Who's Training Who Here?

WARNING: This post may cause you to doze off unexpectedly. It may also cause part of your brain to turn to mush. It may slowly suck you into my world from where there is no escape! Read at own risk!

I think I may have mentioned briefly in a past post about our resident squirrel Skippy. It all started when my husband decided to get some unroasted, still in the shell peanuts to feed the squirrels so they would leave our bird feed alone. My son didn't realize he meant leave some peanuts out, let the squirrels come get them and we watch from our window. No he decided that he wanted to hand feed them. So one day he sat out there very still until one out of about 10 squirrels decided that he looked like a face he could trust and slowly and very timidly he made his way to my son and took the peanut from his hand. Now until a squirrel actually comes and takes a peanut out of our hand he doesn't get a name but since this one did, we named him Skippy. Since then another squirrel has slowly and very cautiously started making it's way to taking peanuts right out of our hand. Her name is Peanut! We now fight, okay maybe not fight but we all want to feed the squirrels now. As of right now we only have Skippy and Peanut who take from our hand. Skippy will actually see us from across the yard and come running now.
We thought we were so clever, until Skippy made an appearance on our screen door which happens to have a big giant hole in the screen. He wanted a peanut and he was fixin to come and find one! LOL. We gently shewed him away, but now he will sit on a post outside our door and do his squirrel call and I'm like "Oh, hey, it's Skippy. I need to go get a peanut." So I ask you? Who's got who trained?

And if you aren't completely bored with this post yet there's more. This squirrel has 9 lives. Why you ask? Because I've seen a hawk just barely miss him, I've seen him run out in front of a van and stop just shy of becoming road kill, and get this, he almost got hit by a guy riding his BIKE! See I have this problem. Whenever I get attached to anything in my yard it usually dies. This has happened mostly with the birds that nest on our property and flowers. So it's sad to say but I've actually been praying for our little squirrel Skippy.

Here is my son feeding Skippy for the first time.

Here is Skippy waiting patiently for us to bring him his peanut! LOL.
If you're still with me then you really must love me! I know this post probably made your brain feel kind of mushy, but I've been kind of unmotivated lately, as you know from my prior post, so not a whole lot has been going on that was too exciting. I have some things I want to sew but my sewing machine is acting all stupid, so I can't. I still have that "list" to tackle but I'll probably wait until the last day to do it. LOL!! I am picking up some chocolate today though! That's SOMETHING! Right? Right?
So if you completed this whole post I'm sure it pretty much ate up your whole day, but if you're like me you don't plan on doing anything any way! LOL. Oh how I kid. I have to eat!!
Love you gals!

All right, who took it?

I have sooooo lost my motivation this week and I'm looking to get it back. I'm pretty sure if flew out the window with my patience. So if you have seen it will you please tell me where it is? I have this list of things to do but I have completely lost my motivation to do any of them.
Here are just some of the things I need to do before the end of this week.1. Go to Toys R Us (Son's birthday is on Sunday)
2. Go to Sam's Club
3. Send packages
4. Send out a mass email about Sunday
5. Do Laundry
6. Vacuum and Mop the floor
7. Plan for next Homeschool year
8. Finish planting my flowers
9. Clean my office
and the list just goes on and on. But what I REALLY want to do is this.......

EAT

I mean I truly believe this:



I really need intervention. Please find my motivation or just come over and kick me in the butt, but be sure to bring chocolate with you when you do.
Anyone else suffering like this?
I think we should start a chocolate club where we intervene for those in need of some chocolate help and send them some chocolate in the mail! LOL. Cause I sure could use some right now!!!
I also think that it may be that "special" time of the month soon and I just kind of go a little loopy and can't seem to gather one complete thought! Which is what probably spurred this post!
I just know you needed to know that!
Yup! Come back tomorrow for more information then you probably want to know!

But thank you for letting me vent and as you know, I gotta be real! LOL.

LOVE YOU GALS!!

Did me some more learning!

I know you look forward to this day of the week because you want to glean off of my ever learning wisdom that I share so faithfully with you all. I know I know, you don't have to thank me! I'm happy to do it. So get out your pens and paper and get ready to soak it all in!

This week I learned that.....

1. .......when a child that usually isn't quiet is quiet, he's doing something he shouldn't be. Like smashing chalk into dust all over our screen porch floor and our table.

2. .....that if you spend 2 hours cleaning your boys room (ages 3 and 6) it will only take them 15 mins. to get it looking like its old self again. *sigh*

3. .....that buying an old house and fixing it up is time consuming and cost money and it's time consuming. Going on 11 years now! LOL. *sigh*

4. ....that knowing you're going to see your best friend in less then a week after not seeing her for over 4 months is a reason to get excited!!

