To sum it all up...

Holy Moses it's been a crazy week. I have been insanely busy and it's not going to let up anytime soon I'm sure.

Here's a recap of how my life has been recently:
* While my Etsy sales are down compared to this time last month, I still am working on something Etsy related every day. The Post Office staff know me by name.
* The kids had a 5 day weekend and the hubby came home from training over the holiday for a 4 day weekend. We also had a couple of guys from his training class come up for Thanksgiving since they weren't going to be going home to their families.
* I spent Wednesday night and all day Thursday cooking.
* Thursday was spent watching football (darn Lions lost again!) and eating.
* Friday was spent recovering from Thursday. We did some shopping but nothing exciting for Black Friday. 'Cuz this momma is D-O-N-E done shopping for her babies!
* Saturday we did more errand running and then went to our dear friends' home for some super tasty food and more football. I love me a Southern oyster roast and college football rivalries!
* Sunday we once again recovered from the food consumed on Saturday.

So far this week I have busted my hump working on Etsy orders that I didn't even look at over the weekend. And today I need to run a couple errands (Post Office, I will see you soon!), finish a blanket, and clean my house. Because tomorrow morning before the buttcrack of early, I will pile my sister and kids in the car and drive 2.5 hours to see my man graduate FLETC. Then his parents & niece will be making the trip up to our house to spend some time with us before we move. The remainder of my week will be spent sewing and entertaining, and hopefully getting some answers on when we can start scheduling movers to come. We hit the long road to Oklahoma City in just three weeks!

So I will do my darndest to keep up with this here blog, but I apologize in advance if I cannot! My life is just a big 'ol barrel of busyness right now.

Mmmm Mmmm Monday: Chicken Bog

Okay, okay, I know the name doesn't sound very appetizing. But believe you me...it is delicious! Even my boys ate every bite. And they're PICKY, those boys. It's another recipe that I got from the back of a novel written by a Southern author. I love when I stumble on great new food ideas that way!

Here's what you need:
6 cups water
1 Tbsp salt
1 3-4lb whole chicken
2 carrots quartered (I sliced mine)
2 ribs celery, sliced
1 cup long grain rice, uncooked
1/2 lb smoked sausage, sliced & uncooked
2 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp poultry seasoning (I used Old Bay)
1 Tbsp dried parsely flakes (I didn't have any so I substituted Italian seasoning.)

Step 1: Place water, onion, salt, chicken, carrots & celery in a large pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat & cover; cook for 1 hour.
Step 2: Remove chicken & let cool, saving the liquid & veggies.
Step 3: Remove skin & bones from chicken and chop meat into bite-sized pieces. Skim fat from liquid and measure 3.5 cups of liquid into a large saucepan. Add chicken pieces, cooked veggies, sliced sausage, rice, butter & seasonings. Bring to a boil, cover & reduce heat. Cook for 30 minutes.

This is definitely a comfort food dish and is perfect for those chilly fall & winter evenings. It's going to be a staple in our house for sure.

While I was enjoying my bog, I thought to myself that it would taste great with leftover turkey from Thanksgiving instead of the chicken. Just change step 1 to only heat up some veggies (maybe stir fry or steam them) and then go straight to step 2 and add your leftover turkey pieces instead of the chicken. I think I may try it if we have any extra bird this weekend!

Friday Finds on Etsy: Gwen Marie Designs

I absolutely LOVE sending and recieving Christmas cards. I start looking around for different designs in October and have a heck of a time narrowing it down to one. Last year I found a great card on Etsy and decided to look there again this year. After much searching and "hearting" of many different designs, I stumbled onto this shop and instantly fell in love.

She has so much to offer in her shop: holiday cards, wedding invitations & save the dates, birthday cards, and lots more. Here's a few of my favorites from Gwen's shop...



Tell me those are great?! There are so many awesome holiday cards to choose from...I had a hard time picking just one! But I finally did and I cannot wait to order our cards this year and get them in mailed out! Thanks so much Gwen!

I got featured!

A very lovely lady over at Love of the Sea requested 3 of my Starfish Santa ornaments recently. I have her order all packaged up and ready to mail today, but she's so excited that she wrote on her blog about them before she even recieved them! How's that for a compliment? I love it!



She also has her own ocean-inspired Etsy shop, so make sure you check her out too!

Time flies...

I cannot believe that next week is Thanksgiving. And then just a few days after that, the hubby will be graduating from FLETC training in Georgia. The four-and-a-half months has gone so quickly! If you would've asked me back in July if I thought the time would go so fast I would've laughed in your face.

Actually, I think I did laugh at a few of you who tried to tell me that.

But I am here to admit that yes, it HAS sped by. And it just keeps getting faster and faster.

I'm thrilled to bits that we're at the end of this chapter, but I'm also dreading it. Because the hubby's graduation means that less than 45 days later we will be living in a new state, having to find a new house, send the boys to yet another new school, and we'll all have to make new friends.

I like my friends that are here in South Carolina, thanks.

I'm not saying that people in Oklahoma are bad...not at all. We actually have a few friends in the area already, so that will definitely help. But I want my South Carolina friends. And my South Carolina house. And my South Carolina beaches. And South Carolina. I'm just not ready to leave.

I know that you're all thinking "Well, you're a military wife...you should know that this was coming." Yes, I did know. But I feel at home here and just because I knew we'd be moving away at some point doesn't mean I'm ready for it. We're having a bit of trouble finding a house we like/is in a safe neighborhood/we can afford out in OKC so that doesn't help my "moving mood".

