Living Laughing & Loving

Beautify your Blog… Favorite WordPress Plugins!

Renee — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Everybody knows one of the coolest things about WordPress is the plugins. Really it’s the “candy” that keeps me plucking my eyes out over this crazy WP learning curve. :)

Okay. It’s really not THAT bad. Maybe. It’s just different, and sometimes different ends up hard and making you feel quite the moron.

But wait, hold on. Don’t stop reading yet if you are on blogger!

If you have ever considered making the often dreaded switch from Blogger to WordPress, then read on for a list of REALLY great reasons to take the plunge.

Some of these plugins are seriously awesome! Thanks to Allison, Amy, and Brittany for their great inspiration!

One of the first things people always tell you about plugins is that while they are AMAZING, you have to be careful not to use TOO many that will slow your site down, AND they can be buggy too which is never what you wanna hear about something on your computer.

{So bear that in mind!}

Amy has great tutorials on all things WordPress including How to install a Plugin, so check there if you’re looking for helpful tips.

Here is MY List of Top WordPress Plugins!

Akismet. This Spam Super Hero is recommended by almost everyone, and amazingly snatches all those annoying spam comments and drops them nicely in your spam folder! Once in a while a REAL comment will slip through, but usually it’s because they included a link or two in their comment.

You can see in just the few weeks I’ve been using it, it has filtered 235 spam comments. Woot!

W3 Total Cache. This isn’t all that glamorous, and really… I’m not sure what cache exactly means, but this one supposedly makes everything get a super boost in speed. And when it comes to the world wide web, I think everyone can agree… the faster the better!

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WordPress Database Backup. Now that I have left the giant clutches of Google behind, I’ve also left the giant and sort of reliable servers saving my blog. My host saves a copy regularly, but you don’t want to rely ONLY on them. I chose to have mine emailed to me daily. At the very least, I’ll lose a day’s worth of posts and comments if a bloggy disaster should strike.

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Comment Reply Notification. Now for the FUN stuff! Blogger’s comment system has forever been SORELY lacking especially compared to the function of WordPress. They did finally just get threaded commenting which was a H-U-GE improvement!

Responding to comments is one of those hugely important parts of being a successful blogger, I think, and really… it’s just plain nice, you know? I understand how it’s not possible for the big bloggers due to their volume of comments, but until you get there… respond to comments.

One blogger who does a great job of this is Rachel. She is a guru at building relationships and connections with her readers!

Anyway, this plugin is awesome because it allows you to answer right on your blog via another comment, and that response is ALSO emailed to the questioner.

That way, the original commenter gets their answer AND all future commenters who stop by your post with the same question ALSO get the info.

Plus, answering in the comments occasionally also lets potential commenters see that you DO engage with your readers which they CAN’T see when you simply reply by email.

Thank you to Christina for sharing this one with me!

Comment Luv. Woot! This was another one that I had to try not to be jealous of when I was on blogger. Comment Luv automatically enters your commenter’s last blog post as a link underneath their comment when they enter their site info! I think it encourages comments since people know they are being given a chance to also share THEIR latest post at the same time… WITHOUT being spammy.

Digg Digg. The world of blogging is pretty much DEPENDENT on social media these days, don’t you think? If you want people to share, tweet, or pin, you gotta make it EASY, because people are all about EASY! Having share options with each post is almost essential. I chose Digg Digg, and I love that it has the flexibility to pick what forms of social media I want included and WHERE I want the share bar to be.

It is also EXTREMELY rad that they include a counter showing how many times something has been shared or pinned. When a post goes viral, you want the thrill of seeing and knowing about those numbers, don’t you? :)

nRelate. I had Link Within on Blogger which is really the same thing. This is SUCH an easy way to get people digging around on your site, so whether you are on Blogger or WordPress, if you don’t have this one, you SHOULD.

If you have new readers, it is a super easy way to recycle old but good content right where they can see it and teases them with a pic to click on too. :)

See don’t you want to click on those pics down there?

RSS Footer. I have to give props to Allison at HOH for this one. This is SUCH a fantastic option to have! I still can’t get over it. With this plugin, you can add whatever you want to be included at the end of your FEED… and only your feed. It won’t show up on your post at your site, but WILL show up when someone subscribes to your feed through a reader OR email!

This way you can add a special message to your subscribers asking them to join you on facebook or twitter or even include sponsor ads since your feed subscribers don’t get to see these things on your sidebar!

I just added this one earlier this week, and I’m still tweaking it, so bear with me if it’s looking wonky!

