Merry Christmas from Phoebe June, Smuffy & the Storyteller!
As you revel in Christmas fun or perhaps even struggle with “stuff” this season (you know the stuff), we hope your search for joy brings you to Bethlehem and the real reason we celebrate – Jesus, our Messiah!
READERS TAKE NOTE: Although I am a THM Certified Lifestyle Coach, not every recipe on this blog fits the THM plan This is an earlier post, BEFORE my THM days. I’m currently working on adapting some of these recipes to fit the plan.
Some Christmas traditions date back generations and for some, we have completely lost touch with their origins. We celebrate them “just because”.
Each one, however, had to have started somewhere, somehow and by somebody and on that day it was brand new. Everyone gathered around and some perhaps rejected it or gave it a try just to be agreeable and somehow it caught on.
Christmas morning will soon be here and I wanted to share our breakfast tradition with you.
Several years ago, I searched allrecipes.com for a recipe using cardamom because I’d bought the spice for another recipe and it was a little pricey and I wasn’t about to throw it away. I just didn’t know what else to do with it. Well, now I do!
This is a bread machine recipe that originally called for making one long braided bread rope. The aroma and the flavor of the cardamom in the bread was unlike anything we’d ever had before and I found myself looking for excuses to make it again. Later, as my cogs turned (they often do that), it occurred to me that if I divided the dough in half, I could braid each into two smaller “wreaths” and if topped with colored sugar sprinkles rather than just plain, I’d have a masterpiece. Now, I not only make them for us, but for others as gifts each Christmas and they are a hit. Several people tell me that they also have them as their breakfast on Christmas morning. One friend told me that she ate the entire thing on her way home in the car!
I’m telling you – these bread wreaths are fabulous! Now we can’t imagine Christmas without them. Those of you who follow my recipes know that I pretty much stay away from sugar. This recipe, when divided in half as I do to make the wreaths, has only 1/6 cup of sugar in the entire bread wreath and, Hey! It’s Christmas! I lost count this year, but I think I made around sixteen of these.
This recipe would make a great addition to your New Year’s celebration as well and when made as the original recipe directs, a wonderful tradition to begin for your family’s Resurrection Day festivities.
It can’t be done without the cardamom, but this bread makes that pricey little spice worth every penny!
Merry Christmas and may you and yours find time over the holidays to make at least one batch of this recipe: Bread Machine Swedish Coffee Bread. Note: When dividing the dough in half to make two wreaths, you will only need to bake them for 15 minutes in a convection oven, or 20 minutes in a regular oven.
I’d love to hear some of your tradition foods or activities for the holiday season, so please leave a comment!
It’s Christmas Eve and they coming – or you’re going – and then, suddenly, you find out that you’ve forgotten someone. Or, perhaps you’ve just discovered that So-and-So is coming after all. Yikes!
It truly is last minute. I’ve simply had no time for blogging lately, but I did want to share this great idea in case you need a little something extra to give.
So, run to the storage room and grab a small jar you’ve kept for no good reason other than that you just knew it would be ideal for something someday. Dash back to the kitchen now and grab a mixing bowl and spatula, because we’re making –
Homemade Peppermint Sugar Scrub!
You’ll find complete instructions here in my post about making the lavender coconut version, along with some tips and reasons why sugar scrubs are a wonderful addition to the bath.
However, since the effort to make this takes less time than it does to read that post and I know you’re in a rush, here’s a quick how-to on this falling-off-a-log gift for friends and family. You’ll probably have the ingredients on hand.
To a medium mixing bowl, add 1/2 cup softened or melted extra virgin coconut oil. With a spatula, stir in 2 cups of regular granulated sugar. Add about five drops of green food coloring and ten drops of peppermint essential oil. (I use therapeutic grade, since we are applying it to the skin.) Stir well to mix in the color and oil.
Oh, my goodness, I hope you’re not too exhausted to spoon this into your jars! The number of gifts you create will depend on the size of your little jars. With the jars I used, as pictured in the photo, I was able to fill four of them with one recipe. Small jelly jars work great and since they go to different people, a mix ‘n match batch of jars is just fine.
Now, grab a length of ribbon or twine and tie on a tag such as the ones I made that let the recipient know that they are “MINT” to have a Merry Christmas. If you don’t have time or don’t know how to make nifty tags like this on the computer, a hand-written tag is even more personal.
There you go! Have a very Merry Christmas and all my wishes that this idea has come to the rescue for at least one of you!
Gotta rush – there are still gifts to wrap at my house! Why don’t I have a recipe for that?
