolls, stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy and homemade cranberry sauce. Basically a ton of delicious homemade food!

We also: played with fun puzzles at Dan’s office and went to see the new Muppets movie which was soooooooooooo good. If you haven’t seen it yet, you really really should.

Right now I’m reading: Such a Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster and actually pretty close to finishing it. I am really enjoying this book – it’s terrifically funny and it’s somewhat motivating, too, which is always nice. This morning Dan even made me log my calories again. Probably got tired of my nightly update about all the progress Jen Lancaster was making with meanwhile no progress on my end.

Plans for this week: tonight I have my first photography class. I will be taking intermediate and then advanced classes for the next three weeks. Hopefully I learn some fun stuff / but don’t get way in over my head!

I’ve also got book club this week, though I didn’t read the book. Shhh… And then this weekend I’m doing a community service project with my meetup group – we’re doing the Adopt a Family Shopping thing, should be fun.

Pins you should click:

How amazingly delicious do these Quadruple Chocolate Cherry Cookies look?

I love this idea for a family tablecloth to use at the holidays.

I might try making these cinnamon ornaments with the kids.

I’ve found a ton of great Christmas gift wrap ideas on Pinterest (see more here) but this one is my current favorite.

One last pictures to share before I go: our house decorated with lights – we kept it simple this year but I’m pretty thrilled with how it came out:

The Story of Thanksgiving, as told by mommy.

Posted on by

“Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, your mommy’s great great great great great great grandparents, The Pilgrims, sailed on a big boat called the Mayflower from Europe to America.

It was a very long boat ride and some people got sick, but luckily mommy’s family made it to America where they built their new home. When they got there, they met Daddy’s family, the Native Americans or Indians (true story!) and the Native Americans were nice and helped the Pilgrims learn how to grow crops on their farms so they would have something to eat.

And although the Pilgrims and the Native Americans didn’t always get along (an understatement, I know), when the harvest came in that fall, the Pilgrims were very happy to have so much wonderful food so they threw a party to celebrate the good year and invited the Native Americans to say thank you for their help.”

Now, because I wasn’t actually there, I can’t say for sure how much of this story is true. I could tell you some of the other versions of this story that I’ve heard, from one side or another. But I won’t tell my 5 year old any of those stories just yet. For now, he gets this story.

I’ve been trying to find a good chance to tell him all this, so when my in laws sent this adorable Little People Thanksgiving set for the kids –  I knew this was my moment.

MM was pretty interested in this story and probably just took it for granted that the starring roles in The First Thanksgiving were mommy and daddy’s relatives. I kind of lucked out marrying someone from the Wampanoag tribe, because it makes the story much cooler, in my opinion.

MM was far more interested in the new toys of course, but he took the story I gave him and added to it and adapted it to suit his purposes and set to work building his own Thanksgiving.

Taking “Thank you” pictures for grammy and papa

Then of course when BB woke up from her nap, I had MM tell her all about the Pilgrims and Native Americans. Guys, can I tell you how much I heard my grandmothers words and mannerisms coming through me as I did this with the kids? It was kind of awesome.

My whole life I have wanted to be just like my grandmother when I grew up – to embrace her fun ways of teaching kids and to build up the people around me always, instead of tearing them down. To say kind things and encourage people and let them learn and grow at their own pace. To adapt that perfect attitude of “good enough” when it comes to doing arts and crafts or cooking with kids.

Sometimes, lately I think I’m getting there – and it thrills me. If I’m even a little bit like my grandmother, I’m pretty sure that means I’m awesome and clever and amazing. So that’s pretty great – something to be Thankful for, you might say.

After my fun little History Lesson on Thanksgiving, MM started stacking up the Little People on the cardboard box that they arrived in and told me he was putting them all on the boat so they could go back to Chicago together.

I know my lesson on Thanksgiving wasn’t completely accurate, but guys I promise I didn’t teach him that. But I may have laughed and giggled a bit.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Learning to bead.

Posted on by

Last night I hosted a jewelry making party which might sound strange because I’ve never made jewelry before. I’ve always been intrigued but intimidated by the concept, so when a friend of mine through my meetup group, Anne, said, “I could show you how,” the conversation quickly turned into, “Maybe we should invite other people from our group if they are interested” and then that turned into a very popular event very quickly!