Mobile Press. I had a REALLY hard time finding a good mobile plugin! I thought I had a great one, but it turned out it was great, but it wasn’t free. So that’s not so great for me. :) I had no idea this was even something I would need to worry with since it’s one of those freebies automatically done for you on blogger that you just get to choose yes or no.

This one is not fancy pants, but it’s functional and FREE!

I also like that with this one, you can scroll to the bottom and click “view full version” to see it in the normal web layout.

And one more that I haven’t downloaded but plan to…

Broken Link Checker. I know I need this since a few of you have mentioned some of my links not working, but I am very, very skeered to download it. After moving several hundred posts over from blogger, I really don’t want to see a number in the hundreds and then have to cry. Or something more adult and mature like frown slightly.

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WordPressers, what are YOUR favorite plugins you can’t live without???

Blogger peeps, see anything that gives you a bit of an inkling to wanna join the WordPress posse?

I am definitely enjoying all these WordPress goodies! When feel a bit disloyal to my Blogger roots, but then I remember… they turned on me FIRST!

*Sometimes I link up at these parties… Weekend Bloggy Link up, Tatertots & Jello, House of Hepworths,Bowl Full of Lemons,Organize & Decorate Everything, Not Just a Housewife, Funky Junk Interiors, Somewhat Simple, Shabby Creek Cottage, No Minimalist Here, Skip to my Lou,Today’s Creative Blog, the 36th Avenue, Thrifty Décor Chick, Home Stories A-Z, Five Days Five Ways, How to Nest for Less, and Someday Crafts. You should check ‘em out!!

{follow LLL} {Please check out my AWESOMELY RAD Sponsors!}

Birthday News & Sponsor Love

Renee — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Today our Wild Wadester is FOUR years old! I can hardly believe it! He has been itching to finally be FOUR for so long. For a while now, when you asked him how old he is, he would sadly answer, “Stiiiiill three.”

Poor guy. :)

He is one crazy dude that definitely keeps us hopping. Just last night while hanging off his dinner chair to reach a fallen raisin, he desperately called out to Haylee for help with a phrase we had never before heard him utter… “For goodness sake!”

He also kept greeting us all with his apparent new favorite word.. “Bonjour!”

Four years ago, we could hardly believe our journey of infertility was finally ending… we were actually going to be able to hold our little wee one! Chris thought it would be awesome to have a Leap Year Baby, but my feelings were exactly the opposite! I grew up with the most taunting brother of all time, and all I could picture was our baby being teased mercilessly about only being an actual fourth of his age because he would REALLY only have a birthday every four years! :)

Our baby, in fact, would probably have been teased by that very brother who is still ever the taunter. :)

Thankfully, Wade decided to appease me and escape the teasing, though I did go into labor Leap Day night. :)

Happy Birthday to our Wild Man! You make our lives FULL and INTERESTING!! :)

I also want to SHOUT how very thankful and appreciative I am once again of my Sponsors!! I hope you will take a second to check all their goodness out. :) I think they have GREAT things to offer!

Michelle is a friend of mine selling awesome Thirty-one products!! There is definitely something for EVERYONE. So many super cool things!

If you haven’t ever drooled browsed the Thirty one site then you are missing out! I super love that you can personalize their stuff with either a name or with a chic looking embroidered label.

I still am waiting on my apron. I mean, imagine the cooking I could do!! :)

Their BRAND NEW Spring Catalog is out, and they are running a great deal for March….

For every $31 you spend, you can get the brand new Mini Utility Bin for just $8! Woot!

I definitely could put quite a few of those to use with all our stuff! And wouldn’t they make awesome REUSABLE Easter baskets??? LOVE that idea!

I would really be grateful if you checked her out!! You might just find some fabulous stuff!

How are you doing in your resolution for better menu planning and nutritious cooking for your family? That horrid dinnertime stress can be alleviated with the right planning and prepping, you know!

Michelle from Make 5 Dinners in 1 Hour has such a great system! She is my inspiration for starting this amazing weekly meal prep lifestyle. I think it really is a lifestyle, in a way, since it is such a different way of cooking.

She offers you THREE months of Meals complete with recipes AND grocery lists for only $15!

Her grocery lists are even organized by store section and labeled so you can see which recipe each ingredient goes with. That way you can easily customize the items you’ll need at the store!

Michelle is also offering you all a fab deal! Subscribe here and get your first three months for only $12!

Don’t forget you can also get a ONE week Sample Menu available for FREE to give it a try!

See how it’s broken down so well??

Michelle also shares great recipes free on her blog. We just tried her Asian Chicken Legs on Tuesday, and they were soooo good! I should have made more!

One reason I love her recipes so much is she is a woman after my own heart! She loves the easy but delicious theme too!