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been baking cookies! Lots of cookies! By the time I get through the Christmas season, my kitchen needs a little help. Of course, if you’ve been keeping up with Smuffy’s kitchen makeover, you know mine needs a lot of help!
The smallest thing can add a bright spot during the holidays, so I think you’ll really enjoy December’s Freebie.
This oven mitt and potholder set will liven up your kitchen. Who wants to have people over for a festive gathering and show them all the potholders and mitts you’ve wrecked and scorched in the days and weeks leading up to the event? This set from “Handmade Holiday” was a great find at joann.com
I’ve really fallen for all the bright plaids that are on trend right now and this red tartan set is beautiful with its embroidered wish for a “Merry Christmas”! I suppose you could use it as a gift for someone else, but – awww…go on! Keep it!
I find so many great things at Joann. They offer great Doorbuster sales, wonderful coupons and are often times willing to combine them. For those of you who think they are just a store for crafters or those who sew, you might want to check out their great selection of home decor.
To win the Tartan Plaid Oven Mitt & Potholder Set, all you have to do is leave a comment on this blog post saying, “Merry Christmas, Midwest Storyteller!”
You’ll need to do that before midnight TONIGHT, December 6th, 2019!
Important: Once you’ve entered, you MUST keep checking the email address you used to subscribe or you may not know you’ve won and have to forfeit your free gift. Also, remember that this particular comment must be made here on the blog post and not on Facebook or other social media sites.
My Freebies always happen on the First Friday of each month and last for one day only. Spread the word to your friends and family TODAY through social media, send them the link in an email or just tell them, “It’s Freebie Day!”
Make your way to the comment section now before you forget! ‘Tis the season, Dear Readers, for having so much on your plate that you begin to forget everything.
First Friday Freebies are for email SUBSCRIBERS ONLY. You’ll find a subscription area in the right sidebar or you can use the menu to navigate to the “Contact” page and subscribe to Midwest Storyteller if you haven’t done so already. Confirming your subscription through the confirmation email you’ll receive is absolutely necessary, so don’t forget that!
The Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest icons on this page are there to help you share.
Past gifts and their happy winners are on my “Freebies” page.
Remember, a winner will be chosen at random from those subscribers who enter before midnight tonight by leaving a comment which says, “Merry Christmas, Midwest Storyteller!” That’s one way to get your Christmas greetings – right? The greatest gift you can send my way is to share Midwest Storyteller with all your family and friends. It really makes a difference in my unseen cyber-world.
I send Freebies to any winner who lives within the continental United States. For the complete First Friday Freebie rules, CLICK HERE.
Glitches happen. If you subscribe and do not receive a confirmation email for some reason, please email me and let me know at barb@midweststoryteller.com
I wish each of you a blessed Christmas filled with family and friends. I’m with George Bailey – it truly is a wonderful life when you focus on what matters most. If you’re out of touch and don’t know who George Bailey is, I’ve just given you a great start on watching Christmas movies!
Happy Thanksgiving!
We have so much to be thankful for around here and I’m sure you’re probably feeling the same way. A couple of years ago Thanksgiving came along amidst a period of grief, but it came along anyway and we paused to give thanks for those we could still hold close.
This year, we are simply giddy, for as I’ve already announced here, Smuffy and I are about to become grandparents and that is enough to hoist our thankfulness quotient up several notches all by itself!
For me, today is also a great day to rejoice in the progress of Smuffy’s custom kitchen makeover project, because even though in the grand scheme of life it can’t compare to what really matters – the Lord who gives graciously, our family, dear friends and a place to call home – every little step in the right direction certainly makes life easier!
I’m thrilled to say that three new appliances are installed! I’ll give more detailed reviews on those later, but I can’t even express how much simpler and easier the Thanksgiving meal preparations have been since this phase of the project has occurred.
As you can see below, refrigerator, oven and dishwasher are in place, although surrounding cabinetry and trim are not.
This new Samsung 4-Door Flex French Door Refrigerator is a dream and I love being able to have French doors, slide out shelves and drawers on the bottom as well as for the refrigerator on top. The right side of the lower french doors is a separate flex unit that can be used as a refrigerator or a freezer, depending on the need. For us, it will be used as a freezer most of the time. It’s lots bigger than our old refrigerator and so nice inside that if it wasn’t so cold in there, I might move in
The GE dishwasher with its bottle jets and, yes, third rack, is just fabulous. My advice would be that if you are ever shopping for a dishwasher, don’t settle for one without these two features. Where has this been all my life? I think they finally must be letting women design appliances.
