2011

The good, the bad, and the ugly of 2011:

-Babies were born (Adalynn Kennedy and Harper Kimery)

-Ellie turned two.

-Chris celebrated one year of being clean and sober.

-We paid off more debt on our way to living a debt-free life.

-I wrecked my car.

-We bought a new car.

-Chris became a stay-at-home daddy.

-We worked on the house. a lot.

-Elliott and Harper went to King's Island for the first time.

-Ellie started preschool.

-Our family (officially) got smaller.

-We became those people and started driving a minivan.

-I turned thirty years old (here and here).

-We read lots of books.

-Chris painted our baby's head.

-We celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary.

-Elliott took her first trip to the emergency room.

-Harper took her first trip to the emergency room.

-Monkey turned six.

-Ellie got bunk beds.

-Ricky graduated from college--and now all the Ritter kids are teachers.

-I completed my sixth year of teaching and have yet to kill a student.

-Ellie started (and then quit) her first gymnastics class.

-Chris and I went on a few (too few) dates.

This year went too fast.  And things keep getting better, I can't wait to see what 2012 brings.  Wishing you and yours a blessed new year.

probably late

Normally, I'm the last to know so you can go ahead and stop reading this if you've known about this for years and I am so out of the loop.

But have you visited Instructables.com before? 

It's a website where people can share things they make, show others how to make it, and help people be creative.

Oh, the possibilities!  And by "possibilities" I mean, the things I can make Chris do.  It's awesome.

Here's some fun stuff I've found:

Wine barrel rain collector

That is a magnificient swing set.  Next summer, my handy husband will be building something like this (but not this beast) in the backyard--we'll need a slide.  And there will be a fort.  For the kids, of course.

I need to buy a sewing machine.  And then I want to make a quilt.

Mini carrot cupcakes with spiced cream cheese frosting?  If I learn how to make these, I won't have to buy a birthday cake for my mother-in-law next year.

And then there's also some really random or funny things:

This man shows you how to make a cardboard tank for your kitty.  The giggling that this project produced...

Need to make a ski ramp off your roof?  Instructables has you covered.

This would have come in very handy when I was younger.  A minnow trap made from a two liter bottle.  I'm sure this would have worked better than the baggie we always used.

There is something for everyone--go check it out!

big kid books

Can't wait to read these...

christmas lemon

Chris' mom took Ellie shopping to pick out Christmas presents for her family.  This is what she got me.  Rhonda said she was adamant that it be my present.  I do love soap.

 

today

To spite the several inches of snow we're getting today, I'm listening to From Here to There  from Girls in Hawaii.  It makes this cold, wet day feel slightly tropical.

On the stove is bean and bacon soup.  Perfect with grilled cheese and a drink of choice (mine is usually milk).  I make a lot of soups in the winter and most of them are not big hits with Chris.  Mostly because they contain things like vegetables and do not have enough (or any) meat.  So I created this soup today to please my hungry husband.  And it worked like magic, he ate three bowls. 

Bean and Bacon Soup

Dice and then saute five strips of bacon in a large pot.

Once browned, add one and a half cups of diced carrots, two to three stalks of diced celery, and one medium diced onion.

Add (a little) salt, a half teaspoon of pepper, a teaspoon of garlic powder (only because I didn't have any fresh garlic), and one tablespoon of grill seasoning.  Let the veggies saute in the bacon renderings until cooked through but not mushy (about ten minutes).

To the pot, add one can of drained great northern beans, one can of condensed tomato soup, and two cans of beef broth.

Bring to a bowl and then simmer until ready to eat.

It's delish, I promise.  And there's enough for leftovers the next day even if someone eats three bowls.  And I always think soup tastes better the next day so I'm sure it will be even better tomorrow.

Today is a lazy day at home, our first one since we started running around for the Christmas madness last week.  I've got two sick kids (Harper has pneumonia and Ellie has a scratchy voice and a runny nose) so we needed a day of nothing to start trying to feel better.  It's not working yet, but fingers crossed.

