Happy Valentine's to You!!

Love and hugs to all of you on this Valentine's Day.

You know I am a sentimental sap and just want you all to know how much I love my blogging friends.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO!!

Today is pretty much a normal day around here. Kids to school and piano lessons later and for dinner, BLT's and potato salad. Maybe something sweet for dessert but my rear does not need this. I have some goodies for the kids and hubby.

Finally I am joining Art @ Home's Love Poem Linky Party. After much searching for one I thought really evoked my feelings for the one I love, I chose this simple poem. My favorite time of day is when my man pulls up out front and he is home again.

All day I did the little things,
The little things that do not show;
I brought the kindling for the fire
I set the candles in a row,
I filled a bowl with marigolds,
The shallow bowl you love the best --
And made the house a pleasant place
Where weariness might take its rest.
* * * * *
You came into that quiet room
That glowed enchanted with the bloom
Of yellow flame. I saw your face.
Illumined by the firelit space,
Slowly grow still and comforted --
"It's good to be at home," you said.From a poem by Blanche Kuder

Happy Valentine's To Me

I was at our local garden center picking out some seeds and lovely chicken manure for my veggie garden and saw this sweet little metal pot. I placed it next to a pic of me and my original Valentine, my sweet momma.

I love me some galvanized metal so I caved and bought it for myself.

So nice to have some greenery inside. I hope it will be happy here.

We have this unruly rose in my backyard and this gardener did not cut it back this last year so look where it has climbed to.

Climbing, climbing...

Oh are we going to have a heck of a time getting it pruned out of my tree. My ornamental peach is just about to bloom so we will wait until it is done.

Linking to:
BNOTP
Tabletop Tuesday
Cozy Home Scenes
Coastal Charm
The Stuff of Success
Thrifty Thurs.

Winter Fruit Salad California Style

What do you do on a dreary California Saturday night that is threatening to rain? Why you barbecue of course and for sunshine you make a pretty fruit salad.

Take some California strawberries...

and some oranges from the trees out back...

slice a banana and there you have it. Sunshine in a bowl. Any my little one said it was the best fruit salad ever. That is only because her little mind probably doesn't remember the last time we had fruit salad last summer.

Linking to:

Seasonal Sundays

Sunlit Sunday

Masterpiece Monday

Show Off Your Cottage Monday

Little Red House

Regaining Control of My Blog

You may have noticed a few changes on my header. I am thrilled. I loved my old one but didn't really own it as they say.

I have been on a mission to get full control of my blog. Over a year ago I decided to try and make my blog cuter and not knowing much about headers and html, I hired it done. I loved the header she created but she did all the work of implementing the changes and had the images in her Photobucket account. One day I woke up and my whole blog was a Photobucket warning, you know the one. She did update her account but I have been anxious to have ownership of my header and the account it is in.

The blog designer I used had moved onto other things and I was at a loss as to how to do the changes and in came Brenda and Claudia. Without my even asking, they came in and helped me figure out how to get the old header out of my html and my new one in. Brenda sent me many mock ups and Claudia walked me through some learning steps on the phone. I am so indebted to them. We are all busy yet they took so much time to get me through all this. Thank you dear blogging friends for your kindness. I owe you.

Anyway, I am dragging this out but I want to share this experience with you so that you all know that if you hire someone to help you with your blog, be careful to make sure you have the headers and such in your photo accounts as well as knowing how and where the items were placed on your blog. We invest a lot of time in our blogs and to have parts of it disappear and you not having control over it, is a nightmare.

I know there are lots of great designers out there but if you are going to use them keep my struggle in mind.

Linking to:
SNS 120
Show and Tell Friday
Your Thriving Family
Get Schooled Saturday
Sat. Spotlight
Sunday Blog Love
Seasonal Sundays
Nifty Thrifty Things
BNOTP
Barn Hop
Organize and Decorate Everything
Women Living Well
Trans. Thurs.

Girl Time

I had breakfast out with Patty and Shelly. Such a treat to have girl time and get in a good chat. I love them, they are such a blessing I have received through blogging and they live just minutes away. Shelly gifted me with this cute family jug. She said she was thinning things out and knew it would go well with my crocks.

