Happy Homemaker Monday 12.20.16 Tuesday’s Edition

Posted on December 20, 2016 by Carrie Ann Alexis

Good Evening!! This is my Tuesday edition, since I was working with the boys to finish their semester until 10:30 p.m. on Monday. I don’t have honor roll students here, but they finished and they passed all their classes!! Being a new school for all of us, I am very pleased with that. But next semester, we hit it hard and end strong!! Looking so forward to my three weeks off, but don’t know when I’ll get a chance to actually relax. It’s that time of year!! The twins are having their annual hot chocolate get together with their friends tonight. That’s where she makes home made hot chocolate, and they have snacks and just hang out, always a fun time. Hope everyone has a great week!!

Linking-up with Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

LOL CHUCKLES AND GIGGLES:

RECIPE I WANT TO TRY:

This just looks delicious!! I love cherry cheesecake, and wrap it in some chocolate!! Yes please!!

HAPPENINGS AROUND TOWN:

I just saw that our library is starting an Adult Coloring Club every Thursday night. Definitely something I am going to check out!!

Last weekend we went to The Living Christmas Tree at our church. They put on this production every two years. This was the third time I have gone. This is a fairly small church, but this production is pretty awesome. When I was younger I took piano lessons from a lady named Mrs. Allen. Her husband was the original Pastor of this church. Now it is Pastored by Paul Vale, her son-in-law and her daughter Suzie. Mrs. Allen was such an awesome lady, so friendly, and soft spoken, and a great piano and voice teacher. Sadly, Mrs. Allen passed away over the summer. So this year’s Living Christmas Tree was dedicated to her. It’s her children that put this production on. The first part of the show is a little play. This year’s theme was Home for Christmas. So the story was lead by her daughter Suzie, her son-in-law Paul, and son Scott. It was a story about a family going back to the home that they all grew up in. The house is for sale, but they spend one more Christmas in it together reminiscing. I have to tell you, I do not know how they did it, because by the end, I had tears in my eyes just knowing Mrs. Allen and how much she loved her family. But it was so beautifully done. It was a story that everyone could relate too, but had such a deeper meaning for them. The story had some funny parts in it and songs to really bring it to life. The second half of show is where the choir stands in the huge lighted Christmas tree and sings Christmas carols, and this is directed by Mrs. Allen’s other daughter, Sally.

Here is a picture of what it actually looks like the picture on the left is with the singers in it during the performance, and the one on the right is what the structure looks like after the show.

At one point they sang the Battle Hymn of the Republic for all the service men and women serving in the military, and the lights flashed red white and blue, that was really good.

Here is a video of another song that they did.

FAVORITE VIDEO FROM THE WEB:

FAVORITE PIC FROM THE CAMERA:

QUOTES:

Happy Homemaker Monday 12.12.16

Posted on December 12, 2016 by Carrie Ann Alexis

Good Afternoon!! It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!! Our decorations are all up, and we had a wonderful winter storm this weekend, leaving everything covered in a blanket of white. But with that we have some frigid weather coming our way. But the snow was pretty coming down, and always gets me in the mood for the holidays. Enjoy your week ahead!!

Linking-up with Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

LOL CHUCKLES AND GIGGLES:

RECIPE I WANT TO TRY:

These are just adorable, and easy too!!

HAPPENINGS AROUND TOWN/SPECIAL TRIPS:

On Friday, we took a little trip to Lafayette, Indiana to Purdue University. Every year they hold an online art contest for high school students nationwide. Out of 800 submissions, one of Elijah’s photos was chosen for this exhibit. So he was invited to the Open House and Award Ceremony that was held at the Patti & Rusty Rueff Galleries in the Yue-Kong Pao Hall of Visual & Performing Arts building on the campus of Purdue University. Elijah did not receive an award, but just being chosen out of 800 submissions is a pretty big deal. This is the third year that they held this contest. The building and the gallery was very nice. Being that it was an online competition, they had a section of the gallery cleared out and the submissions were projected onto the wall of the gallery as the exhibit. They did have a half wall constructed with the event name, and all the artists listed on it, which was pretty cool. You can see Elijah here:

I shared this pic on another post, but this is the photo that was entered:

Ben to the 7th Power

They had these really cool sculptures on the outside of the building, with this huge open area with concrete benches lined up along a brick-laid courtyard type-deal.

