Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Healthy, Homemade Salad Dressing

Pin It Now! It's about time I did another one of these!

I recently discovered how to make my own yummy tasting salad dressing that doesn't contain awful stuff like hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup etc. I must give credit to my slightly obsessed friend, Staci, who loves to research and post about healthy living.




Healthy, Homemade Salad Dressing

Ingredients:

1/2 cup oil (olive or grape seed work well)
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup agave*
1/4 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 T. poppy seeds
2 T. sesame seeds
1 1/2 T. dried, minced onion

Directions:

*Agave nectar can be found next to the honey in the health food section of your grocery store.
This dressing does not require refrigeration. I just mixed and stored mine in a clean coconut oil jar.
I personally find this dressing to be very tasty. It has a sweet and tangy taste and went very well with my salad of red and green leaf lettuce, pecans, dried cranberries, mandarin oranges, feta cheese, and chopped red onion!!





Monday, April 28, 2008

The Perfect Nail Color!!!

Pin It Now! I always have to have my toe nails painted. Rarely ever my nails since they'd chip in a heartbeat due to incessant washing and scrubbing. But my toes are a must!

While shopping at Fry's last week, a creamy brownish-pink bottle of Sally Hansen nail color caught my eye. My nail color selection at home was getting a bit thin, so I decided to splurge and spend the few dollars on myself. It was on sale, so it made me feel much better about my spontaneous purchase.

When I got home and looked at the name of the color, it was confirmed deep in my heart that I had made a good decision! The name of this mauve: So Much Fawn. Bless my soul, I have a nail polish named after me!!!


Sunday, April 27, 2008

Shiloh's New Hobby

Pin It Now! I guess she's found something creative to do while I am teaching Lincoln. She was so very proud of herself, too. Really thought she'd accomplished something important!! Now these are the kinds of messes I can handle. Doesn't require a sponge, a mop, or replacing the carpet or something crazy like that. :) Well, as a matter of fact it is a mess she can clean up all by herself, and I don't even have to go back and do it over.

Of course after I snapped the first shot, she begged for more pictures to be taken of her. That's my girl!!!


Friday, April 25, 2008

A New Brushing Experience

Pin It Now! Want to hear something sweet?

My husband, after reading my previous post, went to Target on his lunch break yesterday and bought me an electric toothbrush! He even put it in a cute bag! He knows how affected I am by presentation. Is that speaking my love language or what?!

So last night was my first time ever to use one of these, and let me just tell you: turn the toothbrush on after you put it in your mouth. Do it before like I did and toothpaste splatters everywhere. Duh!

Also thank you to all who commented and sympathized or empathized with me.


Thursday, April 24, 2008

Another Cavity

Pin It Now! I am so tired of singing the same song and dancing the same dance at the dentist's office.
It has been this way since my very first visit at age 5 or so. I think I am just going to blame it on my genes b/c I don't know anyone more obsessive compulsive about cleaning their teeth!!

In the past I have blamed my weak teeth on the fact that I grew up on modern, nutrient deprived foods such as formula, white breads, canned and processed stuff, convenient, frozen meals with the never ending lists of unpronounceable words, skim milk, etc. Then in my teens I got the brilliant idea of trying out a no fat diet for a while. Nutritious, huh? While I am sure all of these components didn't help the problem, I have come to the conclusion that it wasn't necessarily the cause.

Why? Well, my brother and sister never seemed to get any cavities as kids. They were eating the same food that I was eating. At least I think they were.

As far as brushing goes, I am a legalist. Even as a teen, I used the before mouthwash, Plax, flossed, brushed and used an after mouthwash. Now I am at home all day and brush at least 3 sometimes 4 times a day. I even use the fluoride rinse that I got from the dentist's office. I also chew the kind of gum that is supposed to help prevent cavities. Mark loves to tease me about my whole teeth cleaning ritual. I actually hate using all of the chemicals that I use for my teeth, but I will do anything to keep from having any more cavities and root canals. Obviously it isn't working!!!

Back to the gene theory. It just isn't fair! My dad never went to the dentist as a kid. He has very healthy teeth that are perfectly straight. So, I guess I didn't inherit a lick of his healthy teeth gene. I remember my mom having quite a few cavities. Don't know if she's had any root canals-- I have had 3 already!!! What I have been told, though, is that my maternal grandmother had an entire set of false teeth by the time she was in her 30's. Yikes! I am trying to look at the bright side and be thankful that I am not having to take my teeth out every night and soak 'em, but I am still a bit miffed about having yet another cavity. Blaming my genes really doesn't make me feel any better, actually worse b/c I feel that I am helpless. Not to mention I have read many articles that suggest there is a relationship between a person's teeth and their overall health. Presently I wonder, am I eating all of this healthy food in vain??

I wonder what my children are thinking? I always tell them to brush their teeth so they won't get cavities. I am sure they have to be quite confused as to why mommy gets them.

