…..the world will come to an end. Okay maybe not. But I’ve got your attention now don’t I? Actually in 4 more posts I will have written 1000 posts.
1000!
Can you even believe that? Talk about the gift of gab. And please don’t tell me if I’ve started repeating myself. What I don’t know won’t hurt me!
So here’s what I’m thinking. I’m thinking this calls for a celebration, because this is a big deal. At least to me it is. There are some of you who have been with me since the beginning and we are no longer just bloggers but friends.
I’ve tried very hard to keep my blog personal and relatable. I want you to leave here feeling like a friend, not just another blogger.
Now what should I do to celebrate this momentous occasion? I’m thinking giveaway! Oh yes, and I’ve got some fun prizes picked out. There will be multiple winners, just to make it more fun.
How about some giggles today? If you’d like to join in the fun, feel free to link your family friendly funny up below. It can be a funny, picture, video, joke etc.
Now let’s spread some funny.
Oh these two comic strips CRACKED ME UP! I love being a homeschool family. LOL!
Here’s what’s been going on around our homestead, because I know your Monday wouldn’t be the same without you knowing. I’m good like that. Always thinking of others.
Our garden is slowing springing back from the all that rain and standing water. We lost about a 1/3 of our seedlings but everything else seems to be doing okay. My hubby harvested these sweet potatoes the other day. It was our first time trying to grow them and it’s always a surprise when things actually grow. LOL!
There were more but we ate some for dinner that night and they were soooo good!
If you’ve hung out here at my blog for any length of time you know that buying next years wall calendar is always a big deal to me. Okay, I probably MAKE it a big deal but if it’s going to be hanging on my kitchen wall for 12 months I want to LOVE it, not just like it.
So this year the new Gooseberry Patch Calendar won out over the others. I loved their artwork in this calendar and thought it would be a happy addition to my kitchen.
My hubby is going to town on our closet. He’s got the inside framed out the way we want it and now all he has to do is paint the wood. I’ve been taking pictures of the whole process. Here’s a sneak peek.
Here he is working on his side of the closet. There’s just something about a man that can build things…….*swoon*…..Huh? Wha?….Okay I’m back!
I’ll stop there for now as I know you have other things to do and only 37.5 seconds to spend reading each blog. LOL!
Don’t forget if you would like to purchase this software you can get a $10.00 discount off the purchase price and a $10.00 coupon to use in the My Memories store, using the code STMMMS73210.
…..with my Fall decor. I’m sorry people I just can’t get into it. It’s doing nothing for me. I’m tempted to put the scarecrow brood back into storage, forever. Buh bye!
What I want to do is get the Christmas stuff down and decorate the first of November. I want to shake things up a bit, throw people off, make them think I’m crazy, or crazier. I mean I put a lot of effort into my Christmas decor and then I only get to enjoy it for less then a month. Don’t worry this would be strictly an inside job. My hubby refuses to put outside lights up until after Thanksgiving. So most people would never know. It would be my little secret. Bwah ha ha!
On an unrelated note. Thank you all so much for your feedback on my post the other day. I really appreciated your thoughtful words and insight. I’ll take quality over quantity any day. You all rock!
Well that’s it. That’s all I got for you. Short and sweet just like we like em’.
Social media today is still on the rise. More blogs and Facebook accounts start every day. And now there’s Google+. But where are the people? I know that sounds kind of silly, but where are they? If it’s called social media, shouldn’t people be social?
I have found that over the past 5 years of blogging that numbers are up but interaction is WAY down. People are just out to get their information and move on to the next thing. I know I’m guilty of doing that sometimes too.
There have been a few times in the past 5 years that I just wanted to walk away from blogging. It was recently that I wanted to completely delete my FB account. But I didn’t. Why? Because of you. I like “talking” to you. I’m a social butterfly and this is my garden. So within reason, it’s an outlet for me.
Two months ago I started a Homesteader’s Heart FB page. It kind of took the place of my personal FB page but it’s geared more toward homey stuff. I did this so I could interact more with women like me and I’ve already met some great new friends.
Below I have compiled what I believe to be the pros and cons of each network.
