Merry Christmas Friends!

This has been quite a semester. Supposedly this was going to be our easy semester of grad school. I think they lied.


Between a hurricane and a case of the shingles, the semester started off crazy and it has continued to be full of surprises. Some highlights of the semester include getting to attend a bereavement camp for children who have recently lost loved ones, called Camp Odyssey...

...visiting the beach several times, including the opportunity to attend both our state occupational therapy conference and a ladies retreat with my mom...

...helping put together a beautiful engagement party for one of my amazing best friends...

...traveling to Columbus, Ohio with a couple of classmates to attend an occupational therapy conference for students (We got some great tips about our board certification test we'll take, heard some well known speakers present, and also explored the city a little)...

Meeting Dr. Case-Smith, who wrote one of the text books we always refer to

...putting together a Halloween party together with my amazing classmates to celebrate Physical Therapy month (I'm pretty proud of the name I came up with:)...

...creating a project for my fieldwork site (it's an activity called Picture That!, where patients are given questions about meaningful activities and are asked to answer the questions using pictures. The best part of this project was driving all over town and taking fun pictures! With 50+ pictures in the final project, these are just a few)...

 

The question cards

The pictures all laid out

  

... and making a long thumb spica splint. Whew! What a busy semester. Glad it's coming to an end finally. Both sad and excited that the spring semester will be my last semester of classes before fieldwork!!

Hope you have a wonderful Christmas!

Snowman 16-Ct. Boxed Christmas Cards (Google Affiliate Ad)

I'm sending a fun little punch list of Christmas activities out in Christmas cards this year, but in case you didn't get one, here is the list:

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given: and the government shall be on his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. -Isaiah 9:6

DIY Reversible Body Pillow Sham

What is it about coming home after being away that is so comforting? You may be familiar with that certain feeling you get when you arrive home: when it feels like just yesterday that you were home, but in reality it’s been weeks or even months that you were away. Our senses seem to absorb all the familiar elements of home at once, and for me, it’s…

–The unique smell of home, which is maybe a combination of my mom’s perfume, my dad’s aftershave, and coffee brewing.

–The comfy feeling of sinking my toes into a rug and curling up on the couch with a blanket.

–The familiar sounds of home, like the hum of the refrigerator and the birds outside.

–The sight of mementos and pictures.

I love getting this feeling every time I come home during break from school! And a lot of times when I come home after rough weeks of tests and projects, I think I can maybe relate to how the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) might have felt when he returned home: I would imagine he probably felt weary, burnt out, and in need of hugs :)

With all the familiarity welcoming me home, I’ve had to adjust a little bit because my room at home is no longer the room I remember from high school. Since having my own apartment, my room at home has been revamped into a bit of an office/spare bedroom. It's been given a fresh coat of sandy colored paint on the walls, plus some blue, green, and beige accessories have been added to give the room a calm beachy feeling. 

During spring break earlier this year, I took on the task of creating some custom pillow shams to match the quilt on the bed. The material used was a second reversible quilt comforter to match our existing comforter. After doing a little math, my mom and I discovered it was cheaper if we used a matching comforter as fabric to create our own pillow shams, rather than buying the pre-made option. This way we got a custom look too! 

Just a side note, my measurements are all done with a little guesswork- rarely do I take the time to be as precise as I should!

I started by laying out the quilt with the pillow on top of it. The width of the pillow was doubled to accommodate the pillow’s dimensions, and the fabric was then cut out.

I think the trickiest part of this whole project was making a seam so that you would only see finished edges on both of the reversible sides. I started by ironing the hem over. I believe I did about a 1-inch hem to allow for the thickness and layers of the fabric.

As you can see in the picture, I then aligned the edges so that they hooked onto each other.

This was then pinned into place.

After pinning the whole pillow length, I sewed two straight lines- one on each edge. It may help to sew the first line along the visible edge first; then reverse the pillow and sew the other edge.

The outside end edges of the pillow were finished with extra wide bias tape, which was pinned into place and then sewn.

Since we wanted the pillows to have buttons on all of the reversible sides, twice the number of buttons were used. So, instead of 4 buttons, we used 8. In the diagram, the button placement is visible. 

Using the sewing machine, button holes were sewed onto ONE side of the pillow sham only (see the button hole on the right in the picture below).

On the opposite side of the pillow sham, two buttons were sewn back to back (see picture). 

Finish by stuffing the pillow sham with the body pillow and securing the buttons. You can reverse it at any time to change up the look too!

So, I do feel a little sad to be leaving the comforts of home to return to summer school. But it’s nice knowing what and who are always awaiting for me for whenever I come home!

For more great blogs and ideas, check out...

Teacher Appreciation Idea

Coming from a family of teachers, teacher appreciation day is a time honored tradition. My mom has graciously allowed me to share her latest gift idea, which I think is pretty clever. Here's the premise: Pampered Chef has the most amazing Mini-Serving Spatula- anybody who routinely bakes needs one in my opinion! Using a convenient tag template, such as the one provided by Martha Stewart, and using cute ribbon, attach a gift tag which says "Thank you for your service!" So simple and so cute!

"Thank You For Your Service!"

For more great ideas, check out these great blogs...

Meat Loaf Minis

I've been meaning to post this for a while, but lately school has kept me busy to say the least! 

