Wooden advent calendar...

 I've been wanting to make an advent calendar for the boy for a few years now. So I've been keeping my eye out for some good ideas, there are so many cute ones out there! But none of them were exactly what I was looking for. So I combined a few different ideas and came up with this wooden tree advent calendar.

I used this tutorial as my guide for the wooden tree. We used the sticks that fenced off our garden this summer for all the branches. Then I got some match boxes (I found them at Smith's) for each day. With all the extra matches I made some of these.

I would have loved to have covered them all in brown craft paper, but my husband said that was too boring. So I found some other fun paper at Michael's. I went with a stripe and some holly berries.

To hang them on the branches I got some fishing line and poked two little holes in the top of the smaller box with a quilting needle. Then I looped the fishing line inside.

Instead of tying them I just put a dab of hot glue to hold the line in place and snipped off the ends.
This worked perfectly!

Sorry, no pictures of actually putting the branches together. I sawed them using a jigsaw and sanded down the edges so that they were smooth. I tried to leave some of the edges that have been weathered outside for a more rustic look. I found this perfect star at Target. Such a good find! And then I glued it on the tree crooked... so I'll have to fix that later.

The tutorial for the tree says to use string to hold all the pieces together. We used an unbent metal hanger instead. This way we can bend it around so that the tree lays fairly flat. Plus it gave us a loop at the top to hang the tree on the wall.

I used number stamps to put the dates on all the boxes. I also decorated some of the boxes. Not all of them, but some got a special little trinket on the outside. Here are some of my favorites...

There is our lovely advent calendar. I'm so excited to start using it tomorrow! The boy is even more excited. I want to focus on making memories this season instead of just getting "stuff". So inside each box I'm going to put an activity that we can do for that day. To get the slip of paper out you just slide the box like this.

 

 

Here are a few things we are going to be putting in the boxes this year:

 

 - See the lights at Temple Square

 - Make a gingerbread house (or graham cracker house)

 - Drive around and look at the lights

 - Watch a Christmas movie together

 - Have a campout in the living room and sleep by the twinkling tree

 - Make a Santa Claus craft

 - Build a snowman

 - Make ornaments to put on our tree

 - Go to the church Christmas party

 - Go visit Santa Claus

 - Write a letter to Santa and put it in the mail

 - Make reindeer pancakes

 - Make a nativity scene

 - Get dad a present

 - Go to our family Christmas party

 - Have flaming snowballs (more on this when we do it)

 

I have a few more things to come up with but I'm sure I'll think of something!

 

 



Holiday salad...

I volunteered to bring salad to Thanksgiving this year. I love salad! I love making it, eating it... I guess you can say I'm kind of a salad snob. I came up with this combination last year for Christmas and made it again this year for Thanksgiving. It was just as wonderful as I remembered it! Which was good because there were lots of naughty Thanksgiving foods that could have covered my plate, but I tried to be good and ate a lot of this yummy salad instead.

Here's what's in it:
 - green leaf lettuce (my favorite kind to make salads with)
 - grilled asparagus
 - pomegranate seeds
 - blue cheese
 - candied almonds

The combination was pretty to look at and amazing! To candy the almonds I used about 1 cup of slivered almonds and 1/2 cup of brown sugar (brown sugar is supposedly low glycemic... I don't buy it. It's still sugar! But I did use it and pretended that it was okay to eat). Put those two things in a sauce pan over medium high heat. Stir until the sugar melts and coats the nuts. Make sure you watch them and stir the whole time... they can burn if left unattended. They will be a nice gooey brown. Then spread out over parchment paper and let dry. Break apart into salad.

** A little update on my new eating plan. It's going really great! I'm totally used to eating this way now. I don't feel hungry during the day anymore and I eat when I'm suppose to and eat things that are good for my body. Pretty great if you ask me! I'm kicking myself a little for going on about how the weight was "melting off my body". HA! Seriously, that's when it pretty much ended. I didn't lose another pound until a week ago and now I'm down 9 lbs total. Oh well... it's something right!

