And Now I Shall Pull A Rabbit Out of My Hat...

photo credit: worldchaos81 via photo pin cc

I often feel like motherhood and marriage requires us to be magicians.  

Because don't you just love when your husband announces 
he's just invited 5 of his buddies to come hang out for the big game.
Requiring you, of course, to supply enough food for a small army, 
frantically clean the house and dust the entertainment center and 
anything else on the same side of the room as the TV, vacuum, 
wash mountains of dishes, relinquish half of your fridge to keep the beer cold, 
keep the children out of the living room and quiet 
so the men-folk can watch their sports, accept the fact that 
your husband will only utter 6 words to you all day 
"honey, can we get another round?", 
and forget any plans for crafting or relaxing you had for the day...

Or like last night, when at my 8:00 p.m. announcement that it was 
time for PJ's and toothbrushes 
elicited a pronouncement from my 8-year-old that she 
HAD to have a sheep costume for summer camp - in the morning.  

Roast Chicken with Summer Veggies

This chicken and vegetables makes a light, healthy but satisfying summer or fall dinner.

Humbly Featured Today at...

I have been humbly featured today by Sarah at Fortune Favors the Brave!  I linked up at Sarah's Pinterest Project Greatest Hits last week and she picked my Pinterest Pallet Garden as her personal favorite - Sarah, thank you so much!



I'll be posting new pictures later in the week so you can see how much the garden has grown.

June

July

Vacation Photo Roundup

Thought I'd share a photo roundup of all the ground we covered during my vacation.  :)

Summer's Bounty - Keep it Local

 My grandparents were farmers who eventually lost the farm to bankruptcy - thankfully after the last of the kids was about to leave home.  My step-dad also served as director for a local food bank for many years.  So I understand the importance the seasons and local buying can play on the ability to provide for a family.  My grandparents always planted a huge garden (still do!) and shared its bounty with the rest of the family and friends who could use it.  We also are fortunate to have a family-owned cider mill nearby.  When the weather was nice we often rode the horses to get some apples and have a donut and cider snack and sit by their pond.  Many friends and neighbors had extra produce they would put out by the road for free or a few quarters and we could provide them with a little extra spending cash while making good use of vegetables and fruit that would otherwise go to rot.

As these family farms were gobbled up by mega-farms and developers, it became more rare to find those who were growing their own food for local consumption.  Over the past 5 years or so, we have seen a resurgence of folks with backyard gardens and vegetable stands, folks who are canning and butchering for their own tables, farm markets popping up in each local community, and small businesses selling locally grown produce and meats.  I feel fortunate that my kids will get to learn these skills and how the food that goes into their bodies gets from the land to their mouths.  As well as how buying the products from our neighbors helps our community stay strong and grow.

When I was on vacation last week, our cider mill had finally opened for the season and I was able to go get my favorite guilty pleasure - their buttermilk cinnamon sugar cake donuts.  I also bought a bushel of sweet corn to freeze and 10 pounds of blueberries to bake with and freeze.  I know that the apples that would normally produce at least 75% of the business for this cider mill are virtually wiped out by the freeze and drought, so were the peaches and cherries.

My Well-Being - Inspiration and Motivation

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of My Well-Being Powered by Humana for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

I am always struggling with the motivation to get myself healthier - mentally and physically.  Juggling work, marriage, a preschooler, an elementary student, pets, property, finances, etc. it is so hard to find the motivation and willpower to take those positive steps to get out of that cycle of being overwhelmed and stressed and junk-eating.  When I heard about My Well-Being, I was curious about whether this was just another calorie-tracker, guilt-inducing health site.

I was pleasantly surprised to find right off the bat that a lot of the articles right from the main health and wellness page are on positive inspiration and motivation - like the poll asking what most inspires me.  The registration was fast and simple and led me right into a well-being assessment quiz.  The quiz is thought provoking about your positive or negative feelings in several areas of your life.  The bright, cheerful colors and photos on the site are very appealing.  Your well-being is broken into a couple of main areas - health, finances and relationships and under each category you can find articles and tools to help you work toward improving that area of your life.

Some New Things Around Here...

You might notice a few changes around here as I've been trying to clean things up.  I've been doing lots of link parties so I've moved all the link parties I join up with to a page all their own - notice the new tabs along the top of the page.

I've been accepted for ranking by Top Mommy Bloggers - so if you like what you see here please go vote for me.  I've added a button on the left for easy voting.  You can vote multiple times so please do!

I've started a new community over at BlogFrog to help facilitate discussion and sharing of ideas for projects and country favorites.  Its also a place I'd like my friends to share their wonderful Etsy shops and other businesses so please join me on BlogFrog!  I've posted the first question in the forum as I'm still looking for ideas on what to do with those blue glass beer bottles from a while back.

 

I posted my first Social Spark sponsored post for Famous Footwear - if you have back-to-school shopping or need a new pair of shoes for yourself (who doesn't!) be sure to see my original post for more about the 15% off + BOGO 1/2 off deal and print the special coupon.  It is not my intent to bother you with irrelevant offers and junk posts.  Rather I hope to be able to share with you offers that you can use in your daily life and businesses that I actually enjoy myself.  If you look back through previous posts and pages, you can see that I have shared with you businesses and products I love in return for nothing so why not earn a few bucks promoting the same products and companies.  All opinions and reviews will be my own and I promise you will not see a large number of these.  In fact, to keep the main page clean and make it easy for you to check out the deals, I have added a tab for the deals at the top of the page.  I hope you will take advantage of the great offers I share!

I hope you like the new changes and additions and find them useful.  I am open to all tips and suggestions on what would make your experience here better!  Thanks for

Peanut Butter Smores Cookies

I was recovering from my son's zoo field trip the other day and looking for a quick dessert I could take to my in-laws for dinner that night.  I happened to have the leftover makings for smores and practically nothing else in the house to readily eat since we had been gone to the cabin and I hadn't been able to make a grocery run yet.  So I dreamed up these little bite-sized treats.

Friday's Fences

Linking up at Friday's Fences with Life According to Jan and Jer!

Aloha Friday Blog Hop!

I haven't had much time to blog hop the past couple of weeks but I'm looking to get my party on today!  Come join me at Aloha Friday!