~Smart Habits Saturday~

Visit Lara's blog to see other SHS participants.

I'm going to keep working on:
***Bedmaking (doing great on this one!)
***Only water and herbal teas
***No Sugar
***Dishes and sweep floor after dinner (I did much, much better this week! Thanks for the encouragement last week!)

And a new one:
***Practice my flute. I hope to practice at least four times a week.

I have a story to tell about the "no sugar" habit. Part of the reason I'm doing it is because it is a challenge I listed on my 101 List (no sugar for one month). I'm a rule-follower, even if the rules are my own. But I've broken the rules too many times for me to think that I've been sugar-free for a whole month. So I'm starting over. Since I'm starting over, I figured I might as well get some serious sugar in before I started again, and I had a mocha at Starbucks today. Now, mind you, I've had no caffeine and very little sugar over the last four weeks. The mocha was awful. I didn't enjoy it at all. It was so sickeningly sweet, I asked for the gal to put some more coffee in it, to which she put more milk in it. Not only did I not enjoy it (I paid for it, I wasn't going to throw it away! LOL) my stomach was sick the entire time I did my grocery shopping! It totally wasn't worth it to me!!! It showed me that I'm far better off without syrupy drinks, and that my body is adversely affected by sugar!

~Crocuses~

~It's a Bloggy Baby Shower!~

I am just so thrilled for Mrs. U and her family! They have recently adopted a baby girl from China. In honor of their new baby, I’m throwing a shower for her and everyone is welcome! This isn’t your typical baby shower though! It’s a bloggy baby shower!

First, let’s meet little Miss Elizabeth!



Isn’t she just precious? I love this picture of her!

Mrs. U shared the following specific requests:

***that the Lord would save Elizabeth at a young age (what a BLESSING that would be!!!!)
***that I will truly be a godly mother. I want to model Christ to Elizabeth, to the rest of my family, friends and whoever I come in contact with.

My prayer for little Elizabeth is that she will be a great blessing to her family. I pray that she will accept the Lord as her Savior at an early age, and that she will joyfully serve the Lord all her life.

And finally, it’s your turn!!! Let’s shower Elizabeth and the “U” family with our prayers and congratulations! Just leave a comment in this post!

And now, what would a shower be without some cake? There's plenty for everyone!



I thank the Lord for my friendship with Mrs. U. She is a very sweet friend!

Image sources: banner, cake

~A new apron~

If you don't have a sister or two, you should definitely get some! ;-) Having sisters is fun. They are fun to give to; for example: dish towel aprons and scotty dogs. But sometimes I get a little surprise in my mailbox from one of my sisters, and that just makes my day!

Yesterday I opened a package to reveal:



an adorable apron! I will get so much use out of this! I love it!

I am blessed to be the oldest in a family of nine, with seven sisters and one brother. Brothers are fun too. But they don't really like girly stuff. LOL I get practical gifts from my brother (i.e. maple syrup for Christmas, raisins for my birthday. YUM)

~Merci Me~

This year after Christmas I gathered my thank you notes and sat down on the couch. I wrote three thank you notes. And then they started collecting dust. I still haven't mailed even those, and I have more to write!

When I was out shopping, I saw these cards, and they practically jumped in my cart. ;-) They are so "me" right now. I just love pink and I've always loved polka-dots!

This week...I shall pick up my pen and begin my note-writing in earnest!

~Daffy for Daffodils~

My first bit of color in the yard this spring!

As I was kneeling in the grass, scrunched down, taking this picture, I heard a lady walking by with her children. One of the children said:

What is she doing?

~Bagels~

I'm sure I won't have bakeries knocking my door down, but I am so pleased with the results of my bagel-making venture!

I didn't take pictures along the way, because sweet Julieann did a great job with that! Click here to see her step-by-step pictures she took from making bagels, along with the recipe.

I was so happy with the results! Bagels are expensive at the store, and the ingredients for them are so inexpensive! I will definitely make them again! Next time I want to try to mix in different ingredients into the dough before I shape them, and maybe add some whole wheat flour.

~Planet Earth~

Are any of you watching Discovery Channel's program Planet Earth? It is totally amazing!

Kevin and I started watching it last night. I'm glad we have DVR, and can record and watch it at convenient times to us.

It is just stunning. I have never seen such wonderful footage of God's creation! In the program we watched, the narrator didn't necessarily say anything about evolution, but as can be expected from Discovery, no credit is given to God either (how sad!).

I am not normally interested in animal documentaries, but this has definitely caught my interest! I believe there are 11 hours worth of programs, and I hope to watch them all!

