The Perfect Holiday Redefined

As mid-November rolls around, the fever hits. It begins with a little tickle, almost an itch, and in no time at all it is an all-consuming full body rash. It’s Holiday Fever! Do you feel the tickle?

The Perfect Holiday Redefined (www.TheSimpleHomemaker.com)

There’s nothing wrong with Holiday Fever that is kept in check, but when it isn’t caught early, it can take down a full-grown mama and her family, too, as collateral damage.

Holiday Fever usually begins with a single thought: “This year’s going to be different…better.” Some well-intentioned folks even say, “This year, I’m keeping it all in perspective.” But then idle hands flip through a Better Homes and Gardens magazine in a waiting room, or wayward feet head to the Christmas section in the store, or eyes head to Pinterest to “just take a peek.” Before you know it, that once dormant holiday virus strikes full force, and the victim is once again over-planning, over-scheduling, over-committing to the perfect holiday…which never is.

It’s time to redefine perfect.

Perfect is not running around frazzled. It’s not whiny hungry kids wanting cookies, but needing wholesome family meals and some mama time. It’s not a mountain of stuff surpassed only by a mountain of debt. It’s not the insane lists of “what you have to do this Christmas” I’ve seen floating around the world of cyber-insanity. Let’s redefine the perfect holiday, shall we? Okay, I will, and you can just sit there licking a peppermint stick.

The Perfect Holiday Redefined

The Dreaded…I Mean Perfect Family Photo: Instead of a picture perfect, expensive, and all-too-torturous Christmas photo experience, TPHR (that’s my super-cool code for The Perfect Holiday Redefined) photos show a laughing, joyful, real family…maybe with messy hair, maybe with mismatched outfits, maybe in PJs, maybe with the hot cocoa bribe evidence still on their faces. The point is, the experience wasn’t torturous…except for the innate fact that any family photo borders slightly on the inhumane…at least in a family of nine.

The Perfect Holiday Redefined (www.TheSimpleHomemaker.com)
Hey, (almost) everyone is looking in the right direction and 7/9 of the family is represented. “A” for effort, good enough, let’s have cocoa!

The Perfect (Or the Existing) Christmas Card: As much as I love getting Christmas cards (giddy like a kid in a candy shop with non-sugar-phobic non-budget-oriented parents), I’m going to say this and mean it. You do not need to send out Christmas cards. Really! You don’t! If you want to do something, how about a TPHR email, or a card in, say, July. I love getting my grandparent’s Christmas letter around February. It’s cold outside, winter’s gotten long, the kids are restless, and BAM! A TPHR card and letter in the mail. What fun!

The Perfect Wrapping: Seriously? Do we need to go there? It will be torn into little unrecognizable shreds and thrown in the fire where it will be burned into ash. One year I meticulously wrapped all the presents I sent across the country, imagining them sitting for days under perfectly decorated trees, accenting the holiday décor. There were blizzards, the mail was late, they got left at the end of the driveway in a pile of snow, and they were left in the box so long that when they were finally set out, they were mushed…in terms of perfection, it was a mess. Most years, my children have a blast wrapping presents themselves…and single-handedly keeping the Scotch brand in business for another season (the tape, not the booze). TPHR wrapping may not look perfect, but the family has fun doing it together…and that’s “perfecter,” like my grammar, which is the perfectest.

The Perfect Holiday Redefined (www.TheSimpleHomemaker.com)
The perfectest.

The Perfect Decorating: Charlie Brown’s tree is cute, isn’t it? And it was affordable. ‘Nuf said. Okay, I’ll say this, too. If you’re distracting your kids with coloring pages and television so you can spend hours and dollars creating holiday décor perfection that you don’t want said offspring touching, or if you tell your children they can’t help because they won’t decorate “right,” then you have a problem…emphasis on “you”…and on “problem”…and on “have a.” It’s okay to have a don’t-touch tree and don’t-touch nativities, and it’s okay to keep them safe from anybody who might throw Baby Jesus across the room and shatter him. But don’t let that dominate your décor if you have children. When I was growing up, my little brother made a Christmas robot man out of toilet paper rolls and hung it on the tree…every year. My mom never once made any of us think it wasn’t good enough. In fact, I think she still hangs that baby on the tree, and my brother is in his 30s. (I secretly think he’s still making them, too, but I have no hard evidence.)

