Stevia anyone?

Ok, so I was given a stevia plant and am experimenting making sweet tea with it. I have to admit I like the way the plant tastes better than the powder. To me, when I make tea with stevia packets it is just way too powdery. So, this is pretty much a note to myself with how I should make the stevia for tea.

This is what I did. I picked about 17 leaves or so. Put it in a microwave safe bowl and added 2 cups of water to it. Boiled it, let it cool, boiled it and let it cool again. Then added to tea it was good. This, however, isn't the way it's supposed to be done. So tomorrow I'll be trying this.

"Approximately 6 large leaves chopped finely is a substitute for 1/2 cup of sugar for baking or in cooked recipes. 1 teaspoon of ground stevia is equal to 1 cup of sugar; 2 drops of liquid essence is equal to 1 teaspoon sugar. An extract can be made by combining 1 cup vodka with 3/4 cup fresh stevia leaves in a jar. Shake every day for 2 weeks, then filter through a coffee filter. Add a drop to beverages." I found this at a forum called gardenweb.com I'll let you know how I like it tomorrow! More to come. I would imagine the chopping of the leaves would release more of the sweetness of the plant. Here's hoping I can get this figured out and keep it growing year round in the house! ;)

So do you sweeten with stevia, sugar or something else?

Wordless Wednesday

I always loved to see others sepia pictures. My good friend Terrie took this one of me and my baby girl Ab. So sweet!

Breakfast for dinner?

Why yes, I think I will. Never overlook the simplicity and yet deliciousness of a breakfast for dinner. (It's also a great dinner saver when you forget to set something out...uhhhhhh not that I would know about that.) Yeah, I meant to have dinner for breakfast...wait...breakfast for dinner. Yeah, that's the ticket. It was so cute to see my son trying to figure out if we were eating that, then what was for dinner and when did we eat it. lol I should have taken a picture of that confused little face. We had blueberry pancakes, bacon (what meal is complete without bacon?) and eggs. That's it. That was dinner. And it was good! Carry on! Let's see if I can remember to set something out...I mean make a hugely elegant and yet unbelievably incredible dinner tomorrow night effortlessly. Bahaha...it'll probably be sandwich night. So, what's for dinner tonight?

Can I just say

that I am so happy Subway has brought the orchard chicken salad sandwich back...again! I was able to get it for breakfast the other morning. YUM! Please subway...keep this sandwich on your menu always! thanks!

Thankful Thursday

I am so thankful to be back home. I'm thankful for the clean lines of my home (is that weird?).

Here's my thankful list for today:

1. my hubby who works so hard at his job to take care of his family

2. my children even when they are driving me crazy

3. Summer Camp and VBS

4. a good friend who is taking my girl to vbs since I couldn't get her there on time

5. transportation (bad car accident ahead of me makes me thankful I still have the ability to get where I need too!)

6. my garden and all the great veggies it is giving us to eat

7. picking blueberries with my mom

8. working out and walking Mon-Fri with my husband...every morning at 6am

9. children who clean (after expecting me to pick up after them for way too long with them having no jobs to do...yeah that's about to change.

10. having a long talk with a friend...i need more long talks with friends!

I hope you have a reason to be thankful today!

Wordless Wednesday

My baby boy being a crab in his school play. Don't you love school plays?

Parent's Choice Infant Formula College Savings Sweepstakes offer...must see...

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of PBM Products for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

When my children were babies I loved feeding time with them. There were many times when I was not available to feed them. As a working mom, I was so glad that Parent's Choice infant formula was there to help me out! This formula was nutritious, tasty and did not cause problems with their tiny tummies. Now, in addition to being a great formula for babies, there is a chance of winning a $10,000 scholarship in the form of a College Savings 529 plan from PBM Products, LLC, a Perrigo company and Parent's Choice. See the sweepstakes details here: Parent’s Choice Infant Formula Savings Sweepstakes. Make sure you enter! I will be.

As a mom of a high schooler it's amazing to me how Parent's Choice was there for me when my child was a baby and will be there for me as my child prepares for college. Be sure to check out Walmart's Parent's Choice formula. It was my first choice of formula for all three of my babies. You can also find it online at www.walmart.com. I'll never forget my first time out of the house without the baby. It was to shop at WalMart. I walked the nicely shelved aisles and bought my son's snacks, diapers and formula there. Their brand is almost always half the price of the name brand formula. As a mom of 3, I can tell you it is a good quality formula for babies. 

Now don't forget to enter. You have to enter to win. Parent’s Choice Infant Formula Savings Sweepstakes

The sweepstakes runs from July 15 until August 1, 2011.

Stop by Walmart to get your all baby needs today. Have a great day friends.

Dropped two of my babies off at camp...

don't judge me...my oldest baby is now 14. lol I still think of him as my little one. Don't we always think of them as our babies. So the oldest is going to computer camp. He is getting paid to go there and they are feeding him. Wow. It's also at my alma mater MTSU. Go Blue!

My youngest boy is going to a drama camp. He loves to act and is so excited to go there. It's a two week long camp with a big finale on a Saturday. He is going to thrive. I have no idea where he gets his drive to act. It's definitely not from me. I don't want people looking at me. lol

Have fun my babies. I will love you forever, like you for always, always and forever my baby you'll be! (love that book...love you forever).

Trying to get my 10000 steps in today.

Seems like I only normally walk around 5000 steps. While on vacation I got up every morning at 6 and walked 1.5 miles in the morning and a mile in the evening. Today J had to be at work early so we walked at 5:45. It really is nice to walk early in the morning. So quiet and calm. I am so thankful for the simple joy of walking in the quiet of the morning. Getting up this early and walking helps keep me on a schedule. I think it will help my depression. So much that in a month or so I am going to try to get off my meds. Yay, exercise. What do you do to get in your exercise for the day?

Happy July 4th

a day early. I'm so thankful for all the people who have served our country in any way and made it what it is today. I believe in the US of A. We can get out of this debtload and turn this economy around. Let's get to work! The more the US saves the better our economy will be. So start saving those pennies. It's time for us to put ourselves first. God Bless the USA.

Living in Tornado Alley

picture courtesy of : NorCal Blogs. Living in Tornado Alley gets old. Tornadoes are one of the scariest things you could ever go through. We have at least 10 close calls a year and somehow we have been spared so far. This past April we have had some of the worst weather I have ever seen. You might ask, how can you find anything funny about this weather we are having? You have to find humor in the hard things in life.

This just came to me as the weather people kept interrupting us with our weather warnings at every commercial. This would be a hilarious skit for SNL about the weather people on the tv constantly screaming warnings at us.... First scene: weather person looking fresh and talking about the impending doom with a beautiful smile on her face. Second scene: hair a little bit frazzled, eyes getting wider, smile dropping, discussing who needs to take shelter. Third scene: hair more frazzled, eyes bigger, bags under eyes, words not making sense (now we return you to The Voices instead of the Voice, and yes one of them did this), clothes askew telling everyone to get to their safe place right away. Fourth scene: hair completely messed up, eyes so big, looking so much older, bags under eyes, makeup running down their face (they've been up all night at this point) telling everyone not to bother they're all going to die (insert papers flying around in studio and people trying to hold on to cameras.) Imagine Kristin Wiig doing this and saying just kidding after each and every prediction.

