my blessed life

Well, I'm pretty late with my menu plan this week. I really don't have a good excuse either, just didn't get it done. I'd better get it posted though, because my hubby likes to read what he's having for dinner here-ha! Last night we had grilled cheese bratwursts with baked beans and German potatoes. There is a restaurant where we're from in Arkansas that serves Swiss & German cuisine. They have these amazing potatoes there! The last time we ate there (which was quite a long time ago) I asked our server how they were made and she was happy to tell me. Don't you love that?! So yesterday I dug out my scribbles from that night (that had no measurements and only sketchy instructions) and decided to try to recreate those potatoes. They turned out soooo yummy!! I simply cut up the potatoes in fairly small/thin pieces and tossed them with a little oil and butter in a covered baking dish. Then I cooked them for probably an hour and a half at about 300F, till they...

My bloggy friend Kayren at Everything's Coming Up Daisies gave me an award today! Thank you very much, Kayren!! Permio al Esfuerzo Personal is translated to mean Prize to the Personal Effort , and of course there are some rules that go with it. Rules: 1. Mention the blog that gave it to you. 2. Comment on their blog to let them know you've posted your award. 3. Publish these rules. 4. Share 6 values that are important to you 5. Share 6 things you do not support. 6. Grant the prize to 6 people. 6 values that are important to me: 1. my relationship with my Heavenly Father 2. my relationships with my husband and children 3. my relationships with my extended family and my friends 4. godly character 5. integrity 6. being a student of life 6 things that I do not support: 1. abortion 2. lack of integrity 3. manipulation 4. abusiveness 5. profanity 6. neck hair on men And I am going to break a rule and award this to all of my bloggy friends out there! I think you are all awesome , ...

As I mentioned here , one of my favorite things about Fall is making and eating Party Mix (or Chex Mix--everyone has their favorite name). The homemade kind is so nothing like the store bought version. The stuff from the store isn't really worthy of the name, except that it has actual Chex cereal in it. Here's the recipe that I use every year, usually more than once! Party Mix Gather your main ingredients (and as you can see, I'm all about store-brands when possible): This recipe fills up two foil turkey roasting pans. I divide the pretzels and cereals between the pans evenly. 1 box Cherios 1 box Rice Chex 1 box Corn Chex 1 box Crispix 1 bag mini twist pretzels 3 cans mixed nuts (I delete these) *** Then mix together the following: 2 cups vegetable oil 2 Tbls. garlic salt 2 Tbls. seasoned salt 3 Tbls. Worcestershire sauce Mix this well and pour even amounts over each pan of Chex Mix and stir well. Bake at 250F for 2 hours, stirring each pan every 15 minutes. I also like t...

Whew...it has been quite a busy weekend (a busy week , really)and now that I've had my Sunday Afternoon Nap, I finally have some clarity of thought to sit down and blog about it (the weekend that is, not the nap, although it was rather wonderful). Part of my problem this week has been that I have not been sleeping very well. I wake up feeling like I've been beaten up in my sleep and my eyes are so puffy it's absolutely ridiculous!! To the point of being laughable! My eye mask that I keep in the fridge has definitely been getting some use. I've decided that maybe it has something to do with the fact that we've been sleeping with the windows open at night. I just love that and the weather has been so lovely and cool that I can hardly resist it. I've even been leaving them open most of the day, too, until the mid-afternoon when it starts getting hot. Well, I thought I would try leaving them closed last night to see if there was a difference this morning. And th...

I had a nice little surprise from Kristy Mae at this is me this weekend--a blog award! Thank you very much! And now I wil share it.... Here are the rules: (1) The winner can put the logo on their blog. (2) Link the person you received your award from. (3) Nominate 7 other blogs. (4) Put links of those on yours. (5) Leave a message on the blogs you’ve nominated. I'd love to give this award to: Kari at logorrhea Nancy at Chocolate Ink Betsy at My Five Men Song at Corner of Song and Lee Kayren at Everything's Coming Up Daisies Nikki at Project: Domestic Bliss Reese & Heather at Kicking It In Crazyville LOVE your blogs, Girls!!

Well, I finally found a dish that everyone really liked. It's an old favorite that my mom used to make when I was growing up. I'll have to remember this one more often! Beef Steak-Potato Scallop Here is the recipe.

I don't know how many of you regularly read Money Saving Mom or Freebies 4 Mom , but you just might want to start checking them out. They both have great tips and ideas for frugality, plus there are usually links very often to get free stuff. I mean, who doesn't like that?! Here are some freebies that I've recieved in the mail in the past couple of weeks: (1) Magic Eraser sample (1) pr. of panties from Hanes (1) roll of Scott toilet paper (1) pkg. of Kotex samples (1) Cottonelle wipes sample (1) pkg. of new Casade samples (1) sample of Celine Dion's new perfume It's a fun way to try out things you may not be sure you'd want to purchase at first. The girls who have the above blogs really do a great job of passing on money-saving ideas! Hope you enjoy them!

Ah, it was good to sleep in my own bed last night. There's something so cozy about that after being away a few days. We had a good trip to Arkansas. Our family time was really fun! However, the other details didn't work out like we had hoped and planned, so that was disappointing. God is in control though! Thanks to everyone who wished me a wonderful birthday on Sunday! I had a very nice day! I thought I'd show you a few of my birthday goodies. Look at these adorable silhouettes that my sister painted from some of our snapshots. She's so creative! Isn't this the cutest bath set from my bro & sis-in-law? Can you tell that it's citrus scented? They also included this cute set of recipes called The Chocolate Deck. Can't wait to try some! Here are some of the goodies from Vince & the kiddos. The cd is I {heart} Revolution from Hillsong United--it's awesome!! And I've already started reading The Secret Life of Bees , that way I'll be ready ...