Thanksgiving was hard. I reserved my salad plate for the naughty foods and I did eat a few bites of mashed potatoes and gravy and two little delightful candied yams. They were so yummy, but I only let myself eat a little bit. Pie, was another story though. I told myself I could eat one piece of my mom's amazing lemon meringue pie which is my favorite in the whole world. Well... I at two pieces of lemon and one piece of chocolate pie! I know, so super naughty. Oh well. And then the next day I went to a going away party for my best friend who is moving and ate sushi. I was hoping they would have brown rice there for the sushi but they did not. So I totally ate white rice sushi which is a HUGE no no. Oh well. Now I'm back on track and feeling better about slipping last weekend. I feel better too confessing to all of you here. But I guess that's not too bad for 1 1/2 months of eating low glycemic right?

Thankful...

 

Here is the short list of what I'm most thankful for right now in my life:

 

:: I'm thankful for my boys. They are my whole life. I'm very blessed to have a wonderful husband and a wonderful son that love me, take care of me, let me take care of them, and smother me with cuddles and kisses every chance they get.

:: I'm thankful that my husband has a good job. We were jobless this time last year until February, so I'm very grateful for that!

:: I'm thankful for my family. It's been so nice to be around them again.

:: I'm thankful for such amazing friends. Friends from highschool, Brighton friends, old college roommates, our time in Hawaii, Las Vegas, and now new friends from moving back to Utah. I love that I get to keep these friends close and interact with them every single day through modern technology.

:: I'm thankful every second of everyday that I don't have cancer.

:: I'm thankful that we were able to buy my boys new coats this winter and me new boots. A luxury that we could not afford to do last year.

:: I'm thankful for this amazing earth! That I get to plant in her soil and run my fingers through her grass. That she gives and gives to her inhabitants and that I can see miraculous things everyday if I look for them.

:: I'm thankful for yarn, fabric, twine, buttons, shiny silver scissors and soft felt. I'm thankful that I find so much joy in creating things with my hands and am able to do this almost every day.

:: I'm thankful for cardigans, jeans, flip flops, fake diamond earrings, and black mascara. Little things that help me be comfortable with myself everyday.

:: I'm thankful for books and libraries.

:: I'm thankful that we found this little pioneer house and that we get to live here. It has been one of the highlights of my year.

:: I'm thankful for heartache and pain. Because I know that it will make the happy times in my life so much happier and my joy so much sweeter than it could have been otherwise.

::I'm thankful for a loving Heavenly Father. That even though I slack and I pull away sometimes, he's always there welcoming me back with open arms. I know that he knows my heart and that he loves me. Always. 

Thankful tree...

 This week for family night we made a Thankful tree. First off, we are not very good at doing family night. We can probably count on one hand the number of times that we've done that this year. It's hard when the three of us do just about everything together everyday... but we're trying to be better. This was the perfect activity for such a night though.

First I found some branches outside that had fallen down in the snowstorm. Then I cut little leaves out of some brown paper sacks. Then I cut little strips of fabric from my stash that were fallish colors to tie the leaves to the branches. This activity was free... which is my favorite kind!

We sat down and wrote out what we were each thankful for on our little leaves. The boy drew pictures since he can't write yet.

Then we tied them all up to the branches...

Not bad little tree, not bad.

We have some left over in little buckets by the tree in case we come up with some more in the next week that we want to add. My favorite are the boy's. Here he is thankful for our house, and snowmen...

Mom (melts my heart that he can spell out Mom).

Last but not least, bouncy balls.

Winter...

Winter is here!!! We had a big snow storm a few nights ago. It was fun to watch the huge snowflakes fall. Not so fun to drive home on I-15 in the middle of a huge blizzard. So grateful that we made it home safe on Saturday night.

This place never ceases to amaze me. The pioneer house looks so good in whatever season is upon her (can a house be a gender?)...

My garden covered in snow...

I'm not sure how many inches fell, but it was a lot!

Poor apple tree with it's weighed down branches.