The Perfect Gift: If it’s going to add clutter to someone’s life, is it really that perfect? Think about it. I know the “experience gift” is popular, so why not go that route? Perhaps a giftcard for your grandson to go with you to see Star Wars VII in 2015…or something a little sooner. Perhaps a repurposed basket filled with food for a date night. The basket can be used or regifted and the food can be eaten. Think outside of the stocking…so to speak. Or make a deal with your extended family that their presence is your present, and vice versa. My favorite gift for people that don’t really need anything is a donation in that person’s name. Compassion International and World Vision are two of our favorites, but there are many others. Of course, a Stephen Bautista CD is always an ideal gift that nobody would consider clutter! (Yes, that was a blatant, shameless plug for my husband’s music. What can I say? I’m a fan.)

The Perfect Holiday Redefined (www.TheSimpleHomemaker.com)
World Vision gift recipient, drawn by my 13-year-old daughter Marissa.

The Perfect Meal: Are you left alone in the kitchen slaving over a hot stove (don’t you just love that expression—it makes me feel like I’m wearing three skirts working in the sweltering old servants’ kitchen at Mt. Vernon sweating into President Washington’s fish muddle and hoe cakes) to prepare elaborate Thanksgiving and Christmas meals for your family and guests? Why not draw them in by giving everybody something to do? You’ll have company and help, and, although it may not turn out exactly as you envisioned it, you’ll be making memories together. (Just don’t be the bossy perfectionist. You know the one!) Other options are appetizer buffets and potlucks. Mmmmm…food.

The Perfect Cookie: Don’t stress over outdoing everyone else or about filling a cookie platter. Do you have a cookie reputation to live up to? It’s time for a reputation overhaul if that one is stressing you out. TPHR cookie perfection is simple: if it’s got butter in it, it’s perfect! Seriously, if it’s fun for you or your children, great. If not, arrivederci. (Uh, that’s Italian for adios! ciao! you’re outta there!) Now, about the ideally decorated cookie, let the kids decorate the cookies! They’ll learn how, they’ll have fun, and so what if they don’t look like the one you saw on Pinterest. So what?! So! WHAT!!! So what so what SO WHAT!!! The cookie is going to be eaten and turned into…something that’s not a cookie. So… SO WHAT!!!

The Perfect Holiday Redefined (www.TheSimpleHomemaker.com)
Cookies and candies made by my children.

The Perfect Extras: In my life in my head, my family sits around the tree (lit by real candles, naturally) enjoying Advent readings nightly, sipping homemade cocoa with no sugar (because the family in my head doesn’t need sugar), enjoying the ambience of the handmade ornaments and wreathes and tree skirt, all, of course, wearing our handknit sweaters…and nobody ever whines. The family on the outside of my head is a little whinier, and there are a few other differences, too…like all of them. If the crafts and the “moments” and the Advent readings and such are important to you, that’s great, but make it doable, and make it enjoyable. Advent readings are important to me, but they don’t pan out on a nightly basis for everyone, so we opt for Sundays and Christmas Eve. The last time I lit a candle in my house, I started a small fire. The crafts are hit and miss. We may get one accomplished in a season. And the handknit sweaters? Ha ha ha ha haaaaaaa! Keep it realistic and you’ll keep it fun.

The Perfect Schedule: Instead of slating out your family’s schedule and possibly over-committing people to things they really don’t want to do, call a family meeting. Ask everyone what they want to do as part of TPHR. Do they want to watch The Grinch? Schedule it. Do they want to drink hot cocoa while looking at Christmas lights? Schedule it. Do you want to read Luke 2 on Christmas Eve? Schedule it. Do they want to watch football on Thanksgiving? Schedule it. Which of the half dozen Christmas invitations does the majority WANT to accept? Schedule them. Advent readings? Crafts? Christmas cards? Cookies? Schedule them. But don’t overschedule! Keep it simple. Keep it fun. Keep it TPHR-friendly.