I've lived in Tennessee and we've always had tornadoes. They are becoming much more frequent and causing so much more damage. I know how bad they are and am glad we can find something to laugh about while we while away for hours on end in a closet or bathroom in the house. Five people in one bathroom is just plain cruel. Now let's hurry tornado season along, please.

Thankful Thursday

As I sit here I have so much to be thankful for. Today I'm thankful for:

the beach

the sand

the water

kids playing in the surf

kids playing in the sand

cool drinks

grilling out at the ocean

snoozing on the sand

reading books while I watch them play

and most of all I am thankful to God that I am here to see my children do all these things. I am thankful.

Cloth diapering tips from the trenches...

How cute is that diaper???

I cloth diapered my last two babies and I loved it. We began it out of necessity and continued it out of loving not having to run to the store when I was out of diapers or wipes. Here's some tips I used to give my cloth diaperstore customers on how to buy cloth dipes.

I would not buy a lot of anything. I would buy 5 that you want to try and try them first. What you think you will love you may not like as well as xxx. Also sometimes certain diapers will fit better on different babies.

I would not buy anything size xsmall. If you're going for one size know that they did not fit newborns when I was in the biz. They almost don't fit til around 13lbs. But once you get them in there it's great. I would get a bum genius one size, fb one size, an all in one and maybe even a few prefolds and a cover. I loved my fb and bg. But I also loved the simplicity of a prefold. If you were having more babies I would get prefolds and covers for the nb period because the prefolds can then be used as doublers in the one size diapers.

If you are doing cloth diapers do cloth wipes so you don't have to pick wipes out of your washer when you forget to take them out...and trust me you will forget. :)

The diaper laundry you end up doing adds about two loads to your week. If you get the shower sprayer (mini-shower was the one I sold and loved) than you just spray them off and put them in the diaperpail in the laundry room til your ready. Then I rinsed them first. Then washed in warm water and dried in the dryer. My covers I did line dry. It is so easy and your wallet and the environment will thank you. Did you know that a disposable diaper will last 500 years in a landfill? Oh and a hotdog will last 7 years in the landfill....gross. :) Brought to you by useless tips you never wanted to know...you are welcome!

I can't think of anything else. It's a great way to save money and not that much work. I know it's weird to say but diaper laundry folding was my favorite load. lol If you end up cloth diapering you'll understand. Cloth diapering is frugal and simple living at it's finest. It's also fun!:) Good luck friends.

My 10 most used websites...

1. Google

2. Facebook

3. Blogspot

4. mothering.com

5. livinglikenooneelse.com

6. amazon

7. ebay

8. craigslist

9. My bank

10. my local paper

Do you have a great website I need to know about? Let me know in the comments. I love to check out different sites!

Wordless Wednesday

My sweet boy earning his next belt!

Guest Post: Welcome Jacki of the Raven's Spell

About a year ago I came across the idea of Meatless Mondays, at about the same time that I watched (and was horrified by) Food, Inc (http://www.foodincmovie.com/). Having never been a big consumer of meat, and having watched baby chicks dumped onto conveyor belts, I decided it was time to incorporate those meatless days into our family meals.
One of the biggest contributing factors was the cost of purchasing meat from ethically raised animals. Given that these animals tend to be raised on smaller farms that don’t have money flowing in from McDonalds, their overhead is a bit higher than factory farms. While the extra cost is worth knowing that my chicken saw sunshine and could stand on its own, it meant that we had to reduce our meat consumption in order to stay in our grocery budget.
I also wanted to impact my step-daughter’s meals. If you sit this 11 year-old down at the table, she will consume a pound of meat and nothing else. I really have no desire to see what her colon looks like. Given our schedule with her, the biggest impact (without sending her into tizzy) would mean reducing our meat consumption to just one meal on Saturday and Sunday each.
In the beginning, this was not a difficult task as we tended to eat meat lightly anyways. We usually managed on less than a pound of chicken for a family of four at a single meal. Which also makes me wonder what happened to those ground beef packages that weigh under a pound. Have you noticed that you can’t get anything for less than 1.20 pounds now-a-days?
I picked up a couple vegetarian cookbooks, some geared toward teens and others that were multicultural in nature, and then passed off Boco Burgers as hamburgers. Surprisingly both kids said they were the best burgers they ever had and I let them think they were hamburgers for about 3 meals before I filled them in.
The only challenge has been the nights that my Significant Other has to take over the meal preparation. He is the Hamburger Helper kind of cook. Because of a very busy spring, he has had to take over cooking a great deal, so our meatless days have gone a bit by the way side. Of course, the concession stand at the Little League field hasn’t helped either.
It is my hope, that with a few lessons and some cookbook research, I will be able to help my S.O. get some vegetarian cooking practice and at least 3 or 4 meals he can easily handle on his own by the end of summer.

Jacki writes at The Raven's Spell (http://www.theravensspell.com) where she explores the magic that has become her life, which includes a blended family, working outside the home, and going back to school. She has addiction problem when it comes to books, but can also be found gardening and enjoying weekly farmer's markets.

Thank you Jacki.

Crazy response from someone at a restaurant on our way back from the beach...

We stopped at a Pizza Hut somewhere in Alabama. We went in to order. We were met with a very sweet country waitress. I'm from Tennessee so if I think she's country...wow, she's country. She says as we walk in...hey is she adopted. We were like yes (used to this line of questioning). She sits at our table and proceeds to tell us that she could tell. Um, I'd hope so she's from Korea. Next, she asks (in front of my daughter) do we love her as much as our real children. REALLY? NO, REALLY? We patiently answer, in front of her, that yes she is just as loved as the others. Then we get the, did you adopt her from children's services. Ok about now we're getting irritated and trying to move her along. She finally takes our order. I mean really I should have said something to her about how to ask such questions in front of my sweet child and any other. I just didn't feel like getting into it at the time. I should have given her the education she so rightly needed. Sigh, hello world. Abby is my daughter, I love her as much as children I gave birth too, she is not treated any better or worse, she is just simply loved. We don't even really think of her as adopted. She's just ours. Ugh, uneducated people get on my nerves. (and I don't mean those without a college degree!!!!

Stylish Blogger Award

I won an award....a blogging award...wow~really? Cool. Thank you Karen of Life with Karen for thinking of me for this award. It's funny because we never think of ourselves as cool or interesting and then someone says...hey, you are! Nice~ Ok well the rules say now I must tell you 7 things about me and then pick some of my favorite blogs to pass the award to.

1. I've had 7 pregnancies but only 2 babies.

2. I have so much gray hair I have no choice but to color it. lol

3. I'm so very short. 5'1

4. My eyesight is terrible. Without my contacts I'm legally blind. Most things on the tv screen after a movie or tv show my dh has to read to me. Because of this driving at night to somewhere I've never been is not an option as I can't read the street signs. Why yes I am Velma from Scooby Doo. :)

5. I love the beach with my family and miss it when I'm not there.

6. I love soft drinks and am on my journey to not drink them.

7. I've been married for 18 years and with my dh for 20. We have two boys and our sweet baby girl who we adopted from Korea. Life is so good!

