CSN winner

The winner of the $40 CSN gift certificate is Amy from Just Add Walter. Congratulations, Amy! I will send them your email address and they will get that code out to you.

Thanks to all who entered!

Wordful Wednesday

This is one of the many lizards we have in our yard. We have several different kinds. These are the biggest. The kids always get so excited when they see one! We have one that doesn't have a tail...we named him "Stumpy". This guy likes to hang out in one of the trees in our front yard. He's quite photogenic. He poses and lets me get several good shots before he scampers away.

Wordful Wednesday is hosted by Parenting by Dummies.

We have a winner...

The winner of my Outlast hand sanitizer giveaway is Amy from Keeping up with the Schultz Family. Congrats, Amy! Email me your mailing address and I'll send it out to you.
My email: aimeesland@sbcglobal.net

Welcome Fall!

Well, we finally got our fall weather! This is my absolute favorite time of year. I love the first cool front, the crisp air, the chilly nights. I think I've said this on here before...I call it "boyfriend weather". Its just the time of year that is good for cuddling up with someone. (I named it that before I was married so the name stuck.)

As I write this I'm sitting on the front porch watching my daughter play. We both had to put on jackets! Definately the first time we've had to wear them since we moved. Poor Claire didn't even know where her jacket was! The birds are chirping, the breeze is blowing...I think I could just sit here all day!

Dont' forget to check out the giveaways in the sidebar. The hand sanitizer one ends tomorrow.

CSN Giveaway!

Have you heard about CSN stores? They have almost anything you might be looking for...toys, kitchen appliances, home decor, pet supplies, and lots of furniture! Furniture is something we are in the market for now that we have moved into a bigger house. The new house has a formal dining room and we need a formal dining room table and dining room chairs. I've been looking at their store Dining Rooms Direct and there are several that caught my eye. Can't wait until we are ready to begin our furniture shopping!



The nice folks at CSN stores have given me a $40 gift certificate to give away to one of my readers. So if you'd like to win this just follow the rules below.



Mandatory: Leave me a comment on this blog entry: 1 entry

For extra entries - follow my blog: 1 entry

post about this giveaway on your blog (with a link back to this one.): 1 entry



Just be sure to leave me separate comments telling me you are a follower or you blogged about this giveaway. The winner will be chosen by the random number generator on September 30th.



Please note: If you win and you live in Canada there may be international shipping charges in the case of Canadian addresses.

Postcard Friendship Friday #60

This is a postcard my friend in France sent me a few years ago. For some reason the text at the bottom didn't scan. It is suppose to say DREUX at the bottom. I believe that is the town where she lives. According to Wikipedia its a town in NW France. The back of the card says La chapelle royale. I believe that means Chapel Royal in English. ?? I'm not sure. Anyway, its a beautiful card whether I understand the language or not! I looked up some info on the Chapel. You can read about it here. Among other things it houses the the mausoleum of King Louis-Philippe.

Postcard Friendship Friday is hosted by Beth at The Best Hearts are Crunchy. Visit her site to see more or join in.

Wordful Wednesday

I love to watch all of the critters in our backyard. My goal is to get a good picture of one of the hummingbirds. As you can see, I haven't been able to do that yet!

The lizards are a little easier to get a picture of...just a little.

Want to join in Wordful Wednesday? Just visit

http://parentingbydummies.com/



Don't forget to enter my giveaway for hand sanitizer. To enter just click the link in my sidebar.

What I love most about homeschooling...

The other day I was having "one of those days" with Claire (2nd grade). We have a lot of those days! She has kind of been wearing me out this year with her grumpy behavior. But in the middle of it all I had one of those "ah-ha" moments.

She is studying plants in science. She loves science and always wants to do an experiment or activity EVERY day. There wasn't one planned, but we went outside and collected leaves. Then she organized them according to type/shape and glued them on paper to display. As we were walking around the yard collecting the leaves I thought this is what I love about homeschooling...the freedom to learn! We didn't have to just stick to the lesson plan. We had the freedom to add to it, and add something she really enjoyed doing.

Also that day Nathan decided to write all of his spelling sentences about the bible. Freedom. Ironically, the week before he wrote them all about drug trafficing and border agents! Freedom.(Needless to say I was thrilled when he handed in bible sentences!)

So, in the middle of a frustrating day I got to take a step back and appreciate why I started homeschooling in the first place. Freedom!



Don't forget to enter my giveaway for hand sanitizer. To enter just click the link in my sidebar.

L.E.N.S. Photo Challenge

The L.E.N.S. Photo challenge is hosted each week by Hen Jen at http://www.homeiswhereyoustartfrom.com/

This week's challenge is smells/feels/looks like fall. I'm in Texas so unfortunately we aren't feeling fall yet, but here is a good look at it. The squirrels have been busy eating away at the pecans in our pecan tree. They are very cute, but they make a huge mess!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway for hand sanitizer. To enter just click the link in my sidebar.