5. ......that even at my age I am still a bit competitive. Oh I've got an example and my daughter as a witness. It goes something like this. We're at Wal-Mart, and I know I've mentioned that they are COMPLETELY redoing the WHOLE store and rearranging EVERYTHING, right? Well I've now come to a place where I can pretty much find what I need pretty quickly. This day was no exception. I had my cart and I was happily scurrying through the aisles like a woman on a mission. So picture it, 6 ft. woman, shopping cart and the look of determination on her face. Wouldn't you stay out of the way? Granted that look of determination really comes in the form of a goofy smile that is always permanently plastered on my face but still I was bookin' it. So I'm seeking out my last item on my list and making good time. I have my target in sight and then it happens, this lady didn't look both ways before pulling out into the "flow" and she stepped right out in front of me and my cart and practically stopped me dead in my tracks. If I had to compare this with driving I'd say I went from 60 to 5 MPH. She was lost! And I couldn't get around her because of oncoming traffic!! *heavy sigh* At last she felt the glare, the breathing down the neck and she pulled off to the side to let me pass. Little did I know that there was an impatient young man coming up behind me WITHOUT a cart and I swiftly cut him off and said "Uh uh. I don't think so! " LOL. I really did. But trust me if you know me this was all done in jest, but it really did happen. I arrived at my final destination unscathed! Phew! Are you still with me? Do you think I'm crazy! LOL. This stuff really happens to me. Granted most of it is self inflicted but still! Hee! Hee!

Well those are my lessons learned for the week.
Want to see what others are learning? Then head on over to Musings of a Housewife.

BIG HUGS!!!

And the winnerS are..........Winners? Did I say winners?

I had so much fun putting this together and when we drew Lisa @ Stop and Smell the Chocolates I got excited to learn that she wanted the scarf. Why? Because I could then draw another winner for one of the other things. So we then drew Kasey @ Beautiful Mess and realized she had her eye on the apron. Well I knew that there were still a lot of people that wanted the bag so we decided to keep drawing. And the winner of the bag was my #1 fan (so she says! LOL) Kathleen @ The Orenczaks (She is actually my friends daughter and I adore her. I am so happy she won something and I won't have to pay for shipping for her as we go to the same church! LOL.)

So congratulations to all the winners.I hope you had fun. I loved those of you who came back each day and flattered me told me more about you. You ALL are so wonderful and have blessed my life by just me knowing you.

Now I know you want to "see" us drawing the names so here we are. Just so you know, I had just come in from planting a flowers in front of our deck and well my husband decided he wanted to "dress" for the occasion. He's such a stud muffin! Yes, we have fun in our house!!
If you stumble upon this before I contact you (Kasey) I will need your address. Lisa I have yours and Kathleen, I'll see you Sunday!!
Don't forget I'm putting a few extra goodies in with the prizes.

BIG GIANT HUGS my friends!

Happy Sonday!

I hope you all have a Blessed Sunday. I will be picking a winner to the giveaway today after church and then posting it tomorrow. Come see if you won!!

HUGS!!

Are Wii Fit?

Most of you know that I enjoy going to the gym and working out. It's very therapeutic for me and it actually looks like it's starting to pay off. I also live a much more sedentary lifestyle then I did when I worked full time before I got married. I'm not saying that I sit on my butt all day but I admit I'm not jogging around my house with my laundry basket over my head doing reps. I also homeschool as most of you know too and I admit my 3 kids probably don't get as much exercise as they should. We go out and play but I often wonder if it's enough. With that said, about 2 months ago my Mom and Dad bought us the Wii fit. I was a bit skeptical at first but it has slowly won me over and now I just love it. I do it on some days in addition to going to the gym just for a little extra push near the middle of the day. I feel like a total goofball doing it but it really is neat. (By the way I secretly video taped my Mom doing the hula hoop, but she won't let me post it on here. *sigh*) Now I know for a fact that a few of you have one and I don't know if you know this about me or not but I like good healthy competition. So I was thinking that those of you who have one and myself could post our recent standings in each category or if you want to keep this on the down low, then we could email them to each other and do that once a week to see how we compare to each other. Are you up for it? Did this post make any sense at all? Cause I'm reading it and I'm not sure if I worded things correctly! LOL. Where's my editor? I think you get the idea. If you have a Wii Fit and wanna play with me let me know and we'll hook up!

BIG HUGS!

Friday Funnies!

This has been quite a week and I'm sure glad it's Friday. Please have some funny for me today. It amazes me how there is always such a great variety of funnies each week! Go post about yours then come back and link up to it using Mr. Linky down below.

Okay, I'm sorry ladies but these two videos are all about woman drivers. I know that WE don't drive like this but, I have to tell you that these cracked me up! I hope you enjoy as well.

