Gone Fishin' Day 2011

May 11th is a 'holiday' at work... a WORKING holiday, I might add.  A day we go fishing!  We go to a lake about an hour away, Lake Southerland.

Last year was beautiful!  I took some amazing shots of an eagle diving in to pick up my too small rejected fish!

This year it rained the WHOLE day!  I was lucky and reeled in about 12 fish  (kept 2 but threw the rest back).

It was cold and wet but at least the wind was not wild.
It's easy to like fishing when it is someone else's boat, and they bait your hook and unhook your fish!
...at least this year they didn't make me kiss the fish!

You can check out my past fishing experiences here

where I post my really cool picture of the eagle...

Wednesday Wisdom

The privilege to work is a gift, the power to work is a blessing, and the love of work is success.
-President David O McKay

Simplify your (my) life - - - - help me out here will ya!

This weekend ended faster than normal.  Always so much to be done, especially on a 'holiday' weekend.  I am thankful for the time when I was raising my girls and I didn't have to work outside the home... but now being organized is an important part of our lives.  I read an article (Simplify your life in Metro Christian Living written by Cathy Haynie.) and I liked some of her ideas and thought I'd share 'em. Just a few simple things to make life more simple and organized-

*these are the ones to put into practice:
1. Keep house plants to a minimum.*
2. Keep only one credit card in your wallet.
3. Have a place to drop keys, phone and bag close to the door.
4. Keep a travel toiletry bag packed.
5. Double and freeze one meal a week.*
6. Pack lunches, work bag, and school bag the night before.*
7. Have a place for duplicate keys and stock it for emergencies.
8. Make dinner decisions the night before.
9. Make the bed every day as your feet hit the floor.
10. Have one place for mail.
11. Use a crock-pot often.*
12. Don't answer the phone during dinner.
13. De-clutter by clearing off kitchen and bath counters, the front of the fridge, and the console of your car.
14. Always keep a little cash and change in your wallet.
15. Use baskets wherever you tend to pile clutter.*
16. Buy each family member one jumbo package of their own kind of white sock and get rid of the rest.

NOW what I really need is for each of you to tell me which number is your favorite... the one that YOU need the most, or the one that YOU actually accomplish and it works for you!!! and hopefully it will work for me too!

Bloggville - 50 best Mom Craft Blogs

This is it, THE mother lode (pun intented)

Babble has created (from regular bloggers) the 50 best mom craft blogs, and best for kids, and best babble, and best for moms and most beautiful, and best DIY and there IS SO MUCH TO SEE IT WILL TAKE ME A MONTH of searching full time... so much so that my eyes won't be able to take it!

ok, I'm calmed down now.  So I just happened to read about this "babble" from one of the blogs I follow (Aunt Peaches who is NOT a mommy but still was grateful that she was on the list!)

In looking at the names on any ONE of the lists it is no coincidence that they are part of the popular crowd.

so... let's take just a quick look at the names so YOU can jump over to Babble and check out the creative loveliness!!!

Babble's Top 50 • 2011 - mom craft blogs
Babble Best - Best DIY - Best Overall - Best for Kids - Best for Moms - Most Beautiful

Who Do You Like?- -   Top 50 Mom Craft Blogs, 2011
A Little Hut
Aesthetic Nest
Angry Chicken
Art Projects for Kids
Brown Paper Packages
Centsational Girl
Chica And Jo
Craft Gossip
Craft Jr.
Crafty Crow
CraftyPod
Dabbled
Dollar Store Crafts
Fireflies And Jellybeans
Futuregirl Craft Blog
Hw About Orange
How Does She
Kids & Glitter
Little Birdie Secrets
Little Blue Boo
Luv In The Mommyhood
Made by Heidi
Make It And Love It
Make and Takes
Making Lemonade
Martha Stewart’s The Crafts Dept.
Maya Made
Mod Podge Rocks
Nannygoat
No Time For Flash Cards
Paperseed
Pizzazzerie
Plaid Kids Crafts
Prudent Baby
Roots & Wings Co.
Salsa Pie
Samster Mommy
Smashed Peas & Carrots
Soulemama
Tatertots & Jello
The Creative Place
The Idea Room
Tip Junkie
Today’s Creative Blog
Trey & Lucy
U-Create
Urban Comfort
Wee Wonderfuls
Whimsy Love
Whip Up

Wednesday Wisdom- (?)