Tonight Chris and I are heading to a delicious little Italian restaurant where we spent our first Valentine's day (almost seven years ago) to celebrate a friend's thirtieth birthday.  I'm looking forward to a few hours away from needy children. 

Hope you're spending the day somewhere warm, dry, and cozy.  Maybe reading a book in bed or watching a movie while half-asleep on the couch.  Because that's what I'm dreaming of doing right now.

well done christmas

It came.

And went. 

It was delightful.

Hush

When you spent your life upholding the law, protecting others, and teaching your children right from wrong, what happens when doing what's right means ruining your and your family's life?

The young adult novel, Hush by Jacqueline Woodson, lets us into the lives of a beautiful middle class African American family living in Denver.  While at work one day, the narrator's father, a police officer, witnesses two white cops kill an unarmed black teenage boy.  And everything the father has believed and has taught his daughters becomes less clear.

Making the decision to stand up for what he believes is right means the family has to move, change their names, and sever all ties with their family and friends.  And now this once beautiful family has become a shell of what it once was.  Mom joins a new church, dad spirals deeper into depression, and the two daughters have to figure out who they really are if their names, their family, and their pasts are different.

This book is sad.  It makes you wonder how much of yourself is tied up in your name, would you still be the same person if your name went away, and how do you start from scratch in a place you don't want to be?  It makes me question how much I'd be willing to risk to stand up for what is right.  I would like to say I would always do the right, noble, honorable thing, but seeing the pain in this family makes me doubt myself.  And what do you do when there isn't really a right choice? This is a novel of choosing the lesser of two evils.  And no one wins.

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This is the second book I've read by Woodson.  In an undergrad young adult literature class, I first met this author on the pages of If You Come Softly about two fifteen-year-old kids (one white and one black) who fall in love.  Racism, prejudice, and age all play against them in a modern day twist on Romeo and Juliet.  That novel was just as though-provoking as Hush.  And painful also.  Woodson really knows how to cut deep with her writing.  I do own one more book by her, Feathers, that I will eventually get to, but I need something lighter to read for my next book.  Sometimes I just want something mind-numbing and light.  Heavy stuff all the time brings me down. 

merry christmas

"Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

-Luke 2 

Merry Christmas!

Love, the Grahams

guest post: At Christmas, let's be real

I am more than excited to introduce you to my friend and fellow blogger, Lori from A Little Bit French.  I would like to be all fancy blogger person and say that blogging has introduced me to this awesome lady and her beautiful way of telling a story, but I've actually known Lori since I was six.  She was one of my first best friends and the person that introduced me to the glorious movie that is Dirty Dancing.  The way she weaves history, family, her present, and her past into one story is poignant and I hope you enjoy her as much as I do. 

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A real Christmas tree is a thing of great beauty. Usually grown on a small farm, a Christmas tree requires years of dedication, hard work, knowledge, and skill. A Christmas tree farm provides a habitat for wildlife, and when the trees are harvested, farmers usually re-plant. Then, when the holiday season comes to an end, a real tree can be recycled on the compost pile, or chopped up and used for mulch.

Artificial trees, manufactured from toxic, non-biodegradable polyvinyl chloride (PVC), will litter our landfills long after we're gone. The artificial tree represents the commercialization of Christmas, the process through which our treasured holiday symbols are stolen from us, mass produced in China, and sold back to us for a handsome profit.

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We always were a real tree family. When I was a kid, we made the pilgrimage to the nursery early each December, and took our time choosing the perfect tree to load up and bring home. Then, in 1991, when I was eight years old, my dad decided to grow some himself. He placed his order for 1000 saplings, and when the tiny trees arrived early that spring, I could hardly believe that in just a few years, some of them would be 6 feet tall.

In the early 90's, I helped out with the maintenance – mostly mowing and pruning. As I entered The Terrible Teens, I lost interest in the farm. But, as an awkward 12-year-old, I grew attached to one particular tree, one that experienced some unfortunate growing pains. This poor tree never did make it into someone's home to be decorated and adored. In fact, it's still growing on the farm today, and since it has not been pruned for many years, it's free to grow wild and unkempt. It's possible that my dad left it there because he knew how much I liked it. It's more likely, though, that he knew nobody would buy it.

