Greenway Clan
Happy December 1st How exciting! Here we are, just 24 days away from that blessed holiday... Christmas! And what did we wake up to this morning? SNOW! Yes, if you can believe it, it was snowing here. No it did not last long, but for those of us around these parts it was really exciting! Especially the children. Abram rushed to the window and then ran to his room, put on at least 4-5 shirts and 3 pairs of pants and his overalls on over everything... he looks so chunky because of all the clothes. It was really cute.I have been sick most of the weekend, I got sick after our party Saturday night and have been sickly since. I feel MUCH better today, but am still quite weak from the sickness. I have much to catch up on around here, so I must tarry. I hope you all have a wonderful week. ***Just popping back in to say, Vision Forum is having another amazing sale! EVERYTHING is 20-50% off!!! EVERYTHING!!! Shop now and get your Christmas shopping done early! :) Also! If you are interested in becoming an affiliate with this great company, click here!!! My Cup Runneth Over... How's your weather?It is cold and rainy here! It's a balmy 36 degrees right now, and raining! I think we're supposed to get snow later today, but I'm not 100% sure. This weather has wrecked havoc on my skin! My face keeps breaking out in zits and the rest of me is dry as a bone. I've been looking at treatments for acne for my face and had to break down and buy some cream for the winter. Rach, Issac and I all have eczema, and it looks like Lucas may have a touch of it too! :( So I'll have to start greasing him up too as well I guess!Monday Dec 1stWow the 1st of the month already! I'm taking Lucas to have his pics done at Olan Mills later on...I've never had pics through them before, they had a special that I bought Wed, it was like $13 for so many pics. Not sure how much their sheets are, I hope not too much, I don't have a lot to spend. Oh well we'll see! I usually go to Penney's.I've already started laundry this morning. Got to wash diapers today or Lucas won't have any nice absorbent ones to wear tonight! Welp have a good day! Blessings, ~*Becca*~ The Traditional British Christmas CakeI finally got around to baking my Christmas Cake today. It actually doesn't take long to put together, although it takes 3 hours to bake in the oven. The house smells of a delicious mix of fruit and spice right now as it cooks. I think I am yet to meet an American who likes fruit cake, but it is very traditional here in New Zealand. We use it for wedding cakes, special anniversary cakes and the good old Christmas cake. It gets iced with Royal Icing, and in my family we like to top the royal icing with butter icing. I believe Christmas Cake can be made months ahead of Christmas and the longer it has to age, the better, but so far I have never been organized enough to do it well in advance. This particular cake is the non-alcoholic version. Some recipes call for brandy in the cake, but this one doesn't. The recipe comes from Alison Holst - a famous-in-New-Zealand chef who is known for her good, practical, yummy and never fail recipes. We housewives love her! This photo shows the fruit ingredients before the flour and egg and spice mixture is added.
And here is the cake fresh out of the oven.
And this is a picture of a Christmas Cake all decked out in its finery.
Some people prefer Christmas Cake uniced with a fruit and nut glaze. They are just as yummy too, and look just as beautiful. This picture is from the BBC Good Food website.
If anyone wants the recipe, just leave me a message and I'll send it to you. Sunday evening Nov 30thWow can you believe the 1st of Dec is tomorrow?! How time flies! Today has truly been a blessing! A lady at church brought me 3 bags of clothes for Issac and Ethan! I haven't gone through them yet to see what fits who...the bags are too heavy for me to get out of the van! How awesome is that?! She also gave us a small bag of pasta, she is diabetic so she's having to cut back on carbs I reckon. Also, someone my BFF knows gave my a large bag of clothes for Lucas! A lot won't fit, but those I may be able to consign and get soem that will fit him. God is so awesome! We found out that we won't be able to get insurance through Jerm's job until May I think...I'm used to being without insurance since through his old job it was either $400 or $600 a month for health insurance. I guess we'll get some term life insurance quotes then as well. We have whole l ife for the kids, except I need to add Lucas onto it. I'm having Lucas' pic made tomorrow...I'm so excited! I got him an adorable Santa outfit to wear, he is so handsome in it! Well off to surf! Blessings, ~*Becca*~ Sunday Nov 30th Ah another day in the Carroll household! Ethan is already being a pest so I can see that today will be a lovely day! Well I guess I should get the kids up and ready...have a great day! Blessings, ~*Becca*~ A Birthday Crown for TheodoreTheodore turns 4 in about 10 days time, and I happened to stumble upon this blog one day a few weeks ago with a cute brithday crown tutorial. Jessica Levitt's crafty/design blog Juicy Bits has a tutorial for birthday crowns that are just adorable. So I decided to start the same tradition in our household, and made one for Theodore to wear next weekend at the little afternoon-tea party we are having for him. I had plans to do birthday crowns using Amanda Blake Soule's pattern from her book, The Creative Family (her blog link is in my side bar, SouleMama) but when I saw this other one, I liked it better. Jessica used wool felt, but that is very expensive to buy here in New Zealand (why, I don't know when we have an abundance of sheep and wool) - so I just used the craft felt instead and it turned out great - even though the colours are a little brighter than I would have liked. Theodore loves his crown. I was going to do it as a surprise, but I had to measure his head for the elastic. I finished it yesterday, and he has been wearing it all morning today as well. I might put it away now for next week.
