Rambling thoughts...

I got my house caught up today! Hooray! I had a friend come and visit me today, she just got home form her mission for our church. She had been in California. She came and my house was a mess, but if she would have come 1 hour earlier, it would have been messier. I hate people to see my house messy! But for the first time in a long time, I just let it go, I did not care what anyone thought. Anyways, we talked for over two hours and then she had to leave because it was lunch and nap time. I have never known a return missionary before, but she is so scared to do anything that she could not do on her mission. Our missionaries have always held babies, but she said you are not suppose to hold babies and she felt like she was doing something wrong, when she held Neil. I am really glad she came because I have missed her. We have always been close, but I am quite a bit older than her. I was her Seminary teacher. Anyways, my house is clean even my bathroom!!!! Do you know how much better that makes me feel? Now I really need to start purging. Why is that so hard? I have too much stuff. I guess 4 kids has made me have too much. So, I got to start doing this before we move, which will probably be at least a year. Dh has a year left and then we are going to go where the job is. I do not know if I have mentioned that on here before or not. Anyway I got to go play this game "What's in my pocket, I am being summoned! lol! Have a good evening.

Menu Plan Monday- Week of July 30th

Here is what we are eating!
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1. Tacos, Spanish Rice
2. Lasagna, garlic toast
3. Salisbury Steaks, mashed potatoes, green beans, biscuits
4. Fried Chicken, baked potatoes, green beans, corn, biscuits
5. Alice Springs Chicken, green beans, baked potatoes
6. Spaghetti, garlic bread
7. Roast, carrots, potatoes, rolls
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Desserts/snacks:
1 Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
2. Oh Henry Bars
3. Chex Party Mix
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For more menu ideas go to Organizing junkie.

Isn't this neat!

I won this in the Dog Days of Summer Bloggy Giveaways from Paula at The Gathering of Friends. This is a vintage apron made by her neighbor in the 1950's or so. Neato!

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I also won Rachael Ray Express Lane Meals Recipe book from Heather at The Fat Bottomed Girl! I really like Rachael Ray and I am really excited about this! She must have read my blog because she said the book was a fit for me.
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I just want to say thank you to everyone who had a contest. This was so much fun and I want to thank Shannon for hosting, what a neat idea!

Freezer Food Friday-Sour Cream Chocolate Muffins

Sour Cream Chocolate Muffins
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5 ounces Semisweet Chocolate
2 Baking Chocolate Squares
1/3 cup Butter or Margarine
3/4 cup Sour Cream
2/3 cup Brown Sugar - packed
1/4 cup Light Corn Syrup
1 Egg
2 teaspoons Vanilla
1 1/2 cups Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/2 cup Chocolate Chips - semi-sweet or milk
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Mix semisweet chocolate, baking chocolate, and butter together, then melt carefully in microwave or over simmering water in double boiler. Allow to cool to lukewarm. Mix sour cream, sugar, corn syrup, egg and vanilla. Blend with melted chocolates. Blend flour, soda and salt, then add to the chocolate mixture and blend very well. Add the chocolate chips. Pour batter into 12 paper-lined or greased muffin tins. Bake in preheated 400 degree F oven for about 20 minutes. Remove from muffin tins and allow to cool on wire racks.(When freezing, cool completely, then freeze in individual baggies, removing as much air as possible from each baggie before sealing.
Yield: 12 muffins
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For more Friday Freezer Recipes go to A Mums Food Blog.
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My other Friday Food Freezer Recipes
Cheese Cookies
Italian Chicken Roll-ups
Magnificent Casserole
Sherbet Cookie Delight
Breakfast Bake
Raisin Drop Biscuits
Pizza Pasta Casserole
Spaghetti Casserole
Frozen Peanut Butter Pies
Twice Baked Potatoes
Ice Cream Bucket Lasagna
Freezer Apple Pies

Tortilla Roll-ups

Tortilla Roll-ups

16 oz cream cheese(softened)

16 oz sour cream

5 green onions, chopped

1(4 oz.) can chopped green chilies

1 cup sharp cheddar cheese

1 can black olives, chopped

10-12 large flour tortillas

jar of salsa or picante

With electric mixer, mix cream cheese till fluffy. Mix in sour cream. Stir in other ingredients. Spread layer of mixture on each tortilla and roll-up. Wrap the tortilla in a paper towel and refrigerate until ready to use. At serving time, remove paper towels from rolls and cut into 1 inch pieces. Serve with salsa.

