Scripture Advent

I've been ridiculously productive the last few weeks. It's very exciting. There have been painting projects that have been sitting in my garage FOR YEARS that I finally got done (I'll try to post a picture soon) and I've completed some fun Christmas crafts.

One such craft is an advent I found online (here's the link: scripture advent). I liked it because

1. It was FREEEEEE!
2. It is Christ-focused.

I was looking for some kind of scripture advent to help us focus on Jesus in December and this is perfect. Each day has a topic about Christ, a little blurb about the topic, a list of scriptures, and an activity to do. After you complete the card you flip it over and there's a symbol representing that day.

I printed out the cards and then I had some laminating sheets I stuck them in because I really want this to last.

The green holder came from the dollar store and I just "Christmas-a-fied" it a bit. It makes me happy when I see it. 

I was a little bit sad because Emery is basically indifferent to it, but as I lamented to my mom about it she pointed out that it will be even more fun next year because she'll remember it and be more excited. I might get some kind of small candy to go in it too, just because it's fun. 

Snapshot

I love my days, even if they sometimes get crazy, because I have moments like this:

This is how we walked to pick up Bella from school the other day. This girl makes me smile so big it sometimes squeezes tears out of my eyes. :) I love this "little mommy!"

Christmas is Here!

 Christmas is in full swing here at the Giraud house. We went and bought our tree a week or so ago, put on the ornaments while we rocked out to Christmas music, and we put up the train that Emery got last year for Christmas around the tree.

I've been trying for a YEAR to get Emery to like this train with no luck. But now that it's around the tree (and that Emery's a bit older) she LOVES the train. She's played with it for hours. She really likes to take her princesses for rides:

I can't believe I'm actually getting holiday pictures up on my blog BEFORE a holiday is over. Granted these aren't Christmas DAY pictures, but still. Let's all take a moment to be super proud of me since I'm not making you look at Christmas pictures in March. 

Freezer Meals

So I saw this pin on pinterest the other day for 20 crock pot freezer meals from Costco for less than $150 in 2 hours. I always see these types of pins and my reaction is to cringe and think, "where in the world do people muster the motivation to do this stuff?!" But for some reason this link got me all sorts of excited and I knew that this one would be "the one" for me. I think it captured my attention because the blogger had made it so easy. She had a grocery list--all from Costco, cost break-down, amounts, recipes, everything. So I paid the $2.50 she charges to print off the lists and recipes and committed myself to get it done that day.

Before I hit up Costco, Emery and I met up with some friends at the library. I told them what I was doing and my friend expressed interest in doing it too so I roped her into doing it with me. I'm SOOOOO glad I had her along because let me tell you it was AN ORDEAL! That whole statement, "You can totally do it in two hours!" that the blog asserts should read, "You can totally do it in two hours...if you are some sort of super-human and can simultaneously chop potatoes and onions at the same time." So. Much. Chopping.

We didn't get a start on it until 4 pm, after shopping trips and naps and such. We figured it would probably take us longer than 2 hours because it was our first time doing something like this, but we did not imagine that we would still be at it 4 HOURS LATER! Like I said, it was an ordeal.

Here we are, about 3/4 of the way through. Onion shards everywhere, cans spread out as far as the eye can see, and delicious meals in the making.

I had to get a picture of the recycle bin. It was SOOO full of cans! 

20 freezer meals is a lot of food. A LOT! My freezer is on the smallish side compared to some, so it was a trick to get them all shoved in there. Because I couldn't lay them all flat there are many that are now frozen in crazy shapes and stuck to each other. Ooops. 

The thought of having 20 meals just sitting there, waiting to be eaten is probably unfathomable to a lot of people in the world who don't even know where their next meal is coming from. And here I am with 20 meals, at my disposal. I carry around some guilt?sadness? in my heart because of that. Expressing my gratitude and giving back when I have a chance helps that feeling, but it doesn't get rid of it.

Anyway, we tried our first one on Sunday: BBQ chicken and potatoes. It was delicious, so I consider this endeavor a SUCCESS!

Here's the link if you want to try for yourself:

freezer meals

I'd highly recommend a food processor if you have one. Mine stopped working after the first batch and it would have saved us some time if we could have used it.