It took us about an hour and a half to get there, but the trip was nice. I enjoyed driving around the college town, and seeing the beautiful architecture of some of the frat houses as well as the neighboring areas. The houses were old and beautiful.

We have been doing school work on the weekends, which has been a bit of a bummer, and something the boys aren’t used to, but they have been knocking it out. So we took our break and made the trek out to see the reindeer in town on Saturday. It was fa-reezing!! But they are adorable.

Sunday, we went to the Living Christmas Tree at the church we attend. I will write about that in an upcoming post.

FAVORITE VIDEO FROM THE WEB:

A friend of mine shared this on FB with this introduction. A beautiful introduction to a beautiful song, and one of my favorites too!!

May we all find some “light” this holiday season and feel its warmth deep in our souls. Deep enough to be the better version we all want to be, and that the people around us, family and strangers, so badly need us to be.

May it start with this version of one of my favorite songs, made into a Christmas song.

“He came to rescue me, Hallelujah!”

Love this!! Just watch.

FAVORITE PIC FROM THE CAMERA:

Olivia found this idea on Pinterest, and recreated it in our kitchen. It was done on a white fridge, but we live in the Midwest, our snow doesn’t stay white for long, lol. Is it Frosty? Or De-Frosty?

QUOTES:

Happy Homemaker Monday 12.05.16

Posted on December 5, 2016 by Carrie Ann Alexis

Good Evening. Very late post, but it’s been a busy, busy weekend, and we had our first snowfall!! Couple of inches too, it was absolutely beautiful!! We are in the end of semester crunch right now, working diligently to get everything done for school. In the midst of that, also putting up holiday decorations when we can. I thoroughly enjoyed shampooing the carpets, they turned out very nice too. Still need to do the stairs yet, and the couch. Getting these projects checked off my list here and there, so that I make Santa’s nice list this year 😀

Hope everyone is doing well. Have a wonderful week!!

Linking-up with Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

LOL CHUCKLES AND GIGGLES:

RECIPE I TRIED AND ONE I WANT TO TRY:

So I did try the Chicken Tamale Pie. I didn’t make mine in a skillet, so it was more like a casserole. My little food critic liked it, Liv and Elijah weren’t all that impressed with it, and I wasn’t either. It isn’t horrible, and it is easy to make, so we’ll see if I make that one again.

What I’d like to try…Hot Chocolate Float…yes please!!

HAPPENINGS AROUND TOWN:

We went to the Illuminated Christmas Parade and Tree Lighting Ceremony on Friday night. Met my sister, her husband, my nephew and his fiancé, and my Aunt out there. It was pretty cold. But it is unbelievable at the amount of people that come out for it. The floats seem to be getting better. There are a few traditional floats of local businesses, the school band but the majority of them are these illuminated structures (thus the name).

It ends with Mr. and Mrs. Claus pulled by real reindeer (who are adorable, the reindeer that is). Mr. and Mrs. Claus then greet people after the parade at our City Hall. This year there was a bit of a surprise. Our entire City Hall was covered in lights, and when our Mayor hit the switch and it was amazing!! Taking a picture doesn’t do it justice, and it’s hard to time it with the switching of colors, so I took video of it instead. Me and the boys went out on Sunday while it was snowing to get some good pictures.

This is the tree in front of city hall.

My Uncle is the event planner for our town. This corner of town was decorated by him. Yep, that Santa is huge!! He comes into down laying on a flat bed truck, lol. They just built this little stage where they hold concerts in the summer. I thought this would be a great place to take family Christmas pics, nudging my daughter to get out there with her brothers.

During the parade one of our local mascots was walking around, so Ben took a pic with him, he’s so cute.

These are the trees around a Veteran’s Memorial that is in front of the school. They hold special services here for Memorial Day and Veterans Day with the local American Legion.

Our Mayor has done so much for this town, and he keeps going. Growing up, we didn’t have half these things going on. As teenagers my friends and I couldn’t wait to get out of this small town. But I have to say, I’m really happy to be back.

FAVORITE VIDEO FROM THE WEB:

Love this. Just goes to show, behind every great man, there’s an awesome woman.

