Here's Another Giveaway I Wanted to Share

MckMama and The Grammie Diaries have teamed up to do an incredible double giveaway.  If you love photography or digital arts, this is one you definitely want to get in on.  Check out both of the links for details on how to get your chance to win.

http://www.mycharmingkids.net/2009/12/power-of-two.html
http://grammiemommy.blogspot.com/2009/12/power-of-two.html

Oh and this blog isn't turning into a giveaway site.  I promise to get a real post up soon.  Life has been full of last minute Christmas knitting and spending time with family.


Blessings,
~*Melody*~

A Giveaway You Must Know About

Head on over to MckMama's blog and check out this newest giveaway.  OMGoodness she's giving away an HP Touchsmart computer.  Would this be an awesome Christmas gift to your family?  Head on over and get in on the giveaway.

HP Touchsmart Giveaway

~*Melody*~

Prepping the House

I love being a dinner party hostess.  It's so fun getting all the food in order for the big meal.  I just wish I had more space, more time and a bit more money so I could have these get togethers more often.  Of course, I'd also have to find some friends to invite over too.  I've always dreamed of doing that though and I make do with what I have.

I have a ton of cleaning and laundry on my to do list today.  I went out shopping all day yesterday with my mom.  We picked up the last minute items for the meal and spent a lot of time looking at books.  That's a passion we both share.  It's also a delight to see how excited my mom is to go a book store or even a store with a decent book selection.  LOL, she's so cute.  I hope I can share that love of books with my own child someday.  It's a fun thing to share.  Add to that a great deal on a book and it's almost like heaven!

I'd better get back to that laundry soon.  I'm also defrosting the turkey in some cold water.  I'm praying that my big bird will be thawed by late tomorrow night.  I slow cook mine overnight so its super yummy.

Happy Thanksgiving !

Sick Break

I'm sorry for my absence over the past few days.  The dreaded bug finally hit me.  Thankfully it wasn't the flu.  I think I got a little bit of the stomach virus and a cold.  The cold has turned into some nasty sinus stuff though and that's what's kept me down the longest.  Yesterday was probably the worst day so far because my ears were throbbing most all day.

Praise God I'm feeling better today and He took away the ear ache.  Ugg, ear aches and tooth aches are some of the worst pain.  Please continue to pray that I'll be able to get rid of all the yucky mucus.  I'm doing my best to get it all out so that I don't have to go get antibiotics to clear up an infection.  I haven't been to the doctor for an illness all year and I can't tell you how happy that makes me.  This is the longest stretch of good health of my ENTIRE life !  To God be the glory !  And my thanks also to the natural health route I'm on. 

I have a busy weekend planned.  Today I'm cooking for our church's annual Thanksgiving dinner.  I'm taking (the very mountain traditional) chicken and dumplings, a sugar free banana bread and cornbread.  So far I've only gotten the chicken cooked, but it shouldn't take long to put the banana bread together.  Then I'll fix the cornbread last and if I don't have time to make it, then it won't be any major loss. 

After the dinner, RL, Lou and I will have some family time together.  We're going out to a late movie and maybe some dessert. LOL....today is not a healthy food day for me.  I'll try to pick out some good veggies at the dinner though.

Recycled Holiday Cards

Let's face it, as the holiday season approaches many of us will be faced with receiving a large amount of Christmas cards, most of which we'll look at once and put in a pile somewhere.  When someone writes a personal message to me, I'll keep the card of course, but what to do with all those random cards that you get from church and distant or unknown family members?

Here's a great craft tutorial that Vicky Howell posted.

There's many other options too.  You can make origami ornaments too. Here's a cute small star ornament template that you can download. I save a lot of the card fronts to recraft into new cards and scrapbook pages.  Reused card fronts also make excellent post cards.

Hope you'll join me in repurposing those unwanted cards.

~*Melody*~

Well.....

Well after two days with no blog posts...I'm discovering that I'm not doing so well at this daily blogging thing.  Oh well, I tried.  I'm thinking that November is probably not the smartest month of the year to try to do this blogging for the whole month thing.  Saturday I put off blogging till right before bed and my internet connection decided that it just wasn't going to connect to the server.  I thought I could make it up on Sunday, but I wasn't able to do that.  My best friend (from high school)'s dad passed away.  So I spent some time with her and her family Sunday and earlier today.

My brain has been in Thanksgiving planning mode for days.  I'm excited to get started cooking my giant bird.  LOL. Thinking about this years' bird makes me laugh so.  We actually had to take my freezer door apart to fit the bird in there.  Yes we literally got out the power screw driver and removed screws and such.  I still had to wedge the poor thing in there.  Oh I'd love to have a video of my husband and I squeezing that 24 lb. frozen bird into a tight little space.  RL and I laughed the entire time.  It was just great; definitely an experience I'll never forget.

I've also been planning on purchasing a new set of pots and pans.  I've had my old ones for several years.  They are mismatched and most are from a cheap set I purchased to "hold me over".  Slowly over time they've become unsafe for food, so I've now retired them to craft project use only.  I wish there were a way to recycle all but one or two of them.  Anyone have any ideas?  I plan to keep the next set for many years because I'm hoping to purchase the Faberware professional stainless steel series.

Alright enough with my ramblings.  I hope to get back to my green series soon.

~*Melody*~ 

Love Through Technology

This is posting a little late because my internet connection kept going in and out while I was trying to post last night. I am dating it for 11-13 though because it was suppose to post then.

A few nights ago, or rather should I say, a few early mornings ago, I received a text from a young college age guy from our church.  He was first asking for scripture for a particular topic, but it became apparent to me that he just needed someone to talk to.  We chatted back and forth in texts for close to an hour and a half.  For days I've been contemplating my next cell phone upgrade.  I'm an avid texter, but have been reconsidering the amount of my texting lately.  I even *shudder* had serious thoughts about what it would be without so much convenient texting.

After the texting with this individual, I realized what a great blessing we have with all this modern technology.  I mean how often are we able to travel to where the person is just to be there for them.  Modern technology has its inconveniences, like the annoying "ok" or the random "what's up?" texts.  But what if we looked at these attachments as opportunities for ministry?  What if we used our cell phones and smart phones for God's glory?  Not to mention what about our Twitter and Facebook accounts.  God has opened up the world to us and we should be using these things to reach others for Christ.

So I'm going to challenge you all.....This week make it a goal to use these devices to reach out to at least 1 person. Try to make a positive impact on that one person, whether it's just a random person in your contacts list or some needy person on your church's prayer list.  I'm going to be joining you in this challenge.

~*Melody*~