The Perfect Holiday Redefined (www.TheSimpleHomemaker.com)
Keepin’ it fun!

Are you catching a theme here? Put people above perfection. Stop striving for the unattainable. Your kids won’t remember or much care that you were in the kitchen creating cookie perfection. They will remember that they were in the kitchen with you, laughing and making a big ol’ mess. That, my friends—the laughter and, yes, the big ol’ mess—that is the perfect holiday redefined. Now go make a big laughing mess…and maybe clean it up when you’re done…together…while laughing…because that really is the perfectest!

To help you redefine the perfect holiday, my husband and I are teaming up on an ebook, available soon. Sign up as a subscriber to get all the details when it’s available.

 How do you keep it all in perspective?

Helpful links:


Truth in the Tinsel is a hands-on journey through Advent for children. This year Amanda, the author, is offering printable ornaments to make it even easier for parents to implement the program. That makes it ideal for a simple Advent project. Last year’s participants gave it rave reviews. Check it out here.

 

 

This post contains affiliate links. They don’t bite, but I thought I should tell you about them anyway.

10 Ways to Use Leftover Hard-Boiled Eggs

10 Ways to Use Up Easter Eggs

Eggs have a natural protective coating that keeps the inside of the egg fresh despite the porous nature of the shell.  When you boil hard-boiled eggs, you wash the protective coating off the shell, taking away nature’s preservative.

If properly refrigerated, hard-boiled eggs are generally considered edible for a week after they are boiled. (No need for confessions here about how long any of us actually let those eggs go!) That gives you an incredibly short amount of time to use up the 9 dozen eggs you boiled for Easter.

10 Ways to Use Up Easter Eggs

Here are 10 ways to use up the eggs before they go bad. Some are common, others are unique. The combination will keep your family from saying “Eggs?! Again?!!!”

10 Ways to Use Leftover Hard-Boiled Eggs

Eat them as is…sort of: hard-boiled eggs make a great quick breakfast, easy lunch addition, or protein-rich snack. They are less boring if you use your mama powers to transform them into an adorable family of chicks or regal egg penguins.

100_0321

Sliced on salads: a salad bar with sliced fruits, veggies, seeds, and hard-boiled egg slices makes a great lunch or light dinner.

Top soups: slice them and use them to top soups such as saimin, our personal favorite “fast food” noodle soup from Hawaii. Many saimin recipes call for scrambling the eggs, but we noticed that the locals slice hard-boiled eggs and drop them on top.

Em's birthday, Gma's visit, April 2009 003

Potato salad: use as an add-in for potato salad. There are about 3 million different recipes for potato salad, so choose your favorite or check out this impressive list of potato salad recipes from Idaho, where they know potatoes!

Deviled eggs (or stuffed eggs): try this deviled eggs recipe or the accompanying tutorial for these darling chicks if you’re feeling creative.

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Add-ins: chop the eggs and add them to just about anything, from a breakfast bake to a noodle casserole.

Egg salad: this basic recipe for egg salad also lists numerous variations as well as an egg salad quesadilla.

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Scotch eggs: If you’ve never eaten these Scottish sausage-wrapped eggs, you’ve never…well…eaten them. If you’re intimidated by the traditional deep-fried Scotch eggs, try this recipe for baked Scotch eggs.

Make meatloaf: Huh? Okay, so this Filipino style meatloaf is not exactly quick and simple, but it is Filipino, and I married a Filipino, and, seriously, meatloaf with hard boiled eggs in it? Um, yum! You at least have to take a look. (You can vary the recipe if you don’t like raisins and sweet relish in your loaf, but why not be adventurous!)

Ways to Use Leftover Hard-Boiled Eggs

Make cookies: here is a modernized approach to making Lezindoich or lemon dough cookies if you don’t have a ricer to rice the eggs. Fear not—it’s simple!  Here are a few more hard-boiled egg cookie recipes, like oatmeal and chocolate. Mmmm.

How to Use Up Leftover Hard-Boiled Eggs

And a bonus use–Target practice: if you can’t manage to eat up all the eggs before they’ve expired, send the kiddos into the woods to toss them at a tree.  The critters will thank you.

