Holiday Check List - Thanksgiving Week

The holiday season is full of fun, laughter, and good times with family and friends.  And if you let it, the holiday season can be full of stress too.  I have always been a planner, and I like to think that my family and friends appreciate that.  For the last couple of years on my blog I've shared my holiday check lists with my readers and plan on doing the same this year too.  And it seems even more important to stay on top of my holiday check lists this year since we're expecting our third child (JP) anytime around the end of December.  So, without further ado, here is my check list for this week, the week of Thanksgiving and four weeks before Christmas:

• Make and Bake Thanksgiving Menu (And don't be afraid of making items ahead of time or prepping the days before, so Thanksgiving morning isn't stressful.  I am planning on making my Overnight Salad, Pecan Pie, Shrimp Dip, Pickle Wrap Dip and Puppy Chow all either tomorrow or the day before Thanksgiving, that I'm bringing to my Mom's house and my Grandparent's house, so I can take it easy and maybe even watch the Thanksgiving Day parade before we need to travel.  Also, for whatever cooking you need to do on Thanksgiving Day - a smart idea is to make a timeline for your oven and kitchen so you can be sure to eat dinner on time!)
• Storage Containers Ready (If you are hosting, make sure to have a variety of storage containers ready for leftovers and ziploc bags too, so you can send home extra food with your loved ones.)
• Finalize Gift Lists  (This includes not only figuring out your own family's wish list, but also deciding what gifts you're giving others for Christmas.  Also, decide your present budget and possible locations to buy all of your gifts.  Check out my Christmas gift picks from last year here.)
• Shop Black Friday (I'm shopping Black Friday for several reasons, but I will admit, the main reason is that it is a fun time with my mom and sisters and that I can actually go shopping without kids!  Be sure to go through all advertisements - many of which you can already see online, and make a route for your shopping trip.)
• Finalize Christmas Travel (This is the perfect time to finalize your Christmas plans when you're already spending time with your family during Thanksgiving.  Make sure to give adequate time for all of your Christmas plans.  We have a rule of no more than one Christmas per day.)
• Clean House (Even if you aren't hosting a Thanksgiving get together, chances are family and friends might be traveling through and wanting to stop by.  This is actually what I worked on throughout today!  If you do have guests staying at your house, be sure to get their room or space ready and lay things out for them.)
• Give Thanks! (Remember to give thanks this Thanksgiving and to simply enjoy the time together with loved ones.)

What is on your holiday check list this week?  Remember to Comment for a Cause!

Also, check out last week's Holiday Check List for more ideas:

We #CanHunger This Holiday Season

I just heard on the news last night that November is one of the busiest months for food banks in Iowa between the holidays, tighter end-of-the-year budgets and colder temperatures.  We all can help hungry families in need by simply donating to our local food pantries and organizations like Feeding America.  I'm happy to accept the #CanHunger challenge from Amy at Modern Rural Living to sign a can of food, donate it and challenge three friends to do the same:  Katy from Learning As I Go, Katie from On the Banks of Squaw Creek and Katie from the Pinke Post!

A reminder to everyone that throughout the month of November my Comments for the Cause is going towards the #NorthIowaBloggers food drive.  So help today by commenting how you are going to help hungry families this holiday season!

Holiday Check List - 1 Week Before Thanksgiving

The holiday season is full of fun, laughter, and good times with family and friends.  And if you let it, the holiday season can be full of stress too.  I have always been a planner, and I like to think that my family and friends appreciate that.  For the last couple of years on my blog I've shared my holiday check lists with my readers and plan on doing the same this year too.  And it seems even more important to stay on top of my holiday check lists this year since we're expecting our third child (JP) anytime around the end of December.  So, without further ado, here is my check list for this week, the week before Thanksgiving and five weeks before Christmas:

