A new direction...

I have always wanted to be a better person, mother, wife, friend; you name it, just better. What I want is not always possible but I am learning to be what God wants me to be. My very good friend, Trish, introduced me to the online study “A Confident Heart” by Renee Swope. On the sidebar is a link to her site and I highly recommend all women to visit and learn more.

 Blogging has always been something that I have wanted to do for various reasons and hopefully with “His” guidance I can turn this blog into something that is worth your time and visit. In general my views haven’t changed and I am still the same person with the same family, interest and views but I am looking forward to see what God has planned for me and my family. I pray for you all too just trust in the Lord and see what he has in store for you today.

 
God Bless!! Ü

Does your day ever get so busy you forget to breath?

LOL That is how I feel lately. Our days are so busy and so many odd things happen out of nowhere that I end up reminding myself to breath.

There have been medical problems that are very worrying. Then we had family kids being dropped off of the bus with no one to watch them and not finding out until 50 minutes later......talk about almost having a heart attack!!!! Home moisture problems in the floor, ant problems, ticks are already out bad and either my husband or son brought one in and it ended up on our Peek-a-Pooh. Yuck!! I can not stand those little blood suckers. And the transmission is going out of my van at only 147,584 miles!! All while trying my hardest to let my hair grown out. LOL

Hopefully I will be back to regular blogging or regular for me anyway, next week.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. We are supposed to get an enormous amount of rain they have already put up floor warnings! God Bless and thanks for stopping by!!

Prayers for Brodie

We would like to request for everyone to pray for Brodie. He is a 3 week old little boy that is very sick. He is in the hospital extremely ill and they do not know what is wrong with him. Any and all prayers are greatly appreciated. He did show a change yesterday so we are tying to reach as many people to continue with prayers as possible. This little boy and his family need it. Please pray and have faith. God Bless!!

Pica and Iron Deficiency (Anemia)

In the past week I have been diagnosed as anemic. Being diabetic and having high triglycerides calls for blood work being performed every 3 months so I am diagnosed pretty quickly if anything else, such as this, pops up.

Do you like Sonics’ ice? I love it. You can actually purchase it by the bag as well. It is the only place around here to get those little chunks that are great for chomping on. We had been purchasing about 16 pounds of ice every 5-7 days. I had been eating most of it. Granted it is a great snack, talk about low calorie, no calories! LOL However it was bordering on obsessive and I hadn’t really given it much thought because it is water. Your body needs water, I craved it plus I am diabetic so it all made sense to me. When you start waking up in the middle of the night to grab a cup of ice chips, look into it.

Pica is the desire to eat ice. I only found this out once my “awesome” doctor (Jennifer) told me that I was anemic. I hadn’t told her about the ice craving because I didn’t know that it was a sign of anything. It is odd how much you can find out online. Just be careful that you are looking on reputable sites. Remember that .org sites are great accurate sites!!! Anemia can play with your body in so many ways that it is unbelievable. If you have arthritis, it can make it worse. Now the fun part, finding out why. In past years I have been treated for endometriosis and that is more than likely the problem now. We will soon find out.

The moral of this story………tell your doctor if you have odd cravings, even if it is as simple as ice. There are usually medical reasons behind those.

Take care and thanks for stopping by. God Bless ^j^

Bill Schedules and Payment Plans

Having OCD tendencies I have issues when it comes to bills and list. While talking to my good friend Trish I found out that not all people have the same ideas about bill paying and list as I do. Who would have thought! LOL

Instead of just knowing that this check pays this bill and this check pays that bill I have a very detailed list that goes along with mine as well as a notebook that helps keep me inline. My bill folder and bank statement folder are my 2 that are updated monthly, if not more often. I know that a lot of people have their banking online, I do as well. However, I still like to have it in black and white and don’t trust just leaving them in a folder on the computer, hackers and all. So each month I print out my statement and put it into a folder so that I have copies of my checks as well as any information that I need in the blink of an eye. That one is pretty simple. Each year I take the previous year out and file it in the filing cabinet with the corresponding year and simple title: Bank Statements. That just eases my mind and I have hard copies to go back to whenever I need them quickly.

My second folder is a bit more complicated and in depth but I couldn’t do without it. Recently we have had a huge surge in our electric bills. I am aware that it was winter and that the heat was on. However, we use the air, a lot!! We have also been through 2 winters in this home and know that last year was no where close to this. Even though we did have a rate increase I go by KW used instead of money, which will throw your electric company for a loop when you call and complain and you have the KW instead of the money amounts on hand to rattle off and have compared them to previous years. This to me was normal.

