Sitting listening to Christmas music on Pandora. I love Pandora. You simply type in the genre of music you like or the artist and it generates a continuous stream of music for you to listen to. It's online. I love Christmas music and it is so relaxing to have it playing in the background. Today was filled with peeling, chopping and making beef stew. I generally put a roast, veggies, Lipton beefy onion soup mix, beef bullion cubes, tomato juice, and 2 bay leaves in the crockpot and let it cook overnight on low. The next day I take the beef roast out and cut it all up, putting it in my big 22 qt. electric roaster and filling it with the cut up roast, veggies and adding in bags of frozen peas, corn, etc. I also cook potatoes in a big stockpot on the stove. Once the potatoes are done, I throw them into my beef stew in the electric roaster. I usually have it filled up about 3/4 of the way full! I like to make a LOT of stew. I freeze some, or occasionally, take it to those who are sick or have had surgery. This time I'm making it up for 2 different families plus ours. I'm taking it to a couple of moms who have had surgery and can't get up and cook. I'm amazed at how many people there are who need help and have no one to help them. I've been in that position before and it's not fun or easy! I've been working on knitting up a baby blanket and it's been coming right along. I want to get started on another project though. I've been thinking about making some fingerless gloves and a stocking cap. I'd like a shawl, but it will have to wait. I've been doing my best to keep the heat turned down. We just can't afford it this year and having knitted items to wear helps us keep warm without having a huge utility bill. I'd like to make myself some socks, as well. I find my feet get cold more quickly than the rest of me. I've always had cold feet. Something has gotten me in the mood for the holidays! Even before I started listening to Pandora, I was in the mood to decorate the house and bake. I have refrained from doing either. I suppressed the urge to decorate and bake by making beef stew. I really want to dig out the Christmas tree and my snowmen! I've even thought about baking cookies and freezing them! I think I'm definitely in the mood for the holidays! Have you ever played Mancala? We wound up with a mancala game and I'm intrigued. Someone told me it was boring and that she preferred backgammon. I have no clue. Never have played Mancala before. I'm wondering if it's any fun. We used to play a lot of games and board games. It seems as the kids get older, we have less time with them to play. I'm thinking of making one night a week a game night. We used to play on a nightly basis. Hubby and I had a standing date after dinner almost every night. Those days ended with ministry. I think we need to get back to it! I am hoping this works and you can see my beautiful snowman that my husband bought me years ago. I love it! It's one of my favorite ones! I've been collecting snowmen (snowwomen and snow families) for years! I love them! Tomorrow I'm going to go pick up a snowman tart burner! Speaking of tart burners! I have a friend who sells Scentsy and I'm getting more tarts in soon. I think it would help if I just whipped up something yummy! The smells from it would permeate the whole house and make it smell wonderful in here. It's nice to walk in the house and have it smell like warm apple pie or vanilla. This is a cabled scarf that I made. I might have to make another! I love the color and the cable pattern is one of my favorite. I'd like to make a hooded cowl for those cold winter days when the wind is blustery and nipping at your ears. Yesterday I had an invitation to join a lady at her daughter's home this coming week to learn to spin yarn. I am so excited about it! She said she had a craft store in her former hometown and sold her spun yarn and other craft items. I'd *just* seen an instructional video online about spinning. I remembered thinking that I would LOVE to learn how to spin, but had no one to teach me. I just love the way God works, don't you!?! The smell of that roast is wafting in here, taunting me. Tomorrow it will be wonderful to sit down with a bowl of stew and a piece of buttered bread. There's something so comforting about stew on a cold, windy fall day. It just warms the bones and reminds me of medieval times when they warmed stew on the hearth and baked bread bowls to serve it in. I love the idea of cooking on a hearth. When I was coming up, we had an old woodstove and we warmed foods on it. It was not a true cook stove, but it served as one for us. We would eat and sit around the woodstove, getting warm. I miss those days. Now we have so much technology and it seems the times of sitting around a woodstove or fireplace are long gone. I well remember playing cards or checkers while the fire crackled and popped, the very heat soaking into our bones and warming us up completely. It was wonderful. It makes me long for a fireplace or woodstove again. Life on the farm, as a child, was hard work, but so wonderful. I have a lot of good memories of those days. Fishing in the pond, walking through the woods to find persimmons in the fall, digging up potatoes as though I'd found buried pirate treasures, picking fresh strawberries and eating them while they were still warmed by the sun... All of those memories flood over me when I think about my childhood. I miss those days. Perhaps I'm getting homesick for a farm. Life in town is not for me. Well, it seems that the evening has come way too quickly and I need to prepare for tomorrow. Sleep well, dear ones!