Living, Laughing, and Loving

Menu Monday… ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!

noreply@blogger.com (Renee Living Laughing Loving) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0000

This is Week Two of our Spending Freeze! We once again made a focused trip to the store JUST for our absolute BASIC staples.

The rest of our meals are coming straight from the pantry or freezer.

This Spending Freeze has taught us quite a lot about the difference between want and need.

It was painfully clear that we had really gotten accustomed to strolling the grocery aisle stuffing items in the buggy willy nilly.

We are hoping to roll over this life lesson when the freeze is lifted and we start a new month with a brutally slashed grocery budget.

Just cuz I WANT it doesn’t mean I GOTTA HAVE IT. :)

From the Freezer… Sweet & Tangy Chicken via Syrup and Biscuits

From the Freezer… Honey Mustard Teriyaki Chicken

Crockpot BBQ Chicken via Fork in it

This is a very B-I-G day.

ONE YEAR AGO this very week was when I made that fateful FIRST step in tackling all my dinners in LESS than an hour!

I called it the Martha Stewart Experiment.

Here’s a bit of what I said in that post one YEAR ago…

“The title {Martha Stewart Experiment} is really a misnomer, since Martha probably wouldn't ever do this. It would be SO beneath her culinary skills, I'm sure. But in my mind, if this experiment succeeds, I'm one step closer to being Martha-like.

I am not a cook. I do not claim in any way to be one, just for the record. I know that doesn't do anything for my wifely image. It's not very cool to NOT be a great and fabulous cook, but it is what it is.”

I am FLOORED by the change in my cooking in just one year. If I could’ve had an itty bitty glimpse into the future, I don’t think I would have believed that I would be cooking things like Shrimp and Feta, Broiled Tilapia Parmesan, Foil Wrapped Salmon, Slow Cooked Steak, Ranch Pork Chops, the Amazing French Dip Subs, AND SO MANY MORE.

It was a year of trying many new things… some were successes and some were most definitely FAILS.

I had a major cooking epiphany after reading a post in July about freezer cooking. I started doubling easy meals to send to the freezer, and as a result, I have STOCKED my freezer! Several times I have even pulled entire week’s menus from the freezer…

Hello! Spending Freeze, anyone?

You may not realize it, but that is a pretty amazing feat for such a former non-cook as me!

I’m so glad that a year ago I decided to give this a try.

Just 10 minutes to prep 2 meals this week, and one, of course, is going to the freezer! This Crockpot BBQ Chicken is utterly amazing {and of course you know it’s easy, right?}.

This is one you definitely MUST try!!! Great to freeze too! Mmmm! Sooo good! Plus, it is toddler approved which is always a bonus. :)

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’s cooking at your house this week? Do you like to stock your freezer? And most importantly… When are you going to try the Crockpot BBQ Chicken??!!

F-F-F-Fashion Friday!

noreply@blogger.com (Renee Living Laughing Loving) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Let me start by saying that taking self shots of all your outfits is harder than it seems.

It could have something to do with the fact that I tend to always be running late so there is scant time for photo taking as I’m running out the door grabbing bags and kids.

And… as soon as I step foot in the house, I am peeling off accessories and shoes and grabbing my comfy pants.

It’s sad, I know.

There have been many times where my outfit is long gone, and I remember,

“Oh darn. I was gonna take a picture of my rad ensemble. Whoops. Too late now. Already comfy.”

Not to mention the fact that I usually try to clean up the random toys or other paraphernalia littering the photo area before I can even attempt a pic.

Some days I cared more than others as you’ll see below.

Top: Ocean Pacific, Jeans: Gap, Shoes: BORN via Goodwill

This was my first outfit of the year… on January 1st… on my way the Minute Clinic with a self-diagnosed sinus infection.

Not fun, but at least my flannel shirt is OH SO comfy!

I love my new earrings too! Can earrings be comfy? Cuz these are. I love how lightweight they are. I can’t wear heavy earrings very long at all. These pretties have a way of making even my comfy outfits fab. :)

Top: Apt 9 from Kohls, Jeans: Express Skyscraper, Shoes: old faithful brown flats

I found another pair of skinny jeans on a MAJOR sale at the actual Express store {believe it or not}! I had looked in GAP and nothing was on sale, so I went across the mall to try out Express. Don’t know if I have been in one since high school… if ever. I always get Express and Limited mixed up, so who knows. They seem the same, right?

I’m not a big mall shopper obviously. Give me Ross and Goodwill any day.

I loved that these skinny jeans were extra long and they flared a teensy bit to combat the skinny jeans pear look I really wanna avoid. :)

And here’s the same top with my other skinny jeans and boots!

Top: Apt 9 from Kohls, Jeans: Rocks & Indigo via Ross, Boots: Sketchers

The Apt 9 shirt from Kohls was actually torturously purchased with some Kohls cash on the last day before it expired. The whole lot of us had SUCH A BLAST together in Kohls while I tried to find something for $20. Can you hear my sarcasm dripping?

It was a nightmare. What took so long was my endless back and forth struggle of not being able to find ANYTHING on a good enough sale to justify buying it versus it being the last day I could use the kohls cash and comeonrenee it is ‘free money.’

After Chris had retreated to the van with the three kids in pure exhaustion, I was left to try to hurry up and just find something!! I finally found this top under a sign that said $14.99. OF COURSE, it rang up for like $24.99.

Ack! Thankfully for my sanity and the sake of our marriage, the cashier took my word for it and magically punched the numbers in to make it work.

Isn’t it funny how the cashiers can do that when they WANT TO, but when they don’t want to help you or honor a marked price or advertisement, they always shrug helplessly and say so contritely, “I’m sorry, but the computer/register/system won’t let me do it.”

Uh, we’re on to you, cashier peeps.

As a side note, I am totally in love with this initial necklace that was a Christmas gift. R for me! :) I’m totally into the monogram craze.

Sweater: Aeropostale , Jeans: Express Skyscraper, Shoes: American Eagle

It’s hard to get a shot without a cute photo bomb or two. Yes, Wade is wearing a toboggan and carrying a sword. Doesn’t everyone? :)

Sweater: Old Navy, Jeans: Express Skyscraper, Shoes: Brown Flats

I think this was a night picture probably taken right before I dashed to get comfy. My little Davis Man loves to crawl through my legs for some reason. :)

Sweater: Lux via GW Top: Banana Republic, Pants: Express via GW, Shoes: Maripe via GW

I love that almost this entire outfit came from the amazing Goodwill! Woot! That necklace is another Christmas gift! I like adding a long necklace especially to outfits where you’d like to take attention AWAY from your midsection. Something sparkly to attract the eye instead of that area you’d like ignored. :)

Davis is ready for another GW trip too! {yeah right!}

Top: IZ Byer, Shrug: Say What, Pants: Express via GW, Shoes: Maripe via GW

I love this purple top from Kohls. It is dressy and feminine and with the gathered waist it hides a multitude of flaws. :)

Sweater: Gap, Jacket: No Boundaries via GW, Jeans: Rocks & Indigo via Ross, Boots: Carini

{Isn’t the Wadester pretty stylin’ himself? I’m a sucker for the sweater vest. Love it!}

I love this new jacket from a recent goodwill adventure. It has a kind of army feel that is a different look for me. It’s always nice to try something new. :)

I’m learning that sometimes a great look comes from lots of interesting layers and/or accessories. During my last solo GW trip, I looked for things that ordinarily wouldn’t stand out to me… cardigans, jackets etc. A good cardigan, shrug, or jacket can really give that extra interesting wow factor. :)

Have you found any super steals lately? Any fashion styling tips to share?

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

A Cloche Before & After

noreply@blogger.com (Renee Living Laughing Loving) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Before the world of home décor blogs, I honestly had never even heard the word cloche… let alone knew what it was.

And can I admit that I still am not sure how to say it?

But after seeing so many great cloche redos all across the bloggy web, I started scoping out Goodwill in the hopes that I TOO could be the proud owner of my very own cloche!

It took a LONG TIME, darn it, but I finally found one. That was the good news. The bad news was it looked like this.

Yikes!

BUT… I’ve read ENOUGH of my favorite bloggers to know that you must look beyond a Goodwill item’s exterior and imagine what it could be with the magic of spray paint!

Before I started, I had the BIG IDEA to see if I could pop off the lovely flowered plate. It’s actually like a ceramic plate glued on top of the wooden base.

Well, that was a yes. And a no.

I hadn’t realized it, but the wooden base was actually two pieces glued together and in the process of trying to remove the plate, it split, slipped out my hands, and fell on my unforgiving tile floor.

I didn’t completely despair though since I figured I could use another famous bloggy tool… hot glue. :) {The hot glue did not end up holding, though, and as of now it just has the appearance of being back in one piece. I need to glue it again with a stronger glue, and I think it will be fine.}

I think this was my first spray paint project and lemme just say it looks easier when my fave bloggers do it.

I had trouble with not letting the sides dry long enough between coats and then having it stick. I also had some very uncool drippage.

Moral of the story… Give yourself oodles of dry time before trying to flip it over, and spray super thin coats.

Now if I just remember that for next time.

I love the result!! Wowsa!

And here it is all decorated for Christmas…

Can you believe the difference a little spray paint makes?

Can’t beat the return on the investment of a little bit of spray paint.

The cloche was around $4 I think and the spray paint was from the hubby’s stash, which means I got a super fab cloche for only $4!

Does your Goodwill have lots of cloches? I was excited to score another one ready for some magic the other day.

And this one is still in one piece… for NOW! :)

Have YOU done a cloche makeover? What kinds of things do you display in them? I need ideas! :)

Any tips for my next project?

