Category Archives: family

Two Weeks + One Day

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Thanks to Duncan Hines for sponsoring my writing. There’s no limit to the baking possibilities, so grab your favorite Duncan Hines mix and Comstock or Wilderness fruit fillings and Bake On! www.duncanhines.com

 

 

In two weeks, my sister flies in from Chicago. In two weeks and one day, my other sister will make her drive down. And then Christmas time can really begin.

I love this time of year for all sorts of reasons, but one that ranks right up at the top of my list is that my sisters are in town and we’re all together. Since we’re all together but a couple of times a year, we do our very best to spend as much time as possible together. Almost all of my favorite memories with my sisters are when we’ve decided not to go out but to just stay home, drink some wine, play some games and have a good old girls’ night in.

Last year, with budgets tight for us as well as our extended families, we decided to try something new for our girls’ night in. We spent weeks trading emails with recipes, coordinating ingredient lists, ideas for craft projects and other items we’d contribute to making gift baskets for our extended family members. {I even designed us a logo for labels…yes, I’m aware that I’m a total nerd}

Armed with copious amounts of wine and two Kitchen-Aid Mixers, we got to work.

Before it was her bedtime, even Ry was able to get in on the action!

We had quite the set-up and completely took over my kitchen and dining room. It was awesome.

{By the way, did you know that wax paper and parchment paper are not in fact the same thing? I did not know this. Good thing my sisters did because things could have turned out very differently.}

At some point we’d been non-stop baking for so long, we may have gotten a little delirious…

And slightly inappropriate…

After multiple bottles glasses of wine, laughing until our bellies hurt, one good dance party and who-knows-how-many hours of baking later, we emerged victorious with 6 gift baskets, full of treats both sweet and savory, to show for it, plus so many extras!

That girls’ night in was just what I needed, and I can’t wait to do it again this year!

Remember to check out Duncan Hines’ website www.duncanhines.com to find some great recipes for your holiday get-together! I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective

Uhhh…hi?

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::dusts off my laptop::

Hey Strangers! It’s me, Katherine…you know, the one that keeps up this blog. I clearly threw that whole NaBloPoMo thing out the window…roughly 6 days ago. Oh well. It’s amazing how easily blogging can take over your life. Invade your thoughts and yes, even your dreams. It’s also, as equally amazing how easy it was for me just to turn it all off. For four glorious days I only opened up my laptop twice. And neither was for anything remotely blogging and/or social media related.

So what the heck have I been up to these last 6 days? How was my Thanksgiving?

My long weekend was both jam-packed yet completely relaxing.

Our Thanksgiving was unlike any Thanksgiving I have ever had. It was so quiet. Some of my longtime readers may remember the gathering of my “entire family”. This year, for one reason or another, all the families were not coordinating. And to be honest, we were more than ok with it. We ended up going to my in-laws for breakfast then headed back home. For the rest of the day it was just Andy, Rylee, me and my dad and my younger brother. I made a full on spread. We played games. We ate. We ate some more. It was really, really nice. And completely uneventful.

Friday morning I got my haircut. And, knowing that I’d have cute hair, we also snapped some family pictures before lunch. The afternoon consisted of me editing said photos. And napping. And of course, nothing is better than Thanksgiving leftovers for dinner. So easy.

Look, I got bangs!

Saturday was our states big college football rivalry, the Civil War game. My sister is a die hard beaver fan & alum. Her fiance? A die hard duck fan. So naturally, they came down from Portland and went to the game. Her fiance’s sister & brother in law also came down (or up, since they’re from Nevada?) with their 2 girls. I babysat the girls while they all went to the game. I didn’t know quite what to expect considering I had never met them before, but it went well. Rylee and the girls got along great and it was really nice getting to meet some of the “extended family”. We wrapped up the day with pizza for dinner and my sister & soon-to-be-brother-in-law stayed with us that night and we were all in bed before 9:30 PM. {we are such party animals}

Sunday we carried on our standing six-year tradition of wreath making with my mom and younger siblings. Rylee got to participate this year too. She mostly just had fun running around outside while we worked, but she and Andy worked together to make her very first swag. They brought it to me and Rylee & I wired it up and put a bow on it, then Ry wanted to hang it on her play structure. Pretty much the cutest thing ever. Everyone was gone by 1:30 and we wrapped up the long weekend quietly as a family of three.

Oh, hello Christmas Spirit!