~Menu Plan Monday~

I shop on Saturday, so my menu is from Saturday night through Friday night.

Saturday: Taco salad (with ground turkey)
Sunday: Dripped Roast, garlic mashed potatoes, green beans
Monday: Stir fry with chicken
Tuesday: Taco Bake and salad
Wednesday: Chicken Noodle Soup
Thursday: Homemade Pizza
Friday: Date Night

~Yummy, Delicious, Tasty~

Oh my, dinner was so good this afternoon. *Smiles*

I usually try to have a nicer meal on Sunday then the rest of the week. Today I made Dripped Beef, garlic mashed potatoes, and green beans. I was not disappointed. Kevin was delighted!

Dripped Beef

3-4 lb. chuck roast
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. seasoned salt
1 tsp. white pepper (I use regular pepper)
1 Tbsp. rosemary
1 Tbsp. dried oregeno
1 Tbsp. garlic powder
1 cup water

Place roast in crock pot. Combine seasonings, and sprinkle over roast. Add water. Cover crock pot and cook on Low 6-7 hours. Shred meat using two forks. Strain liquid and return liquid and meat to slow cooker. Serve meat and au jus over mashed potatoes, noodles, or rice.

Recipe from Fix it and Forget it.

Today I put the roast in my electric roaster, in a smaller casserole dish. I would have used the crock pot, but the roast didn't have enough time to cook. Also in the roaster, I placed a whole bulb of garlic, with the top cut off. The garlic was off to the side, not in the casserole dish with the meat.

When we got home from church, I washed about 8 potatoes, left the skins on, and cooked them in my pressure cooker. I squeezed out the garlic, and mashed it all into the potatoes, along with some butter. Oh.my.goodness. Delicious potatoes! They were very garlicky, but not overpoweringly so.

This was a great meal, and really, it didn't take that long to prepare. That's my kind of Sunday dinner!

~Smart Habits Saturday~

Pop on over to Lara's blog to view other smart habits people are forming!

Time for honesty:
***Bedmaking: going along great! Ok, last week, I thought I only had several more days. Um, no, I have a whole 'nother month! LOL But it is a habit now, for sure!

***No sugar: confession time...I had a pastry yesterday at work. We had a company lunch, and it was delayed in order for one of my coworkers to make it in from a meeting. I was starving. If I hadn't eaten that pastry, I probably would have fainted from starvation. Or something like that... There was a box of donuts in the back. I looked at them twice, and walked away each time, but then I came back. My pastry was good. It was also the first time I've eaten sugar since I started this challenge (one month without sugar). I will just continue on!

***Drink only water and herbal teas: This one has been so easy this week. But let me tell you, it's not smart to drink Sleepytime tea first thing in the morning!!!

***Do the dishes and sweep the floors right after dinner: I was doing better with the dishes before I made this a goal! *Groan* This week hasn't been a good dishes week. However, I'm dusting myself off and hopping back up! I will conquer this goal!!!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

~31. Try a new recipe each week for one month~

I accomplished another item on my 101 List! This one was way easier than I thought it would be, and actually helped me over a cooking slump that I had been in. I even threw in an extra week just for the fun of it!

Week 1: Rachel Ray 365: No Repeats
#24 Salsa Stoup* and Double-Decker Quesadillas

Week 2: Rachel Ray 365: No Repeats
#40 Mostly Green Curry Chicken over Coconut Jasmine Rice

Week 3: Rachel Ray 365: No Repeats
#58 Chicken with Sweet Raisins and Apricots on Toasted Almond Couscous

Week 4: Betty Crocker
Spinach and Pine Nut Meatloaf

Week 5: Rachel Ray 365: No Repeats
#85 Ginger Vegetable Chicken Noodle Bowl
and: Fix it and Forget it
Sloppy Joes

I checked out Rachel Ray's cookbook from the library, and really enjoyed using this book. Her recipes are quick. They aren't the cheapest dinners I've ever put together, but each dinner was considerably cheaper than a dinner out! Each dinner was very tasty. I will probably use these recipes again. Rachel Ray uses different foods and flavors, so the dishes are unique.

If you would like to try the recipes out, I suggest that you check out the book from the library if they have it, or can order it. If I can find it used (perhaps e-bay or Amazon) I'm considering purchasing it, the recipes are that good!

*Stoup is what Rachel calls a thick soup...it's not soup, it's not stew. LOL

Image from Rachel Ray's website.

~Sherbet Goodness~

"Child's First Sock" by Nancy Bush from Knitting Vintage Socks.

One of my sisters gave me this Lorna’s Laces Shepherd sock yarn for Christmas. The colorway is aptly named “Sherbet”.