I think a bright turquoise color would be fun. :)

*Sometimes I link up at these parties… Weekend Bloggy Link up, Tatertots & Jello, House of Hepworths, Delightful Order,Bowl Full of Lemons,Organize & Decorate Everything, Funky Junk Interiors, Somewhat Simple, Shabby Creek Cottage, No Minimalist Here, Skip to my Lou,Fingerprints on the Fridge,CRAFT,Today’s Creative Blog, the 36th Avenue, Thrifty Décor Chick, Home Stories A-Z, Five Days Five Ways, I heart Organizing, and Someday Crafts. You should check ‘em out!!

A Menu Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Renee Living Laughing Loving) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0000

The hubby and I got really serious with ourselves and our budget. We are officially on a spending freeze.

Since we were already OVER our grocery budget for January {ouch}, I thought it might be a good {& crazy} idea to try to live off the pantry and freezer for the next two weeks… minus extremely limited staples like bread, milk… and animal crackers, of course. :)

To be honest, I wasn’t sure we could do it, but it felt really good to actually be looking in my pantry for meals instead of just running to the store for whatever was tickling my fancy on pinterest. :)

We slashed our grocery budget that will start in February, and I am *gulp* going to try to delve back into the Crazy Coupon Bandwagon.

{I know. I know.}

I did coupons hardcore for about 3 years, but I’ve been on a Coupon Break since I went back to work when Wade was about 6 months old.

It will be more time and work I’ll need to fit into my week, but if our goal is saving money on our groceries, using coupons is kind of like the biggest no brainer ever.

From the Freezer… Cream Cheese Enchiladas via Pearls & Handcuffs

Poppy Seed Chicken

{source}

Date Night… TJ’s fabulous Orange Chicken

{Yes, believe it or not, we’re even eating in for our date night, but we’re still living it up since TJ’s Orange Chicken is pretty much as good as take out!}

From the Freezer… Asian Pork Chops image via The Cooking Husband

Because of our Challenge, I only had to prep ONE meal this week! And ALL our meals are coming from our Pantry or Freezer! Woot!

Don’t you love that orange baking dish? It’s a super Anchor Hocking steal that I found at Goodwill! {Before the Spending Freeze, of course.} :)

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’s up on your Menu this week?

I’d also love to hear what your tricks are to save big $$$ on your groceries.

I definitely could use the inspirational kick in the patooty.

What to do when your Blog is Disabled by Google

noreply@blogger.com (Renee Living Laughing Loving) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:32:00 +0000

Yesterday gave me QUITE the blogger whirlwind.

In response to a post about Google removing the friend connect widget, I tweeted a silly reply… {that’ll teach me}

*Edit… {I’m blocking the name I called them since that is becoming the focus of the post for some people, and I’m really not trying to get into a politically correct debate. Just trying to share what to do when your blog is disabled out of the blue by Google.}

Later that afternoon, I tried to log into my blog and BAM received this message…

Say What??? I’m disabled? Is this for real?

I admit I don’t understand how the internet works, but I don’t see how it’s remotely possible that Giant Google saw a random tweet by me calling them a silly name.

And within hours their company of ROBOTS decided I should get the ax. It’s just extremely ironic, though it did make me wonder.

I shared my woes on facebook and can’t say enough how much it meant to have people commiserate with my feelings of despair. Thanks to everyone for all the advice and love.

I did take that opportunity to try to make amends with google after a question from my cousin Shelly…

What’s really crazy is I do heart google in a great big fat way. They are are my go to search engine and have been since way back. I have even tried to use swagbucks search engine to earn some dough, but seem to always go back to google because it just seems so much better!

Most every day, all day I have at least FOUR google tabs open. My blog, gmail, google calendar, and igoogle with mylisty tab.

See my love, google??

After I tried to read through the long links of their terms of services and other links, I clicked the button to contact them and got this amazing message…

Uh, really? “We’ll follow up with you only if we require more info or if we have additional info to share?”

I am just amazed that a product with SUCH stellar quality could have such ‘not stellar’ customer service. {To be honest, I’m scared to criticize them for fear of what else they’ll do.}

My Gmail account was also locked, but when I tried to log in again using my original yahoo address, I got a text verification that got me back in.

I then tried to google {ironic, I know} what I could do, since I wasn’t holding my breath on a reply.

In the google forums, I found this course of action being repeated over and over again by this one user who appeared to be somehow working or volunteering for blogger/google.

That is his instructions on what to do.

Do you see the entire page of links???

When you click on just that first link {cuz that’s as far as I got}, it’s ANOTHER article with MORE links of things to read. It’s like the “confuse ‘em til they give up method” of dealing with customers.

So basically what this dude on the forum is saying you have to do is…

1) Read all 8 of those articles {plus more that are linked within them I assume}.

2) Submit a review request. As best I can figure, this is referring to the original contact form on the notice that your account was disabled.

3) Submit an appeal. I found this link to an appeal spreadsheet on the first of the 8 articles.

4) And finally, post in the blogger forum under ‘Something is Broken’ what your problem is and indicate that you have done the other steps

Unfortunately, if your blog is disabled or deleted by google, you have NO GUARANTEE that it will come back. It may. It may not.

Yes, you are that powerless. You get what you pay for, and since blogger is free… you know what that means.

You can follow those four steps and hope for the best, but if they say no. It’s a NO.

Because I purchased my domain {livinglaughingandloving.com as opposed to just blogspot.com} my techie brother was about to forward my domain to my facebook page. As in, if you clicked or typed www.livinglaughingandloving.com you would be directed to facebook.com/livinglaughingnloving. That way I could at least keep everyone updated a tiny bit.

While he was messing with it through godaddy.com he went back to check on it, and THE BLOG WAS BACK!!

Woo to the big time Hoo!

I never heard so much as a peep from google, so who really even knows what happened, or if anything I did on the dude’s checklist even worked, but hey. I’m back.

And that makes me so very extremely happy.

After having my blog I have worked on for FIVE years, yanked suddenly out from under me with no warning or REASON given, I have decided to start making plans to move to Wordpress.

I have resisted until now what the rest of blogosphere has been doing, but I don’t think I can stay on blogger any longer.

The major downside is what it will cost me to get set up on Wordpress and the cost of someone moving everything over for me.

But I’m ready to do it.

You know what they say. Fool me once… shame on you. Fool me twice… shame on me.

If you are on blogger, beware. I know you think it could never happen to you, but it can.

Make sure you are regularly backing up your blog so you’ll be able to restore it somewhere else if Google deletes you permanently.

*Edit… On the new interface you should go to Design, Settings, and Other. Near the top, you’ll see Export Blog. This will save it on your computer under the name Blogandtodaysdate.

On the old interface, go to Design, Settings, and Basic. Near the top middle, click Export Blog.

Then click Download Blog.

Do it NOW!!!

*Edit… my techie brother said he found some people saying that a possible cause for being flagged as a spam blogger could be pasting links inside the comments you leave on other blogs.

Remember, it’s not Joe Blow, Google employee, that will be determining your blog should be deleted. It will be their robots that see your links left everywhere. If you’re a blogger blog, then it probably would make sense to paste links in comments VERY rarely.

Anyone else had this happen? What did you do, and what was your outcome?

I’d also love any recommendations for an affordable and reliable person that does Blogger to Wordpress conversions!

So glad to be BACK!!!

On a much lighter, FUN note, I am guest posting today for my friend, Christina, over at The Frugal Homemaker. Please go check it out and show her some love. :)

Crockpot Ranch Pork Chops… finger licking good

noreply@blogger.com (Renee Living Laughing Loving) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0000

I ran across this recipe from Picky Palate early last year in the very beginning of my weekly meal prep journey, and it was a GRAND SLAM, lemme tell you.

This is one of my Top Five Dinners for sure. It is sooooo very good. And easy.

Do I even need to say that anymore? If I am posting a recipe, you can be darn sure it’s not going to be complicated, am I right? Every time I talk about a recipe, though, I somehow feel the need to rave on and on about how easy it was. I guess because I know that is often what sells me on trying something new!

Easy and delicious = a winning combination.

This one definitely meets the criteria and is a triple bonus for being KID FRIENDLY.

Woot!

Seriously. Have I convinced you yet? I’m not even exaggerating one teeny tiny bit. It is unbelievably easy, and you will LOVE it!

Ready for the details?

Uh, yeah. You heard right. Only THREE ingredients. I wasn’t joking.

Pork Chops
Ranch Seasoning Dry Mix Packet
1 can Cream of Chicken plus 1 can water as needed {or 2 cans cream of chicken} This will depend on how fast your crockpot cooks and how long you’ll be cooking it.

Ready for the hard part? {I’m so funny. I know.} Combine all three ingredients in the crockpot and mix well. Yup. That’s it.

Or… if you are awesome and are prepping your meals ahead, you can combine all ingredients in a gallon size Ziploc bag and squish around to mix.

This also freezes great! It is one of my favorites to double and send to the freezer! When I’m ready for it, I just pull the Ziploc out, run the whole bag under hot water in the sink for a minute or two and then just pour it all into the crockpot to get cooking.

Just cook on low for 4-6 hours.

It will send DIVINE aromas through your house, and it is packed FULL of flavor!!

The gravy is absolutely perfect for mashed potatoes or rice and is definitely FINGER LICKING GOOD.

{Here’s a printer friendly version too without all my humorous commentary, har har!}

Pork Chops
Hidden Valley Ranch Mix Packet
1 can Cream of Chicken plus 1 can water as needed {or 2 cans cream of chicken}

Combine all three ingredients in the crockpot and mix well. Cook on low for 4-6 hours.

The next time you are wondering to yourself what the heck to have for dinner, no need to panic!

By the way, If you are not a pork person, this would also be good with chicken as per my mom. :)

Let me know if you give it a try!

The Nightmare Monster Buggy of Wal-Mart

noreply@blogger.com (Renee Living Laughing Loving) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0000

As I alluded to yesterday, I did not have the greatest shopping experience last week with the obnoxious Monster Sized Wal-Mart Buggy.

This image comes to mind…

{source}

As I’ve mentioned once or twenty times, I usually try to do whatever necessary to avoid shopping by myself with my three *beautifully behaved* {ahem} kiddos.

