{ Happy Homemaker Monday - 2012 #6 }

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The weather:::

Right now it's 48 degrees and a little on the chilly side out there.  And this is what we have to look forward to this week.....

On my reading pile::: 
Been enjoying lots of books on my Kindle Fire.  Right now I'm actually trying to pick the next one to read :)

On my TV:::

Call the Midwife Episode 4
Birdsong Episode 3

On the menu for this week:::

Monday -  Bitoque (Portuguese Steak) 
Tuesday - Mom's Goulash
Wednesday - Long Boy Burgers
Thursday - Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs and Spaghetti
Friday - Slow Cooker Chicken Cordon Bleu
Saturday - Crab cakes with Salad
Sunday - Pierogies

On my to do list:::

Housework
Laundry
Homeschooling

What I am sewing, crocheting, knitting or creating:::

Just finished a crochet cover for an old tissue box, using it for my Basil :)
Making a few more for my other herbs that I'm just starting to plant now
Starting my first patchwork quilt.

In Homeschooling:::

For Home Life with both kids, we're concentrating on the garden, herbs, planting etc.  Jasmine is going to be learning about Immigration and Immigrant life in the US this week and Nicholas will be concentrating on communities :)

Looking around the house:::

My husband is sitting at his computer checking on his Facebook game Castleville, while getting ready for work.  The dogs are sleeping on the couch, my kiddos are asleep in bed, I hear the washing machine doing it's first load.  Right in front of me on the kitchen table is my beautiful Basil in it's pretty crochet box, it looks adorable and I can't wait to take pics when it's daylight :)

From the camera:::

Ginger Spice Apple Pie I made this weekend for a giveaway on my food blog.  Go on over and check it out, you could win a package from Lucky Leaf with pie fillings, a cookbook, a potholder and a crisp mix :)

Something fun to share:::

Have you ever heard of Jungle Search?  Well it's an Amazon Advanced Search that allows you to quickly find what you're looking for instead of having to browse through hundreds of pages.  It's pretty nifty :)  Check it out, I just found it the other day while searching for a book and it was very helpful to me :)

On my prayer list:::

My husband as he studies for his next rank, he will be testing for Master Sergeant on the 6th of March :)

Bible verse, Devotional::: 

Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

James 1:21

{ Friday Favorites - #5 }

If you have something special you would like to show, if you have a trinket which has a special meaning for you or maybe something you have just found and own or would like to have. It could be anything, a trinket, a book, a new cookware set, a necklace, a photograph, a project you're working on or finished....anything that you love and would like to show us all.

Take a photo, or two, or three...post it on your blog and come back and link up using Mr Linky.

Please only include links directly to your post and only those pertaining to Friday Favorites. Anything not related WILL be removed.

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Today's treasure is very near and dear to my heart, for many reasons.
When we lived in Idaho there was a store we absolutely loved visiting and shopping it, it was called Quilted Bear and the minute we stepped through those doors it was like being transported to a big warehouse of crafts, wood crafts, needle crafts, the scent of candles, rows and rows of scrapbook materials and bits and bobbles here and there.

On one of our visits, I came across this tiny little shelves with personalized mugs, any name you could think of and I knew I had to grab one.

I got one for each of our names in the family.

Now if you're one of my friends or have been reading my blog for a while, you will probably be wondering why the names Jennifer and Alexandra are on there too.

Those two little mugs are for the two babies I miscarried, it was the names we had picked out for them and it means the world to me to be able to have these tiny little mugs, as a daily reminder, not that I need one.

Miscarriage is something you never forget, it's something you never quite get over, it just gets easier to deal with as time goes by, it doesn't erase the pain, it doesn't take away the grief, but it does help you move on  with each day.

So as you can see, they may be tiny, but these little mugs and the little shelf hold a very special place in my heart, they are one of the things I would grab if I had to run out the door.

Kindle Fire and boy is it HOT *snort*

So dorky, but I couldn't resist.

I'm going to show you and tell you all about my new Kindle Fire, but before I do let me explain why I got one because you know I don't just make it a habit of spending money for no reason.

