december day two.

When I came downstairs this morning, Nemo was awake and had already opened the second advent box...my little note said that he and Mia would go pick out gifts for each other and they had to keep them a secret. On the table was my little note and Nemo's response: he wrote on a separate square of paper "I will keep it a secret!". A smile first thing in the morning is always perfect.

Ian and Mia and I spent the day taking care of some errands...a stop at Fred Meyer where Mia picked out her gift for Nemo (which she later, without hesitation, announced at the dinner table what that gift was) and Ian picked up supplies for his craft show this Sunday. We drove down to Bob's Red Mill for lunch and so I could scope out the very large selection of flour and grains and beans and oats and etc, etc...a little overwhelming to know where to start. I settled for a bag of unbleached white (for bread baking) and old-fashioned rolled oats...oh, and a bag of fresh-baked cookies. Conveniently, the Nature Bake outlet store is right across the street, so we wandered over there to buy some (very cheap) frozen Dave's Killer Bread. We stocked our freezer for awhile. This will hold us while I become a master bread maker.

We enjoyed a quiet afternoon of just hanging out at home...Mia got a new Backyardigan's DVD from the library, so that captured her attention for a bit.


Ian picked up a rotisserie chicken and I roasted potatoes and prepared a salad. I had a bag of organic romaine in the crisper drawer (about a week old) and I decided enough with the procrastination. Just wash the lettuce, Michelle...don't let this bag go to waste. So I did. It was one of the best parts of my day. There was so much dirt on this lettuce that I could smell it and it left a gritty layer on the bottom of my sink...but I stood there thinking, "Oh yeah...this lettuce really did come from the ground. It grew somewhere. It didn't just appear prewashed and bagged and ready for my convenient use. (well, it did come in a bag, but you get the idea). It was really nice because I didn't expect it to be. OK...definitely need to start growing some of my own food.

happy christmas.

the kids (and I, of course), are getting in the spirit around here. day one of december found me putting the finishing touches on the advent calendar. this is the new and improved version, and though it felt a bit "piece-mealy" putting it together, it will serve it's purpose, and I am moving on.


I stapled four pieces of cork together, then stapled strips of patterned paper over the seams, then arranged all the boxes and attached them to the cork with thumbtacks. Last year's version was simply stuck on the wall with poster putty, but I found that I was always picking up those darn boxes off the floor and adding more putty. So, this'll do for this year.

The advent activity for the first was to make a special Christmas treat with Mom. Both kids like to help in the kitchen...Mia takes any opportunity to request "can you bring the yellow chair in the kitchen?" I always know what that means...I've got a helper whether I want one or not!

So, here we are making those delicious "out of the box" brownies with liberal Christmas sprinkles.


After children's bedtime, Ian and I continued on with season 3 of LOST...this show is pretty addicting to say the least. And I'm thinking the only way to watch it is on DVD. Instant gratification. I dream about this program way too often. Just something about it.

what goes around comes right on back.

since i ignored the fancy "$8.95/mo" blog for about seven months (i'm cringing and feeling embarrassed by my lack of "stick-to-it-iveness"), i can no longer justify keeping the typepad address. back to the freebies for me. cutting out the unnecessary, and it just feels good, i have to say.

will my gym membership be next? (it's only been a week since i've been).

we put the tree up today...the kids were all over those decorations, and they fought over two plastic candy canes all day. they both wanted the red one, though the green one was perfectly fine from my perspective. we played some elvis christmas tunes on the record player. i can't seem to find my amy grant christmas record (the first album), but now i'm wondering if i never had it in the first place? any randalls have any ideas on that one?

we will be starting our advent countdown calendar on monday, and nemo is pretty darn excited. he's already asked about doing some of the same activities we did last year. i'll take some pictures along the way.

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now, the whole farmer thing? yeah.......could i pick something any more opposite of what i am currently making money doing? definitely not quitting my 'night' job yet, but am very intrigued. i have absolutely no background in anything remotely related to farming (unless we end up raising cows and they need me to stand by while they give birth...but somehow i have a feeling they know what they're doing...). i'm not sure if i'm interested in the growing my own food kind of farming or raising animals for milk and eggs or harvesting to sell at a farmer's market or if all of this is too absurd to even continue to entertain, but i'm doing this thing now where i'm just waiting. waiting for God to show me what's next. and praying that the answer will be clear. oh, and i'm reading through exodus right now and very easily relating to the israelites and all their darn complaining. the Lord is practically dropping food from the sky in the way of blessings and yet i still complain. i need to just shut it sometimes and be grateful.