As soon as I get the file completed, so that it is not catered to my family only, I will put it on here so that others can hopefully use it. My own personal household/family notebook is in the works and I will put in on here along with pictures as soon as that is finished. We would love to hear your ideas and see your pictures as well. Please feel free to comment and send your pictures in.

Thanks for stopping by and God bless you and yours.

Happy Easter

I just wanted to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very happy Easter. Sunday morning sunrise Easter services are always a very moving experience if you get the chance to attend the church of your choosing. Hope everyone has a great weekend and remembers the resurrection of Jesus Christ for which we celebrate this holiday.

As always, take care and my God bless you all. Have a safe weekend.

Spring is in the air

Spring has sprung, isn’t it wonderful? I don’t know how the last few days have been for the rest of the country but it has been completely awesome here. We have been able to go outside with light jackets and then no jackets. The kids have played until they are about to fall over. We have been able to put our boxer in the front yard and let her wear herself out as well as watch everyone and just have a blast, they are so playful and fun loving anyway.

My husband has an uncle and his wife that lives really close and we are getting much closer to them and their kids and grandkids. They have a son and daughter that are both really nice people. This has been a really great experience for us all. Our daughter still doesn’t have anyone around her age but loves babies and kids and they all absolutely love her. She is able to play with a baby about every day and always has a child hanging onto her or wanting attention from her. Our son has been upset since the neighbors moved early last fall because they had a little boy his age but now he has 2 cousins to play with that are little boys his age. That makes one happy little boy. My husband and his cousin are getting along well and that makes me happy. His cousin is very outgoing and wants to play basketball (we have a goal), go here and there and even volunteered the two of them to wax both wives vehicles. Woo-Hoo for us. His wife is super sweet, you know one of those that everyone likes and can talk to anyone. I really like being around her and having her to talk to here as well.

However, my best friend in the world just had a birthday yesterday and I was not on here to wish her a Happy Birthday but I did call her yesterday evening, again Happy Birthday Trish!! Wish you lived closer!!

And I will close on this note for today, or at least now…….insomnia is the pits!!!! LOL

Hope you all have a beautiful day and that you enjoy it to its fullest. God Bless!!

Good Lesson from The Disney Channel

In the past day or so I have noticed that The Disney Channel has began to make commercials trying to remind or let kids know that what they post or say on the internet can be hurtful to others and that it stays out there. My first reaction was; what a great lesson and a great place to put it for kids to learn. Kudos to Disney!!

One in particular that I have seen today was where 2 friends are texting each other on their phones. The one girl asks the other not to be mad at her, and she asks why and so on. The point is that because of pier pressure the one girl told a secret to the world about her friend having a crush on a boy on his profile page. This caused hard feelings and embarrassment. However the way in which TDC portrayed it the one girl forgave her friend and she was very happy that her friend could forgive her and that she saw how good of a friend she really was and how foolish her actions were.

It is a great lesson for all kids these days. Kids today as young as 5 have cell phones, I’m guilty my 6 year old has one that the most he does is call mamaw on it every few days. But many end up on the internet and texting way too much and telling things they shouldn’t be telling anyone about themselves and their friends and family. I know that many parents have lectured and lectured their kids about who they talk to and how much information they give out, although I don’t think you can ever remind them to much on that topic, I am glad that they are making points like this on a children’s channel.

God Bless .^_^.

Tutorial Hunters

As a self proclaimed tutorial hunter I would like to make a small suggestion or ask a favor. Remember when you post something that you may be linked here and there. Even though you are not keeping up with that post someone else may happen upon it somewhere else and try to get back to it. I like PhotoBucket, and where it is a free program, that even makes it better. LOL I have used PhotoBucket for over 2 years for my Homeschooling Blog and really do like it. However, I have noticed lately that many people are deleting their pictures and that leaves a very odd tutorial.

This is just a suggestions but what if you open an account that is only for your tutorials or when one is full, open another account all together so that those pics can stay on the web. Once it is out there, it is out there to stay most of the time whether we realize it or not. On this blog I normally import the picture from my computer but then again you are very limited in that manner which makes PhotoBucket and programs like theirs extremely handy and important to many sites. Tutorials that you can print in PDF format as well as Word format are also very helpful and you don’t have to worry about upkeep unless you are on a limited program as far as uploads. I am just putting this suggestion out there. Nothing bad meant to any of these programs or anyone’s blogs. I enjoy them immensely.

