tis the season

Our tree is up (always real, never artificial) with about 25% of our ornaments on the ground, clumped in a nice little patches, or broken thanks to Piper and Archer. We are in need of a tree skirt.

Oh, and Kennedy has lights strung about her bed. 😄

But our Elf on the Shelf is missing and I swear I have nothing to do with it's disappearance. *do not insert winking emoji*

Now to wait for the Holiday Train!

Leia

bury your dead

Finished up The Brutal Telling and began the next story in the Inspector Gamache line-up. 

This last one left me wishing for a different ending. Not because it was bad but because of a situation of my favorite characters is in. My fingers are crossed that it will be 'resolved' in this book. I can't have things get jacked for my regulars in Three Pines!

This will be book 21. I'm hoping to zip through a few books to meet my Goodreads goal of 24.

I have faith!

Leia

blankety goodness

I finally finished hand stitching the binding of my blanket where I messed up on the sewing machine. While parts of the finished product are rough I could not care less. It's perfect in it's own beginner blanket made way. What, that photo looks staged?! Yeah, you better believe it and I have no shame. While I felt silly telling the kids, "okay, reach into the bowl but don't take any popcorn out" three or four times I'm really happy with how the photo came out 😂

Oh, and what's that? It was ready in time for Westworld?! Hell yeah.

These violent delights have violent ends.

Leia

thanksgiving dinner

As I mentioned before Brendon and I were going to host Thanksgiving dinner at our home. It was so successful and my first ever roasted turkey came out amazing! The only hiccups in the day were not getting the Crock-Pot turned properly for my little sister's pasta request, the can opener not opening my yams, and the stuffing getting a little cold before the rest of the food was ready. So really, nothing to complain about.

For the turkey I used a bbq/grilled marinade recipe I found online and it was so, so, so good.

This was actually the most complicated thing I had to do all day. What you need is:

1½ cups cooking oil (vegetable oil)

½ cup water

½ cup lemon juice

½ cup white vinegar

½ cup worcestershire sauce

¼ cup balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp dried oregano (italian seasoning)

1 tbsp salt

1 tbsp pepper

Mix and apply.

According to the turkey packaging, the weight of our turkey meant it would take approximately 7.5 hours to cook. Luckily it had the "ready popper" on it because we don't have a meat thermometer, but it popped at only 5 hours! We let it cook for about 30 more minutes and simply turned the oven off and kept it closed up while the rest of the food was prepared and cooked.

The rest of the menu consisted of:

roasted red skins

mashed potatoes

mashed sweet potatoes

stuffing

bread, bread, bread

corn

green bean casserole

chicken bacon ranch pasta

cranberries

lime jello

pumpkin pie

pumpkin creme pie

german chocolate cake

PHEW. 

The turkey. The sides. Perfect.

LOOK AT IT.

My mom supplied the desserts and really everything else I cooked was from a box or the Crock-Pot. Making sure I had enough clean and ready pans and a solid timeline was the hard part. But like I said, I think I did okay because the stuffing was really the only item that I was like, "um, maybe you should throw that in the microwave before consuming."

It was definitely a casual affair and I enjoyed every minute of it. We didn't get dressed up, I didn't get the kids dressed up, and we used paper plates. Besides me. I cooked my bum off and I delighted in a regular plate. Sweet, sweet, casualness.

Kennedy only wanted to eat the jello and other various desserts. Whatever, I guess.

Leftovers for days.

Leia

things i'm thankful for: a list

So many things to be thankful for, am I right?

• my family in all their grainy blurriness 

• leonardo dicaprio

• a full fridge

• my friends (we are so creative when it comes to taking a group picture)

• my job

• emagine theaters (yeah, the same image from last year; I'm still trying to figure out exactly what the hell that basket next to him is! Why does it get it's own seat?)

• the earth and my home that resides on it

• a good book (and one day an awesome home library to store them all in)

• good tv shows

• getting to the #5 spot on slither

• teaching myself new things

• a good meme/joke/sense of humor

• my education and all the headaches it has caused me so far

• take-out food

And yes, just like last year there are "non-sensical" things on my list, but hey. That's my life and all of these things make me happy and for that, I'm thankful.

What are you thankful for?

Leia

mid-week meal share: thanksgiving prep

Brendon and I finalized the menu last night because for the first year ever we are hosting Thanksgiving! Granted we are not having the entire family but a small gathering of my mom and our siblings, but I still like to think to think of it as a monumental event. The holidays are always so difficult. While I love spending time with all of our families it is so hard to choose especially with the kids. Typically we have 2-3 places per holiday that we need to try to swing by and make an appearance but it is so draining. Exhaustion and misery are not things I want to start associating with the holidays. It will be different and I'm sure everyone will be understanding but it's what is going to be best for us.