Shelly I love it. Thanks!! It was a little lower than my thrift store large crock so I used some old books to prop it up. You know I was realizing that everything on this table except for the owl, was free or thrifted. See you don't have to spend much to decorate you home.

Linking to:
Show and Tell Friday
Common Ground
Seasonal Sundays

Thrifty Living Series - Entertainment on the Cheap

This week we are talking about entertainment and how to have some for little or no cost. Now this is an important topic in frugality as in order to keep frugal habits sustainable, you have to feel you are not deprived. Life needs to be fun and it really doesn't cost much of anything around here to have fun.

For the most part my husband and I would rather just stay home but of course our kids like to get out a little more. We have always home schooled so my kids are used to occupying themselves at home for longer periods of time but older kids do like to get out once in a while.

Really, I try to limit the running around and they know this so they will think ahead and come to me with an idea of how to get them to and from without too much extra driving. Our kids are expected to pay for their entertainment out of their allowance. This teaches them to find cheap entertainment and not ask for endless dollars to spend on movies and such. They are for the most part pretty frugal with what they spend out and it may be because they know they are spending their own money.

Honestly though, as a family, we stay home and just watch movies and play games. We enjoy this. We do use Netflix all the time and feel this is money well spent. We only have basic cable. Our major entertainment is really weekends on the coast using a family home and camping trips. We stay home most of the time and don't spend a lot so when we travel with the kids we will treat us all to dinner out and take advantage of some special excursions and stops at Starbucks, my favorite.

About twice a year we go to the movies and always go to the early bird showing for the cheaper rates. The library is another form of fun as we like to read and enjoy an hour or so at the library almost weekly. Entertaining friends is always fun and I can feed a group inexpensively if I make all the food.

Of course in Southern California we have lots of outdoor fun all year and we visit local parks and nature centers quite a bit. I love gardens and prefer these types of outings to museums. They are generally if not free, than reasonable.

Mostly, I would have to say, make your fun at home. If you are used to running around than give yourself some time to get out of the habit of always being on the go. By staying home you save gas, dollars on eating out and miles on your car. Enjoy your home. Get it cleaned up and straightened by Friday if you can so you can enjoy the weekend and not spend as much time cleaning. This way you will want to stay in and savor your cozy home.

Please visit Brenda at Cozy Little House, Claudia of Mockingbird Hill Cottage, Jen at Muddy Boot Dreams  and Diane of Lavender Dreams and see what the other bloggers in this series are up to.


Linking to:
Katherine's Corner
Raising Homemakers
Transformation Thursday
A Glimpse Inside
The Saved Quarter
Ladybird Ln.

Comic Relief #2

I promised to share my funny story about our goofy dog. I am not kidding when I tell you I deserve a crown for living with this dog for so many years. She is the most busy, get into trouble girl. I swear in all seriousness this dog has ADHD. I think dogs can have issues just like people. You know that movie Life with Marley? I never needed to see it because I have lived it for over nine years.

Well, the other night we all heard the most loud ruckus. But what is funny is we all knew what the sound was.

You see our big dog likes to try to lick the dirty dishes when we are loading the dishwasher. We all shoo her away but my daughter's friend was trying to be nice and load his plate in the dishwasher. Little did he know you have to watch out for Sandy the plate licker. She eyed the unsuspecting loader and came a licking. Her collar must have become caught on the bottom rack. Of course the dog panicked.

Here is where the bottom rack should be.

And here is where it ended up. Across the front room and in my entry way. Once she became unhooked she continued licking. The poor kid looked like a truck had hit him and the rest of us knew what had happened. We all laughed and I of course snapped a picture. In our house you really just have to laugh or you will crumble under the chaos at times. Laughter just helps you get through the craziness of life. Oh, and my little one kept bringing me dirty forks as she kept finding them under furniture, thrown askew as the rack rattled across our house.

I added the Linky Followers thingy on my side. I know we are all worried about the Google followers going away so I added  the widget. You can get it too if you click on it.

Tomorrow is another installment from the Thrifty Living Series.