Here's my favorite blogs that I've awarded the stylish blogger award too.

Lisa from http://iamallatwitteraboutlife.blogspot.com/

Kate from http://www.foodbuzz.com/blogs/3776430-all-spiced-up-chicken-and-rice

Jamie from http://dreamingbigdreams.net/

Amy from http://idiotmom.com/blog/

Brittany http://findingbrittnemo.blogspot.com/

These are some very stylish blogs that I follow! You should too!

Meet Whitney from A Magnolia Heart

it's so fun to meet people online. I think I have truly met the nicest people here. Whitney volunteered to do some free graphics for me. I have tried so hard to learn to do it myself and can not seem to master it. I need a book! My friend Whitney made two for me that I dearly love. Here's one:

and here's the other:

So, if you are in need of a banner please shop at Whitney's for some really nicely designed banners and buttons. Thank you so much Whitney. Let's show her some love. http://www.amagnoliaheart.com

Whitney...you rock in kindness. Thank you for being a new to me friend on the web.

I had an epiphany this week.

I am addicted to wanting people to like me or approve of what I'm doing. It explains so much about why I have a harder time than most of getting over an argument, tiff or squabble. These things bother me. Deeply. Even if it is someone I don't know. For instance, in our car at a stop sign we were able to pull partway out into the street (as we were there first and there was no one in line behind the car we pulled out to wait behind) to wait in line for the light to turn and us to go. Well, this lady in her big SUV tries to pull past us like we're not there. My dh was not going to let that happen so he made her stop so we could continue. I mean, really, we were there first but she apparently in her infinite wisdom had somewhere much more important to be. As we pulled up to the light I rolled my window down to just get a look at this crazy person. She starts yelling at us that she should have ran over our little car. She didn't quite say it so nicely. Insert lots of curse words. Anyway, I have no idea who she is and will never see her again. But it bothered me so much more than it did my dh. I dwell/worry on things way too much. I should not care what she thought. She was the one in the wrong. I never spoke to her and kept my cool just giving her the whatever dear look. Who would have thought one could be addicted to approval? It explains me to myself so much better! lol Are you addicted to approval or something else?

Day 3 of giving up soda...

and I want one really bad today. The last 2 days weren't so hard. But today is. I'm not sure why. I've done very well and not really missed them. I can make it through! Anyone done this lately? How many days til you stopped craving sodas? Diet or regular makes no difference I drank them both! Nice cold sonic drink would be so good right about now! lol I have had a coffee today so I would still get the caffeine. Must stay away...no leaving the house today!! Going to have a lemonade now. :)

25 Things You Didn't Want to Know About Me

1. I've been married for 18 years to the most amazing man!

2. I love disneyworld and wish I could take my kids more often.

3. I miss a dear friend of mine and wish I could go back in time and change
the day that she was murdered. :(

4. I have a degree in teaching. But I love to start things up and get them running, figuring out how to do/build stuff along the way. I created a website and now am working on this blogging thing. I had to learn search engine optimization, meta tags, promotion of said site, etc. I think I love the challenge of getting it going

5. My children amaze me every day.

6. In the year 2006 I had 3 articles written in the newspaper about my cloth diaper store. I wrote a press release and was shocked when reporters responded!

7. My dream job is a stay at home mom, but being a preschool teacher/blogger will do for now.

8. I recently went back to school for a semester and loved it!

9. I love cooking and trying out new dishes.

10. I love to bake!

11. I love my God but am trying to not get burned out about church.

12. Being a mom is a calling, I'm not sure I'm doing it well, but i'm loving every minute of it.

13. I've been on tv twice. Once was an interview for Talk of the Town for my internet based mom business and also on the news.

14. I owned an natural parenting store, sold it to stay at home, and love staying home more! Don't miss it a bit!

15. I miss my bil and sil and their children who are missionaries in Sudan, Africa.

16. I love my in laws a lot, not alot of people can say that. I married into a cool family.

17. We do not have cable and I do not miss it!

18. I love dr pepper and mountain dew and wish I could drink it every day. However it changes my personality so i don't drink it often and miss it like crazy!

19. I have a chocolate lab named Snickers. After saying I'd never have an inside dog I do now and love it. Well, most of the time.

20. I have 6 fish and a cat (the cat has issues she talks all the daggum time and those of us with kids know that that is just too much)!

21. I love white cake and white icing.

22. I'm a morning person but I love to sleep.

23. I love to read. I've already read probably 20 books this year, if not more.

24. I'm addicted to fb and email and have 18000 emails in my inbox...thanks gmail!

25. I am a constant work in progress!

That is my crazy so called life!

Walgreens Brand Health and Wellness Products

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Walgreens for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Have you ever tried the Walgreens Brand Health & Wellness Products? A few weeks ago, I was in their store and remembered that I was out of ibuprophen.  I walked through the well stocked aisles until I found the brand name product. I reached for it. But before I could grab it I saw a Walgreens Health and Wellness ibuprophen in a buy one get one free packaged set. That gave me 100 pills for the price of 50. As I then looked at the shelf I saw the name brand product I was going to grab was almost $4.00 more. What a great value their ibuprophen was!   In addition to being a good value for families on a budget, they also have the same ingredients as that name brand product I was looking at. I stood there and compared the boxes before I bought the Walgreens brand.knowing it had a 100% money back guarantee. Headaches happen to me a few times a week. I grabbed this product and my headache was gone in 20 minutes. Sweet relief! Thank you Walgreens for saving my family money and give me a quality product. That rocks!

Want a giftcard to use at Walgreens? There are other bloggers who will be doing a Walgreens gift card giveaways. Be sure to visit them so you can win! Click giveaways to find out who and what you need to do to enter!

Did you know  that for every purchase of Walgreens Health and Wellness product they donate to Walgreens Way to Well Fund™? That brings health services, such as free preventative screenings, to local communities. As someone whose healthcare is not that great I love that they do this!  It makes me want to buy more. Thank you Walgreens!

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Wordless Wednesday

Did you say bone?

My Summer Bucket List

.

saw this on a friend's site and thought it was such a cute idea. Here goes:

catch fireflies (did this on Sunday night) check
go to the beach
read a book on the beach
grill out at the beach
nighttime hide and seek
visit the drive in (there's one close to here and I've not been in um 30 years)
read
use coupons
visit friends
go to the lake
kayak at the lake
not get poison ivy (just sayin)
learn to cook turnip greens (thought I had lettuce growing...oops...definitely doesn't taste like lettuce)
swim, swim, swim
lose 10 more lbs
try to go to bed at a reasonable hour and get up at 6ish to keep a schedule
eat healthier
go to the starlight movie house
go to thrift store
well that's all I can think of for now. What's on your summer bucket list? Thanks idiotmom for the idea! :) Might need a fall/winter/spring bucket list as well.