What is your favorite way to use up leftover hard-boiled eggs?

 

Peeling Hard-Boiled Eggs

Peeling hard-boiled eggs...no more bad eggs!



Few kitchen tasks make a person feel more inferior than the often bewildering process of peeling hard-boiled eggs.

Here are some save-the-day (or at least save-the-egg) tips for a clean, easy peel (almost) every time:

Peeling Hard-Boiled Eggs: The Prep

Boil the eggs properly. To learn how, read How to Boil an Egg: Making Perfect Hard-Boiled Eggs. There are other recipes which have you boiling for even less time, which is fine, but do not boil longer!

Do not use fresh eggs. If you are using supermarket eggs, don’t worry about it.  They’re not fresh.  If you have your own chickens and ultra-fresh eggs, store the eggs for a couple weeks before boiling.

Plunge the eggs into ice water to cool as soon as you’re done making them. You may need to add more ice as the water warms up. The ice causes the egg itself to contract, thus separating the egg from the membrane and shell…but you knew that, because you totally paid attention in science class, didn’t you?

Peeling Hard-Boiled Eggs: The Process

There are two main successful approaches to peeling hard-boiled eggs:

Peeling hard-boiled eggsCrack the larger end with the air bubble in it where the membrane is most separated from the egg. Get in under the membrane and start sliding the shell off with your fingers.

 

Peeling hard-boiled eggsCrack both ends. Then roll the egg between your palm and a hard surface until the entire shell is cracked. (Gently! You’re a 100+ pound human being.  It’s just a wee little egg.) Slide the shell off.

 

Peeling hard-boiled eggs

Peeling hard-boiled eggs

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a third approach, but I hesitate to mention it.  Okay, fine, here it is.

Peeling hard-boiled eggsRandomly crack the egg and pick little bits of shell off while muttering your egg-peeling frustrations under your breath…but you already know that approach, which is why you’re here reading about peeling hard-boiled eggs.

Give the egg a quick rinse and your beautiful masterpiece is ready to…smash into egg salad.

What are your best tips for peeling hard-boiled eggs?

Thanks to reader Theresa for submitting this question. If you have a question you would like The Simple Homemaker to answer, submit it through my contact page. I would love to hear from you!

 

How to Boil an Egg: Making Perfect Hard-Boiled Eggs

Today I am honored to have as a guest blogger, my lovely daughter Hannah.

How to Boil Perfect Hard-Boiled Eggs...and I Mean Perfect!


It’s almost Easter! And one of the most popular signs of Easter is the Easter egg. So I’m here to tell you how to make the best hard boiled-eggs ever!

You know what I mean by “the best”? I mean a perfect bright-yellow-yolk-minus-the weird-green-color, easy-to-peel, and superbly delicious hard-boiled egg.

How to Boil an Egg: Making Perfect Hard-Boiled Eggs

What you need:

A pot and cover
Eggs–as many as you want, as long as they fit in the pot with some room to spare.
Water
A stove
A timer
A good book

How to boil an egg:

First, put the eggs in the pot and cover them completely with cool water. Set the pot on the stove.

How to boil an egg: perfect hard-boiled eggs

Turn the stove on high; as high as it will go, its absolute highest, and wait for the water to come to a roaring boil. (When I say roaring boil, I don’t mean a few little bubbles at the bottom of the pot. I mean roaring, so that someone else can hear it from the next room.) 

How to boil en egg: perfect hard-boiled eggs

When it comes to a roaring boil, set the timer for three minutes. Then wait.

How to boil an egg: perfect hard-boiled eggs

After the three minutes is up, turn off the stove, put the cover on the pot, and set the timer for seven more minutes. (Leave the pot on the burner!)

How to boil an egg: perfect hard-boiled eggs.

Then wait. Again.

How to boil an egg: perfect hard-boiled eggs

When that time is up, take the eggs off the stove and rinse them in cold water. Sometimes I get lazy and just use room temperature water. That works too. (My mother, The Simple Homemaker, cools them in ice water.)

 how to boil an egg: perfect hard-boiled eggs

That’s it! Yep, you heard me correctly. You’re all done!