I love this walnut tree. I'm glad that we were able to get the leaves all raked up before the snow fell. The day before the storm we spent the day outside raking, putting things away, covering up my husband's duck hunting boat. So glad that we did all that!

And last but not least, the first snowman of the season!

Now all I want to do is curl up under a warm quilt and knit...

Bread or Baby?

 

Hi my name is Meg... and it's been 14 days since I've had a baked treat.

And that last treat was a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie...

I grabbed it on my way out the door to my appointment. I had every intention of eating a good breakfast that morning, but time got away from me and I needed to grab something quick to make it there on time. I finished it before I even left the neighborhood. I almost turned around to go get the other two that I'd left on the counter but I knew if I did I would be late. So I did not... and I completely regret that now.

I had been told a few months before upon the confirmation of my PCOS that I needed to change my diet. But I had put it off. It was birthday season after all. And turns out I'm a complete emotional eater and took up quite the Dr. Pepper habit after my ectopic pregnancy in August. Every day I said, "tomorrow I will eat better" but it never happened.

Laying back on the hard table having an ultrasound done to see the state of my poor ovary the need for this change was confirmed. My midwife said, "Good news, your ovary is back to normal. But it's very polycystic. We need to make some major changes here to help you have a baby."

Then she said something that no health care provider has ever said to me before.

"How's your weight and eating going? {flipping through her notes}. You've gained 3 lbs since I saw you two months ago. You haven't changed your diet yet have you?"

I told her what I believed to be true. That I felt like I was completely addicted to sugar. I eat it everyday. I feel like I'm addicted to crack (not that I know what that would be like but I'm sure it's close).

Then we had the conversation that immediately got me off of this sugary substance...

"No more. You can't do it. Sugar is so hard on your body, especially on girls with PCOS. You need to cut all sugar. No honey, no agave. Nothing baked. No bread. No potatoes. No starchy foods whatsoever. You also need to be eating protein four times a day. Oh... and no cheating. This is not a diet to lose weight, you have to do this everyday. You don't get a cheat day or a cheat meal... this is everyday."

Next week is Halloween... I dared to mutter.

"You're right! And then Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and Valentines Day... then throw in all the birthday's that happen. There is never a good time of the year to make a change like this. You have to do it right now. Today. This second."

 I looked her in the eye and said, "Okay, this is it. No more."

I'm not sure what it was that flipped the switch for me, but I really did decide in that minute that I was going to completely change my diet and see if this will work. There are lots of things that we are trying right now to help me get pregnant, but this is one thing that rests completely on my shoulders. Every time I open my mouth and eat food I say to myself:

"Do you want bread, or a baby?"
"Do you want a donut, or a baby?"
"Do you want pop, or a baby?"

Baby has won out every single time.

I'm so grateful that I had a full five days of doing this before the first Halloween party hit. It was hard, standing there looking at the delicious spread on the table and not being able to eat a single thing. I almost cried tears of joy when my sister in law came in with a plate of deviled eggs (thank you Nicole!!!) and I was finally able to eat something that wouldn't be cheating.

Halloween was fine. I am still in awe that I sat around our house for days with candy everywhere and did not take a single bite. I love candy. But I want a baby more. It really took about a week and now I am not tempted at all to eat these things.

Something else I feel I need to mention. I pray. A lot. I pray that I will be able to resist food temptations. That I will be able to stick with this and eat healthy. I think that has made a world of difference as I've gone through this change.

So here's the deal. Girls with PCOS have higher levels of a male hormone (androgen's) which causes them to not ovulate, have irregular periods, gain weight, have acne... etc, etc. There is also a link to insulin resistance which they think causes this hormone problem. So eating a low glycemic diet and taking a diabetic medication (yep... on that too) is suppose to help girls like me get pregnant.

I've bought a book called The Glycemic Index for Dummies and now that I've learned a little bit more about it it's not so bad. For example, I can have dark chocolate!!! Hallelujah! At the end of the day when I've been super good all day and eaten what I'm suppose to I get a tablespoon of peanut butter and cover it in dark chocolate chips. It's pure heaven people.