Summer is my favorite time of the year.

The kids stay up past 8 and sleep in past 7am. We sit on the front porch...me in my swing and my hubby on the glider watching the kids catch fireflies and put them in their bugbox. Neighbors are walking around the neighborhood getting their exercise. You can hear the thump, thump, thump of the basketball at the neighbor's house or in our driveway. The bikes come out, whether it's hot or not, and the kids take off through the neighborhood looking for their friends. Ahhhhh summer! Where's my lemonade?

10 Family Friendly Activities to do in Nashville, TN

1. Adventure Science Museum~great place for kids, so many fun things to do here.

2. Nashville Zoo at Grassmere~animals a bit quieter and slower in summer but still a must see.

3. Wave pool~fun for all!

4. Discovery Children's Museum~more fun for the preschool set but school agers would enjoy as well.

5. Sam Davis Home~see how they lived during the time of the civil war and why Sam Davis was a hero!

6. Andrew Jackson's home~The president's home...find out why he is known as Old Hickory.

7. Ryman Auditorium/Grand Ole Opry~great music and well self explanatory.

8. Stones River Battlefield~lots of forts and explanations of things that happened during the civil war.

9. Nashville Shores~another water park and well it's just soooo much fun for all!

10.Frist Center of the Arts~has great art masterpieces. A must see!

Anything I've left out to see and do here? Let me know!

I remembered one! We walked around downtown on Broadway this past weekend. I saw Elvis and a man sprayed in silver from head to toe. Never a dull moment! The melting pot, Hard Rock, and Laser Tag are all on 2nd Ave close to Broadway and fun places to eat and something fun to do. :)

Yummy Recipes from this past week...

I love experimenting with food! This week I made pasta with fresh peppers, onions, 3 cloves of garlic and fresh spinach. It had a third of a package of Philadelphia Neufchatel cheese in it. On top of it I added parmasian reggiano. The side that went with this was roasted asparagus. It was so good.

Welcome to Wordless Wednesday

ATTITUDE~

Working at home is not as easy as it appears.

As someone who has worked at home for the last 13 years I just have one thing to say. IT. IS. HARD. It is so hard to work at home when you have 3 kids. I was better at it when I had one child. Then I had 2 and was working at home. When the 3rd one came along I decided I needed to stop working at home and that's when I went to teaching preschool. Teaching preschool is so much better than working at home with 2 small children under the age of 3. Now that they are getting older and will be going to school all day (all 3...a day I thought would never come) I will go back to looking for a job to do at home again.

I enjoyed teaching for Educate Online. However,it was hard to make 3 children be quiet from 3-8 during the week. I very seldom got any hours to do during the day while they were at school. I think during the 4 months I worked there I worked a total of 5 hours during the school day. It almost isn't fair to them. Their after school activities had to stop too.

When you work at home you are constantly distracted. The kids want food, drinks, snacks, something to do, somewhere they need to go or they are just bored and want to talk to mom. Talking to mom is a good thing but not when you are trying to work. Most companies want you to put your children in daycare when you work at home. I'm sorry, but with the amount of money you pay me, that is just not feasible folks! You also never leave work. So your work is always there staring at you. Making you feel uncomfortable. Why is it looking at me? How do I make it stop? If you're not careful you can find yourself working all kinds of extra hours that you wouldn't be putting in if you had an outside the home job.

Working at home may be hard but it's also rewarding. It's great to be the one who's here with my children. Only one of mine ended up going to day care and he only went for 2 years. I'm so thankful that I have been the one to care for them when they are sick, tired, hungry, silly or even just cranky! There are perks when we had all those school snow days in January I was able to work and bring in a paycheck while many just enjoyed days off without pay. I'm hoping with my blog I will eventually be able to just write from home and bring in some kind of extra income. My blog isn't new but in the blog world it's still a baby. It will take a lot of time and hard work to make this blog marketable. I'm up for the challenge. Bring it! It's funny that my degree is in education because I think I'm better at marketing than I am teaching. One of my jobs at home was building a website from the ground up, marketing it, advertising it and doing everything else. I was accounts payable, accounts receivable, customer service, orderer of inventory, making the inventory available to the customers and so on and so on. Then I had to learn search engine optimization. That little website is doing great even today. I sold it during the time when I had 2 children under the age of 3. Working at home is both rewarding and difficult. Have you worked at home? What did you experience?

Here's an article I cam across about the subject of working at home. Enjoy!
http://financialedge.investopedia.com/financial-edge/1210/5-Delusions-About-Working-From-Home.aspx?
partner=msnbc

My 10 Favorite Restaurants to eat in and around Nashville, TN

Here's a list of my 10 favorite restaurants to eat in my area in no particular order.

1. Mi Tierra Mexican Restaurant

2. Genghis Grill

3. Chuy's (creamy jalepeno dip...yum!)

4. Legend's

5. Cracker Barrel

6. Shoney's (I know it's crazy right...but they still have good burgers).

7. Tokyo Steak House

8. Sonic (I'm addicted to their drinks)

9. Bob's Barbeque

10.Olive Garden

Yum. Now I'm hungry. What is your go to restaurant?

Welcome Karen today who wrote Healthy Cooking on a Budget!

Healthy Cooking on a Budget
By Karen Greenberg of Karen’s Healthy Lifestyle

We often hear that eating healthy is expensive and inconvenient. While it is true that fresh ingredients can cost more, healthy cooking doesn’t have to take any more time or effort than eating processed foods. With just a little planning, and a different method of shopping, dinner can be completely transformed.
When my family started eating healthy last year, we had to learn how to eliminate processed foods from our diets. We slowly stopped purchasing almost everything that came in a box or a can and replaced those items with fresh ingredients. This way of eating helps cut down on sodium and chemicals not normally found in foods. Many believe that eating more naturally will help lead to weight loss as well as keeping the body free of artificial ingredients.
Here are a few tips on how to eat healthy while sticking to your food budget:
Purchase fresh fruits and vegetables in-season. Ask the produce manager if you are unsure. Also, most grocery stores will give samples of their product if you are unsure if you like a fruit or veggie. Just be sure to ask first! Many times they will have great ideas for how to prepare or eat a particular food. Don’t be shy to admit that you’ve never tried something.
Use frozen fruits and vegetables for smoothies, soups, and stews. These are generally less expensive and are as nutritious, if not more-so, than the fresh produce.
Buy lean meats when they are on sale. If you want to make lunch meat from fresh meats, ask the butcher to slice it. They will usually do this for free.
Look for a bakery outlet in your area. Some name-brand breads can be purchased at a fraction of the cost in an outlet or the “day-old” section of the grocery store. Remember to stick with whole wheat products when you can.
Stick with staple foods and find your creativity

A couple of recipe ideas:
Eggs, eggs, and more eggs. One of the most perfect protein sources, eggs can be prepared in a variety of ways. Try eggs with whole wheat pancakes for dinner one night. It’s a quick, easy, and inexpensive meal. Scrambled eggs are a perfect way to sneak in more veggies. Add onions, mushrooms, and green peppers for a colorful and delicious lunch.
Frozen fruit (thawed) with a bit of whipped cream on top makes a wonderful dessert
An apple with peanut butter on top can jump start your morning. A perfect combination of protein and carbs, this meal is said to wake you up better than a cup of coffee
Dissect your favorite fast-food meals and substitute healthy ingredients to prepare an at-home alternative.