The thing I love most about my Kenmore Elite wall oven is that it is not in the basement. Earlier, I shared here in Death of a Kitchen, how our appliances marched off single file to the graveyard, beginning with my oven. However, until Smuffy got the kitchen to the place where some cabinets could come out to make room for a wall oven to go in, my new oven had to wait, ratchet strapped to his workbench in the basement.
There is much more to glory in today than new appliances, but I am truly thankful for them, especially the part where I don’t have to haul this turkey down and back up the stairs!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day. Hug the ones you love and tell them how much they mean to you. It is a wonderful life and we have so much to be thankful for.
I’ll post more updates on Smuffy’s grand kitchen makeover as they occur.
Helpful Hint: This is the best time of the year to get your appliances on sale. Prices will never be lower than they are during Black Friday sales, which began this year on November 5th and continue into December.
At least one of my readers is way ahead of me in preparing for the holiday rush. That’s because she’s now in possession of November’s First Friday Freebie.
Meet the winner –
Karen from Boonville, Missouri
It took Karen a few tries, but eventually, when Smuffy reached in an drew out a name, she won the set of 56 Fabulous Gift Tags!
Congratulations, Karen!
You can see the original freebie offer here.
From glitter to watercolor and from foil to polka dots (along with some handmade Christmas creations of my own) these versatile gift tags will carry Karen through Christmas and various other occasions.
As a subscriber, Karen receives an email on the first Friday of the month, letting her know that it’s time to read a short blog post and comment as directed. That’s all it took to enter her name into the drawing.
Freebies are my way of reaching out to more folks who might enjoy the various stories, recipes and more here at Midwest Storyteller. When you share with all your friends via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, that gives them the opportunity to subscribe and win also. Subscribing is free. Freebies are free. The helpful information and smiles here are free. Sometimes I feel like I’m just raining wonderfulness!
Freebies happen every month. My Freebies page features past winners and the free gifts they’ve won.
December’s drawing is coming on up Friday, November 6tht.
A winner is chosen at random from those subscribers who enter before midnight on the day of the drawing by leaving a comment as instructed in the post.
REMEMBER: Should your name be drawn as the winner, you will be notified via the email you used to subscribe. That means you’ll need to check your email often in the week following the drawing so that you can respond and keep the prize from being offered to someone else.
Be sure to take a moment make yourself familiar with the Freebie Rules by clicking HERE.
These four simple steps will have you ready to enter to win on Friday December 6th, 2019.
Leave a comment! On a desktop computer, scroll back up under the title of this post and let me know what you’re thinking. On various devices, you may find “Leave a Comment” at the bottom of the post.
That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it. It’s late in the day for me to be saying “Hey there!” to all my readers, but this day has been doubly special and I wanted to share.
For those of you who may not be close enough to hear me shouting from the rooftops for the last five months, I am pleased as punch to announce that I am soon going to be a grandma for the first time! I spent the afternoon at a lovely baby shower for my radiant daughter, watching family and friends bless her and welcome our new little one.
Is that exciting, or WHAT!?
The thing that makes it doubly sweet is that today is also an anniversary for me. No, it’s not the day I married Smuffy.
Twenty years ago, I got that call from the doctor that no one wants. When you hear, “The biopsy does show cancer”, everything shifts. Life is different. I was young. My daughter was not yet fifteen. I was homeschooling and to me it was a calling. Up until then, when I overheard people with health problems saying, “Well, you know, I just take one day at a time”, I thought it was canned conversation – something you say when you don’t know what else to say. Over the next several months, I learned what it meant to take one day at a time – to do what I could when I could and let everything else go.
The world calls us cancer survivors. I refused to adopt that term for myself. In my mind, it forms a picture somewhat similar to someone who has been rescued from months lost in a jungle after a plane crash and crawled back to civilization on their belly and elbows – someone who will never be the same again. By the grace of God and carried on the prayers of family and friends, I came through not as someone battered, scarred and fearful, but as a winner! The enemy that attacked me is defeated and the trophy is mine!
You’ve probably heard it said that the best revenge is a life well lived. What better revenge can I have than to mentor other people with their health and help them to thrive? If I can help someone avoid the path leading to failing health, then I am a success.
Two decades later, I got to glory in this shower welcoming my grandchild rather than…well, you know…the alternative.
So, I sent myself a card because…why shouldn’t I? I couldn’t let this day close without inviting you all to join me in wishing myself a “Happy 20th Healthyversary!”
May you learn, grow and thrive in body mind and spirit! God is good and I am blessed!
You can find more of my story on my Thrive! page and lots of healthy recipes and great healthy tips are always being added to my Food Freedom page.