I enjoy searching tutorials on all sorts of things but my favorites are crafts, sewing, and parties. When I am getting ready for one of the kids birthday parties or a holiday party I really enjoy going into other blogs to see how people have made things and done things that are along the same ideas that I have or better. Many times I have ran across an idea that is close to what I was thinking but when it is explained out, especially with pictures because we don’t all think alike so reading what someone else means can sometimes be frustrating when it comes to directions. Back to the point, I find that they have had the same outcome or even better than what I had in mind and doing it much simpler than I would have done it. I have had several of those DUH moments while doing this. LOL Then I am sitting here asking myself; why didn’t I think of that. What a good idea or time and/or money saver. Thank you to all of you bloggers out there in cyberspace that take the time and effort to put these fabulous items on your blogs. I have learned and plan on continuing to learn so much from you all.

Take care and I hope to add to the “tutorial hunt” as I learn more.

God Bless .^_^.

Nutritionist and www.NutriMirror.com

My husband had an appointment yesterday, his 40th birthday as well, with the nutritionist at the local hospital due to his lipid panel. When he returned home he had several papers as well as a “Portion Pack” that I will make up my own version of and have as a free download soon. This is broken down into 3 meals and 1 snack color coded cards for your easy use. For example the green card = Non-Starchy Vegetables. The explanation on the card is as follows: 1 serving equals: (choose one) ½ cup Cooked Vegetables OR 1 cup Raw Vegetables OR ½ cup Tomato/Vegetable Juice. It goes on to explain: Non-Starchy Vegetables include: asparagus, green beans, beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, eggplant, greens, mushrooms, okra, onions, pea pods, peppers, radishes, lettuce, sauerkraut, spinach, summer squash, tomatoes, turnips and zucchini. So everything is on the one card and when that blue card shows up during the day you are to eat 1 serving from something on that list. I know that there have been color coded card or something, it seems like it may have been Richard Simmons, in the past and I don’t remember the details but these are very well explained or spelled out.

While I was reading through the new material he called back and asked about a food and exercise journal, as the papers states to use, but the didn’t offer one and actually had never been asked that question so was unsure as to how to answer. So what do you do when you need to know something? Google it! Or at least we do. I really, really, like Google. Anyway, my husband did and found www.NutriMirror.com right off the bat. We signed the 3 adults up; well my husband, myself and our semi-adult daughter ….. Against the website we fudged a little on her age. However, I set it up and have the user ID and password and it will be under my supervision. Her file is mainly to log when she exercises and so forth, a great homeschool tool! Physical education, check. Whereas my husband and I will log into the full program and take advantage of what it has to offer. Did I mention, it is FREE! 100% FREE of charge. If you haven’t checked it out, do so. It is complete with tips, tutorials, meal plans, recipes, goals, the entire kit and caboodle.

In today’s society healthy habits need to be stressed more and more and we need to be setting a better example, as a whole, to our children when it comes to leading a much healthier lifestyle. The US has a growing obesity problem, of which I am sadly in the ranking. We need to do what we can to help turn this problem around. Have you seen the movie Wall-E. I love the movie for the simple fact that I can see our world becoming so computerized and technologically efficient that we are a nation or world of those obese individuals on the floating chairs, unable to walk or move about on their own and oblivious to the problem. That would be awful!! So, these are our baby steps to helping our kids become aware of healthy eating habits and forming a daily exercise regimen. Hope you join in and I will be working on those cards, if you are interested.

God Bless and have a wonderful day. Spring is near!! Yippee, bring on the warm weather!!

(Every day my son, 6, wants to know if it is going to be warm enough in the next few days so that we can go swimming. He is a water dog!! LOL)

For more great recipes...

Remember to check out http://mountainmamascountrystore.blogspot.com

This is not only the new place for my friend Trish and I to sell our finished homemade products but we also share our favorite recipes, some Appalachian Mountain folklore, old fashioned home remedies and more with you as often as possible.

So if you haven’t done so yet, give us a visit over there as well. I have provided a button to the right for easy access as well. Thanks!!

God Bless .^_^.

Snow, Snow, Go Away...

Is everyone sick of the snow already? ;) I have not seen a winter like this in at least 8 years. The kids have had their fun with the snow, as you can see from the pictures I have posted, and everyone is now ready for the nice weather and dry grounds so that the bikes can be taken out and the trampoline can be used. We can walk the dog without getting muddy or slip and slide around in the snow and ice and don't have to look out and survey the drive before deciding whether to go out today or not. Well, that is my belly aching for the day. .^_^.

God Bless!!

