Shepherd's Night

Holidays and Traditions can either be a source of frustration or a source of heaven, often at the very same time.  This year I altered one of my favorite traditions to become even more splendid. I learned sometimes we try and do too much and try and make traditions too complicated and it makes it less fun. Simple is better.

Christmas Eve we always do a Shepherd's Night. We start off the night eating shepherd's pie, Have a game and read some books, scriptures, and traditionally make candy cane cookies.

Shepherd's Dinner

 

My Recipe for Shepherds Pie

 

1-1/2 lbs of cooked ground meat (we use ground beef )

1 Walla Walla onion chopped

1 cup beef broth (I use water and Beef Better than Bouillon)

3 tbls Worcestershire sauce

1 bag of frozen mixed veggies

5  medium potatoes

1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt

3 eggs

 

Cook and crumble meat until browned.  Rinse all fat from meat. Return to pan and cook with chopped onions until soft. add beef broth and Worcestershire Sauce.  if you would like a thicker sauce you can add a tablespoon of flour.  After this has cooked mix in a bag of frozen veggies.

 

Meanwhile:

chop potatoes (I leave the skin on because that is where all the nutrients are).  once they are soft drain water and mash mix in Greek yogurt and three eggs.

 

Spread the meat mixture to cover the bottom of a 9x13 casserole dish,  cover with the mashed potatoes.  Bake at 350 until the potatoes start to become golden.

 

mmm enjoy!

 

I realize that the shepherds really didn't eat shepherd's pie.  for the record most likely the shepherds ate fish, nuts, pomegranates, dates, figs, olives and other fruits that were easily dried, and pita bread.  we always set the table nice for our dinner but most likely shepherds ate on the ground with their fingers.  I thought about having a dinner with foods they ate and sitting on the ground. But my kids do not like fish, and are really not good about trying new foods like figs and dates, so I didn't want a battle on Christmas Eve, so we stick with our Shepherds Pie. But if you have more adventurous eaters it would be fun to have a real shepherds dinner.

 

Ye Shall Find the Babe

 

We then play a good game of Find baby Jesus. This is my kid's favorite Christmas tradition.  We swaddle a baby doll, and everyone dresses as a shepherd and then there is one Angel. My mom has a full set of nativity costumes, but on occasion I forget to borrow them and then we use towels and what ever we can find for ties around the head, and a pair of $1 store fairy wings, that works well too.

 

The Angel goes and hides baby Jesus somewhere in the house (while the shepherds are all waiting in a bedroom, or a bathroom or somewhere behind a closed door together).

 

And then the Angel comes and announces, "fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger"  Go find him. (the Angel then typically starts giggling uncontrollably in anticipation for the wild hunt to come)

 

 

 

Then the Shepherds disperse and look for baby Jesus. 

 

 

Who ever finds Baby Jesus gets to be the next angel and they swap costumes with the Angel

This is the point when the mom starts giggling uncontrollably because dad is dressed in a tutu and fairy wings

 

 

Shepherd Stories

This normally takes us pretty close to bed time so we just jump right into bed time stories.

Our long time favorite is J is for Jesus: the Sweetest Story Ever Told.

 

It is the story of the candy cane. My kids have loved it since they were itty bitty, so we continue to read it.  Though I am thinking of buy a couple other shepherd stories to read for next year.

I'm struggling to find any that really grab my attention so I am going to have to search the libraries and book stores. One off of amazon that looks like it might be cute is

The Greatest Shepherd of All

 

The Amazon description says: On Christmas Eve, Grandpa Woolly shares with three excited youngsters the story of the birth of Baby Jesus, and how three young sheep, much like themselves, met this greatest of all shepherds.

I will keep you posted if I find one that is just amazing.

We will also then read the scripture story of the shepherds.

Bed time

In the past we have slept on the ground all in one room together, just like the shepherds would have. the kids love this.  However I HATE sleeping on the floor, or actually I can't sleep on the floor so I have given this up, but my kids do all have a slumber party together in one room in the house.

cookies

Growing up we always made Christmas cookies for Santa Claus. I tried to carry this Christmas tradition on in my family. To tie in with the shepherd theme we made Candy Cane cookies after we read the J is for Jesus book. They are most delicious.  However, this is exactly what I am talking about by trying to add too much in to our traditions, this was just too much and it stressed me out. So I cut this out, don't worry I will provide the Heavenly Recipe. But this year we simply bought Santa his favorite cookies, Oreos, and called it good.  It just occurred to me that maybe next year we will buy him candy cane Oreos.  Now for our divine Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies

 

Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies

3/4 cup butter

2 eggs

1-1/2 cup brown sugar packed

1 tsp vanilla

2 tsp peppermint flavoring

 

2 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup baking cocoa

1/2 bag of mini chocolate chips

6 candy canes crushed

 

preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream first five ingredients together,  add dry ingredients, mix well. When dough is formed mix in chocolate chips and crushed candy canes.