Do you tend to procrastinate when preparing for the holidays? Midwest Storyteller wants to knock one thing off your list and help you get prepared. I’m one of those people who likes to take one season at a time. I love to decorate for fall and I love celebrating Thanksgiving from its current blessings all the way back to its historical roots in Plymouth Colony. Only after that am I in the mood for Bing Crosby, shopping and decorating.
However, since December’s First Friday will fall on the 6th, that seemed almost a week late for me to offer you this and then send it out. Take a look at November’s First Friday Freebie –
I’ve bundled these great gift tags together to help you spiff up all those bags and packages for Christmas, birthdays and more. There are 56 in all. Each package contains eight fancy gift tags and I’ve even thrown in some of my own homemade creations. You can recognize those by the ribbon ties.
These fun tags are from madeforretail.com and Allinthecards and I think I’ve chosen a great array for you. The set includes bronze and silver glittered tags, various shapes in silver foil prints, rose gold borders, stripes, polka dots, chevrons, the water color add-on pack along with my own Christmas versions. With strings and ribbons attached, they are ready to add to your boxes and bags. The majority are “all occasion” rather than seasonal which always makes life easier. You can always enhance them or make them more seasonal with press-on jewels, stickers or other fun art. The kiddos would love to do that!
If you’d like to win the collection of 56 fabulous tags, all you have to do is leave a comment on this blog post saying, “Tag me, Midwest Storyteller!”
You’ll need to do that before midnight TONIGHT, November 1st, 2019!
Important: Once you’ve entered, you MUST keep checking the email address you used to subscribe or you may not know you’ve won and have to forfeit your free gift. Also, remember that this particular comment must be made here on the blog post and not on Facebook or other social media sites.
My Freebies always happen on the First Friday of each month and last for one day only. Spread the word to your friends and family TODAY through social media, send them the link in an email or just tell them, “It’s Freebie Day!”
Make your way to the comment section now before you forget! That, my friends, starts to happen more often as the holiday season gets busy.
First Friday Freebies are for email SUBSCRIBERS ONLY. You’ll find a subscription area in the right sidebar or you can use the menu to navigate to the “Contact” page and subscribe to Midwest Storyteller if you haven’t done so already. Confirming your subscription through the confirmation email you’ll receive is absolutely necessary, so don’t forget that!
The Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest icons on this page are there to help you share.
Past gifts and their happy winners are on my “Freebies” page.
Remember, a winner will be chosen at random from those subscribers who enter before midnight tonight by leaving a comment which says, “Tag me, Midwest Storyteller!”
I send Freebies to any winner who lives within the continental United States. For the complete First Friday Freebie rules, CLICK HERE.
Glitches happen. If you subscribe and do not receive a confirmation email for some reason, please email me and let me know at barb@midweststoryteller.com
I’m thankful for each and every one of you. As we enter into this special season of Thanksgiving, make it a habit to tell the special people in your life that they are a blessing!
Smuffy, that love of my life, has been immersed in a vast project for quite some time now and I thought it might be time to share. As always, when he dives into these endeavors, I am thankful if he can manage to keep his body intact amid the whir of power tools. So far – so good. I don’t like to think of his angels nappin’.
My kitchen was adorable. Let me see, that was…take the year Pookie was born…add two…add a couple more months plus time out for the flu…carry the one…and, Yep! My kitchen was adorable and up to date in…1986. It was all done out in wheat speckled wallpaper and bordered in what looked like quilted chickens. Really.
Now, lest you think I just left it to decay, I have given it a spot of paint here and there, a change of wallpaper and various window treatments since. It may have had a couple of new microwaves along the way, a different refrigerator and a replacement dishwasher, but all those old stuck windows, clunky cabinets and poor layout remained.
A couple of years ago, the oven died. Smuffy smiled at me.
“I suppose you’ll be wanting me to get you a new stove.”
“No,” I said, trying to be gentle. “I’ll be wanting you to get me a new kitchen.”
Smuffy has proven himself over the years to be a man who can do anything. I hated to see him wear himself to a frazzle, but I knew he’d insist on doing the whole thing himself.
For the past several years, I hadn’t done any updates at all. It seemed like a waste of time and energy on something that needed a complete overhaul. Though it embarrasses me to show the state of decline, here we go. After all, we’ll be even more impressed with the “afters” if we’ve seen the “befores”, won’t we?
Still trying to hold my head up after showing you that.
Don’t get in a hurry to see the “after” photos. I’m going to let you peek into the process as it unfolds. Smuffy works on custom cabinetry and all the other aspects of the remodel every chance he gets in the midst of his busy work schedule.
