New Year's Tree

I decided to extend the run of our Christmas tree by turning it into a New Years Tree, which is easy since it's artificial.  This essentially involved lots of glitter and curling ribbon. 

 Glittering some wooden stars.

 2012 cut out in cardboard.

 Nate with the finished tree.

The finished 2012.

I used pink, turqouise, and silver curling ribbon.  I bought wooden stars and put silver glitter on them then taped curling ribbon to the back to hang them.  I also used silver balls and ornaments we already had.  I cut the 2012 out of cardboard, glittered it and hung it with curling ribbon.  Here is a breakdown of what the project cost me.

-3 Things of Curling Ribbon- $1.56

-Ornaments- Already Owned

-Glitter- Already Owned

-12 Wooden Stars- $1.51

-Cardboard- Came off of toy packaging

Total Cost: $3.07!

Manassas Train Station

We recently went to visit with some family friends in Manassas and made in impromptu stop at the Manassas train station.  They have a small visitor center inside the old fashioned station.  There are also two train cars that you can get up and close too.  Nate was really excited to stop there.  It was only fair since we made him go shopping later in the day.

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle All the Way

After watching Caillou many, many times Nate was really set on going caroling.  Considering we know almost no one that lives around us, I really wasn't up for that.  But we found an event at Caledon Natural Area that offered a "hayride", caroling, and a Christmas story.  It was great and fulfilled Nate's wish for caroling.  The wagon was decked out with Christmas lights.  We rode through the woods in the cold frosty air.  Afterwards we went back to the visitors center for hot chocolate and a reading of Twas the Night Before Christmas.  It was a wonderful night.

Being Silly

Bread Maker Attempt #1: White Bread

For Christmas I received a Cuisinart Convection Bread Maker and tonight I gave it it's first try.  Nate of course had to help and luckily it's soooo easy.  All you do is put the ingredients in and press some buttons and wait for some bread.  I know I'll need to tweak some things, but first I just want to make a run through the recipes that look the most interesting.  I eventually want to make a good sandwhich bread, but I know that is going to take a lot of trial and error.  This is going to be great for our New Year's detox.  I'm picturing some fresh baked bread and homemade chicken noodle soup in my future.

 Nate helping me bake.

 The viewing window on the bread maker.

The end result.

Zoolights

For the third year in a row I took Nate to Zoolights at the National Zoo in Washington DC.  We love this event and all that it offers.  The zoo is decorated with all kinds of Christmas lights.  There is a model train display in the visitors center.  For a small fee you can ride a little train around the lion and tiger enclosure or ice skate on the plastic ice rink.  The best thing about Zoolights is that it's free to get in.

These are a few of my favorite things

I was truly blessed this Christmas and I'm very thankful for everything I received.  These are a few of my favorite things...

 I always look longing at the Martha Stewart glitter at the craft store.  I think some new years decorations are in the works!

 I heart this Vera Bradley saddle bag.  I like across the body bags, especially with a 3 year old to chase after, and this one is a beautiful print.

This was one gift that I was not expecting, but was pleasantly suprised to get.  I'm moving away from processed food and this will make a huge difference!  Bread is one thing that Nate will eat and I'm already thinking about the things we can make.

Merry Christmas

I love Christmas.  It's my favorite time of the year.  Having a little boy who loves it just as me is just icing on the cake.  Here are a few special moments from our holiday.

I really made a point this year to emphasize that the reason we celebrate Christmas is because of Jesus' birth.  We went to church on Christmas eve and Christmas morning.  We had a cake for baby Jesus and we talked about why we celebrate.  That being said, Nate was still showered with gifts.  We had a great holiday.

A Visit From Santa

I have to say that while the upcoming winter may be boring around here, the holidays are not.  We have had our calender full since labor day.  And the Christmas season hasn't been any different.  I love surprises.  Tonight we were surprised to see and hear an ambulance coming down our street.  Considering there are a lot of older folks in the area and the fact that an ambulance has visited our house I shouldn't have been that surprised.  It stopped to the side of our house and that's when I remembered that Santa was going to get a ride around town a couple of nights during December.

