Free Holiday ebook from The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

Just in time for holiday preparations.  Check out this free ebook from the Old Schoolhouse Magazine, with great freezer meal ideas and crafts for family.

Farmland Contest: Enter to Win a Sears Kitchen

I love being able to enter for a possible new kitchen!!! Join me in this wonderful kitchen contest from Farmland!

Fun with Graphics

I love this site and have been a follower of hers since day one.  Check out Piddix for some really neat graphics, collage sheets and exceptional products...

$1/1 Muir Glen Coupons

This is an essential item in my pantry. I just love the Muir Glen tomatos, so click on this link and become a fan of Muir Glen on Facebook to receive your $1/1 coupons, as always remember to hit the back button and print out two!!!

Here is another great link, one of my favorite sites for some really large coupons...http://www.eatbetteramerica.com/ they also have the Muir Glen coupons...

Where In The World Is Home with TruJoy?

Good afternoon! I am so glad to be back to the bloggy world...

Tax Time...

I don't know about you, but I tend to get our family taxes filed swiftly and promptly. Almost as soon as our W-2's hit the door. It is probably because we tend to get a refund, at least the last few years we have...

Until last year I always filed my hand printed forms and waited for my refund to hit the door, so I could get it deposited. I never filed electronically, because I am not going to pay someone to file a return for me and it seemed that I never qualified to submit an electronic form, we always made about $1000 or $2000 more than the listed limit.

I hit upon this site last year...TAXACT...it was free, easy, concise, reviewed my most basic questions and we got our electronically deposited refund, so fast...

I don't receive any payback or fees for this endorsement, I just highly recommend that you check it out and see if it might be for you or your family!

New Year's Resolutions...

My DH asked the question during the Sunday School class this past Sunday. What do you have for a New Year's Resolution?

The rest of the class didn't hesitate and I was left with nothing to say...

I guess I have been too busy with all of the things that needed to get done for the holidays to think about the end of the year.

I typically do not do too much for New Year's never have. The kids always seem to get into the spirit of the event, but it is too taxing for me to even think about staying up that late...

I like to have written out long and short term goals and find that I can accomplish quite abit if I have the goals written down or even spend some time thinking about what is a priority for me.

I do know that a priority for me is to get my haircut. I have not cut my hair since before my littlest DS was born. I have a mass of hair and never like to do anything with it, so it typically is pulled back and up. I was hoping to get a haircut squeezed in before the holidays, but just couldn't find the time...

So I resolve to get my hair cut!

There, I have one goal at least verbalized, now I will have to contemplate additional goals and get them written down.

I know of one major goal that I should have and have family members begging me to do...but haven't been able to commit to placing that as a priority for me...I guess I know how hard it will be...so please pray for me and having the resolve to finally establish a much needed personal priority, yet unnamed and written down....

Happy Holidays 2008

Wow, we are having a wonderful Christmas and Holiday season for 2008! I hope you are also.

The best thing about the season is being able to see and spend some really nice time with your family and loved ones. I and my family have been fortunate to have been able to drive/visit/host several family members over the Thanksgiving/Christmas time.

Next we are on to some New Year festivities in the Dallas area with my brother-in-law and their family, plus squeezing in some more visiting time in with our oldest daughter and her husband and our two older children in the Dallas area.

Talk about a whirlwind.

Our teenage son has been squeezing in some quality time with saxophone practice here and there, plus enjoying so much quality time with his older siblings, who we get to see too little of during the year.

Our littlest is getting into the swing of things with the gifts. He had no interest in actually opening the presents, just set them out for him to play with and explore. I don't think that there was one gift that he didn't actually love. He really got into playing with his new Learning Bus, firetruck and his learning pad.

One of our traditions at our house is to decorate Christmas cookies, my teenage son has loved this activity over the years and we were really looking forward to starting the tradition with my littlest. He participated by standing on the stepstool and eating cookies, couldn't get him to sprinkle cookies or even decorate cookies, but he did stand there quietly eating away. My two younger sons are so....different in their interests.

My littlest did have a meltdown during the experience, he got some frosting on his finger and got very upset until we could get it cleaned off.

Now, I am talking about the kid who on Christmas Day jumped into the dog's water dish with his best clothes on then proceeded to play and roll around in the dirt and eat mud and dirt pies!!! He only had a meltdown when he got cookie frosting on his finger!!! Gotta love it...

Here are a few photos, click on this link to be able to view some more Christmas 2008.

Angel Food Ministry

My family and I are blessed to be able to participate in the Angel Food Ministries through our local church. We as a family have participated by purchasing some of the meals to help with our food budget and needs over the past year and now we get to have a local site and also serve other people who participate.

It is a really good program. Our church had over 47 families served last month with over 100 boxes being distributed. This month we will be handing out some more items on this coming Saturday!

The day starts awful early for my DH who willingly gets up at 4:30am and bundles up with longjohns etc. to make an over 1 1/2 hour drive to the nearest large city to pick up the churches order, load the items and also help load up the over 12 churches who are also picking up and then heading back to our church and unloading everything for us to sort and deliver.

The ministry takes alot of effort by several people and we had an abundant showing up of willing servers. It is anticipated that our ministry even in our town of only 2500 will grow to be about 1000 boxes ordered each month!!! Wow...

Check out the national link for Angel Food Ministry and see if you and your family could participate as well.

Reuse Thrifty Tip

The Thrifty Mama has a really neat posting that I just had to share...

Maybe I am the only person that has a ton of these type of hangers just hanging around in my closet...but this idea really hit home. I have hated to throw them away because they are so sturdy, but I don't really have that many skirts or other items to hang up in my closet, I typically fold as many items as I can.

But, I do have a ton of items that I could use a clip for in my pantry. So I tried this suggestion and it really works!!! So I am going to be destroying most of my free hangers and making lots of clips to have around for a much needed occasion.

One other suggestion, I don't hang my laundry out to dry but I think this idea would work well to hang out items on a clothesline as well.

What do you think?