 

form into 1-1/2" balls and place on cookie sheet (I like to use parchment paper). and bake for 12 to 14 minutes. mmm.

 

I just realized I don't have a picture of these amazing cookies, I will have to take one and add it later.

 



He Calleth Them By Name

Hale Bopp Comet became visible to the naked eye in April of 1997. I distinctly remember this event and it made a profound impression on me,  the rest of my teenage years this picture hung on my wall

 

 

Under it, I printed, Psalms 147:4 He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names. This got me through my teenage years.  Surely if God knew every single one of those stars, he knew me. Since then I have pondered stars quite a bit.

 

The Christmas Star. What was it? Why was it the chosen symbol?  Could it be a type and a shadow of things, to come?  That Christ was the Light of the World, he would show us the way to go to come back to him?  At Christmas we have stars to remind us of this glorious sign.  But we also have Christmas Lights,  to me they represent all the other stars,  the little ones, we too must let our light shine for all those around us to see to help them back to our Savior. Matthew 5:16 tells us to, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

 

Every night I sing songs to my kids as part of our bed time routine. My two year old has been a bit slow to start talking and in the last few days she has figured out how to say "star"  and she has figured out that she can request a song by telling me "star"  I know two songs about stars, and I am not positive which it is she is requesting so I sing both to her.

 

I am Like a Star by Patricia Kelsey Graham

 

I am like a star shining brightly,

Smiling for the whole world to see.

I can do and say happy things each day,

For I know Heav’nly Father loves me.

 

Such a simple song that teaches us all about the symbols of stars, and that stars are there to remind us nightly of God's love for us.

 

The other Song that I know about stars is

 

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,

 

Most people know the first verse of this song and don't even know the rest of the verses of the song.

 

The poem was written by Jane Taylor here is it in it's entirety

 

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

How I wonder what you are!

Up above the world so high,

Like a diamond in the sky.

When the blazing sun is gone,

When he nothing shines upon,

Then you show your little light,

Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.

Then the traveler in the dark

Thanks you for your tiny spark,

How could he see where to go,

If you did not twinkle so?

In the dark blue sky you keep,

Often through my curtains peep

For you never shut your eye,

Till the sun is in the sky.

As your bright and tiny spark

Lights the traveler in the dark,

Though I know not what you are,

Twinkle, twinkle, little star.

 

I go up to our cabin often and when I do I have to go look at the sky with no city lights and wonder in awe at the amazing milky way,  and I stand amazed at God's creations. And I contemplate God's love for me, and what I must do to let my light shine.

 

My girls are hitting the pre teenage years. I know that life is about to get really complicated for them. So to try and give them something to carry them through their rough years coming their way I made each of them a star quilt.

 

 

 

Each star shines differently and shares it's own light.

 

In addition to their blankets I gave each one of them a matching sign and a book that corresponds to the sign.

 

To one I gave the book Daughter of a King

 

It is an awesome story of a girl knowing she is a princess, and remembering that even when other's don't believe her.  I made the sign  out of a board that I bought at Johann's fabric store I bought two 12 x 18 boards.  Cut one down to a board that was 12 x 12 and one that was 6 x 12  for my three separate signs.  I then created an individual sign using the story to create a motivational piece of art for their room. Each one I painted black and used my sisters Silhouette machine to cut vinyl and then I modged podged over it to give it a bit of a sheen and make sure the vinyl stayed down.  just as a warning the glitter and the metallic were awful to cut.

 

For my toddler I got her Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star with the complete poem.

 

 

And for my Oldest I got Your Happily Ever After

 

 

Amazon's description of the book: Sometimes we need a reminder that life was never all sunshine and roses for fairy-tale princesses. Before the true love's kisses and happily ever afters, there were poisoned apples, spindle pricks, and impossible tasks. Speaking to the princesses of our Heavenly King, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf compares our challenges to those faced by famous fairy-tale heroines. Recounting Belle's captivity, Cinderella's servitude, and the miller's daughter's sacrifices, President Uchtdorf emphasizes that each princess had to overcome adversity before she reached her happily ever after.

