Good Evening! It's the dayyy before the nniight before Christmasss, and I'm busy, busy, busy, being goood! Am I the only one that knows that song?
I'm proud to announce, Glenn had his best game of bowling EVER yesterday evening! All strikes until the 7th frame, then innocently, I flustered him a bit by pointing it out. His final score was a grand 252.
A few of our friends got to witness the event. My buddy Schep was one of said witnesses, he is replacing me as Glenn's bowling partner. He bowled a really good game last night too and has a bunch of potential.
Other said witnesses included Lisa and her hubby, Denver, (he's camera shy). They are part of our team as well.
While those four bowled, Amy and I cheered them on and gabbed-- mostly gabbed. :)
Doesn't the place look cool with the black light?
Earlier that day, Glenn, the kids and I went to pick the boat up from Tator's. He had it all wrapped up. It's official now, no more boating with it till spring.
The kids are excited as can be about Christmas. Tomorrow, we will exchange some gifts, make Santa some cookies, have family movie night watching some classic cartoons, and be joyous in preparation of Jesus's wonderful birthday celebration.
I hope everyone is staying warm and cozy as a kitten in a Pringles can! It's been quite windy here in Pendleton, Indiana.
And it SNOWED last night! Not quite as much as in the video, we just got a light dusting. I love this song, It Snowed, by Meaghan Smith, and have added it to my collection of winter tunes:
Due to the weather, the kids had a two-hour school delay this morning.
They made the most of it and headed out first thing this morning at 7AM to play.
We are fortunate to have a sledding hill right out the front door.
Ahh, a brand new winter wonderland.
Meanwhile, as the kids played outside, I whipped up some Pumpkin Apple Muffins for breakfast.
These muffins contain two of my favorite flavors all in one nice neat little package. Start off by cutting up an apple. I used a sweet and tart granny smith variety.
Next, toss the ingredients in the mixing bowl (except the apple) and stir with a spoon.
The batter should be a beautiful orange color, like this:
Once the batter is nicely blended, fold in the apples.
The batter is now oven ready. The muffins are great plain, however my kiddies (and I) love a sweet and creamy glaze. While the muffins baked I made a light icing out of cream cheese, butter, milk, vanilla and powdered sugar. It's easiest to use room temperature butter and cream cheese.
Tada-- super yummy, sweet tooth, breakfast that's kinda healthy too. (Notice the Fat Free Cream Cheese.) Baby steps. :)
Yum, these muffins are awesome.
The kids took off for school, and then the hubby came home and wanted to treat me to breakfast. It figures. He got call early this morning regarding a prison power outage. Well, I couldn't let the poor guy starve, and he does not play well with fruits and veggies, so the muffins just wouldn't do for him.
We headed out the door into bright and windy weather.
We ate at the Diner, here in town. Not many folk's were out and about yet, it seemed. Glenn ordered the biscuits n' gravy with hash browns.
This ^ is what I ordered, but I only ate my eggs. Glenn munched my pancakes and sausage too.
I guess it puts hair on the man's chest-- or at least a Dustball. Hehe. Catnapping. :)
While those two snoozed, I babied my poor feet. They are all taped up now, because the tape helps offer support. The ligaments in the left foot are in jeopardy of tearing as they did in the right.
Thus, both feet have tape. My right foot is by far the worst. The tape does seem to make it feel a little better too.
The rest of the afternoon I spent feeling like a busy Santa elf, wrapping gifts for the big day. I know gift bags are really in right now, but I like the old school wrapping paper. There's just something about kids shredding pretty wrapping paper to bits that screams-- Christmas Joy!
Not to brag or anything, but I got to open a gift today!! Troy made me this trivet:
Today was the last day of school, before Christmas break. He brought me home that gift he made and just could not wait for me to open it! How sweet is that!
Pumpkin Apple Muffins
Makes 12 muffins
Ingredients:
1-2/3 cup wheat flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
2 eggs
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup milk (I used almond milk)
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 cup finely chopped Granny Smith apple (or other baking apple)
Sweet Glaze:
2 Tablespoon butter, at room temperature
2oz cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
dash of milk
1 cup powdered sugar
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees then line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners.