For the first crown I pretty much copied Jessica's colours, but I will try and be a little more creative with the next one I make. My oldest son will be 9 in February but I'm not sure he'll want one. The next birthday after that is my daughter in March and I know she'll want a pink one!
Review for Saturday Nov 29thIf you homeschool and love buying books, you will love this! Homeschool Library Builder is a site that lets you build your book library without breaking yoru wallet! For each dollar you spend, you earn 1 HSLB Book Point, and for every 15 Book Points in your account, that gives you $1 in your account to use towards a future purchase! It's like earning cash back! You can even search book by curriculum if you use Ambleside, Veritas Press, Sonlight, Five in a Row, Beautiful Feet, and Tapestry of Grace. Books are suggested for each curriculum's grade level, how great is that?! No searching around all day for the perfect book companion. But you don't have to use those curriculums to reap the benefits of HSLB. Some books listed are overstock, gently used, or even Out Of Print! You just never know what kind of great treasure you'll find at HSLB! A Thrilling FindLook what I found today at the grocery store! This is the taste of America to me! This and A & W's Root Beer. You may laugh, but this was the very first 'foreign' drink I tasted when I went to America for the first time back in 1991. I was in Hawaii on a hot day, drinking iced tea for the first time with my classmates at the university, and it was this exact same brand.
I have since gone on to try making my own sun tea, (not with much success I might add), and it never quite came up to the taste of this one with the lemon flavour. This is the first time I have seen Lipton's Ice Tea in New Zealand and I'm thrilled! That makes it quite a long time since I last had a glass of this and today is stifling hot, and I have no energy due to a late night last night, hayfever and the baby pushing all my ribs, stomach and lungs up into my throat. My glass was bliss, but my husband screwed up his nose at it and said it tasted ''artificial', but I'm enjoying every mouthful! See how much I have had to drink in only a few hours. It tastes of Hawaii to me - I know that's sad (aren't pineapples, Kona coffee and frangipani's supposed to remind you of Hawaii), but that's what Lipton's Ice Tea does for me! Friday Nov 28thWell no Black Friday shopping for me! LOL I couldn't go if I had even wanted to, plus I didn't get out of bed until about 8 this morning. I Was gonna buy Lucas some more prefold dipes on a website this morning but they're all sold out since she was doing a sale. Oh well! We're mostly done Christmas shopping...I just have to buy for my brother and Dad I think...oh and my BFF and her DH and kiddos. THEN I think we'll be done! Oh wait, I need to get Lucas 1 more thing. I think I want to get him a Bumbo chair. Or a Jack-in-the-box. I'm a bit undecided. Oh well I'll figure it out! I can't wait to start getting out of debt next year...no more dealing with commercial collection agencies or anything! Not that we have in quoite a while, but still, not having the worry any will be nice. I'll need to start my plan of action soon. Jerm was off yesterday, it was so nice to have him home ALL DAY LONG! Plus, he got off work early Wednesday! Woo! Well better get started on my day! ~*Becca*~ { Last Page } { Page 1 of 5 } { Next Page } |
I took a long nap yesterday so I didn't go to bed until about 12:30 this morning, which is fine, I feel rested. I guess today we're going to church then coming home. We usually go to the ILs for lunch but MIL is sick. We couldn't go last week because FIL had a stomach bug. I think the kids are having withdrawals! They love going to Mamaw's and eating roast, I think it's the highlight of their week! Kind of like having a theater and 
How cool would that be?
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