And we are moving over Christmas, so that doesn't make it any easier. I love decorating my house for the holidays. My hubby loves hanging Christmas lights. My kids love putting ornaments on the tree. All of this will be nixed this year. I will, however decorate my fireplace mantle because I'm finally in a house that has one, and gosh dangit I'm hanging stockings from it. Even if it is only going to be for a couple of weeks. They're getting hung.

This has been an emotional few weeks for me, and is only going to get harder the closer it gets to us leaving. I fight back tears on a daily basis when I think of having to leave all my wonderful friends here. Some of them I consider family. Shoot...I've spent more holidays with them than I have with my own extended family the last couple of years. I wish I could pack them up and take them with me.

Even my 3 year old begs me weekly to "please please please pack my best friend Gracie in our car??"

My heart hurts.

We are doing our best to make the holiday special for the kids...we plan on bringing our Christmas gifts along in the car with us and wherever we are on Christmas we will open gifts and make the day happy for them. We have a small Christmas tree that the hubby brings with him when he's deployed over the holidays, so we will set that up in our hotel room for Christmas morning. We're taking our time driving out and have a few stops already planned out. We're going to spend a day/night in Memphis and see the city all decorated. We told the kids that since we can't put up our big tree this year, we'll go see as many huge Christmas trees as we can in all the places we stop on the way.

We just have to deal and adapt. It's things like this that I never thought of when I married a military man. But here they are.

So remember military families this year when you're celebrating with your loved ones. Because even if they're not serving overseas, they're are so many who still have to be apart from the ones they love.

We have a winner!

I went to Random.org and put in the details and here's what it spit out:
#5

And the owner of comment number five is.....
Kara!


Congrats ma'am and I will be getting with you right away!!

Friday Finds on Etsy: Let's Talk Turkey...and a giveaway!

I really have been trying to get giveaways going lately and I just have had ZERO luck. So I decided that I will do a giveaway from my own Etsy shop.

It's November y'all! Can you believe it? I can't! This year has gone by so fast...and the last couple of months have literally flown. I am both looking forward to and dreading Thanksgiving this year...I love it because it's time for family and friends to gather and have great food, but I'm dreading it because it will be our last holiday here in my beloved South Carolina. But that is another post entirely...one that I don't have the stomach to right just yet because the mere thought brings me to tears.

Anyway, Thanksgiving tends to get lost in the hubbub of getting ready for Christmas (I myself am guilty of already playing Christmas music in the house & the car!), and I just wanted to spotlight it to make sure it gets its due.

My favorite Thanksgiving items from my shop are these:I found that adorable turkey fabric and bought it that minute...I love the chubby turkeys and it just makes me smile!Sophia wore the Turkey bow last year to our friends house for Thanksgiving and it was a big hit!

Okay...now for the giveaway. One lucky reader will recieve this super cute turkey clippie! Just go to my shop and nose around, then come back here and leave me a comment with your favorite item from Jen's Craft Corner. A winner will be chosen at random on Tuesday, 9 November. Be sure to leave me a way to contact you if you're the winner!

Happy Halloween, Shearer style.

We started our morning with orange colored pancakes that we decorated as "jack-o-lanterns" with chocolate chips. This one is the hubby's; apparently this is what you come up with when you're studying crime scene investigation at law enforement training. Gross, if you ask me. Then we went and bought some more pumpkins to carve. The ones from Noah's birthday party were a little yuck.After a super yummy dinner, we got the kids dressed and headed out for some Trick or Treating. Here's my pirate and my crippled shark.And the "Queen Bee" herself. Apparently she felt that her stroller was her chariot and I was her horse and footman. She was quite demanding about where I should stop the stroller and how long to wait for her to get back in.Trick or Treat! With daddy, who was dressed as a blind hockey ref. He got lots of laughs with that one!

The kids had a blast and were so happy that their daddy got to stay later this Sunday than normal. They got TONS of candy, too. Noah counted his and had 167 pieces. Jonah counted his up to 208. I told people earlier in the week that I guaranteed the sling would get Jonah "sympathy candy"...sure enough he did. I should've bet money!

Fun at the Fair

Over the weekend we went to the Coastal Carolina Fair. We spent a few hours there and it would've been longer if we had more money!We played a ton of games. (sorry..there are no games of pictures because both the hubby & I had to help...I helped Sophia and he helped Mr. One-arm.)

The kids really enjoyed the 4H Animal tent. The cows, chickens, horses, and pigs were a hit with my munchkins!I would NOT want to be a momma pig. I thought nursing one baby at a time was bad enough...this poor lady has 6 piglets going at it at once! And lemme tell you-they were NOT gentle!

Our family also was taped & interviewed for CBS Channel 5 news in Charleston! They did a piece on the cost of the fair for a family. Me & my goofy self was shown answering questions on the 11pm news on Saturday, 30 Oct. I'm famous! (Haha!)

The kids really enjoyed themselves, despite not going on any rides. Jonah wasn't able to ride anything with his arm in a sling, so we just decided to nix rides for everyone to keep it fair. The each ended up winning at least one game- Sophia won the first game and told everyone that it was the highlight of her day.

I hope that Oklahoma City has some good fairs...the kids really got their feet wet with this one and can't wait to go to more!

Five weeks is an eternity to a 6 year old.

Here's the little man sportin' his super cool Camo cast. The nurse technician and the doc both commented on the fact that it was a pretty bad break. The doc is concerned that he's had so many fractures/breaks for his age and said that when he measured the bones on the xray, Jonah's bones weren't measuring where they should be for his age. Not sure the next course of action, but we'll wait and see what they say in 5 weeks when we have the cast removed.

For now, he's been cleared to play sports with his brother and his friends, and is free to play at recess and PE. But I'm still holding off on allowing skating/skateboarding/bike riding. Call me overprotective, but I prefer not to tempt fate.