This first one is a bunch of compiled, actual videos of women driving or lack there of! LOL.



This one is just too funny. You'll want to watch it again I just know it!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!

Did you know there were rules?

Did you even know that there were certain rules and regulations for eating chocolate? No? Then this came just in the nick of time! Phew!! I need to try just a tad bit harder. Especially on # 4!!



1. If you've got melted chocolate all over your hands, you're eating it too slowly.
2. Chocolate covered raisins, cherries, orange slices, and strawberries all count as fruit, so eat as many as you want.


3. The Problem: How to get 2 lbs of chocolate home from the store in a hot car. Solution: Eat it in the parking lot!
4. Diet Tip: Eat a chocolate bar before each meal. It'll take the edge off your appetite and you'll eat less.


5. A nice box of chocolates can provide your total daily intake of calories in one place. Isn't that handy?
6. If you can't eat all your chocolate, it will keep in the freezer.
But if you can't eat all your chocolates, what's wrong with you?



7. If calories are an issue, store your chocolate on top of the fridge. Calories are afraid of heights, and they will jump out of the chocolate to protect themselves.
8. If I eat equal amounts of dark chocolate and white chocolate, is that a balanced diet? Don't they actually counteract each other?


9. Money talks, chocolate SINGS!
10. Chocolate has many preservatives. Preservatives make you look younger.



Have you every wondered why there are no such organizations as Chocoholics Anonymous?
Uh, Hello? Who would want to quit?! LOL.
If not for chocolate, there would be no need for control top pantyhose. An entire garment industry would be devastated! Put "EAT CHOCOLATE" at the top of your list of things to do today. That way, at least you'll get one thing done!

Have a most excellent day my friends!!
HUGS!

Uh, Eww! *Update* This just in!!

*Update! Scroll to the bottom of this post if you've already read it for this new information! LOL*

So I was taking something out of the oven yesterday and noticed these....


Can you say Ewww!!!! I so totally washed these not to long ago too. And YES, they used to have WHITE in them! I'm thinking it's time to say goodbye to these well used, well stained, pot holders. What do you say? Do your pot holders look like this? Come on, be honest! Show me your pot holders. LOL.
I'm thinking you can guess what I'll be doing this week. I need to go check out my dish towels. I'm a little creeped out right now. I need intervention. I musn't let things get this out of control. Today the pot holders tomorrow the world. LOL.

Yup, this is my post for the day. I had a few things I was going to post but just knew in my heart of hearts that THIS is what you would most want to read. Plus I REALLY want to know if I'm alone in this. Now go on, post about your potholders. I wanna see them. Come clean my friends! It's so freeing! Let's see who's the grossest! LOL.
If you came here looking for something informational today, I'm really really sorry. Well sort of. LOL. Did it make you smile? Then I succeeded.

I think I'm going to make bean bags today and maybe post on how to do them tomorrow. Would that make up for this being the lamest post ever?

* I did it! I went and got me some new pot holders. Here they are, because I know you want to see them.*
*I like these but they weren't my first choice. No, my first choice had a cute coffee cup type theme, but it didn't match my kitchen like these did. Plus these are more "springy". You'll be happy to know and be able to sleep better knowing that my other potholders are now in the garbage!*

BIG HUGS!!

I learned me some things this week!

I managed to once again learn a few things this week that I thought somehow might bring about world peace. So here it goes.
I learned that......
1. ..getting to bed over 2 hours later and getting up at the same time is hard. Very hard.

2....if they would have left the St. Augustine Lighthouse right where it was originally it would still be there and not washed out to sea.

3.....you can't leave cooked brownies in muffin tins and let them sit there while you eat dinner, because they will become hockey pucks. Make sure you remove the brownies from the pan right away! We still ate them!!

4.....when you have to choose between homemade key lime pie or brownies with vanilla ice cream on top, you can't, so I made both!

5.....I love having company over because it gives me an excuse to make desserts. Not that I need an excuse!

6....that my Pastor and his wife have some very very interesting stories. I could listen to them for hours!! Hence getting to bed late! LOL.

7.....that no one uses the word Hence any more! Hee! Hee! I'm bringing it back baby!

8.....locking yourself in your room with your digital camera to video tape yourself feels really weird. "Hence" the video I ended up with yesterday!! LOL.

9....that while talking on the phone LONG distance your 6 year old will ask you a question that you would normally answer no to but because you are on the phone and not paying attention and he hears you "say" the word yes, not knowing it wasn't directed toward him but toward your own phone conversation, he will disappear for about 10 minutes and return saying he almost got the cat. We don't have a cat! LOL. Phew did you get all that? Major run on sentence.

10....that it feels really good to give things away. I love giveaways. I love having them.

