Monthly Archives: September 2010

Do You Know??

Posted by Jo on September 30, 2010 None comments

DO YOU KNOW FOR SURE HEAVEN WILL BE YOUR HOME??

We “preach” at our kids all day long about making the right choices and decisions for themselves, but are we sure we have told them about the most important decision they could ever make? Have we told them they can know for sure that they can go to heaven someday when they die? Some of you may not know that yourselves, I realize that. BUT YOU CAN KNOW…there are just a few things you need to do in order to know that!! The actual work has already been done, but you must accept what has been done!! Let me show you…

First, you must realize that God loves you. ~ John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosever believeth in Him should not perish , but have everlasting life.” Whosoever means anyone and everyone who believes!!

Secondly, you must realize that everyone is a sinner. ~ Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” All means every single person!!

Thirdly, you must realize that sin has a price that must be paid. ~ Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” When you have a job, you earn a wage (money)…when you sin you earn a wage (death or separation from God in hell) .

Fourthly, you must realize that Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead to pay your sin debt for you. ~ Romans 5:8 “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Finally, you must pray, ask Jesus Christ to be your Saviour, and claim His promise of eternal life. ~ Romans 10:9, 13 “Thas if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him form the dead, thou shalt be saved…For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

If you or anyone you know isn’t sure they would go to heaven when they die, please read/share this important information with them. I know it can be a daunting task, but isn’t it worth it to be secure in where you/they will spend eternity? Because, hey , we WILL ALL have to spend eternity SOMEWHERE!! I prefer HEAVEN!!

Scary…

Posted by Jo on September 30, 2010 None comments

I recently heard about a lady who found out she was pregnant. She went in for her first appointment, where they normally do a PAP smear and waited for the results. With all the excitement of a new baby, never in her wildest dreams would she think that she would be diagnosed with cancer.

But that’s exactly what happened. She got a dual diagnosis. She was indeed pregnant (9 weeks) and was also diagnosed with cervical cancer. I cried when I heard her story, because as a woman, you automatically want to be aggressive to fight the cancer, but as a mother, you want to protect the life of your child. I don’t remember all the details, but I think she went through her pregnancy, had the baby by C-section, then was treated for her cancer. What a thing to have to go through…

Tempt My Soup Lovin’ Tummy!!

Posted by Jo on September 28, 2010 1 comments

tmttSummer09

Now that summer is over and I have my life back, lol, I will be cooking at home. Buster and I are changing the way we eat in order to get healthy and lose some weight.

We are doing the “Let’s Do Lunch“ (LDL) program. Look it up, it’s great.

So, we are eating an array fresh and frozen fruit (often in smoothies), fresh and frozen veggies, corn, beans, popcorn, lean meat, eggs, very little cheese, very little milk (1/2%), and i think that’s about it. So, I had to come up with new and exciting ways to make these items so we love them and will continue to eat them. This is a great recipe found the the LDL book, I tweaked it to our liking. But it is still LDL approved!!

Taco Soup

What You Will Need:

2 lbs lean ground meat of your choice
salt and pepper to taste
1 medium onion, chopped
2 quarts tomatoes (diced , stewed or sliced)
1 can green chiles
1 can refried beans
1 can chili mix (kidney beans with chili seasonings)
1 can corn (drained or undrained, depending on how much liquid you want
1 package taco seasoning
1 package dry ranch dressing mix

What To Do:

brown meat and onions together, drain excess liquid
add canned veggies and beans
stir in taco seasoning and ranch dressing mix
simmer until flavors have blended
serve hot

More good recipes to come!!

For more Tempt My Tummy goodness…go see Lisa!

LOVE My New Storage System!!

Posted by Jo on September 27, 2010 1 comments

Every Sunday at Bible Baptist Church (Big Rapids, MI~~a shameless plug, I know) we have Sunday School at 10:00 AM. Then we have our AM service at 11:00 AM. At noon we all have lunch together at the Church, fellowship, clean up and then have the PM service at 2:00 PM. It’s fabulous!!

So, every Sunday, I am preparing and taking to church a dish to pass, sometimes more, to share with my friends and family at Church. I try to put as much of the meal together at home as possible, but sometimes, I have to add something at the last minute or I have sides or toppings to go along with my main dish. And also, sometimes I have left overs to bring home.

