Cher and I went out on the town last night!!!

Not in the sexy way. You get it.

We kicked it off at Lawson Mall for asian food. Its the best mall asian food in the city, in our opinions, and we are right. Cher did not feel happy that I took a picture of her…

so she elected to highlight my wounded face.

which was fair.

Our food was magically delicious, and over far too quickly. Goodness I don’t know what it is about food court asian, but its like my grandma used to say about ice cream – it just slides in between, as though you simply never run out of room for more. Anyway. We called it at one super combo between the two of us, and figured we’d top up with our yearly Starbucks bevy.

Cher needed a sleeve for her very sensitive wittle fingers 😏

Caramel Brûlée lattes were gone in no time, and we headed oot and aboot for some Christmas shopping! We went to a handful of places, but the highlights were easily the Walmart and Value Village in Stonebridge. We rarely hit that location, being that its across the world city, but it was worth it. We got some gifts for people, among other things that we needed. The Lemon Drop has sized up and needed jammies. Things like that. A highlight was these classy coffee cups that may or may not be for colon cleanses… Butt first…

Cher had some amazing finds at VV which made her whole entire day and possibly the next, also. We closed the day off with a donut and a relaxed dark drive home 💜 It was peaceful and lovely.

It is always a beautiful time together, dear girl 💜 Merry shopping date. I love you.

Aaaaand everything thats left on the list is going to have to come from Amazon, lol!

I’m definitely on a bit of a kick over here. I went to the kitchen this morning to work on a little bit of Christmas baking, and forgot completely what i was actually going to do, and ended up making more peppernuts. It helps that I have a ton of the dough already in my fridge, and I have some rolled up in the freezer, ready to be sliced and baked. But. I have SO many now, hahaha! So hopefully everyone is happy knowing they will be getting them for Christmas 🤣

I ate them while I baked them, hahaha! Even this one little guy seemed ready and willing to join the party.

They are delicious and it is very easy to eat too many. They are on the softer side, which is my preference but not everyones. But, I’m right, so 🤷🏼‍♀️

Anyway. I feel like maybe next year I should make a million ahead and sell big bags of them or something, because they are SO yummy, but they are also tedious, and not everyone can make the time for them. But if I can, I’d like to! Its been a yummy season, and its only just beginning!

While I was in the city today, I hit up Value Village with an intentional list.

And would you believe those punks had absolutely nothing that I came for??

And because they’re such jerks, they had OTHER things that I ended up wanting?!?! Man. They are indeed thieves of my time and money. But also, I have no regrets, hahaha!

I’m not going to show you all the cool things I found just yet, but I will show you one gem that I visually enjoyed before setting it back on the shelf.

You’re welcome.

Most Christmas shopping to come tomorrow!! Can’t wait to hit up our yearly evening shop, Cher! 😘

I wish you all a peaceful, uninterrupted, settled, dreamless sleep!

When the going gets tough, the tough struggle.

When the going gets tough, the tough cry themselves into a puddle.

When the going gets tough, the tough husband makes mochas.

When the going gets tough, the tough have a soak that has bubbles and the sleepy time epsom salts.

When the going gets tough, the tough hugs their kids super duper extra tight.

When the going gets tough, the tough eats lasagna in bed.

When the going gets tough, the tough gets weary.

But.

When the going gets tough,

God is tougher.

💜

Today, my mom was over, and we talked Christmas! Plans about where and when, and decided how unplanned things are also going to be. Some nifty gifty talk as well, of course. She spent some good time in the afternoon reading to my kids. They started a novel a while ago, and today, they officially finished it! But while she read and the babies napped, I got some more Christmas things going.

I made some cookie dough that I forgot to talk pictures of…

and a crazy ton more peppernut dough also made! I super misjudged the container on that one 😬

Whoops! Ah well. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll have time to scoop some out of there and get it baked up, and then the container should close 🤣

I also made a double batch of puppy chow, because YUM, and who doesn’t want that?

Nothing is safe with toddlers, so I have limited spaces to actually set things out to cool/dry. Even this is risky, for the Morsel has been known to drag footstools over to wherever the action happens. But these batches did set and make it into a big fat container in the fridge, so, success.

Last night felt restless, but my brain and body and heart are tired, so tonight I will pray well before bed, and then I plan to sleep like a rock. Please, Lord, give me rest for the week ahead.

I didn’t prep food today. Ok, I did a batch of crusty marshmallows, but that hardly counts.

However, we started the day with a morning meeting, as always, and we told the kids we were going to have a work day. We don’t do many long, gruelling work days over here, as the days are busy enough even when we’re not intentionally doing jobs. But the days we do have worky days, we work all together and it is actually so much fun. So today, the plan was the get the house ready for Christmas decorating. Right now, the place is SUCH a mess, with bags and boxes piled up in every corner. And then, what, we add Christmas?? It’ll get lost in the mess and just look cluttered and icky. So today, the kids were prepared to get their steps, and did they ever! They ran up and down the stairs, carrying things to storage, putting toys downstairs that have made their way up, putting laundry and stuffies in the right kids rooms, taking garbage out, cleaning off kitchen counters, the island, and the table just off the kitchen that has become “the camp table.”

We took a good break for lunch and then got back into the more fun work. We put up our Christmas (ready?) ARCH so we could prepare to decorate it soon.

I got Brady and Rowans buzzes tightened up. Solly is pretty nervous of haircuts and today, he was SO brave and he let me cut his hair new. I am not a hairdresser worth anything, and all we did was buzz the sides and kept the top long, but he felt like a million bucks, and I LOVED that.