We don't grow Christmas trees on our farm anymore, but I'm grateful that we once did. They taught me the value in cultivating the fine art of patience, an art that seems to be vanishing. The long process of growing a Christmas tree reminds me of the days when we used to take the film out of our cameras, drive to the store and wait – not just an hour, but days for it to be sent off, developed, and sent back. Digital photography is certainly more convenient, but sometimes I yearn for that old anticipation of waiting for my treasured memories to be developed.

Now, not only are our photos instant, but our mail is instant, our coffee is instant, our mashed potatoes are instant. Our whole society seems to be in a great race, not to make things better and safer, but to make things faster and cheaper. In all this convenience, something surely has been lost.

For a generation born after the Internet, a generation that may only know immediate gratification, a real tree is a rare opportunity to step outside, breathe in some cold winter air, and participate in an unhurried holiday tradition that still means something. 

guest post: 'Tis the season

I'm so thrilled to have my first official guest post on Trusty Chucks--woohoo!  CarrieJo from Life of the Liles is stopping by to spread some Christmas cheer and I'm honored to introduce this fun lady to you.  Through some kind of God-has-funny-plans thing, Carrie and her family have shown up in our lives everywhere in the past year or so.  And the Graham family is proud to call them friends.

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Hi there Trusty Chucks fans, I am CarrieJo from over at Life of the Liles! (this is embarrassing since we know Mary is a Language Arts teacher, but I just realized it was not "Trusty Chicks"... ha, I should read more carefully. . . as we tell our students!) I was super excited when Mary asked me to do a Christmas guest blog for her! She is always keeping me laughing with her blog! If you know me, I can be random, so I got a bit overwhelmed by the thought of a wordy Christmas blog. . . instead I will show you some Christmas for us in pictures.

'Tis the Season!

We always start our holiday with an annual themed Christmas party with some of our closest friends. This year the theme was "Christmas Character." Being honest, I had no idea how to pull this off without spending a lot of money and time (new baby, folks). :) So I stretched it a bit and I was Natalie from Love Actually. See the resemblance, eh? (It's ok if you don't, no offense taken!) Todd was Old Man Marley from Home Alone. We didn't have a shovel so I tried to convince him to carry a rake but he refused. Ha!

Here are past years...

We hosted a onesie party. . . even our dogs were rocking them!

Classic ugly sweater party!

And of course with the holidays comes the Christmas tree! For the second year in a row I have decorated the entire tree, only to find that something just wasn't right. This year that "something" that was missing was more ribbon. Instead of buying the classic Christmas ribbon (I already had silver from last year...that was last year's "something"), I just cut strips of burlap and tied them together. I also threw the extra burlap around the base as a skirt. I got the idea from my friend Mindy. . . thanks lady!

We also kick off the winter season by having nightly fires in our fireplace. Nothing says holidays like a great fire!

And speaking of fires. . . one of my favorite gifts so far this year are these fireplace sachets. A great friend of ours made them and I loved how much thought she put in to the gift knowing that we love fires...and they smell great!

 

And speaking of gifts. . . I have made a ton of these babies this year! They are fun, inexpensive gifts. Click HERE to see my blog post on making my book wreath.

I have also had some fun baking this year. . . I feel like I don't normally bake a lot for the holidays but with Christmas parties and having friends over for coffee, I feel like cookies are always a must! Now, my body disagrees as I am trying to lose this baby weight! (Fun fact. . .want to know a great motivational show to watch while running on the treadmill? The Victoria Secret Runway Show...I kept my run going for 45 minutes while I realized how I totally do not look even remotely like those girls...but it was motivating!)

These are a quick and easy holiday cookie! Bake your favorite chocolate chip cookies, spread some buttercream frosting in between, and roll in sprinkles. Taaaaddaaa, that's it!

Another quick and easy gift this year that I have done is homemade hot chocolate.

I mixed nonfat dry milk, powdered sugar, Nesquik chocolate milk mix, french vanilla powdered creamer and topped the Ball jar off with some marshmallows. Yum!