Despite, their angelic expressions, the experience does not leave their mother feeling verrrry happy… or verrry spiritual, for that matter.

Last week, however, I HAD to run out and get something on Friday and decided it would be quite dumb of me to be in the grocery store and not get what we would otherwise have to go out and get theverynextday.

I try to be mature every once in a while, you know.

Well, since I survived the trip last week and so very much enjoyed NOT HAVING TO GO ON SATURDAY, I decided I could be mature two weeks in a row and try to knock the grocery shopping out on Friday again… solo.

It’s always a dilemma for me deciding where to put all the kids and the corresponding groceries. As well as the decision of ‘Should I get the monster buggy with the extra kid’s seats or try to wing it with the normal sized one that rational people use?’

In this case, I decided to go for the Massive Un-maneuverable Buggy in hopes that I would have room in the cart for, you know, GROCERIES.

{source}

The concept is good. An extra attachment that provides room for TWO kids to sit and leaves the whole buggy free for groceries.

But why-oh-why are those things SO HARD TO push?!

In the battle of Me vs. the Un-Steerable Cart, the score was Me = Zilch and Un-steerable Cart = 1 gazillion.

I’m pretty sure 99% of the time we were in the store, I was hunched over with my rear in the air trying my best to push that thing and NOT run into anyone.

There may have also been some huffing noises and muttered angst as well.

I also broke every grocery store rule ingrained in me as a child when I purposefully wheeled my enormous buggy right over to the deli, picked up the $2 cup of popcorn chicken and offered it to my three kids as a plea to not totally rip my sanity to shreds.

{source}

If I were any kind of a respectable blogger I would have snapped a pic of my munchkins chowing down, perched on their portable throne, but alas, I was desperately trying to make the most out of their preoccupation. and of course…

I was pushing a Monster Buggy.

It WAS lunch time after all, and it managed to keep them quiet for a few minutes at least. It was a first, however, putting the EMPTY cup with only a few random crumbs up on the belt at the register. Paying for it AFTER we ate it?? I’m pretty sure that’s just a gateway crime leading straight to shoplifting. At the very least we have crossed over into redneck-ness.

I once again proved I am utterly moronic when after panting from aisle to aisle with my monster buggy, I was forced to ask another customer where on EARTH the sesame seeds would be.

I picked an older lady that looked like she would have spent a lifetime in the kitchen cooking with {what I consider} odd ingredients like say… sesame seeds.

Despite living the good old South, I do not make it a habit of speaking to random strangers, so this turned into a MAJOR FAIL for me, when I {of course} picked the nice lady that was hard of hearing.

Uh, yeah I did. After the puzzled looks and asking me to repeat myself, she pointed me to her husband, while laughing about not hearing well and not having little kids anymore.

I didn’t know what the kid comment meant until later after they both started helping me look in the spice section {DUH!} and she finally realized what I had asked.

“Oh! {Giggle} I thought you said Sesame STREET!”

The nice lady ended up saving the day when she found the blasted sesame seeds sitting right there in the spice aisle.

{source}

{Why am I so retarded?} I am hoping this recipe I’m fixing today will be worth it.

I faced even more huffing and perspiration when I somehow managed to get the Enormous Thing WEDGED along side the checkout counter and could not get it to move forward all the way.

I tried backing up and getting it out of the groove.

I tried heaving with all my might and lifting the giant gerdie holding my two sons up and over to release it from its prison.

Lifting and heaving was to no avail, except for with every lift and heave,

Wade would holler, ‘WHOA!’ very loudly.

Uh, thanks. That really helps my perspiring problem.

At least these kiddies of mine are cute.

A fact that helps moms everywhere NOT go bonkers.

What say you? Are you all ‘Mother of the Year Saints’ who regularly go shopping with all your kids along??

Please, please tell me I’m not the only one with an unholy abhorrence for the Monster Buggy?!

*Sometimes I link up at these parties… Weekend Bloggy Link up, Bowl Full of Lemons, Somewhat Simple, Fingerprints on the Fridge, the 36th Avenue, Five Days Five Ways, and Someday Crafts. You should check ‘em out!!

Menu Monday!

noreply@blogger.com (Renee Living Laughing Loving) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Crockpot Sesame Chicken via If You Want Good Food

Lime Chicken & Black Bean Burritos via If You Want Good Food

{Turkey & Cheese Rolls}

From the Freezer… Asian Pork Chops image via The Cooking Husband

I am so excited about these two new meals I’m trying courtesy of none other than Pinterest, of course. I have looked at sesame seed chicken recipes before but they were all pretty involved, and I love it when I can cook a meal w/o having to stand over the cooktop in the last few minutes before dinner is supposed to be ready.

Because at my house, those minutes are usually chaos. And everyone’s hungry and grouchy. And my little man Davis is PASSIONATELY pointing at the oven and gasping “Ha! Ha! Ha!”

{That was ‘hot, hot, hot’ in case you don’t speak one year old.}

So I was pretty stoked when I saw that not only did it NOT require any stove top cooking, it was actually a one dish CROCK POT meal! Say what??

I’m hoping it will be as tasty as it was easy.

I ambitiously decided to go grocery shopping solo this week… with all three kids, something I usually avoid at all costs.

It was quite the experience for sure, and I’ll be sharing more about my opinion of despicable monster buggies tomorrow. I really hope you’ll weigh in and let me know if I’m alone in my feelings. :)

Regardless of my trauma at the grocery store, I was able to get Five Meals prepped in about 30 minutes this week, and Chris earned mega hubby points by prepping the turkey rolls and bagging them up!

I split the Crockpot Sesame Chicken and the Lime Chicken Burritos in two and sent one of each to the freezer. Woot! Love getting that freezer stocked with little to no effort by me.

It’s hard to beat the rewarding feeling of pulling a home cooked meal straight out of the freezer whenever you need one!

What are YOU cooking this week?

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!

Beautify Your Blog... DIY Custom Menu Bar!

noreply@blogger.com (Renee Living Laughing Loving) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Buckle your seat belts, peeps, because this week’s theme is creating our very own CUSTOM menu bar!!

Just to catch you up… so far we’ve covered…

Part 1… Fabulous Fonts

Part 2… Dreamy Header

Part 3… Sensational Signature w/Graphics

Part 4… Customized Sidebar Titles

Part 5… Easy Watermark Image {need picnik premium}

Part 6… Customized Favicon

Part 7… DIY Quote Box

The Menu Bar is called lots of different things actually. Maybe you’ve heard it called a Nav {Navigation} Bar? Basically, in blogger it’s where you’ve set up your “Pages” to be.

Problem is… with blogger you can only set up Pages as links within your blog. There is no option to link to other sites NOT a part of your blog, like say, your Etsy shop or your other blog or whatever.

Plus creating our own lets us pick whatever blessed font we want and lets us gets them centered on the page easily like all things should be.

First of all, what is the point of even having a navigation bar on your blog?

Remember people are sometimes only on your site for a quick second. In that second you want them to be able to get a good overview of your main topics AND give them a quick way to get there.
It gives you the opportunity to move some things OFF the sidebar to unclutter it up.
This is kind of a repeat of reason number one, but it gives people a way to delve deeper into your posts without ever having to scroll down. Give the people what they want, I say. And make it easy for them to get there. For example, on my 5 Dinners 1 Hour tab, I give an overview of my meal prepping process and also include a link to my 5dinners1hour label that will pull up all the posts on that topic.

Okay, now that we’ve established the good reasons why we should HAVE a menu bar, let’s create one of our very own!

{ PART ONE }

We have to tweak our template HTML so we can add a gadget UNDER our header which is where we want our menu bar to go. Here’s what I learned from Diana at The Girl Creative…

1) Go to Design, Edit HTML, and click ctrl + f. Type in showaddelement and make sure it’s all one word.

You should see this…

{source}

2) Where you see ‘no,’ you should change it to ‘yes.’ Diana says to change it the few times you see it, and you should have to scroll down a bit to see them all. Basically every ‘no’ you change to ‘yes’ is going to mean another place you can add a gadget in the page element tab.

3) Now click ‘Save Template’ and you’re done.

You are supposed to be able to add a gadget above or below your header now, but that didn’t work for me. I only got the gadget below the header, but I decided to be happy with that. :)

{ PART TWO }

1) It’s time to Create our Title Graphics. Yay! The fun part! Open pixlr or picasa or picnik, choose your font, and create your titles. In picnik remember you will be limited to their font choices, and you will not be able to have a transparent background which will not look good if your background is any other color than white.

2) In pixlr, click Create a New Image and click transparent. Now click the “A” and add your text. Start with your biggest word and go from there.

3) Remember what we learned from doing our sidebar titles that it is really important to try to keep all your words roughly the same height so your menu bar doesn’t end up looking wonky.

You also want the height and width of the space around your word to be the same. Use the grey and white boxes to keep you on point.

4) Save your titles as a png. When you finish one title and save it, don’t start over. Just change the text to your new title, but don’t forget to keep everything the same size! If you crop each word exactly to fit, then your tabs will NOT look evenly spaced.

{ PART THREE }

1) Creating the links for our titles is next on the list. In blogger, click Design, then Posting, then Edit Pages.

2) If you already have your pages created, click edit on each one and follow these steps. {If you do NOT have pages created, click New Page and then follow the steps below.}

3) Click Publish and choose “No gadget. (Link pages manually.)” and click Save and Publish.

4) Now click View Page.

Highlight and copy the web address at the top of the page.

5) This is the address you are going to need to paste in for each page {one at a time} in Part Four.

{ PART FOUR }

1) Upload all your title images to photobucket.com.

2) Go back to blogger on the Design tab and click Add Gadget under your header. Choose HTML Javascript.

3) One at a time, copy the HTML code from your photobucket images into the box. Press Enter after each one to keep them separated.

4) Add <center> before the first one in your list of code and </center> after the last one in the list to make your menu bar centered.

