Problem solved!

Remember this post from a couple weeks ago? I shared with you a new favorite movie, and in the process lamented the terrible state of my copy of Jane Austen's novels. My last reading of Persuasion was the straw that broke the camel's back and the back cover came off completely. Trying to read a book that thick without a back cover is quite difficult, so frequent visits to the world of Jane Austen were our of the question.

During the chaos that is Christmas at my parents (you really should have seen all of the gifts under the tree...needless to say we were all spoiled) I unwrapped a heavy rectangular gift. Inside was this:
A beautiful new copy of Jane Austen's Novels! This photo really doesn't do justice to the color and embossing on the cover. Thanks Mom and Dad for reading my blog and picking up on what I would really love to find under the tree!

Purchases made through links to Amazon.com will result in compensation.

The Most Important Meal of The Day

We've heard it since we were children, magazines and newspapers continue to shout it from the rooftops, but for some reason we like to ignore the old adage, and continue to skip breakfast. I may skip breakfast some mornings, but I make sure that my children get breakfast every morning. I have felt some guilt in the past that their breakfast is rarely homemade and usually consists of a bowl of cereal with milk, but not anymore!

Research has shown that those that eat ready to eat cereal for breakfast consume less fat, less cholesterol and more fiber than those who do not.

Other benefits of choosing ready to eat cereal for breakfast include:

• Ready-to-eat cereals, including presweetened cereals, account for only 5% of sugar in children’s diets.


• Ready-to-eat cereal is the No. 1 source of whole grains in a child’s diet today.


• More frequent cereal eaters tend to have healthier body weights and lower Body Mass Index measures.

General Mills recently announced that they will begin to reduce the sugar per serving content of all of their cereals that are marketed to children under the age of 12 to single digit numbers! In past years General Mills has also been increasing the content of vital nutrients and decreasing the sugar content of their cereals. Actions like these help me as a mother to feel better about choosing cereal as my children's breakfast on busy school mornings.

Right now General Mills is offering a coupon for $1 off one of four of their cereals. Click here to print yours.

If you would like to read more about cereal and children's health, you can go to the General Mills website where they provide you with more data.

This post is part of a program by My Blog Spark. I received coupons, online coupon link, and information from General Mills through MyBlogSpark. Any opinions expressed are completely my own.

Yummm, Potato and Ham soup!

Do you have leftover ham sitting in your refrigerator? It tasted wonderful on Christmas day, but your family is tiring of ham sandwiches...what are you to do? The frugal mommy in you can't bring yourself to throw the ham out so you are searching for a way to use up your leftovers. So far in our home we have made: scalloped potatoes with ham, a ham and egg bake with cheese and green onions, and finally tonight I made this yummy potato and ham soup!

I had grabbed a 10 lb bag of potatoes at Wal Mart the other day (I couldn't pass it up at $.98) so I already had those on hand. I figured a ham and potato soup would be just the ticket on this chilly evening so I pulled up the Swag Bucks website (are you searching with Swag Bucks? I have been lately and have already earned three $5 Amazon.com gift certificates!) and searched for recipes. I found one that sounded both easy and tasty and decided to give it a try. The recipe is one created by Paula Deen for Smithfield ham. You can find the recipe here. I did make some adjustments to the recipe which I felt would add to the flavor. Here are the changes that I made:
-Instead of just water for cooking the potatoes I used a combination of canned chicken broth and water (2 cans broth and 1 can full of water)
-I increased the amount of ham to about 3 cups
-While the potatoes were cooking, I diced a small onion and sauteed it in about 2 Tbs of butter. I cooked until soft and slightly browned and added them with the butter and ham
-Instead of salt I used a very tasty Garlic Season-All from Cow Camp Seasoning Company.

You definitely want to give this one a try! My three year old ate two bowls full at dinner tonight! (So did my almost 10 year old, but she can eat more than any young girl I know, so that isn't saying much!) Happy Leftovers!

I received no compensation for this post. However; if you do choose to sign up and start earning at Swag Bucks, I will earn additional rewards.

Christmas Morning!

Sorry to be a bit late in posting Christmas morning photos of the kiddos! They had a wonderful morning and then were spoiled rotten by their aunt and grandparents in the late afternoon. Here are photos of each of them Christmas morning:

Number 1 showing off her Stocking!
Number 2, thrilled with his skate ramp!
Number 3 digging into the candy in his stocking
Number 4 showing off his new skate boardg
Number 5 playing with his new "Kick It" (aka soccer ball) on his new rug (Thanks to CSN stores and Chocolate Fingerprints for the rug, as I won it back in July in a blog giveaway!)
I hope that you all had wonderful Christmases as well. The best gift I received this year was the smiles on my family's faces and time together! Here's to a wonderful new year too!

Deal Alert! Little Ceasars pizza $3.99

Are you tired of spending time in the kitchen now that the holiday craziness has come to an end? Head to littleceasars.com and print your coupon for a large Hot-N-Ready pizza for only $3.99! I would call that a great after Christmas present! Coupon only good today (December 26th) and tomorrow (December 27th) so hurry on in before the deal is over!

