Christmas Time

I hadn't gotten around to sharing pictures from Christmas time yet, I just wanted to record some of the fun and blessings from Christmas time 2022....

The Wednesday night before Christmas we enjoyed a time of singing carols by candlelight. I really enjoy using candles and it is fun and special to do something different from the ordinary. We enjoyed it.

Before the carol sing we had a "Shepherd's Supper": with Lentil stew and other stews, charcuterie boards with bread, crackers, cheese, dates, olives and things like that. It was yummy and fun to do something a little different there too.

  Megan and I had fun (and a few late nights and pushing ourselves too) making handmade gifts for everybody this year. We only do a gift exchange amongst me and the kids (not our whole extended family) so it wasn't quite as big of a project as it could have been.

  The first thing that we made was a bunch of candy. Our friends the Kleinsassers (or the females in the family anyway) came over one day and we worked together at it. We made peanut butter pretzel truffles (which were very yummy!), Christmas Crack, Rootbeer cream cheese candies, Eggnog truffles and Turtles. We made far more candy than we needed and I am working to take off some extra pounds that landed on my body now. :-) We did give candy away to people outside our family so that was a good thing!!

I had fun make these little forest friend magnets for Malcolm to play with.

I made this teddy bear/rice heating pack for him as well.

Megan bought an unpainted set of nesting dolls and painted it for him. It is super cute but the best picture I have is this one where they are on his and Aaron's laps and you can't see any of the fun details.

Malcolm didn't mind getting up early for exchanging presents before breakfast and church. He loves reading books now so Megan was reading him one at like 6:30 in the morning.

Megan had made cute little personal pies for all of us which we enjoyed at breakfast along with our traditional Vanocka braid, sausage, eggs and hot chocolate.

Thomas and Mara camped at a rendezvous this past summer and hope to go again. Thomas had borrowed a shirt to wear last year so I made him one of his own. Megan knit him a wool hat.

I didn't get any good pictures of Jonathan. I knit him a black hat for a present which he said he liked but he didn't try on because his hair was already in place for church. I also made some flavored syrups for coffee or other things for him, Thomas, Aaron and Megan. Megan made cookie dough (to be frozen and then cooked) for Jonathan.

 I made a harvesting Apron for Mara. It has a really big and adjustable pocket on it for gathering produce. I also made her a miniature journal necklace. Megan knit her a neat bag which she filled with cookie dough and other treats.

I knit this vest for Megan. 

I made (with help from Megan-in cutting out squares and my friend Amy -in sewing) this quilt for Aaron. Megan made him a wool green beret.

Megan made me this beautiful scarf.

Others gave very nice gifts as well but those were the handmade ones. Compared to many our Christmases I am sure are very simple. I am thankful for that. I like it that way. 

  One highlight of the time for me was all of us working together to make supper on Christmas Eve. We made hamburgers (with homemade buns), fried potatoes, onion rings, deep fried pickles and jalapeños and milk shakes. It was just fun to have all of my kids here and work together to make a yummy supper. After supper we played games and then everybody stayed here overnight. Having all my kids here together is such a blessing. I treasure it when it happens.

  One Sunday after church my parents and my brother Luke and his family joined us for lunch and that was fun too. Holidays are fun in that they prompt us to get together with family a little more and that is wonderful.

 

Lovely Wintertime

Temps are supposed to get below zero tonight and that is fairly normal for January in Northern Minnesota. It can be cold but it is oh so beautiful and invigorating too. I truly love it here. Even when the wind feels a little nippy and my eyelashes get frosty - I love living here. 

 I thought I would share a few of our winter doings so far this season....

The top picture is of Malcolm and Thomas - biking in the snow. People heavily discourage me from doing that after my tumble last winter but I guess it is okay for Malcolm when he has his Daddy's help.

Several weeks ago my parents brought their wood splitter and my brother Peter and Niece Jatan over for a Saturday morning. Thomas, Malcolm and Jonathan also came and they along with Aaron, Megan and I worked on doing up a nice amount of wood for us and some for my mother-in-law, Sharyl too. What a blessing that was! We love having our cozy fires and wood is needed for that.

