Cupcakes!

Aren't these pretty?

They're vegan too.

These are Reese's birthday cupcakes. We'll be taking them to share with our homeschool friends tomorrow. Reese is very excited, of course.

And because we'll be on vacation during Reese's real birthday, she got to open some gifts already, including the gift from Eric and me. She got...A SEWING MACHINE!!!!!!! I'm probably way more excited about it than she is, haha. I think she's pretty happy though. It's nothing fancy, just an old singer, but a good starter machine for a 6 year old.

Six years old. That's crazy. I've learned so much since I found out I was pregnant with my Reese. I hope to learn a whole lot more in years to come as well.

Busy, Busy!

Cleaning the house: I can tell we're not outside as much because the house is trashed every day. I suppose folding the laundry would help too.

Making the cookies: We already did this, but we're going to have to make more. Christmas cookies are just too darn tasty. I don't mind...It's a good project for the kids despite the mess. I've always enjoyed making cookies around this time of year. I remember the good old days (aka before kids) when I'd make half a dozen different kinds of cookies. Ah well. It's fun to do the sugar cookies.

Getting gifts ready to be mailed: Ugh. The post office is a zoo. Reese and I were there yesterday and the line was almost out the door. Tis the season! I think we will be able to ship two large flat rate boxes, one to my parents and one to Eric's parents with all the gifts. That will help streamline things. I'm excited about the gifties though!

Homeschooling: What?? I'm supposed to be educating these kids as well as picking up after them?? Haha, just kidding. In math we've been hitting the math facts pretty hard, lots of games and some paper/pencil practice. I'd forgotten how boring math facts can be, so we're trying to keep it fun but also emphasizing that it's something Reese needs to learn. Eli had definitely improved with counting and we're working on number recognition. I decided that since we're going to school year round, it's not imperative to rush through the basics of math.

Reese is reading up a storm, which is really fun. I'm so glad that reading is coming easily to her. And I'm also glad the library has so many easy reader books. She's pretty much done with her phonics program, aside from maybe doing some review. We'll continue to work on word families.

One of the things I've been pondering is what to do from here. There are so many options, ranging from buying a curriculum to just going it alone. I found a curriculum online that I'm super impressed with called Ambleside Online. It's challenging reading, classical reading, and goes through high school. It's the first reading curriculum that I've been really excited about. Now that Reese has a handle on the basics of reading, I think we might try to start Ambleside this winter, probably in January. One of the things I've been busy doing is making a book list, seeing what we can get from the library and what we can find online and what we'll need to purchase. Yay curriculum!

So yeah, we're freaking busy. It's great though, we're seeing friends and still exploring this part of the world. I miss Appleton (and the people who go with it), but I'm so glad we landed here in Georgia.

Christmas Cookies!!!

Oh yeah. Frosting homemade sugar cookies. Good times. And even more fun with kids who can help. Also completed this weekend were a bunch of dipped pretzels and some ginger cookies. I don't think the ginger cookies will make it until Christmas though, they're just too good. If I have time before we leave, I'll bake another batch.

Over the weekend we also visited with Santa. Our apartment community held a Christmas party with cookie decorating and Santa. The kids had a good time, shared their lists with Santa, and played with some friends.

I'm getting Christmas sewing done, slowly. Tonight I worked on a skirt for Reese until the ruffles made me too crazy. I'll try again tomorrow. Mostly I need to deal with wrapping and shipping gifts now. Tis the season!

Well, look at this!

That's right, I'm a winner! Actually, everyone who submits their 50,000 word novel on the NaNoWriMo site is considered a winner. But I did it! Novel written, 50,000+ words (about 300 plus, if you wanted to know), in 28 days. Most days it wasn't too awful. I enjoy writing. Some days, like the days when I had to write 3,000 words because I skipped a day, those were tough. Sometimes the plot didn't move, or it seemed boring, and I just had to keep in mind that NaNoWriMo is about quantity, not quality.

I hope I can get some other people to write with me next year. I hope I have a story idea for next year. I'm glad I signed up for NaNoWriMo, I'm glad I stuck with it. It helped me get out of my junk writing funk, at least for a month.

Many people have asked if I'll be sharing the novel I wrote. It's not very good, people. Really. It's lame. I'm not sure that I like the characters all that much. There's a LOT wrong with it. It's been a really long time since I did much character development or even any fiction writing. So I guess I'm still deciding about the sharing part. Maybe someday. Maybe never.