So that's it for me this week. I'm sure there are more that learned some new and exciting things this week so head on over to Musings of a Housewife and see if you can glean!!

BIG HUGS TO YOU MY FRIENDS!

Giveaway! Are you ready to laugh at me?

Here it is! The day you've all been waiting for. A video post of me! LOL. Well all except those of you who have actually met me in person and know just how weird I am. Don't you love the Christmas lights around the bed! Yeah, baby!
Enjoy.



(I am realizing that my favorite words are Um and So! LOL I told you I write like I talk!!)
So here are the prizes.
Now remember I'm not GREAT at making anything but I do enjoy it and wanted what I give you to be something made by me so here are your choices.

I know it's hard to think about cold weather right now but I've made this really pretty and soft scarf. It's almost finished. My husband makes a great model doesn't he?
So this is Choice #1
Choice #2 is this apron.
Yes, it takes a real man to model an apron! LOL. This is the first and only apron I made, but I made it with the intentions of giving it away because I have 5 aprons soon to be 6 already. I love aprons! LOL. This one is made from very sturdy material and a cute kitchen type pattern on it.
Choice #3
This is a denim bag that I made. It had pretty flowers on the outside and is very sturdy.
Here's a picture of the inside.

Here's choice #4
Lounge shorts!
You aren't getting this pair. No this is MY pair and I love them. I will make you a different pair and you will have your choice of a few different colors of flannel.
Well my initial plan of videoing my whole post just didn't work out as it would have taken me forever to upload, so I still have to explain a few things I forgot on there. It was my 3rd take and I was losing it! LOL.
Like I said, you can leave a comment every day on this post to enter. You must be a current friend aka follower. And sadly I must limit this to the U.S..
In your first entry please state what it is that you would like to win. After that you can come back and leave a comment to enter again, but this time I want you to tell me something about YOU. What your interests are, your hobbies, favorite foods, etc. Just make sure it's on THIS post. (I'll have the link handy at the top of my blog each day).
Oh and these aren't the only things you'll get. I will be slipping in some other fun things as well.

Have you spent enough time on my blog today? LOL. I hope you enjoyed it and I can't wait to hear what you thought of the silly video of me! I can't stand my picture being taken or being on video, so this was a big stretch for me.
HUGS TO YOU MY FRIENDS!

8 Things that I know you want to know!

I haven't done a tag in awhile and my new friend Miti decided she wanted to get to know me better so she tagged me with this fun tag.

Here's how to do this 8 THINGS thing:

• Mention the person that tagged you.
• Complete the lists of 8's.
• Tag 8 of your wonderful bloggy friends.
• Go tell them you tagged them!

8 THINGS I LOOK FORWARD TO

1. My Best Friend coming home.
   
2. Christmas ( I know, I know, it's early but I still look forward to it. Heck, I look forward to it the day after it's over! LOL)
3. All my kids birthdays coming up this year! Especially my soon to be Sweet 16 daughter!
   
4. Losing 12 lbs by the end of the year.
   
5. My Birthday, only because I get to eat my peanut butter pie or my chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting. Oh yes, this certainly does contradict #4. LOL
   
6. To another beautiful day tomorrow!
   
7. Getting an RV for real cheap because the Lord is good!
   
8. To actually get to use the boat we purchased almost a year ago! Hubby is fixing it up to sell it but we want to at least try it first!
   

8 THINGS I DID YESTERDAY

1. Had Coffee!! Woo! Hoo! YES!! Sorry, I get a little excited about this every morning!!
   
2. Did my devotional
3. Blogged baby!
   
4. Did my Wii fit
   
5. Went to the Gym for Zumba
   
6. Fed our resident squirrel Skippy, peanuts from our hand!
   
7. Read Blogs!
   
8. Played with the kidlins!
   

8 THINGS I WISH I COULD DO

1. See without the use of my contacts or glasses!
   
2. Sew really really well!
   
3. Focus on just ONE activity at a time.
4. Have my 23 year old figure back.
   
5. Make the world a peaceful place.
6. Meet all my blogging friends in real life!
   
7. Make money from home. Well not literally but make and sell something. LOL.
   
8. Protect my children from ever getting hurt.
   

8 SHOWS I WATCH

1. I
   
2. don't
   
3. watch
   
4. any
   
5. tv.
   
6. Yup!
   
7. We're
   
8. weird!
   

8 BLOGGERS TAGGED
I'm tagging people I don't know very well, YET. If you do this please tell me so I can come learn more about you.