Because I am already in a bad mood about the whole thing, don't anybody dare to even mention the possibility of my cavities being related to the fact that I love to eat sweets!!!!!!! :)

Hmmm, now there's a thought. Maybe I could sue all of the companies whose candy I am addicted to. Yeah, it's their fault for making such tasty treats. It shouldn't be my responsibility to use self control at the store when they strategically place the beautifully wrapped packages right next to the check out counter.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Momma's Model

Pin It Now! This beauty likes to ask to have her picture taken now. And she poses. I guess she comes by it pretty honestly. When I was just 7 or 8, I knew with all my heart that I wanted to be a model when I grew up.

I chased the dream for quite some time by taking several years of modeling school, which I know cost my parents an unbelievable amount of cash! As a teen, I even became a member of Dillard's teen board where I would get to do fashion shows and freeze modeling and such. I got paid around $10.00 an hour, which was a lot of money back then. Hey, it was more than I make now!!!

As I got older I figured being an actress would be even more fun, so I took some acting classes and got involved in drama at school. The very first play I was in was Noises Off. Talk about a difficult role or really 2 roles to play! One of my favorite memories was getting to go to New York as a freshman in high school and see some amazing performances on Broadway! As far as my acting career though, well it came to a dead end.

Obviously God had other plans for me and pretty much closed the doors with the words, MODEL and ACTRESS on them. Instead he opened the GET MARRIED AND HAVE KIDS door.
Oh well, that is okay. I don't know of very many "modestly dressed" stars!!

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Some Good News From California

Pin It Now! I felt a bit obligated to post this link since I recently wrote about the home schooling case in CA.

Even the governor had a great quote.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

C is for Clogging

Pin It Now! So I am reading an A-Z book about Tennessee this morning to complement our geography lesson, and we get to "C is for Clogging".

Now, I am assuming that most of us know this is a country style, feet flappin', knee slappin' sort of dance. Before I could even explain this to my sweet, second born, he blurted out, "Yeah, I really know how to clog the toilet!"

Nice. And yes, as the loving parent of this child I have really had to brush up on my plumbing skills.

Even after I read about the sort of clogging that Tennessee was famous for, my son thought he would be funny and perform his own version of "clogging". It looked more like me standing over the toilet with a plunger. Gross as it may sound, it really was funny!

Ya think maybe he will want me to delete this post when he is a teenager? Nah, what am I thinking. Like my kids would actually want to read their mom's blog. Blogs will most likely be so out dated by then. Definitely won't be the cool thing to do. Not that it is now or anything.



Thursday, April 10, 2008

Anna and Dorsett

Pin It Now! These are the names of our new trees. Apple trees!!! I am so excited about having fruit bearing trees right in our own backyard. Anna and Dorsett are both yellow apples--the red varieties don't do so well here. Too bad I can't plant a Gala apple tree, but it needs 600-700 hours of freeze time in winter. Hopefully next June we will be enjoying our very own apples!



Lincoln offered to "help" Daddy plant the trees. Great memories!

Oh, and I am tickled pink about all the baby oranges on our orange tree! I hope they all survive the desert winds this spring. If so, we will pick our very first orange from our very own tree in December.

We are contemplating planting a lime or lemon tree out front--the kind that produces all year round. And as soon as I get some compost to mix in with my dirt, my garden box, built by my hubby, will be ready for me to plant seeds. So far I have cucumber, onion and pumpkin (the pie making kind, not the carving kind). Still deciding what else to plant. Need to hurry before it is too late!!!!


Friday, April 04, 2008

In Full Swing

Pin It Now!
Baseball season is upon us once again!
For just 3 short months our schedule is jam packed with practices and games for our 2 growing boys. This means lots more laundry and picnic dinners!! Night games are very pleasant, weatherly speaking, but it is already pretty toasty during the middle of the day here. We need to buy one of those gigantic umbrellas to shade us from the scorching summer sun!
Shiloh becomes bored easily and doesn't understand why we can't stay at the playground the entire time. Ugh. I want to try and watch as much of their games as possible!!




And here is our star Sidewinder all geared up for some baseball battle!! This is Mullin's first year in kid-pitch league.



Next up is our T-ball playin' Muckdog! He is just a few paces away from scoring a run!!

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Excellent Example of Bravery

Pin It Now! See, speckled eggs!!! I know some of you are saying, "huh?" But, I am the boring, mess-free, easy-clean-up mom. This year, though, I let the boys do something besides just dunking the eggs into colored water. With special "egg glue" and different colored foil paper, we made eggs that looked like magical, dragon eggs. Lots of fun and not too messy.

Mullin and Lincoln are putting their creative minds to work and having a great time!

This was Shiloh's very first time to decorate eggs. Grandma was here to help, and after the eggs were done, we all went to our favorite pizza place, Barro's!


My Little Cooperative Easter Bunch

Pin It Now! Rather than be late for church on Easter morning, we had to settle on this pose.

Oh well, they are still my sweet, adorable cutie-pies!!

I was just glad to get that blond, bundle of energy to stand still for 1/2 a second. By then though, the boys had lost interest.

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