Of course I turned to look at my child and saw he was only wearing a shirt, underpants, and snow boots.  I picked him up and we ran outside to see Santa waving from the back of an ambulance.  I asked him if he wanted to go see him and he nodded yes.  Of course we had to go back inside and find pants as quickly as possible.  Then we ran a block, him in his snow boots, to catch up to the caravan before it pulled away.  Luckily Santa saw us coming.

Nate actually talked to Santa!  He gave his usual response that he wants dinosaurs for Christmas.  Little ones to be exact.  Then Santa gave him a candy cane and wished him a Merry Christmas.  We waved as the rescue squad caravan drove away with sirens and lights going.  My little guy was so full of joy.  He strutted back to the house with is candy cane in hand and then ran in to tell his great grandparents all about it.  I've concluded that it's better if he is surprised by Santa instead of us prepping him.  He went to sleep telling me that the best part of his day was seeing Santa.

Of course, I only had time to grab his pants and run with him, so there are no pictures, but at least there are these special memories.

Gingerbread Party!

Nate loves nothing more than candy, so he was very excited when we decided to have a Gingerbread House Decorating Party.  In the theme of not spending lots of extra money this season I tried to decorate and craft with things that I already had.  For decorations I bought glittered foam trees from target ($1), red polka dot wrapping paper from walmart ($.97), a bag of mini marshmallows ($1.25).  And that's about all I spent on decorations.  We got big plates and napkins at target for a decent price.  We spent a little money through oriental trading to get gingerbread dessert plates, a craft, and stickers, but I did my research and got free shipping.  So the most money was spent on treats, candy, and building supplies.

Because we can't live on candy alone I made soft gingerbread cookies, cake pops, a fruit plate, and salsa with chips.  Here's a couple of pictures. 

 I washed out 4 vegetable cans and covered them with red polka dot wrapping paper then I filled them with mini marshmallows.  They were used to hold the cake pops and candy canes.  I taped the glitter trees to wood skewers and stuck them into the marshmallows as a decoration. 

I also used the wrapping paper to make a little table runner to make the boring white plastic table cloth looking a little more lively.  The best thing is that when we were done making houses, we just rolled up the table cloth with all of the dropped candy and tossed it.  I re-purposed my Merry Christmas banner as a decoration.  Luckily at a gingerbread party the bright candy adds cheer.  I used 12 ramekins to display the candy.  Overall it was really fun to put it all together for this guy.

Recycled Crayons

I have an overabundance of crayons.  They tend to come home with us from restaurants and Nate has often gotten them as presents.  He also rarely uses them.  I decided to repurpose them into cuter crayons. so we can give them as gifts this year.

I started by washing out a bunch of vegetable cans.  I used those to make a double boiler to melt the crayons in.  You just take whatever crayons you want to melt, peel the paper off, and break them into pieces.  Then place them into the can.

I heated the pan of water and just stirred the crayons while they melted.  I did discover that some of the crayons won't melt.  They may be the cheaper ones that have some kind of filler that isn't just wax.  After it melted I removed the can, using tongs.  Make sure to have tongs and pot holders because all of the metal is hot.

Pour the melted crayons into whatever mold you have.  I filled a dinosuar mold.  Then place in the freezer until they are nice and solid.  They should just fall out when you turn them over.  If they don't then they may not be solid enough.

 
Repeat with whatever colors you like.

St. Nicholas Day

Our household truly does try to accomplish most holiday traditions, but St. Nicholas never visited our house growing up.  So that was a tradition that I started for Nate.  Basically it is an excuse to give him more gifts and he loved it!

Christmas Craft #5

In trying to cut back the amount of money I spent on all of the little things, I started just making my own gift tags.  It's really easy.  I have a drawer full of scrapaper.  Usually after I make something and there is a little left over paper I will just cut it into a square or a circle and punch a whole in it and I've got a gift tag.  I'll also leave some without holes in order to just tape or glue them to wrapping paper.  Once again this project cost me nothing.

This little guy requested that I take his picture because he was crafting too.  Essentially he was cutting a paper towel with safety scissors.



Christmas Craft #4

I'm really into paper crafts right now, cards, place settings, tags, etc.  So last night I made a banner.  I hung it in Nate's room and I'll put it in the dining room for our gingerbread party.  I have traceable letters that I use all the time, so I used those to trace and cut out Merry Christmas on red paper.  Then I used a Tupperware top to get the right size circle for the letters to be glued on.  I cut out the circles with craft scissors to make a scallop edge.  I punched two holes in the top of each.  Then strung all the circles on some red ribbon.  Nate loves having it in his room and I love that it cost me nothing, but a little time.

