It's getting closer!

Today my friend and I are going to Spokane to pick up my husband while the kiddos stay and play with friends and have an impromptu hang out session. He'll be here for 10 days for the holiday season.

It got me to thinking about the holidays and I have noticed that a lot of people are wishing "Merry Christmas" before it even hits now. I was just curious as to why. That would be like wishing everyone a Happy Birthday weeks before their actual birthday. Now, someone told me it's because it's "the season" for wishing "Merry Christmas". I don't think so! Christmas happens on an actual day. It's not a month long celebration like Ramadan or something like that. It's a DAY. 


So, I wish Happy Holidays instead... but I get called the Grinch for not saying "Merry Christmas". You know what, people, not everyone celebrates Christmas. On Christmas day I wish people a "Merry Christmas". 

Just because people have their pagan tree up (and what does that have to do with Jesus' birth?) the day after Thanksgiving doesn't make the month of December Christmas. It's December 25th. Yet, I get called all sorts of names because I say Happy Holidays. They say I am taking the "Christ" out of Christmas. So let me clear a few things up:

1. I'm not a Christian. The only reason we celebrate Christmas is because my husband is a Christian.
2. I am not taking "Christ" out of Christmas. The media did that for you. So stop blaming me.
3. What the hell does a tree, stockings, elves and a fat man have to do with your prophet being born?
4. Christmas is on December 25th, not the entire month of December. So when I say Happy Holidays, I am including all my friends that have holidays this month, Christian included. How is that being Grinchy?
5. Saying Merry Christmas excludes all my Jewish, Muslim, Pagan and Wiccan friends. Wouldn't it be nice to wish everyone joy instead of one small group?

I am so sick and tired of being called names just because I say Happy Holidays. I am about to tell everyone to go stuff it up their chimney, pour a stiff glass of eggnog and lock myself away until New Year.

Bah Humbug!
Dotchi Latham

HAPPY NEWS!

I am thrilled and excited to tell everyone that I have a part time position at work now. I was thrilled to hear this! I will work Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday now, every week from 6am until 2 pm. So I won’t have my weekends off, but I will have 3 days a week off all in a row so I am still happy about it. Now I can have time to blog and work on my writing too! And have time to spend helping the boys more with their school work too. I think this will work fine for now. It’ll be weird working during my sleep hours but I think I’ll adjust just fine.

Well, I am off to get a nap and get ready for work now. Just had to share!

Dotchi

Homemade Pumpkin Syrup Recipe

My children love my “homemade” pumpkin pancakes (make pancake mix, replace the milk with canned pumpkin, add a dash of pumpkin pie spice). Usually we just pour good old maple syrup over them or my homemade version of maple syrup. 

This week for pancake day I had all the ingredients for the pancakes but I was missing the crucial ingredient for the syrup, maple flavor. So I started looking around for something to put on top of the pancakes and I had a moment of genius! PUMPKIN!
Here is the recipe I used.

Pumpkin Syrup
You will need:
2 cups brown sugar (or 2 cups white sugar + 2 TBSP Molasses)
1 cup water
Pumpkin (I used canned pumpkin)

In a pot, mix the sugar and water and heat until steam starts to rise off the sugar water. Make sure the sugar is dissolved. 

Then start adding pumpkin and stir it in the syrup mix. I started with 2 TBSP and then added more until it was the right pumpkin taste for me (and OMG, it was delicious!)
Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, then turn off the heat and let it sit there while you are making the pancakes. It will thicken as it sits.

Our reviews
Miles and I thought it was very good. I could drink it for the taste but diabetic coma just doesn’t sound that fun. Miles said it tasted great with the pumpkin pancakes. Sadly, I can’t eat pumpkin pancakes because I am allergic to wheat. But I still think the syrup is awesome!
Mendel 2.0 said it was very good, tasted great with the pancakes but… seriously mom, it’s WAY too pumpkin tasting. So next time I will start with the 2 TBSP pumpkin and have the boys taste test.

I suspect you can make this with other flavors like, strawberry, blueberry, blackberry and even sweet potato. Get creative and let me know what you come up with!


If you try this recipe, leave a comment and let me know what you think!

For more recipes, click here.

Bored? 13 Things to do while sittin’ on your bum.

     My dear friend had surgery the other day and now she is wheelchair/ walker bound for six weeks while her knee heels. She’s going to get bored so my boys and I sat down and made a list of fun things to do while you are on bed rest.
     The obvious is reading, computer (email, surfing), Sudoku, puzzles and stuff of that nature… but we thought of something fun that involves the computer… BLOG! So, dear friend (yes, we’re looking at you, Donna!) we want to see a blog about post-surgery knee healing! You can add your blog to the comments section and we’ll stalk y… er, follow you!

Interesting fact time! This blog started in March of 2003 after my hysterectomy. I was on bed rest and dying of boredom. Back then it was blogspot and was pretty basic. It has changed a lot over time, along with this blog. This blog started out as a journal, turned into a family updates blog, then a picture blog and is now my baby. I can’t get rid of it. It means too much to me.