1. Terri @ The Four Scarbarys
2. Becky @ Every Day A New Beginning
   
3. Kaci @ Beautiful Mess
   
4. Darlene @ Everything to me AkA Puffs Pocket
   
5. Noel @ Bloom Where You're Planted
   
6. Julie @ A Day in Our Life
   
7. Michele @ Michele's Morsels
   
8. MrsHester @ Forver Student

Well did you learn something you didn't already know? Yeah, I know, not very exciting huh? That's why you gotta wait for those posts where my OCD kicks in! LOL.
BIG HUGS EVERYONE!!
Oh and you know what? If I didn't tag you and you want to do this, PLEASE feel free. I wanted to tag all my followers but I'd be here all day. So if you're a friend and want to do this, let me know so I can come check it out!!

AND, if you are my friend aka follower don't forget to stop by Monday to check out my giveaway just for YOU!

Friday Funnies

Oh my it's Friday!! You got a funny? Well go post about it and come back and link it up right here. I have such a good time reading or viewing your funnies! I hope you do too.

Oh I got a kick out of this joke. I hope you enjoy it too!


Jesus is Watching!

A burglar broke into a house one night. He shined his flashlight around looking for valuables, and when he picked up a CD player to place in his sack, a strange, disembodied voice echoed from the dark saying, "Jesus is watching you."
He nearly jumped out of his skin, clicked his flashlight out and froze. When he heard nothing more after a bit, he shook his head, clicked the light back on and began searching for more valuables.
Just as he pulled the stereo out so he could disconnect the wires, clear as a bell he heard, "Jesus is watching you." Freaked out, he shined his light around frantically, looking for the source of the voice.
Finally, in the corner of the room, his flashlight beam came to rest on a parrot.
"Did you say that?" he hissed at the parrot.
"Yep!" the parrot confessed. "I'm just trying to warn you."
The burglar relaxed. "Warn me, huh? Who the heck are you?"
"Moses" replied the bird.
"Moses" the burglar laughed. "What kind of stupid people would name a parrot Moses?"
"Probably the same kind of people that would name a rottweiler Jesus." the bird answered.

LOL! Did you see that coming?

Don't forget my sweet friends, if you are a follower of mine be sure to check back Monday for my special giveaway details just for you!
Happy Friday to you!

You love me, you really love me!

My friend count hit 100! And it only took a little over a year! LOL. I'm not complaining. I have a pretty goofy blog. Most of you probably know that I started out with the intent of doing devotionals! Yeah, I know! I think I got a few out and realized it was way to hard to be serious and I had to let loose on who I really am. I'm glad you like me enough to put up with my silly, yet sometimes informational posts. I know you all are busy but if you actually hung out a bit you'd find a little bit of everything. I've got homeschooling posts, cooking posts, posts on gadgets (WFMW), silly nonsensical posts about my kids and my ocd, book reviews, and who knows, you may have missed something. If you ever do have time to peruse my blog it's all there on my left side bar nicely labeled in the category section.

So you probably want to know about the giveaway now don't you? Well I wanted to do something just for you gals. My friends. Those of you who take the time to leave such funny, encouraging, insightful comments. I think I have the best commenters in blogland. You gals rock! But you're going to have to wait until Monday to find out what the giveaway is going to be. I am going to do things a little differently. So make sure you come back.
But until then look for Friday Funnies tomorrow!


Big HUGS!!

Works For Me Wednesday

I have a confession to make. I don't use a microwave! Gasp! I know! I know! However do I survive? LOL. Believe me I manage. When we did have a microwave the only thing I really used it for was melting butter and popping corn. So when we got rid of it, I missed my popcorn terribly. Hence the reason for this post. It wasn't long after we got rid of the microwave that we purchased this Hot Air Popper. We've had it for a few years now and love it. I thought a demonstration would be fun, so enjoy. Oh and you may need to tilt your head just a little because the person doing the video taping didn't realize that you couldn't switch from vertical to horizontal without messing everything up. But you'll get the idea just the same. Please watch it as it took me over an hour to upload it! LOL.

Wasn't that fun? You too could have that much fun right there in the comfort of your own home. Yes sir, for just $19.99 you could own your own Hot Air Popper and make your own silly videos of your family getting all excited over something as simple as popping corn! Oh and I highly recommend the white corn not the yellow!
This not doing it for you? Well then hop on over to We are That Family and see if you can find something that will!
Big Giant Hugs!!

What I Learned this week!

Where does the time go? Since I skipped last week, you'd think that I would have twice as much to post about this week. But alas, I must not have been paying to much attention, or I was just to tired to care! LOL. So the things that stuck will be the things that I share with you so you too may learn and become wise. LoL.

This week and possibly last week I learned....

1. that you always see people on Easter that you won't see again till Christmas.

2. that when you're in a hurry to get somewhere you'll always leave late from the house and hit every red light and get behind the lost tourist trying to find his way out of Florida. BUT when you AREN'T in a hurry you'll leave an hour before Sam's Club opens to go to the post office and the library and you won't hit one red light, the post office will for once in your life move along very quickly, there is no one in front of you for a mile on your way to the library ,which in turn forces you to stop at your favorite fabric store (JoAnn's) and test your self control, because you now have a half hour to spare before Sam's opens.