After Christmas, I ordered Nancy Bush's book, Knitting Vintage Socks , which took its sweet time getting to me! I wanted to make a special pair of socks using this yarn, so I held out for this book!

I picked the Child's First Sock pattern. The pattern was originally a child's sock pattern, but using modern yarn and needles, it is large enough for an adult. The whole lace idea is a new one for me, but I am enjoying it tremendously. After a few pattern repeats, everything just fell into place. At first I wasn’t sure if the yarn would hide the pattern or not, but it seems to be just fine! I do not like long socks, so I didn't do the amount of repeats that the pattern called for. I'm currently working on the heel.

Mmmmm...I love this sherbet! *Smiles*

~Do you see yourself?~

Do you see yourself represented on my stat map? It is accumulative, so no one should be left out!

Have a wonderful day!

~8:07 p.m.~

Most calendars say that spring begins on Wednesday the 21st this year. This is the first year I've heard of spring starting in the evening on a certain day. I'm sure it's all scientific and everything, so I'm not doubting it. It's probably been this way for ages? Or did "they" (whoever that would be! LOL) just start this up?

Well, anyway, spring will start sometime this evening for you. For me, it's 8:07.

Now, if only we'll get spring weather! That would be glorious!

~Couldn't be happier...~

I just got back home from taking all this:

to a thrift store.

That's eight kitchen trash bags, a box and a few larger items that were donated. I had a small pile waiting for my attention in the basement, but then I starting digging through drawers, closets, cabinets, etc. and came up with much more. It feels so good to get rid of things I don't have a need for any longer!

~Dining room Decoration~

My dining room walls had been bare long enough, and last Saturday I decided to do something about it.

I bought a scarf and hung our family pictures. I specifically wanted a scarf, rather than curtains or a valance, and I didn't want to spend a lot of money on it. I was rather taken aback at the cost of scarves though. They just seemed so expensive! I was even going to look at making my own. But, as I was looking at them in the store, I realized that the average scarf is six yards long. If I were to go to the fabric store and buy a nice home interiors fabric, it would have cost me the same or more. And then I would have had to hem 12 yards and the ends. All of a sudden, it didn't seem so expensive to me! I already had the decorative curtain rod, so that wasn't an added cost.



And then I wanted something decorative for the wall which I used to have our family pictures on. Eventually, I would like to get a side table for this wall. With that in mind, I wanted one decoration for the wall. I had a large clock in mind, and when I saw this clock at Hobby Lobby, and it was 1/2 off, I knew it would be perfect. When I brought it home, it suddenly became humongous! LOL But Kevin really liked it, and I like it too!



The table and chairs are new. When we got home from our Christmas vacation, we each had gotten Christmas bonuses from work! We used the extra money to get a much-needed dining room set. The chairs from our old set were falling apart, and the table was quite beat up from our many moves. It was a blessing to receive the extra money and be able to use it for our home!

~Smart Habits Saturday~

I'm joining Lara again with her Smart Habits Saturday!

First, an update:
***Bedmaking: going along great! I have just three more days, and I'll have reached my three month goal of getting my bed made each day!
***No sugar: again, going great! I didn't think I ate a lot of sugar to begin with, but this has been an adjustment for me. My body has stopped screaming "EAT SOMETHING SWEET" at me, so I know I'm going in the right direction!
***Drink only water and herbal teas: once again, all is good! This week I have wished for coffee though. With the time change and not going to bed at a decent time, I've been exhausted! But I made it through without coffee!
***Do the dishes and sweep the floors right after dinner. *Ahem* That's all I'll say. ;-)

So this week, I'm not adding any new habits to work on. I'm going to continue with the above.

Thanks for reading!

~What Goes Around, Comes Around~

...Or comes back "in".

My goodness, I think I'm getting sucked in! Not only have granny squares made a resurgence, but so have ripple afghans! And I'm actually thinking of making them both.

One can find them all over the craft blogs! But they aren't ugly, like their predecessors. Oh, no. These afghans are made of gorgeous colors and yarns...yarns like baby cashmerino. The word has "cash" in it; I'd better steer clear of that yarn! LOL

Jane at Yarnstorm made a beautiful ripple afghan, and Alicia at Posie Gets Cozy is working on a lovely granny square afghan.

And if that's not enough to convince you to make one for yourself, check out these stitch-alongs:
Granny-Along
The No-End-In-Sight Ripple-Along

~A thought for the day...~

For something to chew on today, stop by Sarah Joy's blog, and read her post "Give Me Back My Dirt!"