Twelve people came over last night to learn how to make a necklace, bracelet or earrings! Luckily my friend was not the only one who knew what she was doing and a few other people were able to pass along advice and help people out as we eventually broke into smaller groups working at different tables set up around my house.

I bought these pretty hearts at a beading store the day before while I helped Anne shop for supplies for the group. After looking through her collection of jewelry that she brought to show us things she’d made before, I got the idea to try making a double strand bracelet, and I was pretty thrilled with how it came together.

Not bad for my first time! Because I was going with a slightly complicated design for my first bracelet, I kept the pattern simple with just one strand of beads along with my pretty hearts, then used a fun clasp that should be easy to put on by myself. Also, I didn’t want to get too complicated and make the bracelet too busy or clashy.

Now I’ve officially got the beading bug and can’t wait to make some more pretties!

FIR ’11 Question: What else do you do while you read?

Posted on by

Fall into Reading @ Callapidder Days

Wow, tomorrow is Thanksgiving and the end of our Fall into Reading challenge is getting closer and closer! How is your reading coming along?

As part of the Fall into Reading challenge hosted by Kat @Callapidder Days, Kat will be asking a weekly reading question for us to answer at our blogs. Because what’s better than reading a great book? Talking about reading! It’s also a great way to get to know the other challenge participants in between reading. And you know me, I can’t pass up a chance to talk about myself!

This week her question is :

What else do you do while you are reading? Eat? Drink? Household tasks? Or do you usually put aside absolutely everything to focus solely on the book at hand?

Because I typically read in bed before going to sleep at night, I don’t often do anything else except read. Sometimes I get up in the middle to brush my teeth. Occasionally if the story is dragging, I’ll pause to check my email on my phone. But usually, it’s the end of the night and I’m ready to put everything else down and finally pick my book up. So I don’t tend to do much else.

When I am reading during the day, I may eat a snack or have a drink (probably the drink for sure, as I always seem to be thirsty) but I’m not much of a reading multi-tasker and I’ve found when I try to be, that I don’t get much reading done! I like to devote myself to the story.

How about you? Do you multi-task while you read or not?

Nightstand: November 2011

Posted on by

So it’s mere days before Thanksgiving, which is exciting in it’s own right, but it also means that it’s time for me to fill you in on my nightstand! Haven’t done this before? The fabulous ladies at 5 Minutes for Books ask us each month which books we are reading, read recently or plan to read soon – basically this amounts to “What’s on your nightstand right now?” Get it?

When we last nightstanded, I was reading The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent – the story of Martha Carrier, one of the first women to be accused, tried and hanged as a witch in Salem, Massachusetts. Like her mother, young Sarah Carrier is bright and willful, openly challenging the small, brutal world in which they live. Often at odds with one another, mother and daughter are forced to stand together against the escalating hysteria of the trials and the superstitious tyranny that led to the torture and imprisonment of more than 200 people accused of witchcraft. (description from goodreads.com)

I have to say I really kind of adored that book, although it was slow reading at times, it really kept me hooked and the story was just fascinating, though heart breaking. I definitely recommend it!

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen SimonsonAfter finishing The Heretic’s Daughter, I had planned to read our November book club pick, Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson. This is the story of Major Ernest Pettigrew, retired, of Edgecombe St. Mary, England, [who] is more than a little dismayed by the sloppy manners, narcissism, and materialism of modern society. The decline of gentility is evident everywhere, from tea bags, to designer sweaters, to racism masquerading as tolerance…

But after about three chapters (or 40 pages or so) I honestly couldn’t read anymore. It is not often that I will put down a book after only a few chapters, but lately I have been thinking that my time is too precious to read books I’m not enjoying. And I wasn’t enjoying this one at all. The book was intended, I think, to be a fairly light-hearted satire, but I found the main character so annoyingly cynical that I couldn’t read it without rolling my eyes at him. I don’t know if the book would have gotten better or if I was being too hard on it. I’d guess there are people who loved it and would enjoy it. But I honestly don’t think I was going to be one of them.

My only reason for reading the book would have been because it was a book club pick and normally I’d give myself a harder time and make myself read it anyway, but I decided to go easy on myself this once because my nightstand is kind of overwhelming me at the moment with books to read and truthfully? There was one book in particular beckoning to me. It’s been sitting there patiently for months, picked up in between books just long enough to read a chapter or so, giggle to myself and then move on to my next mandatory read. Well this month it said, “Um, Jen, knock it off and read me already. You’re gonna love it!”

