Free Giveaway

I just wanted to tell you about a giveaway I'm doing on my fitness blog. It's for a "Super-Healthy-Kids" plate and if you are a mom who cares about getting their kids to eat more healthy, you should enter this drawing! It's simple. Just leave a comment and next Friday, I'll be announcing the winner! 

Food Storage

So I get on here and see everybody's great ideas and always think, "I wish I had something cool to share." And today a friend called to get some info about Food Storage and Emergency Preparedness--so I thought I'd add the info she called about. Maybe it will be useful to someone else too!

Food Storage Rotation Poster:

On the front of each pocket is a list of items (I added the amount I wanted to have of that item to complete a year supply). Inside each pocket is a slip with the differnt item names on it. Each time you take something from your storage you pull the corresponding slip and put it in the "Re-stock" pocket. Then on shopping day, you pull all the slips and buy those items. This way you always keep your supply up ot know what you need when the sales come! You can email me for the excel file that has the pocket labels.

72 Hour Food Kits:

We put together these bags of food for 72 kits. Sealing them in the milar? bags extends the shelf life another 5 years so you don't have to rotate your food every year. In one bag we were able to fit three days of food minus the water. We had to make sure to get self opening cans so we didn't have to worry about can opener too. We taped the menu to the front so who ever was eating knew what food was intended for what meal. You can get the bags from the cannery for $.33 each and check out the sealing machine for free.

Apple Box Reflector Ovens:

These ovens can be used to cook bread, cookies, just about anything! These can be used for camping, when the power goes out or just for fun!

You take one half of an apple box and completely cover it in heavy duty aluminum foil. You either have to make sure your tape is between the box and foil and none is exposed (or it will catch on fire) or you can use metal tape (not duct tape) from a hardware store.

When using the box oven you put down foil (shiny side up) on the ground and then use empty pop cans or empty cans on the corners of the foil to place your cooling rack on. Make sure it's level. Use a charol starter to get briquettes ready (briquettes are ready when a white dime size sopt appears on them) and then put them on the foil between the foil and the rack. (One briquette equals approx. 35 degrees. To bake at 350 degrees you would need about 10 briquettes. More on cool or windy days.) Use tongs to spread the briquettes out evenly on the foil between the cans and across the middle. Then preheat the oven by putting the box oven lid on and making sure one corner is propped up about 1" on a rock or something. Let stand for 5 minutes.

Then you lift the lid striaght off and place box facing down so the heat does not escape. Quickly place the food on the cooling rack and return the oven lid--do not tip lid. Replace the rock (or lid) in the corner. Briquettes burn for approx. 35-40 minutes. For longer cooking time you can add additional briquettes by slightly lifting the box and slipping them in with tongs. You can cook multiple batches of cookies with one set of briquettes.

Creative Memories

Creative Memories offers scrapbooking albums, supplies and services to help you get years of photographs organized and preserved - quickly, easily, and safely.

This is my shameless plug for the company that I am a consultant for. They offer products for Traditional scrapbooking, Digital scrapbooking, as well as a few home decor items.

I will not be a consultant for much longer. . thanks in part to the fragile state of the economy. I, like most other people would love to spend all my money on scrapbooking, but can't always do it. I hope you have a minute to just check out my website, and see if anything interests you.

I love the products that Creative Memories offers, I have purchased a lot of them! Enjoy!

Halloween Treats

I'm not very clever these days, so I haven't contributed much, but someone posted a link to this today, and it was really fun - I thought it would be a good thing to share here.
This was a telecast on Studio5 - cute ideas for Halloween treats.
(I especially love the little bite-sized "candy apples.")
Enjoy!

Letter of the Week Website

The other day I was looking at my friend's blog and she posted this website. I thought I would share it with everyone. It has free online curriculum for children. The activities are made for stay-at-home mothers. They divide it into age groups: birth to 12 months, 12 to 24 months, 2-7, 4-5, 6-8, and 9-11. It has different lesson plans for each week with books to read, activities, songs, science, etc for each week's theme. So far from what I can see, it looks very fun and easy to use. It looked like it had great things to help your preschoolers get ready for kindergarten with letters, sounds, numbers, etc. So try it out! http://www.letteroftheweek.com/index.html
My friend that gave me the website, said her son (3 years old) looks forward to "playing school" each day. It only takes her 20 minutes.
Plus here is another website with activities for preschoolers to early readers: http://www.starfall.com/ When I lived in Idaho, they used this website in kindergarten and 1st grade. Hope they are helpful and will give you ideas on what to do with your children at home!