• Finalize Thanksgiving Menu (I am bringing Overnight Salad, Pecan Pie, Shrimp Dip and Pickle Wrap Dip to my Mom's house and my Grandparent's house.  And if I have time I also will make puppy chow...  You've got to have snack foods for Black Friday right!)
• Buy Thanksgiving Groceries  (I like to stay away from the grocery store as much as possible the week of Thanksgiving so I buy all my groceries the week before.  I also start buying my Christmas goodie staples as they go on sale.  And I buy my first carton of egg nog to break open Thanksgiving Day!  Another good thing to do is to clean out your refrigerator so you have room for all your Thanksgiving groceries.)
• Organize Travel During the Holidays  (You should have your Thanksgiving travel plans figured out, but you also should be working on your Christmas travel.  It is a good idea to figure out and finalize your Christmas plans when you're already spending time with your family for Thanksgiving.)
• Gift Lists  (This includes not only figuring out your own family's wish list, but also deciding what gifts you're giving others for Christmas.  Also, decide your present budget and possible locations to buy all of your gifts.  Check out my Christmas gift picks from last year here.)

What is on your holiday check list this week?  Remember to Comment for a Cause!

Also, don't forget to enter my "My Family's Farm" children's turkey farm book giveaway!  It ends this Thursday!

It's Turkey Time!

With Thanksgiving two weeks away I can't help but think about getting together with family and the FOOD!  I'm looking forward to indulging in mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, pecan pie and of course turkey!  While you go for seconds this Thanksgiving, I hope you think about the farm behind your Thanksgiving dinner.

The Olthoff's - Bart, Isaac, Katie and Adam

Did you know there are more than 130 turkey farms in Iowa?  I actually grew up in an area with many turkey farms and am happy that share that one of those family farms is telling their story through a new children's book just in time for Thanksgiving, My Family's Farm.  Katie, who farms with her husband Bart (who I grew up with), raise more than 100,000 turkeys every year.  Katie, has become a good friend of mine over the last few years and I'm so proud that she has written this book, with the help of her six year old son Adam.

One of the reasons why I love this book is that there is information in it for the entire family.  Each page includes two sections of text.  The first section is in Adam's voice and is meant for younger kids.  The other section has more detailed background information and is great for older students (and even adults).

I think this would be a great book to share at your Thanksgiving dinner this year and I'm excited to share that I'll be giving away a copy to one of my readers!  You can enter the giveaway below and in case you don't win, you can check out the online version of the book here for free!

If you are looking for additional Thanksgiving materials, check out these free Thanksgiving printables from the Iowa Turkey Federation, as well as their new cookbook, The Ultimate Guide to Whole Turkey.

What is your favorite part of Thanksgiving?  Remember to Comment for a Cause!

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My Favorite Soldier Gives Back This Veteran's Day

It is no secret that my favorite soldier is my youngest sister.  I am so proud of the woman she has become through her service and dedication to the Army National Guard, since she enlisted at the age of 17.

My sister on the top of Mount Duke during her recent deployment in Kosovo

Veteran's Day is a great day to remember and give back to all of our veterans.  And I don't know if I just wasn't aware of Veteran's Day activities before my sister and my brother-in-law enlisted, but I do feel like a lot of businesses and communities have increased their support for veterans over the last few years.  I personally am so proud to be a soldier's sister and in a military family, and I couldn't be more proud of those that are saying thank you and showing their support to generations of veterans this Veteran's Day.  Did you know that businesses like Hy-Vee, Texas Road House, Applebee's, Golden Corral, Chick-fil-A, Krispy Kreme, Orange Leaf, and Starbucks (to name a few) all have special deals for veterans today?  What a great and simple way to honor our veterans!  My sister has participated in a couple of these deals today and loves congregating and having fellowship with other veterans at these locations.  Veteran's Day is her favorite holiday because of the camaraderie she gets to experience with other veterans who she currently serves with, to those who served in Korea or Vietnam.  These businesses truly make today a special experience for all veterans by opening their doors and tables to serve them.  Afterall, isn't the least we can do for them since they've served our country for decades?

It is great to see all of these businesses mentioned above (and more) give back to our veterans.  Now I'm going to be tooting my sister's horn right now, but I think it is pretty great and special that my sister in turn gave back in her own way today by donating 12 inches of hair to Pantene Beautiful Lengths program.

