Easy Dishes to Take Along This Weekend

Invited to a picnic and not sure what to bring? Don't feel like cooking? Well check out these easy crowd pleasers!

• Ice Cream Sandwiches: Pick up a container of vanilla ice cream or any ice cream and a dozen baked chocolate chip cookies (Stew's is my favorite) and make your own ice cream sandwiches. Scope a spoonful of ice cream in the center of two cookies and roll it in sprinkles YUM- who wouldn't like that!
• Chips and Dip: Bring a bag of tortilla chips- blue chips are my favorite- with a mexican layer dip you picked up at the store. Great as an app or side dish!
• Sangria: Get a gallon of merlot ($10 at most stores) a 1/2 gallon of gingerale, a tablespoon of sugar, and a two shots of any fruit flavored liqour you have in your cabinet. Combine and chop any fruit you have in the fridge; I use lemons, oranges, apples, grapes etc.. Chill and serve! (Cut everything in half if only using a half gallon of merlot)

See being a guest should never be as stressful as being the host! Enjoy!!

HAPPY HOLIDAY WEEKEND!

HAPPY HOLIDAY WEEKEND TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY!

Every weekend should be a 3 Day weekend!!

Music Soothes the Soul

I love music. I love to hear music when I am happy, sad, tired or mad. I love music so much that ever since my daughter was born I sang to her. No, I am no American Idol but I did notice early on that Music Soothes the Soul and babies, and children love it too!

I began singing to my daughter as a form of distraction for when she was scared, when I gave her a bath or changed her diaper. Til this day I still sing to her as a distraction and she loves it. I even began coming up with  my own lyrics to encourage her to brush her teeth; brush brush brush your teeth, brush them every day, brush them top to bottom to keep the dentist away. When I brush her hair I sing; brush brush brush your hair, brush it every day, brush them every day to take the knots all away. I know I am a very silly mom but TRUST ME it works!

Deal Finder

Walgreens: Buy two Huggies Jumbo Pack for $18 and receive a $3.00 reward

Donate to Food Bank of Lower Fairfield County

I read an article today that the Food Bank was low and looking for donations.

Did you know:

$300 - can provide three weeks of food to 14 children staying at a homeless shelter.


$150 - can provide four weeks of food for a family of four.

$125 - can provide 250 people with a bowl of hot chicken soup and a sandwich at a soup kitchen.

$75 - can provide school lunch for one child for two months.

$20 - can supply soup kitchens with vegetables for a week.
 
Donate today!

Tip on How to Prevent a Mess

You know when you are pouring soup or sauce in a container and it splatters everywhere. WELL...try putting a spoon in the container first and you will be amazed that it prevents this mess. I know what you are thinking... silly tip... but try it! I did by accident and it worked- my spoon fell out of the pot when I was pouring the soup in a container and I left it there, it prevented everything from splattering all over my counter. Amazing, I know!

My 100th Post

WOW I reached my 100th post tonight. So great to read through them all and see when I started my daughter was 9 months and now she's 18 months. I hope you enjoyed the last 100 and stick around for the next 100. Thanks for the follow!!

Thank You and Cheers!!

Greek Yogurt-YUM!

Today I found out how amazing Chobani greek yogurt is. Try vanilla with a tablespoon of honey. OH MY! 16 grams of protein in 6 oz container. Yes it is about 180 calories but so filling I could not finish the whole thing. Healthier than a bowl of ice cream. Which is what I was going to have tonight so I am happy I chose the yogurt!

What I learned about Children and Lotion

Whenever you apply a new lotion on a baby or child put a little on their leg to test if their skin gets a reaction before applying all over them.

Terrible 2's

I thought I had a couple more months before I would have to deal with the terrible 2's. See my daughter will turn 18 months next week so I figured her attitude was a result of teething. Well, her attitude has been around for the past week and a half.

She literary screams when she is unhappy, wants to get down from her high chair or while I am driving and she is trying to get out of her car seat. She refuses to eat, whines, and is very agressive, demanding and moody. At first I came up with a ton of excuses to defend my little angel, well now it has come to the point that she is no angel!

I am coping with this string of moodiness, tantrums, anger, crying and whining with compassion as if it is a child form of menopause. Hot flashes, sweats, mood swings... see the connection?!

Today I learned about Bread Crumbs

When making fish top with bread crumbs to substitute for salt. Yum!

Enjoy Life

Enjoy Life

It's Too Short Not to!

What I learned Today About Tuna

If you rinse canned tuna in water after you have already drained it you will lower the salt and sodium in it and it will not affect the taste at all. Give it a try!

The Power of Prayer

I want to begin this posting by saying I am not trying to preach any particular religion. I am writing based on my own experience and respect people's choices to believe in what they choose to believe in.


The Power of Prayer is like no other. I know when ever things are tough, or when I am sad or even happy I like to turn to the Power of Prayer. We all have different beliefs and I do not care what it is you believe in as long as you have a source to pray to and the reason I say this is because it gives us an unspoken feeling of hope when we feel like there isn't hope. Yes, there are scientific explanations to a lot of things but when we have hope things seem to become easier.

When I was trying to get pregnant a woman came into my husband’s job and said for us to pray, pray a list of prayers and your wife will get pregnant. Yes, granted there were other things we had to do to get pregnant but the list of prayers gave us hope and it helped make the lengthen process easier. Hope helped.
Whenever a family member goes into a surgery I always find myself praying. Yes, the doctors are the ones I need to have faith in, but prayer gives me hope. It gives me a sense of comfort that everything will be alright and if it is not alright then we will get through it.

So whatever you choose to believe in or choose to put your faith into. Remember there is hope. And hope is nothing someone can take away from you unless you let them. Let hope comfort you and be there in your time of need.

