Resourcefulness!

I admit that I am not the most resourceful person out there, but I do what I can. Thanks to Pinterest, one of my favorite websites to browse, I found a fun way to make your house smell great!

Oranges were on sale at the grocery store, so I bought an 8 pound bag, because oranges and clementines are some of Rob and I's favorite snacks to eat in the evenings. Unfortunately, when I got the oranges home, I discovered that the oranges were pretty old and that almost all of them were hard and not tasty. I was pretty bummed, and was going to throw the whole bag of oranges in the trash. Then, I remembered a post that I saw on Pinterest, and decided to try it out, so that I could at least use the rinds of the oranges.

I put a bunch of the rinds in a pot of water, along with some cinnamon and a very small amount of freshly ground nutmeg. I brought it to a light boil, and let it simmer for quite a while.

It made my apartment smell so good and fresh! I love the smell of fresh oranges! I had so many oranges that I saved some rind for another time. (I'm sure Rob wondered why I had a tupperware container full of orange rinds).

This is the first thing that I've done from Pinterest....and hopefully there will be many more Pinterest-inspired projects to post on here!

Let's Try This Again!

So, I've really been missing blogging lately, and am determined to get back at it! I am going to take more pictures of fun things, and write more often!

It's my favorite time of the year ----CHRISTMAS TIME! I've been listening to Christmas music since about 2 weeks prior to Thanksgiving. I love Christmas music... it makes me happy and warm and fuzzy! Great feelings! So many memories accompany Christmas! One of my favorite Christmas memories from last Christmas was going to the nursing home that my Grandpa Adams spent his last couple of years of life in. My whole family went and sang to the residents and nurses there and passed out Christmas cards to them! It was a really neat time!

Here are my mom, dad, and uncle singing.
One of the residents joined us! 

We took a family picture in front of the nursing home's tree
after we sang! 

This Christmas season so far has been full of Christmas parties, baking, friends, and other festivities! It's been great so far! This year for Christmas my family has eight people in it...our small family of 4 has doubled with the addition of two spouses (Rob and Rachel) and two foreign exchange students that my parents are housing for the year (SeoHyun and Sara). Since there are so many, we decided to draw names for Christmas girls and then since we won't all be together, skype on Christmas day while each one opens his or her gift. This will be a fun and different Christmas for us! I'm going shopping for my person this weekend! I can't wait! 

I'm sure that more Christmas cheer posts will come soon as I LOVE Christmas! :)