5) Now click ‘Rich Text’ and see your pretty titles!

6) They are pretty, but they don’t link anywhere yet! At this point it may be a good idea to hit Save just to see if you like what you are seeing. I ended up redoing mine because I didn’t like the font I used originally.

If all looks good, then go back in and link each title to its proper place.

Highlight each title one at a time
Click the link button on the top right
Paste the url of where you want that title to link to. {One at at time, grab the url you got from Part Three or put in the url from an external site such as your Etsy shop or another blog.}

Repeat until all your Tab Titles are linked and hit Save!

7) That’s it!! I created a super small graphic to use as a divider to go between my titles just to sort of break them up too. That’s what those cute little trees are there, but that’s totally optional. :)

Now hit save, and hopefully you are squealing with delight over your beautiful CUSTOM menu bar that you CREATED YOURSELF!

I’d love to hear if this is something helpful to you! Stay tuned for more Bloggy DIY fun in the days to come!

*Thanks to Diana at The Girl Creative for her great tutorial that got me started on this!

Something New… a Book Challenge for 2012!

noreply@blogger.com (Renee Living Laughing Loving) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0000

This is not new for the rest of the planet, I know. But it is something new for yours truly.

I got inspired by a few bloggy friends and their great lists…

I love to read. Have FOREVER.

With the responsibilities of life and kids and husbands… oh wait, just have one of those {ha, ha}… it is increasingly harder to garner reading time. Not to mention the time I now spend on computer activities.

But… I really do want to become a better Christian, a better wife, a better mom… a better person, and reading great books on those topics inspires changes in me.

And we shouldn’t ever stop learning, right?

Here’s my List!

{ family growth }

1) The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families by Stephen Covey

{source}

Chris recently attended a short workshop seminar thing at work on The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It really made an impact on him, and we’re sort of reading this one together tag team style… each with our own bookmarks. :)

So far I am really impressed. It has some amazing insights into how we actually look at our families. One big principle set forth is the Pause button. Having the ability to put space between what happens to you and your reaction to it.

I loved his thought of how much better to choose to respond to a unpleasant situation based upon your value system and your care for that person RATHER than your emotions at that very instant.

Ouchy.

2) Beyond Belief to Convictions by Josh McDowell.

{source}

I bought this one at a Teacher’s Convention a few years ago after soaking up every word from Josh McDowell’s sessions. The statistics on Christian teenagers were SHOCKING. Scary and Shocking. His premise is how important it is to bring our children’s thoughts about God and the Bible from mere beliefs to real CONVICTIONS. Convictions strong enough to withstand everything that will be thrown at them once they leave home.

3) Give Them Grace by Elyse Fitzpatrick & Jessica Thompson

I have heard great, great things about this one. This is one of four picks that came straight from my friend Kristi’s recommendations. Here is what she had to say…

“This is a must-read. I learned so much about MYSELF through this book. The fact is repeatedly emphasized that salvation is of the LORD. I do not control my child's salvation. That is both a hard reality to accept yet such a huge relief at the same time.”

4) Honey for a Child’s Heart by Gladys Hunt

This one is all about READING and how important it is to our kiddos. I read this one in college but was inspired to re-read it after stumbling on Christa’s thoughts on it from last year. Instilling a love of reading in my kids is really important to me, so I’m looking forward to reading this again with my own kids in mind.

Here’s a list Christa quoted from the book on How to Raise a Non Reader…

Have the television on at all times. Make sure you put a television set and a computer in every room. (Don’t forget the kitchen!)
Keep the place neat – no books or literary magazines in sight.
Never let your children see you read a book.
Never take your kids to the library.
Never read stories aloud past age two.
Never talk about ideas while eating meals.
Keep the lights down low. Buy only 40-watt light bulbs.
Schedule your children for every activity you can think of so they won’t be bored.
Never play any table games together.
Absolutely no reading in bed or good lamps to make it east to do.”

5) Shepherding a Child’s Heart by Tedd Trip

This one was gifted to us a while back, but I never finished it. It talks a lot about focusing on the child’s heart and reminding them of the Scripture involved, showing them that the “rules” & “principles” we are living by are not just from mom & dad.

6) Don’t Make Me Count to Three by Ginger Plowman

This is another one recommended by Kristi and Christa. Christa shared several quotes, but I really liked this one…

“Discipline shouldn’t be an ‘I’ll show you!’ mentality, or a ‘Boy, you’re gonna get it now!’ It should be, ‘I love you too much to allow this sin to take root in your heart and grow’.” (pg. 115)

{ personal development }

7) Loving God with All Your Mind by Elizabeth George

{source}

I absolutely love Elizabeth George. Her books are so encouraging, convicting, and full of life changing thoughts. My favorite of hers is A Woman after God’s Own Heart. I also really enjoyed Powerful Promises for Every Woman as well as several of her devotional studies on various books of the Bible or Bible Characters. This book was actually my sisters that I ‘took off her hands’ for her a few years ago. :)

I’ve heard great things about this one but never made time to sit down and read it.

8) Cross Centered Life by CJ Mahaney

Here’s what Kristi says about this one.

“This is another must-read. If you only ever read one book in your whole life (besides the Bible), make it this one. The oh-so-simple truths that we forget on a daily basis are highlighted in this book in a way that you won't forget. I think this should be a yearly read for every Christian.”

Wow, right? They should pay her for reviews like that!

9) Feminine Appeal: Seven Virtues of a Godly Wife & Mother by Carolyn Mahaney

This is another one from Kristi’s list. She says…

“Packed full of Biblical truths, encouragement, reminders, and challenges. This is on my list to have my daughters read some day.”

10) Grace for the Good Girl by Emily Freeman

I’ve heard a lot about this book in the blogging world this year. The concept of ‘letting go of the try hard life’ sounds like it just might be a lesson right up my alley. Can’t wait for this one.

11) Money Saving Mom’s Budget by Crystal Paine

This is another one big in the blogger world. Crystal Paine, aka, Money Saving Mom has a brand new book that came out YESTERDAY actually. She was the pioneer as far as coupon blogs go… looking forward to seeing what I can learn and be inspired for in the saving money part of my life. :)

12) Tell Your Time ebook by Amy Andrews & DIY Blog Critique ebook Preview by Melissa Culbertson

These two are short ebooks about blogging which I weirdly LOVE to read about. I’m excited to be learning new things and THRILLED that I will be going to my first Blogging Conference this June with my friend, Christina. :) Nervous, but excited too. :)

And that’s it! 12 books in 2012.

Six of the Twelve were books I already had, and those are what are pictured. I bought two of the remaining six {Give Them Grace & Cross Centered Life which haven’t arrived yet} and put the rest on my Amazon Wish List to get later.

Kind of odd and crazy and cool how it worked out that exactly HALF are books centered around family topics and improving how you parent. While the other HALF are focused on personal development in regards to spirituality, responsibilities as a wife, budgeting, and even blogging. :)

I’m very excited to get started reading ALL of these! The idea is to read one a month, but I think I might try reading two at a time over two months if need be just to give myself some variety.

I also got some fun fiction books for Christmas that are on my to be read list as well. :)

Her Mother’s Hope & Her Daughter’s Dream by Francine Rivers

Karen Kingsbury’s Bailey Flanigan Series… Leaving, Learning, & Longing

What are YOU reading these days?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on any in my list!

Wadester

noreply@blogger.com (Renee Living Laughing Loving) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Living with my Wild Wade usually proves very interesting.

Shame on me for NOT recording more of the mind blowing things that come out of his mouth, or the crazy things he gets into…

For example…

Last night as he shifted and “danced” in front of me, our convo went something like this…

Me: Wade, do you have to go potty?

Wade: No.

Me: Are you sure? Then why are you dancing?

Wade: {pause} I’m just dancing for you.

Oh, okay then.

He has recently starting coming up with these elaborate ‘get ups’ that somehow make him a ‘Supah Hero’.

I pray he’ll forgive me when he’s older for this one…

Yes, those are roller skates. And boxing gloves.

He is the child that we prayed and longed for, for so long. Looking back now I think perhaps God knew we weren’t quite ready yet.

He is our ‘almost born on Leap Year baby’ who is incredibly impatient in waiting for his big day turning four.

If you ask him how old he is now, he will answer in a low, disappointed tone… “Still three.”

Still hoping we can survive parenting this child. :)

Menu Monday!

noreply@blogger.com (Renee Living Laughing Loving) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Roasted Shrimp & Feta /2 via Make 5 Dinners in 1 Hour

Slow Cooked Steak x2 via Make 5 Dinners in 1 Hour

Date Night, baby!

From the Freezer… Southwestern Chicken & Salsa

Only 34 minutes to prep FIVE meals this week!! 34 minutes and my dinners are prepped for the WEEK, and I am sending two meals to the freezer. In 34 minutes!

I am SO excited to have the Shrimp & Feta again. I can’t even express HOW GOOD and HOW EASY this one is. If you are not a shrimp lover I think this would be great with chicken too. Love, love, L-O-V-E it!

Friday night is our Date Night… location to be determined, but we are thinking about Macaroni Grill! We are really trying to make getting away for time alone a priority this year… ambitiously hoping for twice a month. :) We definitely need those uninterrupted moments to discuss and brainstorm and be inspired for the future. :)

What about you? Any Date Nights in your plans?

Anyone going to try that blessed Shrimp & Feta? You won’t be sorrrrrrry!

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!

Beautify your Blog… Custom Quote box in Blogger!

noreply@blogger.com (Renee Living Laughing Loving) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0000

I hope you are ready for some more bloggy diy goodness. I am SO excited to share what I learned just this week!! This week’s tip is NOT earth shattering, to be sure, but it made my day. :)

I love finding little things to make my little blogger blog, you know… cool.