How to boil an egg: perfect hard-boiled eggs

You can peel and eat them right away, or you can store them in the fridge. (It’s probably best to eat them within a week, but it’s a popular breakfast and snack in our house, so we have no trouble with that.)

So that, my friends, is how to boil an egg, the perfect hard-boiled egg.

It was cheap, it was simple, and it only took about ten minutes.

Here’s the boring printable version:

How to Boil an Egg: Making Perfect Hard-Boiled Eggs
Author: Hannah
Prep time: 1 min
Cook time: 10 mins
Total time: 11 mins
The perfect hard-boiled eggs.
Ingredients
  • A pot and cover
  • Eggs–as many as you want, as long as they fit in the pot with some room to spare.
  • Water
  • A stove
  • A timer
  • A good book
Instructions
  1. Put the eggs in the pot and cover them completely with water.
  2. Set it on the stove.
  3. Turn the stove on high and wait for the water to come to a roaring boil.
  4. When it comes to a roaring boil, set the timer for three minutes. Then wait.
  5. After the three minutes is up, turn off the stove, put the cover on the pot, and set the timer for seven more minutes. (Leave the pot on the burner.)
  6. Then wait. Again.
  7. When that time is up, take the eggs off of the stove and rinse them in cold water or plunge them in ice water until cool.
Notes

Eat within a week.

For easy peeling, read Peeling Hard-Boiled Eggs.

Enjoy your perfect hard-boiled eggs!  Happy Easter!

Horse Crazy BookwormHannah is my firstborn daughter. She was a “roadschooled” 15-year-old at the time of this writing, 2012. Now she is a budding photographer and a freelance writer who loves experimenting in the kitchen and cooking for people on restricted diets. She is currently working on a chocolate cookbook for people who can’t eat sugar, grains, dairy, or soy. Hannah makes all the hard-boiled eggs here at The Simple Home…the good eggs, anyway. She emphatically denies any accountability for yesterday’s batch of less-than-perfect eggs made by a certain someone (a-hem…her mother) who did not follow the above directions. 

 

 

Love in Action: Building Strong Families

Monday marks the beginning of a 14-post series entitled Love in Action. This series encourages all of us to express love through simple actions that will work toward building strong families.

Love in Action Series: Building Strong Families (www.TheSimpleHomemaker.com)

I first posted this series last February around Valentine’s Day.  It’s easy to show a little mush on Valentine’s Day, but the kind of love we’re building extends beyond a one-day holiday.  It’s the nitty-gritty, down-and-dirty, baby-puke-in-your-hair, morning-breath kind of love.  It needs work, nurturing, and effort…more than once a year.  It is for that reason that I have chosen to revisit the Love in Action series. (Plus I need a little kick in the pantaloons, myself.)

Love in Action: Building Strong Families Details

There will be 14 Love in Action tasks.

Love in Action: Building Strong FamiliesWe will focus the first half of Love in Action on loving actions toward our husbands (or wives, for my male readers).  The second set of Love in Action posts will focus on loving actions toward our children.

Now, please don’t do your loving action for the day and check it off your lifelong love list.  Practice each day’s tip from the day you read about it throughout the rest of the Love in Action weeks. I’m sure your family won’t complain if you make these loving actions a habit for life.  (I know. I’m a pest. I get that a lot.  A lot a lot!)

Scared?

Don’t be. These are simple, common sense (but unfortunately not common practice) ways to express love. You may well be doing all of them already. Me? Well, let’s just say I’ll be actively participating in all Love in Action tasks.

A simple home is a home where love is a priority. Let’s put building strong families back where it belongs–at the top of the to-do list.

Love in Action Building Strong Families

Love in Action Series: Building Strong Families

For my spouse:

For my children:

And the closer, Love in Action: All Wrapped Up.

Will you join me for Love in Action: Building Strong Families?

Love in Action Building Strong FamiliesHelpful tool: I received Gary Chapman’s book The Five Love Languages from someone who had alienated most of his children and three ex-wives, so I read it only out of an I’m-afraid-you’re-going-to-call-me-and-see-if-I-read-that-book-yet sense of a duty.