As I said, the oven passed on a couple of years ago. I pulled out the graph paper and began work on my if-not-larger-then-super-efficient dream kitchen and I stressed the concept of “Me, JoJo – You, Chip” in this fixer-upper and have been pleasantly surprised to find Smuffy 95% cooperative with all my unique designs.
We began shopping for new appliances. Since I wanted a wall oven and we had no wall yet to put it on, we brought it home to our basement and Smuffy ratchet-strapped it to his workbench.
That, folks, is when everything went south. This would be the longest blog post in history if I paused here to tell of every interference, delay and situation that sprang up to derail this remodel. Suffice it to say that I am getting mighty tired of carrying sloppy pies down and hot lasagnas up. Still no kitchen.
Progress has been made along the way! Let’s take a look –
Leave it to Smuffy to go all out. Hearing of a downed walnut tree several years back, he couldn’t leave it just lying there in the forest. With permission, Smuffy hauled it home, had it cut into planks and as you see here, he now has it planed and ready to install as my new countertops. Click here to see the inspiration photo that got me started with my kitchen design and you’ll have an idea where we’re headed with this.
Here he is, when he began building base cabinets. I’m thrilled with all the deep drawers that glide along on their soft-close hardware.
Since the demise of the oven, it has seemed that the rest of the kitchen has lost the will to go on. The burners on the stove have taken to whimsy, choosing their own heat settings without regard to how we adjust the knobs even to the point of desiring to stay on when we turn them off. The dishwasher began to dislodge some of its more minor parts and finally, a couple of weeks ago, developed a funny smell, shorted out and stopped entirely. A few days later the microwave stopped in mid-nuke to let us know that it had joined its comrades in their march to the appliance cemetery.
This is when I started to sigh every fifteen seconds or so. The next decision I need to make is whether to use regular silver-gray (like stainless steel, right?) or floral duct tape on the refrigerator door handle.
Meanwhile, we inch forward. Saturday we had Demo Day Phase 1. The dishwasher went into its new cabinet over the weekend and it is a fabulous thing with its third rack, bottle jets and all the bells and whistles.
While I wait, I’m cooking lots of wholesome meals for my contractor and trying not to sigh more often than necessary. Since I am going to use my mom’s authentic farmhouse décor, I grabbed my chalk markers and brightened up my kitchen chalkboard with this –
I’ll keep you posted with updates as we go along and, eventually, those glorious “after” photos!
That’s it for Part 1 of this special episode of my Life With Smuffy. Let’s all say a prayer that this tale of kitchen remodel doesn’t become as “exciting” as some of his other adventures. At least I can be glad my house is not on wheels. If you’re all caught up on the latest Smuffy episodes, then, Dear Reader, you know what I mean. If not, check out, “A Studebaker in the Hands…” and “Why Stop When You’re on a Roll?” His river adventures here and here will having you longing for summer days on the water – or maybe not.
Do you have advice and ideas on a kitchen remodel? What one mistake have you made that you’d like to un-do? What feature of your new kitchen do you love the most? I’d love to hear from you. Please leave a comment!
My readers loved this month’s First Friday Freebie. I had people contacting me to ask where they could get one of these for themselves or a friend.
Only one person, however, could be the recipient of this great scarf for free. Let’s meet –
Sandy from Boonville, Missouri
This wonderful infinity scarf with a hidden pocket will be just right for all your outings this fall, Sandy. The pocket with zipper closure is ample in size to accommodate your keys, phone, passport or whatever you want to tuck away so you can be hands-free to go for a walk, romp with the kiddos or hop on a plane.
Congratulations and enjoy!
You can see the original freebie offer here.
Sandy followed the instructions and commented as when she received her email on the first Friday of the month. That’s all it took to enter her name into the drawing.
Freebies are my way of reaching out to more folks who might enjoy the various stories, recipes and more here at Midwest Storyteller. Why not share with all your friends via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest so they’ll be able to subscribe? Subscribing is every bit as free as the freebie!
Freebies happen every month. Check out my Freebies page to see the winner and the free gifts they’ve won.
The November drawing is coming on up Friday, November 1st.
A winner is chosen at random from those subscribers who enter before midnight on the day of the drawing by leaving a comment as instructed in the post.
REMEMBER: Should your name be drawn as the winner, you will be notified via the email you used to subscribe. That means you’ll need to check your email often in the week following the drawing so that you can respond and keep the prize from being offered to someone else.
Be sure to take a moment make yourself familiar with the Freebie Rules by clicking HERE.
These four simple steps will have you ready to enter to win on November 1st, 2019.
Leave a comment! On a desktop computer, scroll back up under the title of this post and let me know what you’re thinking. On various devices, you may find “Leave a Comment” at the bottom of the post.