Just to recap, here’s what we’ve learned so far…

Some ideas of what I’d like to do end up pretty easy…. oh wait. That’s only in my mind. Usually, it always SEEMS like it will be SO quick and SO easy, but then FOREVER later, I finally get it how I want it. :)

The good news is you get to benefit from all that hassle cuz I can then share all the vast knowledge I gained from the experience. :)

This week’s obsession was figuring out how to add a blasted quote box. I googled it, of course, and found tutorial after tutorial giving html instructions for code that I could NOT find. I still have no idea why, but despite much searching, I could NOT find a tutorial that worked.

After all my searching frustration, I had a momentary burst of DIY genius. I could create a table in Windows Live Writer with only one cell and one row. In essence, a BOX that would become my very own QUOTE BOX!

Here’s what I did…

Step One… Click the Quote Button on the Home Tab. {Well, if you don’t have WLW, then step one for you will be downloading Windows Live Writer. Do it. It’s awesome.}

Clicking the quote box first means our box/table will be inserted in the center as a quote would be.

Step Two… Click the Insert Tab and then Table.

Choose ONE row and ONE column. Decide how wide you want your box to be. Play around with it and see what you like. Decide how much padding you want around your text. This is important only if you aren’t going to center your text in the box.

Step Three… Type your quote inside the box.

Quote boxes aren’t just for quotes. Use them to make important thoughts STAND OUT!

Step Four… To make the box itself centered, place your cursor to the left of the box and click the center button.

Wa to the la!

Now pat your blogger self on the back!!

And as a little blogger bonus… here’s ANOTHER tip! Two for price of one today! If you follow me on twitter, you might have seen my elation at finding this one. I was STOKED to see an easy tutorial for adding a Pin it button to every post in BLOGGER! It actually worked.

Check it out!!

While we blogger blogs can’t have the pretty sweet sounding Pinterest plug in for Wordpress that Nester just shared…

At least we get a button.

Make sure you stay tuned for more Blog DIY Design coming up!! Can’t wait!

*Sometimes I link up at these parties… Weekend Bloggy Link up, Tatertots & Jello, House of Hepworths, Delightful Order,Bowl Full of Lemons,Organize & Decorate Everything, Funky Junk Interiors, Somewhat Simple, Shabby Creek Cottage, No Minimalist Here, Skip to my Lou,Fingerprints on the Fridge,CRAFT,Today’s Creative Blog, the 36th Avenue, Thrifty Décor Chick, Home Stories A-Z, Honey we’re Home, and Someday Crafts. You should check ‘em out!!

Cue the Weight Loss Theme…

noreply@blogger.com (Renee Living Laughing Loving) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0000

It’s the first week of January, and we all know what that means, right? Time to start thinking and wishing and writing about what we want to happen this year.

Most of the time, #1 on the list is weight loss.

I’ve shared my own weird weight loss journey, but I’ll recap briefly.

    Was a skinny little chicken legs growing up.
    Gradually put on weight.
    Had 2 kids.
    Decided to lose weight before our big 10th anniversary cruise.
    Weight loss resulted in surprise pregnancy #3.

And then finally, my weight loss reattempt last Spring.

I shared in June my beginning weight loss success of 12 lbs and even featured a few fabulous people who had GREAT stories and before and afters.

I still repeat Steven’s {who lost a whopping 100 lbs} advice… Basically, it’s much more important what you eat than how much you exercise. Sorry, but 9 times out of 10 you are not going to lose weight by only exercising and not watching your calorie intake.

It’s so easy to count your calories with loseit.com. I’ve heard so many success stories!! {Amy, Carla, Rachel} Lose It says, “96% of users who use it for 4 weeks lose weight!” It won’t work, though, if you don’t stick with it.

Yes, it’s annoying to enter every solitary thing that passes your lips. Yes, it’s annoying to have to count pretzels and google the calorie count of pickles {they are super low cal, btw}, but that is the point. There were times that I refrained from eating something because I just didn’t want to have to go to the trouble of entering it in!

It’s important, especially in the beginning, to track your cals religiously. It’s even better if you can stick with the counting even longer, but I have to confess that I fell off the lose it wagon once I hit 15lbs and just tried to watch what I ate. As a result the weight loss then became quite snail paced.

It took another four months or so, but I eventually reached a HUGE milestone.

A milestone I had been shooting for when I first tried to lose weight for our cruise back in the day.

In October, I finally hit my original goal. I lost TWENTY POUNDS!!!

And for fun cuz I’m crazy like that, I even took a pic wearing the same ‘before’ clothes to really see the difference…

Isn’t that the most horrific before pic? Why do I look so angry?

After months of staring at unworn clothes, I finally decided it was definitely time to go through my closets and drawers and clean out my former sized clothing.

I have to admit I was actually very sad to part with a lot of them! They were some faves of mine… :(

One giant huge perk though of cleaning out clothes that don’t fit??

Having an empty closet that NEEDS to be filled… Ha!

It’s the first week of the year. A BRAND NEW one… fresh and ready for all of us to achieve great new things.

Watching your calorie intake is NOT just a temporary thing… a momentary diet plan to shed some weight. Think of it as a new way of life. All of us have so many calories to spend {aka EAT} each day. Just don’t go over {too often} and watch the pounds fly off.

Can’t wait to hear of YOUR success in 2012.

*Sometimes I link up at these parties… Weekend Bloggy Link up, Tatertots & Jello, House of Hepworths, Delightful Order,Bowl Full of Lemons,Organize & Decorate Everything, Funky Junk Interiors, Somewhat Simple, Shabby Creek Cottage, No Minimalist Here, Skip to my Lou,Fingerprints on the Fridge,CRAFT,Today’s Creative Blog, the 36th Avenue, Thrifty Décor Chick, Home Stories A-Z, Honey we’re Home, and Someday Crafts. You should check ‘em out!!:

Christmas Outtakes 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Renee Living Laughing Loving) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Christmas is always a process when it comes to all the family gatherings, but it has evolved quite a bit over the years and was quite the different experience this year.

In our early years of marriage, we awoke at the crack of dawn or before to open our gifts to each other before hitting the road to my parents’ to exchange gifts and scarf down a cinnamon roll. We would be out of the door and headed to Chris’s parents usually by 10:30 that morning for more Christmasness.

But wait, there’s more.

We had a few hours there before heading to one set of Chris’s grandparents by one o’clock and then to the other set around five o’clock that night.

This year was much different in that we began the fun the Saturday before Christmas with Chris’s parents since his sister and fam were headed out of town this year.

We ate like KINGS. Seriously. Oh the food that was consumed that day. We had brunch at 2 ish and dinner at 6 ish. I think I still might be full.

I got a fabulous crockpot I’d been wishing for…

And hubby’s gift from his sister was a gift card to one of his favorite places…

A place his wife doesn’t EVER want to go. :)

In between our Christmas adventures we had some fun of our own in the kitchen!

Haylee loved getting to try out her new apron while Wade snuck frosting off the knife and Davis glared at us all. Maybe he wanted to help too?

Next up on the Christmas agenda was a two day event at my parents. Thursday night would be Christmas Eve and Friday would be Christmas Day since Christmas on a Sunday made it harder to do our normal rendezvous.

Mom got a great idea to play Bingo to fill our own stockings for our Christmas Eve. Every time you got ‘bingo’ you got to go to the prize table and pick something to go in your stocking.

Then it was back bright and early Friday for our ‘Christmas Day’ event…

I think it took us two hours to get everything opened. Poor Wade konked out later that afternoon in the recliner. :)

Saturday {the real Christmas Eve} we celebrated at Chris’s grandparents, and I got the funniest pictures of Wade and Davis.

Our own little Where’s Waldo! :)

Finally it was time for our very own little family’s Christmas Craziness! Christmas morning we all got up together and decided to torture the kids by making them watch us open our gifts before they lost their minds opening theirs.

We finally finished with ours and mercifully it was their turn…

Davis loved his presents from Haylee… so much that he couldn’t decide which one to put down so he could pick up the next one. :) Wade was so excited to get a Tar Heel shirt just like Daddy… he even HUGGED it. Haylee had been spying those cutie pie hats and was thrilled to get one!

Wade definitely kept up entertained this year. He opened some kid sized boxing gloves with such a confused look. He had no idea what they were.

All it took was for me to tell him they were fighting gloves, and he was all smiles. You can see in the collage pic above that he loved them so much he didn’t want to take them off to open another present. :)

Probably the funniest picture of the day, however, and one that you deserve an award for still reading was a gift Wade and Haylee had concocted.

She asked him what he wanted to get Mommy for Christmas and his reply was, “I’ll do ballet for her.”

Uh, yeah. A bit too much Angelina Ballerina via Netflix, ya think?

I opened up this note written by Haylee…

…and Wade surprisingly remember his master plan and the show began.

Ah, I love this picture!

Just when the kiddos thought all the presents were done, we pulled the classic parent present trick. We revealed their big gift still to open! :)

A real karaoke machine for Haylee… {what was I thinking??!!}

A small four wheeler for Wade… {Have I lost my mind?}

And a little red wagon for Davis… {He loves it but still didn’t wanna let that phone out of his grasp!}

And another family Christmas comes to a close.

If you made it to the end of this post, Congratulations! Hope your Christmas was full and fun!

Looking forward to a great new 2012!

Menu Monday…Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Renee Living Laughing Loving) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0000

_Hope everyone’s New Years was totally fabulous!

Our original party plans got canceled because of sickness {oh the sickness}, but we managed to have a fun family NYE as our Plan B.

I made a fabulous new Sausage Dip Chris’s uncle shared at Christmas. It’s so deliciously wonderful and easy. 1 lb of sausage, 8 oz cream cheese and 1 can Rotel. Brown sausage and drain. Then mix with other two ingredients in the crockpot or on the stovetop and wala. Serve with chips!! Yum-o!