Preparing healthy snacks and meals sounds a lot more difficult than it really is. Once you get started eating fresh foods, in exchange for the processed foods, you will find that it can be fun and interesting. Don’t be intimidated…. just go for it! Start with small changes to your diet so you are more likely to stick with it.
What is one small change you can make this week?

Karen can be found writing on her blog over at www.KarensHealthyLifestyle.blogspot.com

Be sure to check out my article on Karen's blog about my vision of healthy living!

Graduation!

Remember back in the day when you only graduated from high school and college. Yeah, I want those days back. lol Last night was a night of new beginnings. My daughter graduated from pre-k last night and at the same time on the same night my son graduated from 8th grade. We sent the men to my son's and the women in the family went to the girls. It was so sweet. I'm waiting to get pics of my boy's graduation off my hubby's camera. Abby and her friends had so much fun singing, graduating and then eating cookies and goofing off. I got some really cute pictures of her. Her and 4 of her friends are going to the same kindergarten next year. Her best friend isn't in her class. :( But 3 other friends from pre-k are. That should make her transition easier. She said last night she doesn't want to go. But that's after saying all year she is ready to go. You're off to kindergarten, yes you are. You'll be there soon enough baby girl.

Unbelievable to me is that I will have a child graduating high school in 4 years. WHAT? How did this happen???? I love my kiddos. :)

Things that make me smile

I made these today for gifts. I love bracelets!

Artichoke Fail!

This 17 day diet is all about the vegetables. So I thought I'd try artichokes. Yeah, I tried to steam it and it didn't turn out so well. Artichoke fail! It reminded me of the leaves on a magnolia tree. So anyone know how to cook an artichoke or what I did wrong?

It takes so little to make my girl happy.

A picnic on the lawn and a walk around the neighborhood is what makes her happy today. She talks and talks and tells me everything she's thinking. I love our walks. The dog next door did not stop barking the entire time we were picnicing on the lawn. It was funny.

This was one of her talkative moments. She was even using her hands to tell me all about it. Sweet girl. What a great day. Free things in life are the best. Walks with my girl, talks on a blanket having a picnic and living life with my children and hubby. What are some free things in your area that you like to do?


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Sandwich generation

Going to a meeting this week on dealing with being in the sandwich generation. It means taking care of children and taking care of parents at the same time. Hopefully I'll get a few tips. I need it! Dealing with cancer while taking care of children at the same time can be very hard and trying on one person! I'm doing my best. Hopefully it will lift me up and help me deal even better than I am now. More to come after the seminar.

Ok seminar was yesterday and they gave me a lot of good info and websites. Everyone should take this workshop whether you are in this position or not. It gave lots of helpful information I wish I had before my dad ended up so sick and in the hospital (and me being told on an almost daily basis he wouldn't make it through the night). Info like which documents you need (wills, living wills, healthcare power of attorney, durable power of attorney and the list goes on. You can find out what benefits your parent qualifies for at benefits.gov .

I was the youngest person there. Everyone else was a good 10-15 years older than me. I'm a part of the club sandwich generation. Because of my age and my young children. With the way medicare and social security is going I expect by the time my children are grown this will be a fact of life not an oddity. The older generation will have no choice but to live with the younger generation because of lack of access to basic healthcare and there will be no social security. :( This country's priorities are out of whack. Sigh. How do you plan to handle retirement? Do you think you will be taking care of your parent while still taking care of your children?

Thankful Thursday (borrowed from my friend Patty)

today I'm thankful for my bank offering a sandwich generation workshop. I'll be attending it today at lunch. I can't wait to learn how to deal better with taking care of parents and children at the same time.

I'm thankful for friends that I'll see and spend time with this afternoon.

I'm thankful for lots of good, healthy food that I purchased yesterday and the pounds that have already fallen off.

Mostly I'm just thankful! What are you thankful for today?

Review: I Am Number 4 (sci fy movie)

was a movie that I recently enjoyed on a date night with my hubby. It really gave me pause and fodder to think about. It is one of those Scott (Ridley, Tony, one of those) films. To my surprise it was written by James Frey, author of "A Million Little Pieces". I've not read his book but have heard lots of the controversy. I have to say if his books are as good as his movie I will be reading more of him. I'm not going to go into the plot except to say that Numbers 1-3 have been killed and they are trying to protect number 4. It was a really, really good movie. I had actually not heard of it when we went to see it. But am glad I went. Rent this little gem on dvd. I have a tendency to not like movies as much when I rent them as when I see them on the big screen. But it's worth watching it, regardless. I mean, come on, it has Timothy Olyphant (sp?) in it. :P

Any movies you've seen recently that are must see? Please tell me (comment) so I can watch it!

Simple Living...

My life is spent cleaning out what we have. Does that mean we have too much? Could that mean that we are going through a stage where we need to get rid of things? I believe 100% in the simple living philosophy of life. Now we're just trying to implement and follow it. Simple living to me means less stuff, less consumerism, less tv and less of a lot of things. We have spent the last year getting rid of things we don't use. For example, the salad bowl we got when we first got married and yet we've never used it. Gone! Clothes..What good are a bunch of clothes that you haven't worn in a year and have no plans to wear. Get rid of it. My friend said I shouldn't have gotten rid of all those clothes (it was my fault I was complaining that I had nothing to wear). But here's the thing...I still wouldn't have worn those clothes had I had them. So why keep them?

How do you handle a stressful week?

I am going to handle it tonight with a hot shower and a large glass of wine. Then my comfort food kicks in. I'm making oven fried pork chops, smashed potatoes,steamed broccoli and biscuits. I'm ready to eat now! I need to go make tea to go with it though. I know you're not supposed to stress eat. But yeesh my kids are making me nuts! :P

On a good note I've almost got the laundry caught up so they can begin packing for DC. Another good note we go to Olive Garden tomorrow. We celebrate Mother's Day with my hubby's side of the family. We've not seen them yet. Do your holidays tend to go on for more than one weekend? Have a great weekend friends.

End of the school year stress...

every year it begins on May 1st. The end of the year is so stressful. We have one strings concert to attend, at least one graduation (this year two on the same night at the same time), a play to attend and a musical. Whew! I love my children so much but this time of the year stresses me out.

The play is tonight and the two graduations are the last week of May. I'm sad that my 8th grader and my preschooler graduate on the same night. I am going to the preschooler's graduation and my dh is going to the 8th graders. I want so badly to be at the 8th graders too! Sigh.

My boys are going to DC next week with the school. They are going to have such a great time! I'm excited for them. The strings concert this year was amazing and it was B's last year in strings at his school. Next year he's in high school. Then it will be one in K, one in 3rd and a high schooler. So proud of all 3 of my children. They are amazing and the most fun people to be around. Thank you God for my blessings!!

