New Year's is right around the corner!!

Christmas was wonderful at our house!! We enjoyed time together and good food. When the evening hit we read about the birth of Christ and took some time to reflect! Great times make wonderful memories!

I received one item for Christmas that I am really excited about and just had to share. This book is wonderful!! Yes Team365 there is a recipe for Men's aftershave!! I will look it up for you!! My girls' received 2 kits for making their own mineral make up. One is just for eyeshadow the other is for everything except, eyeliner, mascara, and lip products. We are really excited about digging into some of the recipes and trying this out. If you would like to see the kits the girls received look at this link http://www.tkbtrading.com/category.php?category_id=69 . I bought the EZ Eyeshadow Kit and the Mineral Make Up Kit. From the reviews, we should be set on eyeshadow for a very long time!!

Every year we work very hard to make sure the kids' gifts are things that will make them better people and/or develop their talents. Just as the Wisemen brought the infant Jesus useful herbs and oils. We try to do the same. My useful gift this year was bags for my midwifery supplies (I am sure that was partly because my husband is tired of kicking around my supplies all over our room and bathroom). I am excited to get those things organized!!

As we are heading into the New Year I am finding myself looking seriously at my goals and intentions for 2011. We will see some growth and changes in our family this year. We have one getting ready to start college, one starting the youth program at church, one getting baptized and one that will start driving. In the middle of all of that I will be learning what preteen boys need emotionally, spiritually and physically to keep them out of trouble. It seems time flies!! I am sooo not ready to not have babies but it looks like it is to late for that, they are all big kids now!! Besides the $1 a day challenge, I am working on midwifery studies, getting a child graduated from homeschooling, preparing 2 children to start high school in the next 2-3 years, and tutoring a very reluctant reader. I am going to learn to make my own cosmetics, and I have an idea for a book (which is really low on my list actually). I am hoping to keep my blog updated at the very least weekly. Wow, that seems like a lot!! I am so thankful for the 2 young adult girls I have to help out with carting kids around and other projects.

I sure hope that the Holidays were wonderful for everyone and that as the last days of 2010 draw to a close you find yourself counting blessings, successes and memories of the year and that you have many more to look forward to in 2011.

2 more days

Christmas is on the way!! Are you ready? I think I am! I guess at this point I have to be!

I was on my email and recieved an email on one of my lists about feeding your family for $1 a day per person. That got me thinking so I read on and found out that it is a challenge for the new year. I think I am in!! I like this idea! I am doing a little research and I am getting a plan together. Check out this blog
http://cjpattersonontheranch.blogspot.com/2010/12/working-on-food-budget.html
Jan has some great ideas and awesome goals for the next year.  In fact she just emailed me some information on square foot gardening and lasagna gardening. I can't wait to dig into that a little more!

I love the New Year! I love setting goals and working on them. Sometimes I get a little over zealous and have some goals go undone or added to the following year's list. What are your goals for next year?

Just a thought!

Looking at ways to save money for my family I came across a website several years ago that suggested writing letters to your favorite company with UPC codes from their products included telling the company how much you enjoy their products could actually score you some great coupons. I haven't actually tried this approach.  I have called companies when I have had a problem with a product, like the time my daughter found a piece of bone on her frozen pizza, and have received coupons for free products. I wish I could remember the name of the website where I found this information. The site included form letters and lots of pointers. The information that I downloaded from the site was saved onto another computer that crashed, (a lesson in the importance of computer backups)! I think I may give it a try on my own and see what happens. If anybody knows of the website that I am thinking about let me know, I would love to find it again!!

More Gardening

My sister at http://www.savvystephie.com/ will be posting some awesome fall gardening sales sometime today on her blog. One is from Gurney's and the savings will knock your socks off! Gurney's is one of my favortite seed company's with so much to offer that I find myself looking through their catalog over and over, shoot our family fights over who gets it first!! I want spoil the surprise for Steph, so you better check her blog today. You won't believe your eyes!!!

Stay at Home mom musings!

We visited some friends for the Labor Day Holiday and had a blast!! When we got home yesterday I had a surprise in my mailbox! VocalPoint had sent me a fullsize Bounce Dryer Bar!! This thing is cool! You just stick it to the inside of your dryer and forget about it for about 2 months (they say)! No more dryer sheets (never used them anyway because I always forget to put them in).  I have to tell VocalPoint what I think after using the DryerBar but hey it was free I can give my opinion for a freeby.

I enjoy VocalPoint. They will send samples with some awesome coupons. If you haven't discovered their great offers go check them out http://www.vocalpoint.com/ register for an account and start getting coupons, samples, and survey opportunities immediately. The more you participate the more offers you will get! Have Fun!!

More on the $7 a Meal Healthy Cookbook

I am so loving this cookbook!! The other night we had ginger chicken that was soooo delicious!! My daughter made it and she added a few extra chicken breasts to the marinade so that we would have leftovers for lunch. That was the best chicken diced up and served over a big green salad!! Mouthwatering!!

The recipes are fabulous but this cookbook is also encouraging me to try some new ideas. The other day I had run out of lettuce for a salad and I had to have my raw vegetables, so I made a wonderful pico salad.

Here is the recipe (this one is my own)

1 zucchini diced
a handful of fresh spinach chopped fine
1/4 cup cilantro chopped
1 med tomato diced
1 small onion diced

I mixed everything up and drizzled homemade Italian dressing on it. It was wonderful, but the second day it was even better. I ate it plain the first day and the next day I put in on my salad (with the chopped up ginger chicken)!! As my granddaughter says 'YUM'!!

I would love to hear if you try this one and how you like it!!

I have added a link for another cookbook by Susan Irby! I recieved an email from her today telling me that if I liked The $7 a Meal Healthy Cookbook that this one will knock my socks off!! I haven't bought my copy yet but I am excited to actually try some of the recipes in it!  She also gave me permission to share the link to her website!! I am so inspired by this lady! I hope you enjoy her work as much as I do! Go take a look http://www.susanirby.com/ .