Of course, it wasn’t all sunshine & rainbows…we found out that our rental house has a leak in the roof and the brand new flooring that Andy installed in July is pretty much well ruined. He spent a lot of time on the roof located and fixing {fingers crossed} said leak. And, Sunday while we were wreath making, Andy & my dad were off to cut firewood, only to return home an hour later because our suburban broke down on the way there and they barely made it home.

But, you know what? I’m going to go ahead and focus on all the greatness from the weekend and worry about our mechanic’s bill later.

Oh and because I know you’re all dying to get a little sneak peek at a family photo…

So, now that I’m back…how was your long weekend!?

Giving a New Meaning to Built Ford Tough

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Dear Ford Motor Company,

I wanted to take a minute to write you a letter and tell you about my dad and his Ford truck. I’m sure you receive a lot of letters on a daily basis, from customers all over the world, but I’m not sure you’ve ever received one quite like this.

First let me tell you a little bit about my father. My dad’s a 62 year old consulting forester who has worked hard every day of his life and will continue to do so until his body will no longer let him. Almost 20 years ago, he set out on a new adventure….he started his on forestry business. And with his new adventure, came a brand new 1994 Ford F150.

I remember the day he got that truck. I went with him to to the dealership to pick it up. I sat quietly in a too-big chair waiting for him to finish signing all the paperwork, excited I got to be the first one to ride in it with him.

Since that day, that truck has seen most of the state of Oregon and some pretty rough terrain. As a forester, he’s on gravel logging roads, dirt logging roads and sometimes no roads at all, for the better part of the year. It’s hauled tree seedlings for new plantings. He’s been to Canada in that truck, bringing home a moose in the back.  And I’ll never forget the countless camping trips where that truck pulled our family camp trailer.

Needless to say, I think his truck as served him well over the years.

When his truck reached 300,000 miles, my sisters and I, concerned he may get stranded out in the woods somewhere, would ask him when he was going to finally go buy a new truck. He’d just get this twinkle in his eye, smile and laugh the way only my dad does, and say, “I’m going for half-a-million miles.”

Of course we thought he was joking…or crazy…or even a little bit of both.

But that? Well, that was over a hundred-thousand miles ago…yes, more than 100,000 miles have passed since then.

As of today, or at least the last time I checked, he’s tipped 430,000 miles on his truck’s original motor and is well on his way to his goal of half of a million miles.

“Built Ford Tough” takes on a new meaning when it comes to my dad and his Ford F150…wouldn’t you agree?

Love & Laughter is where it’s at.

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These days, weeks seem to fly by. And the weekends seem to go even faster.

There’s our jobs. There’s laundry and dinner and dishes and meal planning and grocery shopping. There’s a never ending list of things that have to be done outside. Let’s not forget about actually giving the kid some attention somewhere in all of that. Oh, and that guy called my husband…he’s kind of important too.

I’m afraid to think about how fast everything will go when Rylee is in school and playing sports. And what about when we throw another kid into the mix!? I don’t even want to think about it.

Sometimes it’s tough trying to find balance in it all.

Take this last weekend for example…by the end of the day yesterday I was in a haze, wondering where the weekend went and how come we never get any quality family time. But, when I started to look at it more closely, I found there was plenty of time together…

Friday night we went on a family date to a college basketball game to watch one of Andy’s former students play. There was popcorn! And dancing to watch at halftime!

Saturday there was a big, hearty dinner of pork roast, mashed potatoes and fresh applesauce! Followed up by a little hubby-wife time spent watching Captain America.

Sunday there was leaf kicking! Pond looking! Mud stomping! Apple Picking! Fall decorating! Banana muffin baking!

There was a lot of time spent apart through the weekend. Like me going to a baby shower on Saturday and Andy working on fencing all day on Sunday. How do we balance it all? I have no idea, but we make it work.

At the end of every day, our lives are so full of love and laughter.

That’s all the balance we need.

This Kid…

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Oh my, this kid has been killing me with the cute lately!

I mean really…what a little ham bone.

I’m loving her sense of humor too…she’ll tell me one thing and then yell out “JUST JOKING!” with a big grin and giggle.

The other night during dinner, Andy said something and Ry looked over at him, sighed a little and said, “Oh Dad, you’re hilarious.”

She regularly looks at me and says, “Really mom? Really?”

{Ummm…when did she start calling us mom and dad!?}

She’s so silly and giggly and just all around awesome.

Happy Friday!!