Aren’t these Taco Cups the cutest too??

It has made such a difference for us, and I think it can for you too!

If you’ve been toying with the idea… NOW is the time! Check out her blog to learn even more.

My Memories is some pretty sweet digital scrapbooking software perfect for your scrapping needs.

Don’t let the mountain of unprinted pics filling up the hard drive of your computer keep growing! Digital Scrapbooking is a great way to actually achieve your scrapbooking goal without losing your sanity and emptying your pocketbook.

I’m excited to be able to to scrap with it and plan to print out my 12×12 pages using Persnickety Prints. They print full color pages for only $1.99!

You can use the code STMMS99903 to get $10 off the $40 software package PLUS a $10 credit to use in the My Memories store to splurge on fun extras for your digi scrapping!

Digital Scrapping is a great alternative in our crazy BUSY lives… It’s a great way to try to stay on TOP of the ever growing pile of priceless pics!

Here are TWO great digi scrapping FREEBIES available for a limited time!

And this one…

Aren’t they so cute??

A great big THANK YOU again from me to ALL my SPONSORS!!!

{follow LLL} {Please check out my AWESOMELY RAD Sponsors!}

The Toys are Taking Over…

Renee — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Most of you know our unique living arrangement. We are family of five living in a cozy TWO bedroom house… all up in each other’s bizness.

Our three kids all share a room and have for about a year or so. They don’t have a large room, either, so fitting all the furniture in is like a challenging game of Jenga and leaves us with NO empty walls.

We have one good sized Toy Box with an attached bookshelf as well as four attached itso cubes.

Yes, I am aware that it is a disaster.

Three kids in a room means that we have to be brutal when it comes to purging stuff. Otherwise it begins to take over {see above} and the annoying twitching starts again. :) There have been many, many toy box clean outs in our five years here. Most of the time the discarded toys haven’t been entirely cast out. Instead they have endured the extreme heat and chill of the lonely attic for a year or three before we finally make the hard choice to give them the final boot out the door. :)

Organizing ANY part of your house isn’t EVER a one time experience, of course. The only chance I have to really make it work is when I make the DAILY decision to put things where they go instead of the easier choice to just stuff it any old place as long as it’s out of my darn sight already.

Last year, as part of the BFOL 21 day Organizing Challenge, we cleaned out the Toy Box Disaster, and I had to resist all the organizational inspiration container methods because our wild Wade could not seem to control his compulsion to dump any container of like objects… beautiful or not. :) Instead of awesomely sorted bins of their toys, I instead had to dump them all in the giant cavernous toy box.   I did claim the very small victory of keeping the small cars in a box on the bookshelf. I must find joy in the small wins.

As luck would have it, now that Wade is at the point where he’s NOT the amazing dumping machine, his little mini me has graciously accepted the role.

Isn’t that just so nice of him??

I have recently given up on his little basket of Davis toys. It got unceremoniously dumped with everything else into the community free for all. I simply couldn’t handle one more gleeful and mischievous dumping of the basket full of toys spread all over the hallway floor ready to trip the next unsuspecting passerby.

In January I had a small spark of last year’s organizing bug and decided it was definitely, probably time to attack the Toy Box once again.

I employed those same three hoarders to go through all that crazy stuff and pick what we could clear out!

Well, I guess that isn’t completely accurate since the Davis Man was pretty much the OPPOSITE of being on board with my great plan. He decided to enact his own plan of grab and distribute whatever toy he deemed desirable, and let me tell you it seemed as though ALL of it looked good to him. :)

Wade got the very important role of ‘under the bed recon.’ There was quite a bit of grunting and shifting and maneuvering with much encouragement from me to keep going and recover EVERYTHING that had gone under the bed to die! :)

All that recon and effort paid off, cuz we ended up with lots of things to clear out!

With all that stuff gone, we were left with a MUCH nicer looking Toy Box…

Mickey and Minnie are MUCH happier as well, now that their dominion has been put to rights. They prefer to have their Toy Box Kingdom nice and orderly, for it’s much easier to keep their toy minions in line that way, you know.

Isn’t it amazing what a little child labor can accomplish?

Ah, I think that twitching has momentarily stopped!

:)

Do you have beautifully organized and sorted bins of toys for your little ones, or do you dump ‘em all together like me?

Don’t forget! As well as being Wild Wade’s big #4 birthday, tomorrow is also the day that all blogland has been living in wonder about. Google Friend Connect is going buh-bye! If you haven’t already, take a sec and pick another way to follow along… subscribe in a reader, or follow along on the fun through facebook.

Don’t wanna lose any of you awesome people!