Fitness Update

I am proud to say that it has been a month this week since I joined the gym and I am still going strong. YEAH!! I started out with 5x a week, last week I was bad and went 2x but walked 2x and this week has been 3x so far. I plan going at least 1 more time since I have a 3 mile Breast Cancer walk on Saturday morning.

I do use the scale but decided to measure myself to really see results. After 4 weeks I am proud to say:

-I lost 1/2 inch on my neck, arms and chest (not that my chest needed any loosing, ha,ha)
-1 1/2 inch from my thighs

I am one happy girl! I would love to loose most of the inches in my waist since that is my problem area but that too shall happen!

My biological clock is ticking and my husband and I want to have another baby so it is sooo important for me to loose these last 10lbs that wont go away from having my daughter. I know we all say that having a baby ruins our body but the reality is I let having a baby ruin my body and I can not let that happen again.

 The gym as been AWESOME for me as a stress releaser with work and other things. Once I am there I can stay there all day. Try it, I know it is hard to get to, really my schedule is so jammed pack that fitting in the gym didn't seem like something I could do. But now that I am doing it is it AMAZING! I go at night after dinner and watch my shows and sweat my butt off. I even did 2 miles in 18 minutes. I burn about 400+ calories in a 35-40 mins work out. It is great. So wish me luck, I am not giving up and neither should you!

Today I learned about Soup

Try eating a bowl of soup before every meal to help feel full faster. Make sure the soup you pick is not creammy or high in calories. It is a wonderful comfort food too!! I just did and could not finish my lunch. YUM!

Today I Learned about Generics

My daughter woke up with a fever and since the lastes recall I had nothing to give her. So I turned to the internet and googled Generic brands. I went out and bought a generic type of acetaminophen to give her. Generic it is until they straigthen out this recall!

Learn Something New Everyday

They say we learn something new everyday. So I decided to put test that theory. Please feel free to leave me a comment to let me know what you have learned today. Learning makes our brains stronger and our body healthier.

Today I learned:

That SugarCRM is a great tool for Small to Medium Sized Businesses. I am currently learning it for a new client so we have a email based software where we both can view leads, calendars, contact information etc... It is only $360 a yr for their Professional package. It is very similiar to Salesforce.

Enjoy the knowledge :)

My Life

I am at this stage in my life that I need to stop doing what other's want me to do. I need to regain a little contol over my life and do what makes me happy. Most of my friends are not married and do not have a family so it is hard for them to imagine that staying home or having a quiet dinner would make them happy. I am kindof over the party scene, the night life, the $300 dinners and bar tabs. I am happy working part time and gaining a paycheck big enough to feel I am contributing to my household, grabbing a pizza for dinner and spending time with my husband and child on the weekends.

I am over the material things, fancy cars and name brand clothes. I feel at this point in my life I have all I want, all I need, anything extra is not neccessary. It's hard to be the one in the group to feel these way because you may come across cheap or insensitive. And it's not that, it's that a lot of the time we do these things to fill a void we have and right now I don't have that void. If I could stay this way forever I would be happy. I love my house, my daughter, my husband. I am not giving up or saying an occasional treat is not nice, but I feel like I am always on the go, always trying to please someone, always dishing our money and not really enjoying myself.

I can not image that everyone could understand where I am coming from, but I can assume I am not alone. I am a wife, a mom, a worker, I have responsibilties and staying out until 2:00 am to wake up the next day and perform my responsibilites are not feasable anymore. I just can't do it and I feel it should be ok to not want to do it. I am putting a stop to what other's want from me and doing what I want. I apologize if anything gets offended but at the end of the day it is me who needs to be happy, as for yourself to all of those who do what I do.

Do what makes you happy in life because in the end that is what really matters!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

I am so blessed to be a Mommy. I hope all you mommies enjoyed your day today. Below are some quotes that say it all. God Bless Every Mommy Out There!


*A mother understands what a child does not say. ~Author Unknown

*She never quite leaves her children at home, even when she doesn't take them along. ~Margaret Culkin Banning

*When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child. ~Sophia Loren, Women and Beauty

Communication-The Key to a Good Marriage

I will be the first to admit that my husband and I argue. Sometimes we argue over the simplest things, sometimes we are argue over things not worth arguing over. But this open line of communication we have works for us and actually makes our marriage good.

I am old enough to have seen many marriages fail and fall apart and the number one reason COMMUNICATION. Yep, lack of communication has ended many relationships. Why is it that we feel we shouldn't be able to say what we feel, or tell someone when they did something wrong or hurt us. Your partner may not agree and the fight may last a little longer but isn't it worth discussing. I have said plenty of hurtful things to my husband during arguments which were wrong, but at least we opened up to another and built this relationship based around an open communication system. Say sorry when you do something wrong, discuss an issue at the time it is bothering you!

Why do we bottle up what bothers us, why do we look towards a third person to make something better for our relationship instead of turning to our mates? Fighting is good, but it has to be within means. No physical, verbal or mental abuse is necessary. But telling your partner when something is bothering you is important. It is the only way they will know it and by discussing it you are allowing a solution to be formed.
We have one life, and it is too short to have anger built inside of us. Yes, no one likes telling someone the truth about how they really feel if they think it will hurt someone, but it is worse to keep things bottled up inside. You can work through the hurt with a loved one, but keeping it in will only make things worse!

Communication is key to a marriage, it is so important and should not be dismissed. I always think of John Mayer’s song; Say What You Need to Say, my favorite line is:

“It’s better to say too much, Than to never say what you need to say again.”

Support Stamp Out Hunger

Saturday is Stamp Out Hunger day. Your mail carrier will be collecting

non-perishable goods. Just leave your

 donations at your mailbox!