FAVORITE PIC FROM THE CAMERA:

First snow fall brought out my adorable snowman, Frostbite. My kids surprised me with him 6 years ago. (Yes, I still need to get the patio furniture in the garage) 😦

More Lights

QUOTES:

Happy Homemaker Monday 11.28.16

Posted on November 28, 2016 by Carrie Ann Alexis

Good ~~Morning~~ Evening!! Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. Ben had been sick last week, so as he rested, he watched all these episodes of Chopped, the Thanksgiving editions. One day he asks me, so mom, do you brine your turkey? I’m like what? Then he proceeds to tell me how to do it. So I was a little nervous this year preparing my feast, I was afraid I wouldn’t measure up and possibly get chopped. But Ben was very happy with the meal, as were all my kids. Elijah thanked me for being his mom, and making such a great meal. Ben thanked my mom for having me, so that I could make them such a good meal 😀

So now it’s on to Christmas preparations. I put up the outside lights on Sunday, the forecast said sunny and 50, yeah, no, it was fa-reezing!! 39 feeling like 29. But we have had such warm weather that the bush I usually string lights on has leaves on it still. It is usually bare twigs, and I string the lights all through it, and hang large ornaments on it. So either I will wait to do that, or skip it all together.

It’s been two months since my mom’s injury, and she has moved back upstairs to her room. So we are cleaning and rearranging again. We have been discussing what needs to be done, and we want to get the carpets cleaned. She was going to call in the professionals, but after talking with a friend about a carpet scrubber, she decided to buy one, because I LOVE to clean carpets, and don’t mind doing it. So, I got to shop online, for a carpet scrubber, and it was on sale!! I couldn’t be happier if I were twins!!

Have a great week ahead!!

Linking-up with Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

LOL CHUCKLES AND GIGGLES:RECIPE I WANT TO TRY:

Chicken Tamale Pie

HAPPENINGS AROUND TOWN:

We will be having all kinds of holiday events going on. Everything will be kicked off with the holiday parade on Friday, which has Santa and live reindeer. The park is already decorated with all the holiday lights, and the huge Santa Claus is on the main street.

FAVORITE VIDEO FROM THE WEB:

Love this.

FAVORITE PIC FROM THE CAMERA:

Our newest Christmas decoration.

QUOTES:

Happy Homemaker Monday 11.21.16

Posted on November 21, 2016 by Carrie Ann Alexis

Good Morning!! Things have been a bit hectic here. Working with the boys and their school work, the semester ends December 19^th, and then we have 3 weeks off!! I don’t know who’s looking forward to it more, me or the boys 😀 We also have a cold virus cycling through the house, not fun at all. My daughter started out with Strep throat, and was put on antibiotics for it, but she ended up with an allergic reaction, where she broke out in hives. She saw her primary care Doc and they gave her Benedryl for them, but by the end of the night, they weren’t getting better, and once they reached her face and lips, we decided to take her to the ER. I find that nurses in the ER are so nice, and have a wealth of information. This one told us that an allergic reaction to medicine will begin with hives on the back of the neck, which most people don’t see right away. That is exactly how my daughters started.

Looking forward to the Holiday, even though we aren’t having anyone over, we will still enjoy a delicious feast, I’ll be cooking up a quiet storm, but it’s something my kids look forward to every year. Wishing you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving!!

Linking-up with Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

LOL CHUCKLES AND GIGGLES:

RECIPE I’VE TRIED:

Chicken Parm Lasagna. Saw this one on FB and just had to try it. I love Chicken Parmesan!! It was delicious. My daughter’s boyfriend was here and when I told him what I was making he was like, are you kidding me? Chicken Parmesan and Lasagna…together? Once he tried it, he just closed his eyes and shook his head, then said his taste buds were doing the Whip and the Nae Nae 😀 So yeah, it’s pretty good.

HAPPENINGS AROUND TOWN:

It was 39 degrees the other day, but it felt like 29 because of the wind. With the wind brings the waves, and the waves bring the surfers. This picture is just a few of them, there were at least a dozen out there. On one end of the lake, we have the beautiful Chicago skyline, this is the other side where we have the view of the BP Refinery. The surfers always surf on this side, the waves didn’t seem that big to me, they were much larger on the other side. But they seemed to be having fun, cheering each other on. It didn’t seem like any fun to me, it was cold!!