Devotions for Kids

I do my best to read a devotion with Chloe each  night.  I do this.....well for the obvious reasons, I want her to know Jesus and his LOVE for her and I want her to know there are answers for life's questions in the Bible.  Not to mention it is a good way to end the day. 

I like for her devotions to be short and simple, easy to understand and interesting.  Both of the books we have used recently fit the bill.

The Jesus Story Book is wonderful.  It  hits all the highlights and has very artistic, interesting illustrations.  Chloe enjoyed this book and it was even fun for me to read the stories I have heard a million times. 

Jesus Calling, this is our current devotion book.  For starters look at the adorable cover.  I love this book so far, it is written as if Jesus is calling and talking directly to Chloe, that fact tends to make her listen more intently.  It has even been good for me...a gentle reminder never hurts.

If you choose one of these devotional books for your kiddos...I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

see ya'll

Wednesday

Today was, well you already know....my day off.
Here are some of the highlights.....get ready now...the excitement these events may cause will be more than you can take.

 Free breakfast from Chic Fil A. We have the best Chic Fil A here and I LOVE free food.

 Cut up some calendars and mailed them to their lucky recipients.  You can get one too.  Head on over !!!

 ok so this next one I am not sure if this is good or bad.  While shopping Monday I discovered Panera Bread's Broccoli and Cheddar Soup, that I could take home and heat and eat...anytime I like.  Never mind that Panera Bread is 3 minutes from my home...this soup I can have anytime...midnight if I like.  It has to be so fattening...I'll try not to think about it.  It was my lunch and I loved every minute of it.  That is good soup.

 Oh how I love Footloose, I watched it while I ate.  There is no way the remake will live up to this jewel.  Kevin Bacon....sigh.....


Love in the mail, from a dear dear friend.  A friend I have never really met, but should  Crystal of the LOVELY Little Bit Funky thought of me when she saw these and I know why....I LOVE them and I adore her.  Thanks Crystal !!!

It was a great Wednesday.

See ya'll

Clever

Happy Wednesday it's my day off  so you can bet your bottom dollar I am in a thrift store somewhere. 
I really should go eat lunch with Chloe today...she is already requesting that I come every day,
I don't know about you but I can't stand the school cafeteria.
I LOVE the look on her face when I do show up for lunch and I love how happy she is that I have brought her a Happy Meal as opposed to her healthy lunch I packed for her, but man oh man...I can think of 100 things I would rather do than be in that lunchroom for 30 minutes.  Put me in the classroom any day baby...you can have that cafeteria.

While I am hopefully thrifting and not in the lunchroom at Chloe's school won't you please enjoy one of my Pinterest boards.

This is Clever and this photo, well it's just for you to enjoy.

see ya'll

Acorns

Last Fall I asked my Grandma to gather me some acorns, now that I type that I realize how lazy that was I should have went and gathered my own darn acorns....anyway...I'm sure she was happy to do.  She went out into her acorn covered yard and got me the biggest, prettiest, most perfect acorns you have ever seen.

Photo Credit HERE

What did I have planned for those acorns?  I was planning on glittering them, not the cap part but the round part.  Wouldn't that have been pretty...a big bowl full of glittered acorns ?

My bowl of acorns sat in the corner of my kitchen for a few days. When I eventually got around to working on the acorns I was shocked to see little white worms crawling in and around the bowl.  They were everywhere.  They had crawled out of the acorns.

I immediately called Grandma, she would know what to do.  What she told me though I was not so sure about. She told me to heat them in the oven and that would kill the worms.  Really ?  I didn't google this, I didn't call anyone else for a second opinion.  I knew baking those acorns and then glittering them with possible dead worms in them was not for me.   So I trashed all the acorns.  EVERYDAY of fall I regretted doing that.  I wanted glittered acorns in my home so bad with or without dead worms.

This year I will attempt having glittered acorns again, it is almost time. 
Go get some acorns this year and doing something fun with them...they are nature's fun free crafty goodie. 

Here is some inspiration:

Photo Credit HERE

Photo Credit HERE



Photo Credit HERE





If you doll up some acorns.....show me.

see ya'll

Giveaway

Dont' forget to enter this GIVEAWAY at My Third True Love.  It ends tomorrow !!!!

You can win one of my bird calendars in printable file form. What does that mean ???

You can print it as many times as you like...this is a WONDERFUL gift.  You can give this to your friends, neighbors and kid's teachers.  It never runs out, just keep printing.

You get to choose which design you want. The Vintage Bird Calendar above, or The Standing Bird Calendar below.

If you do not win you can buy your own here and here.