For more great healthy recipes, go to Overwhelmed With Joy.

The Winner is....

So, are you ready for the winnner. I used this number generator to pick the winner. I numbered everyone and the number it generated was 45 which is trista. Congratulations! Please e-mail me your address so I can mail out the Just For Kids Cookbook! Again Congratulations!!

Summer Reading Book 10

This is the 10th book that I have read this summer. This time I picked Waiting for Summer's Return by Kim Vogel Sawyer. This is the first book that I have read by this author and I really think I am leaning toward the christian authors. I have not read one that I have not liked. This book was so good. The book is about a woman named Summer. Summer and her husband and 4 children were traveling to live in Oklahoma in a covered wagon, along the way, her family gets real sick with typhoid. She loses all of her family and all her things are burned so the disease will not spread. Summer ends up in Kansas in a Mennonite community who fears outsiders. She has nobldy to go live with her parents are dead and her husbands parents disowed them after they decided to move to Oklahoma. Peter a widower in the community decides to ask the lady to move in with him and tutor his son who can not go to school because of an injury and Peter has a limited use of English so he can not help him. Summer fits in really well, not without problems from the community. The rest of the book talks about how Summer has to leave and everybody, especially Peter and his son wait for her return. This was an excellent book, so easy to read and get glued to! lol! I have however had nightmares about losing my family. That would be so hard, this woman really went through a lot! Overall a GREAT read! I plan to read some more of her works!

Tasty Thursday-Sandwich Edition

I do not really make a lot of sandwiches, other than grilled cheese. Lol! So, I thought I would share something a little different. My kids love these! We make our own Chocolate chip cookies.

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Kooky Cookie Sandwiches
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2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
2 teaspoons milk
Several drops peppermint, almond, lemon, or orange extract or flavoring
2 to 3 teaspoons small, multicolored decorative candies
12 purchased chocolate chip or other cookies, about 2-1/2 inches in diameter (see my recipe above)
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1. In a small mixing bowl, beat together butter and one-half of the powdered sugar.
2. Beat in milk, extract, and remaining powdered sugar.
3. Spread on the bottom of 6 of the cookies. Top with the remaining cookies.
4. Wrap and chill. Makes 6.
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Trista over at The Pumkin Patch is the host of Tasty Thursday, head on over to her blog to see more tasty side recipes.

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My other Tasty Thursday Recipes

Beverage Edition

Crockpot Chicken Dinner

Orange Ice Cream Pie

Low-fat Banana Pudding

Broccoli Raisin Salad

Kid pleasing edition

Breakfast Edition

Banana Boats for the Grill

Chinese Chicken Salad

Baked Mac and Cheese

Oh Henry Bars

Chocolate Souffle

Mild Tex Mex Beef

Eggplant Jambalaya

Sweet and Sour Chicken (or pork or beef)

Creamy Peanut Butter Pie

Giveaways, blessings and random thoughts

Wow! I cannot believe that I have gotten 116 comments on my giveaway for the Dog Days of Summer Bloggy giveaway! I have registered for so many things that I really want! Like the new Harry Potter Book, and some other new books by authors I like, some fun stuff and lots lots more. There are over 300 giveaways to sign up for. As most of you know, we went to the library this summer and they gave away Walmart cards at every event. I have 4 kids and every kid got one card and two of them got two cards. That was $150 for my family in Walmart gift cards. The workers at the library told me that I should play the lottery. Well, I do not play the lottery, but I do believe that winning those cards was a blessing from higher up. We got the kids stuff, but we also bought a lot of diapers with that money, we would not have been able to buy them otherwise. So, maybe I will win some stuff through this giveaway that will help me?
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I have not written a lot in the past two weeks. I have been feeling really down and not really doing much of anything. I am feeling pretty good for now. I just hope I do not fall back into that down feeling. I try (too) so hard to be a perfect mother and it just not work. I try to do it all and then give up when I can not. I have a lot on me right now, so it might just be stress. But today I feel pretty good, even though it is a dark morning and thundering out! Hope you all have a nice day!

