twinkle twinkle

Just a little bit of our day. The house has been successfully de-Christmased and cleaned, which feels lovely and fresh and ready for the new year. The kids spend their time with their new toys, being quietly creative which is just heart warming, though I know they cannot wait to go back to school next week. Robert spends a lot of his time in the garage with his wood working tools. Pixie plays endlessly with her new ball and when she's not playing with it she's napping on it.

  

I ordered some kite paper from Bella Luna toys http://www.bellalunatoys.com/ and today I learned to make Waldorf stars, I can't wait to make them with the kids tomorrow. They are simple and easy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua__xf55z1Q  Here is the video link to how to fold the stars from Sarah at Bella Luna.

 Just had to throw in a picture of my wonderful new dutch oven. It is my Christmas gift from my mom and I am so in love already. I made chicken and dumplings, and beef stroganoff in it so far and both have been a major hit in our house, so much so I might have to increase my recipes.

 
Chicken and Dumplings

*chicken and sauce

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can chicken broth or 1 cup of water and one chicken bullion cube

1/2 cup milk

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/4 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped celery

1/2 cup chopped carrots

(add any veg you like really we have had it with peas and broccoli too)

3-4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts - cut

ground black pepper to taste

*dumplings

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

I also like to add some parsley, or some other herb, I just like the green speckles but it isn't necessary

Directions

 

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken strips, onion and carrots celery. Saute until chicken is cooked through, and onions are tender. Transfer the chicken mixture to the soup pot, and mix well. Reduce heat to low, and simmer for 30 to 45 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper.
 To Make Dumplings: In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a small bowl, mix together 1/2 cup of milk and 2 tablespoons of oil. Pour into the dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened.
Drop tablespoonfuls of the dumpling mixture into simmering chicken stew. Cover pot tightly, and bring to a boil. Simmer for another 12 to 15 minutes - without peeking! Ladle into bowls, and serve hot

Last but not least, my baby blanket, yes I am still working on it. It has been pushed aside in order to make and do other things and I am now feeling the crunch to get it ready. If the nurse is right and I am a week further ahead than expected it moves my due date up to just 30 days from now! Time to start wrapping these things up. I have also been rereading my book The Rhythm of Family by Amanda Blake Soule just so I feel a little more set for the year of changes ahead. If you haven't read her books I highly recommend them to everyone who follows a bit of a Waldorf style of parenting and a natural way of living, even if you are like me and these are lofty ambitions.

Happy Christmas

This happened yesterday plus so much more...hoping everyone had a lovely holiday and are recovering peacefully today.

Shaving cream Magic

So I am the art coordinator at my kid's elementary school which means that without volunteers we would have no art program in our local school due to budget cuts. Teaching art to kids is one of the most rewarding and fun thing I have ever done. This year I have 2 kindergarten classes, 1 second grade class, and 1 fourth grade class.

I just wanted to share the shaving cream art projects we made in the 2nd and 4th grade classes this week.

The decorated Christmas trees are the 2nd grader's work.

The silhouettes are the 4th grader's work.

The process is so simple fill the bottom of a pan with cheap shaving cream, add liquid water colour, each child chose 3 colours to add, swirl, lay the paper on the cream and press down, remove the paper and scrape the cream off. I also changed the cream completely one time with a class of 24 kids and added a bit more as needed throughout.

The colours are amazing and the kids love to see what it looks like as they scrape the cream off, it reminds me of the northern lights. They were hung in the hallway at the school and I know everyone passing by them will be wondering just how did they do that?

On the home front, today is the 1st day of winter break for the kids, which 1st meant cleaning out their rooms to give them space to play and 2nd listening to the Disney music CD I bought in Disneyland while taking a break from Hungry Hungry Hippos.

Hoping everyone has a great Winter Holiday.

Snow!