Facebook Pros
Blogging Pros
1. Easier interaction. You throw up a status that’s on your knoggin’ and people respond and you can have a conversation on and off all day.
1. You can go into more detail about what ever it is you are talking about. In my case that would be things like “baking soda’. LOL! People expect it.
2. Quicker- I don’t have to put to much effort into posting a quick picture or thought for the day as people don’t expect a whole lot.
2. Sometimes companies will contact you to promote their stuff for free. Free stuff is good if it’s what you’d promote any way.
3. More personal- You actually get to see what goes on in my world on a daily basis. And the more you visit the more I see who you are.
3. Not everyone has a FB account so those people are the ones that will be seeking out blogs to read.
4. I’ve met a whole new world of people on FB that have “pages” just like me. I didn’t realize that all existed until I created my Homesteader’s Heart Page.
Facebook Cons
Blogging Cons
1. Because my account is now a “page” for my blog, I can’t friend people that I meet on there. I have to depend on them stopping by to say “Hi” to interact.
1. Those that used to blog, now don’t. People give up quicker.
2. Not everyone has a FB account.
2. It takes longer to read blogs and therefore most people don’t take the time to leave comments or interact.
Well those are my thoughts on the subject. Please feel free to add your own pros and cons in the comments. I’d love to know what you think about these two social medias.
Oh and I don’t know if you are interested or not, but I’m having a giveaway for some great Digital Scrapbooking Software. I’m thinking it must not be a popular thing as only 4 people have entered since yesterday. LOL! But I thought I’d throw it out there just in case you missed it.
Calling all scrap-bookers!! Have I got a fun giveaway for you today. When I was contacted by a My Memories representative about promoting their product, I knew after checking it out that it was a no brainer.
The possibilities with this is endless. It cuts so much time and effort out of scrapbooking by hand. (Which I’ve tried and failed many times.)
I’ve only scratched the surface with what this software can do but I’m going to be jumping WAY into it because I see Christmas gifts on the horizon. That’s why I’m bringing this to you now. I want you to be able to use this to make your family and friends some really neat personalized gifts.
Here are just a few pages I threw together in just a short time.
3. Follow their blog. You can keep up to date on all the new things happening and grab some freebies.
4. Spread the word. Blog or Facebook about it and come back and tell me you did.
5. Let me know that you are a follower of my blog.
So you have 5 chances to win.
But wait, there’s more. LOL!
If you would like to purchase this software you can get a $10.00 discount off the purchase price and a $10.00 coupon to use in the My Memories store, using the code STMMMS73210.
Fine print: This is a downloadable product and the winner will be given a code in order to receive it for free. I was given a free download in return for an honest review of the product.
This giveaway is open until Sunday October 23, 2011 @ 12:00 pm EST.
Did you all have a good week? I sure hope so. How about ending this week with a giggle? If you would like to join in the fun, just link up your friendly family funny up below. It can be a joke, video, picture etc.
Now let’s spread some funny!
I was in the mood for some Tim Hawkins and this one just struck my funny bone.
….my brain will catch up with my body and realize that I’m not a spring chicken any more and quit talking me into doing things I shouldn’t be, like say, push ups. They’re evil.
….I’m going to finish what I started in the same exact day.
….I will know exactly what day it is without any help from my 9 year old.
…..I won’t stare blankly at my blog and actually have something useful to tell you.
….I won’t act surprised when the dentist calls to remind me of my appointment that I made 6 months prior.
…..I’ll complete a whole thought in one sitting.
…..I’ll be able to remember why I entered a room and not have to back track to the original room to see if something triggers the original intent.
Gee I don’t know, is the title long enough for you? I wasn’t sure what to call this after I realized it was scrumptious enough to post on my cooking blog. LOL! I just threw it together last night and everyone loved it. So for now that’s what we’re going to call it. I’ll take any other suggestions though. HA!
Ingredients:
3 cups cooked rice (I used Jasmine)
4 cups cooked chicken, chopped into pieces
2 cups of broccoli, chopped (I used frozen and let it thaw out enough to chop into bite size pieces.)
