Frugal Gift # 9 ~ homemade candy

Something we have enjoyed giving for gifts is homemade candy. I have always been what my mom calls a "messer" ( someone who likes to experiment in the kitchen and just mess around with little bits of this and that.) and candy is a perfect thing for messing. The other reason I like to give candy is because people seem to like it. Other benefits are that it is pretty frugal and it doesn't crowd up someones house with an little needed gift, they eat it and it is gone! The only disadvantage to this gift is that it usually isn't all that good for you. So you don't want to make to much OR you can try to make it healthy! :-)

We enjoy giving candy to my parents for special events. They are not the type of people to buy candy (or to really make it) so they enjoy what they receive as gifts. They put it away and just take it out at special times and have just one piece. They can make a box of candy last a very long time! This candy that I have pictured we made as part of their anniversary gift in November.

This candy was one of the ones that I had fun inventing as I was making it. I took some coconut and added just enough corn syrup to make it sticky. Then I took a little bit of the sticky coconut and made a ball of it around a pecan. Then I melted some chocolate almond bark and poured some on one side and then after the candy had hardened I turned it over and poured some on the other side. That was all ~ very simple. I turned out pretty yummy though, if I must say so myself.

We packaged it up in a clear plastic box that we recycled. I put tissue paper in and then tied it with a pretty pink bow. How fun!

Here is another of our favorite candy recipes. This one is actually healthy and I didn't make it up. I just revise it however I want at the time. Anyway here is the recipe:

Peanut Butter Kisses:

• 1/2 cup honey (or a little less)
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 3/4 to 1 1/2 cup dry milk

Mix the honey and peanut butter and then add as much of the dry milk as you can. Roll into small balls. You can roll the balls in coconut, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, chopped nuts or coat in chocolate almond bark. That is it ~ All done ! Our whole family likes these. They make a nice snack for kids.

Have fun with your candy making!

A Handmade Christmas ~ Week 7 {Things to eat!}

Christmas is almost here! I imagine you have some excited households, as I do. I hope you and your family have a wonderful, peaceful and joyful Christmas!!

I am actually wondering if anybody else is still out and about in Blogland... I wondered if I should even bother to post this last Handmade Holiday but I decided I might as well go ahead and do it. I know some people celebrate later and also you just might need a last minute idea. :-) So here we go. Everything that I am sharing today is made in the kitchen....

     Vanocka Braid is our family's Christmas Breakfast tradition. I posted the recipe here in 2007. It is one of those breads that looks elegant and takes a little bit of work but at the same time isn't that hard. It is fun to have as a special tradition.

Speaking of traditions I guess we are going to do homemade pasta again for our Christmas meal. We are working to make it a tradition. I would love to hear what your traditional foods are!

Now, on to gifts....
I think food gifts are great! Everybody eats (though of course when giving food it is good to consider diets, allergies and preferences), food doesn't clutter up the house later and it is practical. Besides it is fun to give and get something special that you wouldn't have normally.

Today we actually made pumpkin bread to give out, but I didn't take any pictures. I decided on that for two practical reasons: #1. I know a lot of people give out unhealthy things and your body can begin to feel overloaded with that and #2. It was much easier for me to make then a bunch of different varieties of cookies.

Another gift we made recently was "Puppy Chow". I had gotten the Chex cereal very cheap with some coupons, so it ended up being fairly inexpensive. We also made enough for us to eat which my kids found very exciting! I think I have made it only one other time and they didn't remember it. They really thought I should share the recipe here on my blog. :-) So here is the link.

I think candy is always a fun gift too, even though it isn't healthy! Making candy lets the kids and I have the fun of really messing and experimenting in the kitchen too. Here is our most recent candy experiment:  

Chocolate Nut Clusters
1 1/2 cup Chocolate Chips
1 Tablespoon butter

Put chips and butter in bowl, place in the microwave and heat it for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes at 50% power. Stir until smooth. (You may need to cook it more.)

Then with this we made 2 types of candy, using 1/2 the chocolate for each.

For one type we put a few pecan pieces in each candy cup and then poured chocolate over them and then topped with another pecan.

For the other type we mixed in 1/2 cup each of Coconut, Kashi Go Lean Crunch Cereal and Sliced Almonds into the chocolate. Then we filled candy cups with the mixture and topped with coconut.

We let both types harden in the fridge. They were yummy and we had fun experimenting!

There are lots of neat food gifts, I would love to hear what you have given or enjoyed recieving!

Do you have any more ideas to share?

Please link them up or leave them in the comment section.

To link up please write a post about the handmade things you are doing (gifts, decorations, food, etc.), put a link to here in your post and then add the link to MckLinky.

