Things I Love Thursday – Relay for Life May 5, 2010

Relay for Life. I don’t love that there is a Relay for Life. I wish that there was not a need for it. My Dad and Sister are both cancer survivors. In fact there were more than 14 cases of cancer on my Dad’s side of the family. There are some on my Mom’s side too. I have friends who are cancer survivors (and some friends who didn’t) and I have friends (incl. Dad) who are currently having “spots” checked out.

I do love that people are fighting back. People are educating others and people are remembering.

I love that even kids are joining in. M. joined his Boy Scout’s Relay team and raised a good deal of money!

I love that I’m going to spend next (meaning not tomorrow) Friday night with my family.

If anyone would like more information or would like to make a donation to Relay (benefiting the American Cancer Society), please contact me and I’d be glad to help.

I would love to have a world with more birthdays!

This week, check out Mama Mia for more TILT. I’m so excited that Mama Mia is hosting this week. She is a real life friend and the one who got me into blogging!

Things I Love Thursday – Even and Odd April 15, 2010

One of my sons was born on an even date and one on an odd date. We use “even and odd” to divy up chores and to share video game time. If it is an even date, M helps with dinner (setting the table) and does dishes. If it is an odd date, L is responsible for the chores. Likewise, the boys play video games on their date for an allotted amount of time. It helps eliminate “it’s my turn” and “he’s playing longer” squabbles.

Check out more Things I Love Thursdays at The Diaper Diaries.

Things I Love Thursday – An Amazing Ingredient April 1, 2010

Things I Love Thursday – An Amazing Ingredient, Vinegar

I couldn’t just put vinegar in the title, it may not have been worthy to ready further. I wanted to call it “miracle worker”, but I decided only One was worthy of that title.

Lately I have discovered how versatile vinegar is. You would have thought after almost 15 years of homemaking that I would have already figured it out.

I used it to get the hard water stains off the gecko’s water dish.

I mopped with it.

I used a cup of it while washing the whites.

I have recently used it in mock hollandaise sauce and chicken salad.

If you haven’t already, you may be using it soon yourself while dyeing Easter eggs!

I found this great site about the uses of vinegar.

Check out more Things I Love Thursdays at The Diaper Diaries.

Things I Love Thursday March 25, 2010

This is my first Things I Love Thursday. Honestly, I considered doing it BEFORE I knew it could get me an extra entry in a drawing (make sure you check out The Diaper Diaries). My good friend Mama Mia has been doing TILT for I think as long as she’s been blogging. Let me warn you, I will not have a flowery elaboration on anything I love and there will only be occasional pictures.

I love cooking once (in a crockpot!) for three meals. It’s so super easy too. I cook about 8 or 9 chicken breasts in one can of chicken broth and one can of green chili enchilada sauce on low in the crockpot for about 8 hours. I take out all but one of the chicken breasts and use part of them for dinner that night – straight chicken, shredded for another recipe, whatever. Part of them I shred to make chicken salad. In all the broth that’s left over I shred the last chicken breast (and sometimes it’s too much so use your best judgment) and add a cup of cooked rice. Viola! Homemade chicken and rice soup! My husband loves this soup. (Last time I cooked celery and carrots-both diced-with the chicken and it was a great addition. I just left them all in the broth for the soup).

I love love how much time this saves me and I love making homemade soup because of how little salt is there. I use reduced sodium broth and only add pepper – no additional salt.

Check out more Things I Love Thursdays at The Diaper Diaries.