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ozzzyyy

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Posts posted by ozzzyyy

  1. Those are great! when it starts getting cold again.

     

    Chai Tea Mix

    Ingredients

    1 cup nonfat dry milk powder

    2 cups powdered non-dairy creamer

    2 1/2 cups white sugar or Splenda

    2 cups unsweetened instant tea

    2 teaspoons ground ginger

    2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

    1 teaspoon ground cloves

    1 teaspoon ground cardamom

     

    Directions:

    In a large bowl, combine milk powder, non-dairy creamer, vanilla flavored creamer, sugar and instant tea. Stir in ginger, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. In a blender or food processor, blend 1 cup at a time, until mixture is the consistency of fine powder.

    To serve: Stir 2 tablespoons Chai tea mixture into a mug of hot water.

     

     

  2. More Great gardening websites to share! I really enjoy visiting these sites.....especially when the 1st day of March 2005 came in like a lion bringing frigid temps and a foot of snow!! Dreamy garden sites are just the ticket to think of better days ahead!

     

    Daves Garden

    We are a large and very active community of gardeners and farmers, sharing information, seeds, and plants. You'll find lots of useful info here, including:

     

    A Garden Plants Directory of over 63,000 plants and 37,000 plant photos

    A "Garden Watchdog" Directory of gardening-related mail order companies, rated by the members of Dave's Garden.

    Garden Book Reviews - over 1,300 books listed, and 224 book reviews posted.

    Botanical Dictionary, and Garden Terms Dictionary

    Free online Garden Journal - a valuable tool to help you keep track of your garden

    Trading tools, forum, community and more!

    http://davesgarden.com/

     

    The Country Garden for Self-Sufficient Living

    Gardening articles and "how to" information for growing crops and food on the homestead.

    http://www.goodbyecitylife.com/fields/index.htm

     

    Garden Here - Plant, Seed and Flower Exchange

    GardenHere is an Internet community for home gardeners and neighborhood garden clubs. We make it easy for members to trade plants, seeds and flowers. Here, our members share home gardening tips and plant propagation techniques. Everyone is welcome to upload plant and flower pictures, give garden advice, ask questions or just say "hello".

    http://gardenhere.com/

     

     

  3. Get Gardening Help on the Internet

     

    At the National Gardening Association's Easy Seed-Starting Guide, you can "get your garden off to a good start" with their step-by-step instructions and tips from the pros. Learn the germination temperature, the number of days to germinate, plant spacing, and the amount of sunlight required. Access the National Gardening Magazine to learn about new vegetables, fruit, or roses.

    http://www.wowpages.com/nga/

     

    Please feel free to add your favorite gardening links to this sticky thread for easy access. Happy Gardening, Spring is just around the corner

     

     

     

  4. Go Mindy, Go!

    I hope she rids you of the mice problem! We don't have a mice problem as of yet at our home, knock, knock ,knock....but our cabin is filled with them. Recently we aquired a female kitten that we rescued from an alley and I believe she is going to make a nice mouser. Of course we'll feed her regardless, but it sure is nice when pets earn their keep.

  5. Less is More this Christmas!

    BY JILL COOPER AND TAWRA KELLAM

    After laying down my last women's magazine telling me how to be less stressed during the holidays, I'm even more confused and stressed then ever. On one page I'm told to take time for myself and indulge in a lovely spa bath. That sounds great, but I can hardly find time for a shower on a slow day in June let alone take a spa bath the week before Christmas. As I turn the page, I'm told to give all my friends and family homemade ornaments to which I have lovingly glued 500 beads, each the size of a grain of sand. OK I'll admit I'm not a rocket scientist, but I am baffled when I try to imagine how I could accomplish these two things even if I didn't have an ever growing list of Christmas preparation tasks. Hmmm. Maybe I could lay in my spa bath carefully gluing on beads to ornaments throughout the night.

