Christmas is Coming!!

Christmas is almost here! I Love Christmas! The lights, decorations, music, Christmas movies and specials on t.v., baking, time and memories with my family...I'm kind of like a kid myself :) I always ask Mike when we can decorate and the answer is always the same, after Thanksgiving so I bug a few more times and finally agree.. So everything went up that Friday and the Christmas music played all day because that is how long it took to get it all done! I get carried away every year with gifts even though I say I will do better next time..I can't help I Love to see the excitement on my kids faces and every year I try my hardest to surprise Mike with something even though he always snoops, and pokes and prods and figures it out anyhow! My brother gets to come home from school to visit and we have cute baby Trenton this year which is gonna be so fun to see him look around at stuff and eat wrapping paper. My shopping is just about done just a few gift cards left to pick up and I'M DONE! I feel so accomplished and now feel like I can sit back and enjoy all my favorite things..Thinking about what to bake for cookie gifts, doing a cookie exchange with some of the gal pals this week and we have Rylie's First school Christmas program this Friday night..that is sure to be adorabley hilarious, can't wait to see who's daughter will pull her dress up over her head, hope it's not mine! Gavin's 6th Birthday party is this weekend, I can't believe my baby boy is getting so big, reading so well, lost his second tooth the other night and growing and eating constantly! I have 4 ornament orders pending and the take and bake dough is going pretty well, but with all of this listed I'm not stressed! Yay! 

So..I think I have taken on too much..I feel kind of overwhelmed lately and sitting her online checking facebook and etsy definetly aren't helping! I have so many ideas of things I want to do and things I need to do like dust my bedroom furniture which you can write your name on! I have laundry in the washer and dryer, oh and I need to cut my coupons from sunday's paper still sitting by my front door. Already today i went to Walgreen's got yet another prescription for this never ending and annoying staph infection, ran to the post office, went to bible study once I was in and settled realized I forgot all my bible study stuff and since I am the small group leader having it was necessary, so I drove home came back and led the study. Grabbed Jonah went back to the post office to mail the package of cookies to my baby bro in Tennessee. Then went to pick up 3 kids from school, went to meet a lady I sold a toy to, came home got lunch for Jonah, settled everything from being gone all morning, another load in the washer and finally ate some cheese and crackers for lunch. Phew! I'm pooped and still have to go to the Chiropractor later since I can hardly stand up straight and then drop the kids at moms and head to Youth Group to lead my kiddos in some Jesus! Are you tired reading this? because writing it all out makes me more exhausted! I love my life, I love what I get to do and the ministries I get to be apart of and of course being a wife and mommy, there are a few things I could do without like having to take care of 2 extra kids 3 days a week, however taking care of them allows me to get to do all the other stuff..I have so many ideas of other things I want to do but where is the time to do it?? I need some better time management..I have been getting orders for my ornaments which I enjoy making and this whole cookie dough idea is still brewing in my head..when will I have time to promote and do it?? So is this what I am supposed to be doing on a blog complaining?! I do feel a bit better though..

Italian Meatball Soup and Butterfinger Cookies

Made some yummy soup today. Put it all in the crock before we left for church this morning.
Italian Meatball crockpot soup
 I rolled up some meatballs probably about 20 small ones or you could use frozen beef or turkey
4 cups beef broth
3/4 cup tomato sauce ( I got to use homemade from Lynn Brewster)
1tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
salt and pepper to taste (about 1 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. pepper)
2 cloves chopped garlic
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 can cannelini beans rinsed
1 cup pasta any small cut will do

put it all in except pasta. cook on low all day or at least 6 hours. about an hour before put in 1 cup dried pasta any small cut will do I had some mini fusili on hand. Sprinkle some grated Parmasean cheese on top. Yummy!

I also made some yummy Butterfinger cookies today. I found the recipe here she has some good ideas on there http://sugarcooking.blogspot.com/2010/07/peanut-butter-butterfinger-cookies.html

The First Blog 10/30/11

So I have decided to try out this blog thing..not sure if I will follow through but I guess we will see what happens. I plan to mostly post my recipes success and failures, and other things I happen to find worth talking about :)