I hope that as they go through the next few years, stars can grow to mean as much to them as they do to me.  That they can receive strengthen from knowing that if the Lord knows every star that he surely knows them too.  And that they can let their light shine (no matter it's color or shape) and Glorify their Father in Heaven.

 

 

 



5S

In Proverbs we learn to "trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding." Five years ago, this week I switched places with my husband,  I went to work full time and he came home to be with the kids and to go to school full time. I always wanted to be a full time stay at home Mom - I loved the few brief years I was able to do this and still long for the day that I can stay at home with my sweet children. However, no matter how righteous of a desire this was, this was not God's plan for me. Through the years I have grown to appreciate God's wisdom in all things, sometimes it takes a long time to see the blessings of following God's ways, and other times it hits us right in the face. I remember the first week that I worked, I had already determined a brief switch of places was of great value. I came home from work and my husband would look at me and say, "I swear I cleaned up the house three times today, I don't know what happened!"  and I thought FINALLY UNDERSTANDING, EMPATHY!  but it worked in the reverse as well,  I would walk in the door and he would say, "it is your turn with the kids I need a break" and I would explain I just need 10 minutes to wind down and I will take the kids and He would shoot me the look that I am sure I gave him all the time when he was working - "ten minutes! ten minutes! you want ten minutes!?! You just had a 9 hour break!"  and finally I had empathy for my husband who had worked so hard to support me.
 
When I first decided to go back to work I thought I would go back to teaching. I had been a successful well liked teacher before I had kids, I knew I would be a shoe in at my old district. While all the people on the district level really wanted me back, the ultimate decision was with the principals, and I couldn't seam to land myself a job. I couldn't figure out why, but in all of God's wisdom he had another place he wanted me to work - totally different than teaching, something I thought I was totally unqualified for. I work full time at an engineering firm. I have learned so much and grown, and in ways I never would have dreamed. As part of the company's goals they have implemented what is called 5S, it is a methodology of organization.  And it is stressed big time.  Prior to working where I work I had spent a lot of time studying organization and simplification and never came across the 5S methodology.  I think because it is mainly used in the workforce. However, I think it applies very well to the home, I mean after all, home is where I do my most important work. 
 
5S is a Japanese theory and there are 5 steps, that all start with S's in Japanese  (and in English as well)
 

1. Seiri (Sort)
2. Seiton (Straighten, Set)
3. Seiso (Shine, Sweep)
4. Seiketsu (Standardize)
5. Shitsuke (Sustain)

In short  you go through all of your stuff and SORT it,  you can sort it by like items, by items you use often, and others that you use not as often, and those you should get rid of because you don't ever use them.

 

After sorting comes typically comes  straighten, however I find it more helpful to SHINE- you clean it all up, because when things are disorganized it is difficult to actually keep it clean so wash down the countertops, wash out the cabintents that have spilled stickiness on them and spilled chocolate chips and sprinkles. After everything is shined for me then comes the STRAIGHTEN  you start putting stuff back:  put things you use often in the easy to get to places,  put things you rarely use further away. Put things in places that you regularly use them. No reason to store your kitchen utensils in your study, it may be really nicely organized but you aren't going to be likely to keep it organized if you have to go all the way to the study to put your forks and knifes away.

 

Now time to STANDARDIZE - do things to keep it that way.  Make it visual, so that anyone who walks into your house can find what they need and put things in the right place. If your mother-in-law comes to watch the kids make it easy for her to know where things belong, so she doesn't have to search the whole house to find something, and so you don't have to search the whole house to find the same thing next time you want it. Standardizing makes it very easy to SUSTAIN, even your two year old can figure out where things go so you don't have to continually pick up after them. A truly 5S area naturally Sustains itself.
 

I love it!  I have had major issues with my book shelves for years. I love books and I have lots of them. I have them so my kids can read them. But it drove me crazy because when they read them they would never put them back where they belong.  So I came up with this grand idea.  - WASHI TAPE

 

 

With the help of my oldest we pulled out all the books, got rid of duplicates and books we thought were stupid.  We then sorted them into like books all the Christmas book went together, all the easy read books went together all the science books, all of mom's favorite "if you damage these you will be in big trouble" books together all the children novels together etc.  and then we placed them back on the shelves.  and we put a different color of washi tape on the spine of each book.

 

 

 

I did this on labor day.  And four months later, I have not had to put a single book back where it goes, the kids do it all by themselves, and when Grandma's come to baby sit, they know exactly where all the bed time books get returned.  It has been wonderful. The kids keep the shelves organized.  Every once in a while I do have to remind them that there are too many books on the floor, but they can put them away and they put them away straight and in the right place.

