Blog - Upstate Ramblings

Great Gifts for Harry Potter Fans

My children are huge Harry Potter fans, especially my 15 year old. She changed her Facebook profile recently to list Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as the school she attends! My children have grown up reading the books and watching the movies, and are always looking for Harry Potter items. Here are some gift suggestions for the Harry Potter fans in your family.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 – Obviously the last movie is a must for any fan. My children tell me we have to get the Bluray version, because it has lots of extras!

Wordless Wednesday–Thanksgiving Preparations

Stampin’ Up Sweet Cookie Stamps

Now that Christmas is getting near it is time to think about making cookies! My children and I enjoy making lots and lots of holiday cookies this time of year. We try out new recipes, and share the cookies with friends and family. Even though there are so many interesting and creative Christmas cookie recipes around we always make the old family favorites too, like shortbread and chocolate chip. I recently received a set of Cookie Stamps from Stampinâ€™ Up to use to make our basic shortbread and sugar cookies look even more festive!

Support our Military

Everyone in the country can agree on is the importance of supporting our military and recognizing the sacrifices that they and their families make for our country. My father served in the Army when he was a young man, and was always proud of the time he spent serving his country. I recently found this picture of my dad with his sister just after he graduated from Boot Camp in 1954. I thought is was perfect for this post, since it is important to recognize that the families of those who serve in the military make huge sacrifices too. The families are also making sacrifices for our country, because they are sacrificing the company of a father, mother, brother, sister, child or spouse. Especially during the Holiday season it is hard to be apart from loved ones, and know that you will continue to be apart for months.

Wordless Wednesday–Mailboxes

We live on a rural road, and all the mailboxes are on one side of the street – our side. This means we have 4 mailboxes in our front yard. Of course this shouldn’t be a big deal, since most people have normal looking mailboxes, like these:

YesVideo Transfer Service Review and Giveaway

My husband and I bought our first video camera during my first pregnancy 19 years ago. We bought an 8mm camera, and took video frequently when our children were young. Then the camera broke and technology changed and everything went digital. As a result we have a huge box of 8mm video tapes that we never even look at. In fact my 15 year old daughter didn’t even realize we had video footage from when she was a baby, so I doubt we have watched one of those videos in at least 10 years!

My Favorite Fresh Scent from Nature

The variety of scents in nature are astonishing and never fail to amaze me. It seems that any time I venture outdoors there is something to smell, and usually something good. Some scents go beyond just providing enjoyment, they take me back to other times and other places. Of all the senses it seems that smell is the sense that is best at bringing back memories.

Tenzi Game Review

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

My family loves to play games together, and my preference is for ones that aren’t too complicated. We have some games that take 20 minutes just to set up, which is fine when we have an entire evening for game playing. But sometimes we want something that is quick to play and doesn’t take a lot of strategy, so we can fit it into our busy schedule.

Tenzi is a new dice game that is perfect for a quick, fun, family game. In this game everyone gets 10 dice, and then rolls and rolls as fast as they can until some gets all ten dice on the same number. It is very simple to play, but lots of fun.

PromGirl.net Review

It is fun to look at Formal dresses! I have two teenage daughters, and they love to look through the websites at dresses and plan out what they’d like to wear to prom, homecoming and other formal occasions. It is fun to look at all the sparkly dresses with sequins and imagine how they would look.

Family On the Go

This year it seems like my family is on the go constantly. As the kids get older their activities get more complicated and longer. Last weekend it was the weekend before Halloween, and this is what the kids had planned: ballet class, Boy Scout sleepover, movie with friends, Boy Scout pancake breakfast, church and Robotics club. Friday night I realized that we still hadn’t gotten any pumpkins, so we needed to squeeze in a visit to the pumpkin patch somewhere in there!

Wordless Wednesday–Halloween

Quinoa and Sausage Stuffed Squash Recipe

As soon as I saw these cute little Golden Nugget Squash at the Farm Market I knew I had to find a recipe for them. They look like little pumpkins, so they are perfect for Halloween. I used a recipe from Cooking Light, although I modified it to add more vegetables and changed the sausage to pork sausage. This was delicious, and I will be making it again soon. The spicy sausage went perfectly with the squash and quinoa, and one squash per adult was the right serving size. The squash had a very mild flavor, so the kids liked it better than something stronger like butternut squash.

Wordless Wednesday – Apple Picking

We picked the apples from our trees recently and got a good harvest this year. Our apple trees aren’t dwarf trees, so it is hard to reach the top.

Sweet and Sour Pork Recipe

I like to make stir fries for a quick weeknight dinner. I can have everything chopped up and ready to go, and then it only takes 15 minutes to cook the dinner together when I get home from running the kids back and forth to lessons. Sweet and Sour Pork is a classic, and a favorite with my children.

Smothered Pierogies with Sausage

I like to cook food from all different cultures, because it is fun to try new things. I don’t get to travel much, but at least I can experience food from all over the world. This weekend I wanted to make a dish with pierogies. Pierogies are an eastern European dumpling that is stuffed with mashed potato filling, and I had a box sitting in my freezer just waiting to be used. So when I was asked to create a meal with Hillshire Farm Gourmet Creations Sausage I thought it would be perfect to combine with the pierogies, because sausage and mashed potatoes are a great combination.

Best Apple Pie Recipe

I love apple pie, and fall seems like the best time to make it. I found this recipe in the The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion cookbook, and decided I had to try it. It uses rum and cider in the apple pie filling, which intrigued me. It was delicious, and the small amount of rum enhanced the taste. I modified the recipe a little to cut the amount of sugar in the recipe and increase the cinnamon. I think most apple pie recipes use too much sugar, apples are so naturally sweet already they just don’t need much extra. I use very little sugar in my apple pies, and no one has ever complained they aren’t sweet enough.

Wordless Wednesday–Wild Turkeys

We had a flock of wild turkeys in our yard four mornings in a row last week. Unfortunately I am not very good at sneaking up on wild birds, and they always heard me coming and retreated into the woods. These are the best pictures I got.

Organizing Toys and Decluttering

Anyone who has kids knows the toys seem to multiply overnight. Fighting to keep toys organized, neat and tidy is a constant battle that all parents deal with. There are some ways to help though, and here are my ideas.

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