I hope you have a wonderful holiday! And I will leave you with this...

(photo credit the fabulous Kaitlyn Meeks)

The Christmas Program

It was glorious.  There were shepherds, a manger, baby Jesus, and angels.  There were misbehaving kids, random outbursts, and a wayward sheep that kept the hour-long show hoppin'.  It was everything I had hoped for.

Ellie was told to wear white because she was going to be an angel and when we arrived she slipped on her angelic pillow case with arm and head hole cutouts with the other little kids.  And then spent the whole program wrestling with the garland-trimmed neck.  I'm sure it was itchy and uncomfortable.  Again, everything a Christmas program should be. 

Ellie is one of three kids in her "Rising Three's" class.  Basically two-year-olds that aren't old enough to be in the preschool so Mrs. Patrice just made a special class for them.  That Mrs. Patrice is a good egg.

All the other kids in the program were three or four and the age difference was really noticeable.  But I think the two year olds stole the show (no biased here).  Especially when a song was over and my daughter yelled out "Hey! Where's my cookie?" in reference to the cookie reception that was to follow the show.  I have never been so proud. 

Although, I was also proud when she kept "accidentally" losing her halo over the edge of the stage so that she spent half the program with her butt in the air trying to grab it.  We Grahams know how to entertain.  

After the obligatory Christmas story, the kids got down to the fun songs (truth: most religious holiday songs can't compete with reindeer and Santa ones).  Mrs. Patrice broke out the red noses and the kids entertained us with "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" while my daughter Eskimo-kissed her friend Annabelle.  It was presh.

(I'm loving the depressed angel on the left.  I didn't notice her during the program, but her demeanor is definitely killing the Christmas spirit.)

After the show was over, Mrs. Patrice referred to Ellie as a "jack-in-the-box performer."  And because I don't know what that means, I'm taking it as a compliment.  If it means otherwise, please keep that to yourself.  Thank you.

The show was entertaining for many reasons, but one of them was because I got to see my daughter and all her personality in its full glory.  That girl is a ham.  It didn't bother her one bit that there were 50+ people staring at her.  She sang when she remembered to, yelled out words when she thought they were funny (and then cackled loudly), and played her tamborine with all her heart.  It also became apparent that my daughter is the ringleader in her class.  She was able to cause distractions and rope her classmates into the missing-halo chaos faster than you could say "Merry Christmas."  And Mrs. Patrice took it all in stride, the four year olds looked on with disdain, and the Graham and Ritter families sat proudly in our pew taking pictures every thirty seconds.  It was perfect and I can't wait until next year. 

22, 23, 26, 27. . .

Sunday morning before church I made cookies to take to Ellie's preschool's Christmas program later that afternoon.  When she came into the kitchen and saw them cooling, I assumed her first question would be could she eat one.  Proving I know nothing about two-year-olds, she asked if she could count them.

Count them?  Yes, yes you can.

 Coming tomorrow, thee preschool Christmas program. 

sangria christmas

Christmas started this weekend for the Grahams.  Chris' mom and sister came over Saturday night for dinner, presents, and sangria (Mike is overseas with the Marines right now).  We're trying to figure out a new family tradition for our Graham family Christmas and I think what we did this year was a good start.  Except for the part where 9:00 hit and we all just wanted to go to bed.  We were supposed to watch movies after the babes went to bed (I really need to get a viewing of Love Actually in before Christmas), but we ran out of steam.  Lame. 

You know it's going to be a fun evening when, before everyone arrives, Chris describes the water coming out of our faucet as "wet" and, while sitting in the living room with our pretend fire on the TV, he tells me that it's making the room hot.  Neither of these were jokes.  And that, folks, is why I think my husband is the funniest person in the world.  For things like that.

Harper received the softest, cutest little doll from Mawmaw.  I'm hoping this is the stuffed animal she becomes attached to and carries with her everywhere.  I know it never works out like that so if Harper doesn't claim it, I'll have to start sleeping with it.  It's that soft.

DJ Elliott Quinn.  This present was a big hit.  The best part about the gift?  Headphones.

This was a perfect way to start the holiday madness.  Cheers!