Life right here
Apologies for the lack of a post yesterday. Usually I put together Q&A posts on Sundays, but on Sunday, I went to church, made lunch, put together a photo calendar for grandma, made dinner, went to a sister church to play some Christmas songs for my mom's choir, came home, and went to bed.
And yesterday, I was just busy doing life, and didn't have time to do a Q&A post. On that note, I'll try to keep things going around here for the rest of the month, but I may miss a day here or there due to Christmas busyness. So, don't worry that some terribly tragedy has struck me if I don't blog...I'm probably just baking cookies. 😉
Anyway, I thought it might be fun to just share some peeks into my life over the past week or so. It's nothing fantastic or amazing...just life right here.
I've been:
drinking tea.
folding laundry.
listening to Christmas music on Pandora, using our handy-dandy little speaker because the laptop speakers aren't too fabulous. (edit: Jinger asked, and we got the speaker from Amazon..it's the Altec Lansing Speaker for MP3 Players 
And that's my affiliate link, just so ya know!)
making hot chocolate mix.
realizing again just how much more appetizing drink mixes look if you run them through the food processor first (unprocessed on the left, processed on the right).
hanging up Christmas lights in the freezing cold weather. Usually we can find a warm day for this task, but no luck this year!
ripping the dead flowers out of my front-door pots to make room for lights.
Why do we put lights on the pots? Because the light strands are never quite the right length for either side of our house, so we just let the extras pool in the door-side pots. We're such perfectionist light-hangers.
wishing that extension cords were a little bit more beautiful. They kinda mess up the light bokeh.
experimenting with a different gift bag design.
(the bottom was supposed to be perfectly round. But the lovely thing about making gift bags from re-purposed fabric is that turning out an imperfect bag is no great loss. And despite the non-roundness of the bottom, the bag does work pretty well.)
baking (duh).
playing Christmas music...at church, at a nursing home, by myself, and with my violinist friend.
enjoying the fabulous make-ahead quality of Cook's Illustrated's Thin Crust Pizza...perfect for throwing into the oven when you get back from the nursing home in the late afternoon.
And that's life here.
I love that little speaker...where did you get it? Pandora is my radio, stereo and everything else. Thanks.
I edited the post with a link for you. We just got the speaker this month and we love it so far. It has great sound for a speaker so small. The one downside is that it runs on batteries, but they're lasting really well and we hear they don't need to be replaced very often.
What is that there that you baked? Looks yummie!
It's a cherry coffecake. Recipe is coming tomorrow, if all goes well. 🙂
i was going to ask 😉 it looks fantastic!
Did you see you are on The Non-Consumer Advocate today? For your CBN interview again 🙂 Nice to see people reposting!
http://thenonconsumeradvocate.com/
I did! Very sweet of Katy. 🙂
Good to see Kristen on there and Katy posting again!
Ooh, I would love it if you could post your hot chocolate mix recipe sometime...I've been looking for a powdered mix recipe for ages!
me too...me too!
Okee-doke...I will! Mine isn't anything super fancy, but the kids like it, and it saves me from buying those little packets, which, even when they're super cheap, produce an awful lot of trash.
i always buy the big swiss miss can. it's less trash but that's not even the reason i do it, i like to use 2 packs at a time 🙂 goes way to fast. it is way to watery with just one 🙂
Yes, please--could we haveyour hot cocoa mix recipe 🙂
I'm glad I am not the only one in the throws of Christmas craziness. Every year I promise myself that this year I will simplify and be organized. That works for about .....three days! So, many gifts to be made and baked. So, many worthwhile activities to be attended. So, few days to cram it all in! Good luck with your Holiday activities! P.S. Homemade cocoa mix; that's pure genius! 😀
I have a Q&A question for ya - how do you find local people for milk/eggs/meat? I know you've mentioned the eggs and meat before. My hubby and I are pretty hardcore vegetarian, and I'm interested in finding a local, healthy, happy source for our animal products. Price is actually no object.
As a side note, we spend $350/month on food for the two of us, while you guys spend $400 for all four of you. I found that interesting, especially because we still hit the USDA "thrifty" plan, and we eat pretty darn-tootin well! 🙂
I found the eggs through a local blog reader, I found the chicken at a store near me, and I found the beef through my sister-in-law. So, mostly networking, I guess?