After the obvious… 13 things you can do while sitting down…

1- Hand shadow show! Make up a story line and act it out with your fingers once it’s dark. I found it’s lots of fun to try and make different things. You can google hand shadows and see if you can find some lessons on how to make elaborate hand shadows. I want blogging details!
2- Drawing. Draw pictures of anything in the room. With six weeks of post surgery boredom, you could get really good at drawing. If you suck at drawing, you can make stick figure cartoons. I’ll see if I can find some of mine and post them for you all to giggle over. I want pictures!
3. Origami- The beautiful art of paper folding! You can make ornaments for your tree or make a million teeny paper swans to bury yourself under while you’re sitting there bored out of your skull.
4. Macramé and Hemp bracelets- Look up patterns for hemp jewelry and friendship bracelets. Start knotting your way to beautiful items (you can sell these on Etsy for a small profit if you’re really bored. The USPS will come straight to your door to pick up packages.)
5. Crochet or knit- IMO, crochet is a lot easier overall. If you don’t know how to crochet or knit, there are tutorials online and books that come with a kit that can teach you. Crochet and knit is fun, gives you something to occupy your time and you’ll have plenty of scarves, hats and other things to give away as presents!
6. Write short stories, write a novel or a children’s book (complete with illustrations)- What could be more fun than a barrel of monkeys? Writing a book! You can write short stories, write a novel or write a children’s book (complete with pictures!) and when you are through, you can cruise on over to Lulu.com, create your book and put it on the market.
7. Create a picture book on Lulu.com

• Go through those thousands of photos you have stored on your computer and make them the best by using Google Picasa to edit your pictures. You can add text, crop, adjust the brightness/ contrast, get rid of red eye and million more things! I love Picasa!
  
• Once you have a nice collection of photos, sort them by category, event, person… whatever.
  
• Go to Lulu.com and create a picture book. You can sell them, keep them private, make them as gifts for friends and family, etc… You can also make calendars!

8. Video blog your boring time. Getting bored? yet? Well, video blog about it! Sometimes I love to watch video blogs because you can see the facial expressions. You can also Skype me. I’d love to chat! Just call first. I don’t keep Skype running.
9. Help with meals- One thing I loved doing while I was healing from surgeries and I wasn’t allowed to do anything, was to help fix food. I would sit in my chair and my husband or kids would bring the food items to me to help make. Sandwiches, cookies, etc. You can help make a lot of things while sitting in your recliner. My favorite to make was stuffed shells. I could make the cheese filling, add it to the already cooked shells, layer it in the pan and get it all ready to bake, all while sitting down! PS, cover yourself with towels. It’s a lot easier to clean up that way.
10. Play sock basketball!- Have someone set a basket across the room after you’ve folded all the socks you can find.

To fold… Lay sock flat and roll up from the toe. Then tuck the whole thing into the opening by wrapping the opening around the ball. (I’ll try to post pics later)

Now start throwing! 1 point if it bounces off anything before landing in the basket. 2 points if it just flies right in like you know what your doing LOL.
11. Card games- Solitaire, pyramid, Kings corners… there are so many games you can play by yourself. Fluxx, Phase 10… There are so many more you can play with family and friends. Have everyone make a snack, make drinks (non-alcoholic!) and have a card playing night.
12. Journal your time with index cards- For each day you get one index card. The cards can be the small 3X5 cards or any bigger size that you want. Make sure they are lined.

1. On the blank side: Draw, paint, glue items on, tape on a favorite picture you found, write one word that defines the day, put down your favorite quote. Be creative! This side is to visually show everyone how your day went.
2. On the lined side: This is your journal. I like to do something simple like- “Today this made me happy”, “I was sad when…”, “5 things I did today”, “If I remember nothing else about today, I really want to remember…”, “My pet peeve for today”… the options are endless. You can use more than one or you can just do a little bit of journaling your day.
3. Keep the cards in a cute decorated box (another “sittin’ on my bum” activity!) Or you can put them in a 3-ring notebook in page protectors so you can flip through them when you are bored. 

13. Fill out your cards for the year! Talk about getting ahead of yourself! Get out your calendar for this year, fill in birthdays and Anniversaries in your calendar for next year, label all the major holidays… Now, have someone buy all the cards for next year (or make them!) and get them all ready. You can store them in shoe boxes by month or by holiday (or both). Now you are WAY ahead of yourself!

Now, if you are reading this list and you’ve thought of something to add… send me comment or email. I’m making a second list of 13 things to do while sittin’ on your bum! I’ll add your idea to the list along with your name (or as anonymous) and post it once I have 13 things!
Donna, you get better!
Everyone else, Blog on!
Dotchi Latham

I already hate Xmas musak!

     I had to buy earplugs to shop the other day. One more minute of some horrible rendition of the 12 Days of Christmas sung by a woman who sounds like she has the worst sinus infection in the history of man and I swear to you that I would have snapped and killed somebody with the next can of organic foodstuffs within reach. Of all the times of the year to go shopping, I really hate this month the most.
Most of the year I can go shopping without having a complete nervous breakdown. This time of year I can not. Not only am I having to deal with people but I am having to deal with louder than usual music that sucks worse than kiddy songs. Who thinks up this crap? Why do I care what you got on the 12 days of Christmas anyway? Who cares if someone caught mommy kissing the figment of your imagination? BAH HUMBUG! I hate this music.
Although, I do very much enjoy listening to Weird Al’s “Christmas at Ground Zero”… now there is a song to learn and sing all through the season :) I will be there with you to sing along… in case you haven’t heard it, here is a link to it. Christmas at Ground Zero on Youtube.
Okay, I feel better now. I’ll update more after my road trip back home.
Dotchi Latham