We didn’t get to go out and par-tay, but our friends made our night by face-timing us at midnight to say Happy New Year! :) I think it was the first time we had ever even used the face time feature other than trying it out when we first got our 4g’s. One of us in the living room and the other in the bedroom style. We live on the edge, people. :)

We have really enjoyed our time off school, but we’ll be back to bizness on Wednesday. So hard to believe my girl is halfway through the third grade. Thoughts of her entering FOURTH grade leave me quivering and twitching in corners. In my experience, fourth grade is the beginning of the ~~end,~~ er, I mean, middle school madness present in virtually ALL girls. Just not sure I’m ready for that. :)

I AM, however, excited about a NEW YEAR of not worrying about dinner. Meal planning was always something very elusive and unattainable in the past. Despite other successes in organizing, I just could never quite conquer that blasted meal planning.

It feels so good to know that I found a solution that has worked for me, and I’m hoping I’ll be able to learn and grow even more in my cooking skills in 2012!

Sweet & Tangy Chicken /2 via Syrup and Biscuits

Easy Stromboli via Sisters Stuff

From the Freezer… Asian Pork Chops image via The Cooking Husband

From the Freezer… Cornflake Chicken via What's Cooking Chicago

_Despite being sick I was able to knock out these THREE meals in 22 minutes!!!

Doesn’t that chicken look yummy?? The marinade smelled really good, and I’m excited to try something quite different. The marinade is a mix of Russian dressing, apricot preserves, and dry onion soup.

Uh, wasn’t even sure if I was going to be able to find the first two in the store. I don’t think I had ever heard of Russian salad dressing. And apricot preserves? Is that really a common flavor? I searched the dressings, and I found many other countries represented among them, Italian, French, Greek, Asian etc…

{Okay, I know Asian isn’t a country, but it’s close enough right?}

But I could NOT find anything that even LOOKED like it might be Russian-ish. Finally, when my vast American-ized choices were almost running out, I spotted it.

It DOES exist.

Who woulda thought.

You just mix those three ingredients together and pour over chicken. Different, right? It smelled good at least, so hoping it will be a winner since it was so easy to prep!

Haylee and I {but mostly Haylee} made Nana’s Fruit Salad before starting on my meal prep. She was so excited to don her apron again and create something herself! The only part I really did was slicing the frozen strawberries since they were so hard.

My future cook showing off her dish! :)

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?}

…. and here for more Monday Menu Inspiration from orgjunkie!

What were your big NYE plans? Did you feast on any new and yummy treats??

Super Sponsors!

noreply@blogger.com (Renee Living Laughing Loving) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 12:00:00 +0000

Happy New Year’s Eve to ya! I’m very sad that my hubby is working today {boo} and that we have been struck with some sickness this week. Enough that we had to cancel our NYE plans tonight.

so sad.

Instead I am going to try to plan some fun things for us to here since we’re all going to be quarantined.

I saw a fun idea on Pinterest {where else???} of doing a balloon countdown and letting the kids pop a balloon every hour until midnight.

I never actually clicked on the link to see what you do when you pop it {if anything}, but I thought maybe inside each balloon could be a slip of paper with the name of a board game. Then every hour on the hour we’ll play a new game starting at a set time and then ending at their bedtime instead of midnight. :)

Hopefully, that will salvage some of the fun from our previous party plans. {boohoo}

Now it is that oh so special time in the month to give another glorious shout out to my sponsors.

I am so very thankful and appreciative of them and hope you will take a second to check all their goodness out. :) I think they have GREAT things to offer!

Now is the season for making new resolutions, and one big one for us mamas is the dreaded beast of meal planning. Aren’t you ready to ease that horrid dinnertime stress? Michelle from Make 5 Dinners in 1 Hour has the solution for you! She is my inspiration for starting this amazing weekly meal prep lifestyle ONE YEAR AGO. I am SO glad that I checked out her blog and decided to give it a shot.

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

Michelle is also offering you all a fab introductory 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!

I am in L-O-V-E with her Roasted Shrimp & Feta. It was TO DIE FOR and so very easy!!!

Go ahead and make this a New Year’s Resolution you’ll be able to keep! Give it a try!

Cupcakes and Swirls has every type of cupcake liner or party kit you could need. Isabel has a blog too with fun tips and projects she is working on.

She says…

“Dress your cupcakes in style with our unique and elegant accessories from around the world. We also carry baking supplies to meet your needs, such as, Cupcake Cases, Baking Cups, Paper Molds, Decorating Sugars and Sprinkles, Food Coloring, Cupcake Mix Kits, Baking Supplies, Cupcake Boxes, Cupcake Kits and so much more.”

Beyond adorable cupcake kits!!!

Who wouldn’t love these at any party?! :) She has tons for so many different themes or occasions!

She’s got a great promotion going on right now… Buy one get on FREE on select paper molds!

Check out ALL her adorable stuff while you’re there!!!

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

Yet another great New Year’s Resolution is tackling the mountain of unprinted pics filling up the hard drive of your computer! Digital Scrapbooking is a great way to actually achieve this 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 12x12 pages using Persnickity 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 for you!

And this one…

You’ll love it!

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

Best Bloggers of 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Renee Living Laughing Loving) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 12:00:00 +0000

Since lists are just so very fun, here’s yet another one…a list of my picks for the BEST BLOGGERS OF 2011!

In the beloved Home Décor Category…

Gotta start with Sarah from Thrifty Décor Chick! She is awesome with the amazing and CHEAP projects she accomplishes and I so love that she keeps it REAL!! I think she was the FIRST home décor blog I started reading 2 years ago at this time, and she has since opened the door to most if not all the fabulous bloggers below.

Kate from Centsational Girl. Can’t even believe what she is able to make out of nothing with her own two hands. Her home is straight out of the magazines, and her pics are always completely fabulous.

Cassie from Hi Sugarplum. Such a fun blog with lots of DIY and fashion posts. Her house is beautiful yet realistic, and she is just a great read. PLUS… she is one of those unbelievable bigger bloggers {with hubby and kiddos} that blogs regular AND holds down another job.

Traci from Beneath my Heart. I love how sweet Traci is and very open and transparent. She has just finished up an amazing albeit impromptu kitchen remodel on the cheap. You should definitely go check out her before and after pics she just posted. They are ah.ma.zing. Seriously! Would love to do that subway tile backsplash one day!

And of course John and Sherri from Young House Love, though I honestly JUST STARTED following them in maybe November! They are so great though. I see why people are following them en masse. Love how cute they are about each other and their fun writing style. I also love how dedicated they are to doing things frugally.

And a few other non décor-ers that are such a treat to read… with wit and humor and sarcasm abounding!

Rachel from Grasping for Objectivity. She literally makes me laugh out loud. I think she is most infamous for her Mom Jeans experiment. That’s how I found her anyway. The results of the experiment are truly incredible. Incredible, people!

Sophie from Boo Mama. She breaks almost every blogging “rule” in the book, but her original way of writing keeps me entertained. :) Love her.

Erin from Sunny Side Up. Erin is an amazingly organized mama with a wild one year old that makes me feel better about my crazy boys. :) I also happen to LOVE this quote from her hubby… “I’m just living in the real world, so you can float above it.” She intertwines humor throughout her posts and greatly inspires me with her Fashion Friday series.

If you aren’t already following these awesome gals, click over and give ‘em a read!

Which blogs would be on YOUR Best Blogger List?

*Sometimes I link up at these parties… Weekend Bloggy Link up, Tatertots & Jello, House of Hepworths, Delightful Order,Bowl Full of Lemons,Organize & Decorate Everything, Funky Junk Interiors, Somewhat Simple, Shabby Creek Cottage, No Minimalist Here, Skip to my Lou,Fingerprints on the Fridge,CRAFT,Today’s Creative Blog, the 36th Avenue, Thrifty Décor Chick, Home Stories A-Z, Honey we’re Home, and Someday Crafts. You should check ‘em out!!:

2011’s Top Ten!

noreply@blogger.com (Renee Living Laughing Loving) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 11:00:00 +0000

{via}

It’s that time of year again. That time when everyone waxes eloquent on all the BESTS in everything for the year.

So… for FUN… let’s look back at the 2011 year right here…

This has a fun blogging year for me. I’ve managed to blog lots and open new bloggy chapters too.

In January, I started my 5 dinners 1 hour Journey and have shared my Menu Monday post almost every single Monday since! My cooking has improved and diversified greatly in the past year, and I have found lots of new recipes to try from other blogs and especially the amazing Pinterest.

I also started a fun Blogging Tips series in October called Beautify Your Blog that ended up getting quite the response from other DIY blog designers like me. :) So far I’ve shared six posts from DIY Headers to a Custom Favicon.

In chronological order, here are My Top Ten Posts from 2011…

1. My Martha Stewart Experiment was the beginning of this whole Weekly Meal Prep Madness and my 5 Dinners 1 hour journey. I don’t think I would’ve ever believed it if you would’ve told me that that little “experiment” would have turned into something I ended up doing virtually EVERY week. I think I maybe skipped two weeks out of the year. Crazy.

2. Learning to Love where you Live was some semi deep thoughts on just finally realizing how MUCH I have to be thankful for in our cozy little space with all five of these people I call family.

3. Living Room Love was a look at the transformation of our main little Living Space. It has come A LONG WAY, people!

Somehow all that darkness turned into this…

4. Sharing our Journey Through Pain was a hard post to write but one that felt good to share all the same. It was incredibly scary putting all my thoughts and fears and pain OUT THERE. Part of going through pain, though, is having the chance to perhaps help someone else who is right there in the throes of it.

It was an Aha moment comparing two pictures of my little family and knowing what elapsed between them.

Just proves you NEVER really know just what is around the corner after this painful moment you are experiencing.

5. Our Disney countdown was So. Much. Stinkin’. Fun. It was simply fantabulous to squeeze every little bit of goodness and excitement out of our totally awesome Disney experience. And… I think the kids liked it too. Ha!

6. I wrote this Blogging 101 post kind of as a go to when I’m asked blogging advice. I’m definitely not a blog expert, but I have picked up a few pointers over the years and had fun sharing my little tips and tricks.