If you prefer not to print your own calendar there is always the pre-printed version and these are available in the shop now here and here

They are all being offered at a special introductory price now...who knows how long this will last...get yours now.

Good Luck.

see ya'll

HELLO....Hello....hello.......hello.........

ok....I mean...I know I am...I mean I was...a very slack blogger.  I am going to try to to better.  Somebody leave a comment for crying out loud...I am beginning to wonder if all the inactivity on this blog as of late has disabled the comments.....please....somebody talk to me so I know I'm good.  Just say hi.

Edited to add:   Thanks for talking back...I see you I see you.........you ladies are fabulous !!
thank ya

Three Keepers

Fall puts me in a cooking mood and Pinterest makes looking for new recipes simple and even fun.

I have three really good recipes to share with you, you should really try all of these...they are so so good.   Also, my 7 year old ate them all and if you have kids you know why these are now keepers.

Chicken Broccoli Supreme is divine.  Over the years I've tried a handful of broccoli casseroles, they were all mediocre.

Not this one it's scrumptious !!

I did omit the poppy seeds though, those were sure to turn Chloe off.

 Chicken pot pie.  I can not say enough about chicken pot pie.  I love this dish, I have had good ones and awesome ones and it's for certain I have never had a bad one. 
Chicken Pot Pie Crumble is a twist on a traditional crust type chicken pot pie.  The topping is made separately, you bake it in the oven before you put it on the dish.  The crumble topping is so so good, I was eating it as I was putting it on the pie.  If you love chicken pot pie be sure to give this one a try.
The only tweak I made was I added a bit of corn.

Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup.

Oh so good.  Creamy, filling and tasty.  I have a stove top version of this very same soup, this one is a crock pot version and I like it better.  The chicken cooking in the crock pot all day makes it so tender and delicious.  Great for chilly nights, eat with crusty bread or some crackers...yum.  I omitted the celery.

I hope you try and enjoy all of these delicious fall recipes.

se ya'll

My Week of Instagram

My week of Instagram

1. Freshly sharpened pencils for mega amounts of homework.
2. Rain...thankful for dirty cars and puddles and wet bottoms of my blue jean legs this week we needed it.
3. Homework time, sometimes it is easy going, sometimes it is a battle. This day was a battle.
4. Lunch at the What-A-Burger Drive In...one of my favorites.
5. Our granny weenie, Lei Lei, she loves to lay on the shag run in my studio. I caught her watching me work.
6. My adding machine at work Chloe thinks I am the coolest because I can use this baby without looking.  I rock !!
7. Vintage fabrics need I say more.
8. Cutest idea for a pumpkin.  Meow !!
9. Fun stools at Chloe's gym.

A Couple Fails and a Couple Scores

First things first this morning Chloe and I went to Nana's to deliver some frogs to MeMaw.

Weeks ago while at Nana's, Chloe discovered several frog families, or maybe they

were just one family, frogs do lay multiple eggs don't they? 

Either way she found a mess of frogs.

 At that time some of the frogs were contained in this bucket just so Chloe could

"play" with them.

They were black and slimy.  Chloe named them all and then she put them back where

she found them.

Out intentions today were to take a few to MeMaw (my grandma).

When she heard Chloe had found frogs she wanted 3 for her pond.

We were sad to find today that all the frogs had left for higher ground.

It has rained here, pretty much downpoured, for the last 4 days.

The little trough at the bottom of the hill was full of water

and I suppose they could not stay in that much water ???

Which makes me wonder what MeMaw thinks they were going to do in her pond ???

Mission aborted.

And what do you do when you can't deliver frogs, you make muffins, or cupcakes. 

I had seen this recipe  on Pinterest

Pumpkin muffins.

So simple all you do is mix a yellow cake mix and a can of pumpkin.

Too good to be true.

These were boring and tasteless.

If  not for the cream cheese icing they would have been tossed, I'm sure.

Mom suggested maybe they would be better with some pumpkin pie spices thrown in

I think she is probably right.

While at Target picking up muffin ingredients we picked up a cute hat

who needs frogs or cupcakes when you have this cute Minnie Mouse hat.

After much fun at Nana's we had to head home, remember

I had carpets to clean.

We had the most ominous skies today.

I know that looks like a tornado, but it was not....good thing too there

was not a ditch in sight.

Here she is, my sidekick for hours today, I do I do I do love my carpet cleaner though.

It's so easy to use and judging by the murky brown water it sucks up

it does a good job.  How on earth does carpet that is vacuumed weekly get so icky ?

While I cleaned I watch Licensed to Drive a good ole 80's flick, do you remember it ?

I was going to marry Corey Haim I am sure, well only if Kirk Cameron or anyone from Duran Duran

turned me down.

 Little Daisy LOVES the carpet cleaner.