{follow LLL} {Please check out my AWESOMELY RAD Sponsors!}

Menu Monday…

Renee — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:53:00 +0000

Dinner with Mom tonight since I’m at her house today! :)

Asian Chicken Wings via 5 Dinners 1 Hour

Ranch Pork Chops

Wade’s BIG #4! We’re celebrating with our free Super bowl pizza from Papa John’s! Did you get yours?? Can’t beat F-R-E-E!!

From the Freezer… Lime Chicken & Black Bean Burritos via If You Want Good Food

Only 21 minutes to prep FOUR meals!

I know I keep harping on this, but doubling or dividing recipes combined with freezer stashing is seriously da bomb. A teensy bit more effort and I’ve got two meals ready in the freezer for another week.

I looked at the timer after the Ranch Pork Chops, and I fixed both of them in only NINE minutes! Woot! Told you they were easy peasy!

And don’t those Asian Chicken Wings look scrumptious?! They were a cinch to prep, and I am hoping they will be a big fat hit. :)

Do you wanna take a stab at a stress free dinnertime? Click for more info on how on earth I do it.   {Did I mention I ♥ it?}

Check here for more Monday Menu Inspiration from orgjunkie!

What are you cooking this week?? Anything easy and delish I need to know about?? :)

{follow LLL} {Please check out my AWESOMELY RAD Sponsors!}

Fashion Friday!

Renee — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:35:00 +0000

Are you ready for some more Fashion Fun? Maybe one of these days I’ll be cool and set up a tripod or get someone to take pics for me, but until then… it’s these “lovely” self shots in the mirror wonders. :)

At least this month, the mirror is semi clean for most of the shots! I’ll take that as a win for mommy!!

Top: Merona via Goodwill, Cardigan: Mossimo via GW, Jeans: Gap, Shoes: BORN via GW

I picked up this top from Goodwill, but wasn’t crazy about it once I got it home! {Hate it when that happens!} But paired with the green cardigan I like it much better. Oh, the power of layering!

Aren’t these earrings too cute? I don’t have too many opportunities to wear them, but I love the little pizzazz they add!

Top: Say What via Ross, Cardigan: Goodwill, Jeans: Rocks & Indigo via TJMAX, Boots: Carini

To me, this outfit is pretty much the perfect mixture of dressy casual. I very much love dressing up jeans with a nice top and feeling comfy… and looking dressed up. :) It’s hard to beat comfort in my book. I can do the ‘uncomfortable but looks good’ for only so long.   I guess I’m an old mom, now. :)

Dress: Mossimo, Cardigan: Mossimo, Tank: Gap, Leggings: Target, Boots: Carini

For our Vday Date at Maggiano’s, the hubs requested a skirt/boots combo… something I don’t really do since the only leggings I have look like these. You know the ones that look like they belong to a toddler with all the pink and hearts?

This was a very different outfit for me, but I think I could try it again with a few changes.

I need to invest in some neutral leggings one of these days… :)

The dress was a cheapie I got from Target while I was preggo… it is seriously one of the most comfy dresses ever! It wasn’t maternity, fyi, just empire waisted, which usually it’s best to avoid, in my opinion… unless you are size 2, of course. :) Nothing worse than looking preggo when you’re 17 mo’s post partum, you know.

Top: Worthington, Shrug: Kohls, Pants: Express via Goodwill, Shoes: Maripe via Goodwill

It was Praise Team Sunday again, which meant donning my black shrug. :) Kind of makes me feel like the churches where the ladies must put on their “hats” for worship. In all honesty, though, the top is sleeveless, so I wouldn’t have worn it solo anyway in the winter. This is another of my tricky tops with its flattering pleats that cover up whatever you got going on underneath! What could be better, right?

Top: Banana Republic via Goodwill, Cardigan: Mossimo via Goodwill, Jeans: Gap

This is another GW top that looks much better with my ‘new’ green cardigan! For some reason I really love that green thing. It brings a great pop of color that brightens everything up. :)

I’ve been wearing my hair straight quite a lot lately which my hubby is adoring. Would you believe that the reason for this new straight hair trend is because of how much my silly hairspray costs? {Don’t mock, please!} :)

I have been letting it air-dry about halfway or so, then blow-drying it while simultaneously combing it with my fingers, knowwhatimean? Then I flat iron it with my red chi and voila, I have silky straight amazingness where once there was wavy frizzies.

I would love to find an easy non-hairsprayee way to go curly so after reading Laine’s awesome results using the headband NO HEAT curling method, I promptly set out to try it. I shared the moments with those of you on facebook {are you sharing in the fun there?}…

Mine didn’t turn out HALF as good as Laine’s, though she says I should try it again with a wider headband… AND I think I will flat iron it a bit before hand so it will be less frizzy on the top section that doesn’t get the curl.

