There’s a turkey to purchase, a menu to plan, recipes to thumb through, grocery shopping that needs to happen and cleaning. Don’t even get me started on the cleaning. Traditional Thanksgiving dinners can be a lot of work, and planning and organization go a long way to ensuring yours comes together all at the right time. Before you pass on the turkey and stuffing, take a look over at Organizing your Way today where I am sharing a few tips on how you can make your Turkey Day stress... more

The winner is #19, jessica c!! Congratulations, Jessica. I’ll be emailing you. Thanks to everyone who participated! If you didn’t know, I’m pretty excited about menu planning. I’ve talked about how we plan our menu and why we plan a menu, and I share the weekly menu each Sunday. It is definitely something that makes it easier to juggle sports schedules, homework and our own social commitments. Once-a-Month Cooking Family Favorites is the follow up to the original Once-a-Month... more

Before this becomes irrelevant – and maybe it already is – I wanted to share some of the culinary delights ate the fair this year. Reflecting back on it, we kind of decided it was a mild year for us. I mean, we didn’t go for the ostrich or the alligator, bacon-on-a-stick or even deep-fried Oreos. There’s always next year. From left to right, top to bottom: 1) Chicken pesto crepe, carnival ride at night, the Giant Slide, Skyride 2) Cheese curds, sharing our lemonade with a bee,... more

When I’m not toiling away in the kitchen, working behind a computer screen or playing with my new camera, I sometimes consider getting around to decorating my home. Actually, I think about it a lot. It’s the getting to it portion I have issues with. I have plenty of ideas and things I like, but time kind of gets away from me with all the other things going on. Today I talked about actually accomplishing something in the design category over at Simple Nest, a channel of Simple Mom.... more

Last Monday I wrote about using the last weeks of summer to squeeze in one last relaxing staycation over on Deal Seeking Mom, and then I neglected to let you know because I was up to my elbows in bleach and green t-shirts with 26 kids. But you should go check it out…and then find out what else is on sale this week. Tara’s in the know and constantly updating with new deals and specials. She can help you stretch your dollar a bit farther as we head into the school season. Which sent... more

I know, I’ve been somewhat absent lately. Not entirely, just more absent than I’d like to be. The truth is, I’ve been figuring it out. What is it that I have been figuring? I’m glad you asked. First, my wonderful, patient husband, after months of me begging and pleading, figured out how to rewrite the code in the blog theme so that I can have somewhat of a Recipe Index. While it’s FAR from finished, it makes me feel like you could actually, say, look for a recipe... more

My irises continue to bloom. The garden continues to grow. It’s been a busy weekend. A picnic wedding reception, two backyard barbecues, a karaoke wedding dance at a polka bar, one 30th birthday party and one 1st birthday party later, it’s all over. I did make the birthday cake successfully. I found a wonderful recipe that fit the bill, and I’ll have it up later this week. It didn’t turn out exactly how I wanted due to a flop in the grass (topping, not the actual cake)... more