Christmas Craft #3

I have fallen in love with making bows.  I always love quick crafts that come together easily.  After making a couple of them it's really easy to knock them out quickly.  We have tons of patterned and colored paper and I see lots of homemade bows in my future.  Here's the tutorial I followed.  It's the Very Bradley blog: http://insidestitch.com/page/2/ .  You might need to scroll down to find it.  Here's just a couple that I've created...

Christmas Craft #2

Just in time for the start of December today I completed Nate's Count Up to Christmas Activity Chain.  That's a really complicated title that I came up with, but basically it's an activity for each day leading up to Christmas.  I didn't go for a count down because we are working on teaching him that each day of the month has a number and they go from 1-31 and so I didn't want to do the reverse and confuse him.  Here's what I created...

And here's a closeup...

I'm loving the idea of using things I already have, because well when you have no money at Christmas time it can be hard to be in the holiday mood.  But luckily I have a creative mind.  The cost of this project was $1, because I had to purchase the wide ribbon.  Here's what I used:
-1 Roll of wide Christmas ribbon
-Red and Green Paper
-A circle template
-Craft scissors that make a scallop edge
-Metallic marker
-Clothespins
-Command Strips to make the ribbon stick to the wall

I took a little time to write out the date specific activities on the back of the circles, but otherwise I'm going to fill in as needed.  Luckily Nate can't read yet, so I didn't have to fill out everything, I can make things up as the dates get closer.  Here are some things we are going to do:
-Go to the bounce house
-Go to a Christmas parade
-Go to Zoo Lights in DC
-Make gingerbread cookies
-Have a Gingerbread House Decorating party

Then I will just fill in with things like drive around and look at lights, make an ornament, watch a Christmas movie and things like that.  I think this is going to be a really fun month!

Christmas Craft #1

Living in a new home this Christmas season means finding new ways to decorate.  We definitely downsized and will have to be creative in using our favorite decorations.  One challenge I have is how to display our Christmas cards that we receive.  After some googling I found that the best solution was clothespins.  Here's what I came up with...

I would garland around the banister, then wound ribbon around the banister too.  I attached clothespins to the ribbon that will hold the cards.  I painted one side of the clothespins with red paint.  I also mixed in glitter with the paint to make it sparkle a little.  It seems like it's going to be a great solution if we can keep little hands from ripping the cards down!

Stay tuned for more craft ideas!

Finding a New Church Home

Throughout my life I have only regularly attended 2 churches.  Since Nate was born, I basically didn't put church as a priority.  I've never been to a church as an adult that fulfilled my needs.  As a teen I got my spiritual fulfillment from going to national, state, and local events, not necessarily from Sunday worship.  Now at this point in my life I need that Sunday worship.  I stopped going to church because there wasn't a place for Nate. 

After moving it's been a priority for me to find a church where I fit in and where Nate fits in.  The added bonus would be that the rest of my family likes it too.  At this point in time we have found it.  It's United Methodist, there is a preschool Sunday school class while simultaneously there is a contemporary worship service.  It's been a trial to get Nate to stay in Sunday School.  I'm an attached parent and I won't just leave him to be upset because of the separation.  I told his teachers to get me if he got upset.  The first Sunday he lasted about 15 minutes before they had to get me and I stayed with him the rest of the time.  The second Sunday Mema stayed with him the first 30 minutes and then he stayed by himself the second 30. 

Miraculously enough today he stayed in Sunday school the whole time!  I guess third times a charm.  The teacher told me that he just wanted to sit and watch for the first part, but that he got into it when they played games and did a craft.  He looooves crafts.  I'm just happy that he didn't cry and that they didn't feel the need to come get me.  I hope in time that he will get really comfortable and just walk in on his own and be all smiles when I come to get him.  But for now I'm happy with baby steps.  Because his staying in Sunday school means that I get to go to church and work on my relationship with God.

How do your cosmetics rate?

