Christmas and New Year

I hope that you all had a wonderful christmas. Just catching up with afew pictures from the last couple of weeks. Sorry they are a little blurred. We have been

Snuggling by candlelight
Watching he brave people swimming in our Boxing Day Dip (truly mad mad people)

Watching the lights twinkle on the christmas tree.

From our little house by the sea we wish you all the very best for the new year.

S xxxx

Simple

Yesterday the children and I had the most wonderful day out enjoying lots of old fashioned christmas cheer. Sadly Andrew was unable to come with us as he was home sick and spent the day in bed with flu...

When we came home and the children were tucked up in bed I decided it was about time that I made a start with the christmas cards, I had out it off enough.

What better way to get off to a good start... Candle light, cards, pen, ink and a wax seal for the envelopes.

We bought the pen and ink today as the children were wascinated by it. I normally use a good quality fountain pen that my Gran bought for me years and years ago but have never really used one that you need to dip in the ink, it was fun to try.. It makes you think about what you are writing as you need to concentrate so much on getting just the right amount of ink on the nib and all that. The candle light just added that extra touch.... The wax seal has the initial of our surname on it and looks sweet on the back of the envelope...... Simple.....

We have been enjoying som lazy days here recently, kind of stopping to smell the roses. It is about time

Christmas cakes have been made
Dods have been snoozing

And beautiful walks have been taken. We have had the most stunning weather this last couple of days. It has been so very cold and icy but once you have wrapped up it is just so nice to be outside. The water here is frozen solid, it is so quiet that if you drop something on the ice you hear the strangest of noises.
The air smells of cold and fires, I love the smell of fires.

I have finally started with some christmas shopping. It is going to be a fairly modest affair this year but as long as time is spent together it really doesnt matter to us. I am not going to list gifts on here just yet as I know that family read this blog.

Another idea I wanted to share with you ( I cant claim this to be my own idea, borrowed it from another blog)

My children have got a chocolate advent calendar which was bought for them and also one of those fabric ones that you put a gift inside the pockets (which was made for them). Rather than use the fabric one for chocolates I will put a little note into each pocket with an activity on it, it could be making popcorn, baking, watching a movie or anything. I think that this is a wonderful idea as my children wont remember the chocolate they had but will the time spent with their family. I will blog mre about it in the next few days.

Thank You

Thank you to GTM over at A Life Full Of Blessings

for this award.

The rules are that I need to nominate 5 other blogs. Here you are,

http://eclecticculturefarm.blogspot.com/

http://warmpiehappyhome.blogspot.com/

http://faerienuff.blogspot.com/

http://cakemakestheworldabetterplace.blogspot.com/

http://lucylocketrecycledherpocket.blogspot.com/

(click on the links above) This is for inspiring me in many different ways, for this I thank you.

I also wanted to thank everyone for their advice regarding the last post. I have a few ideas now and will update them later as it is getting late now. It can be hard to stand by ones life choices at times, especially when they may not always be what is classed as the norm. However I have always said it would be rather dull to be normal, who wants to be the same anyway?

I know that I feel squashed and trapped in what we class as "normal" and feel the need to spread my wings and be the real me.

I look around the school yard when I collect my children from school and dont want my children to be the same as everyone. I know that it is harder for our children as I know only too well how cruel children can be when someone is not quite the same but I have always told mine that they should stand up for what they believe in and be proud. Anyway, enough it is getting rather late and I am very tired.

GOD Bless,

S xxxx

Simplicity

I am hoping that my dear blogger friends would give me some advice. As you have probably read I am on a quest for some simplicity in our lives. I feel the desire to stear away from some of the modern consumerism and other stuff that modern day living pushes us towards and although this is something that has always been with me, that desire has for some reason become such a greater priority right now.

We have made some changes and TV free was one of them. I set the family the challenge to watch no tv for a week and it was a complete breeze. I could be quite happy to turn in the TV and never have one again. The children were not concerned at all and if I am honest I thought that they would miss it. They rediscovered long lost toys and games that they had forgotten about and just played for hours and hours. There is nothing more entertaining than listening to the giggles of children having fun. We still have the tv and we can watch it but I think that it gave us all a little more appreciation of the other things we have in our lives. Where we go from now? I dont know the answer to that right now, but I know that it will include much more fun.

Right now, I am hoping that some fo my blogger friends will help me here. There are no right or wrong answers as everyone is different...
What does simplicity mean to you? Is it staying at home, avoiding consumerism or whatever?
Can you share your ideas and perhaps give me some more ideas.

Also as we head to what can be the most expensive time of the year I need some ideas for Christmas presents, mainly for my children age 9 Girl and 7 boy. It is hard to try to be simple with the children over christmas but I am lucky in that my children never ask for anything, so this avoids some problems but it also makes it difficult to get them things that they would like. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Amish Apple Butter

This is so yummy that you must run into your kitchen, put on your apron and some wonderful music and make some.. The house smells wonderful and although it may take some time it is worth every little bit of the effort.
Peel and core the apples.

6 pounds of apples

1 Cup of apple juice

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

quarter cup cider vinegar

2 cups dark brown sugar

Peel, core and chop the apples. Put them into an ovenproof dish. Add the apple juice and bring to the boil. Simmer and cook until the apples are cooked (about 30 mins)

Press the apples through a strainer into a bowl. Return mixture to the pot adding the cinnamon, vinegar and brown sugar.
Bake in the oven 350' for 3 hours.

Place in clean jar and refrigerate for up to three weeks.

Make it look all pretty.

TV free

Thanks you for your kind comments and emails about my previous post about change. There is nothing wrong (thankfully) but I have felt the need for change for some time but didnt know what or how to do it, I just needed time to figure out what it was.

There is nothing huge planned, we are still living in the same house and will still go to the same jobs but it is just all the rest that has been looked at.

One of the things that has been a bug bear of mine is the TV. I HATE Tv, it is full of absolute junk and either old hasbeens or wannabe celebs. I think you can guess I dont watch alot of TV..
Anyway, this week I set the family a challenge of NO TV for a WEEK !!!!!
We started on Monday and I can honestly say that it has not even been switched on since. Nobody has even asked or commented that they miss the idiot box. We have done other things and I a so glad of it, the house seems a whole lot calmer without the constant noise. When we decided on this week we didnt realise that it was Children in Need on Friday, so the children are been allowed to watch an hour of it on Friday and that is it.

I will let you know how we get on with this. Another thing that is been looked at is Christmas, I think that it will be in another post though.