Mom and Dad make a pretty good team! They have been working that way for over 50 years now.

We got two loads like this for us. Yay!!

I am not sure how much this guy did to help but he sure is cute!

He, Megan and Jaten were the stacking team.

A couple of weeks ago I invited my friend Amy over to hang out with me on a Saturday when the kids were busy doing other things. We enjoyed breakfast (Aaron was here for that) and then a lovely walk in the woods followed by sewing on a quilt together.

The woods were lovely but even more lovely is friendship. I am so blessed.

We have gotten quite a lot of snow this year and we have really been able to enjoy the winter wonderland look!

The next day after church and lunch Aaron and I decided to do some back country downhill skiing. Aaron had checked out this area the week before with Megan.
There was a trail from the road that we were able to follow to get to the hill. 

Once we went down the hill of course we had to take our skis off and climb back up. It was fabulous exercise.

It was around 2 degrees that day but the sun was shining, I dressed warmly and with all the exercise I got so hot!

Kitchi is always happy to be a part of things.

Aaron is a great skier and sometimes seems like he has endless energy.

A few days later I got this picture of Megan when we were out on a walk. It was pretty chilly that day (below zero I am pretty sure) so she wore a trench coat over her snowsuit. I guess there is a book out (which I have heard is a good one) called "There's No Such Thing as Bad Weather" (by a Scandinavian Mom) that then also says that there is just bad clothing. I generally agree. If you dress for the weather you can truly enjoy time outside in all kinds of temps.

My goal is to get outside and get some exercise of some sort at least 5 times a week. I think it is really good for you - mentally and physically. 

How is your winter going? Are you enjoying it? What sorts of things do you do outside in the winter time?
 

My Lovely Girls!

Hello you all! I have missed you! I have made a commitment to blog more often (once a week is the goal) so you should be seeing more of me again. I really enjoy blogging. I find it fun to think through things and share them in writing and to connect with people across the world in this way. Life just has had a lot going on and I have struggled with making the time to blog and also knowing just how to share with you. But, I am going to give it a try again. :-) 

Today I wanted to share a little about my beautiful girls...

Last week Megan celebrated her 15th birthday. We were able to have some company over to celebrate and I was able to take the time to spend the day with her on her big day. She had taken the week of from her job at Qdoba (where she works 15 hours a week on 3 different days) to really have time to celebrate her birthday.

We were going to work on a quilt but then she decided that she would like to go shopping instead. That is not a normal Mother - Daughter activity for us as neither of us are super fond of it but she had some things she wanted to get so we went.

We also stopped in at the Chinese Restaurant to get some Wantons and other things and then went to Big River Scoop (the ice-cream shop where the boys work) to get some ice cream cones. 

Megan putting a coin down the funnel at the Mall.

Megan and the 3 layer cake that she created.

This girl of mine can sew a dress (she made an adorable one lately) like nobody's business, bake and decorate cakes, create her own recipes, write the most interesting letters you'll probably ever read, sing beautifully (or annoyingly if that is the mood she is in), read books super fast, teach a Sunday school class like a pro, make big messes, bluntly tell you the truth even when you don't want to hear it and draw beautifully. She is super talented and I am pretty proud of her.

This other girl of mine is about to hold a baby in her arms and we are incredibly excited!

Mara has had a lovely, healthy pregnancy and she is just blooming! The baby was due on Sunday (April 18th) but just like she didn't arrive on time her son didn't either. We are still waiting. But I am quite sure it will be worth the wait.

I am not sure if I have even told you all on here that Mara and Thomas moved back up here (from Kansas) in August. We have loved having them around and are so excited for the new addition that they are bringing to our family. They are going to be such good parents!

So that is a little piece of my life lately. I hope I can visit with you again soon.
 

A Colorful Train Quilt for Buirlen

   We are so blessed to have a bunch of little people in our family right now. In my side of the family (the ones we live near) there had been a break in the arrival of grand-kids for several years but in the last 2 years there are now 5 more. It is wonderful! Just recently we celebrated the 1st birthday of Buirlen. Megan and I decided to make a quilt for his birthday gift. 

