Easter Traditions


Our family has a tradition for just about every Holiday, and Easter is no exception.

Usually, the girls get up early to find their Easter baskets stuffed with lots of candy, spring toys, books and maybe even a movie.  Then they do their egg hunt in the backyad. 

After that, we all get dressed up in our Easter best and head to church, where we celebrate the true meaning of Easter.  And finally we go to my sister's house for our familty's traditional Easter dinner of ham, homemade fried chicken, potato salad, baked beans, macaroni and cheese and yummy desserts. 

It's a pretty perfect day.

But this year, we will be on our way home from Florida.

Nothing says Easter like a hotel breakfast and six hour car ride, right?

Actually, this year we are going to celebrate Easter on Friday while we're still in Destin.  Who knows, it may become our new tradition :)

So tell me, what are some of your favorite Easter traditions?  Do you have a recipe you make every year, or a craft you are doing with your kids? 

If you need some ideas for new traditions or fun things to do with the kids, check out this site.

Hope you all have a Wonderful Easter, as you celebrate Him and the Joy that comes from knowing Him!

Purchase Deception: Keeping Your Husband In The Dark About Your New Stuff


Now, before I start this post, I just want to make it clear that I am not condoning lying to your spouse.  I think it's a horrible thing to do, and I, myself, would never think of lying to my husband about a purchase I made.

Never.

But, if, say, I did decide to purchase some things and I didn't want him to find out about it, these would maybe be some of the tricks I would use so that he wouldn't find out.

1.  Hide The Stuff In Your Trunk Until He's Gone:  This is the original form of purchase deception and while it's a good method, it's risky.  You never know when your husband will decide that he needs to get in there for some kind of gizmo you didn't even know was in your trunk. 

2.  Carry It In With The Groceries:  Men don't usually take any interest in the groceries, so this is a pretty safe method. If you think there's a shot that he may want to help with carrying in or putting away the groceries, make sure to put a box of tampons or pads over the items you are trying to hide and this will guarantee that he won't be removing anything from that bag.

3.  Have Your Friend Wrap The Item And Give It To You As A "Gift": Women must stick together.  We all know how this game works and we need to support one another!

4.  Use The Dry Cleaning Excuse:  Keep a dry cleaning bag in the car and then when you get something new, put it in the bags and carry it in.  If your husband should happen to question it, ask him if he would like to pick up the dry cleaning next time.  That will shut him down quickly.

5.  Put It In The Kids Backpacks:  Be careful with this one too.  Kids have big mouths and if they start asking questions, you may have to abort your plan and go another route.

6.  Have It Delivered:  Husbands are usually not home during the day when the UPS delivers, so this is a pretty safe bet.  But make sure it doesn't come on a weekend!!!  Pay extra for next day delivery if you have to!

7.  Wear The Item/Items Home:  If he asks about the items, act as if you are annoyed that he didn't pay attention to what you were wearing in the morning.  Men don't want to be in the dog house, so they usually don't push the issue.

8.  Tell Him It Was Free: You'll have to pay cash and destroy the receipt, but then you can tell him that you had a rewards coupon and that the item was free.  He'll be proud that he has such a savings savvy wife!

9.  Save It For a Holiday:  If you know you'll get in big trouble for a purchase you have made, you may want to save it for an Anniversary, Valentines Day or Your Birthday.  Men know that these holidays are sacred, so they won't argue with you on those days.  And if you play it like you just saved them a shopping trip to buy you something, they will probably even thank you.

10.  Tell him He Bought it For You:  This will really throw him off.  If you tell him he bought you the item a couple years ago, he will be so flustered trying to backpedal, that he'll magically "remember" and change the subject.

I cannot stress enough how careful you must be if you choose to use any of these methods.  If you blow it, you could ruin this for the rest of the women, (but again, not me, because I never do this!). 

Good Luck and may the Fashion Force be with you!

I will be linking up with Many Little Blessings for Top Ten Tuesday and We Are THAT Family for Works for Me Wednesday.  Be sure to check them out!








Are You A Bossy Pants?





Women have a long history of telling other women what to do.

It''s annoying.

You know what I mean, right?

You're out with a friend and casually mention that you started a new diet and it's working pretty well for you.

Next thing you know, she's all, "You should try just counting calories.  It's the best way, really.  Oh, and you have to come to spinning class with me.  It burns more calories than anything else.  Seriously, I have lost 200 pounds in five days.  It works!"

Yep, those girls.

Or sometimes it's about your kids.