Any tips for handling the stress and activities of the end of the year?

I'm so ready for summer and the beach! :)

I want to share something very dear to my heart...

being a mom is amazing. Being the mom of a sweet asian girl is so fun. Did you know that there are 147 million orphans in this world? Did you know that if the body of the church took in the foster children in this country there'd be no need for foster care? Orphans and children who need a place to rest their head hurt my heart. I still struggle with wanting to do foster care or adoption. I've just not taken that first step. Maybe it's time.

Abandonment feelings in my sweet daughter...

I left her today for a few hours so that I could go on a field trip with my son's second grade class. She doesn't ever like us to leave her. EVER. She cries and wants to go with us. We've had her since she was 4 months old. But she has most definitely been affected by it. She was attached to her foster family. She was so confused when we first picked her up from the airport. She didn't sleep for 3 days after we brought her home. She would take 30 minute cat naps. I was about to lose my mind. On day three she slept all night and did so from then on. You could see the confusion on her face. My heart hurt for her. She is loved and knows it. She loves in return. But have no doubt she is affected by adoption even at the young age of 4 months old.

Walked to the store with

my girl yesterday. It was such a beautiful day. We had a few things to get. We had a great walk there, when we carried nothing but empty backpacks. She talks the entire time we walk. I'm not sure even she knows what she's talking about. It took us forever to get home (not because of the incessant talking). She had the lightest backpack, but, she wore a shirt with no sleeves. So, the backpack hurt her shoulders. It's a mile there and a mile back. She did great the first mile. The second mile we had to stop at least 4 times. lol She's a trooper though. She kept on going. We're doing this for two reasons. One is for more exercise. 10000 steps is a lot of walking. I'm hoping 2000 steps per mile (fingers crossed, don't tell me any different...I'm short...I take more steps than you...shhhhh...zip it! The second is that even a mile saves gas. What a ridiculous amount of money we spend on gas these days. Hopefully it will start going in the opposite direction now. Have you found some small way to increase your steps/exercise?

When I was little all we had to play with were:

rocks

balls

sticks

dolls

atari

books

friends

bikes

blocks
and
legos

We weren't mistreated. We didn't have 180 channels with nothing on it to watch. We were content with what ever we had. This new generation has a lot to learn from us. (Geez I sound old). You can make do with what you have. You don't deserve more than you/your parents can afford. If you can't afford it you don't buy it. PERIOD. Children, listen now, it will save you a lot of wishing you had listened later. Credit cards aren't the devil but they put you in the position of having to work to pay for that dinner you ate out 6 months ago. That's crazy. So, to sum up. You deserve it when you can afford to pay for it. :) Stepping down off my soapbox today. What have you wanted to purchase but decided to wait to get so that you can pay cash?

Subway orchard chicken salad sandwich

is back. It's less than 400 calories and 8 grams of fat. That makes me happy. It was yummy! That is all!

Tornadoes

are the worst. You can't plan for it. You don't know where it's going. You can't outrun it. Ugh. I hate tornadoes. I would like to move to Florida. At least I can drive away from a hurricane. Praying for all those in Alabama who went through hell yesterday. Thankful that the temperatures here in Tennessee stayed in the 60's which kept a lot of tornadoes from occurring yesterday.

PS I can not wait for the wedding to be over. I'm so tired of hearing about Kate and Will. Do I know them? no. Am I going to the wedding? no (and I'm not bitter, I swear) Do I want to hear about it over and over on tv? NO. Get a life media. nuff said. :)

High school class picks and children not cleaning their room...

How is it possible that I am going through my son's schedule for high school? Wasn't I just in high school? Where does the time go? I'm so excited for him. The school has helped him pick honors and advanced honors classes. He's picked orchestra and criminal justice pathways. The next thing I know he'll be driving and then in college. Wow. I love my son. He makes me so proud. All my children do.  Well except for one...


lol. I am just kidding. My lovely daughter is having a fight with her room. It's been going on for a few days now. She doesn't want to clean it. So, if we tell her to, she goes into her room and sleeps. OK, well no tv until your room is cleaned. So, then she proceeds to draw, color, play outside and swing. What am I going to do to get her to clean? She has told me on numerous occasions that she wants her toys all gone. She would rather not have toys than have to keep her room clean. Really? Wow. Now this same child works her tail off on the day we went and cut the hedge down at my mom's house and hauled it to the street. This took quite a few hours and she was on it. I guess she does better at doing one thing and knowing what to do than having to do lots of little things and make decisions. She cracks me up. She is in her room right now just sitting in the floor. Le sigh. How do you motivate your children to clean their rooms?

Happy Earth Day! 10 little things you can do to live a tiny bit greener:

1. Don't take a receipt at the gas station. We use so much paper and it's not always necessary. I mean, really, are you going to return the gas?

2. Buy reusable cups and make your coffee/drinks at home to take with you, she says drinking her iced coffee in a bpa free cup with straw bought at Ross for 3.99. Love it!

3. Use the cfc bulbs. Pretty soon you will not be able to get the other ones so go on and begin changing over.

4. Use a timer on your heating and a/c to turn it down at night when everyone is sleeping.

5. Read your books from the library or on your kindle/ipod/ipad/etc. Then pass them on to friends.

6. Take your own bags to the store or if you're not getting much do not take a bag.

7. Do not purchase paper towels. We waste so much just drying our hands off. Use a kitchen towel or hand towel...that's what they were made for.

8. Grow your own veggies. Every year we garden. It's not much usually. Tomatoes, okra, peas, beans, broccoli, cilantro, etc. But it saves you many trips to the store and it saves you money! Tomatoes are so expensive and we love them all summer long. I should have a tomato plant going indoors all through winter!

9.If you have a baby use cloth diapers. If I ever get a grandbaby that will be the first thing I buy. Gosh, they are so stinkin cute.

10. Walk or ride your bike to places within a mile of your house. We are trying to do better about this with the grocery store down the road. There is no reason for us to drive. We should be using our legs to get exercise and do something good for our waistline.If you're not willing to walk/ride than it is really necessary to go? Wait til you're out another day.

What kind of things do you do that I've not thought of? Share here!

Healthcare in this country sucks...

My dh im'd today to find out if we wanted to go with regular healthcare offered by his company instead of the HSA. They will be taking 340 out of each paycheck two times per month. Really? This is someone's idea of healthcare. That is more than my first house note and yes it's actually more than my housenote now. Who in the hell can afford to pay that for healthcare? It's no freaking wonder people are choosing to not have healthcare. They really aren't choosing it they don't have a choice and can't afford it. That is freaking ridiculous. That great price got us a 3500 dollar deductible per person and 7500 per family. Really? Why bother?