Remember my husband bought me a Kindle Touch about a month ago, it was the first week of January and I fell in love with it, I took it with me everywhere, I read it constantly, I just loved it THAT much and thought it was the coolest thing since sliced bread.

Here it is.......

Isn't it pretty? Oh I love it.

And then last week Wednesday, I was in the middle of reading a book when suddenly, blink blink blink, Kindle start graphic, blink some more and then KINDLE NEEDS TO BE REPAIRED!

WHAT?!?!?!? Why? I didn't drop it, I didn't bump it, if anything I was more careful with this Kindle than I am with myself, I bump into stuff all the time but that Kindle had it's own little imaginary bubble around it. So why was this happening?

I got in touch with Amazon Customer Service and was told that this Kindle is defective and needs to be replaced, but here's the kicker, it's bad enough that it's but a month old, but I would have to take it back to the Walmart my husband bought it at and get it replaced there. THAT is not going to happen, first because Walmart only has a 15 day return policy on items like these and second because we didn't have the receipt anymore or the original box.

Unbelievable! So here I sat with a non working Kindle, I honestly wanted to cry, I can't believe how fast I fell in love with it. What to do???

Well I'm trying to get Amazon to help me out somehow, this is their product and if I remember correctly it comes with a 1 year Warranty for defects etc.

But seeing how sad I was and how much I loved my Kindle, my hubby decided to surprise me with a new one, but instead of the same Kindle Touch he just went for the one with the bells and whistles and got me the Kindle Fire.

OH.MY.WORD!

Here, let me show you.......my good ol' blog on the Kindle, so pretty isn't it?

Right after I charged it up, I registered it through Amazon and was surprised to see that I have a full month free Amazon Prime trial.  Ooohhhh :)

I spent quite a bit of time just staring at it and trying to figure out where to go first, what to try first, what to touch, it's much like a new toy that you want to play with really bad but are so worried that you'll accidentally break it?  LOL

One of the cool things about is it the fact that it looks like an Ipod, even the way it is set up.  First thing I did was check out the Apps I could get, so many free ones to choose from and really inexpensive ones to purchase as well.  My first download however was this game for my Nicholas, he's been talking about it for a few days, it's called Where's my Water?

Collect as many ducks as you can in the game and Disney, with the help of Disney's Friends for Change and the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund, will make a donation to Conservation International.

The goal of Conservation International is to protect and restore ecosystems and provide freshwater benefits to help more than 500 million people and 126,000 species. For more information about Conservation International, click here.

By helping Swampy connect water to his shower, you can help connect water to animals in real life.

He is determined to help as much as he can, he is so cute :)

Since we're both under the weather, he has been spending lots of time relaxing on my bed, he just reads his books or watches TV, or last night, he asked if he could play the game for a bit.  Problem was I had to wrestle my Kindle Fire from him afterwards LOL   Both kids have now decided they would love one of their own for their birthday's coming up in April....hmmmmm we'll see :)

But back to the Kindle Fire and all it has, or all that I've found so far cause it has a lot of things.

I love how good the quality of the videos are.

Here is the Home page on the Kindle, it shows in big all the items I've read or played or messed with recently.

Of course I love that the books are all in color whereas the Kindle Touch everything was black and white and didn't have a lit up screen either, I couldn't read at night unless I had the light on.

Under the documents tab are some of the PDF books that I have on the Kindle, plus any documents I may have either transferred from the computer through the USB port or sent to my Kindle email account.

Here is the Apps page....did you notice that the Fire comes with QuickOffice....YES!

Also included is the Audible App.....audio books, yes please :)

One of the best things for me right now????  I can make my grocery list in Word and then email it to my Kindle....my grocery list ON my Kindle.  *sigh*   Now of course there is no way for me to check off the items as I grab them, but I don't care about that, I just love that I can have it on my Kindle, and with that comes the possibility of list making or anything else I may want that is Word specific.