     

    Oh, it gets better. As I read on, there are articles telling me how not to gain weight at Christmas parties. Isn't that like telling a three year old to not get dirty while making mud pies? Oh! But it gets better. They then tell you to eat a meal before you go to the party. What? Is that some kind of new diet where you lose weight by eating two meals in the evening instead of one? If it is then I'm all for it. I mean really - who eats four carrot sticks and five pieces of celery at home then arrives at a party where they have pecan pie, five different types of fudge, 10 dozen cookies and egg nog and says " Oh no, I really couldn't eat a thing. I'm sooooo full..?" Excuse Me! Doesn't anyone live in the real world any more?

     

    I think to top it all off (and the part I like the best) is after they tell us how to get rid of stress and not gain weight, they give us 10 pages of recipes for Christmas cookies made with real butter and cream that are decorated so elaborately in the pictures that it probably took a trained kitchen staff of 10 a week to make one cookie.

     

    If you are like me and can't stand that kind of stress, try some of these Christmas ideas from www.LivingOnADime.com to help you have a relaxed and Merry Christmas.

     

    Don't over-spend - It may be tempting to fixate yourself on the sparkling look in little Johnny's eye when he sees that $300 play car under the tree. Advertising people are really good at feeding many parents' fantasies of their children thinking that mom and dad are the peaches and cream for shelling out the cash and looking fondly back on the moment for the rest of their lives. The reality of it though is that most kids have lost all interest in that particular toy long before the credit cards are paid off.

     

    When we were growing up, my mom pulled out all of the stops at Christmas to make it as wonderful for us as she possibly could. The funny thing is that now that we are grown, the things we remember the most fondly are mom's red jello salad (made with red hots - yummy!) and sitting together and reading the Christmas story before opening our presents. I can't remember what presents I received, but I always look back on the Christmas story.

     

    Do a few things well - Instead of trying to do everything and ending up depressed with how it all turns out, focus your energy on a couple of things that are the most important to you. You may be tempted to extravagantly decorate every room in your house, but if you don't have the time or energy, focus on one room, like a living or family room. If your entire house is beautiful but you have to go see a therapist when it's all over, the romantic mystique will be lost. Trust me, I know about this one from personal experience.

     

    Limit activities - Think of the holiday season as triage for activities. Don't commit to do too many things. One or two parties during the holiday season will make you get all tingly in that "It's a Wonderful Life" kind of way. One or two parties a week may send you over the edge, especially if you have kids. (Refer to my therapist comments above.)

     

    This also applies to all of those appealing looking activities around town like Victorian Christmas events, Christmas celebrations at the zoo or winter carnivals. One or two can be a lot of fun, but too many will ruin the fun.

     

    Limit cookie baking. Don't try to make 15 different kinds of cookies like Martha. She may look like she is super woman, but did you know she has a lot of people that help her? How much help do you get with your baking? I mean real help, not your five year old who makes everything twice as difficult for you. This is great for grandma, but you have to see your daughter every day and grandma can send her back when the house is sufficiently covered in flour. Again, pick your two or three top favorite cookies to bake and celebrate the fact that you had few enough priorities that you remembered to put the sugar in them.

     

    Everything doesn't have to be homemade. I know that we advocate making your own stuff, but Marie Callendar's makes some great pies that you can pass off as homemade if you want to soothe your guilty Martha Stewart conscience. In 20 years, your kids will look fondly back on it as the best pie they ever had. But seriously, if you are making things homemade just to save money, remember that some things like candies and pies are often more expensive to make homemade, especially if you cut your finger while slicing the apples. Don't ask me how I know, just trust me on this one.

     

    These aren't the only things you can do to reduce your stress, but if you stick to doing a few things well, you can truly relax and enjoy the season with your family. In the end, they would rather have fond memories of their time with you than memories of how strung out mom was after she burned the cookies.