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Cream Sauce:
2 TBS. Butter
1 TBS Olive Oil
1/3 cup of flour, (I used Brown Rice Flour because we are Gluten Free right now)
2 1/2 cups of milk (I used Rice Milk)
2 Chipotle Peppers, chopped fine
Salt to taste
Directions:
If your chicken and rice isn’t cooked yet, get that going. Meanwhile, let’s make that cream sauce.
In a medium sauce pan add your butter and olive oil and melt over medium heat. When melted, add your flour and whisk it together. (It should be pretty thick at this point) Slowly whisk in your milk and increase heat just a tad. At this point I don’t walk away, I whisk continuously until the sauce starts to thicken (approx. 5-10 minutes) When sauce is thickened to a creamy consistency, add your chopped chipotle peppers and stir to combine. Add salt to taste. Now set this aside.
In a bowl combine your cooked chicken, rice and broccoli. Spread this out into a 9 x 13 casserole dish. Sprinkle your mozzarella cheese on top. Now take your cream sauce and pour it all over and then take a spoon and spread it out evenly. Cover with foil and bake at 375 for 25 minutes. Take foil off during last 5 minutes of baking.
You’ll notice that I didn’t add any other seasonings to this. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to but I was in the middle of talking to a friend who had stopped by and completely forgot. BUT with that said, it tasted delicious just the way it was and made it that much easier.
Gooseberry Patch is having a blog hop and you're invited. Just link up your favorite bread or muffin recipe below and feel free to share the blog hop on your blog too.
Well it’s almost been a year this coming November 1, since we moved into our new home. It was a blessing to move into a home that didn’t require a ton of maintenance like our first home did.
We have almost completely finished painting the interior rooms with the exception of our office, the kids bathroom and our closet (hold that thought).
Last night my hubby unclogged 16 years worth of someone else's nar nar from our bathroom drains. They had been running slow since we moved in and he was pretty over it. Did I mention he hates plumbing? Maybe it’s because he’s an electrician by trade. I don’t know. But regardless, he did it and they drain great now.
This is his latest project. Our closet!
Empty as can be!
Well except for this sexy handy man, A.K.A. my hubbalicious, starting the remodel.
We’ve never had a “real” walk in closet before and we’re just figuring out what we want to do with it. One thing we do know is that it holds A LOT of “stuff”. We know this because when we were taking EVERYTHING out of it we looked back and thought, “How did this all fit in there?”
Just look at our bathtub.
And then there’s this.
I’m not showing you any more cause it’s embarrassing.
So that’s our (his) latest home project. I will of course give you full after pictures once it’s done. I wouldn’t be a blogger if I didn’t. In fact I was all in a huff when I realized my hubby had emptied half the closet contents before I was able to get a truly embarrassing before picture and he’s like, “I’m not putting it back.” LOL!
All I could think about for the past 24 hours was how, what was happening, resembles this scene from the movie “Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day”.
It all started EARLY Saturday morning and has lasted clear into Sunday. 24+ hours of wind and rain. Then our power went out this morning for a little bit. (But thank the Lord I had already had my coffee. LOL!) Usually they blow something like this out of proportion on the weather channel but I didn’t even hear about it. OY!
My point is, I’m ready for it to stop. Come back sunshine, I miss you!
Here are some pictures from our backyard. Enjoy! LOL!
Here’s a little bit of our weather beaten garden. I really hope it makes it. You can’t even walk in it without sinking down at least 6 inches into muck. My hubby has worked so hard on it, I’d hate for it to be ruined.
Where you can’t “see” standing water, there is water there trust me. Everywhere I walked my feet went under water.
Years ago I kept coming across recipes asking for chipotle peppers. I quickly avoided them, not knowing what the heck it was. I’m glad I finally looked into it because now I use them all the time.
First of all, What is a Chipotle Pepper?
The chipotle pepper is a dried or smoked jalapeño pepper. It naturally, resembles a jalapeño, but after the smoking process it tends to look brown and shriveled. It doesn’t lose much of its heat through the smoking process, so you not only get to enjoy that wonderful spiciness but the natural wood smoke taste. YUM!