We went with a HSA. Guess what we've already met the deductible this year for the family at 7500. I love this country but what the hell is wrong with the healthcare system and how do we fix it? Ridiculous. STUPID. NOT AFFORDABLE. There is something wrong in this country that this is an acceptable amount to charge a family that is very definitely middle class. Other words to describe how I feel right now...pissed, angry, wondering how the government can be so mindless that the drug companies/insurance companies/hospitals can get away with charging this amount of money. Your house is supposed to be 25% of your income. What the hell do the people do when their house is 25% and their healthcare is 26%? Yeah, sorry, about the cursing but I'm pissed.

We cut cable this year. I'm not sad at all about that. However, we cut it because of healthcare and hospital bills. To me that is wrong. I have no problems paying my bills. We are already paying  $450 for useless healthcare. I guess in their minds what's paying 680 for absolutely nothing when you are already paying 450 for nothing.

Please don't post about how Obama was trying to help that. You can't mandate that people have to purchase healthcare at these stupid, ridiculous prices. Why bother having healthcare at all? Let's go back to when doctors didn't take insurance and charged reasonable fees. If there was a doctor in my area that offered healthcare and did not accept insurance that is who I would be seeing right now.

We had the best night one evening this past week...

I wasn't in the mood to cook. However, my dh and I managed to pull an amazing dinner together. He made deer tenderloin (like a very good steak) with onions and mushrooms. I was in charge of green beans and leftover macncheese (see made this about food). After dinner all 5 of us went on a bike ride on the greenway. So fun. We have a 5 year old who doesn't ride fast. But she's so cute in all her gear singing while she rides. So he and I took turns not getting any exercise on our bikes and riding beside her. We would then ride back to give the other person a chance to ride and get some exercise. It was amazing.

After this we came home and played basketball on the driveway. My dh and I were making baskets. He was complaining about how bad he played. I said, hey look we didn't all have basketball goals like I did growing up. Not all of us can be as good. (I know, so humble, right?) It was on like donkey kong after that. lol He showed me up. A. has her own baskeball goal but she's not impressed and thinks it is too big for her. Right....

After that we threw the ball to the goofy dog. Then came inside got the kids in bed and watched a movie. Unstoppable is a really good movie. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. It was truly one of the best nights for our family. I dare say it was better than date night. Although oddly enough it kind of felt like a date night. Weird. :) Hmm, maybe a family date night should be on our list of things to do.

My 10 favorite dinners to make:

1. Spaghetti (I know it's not unique but it makes my kids happy) wine, fresh garlic and parmigiana cheese, homemade sauce, whole wheat noodles...Yum).

2. New Pasta Dish It varies every week depending on what I have on hand. This week it was peppers, onion, fresh garlic and parmigiana, spinach, squash, and zuchini over whole wheat penne in a cream sauce. Uh yummo! and yes my kids eat all these weird veggies.

3. A crockpot meal of some sort. Usually chili, soup, or a roast.

4. Deer tenderloin grilled by my dh. OMG he makes the most amazing steak with this.

5. Tacos (many different kinds, rice and beans, ground turkey, or shredded pork)

6. Breakfast for dinner. Homemade waffles, quiche or one of those skillet meals. Yum.

7. Pork shoulder. OMG if you've never made one of these you have to. It makes so much food that my family of 5 can eat off of it 3x (minimum!). We will eat it plain on a plate with veggies the first day, as bbq sammies the second day, and then in a casserole or as tacos the third.

8. Pizza We love homemade pizza. I went from making my own dough to now using flour tortillas and letting everyone make their own...they add their own sauce, veggies, pepperoni, etc.

9. Stir Fry This is a great way to use up your leftovers. Throw in veggies (onions, peppers, broccoli, cauliflour, carrots etc) that need to be used or are left overs, add liquid amino, ground ginger, sesame oil, rice and eat. You can add meat. Sometimes we do and sometimes we don't. I'm trying to lower our consumption of meat. Shhh don't tell my family.

10. Baked or grilled salmon, roasted asparagus and a salad. Or we might have shrimp, roasted asparagus, and a salad. Jeez now I'm hungry with no plan for dinner tonight. :)

What do you make that I can add to my list? I need fresh ideas. What's for dinner?

It's family movie night here

at the Demarest home. Last week we watched Tangled and A Bug's Life. Tonight we'll pick something to stream off netflix. What kind of weekly family nights do you have? Game night, special food, other traditions, I need more suggestions. Comment below!

Dealing with cancer again...

my dad, the man with 9 lives, has cancer again. We think it's in stage 2 and he will begin chemo and radiation next week. We are feeling pretty good about him beating this one as well. I, will always worry when he has surgery, but do believe this will not be what ends his life. We are taking this one step at a time. Yesterday he had a pet scan. Today he meets with his kidney doctor to make sure his kidneys are doing their job. Then Monday the craziness begins. I'm glad that I can be there to shuffle him around to appointments. I can't imagine having to do all this with 3 kids and work full time. I know it can be done I'm just grateful I don't have to do it.

Here's my thought for the day and a great way to start everyday, in my humble opinion.

Sting Brand New Day

Prayers are always welcomed and cherished. One more stumbling block that we will overcome. Look, I made a post that had nothing to do with food. Last night for dinner we ....

Children, potty training and hair pulling dilemmas...and then pizza.

I have a child who it took a very long time to potty train. This child has been potty trained during the day forever. However, once this child falls asleep, accidents happen. I thought, for a long time, that it was laziness. Then I thought maybe it was attention seeking. After I pulled out some hair, I finally came to the conclusion that this child can't help it. It's not their fault that their bladder isn't growing as fast as they are. See, when you have a child and then have another it's very hard to not compare them. I've never dealt with this before so I couldn't wrap my brain around the fact that this isn't about potty training. It's a growing problem that this child has to just grow into. Well, this child is almost 9 and finally has grown into it. Most nights dry pants. I don't know what I would have done had they not made goodnights before. I used cloth diapers for years and for years this child slept in them. I'm so glad I figured this out without driving myself crazy. I hope this helps other parents to see that the child can't help it and it's not your fault. Thank you God for children who love me despite my flaws!

Ok, I can't write a post and not make it about food. On Sunday I had big plans to make homemade pizza and had what I thought was a great recipe. I make homemade pizza all the time. So, this dough wouldn't cooperate and would not roll out without completely sticking to my rolling pin. No amount of flour or corn meal would make it not stick. Frustrated, I threw out all the dough. Wanted to wash my hands of pizza. So what's a mom to do? I went into my kitchen dusted off my flour tortillas and we had pizza. The kids made their own. We used tomato sauce, mushrooms, peppers, onions, turkey pepperoni and cheese. These were the biggest hits. The kids loved making their own pizzas. Here's the kicker, I used less cheese and they were less fattening than the pizzas I usually make. I'm done with dough for pizza. I bought a huge thing of flour tortillas and we will probably make them all summer long for the kiddos. I love pizza. Oh, in case you're wondering, we baked them in a 400* oven for 10 minutes on a cookie sheet. They were yum! Kind of like a very thin crust pizza and very crisp. Try it.