This is when storage containers come in handy. Only, my cupboard is full of miss matched Tupperware and Rubbermaid and a hodge podge of other containers I have collected over the years. It’s a mess!! I love Tupperware and would have loved to update my collection, but they are so expensive, I just can’t do it right now. So, I went to CSNStores for help. They often hook me up with great products I can use and review here on the ol’ blog. The plan, if I liked the new containers, was to keep the new pretty containers and get rid of all the old stuff that is miss matched or is just junk.

Let me just say the new containers are awesome!! They have tight fitting lids that don’t leak ( I had to take sliced olives to Church for Taco Soup yesterday, in one of the little blue bowls…juice and all went in and they didn’t leak at all!!) The set pictured above is the exact set I got and it’s great. It comes with a lid organizer and everything!

Plus, on the bowls around the rim they have the months of the year in raised letters. The lids have a little point on the so you can line the point on the lid up with the month on the bowl, so if you freeze something you know how long it’s been in there or you could do the opposite and set it for the last date it’s good for. I didn’t even realize they had this feature til I went to take care of them! I don’t know how often I use it, but it’s a cool feature to have!

This set has

Four 3/4 cup (6 oz) bowls with lids
Four 1 cup (8 oz) bowls with lids
Four 2.37 cup (19 oz) bowls with lids
Four 3 cup (24 oz) bowls with lids
One 4 cup (32 oz) bowls with lids
One 5 cup (40 oz) canister with lid
One 8 cup (64 oz) canister with lid
One lid organizer
One (1 oz) scoop

Oh , I almost forgot, the lids that go to these containers will also fit some of the Tupperware containers!! So, if you have lids missing or that don’t work anymore for whatever reason, some of these will work on those! =)

I give this food storage system ♥♥♥♥♥ (5 hearts)!!!

(since I don’t have stars on my character thingy, I will use hearts for rating on my reviews…1 heart being very poor, 2 hearts being poor, 3 hearts being average, 4 hearts being good and 5 hearts being very good).

Thanks to CSNStores for, once again, hooking me up with a great product!!! =)

Money Money Money

Posted by Jo on September 23, 2010 None comments

Do you ever feel like you are getting “taken” at every turn? I mean, with taxes and insurance on EVERYTHING, do you feel like you are being ripped off? I understand that some insurance is necessary….home insurance, auto insurance, life insurance. Although I think prices for these are terribly high, I do think these are important things to have.

But really, do I need cell phone insurance? student laptop insurance? Sometimes I think we take things a bit far. Although, I guess if you have ever dropped your cell phone in the bath tub or the lake, you might be thankful for insurance on your phone. I don’t know.

I just feel like every time I turn around I’m paying a tax or a fee or insurance or…..Okay, I’m done!!

Knowing Your Stuff!!

Posted by Jo on September 22, 2010 None comments

Back in the day when I was selling AVON, I had people ask me all kinds of questions about products. Let me just take this opportunity to recommend that if you are going to sell a product, you should do your research. Learn about the product you are selling. Let me also say, I didn’t do that enough!!

People would ask things like what product would be the best for blackhead removal? What about something for sensitive skin? Do I need to have a cleanser, toner and lotion or moisturizer? I was not informed enough about the products I was trying to sell to give them accurate responses. Often, I would have to tell them I would get back to them.

This is probably one of the biggest reasons my business didn’t work out. So, take my advice….if you want to provide a good service to a customer….KNOW YOUR PRODUCT!!

You’ve Got Mail…

Posted by Jo on September 19, 2010 None comments

Buster and I decided that while we wait for our house to sell, we are going to rent it out. We had renters in the house from January of last year through May. And now again, we have a renter who will be there indefinitely.

When we moved, we never put in a change of address, so we are still receiving mail at that address. We only check it once in a while as we don’t go into town that way much. Once in a while we get mail addressed to a boyfriend of one of the girls that used to rent the house. We were quite surprised to see this as he was never living in the house.

And we were even more surprised to see what the mail was!! It didn’t take us long to figure out why he would have it sent to our home (where his girlfriend lived) instead of his own (where his parents also reside)…We were surprised to know that this young man wanted to learn more about male enhancements. We were equally puzzled as to what this single, late teen-early twenties, young man would want with other “adult entertainment” items.

