I heart baking soda.  It is the epitome of a multi-tasking tool.  If you didn’t know this already go here and be enlightened.  My problem was not finding uses for baking soda but finding a way to use it easily.  Enter the parmesan cheese shaker.  I let this sit in my fridge to absorb odors and pull it out for a quick shake when I need to clean something.  No hassle cleaning on the ch......
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I have a Christmas tree. It’s all set up and decorated for the holidays. I also have four kids. FOUR! And an extra one that I watch during the day. And two dogs. And a cat who sometimes comes in the house. A few years back, our tree was knocked over FOUR times in a matter a matter of hours after it had been put up. And that was back when we had a real Christmas tree. Which meant not on......
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I made Grandma Chunkie’s Chocolate Pie for Thanksgiving. It turned out so good! Each kid got their own pie and were in heaven:-) I usually don’t make pies because I can never roll out the dough! I’m a pie rolling dummy. It gets all sticky and I end up super frustrated. Well, not this year! I came up with an idea and wanted to share my tip. Who knows, this may alread......
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Have you seen the Photobooks on Shutterfly, Arts Cow, and etc… basically they are digital online scrapbooks that arrive bound in book form. They look pretty awesome. They cost a pretty penny. Honestly it really isn’t that expensive but they are out of my budget. I could afford to do one or two but not the ten or so I really want to do this year. Also I found that I wasn’t always ......
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I have decided that these are my favorite Christmas cookies.  And this recipe makes a lot of them…which is why it’s a good idea to have lots of people in mind to share them with!!  Because having them just sitting around the house screaming at me to come eat them is a bad idea. I’d like to give in to the notion that since they have orange juice in them, they’re good ......
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Black Friday. Ironic. You know, that plague back in the 14th Century? It also had the same descriptive… “bla ck”. The Black Plague was also called the Black Death. Just something to ponder… I decided a while ago to NOT join fellow consumers this year on saving lots of money I would not have spent otherwise. I decided to sleep instead. Also, the thought of being shoulder-to......
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Simple, unpretentious ingredients work synergistically to produce glorious golden gravy. Fat, flour and liquid. . .  the combinations and variations of these three components are too numerous to mention. Creative  culinarian s have produced sumptuous rich gravies from this uncomplicated trio for generations. The gravy that embellishes the feast at our home embodies the flavors that I relish -......
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One of my epic fails as a parent is trying to dictate what kind of children I have. I spent all of Ruthie’s early years trying to find a toy - JUST ONE - that she would play with. I never had any luck with that. She always preferred my pots and pans over her toy kitchen, the pens from my desk over her crayons, and my kitchen utensils over the official Play-Doh utensils. Birthdays and Chris......
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Brother insists on playing Parcheesi.  It’s his favorite game and yet in all the times we’ve played we have yet to make it to the end of a game in one setting.  It just takes too long and the attention wanes.  Neither child seemed to mind the lack of closure but it was driving me nuts.  So here are some game time strategies I’ve started using to keep me sane. (not just with P......
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I know that yesterday I claimed to be a top-notch procrastinator , but today I’m working against the grain. (Although to be truthful, most of the things on that list still aren’t done.) I’ve put together two of my side dishes for tomorrow so far this morning, and I’ve managed to do it without taking a single nibble. For me, this is a major accomplishment. I owe my ......
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- On Friday, November 28th, for one day only (ONE DAY!), you can buy a copy of Jewel ’s latest CD for a donation of just $1 (plus shipping and handling). ONE DOLLAR! All proceeds will go to the Country Music Hall of Fame . The CD will be available over at Jewel’s website on the 28th. - There’s a Southwest Airlines Ticket Giveaway that’s going on to ......
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It’s been a long forever since I wrote a Works For Me Wednesday post. Not that I’ve started boycotting Rocks In My Dryer or anything. I just can’t think of anything interesting that would actually be useful to anyone else. BUT I did come up with something kinda small that might be useful to a limited group of people. At least it’s come in handy for us and someone else mig......