The cloth diaper revolution!!

Hi ladies, I have been researching cloth diapers since I have about five weeks left until a baby is supposed to drop out of me. I found some pretty interesting stuff for those sexy green mommas out there.
Firstly, the facts:
-America dumps roughly 6 billion diapers in lands fills every year....YIKES!!! EVERY YEAR!!!
-At the rate in which they decompose it will take each diaper 500 YEARS to finally fade away.
-Which isn't true. They will NEVER fade away. As they decompose they brake down into micro- polymers that leak into the soil and spread into our water systems and food chain.
-So each and every diaper we use will have a really nasty and deplorable life span affecting people 500 years down the road.
-Disposable diapers are filled with tons of Chemicals that DO AFFECT your baby. No matter how much we try to deny it, America's health care system should be called a sick care system. We are becoming more and more ill. I attribute this to the fact that ALL of our possessions are brimming with toxins and chemicals. We start as young as the first thing we wear...the diaper. Doctors have actually said that when they do urine samples in infants the results are affected by the chemicals that reside in their diapers.
-Diaper rash...can I hear a whoop whoop!? I believe that my son had severe diaper rash because of chemicals in his diaper. His sensitive skin simply could not handle the harsh chemicals. I have a friend who uses cloth diapers. When they went on vacation she decided to go with disposable diapers for convenience while they traveled. She stated that her daughter had horrible diaper rashes the whole trip that immediately went away when she was safely home and in the cloth diapers again. Now it could be that she was just affected by the trip but she has never had diaper rashes up to that point so I suspect foul play on behalf of the diaper!
-Cost!! This was a real swinger for me becasue we are a pretty young and poor couple. The average household will anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 dollars in diapers from newborn to potty training. Well how would you like to save about 75% of that!?

Ladies, we are smarter than that!
I have found a reusable cloth diaper that I am totally thrilled about.
The dundundundun...
BUM GENIUS 3.0
It's supposed to be the ultimate in cloth diapers.

It's a one size fits all. This diaper fits newborns and then all the way up to potty training. They have special snaps in front that allow the diaper to expand and contract according to need.
A poll was taken and 140 women commented about this diaper. They could give it a one to five star rating (1= bad 5=best). Of the 140 120 gave it five stars. 11 gave it four stars and 9 gave it three stars or less. Not bad for such a wide range of women. The biggest thing they said was that it didn't leak. Awesome news!
They come in about six different colors...yes ridiculous but ohhh sooo cute!
They have inserts that you place inside and you can double up if you need to to allow for maxium absorbancy.
They have stretchy tabs just like disposable so that they fits snuggly and comfortably.
They are made of microfiber which helps absorb wetness to keep those cute bums dry and free from diaper rash!
Okay hold your breath here comes the price. One diaper with two inserts included costs...17.00 a diaper. I know rather steep, but concider....you need to buy at the most 20 diapers and then you are set for the rest of your life! Follow me? It will cost you roughtly 350 to 400 dollars and then you are done! You can save 1500.00 dollars and never send a nasty dispoable diaper to contaminate our beautiful planet. ZERO LANDFILL WASTE!! Yes, you have to rinse and wash these puppies but think of the good you are doing for the environment and for your baby!
Lastly, they have won awards inlcuding the "iparenting choice award".

Thanks for reading! Hope you are inspired! Here is the website www.bumgenius.com

Comments

Sorry I've been slacking!
I love hearing from you ladies! Thanks for all the wonderful posts so far, keep 'em coming! You can post whenever you want, but I forgot to mention one thing: When you post, the comments get sent to my email. When they do, I will then forward them on to you so you can respond as needed. Thank you!

Our own personal trainer!

Liz (who previously posted on exercising) has an awesome blog on everything healthy--mind, body, & soul! She just became a certified personal trainer and is an awesome person all round! Check out her site here and I'll add it to the sidebar for future use.

Thanks Liz for being such a wonderful knowledgeable source...and for sharing it!

Back to School!

It's just about that time for most everyone to send the chillins back to school. Here's a fun little idea to give to those you know starting back.

Fill a pencil box with some things the student will need and decorate the outside with some stickers. It's a fun way to give a little gift to help them get excited for school again.

Now I geared mine towards kindergarten/1st grade--but if you're wanting to do it for older kids there's plenty of things out there to use in place of the pencil box & fillers--have fun and surprise a neighbor, friend, relative, or your own child with it!