Summer Reading Review Book #9

The 9th book that I have read on my summer reading plan is Killer Blonde by Laura Levine and is the thord book in this series. Easy good reading murder mystery. This one will leave you guessing to the end. This time freelance writer Jaine takes a jo b working as a ghost writer for the rich SueEllen. Jaine thinks this will be so easy until she starts working for SueEllen who is mean to all, especially her step daughter, Heidi. Jaine decides to quit, ut instead goes in and finds SueEllen dead in her bath tub that has a hair dryer in it. The police suspet Heidi and Jaine decides once again to do some detective work to find the real murder. You will be left guessing until the end! I enjoyed it.

I have now made a new list because the only book left is Anne's House of Dreams and I can not find it.

Dog Days of Summer Bloggy Giveaway-A cookbook

****Contest closed!**** Winner will be announced sometime Friday!

Today is the day for the Dog Days of Summer Bloggy Giveaway hosted
by Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer. Most of you who know me on here know that I love to cook and do things with my kids so I am going to put those two things together and give away a prize to fit that. Here is the prize I am giving away. Just for Kids Cookbook. Lots of fun recipes to try with your kids or that your kids will just love!

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This is open to USA and Canada residents only. Just leave a comment to enter and tell me what your favorite snack is to make with your kids. (it can be easy.) You do not need a blog to enter, but make sure to leave an email address for me to reach you if you win. The drawing will be held Friday. So go check out all the great giveaways at Rocks in My Dryer!

Menu Plan Monday- July 23-29

Here are the meals we are having this week:
1. Tacos
2. Sweet and Sour Chicken, Oriental Rice
3. Spaghetti Pie (The way we love spagetti now), garlic bread
4. Homemade Pizza
5. Lazagna, garlic bread
6. Leftover Lazagna, garlic bread
7. Roast, carrots, potatoes, biscuits
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For more menu ideas go to Organizing junkie.

We have a winner

Before I announce the winner, I want to remind you that the winner has about one month to read the book and then they need to "Pay it Forward." I had my 7 year old draw the winner and I am pleased to announce that the winner of Uncharted by Angela Hunt is Overwhelmed! from Overwhelmed With Joy ! I had to explain to him what the word overwhelmed meant and then he wanted to know if anyone else was named Overwhelmed. It was really cute! lol! I had to explain to him about the computer and how some people have different names. With that said, Congratulations, Overwhelmed! Please e-mail me your address. My email is in my profile.

Pay it forward Book Exchange- Sticky

If you are looking for my Pay it Forward Book Exchange got to this post. I am passing on the book Uncharted by Angela Hunt

Raisin Pound Cake

I made this and it is sooo good!

Raisin Pound Cake(from Taste of Home)

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1 package (18-1/4 ounces) yellow cake mix

1 cup applesauce

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 cup raisins

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In a mixing bowl, combine dry cake mix, applesauce, water, oil, eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Stir in raisins. Pour into two greased 8-in. x 4-in. x 2-in. loaf pans. Bake at 350° for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 5-10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.Yield: 2 loaves.

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For more great healthy recipes, go to Overwhelmed With Joy.

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Also, today is the last day to enter my Pay it Forward Book Exchange. For details go here!

Family Fridays-Homemade Butter

Homemade Butter

1/3 cup whipping cream

1 small jar, (we used baby food jars)

Put whipping cream in jar and shake until the cream is soft ball. Pour off milk, take out butter, stir until butter is firm, salt and eat with biscuits! Yummy!

Note: you have to shake hard, but it does work!

For more Family Fridays ideas go to Monkey Kisses

Summer Reading 2007 Book # 8

This is the second book in the Jaine Austin series, Last Writes. In this book Jaine who is a freelance writer and works out of her home gets a job writing for a sitcom with her friend. Someone ends up getting poisioned during the final filming. Jaine's friend is accused of the murder and Jaine works to find the real killer. This book will keep you guessing to the end. There are just so many people who could have done it! I liked this book.