In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, salt, pumpkin puree, eggs, brown sugar, milk, and vegetable oil. Everything except the apples should be blended together, then fold in apples.
Fill cupcake liners 3/4 of the way full with batter, smoothing the tops, then bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let sit in muffin tin for 5 minutes, then remove to cooling rack.
While cupcakes are cooling prepare Sweet Glaze: Cream together butter, cream cheese, and vanilla. Add powdered sugar until mixture is thick and creamy. Thin with a bit of milk until desired consistency is achieved. Serve over warm muffins.
I hope ya'all enjoyed my guest blogger, Troy, yesterday.
I hate to blog this, but I feel I must. The other day, I went to physical therapy as usual and before I left the house, I felt good. I felt like my foot was noticeably better. My therapist has been using the Graston technique on me. During the last treatment I had, the pain was very severe and it resulted in an 80% tear of my plantar fascia. The doc tells me steroids (to keep the swelling down) are to blame; they have a tendency to weaken the ligaments. It's discouraging, to be trying to heal and have set backs such as this. I'm hanging in.
Thank goodness for friends! Charlene treated me to lunch the other day (before the setback). We ate at the Hacienda here in Pendleton and it was fantastic. Charlene had the fajita salad and I had the classic fajitas which included chicken, steak, and a ton of grilled veggies cooked to perfection. Yummy!
Afterwards we went shopping at the thrift store.
I found a couple treasures to enhance my kitchen with. The kitchen has practically no counter space, so both of these beauties would be nice additions. Also, I love the apple green color, in the photo above and the counter pulls out-- how cool is that?
Drop leaf tables, are another piece of furniture I find charming.
Well, in other news, I fixed my oatmeal this morning and it was so healthful and good that I decided to bequeath it blog worthy.
First, start out with either steel cut oats or old-fashioned rolled outs. Those are my two personal favorite types of oatmeal, because I like how they are heartier and chewier than instant. Not to mention better for you. Plus, when you get right down to it, the extra couple minutes it takes to cook, at least for me, is spent preparing the stir-ins and tidying up anyways. So, it's not like I'm just burning my eyeballs out watching oats cook.
While the oats are cooking per package directions, I stir in a tsp. of pumpkin pie spice and a serving of walnuts. Inhale deeply-- ahh pumpkin pie. :) I like the somewhat softer texture of cooked walnuts. Next, for one serving of cooked oats, I add almost 1/4 of a cup of pumpkin. I like to stir this in afterward to help it cool faster. Top with milk and honey as desired.
One of my favorite movies is How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I like the animated version the best, but the movie is good too. After watching it, I was inspired to crochet this Christmas stocking:
Jean has done claimed it. Santa may think it's a nice fly rod size. ;)
I had an awesome day today except for having a pain in the foot/leg. Glenn is taking some time off work until next year to finish out the remainder of the holiday season. (Oh help me!) Just kidding-- sorta. He was a sweetie today and helped me do some shopping and make Apple Turkey Burgers. The good thing about being in pain is it makes me try to eat foods that heal, more so now than ever before.
Troy is here! I'm Troyboy and I am six years old. I'm doing Mom's blog!
Mom and I went to the Lego store at the mall. She liked the Christmas village.
I liked the Lego displays.
My friend has Lego's and so do I. We are going to make Lego stuff.
I tried to take this dude's pic and Mom walked in the way.
It's a Christmas place; I took the pic.
The mall had weird food. It was good.
We went to a pretty place and I saw her sitting on the table. I wasn't allowed to sit by her.
Mom liked this dress.
She got my sister's something to keep them warm.
The lights in this store are very pretty.
So are the dresses. Mom got this dress.
Baby yeah, Baby yeah, Babe-- this is Troy!
The lights are awesome at the mall!
This door is the EXIT, but the whole time we were there the mall never even caught on fire. We had to go out the far doors instead. I never got to use the extinguisher to put out any fires.