I've always been a bit crunchier than most...

my mom was always the recyclin, save the environment, hug a tree peace lovin mom. Some of that had no choice but to rub off on me. So, with my first child I was a full time teaching mama. My hearts desire has always been to be at home. When I finally talked my hubby into it my baby was 2. I disposable diapered my sweet boy. He is just fine too. We wanted a bigger family. So we began to try to have another baby. Little did I know it would take us 3 years to get another one here. With N on his way we were a one income family. I had no choice but to quit my job to get the next baby here. (Full time bed rest is not as glamorous as one might think.)

So after much thought and research we decided to cloth diaper my new baby. Gosh, new babies in cloth diapers are the absolute cutest things! Not only did I cloth diaper this one. I also fell in love with baby wearing. You could get so much done with a new baby resting on you. Instead of crying they feel all warm and snuggly and relaxed while you make dinner. Loved my ergo riding, cloth diaper wearing babies.

Before I had 3 kids I was recycling anything and everything. Hmm now the only thing that seems to get recycled is the items I no longer want and send it to goodwill. (Hey, don't judge me...that's a lot of clutter I got rid of in the last year). :)

Hmm maybe I can do better with this. If I can give up facebook for 40 days I can surely do anything. Try to give up something you love for 40 days. It seems so hard and is so much easier than I thought it would be. Maybe I'm not as addicted as I once was. Yeah and maybe the pig really can fly...

Getting into the swing

of working. I really love my job. I just had my second evaluation and got a 2.9 out of 3. Woot! Teaching is what I love to do. I mean how fun is it to see a teacher running through the halls with crayons when clearly there is an art emergency somewhere. Wait...what? I've taught 1st grade, 2nd grade, preschool and worked with middle school girls at church. I have come to realize that teenagers are my favorite. I get to work with teenagers in my new job alot. They are so funny. I do believe that this has been my favorite job I've had. I get to be at home with my kids and I still have time to myself. It does cut into my family time a little bit but I'm playing with a schedule to get that worked out.

We recently cut cable. I've been pleasantly surprised at how little I've missed it. I do miss my dvr. But my dvr just encouraged me to watch more tv. We are spending more time together as a family. It's been really nice.  Today we went to see megamind at the 1.50 theater. It was such a funny movie. It ranks right up there with Toy Story. We are a pretty frugal little family. You have to be when you are on one income. My income from this job will go to pay off medical bills and hopefully put a little in the bank. :) I'm hoping this ends up being at least a 7 month a year job. I guess I really won't know until the fall.

I am ready for this snow to go. I can't wait til this summer when we will be spending a month in our Florida house. I wish I was there already. I have loved these snow days. But I miss laying on the beach, reading my latest SEP book and watching my children play. If I could move down there I would! Alas, our life is here. It's a good life. I have happy children, a happy husband, a happy chocolate lab and a happy me. I'm glad to have my happiness back. Sometimes God can show off in a big way in your life. He's been showing off to me lately. I love it! Thank you for reminding me what's important in life. Your family, friends and your health. Where you lay your head is less important as who surrounds you! I can honestly say I have no choice but to believe that now. Well it's time to put this post to bed. My head is hurting so I am going to lie down in a dark quiet room and thank my God for all that I have (not stuff, but people)! Good night all.

Bene "fits" to working at home...

I have to say, I love my new job. I love working and trying to help the students. There are some bene "fits" as my hubby calls them to working at home. 1. the walk to work is never too cold or too hot ie...no snow to trudge through. 2. there is always food close by (although the vending machines suck) 3. I don't have to pay a babysitter 4. my son ends up having to cook dinner if I don't get it in the crockpot. 5. my dog and cat sit at my feet. 6. the view outside my window is nice. 7. facebook...nuff said. 8. nice to show up to work in either running pants or pj's. 9. the ride into work is nice and I don't have to warm up the car *no gas used!*. 10. i don't have to plan for my lunch. :) Now the not so glamorous side to working at home. 1. I see my office every time I walk into the kitchen. 2. there are no vending machines. 3. I don't have a sitter so the fighting and constant need for food is always here yelling at me. 4. I never know how dinner will turn out (altho my 14 year old isn't a bad cook!) 5. my dog and cat either want to eat or go in and out while I'm working. 6. I see all the stuff I need to get rid of on my deck. 7. facebook!!! 8. showing up in pj's not a great idea but oh so comfy and tempting. 9. tons of things here to distract me! 10. I have to eat food out of my fridge and there are no coworkers to go out to eat with!

All in all I love my new job and am thankful every day that I have it. There are no snow days but I will get a paycheck, so as my friend Danny G. says...it's all good! Have a great day everyone. Oh and happy birthday to me! :P

Merry Country Christmas Friends

We have had a wonderful week. There was cookies bakin, bread risin, pies bakin and things being dipped in chocolate.  The kids and I had Christmas music on and we danced and cooked all week. I truly have loved this week. The list of items made: strawberry and cherry pie, coconut cake, sourdough bread, lemon tea cookies, sugar cookies, pretzels dipped in chocolate and the normal lunch/dinner stuff.  I think it's safe to say that I am going to have a sourdough starter going at all times. What yummy bread!

Tonight we will be wrapping presents like gingerbread men without heads! We've not started that yet. Today we went to our land and walked it. Ten acres straight up and back down let's just say my thighs are going to be hurting tomorrow. Plotting our dream home and trying to be patient waiting on this market to turn around so we can begin the process. There's huge persimmon trees and walnut trees on the land. I see myself making persimmon jams very soon. Persimmons taste like an apricot, peach and orange all in one. It is soooo yummy! At the library this past month I bought a book on canning and preserving from the 1970's. Wow they used every piece of everything. It is impressive all the things they canned. Watermelon rind? Pickled okra? Yikes. Cranberry preserves...yummo~. I need a farmhouse with chickens and a garden and I'd be set. I asked my hubby if he should have married a lawyer instead of this mom who just wants to work part time and make bread. His answer was I did didn't I? Clearly he needs help (but he sure does love the bread!).

Have I mentioned I have the best neighbors here? After returning from the land we found homemade treats and a big santa on our porch. My neighbors love us and we love them.That will be the one thing I miss about my house now. My neighbors and my neighborhood. All the kids play outside, nerf wars break out weekly as well as night time games of hide and go seek. The kids have a cool life here.

On the land they will have many acres to run and play. A swimming pool to laze the summer days away. Snickers, our chocolate lab, had so much fun running along side us as we looked at the land today. It has an amazing view. I gotta put my checked apron on and better get back to cooking. Merry Christmas my friends. I love you all and pray you have a safe and happy holiday!

Benefits to working at home...

Well it's 8:30 and I'm about to start my job. So far today I've made my daughter and I breakfast, made her lunch, started a load of clothes, scrubbed the bathtub, thought about dinner, let the dog in and out a million times, got the boys off to school, had a shower and brushed my teeth. My meeting starts at 9am. I will be in my comfy track pants and tshirt drinking a diet coke while I attend this meeting. My hair will still be wet and I will have no make up on! lol LOVE IT! So excited to start my new job. Another benefit of working at home is smelling all the dog farts. What the heck? All morning long...really?? What has this dog been eating?