Hearts

Today I am joining Art @ Home's 14 days of love celebration.

I just love HEARTS. All manner of shapes, uses or colors. I have just always had a fondness for hearts.

Right now they are scattered all over our house of course in celebration of the day of love.

I checked in my cupboard and I have eight heart shaped bowls. This is the tiniest. I also have a heart shaped cake pan used every year on Valentines for some sort of cake of course.

We hang them outdoors...

And near our doors.

Q was having lunch and said she had found a heart shaped chip. She sure did.

And yes she was still in her jammies for lunch. With hearts on them wouldn't you know.

Linking to:
Bowl Full of Lemons
Wow Us Wed.

Mother Nature Party

I so wanted to take part in the Grits and Glamour Wild About Mother Nature Party so I reprised one of my all time favorite nature inspired posts.

Changed up my dining table display to a collection of warm yellows and all things bees. Our yard here is abuzz with all our citrus in bloom.

I found this sweet little pillow on a clearance rack at a favorite haunt.

You can't have bees without a bee skep.

A sweet little watering can holds golden flowers.

I love the battery operated flicker candles available now. Safe to burn when you have a little one in the house and they last forever.

Linking to:

Grits and Glamour

Coastal Charm

Tabletop Tuesday

BNOTP

Monday Already

The weekend is gone way too quickly. Just the usual busyness of life. Trying to finish up my daughter's room.
Her dad hung a shelf we took from another room and I hung the little chalkboards I made last year for a splash of color.
We are making up a little desk in a little cupboard. It will be perfect but we have to get it all put up this week.

My house looks like this except there isn't a man laying across the floor. I need to get off this thing and get on the house.

Just making my lists for the week and getting some coffee in my veins. Okay I need to get to it. See you!!

Happiness

Cleaning, raking, trimming. It is that time for me. We do all our own yard work and well mostly I do so this time of year I start at one end of our backyard and just trim and clean the planters as I go.

This kitty is Mr. Bee-Doos. Yep that is his name. My silly daughter and equally silly husband came up with that. We are used to it now but at the vet they know him as Nemo as I was a little embarrassed of this name. Poor cat he is probably always wondering why they are all calling him that.

Yeppers more sunshine. We have had the most spring/summer like winter. It is supposed to rain next week so I am very glad. Our mountains and hills are thirsty.

This one is happy for the days outside. We are out about two hours everyday and have our lunch on the patio. It wears her out. That is good for mommy.

Heard this on the radio.

"It is your moral obligation to act happy. Happier people make better spouses, parents, friends, employees."

Do you agree? You know what at this stage in my life I do. I am always telling my kids that sometimes you just have to fake it. That is fake happiness. It helps snap you out of a mood. In my younger years if I wanted to go around grumpy, I did. If I took the whole house down with me so be it. Selfish. That is what I was. I once heard that a mother's attitude sets the tone for the whole family. I agree. We all have times when it is appropriate to be sad or mad but I am talking about in our daily everyday living. I hung that quote on the fridge. I want my kids to see it, learn, do it. I want them to realize that happiness is a choice. I want them to learn it young. Of course they will do as they choose but it won't be for a lack of me trying. So I choose happiness. I was so happy today after our no spend Jan. to go to Sam's Club and just really stock up. Just food and needfuls but wow that is such a gift to be able to do that. Some months I don't go if I don't have the extra stock up money so I just felt so lucky to be able to fill my cart. Okay, have a blessed Sunday. Thanks for listening.

Linking to:
Seasonal Sundays
The House in the Roses
BNOTP
Masterpiece Monday
A Return to Loveliness
A Stroll Thru Life
Time Warp Wife
Bowl Full of Lemons
Home and Garden Thursday

Juice!!

We have been keeping a bucket of oranges in the service porch for juicing. I figure this saves me about $3 a week right now to make our own O.J. everyday.

They are just like little suns all over the cutting board.

This is Q's first time and boy she took her job seriously.

Don't tell her sisters but she tasted a few.

Happy Weekend!! Watcha' all doing for Superbowl? We are just staying in and making fajitas for the fam. We made these cupcakes last year for dessert. Not sure what I will make this year.