I got all of this @ Walmart in their school section for cheap-- pencil box - .97 sharpener(pk of 2) - .50 mini composition book - .77 pencil pack(10) - .50 blunt scissors - .60 crayons - .22 colored pencils - .88 glue stick(pk of 3) - .60 TOTAL: $5.04

Making Exercise a Habit

 One of the problems we all face when it comes to exercising is having the motivation to actually DO it. :) Here is something I have found helpful when it comes to this. First thing in the morning, right after going to the bathroom and brushing my teeth, I put on all of my workout clothes - including my gym shoes. I do this because once my exercise clothes are ON, I'm more likely to actually exercise before getting ready for the day. If you make a habit of putting your workout clothes on FIRST thing in the morning, it will give you some added motivation to get out and work that body! 

P.S. This blog is a WONDERFUL idea Ashley! Thanks for inviting me to be part of it!

Dip

Here is a recipe for a really easy yummy dip. Sorry no pics :(

1 roll of Jimmy Dean Sausage

2 packages of cream cheese

2 14oz cans of original ro tel tomatoes (they are tomatoes that have green chiles etc. in them)

Cook sausage in pan. Drain fat (or if use the reduced fat kind there is less fat to start with). Mix in cream cheese until melted. Add in tomatoes (one can put the whole can with juice and all in, the other can drain the juice first). Stir. Serve warm with Fritos or tortilla chips. Enjoy!

A couple of ideas...

The first is the Fathers' Day cards (I know Fathers' Day is long gone, but you could use it next year or adapt it for another occasion-I made one with a dress for a wedding once); it is a super cheap way to make cute, handmade cards (no stamps or embellishments needed). I used some kitschy origami paper but anything paper with a tie-like print would work. I just cut out tie shapes and then glued it on. The result: an inexpensive and handmade way to show the fathers in your life that you care.
The second idea is to take a bouquet of grocery store flowers (which are not arranged at all) and arrange them yourself. I used three vintage glass containers (from Salvation Army) and just separated the flowers into colors and arranged. The result: a set of arrangements that look like they came from a fancy flower shop and not the Low Prices, Everyday leader :)

Do Something Drastic...Bag the Plastic

I hope you are all prepared for an earful! Amy has requested that I talk a little about what we can do in our busy little lives to help with the problems the environment is facing! And boy are we making a mess of things.
We WASTE MORE than any of us realize and the solution is so super simple. Doing small things that take just minimal extra effort from each of us can turn a TIDAL WAVE of waste into a much smaller stream!
As you can see I am VERY passionate about doing my part. So here is one of my personal batttles with the land fills:

NO MORE PLASTIC BAGS!!!
This is my biggest effort. Oh the statistics!
-200 animals die every year from plastic bags.
-Plastic bags cost 4,000 dollars to recycle which can only be resold for roughly 32 dollars. That's a loss of 3950 dollars per ton!
-Plastic bags brake down in to MORE toxic petro-polmers which contaminate the soil and water ways which get into our food chain.
-Plastic bags are made of a polythylene; a themroplastic material made from oil.
There are many many other stats, but the point is that we need to change.

What WE CAN DO!
-Use cloth bags at the grocery store! So simple! It will cost you maybe 20.00 dollars for a good amount to carry even the biggest load. You can make them on your own. They last for years and have no toxic side effects! Please, if you do one thing, strive to make it this!
-Instead of lining your garbage cans with plastic bags make a little extra effort and clean them out once a week.
-Use Cloth diapers. THERE ARE MANY MANY companies that make fantastic, easy to clean renewable diapers. (aka, fuzzybuns, bumgenius, gdiapers) Plus you will save roughly 1,000 to 1,500 dollars by doing so.
-Give your support to companies in your community that are tryingto get rid of plastic bags and spake up about it! Talking to people is one the quickest ways we can help clean up our act!

We can do these simple things. We can make change. Change begins in the home. If you teach your children the importance of reusing and avoiding plastic bags they will grow up doing the same. As mothers we have the power to change everything!

Preparing for Kindergarten???

