But this is a different kind of move.

After this week-end my blog will be moving over to www.betterislittle.com. All my new posts will be there at Better is Little’s new home.

So please, stop by for a visit, stay & chat awhile!

Thanks to everyone who helped me with the move. I definitely could not have done it without you!

1)     Make your room happier and healthier by adding a couple of potted plants. Just a couple of plants per room can help keep your air clean!

2)     Let the sun shine in! During the day, switch of the electric light and open the curtains. Move your desk nearer the window and soak up some vitamin D.

3)     Reuse and recycle paper. Cut down on how much paper you use by writing/drawing on both sides of your sheet of paper.

4)     Save water by turning off the water while you brush your teeth. Running the water while you brush can waste as much as 5 gallons per minute! If you brush 3 x a day you could be wasting 50 gallons a day!

5)     Cut showers down to 4 minutes. You could save over $6000 a year by taking a power shower. Use a timer and have the children make a game of it!

6)     Turn the lights off as you leave a room. Easy enough, huh?

7)     Unplug! I covered that here. At night, turn off the lights and see how many green and red lights do you see staring back at you!? Unplugging could save as much as $100 a year on your electric bill.

8)      Keep yourself healthy by staying active, fit and eating raw fruits and veggies. Open your lungs breathe deeply.

9)     Get interested in an environmental issue and write to politicians. Get your friends (and siblings!) to do the same.

10)Think before you buy. Do you really need it? Will what you want to blow your money on make you smarter, wiser, richer or a better person. Can you make it yourself?

11)Choose foods that create no waste! Foods that come in their own “packaging” rather than candy bars and other processed foods.

12)Buy your own reusable water bottle. Why pay more for something you can get for pennies out of your own water faucet!

13)Leave nothing but footprints! Don’t leave garbage and damaged property behind. Be respectful.

And always remember the four R’s Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rethink!

This post is linked to:

The 3 Moms Thursday Thirteen

Family Friday at HomeMaker Barbi

Life as Mom Frugal Friday

It can be overwhelming with all the thousands of books to choose from to find books that are interesting, wholesome, encourage right attitudes, and reinforces the things we are training our children in. Have you ever noticed how many children’s books promote disrespectful attitudes to parents, dislike of siblings, and name calling? I say they promote it because it is often never shown in a bad light, it is normal, expected of children to be that way. And while it may be normal, it’s not what we want to encourage, and we certainly would like to create a new normal in our family.

Having said that, I don’t really have a method I use. Trial and error is my method, but that often is too time consuming. Not only is it time consuming, but disappointing too. There have been many times that we’ve began a book, get interested only to end it ½ way because it just wasn’t what we (and sometimes even the children!) wanted to fill their minds with.

Toni, over at The Happy Housewife offers a GREAT list of resources to help filter through all the many, many books @ your local library.

While I don’t have book review resources (although I plan to implement the resources Toni suggests) I do have resources that I trust to offer good books.

Here are 2 of those resources:

• Vision Forum – Books that are great for homeschooling, encourages young men to be courageous, young ladies to be virtuous.
• Keepers of the Faith – 100% trust their book list. They carefully pick each book and even have a list of books/authors they’ve reviewed.
• Robinson Curriculum – This is the method of homeschooling we loosely follow. The core of this curriculum is reading and you are provided a couple hundred books on disks. You can print them out and use tons of printer ink or you can check them out for free from the library. We have done both. While I don’t like all the books on this list, it is a great guideline. You can see the list of books here.

Now on to my book basket list this week.

• You Are My I Love You, by Maryann K Cusimano ~ Great read-aloud-bedtime-book! It is a cute rhyming story about a little bear and his day with his parent “I am your parent; you are my child. I am your quiet place; you are my wild” Sweet, sweet book.
• The Ugly Truckling, by David Gordon ~ I wasn’t so crazy about this book, but my 7 yr old boys liked it? It is written about a little airplane born to a Momma truck and on his quest to fit in and become a truck he realizes that he is actually an airplane. A typical “Ugly Duckling” story line.

• Anna Banana 101 Jump-Rope Rhymes, by Joanna Cole ~ I checked this one out for my 10 yr old girl who only knew of a couple rhyming songs. I plan for her to write down a few of her favorites for reference. A lot of great jump rope songs and some I had forgotten about!

• Emily Post’s The Guide to Good Manners for Kids, by Peggy Post ~ I loved this book but the children didn’t take to it. I plan to keep this one longer and go through it with them. It is written in an interesting format and can be picked up and flipped through. Not a heavy read, but chocked full of good manners for things such as playtime, weddings, funerals, eating out, visiting the hospital etc. Quite possibly a book we’ll purchase in the future.

