Thankful Thursdays {God Knows Me}

I am thankful that I have a Father in Heaven that knows me. He knows my needs and wants and my desires. He knows what I need even before I know. source This past Sunday I got a phone call right after church from a man in my church wanting to know if a high priest  could come visit our family. They are going to be visiting several families in the upcoming months and they chose ours to be one of the first. Sure I said. That would be fine. In our church, this member of the high priest group is a member of what we call the Stake Presidency. He is a very kind and noble man. Monday came and went and it was not good. I found myself feeling quite anxious and frazzled and overwhelmed with the demands of my job and life in general. I was so exhausted that night that I just got home, hugged my children and husband and wept. Tuesday I stayed home and rested. I figured my brain is still trying to get acclimated to the stresses of the world and life in general. Since my stroke, I find it difficul

Read more »

Mantle-Mania Autumn Edition

This past weekend fall decorating was in full swing over at our house. I dug out all my fall decorating bags from our attic and started sorting thru them. I used my Hobby Lobby coupons to get in on some deals and bought one of those fake carvable pumpkins so I don't have to keep buying the real ones year after year. I figured I'd save myself some money and save myself the trouble and stench of throwing out the real ones. I decided to make it real simple and clean reusing many of the items I currently own. One of my favorite pieces is the white wooden shutter you've seen me use over and over as a Christmas door hanger and this past Summer in my beachy mantle vignette. I bought it for $5 at my go-to antiques store in downtown McKinney. This time I simply glued some colorful leaves to it with my Mighty Mendit. I love the simplicity of the white and rust colored touches with splashes of brown from my favorite clock. I also took some of my old books, printed out some of my favo

Read more »

Super Saturdays {Sharkarosa Ranch}

I've heard good things about this place, so several weeks ago when a Groupon deal landed in my inbox I jumped at it. I bought the deal and off we went to the Sharkarosa Ranch in Pilot Point, Texas. We were really excited but bummed out that the hubster couldn't go with us :( So it was just me and the two boys. We stopped by at our favorite Mexican place, Ernesto's in Pilot Point for brunch then drove down the road to see the animals.  As soon as we walked in I was smitten with her. I took out the camera and began snapping away. She noticed me and started galloping towards me. It seemed as if she was posing for me. I love her! Just look at that face! {My little guy's feet} We also got to ride in a tram and get up close to the animals such as some gorgeous horses, camels and an assortment of other creatures!  My little guy was so happy to be so close to all these cool animals! This pot bellied pig was so cute but the animals in this corral, we coul

Read more »

Foodie Fridays {Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites}

The minute I saw these here I knew I HAD to make them. I love me some peanut butter. And chocolate, well, you've just gots to be crazzy not to make 'em! And did I mention they are super EZ! This chick loves EZ :) I changed a couple of things in the recipe and made it non-dairy. Here's what you'll need: Ingredients 1 cup creamy peanut butter 2 tbsp margarine (at room temp) 1/2 cup powdered sugar 3/4 cup brown sugar 1 bag 9.25 oz mini pretzels 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (or more if you like) Directions Combine peanut butter and softened margarine in a large bowl a stand mixer and mix for about a minute. Add the sugars and mix to combine while scraping sides of bowl. Do not overmix. Stop and check to see if the "dough" is soft and malleable enought to roll into balls easily. It took me about 3 mins. total mixing time. It if sticks to your hands, add a little more of each sugar until you reach a consistency that is easy to roll. Prepare a cookie

Read more »

Pantry Organization

UPDATED 9/22/2011 Original post appeared in March 2011 We go to Sam's Club about once a month. We buy our usual staples and since there are 5 of us it's convenient and worth the trip. So we get home from the store and we start to put away things and I quickly realize that our pantry needs to be organized REALLY, REALLY bad; and I was in the organization mood, so what are you gonna do? Three hours later and the pantry is organized. I still need to get a few more Tupperware containers to put in more things but I won't get my order in 'till next week. Something to look forward to :) It's amazing to see how the lack of organization gives way to wasted food and money because things go bad and you forget you already have cornstarch and get more! >:/ So I cleaned out all the food that was expired, gave some away and consolidated lots and lots of containers. I had made some vinyl labels previously so they were handy. The black vinyl labels are very easy to make. I s

Read more »

Fun Photos

I've always loved taking pictures Ever since I was a little girl you could always find me with a camera. I always begged my mother and grandfather for a new camera for my birthday or any holiday. Lately I've been indulging more and more in my hobby (obsession). Here's a few pics I've been working on. I took these years ago but I thought I'd share them again.  These were all taken in Laredo a couple of years ago by me in Sergio's dad's garage. It actually used to be his grandad's garage. I love to play with the light and shadows in all the shots. The shot of the plane is an actual toy my husband carved out of wood when he was a little boy. How fun to go through that garage and find such treasures! My sons can now see what their dad created as a little boy. It's fun for me now, to go back and play around with these photos. I plan to print these out and have them framed for my children to enjoy later on in life. I'll have more later. 

Read more »

Keeping A Stiff Upper Lip Or Whatever

Well this week I didn’t post a Super Saturday because I didn’t have one. My weekend kinda stunk. On Friday morning I woke up so happy but on my way to work, a s I was driving I started to feel a horrible pain on my side. It got worse very quickly and I thought I wasn’t going to be able to make it in. I finally did make it in and staggered into the building and begged my coworker to take me to an urgent care center {I knew better than to go to the ER}. They promptly checked me in, infused me with an IV full of narcotics (thank GOD for that!) And ran a CT scan that showed a myriad of white specs on my right kidney: STONES. And on my left kidney one lone spec of white. Wonderful. Is my name Job? You know like from the Bible? Ok, I get that I get to face all these trials and sufferings, and maybe I am all beloved of the Lord and what-not, but GOD, can you please tell the devil to lay off me please? Just cut it out. Thanks. Anywho- So after that I got

Read more »

Foodie Fridays {Oven Fried Chicken}

Lately my family has been trying out themed weeks where we eat a certain week's food from different parts of the world One week we eat Italian, another week Mexican, Home cooking, etc. The boys write down the menu and we look thru the pantry to see what we do have to work with and what we need to buy We then head out to the market to get the things we need We often buy things in bulk and freeze them to get more bang for our buck. The boys are quickly learning to budget this way and cook! It's been a fun experience for all of us This week is Italian week and one of the recipes we tried out is this one that we found in this month's Southern Living Magazine Now, it's not exactly Italian but you can make it so by adding pasta sauce and shredded cheese! It comes out yummy and flaky and not greasy at all!  Oven Fried Chicken Makes: 4 Servings Hands on time: 20 min. Total time: 45 min. 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (1 pound) ½ tsp salt ¼ tsp pepper 2 egg w

Read more »

Blog-O-Sphere Finds {Free Printables}

From time to time I stumble upon some really awesome blogs and I think to myself I really should share these with my readers So here's what I found today: I'll try to post these as I find them and organize them into themes. Today's theme is free printables.  Kendra at www.keylimedigitaldesigns.com made this classy printable with the 9Bs perfect for any room in your house. Go to her website to click n print :) or click here And isn't this just the prettiest printable? Just perfect for fall. You can get it here  at the letter4.blogspot.com they have so many cute printables And last but not least one of my favorite blogs Blooming Homestead! She has some of the coolest free printables Like these just in time for Halloween! download them here or this cool subway art Go here Or for some inspirational Subway Art like this one I have in my own home You can get it here   These will get you started. :) I'll look around some more and if you want to find more coo

Read more »