3. that it takes about 3 days to send something priority mail to California from Florida. Not bad.

4. that things always seem louder when you're kids are sleeping and you want them to stay asleep. For instance, my coffee maker. Has it always sounded like a giant grizzly bears stomach growling? And why do my fingers all of a sudden feel so heavy on the keyboard and sound like a woodpecker trying to break into the mother board?

5. that since our Wal-mart is completely remodeling the store and moving EVERYTHING from its original place, I started pretending I'm on a scavenger hunt and try to beat my prior time on how fast I can find the things on my list. Hey you gotta make life fun sometimes.

6. that if you watch young boys long enough, they will do something gross and think no one's watching. ( I won't go into detail)

7. that when you run out of creamer for you coffee, milk just doesn't cut it! Ugh!

8. that my parents can be here for 5 months but we all miss them the day after they leave and are ready for them to come back to Florida.

9. that when my parents left they took the snacks with them and now my kids are having withdrawals. LOL.

Sad, I couldn't come up with an even 10. Oh well, I'm sure I lost you at 5 anyway.
To see what others are learning this week, hop on over to Musings of a Housewife.

Don't forget about my giveaway I'm going to have as soon as my friend count reaches 100. And come back tomorrow for Works for Me Wednesday because I am uploading a video to show you what's working for us!
Big Hugs!

Book Review- Or should I say books review? Either way I'm reviewing me some books today!

It's no secret I love to cook. And through the years I've come a long way. I've gained a mountain of knowledge in my quest to cook healthier and like a miner hunting for gold, I think I've struck it.

I've been eyeballing the Sue Gregg cookbooks for quite some time. I downloaded the free sample she offers and tried a few recipes, but the books I wanted were a little more than I wanted to spend and I couldn't just choose one to start with. So I found her website and sent the link to my husband explaining fully how I really didn't NEED the cookbooks but it WOULD benefit him and the family in a round about way and I left it at that. My husband knows my heart and my intentions and I did post a pretty good argument, I mean I explained how I could save the rain forest if I just had these cookbooks. Okay maybe not save the rain forest but I know something good will come of it. Aaaanyways, I had since forgotten about it and about 4 or 5 days later a box came in the mail addressed to my husband and I didn't even look at the return address so the box sat there for a few hours not being opened. My husband calls me from work which sparked the whole, "Oh yeah, you got a package today." He asks from who and I look and it's from Sue Gregg. Oh happy moment!!!! It was kind of cool because he got to witness my excitement over the phone. Now of course I tore into the box like a kid on Christmas and I swear I heard the Hallelujah chorus and saw a light shine down on my precious new Sue Gregg cookbooks. I've been perusing them ever since. Now these aren't just cookbooks with recipes. She has a TON of useful information in these babies. She has Menu's made up depending on your tastes and she explains things in layman's terms for those of us who have been known to stare blankly at some recipes and go "Huh?"
So last night I got my books and my free menu planner form and started making my menu. I've decided to have a one month rotating menu but have room for new recipes to be added. They didn't all come from here because my family loves a lot of my brainstorm recipes that I have posted on my cooking blog, but I am incorporating a few of Sue's each week. I'll let you know how I like them.

Have a most excellent Monday my friends!

Happy Easter!

Some Link Love! Fun Freebies!

I like anything useful. I like it even more when it doesn't cost me anything. A lot of my bloggy buddies have been offering some neat little helpful freebies and I thought I would share it with all my other bloggy buddies.

Laura over at I'm an Organizing Junkie is offering this free Menu-Planner in pdf.

My friend Sheri at Graham Family Ministries has some wonderful free household planner forms. Check out her other stuff while you are there. She has a lot of great ebooks.


Don't forget about the free All About Apples ebook I put together. You can find it here or on my side bar. I'm going to be putting together another one with recipes that I've been collecting from you all.

Do you love your crockpot? Well this gal sure does and she offers a years worth of recipes. Check it out!

Need ideas to cut your grocery bill. Well the Hillbilly Housewife is offering this free ebook.

Need some inspiration for spring cleaning your heart and home. Over at a Virtuous Woman she's having a Spring Cleaning Challenge .Make sure you go back and download all of them. I think there are 10 days so far. You can start any time..

I think that will keep you busy for awhile.
~~Have a great weekend and a wonderful EASTER~~
BIG HUGS!

Friday Funnies

Woo! Hoo! It's Friday. It's Friday! Are you doing the happy dance with me? It's time again for some laughs and giggles. Are you ready? I am. If you have something funny to share, go blog about it and come link your post to Mr. Linky down below!

