My favorites!!!!

You know I was thinking about Oprah the other day. Yeah well, it's not like I usually think about her during the day, but for some reason I was thinking back on her "Oprah's Favorite Things" and I realized that there a few things that I just recently discovered that I just LOVE. So I thought I would start today by sharing them with you.

The first is my latest chips craze. While grocery shopping the other day I saw these and thought I would give them a try, let me tell you, I ate the whole bag by myself. Yes I feel horrible but my hips love me right now. I just couldn't eat one and put the bag down. Focus Sandra focus!!!!!

But no I couldn't stop there, oh noooooo, that wouldn't be me. I'm addicted to chips, and then I wonder why I have such a hard time loosing weight. Anyway, these next ones I just found yesterday and oh boy, not only do they remind me of the chips above, but they are spicy too and OH SO GOOD!!!

Now moving on to something else that I have become addicted to. If you ever come to my house and wonder what that wonderful smell is, look no further than the can in my left hand.....yes, because I literally walk around with that can, where I go, it goes.
I'm talking about the Air Infusions by Glade. The pink one is my favorite - Garden Bliss-.
It freshens my house and leaves this wonderful amazing smell.

And here's my last one. This nifty little Chores Chart. I heard about it through one of the ladies that left a comment on Shannon's blog when we were discussing Chores and Allowances. I've since gotten one for myself and it's wonderful with the kids.

Now on to other things, I had mentioned Karon Phillips Goodman's new blog. This morning she has a neat little Guess it Game sorta thing going on LOL Sorry I couldn't think of better words to explain it, just go on over and have a look and see if you can guess the book of the Bible that she is talking about.

If you look on over to my sidebar, almost all the way at the bottom, I've added this nifty new little Prayer Card. All you have to do is enter the name of the person you are praying for, then scroll down the menu and pick what the prayer is about, for example, I've used it to pray for Matt, Dan, Jeff and a couple other troops currently in Iraq. You enter their name and then it takes you to a different page where a prayer and scriptures specifically for that person is listed. It's such a great little tool, I'm just loving it.

I just finished adding my menus for the next two weeks, on my food blog. I started the blog as a way to keep track of what we are eating and also in my journey to find foods that my kids will eat, without much fuss. I've been lucky so far, so I've been posting the recipes that have worked for us, maybe they will work for your kids too :) Remember now, I'm portuguese and I I do cook portuguese food as well as the occasional South African dish seeing that I lived there for most of my life. Later today I will posting one of Portugal's favorite desserts called "Pasteis de Nata", they are these wonderful little Cream Cakes made with Puff Pastry. Deliscious, so be sure to check that out.

So here I go, mop and bucket in one hand, vacuum in the other, it's time for housework. You know with this wonderful weather we've been having, my mind keeps taking me to the beach. Boy do I miss the ocean, the waves, the sand and the sun, the smell of sun tan lotion, the laughter of little ones building sand castles, the smell of ice cream. Ahhhhh it's one of those Calgon Take me Away moments!!!!

Works for Me Wednesday!!!

You have no idea how addictive this is. I literally spend all week trying to think of the perfect tip to give and let me say that I usually can come up with tons, right until the morning of. For some reason my mind takes extended leave and I'm drawing a blank. How annoying!!!

Anyway, for those who are reading this for the first time, one of my favorite bloggers, Shannon over at Rocks in my Dryer, came up with this theme called "Works for Me Wednesday" in which you share your tips or advice or whatever, that make your life easier.
For a list of all the participants, check out her site, I will also add your links to mine if you leave me a comment letting me know that you're playing too.

Here's mine for this week.

I have tons of different cooking gadgets, slow cooker, turbo cooker, George Foreman Grill, Rotisserie etc. To make room on my counters and so it doesn't look cluttered, I have these neatly stored away in my kitchen cabinets, BUT the problem is that I tend to forget they exist.

So I've started taking one out each week or two and then I find recipes for them and use it as much as I can. Once that time is up, it gets stored back in it's place and out comes another one.
I've found that this way, I'm actually using them all, trying out different recipes AND I don't just let them collect dust. Works for Me!!!!

If you play along, let me know and I will put up a link here too :)

Wow talk about a nice surprise :)

This morning while doing the Treasure Tuesday I get an email notification, so I go over and check it. I have my blog set up to send me an email anytime someone posts a comment.
I open up the email and I'm thinking "Oh no way, that can NOT be what I think it is". Someone had posted a comment on my blog and not just anyone, one of my favorite authors and as many of you know, has been a great inspiration to me. You know who I'm talking about yet????
I don't know if I should tell you, should I?

Maybe I should do the Ryan Seacrest thing and say "I will tell you who it is, RIGHT after this commercial break!"

Go on, go get some coffee because you're going to be blown away LOL

Alright, alright, I think I've kept you in the dark long enough. The comment was left by Karon Phillips Goodman. Ring a bell???

You're Late Again Lord?
Another Fine Mess Lord?

YEAH YEAH, that's the one, the author actually left me a comment and added me to her blog. I'm thrilled beyond words. Here's what she said:

Dear Sandra ~~ Thank you for your kind words about my book! I'm truly touched :) [I don't know much about blogging, but I'm trying to start and I added you to my list :)] Thanks again!

Many blessings,
Karon
http://karongoodman.blogspot.com/

So if you get a chance today and if you're interested in Karon's books, I'm sure you've heard so much about them through my blog, I'm constantly talking about them LOL, go on over and say hi to her, she's just started a blog called Every Woman's Travels.