Now to grocery shop the night before Thanksgiving, haha. Kill me.

Leia

adventures in sewing

While I was shopping for fabric for the girls Halloween costumes, I had one of Joann's trusty 25% off your entire order coupons and I found a plaid fleece that I had to have for a blanket. Have I ever made a blanket? Have I ever quilted? Have I used my mom's sewing machine more than two times in my entire life? HA. But hey, I had faith.

Even though all my corners don't line up and my top stitching is not proper or that my binding is something straight out of a professionals nightmare I am proud of my first attempt!

  

I thought I would have it done before Westworld last night (I hope everyone has taken my advice and added this show to your list) but I had to run to Joann's after running out of thread. I now have a pattern and pretty fabric picked out to attempt making Christmas dresses for the girls. I'm excited and nervous for what I've gotten myself into but I'm even more thankful that my mom has sewed a thing or two in her life 😏

..aka 99% of all our childhood Halloween costumes and a multitude of holiday items and projects.

Itching to finish it!

Leia

kindergarten fun facts: week 11

Speech bubbles!

Kennedy: "A speech bubble can be curved anyway you want and then you fill it up with words. The words can be things like me, you, who, we!"

She drew a fancy little house with people coming down the front sidewalk and each person had a speech bubble and she was very excited to tell me all about them. 

Me: "And where did you learn about speech bubbles?"

K: "In reader's workshop!"

Conference information solidified by this week's favorite knowledge.

Happy she's a reader like me!

Leia

riff raff + james franco

James Franco is my bae.

Will I ever get sick of having this photo and being able to share it? NOPE.

RiFF RAFF is my bae. I don't give a damn what you think. He's a poet! 😊 So naturally when this music video finally came out today there was bound to be a little excitement from my end of things.

Haters back off.
Leia

parent teacher conferences

First things first: I am SO HAPPY that Kennedy's preschool teachers recommended her for early kindergarten. She is doing so well and that was straight from her teacher's mouth and her accompanying report card. A lot of her scores were 3's and a handful of 4's. 3's mean at grade level (which she was young for) and 4's are above grade level. 🙌 🙌 🙌 🙌

Like her teachers last year I'm told that she is a joy to have in class and is a funny one. Wonder where she gets all that charm from. 😏

While we all know that standardized tests should become a thing of the past we talked about the different variations they already give the kids including the results from the one they all took 'cold' at the beginning of the year and where they expect them to be at the end of the year. She said obviously this is no measure of the true capacity of a student but, hey: she's got a job to do. She also said that she didn't think Kennedy was going to have an issue at all. 

Kindergarten powers have been fully activated.

Leia

mid-week meal share: tuscan tortellini soup

Fall and cold weather type recipes are some of my favorites. Don't get me wrong though, I'm down to grub on most recipes any time of the year. Because, food and we don't judge on body types around these parts. 

This is a recipe I found searching on one of my favorite easy food sites. DELISH. If the namesake didn't give it away and you aren't very good at deductive reasoning everything that I've made has been delish. I would never tell a lie when it comes to good eats.

Easy to concoct: can you brown onions without burning them?

Cost effective: sointantly, what's up doc!

Snatch up these ingredients from your local supermarket!

1 tbsp EVOO (like, is it possible to say this without thinking of Baby Mama?)

1 onion, diced/chopped/pulverized

1 lb chicken sausage

2 tsp (4 cloves) minced garlic

28 oz canned crushed tomatoes

4 cups chicken broth

2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

salt + pepper to taste

1 lb refrigerated cheese tortellini (or the closest amount you can get to 1 lb)

15 oz can great northern beans (rinsed + drained)

5 oz baby spinach

parmesan cheese

1. Prepare your onion and chicken sausage.

2. In a large pot heat your oil and then add your onion.

3. Drain and rinse your beans and spinach forgetting about the onions and promptly letting them burn to the bottom of the pot and start over. Okay, you can skip this step if you really feel like it.

4. Add in your chicken sausage and cook until they brown up a bit.

5. Add in your chicken broth, garlic, crushed tomatoes, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.

6. Bring to a "rolling simmer" and add your tortellini. Reduce to a regular simmer (?) and cook for 20 minutes.

7. Lastly you're going to add your beans and spinach; cooking until it is wilted. Happens quickly.. in about one or two minutes.

8. Throw some cheese on top and enjoy!

So delicious, so easy, and affordable. What more could you look for when mapping out dinners for the week? It was a little on the spicy side (not for me, but for the wee ones) and next time I will probably add only 1 tsp of red pepper flakes. I always underestimate their strength and occasionally regret it.

Now to plan our Thanksgiving menu.
Leia