Plans Ahead, and Links

There are several good freebies this week over at Homeschool Freebie of The Day -- go check them out! Today's goodie is a wonderful ebook from Graham Family Ministries about planning for your Christmas Cookie Plates. I just started today planning out what cookies we will be making for the holidays. I don't know how many we'll do up yet, but there are always several for gift-giving -- our mail carrier, the men who collect the garbage each week, the ladies at our small branch bank, some neighbors, etc. Christopher used to collect orders for our baked goods at work, but he's in Alabama now and I don't deliver that far :o) Not sure I could find an outlet for possibly selling any around here, so we will probably stick to our usual gift basket givings.

Also over at Graham Family Ministries she has a great ebook called The Glorious Coming. She has included some free pages for colored or color yourself Jesse Tree ornaments. We have talked about doing this several years, but we usually get caught up in too many other things and it slips through to the wayside. I'm seriously considering it this year again, which means I need to get chopping with some plans now. They have a good page of other freebies for home and schooling worth checking out as well.

Dewey is looking at a lay-off coming really soon. He's about to turn his truck back in, which means we have to get his truck back up to road-readiness with insurance and tags, plus weekly gas allowance...not part of the budget for some 2 years now. The lay-off isn't far behind at all now, just waiting on the official word to trickle down. Talk is they are closing down the business altogether and putting the name to rest. Time to goose up the main pantry stores a bit and shave the bills as close as possible.

We have everything here to finish the addition off, including insulation and flooring for the addition as well as the living/dining room here. The front door is up, but we didn't put up the screen door yet. Had to move the plywood and other framing boards inside last night because of the chance of thunderstorms off and on the next couple days. Ought to be fun working out there with all the materials sitting underfoot!

Thanksgiving plans are moving right along. The menu is set, we have most the items needed already with just a few things yet to shop for -- like corn syrup for the pecan pies. I just don't keep that on hand until this time of year. We use it for the Amish Sugar Cookies icing, and the pecan pies, and we are going to give some pulled taffy a try this year, but aside from that, I've only used it for supplementing the goat babies when needed. Not exactly a necessary pantry item around here.

I'm getting my cookie and baking plans set up and will share plenty of recipes on the Kitchen Blog if anyone is interested. I also settled on a plan for the wild yarn we bought the other day. I didn't choose any of the patterns I shared...LOL, I tend to do that, get an idea then make a plan and at the last minute change it all around and go in another complete direction! I was reading about how Sara was making a Mile-a-Minute afghan and well, the idea stuck in my head. If I'm trying to put this together as any sort of Christmas plan, I need something quick like that, and a Mile-a-Minute works up very quickly. And I have two of them in the works.

Well, back to the day here. I am getting recipes typed up and will be adding plenty to the Kitchen Blog as I said, as well as over at A Gathering of Days, and please do share your favorite cookie or baked goods recipes as I'm always looking for new favorites to add in our mix here. Leave me a link if you share some of your won, or find some great sites!