Well, it's time for Katrina's Fall reading challenge! I had so much fun participating in the Spring challenge that I've really been looking forward to this one. One of the things I most enjoyed was visiting other blogs that were also participating and checking out their reading lists. I'm always looking for the next great book to read and this was a very good way to check out some new or even not-so-new-but-never-read-before books. I also plan to review the books from this list here on my blog as I read them throughout the fall. There's plenty of time if you'd like to join in, check out the details here and here . My list seems a bit short this time (although there is a 7-book series listed there), but it's going to be a very busy fall. We've just started homeschooling and we are in the process of selling our home and moving, so there's a lot going on around here. But I can always add to my list, right?Right! Total Forgiveness , by R.T. Kendall (cur...

Thankfully they only used one candle on my birthday dessert at the restaurant today!!

Today Kayren is once again hosting K & T. Today is the *Entertainment* edition: 1. If you could meet one famous actor, who would it be and why? Cary Grant, just to hear him talk in that smooth voice and hear those great thoughts delivered deadpan. 2. What one question would you ask him? Whether or not he enjoyed being such an icon. 3. If you could meet one famous actress, who would it be and why? Audrey Hepburn because she was captivating with her grace and also her quirkiness. 4. What one question would you ask her? To tell me about her life. 5. What is your all-time favorite comedy movie and why? Probably The Princess Bride because it's just a classic and I could almost quote all the lines. 6. What is your favorite all-time tv show and why? For a sit-com I have to go with Seinfeld, although The Office is running a close second. For a drama, Alias was pretty awesome. I miss it. Currently though Lost is my fave. 7. What is your all-time favorite action or drama movi...

What a long day! I'm so glad to have a moment to sit down here and veg out for a few minutes. I'd nearly forgotten what a job it is to sell a house. We've had our house For Sale By Owner for exactly 2 weeks and 3 days. We've shown it 8 times now and taken a ton of calls on it. Until today, the last time we'd shown it was last Thursday evening, then all of a sudden yesterday we got several calls from people all wanting to come tonight at basically the same time to see it. So I've been juggling schedules for showings and furiously cleaning. Somehow between last Thursday and today it looked like the house had thrown up toys or something. Thank goodness Vince pitched in more than his fair share because I just wasn't functioning at 100%. I've been pretty tired these past few days and it seems to have effected my brain-ha! Part of that is the fact that I've gotten serious about packing. So now we are starting to have boxes neatly stacked around our family...

You're probably wondering if I'm still around after announcing my big intentions yesterday to exercise. Well, I'm still here-- quite sore, but still here! I have to say, it was a good workout. I really enjoyed the video and I would recommend it if you're in the market for one. Vince and I have watched the last few seasons of The Biggest Loser and really enjoy it ( as we sit on our couch stuffing down chips or something equally healthy ). There's lots of drama, of course, it is a game. But it's really great to see how the contestants improve their health and transform their bodies and self-images. It's inspiring even. It was fun to see some of our show faves on the video, too. So, I think I'm going to stick with this. The dvd program is broken up into three different workouts: weeks 1 & 2 , weeks 3 & 4 and weeks 5 & 6. So far I've only done the first one. It has a warm-up segment, the main workout, and a cool down. I was familiar with m...

...what I'm starting tonight. Wish me luck!

Well, after procrastinating, putting it off and making excuses, I have finally begun the oh-so-not-fun job of packing up my house for the Big Move. Don't you love my free Mickey D's boxes?

Earlier this week, Vince came home from the fitness center and said he'd decided to make me dinner one night this week. Apparently he'd been watching The Food Network while working out and got inspired. Isn't that funny? Watching cooking shows while excersising! Just my style! If we actually had real cable where I got The Food Network, it would be a very bad thing...Anyway, my sweet hubby headed to the store today to get his special ingredients and made us a very delicious dinner tonight. First, he put the artichokes on to cook in some water with butter, lemon juice and salt. Next he started his red pepper sauce in which we would dip the artichoke petals/leaves/whatever you call them. Among the ingredients for this sauce were, obviously, red bell peppers, chipotle peppers, vinegar, garlic, seasonings. With the red pepper sauce nicely blended, he started on some yummy guacamole. It turned out sooooo good!! Finally he threw some salmon fillets on the grill , put some garlic...

Today was our first official field trip since beginning homeschooling. We took a little drive north into Tennessee to visit the Shiloh National Military Park . I had been there once probably 15 years ago and only remembered a little about it. I've been wanting to visit it again ever since we moved to this region. Having been the site of one of the Civil War's most bloody battles, it is now a quiet, picturesque, wooded military park. It's a beautiful place to visit. As we drove in we were first greeted by this lovely creature: Then we checked out the Visitor Center where we inspected Civil War artifacts and watched a short film about the battle. I was a little worried how the kiddos may respond to the battle scenes in the film, but it was made years ago and had about as much blood as a John Wayne movie (no offense to the National Parks Service film department) and, frankly, I was relieved. I'd rather not see that horrible battle reenacted realistically anyway. (Altho...