Now that NaNoWriMo is done, and I've taken a few days to NOT write much of anything, I think I'll be back to blogging regularly again.

It's a bit chilly in my computer area, which is in our "sunroom." I suppose a temperature of 34 combined with windows that are not at all insulated will do that. It was a lot warmer yesterday morning at this time, about 64, and I know this because I was awake before sunrise to go out Black Friday shopping.

I only went to Joann's, but if I was going to do it, I wanted to do it right. To me, this means setting an alarm for 4:30am, getting up, throwing some clothes on, and arriving at Joann's at 5am. I wasn't first, there was another woman sitting around outside, but at one point she left, so that made me first in line. Whoohooo! I've never been first in line outside Joann's before. The hour wait was kind of lame. It rained for a little while, but I was under a huge overhang. I sat outside the door and goofed off on my phone. People started arriving at about 5:30am and the line grew. Some people grabbed carts from outside, which was a pretty good idea. I didn't. There are carts right inside the door, so I decided to go for those.

There was a little chitchat. Some of the people in line had been up all night shopping at Toys R Us or Target. It made me glad we decided on a trip for our Christmas gift instead of having to fight the crowds to buy stuff. No one had any really good stories.

Anyway, the manager opened the doors at 6am. We all rushed in, claimed our free pair of scissors (free to the first 100 customers), and scattered through the store. I went right for the flannel, passing by the cutting table to grab a ticket. There wasn't anything specific that I wanted, my plan was 16 yards split into 4 girly prints and 4-5 boyish prints. I grabbed bolts that looked good, more than I needed, and took a minute after that to decide for sure what I would have cut. It only took me about ten minutes. By that time, the cutting table lady had started, but was somewhat delayed by her computer system not working.

I had the second number, but I ended up trading with a man who had the third number. He only had one bolt and I totally would have traded numbers with him anyway, but when he started hassling the cutting table lady I gave him my number to shut him up. He was upset that he was in line before me but didn't get his number until after I took mine. Not worth listening to him complain. The cutting table lady was grateful.

There was a huge line at the register, but I suppose on Black Friday you're bound to wait for something. I got stuck next to one of those CD displays for a few minutes, that was fun, until I figured out how to turn it down. After checking out, I went home and walked in the door just in time to have Eli and Reese wake up and start hollering about how hungry they were.

After kids had food, I took a look at my fabric score. The receipt claimed that I saved $73 by shopping the Black Friday Sale. Sounds good to me! I'm set for pants for the kids and birthday gifts for the year.

Anybody out there in blogger land have a good Black Friday story?

Thanksgiving is Freaking Awesome!

That's right, I said it. Are you ready for some pictures?

Here's some maple oatmeal scones. It was a last minute recipe. They got a little dark, I think, but people said they were tasty.

Sorry this pic is sideways. :( It's an editing fail. But you can see the sweet potato casserole that my friend Becky brought (it was delicious). There's also some vegan jello, cranberry sauce, and vegan glorified rice.

Here's me shaping some chickpea cutlets. I don't know why this picture is here, but I'm not moving pictures around today.

A plate of vegan Thanksgiving deliciousness! Green bean casserole, potatoes, gravy, chickpea cutlet, and cranberries.

I think the green bean casserole was my favorite. Or maybe the stuffing? Mmmmmm.

Chickpea cutlets, stuffing in the crock pot, mashed potatoes, and mushroom gravy.

A picture of the cold salads. The glorified rice is a recipe I found in Vegan Lunchbox Around the World.

The kid table, and Reese and Eli eating pumpkin pie.

I tried to make some vegan whipped topping, but it was kind of a fail. It still tasted pretty okay. The pumpkin pie was good too, nice and smooth.

We had a very nice afternoon. Lots of food, great friends. I had a lot of fun cooking a big meal, I don't do it often enough. Yay, Vegan Thanksgiving!

Day In Pictures

So periodically I do this thing on one of my messageboards called Day in Pictures. Yes, it is what it sounds like, you take pics of your day. So on Tuesday, I took these pictures.

Reese, busily doing her math.


We tried to play a math game, a variation on War with subtraction, but it was lame and we quit.

We went for a walk, too. Reese brought her bunny in a sling, and Eli wouldn't show his face for any of the pictures.

Not much going on. Still writing novel. It still sucks (haha). Kids still learning. Dinners being cooked. Sewing accomplished. These things are the reason I'm not blogging as often. Do you miss me? ;)