The hum puts her right to sleep.

Lei Lei, the other dog, gets under the couch....the hum scares her to death.

Daisy stays very close by.

It was a lovely productive Saturday for us all.

Hoping yours was.

see ya'll

Weekend

Strike a pose and have a great weekend.

Hoping to make some fall-ish cupcakes and clean my carpet.....really I just want to rip all the carpet out and throw it on the sidewalk....truth be known.

Must give the 4-leggers a bath and think about some new "chores" for Chloe
she has outgrew getting the mail and checking the 4-legger's water bowl.

See ya'll

Don't forget to enter THIS GIVEAWAY !!!!

Aunt Della's Goodies

Since I have not been blogging regular, oh for a long time now,  I didn't get to share all of this with you, well.....no better time than now.

I was fortunate enough to inherit some beautiful goodies from a lady whom I was told was one of a kind.



My step father's Aunt Della passed away recently.
The family had went through all her belongings and decided they had gotten all the items
they wanted out of the house.

My mom was able to go look inside the house,  just to make sure there were no treasures left

behind. ( My mom has ample treasure knowledge, in other words she knows her "junk")

I am so glad she took a peek.
She got me box after box of wonderful vintage goodies.

Happy fabrics.  Lots of gingham.  Yards and scraps. Some pre-cut for projects.

A big box of patterns.  Too bad I can use a pattern to save my life.  Maybe it's time to learn.

Trim, trim and more trim.

 
This little darling here, while cute and hmmm...maybe a tad creepy, I really had no where to keep her, we gave her to another member of the family, but  not before I took her photo.  Aunt Della never had any kids I guess she bought this little lady for herself.  That's what I like to think anyway.

This may have been my favorite box to go through.  I love notions. 
Everything so neat and organized.  I will not have to shop in a notions section of any craft store for a long time.

Aunt Della, I am having a good time with all of your goodies and when I use them I think of  you even though I didn't know you I heard about you quite often.   I am taking great care of all your girly crafty things....don't you worry.

How did we get here and who is this ?

Cutting for Stone.
This is the book I am reading right now.
I read the reviews on Amazon, oodles of people liked it.
I'm not enjoying it, I really want to quit.
I hate to quit a book, especially one I paid for.
It is just not drawing me in, I find myself daydreaming and reading at the same time
and you  know what them means....all of a sudden you are in a different country reading about
a new character asking yourself when did we get here...and who is this?

Have you read Cutting for Stone?
Did it take a while to get going for you?

I really want to keep reading....convince me.

now...have a happy day

April

Giveaway !!!

Hi...would you like to win one of my calendars ?

Head over to this cute lil' blog named  My Third True Love

 and you can enter to win

 a calendar of your very own.

Good luck and if you win....Enjoy !!

On The Right

On the right...over there....the ole' blog got  new buttons.
Now you can vist my facebook fan page....great place to get new...information and secret facebook only sales.
Browse my pinterest boards....well if you can't stand some serious eye candy maybe you should not venture there.
Like tweeting...I do...visit my twitter.  It's a good place to see goodies hitting the shop instantly.

Enjoy

Saturday Ohhh..Saturday

Everyone at my house is home today....all day.
Nothing really to accomplish just piddling around the house and GETTING ON EACH OTHERS NERVES.
Some days are just like that...nothing seems to suit everyone at the same time.

At least my precious doggies are getting along today.

Look at Daisy ( the black one) ..Mr. JaneSays said she looks like the Emperor from Star Wars...I'd have to agree.

These are their night time sleepy blankets, they have a whole different set downstairs for daytime snoozing.

Yes that's art that needs to make it to my wall...procrastination is my forte.

To ease the tension a little Chloe and I walked the dogs.

I'm a really bad neighborhood person..I NEVER pick up my dog's poo with a baggie ... NEVER.

A couple of reasons.

1. That is just nasty..it's warm...and Ohh...ugh..can't even talk about it.

2. Well..dogs are supposed to go on the ground...I won't let them poo right in your front yard but elsewhere, well that should be ok.

Well today I thought I would try it....ha....try it...not like trying a new ice cream flavor or a different way to the beach...try to pick up my dog's poo.

First I tried to get them to poo before we left our yard....no go.

3 minutes into the walk Daisy had to go.

I got my baggie ready.

Handed it to Chloe....oh yea...I chickened out...but Chloe was a poo picking up champ.

Just one more reason to LOVE that girl of mine.

This is just my neighbors fuzzy grassy stuff, it caught my eye as we rounded the corner returning from our walk, on which I once again did not pick up dog poo, but my little one did.

Now...don't we all feel better...let's get on with this day..only 8  more hours.