Jasmine's school is having their yearly Family BBQ, so we get to go eat with her, she's so excited that daddy will be able to make it, usually he's working and can't be there.

I did my weigh in today and I'm still at 136 lbs. I would be upset BUT I've truly been eating like a pig since sunday. Maybe because it was Mother's Day and I had a huge breakfast and then a big lunch etc, yesterday with all the running around I ended up having McDonald's which I'm sure have the fat in my body throwing a party. If that isn't bad enough, hubby picked up Krispy Kreme donuts....WHY, WHY would he do something like that???? Not only do I love donus, but Krispy Kreme? That's torture. So I'm ashamed to say that I had 3 yesterday and one this morning, I can practically feel the fat pumping through my veins "Woohoo she's feeling rebellious, let's multiply, she won't even know." *Sigh*

You know how I always say that when I'm reading "Another Fine Mess Lord" or when I read the other one, there were always words that jumped out at me?
Yesterday was no exception, listen to this:

"The path to more order and peace is the same no matter what the situation, no matter if it happens in your home and you can touch it, or if it happens in your heart and you can feel it. Making sense of the chaos in your life brings order, and it's not complicated unless you choose to make it so. There's always less disorder when there's more of God in everything you do. Know that, put it first."

So many times I think, well if I can just get this problem fixed then I will be able to concentrate on God. NO NO NO NO......big NO NO!!!! That's not the way it is. Put God FIRST, then the problem will get fixed. I used to believe that I only needed God for something major, something really earth shattering. Wow was I a fool. The minute I started involving Him in the smallest detail, everything moved a lot more smoothly. I don't know why I brought this up today, maybe I'm just hoping that if anything, it will help remind some of us that He needs to come first and the chaos will disappear.

I leave you today with a prayer for the troops, you know how much I appreciate them and their sacrifices.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the brave
young men and women of America
who are now in the battle front defending freedom.

May they come home, honorably and victoriously,
before we have been apart from them too long and may
they all come home safely into the arms of those
who love and miss them.

God Bless
each and every one of our young men and women
and may He protect and watch over them
during this time of conflict.

Our prayers will not cease until they are all safely home.

Treasure Tuesday!!!

It's such a beautiful morning and already 60 degrees outside, so I'm sitting here with the sunshine, a cup of steaming hot coffee and a *whisper - Krispy Kreme donut*. I feel so rebellious being on a diet and all. Ahhhhhh!!!

My Treasure Tuesday for today are my nieces and nephews, not only because I love them to death, but because being a long distance Aunt makes things so much harder.

I'm going to start with my beautiful niece Tiffany. When she was born and her mommy had to go back to work, she stayed with me and my grandmother. We took care of her during the day until she went back home around 5pm. When I left South Africa in 1998, Tiffany was about to turn 2 years old. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life, I felt as if I was leaving my own child and till this day she holds a very special place in my heart. On sunday for Mother's Day I got to talk to her and the first thing she said was "I miss you so much, when are you coming to visit?". Wow, talk about my heartbreaking.
"Hey China, that noise you heard around 7pm was actually my heart breaking in two".

Now my wonderful and gorgeous little man, Colby. Colby is Tiffany's brother and unfortunately I have yet to meet him in person. I just look at his sweet little face and want to squeeze him so hard. Colby reminds me a lot of Nicholas, they both look very much alike and could pass for brothers LOL
Colby is one of my treasures and more so because I have yet to hold him in my arms :)

My next Treasure is my wonderful nephew Dylan. When my older brother married my sister in law, Dylan was two years old. It didn't matter to us, because he instantly became a part of our family. My brother adopted him and gave him our last name, but all that is just legalities because Dylan knows how much we love him. I want so much to shower him with love and to hug him and kiss him, so I hope I can do that soon :)

This is my little princess Taryn-Lee. Taryn-Lee is Dylan's sister and the apple of daddy's eye. When she was born I remember my brother sending me a photo of her and one of myself at her age, I swear we looked identical :)
She's such a sweetheart and I love talking to her on the phone, she gets so shy around me but I know that's because she hasn't actually seen me in person yet. Another little treasure of mine and one that I hold dear to my heart :)

And last but not least, the baby of the family. My beautiful little Alyssa. Just look at that little face :)
I also haven't met Alyssa yet but I have so much love for her. It's heartbreaking not being able to spoil them and play with them and just shower them with love and affection.
Alyssa is my younger brother's daughter, so she's my baby's baby, does that make sense? LOL

And there you have it, those are my Treasures for this Tuesday. I love them all to death and hope more than anything that someday really soon, I can finally wrap my arms around them and tell them IN PERSON, just how much I love them. :)

For more Treasure Tuesday participants, head on over to Faith's blog. :)

CopyKat Recipes

I've had this site bookmarked under my favorites for, oh about 5 years now. If you've never checked it out but would love to know how to make some of your favorite restaurant dishes, then THIS is the place to go.

They have the recipes for some of the most popular dishes and restaurants, like Sonic's Cherry Limeade, Olive Garden's 5-cheese Lasagna, Outback Steakhouse Walkabout Soup or the Aussie Fries, TGI Friday's 9 Layer Dip etc.

I've made many of these before and they turned out really well, so go ahead and check them out at CopyKat Recipes. I'm sure you can find one of your favorite dishes.

The reason I'm mentioning this is because while making my menu's and grocery list, I was writing down the ingredients for the Chili's Monterey Chicken that I'm making tonight. It's sooooooooo good!!!

Just had to share with you all :)