Neighbor Gifts (Caramel Recipe)

Our first Christmas in Utah brought with it a surprise: the neighbor gift. Starting the Saturday before Christmas and for the rest of the week we received knocks on our door and on the other side of the door was the smiling face of one of our neighbors handing us a sweet, small gift. The thing about these neighbor gifts was that they were all incredibly creative! Each gift came with a note attached with a fun little poem or message, usually a play on words that tied the gift given into the Christmas season. One of my favorites of all time was a bottle of rootbeer that had been given a red puffball nose and pipe cleaner antlers with a message that read "Merry Christmas and Happy Rootbeer!"

This year in the craziness of the holidays forgot to come up with something creative, so I whipped up a couple of batches of my favorite caramels, attached a tag wishing our neighbors a sweet Christmas and went with it! Next year I am determined to come up with something clever, but for this year caramels will have to do (and honestly, these are so yummy, who would be disappointed with gooey, sweet caramel?)

Since I can't make caramels for all of you, my readers, I have decided to do the next best thing: share with you this simple, amazing caramel recipe! With only a few ingredients you too can whip up a yummy batch of caramels to share with your family and friends.


Caramels

2 c brown sugar
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 c dark corn syrup
1 c real butter

1. Generously grease a 9X13 baking dish (I find that a spray like PAM works best)
2. Cook all ingredients over medium heat, stirring constantly
3. When mixture reaches a boil, set a timer for 5 minutes.
4. Continue stirring constantly until 5 minutes are up then pour into prepared baking dish
5. Allow to cool completely. I usually place them in the fridge for about 2 hours
6. When completely cooled you can cut the caramel into pieces about the size of a KRAFT caramel and wrap in small pieces of waxed paper (I usually roll out a piece about 3 and a half inches long and tear off of the roll, then cut that into three equal pieces. This is just about the right size for wrapping your caramels, but experiment and find what works best for you)

I wish I could give proper credit for this recipe. I received it several years ago from a sweet lady I knew through church when we were living in California. She got the recipe from her mother.

May your Christmas be filled with family, friends and wonderful memories. May you feel the true spirit of this Christmas season. Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

Ah, My Dream Vaccum!

This may seem crazy, but I have been dreaming of owning a Dyson for a long time now! I am in no way a clean freak (actually quite the opposite), but with five children vacuuming happens quite often in my house (at least once per day if not multiple times) and it is quite frustrating to deal with the low quality vacuums that I have been used to purchasing. It seems that every three years my vacuum with die on me and I have to make the agonizing choice of which vacuum to buy. I inevitably purchase a vacuum in the $125-$175 range and regret it in the end. I have purchased vacuums from several major vacuum companies, just to have the same problems: awful suction and low quality craftsmanship.

The Dyson DC25 is my dream vacuum! The suction power and ball technology seem the answer to my vacuuming problems. So Dyson, if you find my little blog here in the blogosphere and want to make a poor little housewife's year, you can send one of these my way. I would be happy to test it against the mess that four boys ages two to eight and a preteen daughter can create!

A non-compensated post. Any purchases made through links to Amazon.com will result in compensation

Exciting changes coming!

Back when I stared this blog (as some of you may recall from my earliest posts), my plans simply included highlighting giveaways found on other blogs. Quickly I realized that I truly enjoyed trying new products and sharing my reviews, as well as offering giveaways and contests. Because of this change of focus, I have decided to move my blog to a self hosted Wordpress site. I am excited about these changes and can't wait to bring you new reviews, giveaways and more original content in the coming year!

I will roll out live on the new site on January 1st and will give you links when everything is ready to go. If you are following me here on this site (a huge thanks to you!) I will be cross posting for a while to make sure you aren't missing out, and will do my best to direct traffic to the new site. All past content is also being transferred so if you have a favorite post from the past that you want to read again, you can easily find it on the new site!

I can't wait to share this new adventure with you, and thank you for reading! Look for links and more information when we go live on January 1st 2010!

Trident Winners!

Thanks to everyone who entered to win the all new Trident Layers gum! It's time to choose our winners.

Here are your random numbers:

31 5

Timestamp: 2009-12-21 15:28:06 UTC


That is


Pamela S said...
How about lemon and lime!!! Thanks so much!

and

J.K. said...

Pineapple and coconut


I am off to send you an email. Please respond with your name and mailing address within72 hours or a new winner will be chosen.

*when choosing winners, I remove all unqualified entries (the ones that don't follow the rules) from the list before selection.

Welcome to the Drive Across the Country for Child Passenger Safety by Global Influence. I am coming to you from the great State of Utah and I am happy to be participating in this wonderful program, hoping to spread the word about child passenger safety.

With the holiday season moving into full swing, families across the country are in the car and on the go. Whether you're driving across the country to visit family or across town to holiday shop, it is important that your child passengers are riding safely and that child safety seats are used correctly.

AAA estimated that 30 million people travelled this Thanksgiving holiday alone,and for many this is just the beginning of the holiday hustle and bustle. Now is the time to utilize the Child Car Safety tools provided by the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Ad Council to learn more about proper car seat use and installation. You will find informative resources that include instructional videos.

Have child passenger safety questions that you need answered before you travel over the river and through the woods to Grandma?s? NHTSA is always available to answer your questions online through Facebook and Twitter.

Wishing you a Safe and Happy Holiday this year! Keep those kids safe by using your child safety seats properly (Utah law now requires that children remain in a booster seat until age 8 or reaching 80 lbs).

This post was created as part of campaign hosted by the Global Influence Panel.