We tried a new salad for our Christmas dinner this year. Usually, I make a napa cabbage salad with hot bacon dressing that has been our favorite holiday meal salad for years. We just had it at Thanksgiving and usually serving it is repeated at Christmas. But, I wanted something different. In one of the…
I’ve been trying to scale back my blogging to allow me time to write and accomplish some other goals. This is hard while still having a desire to keep my regular blog readers engaged in my posts. Therefore, some of my posts are becoming shorter. Some might consider this a very good thing! As the…
One of my favorite things about the holidays is baking! I enjoy baking more than cooking. And although I’m at the point where I need to start watching my carbs again, this is not preventing me from making Christmas cookies. Since Thursday, I’ve made three different kinds of cookies that we enjoy over the holidays….
At this time of year, as a gardener, my attention is naturally drawn to holiday plants. For years my fascination with Poinsettias, Christmas Cactus, Paperwhites, Amaryllis, and Mistletoe was handled by my ability to teach my elementary school garden club members about these living decorations we bring into our homes each year. By researching all…
My writing has taken center stage in my life as far as my free time lately. Last night, for example, I was rushing into my home office to finish a poem I had started. I had forgotten the deadline was December 6th. I ended up hitting the submittable button about fifteen minutes prior to the…
It’s not even December yet, and my tree is up and decorated! I am impressed with myself, can’t you tell? For a lot of reasons, I’ve never decorated this early. My husband has a mid-December birthday and I usually aim for having the house decorated by then. The tree usually stays up until just past…
Few probably know that I have some classroom resources on the Teachers Pay Teachers website. My user name there is Garden Club Lessons. I taught an after-school garden club for 13 years at the elementary school my boys attended. For the most part, I researched topics and then developed my own lessons. It’s not anywhere…
I’ve spent considerable time this morning making our Christmas cards. I’m not physically making them but digitally constructing them on Shutterfly. No, this is not an advertisement for Shutterfly. I use their site because I am used to it. Each year, in March, I make family calendars through their software. And, I occasionally order a…
For most, Labor Day means a day off of work and the unofficial end of summer. For me, it is a reminder of two of my life’s blessings (there are four, actually). Twenty-seven years ago on Labor Day, I labored, truly. I woke up early, feeling the twinges of pain one’s body sends when it…
We are relatively new dog owners. Our yellow lab (almost white, she is so light) turned two years old the last week of June. We got her when she was a puppy, at eight weeks of age. Last year, we were at our cabin when new neighbors set off a large display of fireworks. Molly,…