2017 A Blogging Year In Review

I was just looking back over this year's blog posts. It is nice to spend time to reflect over the past year. I am grateful to have documented on my blog some of what I have done this year. I am not a good journal keeper so the things I have posted here really are how I remember what was going on when, for the most part.

These are the highlights from 2017 through blog posts.

Our trip to Maine
This trip turned out to have a huge impact on the year 2017. In this post I didn't say why, in any specific language, we had travelled to Maine. I just said it was a business trip. At that time Mr. In The Mid-west didn't want the specifics published to the world. The reason we had travelled to the very northern part of Maine was to look at an airplane that was for sale. Mr. In The Mid-west did end up purchasing the plane! He had decided to work on getting his pilot's license this year. He has dreamed of flying since he was a boy. Now is the time to do it, while he is still young enough to make a career out of flying, and his family is small enough to support on a part time job while he works on his license. So, this year Mr. In The Mid-west bought a plane and has learned a lot of new things about how to fly. He is very close to having his private pilot's license! The weather has not been cooperating for him to be able to finish his training. :/

He wasn't able to transport his plane to our home state until late July. And, that whole thing is another story.... He was supposed to be gone for 2 days, but it turned into 5 days. He had problems with the plane, problems with the weather, and most of all, problems with the pilot he had hired to fly the plane...
Yeah, we won't go into that story now....

Moving on,

The next highlight of my year, as documented by my blog is,
The Cloth Pad Series
This series/project was dear to my heart. It took many hours to develop and test the pattern, as well as write the instructions. I was really excited to, finally, launch the series. I hope it has influenced a few to give cloth pads a try and maybe even helped some ladies who were dealing with problems that (unknowingly) came from the chemicals in disposable pads.
The pattern I developed for this post has become my most popular item on my Etsy store and that has been encouraging to me.

Potatoes

This blog post was a lot of fun! I cooked potatoes in several different ways and fed them to Mr. In The Mid-west at every meal until the bag was used up. I could not eat any potatoes at that time because of an elimination diet I was on for health reasons. This diet was something that played a big role in this year of my life. I did it faithfully for 6 months, from February to July. I had to eliminate all seeds, nuts, grains, legumes, dairy, eggs, refined sugar, nightshade vegetables (potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers), refined sugar, and spices that were made from seeds. What could I eat? Lots of meat, cruciferous vegetables, beets, carrots, squash, fruit, berries, olives, coconut oil, and olive oil, salt, cinnamon, cloves, tumeric, herbs, and that pretty much sums it up. Doing the potato challenge for Mr. In The Mid-west and writing a blog post about it was fun, but the reason it makes such a highlight of 2017 is how it reminds me of the elimination diet. I am sure you can understand why that diet made such a huge landmark in my year. Birthdays, holidays, parties, eating out, meals with friends, vacations, special events, and every day breakfasts, lunches and dinners were challenging. I made it through, though.

The sad thing is, that I may end up having to do it again. Before I could go to a natural Dr. and have all my blood work drawn and analyzed I became pregnant. I was not willing to risk having low thyroid hormone while pregnant so I started taking the prescription. When the baby is born I am planning to try going off the prescription and figuring out how to get my thyroid functional with the help of a natural Dr. who specializes in adrenal medicine. Hopefully that is an adventure for 2018! :)

Mother's Day
I put together a Mother's Day Tea Time package for Mr. In The Mid-west's Mom as a Mother's Day gift this year. I was really excited about this gift! When I thought of this idea early in April I could not stop thinking about it and making plans for what I would put in it and how I would make or find the items. I thought the items would be right up her alley and she would appreciate this kind of package. I really enjoyed putting it together and hearing her reaction after it arrived! :)

BMW's Birthday
I have a lot of good memories of BMW's second birthday party. That whole week was pretty stressful, in a good way. We set up and tended a garage sale for a few days, I was just finishing potty training BMW, we planned his party, and then he ended up coming down with a mild case of the flu. We held his birthday party gathering outdoors at the park. It was extremely windy that day. We had trouble keeping plates, cups, wrapping paper, etc... from blowing all over the place. I am glad we didn't bother decorating and putting table cloths out. We had a nice gathering with friends, neighbors, relatives, and church members. The whole thing went off without a hitch (at least that is the way I remember it happening). I didn't have to do all the cooking myself, and I am very grateful to those that offered to help. They really made a big difference! After the party we spontaneously invited our Pastor's family to come over to our house, to extend the party, so to speak. We had a nice long visit with them that evening. I think BMW had a good time on his birthday and that was the main thing! :)

Retiring My Trusty Toaster Oven
I like rereading this blog post. I have now gotten used to having a working oven and even take it for granted. From time to time it is good to remember what it was like to only have a toaster oven. Then I go thank Mr. In The Mid-west for giving me a working oven! ;)

Eclipse
The Great American Solar Eclipse was a really big deal for me this year! I will not rehash that whole event now. You can read about in the blog post. But, it was amazing! And, it is a huge highlight of 2017!

Skin Care
I had wanted to write a blog post like this for a while. I am glad I finally did. I have been trying to be more feminine over the past several years, and I really am enjoying it now. I have, also, made a point recently to spend some time relaxing. I have done a few foot soaks, nail pedi/manicures, face steams, and Epsom salts baths. Even if I can only do something like that once in a while it is really nice! I have even treated myself to an essential oil bath, complete with music and candlelight, in the middle of the night because that was the time that was available! Being pregnant I do wake up a few times in the night and I decided to use some of those occasions to pamper myself. ;)

What About You?
What are a few highlights from your year? And, I was just curious, do you have a favorite blog post from this year?

Ranger Cookies For Cookie Exchange

Here is my recipe for Ranger Cookies:

Ranger Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups quick-cooking oats
2 cups crisp rice cereal
1 cup coconut, sweetened and shredded

Preheat oven to 350°F. 
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in oats, cereal and coconut.
Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake 7-9 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire racks.

Yields: 7 1/2 dozen

I made these Ranger Cookies for a cookie exchange with the ladies from church.

This was the first time I had done a cookie exchange. Our pastor's wife organized the exchange. It was a lot of fun and pretty easy!

If you would like to put together a cookie exchange with your friends this is what you need to do.

1. Determine how many people want to be involved.

2. Tell everyone to make 1/2 a dozen cookies for the number of participants. For example: if 8 people are signed up than every person needs to bake 4 dozen cookies.

3. Everyone needs to put their cookies on plates or containers (1/2 a dozen in each) to give to the other participants, along with a copy of the recipe they used. Make a plate of cookies for everyone involved, including yourself. The "extra" plate, (the one for yourself), gets eaten at the exchange.

4. Invite everyone over to share cookies and  have milk, hot cocoa, coffee, tea, etc... Everyone will pass their plates of 1/2 a dozen cookies out to the other participants to take home and will share one of their plates of half a dozen cookies at the party.
Everyone ends up taking home as many cookies as they brought, but they are all different varieties.

Realistic Paper Snowflakes

Snowflakes are six sided water crystals. Most paper snowflakes are four or eight sided.

I found some very thorough instructions for cutting realistic paper snowflakes on this web page Right Here. Please go check it out, if you are interested. There is a lot of good information on snowflakes with many details and some templates.

Here are the basic instructions:

Start with a square piece of paper.

Fold it in half, diagonally.

Fold the triangle in half.

Fold the new triangle into thirds. (This part can be tricky.)

Cut an angle off the top.

Cut your design. The templates from the aforementioned website come in handy here. Tip: don't leave more than 1/4 inch of dead space anywhere in your design.

Unfold to reveal your snowflake!