BTW though, the Fire does have Notepad and Color Notes Apps for free that you can download :)

Netflix....I love this Fire so much.  I know some have mentioned how it doesn't have much storage and that watching videos can drain that fast etc, but I will tell you right now that the reason I have this Kindle is primarily for reading, that's it, I just look at all these other things as an added bonus.

Will I watch videos on Netflix, of course, but it won't be a daily thing when I can do the same on my laptop on a bigger screen.  I DO think all these add ons will come in handy when we are traveling or away from home :)

Connections Academy on the Fire.  Oh Lordy, it just gets better and better, my kids are able to log in and actually do their lessons on it :)

And Study Island, many schools use Study Island, we do as well, and again it works great :)

So, what do I think of the Kindle Fire???

I think I am in love.  I couldn't have asked for a better little gadget, as much as I loved my Touch this one really does put it to shame.

Only thing I've noticed so far that I don't like too much is that the battery life is nowhere near as long as the Touch, but I can do with that, just have to charge it more than I did the other, small price to pay for such a great little gadget. :)

{ Cooking Thursday }

Morning everyone :)  Hope you're all having a great week so far.

Here is today's Cooking Thursday.

If you want to use the picture, just click here for the original.

Cream Cheese Danish


2 tube of Crescent seamless dough sheet
1 box (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons flour
Strawberry Jam
1/2 cup powdered sugar
milk (just add enough to make the consistency you like)


Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Open up the tubes of crescent dough and lay them on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. I can usually fit both on one sheet to bake but when I’m first getting them assembled, I do one on the sheet and another on a different sheet of parchment paper on the counter.

In a bowl mix the cream cheese, the sugar, the vanilla extract and the flour. Then take about 3/4 of the filling and spoon onto the middle of the dough. Spread nicely, but keep it all in the middle.

Take the remaining cream cheese filling and do the same with the other sheet of dough. This one won’t have too much because we’re adding fruit or jam

Grab whatever fruit you want to use, I would recommend the Lucky Leaf Pie Fillings which are really good. But this time I am using Strawberry Jam. Spoon some onto the cream cheese and spread it over.

Then take a knife and make slit, about a half inch wide at a slant, all the way up the sides, then all you’re going to do is take them and cross them over each other, kind of braiding.

Fit both the Danish into the cookie sheet. I just grab the second one by the parchment paper and place it on the cookie sheet next to the other, you can cut the excess paper off.

Bake them for about 20 to 30 minutes until the dough is done and nice and brown. Remove from oven and let it cook completely.

In a small bowl, combine the powdered sugar and the milk. You can add a little dash of vanilla extract or even maple, and then drizzle over the cooled danish. Enjoy


If you don’t want to wait until completely cool, go ahead and drizzle the icing on it now, it will get a nice shiny glaze

{ Yarn Along }

I love Wednesdays, not only because they mean the middle of the week for me and closer to the weekend, but because it means Yarn Along and I can share with you what I've made or what I'm currently working on.

Don't forget to head over to Ginny's blog to join in or to see what she's working on :)

So before I show you what I'm working on now, let me give you a little Ta-Dah moment with my Daisy Square Pillow.  It turned out amazing, I'm SO happy with it :)

*sigh* it was so simple to make and I can't get over how adorable it looks, it just makes me so happy when I look at it :)

So there you have it, all finished and placed next to my other crochet pillow, the Blooming Flower :)

But now onto today's Yarn Along.

Following in Lucy's footsteps, I am crocheting a cover for an empty tissue box which is going to be turned into a holder for my Basil pot. :) I have a couple other boxes around that I'm going to do the same for with different color combinations and they will all be placed on my windowsill with my herbs.

As for what I'm currently reading, after my Kindle went Kapoot the other day :(  and while I wait to get a new one, I'm enjoying looking through some of my older books, like this one called A Garden Supper Tonight.

 I think what I love the most about this book is that it's divided into months and Seasons.  Most of the recipes shared have been printed as they were found or either passed down from generation to generation, so you'll see a lot of pinch of this, and a handful of that.  I LOVE it, it's how I learned how to cook, there was no measuring just eyeballing :)

So that's what I'm reading and that is what I'm crocheting :)