• True Green Kids, by Kim McKay and Jenny Bonnin ~ I thought I would like this book more than I did, while it had a lot of good ideas to save money and become “greener” it had a lot of ideas we could not implement for various reasons and I felt it could promote dissatisfaction in children that were not able or allowed to have gadgets, internet/computer time, or $$ to implement the ideas. This is another book I’ll keep longer and go over certain ideas that we CAN implement.

From my 10 yr old girl:

• Molly Pitcher Girl Patriot, by August Stevenson ~ This book is about a girl named Mary Ludwig whom people call Molly Pitcher. She lived during the Indian Wars and the Revolutionary War. Molly Pitcher helped sick soldiers and one time during a battle her husband passed out while loading a cannon, she took over & they won the battle because of it. George Washington asked to meet with her and he gave her a metal. And she was then made a Sergeant! It is a very interesting book!

What is in YOUR book basket this week!? Please share with us over at The Happy Housewife and then see what everyone’s reading!

1 cup natural peanut butter (crunchy is optional, I used creamy)
¾ cup raw honey
½ cup oil
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs

Mix well in a large bowl.

Then add,

2 cups whole wheat flour (I ground my flour on the pastry setting, makes for a lighter, chewier cookie)
½ cup oatmeal (I used Wheat Montana’s 7 Grain oatmeal. You could use quick cooking or not)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt

Mix well. Then stir in

1 cup millet
1 cup chopped dried cranberries
1 cup chopped pecans

Drop by tablespoons onto a buttered pan. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes. Remove from pan to let cool. Store in an air-tight container.

For more great recipes go visit

Real Food Wednesday

Food on Fridays

For  more fun & interesting pictures head on over to
 5 Minutes for Mom’s Wordless Wednesday and 7 Clown Circus’ Wordful Wednesday and Cheaper Than Therapy’s A Thousand Words Thursday

• 1 lb hamburger
• Couple splashes of Worcestershire sauce
• 1 chopped onion
• 8 oz sliced fresh mushrooms
• 1 can of cream of mushroom soup (or you can make your own)
• 1 can of cream of chicken soup (or you can make your own)
• 16 oz sour cream
• Salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika to taste
• 2 Tbls butter
• 1 package egg noodles, cooked

In a large skillet brown onion and hamburger meat. Add mushrooms and cook for a few minutes longer till mushrooms are cooked. Splash Worcestershire sauce generously.

Add soups to meat heat through. Stir in sour cream and seasonings. Simmer for 20 minutes. Slowly stir in butter.

Serve over noodles.

This post linked to:

Tasty Tuesday
Tempt My Tummy Tuesday

It’s true!

They call it “phantom load” and it could be costing you extra dollar$ on your electric bill!

The US Department of Energy states that “In the average home, 75% of the electricity used to power home electronics is consumed while the products are turned off.”

The biggest culprits are microwaves, kitchen appliances, cell phone chargers, VCR’s, cable boxes and TVs. These devices actually are never really turned off, but are only in a stand-by mode.

So how can we save money on our electric bill? The simplest way to save is to just…unplug! How’s that for simplicity!?
 
For more complicated set-ups such as TVs, VCRs, DVRs, game consoles a power strip or surge protector would be the easiest way to control your electrical leak.  

As I sit here in my rocking chair I can see at least 2 things that are used rarely but are still plugged in. I’m interested to see how many pennies, dimes, dollars I can shave off my electric bill this year…

This post linked to:

Works for Me Wednesday Frugal Edition

I am by no means a photographer and I am for sure none of you all ever thought that but I have become fascinated by taking pictures and finding unique older pictures. Not just snapshots and staged pictures but photos that are unexpected, full of meaning…You all have seen this picture before here, but when I saw that I ♥ Faces was having a photo contest of faces wearing hats I immediately thought of this picture. It IS one of my very favorites!

If you ♥ faces too, please be sure to head on over to www.Iheartfaces.com for more pictures!!

So, while I may have these marked “lunch” and “supper” I may actually serve “supper” for “lunch” or “breakfast” for “supper” or “lunch” for “supper”… And now that I have everyone thoroughly confused I’ll continue on to share my menu…

BREAKFAST

• We’ve got a little extra money in the budget this week so I think I’ll splurge and buy cereal for at least 2 breakfasts this week.
• Whole Wheat Millet Muffins
• Breakfast Cookies
• Boiled eggs w/ fruit

LUNCHES

• Meat & cheese sandwiches
• PB & J sandwiches
• Chili

SUPPERS

• Loaded Tostadas with all the fixings        
• Lasagna, salad w/ Garlic Dressing, bread sticks
• Baked Tilapia, loaded baked potatoes, broccoli & cauliflower
• Poor Man’s Beef Stoganoff (recipe Tuesday!)
• Left-overs @ least  two times
• Meal out for Mother’s Day?

For more menu plans head on over to Menu Plan Monday!