Christmas Sign Giveaway

Good morning dear readers.  I hope whatever part of the country you might yourself in, you are staying warm and looking forward to the holidays.  Today's giveaway features this vintage Pottery Barn Christmas sign with the lyrics to my very favorite Christmas song.  I've already listened to it a hundred times this month.

                 (photo credit pottery barn)

          {How to enter}

1. Become a follower of terra's earth (by liking terra's earth on facebook OR via google friends connect.)

2. Leave a comment on this post telling me how you follow.
3. Also leave a contact email (with comment) if it's not linked to your profile (so I can let you know if you win:)

One winner will be selected from the comments using random.org and announced on Monday, December 1st.

{the giveaway closes on Sunday, November 30th,  2014 at midnight}

{contest open to those residing in the intercontinental u.s.-no p.o. boxes please)

things that bug

Let's talk about this one for starters.  Do you really think that it's possible that every doctor's office, insurance company, cell phone customer service number and bank that people have to call on a regular basis really have "recently changed their options" and that we really do need to "listen carefully  to the following menu"?  Or, just putting this out there, I'm wondering if maybe, just maybe, it's a stall tactic used by almost every agency in existence to keep us on hold for just a little longer?  My doctor's office has been "recently" changing their options for the past six years straight.

Next. As a (kind of) runner,  I appreciate the importance of a good sock.  You know... nice fit, doesn't slip, wicks the heat, etc…. But recently there's been a disturbing trend in sock manufacturing.  I thinking  it must have originated in some obscure sock "think tank" somewhere in California.  I'm imaging the conversation went something like this,
     Okay people our socks seem to selling just fine, but we need to take it up a notch.  Today we need to find a new selling angle.  Something that will make people flock to our socks and leave the others in the dryer.  So... ideas?  How do we improve the sock?  Think people, think! And suddenly, after a tense and uncomfortable five minute silence, someone in the back of the room erupts in jubilation yelling, "I've got it!  I've got!  Lets make left and right socks!!!".  And not to be out done by the guy in the back of the room, another guy in the front jumps up and shouts, "Yes! And let's make the swoosh sign on the socks  in twenty seven-different colors!"
And all I can say is curse the sock think tank.  Because now, in addition to my most unfavorite task of sock matching, I get to match right socks to left socks and little blue Nike signs to other little blue (and red and green and orange and fushia and teal) Nike signs.  And by the way sock makers…..the only difference I notice between my homogenous socks and my left and right socks is the additional time I get to enjoy doing laundry each week.

Last.  Pepsi.  Because suddenly, Pepsi seems to be ousting Coke from each and every one of my favorite restaurant establishments.  I'm not a big soda drinker, but when I want a Coke, I want a Coke.  It's disturbing… maybe the beginning some underground communist plot.  Coke is the real thing for crying out loud.  So bugged by the replacement of a vintage classic with this weak and over sugared imitation. It's like trading  hardwood for linoleum. It's not right I tell you.

Okay, I'm done

baking and thinking

Good Saturday morning. I woke up today with an urge to bake and share. I have a fun new apron (a birthday present from a dear friend) and my family can never get enough pumpkin treats. There is something so happy about a kitchen filled with good smells and christmas music.  Yes, I know it's not December yet, but I don't care.  The Frank Sinatra Holiday channel from Sirius is delivering all my favorites, and we are relishing temperatures in the seventies that make it finally feel like fall.  Sadie will be the recipient of some of the cookies baking in my oven.  It's attempt number two since the last ones I sent got lost in the mail:(
      As the Christmas season approaches, I'm filled with a desire to simplify and focus on what matters most.  Too often lately, I've been cluttering my brain and my life with things that aren't really important in the eternal scheme of things. I love the incredible simplicity and humility of the Christmas story and the circumstances of Christ's birth.  When I asked Sadie what she might like for Christmas this year, her answerer was, "Mom, I really don't need anything".  I never served a full time mission for our church, but sometimes I wish I would have had that opportunity.  Sadie has become so selfless, and her example makes me want to be better, more like our Savior.
      So today, after these cookies have cooled, the kids and I will deliver them to friends and family and hope that maybe we can make someone else's day a little brighter, a little better. I believe in my heart, that that feeling is better than even a thousand "likes" on instagram or facebook and will have a far more reaching effect for good.

Wishing you a beautiful, happy Saturday. 

a superhero, a throw back, and some day of the dead peeps

Halloween 2014

Drew pulling an uncanny resemblance to "Garth"

Do you still have candy left?  I have completely cleaned out Gentry's snickers. Hope your halloween was frightfully happy.