As of today I am even down 7 lbs. The weight is literally melting off. This weight I've been carrying for three years is melting away!!! And to think this is all because of bread and sugar!?! Insane...

I've always tried to eat healthy, and I thought that I was being healthy by eating whole wheat bread. I ate a lot of bread. For breakfast I used to have whole wheat toast with peanut butter and fruit. Lunch, a sandwich. Dinner a lot of the time would be whole wheat pasta or something in a whole wheat tortilla. Turns out whole wheat is just as bad as white when it comes to raising your insulin levels. I had no clue. It makes me sad to think that this could be part of what has kept us from having more kids in the last 1 1/2 years. Something as "healthy" as whole wheat bread...

I've always been against diets that make you cut out food groups (like the Atkin's diet). So I just want to clarify that I am not cutting out carbs. I'm just cutting out carbs that have a high glycemic index. I still eat oatmeal and brown rice daily. I eat quinoa. I've made naan with spelt (a low GI grain). So I am not cutting all carbs. Our bodies need carbs, so I'm learning about what ones I can have and what I can't.

I realize that this might not be a "cure all" for me, but we're giving it a shot. And even if I'm not able to have a baby this will make me healthier, help me lose weight, and hopefully help me be a better mom and wife for my family.

So I'm saying goodbye to my runs through the McDonald's drive through to get a Dr. Pepper. Goodbye york peppermint patties that jump into my pile of groceries on the conveyor belt at the grocery store. Goodbye whole wheat bread. Goodbye Twix. Goodbye my beloved pumpkin chocolate chip cookies... Goodbye, and good riddance!

photo from here

grapes, walnuts, and apples...

Aside from the stuff that we grew in our garden this year, we've been harvesting other food around the ole' pioneer house. I've been working so hard to get all of this stuff processed and in bottles/bags for winter. I'm starting to feel like the squirrel in our walnut tree... work work work work, gathering nuts for winter.

First came the grapes. The fences surrounding the property here are covered in grape vines! All different types of grapes in a whole variety of colors. For the whole month of September the yard smelled like grapes, it was amazing! I wasn't going to do anything with the grapes because we don't have a juicer and the one we found was $170!?!? (one can buy a lot of grape juice for that amount of money). But our friends had one that they weren't going to be using this fall so we borrowed it.

Oh boy...

Over a two week period of time we filled 102 quart jars with grape juice. INSANE!!! It took forever. Once I had the juicers going on the stove I didn't want to stop until I had all of the juice out of those little grapes, which made for some very late nights.

Sometimes I had to just admit defeat when situations like this happened at 1 AM... it was just time to call it a night and go to bed.

My awesome sister in law's came over during Priesthood session one Saturday night and stayed until 11 PM doing grapes. They picked, washed, and separated while I worked the juicers. Oh... and 14 kids between all of us were playing in the living room the whole time! It was a mad house, but we got so much done. It was so much better to do this with them instead of all by myself.

Trent did help (since this was his idea), but he would usually get it started and then have to go to work and I would finish it up. I was really happy when all of the grapes were finally gone and I was able to de-grape my kitchen! I don't think I will be doing this next year, it was sooooo much work.

There is the most beautiful walnut tree in the back yard that I'm sure is over 100 years old. It is gorgeous, and it makes hundreds of walnuts. They started really dropping a few weeks ago and we have been gathering them up everyday almost.

We have the walnut process down now. We rub the husk off with our shoe on the grass unless they fell off already out of the husk (those are my favorites). Then we crack them and put them on a cookie sheet and roast them in the oven for a bit. Once they cool off we bag them up, easy peasy... right.

Sad thing is... I can't eat walnuts. They give me canker sores if I eat them. So we've been making them for Trent and his family to eat. They are beautiful.

Last but not least, we picked a box of apples from Trent's grandparent's house (because we hadn't had enough craziness I guess) and we made a 8 quarts of apple pie filling. The rest of the apples we dehydrated into apple chips like we did last year. And with that I. am. DONE! None of this trunk full of apples this year. I would like to do something else with my life other than process and can food. I need a break, so we are calling it good with the apples.