MVP goes to Rowan 🥇 He worked harder than any of the kids today, not once sitting down before asking if there was anything else he could do. Any request was met with “sure thing, mom” or “aye aye, cap’n” which always gives me a little bit of a giggle. But his attitude never faltered, and that says a lot. From tiptoeing around him to asking him to do things I knew he’d rather not do, he can come leaps and bounds. I was SO impressed with him today. He absolutely crushed it.

Hair is cut. Baths are done. Some of the clutter is picked up. That is never over, but we made beautiful headway. Tonight, we will SLEEP, as the Lemon Drop seems to have decided to give in to some of that recently, and tomorrow we will finally be back at church. Which is important since Laela snagged a spot in the Christmas play! So we’d better start showing up again! 😅 Its almost like November was busy or something!

Ok. Bedtime. I ordered groceries for tomorrow. I think I’m all set. Yup. Thats it for today.

Goodnight, all 💜

Sometimes I thought I could bake all day long and be so, so happy. Who would’ve ever thought. Not me. But today, I prepped treats for the Christmas holiday. For the family. For gifts. For sharing and also not sharing. But as much as we don’t eat tons and tons of treats over here, there are still a lot of us, and everyone in our family is an eater now!

So here’s what I came up with today.

Party mix, obviously. That happens early in the day because the recipe I use isn’t baked at all, and it needs to be stirred up through the day. So thats a starter.

Marshmallows are next because they dry foreverrrrr. The house will be humming well into the evening!

Then I got into yellow cake mix cookies, which I use for oreos. These tend to be a heavy favorite so I will be making more.

Once those were done, I popped in cinnamon bread. That bakes for a good while.

While that was baking away, I packaged up the lemon cookies to freeze. I will make the icing another day and it’ll be a super quick last step to getting them finished up!

Cinnamon bread was finished up!

At this point, I still had a little bit of time, but I was surrounded by all three wakeful babies, and didn’t want to start something new new. So rather, I pulled the rest of the peppernut dough out of the freezer where I had left it in rolls, and I got them sliced up and into the oven.

Another bowl of treats to add to the pile!

There is still more to do, but it feels really good to get it going. When Christmas comes up, and also when we have placements move around, I always feel a purgey, cleaning bug bite. And MAN its a mess in here 😅 But we’ll get done what we can, and the rest will absolutely live. Hopefully this weekend, we can pick the place up, and get some Christmas going up in here!

🎄

As they tend to, things changed in our foster family today when QP+C moved on, and another placement joined the family 💜 This was a happy occasion for us in some ways, but not to discount the love we already carried for the Quarter Pounder. Emotions are always mixed, thats for sure. However, everyone involved feels like this was the right move, ourselves included. So forward we go!

As the day moved along, I pulled some cookie dough from the fridge and made some gingersnaps for Christmas. It sure paid to make the dough ahead of time because it made the actual rolling and baking go SO much faster! And they turned out!!

They’re already in the freezer, haha! I should’ve eaten one first. Darn, lol!

And then, once that was all done and done, I made supper. And while it wasn’t fancy, it just really hit the spot for me today. I had goals, but realized a little late that I was short ingredients. So instead of making a slightly more special potato thing, I just seasoned the baby potatoes a bit more and figured we’d just eat them as is, even though the kids don’t prefer that. Plus sausage, and roasted broccoli with garlic and parm. And MAN it turned out.

The picture doesn’t do it justice, but no one bucked it. Thats saying something!

I’m so full, but also, I’m anticipating a snack and dessert a little later. Perhaps I’ll even pull a couple of cookies out for an occasion such as today.

I happened upon a handful of GHOSTS at Kinasao last weekend, and unlike all of the lesser educated ghost hunters, I got pictures!!

😂 You have to know I’m kidding, right? Good.

The conversation of ghosts came up a number of times, as is unsurprising, since the insider began with the Dahlsjos. We were sharing the joke with another friend as Laela and Avery were decorating graham cracker nativity scenes, and our friend happened to be doddling with an edible pen on a marshmallow. And wouldn’t you know that marshmallow turned out not only to be A GHOST, but THREE GHOSTS!!!

Another notable ghost would be the one we saw during the light tour!! Rowan exclaimed “A GHOST!” But alas, it was a polar bear. Still, it counted, and I laughed really really hard.

Avery is a gift giver, and she crocheted each and every member of our family *gasp* A GHOST!!! Mine had purple features 👻💜

And to top the whole thing off, Sadie was squirming from the moment we arrived until she could sneak me away to open a gift she had for me. And wouldn’t you know this girly learned a new skill in order to make me something beautiful!!! 😍 I bet you’ll be surprised to learn its *gasp* ANOTHER GHOST! On the front of a cozy hoodie, no less 💜

How fortunate are we to have so many goofy jokes and so many beautiful things and so many lovely people all around us?? Amazing. Thank you Lord for all you have provided in this season.

It is a strange season being back to having a needy little bitty baby on my hands. I am eager to get Christmas baking going, but having a newb like QP over here makes it a challenge. However, I had an opportunity today. QP hurled absolutely everywhere (effectively being renamed as the Quarter Pounder with cheese! Ewwww 🤮) and then settled beautifully in the swing, so I made my way to the kitchen and worked on peppernuts!

I made a giant batch of dough last week and made up a good chunk of it to bring to the advent retreat. It was shared around and then a container was sent with the Dahlsjos.

Today, as QP+C dozed in and out, I made pan after pan of peppernuts. Being the total dork that I am, I’ve kept track, and I crossed the 1200 cookie mark today! 🥳

They’re not perfect, but they taste GREAT! If you like that kind of thing, anyway. I sure do. As does my family. Still many loose ends to tie up, but we are on our way over here 💜