By the way, there are actually six of us. Don't forget Sonia and Zoe! lol
And I know what you mean...we eat pretty darn well and we usually spend less than a food stamp allotment.
Ha - I guess I meant the four kids and totally ignored you and Mr. FG. We see far more pictures of them than you two. 🙂 Sorry about that. Thanks for the answer - I'll have to make some more local friends.
lol! That is true...Mr. FG is camera-shy, and I'm almost always behind the camera. 🙂
Have you tried localharvest.org? They might have some info for your area.
Nice post. Simple, but to the point.
Katy
Ah yes...simple! I sometimes get a little not-simple when I post. lol
would love to have the hot chocolate mix recipe.
btw, absolutely love the Banana Chip Muffins. I add peanut butter chips, use buttermilk in place of the yogurt(have it on hand and not yogurt) and used butter instead of oil. Scrumptious. My office loves them too. Thanks!
Thanks for being real!
I listened to Christmas music on Pandora until I found CBN Radio:
http://www.cbn.com/radio/christmas/?cpid=RD1012061
There are no commercials on CBN Radio, just an occasional break for station identification. There are also no checks to see if you are still listening. The music is a wonderful mix of Christmas classics and contemporary artists, such as Mariah Carey and Michael Buble.
Glad you took time to work out the bump! That's way more important than a Q&A post 🙂 Oh, and yes - cocoa recipe please?!?! Mine last year was not great. Or less than not great!
Yes, indeed! I don't think it'd work to well in the middle of an issue discussion to go, "Can we finish this later? I need to write a blog post." lol
Love that you mentioned the relationship chat with Mr. FG. I think we get an unrealistic view of marriage by reading so much on the Internet since the messages are often not balanced with the fun AND the work aspects of marriage. Thanks for sharing the work aspect of your relationship!
I'm going to check out that make ahead pizza recipe right now! It looks delicious!
So true. It's a fine line to walk when you're deciding how much to share...you don't want to drag your spouse through the mud, of course, but you don't want to present everything as 100% peachy all the time!
Do you have the hot cocoa recipe posted. Tried searching, but no luck. (but it could just be me!)
Oooh, homemade cocoa mix! I've just been throwing together milk with cocoa powder, a bit of sugar, and a little cornstarch (it thickens it up deliciously). But a powder mix to have on hand might be a treat for G while he's deployed!
I love these pictures showing the day to day. The lights don't have to be perfect to be gorgeous and "just right." Kind of a metaphor for life, yes?
Add me to the list requesting the cocoa recipe, please!
This year I find that only a few people are doing lights. We are having an electricity increase here in California.
Just out of curiosity, how many gifts that you give are homemade? I'm going the homemade route for 70% of my gift list this year and:
1. Want reassurance that I'm not the only one out there-but nor am I Martha Stewart!
2. Get a price index on what people spend on homemade presents
3. Get some more ideas!!! (Right now, folks getting my homemade gifts are getting felt Advent calendars, lavender bath salts and sugar scrubs, and my wassail recipe, bottled.)
you're awesome! just sayin 😉 i love that you are so respectful of mr. FG! it's hard to come by, unfortunately. my husband and i have a wonderful relationship and i believe it's so important to be respectful of each other! not that we don't have tiffs either 😉
LOL I'm another one that is curious about your cocoa mix. I made some recently to put in xmas baskets. I decided to try it first and wasn't really impressed with it.
could your coffee cake and pizza look any more appetizing?! why am I suddenly starving when it's a good two hours before lunch time? must be your fault. 😉
This year we did very few lights outside (not that we do very many any year), but one reason was the cold! Each year we think it ridiculous how early people put up their lights (can't they wait until the beginning of December?), but now we understand. Usually it's mild around here so waiting is no big deal. But this year? Brrrr!!!
Totally agree with the other folks who posted to say thanks for writing about the little bump. It's nice to be reminded that no marriage is perfect and they all take work. And I love that pizza recipe! I bought parchment paper and I'm going to make it for tomorrow night.
THANKS FOR MAKING MY LIFE BETTER! (I mean it!)
one of your many readers!