Keeping up with the Bloggers (Not the Joneses)

I doubt I'll be able to keep up the pace of blogging every day. How do other people do it? I follow the blog of a mother with THREE KIDS, and she finds time to post several times a day.... She has the cutest craft ideas by the way. You can check out her blog "Be Different, Act Normal" here.

Maybe if profound thoughts came more effortlessly to me (or if my older model computer would speed up the process of downloading my photos), then it would just take me 5 minutes every day and I'd be done. But unfortunately, it takes much longer for I (and my computer) to collect our thoughts.

New Recipe
I thought I would share a new recipe that I'm making for Thanksgiving this year. I wanted to test it out before the "Big Day", so we made it for our church's Thanksgiving meal on Sunday. They are cinnamon & sugar goodness with an apple, raisen and walnut filling. Kind of like cinnamon rolls combined with apple pie! I got the recipe from Taste of Home.

CrissCross Apple Crowns:
1-1/3 cups chopped  & peeled tart apples ( I used Granny Smith)
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup raisens
1/2 cup sugar, divided
2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. ground cinnamon, divided
Dash of salt
1 pkg. of 8 large refrigerated flaky biscuits
2 tsp. butter, melted

In large microwavable safe bowl, combine apples, walnuts, raisins 3 Tbsp. of the sugar, flour, 3/4 tsp. of the cinnamon and dash of salt. Microwave 2-3 minutes until almost tender.

Flatten each biscuit into a 5-in. circle. Combine remaining sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle a rounded teaspoonful of sugar mixture over each. Top each with 1/4 cup apple mixture. Bring up edges to enclose mixture; pinch edges to seal.

Place seam side down in muffin cups (I sprayed with Pam olive oil spray). Brush tops with butter; sprinkle remaining sugar mixture on top. With a sharp knife, cut an "X' in the top of each.

Bake at 350 for 18-22 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Enjoy!

~Let me know how yours turn out.~


The Start of a Good Habit
One of the reasons I wanted to start a blog, was in hopes that it would make me take more pictures of my family and what's going on in life. I realized that I totally failed in the picture taking department this past year, when I could hardly find any pictures to put in our 2010 Family Christmas letter. Bummer.

Does anyone else have a hard time getting out your camera and capturing those special memories?

Another good habit I want to get into this coming year, is to buy small toys all throughout the year for Samritan's Purse: Operation Christmas Child. Have you ever done this before?  It is a fun and easy way to give children joy at Christmas (who normally have nothing). You fill a shoe box with items such as small toys, school supplies, hygeine products, etc., take it to a designated drop off location and it will be one of the MILLIONS of shoe boxes sent to children in poverty around the world. Our church made 311 boxes this year! So proud of them.

You can get more info about Operation Christmas Child  here. Collection week for the shoeoboxes has already past, but you can send completed shoeboxes to Samaritan Purse all year round. You can also join me in shopping all year long for next Christmas. What girl doesn't like the sound of shopping all year long? :-)

I already started my new habit by buying these coloring books I found at Walgreens. They were only 50 cents each, which beats $1 each at the dollar store. I will be sharing other deals I find throughout the year for this very worthy cause.