Wow!  The basic premise is that, essentially, if you parlez vous francais and your loved ones sprechen sie deutsche, you won’t understand each other, no matter how fervently you exclaim “Je t’aime!” or “Ich liebe dich!” Mr. Chapman does an excellent job of explaining the importance of learning how to say “I love you” in the language of our loved ones. Highly recommended!

Read more reviews here.

Amazon Prime members can read The Five Love Languages free on Kindle.

Disclaimer: I in no way accept any responsibility for damages incurred by my creative use of foreign languages.  If you’re confused, get a dictionary here or here. Yes, those are my affiliate links.  I earn a small commission on anything purchased through them, and I will not be using the money to travel to a foreign country to impress the locals with my mastery of foreign languages.

Linked to Better Mom Mondays,  Weekend Whatever, and Marriage and Mommyhood.

Simple New Year’s Eve Celebrations That Keep (Almost) Everyone Awake

I’m excited to be guest posting at The Humbled Homemaker today, where I am talking about making our New Year’s Eve celebrations meaningful, including some of my favorite New Year’s Eve activities. Head on over.  But wait!  First read on to learn what we do to keep everyone awake and involved until the wee hours of the morn.

New Year's Eve Celebrations

Normally, having to stay awake past 10 at night (okay, 8:30) is barely on the legal side of torture for me.  Nevertheless, for the sake of my celebration-lovin’ children, I have become a New Year’s Eve party animal.  Okay, not quite, but we have instilled a number of traditions that have made our New Year’s Eve celebrations memorable and fun.

Because our family consists of a mixture of night owls as well as morning people, with ages ranging from very young to…slightly less young, we need a variety of activities to keep everyone alert (or at least conscious) and interested throughout the evening.  Dinner and a movie would have half of us sound asleep by midnight three time zones east of us.

New Year's Eve 2008 002

100_8030To make the evening fun, memorable, and doable, and to slap Mama awake every 20-30 minutes, we schedule different treats, games, or activities for various times throughout the night.  A piece of paper or scroll describing each activity is contained in either a brown paper bag or a manila envelope (any container will do). The time at which the bag or envelope should be opened is represented on each container by a paper clock or a hand-written time.

When the time comes, the bag is opened and the activity is performed.

Here are some of our keep-your-eyes-open activities:

  • 100_8576Make your own pizza. (Ingredients are prepped ahead of time; this doubles as dinner, so less work for you-know-who.  Taco bars work well, too.)
  • Record heights on the wall.
  • Cookie decorating. (Again, everything is prepped ahead, or it can be something as simple as dipping Oreos in chocolate.  We’re making these melted snowman cookies.)
  • Fondue fun (This can also double as dinner.)
  • Simple and inexpensive gifts that double as activities, such as balloon racers, punch ball balloons, or ramp walkers. Race or bop for half an hour.
  • 100_8009Play games. (I resurrect games from my childhood such as Charades or new-to-us classic ideas from a book we love called Hopscotch, Hangman, Hot Potato, and Ha Ha HaFamily Fun (magazine or site) is another great resource for games.  Noisy group from the game closet, such as Bop-It, Loopz, or Freeze Up, keep the ol’ eyes open.)
  • Make a favorite snack or treat.  (We make my grandfather’s famous, world-class, tastes-like-home, calories-don’t-count-on-old-family-recipes chocolate malts.)
  • Make noise makers or open some store-bought bargains. (Popcorn and rice in toilet paper tubes with the ends covered work great.  We once sent everyone on a hunt to find something loud to shake or pound on – little brother’s don’t count as noise makers.)
  • New Year's Eve Party HatMake your own party hats. (You could make nice hats out of craft supplies, or do what we do – set a timer and have everyone fabricate a hat out of whatever they can fine around the house…and then model them in a fashion show. Paris designers will have nothing on you!)
  • Record memories using a video camera or memory pages.  (Print our memory pages out here.)
  • Create scrapbook pages from the previous year.  (Nothing fancy!)
  • Watch the ball drop in New York or the fireworks in Las Vegas…or both. Go online if you don’t have a television. Or…if you live out in the middle of the desert in Zanyville, you could watch the distant neighbors launch bottle rockets at each other – it’s hard to fall asleep while watching people try to douse a tumbleweed fire. (If you have very young children, consider ending their portion of the celebration when it is New Year’s day in some other time zone. We westerners can send kiddos to bed when it hits midnight in New York…although we don’t.)
  • Ring in the new year with hugs, noise, and a prayer.