Hello there, Amy asked me to write a little about what I think parents can do to help kids get ready for school. My name is Adrianne Fulton (for those who don’t know me) & I teach kindergarten in Lincoln, Nebraska. I have only taught for two years so I am definitely not a complete expert & remember these are totally my personal opinions & by no means the law. :) She definitely asked the wrong person though because I could give my strong opinions about this for days & days! :) So sorry if this is too much. But I figure that if you don’t want to hear it you can stop at any time. :)

My first thing that I have the strongest feelings about is…if your child is not ready don’t send them. The requirements for these little guys to meet anymore are so extreme for a 5 year old that if they aren’t ready to do it…pushing them will make it worse. They will struggle, get frustrating because they are struggling & then eventually give up. It is amazing how much of a difference there is between kids who are early bdays (Sept.) & late bdays (July). The first few weeks of school, without even looking at their birthdays, I can tell who is the oldest & who is the youngest. As a future parent & a current teacher, if it was my child who had a birthday during the summer I would SERIOUSLY consider – are they truly ready. Even if their birthday is a May, April or March, if they are obviously not ready it would be easier to send them to preschool another year than to have them have to repeat kindergarten or struggle for the rest of their schooling because they met the age requirements for the school district, so you decided to send them. Boys are typically a lot more immature and more "unready" than girls at young ages. Keep in mind. If they struggle in kindergarten, they will almost definitely struggle in the majority of their schooling. Their attitude towards school and learning depends a lot on how they perform in their early years of school.

Like I said before, your kids will learn so much by the end of kindergarten. In order to truly know what you should have the kids know I would talk to a kindergarten teacher in your area to get specifics. But below are things that we do that will be pretty general and most likely done in pretty much any kindergarten.

One of the biggest things is…READ! Let them see you reading. Kids truly learn best through example. If they see that you love reading, they will want to emulate that & they will want to read & be interested in that as well. I have heard (I don’t know if it is true or not) that kids who have their fathers read to them become more interested in reading/better readers because they feel special that "DAD" is reading with them & taking the time to do that & therefore it must be a special thing. It is so important to read EVERY single day. At a young age get them into the habit. My sister was so good at this & her little boy would get out of his bed & take a pile of books to his night light (so he wouldn’t get caught by turning on the light) & “read” by reciting his favorite books at about age 4 or 5. Be a reading example.

One thing to keep in mind while your kids are in school is that if something is slightly suggested, really take it into consideration. For example, I had a little kid once that really should have repeated kindergarten & because of the laws & everything legal that you have to deal with in schools you can’t say – keep your child back. It is more of a – your child is struggling, these are your options, what do you want to do? - Because of the legality of it, really take it into consideration & realize they CAN’T tell you what to do. They can only suggest and let you make the best decision for your child. If they are mildly suggesting something, it probably means that they would strongly like you to consider it.

As far as what to work on & when it is required, here are a few suggestions. Another thing to keep in mind is – less, more often, is more. If you are planning on working on something for 30 minutes a day, it is better to do 10 minutes 3 times a day than 30 minutes in one sitting. Little kids obviously can only focus for a small amount of time, so spending 5-10 minutes (or even 2-3) on a topic is better than spending 30. Driving is a great time to review and talk with your kids. Ask them education questions while you drive and make a game out of it. If there are only a few things that you can do these are the things I would suggest – know most of their letters- if not all & some sounds, write & recognize their name, rhyming, numbers to 10 at least & to 20 would be amazing, hold a pencil…correctly, holding scissors…correctly, zipping their coat & at least start working on shoe tying. Obviously these are high requirements and would help your child be the higher end of the class...but by no means a requirement to enter kindergarten. Here are more specific requirements and the quarter that we do it in.

*1^st - rhyming (which is either really easy or really hard for kids…work on this a ton), patterning, sorting, numbers, letters, letter sounds, shapes, beginning sounds, knowledge about a book (where to start, punctuation, words vs. letters, etc), 5 senses

*2^nd – numbers, letters, letter sounds, counting by 10’s, 5’s & 2’s, even & odd #’s, 3-dimensional shapes, blend/segment onset & rime,

*3^rd – numbers, letters, letter sounds, time & money, measurement, blending phonemes, reading ability, seasons

*4^th – numbers, letters, letter sounds, addition, subtraction, graphing, syllables, phoneme substitution, reading ability

These are the big things that they are tested on in Lincoln. Of course there are always a million other little things. But that gives a big view that isn’t too long. :) Another BIG thing is word wall/vocab/high frequency words. Kids should be able to look at the word QUICK and know it right off, without having to sound it out at all. Here is a list of our required words. We have about 40-50 other words that we do as “extra” but the words listed are most important.

