How Do I Love Thee?

Have you ever found a gadget that seems to make your life easier? I definitely have a few and need to tell you about one that I especially love. See the potatoes on the plate below? See how they look different?

These potatoes are made by using a potato ricer, which I bought at Target for around $10. Just boil potatoes, stick them in the ricer, and squeeze the handle down and you have pieces of riced potatoes, better known as "potato worms" in this family. The potatoes look like little worms and because of this the children gobble them up and ask for more. And because of the light and fluffy texture my husband and I gobble them up. The potato ricer just makes the potatoes taste better...really!

My children aren't typically picky when it comes to food (take notice of the brussel sprouts on the plate, which they love) but anything that encourages them to eat more of a healthy food is a winner in my eyes. Sometimes one must get creative in the kitchen in order to get healthy food into a child's tummy. So my potato worms are my creative way to get the kids to shovel those potatoes in. Similar to when I was a child and my mother wanted to get me to eat chicken livers so she wrapped them in bacon and baked them. Thinking I wouldn't notice what was in the bacon she set a plate before me, only to notice later that I peeled off all the bacon and left the livers on the plate. You win some and lose some. The ricer is a real winner.

As an update to my healthier eating I wanted to let everyone know that in the past two weeks of healthy eating (besides Sunday, which was a birthday feast!) I have lost three and a half pounds. It does make a difference not only in how I feel when I cut out sugar and unhealthy junk, but also in how I look. I'm actually not trying to loose weight as I am at a weight that I like and am trying to maintain but I guess it never hurts to loose a couple more pounds. And when you loose weight by changing your lifestyle it will typically stay off, as opposed to a diet which almost never works and just results in you gaining and loosing the same weight over and over.

It's sunny out this morning and may even reach 60 degrees today, before plummeting to the low 40's for the rest of the week. So I think after school the kids and I will take a long stroll around the neighborhood and enjoy this weather. They need to get their energy out anyway as they have been stuck inside the past couple rainy days and have been climbing the walls. And driving me crazy. So I think it will be a very long walk today. Have a lovely day!

Tag, You're It!

I was tagged by my blogging friend Tina at www.itmaybeacrazylifebutitisourlife.blogspot.com I am supposed to write seven things about myself that you may or may not know. So here it goes...

1. In my 27 years of living I have lived in about 18 houses. I say "about" because we have moved so much that I am not sure of the exact number. I'm pretty close to the right number though.

2. I went to parochial and public school and graduated as a homeschooler. So I know what all three are about.

3. While I live in town I am a farmgirl at heart. I would love nothing more than to supply most of our food from the land, have a cow to milk, chickens to feed us, and be away from city life. But for now I am content to do what I can with our small yard and basic cooking and simple living.

4. I'm cheap. Like really cheap. I shop sales and do without a lot. I guess that is how we can afford to live on one income in a two income world.

5. I love my family with all my heart. They ground me and make me who I am. I would do anything for my husband and kids and put them before myself at all times. I think that is the way it has to be to be to make a happy family.

6. I got married when I was 18.

7. I have some guilty pleasures. One of them is watching "Desperate Housewives". I know it's trash...and that is why it is a guilty pleasure!

Care to leave one of your interesting tidbits in the comments section? I'd love to learn more about my readers!

Not Me! Monday

I did not skip brushing the kids teeth two days in a row. I did not do that because I lost their toothbrushes and couldn't find them no matter how hard I looked and then forgot to buy new ones when I was at the store.

I did not go to a pizza buffet yesterday to celebrate my daughter's birthday and overeat. I am eating healthy now so I would never load up on pizza, cactus bread, loaded mashed potatoes with gravy, and corn swimming in butter. I especially did not skip the salad bar altogether and stick only to the unhealthy fried greasy foods. Not me!

I did not return home from said pizza buffet to slice a huge piece of store bought birthday cake (gasp!) for myself. Greasy food and sugary sweetness?! Not me! And I would never actually buy a birthday cake because we all know I am Martha Stewart's twin and bake all my own cakes.

I did not tell hubby that "we" needed to take the air conditioners out of the windows and put in storage only to sit down and watch him take them out, put them away, and put the screens back in the windows all by himself. How rude that would have been!

I did not buy a bag of licorice and dislike the taste and announce "this stuff tastes gross" only to continue eating it until it was almost gone. That sounds like something only a pig would do! So I definitely did not do that!

Please make me feel better by telling me one of your "Not Me! Moments".

Happy 6th Birthday!!

It really does seem just like yesterday that my little girl was born and here she is turning 6 today!

What's really strange though is that I am the mother of a six year old. I remember when I was six years old and my mom was about the same age I am now. And I thought she was old. Hmm...wonder what that makes me now?!

Happy birthday Rebecca! We love you to pieces!

And the Winner is...

The winner of the giveaway is...Brooke! Who happens to be the very first entry! Please e-mail me (contact info -------------------->) to claim your prize! Congratulations to Brooke and happy 5th week anniversary to this blog!

A Few of My Favorite Things

In celebration of this blog's 5 week anniversary on Sunday I am hosting a giveaway! Just leave a comment below telling me one of your favorite things and you will be entered to win everything pictured below, which are some of my favorite things. It includes: One issue of MaryJane's Farm Magazine, one box of LANG notecards, two bars of handcrafted soap (not by me, I'm not that crafty!), and one tube of Burt's Bees lip balm. Only one entry per person, please, and the deadline is noon on Sunday (the 4th). Winner will be drawn by my daughter, who happens to turn 6 years old on the same day.

Happy October! Wait...October?!

Really, is it possible that it is October? Like in, the tenth month of the year? Like, summer is officially over, autumn is already started, and here it is feeling somewhat like winter?! Well, I changed the calendar pages today, started writing October on my letters and checks, and people are proclaiming that it is indeed October so that must be right.

But by golly, this whole year has been going so quickly. And I haven't even been doing anything important, besides raising three kids, running a home, and trying for the wife of the year award (okay, that last part is a lie, but I do try my best...most days). It is truly amazing how you can be so immersed in just the daily aspects of life that the days and months just fly by.

Do you remember when you were a child and you measured time by how many months until school was out, or how many weeks until your birthday, or how many days until Christmas? And the time would just drag on and it seemed to take forever to get where you wanted to be? I can tell you that feeling stops the moment you become an adult. All of a sudden time goes super fast and you want to savor the days before Christmas because there is so much to prepare for. Or you need weeks before a birthday party in order to get it all right. And yet the special day sneaks up on you and it is here before you know it. I really think that there are like separate time zones for adults and kids, where kid's have 24 hours in a day and we adults seem to just have 12 hours. I see no other way to explain it.

Wishing you all a lovely, beautiful, joy filled month of October!