Backyard Carnival or County Fair Birthday Party

My son will be turning 7 at the end of April. We were researching on having a Lego party and I was really getting ready for that. However, my son wasn’t saying that much. Yesterday he was playing on “Playground” after his homeschooling on “Time 4 Learning.com” and loves the PBSKids.com site that offers the games. He really enjoys watching PBS and will pick it over SpongeBob…how great is that!! So he played and played with Curious George. All of a sudden it hit me, “Honey, would you rather have a Curious George Birthday Party?” His face lit up and I knew that was it. While researching this morning I was reading about parties and one of them had that they included a Backyard Carnival into the theme and they had a blast. That sounds even more awesome. Back to my son, “Would you like to add that to it but still have it Curious George?” This time the sparks were flying. He was thrilled. We finally hit it on the head. Within 3 hours my husband has been volunteered to make such items as a Plinko board, Corn Hole game and the best, he is the person that is going to sit while the kids are throwing whipped cream pies in his face. You have to love a man that will do that, even though he hasn’t said the word yes, we know he will. LOL

Our daughter’s birthday is in December and I have wanted to have a carnival ever since she was born and she will be 16 this year, no, that is not possible!! That kind of hit like a brick!! Okay, I have months left before that happens, back to this party. We are planning more games than we will probably have kids for. LOL

If you have any suggestions, ideas, comments, anything, I would love to hear them!! You will be seeing more about this and I will have picture overload when the party has ended. I almost forgot. The reason for the "County Fair" in the title is because we live in the country and if I could somehow fix it to have a greased pig, it would be a county fair for sure. LOL I've never actually seen one but I am sure it would be great.

Take care and God Bless

Zoomba

Zoomba is everywhere and I have never done it. Honestly I can not see my big butt in front of a room full of little things shaking like I have seen on YouTube. That to me is scary, the thought and the vision!!

Please tell me all about your experience with this new trend and if you really like or dislike it. I have seen that you can purchase a large DVD package online to experience it in the privacy of your own home for around $100. Is this a good investment. Please, I would appreciate all of the feedback that I can get.

Thanks a million and God Bless!!

Live Traffic Feed

If you notice you will see me a million times on the "Live Traffic Feed". I have been coming into the blog and fixing things and learning how to do things such as making my button for you to grab. This is fun and I will being doing a lot of this. If you see where someone has been on here time and time again it is more than likely me learning. However, I would like to think that you all are really wanting to read about what I write that much. LOL

Hey, thanks for stopping by and God Bless!!

Shark Steamer

**UPDATE: April 6, 2010

I will leave the same post below. However, I am going to update my opinion here.

After using the Shark Steamer, and only the steamer, for my linoleum flooring I noticed that dark, dirt looking spots stayed behind. No matter how many times that I would clean it, again, with the steamer, it didn’t seem to budge. These started to spread and I believe that your floor is what makes the inside of your home look good and a well groomed yard is what makes the outside of the home. This wasn’t what I was use to and had to go. I decided to get my Mr. Clean Magic Eraser down to the floor level, since I still believe these are awesome after years of use. Surprise, surprise, it came up. That didn’t make me very happy, as you can imagine. However, I cleaned the floor with the trusty mop, Mr. Clean and elbow grease and it looks terrific. I did purchase the Mr. Clean Mop and have used it on the really tough spots and am thrilled with it as well.

I will no longer use the Shark Steamer for a daily cleaning machine. Before having our friends, with crawling babies, come around I will steam the floor so that I feel more at ease with them down on all fours on our floors. Other than that I will probably only use it for seasonal purposes. Let’s face it, after giving it much thought, I may not use it enough to keep it at this point.

**UPDATE: Please read this before my post below!!!!!

While at the computer one day my husband informed me that he and the kids were going to go and purchase my Christmas gift and that it was something that I had been wanting. I spoke up quickly, “The Shark Steamer!!” Well that isn’t what they had in mind but it is what I received. Later I found out that he was thinking about an embroidery sewing machine. Yes, I would have taken it over the cleaner any day; however that was overspending at that time.

About the Shark Steamer, I can not say enough good things about this product. It is AWESOME!! I just love it. We have 2 indoor dogs and always have several kids including the 2 of ours. Our kitchen floor gets pretty dirty pretty fast. With the steamer there are no chemicals to purchase and it comes with 3 washable pads that Velcro to the bottom of the cleaner. It heats up within seconds and all you do is pump the handle to make it steam more. Glide it over the floor and it is clean as can be. We have had probably all of the “kids” craft items that I have given my opinion on on the floor and it has taken them all up and more. My son and cousins daughter have been painting with finger paints for the past 4-6 days on and off and it has been all over the floor, sewing items on the table, he he. Anyway, it comes up so quickly with no bending. We only have linoleum in the kitchen and utility room, for now. A word of advice, if you are laying new carpet, no matter what the carpet people advise, get linoleum or wood or something other than carpet in the bathrooms. Big mistake, but that’s another story.