*1^st: colors - 2^nd: I, to, my, at, a, see, like, mom, yes, dad, me, no – 3^rd: for, here, go, can, is, and, have, you, it, love, in, by – 4^th: play, the, said, he, are, she, on, up, we, am, look, this

A book that I would definitely recommend for parents with boys is “Mind of Boys” by: Michael Gurian. It is a book about how boys are different than girls. They learn differently, they express themselves differently & therefore they need to be treated & taught differently. When I began the book I was thinking – oh another book that I will read & then stick on the shelf. The first chapter is a rough one to get through, but keep going. It is an amazing book that truly helps you understand your boys better. I honestly read a lot of it & would think “oh that is why my husband/students/nephews/friends kids thinks or does that”. It was an amazing book & I would recommend it for anyone who has a boy, works with boys or just wants a good book that is an easy & very informative read.

Hopefully my pages of rambling didn’t totally bore everyone. But that is my opinion :) If there are more questions I would be more than willing to give more of my opinion…but remember I am not amazing with this yet, this is just what I think after two years.

Daisy Cake

I made this Birthday cake for my niece, it's super easy and very cute. I used a regular cake mix to bake 2 round cakes. Spread frosting on top of one and place second cake on top. Frost entire cake with color of choice. To make the pedals cut a marshmallow in thin layers using clean scissors ( may need to wipe blades with wet rag after each cut to wipe the sticky away, this makes it easier to cut each pedal). Use frosting to adhere a Vanilla Wafer to the center of the pedal arrangements. Little marshmallows work well too for tiny pedals, then use a different color frosting for the center. These marshmallow pedals look great on cupcakes too. Have Fun!

Prinderalla and the Cince

So I found this and thought that it should be shared with everyone.

Prinderalla and the CinceTonce upon a wime, there was a gretty little pirl named Prinderalla. She lived with her two sisty uglers and her micked wepstother. They made her flub the scroors, wean the clindows and do all the wirty dork. Wasn't that a shirty dame!

One day, the cince proffered an oclamation that all the gelibigle irls were inviteded to a drancy fess ball. Prinderella didn't have a drancy fess. All she had was a rirty dag, so she cat down and sried.

Along came her gairy fodmother who turned her rirty dag into a drancy fess, hice into morses, and a cumpkin into a poach -- but she warned Prinderalla to be home by the moke of stridnight.

Prinderalla pranced with the dince and at the moke of stridnight, she dan rown the stalace peps. As she dan rown the stalace peps, she slopped her dirpper.

The dext nay, the dince proffered another oclamation that all the lung yadies were to try on the slass gripper. It fidn't dit the two sisty uglers because their tig boes fidn't dit in the slass gripper. It fid dit Prinderalla because her tig poe fid dit -- so she parried the mince and they lived appily ever hafter!

The storal to the mory is: If you want to find your prandsome hince, be sure to slop you dripper.

heart shaped quesadillas

Here's a fun idea if you haven't tried it before. Valentine's Day came and I was going to make heart shaped PB&J but alas - no bread. So I tried it on quesadillas and it's been a big hit around here ever since. You have to flip it over and press the cookie cutter on the other side, too - at least for my basic plastic shapes. And, as the mom, you are the lucky one to get to eat the scraps... :)

The City of Ember

This was a great book and an easy read. I will confess that I mostly picked it up from the library because a) I really needed to read something b) they are making a movie out of it (coming out in October). What a clever idea for a story too. The next book in the series is called The People of Sparks and the next is The Prophet of Yonwood. We'll see if I can get to these, I hate waiting for copies to come available at the library! When we were in Lincoln and if I was really desperate, I would go down to the closest Barnes and Noble and plant myself in a chair and read, read, read. What's a good book you've read recently (or non-recently!:)
(I tried inserting a pic of the front cover, but my computer likes to irritate me, but I think you'll recognize it if you google it.) Happy reading!

Doing little Girl's Hair

For those of you with little girls check this out. It's a blog on cute do's. Check out her links too for bow making and such. If all you have are boys check it out anyway- you could make some bows for presents or pass the info on.

Want a themed birthday cake?

I found the best web site to find themed birthday cakes! This one is an Army cake I may do for Brenden's birthday. Here is the web address:

http://www.coolest-birthday-cakes.com/birthday-cake-picture.html

Teaching Ideas

This website was shared with me, so I decided to share it with others. It has teaching ideas for primary, young women, and relief society. We are all blessed to teach sometimes and it is nice to have somewhere to go to find ideas. Here's the website: http://www.sugardoodle.net/mambo/
Hope it is helpful!