New Reading List

Well, I am reading the last book on my list and I am almost finished with it. There is one book on there that I can not find, so I need to make a list of some new books to read. Here are some on my list that I want to read.
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Pat of Silver Bush- L.M. Montgomery
Clay's Quilt- Silas House
The Coal Tatto- Silas House
One Tuesday Morning- Karen Kingsbury (Finished August 6th)
Beyond Tuesday Morning- Karen Kingsbury
Hatchet- Gary Paulsen
Waiting for Summer's Return- Kim Vogel Sawyer (Finished July 26)
Death of a Garage Sale Newbie-Sharon Dunn
Bygones-Kim Vogel Sawyer (Finished August 12)
Where Willows Grow-Kim Vogel Sawyer (Finished August 9th)

Tasty Thursday-Beverages

This week for Tasty Thursday Trista has asked for beverages. I have already gave away my cool and refreshing beverage recipes (Fruit Punch and Summer Breezes Smoothies), so here is my wintertime HOT recipe. Enjoy!

Steaming Hot Holiday Punch
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3 cups apple juice
3 cups orange juice
6 cups cranberry juice
3/4 cup maple syrup
2 tsp powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp cloves
3/4 tsp nutmeg
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Combine all ingredients in a large, heavy pan. Bring to a boil and turn to simmer for a few minutes. Put punch in a crock pot on low to keep warm.Note: This is one of my favorite holiday recipes and we make it every year.
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When I went on a trip to Rhode Island with work, we went to a cooking school held by Johnson and Wales and this was a recipe that I have used every since, it will male your house smell wonderful!
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Trista over at The Pumkin Patch is the host of Tasty Thursday, head on over to her blog to see more tasty side recipes.
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My other Tasty Thursday Recipes
Crockpot Chicken Dinner
Orange Ice Cream Pie
Low-fat Banana Pudding
Broccoli Raisin Salad
Kid pleasing edition
Breakfast Edition
Banana Boats for the Grill
Chinese Chicken Salad
Baked Mac and Cheese
Oh Henry Bars
Chocolate Souffle
Mild Tex Mex Beef
Eggplant Jambalaya
Sweet and Sour Chicken (or pork or beef)
Creamy Peanut Butter Pie

Dog Days of Summer Bloggy Giveaway

Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer is hosting a carnival called the Dog Days of Summer Bloggy Giveaway. Bloggers will be posting at her site about giveaways they are hosting on her on their blog, so you could register for tons of prizes, all FREE! I plan to give something away and here is my current giveaway that will be given away on Saturday. Here are the official rules!
Obviously, you can hold whatever kind of giveaway you want at your own site. But if you're going to link up with this one, I ask that you follow these simple guidelines:
1. Go "live" with your giveaway anytime during the week of July 23. Leave a link directly to your giveaway post at the Mr. Linky here--it will be going up at 8 am CST on Monday, July 23rd. Also, and this is important, you must link directly to your giveaway post in my Mr. Linky. Here's how you do it.
2. The post containing the links to all the participants will be at the top of my blog all week. The idea being, of course, to direct as much traffic and comments your way as possible! ;)
3. Open your post for comments, and you can draw a winner from the comments you receive.
4. Please, this is a giveaway, not a SALE. Items offered for sale instead of for free will be removed from the list.
5. Please hold your drawing on Friday, July 27 (it doesn't matter what time of day--that's up to you). I will host a different Mr. Linky here that day so you can link over to your post announcing the winner, just to make it easier for everyone.
6. Please have your contest open to bloggers and non-bloggers alike.
7. Offer whatever you want as a giveaway, but obviously, only family-friendly items. I reserve the right to delete anyone from the link list that violates this.
8. As part of your giveaway, please cover the cost of shipping to your winner.
9. While I expect that majority of participants will be from the U.S., please note there will be several international participants as well. I leave it up to you whether you want to open up your contest to international participants--the shipping, of course, would be more expensive. Please be upfront about this in your giveaway post.
10. Let your readers know that you're playing along! Here's the code for the button:

Works for me Wednesday-Fried Banana Peppers

My mom brought me a whole bunch of banana peppers fresh from the garden. I thought what in the world am I going to do with all of those! Then, I remember as a child my grandparents would make these every summer, Fried Banana Peppers. My dh cooked a bunch, oh that wonderful taste brought back memories. Here is the recipe he used:
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Fried Banana Peppers
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8 banana peppers
1 ½ cups flour
1 ½ cups milk
½ cup crushed saltine crackers
3 cups vegetable oil
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Split the peppers lengthwise and remove the seeds. Place the milk, flour and crackers in 3 separate bowls. Move ½ cup flour and mix with the crackers. Dip the peppers in the milk bowl and flour bowl and set aside for 10 minutes. Redip peppers in milk bowl and then bread with flour and cracker mixture. Set aside again for 10 minutes. Heat the vegetable oil in a large pan and drop the peppers in. Cook until golden brown. Remove, drain on paper towels, and serve warm.
Yield: 4 servings

P.S. Now I know these are not the healthiest things, but I only have eaten them in the summer and they are oh so good! And maybe these are just a Southern thing, but they are oh so yummy!
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We also made homemade banana ice cream every summer too.
What summer food memories do you have as a kid?

What other kinds of things do you do with your bananna peppers?

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For more great WFMW post see Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer.

Summer Reading Book #7 This Pen for Hire

This is the 7th book I have read on my summer reading plan. I wanted to read this book because I had read two others in the series, Shoes to Die For and The PMS Murders. I enjoy books that are series about a character and what some call comfort mysteries. This is a real light murder mystery with a woman sleuth, Jaine Austen. This is the first book in the series, This Pen for Hire. In this book, Jaine has been running a writing business from her house called, This Pen for Hire. She writes resumes, etc. She gets a client who wants her to write a love letter and the guy calls back to tell Jaine that it got him a date for Valentine's Day, even though they lied a little in the letter that was written. The guy ends up being accused of murder and Jaine works to find the real killer. I enjoyed the book, but this one had a little more sexual humor than I enjoy in my books. I really think it would have still been a good story without that kind of stuff. I will probably finish the series, since I started at the end, it has two more books.

5 question meme

Marcia has tagged me for the 5 question meme. After I answer her 5 questions, I tag some people and ask them 5 new questions and then they answer my questions and ask 5 different questions. Okay if that made since, here we go.
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1. What do you do if someone pushes into a queue in front of you?
I do not know if I understand this question, but if a queue is a line, then I would get upset and probably say something to the person.
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2. If you had 6 months to live, what would you most regret not doing?
This is hard. I feel like I have accomplished a lot of things in my life, but I would have to say I would regret not getting to see my kids grow up and a chance to experience grandchildren!
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3. What is your favourite hot drink and why?
I really do not drink a lot of "hot" drinks, but on a really cold day, I LOVE a cup of hot chocolate. It makes me feel so good inside, that is the only way I can explain it.
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4. What do you do if you already have a plan and you then get invited to a "better" event?
I got to the better plan and ditch the old plan! Unless the first one was really important and I had to go, then I would keep my first plan.
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5. What do you most value? What is most important to you? You're not allowed to say God or any other people!
I guess if I can't say God, then I would have to say "family", technically that is a person or people, but my family comes first in my life and I put a lot of value in raising my family and teaching my children!
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So here are my 5 questions:
1. What is your greatest accomplishment in life so far?
2. What is your biggest pet peeve?
3. If you went to a yard sale what would you most likely be looking for and buy?
4. What is the greatest deal you have ever gotten shopping?
5. Who is your best friend and what qualities do they posses that make them your best friend?
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Here are the people I tag:
Kara, Michelle, and Jenn

Another book givaway!

Vail from Thoughts of a Wannabe is giving away the book Death of a Garage Sale Newbie by Sharon Dunn. The only catch is that she has to have 10 different people wanting the book before she gives it away. She is giving it away on August 3rd! So go here to enter.