7. My Crockpot French Dip Subs are the hubs favorite, and I LOVE that they just couldn’t be easier! These are so very, very good. Trust me! Ya gotta try ‘em! Trying new and fabulous recipes is one of the AMAZING byproducts of that little Martha Stewart Experiment.

8. DIY-ing Custom Sidebar Titles was one of my biggest blog design light bulb moments. Couldn’t believe how easy it really was to make my very own!! Having unique coordinating sidebar titles is one way to make your blog really have that polished look of the professionally designed blogs. Promise. It’s so easy!

9. Comic Relief Through Pinterest was a really fun post to write sharing some really hilarious funnies that tickled me. Pinterest is one awesome place. So much good out there to be shared, peeps.

10. And last up on the Top Ten 2011 List is Fashion Friday! Cheating a bit since this isn’t really just one post, but it is something new I started that has been surprisingly fun… though a bit unnerving to pose and snap self portraits in the mirror. :)

And believe it or not, this is my 213th post this year! 213 days out of the 365, I have published a post… Guess that means I think I have a lot to say or something?

Wishing all of you fabulousness in the New Year 2012! Thanks so much for reading!

*Linking up to Southern Hospitality’s great Recap Party and some of these great parties too… Weekend Bloggy Link up, Tatertots & Jello, House of Hepworths, Delightful Order,Bowl Full of Lemons,Organize & Decorate Everything, Funky Junk Interiors, Somewhat Simple, Shabby Creek Cottage, No Minimalist Here, Skip to my Lou,Fingerprints on the Fridge,CRAFT,Today’s Creative Blog, the 36th Avenue, Thrifty Décor Chick, Home Stories A-Z, Honey we’re Home, and Someday Crafts. You should check ‘em out!!:

Menu Monday… the after Christmas Recovery

noreply@blogger.com (Renee Living Laughing Loving) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 12:00:00 +0000

Can you believe Christmas is really over? It always has a way of F-L-Y-I-N-G by, doesn’t it??

My three cuties definitely enjoyed their Christmas. :)

Hope everyone’s holiday was full and merry and bright!! AND if your house is anything like mine… I wish you well as you seek to clean up the utter madness that tends to surround you this day after Christmas! :)

Don’t you just love my slippers???????????? I am wearing these now as I type. They keep my tootsies toasty, and they are just so adorable. :) When I saw these I had to get them for my sister, AND I made sure to put them on MY list too. :)

So happy to be pulling all my meals from the freezer this week, since I was not about to be doing meal prep on Christmas day. :)

From the Freezer… BBQ Chicken via Fork in It

From the Freezer… Roasted Shrimp via Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice

{b4 meeting Chris at Church}

From the Freezer… Southwest Chicken & Salsa

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?}

…. and here for more Monday Menu Inspiration from orgjunkie!

Top Holidays Likes & Dislikes!

noreply@blogger.com (Renee Living Laughing Loving) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 12:00:00 +0000

{via Just Devine Style}

There’s something about Christmas that inspires lots of lists, isn’t there? Lots of Likes and Dislikes too about this most favorite and magical time of the year.

We all can even end up with strong opinions about the RIGHT way to do things for the holidays. :)

We are at my parent’s house today celebrating Christmas early, since the big day falling on a Sunday presented a bit of a planning dilemma for everyone and their coordinating family’s schedule.

There will be lots of noise and food and general mayhem as we open presents and try not to kill each other amid all the holiday cheer. Let the record show that as the deprived middle child, my role is usually peacemaker. :) Oh, and perfect angel, of course, but, ahem… that really goes without saying.

After my bloggy friend, Rachel did such a fun list of her Holiday Likes & Dislikes, I decided today would be a good day to join in and share my own! I will say that, for once, I had a much harder time coming up with DISLIKES. Apparently, I SO love everything Christmas there is LITTLE that falls into my normal annoyance window. A window that unfortunately always seems to be open. :)

{My Dislikes…}

The Christmas Story movie. Ugh. Hate it with a passion. I think my brother liked it so I was forced to watch it as a child. So many horrible, horrible things happening to kid. The tongue stuck to the pole scene. Tortuous.

Rachel mentioned hating train-wreck movies like National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, and I was glad to hear someone actually give this a name and validate my own thoughts on movies such as this. CAN.NOT.STAND to sit there and watch someone self destruct… even with humor. I guess I am truly just a happy ending girl.

{via}

“Go Tell it on the Mountain” & “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.” I know. It’s probably ALL SORTS of wrong to even put these two songs in the same sentence, but for purposes of this list… they are two Christmas songs that I just don’t like… for opposite reasons. I don’t mind the words of Go Tell, but I just find the tune and rhythm annoying and non Christmasy. Just feels like a cowboy song or some other weirdness.

And really, what is point of words like “Grandma got run over by a reindeer… and as for me and Grandpa, we believe”? What does that even mean? I heard this one just earlier this week and started to wonder if there was some sort of hidden innuendo that maybe the reindeer had a little HELP from GRANDPA???

Holier than Thou Holiday Haters. I grew up with LOTS of rules around of what things you should and shouldn’t do. Lists of rules that, I think, made some people feel more holy and better about themselves. One thing people LOVED to feel more spiritual about was PREACHING loud and long about the evils of Christmas. How Santa was really Satan since you JUST had to switch the letters around? How this or that pagan ritual from centuries ago really meant we were all sacrificing to idols Christmas morning.

Ok maybe not that last one… but pretty darn close.

{via}

I say Boo on you Holiday Haters. For every pagan instance you come up with in relation to Christmas, someone else has found a profoundly spiritual connection to the celebration.

We grew up with Christmas trees and presents, knowing Santa was a fun story. Though my mom likes to tell of overhearing us kids tell the neighbors, “Santa really IS real, but mommy just won’t let him come to our house.”

Colored Lights. I’m sorry. I’m pretty sure this makes me a Christmas snob or something, but I just think there is no contest when it comes to colored vs white lights. There is just something so glowingly magical about white lights on a tree. I absolutely LOVE it.

My sis and I love white, and my brother is a colored fan. Any guesses what’s on mom’s tree todayrightthisveryminute? Yup. Colored. :)

Tinsel. We grew up with tinsel or icicles thrown haphazardly on the tree, so I guess I SHOULD have an affection for it, but sadly… I don’t. Right now there is tinsel coming out our ears on mom’s tree. After the grandkids had way too good of a time spreading the Tinsel Cheer, we sat back staring at the tree and decided that tinsel = a Halloween looking tree. You know, kind of like the cobweb look? So yeah. Just can’t handle the tinsel trees. :)

Now enough of the negative stuff and on to the happy fun part!!

{My Likes…}

Cheesy Happy Ending Made for TV Christmas Movies. I’m pretty sure this one drives everyone else around me batty except for Haylee and mom… my fellow cheesy movie lovers. It doesn’t even matter if I’ve seen the Christmas Cheesiness before or not! Sometimes it’s actually better if I HAVE seen them so I won’t miss too much while I’m otherwise occupied wrapping gifts or addressing Christmas cards. :)

Christmas Tunes. Nothing puts me {or you, right?} in the Christmas mood better than some awesome Christmas music! This year I’ve mostly used the Christmas station on Pandora to get my holiday music fix, since it’s easy and it’s a good mix of all different genres.

{via}

Lighted Garland = Magical. I never even used lighted garland AT ALL until a couple years ago after being so inspired by Thrifty Décor Chick. I discovered how much I adore lighted garland. And when I say garland, I mean greenery. There is something so special about the draping twinkling greenery that just adds a touch of Christmas magic wherever it goes.

I was so, so very sad this year when half of the lights on my garland decided to GO OUT. Wah!

Just not the same without the twinkling lights!

Funny Christmas Movies like Elf and The Santa Claus movies as well as Heartfelt Classics like Miracle on 34th street. These types of movies Chris will actually sit down and watch with the family, and it’s Christmas moments like these that I just want to squeeze and bottle up for when my crazy kiddos are a few years older and too cool for cuddle time with mommy.

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Beautifully Wrapped Packages. I love wrapping our gifts with that little extra touch of ribbon and bows that really just SCREAM Christmas!! Those beautiful bows are pretty much annoying to everyone when it comes time to open those gifts, but in the meantime it’s TOTALLY worth it…to me anyway. I was excited to find some UNC wrapping paper at Mighty Dollar this year to wrap the hubby’s gifts. At least if the gift bombs, the paper made his day. :)

I wish I was a more interesting bow tie-er, but maybe one day I’ll achieve some better skills in that department. :)

Making Sugar Cookies Together. I have VIVID memories of making sugar cookies with my sister and mom when we were little. Dropping dots of food coloring in those little bowls of icing and watching the color appear as we stirred away. So. much. fun.

This one tradition I determined early on I was going to carry out with Haylee… She absolutely LOVES doing anything in the kitchen and making and decorating sugar cookies is no exception.

I consider these times to be equally priceless and nerve-racking. :) Pretty much like any other good memory you do with your kids.

Getting Christmas Cards in the Mail. We all can agree. Christmas cards are SUCH a hassle. And so much money!! Not to mention the level of STRESS that goes into just getting pictures made to go on or in the card. ALL THAT ASIDE… I LOVE getting Christmas cards in the mail. Especially the ones with those aggravating to get pictures. :)

I love seeing how the little kiddies have grown and all the smiling faces with their matching or coordinating outfits.

I do think sending Christmas Cards is becoming a lost art, unfortunately. With all 6 million or whatever of us on facebook, sending a card greeting just doesn’t happen for lots of peeps.

I get it, but I still love getting ‘em.

What are you Christmas Likes & Dislikes? Do you agree or disagree with mine?

*Linking to the Weekend Bloggy Party at Serenity Now!