"You need to set better limits.  Kids will behave if you're firm with them.  I used to have the same problem, but then I started telling Jimmy what was expected of him at all times.  Now he's perfect."

I want to scream, "QUIT TELLING ME WHAT TO DO!!!!!"

I know that (most of them) have good intentions, but the delivery is allllllllll wrong!

Sometimes, I honestly think that I should do the world a favor and offer social skills classes.  Apparently, LOTS of people are lacking. 

{BTW, if you know me in real life, then just please go along with this and pretend I never do anything socially awkward or tell other moms what to do.  That will make this go much better for me.  Thanks!}

But since I won't be offering these classes (ahem), then I will just go ahead and SUGGEST, (note how I'm not using the word 'TELL"), a better way of offering advice.

When someone brings up a topic on something, pay attention and see if they are even asking for help or advice.  If you don't think they are, don't offer any!  Just be a good friend and listen and encourage them.  If you're not sure, feel free to ask.

"That sounds like a lot to handle!  So are you asking for suggestions or do you think you're on the right track?", would be a great way to find out if they would like some input.

And if you are sure they want some advice, either because you asked, or because they have made it clear, a good way to be of help without telling them what they should do is:

"It sounds like you are doing a great job already, but if you want some suggestions, something that worked for me is..." 

or

"I went through something similar.  Maybe would you be interested in trying..."

or

"We have had a lot of the same things going on.  I would be happy to talk to you about it sometime if you think that would help you."

See how much better that is than, "You should" or "Do this"?

Those statements shut a conversation down and often lead the other person to feel frustrated.  Because the truth is, what worked for you may not work for them.  Or maybe they don't even want to try your way of doing things. 

But by using more open statements that offer help instead of insisting that they do things your way, you are opening up the conversation and letting them know that you are listening and that you are there to help if they need it.

Ahhhhh.  I feel much better now that I've gotten that off my chest.

So tell me, are you guilty of telling your friends what to do?  Or have you been on the other end of that conversation?  Share some suggestions if you have them!!

Does Your Kid Believe In The Easter Bunny?

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Mine do.

And it's starting to be an issue.

My oldest is eight and I'm beginning to wonder if we should tell her that The Easter Bunny, Santa, The Tooth Fairy etc. are all made up.

I have heard lots of horror stories from other parents about what could happen that I am a little scared.

What if she cries? 

What if she never believes another word I tell her?

What if she runs away, joins a gang and ends up selling crack on a shady end of town?

Or worse yet...

What if she tells her sister.

I just think that she is starting to get to an age that other kids might start making fun of her for believing. And I would hate for her to find out that way.

Plus there's that whole lying thing.

I guess I really didn't think this all through before jumping right on the make believe train when they were babies.

So, do your kids believe?  Have you told them?  If so, how? 

Would You Eat The Placenta?

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Okay, I know this title may be shocking for some of you, and it was for me, too!

Last week, while out to dinner with some friends, I found out that some women, lots of them in fact, actually eat the placenta after their baby is born.


And I'm not talking about tribal women in Africa or something.  These are suburban moms just like you and me.  (And apparently famous people, too!  Did you hear about January Jones?)


My jaw dropped.

This was just about the craziest thing I had ever heard.  And I wouldn't have even believed it if I didn't know the women I was talking to so well.


I made a note to myself to do some research on this, and it turns out, they were right.

The technical term is Placentophagia.  Most mammals eat the placenta after childbirth, to get nutrition.  And throughout the past couple of years, it has become a trend among western moms who follow a more holistic or wellness approach to life.  The belief is that by consuming the placenta, it will help with post pardum depression, milk production, and a host of other issues.

I am all for a holistic approach to life, and solving problems with less medicine etc., but I have to admit, I would never consider eating the placenta.   It just seems icky and gross to me.

BUT, for some women, this is completely natural, and doesn't seem weird at all.  I give them props because they are clearly willing to go further than I am to live a more natural and healthy life.

If you want to read a great post about someone who had a good experience with this, I encourage you to head over to Mama and Baby Love.  Stephanie is one of the moms I met at Blissdom, and she has a wonderful blog that helps moms to think about making different and healthier choices for ourselves and for our children.  {And BTW, she doesn't seem "weird" at all to me!} :)

But I'm curious, did you know that some women were doing this?  What do you think about it?

Slow Cooker Sante Fe Cheesy Chicken

A girl can NEVER have too many slow cooker recipes...that's my new motto!