I even held my breath for Laine-type results and tried it out on Haylee since the girl LOVES to have her super straight hair curled, but normal heat curl just doesn’t hold very long AT ALL. The good news is that it did curl her hair amazingly… which brings to me to the bad news… on the part of her hair that didn’t FALL OUT of the headband, that is.

{Laine to the rescue again, advised that I pin it in a bunch of places since I only pinned the ends in}.   You must go check out her BEAUTIFUL results… she still had curl the SECOND day!

Have you been trying anything new in the hair or clothes department? New can be scary or “risky,” but it can also be F-U-N! :) Plus…. when your “new” clothing risk is courtesy of Goodwill, it’s a much easier risk to take, right?! :)

Linking up at Pleated Poppy, Stepping out, Real Momma Real Style, Reasons to Skip the Housework, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Tatertots and Jello, Weekend Bloggy Link up, Bowl Full of Lemons, Somewhat Simple, the 36th Avenue, Five Days Five Ways, How to Nest for Less, Beauty & Bedlam, and Someday Crafts.

{follow LLL} {Please check out my AWESOMELY RAD Sponsors!}

Quick Steps on how to Coupon & Keep your Sanity!

Renee — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:00:00 +0000

After a few years off from couponing, I have dived back into the fray wrought with paper cuts and uptight cashiers.

My Coupon Queen Mother got me started in the madness back in 2005. I faithfully clipped, sorted and filed my stacks of coupons in a binder with plastic pages for about THREE years and built up a massive stockpile.

Life is still crazy, and we’ve added one more wild kid to hinder the experience, but we have gotten delusional enough to try it again anyway.

So… with feet dragging I committed.

What’s funny is, as MUCH as I DIDN’T want to coupon again, it really didn’t take long for me to get caught up in the excitement of saving the family so much money each week.

It really is crazy.

What is awesome about couponing is that it is one BIG area of your budget where there is opportunity for flexibility… simply based on your shopping choices.

Your house payment and car payment or your cell phone don’t have that same luxury unfortunately.

I am not an expert on coupons, by any means. I honestly have the mindset of getting the most bang for as little effort as I can get away with putting into it.

Because of that I think I am streamlining it as much as I possibly can… spending designated, minimal time on it each week while still resulting in significant savings.

If you are like me and you don’t want your whole life to be taken over by coupons, here’s what you do…

Are you ready??? :)

First of all, here’s a quick rundown of the Coupon Basics for you if you are just getting started…

STEP ONE: Buy a Sunday paper EVERY week. You can choose your preferred method of filing. There are mainly two popular methods…. “Clipping and filing each coupon” (see here ) and “Filing by inserts” (see here.) Try calling your paper and asking for any subscription deals. Just by asking for an expired promotion, I was able to get 2 papers delivered for a year for just a buck each! Woot!

STEP TWO: Go to the coupon site of your choice {I have a few listed below} and click on the grocery stores in your area and make a list of the deals you want to purchase that week.

STEP THREE: Start stockpiling. It will take a while, but eventually you should get to the point where you are ONLY BUYING THE SUPER FAB DEALS every week.

This is key… You should not shop with a list of what you need, but with a list of what’s on sale.

Okay, that’s how to DO IT, but how do you SAVE YOUR SANITY?

Here’s what works for me. Maybe it will work for you too…

Couponing hard core can VERY quickly spiral into utter craziness. So for me I decided that I am going to really try to focus on only getting things I need and will use. I don’t want to stockpile 5 bags of sugar only to pull them out months later rock hard. That means I’m only adding free or super steal items to my list. That means less coupons I’ll be pulling and clipping and less items I’ll be trying to find and then paying for ultimately.

Plan your week around the best coupon strategy and schedule for you. Pick the best day of the week to shop and then work from there. Just like the meal planning and prep… split tasks up onto different days so you aren’t left feeling overwhelmed with the monstrosity of the job.

At the very least, try to make your list and pull and clip your coupons one day and do your shopping another.

One of the biggest part of the process is the clipping part. Instead of cutting ALL the coupons using the Binder Method, I just file them by date in a file box using the Insert Method. Then I make my list and only clip the coupons I will actually be using that week. This saves an ENORMOUS amount of time.

My box has a nifty little compartment in the top where I can stash my organizing supplies. :)

With just a few steps, you can get your Coupon Box super organized in order to make coupon clipping time as PAINLESS as possible.

First of all you should write the date of the insert plainly on the outside cover. You can find the date is the teeniest, most miniscule print ever known to man on the binding edge. You don’t want to have to strain you eyes every week to see what date insert you’re looking at, so write that date big and bold.