Giveaway: Outlast

The folks at Mom Select introduced me to outlast hand sanitizer. It was developed for hospital use and kills germs for 6 hours! If you'd like to learn more visit their website: https://www.outlastgerms.com/moms

The nice people at Outlast sent me some samples to share with my friends and fellow bloggers. If you're like me, you never leave home without your trusty bottle of hand sanitizer! So, I have a bottle to give away. To enter just leave me a comment. If you'd like a second entry post about this contest on your blog (with a link back to this blog entry) and leave me a SEPARATE comment telling me you blogged about it.

I will choose the winner using the random number generator on September 28th.

Wordful Wednesday

We have lots of squirrels at our new house. They are very cute, but make a huge mess under our pecan tree! We have one that is pretty friendly so I got some good pictures of him the other day....

I actually woke up to the sound of pecans falling on the roof this morning. The squirrels are getting less and less cute when they start waking me up! When they start dropping acorns and pecans in the pool I usually take the cat outside. She really isn't much of a threat to them, but they don't know that and they take off!

To join in or see more wordful wednesday posts visit http://www.sevenclowncircus.com/

More veggies

Looking for a way to get your kids to eat their veggies? Try Ragu! The folks at Mom Select
(www.MomSelect.com ) and Ragu have teamed up to get the word out about the new Ragu sauce...

Ragú® Old World Style® Traditional Sauce now has 2 servings of veggies in every half cup! Available soon in major retailers nationwide, the healthy, great tasting Ragú® Old World Style® Traditional pasta sauce that is already a kitchen staple has a new, naturally thicker recipe.

Ragú® wants you to be among the first to try out their great new recipe! To be one of the first to taste Ragú® with 2 servings of veggies in every half-cup visit them on www.facebook.com/ragusauce for more details.

Here's a simple little recipe for a quick, healthy lunch for the kids. And the new Ragu could make it even healthier.

Quick mini pizzas:
Spread marinara sauce on a half of a hamburger bun or English muffin. Top with grated mozzerella cheese and pizza topping of your choice. Bake at 350 for about 5 min or until cheese is melted.

My kids love these. I'll have to try them with the new Ragu sauce to sneak in some extra veggies! Do you have a fun healthy recipe that kids love? If so, please share!




"Disclosure: I was entered for a chance to win a Ragú® prize package in exchange for this post. No monetary exchange took place."

Wordful Wednesday

We are getting hit by the remnants of Tropical storm Hermine. All we are really getting is rain, but we are getting a LOT of it! This was our pool this morning when I got up.
It hasn't overflowed yet, but its really close. There are actually blue tiles along the top that you can't even see. I had to take the picture through the window because it was raining so hard I was afraid it would splash in the house. Evidently, the gutter right above the back door needs to be cleaned out. We haven't put our rain guage up at this house yet so I don't know how much rain we've actually had. My husband said we've had at least 6 in. in the pool though. I think we have one more day of this before it is suppose to leave us.

How's the weather at your house?

To see more Wordful Wednesday posts visit www.sevenclowncircus.com

Labor Day

This is what we're doing on our Labor Day weekend. Labor day is for laboring, right? :)

We love the backyard at the new house, but it was really overgrown. We moved in during 100+ degree weather so it just had to stay overgrown until it got cooler! Look...there's actually a fence back there!

You see that planter with a shrub in it next to the diving board? I found it in all the vines that were growing back there. There was a shrub in a planter and we never even saw it! That's how overgrown it was.

My husband has really been the one doing most of the work. Yesterday evening I went out and started cutting vines and such in the corner. He was cutting shrubs. At one point I turn around and this is what I see...

Guess he decided to take a break! I was giving him a hard time that he was sitting around drinking beer while I was working!

I'll have to post some before and after pictures when we are all finished with the yard. I didn't think to go out and take good "before" pictures before we started, but I have some from when we first moved in.

For those of you who read my Cantaloupe Tree post (http://aimeesland.blogspot.com/2010/09/wordful-wednesday.html ) I had to pick that poor melon early. My husband accidentally cut the vine. I'm trying to let it ripen on the counter for a couple of days and then I'll cut it open. Hope it still tastes good. There was so much vegetation back there that you couldn't tell what you were cutting.

Postcard Friendship Friday #59

My mom bought me this. They go to Louisiana and Mississippi quite often. We actually stopped at the Mississippi River on our way to Disney World last year. We took pictures, but, for some reason, I didn't come home with a postcard. So, I was happy she gave me this since we've been there. My son will be reading a lot of Mark Twain this year. My dream is to take him on a paddle boat cruise up the Mississippi. It's probably just a dream, but wouldn't that be a cool field trip???

Postcard Friendship Friday is hosted by Beth at http://www.thebestheartsarecrunchy.blogspot.com/

Wordful Wednesday

This is my cantaloupe tree. The new house has tons of shrubbery and trees. Really, tons. Its very overgrown. We have our work cut out for us! Anyway, the previous owners threw some of their compost in the corner by the pool and now cantaloupes have started growing there. The vine has worked its way up into a big shrub so now it looks like we have a cantaloupe tree!

to see more wordful wednesday posts visit: http://www.sevenclowncircus.com/