   I had been thinking about making it for a month but I was finishing up some other gifts and projects and so I didn't end up getting to it until the day before his party. But with Megan's good help and even a little assistance from Aaron and Mara at the end we got it done.

 I was just going to have a bunch of colorful squares but Megan wanted some pinwheel blocks too. I thought that would be pretty appropriate since pin-wheels had been a big thing and Buirlen's parents wedding (you can see my post about it here). So we made three pin-wheel squares to go in the middle of the quilt. Then we just had a bunch of blocks. After those we sewed together I stiched a railroad track (using thread and ribbon) all around the quilt. Then we put two trains made of jean pockets on the track.

 I had wanted to make finger puppets to go in the trains but I didn't have time but Megan got it done. They turned out pretty cute. Buirlen thought they were fun to play with.

 This is the train on the other side.

 Megan made a really cut engineer to go in one of the engines.

 It ended up being a really fun project. The jean pockets I had been saving as I cut up strips for rugs and wanting to find something to do with them. They were the inspiration for this quilt. I still have a bunch more however so I am going to need to do something else with them too. The blocks all came from scraps of fabric that we had around. For the back of the quilt I used a piece of flannel that I had bought years ago on a sale. The lining was an old mattress cover that my neighbor had given me to make something with. It was amazing how perfectly it fit the quilt without any pre-planning on my part. God certainly blessed as we made it. We only had limited time to work on it and everything went together super smoothly. I was so thankful.

 By the way Buirlen's Mama has a neat blog that you might enjoy checking out.

Making A Quilt for Mara's Birthday - And Zero Waste Wrapping for Her Gifts

   We have had some milestone birthdays around here lately. Mara turned 18 on Friday and Ken turned 40 on Sunday. It was a busy birthday time. When figuring out birthday gifts I thought it would be fun to make Mara a quilt. I made one for her room years ago (before I started blogging) but we have been wanting to make a different one for several years now. This year I decided that she and I probably weren't going to get around to making one together as she is busy with college and work and then plans to head off to a mission program next year but that it still would be nice for her to have a new quilt that she could take with her when she went. 

  So Megan agreed to work with me on her quilt and the Monday before her birthday (we are notorious for last minute plans and procrastinating around here) we started to design and work on her quilt. Her room is blue and she had made a rag rug for it in greens, purples and blues so we decided to use those colors for the quilt. Megan went through the fabric scraps that we had on hand and choose some that she wanted to use. I made patterns and we started cutting pieces out.

 Megan did most of the cutting and I did most of the sewing but we did both do the other some as well. Megan put in many hours of work and I would never have been able to get it done without her.

For the middle of the quilt (that will not be seen) we used an old blanket from my college days that had seen it's better days. It was bigger than we needed so from the extra that we cut off Megan patched the middle where there were holes.

 For the backing of the quilt we used an old sheet of ours that had gotten ripped (and a little worn) at the top of it but still seemed to be quite sturdy fabric for the rest of it. I was able to cut the ripped and worn section completely off and use the part that was left.

   We were hiding out in my bedroom to pin the quilt together, to tie it and pin binding on.

Mara was quite happy with her quilt.

I am thankful that it fits well on her double bed now but should also work on a single bed in the future.

  For the quilt we were able only use things that we already had on hand.  We were able to make something "new" and useful out of what many people would have considered trash. The tiny little cotton scraps that were created from making the quilt we were able to put in our compost to rot. Large scraps will be used for other projects and the rest of the sheet will go into a rag rug and new handkerchiefs. "Waste not, want not" :-)

  We were also able to employ Zero Waste wrapping for the birthdays lately. For large gifts (like the quilt) a table cloth makes a nice piece of "wrapping paper". I secured it with a rubber band instead of tape. Smaller pieces of fabric or a kerchief works nicely for smaller gifts. Reusable gift bags were also used for Mara's birthday and they work great.

  This is part of my series "31 Days of attempting to create Zero Waste" - for a list of others in the series go here.