Here’s the kind that I buy at the grocery store. They are located with the Mexican stuff.
Here’s one straight out of the can. See? Nice and brown and shriveled.
When I use them I like to chop them up really fine so that they are distributed throughout whatever it is I’m putting them in.
And then there is always plenty leftover to use in other recipes.
On this particular day I was using them in a cream sauce to cook with my chicken. It was FABULOUS! I also make a Chipotle Meatloaf that is my family’s favorite meatloaf recipe ever. A lot of times I’ll put them in my soups or casseroles. If you like spicy then you really need to give these a try.
Well I hope this helped curb your fear of the unknown. LOL!
Are you ready to giggle? Would you like to spread some giggles? Well, just link your family friendly funny up below. It can be a funny picture, story, video etc.
NOW LET’S SPREAD SOME FUNNY!
I saw this video on Facebook and new it was going to be my funny for today.
Well hubby has got the Fall garden all ready to go. So far I think he’s planted tomatoes, green beans, brussel sprouts, cabbage, broccoli, cucumbers, lettuce, chard, onions and bell peppers.
The Fall garden does much better than the Spring garden here in Florida so we are really excited about it. We were goofing off and experimenting with growing sweet potatoes and we actually harvested some yesterday. Fun!
Let’s see, I went to the Dentist the other day. That’s always fun. My appointment wasn’t until 2 and I kept freaking myself out because I kept forgetting that I had to leave and kept thinking I was going to miss it. Next time I’m making it earlier so I can get it over with. My kids get to go have their “fun” today.
I’m on day 15 of my no added sugar diet and I’ve lost almost 5lbs. My energy levels are high and I feel really good. I’m so proud of the few of you who decided to join in. Let me know how you’re doing.
I’ve been busy spray painting. If you’ve “like” my Homesteader’s Heart page on FB you have already gotten a sneak peak at what I’ve been doing, but I’m going to save that for a separate post.
My BFF brought over a red rose from her garden the other day and it looked so pretty. Every time I passed by it, it made me smile!
Well I guess that’s about it. Other than that, it’s life as usual.
What have you been up to?
HUGS!
P.S. Don’t forget about Friday Funnies tomorrow. Not sure where you all were last week but I missed ya!
Once in awhile you come to a bump in the road that you just can’t get over. For me it was a combination of weight loss and lack of energy. So I got on the computer and started doing a little research and the more I read the more I realized that sugar was the culprit. I didn’t like that answer so I kept searching for an alternative and it kept coming up sugar. FINE! It’s sugar, now what? “Well,” I told myself “you gotta stop eating it. Wha? You heard me. You gotta stop eating sugar! But, But…..I love sugar!” That’s pretty much the conversation I had with myself once I realized my problem.
So on the night of September 21, 2011 I decided to just give up “added” sugar from my diet. Yup, just like that. I was so determined and ready to do this that I barely slept that night. In fact I couldn’t wait to get up and start NOT eating sugar. How twisted is that?
The true test of my endurance would come 3 days later when my daughter had her birthday party. Did I cave? Nope. I didn’t eat one slice of the homemade strawberry cake with strawberry icing with chocolate ganache dripping down over it. Nope, not one lick! I KNOW! Yay, me!
So here’s what’s going down thus far. I’m on day 12 and have lost a total of 3.5lbs. YES!!! I didn’t even work out that first week because I did get a headache for two days because of my body rebelling against me and my energy was really low. BUT I kicked it into high gear the next week and I’m feeling great now. I have clearer thinking, I’m losing weight effortlessly and I don’t have cravings at all. I really feel like I can do this. It feels so good to take control of my health.
I’m keeping a food, mood, and weight diary of my journey. I’m thinking about putting it into a word doc. for those of you who might be interested in trying this. What do you think?
If you’re curious now, I suggest you simply put in a search for “Cutting sugar from your diet” and you’ll probably get all the info that I got when I was researching this.
There are also some books that you could check out from the Library, Sugar Blues and Sugar Shock are just a couple.
Now those of you that know me know that I love me some sweet stuff and so if you’re saying that YOU can’t do this, look at who you’re talking to. If I can do this anyone can!