I also write the DATE on the post it label in pencil and attach it to the hanging folders.

As time goes on, I’ll be able to erase that date and change it to a newer date.

I label the file folders with the NAME of the insert… Smart Source, Redplum, and/or P&G, and stick them inside the hanging folder.

Now when I’m looking at list of which coupons to clip, I can find Redplum 1/29 {for example} in a flash.

I paperclip each store’s coupons and put them and all my lists together in this super cute little Old Navy pouch I got at Goodwill.



I also have post-its, a pen, and a calculator in there ready to face whatever mathematical situation that gets me stumped. :) It happens more than you would think. Blast those 4/$5 deals.

But, where do you find all the deals?

Coupon deal sites have literally exploded in the last few years, and there are TONS of great sites that will give you all the info you need to know… for FREE! I have been using Southern Savers and The Grocery Game to look for super deals at my stores. They show you how you can pair up the store’s sales with coupons to get amazingly cheap stuff!

{The Grocery Game is not free, but for right now I have a 6 week free trial. It’s basically $10 every 8 weeks for one store and $5 additionally for every other store.}

Two other sites to try are A Full Cup and my friend Christina at Centsible Savings.

And there you have it. I think I can honestly say that I think it IS possible to coupon with great results and still maintain whatever sanity you managed to start with. :)

What are your favorite coupon saving tips and deal sites?

Are you pro-binder or pro-insert method??

I find it quite shocking that I am right here back in the throes of it all again. If you had told me a few months ago I would be writing this post right now, I wouldn’t have believed you. :)

*Sometimes I link up at these parties… Weekend Bloggy Link up, Tatertots & Jello, House of Hepworths,Bowl Full of Lemons,Organize & Decorate Everything, Not Just a Housewife, Funky Junk Interiors, Somewhat Simple, Shabby Creek Cottage, No Minimalist Here, Skip to my Lou,Today’s Creative Blog, the 36th Avenue, Thrifty Décor Chick, Home Stories A-Z, Five Days Five Ways, How to Nest for Less, and Someday Crafts. You should check ‘em out!!

{follow LLL} {Please check out my AWESOMELY RAD Sponsors!}

What’s for Dinner??

Renee — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 12:00:00 +0000

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Chicken & Spinach Pasta Bake via Saving Money Living Life

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Garlic & Brown Sugar Chicken via food.com

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From the Freezer… Roasted Shrimp & Feta /2 via Make 5 Dinners in 1 Hour

We survived our THIRD WEEK of the crazy couponing! We went to three stores with THREE kids and lived to tell about it.

We overspent our $40/week budget once again, but not too badly. Though that is not counting our late night splurge on a yummy strawberry shortcake. Mmm, mmm! :) More importantly we are building up our stockpile and even finding coupon deals on butter and milk. Woot!

I improvised the Spinach Pasta Bake by taking out the chicken and replacing it with Black Beans. I can’t wait to see how it tastes… hoping it’s a winner. I didn’t have the rigatoni noodles, so I substituted elbow macaroni instead. :)

As a bonus, maybe I can convince Mr. Picky Pants Wade that I’m serving him Super Special Mac & Cheese!

I also tweaked the Garlic & Brown Sugar Chicken to make it easier for me. {Big shock, right?} According to the recipe, you should sauté the garlic cloves and then mix in the brown sugar. Then pour that over your chicken and bake.

I know a “real cook” would never do what I’m about to share, but I just hate TWO part cooking!   If I’m baking something, I don’t want the hassle of having to cook part of it on the stove first!!

Am I the only one with this time saving culinary harming habit?

To skip the stove top step, I just combined garlic powder and brown sugar in a bowl and stirred in some olive oil. I sprinkled that over the chicken for baking.

Don’t hate on me too much, and I’ll let you know how it is!

I divided both of these recipes and sent them to the freezer for quick and easy use later!

The Spinach Pasta took forever long to make… couldn’t believe it when I checked the stop watch! Probably since I think I’ve only made it once and that was a while ago. I was doing my prep in the evening too with everyone around during part of it, and it is so much harder to work quickly with distractions everywhere! It wasn’t difficult… it just had a LOT of steps! Ironically, one of which was cooking the noodles on the stove before putting them in the casserole dish, lol, but I didn’t try to skip it, believe it or not. :)

Though if you tell me I can put dry noodles in a casserole dish and have them come out like the Crockpot Spaghetti, than I probably WOULD give it a shot!

41 minutes to prep FOUR meals… :) Woohoo!

