Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas

It's that time of year....again.  Christmas is such a mixed bag of emotions.  The excitement and anticipation of the holidays but the overwhelming-ness of the holidays.  It feels like from the week before Halloween until after New Years (and this year until February because of A.'s birthday) we are non-stop.  Baking, decorating, shopping, wrapping, activities....

As I started thinking about and planning Christmas for this year, I had a huge change of heart in terms of how I parent during the holidays.  A. and C. will never remember what gifts they got for their 4th and 1st Christmas', even though they may eventually.  What I can give them in memories will be better than any other purchased gift I could ever think of buying.  I was really dead set on an Advent calendar this year.  The ones I really wanted were too expensive and the ones in my "price range" weren't what I was looking for but I knew I could make one that fit what I needed. 

So here it is...

Now, don't ask me to hang pictures in your house.  I can hang neither straight nor level, but with a little creativity and time, I made the Countdown to Christmas I am really excited about.  So these are six 12 x 12 pieces of scrapbook paper and on each piece of paper are 4 envelopes.  The envelopes came from a very nice employee at Target who gave me 24 of their gift card envelopes.  I bought a package of 5 x 7 Christmas paper so all the 24 envelopes are a little different but coordinating.  Attached Christmas stickers and hung them together with gren ribbon.  All in all, I think the entire project cost me less than $20.  Here is a close up of the envelopes.

My most favorite part of all....the cards inside!!  It took planning and some thinking, but here is our Countdown to Christmas 2011:
-set up Nativity and read the story of the birth of Jesus
-make and hang snowflakes
-decorate the Christmas tree and drink eggnog
-enjoy a special treat and watch a Christmas movie together
-prepare hot cocoa jars
-St. Nicholas Day
-write letters to Santa
-Fantasy in Lights at Callaway Gardens
-baking with Mommy
-family game night
-visit Santa Claus
-special treat
-deliver cards to neighbors
-wrap Christmas gifts
-school Christmas party
-Polar Express movie night with hot cocoa
-drive around to see Christmas lights
-ice skating
-pick a special treat
-Imagine Art Studio
-edible gift for the birds outside
-baking cookies for Santa
-read Twas the Night Before Christmas

Thankful Feast

I don't know why, but Connor refuses to call Thanksgiving "Thanksgiving."  Instead, he is continually referring to it as the "Thankful Feast."  So, in honor of Thankful Feast tomorrow, here are some updates and a fun idea to keep kids out of out your hair while you are trying to cook.

First, I wanted to show you the "Fall" sign I made yesterday.  I wrote a couple weeks ago about the one for Halloween that said "Boo."  The one I mad yesterday was so easy!  It cost me a total of $7 at Hobby Lobby and I finished it up in less than 30 minutes.  Connor even helped a little!

I also wanted to show you how our Grateful Tree has grown!!  Other friends are adding their 'grateful' leaves when they are coming to the house and I can't believe how excited Connor is to add things and there is never a shortage of what he can come up with to be thankful for....examples recently include monster trucks, cars, heliocopters, cookies and crocodiles.  ;)

And last but not least on my belated Martha Monday, is an idea to keep busy and "helpful" kids at bay while you are finishing up cooking or baking tomorrow.  Placemats!  Tomorrow morning, the kids that will be at my house and responsible for making the placemats for our table.  So easy and they really can make anything you can think of....turkeys, cornucopias or the example I have below of the Mayflower.  Whatever you do or however you chose to spend your holiday, I hope it is blessed and surrounded by the ones you love and you are constantly reminded of leaves you can add to your thankful tree. 

