Christmas Planning: A "Christmas" Miracle and Getting Started Early

This last Easter weekend we had snow. SNOW. On Easter Weekend. There was a lot of murmuring in our valley about what many saw as nature's cruel joke. That is, until everyone found out about Allanna, a six year old in our valley suffering with cancer. She isn't expected to live until next December, so her family decided to have her last Easter AND her last Christmas over Easter weekend. And we got snow. Isn't God good? You can see news story about Allana and her miracle snow here.

Along with sharing this heartwarming story with you, I thought maybe it is time to share some holiday tips that I use to help make the holidays more enjoyable, affordable, and doable at our house. So, over the course of this week, I will be sharing both our Christmas Philosophy, and some ideas about how to pay for it. I know it is early in the year, but I wanted to put them out there because a few require advanced planning, and the rest are worth mulling over! More to come!!

Up Next: Our Christmas Gift Philosophy

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Best Homemade Pizza I've Ever Had!

A few months ago I took a small class about sourdough and sourdough starters. It was all very, very intimidating to me, but I thought I would give it a try. Turns out, once you have a starter, it isn't so difficult after all, just a lot of planning ahead and waiting between steps. So far, I have made artisan sourdough bread, whole wheat sourdough crackers, and this AMAZINGLY delicious pizza crust. Hubster and I both enjoyed the artisan bread, but the kids didn't care much for it the first time around. The second time around they were a little more favorable because it was still warm, but they didn't care for it again once it cooled. I really enjoyed the crackers, but no one else seemed to enjoy them all that much. Then I made the pizza dough from the King Arthur Flour website. OH. MY. GOODNESS. Not only was it good, but it was the best homemade pizza dough I have EVER had. This recipe alone was worth the upkeep of a sourdough starter. ...

Christmas Planning Part IV: Paying for Christmas

While scaling back can take a big chunk out of the burden of paying for Christmas, the burden won't be completely gone. We still have to buy gifts or materials to make them, and we want to do fun things around Christmas that sometimes cost money. Since I don't advocate going into credit card debt for anything short of the most dire emergencies, here are a couple suggestions on how to pay for Christmas. One way we have done it in the past is to set up an extra savings account at our credit union and transfer $10-$20 a paycheck into it depending on what we can afford. If things are really tight, we sometimes only move over $5. If we have a windfall (such as a bonus or tax return) we will take a portion of that money and add it to the Christmas account as well. This Christmas account pays for both gifts AND activities thorough the Christmas season. I know someone that insists that they are too poor to save even a few dollars a pay check, so they put everything they buy for ...

Dilly Beans

My very first post on home canning!! This is something I am pretty passionate about, so I'm a little sad that I decided to start this blog at the end of the canning season, because that means that I missed out blogging about peaches, pears, apricots, and applesauce. As it is, I am going to be posting the end of our harvest canning. First up.....Dilly Beans! (aka pickled green beans). This recipe makes 4 pints of pickled green beans. What you'll need: 2(ish) lbs green beans 1/4 c. canning salt 2 1/2 c. vinegar 2 1/2 c. water 4 cloves peeled garlic 2 tbs dill seed 4 pint jars 4 new canning lids 4 canning rings Water bath canner Snap or trim the ends off of green beans and pack them vertically into clean pint jars (I like to lay my jar on its side while I do most of the packing, and then tip it upright and see if there is any more room). Put 1/2 tbs dill seed and 1 clove garlic in each jar. Put the water, vinegar and salt in a sauce pan and he...

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