B + E

I'm sorry, I just HAVE to add this link to a newer post of Stephenie Meyer's, about the Twilight movie.

read and love here

happy birthday gift

Okay, so this was one of the sweetest things I've ever been given. My sister, Ashley, is a sweetheart and very creative. She sent this to me for my bday, and I want to share it with you because I think it is a fabulous gift anyone would love to receive. I'll post the pictures, and then Ashley can explain how she put it together.

Thanks Amy, I had a lot of fun making it. I'll try my best to explain it.

The album is 5x7. I already had a mat stack of papers that size so no cutting there required.

The front and back covers are thin pieces of cardboard/chip board covered with the paper. I cut the cardboard a little smaller than 5x7 and just sanded the edges after the paper was glued down. I used a tacky glue which I believe I got just at Roberts (or any other craft store)

I had these questions that I asked our family & grandparents to answer about Amy: How would you describe Amy, How is she like you, What makes her "Amy", What is a fond memory you have of her, What is her greatest accomplishment, What is a birthday wish you have for her.

The whole album I just ran through my printer and did the jrnl. in Word. When in Word I just changed my paper size to 5x7 and kept the text away from the side where I'd be punching the holes.

The pics I printed in my dinosaur of a photoshop. I believe they were 2x2.5 so when doing my jrnl. I just tried to type leaving a space large enough for a photo in one of the corners.

I have a nifty tool called the crop-a-dile that is a heavy duty hole puncher/eyelet setter. I used it to punch the holes through the cardboard covers and pages. I'm sure a regular hole punch would work too because the covers weren't too thick.

Umm...oh I just tied ribbon around the clasps (office supply store or even walmart) and added some patterned paper that matched to jazz it up. The cover letters "amy" are thickers (foam stickers) and the circle of happy birthdays I did in Word.

Here's how:

Create a WordArt (I usually just use the 1st option--the outlined wordart)

Type the word as many times as you would like it to appear in a circle

enter and right click on the word to select "show wordart toolbar"

click on the funky blue A in the middle of the toolbar that says wordart shape

select circle curve

now you can mess with the size of your circle by pulling at the corners

to change the size of the font/spacing refer back to the wordart toolbar and click the very far right icon that has an "av" with an arrow under it. Click the options given or customize. The larger the percentage the smaller the words get.

Change the color by selecting the paintbucket in your wordart toolbar

Well, I believe that's it. Sorry if this is confusing, I have a hard time saying things simply or shortly. Just post a comment if you have any questions. It really was easy and fun.

The best 7 layer bean dip!

I recieved this awesome dip recipie when we moved up here to Northern Idaho. So here you go:

1 pkg taco seasoning mix
2 avacados peeled and mashed
cheese, grated
1 can refried beans
1 container of sourcream
1 tomato
1/2 can olives, sliced
2 green onions, chopped

Cover the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan with the refried beans. Next, add the taco seasoning mix into the sour cream container and mix. Then add the smashed avacados on top of the beans. Then add sour cream mix as third layer on top of the beans. Sprinkle enought shredded cheese to cover the top of the sour cream mix. Place in a oven for about 10 minutes or until the cheese has melted and beans are warm. Take out of the oven.

Add your layers of tomatoes, green onions and olives. Serve it still warm with tortilla chips. Delicious! Goes great with any mexican meal or for New Year's .
Hope you enjoy this.
Annie

Lover of Good Food--two recent favs

Hey I'm Amy's sis, Ashley. I just wanted to share these two fabulous recipes. I like to check out recipes at this Pioneer Woman's recipe/cooking blog--















she had these apple dumplings on a while ago, let me just say they are soooo good! Easy too. Give them a try.













Next is this Kraft food & family magazine recipe. I am a fan of stove top, and these sweet potatoes were delicious!
Enjoy!

Intro

Hi!
I was thinking about all the wonderful people I have come to know, and how many talents and interests you all have. So I wanted to start a blog for everyone to be able to post things like a recipe they love, a subject they're passionate about, nutrition, a picture and explanation of a cute card or gift idea, exercise tips... we could go on and on, and that's what we want! You all know so much! And if you've stumbled across our page and would like to contribute, just leave your email in a comments box and I'll erase it and add you in.
So if you think of something that would love to share with others, please share away!

*And remember when you're typing a new post to enter in a clear label for what you're writing about(ex: recipe, gift idea, fashion, recycling, politics, etc) For example I titled this post "Intro" and I labeled it "blog description". I say this just because the labels will appear on the sidebar, so that one day if you wanted to look at all the recipes people have posted about, you could click on that and see only the recipes.

Okay, I'm leaving now! :) Happy blogging!