blog stuff

I buy my Christmas cards printed from Snapfish.com, my shirts are bought at Ann Taylor, I get blankets for Christmas from my grandmother, I only own a few books, I don’t paint, my last attempt at homemade Christmas decorations left my Christmas tree looking like a 2 year old had decorated it, I buy my jewelry and purses from other lovely and talented ladies. In short, I probably won’t have an Etsy store anytime soon and I have nothing creative to give away.

Ah, but I do have something handsomely rewarding. Something I would love to win myself. A CVS gift card loaded with $10. Use it to earn some Extra Care Bucks or splurge on something a little extra.

All you have to do is comment on this post and then I’ll randomly draw a name November 2. Click on the image above to visit the entire listing of giveaways. I think last time she had over five hundred participants.

Good luck!

*This is now closed*

Here’s today’s Friday’s Feast

Appetizer
Name a great website you would recommend to others.

Anyone want to guess what I have to say?  moneysavingmom.com!

Soup
On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 as highest), how often do you dream at night?

9.  I dream vividly almost every night.

Salad
Did you have a pet as a child?  If so, what kind and what was its name?

Yes, but I know I don’t recall them all.  We had a cat named Cinderella we called Cindy.  A german shepherd named Bruno.  A golden retriever named Tiffany.  A bird I don’t think we ever named as we gave it away because it was too annoying.

Main Course
If you had the chance to star in a commercial, what would you choose to advertise?

Oh boy, not sure on this one.  In one way, if I was in a commercial, I’d like to be the hot girl, you know in a beer commercial or something. But really, I don’t endorse beer, so I’m thinking that’s no good.

I think the Apple commercials are hilarious and I wouldn’t mind being associated with a commercial that’s funny and respected like that.  But I’ve never owned anything by Apple except for my iPod so that goes out the window.

But it seems I’m leaning towards answering the wrong question.  I guess if I’m going to personally advertise anything, I would want it to be something positive.  Maybe for a church, or Billy Graham type event or Operation Christmas Child.  Something like that.

Dessert
What is your favorite kind of hard candy? 

I don’t like hard candy much at all but I do like the Butterscotch thingies shaped like mints.

As of now, I’m going to participate in Fall, Y’all Bloggy Giveaway.  That means YOU get something free from ME.  I even pay for the postage.  I have no idea what that is right now but come back next Monday and I’ll have something posted on it.

Let me know if you’re going to do it too so I can be sure to enter your giveaway–you know I’m about the free stuff.

• I’m thankful for being encouraged through my pastor to persevere in a tough situation.
• I’m thankful to God for answering my prayers–again…seems like He keeps doing that 😉
• I’m thankful for a wonderful family who notice when something’s wrong and ask about it.
• I’m thankful for a husband that is so willing to protect me, not just physically, but emotionally.
• I’m thankful my job that is so flexible that allows me to go to Fall Festivals on Thursday mornings.
• I’m thankful for all the free stuff I got this week.
• I’m thankful for how much money menu planning has saved us.  Especially this week when our account is just about at zero.
• I’m thankful for a Christian preschool and how much the teachers care about my children.
• Even though it sounds corny, I AM thankful for the extra money earned through my paid posts this week.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve been so frustrated as a mother.  The kids are whining.  They’re bored. I’m frustrated.  I’m yelling ready to yell.  We’ve been in the house all day and we are going stir crazy.  Two things that have always helped me are hugs and sunshine. 

Number one – get down on your knees and just hold your baby.  Give them a huge hug that says I’m listening and you have my full attention.  Sometimes that’s all my kids need.  They just want me.  And then I try to keep them on my lap to snuggle more and they want to go play, play, play.

Just yesterday I was getting frustrated leaving the house. I was losing patience and as I went by Emma’s side of the van, the door was open and I just leaned in, asked for a kiss and a hug and somehow it made it all better.  Not just for them but for me.

Number two – go outside!  When you don’t work outside the home, sometimes you don’t even feel fresh air for hours or maybe days on end.  There’s something about walking out, breathing fresh air and just letting the kids play in the yard.  Yes, you might have to push them on the swing for 30 minutes but it’s worth it.

This isn’t rocket science and it won’t probably won’t cure all that ails you, but it works for me!

This is just what I needed to do a cleanup of my kitchen countertop.  This is the countertop that is on the right when you walk in from the garage and EVERYTHING gets put there.  I usually give it a clean as good as this one every month or two.  I’m not happy with all the cords hanging in the after picture but Scott is not here to fix all that.  And at least the countertop is cleaned.  So here we go:

Before:

After:

OK, well, that Carnival was a bust.  Even MisterLinky wouldn’t play along and was down.  I guess I’ll try it one more time and if there are no participants next week, we’ll forget about a Sunday Scripture Carnival.

I need a favor from all you bloggers.  Pretty, pretty please add a Subscribe link to your blog’s RSS feed if it’s not already there.  Reader addicted folks like me need life as easy as possible.  Thank you.