I found this in a folder in my desk the other day and I was cracking up! And in light of us trying to find a new computer, I thought it appropriate.
Enjoy.

If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would then have to pull over to the side of the road, close all of the car windows, shut it off, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. And for some reason you would simply accept this.

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

5. Only one person at a time could use the car unless you hit "CarNT" but then you would have to buy more seats.

6. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive- but would only run on 5% of the roads.

7. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "General Protection Fault" warning light.

8. New seats would force everyone to have the same sized butt.

9. The airbag system would ask "are you SURE?" before deploying.

10. And last but not least, occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna!

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE!!

General Blah Blah Blah! BUT it might be beneficial!

I didn't think the title General Blah Blah Blah was going to go reeling you in so I had to add the last part just so you would consider reading it out of curiosity. Did it work? LOL.

As usual I have a few things rolling around my head. For one, we are going to buy a new computer. We have stretched the life of this one for probably 5-6 more years then it should have been and it's tired! It wants to retire. So we've been shopping but we can't seem to find one that has the stuff we are looking for at a decent price. We definitely don't want to pay over a $1000.00. We really don't even want to get to close to that. LOL. All those zeros scare me! Anyway, I would like your opinion. What do you have and do you LOVE it. We really need something that will edit our home video. Everything else is less important but yet still important. Ya picking up what I'm putting down? Okay moving on.

Have you been enjoying my little spring decorating ideas? Do you want another? I have one more little spring decorating idea but didn't know if you were tired of it yet or not. If not I'll whip it up today and post it later. What I should be doing is SPRING CLEANING not spring decorating! But the cleaning isn't near as fun as the decorating.

I've been tossing around the idea of another giveaway but I couldn't figure out for what? LOL. I'm way past my bloggiversary. My birthday isn't till July and with the exception of Easter there isn't another major holiday for a while now. So I looked over at my friends on the right side bar there, that for some reason faithfully follow my little blog, and thought, "How about I have a giveaway when my friend count reaches a hundred." Now granted this could take A LONG TIME! LOL. But that's what I'm going to do. So if you been tossing around the idea of being my buddy, now would be the time to do it.

Oh yeah and I've had a few people comment about my weeding out the movies post and one had an idea about posting what we DO watch as a family. Is that something that would be of interest to anyone else? I know we are all at different seasons of our lives. We have small children, therefor our movies have to be able to be watched by them as well. It's hard to pick a movie that everyone wants to watch. I mean we have 40 years to 3 years old to make happy. Sometimes we give up and just talk, which isn't a bad thing,because we can't agree on one!

And last but not least, don't forget about Friday Funnies tomorrow!!!! I've found yet another joke out of the archives!
Oh and Saturday Show and Tell will be canceled until further notice.

Oh yeah, (I keep remembering things) I'm going to be posting a yummy carrot cake recipe on my cooking blog. I just made it last night and it was FABULOUS. It's on the healthier side so you don't have to feel as guilty!

Okay so let's recap.
Help us with computer choice.
To spring decorate one more thing or not to spring decorate one more thing, that is the question.
Giveaway at 100 friends
Posting our movie listings.
Friday Funnies tomorrow.
No Show and Tell Saturday this Saturday.
Carrot cake recipe

Tell me your thoughts. I have 93 friends and only get like 10 comments! LOL.
BIG GIANT HUGS TO ALL OF YOU!

Works For Me Wednesday- Seasonal Decorating

It's time for a little more seasonal decorating. I hope you enjoyed my little table setting yesterday. Today what's working for me is seasonal wall art. I was thinking about this the other day as I stared at the blank wall space in my kitchen. We have TONS of pictures but not a whole lot of wall space. So I opted for less is more, smaller is better. I used to believe that EveRyThinG had to be blown up into at least an 8 x 10. But as kids started to multiply and wall space started to shrink I had to reevaluate my bigger is better theory.
I went to Wally World with my SD card, printed out 6 springy like pictures and got 6- 4 x 6 picture frames and went to work.
Here is the wall space to the right of the door before.

And here is the after.

Here is the before left side.
And after.
Here is the whole wall space before.
And after.It just adds a nice splash of color to the white walls don't you think?
I'm eventually going to put a scripture verse above the door.
Now here is where the "seasonal" part comes in. The hard part is over. I got something hung on the wall. Now I can change the pictures based on what season or time of year it is. Just keep these pictures behind the new ones and rotate every season. Cool huh?
To see what's working for others today, go visit We are that Family.

Big Seasonal Hugs to you all!!