Frugal Valentine Ideas

We are getting excited about Valentine's Day around here. The kids are thinking about cards and notes and the sweets that usually come with the day. I have been dreaming about how I can make the day extra special to show my husband how much I love him and also share some love with the kids.





Our Valentines days are generally pretty frugal but that doesn't make them any less fun. I thought I would share some things we have done to make it special and also some links that I have come across with fun ideas or pictures.

• Have fun decorating! I enjoy bringing out anything with a heart shape, stuff in red, candles and then cut out paper hearts to add about the room.
• Make heart shaped pancakes for Breakfast and top with red berries or syrup. My kids love shaped pancakes and they really aren't that hard to make if you aren't looking for perfection. Ken and I enjoy pancakes too.
• Have fun dressing up for the day. We enjoy doing stuff like wearing red and pink and so forth. It makes the day seem more special.


• Leave notes! My family really enjoys this. One year at Valentines Day I put notes all over the house labeled with the recipients name. Everybody thought it was a lot of fun. Little notes actually have a long history in Ken and my relationship. When we were engaged he had asked me to mend his Bible case and I sent it back with notes in all the different pockets. He really enjoyed that and then later in our marriage when I had to be out of town I came home to notes all over the house. Notes are a great time to share things you love about your spouse (or your child), things you might not say otherwise.
• Homemade cards are always frugal and can be extra special if you put some thought and time into them.
• As part (or all) of the gifts we give we often give candy. Now that I have learned how to coupon shop I can stock up on candy and other fun treats much more cheaply. Last year I saved a heart shape candy box (a Reese's one) that Ken gave to me and I plan on redoing it to put some candy that he like in.


• One of Ken's favorite desserts is Cheese Cake so that is often part of our Valentine's day as I will make a heart shaped cheese cake.

There are so many simple but fun ways to make the day special. Here are some links to other fun ideas:

• A Valentines Party with cute fuzzy hearts at Faith Acre Farm.
• Here is a super cute picture of heart pockets that Emily found.
• I had fun looking at the pictures of what my friend Esther did last Valentines day.
• I enjoyed the Simple Dollar's 9 tactics for a frugal Valentines day.
• Here are some cute paper animals made out of heart shapes. This would be very fun way for the kids to make valentines.
• Here is a list of gifts from A-Z that are environmentally friendly. It is a rather fun read.

For more frugal tips (I noticed that Crystal wrote about Valentines day as well) visit Biblical Womanhood.

A sticky situation

Over a week ago when we were studying about New Jersey we decided to make Salt water taffy. We had read that salt water taffy was first thought of in New Jersey when some waves washed over a taffy stand that was on the beach. We found a recipe for Atlantic City salt water taffy online. This wouldn't be something that we would make to often as I don't think it has any nutritional value but it was fun to make once.
I am not sure that I got it as hot as it was supposed to get. I don't have a candy thermomoter and we were a little uncertian about the hard ball stage and a little impatient. Anyway it was some very sticky candy!
The kids thought it was very good even if it was sticky. These two spent a lot of time licking their fingers and every time we gave them something to pull it got eaten up.
Here are some dazed looking girls. I guess candy can do that to you. We tried several different flavors for our candy. Mint, burnt sugar, almond and coconut. They all tasted pretty good. We also did a variety of colors. If you don't mind a mess this is a fun family project.

Any hints for making taffy should we try it again? Is this something you have done before? Share your stories please!

Freebie Friday {Valentine's Day Edition}

 Are you enjoying the blessings in life that can be had without money? Here is a reminder of some of the many things that we can enjoy even while seeking to live frugally.

Five Things You Can Do For Free (Fun Dates For Valentines Day!)