And my Slow Cooker is getting plenty of use these days because it's either that, or we get used to the idea of weighing 500 lbs. each because we'll be eating fast food every day.

But the thing with slow cooker meals is that I had to figure out how to get creative after a while, because everything started to taste like some variation of chicken soup.

So, I put my thinking cap on and tried to come up with a new slow cooker meal that I thought the fam would enjoy, and by golly, I DID IT!

In this house, we love Mexican food.  My husband and girls could happily eat tacos, taco soup, taco pasta, (I'm sensing a theme here...), enchiladas, burritos, fajitas etc. every night.

So I decided to put together a little something that would kind of fit into that flavor profile.  (Like my big words?  I've been watching a lot of Top Chef!)

Here's what I came up with...Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:

3-4 Chicken Breasts (I used frozen)
1 10.5 oz. Can of Cream of Chicken Soup
1 10oz. Can of Rotel Tomatoes
1 15oz. Can of Black Beans, Drained and Rinsed
1  package of Ranch dressing seasoning mix
2 TBSP Taco Seasoning
1 TBSP. Seasoning Salt
8oz. Cream Cheese, softened
3 Slices of Bacon
1 Cup of Cheddar Cheese (or more if you like it really cheesy!)

Place Frozen Chicken in the bottom of your slow cooker. 

In a large bowl, combine cream of chicken soup, softened cream cheese, tomatoes, black beans, taco seasoning, ranch seasoning, and seasoned salt. 

Pour on top of chicken and then lay the Bacon over the Top.  (It gives it a GREAT smoked flavor!)

Cook on low for 4-5 hours or until chicken is cooked through.  Remove Bacon and chicken and add cheddar cheese into slow cooker and stir until melted.

Serve chicken with sauce spooned over top!  (We like to make ours with Mashed Potatoes because the sauce is really good over those, too!).

If you try this recipe, make sure to come back and comment and let me know how it turned out!

Pinterest Fads...What Do You Think?

Every day I pop onto Pinterest and see a new fad popping up.  Some I like, and some I think are just silly.  But here's my two cents on a few of them...
1.  Couch to 5K:  I need more of a couch to the curb before I attempt a couch to 5K.  Just not sure this program is quite at my beginner level...(Or perhaps I should call it below beginner level?)

2.  YoureCards:  These are the cards with all the funny sayings on them.  I love them because they cater to my personal brand of humor, which is called sarcasm.  It's like all the stuff I am thinking, but because I'm Christian, I can't say.

3.  The Ultimate Outfit: Tons of great outfits that no one can afford.  Plus, what looks good on the 90 lb. model wearing the outfit will probably look a little different on my, how should I say...slightly larger body.

4.  The best________  Ever!:  We've all seen the recipe that claims to be the best (whatever) ever.  I mean, how do you even prove that?  I'm going to start calling my blog the best ever and dare you to tell me otherwise. 

5.  The DIY tutorial:  Here's the thing, we're not all DIY kind of girls.  Some of us need to face facts and realize that we will never be able to make a skirt of out of old postcards.  So lets just all give ourselves a break and admit that we actually still buy our clothes.

6.  Ryan Gosling:  Hey Girl, Ryan Gosling thinks it's creepy that you keep pinning pictures of him saying weird stuff about homeschooling and crafts. Stop it.

7.  Gorgeous Hair:  Oh how we all wish we could pull off those cute little hairdo's.  But the fact is, most of us are lucky if we even get to grab a shower and actually wash our hair, much less do anything with it.

8.  Word Art In The Bedroom:  I love all these beautiful sayings like, "You & Me"  and "You Have My Whole Heart For My Whole Life" hanging above the bed, but I think those are just fluff words.  Now maybe if it said something like, "I Love You Because You Get Up With Our Puking Kids" or "I Can't Believe You Still Think I'm Attractive  After 2 Kids And An Extra 50 Pounds", then that would really be romantic.

9.  Layered Desserts: I am guilty of making these obscene desserts too.  Cookie bars, topped with Oreos, covered in brownie batter and a layer of lard on top.  I mean, why waste our precious time gaining that 300 pounds one cookie at a time?  This way will be much faster!

10. 101 Fun Things To Do With Your Toddler:  Here's an idea, How about we get off Pinterest and do just 1?

Hope you enjoyed my take on some of the latest Pinterest fads.  What do YOU think of them?

I will be linking up with Many Little Blessings for Top Ten Tuesday and We Are THAT Family for Works For Me Wednesday.  Be sure to check them out!