Tackle it Tuesday- Spring Table Decorating

I am just a stickler for making my house seasonably fun. My kids love it too. It just makes a house homey. So I got the spring bug yesterday and went to work on my table. Not only was this inexpensive but EASY!!
I'll show you the pictures first and tell you what I did after just in case you hate it and want to end your time at my blog now and move on to your next destination. LOL. Aren't I thoughtful? Cute huh? I made this for under $5.00 I could have made it for almost free had I used my husbands handkerchiefs, but since they were mostly blue, black, and camouflage and the fact that he does USE his, and the fact that it would have been really really ugly, I opted against it.

Here's what you need.
4 or 5 springy handkerchiefs. I found these at Wal-Mart for a $1.00 a piece. I only needed 4 and my table is average size.
A couple of votives for some tea light candles. Use what you have. I had these but they were pretty plain so I just grabbed my acrylic paint and just added a splash of color.
I didn't go for perfection. I went with just having some fun and they came out cute I thought. No one will be critiquing your paint job I can assure you.For the center piece, I just added a simple vase and some fake springy flowers. I'm sure you have an extra vase or two lying around somewhere. My husband is good about buying me wild flowers every month so fakes will definitely be replaced with those soon. But for now they looked cute. Also my flip flop salt and pepper shakers is what inspired me on the color scheme. Find something you have already and then work around it. This goes with any kind of decorating project.

To sew the handkerchiefs together you just overlap each end about an inch and sew a zig zag type stitch to connect them.
Here's what you DON'T do.See the folded corner sewn all nice and neatly onto the back side? Yeah, don't do that! You don't want that to happen. That causes you to sprout a few gray hairs and make you wonder why you have a sewing machine in the first place. But I'm kind of glad I did it or I wouldn't have taken a picture of the stitch so you could see it. Now remember this is the backside. You aren't going to have that over lap showing on the right side.
Well there you have it. Come back tomorrow as I'm going to have another springy decorating idea ready for you.
But for now, why don't you go check out more Tackles over at 5 Minutes for Moms.
Feel free to ask me any questions about this project!
Have a most excellent day!

Doing some weeding!

I'm sure when you read the blog post title you thought you were going to find me up to my knees in dirt somewhere in the front yard huh? Well I can tell you that that would have been a lot easier then writing this post. This post is a confession of sorts and letting you know what the Lord is doing in our lives right now.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, my husband and daughter went on a Father/Daughter retreat to Callaway Gardens in Georgia, put on by Vision Forum. They had a marvelous time. What I didn't expect is how they would come home feeling. My daughter was completely renewed and refreshed in her walk with the Lord. She quickly isolated movies and took music off her MP3 player that she knew didn't completely glorify the Lord. My husband was ready for change as well and was setting up for a reformation of our family. Me? I was scared to death, at first. It was very overwhelming coming all at once but slowly the Lord started to show me what He had shown them at this retreat.
Let me give you a little background on us as a family. We love the Lord and thought we were putting Him first in our life. We went to church on Sunday, I'd have my devotions in the morning and my husband would have his and then we'd be on our merry way. The Lord convicted my husband about sharing the word diligently with his family and worshiping the Lord as a family. We had been slacking on that and sin started to creep slowly into our house. In what form? Well for the most part in the form of movies we watched. Even before the Lord revealed this to us you wouldn't have found a movie over a PG in our house. But after looking at a lot of these movies with new eyes, things became more evident to us and they were not sitting well with us any more. We used to justify buying a movie if it only misused the Lord's name one or two times because we would just mute or fast forward over it. See how you start compromising? We did this for years. But for us it's time to change.
Now this post isn't about me trying to convict you or change you. That's not my job. This is about what the Lord is doing in our family. I am just being real. I love you gals and you know it. I'm not going to come to your house and do an inventory. LOL! This was not easy by any means for me. I enjoyed these movies for many many years and some for only months. I will be more than happy to explain why we got rid of any one movie if you have a question. I'm sure you will find most of these in households across America, but they will no longer be viewed by ours.


Sin is like weeds, if you ignore it for too long it will start to take over and before you know it you are overtaken with it. Weeding isn't fun work but in order to keep your spirit from getting smothered by it you need to do an inventory of what's in the garden of your heart.
The bible tells us this:

Romans 12:2 (New King James Version)

² And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

It's not easy living in a world where you are surrounded by sin. Sin is tempting and alluring. Sin is fun and adventurous. That's why we constantly need to put on the armor of God each and every day.

Ephesians 6:13-15 (New International Version)

¹³Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

Here are a couple of great resources for checking out what a movie has in it before you see it or buy it. It goes into details so you aren't taken by surprise.

Plugged in Online and Kids in Mind

Are you still with me? I hope so!
If you've made it this far, thank you for sticking it out. For the next 3 days I will be sharing a few Spring Decorating ideas. So come back and join me. No more heavy stuff for a while! LOL.