Such a Pretty Fat by Jen LancasterAnd I totally am! What book am I finally digging into and adoring something fierce? Such a Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster. It’s basically the funniest book about dieting that you’ll ever read and I think I especially love it because (especially when it comes to food and dieting) Jen Lancaster and I are kind of kindred spirits. It’s like reading my own thoughts on paper except then sometimes SHE goes to the gym or starts a diet or loses weight and I’m all, “Oh, hey, wait for me!”

I’m kind of hoping that this will be a book that motivates me to finally kick my ass and start eating better and exercising (I’m already trying) and that she doesn’t end the book with, “And then I gave up, who are we kidding, really?” We’ll see…. Either way, as far as book choices go, I’m glad I made this one because I now go to bed at night eager to read!!!!! Instead of “Oh yeah… that book….. Maybe I’m tired?”

So what am I going to read NEXT? Man, guys, I have no idea… There are kind of a million positions I’m being pulled in, but here are some of my ideas:

  • Attempting Wicked by Gregory Maguire again and then possibly reading the rest of the Oz series by him.
  • Little Bee by Chris Cleave which I keep hearing is some kind of fantastic
  • Some more funny books like Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin or Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner
  • Unbearable Lightness by Portia De Rossi has also been waiting patiently for me for awhile…
  • Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde looks really good – I love his Thursday Next series.
  • And then let’s not even talk about all the OTHER books I own but haven’t read yet and guys, what about the books I WANT to buy? What if I get books for Christmas? If you don’t hear from me for awhile, you’ll know that my TBR pile finally fell over and buried me.

What are you reading right now?

Daybook: November 21, 2011

Posted on by

Today

Outside my window: it’s in the 30′s and 40′s today and a bit chilly but not unbearably so. I took BB to the mall today for a walk and was sweating through my light sweater after half an hour. So on the walk back to the car I didn’t even bother with a jacket, which was totally doable.

This weekend: we celebrated Dan’s birthday! His birthday is actually today (Happy birthday sweetie!) but I like to really celebrate holidays into the ground so we started celebrating on Friday night and will finish up the festivities tonight with a nice steak dinner. But yesterday was presents and store bought ice cream birthday cake and a yummy french onion soup for dinner (his favorite).

We got him: the awesome rattlesnake mug from Craig Ferguson’s late late show which I was so excited to give to him and of course he loved it. And MM made him a picture frame and we put in a fun picture of the kids from Thanksgiving in it – both will probably go to his office at work. :)

Right now I’m reading: Such a Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster, even though I should be reading Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand for book club. I kind of abandoned it after three chapters. I normally would keep reading and try to give it 100 pages but ugh I just was not feeling it. It’s supposedly a humorous book, like a satire, but I just found it to be bitter and annoying and harshing my mellow basically and I didn’t feel like putting myself through all that when there were so many other awesome books vying for my attention. And poor Jen Lancaster has been sitting on my nightstand for like a year now, constantly being set aside again for other books. I decided to make it a priority finally and I’m so glad I did because I am kind of adoring it.

Plans for this week: Tomorrow night I am hosting a jewelry making party with my newcomers group which should be fun. I don’t actually make jewelry (yet) but I agreed to host since I have the space and one of the other members is going to do the teaching part. We went shopping for beads this morning which was fun, I’m looking forward to it.

And of course Thursday is Thanksgiving. We are celebrating with some friends and then we’ll maybe go see The Muppets new movie on Friday. This weekend we may put up the Christmas tree because I am already so ready for the season – I even made a Christmas mix CD already and broke down and put it in the car this morning. <3  Some new favorites on this year’s disc include Zooey Deschanel’s She & Him holiday CD, Do You Hear What I Hear from Glee’s Christmas album and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas by Kermit the Frog.

Pins you should click:

This is the Turkey recipe we’re planning to use on Thursday for our first Thanksgiving in our new house – and the first traditional Thanksgiving meal we’ve prepared.

I’m planning to make this sweet potato casserole dish with it. We’re celebrating with some friends of ours so we’ll be making the turkey, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce and rolls – and they are bringing potatoes, stuffing and a green bean casserole. Should be delicious. We’re planning to go out for dessert afterwards (so that I am not eating pie for weeks) but if we weren’t I’d maybe make something like this:

Seriously, how amazing does that pie look?

One last pictures to share before I go: just a sweet snapshot of my little girl who is getting so much bigger every day.

love