Which Would You Choose?

H a p p y H o l i d a y s People are getting busier everywhere, if you haven't noticed, it's Christmas time. Yes, so it's time to do Christmas cards again. Well, I had a few pictures to choose from. Out of these pictures, which do you think we used as the Christmas card picture?

I Love My LED Book Light

(not exactly like mine, but really close)


I found these book lights about a year ago. Yes, I know they have been around much longer. But last year I realized that this was one way I could still read in bed when Hubby had gone to sleep. Hubby has always gone to bed much earlier than I ever have and likes all lights off and sounds off, but this light does not bother him. Now having some "me" time and being able to relax at the end of a day with a good book has been awesome! I have been able to read so much more over the last year than I ever have before! Kudos to whoever came up with this grand invention!

Need to start up again

It's time that I update, before the new year comes.

I have been reminded this past week a few times about my love for cooking and I realized I haven't blogged any recipes or anything about cooking this whole time, at least as far as I can remember.

I do love looking through cookbooks and finding new recipes and trying them. I have also loved the amazing Internet with great search engines. I have found many recipes of things that I have tried and wanted to make. The girls are actually loving looking through cookbooks, right now Superstar wants to be a cook when she grows up.

What better way than to add a favorite that I found since we moved to Tennessee.
(I have found a microwave brownie recipe that could be made in minutes, but I thought that would make things a little harder as I was trying to stay away from chocolate, so I haven't tried that yet.)

This one was found on www.cdkitchen.com


Red Lobster Cheddar Biscuits

Ingredients: (I usually double this recipe, because I make really big biscuits and everyone always wants them, it only makes 12 extremely big ones when I double it)


2 cups Bisquick. baking mix ( I googled how to make a homemade bisquick mix, because I almost never have pancake mix)
2/3 cup milk (I always have to add more milk)
1/2 cup cheddar cheese -- shredded
1/4 cup margarine or butter -- melted
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450. Mix baking mix, milk and cheese until soft dough forms; beat vigorously for 30 seconds. Drop dough by spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 min. or until golden brown. Mix margarine and garlic powder; brush over warm biscuits before removing from cookie sheet. Serve warm. Makes 10-12 biscuits.

Shelby Forest

Hubby had a four day weekend this weekend. We planned on camping this weekend, well, our front door trumped those plans. Hubby had to fix that this weekend. So yesterday we went on a hike instead. We packed our lunches and headed out. Shelby Forest has some great trails, especially for the young ones. There was only two little parts of the trail that Bo-Bo had to be carried, the rest he was able to do himself, or with a hand being held.

We had a nice shelter area to have our lunch. We discussed veterans and sang some patriotic songs. Bo-bo loved shaking trees (the saplings), the girls loved finding the different mushrooms growing around and looking up and seeing the view looking through the tops of the trees. We missed one turn on our trail, ended up on the bike trail. Dad ended up hiking out to the truck himself while I stayed with the kids and played at a park at the end of the bike trail. The mosquitoes were relentless, we ended up hiking at least 3 miles.

Over all it was an awesome trip. We will be visiting there again!

I couldn't get all the pictures to upload, you can check out our pictures on Flickr by clicking on the picture link at the very bottom of the blog page.

All I Want For Christmas is my....

This week has been a doozy! I had a weird headache at the beginning of the week that lasted about 3 days, then got smacked down with some kind of upper respiratory nastiness. Stayed in bed for 2 days. I know it's there and it lets me know it every time I try and do a little too much. I keep thinking that I have gotten better, but then think I need to take it easier. I am still not all better, but can't wait until I am.

I'm sure some of you have had the e-mail going around about putting Vick's vapor rub on your feet and putting socks on top of that as you are going to bed. It worked pretty good. Very soothing and pretty nice on the feet too. I think I'll be doing that again tonight!


In this crazy week, we still got a great deal of school work done. So that was awesome!

The big news of the week was that Fashionista lost her two front teeth this past Sunday. She woke up to find that the tooth fairy had left her $3. A bonus $1, since she lost two teeth in one day. When she woke up hubby overheard her telling her sister, you can have one of the dollars, since the tooth fairy left me 3 and you broke part of your tooth last week. Older sister tells her---no it's your money, the tooth fairy gave it to you. They went back and forth with each other---so cute. Made the Dad real proud of his kids.

Getting Healthier

I wanted to share a great resource I found while trying to find out how many calories were in something. Yes, Hubby and I are starting calorie counting and working out. Buying better things for the house and just trying to get healthier.

This site is awesome, it is like a digital food diary---and it automatically adds up your food. It will grade you too. Yesterday, I stayed right under my suggested calories, but I scored a C+ with the food choices. (Okay---I had a bad day to start, cookies for breakfast and sausage with supper.) So I am trying to get a better daily score. It also lets you track your exercise and your weight. I am so excited!!!!



http://caloriecount.about.com/

Hope this is able to help someone else too!

Early to Bed, Early to Rise

Early to Bed, Early to Rise
Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.

I keep trying to make this work for me---except I interpret the early to bed as early in the morning and the same for early to rise. So I am going to bed early in the morning and waking up early in the morning too.

There might be some wealthy tired people, but the not too many healthy and wise sleep deprived people roam the earth--(I believe Martha Stewart might be the exception to this, but it's still questionable whether or not she should be considered "people".)

I guess I need to start working on getting to bed earlier in the evening. A little more sleep might help.