Having good food that I can pull out of the freezer when I've had class all day is definitely a nice feeling. This recipe is one my mom fixed on several occasions while I was growing up. I pulled it out of the recipe box recently and have enjoyed being able to heat up one or two meat loaf minis at a time for dinner.

Instead of making the whole recipe, I cut it down to a third of the original by using just 1 pound of meat. Also, because the grocery store was out of Crispix cereal, I used Corn Chex. Not having onion powder, I threw in a dash of garlic powder instead too.

Ingredients I used included lean ground beef, Chex, ground mustard, pepper, brown sugar, an egg, onion, Worchestshire sauce, ketchup, and a dash of garlic powder. 

This is the sauce mixture; Reserve part which will become the topping

Add remaining ingredients except for meat and mix until combined.

To this mixture, add in the ground beef.

If using a ground beef, make sure it is very lean.

Press the mixture into the muffin tins.

I'm not a huge fan of ketchup, so I went pretty easy with the sauce on top; I even left some mini meat loaves plain without sauce.

Meat Loaf Minis

•1 cup ketchup

•3-4 Tbls packed brown sugar

•2 eggs, beaten

•4 tsp Worcestershire sauce

•3 cups Crispix cereal, crushed

•3 tsp onion powder

•½-1 tsp seasoned salt

•½ tsp garlic powder

•½ tsp pepper

•3 lbs. lean ground beef or ground turkey

1. In large bowl combine ketchup, brown sugar, and mustard. Remove ½ cup for topping and set aside.

2. Add eggs, Worcestershire sauce, cereal, and seasoning to remaining ketchup mixture; mix well and let stand for five minutes

3. Crumble beef; mix well with mixture.

4. Press meat in 18 muffin cups, about 1/3 cup in each.

5. Bake at 375° for 18-20 minutes.

6. Drizzle with ketchup and bake 10 more minutes.

7. Cool before eating

8. To freeze, place into freezer bags.

9. Reheat: thaw in fridge and bake for 30 minutes or microwave on high for 1 minutes

•Can freeze for up to 3 months

•Yields 1½ dozen

A few favorite things

After weeks that have been jam packed and crazy like this one, I’m thankful for the simple things in life. Here are a few of my favorite things that made this week a little more bearable…

Starbucks French Press Coffee

My new favorite find, thanks to a friend’s suggestion, is that Starbucks will brew you a 

whole pot of French press coffee. Best of all it is only around $3 for the whole pot of coffee. 

And it’s enough to either share with a friend or to last through reading three chapters in a 
Theory of Occupational Therapy textbook. J

Apple Juice Vinaigrette

This vinaigrette is so good on sweet salads. I like adding dried cranberries, chopped apples, 

pecans, and grated Parmesan cheese to fresh spinach. The vinaigrette has a very light 

flavor, which really lets the flavors shine through if you have fresh ingredients. Also, most of 

the ingredients are staples that are usually on hand anyway.

-4 Tbls olive oil

-2 Tbls vinegar

-1/2 cup apple juice

-1/4 tsp salt

-A generous squeeze of lemon juice

-About 1 Tbls sugar, or to taste

Combine ingredients, shake up, and refrigerate until ready to serve on salad.

Grandma Alice’s Coffee Cake

My Grandma is one of the best bakers that I know. Sure, there’s been some kitchen mishaps, such as pies bubbling over and catching the oven on fire, or the legendary “earthquake cake,” which occurred when we iced a layered cake before it was all the way cooled and it proceeded to crumble apart. Overall though, I have fond memories of learning to bake beside my grandma.

Ingredients

So when I discovered that the milk in my fridge was going sour, I of course thought of her coffee cake recipe, in which she often used soured milk in place of buttermilk. The resulting dessert is moist and delicious. This treat was a staple whenever we came to visit or for special occasions like Christmas morning.

Consistency of crumble topping saved out

Begin by mixing the flour, brown sugar, white sugar, cinnamon, butter, and pecans. Mix this until crumbly. You’ll need to save out ¾ cup of this mixture, as it will be crumbled on top.

Add to the mixture the eggs, milk, and soda. Once mixed you’ll begin to notice lots of air bubbles, which help to keep the cake fluffy. If you don't happen to have buttermilk or soured milk on hand, you can make soured milk by adding 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar to 1 cup of regular milk and allowing it to stand for five minutes.

Pour the mixture into greased pans. I used two square pans, but a single 9x13 size pan would work. 

Sprinkle the crumble mixture on top. Bake in oven for 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Personally, I think that this cake is best enjoyed with a fresh cup of coffee. Yum!

Grandma Alice's Coffee Cake

• 1 c. brown sugar
• 1 c. white sugar
• 1/2 c. butter or margarine
• 2 c. flour
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 c. nuts (optional- I find I prefer pecans)
• 2 eggs
• 1 c. buttermilk or soured milk
• 1 tsp. soda

1. Combine the first 6 ingredients until crumbly. Take out 3/4 cup for topping.
2. To the rest, add eggs, buttermilk and soda. Beat thoroughly. Pour into a 9x13-inch pan or two 9x9-inch pans (greased) and sprinkle with topping.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.

The link to this recipe is shared on the blog Under The Table and Dreaming, as are some other great ideas, so check them out if you get a chance!