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With the 4 little persons that inhabit my home we have somehow accumulated a ridiculous amount of toys.  I have pared them down to their absolute favorites (super heroes, dress-up, Mini-Ponies, etc.), my favorite toys for them (wooden train sets, magnetic dressing dolls, etc.), not to mention all of my learning sets (Cuisinaire blocks, sentence building blocks, math manipulati......
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Our lives are changing. Drastically. We’ve made some decisions about going forward in life that are going to impact us in hopefully every area of our lives. First, Chip got a second job. I’m so very grateful that he was able to find a job in today’s economy. It’s not an easy thing to do. Especially a job that will ensure that he has Wednesday nights and weekends off. We h......
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This week for Works For Me Wednesday I’m borrowing from a post I wrote over on my blog over the weekend. Campfire In A Can sent me a set of these to try out (and a couple extra to giveaway… keep reading to see how to win) Womp’em Sticks Before I talked to the people over at Campfire In A Can who make these Womp’Em Sticks I thought we were the only fa......
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When it comes to tackling the endless paperwork merry-go-round that having three children (in two different schools) inevitably produces, this is my secret weapon: It’s an A4-sized 5 drawer thingamajig.  Totally it’s real name by the way, LOL. The labels read: Current Bills , School , Needs Action , To File and To Read . Current Bills - pretty sel......
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  I love Christmas! It’s a time of year to focus on the birth of our Savior. It’s a time to cherish family, and friends, near and far. It’s a time of tradition& #8230;adhe ring to the old ones and making new ones. What I don’t love about Christmas is the commercialism and materialism that it can create. In that, I have been thinking a lot about how we’re goi......
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As you all know, I love tweaking recipes and working to create a healthier version of recipes I find.  Thanksgiving and Christmas time give me plenty of excuses to exercise this crazy hobby of mine.  Nobody around me seems to mind.  :)  (Hehe, funny that I used the word exercise&# 8230;talki ng about baking cookies!  Hey, exercise comes in many forms.)  My favorite part of holi......
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Last summer I found out that Chinet, purveyor of paper plates, is actually a green company.  If you are planning on using paper products for holiday parties or even (gasp!) Thanksgiving dinner, why not choose plates made from 100 percent recycled materials such as repurposed milk cartons and cardboard?  Chinet’s plates are not only chlorine-free, they’re compostable, making ......
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photo credit: Steve Kay If money were no object, how would you plan the perfect reunion ? I would invite friends and family who have scattered all over the world and bring them together.  Â I’ ;d include people from my hometown I haven’t seen in ages, people from college, colleagues from my professional career days, and friends with whom I’ve lost touch.  I’d make ......
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Many Bliss readers no doubt saw Shannon ’s (Rocks in My Dryer) sweet post last week about a husband who created a “ letter blog ” for his wife as his Christmas gift to her this year.  Following a perspectiv e-altering , life-changing trip to Africa last year, SecretDaddy (dubbed by me) decided 2008 would be different.  One of the manifestations of that decision i......
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It doesn't matter how much I plan ahead. It doesn't matter how much I clear my schedule. It doesn't matter how effectively I (sort of) lower my expectations, Christmas card pictures never go well in this family . Two years ago there was the Great Goose Poop Incident of 2006 , a story best left to the annals of my personal blog rather than recounting here. read mo......
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Oh my, I think I want to cry. There is a husband and father out here in the blogosphere who, instead of buying a gift for his wife, is gathering up letters of encouragement and advice from moms to turn into a book to give his wife as a Christmas gift. OH. MY. GOSH. How SWEET!!! So, I have given my advice and letter by submitting it here and you guys all should too, because, after all, this is so......
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Last year I wrote this post to serve as a cautionary holiday tale. There is nothing like the Christmas season that will make some folks want to put on some apparel with blinking lights and various animals wearing Santa hats. As I did my extensive research for that post, I realized that people all over the country are hosting Christmas parties with the specific intent of encouraging their frie......
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