Tell Tale Signs of Fall

Since I am already a slacker and completely forgot a super yummy recipe on Friday, I am going to double up on the perfect combination....the tell tale signs of fall.  Fall in Ohio is completely different than fall in the South.  I don't even know if you can classify "fall" as a season south of Tennessee but the change of seasons is one of the things I miss terribly about being home.  You always know fall is hitting when the wind blows and you can smell the falling leaves ( and yes, there is a smell to falling leaves), the cooler air that is just a little crisp in the morning and it feels like clean, purity when you breath in deep.  The changing colors....it is like the precious beautiful, gorgeous, explosion of color right before old man winter hits and everything turns to shades of browns and grays.  One of my favorite fall memories of being a kid is apple crisp almost every weekend.  Yep, almost EVERY weekend when I was little.  This time of year, there is no shortage of plump, ripe apples and there are as cheap can be, so we took advantage of them by making applesauce and apple crisp.  The recipe is for apple crisp with vanilla whipped cream.  This is soooo yummy!  Head to the local grocery store and make sure you enjoy some of the bounty of the season with this delicious dessert.

4 medium apples (I use 2 granny smith and 2 golden delicious)
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. oats
1/3 c. butter, softened
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 tsp. nutmeg
Heat oven to 375.  Grease bottom and sides of a 8 x 8 cooking dish with shortening (or butter).  Spread apples in pan.  In medium bowl, mix remaining ingredients, sprinkle over apples.  Bake 30 minutes.  Top with a spoonful of vanilla whipped cream.

To make vanilla whipped cream beat 1 cup heavy whipping cream with 1/4 c. confectioner's sugar and 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract in medium bowl with electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form.

So the other falling leaves and "Martha Monday" tie in?  Okay, here it is....on Halloween night, I took down all the decorations and Connor had gotten himself all worked up.  He had an all and out temper tantrum as I tried to explain to him that Halloween was over and we put the decorations away for next year.  I tried to tell him that it was fine and there was another holiday to look forward to.  His eyes lit up when he asked, "What?"  And I responded, "Thanksgiving."  The look of dejection was almost comical and he just said, "oh" and walked away.  But it got me to thinking, Thanksgiving is such a letdown for kids (sorry Jo, but it's kind of truth)...think about it.  Poor Thanksgiving is quietly sandwiched between candy and presents!  It's hard to compete with that.  So I wanted to find a fun way to have Connor look forward to this forgotten holiday and also start to teach him to have a heart of gratitude for all the blessings we should be thankful for in our lives.  I made the "Tree of Gratitude" and every night after dinner each one of us adds our leaf of thanks to the tree.  This was so easy!  It took me one nap afternoon to get it all together.  The trunk was made of 3 pages of brown construction paper and I used 2 pages of yellow, red, orange and a burnt yellow color each and drew 6 leaves on them.  Cut them out and now we just tape our leaves on each evening.  Some of things Connor is grateful cracks me up.  Last week he was grateful for the letter "v" as well and tonight for milk and cookies.  Ahhhh....the sweet, simplistic brain of a 3-year-old <3

(This picture was taken a 2 weeks ago....the leaves now are over-flowing off the side branches and we are really starting to get quite a tree on top too!)

Weight Loss Wednesday

To start my first Weight Loss Wednesday post I really want to share with you where I am at in terms of my weight loss journey.  Actually, filling you in is almost laughable.  My DH reminded me that yo-yo dieting was just as bad as yo-yo "gymning" and that I need to stop viewing my workouts as if every day is Day 1.  Thanks to a new "friend" in Lysa TerKuerst, I have come to a couple realities that I need you to know before I go any further on this road to weight loss. 

First, my body is the body of a mom.  What I mean by that is simply this, I have struggled for years with body image issues, especially after the birth of my children.  I think a lot of moms deal with this same mental block.  I see myself as that itty bitty little 98 pound college student wearing size 0 jeans, but the girl in my head is vastly different from the woman of my reality.  My body was stretched to the very limit and while I can admit that I was a very fortunate preggo that didn't end up with stretch marks, my body changed in other ways.  One way, in particular, that is really hard for me was the expansion of my rib cage; it was stretched and pained to accomodate Connor.  Stretch marks, expanding hip size, exploding rib cage or whatever your babies did in the process of growing in the womb made you a momma.  What a powerful thought.  I may not be always happy with the changes my body underwent throughout the pregnancy process, but without those changes, I wouldn't have become a mom to two of the most beautiful, precious gifts ever bestowed to me.  My first step in this journey to better health is to work hard and eat well because I want to become healthy, not because I am trying to change in unrealistic ways how pregnancy affected my body.