     

    _______________________________________

     

    About the Author:

     

    Jill Cooper and Tawra Kellam are the authors of Not Just Beans. Not Just Beans will help you shop smarter, by cooking simpler meals and by making your own basic cleaning products. For free tips & recipes visit http://www.LivingOnADime.com/

     

    © Copyright LIVINGONADIME.COM. All rights reserved.

  6. "The 5 people you meet in heaven" was an awesome movie. I'm sure the book is way better. I'll have to get my hands on a copy. It sure made you think. Every action and decision good or bad, affects another person. No man or woman is an island unto him or herself, we are all connected. I thought this movie was beautifully done.

  7. START A FAMILY TRADITION BY CREATING HOLIDAY CRAFT PROJECTS

     

    With the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, it is sometimes

    difficult to spend quality time with your family. Start a new family

    tradition by creating handmade projects for this holiday season. To make

    greeting cards, decorations or even wrapping paper, all you need is a little

    inspiration, easy-to-follow instructions and the right glue.

     

    http://www.pioneerthinking.com/ara_hcprojects.html

     

  8. Oh, I have so many favorites!! My all-time favorite is "Go Tell It On The Mountain", with lots of drums and done up instrumentally powerful! My second favorite is "Hark, The Herald Angels Sing".

  9. We've got almost 10 year old pet chickens that surprise us with an egg every now and again. Chickens certainly have distinquishing personalities when you keep them around long enough to get to know them. Ours will die of natural causes, most assuredly!

  10.  

    The DH, DS, DD & I are on our own this year due to DS having 1 day off (Thanksgiving) from work. We had to choose DS who lives 2 hours away and looks forward to visiting *home* on the holidays or my family gathering in another state. It was a heart wrenching decision to not be with extended loved ones but we chose what is best for our own family.

     

    Our menu is pretty basic...My immediate family is rather picky so we won't be having all the extras (stuffing, sweet potatoes etc.) that I have grown up enjoying. Also I am doing so well eating *low-carb* that I don't want to totally wreck my way of eating, I have had to make minor adjustments.

     

    *Turkey

    Mashed potatoes & gravy

    Corn

    *Cauliflower

    Crescent rolls

    *Sugar-free cranberry jello

    *deviled eggs

    *pickle & olive tray

    Pumpkin & apple pie

    *Sugar free pumpkin bake

     

     

    Happy Thanksgiving all!

     

     

     

     

  11. Unsung Heroines, Unsung Heroes

     

     

    In Tom Brokaw's book "The Greatest Generation Speaks," Veronica Mackey Hulick tells of her service during World War II.

     

    Veronica was 20 when she joined the Navy WAVES [Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service]. She and about 1500 other bright young women worked for hours at the monotonous job of wiring red, yellow, green, and blue wire to small wheels. Later, they discovered they had helped build a set of Navy computers referred to as "the Bombe," even though the word "computer" had not been introduced into the American vocabulary.

     

    Later the group was transferred to Washington D.C. They were all sworn to secrecy with the consequence of being shot if they leaked any information about their project.

    It took about 500 women each shift to run the 120 computers that they had helped to build. When they got a printout from a computer, they couldn't read it. But rather, they ripped off the printout, knocked on a door at the end of the room, and gave it to a hand that came out only long enough to grab the paper.

     

    When the war was over, each young lady was taken into an office and had to swear on the Bible that they would never talk about their work. They were each given a letter instructing future employers not to ask about their activities during the war.

     

    It took 50 years for these women to learn of their noble efforts to end the war.

     

    In 1994,80 of these women gathered in Dayton, Ohio for a reunion. It was then that a Navy historian told them about the fruits of their labor. They had been responsible for sinking between 750,800 German U-boats. They had helped to shorten the war by one, or maybe even two years and had saved countless lives. Veronica was thrilled to at last be able to tell of her work during the war, but grieved for those ladies who died never knowing the huge role they had played in the war effort.