*** I realize you may be wondering why on earth our apple pie filling is red. You see, for some reason I have yet to figure out, Trent thinks that apple pie is suppose to be red. I don't know why he thinks that, I'm blaming it on the fact that he is color blind. But every time we make apple pie he sneaks in the red food coloring and dyes it red. And my friends, sometimes you have to pick your battles, am I right? I let him have his red apple pie filling this year, with the agreement that next year they will not be colored, and if they are red there need to be some raspberries in there or something... no more fake dye.

Red apple pie anyone? Does that even look good to you? I don't get it...

Wolverine + Lumberjacks

Our boy wanted to be Wolverine so badly this year! I like to make his costume, but I was not going to attempt Wolverine with the blade hands and the muscles that he was requesting.

He really liked getting into character in these pictures...

This is what I got when I asked him to smile... silly kid.

I have not dressed up for Halloween since I got married, I'm pretty sure. But Trent's family likes to do a Halloween party every year and this is the first year that we've been able to go! So we dressed up. I wanted to push the easy button on this one because I just wasn't feeling it... so we went as lumberjacks. We already had hats, flannel shirts, a plastic toy ax. It was easy. But the night before we had this great idea to make yarn beards for our costumes. OH BOY!!! I have to say that making and wearing a yarn beard is one of the funnest things I've ever done! I'm being totally serious. I could not stop laughing thinking about wearing my beard.

Beard kisses... a little strange, yet so funny!

I loved watching people look at us and our ridiculous beards. I may have stared at a few drivers along the road until they looked at me so that I could see them laugh at my dumb beard. It was so much fun! Now I'm trying to figure out where else I can wear my beard...

Anyone want a beard? I'm going to make our boy one just in case we need all of us to have beards sometime. That could happen right?

Halloween fail...

I pretty much failed at decorating for Halloween this year. I had good intentions, but I've been so busy canning and harvesting the food we grew around here that I really did not put much effort into decorating.

The only new decoration I was able to make was my awesome wreath for the front door. I did this in mid September with my friend on a girls day and I love it!

We sprayed the branch wreath black and added some black birds (with red eyes) and a pretty bow. I looked around on Pinterest for a wreath that I wanted to make but didn't find any that I loved, so we came up with this! Take that Pinterest (just kidding... I really do love you).

I pulled out the bat garland that I made about 4 years ago...

Trent's aunt brought over some pumpkins that she grew in her garden this year.

And... that's it! I feel bad. I wish that I would have tried a little harder. Maybe in March or April I can work on some Halloween crafts since Fall seems to be super busy for me.

My little dude tried to help out. He colored several pictures that he hung around with magnets on anything metal. Here is one that I though was super cute.

Maybe next year I will be better...

29 by 29...

At the beginning of the year I decided I wanted to do 29 things by the time I turned 29. The time has come and gone and here is my list of what I got done! I tried to blog about most of the things as I did them. I completed 15 of the 29 (some of them are halfway done). So... not wonderful, but not bad! Better than not getting anything done all year. I discovered that it's hard to know at the beginning of the year what your year is going to be like. When I made this list I was living in my in laws basement, no knowing where I would be living or what I would be doing for sure. Some of my priorities changed during the year. Such as.... I don't have "plant a garden and learn to can" on this list but that has taken up a majority of my time this past summer/fall. Either way, I feel very accomplished for doing some of these things. Some of them have been in the works for a long time or were on my bucket list and are now done. So I'm happy with it!

1- Go on a hike to Lake Mary
2- Make a hexagon quilt - bought the stuff for it... but haven't started sewing
3- Make a quiet book for my boy
4- Run in a race (5K or half marathon... either way!)
5- Grow my own basil and make homemade pesto from it
6- Make an apron for myself (I've honestly never done this) - nope
7- Lose 30 lbs or get pregnant (cause if I get preggo I probably wont be losing the weight this year) - I'm checking this off... because I did get pregnant, just didn't work out. I only lost 5 measly pounds though.
8- Do all of the temple work for 5 ancestors (I'll explain this better when I do it) - halfway there
9- Find a great lipstick shade I really love Cover Girls outlast lipstain. That's my go to everyday.
10- Add 5 new items to my Etsy shop - sadly no...
11- Participate in a craft fair - nope
12- Finish the quilt for our bed - Halleluja!
13- Organize and re-label all of our files - halfway there
14- Build a toy barn for my boy
15- Go on a date to The Little Acorn, where I first met my husband - We did it but we went through the drive through... does that still count? Sure!