My sister and her hair donation

My sister decided grow out her hair during her recent year-long deployment to Kosovo and chose today to have it cut and donated.  She of course went to Great Clips, who was honoring veterans with free hair cuts today, and chose the Pantene Beautiful Length program because it gives free wigs to women battling cancer through the American Cancer Society's Wig Bank.

I am just so proud of my youngest sister and I hope you've shown your pride and support for our veterans today too.  Feel free to share about your favorite veteran(s) in the comments section.  Remember to Comment for a Cause!

Comments for a Cause - #NorthIowaBloggers Food Drive

It is November 1st which means it is time to talk about Comments for a Cause!  First thing to cover is my donation to the Iowa 4-H Foundation for the month of October.  Thank you for the 235 comments posted during the month, which results in a $117.50 donation.  It was great hearing so many 4-H stories during National 4-H Week, plus interacting with new and veteran readers through my "31 Days from a Tractor Seat" series.  Thank you so much for helping me make such a nice donation to help Iowa 4-Hers.

In the month of November I am excited to be joining up with my fellow bloggers in North Iowa to promote both the Hawkeye Harvest Food Bank and the Franklin County Food Pantry through a Food Drive.  We will be collecting donations of both food goods and donations that will be split between the two facilities.  I will also be donating $0.50 for every comment during the month towards the Food Drive campaign.

Food banks across the nation are in need of assistance all year long and what a better time to give to them then during the month where we remind ourselves what we are thankful for.  I am very thankful for everything I have in my life and I'm proud to help provide healthy, affordable and quality food as a farmer.

So how can you help?  If you would like to join in on the North Iowa Bloggers food drive we'd love have you join us.  You can email me at vplagge@gmail.com or contact Beth Ann at It's Just Life if you'd like to make a donation of any sort and we will follow up with you.  We all think it'd be great if this local food drive went viral!

If you would rather donate to your own local food pantry PLEASE do!  They are all in need of food and what better timing than with the holidays approaching.  Check out my Guide to Help your Local Food Bank for ideas, both traditional and non-traditional, to help you with your donation.

Also, to learn more about the North Iowa Bloggers, check out our new Facebook page!

Have you participated in any food drives in the past?  If you donate this month to your local food bank please let me know.  The North Iowa Bloggers would love to keep track of the amount of food and dollars raised not only for our food drive, but for food banks across the world.  Remember to Comment for a Cause!

Tractor Seat Update

Happy Halloween!  It is October 31st and the final day of my "31 Days from a Tractor Seat" series.  I want to start off by saying hi and welcome to all of the new readers that have started following because of this series, and thank you to my veteran followers, for following along with me as I went from writing an average of 3 times a week to 7!  This blog writing challenge was exactly what I needed to reinvigorate my blogging passion.  For all the new readers, if you liked what you read through this series, then you'll love my writing the other 11 months of the year.  My blog centers around my life as a farmer, a farm wife, a stay at home mom and a volunteer.  Now during this past month I've mainly centered my attention around those first two roles but I plan on talking about all four areas in the months to come.

My Birthday #Felfie from last weekend

After this post I will have wrote 29 posts this months, which yes, doesn't add up to 31, which I am a little disappointed about, but I have told myself that I had good excuses for missing a couple days due to my youngest sister coming home from deployment and my birthday.  I have a couple extra posts that I wanted to share to make up for those missed days but I've got to get my cowboy and prairie girl ready for trick-or-treating soon.  I will probably go back to my 3 times a week blogging in November but I still have so many ideas that I didn't get to in October or that I've been saving for November, I guess we'll see what pace I keep up at!

But now, onto my Tractor Seat Update!  We finished soybeans on Wednesday of last week and have been busy harvesting corn since.  It feels good to get past the 50% complete benchmark, especially since it is the end of October.  Maybe that means we'll be done by Thanksgiving!

What was your favorite post from my "31 Days from a Tractor Seat" series?  Remember to Comment for a Cause!

(This post is a part of a 31 Days from a Tractor Seat series.  The best way to keep up with this series is to follow via email on the right sidebar of this post or by following on Bloglovin.  Also be sure to like the Corn, Beans, Pigs and Kids Facebook page for daily updates from the field.)