     

    Veronica writes: "...It was a different time in our history. We were patriotic, disciplined, caring, and just so thrilled to know we were doing something special to help end the war. We never sought recognition. I always thought of us as the unsung heroines of WWII."

     

    SOURCE: Tom Brokaw, "The Greatest Generation Speaks." pp. 39-41. New York: Random House, 1999.

     

     

     

     

  12. Living Within Your Budget

    by Chemain Evans

    Having a budget and living within it are two different things. There are always things that we want (or need) and credit is so easy to get. This article will discuss ways to help you establish good budgeting habits.

     

    First, determine why you want to budget. You need a pretty good reason or you won't feel obligated to do what it takes. Do you want to get out of and/or stay out of credit card debt? Or save for a new car or big vacation? Whatever it is, you need a reason so that you won't be enticed to overspend. Write down your reason or goal where you see it every day.

     

    Second, examine your spending. Are you tracking your expenses often enough? If you aren't looking at your expenses every few days, you probably have no idea how much money you have and where it is going. Spend a few minutes each day or at the end of the week updating your records instead of saving it all for the end of the month (or tax season).

     

    Third, recognize why and where you are overspending. Look at your expenses and see where you've crossed the line. Did you have a large, unexpected medical, house, or automotive expense? Does this happen frequently? Establishing some short-term savings can help cover these expenses when they occur.

     

    Begin thinking of things in terms of what it costs you over a long period of time, such as a year. For example, if you pay $3/week to withdraw money from your ATM, that's over $150/year. Instead limit withdrawals to twice a month (or less) and that's over $75/year in your pocket!

     

    Below are some other ways to reduce both mandatory and discretionary expenses:

     

    Increase your car insurance deductible to $500.

    Check around for better car insurance rates.

    Conserve utilities when possible.

    Consolidate your credit card and other consumer debt into a home equity loan and then cancel the cards, cut them up, and don't apply for new ones.

    If you are renting, try to buy a house; tax advantages for paying home loan interest often make it cheaper to own than to rent.

    Eat out less; brown-bag your lunch; find less expensive places to eat.

    Find cheaper entertainment (rent a movie instead of going out to one).

    Consolidate errands to use less gas.

    Limit grocery shopping to one day a week; shop at more than one store for groceries, if time permits.

    Shop around for a better long-distance calling plan or cell phone plan.

     

    Borrow books from the library instead of buying them.

    Some find it necessary to go to a cash-based system. This is sometimes called the "envelope method." It involves cashing your paycheck and depositing only what is needed to write checks for bills or to cover bills that are automatically withdrawn from your checking account.

     

    The remaining cash is divided into envelopes marked for expenses such as food, gas, etc. Once the money in an envelope is gone, to make any additional purchases you either have to shift money from another envelope or wait until you get paid. This really helps to develop discipline.

     

    You may eventually find that there are no more places to cut and you need to increase your income. This doesn't necessarily mean getting a second job, although that is a possibility. Below are some other ways to increase your spendable money:

     

    First, take a look at your tax return. If you're getting anything but a small return, you're letting the government earn interest for itself with your money. You probably wouldn't let anyone else do that! Consider raising your exemptions. You can acquire a new W-4 form to fill out from your Human Resource department or manager.

     

    Second, save or invest wisely to obtain dividends. This is money that you don't have to work for! It's money working for you.

     

    Third, acquire new skills that can help you get a promotion, or even a new job. Get your GED or college diploma, if you don't have one. There is a lot of financial aid available, and you may even be able to attend college for free.

     

    Fourth, consider starting a home-based business. There are a host of tax deductions for home businesses, not to mention the extra income that may come from just a few hours a week. Although a home-based business is not for everyone, you may enjoy it enough to turn it into your next career!

     

    Living within your budget is possible, but you must have a good reason to motivate yourself. Track your expenses often. Cut expenses and/or increase your income if you need to. Decide to make changes and do them today.

     

    _______________________________________

    http://www.pioneerthinking.com/ce_budget.html

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