I can't help the poor if I'm one of them; so I got rich and gave back; to me that's the win, win.
Jay-Z

Women's Day/Mother's Day It's all the same

It's that time of year again for Women's Day/Mother's Day.  (or Celebrating Women's Day as I like to call it).
back story: When I was a young newly wed... I did not get pregnant for 7 LONG years.  Mother's Day was the W.O.R.S.T.  I can remember when I did not want to go to church, especially on Mother's day, year after year, after year, after year... well you get the picture.  Flowers or candy or a special token was given out to all the 'mother's'.  For as long as I can remember I have taught the Young Women at Church.  One year we had an especially rousing Road Show the night before Mother's Day, and I really was excited to see all the youth so I went to church trying to ignore that it was Mother's day.  With the celebration in full swing, they asked the young men (12 year old deacons) to pass out the flowers.  I had a sincere boy hand me a flower and then promptly take it back saying I wasn't a mother.  yeah, good times. 
 I did, finally, get pregnant and have two beautiful daughters.  AND NOW I have four handsome step sons. 

As for Women's Day, I like to celebrate it by giving all the women in my neighborhood, mothers, grandmothers, all WOMEN differnt ages and family circumstances... a hand made gift.  This year I found some 'emergency' candles at the recycle store (although you can make them out of the Jesus candles they have at Safeway) so so so so easy!

Take the wrappers off of the glass.  Using double stick scotch tape, tape on beautiful papers (I used two kinds). Using craft glue, glue on trim, ribbons, lace, jewels anything to doll them up!  I didn't use a glue gun, as the warm candle could melt the glue and it would end up a big hot mess.

Happy Woman's Day/Mother's Day.  You can see what I have made in the past here and here.

linking up here:

I need technology help... ipod users are needed here

We had a great weekend get-a-way.  Which means you scramble like crazy Saturday morning and get all the jobs done (including all his lawns mowed).  Then drive 2 hours to Seattle.  The big city was fun, expensive, different, sunny and tasty.

Consequently I've had 2 computer free days.  And now that I've been 'out of area' for two days, I'm REALLY behind in my reading.  But you know what they say. 
You do?   
-moderation in all things-

Speaking of technology, I've been  trying to learn something new each week.  This weeks goal was to use the ipod.  Mr. Produce has had one for a couple of years.  His boys downloaded a ton of songs on it.  but.. I didn't really want to listen to AC/DC or RUSH or stuff like that... so I finally watched a couple of u-tube tutorials and have figured out some things.  I did get connected to itunes, I did spend a couple bucks downloading their $1.29 songs (what ever happened to the 99cent songs?) and now I have about 20 minutes of songs to walk to. I need more!
so the quesions I have are:
like how do I organize the music that is already on the ipod?  There is so much that is just floating around there, I'd like to give all the songs their own albums.
How do I get more songs without having to pay through the nose??? and How do I find songs to download (on itunes I was looking for exercising/walking music but only a couple of EXTREMELY cheesie mix-master albums were available.)
I guess it is going to take me another week to get all the questions answered and for me to get at least 30 minutes of walking music.. (or I could just keep the 20 and only do 20 minutes of walking a day! haha)

There really aren't enough hours in a day to get everything done.  And it would take me too long to listen to or read more about organizing your time, and qualifying what you NEED in your life.  I've already faced the fact that I can NOT get it all done.  So I just  prioritize the way I need to, to get through the day, although
I do have a wish list... come on, am I alone here?????