God Keeps Blessing Us

With the holidays fast approaching you would think I was would be busy with all the hustle and bustle of shopping, decorating and wrapping gifts. Although in all honestly I have not been much in the holiday spirit this year. I am not sure what has brought this on. I am certain the lack of money this year has put a huge damper on things.

We did finally get the tree up and few decorations as well. Which did help to put I think myself as well as Aaron into the Christmas spirit a bit more. Turning the Christmas music on and making some cookies always helps too. :)

Although the Christmas spirit has been greatly lacking in our home. We have been greatly blessed the last several weeks. God has been showing us His wonderful love in various other ways.

First I won a wonderful blog giveaway of the 2 most adorable handmade Christmas mice.

Kim over at Old Road Primitives made this stunning little creatures. Be sure to visit her blog and grab up some of her other handmade goodies for your home.

This was my very first time ever winning a blog giveaway which made it even more special.

I only have a very few prim type Christmas decorations so I was so excited to add them to my prim decor. They are sitting up on a shelf in my living room for everyone to see, and so my 3 cats do not think they are dinner. :)

Thank you so much Kim for offering these cute little mice as your giveaway. They arrived safe and sound to my door step on a day I truly needed a lift of Christmas spirit and prim cheer.

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I received a email last week which I almost deleted thinking it was spam. Thankfully I took a second look at it. I won a $100 American Express Gift Card! I do surveys and this one your name was thrown into a hat to win a amex GC. I was so thrilled. It should be here in the next 6-8 weeks.

My dh and I have changed how and what we eat. To help us lose weight and become healthier.

In the last 45 days I have lost 14.5lb and my husband has lost 36lb.

That does seem like a lot of weight loss to some people but please understand my husband and I are plus size people. We are also losing the weight in a healthy way that we can live with for the rest of our life. You can read more about it on my husbands blog Losing 200 Pounds 1 day at a time.

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I am praying that God continues to bless us with a promotion for Aaron at work. Please keep Aaron's job and our family in your prayers.

Here are a few pictures of Christmas this year at our house. It is pretty bare since we have very limited prim Christmas decor.

Cucumber Raita Sauce

This is a versetile dish that could be used with many other dishes.

We used it in our Shrimp Curry dish and our Chicken Gyro lettuce wraps.

(Recipes to come)

I would recommend it for any spicy dishes or maybe a hearty soup.

What you will need:

1 Cup Plain Thick Greek Yogurt

1/2 Cup Finely Chopped Cucumber (peeled and deseeded)

1/2 Clove Garlic Minced

2 teaspoons Lemon Juice

1/2 teaspoon Salt

Mince a 1/2 a clove of garlic

Peel & deseed your cucumber

Finely chop 1/2 a cup

(Optional Step)

Place finely chopped cucumber between two paper towels

Press down to release liquid from cucumber

You might have to use your knife to scrap the bits of cucumber off the towel.

2 Teaspoons fresh squeezed lemon juice

Make sure you purchase GREEK Yogurt! Any brand will do,

but it MUST be Greek Yogurt or it will not taste right.

Mix the cucumber, garlic, salt and yogurt until well blended.

Of course take a small taste to make sure it wont poison anyone. :o)

The Finished Product - Refrigerate at least 1 hour or longer before serving.

We like to make it the day before and let the flavors blend

and rest overnight in the frig.

If you try this recipe please let me know. I would love to know your thoughts and how you used it in your dish. :o)

Frugal Friday

For those that know me, know that I am about as frugal as they come. I am proud to say that I learned how to pinch two pennies together and make a quarter from my grandpa Dave. Oh how I love that man, and will never forget all that he taught me. (Rest in peace papa dave)

So I thought that it would start a weekly thread about being frugal, and how I am stretching my dollar or pennies as it is most of the time. Somethings I am sure some things are common knowledge but a refresher course is always nice.

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Before we get to my frugal friday post, I have to tell you I am as happy as a dog with two sticks.

I have lost 7lb in 2 weeks!

My dh and I have completely changed our lives two weeks ago. We have cut out all

complex carbs, fast food, fats (olive oil, butter, etc) and raised our protein levels.

I have to say it has not been a easy task, but we are doing it.

Do not confuse this with the atkins diet, as that is a loose some pounds quick

so you can fit into that slimming dress next month diet while eating all the bacon you want.

What we are doing is a LIFE change! I did not realize how much CRAP was put into all the processed and boxed foods that we buy. We make everything from scratch, eat fruit & veggies, Use coconut oil for cooking, and make some very yummy dishes.

It must be working, since I have lost 7lbs in the last 2 weeks, without exercising.

Dont worry I am not trying to sell you some weight loss program, there is none. haha

Just changing our life by what we eat and how we cook it.

I will share some tested and tried, yum factor recipes with you all in the future.

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Frugal Friday

Being tight on money like everyone else these days, I seem to find it harder and harder to even afford birthday cards and gifts. So I went rummaging through my closet and found a cute brand new candle in a little jar that I picked up at garage sale for .05cents this summer.

Then I rummaged through my scrapbook paper scraps and stamp sets

and other crafting items. Mind you I was doing this at 2am, so it did not turn out as good as I had hoped for, but here is the little card and candle set I made for my best friend for her Birthday yesterday. Cost me less then $2 for supplies to make.

Disclaimer: Please do not do craft projects at 2am, otherwise you will make a big oops mistake like mine and write upside down on the inside of the card like I did.

I used the same stamp from a set of 4 stamps I purchased a while back to make this,

as well as the other Birthday cards in a earlier post.

Stamps are a great way to maximize your dollar since you can use them over and over again.

Be sure to check our your local dollar store art supply isle, that is where I have found several cute stamps in the past.