At Home Foot Spa.
Sandal wearing is pretty much over for most of us. It’s on to socks and boots and tights and slippers.
If you’re like me, you’ve had your toes painted since last April. 
Which means when you take off that polish for winter months…yellow nails. 

Browsing pinterest one evening I found a fix to this issue.

{Not my toes…photo courtesy of pinterest}

2 1/4 T. baking soda
1 T. peroxide
Make a paste, leave it sit on your nails for 5 minutes..rinse…no more yellow.
(except in my case..I had to do it twice but it worked! it really, really worked.

Jeff’s birthday was this past week. 
He was able to be home that day.

Sammy made his first cake from scratch. Yellow with chocolate frosting. It turned out great.
We had homemade french onion soup by request..and my eyes watered with every slice of onion.
Stick your head in the freezer they say. Run the onion under water they say…
Nothing works. I still cry!

This weekend our boys are at Jeff’s parents, our girls are at my parents. We are a.l.o.n.e. 
We are SO blessed to have such Incredible parents!!! Thank you so much mom and mother in law.

We are going to be in the city Friday night for dinner with some of my siblings.
and then we’re spending the night on Michigan Ave. thanks to Jeff’s very kind cousin! {thanks Heidi!}
Saturday we’re making lamb chops and watching a Christmas movie at home.

I do miss my kids when I am away from them…the house seems so weird empty.
BUT..I am very excited to be with Jeff and only Jeff. and I LOVE Chicago all lit up at Christmas time.

Anything exciting in your weekend plans?
Happy Friday.

Due to the Great success of last year’s Thanksgiving Day. 
{consumers consuming….said by Target and Walmart}
Stores will once again be open this Thanksgiving. 

If you were following my blog last November,
you already heard my thoughts on this subject. If not, you can read them if you click the link.
(Once again, I can’t get links to work the way I want them to..grrrr!!!!)
http://elizabethmarie-1.xanga.com/756921524/the-orphaned-holiday/#viewcomments

This week has been nothing short of crazy..but crazy in a good way.
We’ve been getting ready for this weekend.

Thanksgiving dinner has taken place in our home for 8 years…tomorrow will be the 9th.
We LoVe hosting. I am big on traditions and this is one of my favorites.

Our Menu is as follows.

Dinner
2 Turkeys
Sweet Potatoes with a pecan crunch topping {SO good!}
Mashed Potatoes
Corn Pudding 
Gnocchi
Spinach Salad w/roasted beets and feta cheese
Stuffing
Cranberry Sauce
Jello Fluff 
Assorted Dinner Rolls

Dessert
Grandma’s Tiramisu 
Oreo Cheesecake (in the oven now. 20 minutes left. it smells really good…I want a piece now!)
Creme Brulee 
Pumpkin Pie
Pecan Pie
Pecan Dainties

and of course Egg Nog. 
We do not drink even a sip! until Thanksgiving.
Since I’ve been little this has been. My grandma always made sure to have it for us.
Now that Thanksgiving is at my house..I do the same.

Hope you all have a Wonderful, Blessed Thanksgiving.

So you have an item in your closet, let’s say a hat, you think is preeeeetty schnazzy, 
but your husband doesn’t think the same.

Maybe he even says you look like a witch in it. maybe.  

…Thanksgiving. {let the holiday season begin!}
…pumpkin bread with chocolate chips.

…turkeys made from pine cones.
…painted pictures of pumpkins and leaves.

I have hardly any pictures of my boys anymore!
They aren’t as excited to get their picture taken as when they were little.
I’m going to remedy that.

Happy Wednesday to you.

Happy Friday everyone.

Feeling Frumpy? I usually start to feel this way after the holidays. Don’t you?
..after one too many Christmas cookies. 
..after one too many Christmas movies while sitting under a blanket on the couch,
{my only workout being lifting hot chocolate from the coffee table to my mouth!}

Makes me want to stay in sweat pants and my old cozy sweater. 

Saw this cute devotional online, thought I’d share.
Frumps to Pumps. What a fun title. I haven’t read it yet, but it looks encouraging and sweet.

We have a busy couple days ahead. Looking forward to…
…spending time with family.
…eating my grandparents famous gnocchi.
…eating my grandma’s famous cannoli cake.
…having Jeff around. (that’s my favorite

How about you? busy weekend? or relaxing weekend?

…from someone else’s facebook comment. (with permission of course
They were too good not to share. 

In light of those upset with yesterdays election, today….

~ in God we trust is still on our pennies. 
~ we have freedom to worship when and where we want.
~ our country hasn’t broken into riots like other countries do during elections.
~ our country is still the best country in the world to live.
~ we have peace throughout our land. Think of the wicked kings of the old testament..they ruled for years and years.
This is only a 4 year term and Obama doesn’t even compare in wickedness. and if he did, there are checks and balances in our government.
~ people say it’s the end times. well, bring it on! that only brings us one step closer to Heaven.