 

By trusting in the Lord, and not doing what I thought was best, but doing what the Lord thought was best I have learned to better manage my home, and thus have become a better mother and wife. I have been able to bring my home just a smidgen closer to heaven by eliminating this set of stress and adding a bit of order to maybe an otherwise chaotic home.  We are getting closer.

 

Kitchen Cupboards

My kitchens are always a work in progress. I don't think they are ever finished, so I am sure that there will be many more posts pertaining to my kitchens. But lets me honest, the kitchen cabinets are what makes the look of the kitchen.  Floors and countertops add to the look and functionality, however, you can get fake floors and countertops that look just as good as the real stuff, and so people can walk into your kitchen and be wowed by your kitchen without top of the line floors or countertops, but your cabinets need to look good.

Back in our condo we had the standard run of the mill yellowing oak cabinets. We lived in a complex of 32 buildings with 12 condos each. All of them had the same living room / kitchen main room.

 

(side note: I really liked our condo, but if it lacked anything it was storage space, you can see that all of my food storage was on my counters. To make it look a little better I used spray paint and painted all the #10 cans with red spray paint and used a silver sharpie to label each one.  I really liked the look, and it didn't bother me too badly that all my food storage was out on my counter top)

Because the kitchen was the same kitchen as all 384 of my neighbors, I really wanted to do something different with my kitchen.  I decided to go dark! Can I say I LOVED the dark! I sanded them all down: I removed the doors, used my sander to sand the flat spots and hand sanded all the curves, edges and bevels. You have to make sure you get off all of the previous finish or the wood will not absorb the stain, so sand until you think you got it all, and then sand some more.  Then I got a dark stain and stained them dark. I honestly don't remember what color of stain it was, something dark. I then sealed them off in three coats of polyurethane.  They looked amazing! Held up great, were easy to wash, and under the sink that normally gets water damaged didn't.

 

 

My cupboards were about the only thing in my condo that I was sad to leave, oh and my toffee colored walls with chocolate trim.  But boy was I excited to go find my dream home. (more on my dream home later this post is about my kitchen cupboards).

 

 

We bought our new home, it was built in the 50's but the kitchen had been updated in the 80's. . . back to the yellowing oak.

Sorry they are kind of blurry.

 The yellowing oak, once again, had to go. There was lots else that needed to change about my kitchen but first the cupboards. I really thought about going dark again.  But I felt like my kitchen was already too dark, and I wanted to lighten it up.  So I bought some bonding primer:

 

This stuff required only cleaning of the cabinets, no sanding! that was a huge plus.  It was stinky oil based stuff so I took all the cabinets out and painted them outside.  One of the best decisions I have ever made was that all the white in my house would be exactly the same white.  In my condo I made the mistake of not making note of what white was used where and I discovered how difficult it is to do touch ups when there is different paint used in different areas.  So anywhere you see white in my house it is the same semi-gloss paint, and same exact color. So it wasn't difficult deciding what to paint my kitchen cupboards. 

Now I looked for pictures when I first "finished" the cupboards, however I couldn't find any, so I had to take these today. This is part of the evolving kitchen scenario.  Originally the cupboards were painted and put back exactly how they were.  But a few months later when my three year old son had pulled the second microwave off the counter I decided I was done with the counter top microwave and insisted that we get an over the range Microwave.  In order to do this we had to remove the soffits above the cupboards, a post will follow about that later. 

 

These are not quite complete, someday I hope to add some molding around the tops.

 

Now for my favorite part of my cupboards - my organization decals.

 I work full time, and my husband stays at home and is working on his Master's degree at ASU on line.  And is at home with the kids (he is honestly the busiest guy I know, and I really think I got the easy part of this arrangement).  But because I work away from home,  he is often the one that cooks, and is almost always the one that puts away the dishes.  But he was never consistent about where he put things, and very rarely would things get put where, in my mind, they should go, and so when I do cook every so often I could never find anything.  In the scriptures we learn that we must " Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing, and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God;" Often during dinner preparation my home would become anything but a house of God as I would get stressed out looking for the kitchen utensil I needed as my dinner started to burn. I decided I needed to do as we are told in the scriptures and Organize myself, and prepare every needful thing. My sister made me these amazing decals with her Silhouette.

Now everyone knows where everything goes, and where to find things.

