Spring planning/Winter thankfulness

I know,I know..............Spring *is* a long time away but it seems SO close now that Christmas is over and I am getting seed catalogs in the mail! :) It really IS close! If I take 2 weeks to get my seed order together, and then it takes 2 weeks to get my seeds, that will put me at FEB 1 and that means I would be able to start some seeds! It is a little early but I always start atleast some that early because I am so anxious.....We will be tapping 100 maple trees the whole month of March, part of April and after that......spring will truly be here! :) It is exciting......

BUT I am not tired of winter.There isn't any *sense* in me being tired of winter as winter IS here to stay for a while yet.:) I either have to like it or choose to be unhappy.I choose to like it.There are many things about winter that I am still looking foreward to enjoying......

Baking with my children.
Reading books to my children in front of a warm fire.
Hot chocolate
Warm fires :)
Being tucked up in a warm house in the middle of a beautiful snowstorm.
Having my sweet husband home more.
Having less work to do.
School with my children.
Sewing,quilting,knitting,crocheting etc.Not much time for or desire to do those things in the summer.

I am sure there are more things but those are enough to make a person thankful for winter I think!! :)

So here is a mini challenge for all of you who enjoy spring like I do......:) Learn to enjoy and be thankful for the season you are in! Think of it this way......If you live in a climate with 4 seasons and you live for 50 more years,you have aprox 150 months of winter to face and that is aprox 14 years.......14 years of unthankfulness and complaining or 14 years of joy! :):)

I am going with the joy! :)

I just wanted to say "HI" !

I have a sweet friend and her family here visiting for a week and so I haven't been on the computer much! I just wanted to say HI though and that I will be back before toooooo long....:) Hope everyone is doing wonderfully! :)

Angie

Gingerbread Village Part 5

Gingerbread Village PART 4

Decorating!

Gingerbread Village PART 3

Cutting the pieces and putting together......

Gingerbread village part 2

Mixing the dough!

Gingerbread village PART 1

We are starting out annual Gingerbread Village! Every child gets a gingerbread house to decorate.The smallest children have to have help from Mama and Daddy of course.We can get pretty fancy with these lol.Especially my husband and I.:) We have been known to cut apart jelly candies to make shiny tiles.....Tootsie rolls for logs etc. We all have a blast!

You should be able to click on the graph to make it bigger.

Here is the reicipe.....

Gingerbread dough

Mix together.......

6 Cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
 4 tsp ginger
4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt

In another bowl beat together until fluffy.......

12 TB butter
1.5 cups brown sugar

Add and beat until well combined:

2 large eggs
1 cup dark molasses
1 TB water

Add dry ingredients to wet and mix with your  hands if you want to do it the messy way.Mix with a spoon if you want to do it the hard way lol

Cover dough and let sit on your counter for 2-6 hours.You can refrigerate if you want to.Just be sure to bring it to room temp before you start rolling.

You will roll the dough about 1/4 inch thick and bake the pieces at 350 for 12-18 min depending on the size of the piece.

Cool and glue together with:

ROYAL ICING

This icing dries hard like plaster and itis pure white unless colored.It is not especially delicious lol.Just tastes like sugar.The recipe does not call for vanilla/flavoring but I always flavor mine.This year I am going to color some of it with koolaide too.Koolaide makes the most BEAUTIFUL colored frosting! I have never tried it but a friend of mine did.I am not a Koolaide user but I figure hey,if children can drink hundreds of gallons of the stuff and still live,we should be able to use it in frosting once a year.:)

Be sure that you don't get *any* egg yolk or *anything* greasy in the egg whites or your frosting will not work.Don't store it in a plastic container either.

If you are paranoid about raw eggs make your icing like this.......

1 large egg white
2/3 cup powdered sugar

Heat on the stove or *gasp* microwave it ( I do it on the stove) until the mixture reaches 160.After heating,add 2/3 cup powdered sugar and beat it until it holds a stiff peak.Add flavorings and coloring if desired.

If you are like me,just mix 1 large egg white and 1 1/3 cup of powdered sugar in a bowl and beat.:) Skip the heating lol.

Ok,I will be back with part 2 (pictures of dough making) later.Off to cut out my pieces.....