Second, I need to stop being a slave to the scale.  Scales are NOT my friend and I don't think they are yours either.  This isn't to say I don't step on the scale at the gym, just to see.  But I am not on it everyday and I certainly am learning not to live and die by the number is reveals.  I mean, seriously, the scale can't tell me what time of the month it is, it can't tell me if I ate a little more salt the night before and am retaining water and it certainly can't tell me if I lost a pound of fat but am building lean muscle mass.  Judging how I am doing in the road to a better, healthier me is now becoming based on how I am fitting into my clothes.  Running an extra 1/2 a mile on the treadmill and feeling great, lifting the next dumbbell during strength training to challenge myself.  It is about asking myself these questions: Did I eat well during the week?  Did I give it all my during workouts?  Did I make time for workouts?  Am I not as winded when I walk up and down the stairs or when I play with the kids?  Aren't those more important than a number on a scale or the one inside my jeans on the tag?  I think so.  I am understanding that this is a process, not a snap your fingers and you're there.

I hope that are you loving the body and person you are meant to be and that you are becoming the healthiest you you can be.  You owe it to yourself to be healthy without being a slave to what society says you should be.  I mean, let's face it, the Bionic Woman (otherwise known as Heidi Klum) doesn't help us mom's out in the body image department when she is walking down the catwalk in a barely there bra, thong and angel wings merely weeks after giving birth!  Don't let noise fill your head or heart.  Be the strongest, healthiest you you can be and that is all we can happily do.

The Winds are Changing

I have been thinking lately about changing up the format of my blog....especially since I realized I have written twice in the last two months.  Obviously, this hasn't been a priority of mine, but I have experienced or tried some cool stuff I really wanted to share and in the spirit of Pinterest (my new favorite website) the following is how I will approach Frantic from now on (at least for now!).  On Mondays I want to share something crafty I have done or we are doing at the house and call it Martha Mondays.  Wednesdays are Weight Loss Wednesdays.  Aye aye aye...I could probably write an entire blog about just this topic!  Fridays will be Foodie Fridays.  I am not a "foodie" by any stretch, but I do love to share a good recipe!  If I have the time or inclination then Tuesdays and Thursdays are going to be (for lack of a better word) the Rants and Raves.  The highs and lows of being a momma, the wife of a soldier, the child of God walking on a path of His light for His glory.  I hope you like the new stuff because I am really excited to share with you!!

So, with that said, the first Martha Monday is this super easy, inexpensive craft that I did last year.  I have the one you see for Halloween and a really pretty one for Christmas that says "Noel."  In the next few days, I want to try and make one more that says "Fall" for November.  You are not going to believe how simple this is and how cheaply (is that a word??) you can make a seasonal decoration for your home.  Head over to Hobby Lobby (I found all the materials cheaper there than I did anywhere else) and pick up lightweight unfinished wooden letters.  They have a variety of sizes, font styles and weights.  Make sure you find the lightest weight you can so there is no issue when the finished word is hung on your wall.  Next, head to the scrapbook aisle and pick out coordinating, seasonal paper.  Usually my rule of thumb is one sheet of 12 x 12 paper per letter.  (As a side note, Michaels is having a sale this week on all their 12 x 12 scrapbook paper- 6 sheets for $1!!)  You will also need a thicker width ribbon and spray adhesive.  When you get home, grab a pencil and trace the letter onto the paper.  Cut it out and with the spray adhesive (do this part outside, trust me, you'll thank me once you smell this stuff) spray the wood letter and very carefully place the paper on top.  Be careful because this stuff is very sticky.  Let them dry completely.  Once the are dry, you can bring them inside and "space" them apart.  Cut your ribbon long enough to extend securely from letter to letter.  To secure the ribbon to the finished letter, I double or triple my efforts to keep it on.  I use double sided tape to stick the ribbon to the letter, then tape over that and then spray adhesive to make sure it all stays put.  The last thing I want it letters falling off in the middle of the night and scaring the beejezus out of me!!  Lastly hang it up and enjoy a less than $20 decoration for the holiday of your choice!