A Very Merry Christmas from our Family to Yours!

noreply@blogger.com (Renee Living Laughing Loving) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:00:00 +0000

Christmas is ALMOST here. It is breathing down our necks, people!! I have my presents almost all wrapped, and we are ready to go. Chris is off work from now until the day after Christmas, and I am so looking forward to more time with him. :)

I wanted to wish everyone a big Merry Christmas from our family to yours!!

Despite all my fretting, our family pictures actually turned out all right! My sis once again outdid herself.

Wade proved to be the BIGGEST challenge, of course. Though we did manage to snag a few good ones…

Haylee is ALWAYS ready to pose. Even when you’re trying to take a picture of some random object… If you’ve got the camera out, be prepared to see her poised and ready with her smile in place.

We were so bummed that the eye doctor sent an email saying her new glasses were ready to HAYLEE’S email address! AFTER the photoshoot was over, she happened to check her email and see!! Ugh!! Just two days after these pics, she now looks totally different with her new specs.

Somehow, an almost-Christmas miracle occurred, and our little Davis Man decided to give me his Christmas gift early. The gift of being quite angelic, keeping still and looking straight at the camera!!

I was in shock. In SHOCK, I say!! These are doubling as his belated one year pics too. :)

A successful venture… glad we don’t have to do this for another year. Whew.

Exhausting.

Isn’t the Davis Man just TOO STUDLY posing all awesome with his jacket??? Love it!

I really can’t wait until the kids are old enough to take our Christmas Card pic sometime in July so we’ won’t be subject to the last minute craziness.

At this point in time, they are changing way too much to distribute a 6 month old shot, unfortunately. :)

Merry Christmas!!!!

I wish you profitable shopping and fast wrapping in these last few days before Christmas!

Menu Monday… Even at Christmas!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Renee Living Laughing Loving) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 12:00:00 +0000

Crockpot Chicken and Dumplings via Bubble Crumb

Parmesan Crusted Broiled Tilapia via All Recipes

“Faux Christmas Eve” Gala at Mom & Dad’s. Christmas on a Sunday kinda messes with our little set Christmas routines, so this year we’re celebrating with my side of the fam early. I’m bringing…

Broccoli Casserole
Yummy Brownies

“Pretend Christmas Day” Celebration at Mom & Dad’s. I’m bringing…

Cheddar Biscuits inspired by Thrifty Décor Chick
Chips & Dip

I’m still menu planning and prepping… even at Christmastime. Most of our week is filled with the hustle and bustle of Christmas celebrating, but we’ll have a few normal-ish nights eating at home. :)

I’m really excited to try the Crockpot Chicken & Dumplings tonight. Mmmmm! It’s one of those perfect winter recipes to warm up your bones. :) Of course, with our unbelievably warm weather lately, who knows if winter ever really will get here. :) As with all the recipes I use, this one is EASY!! I love that it uses refrigerated biscuit dough for the dumplings!!

And a bonus, I get to try out my new Crockpot! We celebrated Christmas with Chris’s side of the family last weekend, and I got a Cuisinart 3.5 quart Crockpot with a digital timer! Whoohoo! My other one is about a 6 quart I think. It’s HUGE and way too big for what our family needs. Since it’s SO ginormous, it cooks everything RIDICULOUSLY fast too which can sometimes result in dried out dinner. :( I’m excited to try my new, more normal sized one today!!

The Tilapia is also a favorite… easy and healthy, AND it’s yummy. ;) You just broil the tilapia a few minutes… Take it out and brush the parmesan butter mixture on both sides broiling a few more minutes on each side. Delish!

I hope we all can enjoy this week of Christmas Craziness!! Remember to take a breath every now and then and make some holiday memories with your loved ones.

I love this time of year! :)

{via the jacobs clan}

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?}

…. and here for more Monday Menu Inspiration from orgjunkie!

Beautify Your Blog, DIY…a Custom Favicon!

noreply@blogger.com (Renee Living Laughing Loving) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:42:00 +0000

I’m excited to be back with another installment in our Beautify your Blog, DIY Series! I hope we have been learning lots…

Check out what we’ve learned so far…

I’m an admitted internet addict. And with that addiction comes the compulsion to have one hundred eleven of my most favorite tabs open… at all times. :)

What makes me even happier in all my forty eleven tab bliss is when all my tabs have a custom favicon.

You know a favicon. That teeniest of teeny little squares with the brand’s logo… mini-sized right next to their name on the tab?

This used to be a sort of complicated process but blogger has recently made this SOOOO incredibly easy! Anyone can do this. If you can crop and upload a pic, then you can do it. :)

Step 1) Decide what you want your Favicon to be. This is a SMALL, SMALL pic we’re talking about here, so it needs to be something fairly cropped and zoomed. Otherwise, no one will even be able to tell what it is. One idea is to take the initials of your blog name, or even the first letter. I chose to use the letter “L” since it’s the first letter of all three words in my title…”Living, Laughing, & Loving.”

If you have a graphic in your header or blog button, that might be a good choice for your favicon.

Step 2) Crop out your favicon image. Here’s a little secret… I created my blog button in Word. Yes, that’s right. Microsoft Word. The picture effects and borders and text boxes are just too easy for this photo editing novice to pass up. When I’m done, I take a cropped screen shot of the part I need and save it as an image.

I recently read somewhere of a blogger who made her header in Powerpoint which lets you easily save as an image, so that will save you a step or two right there.

Since my blog button was in Word, I opened that file up and cropped and resized borders etc to create my own custom favicon.

Step 3) Resize to a micro mini square. It’s got to be perfectly square and it can’t be bigger than 100 KB. Upload your favicon in Pixlr or Picnik to resize appropriately. I read an article, er, I guess, I skimmed part of an article, that said you want your favicon to be 32x32 pixels instead of the previously accepted 16x16 pixels since computer screens are getting bigger and bigger.

They said most browser can shrink a bigger one down, but making a smaller one bigger doesn’t produce the best results. So who knows. You decide.

Once you’ve resized, you can even add rounded corners in picnik if you so desire. :)

Save as a png file.

Step 4) Upload to blogger. Go to design, then on the left you’ll see the favicon editing area.

Click choose file and find where you saved your resized version.

Save and you’re done!

Now, when I first did this, the favicon wouldn’t show up for me for some reason. I tried to google why and found others with the same complicated issues, but eventually it worked. If yours isn’t showing, try restarting your browser and/or your computer and see if that gives it the magic touch. :) You can also do something called emptying your cache and clearing your cookies too, and you probably can google to figure that out too. :)

Another note, if you have gone to the darkside, uh, I mean, Wordpress, here’s some favicon help for you.

{via}

Just cuz I love you. :)

Even more Bloggy Beautifying coming to you soon. Stay tuned!

Sometimes I Link to these great parties…Weekend Bloggy Link up, Tatertots & Jello, House of Hepworths, Delightful Order,Bowl Full of Lemons,Organize & Decorate Everything, Reasons to Skip the Housework, This Chick Cooks, Funky Junk Interiors, Somewhat Simple, Shabby Creek Cottage, No Minimalist Here, Skip to my Lou,Fingerprints on the Fridge,CRAFT,Today’s Creative Blog, the 36th Avenue, Thrifty Décor Chick, Home Stories A-Z, Honey we’re Home, and Someday Crafts. You should check ‘em out!!:

A Table Top Tree for this Family

noreply@blogger.com (Renee Living Laughing Loving) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:00:00 +0000

It all started as a suggestion from our favorite neighbors with their own little curious wee one at perhaps setting up a table top tree this year.

A smaller tree that just MAYBE would be able to survive the ever inquisitive Davis Man.

It is definitely NOT a stunning, glamorous tree by any means. But I did my best to attempt beauty… just on a smaller scale. :)

The kiddos and I were all set to decorate it the day after Thanksgiving when the hubs had to be back at work.

Our bigger tree is pre lit, and I was so bummed at first that decorating would have to wait since I didn’t have any lights for our small tree.

And no way was I heading out in the black Friday mania with three kids on a ‘light mission.’

Soon before Chris came home, I stumbled upon a shoebox of forgotten lights in the attic, so we could get the partay started! Whoohoo!

I ended up getting the lights hung, but we finished the rest of the decorating after he got home.

I thought it was funny when I saw the “Ho, Ho, Ho” had been hung as “Oh, Oh, Oh.”

They were proud of their great decorating job. :)

We turned our wooden filing cabinet thing sideways to showcase our little tree and on an earlier Walmart trip I found a cheap large and in charge “snow” type tree skirt. I had hoped that it would be BIG enough to hang all the way to the ground, but we didn’t quite get that far.

I came home with the bigger tree skirt and shared my “great” plan with the hubs. He said,

“Uh, won’t Davis just grab the skirt and pull the whole tree down?”

{Silence.}

And yet another of my amazing plans falls flat at the voice of my husband’s calm and annoying logic.

Darn him.

{He decided to grab the camera while I was standing on the chairs fastening the tree topper. Apparently, this is my “pose with your project” pic. :) On another note, this gives you a glimpse of my normal day to day attire. Fancy, huh?}

Since I didn’t want to go “skirt-less,” {hee hee, wouldn’t that be SCANDALOUS!} we opted for this NEW TREND of forming an attractive barrier between the Davis Destroyer and our beloved tree and all the Christmas spirit with it.

You haven’t heard of it? Doesn’t it look JUST like something you would see in Pottery Barn???

JUST like it, right??

No?

Hmm. Oh well.

Here’s a shimmery night shot of our Cheery Lil’ Beauty without the lovely wall of toys…

Mmmmm… Aren’t glowing Christmas lights just magically mesmerizing??

And a glimpse through the mirror… :)

For more Christmas Tree Cheer go check out one of my most favorite bloggers, Thrifty Décor Chick {I made my ornament wreath up there last year after being inspired by hers!} and see TONS and TONS of amazing Christmas TREES!!!

Hopefully next year we can go back to our skinny & fabulous tree in all its majesty.

But this year we are choosing to focus on the fact that our tree is high and mighty AND has managed to retain ALL her ornaments.