{Thanks Kay for letting me loosely quote your encouraging words}

Today I am thankful I have the freedom to homeschool my children. We learned about iron. (Fe) on the periodic table.

and did I mention how much I love our wood stove? I do.
This is absolutely the best stove of it’s kind ever made. {stamped on our stove}

Enjoy your day.

…..project 2012 is almost, pretty much finished.
 

We…(and by WE, I mean Jeff and my two oldest sons …

knocked down a wall.
put in an old wood burning stove.
removed a closet. 
added new crown molding in the foyer.
painted lots of walls in lots of rooms.
painted (and here’s where the “almost, pretty much finished” part comes in) all the trim in the above mentioned rooms.
put in a new window!!! a great big window that takes up my whole wall. 

Since we moved into this house I wanted a bigger window in the dining room.
Last summer the glass cracked on our small window..I was excited because I thought the crack meant a new, bigger window.

I was wrong. It meant Jeff was going to fix the glass. He didn’t want to spend money on a big window at that time.
I told him that I was going to pray for a big window. He laughed and said fine, pray for a window.

I barely had a chance to pray when my brother called and told me my uncle had the wrong window installed into his house.
The company was coming to install a new one and wanted to know if anyone wanted the old one, they were just going to toss it away. 

Of course!!!! No tossing! I’ll take it. Thank you God. Thank you Uncle Jimmy.
God shows Himself in such amazing ways..even in something as silly and simple as a window.
and let me just say..we could NOT have afforded to buy this particular window!

So glad my aunt and uncle love quality.
So thankful they asked if anyone needed a window.

The wood burning stove I found on Craig’s List last fall for $200. It has been in our garage for over a year.
It needed a little love and care. Well care…I already was in Love!

I did a little research….the stove was made in the Chicago Foundry between 1904-1920. 
We have been using it for a little over a week now and let me tell you, our usually chilly house is warm. (It’s 80 degrees in here right now.)

{another perk..no heating bills this winter. yay.}

This month ten years ago we bought our home. Since we’ve moved here Jeff has wanted to paint using different shades of white.
I finally agreed. {and it had nothing to do with Country Living Magazine…cough} I really like how it brightened up our room. 

I am actually banned from painting trim in the house. {a story for a different time}…and since I hate painting, well I don’t mind the ban.
Jeff still has a little bit of painting left to do inside of the window…as you can see.

I am so glad to have furniture back in the rooms where it belongs.
Having the house out of order made everything feel out of order. 

Hope your week was off to a great start.

Today’s tip…fashion for your heart. 

This is a page out of a magazine geared toward young teenage girls.

The woman pictured below is 30 years old.
She is thoughtlessly torn to shreds. I wonder how she felt when she saw this on the newstand. 

We don’t know her, yet we draw conclusions based on a teenage tabloid.

Young girls will pick this up and giggle and laugh and think nothing of it.
After all, it’s just silly teenage stuff, right?

You see…it’s not all right. It gives our young girls a certain mindset.  
A mindset that being mean is okay. Tearing someone apart is funny.
It desensitizes them. It sets for them a lower standard. 

There is so much hatred and cruelty in schools and society today. We teach our kids not to bully. We teach them to share, to be kind, to put others first.
The media runs campaigns and advertises not to hate.  Hate laws are passed, rules made, parents agree….
and then a little magazine is all packaged up looking fun and cute suggesting to do the very thing everyone is against!
Being mean. 

What are we saying to our children if we okay this reading material?

The second problem I have is the way they discuss her appearance.
This woman is 30 years old. They are suggesting she has reached “grandma” age.

Our girls have enough issues today with the way they look. America is obsessed with youth. skinniness. perfection.
Exposing themselves to this kind of talk will just fuel the insecurity fire that is already burning within them.

(What would DOVE  think of this.

We should be teaching our daughters and young girls not to behave this way.
We should be teaching them to accept aging as something beautiful. an accomplishment. something to look forward to.
We need to teach them to respect those that are older than us. to respect others in general.
We need to teach them that others have feelings. and we need to be sensitive to those feelings.

As a mom your daughter looks up to you. You set the standard whether you think so or not.
She is looking to you for guidance. for approval. for the right and wrong.
Which is exactly the way God ordained things to be!  

So much of the world and the church of today compare themselves to others. other people’s standards. instead of the bible’s standards.
God has a much higher standard than we do. Magazine pages like this I’m sorry to say, are not setting a biblical standard for our young ladies.

I would encourage you to set an example of graciousness and kindness.
To find your beauty in serving. giving. sharing with others. 

It’s not always easy to do…trust me, I’m stressing over a couple grey hairs I found!
But if we can keep our focus, we can do it. Life is too important to flip out over a new line around your eye.
These bodies of ours aren’t coming with us anyway.

Hope you have a most splendid weekend.