About a year ago, or maybe more, I was introduced to the Cosmetic Database .  It rates cosmetics, toiletries, and health products based on what is in them.  I often look up the products I buy to see what they rate.  My goal at the moment is to only use products that rate 0-4.  Even a 4 is a moderate hazard.  I use a lot of products like Burts Bees, which you would think would be a "healthy" product, but they can rate higher than a 4.  Sometimes something like a baby shampoo being tear free can make it rate higher.  The one brand that is no fail for me is California Baby.  I've started using that for Nate and even for myself.  California Baby has a good smelling bug spray.  While it may not be as super effective as a deet filled spray, it also doesn't make me feel like I can't breathe.  I challenge you to go to the database and look up what you use.  You might be surprised and might feel yourself looking at other brands.

Pumpkin Picking

This year we actually got to go out into a field and pick pumpkins.  The Westmoreland Berry Farm has a big patch that we visited.  Usually we end up buying pumpkins at the grocery store or at a nursery only.  Nate was so cute.  He really wanted a green pumpkin.  We found one and then placed it for him to find.  He loved following Popper around to find the perfect pumpkin.

S'mores

One awesome thing about CB is that you can have a fire going in your yard.  We have a little metal container to make a campfire in and usually we only busted it out around the 4th of July.  Now 90 degrees, humidity, and mosquitos never made for super pleasant campfires.  However, we would still do it because of the smores and the company.  Now that we are living here and dad is coming down often, we actually had the chance to light a fire when it's cool outside! 

We've had to light a lot of citronella candles this summer and it's given me the opportunity to talk to Nate about fire and staying away from it.  The campfire lended more opportunity for that.  He was actually really well behaved around it for a 3 year old.  All he wanted to do was eat the chocolate and roast marshmallows.  I'm pretty sure he snuck a lot of chocolate when I wasn't looking :).

Goodbye Milk, Hello Chicken

I suspected for a very long time that I am Lactose Intolerant.  It was finally confirmed after going for a physical in early September.  So my options were to continue to eat dairy products and be sick daily or to give up dairy products and basically live as a vegan who eats fish.  I tried the vegan thing for a week and I felt great in regards to my stomach, but I was so tired and sluggish.  I would fall asleep in a chair while watching a show with Nate in the middle of the day (more than normal). 

So the next choice I had to make was to continue on an almost vegan diet or re-introduce meat into my diet.  I decided to go with the second.  After 10 years as a lacto-ovo-pesco vegetarian I am eating chicken and turkey.  At this point in time I have no interest in eating red meat.  I'm finally feeling really good!  I spent 25 years with stomach aches and for some reason when I would go to a doctor no one asked me about milk.  Giving it up really wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.  I'm using lactose free milk and the only thing I really miss is dip.  I love dips in all form and now I just have to go with salsa.

Dinner is a lot more exciting now.  And I've realized somethings aren't as tasty as I imagined them to be after 10 years like McDonalds chicken nuggets and Campbells chicken noodle soup.  But real chicken made at home is a good and tasty option especially since I'm trying to live a healthier life.  So even though I'm no longer a vegetarian, I am still making the right choices for my health.

Prize

I'm the type of person that always passes up entering drawings because I never win.  Well I was surprised when I got a phone call on Monday saying that I had won a prize from the Montross Fair.  I had actually for once filled out a slip of paper and it paid off.  Before you get to excited that I won something super amazing, here it is...

School Supplies!

The real plus side is that it is stuff I can use or I can donate to the elementary school.  Or possibly pack in some kind of charitable Christmas present (I'm really working on getting Nate involved in donating to different causes each month).  Nate is very excited about the markers and those along with twistable crayons, colored pencils, and paper will come in handy with our new school time I'm implementing at home.  I am looking forward to using the pens in a craft project and I can always use highlighters and post its.

Montross Fall Fair

One perk of small town life is that there are small town activities like fall fairs.  We went to our first one this weekend in the next town over.  I love how there was no parking organization and even though there are many police officers no one helps people cross the street.  There was an awesome kids area that was all free.  Nate got to decorate a pumpkin, play games, go inside a school bus, and bounce in a bounce house.  I love how there was a whole food area filled with vendors offering nothing fancy, fried chicken, burgers, fried fish, kettle corn.  And for prices that you can actually afford.  The parade was interesting.  It was filled with fire engines, local business floats, and homecoming princesses.  I still don't feel like I really belong, but I might be getting there.