Time Travel Tuesday-Summer Camps

Today we are looking back at camp memories. I went to 4-H every year as a child. I hated it and all I wanted to be was teen leader. I got to be a teen leader several years in high school. When I graduated from high school, I applied to be on the camp staff, but I did not get selected, so I ended up working at a Girl Scout Camp, Camp Judy Layne. Wow! this sure was different from 4-H camp! We lived in platform tents all summer and had a latrine(try cleaning one of those, yuck!) and cold showers(even yuckier!)! We went hiking LOTS! I enjoyed it but it was really not something I wanted to spend a whole summer doing again so the next summer, I applied for 4-H camp again and got hired as crafts instructor at one of the 4-H camps in my state. I worked there for two years. The next two years, I worked at another 4-H camp again as crafts instructor. I learned so much working at a camp. I think it was a life changing adventure for me. I would never give up those years working at a camp. You really learn how to get along with people that are so different than you! (Believe me you were not there for the money, $650 a month for LOTS of hours!, but meals and boarding was included in your salary!) Some of my memories include boating races, free swim, teaching my camp crafts, special events (snake man came and brought really bad snakes, bird lady came and brought birds that were endangered, we got to go in a helium balloon, just to name a few), camp songs that will forever be planted in my head. The biggest memory that I have working at camp was when the kids had left and the staff was going back to there cabins and it had been so calm and all of a sudden a storm brewed in. Another staff member had pushed us girls in the cabin, I remember looking back out there and a huge tree would have hit us. It was a tornado. All the power lines were down, lots of trees down all over camp, including a huge well known tree to the camp. We had a tornado, it was over really fast, but the camp was closed the next week and the staff stayed, with no electricity and cleaned up. Talk about some HARD work. I will never forget that storm! After I graduated from college, I got a job in Extension (which 4-h is part of) and attended camp as an extension agent for many years. I really miss camp and will probably go back as an adult leader when my kids get old enough!
To read about more camp memories, go to My Life as Annie.

Lorie's To-Do

Well it is Monday again. It has been a while since I have written a Lorie's To-Do. I have been so busy all summer that I have not really made time for it. I pretty much do not watch anything at all on tv anymore. The kids watch some shows, but as for me I really do not have any "favorite" shows that come on right now. The library summer program ended last week, so I am back to having to make my own lunches, again. We have one more day, Wednesday, which is the awards day and all of my kids will be getting t shirts. I can't believe that school will be starting back in 3 weeks!! The summer just flew by! If you have not had a chance, check out my Pay it forward Book Exchange. I am giving away a great book that was given to me by the author, Angela Hunt. Hope everyone has a great day! I am getting my house back in order now that I am staying here most days now!

Another Pay it Forward Book Exchange!

Quiet Time with Caryoln is hosting a Pay it Forward Book exchange. The book she is giving away is Beyond Tuesday Morning by Karen Kingsbury. I have read several of Karen's book and have loved them all. So, go over and check out this contest.

Menu Plan Monday July 16-22

Here are my meals for the week:

Swiss Chicken Bake

Salisbury Steak, green beans, mashed potatoes

Lasagna, garlic bread, salad

Spaghetti Pie, garlic bread, salad

Fried Chicken, soup beans, kraut, cornbread, mac and tomatoes

Turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, rolls

Eating at a church function one day, I am bringing Brown Sugar Pound Cake.

For more menu ideas go to Organizing junkie.

*****Also: Don't forget to check out my Pay it Forward Book Exchange post. I am giving away Uncharted by Angela Hunt, you must sign up by Friday!******

Pay It Forward Book Exchange

I got this book from the Spring Reading Thing giveaway. The author sent this book to me and it is even a signed copy! The message in this book is so great that I am going to give it to someone else to enjoy and hopefully through the exchange, the book will be read by many. Overwhelmed with Joy is the creator of the Pay It Forward Book Exchange. The book is Uncharted by Angela Hunt. Here are the rules of the exchange.

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1. On your blog, write a post about this giveaway, using the "Pay It Forward" button, and then link back to my post and Overwhelmed With Joy as the creator of the Pay it Forward Book Exchange. I am sure your readers would appreciate learning about the chance to win a book. You must complete this step to be put in the drawing!

2. Next you must leave a comment on this post with a way to get a hold of you should you win. In your comment, tell me if you have ever read any of this author's other books and if not why you want to read it. This is just because I am curious! You must do this by July 20th at 10 pm EST. The winner will be announced on Saturday July 21st.

3. After you have had time to read the book(say a month or so), you will host a Pay it Forward Book Exchange on your blog featuring this book and pay it forward to someone else!

Good Luck!

Also, I wrote a review of the book in this post.