The last mail we received I simply put return to sender, this person does not live here. I think the next letter we get addressed to him, I might take to his house and give to his mother…..

Blogging…

Posted by Jo on September 18, 2010 None comments

A friend of mine recently asked me how to increase readership on his blog. I gave him a few ideas that I knew of like visiting others blogs and leaving comments. Adding good blogs to his blog roll. And linking his blog to his facebook page. I then told him to look up the subject on Google.com, which he did.

Google gives all kinds of ideas on how to write posts that are targeted toward certain readers and this and that , talking about things within a certain post that would make it more desirable to read. That isn’t what my friend was after. he wanted to know about how he could get his blog “out there” for more people to read…so I am thinking maybe what he needs is something like website directory submission.

Anyone have any other ideas on this subject??

It’s not rocket science…

Posted by Jo on September 17, 2010 None comments

In the quest to lose weight, I have entertained thoughts on many ways to do so. Diet pills, hormones, eating plans, just to name a few. Thought the thought of a “magic pill” does hold it’s appeal to me, I have never really had the courage to try one. Especially when reading about things like fat burners side effects.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that some things just are not worth the damage and harm they are capable of. Even when they say they are safe right now, you never know what they might do in the long term….

Good Stuff…

Posted by Jo on September 16, 2010 None comments

In case you haven’t been around lately, these days I am all about getting and staying healthy!! I am also all about doing it the most natural way possible. So, when I hear that foods, such as “velvet beans” can add good stuff into my diet, I want to know more about it…

Anyone ever hear of L Dopa? It’s an amino acid that converts into dopamine in the body. Dopamine is an important part of how the body works from how it stimulates muscle growth to how it helps the body burn fat. L-Dopa also helps in the reduction of cholesterol and blood sugar levels.

Other benefits include…

Improved sleep (promotes deep sleep)
Reduced body fat & decreased cellulite
Decreased wrinkles
Improved skin texture & appearance
Increased bone density and reversal of osteoporosis
Increased lean muscle mass
Enhanced libido & sexual performance
Increased energy levels
Improved cholesterol & regeneration of organs (heart, kidney, liver, lungs)
Strengthened immune system

Bein’ the mom of a teenager…

Posted by Jo on September 15, 2010 1 comments

Long gone are the days when all I had to worry about was not cutting Pumpkin Seed’s sandwiches in front of her and making sure her “Bear-Bear” was clean and ready for her to haul all over God’s creation. See, when I would make her a sandwich when she was little, I could not cut it front of her. If I was going to cut it, it must be done BEFORE handing it to her. I’m not sure if she thought I was hurting it or what, but, on the rare occasion I would forget and cut it in front of her, she would simply have a melt down and weep over it and would not touch it. It wasn’t like having a fit, it was like she had a broken heart. Anyway…long gone are those issues.

Now I have to buy “feminine products” and the best acne face wash. Not to mention lip gloss and heat tamer for her hair, because heaven forbid she should go to school without straightening her hair!! She is growing up way too fast, people!! WAY.TOO.FAST. She will be 14 next month and I am watching my baby become a woman right in front of me!!!

In some senses, I am glad because we have a new kind of relationship. She is becoming more and more independent and “adult-like”. And in some senses I am sad to see her “leave her youth”. I know there is nothing I can do to stop it, or make it go in reverse, so I am just going to be thankful she is sweet and beautiful and smart and MINE!!! I love her so very much!!! I am so blessed!! =)

Tempt My Tummy Tuesday….I’m back!! =)

Posted by Jo on September 14, 2010 1 comments

Now that summer is over and I have my life back, lol, I will be cooking at home. Buster and I are changing the way we eat in order to get healthy and lose some weight. We are doing the “Let’s Do Lunch” program. Look it up, it’s great.

So, we are eating fresh and frozen fruit, fresh and frozen veggies, corn, beans, popcorn, lean meat, eggs, very little cheese, very little milk (1/2%), and i think that’s about it. So, i need to come up with new and exciting ways to make these items so we love them and will continue to eat them. My husband came up with an awesome way to make turkey burgers and I am going to share that with you!!!

Busters Awesome Turkey Burgers