Cinnamon Ornaments

Here's the Cinnamon Ornament Recipe I promised along with some pics and video of the process!

1 cup cinnamon

1 cup applesauce (any kind)

1/2 T ground cloves

1/2 T nutmeg

Mix all together in a bowl to form a dough. Flatten dough on a cinnamon covered surface and use cookie cutters to cut out your favorite Christmas shapes. Use a sharp pencil to poke a hole in each ornament and let dry on the counter for a couple of days. Tie a ribbon through the holes and hang on your tree or use as a package decoration! Enjoy!

Here We Go Again...

The girls are home today. It's a Snow Day! Funny thing is, we aren't getting any snow--or ice--or sleet--or any combination of the three. It's actually raining--pure, 100% rain. Interesting. We are part of a regional school district and parts of our district are at high elevations where they are getting all kinds of wintry weather - I guess. So, the cautious thing to do is cancel school completely. I surely hope this isn't the beginning of a string of snow days like last year. The girls had something like 11 snow days and were going to school until June 22nd! This storm (we are officially under an ice storm warning) is supposed to last until tomorrow morning. Tomorrow is our anniversary. Ed is off from work and we are planning to do some Christmas shopping (which I am severely behind in!) and hit the Cheesecake Factory for lunch. Those plans won't be possible with three girls lurking about. Please, no snow day tomorrow!

I filled up my vehicle for $17.15 today. I put in 17 1/2 gallons of gas. That's right, I got my gas for 97 cents a gallon! Our grocery store has this fuel advantage program where we get 10 cents off a gallon of gas for every $50 we spend. And it accumulates. So this time I saved 80 cents per gallon! I think the last time I filled up for less than a dollar a gallon was back in high school when I'd go to Charter and put $5 worth in my mom's Nissan Sentra. Interestingly enough it seems that the prices of everything else at the grocery store are going up--WAY up! I think I'm going to check out our other grocery store and do a little bit of comparison shopping. I'm wondering if the 10 cents off per gallon of gas may be an expensive gimmick to suck us unsuspecting shoppers in. Hmmm.....

Today the girls and I are going to make cinnamon ornaments. I found adorable little cookie cutters at Michael's yesterday. They are perfect for the ornaments! I haven't made them before but I've had one hanging on our tree ever since Ed & I got married. That was one of the most wonderful things about getting married at Christmastime - we got lots of Christmas ornaments as gifts! I love ornaments and the ones we received that year are very special to me! Anyway, the cinnamon ornaments are a piece of cake to make - or so I'm told. I'll take some pictures of our finished products and post them with the recipe later on.

Thought I should post this before the "Two Front Teeth" aren't missing anymore! :)

Hi!

I want to start this post by saying "HI!" to our sweet niece, Makenzie! I hear she has become a regular reader of the blog! So, hello Kenzie! We love you and miss you tons!! Can't wait to see you in a few weeks!

I love working as a substitute at our school! Even when I think I know what my job will be for the day, it sometimes is different when I actually get to school. Normally, I don't like unplanned changes. I like very much knowing what to expect - in advance. But this job is not like that AT ALL! And, I'm finding that I actually enjoy that part of it! Hmmm.... Today was supposed to be like yesterday. The morning would be spent as a classroom aide and the afternoon would be one on one with lovable Buddy, who is autistic. When I got to school I was asked if I could spend the entire day with Buddy instead. Our wonderful school secretary insisted that it was entirely up to me if I wanted to change things or leave them as is. But, how could I refuse to help with Buddy for the day? They were extremely short handed in the autism room and that is a pretty big deal. And, Buddy and I like each other - we get along famously, actually, so it was a pretty easy decision. BUT - as I was walking down the hall to Buddy's classroom I saw Allison walking down the hall with her teacher - carrying a trash can. Uh-oh. She was SICK. So, another change of plans. I felt awful for my poor little bug and I felt awful for leaving the autism room short a para. But, I'm so thankful that I was at school when my child needed me and hopefully another day I'll get to spend time with Buddy. Now, I just hope no one else gets sick!

We put up our tree on Saturday. It's a big, huge, fat tree! And it smells SO good! I hope to get some good pictures of it and I'll post them soon!

Well, I suppose I should check on my little miss. Have a great day!

Nothing in Particular

Not too much to report today. I've worked quite a bit this week and am finding many parts of my job rewarding. Yesterday I was in Allison's classroom - which is really fun. My lunch break was at the same time as Becky's lunch. I decided I'd rather sit in the noisy lunch room with my sweet girl than in the staff lounge. I asked Becky if she was glad I had lunch with her or if she thought it was weird. She said, "I was really glad you were there, Mom." That did my heart good. How special to be able to spend time with my girls while they're at school. I count it a privilege - one I'm so thankful for.

I finished the fourth book in the Twilight saga this morning. A friend and I are going to see the movie tonight. I can't wait! They'd better start cranking out the sequels to the first film!! As I mentioned before, these books are supposedly geared to teen readers. I found them to be a bit mature to allow Katie to read them, however. Anyway, a must read for adults for sure!!

The Christmas Tree is going up tomorrow. We may go and cut our own this year - maybe. The rest of the inside of the house is decorated just waiting for the guest of honor. My goal for today is to get wreaths in all the windows. That's the job Ed usually does but I don't want to wait!! Plus, he needs to do the outside lights! That'll take long enough.

Have a great weekend!!