Summer Reading Book #6

Well, most of you that know me, know I love to read. I like books that are easy to read and don't take a lot of thinking. I use reading as a stress reliever. Well, recently, I participated in the Spring Reading Thing and several christian authors donated books. I got a book from Angela Hunt, Uncharted. I had heard good things about this author and was excited to read this book. I had read some things about the book that scared me. Many said that this was really different from the writing she usually does, but I decided to read it anyways. And I am really glad that I did! Even though this book is deep, it really has a good meaning. The beginning of the book was really hard to understand because the author was trying to set up the story by telling you about the different characters, but once I got through that, I really enjoyed this book. The story is about 6 friends who met in college and were best friends, but life had taken them other places. One of the friends, David, tries to get the group together every year to do a service project, but their lives are always too busy. David is in a bad accident and dies. His funeral brings the group back together. They all decide to go on the trip that David had invited them on to honor his memory and on their way there, their ship wrecks and they get stranded in a very strange place. The rest of the book talks about their time on the island and the strange things that happen there. The author says this story is a parable about parables in the Bible, the parable of the sower and the parable of the unjust servant. So, if this is a parable, I think you are suppose to learn something from a parable. Here is what I learned from this book. I need to use the talents that my Heavenly Father has given me for the good of others. I kind of hear the word service coming next. I know that right now finding the time to serve others is hard as a mother of 4 especially with 3 ,two and under, but I need to do better to share my talents. The other thing that the book taught me is that I need to read my scriptures more! The characters in the book sold a book called Happily Ever After. The author describes the book as a small blue book, kind of brought to mind another book that I feel is important in my life. Anyways, this book gave the characters knowledge and even though they sold it, they did not live there lives by the teachings in that book. This story also taught me how precious our life here really is and makes me think about what the plan of our Heavenly Father is in sending us here. We are being tested and we are going to one day be judged. So, that is what I learned from this book, I am trying to not give away a whole lot of details of the book, but still tell you what the book meant to me. The meaning in this book is so great that I am going to participate in the Pay it Forward Book Exchange and host a giveaway for this book. This book as I said was given to me by the author and she even signed it. Still, I am willing to give it away so lots of other people can read it. I know I said that I don't like to read deep stuff, but I really enjoyed this book and plan to read some more of her stuff. I am putting The Elevator on my list to read soon. My library, actually there are two that I visit, does not have any of her books. Right now, I am not buying any books because our budget is so tight so I am going to see if they will order some of her books for me. I think Anglea Hunt is one of my new favorite authors!

Microwave Madness!

You should take a look at this website, it shows you what happens when you put certain things in the microwave, too funny. I thought the christmas lights was kind of neat and others on there are pretty funny too. I found this at Angie's blog. I knew I just had to share it with you all!

Blogger?

I have been blogging on blogger for almost a year. I have had to learn as I go and there are still a lot of things I do not know. So, if anyone knows the answers to any of these questions, I would love the answers.

1. How do you make things stick to the top of your posts?

2. Pictures are a pain for me. Is there any way to get them where you want them without having to mannual move them, as they always go to the top.

3. How do you get spaces between your sentences etc. And how come blogger just decides sometimes to double space everything. Is there something I am doing to make it double space? How do you make stuff double space?

Hope someone can answer these questions, as I still feel a little lost!

Have a good day!

Favorite Ingredients Friday- Healthy Food Edition

Today the theme for Favorite Ingredients Friday is healthy food. My recipe is a smoothie. There is no added sugar in this smoothie except the natural sugar found in the fruits and the yogurt is low fat. Enjoy!
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Summer Breezes Smoothies
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1 cup plain low-fat yogurt
4 strawberries
1 cup crushed pineapple
1 banana
6 ice cubes
1 tsp. vanilla
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Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend. Serve immediately. Enjoy!
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For more great healthy recipes, go to Overwhelmed With Joy.
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P.S. Don't forget to checkout her pay it forward book exchange and five other people are also giving away books in the Pay it forward exchange, so go check it out. There may be something you might want to read.

Family Fridays-Swimming

Nicholas won a gift card from the library and I thought he would go and buy a toy of some kind. Great, I thought more toys for my house. Well, I was shocked when he bought a pool and swimming trunks. The kids have really been enjoying the pool!











This is Neil, he loves it outside. I had put him in the pool for a while, but he was freezing so I changed him and put his bug cover over him and he was happy!

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For more Family Fridays ideas go to Monkey Kisses.