16- Do a 30 day sugar fast - HA! No...
17- Organize all of my recipes into a binder - nope
18- Take my boy to see the Buffalo's
19- Take a yoga class - As fate would have it my bff invited me to go to a class with her a few weeks ago and I did! It was wonderful and I hope to go again soon.
20- Write more consistently in my personal journal - funny story here. I hid my journal in a super sneeky place so that nobody would find it and read it (we had a few babysitters come over and I just didn't want to chance it) but then I couldn't remember where I hid it and couldn't find it until last week. So no...
21- Get some house plants, and not kill them - I have one plant and it's not dead yet... so I'm counting it!

22- Pay off all my medical bills - sigh... no. We did pay off our car though.
23- Learn how to use different saws and get more into woodworking
24- Organize a "command center" for my home
25- Go to Yellowstone for our 10th year of marriage (this is where we honeymooned) - nope, maybe this year!
26- Finish the stupid Santa cross stitch that I've been working on for the past 8 years!!! - and frame it for Christmas - NO!!! DARN!
27- Exercise at least 4 days per week - Yes... until I hurt my knee. So for half the year I did.
28- Organize my pantry better - I don't have pantry so no
29- Do my hair in different ways other than straight down at least once a week - Well, I decided a few months ago that I was sick and tired of washing my hair everyday and waiting for it to dry. So I started washing it every other day... and it's going pretty well. On the days that I don't wash it it's usually in a ponytail, messy bun, braid, or I curl it. So I'm counting this as a yes.

Goodbye garden...

I've spent the last few weeks ripping out what was left of the garden. The only things that are left are the tomatoe plants and the swiss chard. I decided to leave them because the deer have been coming down and eating them up so I figure why not? Might as well let them go for it.

Half eaten swiss chard...

 

 

We picked what was left of the green tomatoes before it froze. They've already ripened though, so I made some raw salsa this week with our last tomatoes.

 



I loved growing a garden this year. It has been one of the most rewarding things I have done. We're already making plans of what we want to do next year. More tomatoes and peppers so I can make salsa for canning, lots more squash. We're hoping to grow enough pumpkin to can some puree next year to keep us stocked for the winter.

Also, more flowers. The only flowers I did this summer were my sunflowers. Next summer I want flowers that come and go all season long! I'm thinking some orange poppies, black eyed susan's, daisies... I can hardly wait!

Tiny...

Do baby feet really come this tiny? I made some Mary Jane booties for my sister in law Kim who is going to have her first little one in a few months. I have never done booties before. It was nice to make something other than hats and leg warmers. They turned out so cute... and tiny! I hope that they fit her for a while.

The pattern made up really fast and were so fun to make. I see more booties being made in my future.

Five...

Well, birthday season is officially over in our house. This little dude just turned five last week {he posed himself for that picture btw...}. Gosh, I don't know how times flies so fast! He is such a sweet little boy. Very active and adventurous as always.

He wanted to have a "yes day" where we did whatever he wanted to all day long. So we played mini golf, ate lunch at McDonald's, got him a treat at the gas station... and he didn't want to go to bed all night. So we stayed up until 11:30 PM watching Ninja Turtles till he conked out on the couch ;).

We had grandparents over for homemade pizza (cheese for the birthday boy) and cake. He wanted a Wolverine cake and so I made it happen. I don't think I will ever make a fondant cake again, but I'm happy that he liked it. Even though the hand coming out of the center just looks like a big blue blob (because it was...), I'm glad he was happy!

So happy to be his mom. Love you little boy!