The Mac and Cheese Chronicles

Q: Can you share a neat Advent activity or craft with us?

For a Advent activity or craft – well, I like these stars from Dawn. We’ll be making those this year. Another quick and easy one is this little angel I made for the Jesse Tree Swap. They look cute tied to packages or hanging from a garland on your mantle.

You need 30 mm jingle bells, a spool of gold cord, a spool of thin gold ribbon, a spool of wide, white organdy ribbon, a spool of gold beads, a spool of lace and some wood balls with or without a hole through them. I found it all at Michael’s, but ran out of lace and went to a closer fabric store for more. I like the lace I got at the fabric store MUCH better. It had a finished edge, which caused the lace the form a circle almost by itself. Make the extra trip and get that kind of lace. You’ll also need regular and mini glue dots.

Start with the body. Cut a piece of lace that will go around the bell for a dress. If you’re making more than one, get some paper and mark your measurements. Don’t bother with a ruler, just mark the length and label it. Use a glue dots to stick on the lace.

Cut a length of gold cord for a hanger. Record your measurement. Thread the cord through the tab on top of the bell and tie. Try to stick the knot and end into the bell if you can. If not, don’t worry. Don’t go nuts with it. If your wooden ball has a hole through it, thread the non-knot end of the cord through the hole, make another knot right on top of the ball. Make sure you make an extra long cord to do this. If your ball doesn’t have a hole, just use a glue dot to stick it to the top of the bell.

Cut a small piece of gold ribbon and tie it in a bow. Use a glue dot to stick it on the front of the angel’s dress. You remembered to mark your measurement, right?

Cut a piece of organdy ribbon and tie into a bow. Use a glue dot to stick it to the back of the angel. Cut a piece of the gold beads to make a halo. A mini glue dot will stick it on just fine. I like to put it back on the head a bit so it’s just sticking up.

That’s it, you’re done. You can use colored pencils or paint to put a face on if you want, but they are cute as is. If you’re making a lot of these, use the measurements you recorded to cut all the ribbons at once and make them in an assembly line.

You can actually buy kits for these through Oriental Trading Company, but their shipping takes forever, unless you’re willing to pay a whole lot more. Might as well just get the supplies yourself. I made 29 angels from the supplies I had and I could have made more.

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Q: How in the world do you actually find time to educate your children,take care of your household duties, and find the energy necessary to do all those cool crafty projects you always show us? All of that, and still manage to keep your sunny personality and your faith so strong! I wish I just had an ounce of that!

(I’m answering the part in bold today)

Well, I’m Wonder Mom.

Yeah right! Actually, I don’t find time to do it all. When I focus on any one given area too much, then another area gets neglected. I used to be really on top of things, keeping up with the house, getting some great rubber stamping and scrapbooking done, making dinner. But when we had the house flood and moved so quickly, we never recovered like we wanted to. The first priority when moving into the new house on Thanksgiving Day was to get enough of the house unpacked to be able to pull off Christmas. All the pictures of Christmas look great because what you can’t see is the chaos of boxes just out of the picture. We spent the next year just trying to get into the groove. We’re still working on it.

Really though, educating the children isn’t that hard. I use a great curriculum (Sonlight) which has everything laid out for me. If I wanted to, I could pick up the instructor’s guide every day, read the day’s assignments and off we go. I do a little more customizing than that, but it gives me such a great foundation that all I’m doing is adjusting the schedule faster or slower as needed and adding in a few extras. With a 1st and 3rd grader, our school day is over by noon. That leaves the afternoon free for everybody.

As for the crafts, most of those I tackle in the evenings when the children are asleep. I watch tv or movies with Phil and work on the craft du jour. The children get a nightly video, too and depending on the craft, I can work during that time, too. I’m in the room with them which makes them happy, and I can knit at the same time, which makes me happy.

As far as the house, well, you’ve seen the before shots of the corners of my home. It’s not pretty. We’ve got far too many corners like that which still need work.

One thing I do for meals is to limit myself to making only dinners that take 30 minutes or less of prep time. They can cook for longer, but any direct input by me needs to be minimal. That means I don’t cook many of our favorites anymore, but at this stage of our lives, that is what is needed. Someday I’ll have more time to cook and I’ll make those meals again. For now, we let my mom make them when she’s here visiting. She likes to cook and we love it when she makes the old favorites!

In all things, you’ve got to make choices and have priorities. Some days it’s ok to play more than work. Other days you’ve really got to get some work done. Most of the time, though, I try to strike a balance -a little work and a little play every day. I’m a huge list maker and that helps, too.

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Q: Here’s one…what is your favorite possession? Not to be materialistic – but I think what one values says alot.

I had to give that a lot of thought.  I asked Philip what he thought my favorite possession was.  He said it was the computer.  I disagreed.  His argument was that I use it every day and get a lot of enjoyment out of it.  I said that it’s not my favorite thing – I could use the one at the library just as well.  Just because I use something alot doesn’t qualify it as being a favorite.  I use the kitchen everyday.  Doesn’t make it my favorite.

I’m fond of my Razr phone.  But it’s not my favorite.

Once upon a time I would have said that my favorite thing was my piano.  I could sit and play and let my mind wander and sort of escape.  But I don’t play much anymore.

Then I figured it out – my scrapbooks!  But no, it’s not the scrapbooks so much as the pictures.  So there you have it.  My favorite possession would  have to be all the pictures I have, whether they are in scrapbooks or not.

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