We move the refrigerator, stove, washer, dryer and everything out to clean under them regularly and there is no longer any scrubbing and back breaking bending. You just fill up the water canister with the cup and funnel that come with it and plug it in, then let the steam do the work. Like I said, I can not say enough good stuff about this product. Granted the water tank is small but I don’t mind refilling it as many times as needed because I am not mopping and scrubbing as I have for so many years. Oh, and you know that sticky mess that most of us get under and around the garbage can, it is a breeze to get up.

One word of advice or a warning, however you wish to take it. Do not, I repeat, do not clean up sugar with the steamer. I really thought that I had most of the sugar up and began to steam to get the remainder to avoid ants, which we already have seen a few. After I was done I noticed that the floor was really sticky. I switched pads and cleaned again, it was still sticky. What was I doing wrong? It finally hit me; I had made syrup and was continuing to spread it over the floor. LOL I am sure that if I had continued to clean that it would have eventually come up but I did get out the old mop and really dose it with water and get it up. It was funny though, once I realized what I had done.

Take care and God Bless!!

Rug Doctor and Spring Cleaning

It may not be spring as of yet. However, if you look out of my door there is no snow. Yippee!! We rented the Rug Doctor (which I would love to own but at what they cost, I will continue to rent) to clean all of the carpets, plus the couch. The carpets are done after an entire day of hard work. I am big on keeping the floors clean. My friend Trish pointed out that I stay on the carpets, cleaning them. After thinking about it it came to me that when we lived in a cabin with hardwood floors and you could always see if there was a speck of dust. It was also very easy to move furniture around and make sure that everything was clean under it as well, just push it out of the way. It is also a good way to work out frustrations. : ) Anyway, I found out that the clean floor is what made the house look so good. Since then I have had a compulsion, you might say, to keep the carpet very clean, as well as linoleum. That will lead into my next post on the floor steamer that my loving family gave me for Christmas.

Even though we have carpet that is only around 9-10 months old, I still want all of the furniture, except the beds and our extremely heavy entertainments center, moved when I sweep the floors. Our couch, loveseat, tables, and most everything is moved at the least once a week to sweep under. I also take the kitchen table and chairs (thank goodness there are only 4) into the living room so that I can steam the linoleum. I also have OCD, can you tell. LOL

To those who are on their way to even thinking about Spring Cleaning, good luck to you and I’m right here with ya! Let me add that I will probably not be able to move an inch tomorrow. LOL I am sore!! Still have the couch to tackle...........maybe tomorrow.

Take care and God Bless!!

New Craft Buisness Blog

My friend Trish and I started a new selling blog and have a few items listed. Be sure to visit all of our labels for information about us, shipping, ordering and our homemade items at Mountain Mamas Country Store - http://mountainmamascountrystore.blogspot.com/. There are many recipes and will be many more, our personal favorites. There will be Appalachian folklore soon and we will be adding items as often as possible for sale. Follow us and watch for regular updates.

The creek in our backyard....

I love this picture!! One side is frozen, one side is flowing and a large Valentine's Heart in the middle. DS and I walked over onto this snow, way beyond and everything and it just did not appear as a heart until it was downloaded. Awesome!!

Just a pic down the creek.

This is "Kitty". She is suppose to belong to a neighbor but never goes near them. She came to our house and has stayed. DS has now decided to change her name to "Whiskers". Sorry, after calling her Kitty for so long, she will remain as Kitty.



Another down creek shot.

Cami found out that after walking on the frozen water that there were actually wet places in there as well. Quick back u and found another way to shore. LOL

Have fun.....God Bless!!

Sleigh Ridding Part 2 of 2

My nephew actually smiling!!

Against my better judgment the kids wanted to sleigh toward the creek and my daughter was willing to stand and catch them before hitting the water......good luck.......we'll see

Still happy as can be........"Let's go again!!"

OH, this is what mommy was afraid would happen. If you notice DD is on the ground. My nephew came down first, knocked DD down and she couldn't stop DS from hitting the water. You can see the water moving, I got the shot right as he hit!!

DS was not happy, the next photo was actually him standing with hands on hips letting him have it because he is now wet and has to go in!!! Good Grief!!! LOL LOL

Happy sledding and God Bless!!!