Do you wanna take a stab at a stress free dinnertime? Click for more info on how on earth I do it.   {Did I mention I ♥ it?}

Check here for more Monday Menu Inspiration from orgjunkie!

Are you great at switching things up and swapping out ingredients left and right?

Do you simplify recipes to save time and effort??

Please tell me I’m not the only one with this bad habit. :) It is yet more evidence in the case for my non cooking abilities. :) I’m all about EASY in the kitchen, for sure.

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Thoughts on Forgiveness

Renee — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:00:00 +0000

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I’ve had my share of the technical blog talk of late… as I’m sure all of you have too! Thank you for indulging me in my last post. You all are the best!   :)

I’m focusing on the fact that whatever will be, will be on the little blog o’ mine. :)

So instead of the Beautify your Blog post, I want to get a teensy personal today {gulp} and share a great big flaw of mine.

Who knows. Maybe some of you can relate.

We all want to BE forgiven for our many many wrongs, don’t we? But sometimes we tend to hoard that same forgiveness from others.

Okay, is that just me??

I’m what you could call a sensitive person. I can’t watch terribly disturbing shows or movies without dwelling on them for hours or sometimes days later.

I’ll never forget when my hubby and I were newly dating, and he was so excited to show me his favorite movie… Seven. After the credits rolled, I was so seriously freaked, I cried.

That was one of those most disturbing movies I think I’ve ever seen. It’s about a serial killer who killed people based on the seven deadly sins from Proverbs, just in case you were wondering.

After Chris watches or hears something horridly awful on Dateline or 20/20 or even the regular old news nowadays, he has this magical ability to just turn it off in his brain and sleep like a baby.

I’m a muser and a dweller. I just can’t get stuff outta my head for some unknown reason.

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This has proved interesting in our marriage too. A statement made by Chris and promptly forgotten is ingested and analyzed and stewed over by me.

:)

I was gripped recently with some liberating thoughts on forgiveness.

Forgiveness is not a magical feeling that suddenly comes over you and allows you to let things go and move on. As hard as it is, Forgiveness is just a choice.

True Forgiveness is a choice to release the person who hurt us from the pain they have caused. — M. Southerland, GiG

That was a powerful thought to me. Sometimes when I’m hurt, I want to hang onto those melancholy feelings and feel sad and dramatic just a little bit longer. Almost as if I need to let the hurt FULLY mature and run its course. Or something else equally bizarre and irrational.

What I’m saying is how I feel about the hurt is more important than forgiving the hurt. –M.Southerland

It’s important to recognize that while we can’t control when hurts come, it is completely within our control HOW we respond. Even when the hurt is overwhelming, and we can’t understand why or how something happened, we can make a choice to forgive… just as we have received full and abundant forgiveness.

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This last quote from Southerland really hit me hard…

Forgiveness is not limited to those who deserve it, those who apologize, or those who change!

Say what?

I think I sometimes operate under the assumption that my forgiveness should only be awarded to those whose apologies and contriteness meet my criteria and approval.

But that isn’t grace. That isn’t Christ.

In our moment of pain, we may want to hang onto the hurt and feel sorry for ourselves a while longer, but letting go is the best choice we can make… for ourselves AND for the health of our relationships.

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Please do not get me wrong… I definitely have not mastered this concept… by any means.

Just ask my long suffering hubby.   :)

Any fellow worrier, muser, dwellers out there? What do YOU do to turn off your brain?

Linking up at Weekend Bloggy Link up, Bowl Full of Lemons, the 36th Avenue, Five Days Five Ways, and Someday Crafts.

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Something New & a Big FAT Plea!

Renee — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:00:00 +0000

As if I don’t have enough blog technical issues right now, my photobucket account decided to get cheeky.

Due to bandwidth limits or whatever, all my nav bar, sidebar titles, blog buttons, and more got replaced with a lovely little photobucket message instead. :(

Boo!!

It happened right before Kristi was set to start moving me over, and I knew I needed to get it fixed pronto before she popped over to start the process. So I created a new photobucket account and rehosted all the essentials there and relinked everything one at a time!

Well, fast forward just a nano second later, and now I’m getting the same message again from the new account.

I guess it’s a good problem to have because we’re talking “too many page views,” but I definitely didn’t want to have to pay the $25/year to go pro with photobucket.

I pitched the problem to my brother, and he gave me a quick [duh, you’re stupid} lesson on hosting your photos through your wordpress account, thereby negating the page view worries.

So after MUCHO hassle of moving things over and figuring out how in the heck to change certain things in WordPress that awesome Kristi had completely set up for me… {like the nav bar, oh my!}

I am finally completely photobucket FREE! Woot!