To start...I have this amazing friend Tia and every year she has a play date at her house where we decorate gingerbread houses. She has all of the houses pre-made windows and all they are truly amazing, and heavenly smelling I might add. Well, with both Finnley and Iain in school on play date day this year I got to go without children and make kind of a cutesy house instead of the usual candy mash up I get with the kiddos. Such a sweet idea that lasted one night, in the morning it was noticed the house had been hit by hurricane Iain. Finger prints in the rooftop snow, bites taken off both corners of the roof removing gum-drops of course, a topped gummy tree, and the front door/wall section in shambles. Oh well, there's always next year right?

The gingerbread culprit and his partner in crime Pixie, they both just seem so sweet and innocent, but between the trail of socks about the house and the gingerbread I wouldn't be surprised at all to see their faces side by side on a post office wanted poster.

On a lighter and brighter note it snowed today! Which despite the cold warms the heart of this Alaska grown girl. It is so pretty and clean and the air smells so good, I just love it.

Pixie loved it too, she was just a baby last March when she saw her first snow, this time she was really ready to get out in it and play, she was out there with her ball for at least  a half hour slipping and sliding around the yard.

It being a "snow-day" Washington style which means school was still open but running 2 hours late, we had homemade donuts for breakfast. Warm and cinnamony, perfect for a snowy morning, with eggs and orange slices of course, wouldn't send them off to school without more than sugar.

I am officially 33 weeks today and I needed the sugar boost, I had the worst night of sleep since Finnley was born 7 years ago, couldn't get comfortable and then just couldn't sleep. Still excited though, only 7 weeks to go and they are slipping by so quickly.

Thumbprints

Feeling very motivated today I made thumbprint cookies, my all time favourite Christmas cookie. I love the shortbread buttery-ness of the cookie with the sweetness of raspberry jam, or blackberry, or well any jam. They are so fast and easy to make and gone way too fast. There is also banana bread almost finished in the oven and it smells divine.

We have begun the official countdown till this baby joins our family, it's not as exciting as the Christmas countdown for the kiddos but I'm pretty excited. He has begun to kick and push and roll very hard sometimes to the point of being painful, he also seems to be most active right when I'm ready to relax for the night in bed with a book. My husband does find it pretty entertaining watching my belly jump about while I try and read.

I decided to share a few of my favourite ornaments from our tree, all 3 are ornaments from my parents that my mom bought before I was born. The cat in the little suit was one of our favorites to get to in the box when my sister and I were kids, the arms and legs move and he is just so cute.

Of course the little dog sledder, we are from Alaska after all.

The little angel on the guitar is also a favourite, so cute and retro.

I have had quite a few headband/ear warmer orders this year, and I have to admit I'm not surprised, they are so popular. They are my choice in head wear and Finnley loves them because she can wear her hair in a ponytail with one.

Christmas tree day!

The tradition in my home growing up was putting up the Christmas tree the 1st Saturday of the month, how lucky are we that it also happens to be the 1st of December this year! The morning started with a filling breakfast, you need a lot of energy to find the perfect tree. I made shipwreck for the first time, I had seen them on Pioneer Woman, Ree Drumond's show on Food network a few weeks ago and I remember my husband saying he liked them so I thought I'd give it a shot. Well needless to say everybody left for tree shopping with very full tummy's.

The trees were all lovely and despite the strong winds and rain muddied ground we found the perfect one. It is so hard to choose they smell so good, I think we could spend all day there just sniffing trees.

Ornaments went up in record time and of course none above 7 year old eye level. The ornaments are all old and wooden, the ones my parents collected in the first years of their marriage. My and my sister's baby ornaments are in there, the ones we made in school and church as children, so many memories in one little box.

The tree is up, minus the topper, it didn't survive the last Christmas we used it so a new one will have to be bought. made. or otherwise devised. The stockings are hung, and my husband has added more outdoor lighting to the house and trees. The house is properly decked out and since we don't put out presents until Christmas eve we are ready-bring on the holidays!