Some of my favorite activities are those with the most meaning or which serve to record memories from the previous year.  I elaborate on those over at The Humbled Homemaker today.   Hop over there to read about our memory pages, how we focus on improving character in the new year, our family time capsule, and more.

From our home to yours, happy New Year!

New Year's Eve Celebrations

(This picture is from New Year’s Eve 2010, so, yes, we are short one little party animal.)

How do you keep everyone awake during your family’s New Year’s Eve celebrations?

Linked up to Weekend Whatever at Your Thriving Family and Homemaking Link-up at Raising Homemaker.

TSHM Disclosure statement: Some, not all, of the above links are my affiliate links.  If you purchase something (anything) through those links, I will receive a small commission.  All TSHM proceeds currently go toward homeschool books for our children.  So, really, by purchasing through my link you’re ensuring the education and productivity of the next generation, the future leaders of this great country of ours.  Wow! 

A Glimpse of Christmas and the Smart Sweets Winner

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

We did. Take a peek into The Simple Home over the holidays.

The Simple Christmas

We had our seventh baby on Thanksgiving morning. (That’s the precious little bundle being held by my firstborn.  By the way, don’t let the sweet innocence of that three-year-old princess in the front row fool you.  She spent Christmas Eve morning coloring my white office door blue with a permanent marker while I was on the other side of the door finishing up those PJs she’s wearing.  Life is colorful.)

By now, bringing a new baby into the house is a pretty smooth process. This baby, however, has colic.  Sweet and content as she is is during the day, in the evening she has what my children have termed “her time.”  During “her time” our mild-mannered Baby Jekyl transforms into Miss Hyde.  This involves inconsolable, heart-wrenching screaming…lots of it…and lots of walking and singing for a Mama who just can’t bring herself to let the poor little dear scream it out alone.  

Smart Sweets GiveawayI underestimated the amount of time and energy a colicky baby would require, particularly during the holidays. Walking my baby uses up my productive evening hours (although it gets me out of my morning walk, since “her time” doubles as exercise…in my warped mind.)

Fortunately, my children are amazing with a capital zing! Not only did they handle our lovely Christmas Eve dinner (and I’m not talking toast and popcorn), but they took on the Christmas Day buffet planning, baking, and cooking. (I wasn’t making rolls alone from scratch when I was eight. Were you?) All I did was brine a bird and pop it in the oven. They did everything else. Everything.

Which leads me to this point, the crux of simplifying life in a large family:

Train your children when they are young!

By always having a child or seven working at your side, you will soon have a houseful of capable, willing, and enjoyable helpers who will someday step out into the world perfectly capable of taking care of themselves and others…including you!  But that is a post for another day.

What you really want to know is who won Smart Sweets.

But first…

Remember, if you didn’t win, you can get your own copy of Smart Sweets from Katie at Kitchen Stewardship.

Buy Smart Sweets.

Smart Sweets Giveaway
Drawing the Winning Name

Now…the winner!

The winner is Hannah with this comment/entry:

“I am already subscribed to your newsletter and love reading it!”

Isn’t she sweet?!

Congratulations, Hannah! Enjoy your Smart Sweets!

I wish that all my entrants could be winners.  One of these days I’m going to have something for all of you.

Meanwhile, consider starting your new year with Smart Sweets and enjoy healthier treats in 2012.

Buy Smart Sweets.

Now then, tell me about your Christmas!  Was it wonderful?

TSHM disclosure statement: All Smart Sweets links are affiliate links.  If you buy Smart Sweets through my affiliate link, I will receive a percentage of the sale.  Thanks!  (In case you are wondering, all current TSHM proceeds go toward purchasing math books for my children.  They have requested that you not purchase through my links…the stinkers.)