1. Go to a Concert. This might not work to be exactly on Valentine's day but perhaps in that time period. Also I suppose it might not work in all communities but in ours (we live in a University Town) there are oodles of concert opportunities that are free. For instance in the coming weeks there are faculty piano recitals, a Baroque Ensemble Concert, A Percussion Ensemble Concert, College Senior Recitals and more. All Free. Check out you local Chamber of Commerce event listings, college events near you, church events (In our town the local Church Musicians have concerts on a regular basis) and school events.
2. Pack a picnic and take a hike. Yes, this can be done even in the winter. Bring some hot chocolate in your lunch. If you have skis or snowshoes that could add a fun dimension to your outing.
3. Go to an Art Gallery/ Museum. I know even in our medium sized town there are a couple of different art galleries that you can go to for free. When I visited Cleveland, Ohio this summer they had a HUGE art museum that you could visit for free. What do you have in your area?
4. Go on a scenic drive. Plan a fun route - maybe an area you have never explored before.
5. Have your kids help you plan a special romantic dinner for you and your spouse. You can decorate the house using various things you have on hand, plan a special menu (again using things you have on hand- have fun looking for new recipes using ingredients that you have), Figure out which child will be the waiter, the bus boy, the coat clerk, the musician, etc. Have fun finding appropriate fancy outfits for each of them. If you don't have a child that can play an instrument or sing for music then find a CD or music online that they can play. Put candles on the tables and dim the lights. The fancy table where you and your spouse dine could be put in a different room to make it different and special. That way the kids could eat their meal on the dining room table in between serving you. Make up a paper or chalkboard menu to announce the special meal that is going to be served. Many children will love getting to play restaurant like this and will totally enjoy serving you for a special evening. If you would like to make it a double date invite another family with children to join in with you. The kids could watch a pre-planned movie or play a game or clean things up while the parents visit and perhaps play a game. Realize that this will not quite be the same as going out to eat without kids but in can be just as fun too. You may need to jump up from your meal to help when something goes awry. You may need to do clean-up afterwards. You may need to take a break from your date and put kids to bed and then you could play a game or watch a movie at home.

One years' decorated table

Ideas for Free Valentines that You can Make for Free

• Heart shaped crayons, Animals made from hearts, Flower Pencils and more.
• More Animals for Hearts and a Repurposed Candy Box and Card.
• Flowers, Cookies and Cars made into Valentines.

• 

  "Racing Your Way to Say: Happy Valentine's Day!"

• 

  Suncatcher

  Make a Suncatcher with old crayons

Free Valentines you can Print

• From Better Homes and Gardens
• Zebra Valentines
• Vintage Valentines

Free Gifts you Can Give

• A Kiss, etc. - Would your spouse appreciate more physical attention? This is a wonderful gift that we can give in our marriage.
• Love Notes. This old post of mine gives some thoughts on the beauty of writing love notes.
• Babysitting. Do you have friends that would like to have a date without children? Offer your services as a babysitter.
• Candy. Candy is something that can be really fun to make using things that you already have on hand. It also makes a very traditional and appreciate Valentine's gift. Here is a link to many posts that I have written telling about Candy that I have made using things that I had on hand. Maybe one of the recipes will work for you too.

Listen for Free

The Best Free Gift!!!
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16


Do you have any free ideas for Valentine's day to add? I would love to hear them!

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.

 

Learning even on ordinary days

 Not long ago a blog reader e-mailed and asked a question about what our normal homeschool day was like. As I was sharing with her in my e-mail I started to have this feeling like "Are we doing enough?", "Should I be more scheduled?" and just feeling like things have been so ordinary and not really exciting. So I have been thinking about that some lately. When these sort of thoughts come up I think it is good to face them, pray about them and make changes if needed or possibly make changes in how you are thinking and feeling.

 

 I think the devil wants us to feel inadaquate while God is there to give us strength and help us through each day. The world often gives us the message that life always needs to be exciting and you need to keep your kids stimulated and learning but that isn't completely true. Yes excitement is fun and we do need to stimulate our children at times but we also need quiet times, slowly growing times, simple days and times of rest. From my experience there are going to be times where you have a ton of fun doing a lot of neat learning, you feel passionate about something, everybody is interested but then that excitement wears off and you have times where you just do the basics, you don't learn at such a rapid pace. I think both are needed.

 

 Even though it has been a "quieter" time for us recently I have started to pay attention to some of the little ways the kids have learning lately. I thought I would share a few with you.....

 

• Mara found a contest online (At American Girl) where entrants are required to take and enter some nature photos and also write a little essay about nature. She had fun spending a couple of afternoons outside with the camera, we discussed the pictures together and edited them a little and then she also wrote a cute little essay about how nature inspires here.
• I have been reading aloud "The Story of the World, Ancient Times" lately and have been enjoying it but I was pleased the other day to hear Aaron playing pretend with Megan and he was Julius Ceaser and he had her be Pompey or one of the other Senaters (I don't remember now).
• We all went with Mara to an eye appointment and learned a lot about how the eye works and what all happens at an eye exam. It was a lovely little "field trip"!

Doesn't she look cute in her glasses?

• Mara is learning new concepts in her math and Jonathan is getting to be a much better speller.
• Mara is starting to do more and more in the way of homemaking. She is becoming more independant in the kitchen and the laundry room. This of course is not only very helpful to me now but will be something she will use throughout the rest of her life.
• Megan is learning how to write her name.
• Aaron is getting more and more familiar with letters.
• The kids are learning creativity and science while making candy for a gift. I got out a variety of ingredients and then melted some chocolate and they got to decide what went in their special type of candy. The each made 4. They got to eat one of their creations and then gave away the other 3. They found it to be a very exciting activity for the day.

