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 💜

I’m pretty grateful we had a home day today. Not only to rest. Bathe. Unpack. Drink water. But because we had some unknowns that needed to work themselves out this morning. So the first hour or two were pretty messy, but once we got through some of the fuss, the day could move forward.

I felt pretty off today. Its hard. My mind is a little bit elsewhere. But God is bigger than our trials and unknowns. And thank goodness for that because MAN stuff would be so stinking hard without faith! Whew! Thank you, Lord, for your continued goodness and mercy!

Tomorrow, the kids will go back to school. Hopefully life at home will be a little slow. Maybe, maybe not. No big activities for the kids on Tuesdays. We’ll eat something yummy for supper. Something low pressure. I really need to tie up some loose ends with Christmas shopping. But beyond that, things should be low pressure from here on out 💜

I hope very much that you all have a restful night and a joyful kickoff to the morning.

After one of the worst nights we’ve had since the Quarter Pounder joined our family, we had a really beautiful morning at Kinasao before we packed up and said our goodbyes to our dear Dahlsjos 💜 We wont see them again until the new year, but we will all be busy doing all kinds of things that I imagine time will pass quickly. Still. We love you guys 💜 Travel safe!

We drove home in a fairly quiet van full of tired children after a really nice weekend. The vibe was good.

And then something kind of hilarious happened!

As we drove, we started catching a vehicle. A super basic, nondescript white old passenger van. Brady got a little nostalgic, talking about his big beast of a white van that he used in his last stretch as a contractor. He had some good vehicles and some really bad vehicles for work in the past, but that van was the BEST. He felt professional in it. Like he officially fit the bill. Like people would take him seriously in a different way. He LOVED that van. It was sad to get rid of it, but when he was ready to list it, it was snapped up by a man with a large family who was so excited to use it for travelling! So it softened the blow pretty significantly.

And wouldn’t you know. This van was THAT van.

Ok, give me a break. I’m not super creepy, but it was so unbelievable! The same worn strip down the side. Same hubcaps that were spray painted. And once we were in front of it, the same wrinkle int he bumper. It was the SAME VAN! And Brady excitedly pointed out that it was loaded with kids!

And he wasn’t sad 💜

It was like… seeing an old friend. Reminiscing for a second. But not getting too stuck or hung up back there. Honey, correct me if I’m wrong here. But it seemed like such a nice memory that wasn’t riddled with regret or grief, really. Brady had wanted a good, big passenger van for work for years, and he had finally gotten it. It would’ve been nice to have it sooner, definitely, but it was a really amazing thing for him while he had it. A truly perfect setup. And it was so bizarre to see it out there today, still going strong.

Anyway. Maybe this is a strange post, but it felt like a warm thing and I wanted to share it on here so we remember it 💜 An homage to Bradys contractor days, perhaps 😘

Today was a day for music by the fireplace. For crocheting and drinking coffee. For the Morsel making new friends, playing guitar with the worship leader, and dragging Kelly around by the hand. For talking to the people you’ve seen around but never actually shared a conversation with.

Today was a day for decorating cookies. For graham cracker nativity scenes. For tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. For popcorn.

Today was a day for kids to connect with new kids. For playing tag. Mafia. Treasure hunting. Sledding. Doing crafts. Singing campfire songs.

Today was a day for driving the twinkle tour that we missed last weekend. For staying inside where it’s warm. For hot chocolate and cookies.

Today was a day for storytelling, and reminiscing about Gods goodness to us. How we got to where we are today, and where we dream of going in the future. And how we only want to go where God sends us.

Today was a day of beautiful things. Thank you God.

I would write more, but goodness, we have had the MOST fun this evening with this beautiful group of hooligans and I am both spent and filled to the brim with cozy feelings and hot chocolate 🥰

Merry Christmas from Kinasao to you!

It’s good to be back 💜