 

She made them with just standard vinyl, I think next time I would have her make them out of exterior vinyl, I think it would hold up better.

 

If I were to do it again I think I would stain the cabinets,  the paint doesn't hold up as well and I have to continuously wash it, and it doesn't clean as easily or as well as the stained cabinets.  But I think they both look loads better then the yellowing oak.

 

I truly feel like the kitchen is the heart of the home, you want it a happy place because everyone gathers there, that is where memories are made, families gather, and tummies are filled.

 

 



 

Moldings - A good starting point

When my husband and I were looking for our first house we had two very different ideas of what we wanted.  I had grown up helping my dad do fix it up projects around our house, and my husband had never done much more than change a light bulb as far as home repairs go. So while I thought it would be great to buy a house that needed a little TLC, my husband really wanted something that we wouldn’t have to do anything to, something new and pristine.  We didn’t have a huge budget to work with and so I thought an older home would be perfect, we could get more for our money. I finally gave in and we bought a three bedroom condo that was only 8 years old. 

My husband learned something: that it didn’t matter how nice our condo was I was not going to sit around and not do anything, I enjoyed the home improvement projects. Shortly after we moved in I became pregnant with our first baby and I was so excited to start in on a nursery. Because the whole concept made my husband extremely nervous (the decorating more than the upcoming baby) I started with something simple.

We painted the top half a light green and the bottom half a medium green.  And then separated the two with a small molding that I painted white.  This was ten years ago. I had a hard time finding a picture of it.  All I can find is a picture of the window with the curtains I put up. But you can see a little bit of my walls.  I loved the addition, thought it brought a lot to the room, not just boring one tone room.

 

Shortly after that I convinced him that it wasn’t too hard to put up the molding and that our front room needed crown molding it in. We had ten foot ceilings and high ceilings called for something fancy.  The problem was that in our Condo all the furnace vents were not in the floor or ceiling, but in the walls up by the ceiling, right where crown molding should go. I had to get creative.  One day I came up with the idea of once again using a simple small molding on both the wall and the ceiling.  And then painting both the molding and everything between the molding the same color. To make it look like really tall molding.  I was very pleased with the results.  And it did a great job at hiding the furnace vents (I painted those too).

 

After these  we discovered paint and moldings are a great way to update space. And I started to see a little bit of confidence in my husband increase.  I always feel after a good home improvement project my bonds to my husband have strengthened. I love to work side by side with him. However,  especially at first they didn’t always go smoothly, sometimes there is a bit of tension and frustrations.  But as the years have gone on, it seams like we have learned better how to work by each other’s sides. In 1995 The LDS church issued a statement about The Family. In it, it states, "Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities." Oh how much we have grown together through the work we have done together. This is one of the biggest reasons I love owning a home instead of renting, because we get to do the work on it.

Create

I am not a very articulate writer, and I have failed at keeping up my personal blog for the last year and I keep thinking I should get back to it, and then I think of the daunting task of getting caught back up.  In the mean time I have a sister-in-law who has told me I need to start a website/youtube page/blog or something to help other people, I think she thinks I should do a teach someone to sew youtube page or something. However I am not a very talented seamstress and I would be the one searching youtube pages on how to sew something.  But it has made me contemplate the possibilities of starting some sort of online document of something that I am good at, maybe I can help someone.  BUT WHAT!?! I seriously have considered a blog about urban homesteading, but do I have enough on that?  What about something else.  And then the other day I was once again thinking about it. And while I pondered, a talk from one of my church leaders kept coming to my mind.

 

  And it hit me. I need to document my little bit of heaven. Through my divinely inherited ability to create I am able to Create a Heaven on earth. I can share the ways that I bring Heaven into my life, share My Smidgen of Heaven, and through this, others hopefully can find their ways to create their Smidgen of Heaven.

As I share with you my little bits of Heaven, please share with me your’s and together we can increase the amount of Heaven on Earth.

Things that I know currently are a piece of my heaven are my Garden and yard, my home that I am constantly doing new DIY improvement projects (I love this), I am also regularly finding new ways to bring the Holiday's into my home, better ways of organizing so that that my home doesn't get cluttered, Chickens - I love having chickens, crocheting, baking, finding ways to get my kids to eat healthy, personal health, 3- its the magic number just ask Jack Johnson (I am constantly trying to find ways to reduce, re-use and recycle).  I am all over the place with things that I love and increase my slice of heaven.  I hope that maybe I can inspire you.

Start Small ● Improve ● Beautify ● Extend ● Smile ● Develop ● Masterpiece