BUT……

That means that if you were one of the totally awesome peeps to have my button showing sweetly on your sidebar, that will no longer work. :(

You can grab the new code now, and from here on out, you should have NO PROBLEMO!!!

For some reason I can’t get the code box to appear in the post, so you can grab the code from the sidebar if you wish!

Here’s where the sad and desperate plea comes in…

I’ve had some very disappointing news about my subscribers. Are you ready for me to start the tears?

On February 8th, according to feedburner, I had 450 subscribers.

On February 9th, I was down to 171.

That’s almost 300 down!!!!!!!!! :(

I don’t understand it, and I don’t know if it’s a glitch in the numbers, and everyone’s still out there or not.

Feedburner is {shock} owned by google, and their help forums are even worse than the blogger ones. It’s like a ghost town over there. Everyone posts their questions, and there they sit unanswered.

I did find a current theme, that people whose blogs were “down” for a bit took a hit on their feedburner subscribers. So that could be it I guess, since mine was down off and on for 2 days.

All of that to say, I would L-O-V-E you forever and Be your Best Friend, and whatever other promise I gotta make, if you would take a second right now and “re-subscribe” in your READER.

You can click the RSS button here, or up on the top right of my page, and then choose the reader you prefer.

I use Google Reader, which I ironically heart big time, despite their lack of customer service. So I recommend choosing Google.

Then click Add to Google Reader.

This is ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT if you think you may be following using Google Friend Connect.

This is supposed to be going away for WordPress users in just over 2 weeks, and nobody really knows WHAT that means for the blogs you have subscribed to that way. Right now Google sends the feed to Google Reader, but since they are deleting it, the feed may be deleted from your reader as well!

You can open your reader and see on the left hand column a list of the blogs you are following via GFC if you aren’t sure.

Unless you have manually subscribed to these blogs in your reader, they may completely GO AWAY March 1st.

So will you help a sister out and share some love to help soften my blow of losing 300 peeps? It will just take a sec to follow the above steps!!

It would make my ~~day~~ ~~week~~ MONTH to see that number go back up!

Thanks for hanging in there with me through all this transition hoopla. I am definitely ready for things to calm down on the blog home front. :)

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Menu Monday

Renee — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 12:00:00 +0000

BBQ Sandwiches from Kyle Fletcher… yummy leftovers from Pop’s birthday!

From the Freezer… Slow Cooked Steak via Make 5 Dinners in 1 Hour

From the Freezer… Crockpot Sesame Chicken via If You Want Good Food

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Baked Ziti… courtesy of Maggiano’s meal deal from our date night! Woot!

Week Two of my restart in Coupons was quite challenging. Somehow the clipping part seemed to drag on endlessly as I would find something else I needed to clip… over and over! I also shopped FOUR stores this week and came close to doubling our projected $40 budget.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that a good portion of that was great stock up opportunities, which is going to result in a lower amount I’ll be spending on “staples” in the weeks to come.

Plus… we are still way under what we were spending regularly at Walmart.

This week I am enjoying a Meal Prep Break due to some pretty sweet leftovers from our weekend gallivanting!

We took advantage of a fabulous deal at Maggiano’s. You won’t believe it. For $39 you get an appetizer and dessert to share, two entrees, as well as two entrees to take home!

And this is the kind of place where the entrees are seriously ENORMOUS!

When we walked in, there was a large sign saying that it was Murder Mystery Night, though we must have been too early for the party. We did keep our eyes open for possible spectacles around us but left without any crime committed.   :)

We’ve thought about doing those Murder Mystery Dinner Theater things, but I really think we are not extroverted enough for such an activity.

Our Cruise adventures proved that theory. We just don’t enjoy forced dinner conversation with random people. :)

I picked the Baked Ziti to take home and after my delirious raving, Chris picked the lasagna for my benefit. It was simply amazing!!!

Just in case you were wondering, the lasagna is going in the freezer for later!!

:)

A bunch of dinners in Zilcho Minutes.

Woohoo!

Do you wanna take a stab at a stress free dinnertime? Click for more info on how on earth I do it.   {Did I mention I ♥ it?}

Check here for more Monday Menu Inspiration from orgjunkie!

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Living Laughing & Loving

Beautify your Blog… Favorite WordPress Plugins!

Birthday News & Sponsor Love

The Toys are Taking Over…

Menu Monday…

Fashion Friday!

Quick Steps on how to Coupon & Keep your Sanity!

Okay, that’s how to DO IT, but how do you SAVE YOUR SANITY?

But, where do you find all the deals?

What’s for Dinner??

Thoughts on Forgiveness

Something New & a Big FAT Plea!

Menu Monday