A White Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving with my parents, and this is what we woke up to the day before Thanksgiving...so beautiful. It's no wonder I love snow and winter so much. These are the views I had when I was growing up! The pine trees go all the way around the yard.

We enjoyed watching the birds in the feeder. The squirrels climbed in there too. :-)

We had a very nice visit with family and friends. The week went by too quickly!

~*~

Just a little idea to pass along...

We have the Gideons come to our school every year. Sadly, they've told us that now they're only allowed in about 5% of the public schools in America. Our students receive these little New Testaments every year. They've been encouraged to give any extras to friends who may not have the opportunity to receive one. Also, Katie's class made up some care packages to give out to the homeless, making sure to include a New Testament along with water, snacks, a toothbrush, etc.

If you don't have any extra Bibles lying around, I think tracts would work well too. We should always be looking for opportunities to share the Gospel!

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. ~Isaiah 55:11

Take care,
~Melanie

Thanksgiving Break and a Recipe

Hi, everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Ours was very nice. We spent most of the week at Mom and Dad's, and Mom always spoils us with her good cooking! She sent us home with the leftover gingerbread she made, so I'm going to make some sauce for it and we'll just finish it up! :)

My brother had very good success deer hunting this year, so one night we had some deer meat for supper. We all thoroughly enjoyed it! This is the recipe Mom used to make it.

2-3 lbs. boneless deer meat, about 1 inch thick

1/2 cup all purpose flour

2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 tablespoon butter

2 tablespoons olive/vegetable oil

1/4 cup beef broth

For topping: 

2 tablespoons minced onion

1 tsp. brown sugar (optional)

1 tsp. ketchup

dried basil

Preheat oven to 350°. Cut meat into pieces and pound to about 1/2 inch thick.

Mix the flour, salt, and pepper. Dip meat in flour mixture. Coat both sides. Place butter and oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add meat, and brown on both sides. Arrange in a 9x13 baking dish. Top the meat with brown sugar, ketchup, onion, and basil. Pour the beef broth into the skillet and cook on medium about a minute. Add to baking dish and cover with aluminum foil. Bake about 45 minutes, then remove foil. If the meat looks dry, add a bit of water, and continue to bake for 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

~♥~

So, did any of you go shopping on Friday? Katie wanted to go 'Black Friday' shopping, so Mom and I took her out about 9 o'clock that morning.  I'm not much of a shopper, but we did find some good deals.

Yesterday when we were coming back home, we got a bolt stuck in one of our tires. Thankfully, we were near a Wal-Mart, so we pulled in and they were able to plug it. They had put on our new tires recently, and we'd also purchased the road hazard protection on the tires, so it didn't cost us anything to have it plugged! :-) We were so thankful that it happened as conveniently as it did. It could have been much worse! There was a field beside the auto center, so Katie took Lilly out for a good walk. The car was loaded down, and we were so glad that the tire didn't go flat. It wouldn't have been much fun trying to unload the car to get the spare out, especially since it was cold and windy.

So, we're back home now and have started a little bit of decorating for Christmas. Katie cut out some pretty snowflakes last night, and I even helped her in between loads of laundry. Home Alone was on TV , so we watched that while we cut out the snowflakes. We taped them to the front of our curio cabinet, and I thought they turned out very sweet. :) 

Today has been a pretty restful day, but it has turned cold. After church we had chicken in the crock pot with cream of celery soup. I made some rice and broccoli to go with it. Crock pot meals are what we usually have on Sundays. When church is over, we come right home and eat. After lunch, Katie went to see a movie with a friend, so I made some hot chocolate and spent a little time on the computer before Lee and I went to the grocery store to get the 'after vacation necessities'. We had oatmeal this morning because we forgot to go to the grocery store and get milk yesterday after we got home!

I enjoyed my break, but tomorrow it will be back to work. I know it may seem hard to believe, but the kids at school are a bit more rowdy in these weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Hmmm...I wonder why. ;)

Before I go, I want to mention that I have been having issues with my Yahoo mail account lately. I try to make sure I respond to everyone who leaves a comment. Some of my replies haven't been sending properly, so please forgive me if you don't receive a reply. If your blog is set up 'no reply', I try to respond in the comment section.

I hope you all have a great week, and I hope to stop by and 'visit' with you soon! :)

Take care,

~Melanie

Thanksgiving

Hello, everyone!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. We spent the week with our families, and had a very nice visit. Mom, Katie, and I did some shopping before Thanksgiving, and had fun just being together. We visited with my husband's family yesterday, so we didn't do any 'Black Friday' shopping. We stayed as far away from the mall as possible! What a shame to hear the stories of people fighting over the things on sale. :(

We had to leave Mom and Dad's early this morning to avoid most of the UVA/VT game traffic. We still ended up in some of it, but it wasn't too bad. We got home a little while ago. I washed some clothes, my husband made some tomato soup, then we started unpacking.

My giveaway package arrived today too, so that was a nice treat. I already have my little snowmen displayed.

They're so cute, and much nicer than these pictures show. Faye did a beautiful job on them. :-)

I hope to come around and visit soon. Hope you have a wonderful week ahead!

Take care,

~Melanie