        Here are the finished products!

• We have had fun concentrating a little heavier lately on Bible Memorization. "Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee." Ps. 119:11
• We have sent out quite a few letters lately which is good practise for writing.
• The boys have had a lot of fun creating with Legos lately. This helps develop several skills.

Ordinary days are good. We are enjoying our quiet learning times. How have you been learning at your house?

Welcome to our home....{2011 Christmas tour}

Hello! I am so glad you came to visit!

I decided it would be fun to join in The Inspired Room's Christmas Home Tours. I am joining not because our home is anything spectacular or grand (it's not) but rather because our family has fun doing a little bit of simple decorating using things that we have and it is fun to have company (even online company) over to share our home and festivities with.

 So come on in and I will give you a tour of our simple home.

This weekend was the weekend of decorating the inside- I don't like to do it to early because I am still enjoying Thanksgiving decorations and so we will probably leave some (or maybe a lot) of these decorations up into January. On Saturday night Ken and Aaron went to a Hockey game and the rest of us had fun doing some decorating to surprise them when they got home.

 We hung a swag that I had made from some greenery we picked from my parents woods up above the coat closet which you see first thing when you walk in the entryway. I also pulled out some old ice skates to decorate with.

 The white skates with jingle bell toes are old ones of mine but they are to uncomfortable to wear anymore. The others I think may have been my Dad's when he was young. I love the way they look on the closet door.

After you hang up your coat why don't you come on upstairs....

 You can join these crazy and fun children for a cup of peppermint hot chocolate (a special gift from my sister) and some Sesame-Honey Candy (Pasteli) that Aaron and I just made.

Aaron hard at work cutting the candy. He loves to help make snacks.

 When we were decorating on Saturday night Jonathan's big project was to run a long string of white lights across the tops of all the cupboards and around the kitchen and then also around the top of the windows in the dining room. We don't usually put lights in the house (instead we have them all over outside) so the kids think ( and I am enjoying it too) it is pretty neat to have some inside.

  On the cupboard tops we also added some evergreen boughs and pine cones and some splashes of red. I am really enjoying the red this year. Some years I have tried to avoid it but I like it a lot this year.

Closer detail of the cupboard tops.

Lights, greenery, grapevine and frosty pine cones (which we frosted) above the kitchen sink.

The lights in the dining room at night. Snowflakes on the window were made by Jonathan.

Here is closer detail of the cross stitch picture on our Kitchen wall. This is one of the many cross stitch pictures that Mara made this year.

Now lets walk over to the living room and chat for a bit.

On the wall is one of my favorite decorating places. The shelf underneath our family picture. We also hung another swag up above it.

 Here are some details of the shelf.  I have fun adding all sorts of odds and ends to it that I think go with the theme. If you haven't noticed already, I love pine cones and evergreens. I love the outdoors and enjoy bringing the outdoors in for my decorating.

The kids were quite excited about getting the stockings hung up. Our family rule is that all gifts have to fit in the stocking. Someday I think it would be very fun to have a fireplace mantle to hang them from but for now they hang from the half wall by our stairs.

 The other side of the living room is our music area. I enjoyed having poinsettias and fresh flowers (along with evergreen, pine cones and candles) available to decorate the piano top with.

 Here are a couple of more wreaths that we are displaying. The grapevine/evergreen one is a combination of the kid's efforts (I am tempted to place the Reindeer a little differently but currently am working to appreciate the uniqueness of it) I do love that they like to help decorate. The other wreath was one that some friends and I made from some old music. It fits in well in my entry way where I have a variety of music pictures.

Now to head downstairs....

 We don't have a ton of decorations here but it looks very changed to us because we did some major rearranging and really open up this room which had been before split in half with some big bookshelves. We are really loving it! I have had fun adding some evergreen and pine cones and other rustic touches as well as some snowmen decorations.

This snowman wreath got to be inside out of the weather this year.

 Here is where the bookshelves went...

 In our bookworms room. We added some garland and sparkly jewels to the top of the shelves and then our homemade nativity from a couple of years ago got put in here as well and also some new nativity stuff that Megan just made.

Thanks so much for visiting!

We hope you enjoy seeing our outside lights as you go. I wasn't able to get a picture of them all (as I didn't feel like running that far down the road to take the picture) and this picture is rather blurry but it gives you an idea. :-)

 How do you like to decorate for Christmas? I would love to hear from you!