I really didn't think that it had been so long since my last post. August, that is like a crazy long time. Well, since August our lives have been upside down, sideways and uggg... you get it right? I'm pretty sure that I've written about 20 posts in my head since then with awesome pictures but alas none of them have made it to the blog. I've done some great projects that maybe eventually I'll post :) I do plan on doing Christmas goodies for the teachers so hopefully I'll get all that done this week and post something fun about that. I started a new job, way back in August, We've traveled up North for Thanksgiving, and quiet honestly the thing that has taken up all my brain for the last few months has been a custody case that is now mostly behind us. I cannot begin to express the emotions that have gone on over the last few months. I will not get into the details but I will say that it was filled with ups and downs and in the end my feelings on the outcome are mixed. I cannot say that I am 100% happy with where we ended up, but I will say that I know that God has a plan for us and I know that in the end it will all work out. There have been some bright spots and I am trying to focus on those. Today is the first day that I have ever sent my boy off with someone that I didn't completely trust. That is hard. It is hard to know that you are putting your child in someone elses hands. Although I have realized that all I can do is pray that while he is not with me that he is protected. That his heart and mind will not be polluted by people who have very different morals and thoughts than we do. I am praying that we have loved him enough, and instilled in him good values. We are teaching him the love of Jesus, and to have a good and kind heart. I pray that these are the things that stick with him and carry him through his life. I'm glad that the last few months are behind us and I am glad that we can look ahead to a new year. I think tonight of the parents who are faced with the horror of not having their babies with them this Christmas or ever again. I cannot fathom their pain or grief. I mourn with them. This kind of tragedy is unthinkable and there is no way to even describe the sadness that I feel for these families. I am just thankful that my baby is asleep in his room right now. I believe that this holiday season I am most thankful for the ones that I love. Thankful that they have been placed in my life. And thankful that I don't have to go through these days without them. Love is a blessing and I am blessed beyond measure. I am thankful for our family and friends who prayed with us and for us through this tumultuous time and thank God for getting us through. xoxo

So I have this awesome craft that I have been meaning to do for Pinspiration Sunday but yesterday when I was cleaning prior to working on my project I thought of something that I had been wanting to do. I have seen all of these cool cleaning tricks that I have been wanting to try so I thought that this week for Pinspiration Sunday I would try those, especially since I still need to pick up a couple items for my fun project. So here are the pins that I tried out. I hate to admit that when I clean the bathroom every week I mostly focus on the floor, toilet, and the sinks. I have neglected the bathtub/shower area, so this whole idea would be perfect. So I started out with my cleaning essentials... Almost all of these pins suggested using baking soda and vinegar to clean, but I enlisted a couple other tried and true cleaners just for the extra help. Here is what my bathtub/shower head looked like before I started. (I'm embarrassed to show you but for this project it was necessary). So I started out with the shower head. I filled my baggie with the suggested 1/3 cup of baking soda and then added the cup of vinegar. Guess what happened? Once the vinegar hit that baking soda it started bubbling and overflowed out of the baggie (wasn't expecting that) I added a little more vinegar to the baggie and placed it over the shower head. Then I set out to clean the rest of the tub. I should note that before I had decided to do this project I had already sprayed the whole thing down with Mr. Clean, but I went ahead and added the vinegar and baking soda solution as directed. Then I waited a little while, then started scrubbing. And then guess what.... it didn't come clean...hmmm imagine that. I scrubbed hard to, it was sort of annoying. So since I had gotten this far I decided that I needed to enlist the big guns... .....and started scrubbing..... And low and behold it started to come clean. Magic eraser and elbow grease, imagine that! I didn't even realize how yucky the walls were until I started scrubbing them as well. The worst part of that whole thing is that I know exactly why there was so much build up. I bought the Costco/Kirkland brand bar soap and boy is it yucky! It leaves a gross film on your skin and everywhere else. I actually don't even use it I use body wash but bad mamma that I am let Buddy use it because honestly the box of soap was like $13 and I didn't want to waste the money. When I was done my tub and walls looked like this.... I then took the baggie off of the shower head. (the pin instructions said to leave it on for an hour to over night) it was definitely better but not perfect. I do think I may try it again tonight and let it sit overnight and see if that makes a difference. Overall, it took me about an hour to do all the cleaning err experimenting and then cleaning. In the end I'll just stick with the magic eraser and save some time. So save yourself the trouble of not trying any of those pinterst cleaning techniques...maybe some of them work but really cleaning twice when they don't is no fun! BTW- sorry, when I save the pictures that I took off my phone for this post they appear to have saved small. Oh well you get the idea! xo, Heather

I've been posting every day my photo a day on instagram, but if you don't follow me you cannot see them so here are my pics for the past couple days! Day 3 Coin Day 4 Somewhere you sat (I thought this one was L.A.M.E.)but here is my makeshift desk at the dinning room table... Day 5 Logo - Gucci Day 6 Writing - my little luv muffin! Awwww So there you have it. Lori Farhat at 8am tomorrow I may take your picture for tomorrows photo...watch yer back!

So lately Buddy has been having some four year old behavior issues. Talking back, not listening, throwing tantrums, you know typical four year old stuff (I hope its typical!). I know what you're thinking, not that sweet little angel boy! Ha ha, he has horns people! They're just well hidden :) Anyway, I have been trying to figure out more positive ways of dealing with this nonsense, other than yelling. Because honestly most things don't even phase him. I borrowed this idea from a friend of mine. She uses something similar with her girls so I thought that I would give it a try. So this morning I sat Buddy down and told him how the jar was going to work. I let him know that when he listens, does what he is told, has a good day at school or is just a good boy he will earn a marble. Whenever he earns a marble it goes into the jar. But, he was also told that if he doesn't listen or talks back or misbehaves he will get a marble taken away. When his jar of marbles is full he will get a reward. Lately he has been asking for a computer, so I let him know that when his marble jar is full he will get his computer. I'm hoping that because this is something visual that he will be able to see how being good and listening as opposed to being bad or disrespectful can be rewarding. I plan on being somewhat generous with his "good" marbles, only because if he gets marbles taken away I don't want his jar to always be empty. But I also want to encourage him to be a good and polite little boy. I have been telling him how cowboys are polite and have good manners. Since little man is a cowboy through and through, I'm hoping that he'll catch on soon! I definitely want him to be a sweet and polite little boy so I'm willing to do whatever it takes to help him get there. So far so good. He has earned two marbles and has not talked back or gotten upset yet. It is only noon, but I'm hopeful for a great day! I'll let you know how it goes! xoxo, Heather I linked up this post with the following awesome blogs:

L.O.V.E!

Some little bitties from the garden... xo

xoxo, Heather

I don't know if you saw my first interview with Buddy. If not try this link Here . If the link doesn't work (because this is the first time I've ever tried to add a link like that you can just go to the right side of the blog go to the spot where the labels are and click on interview. This should bring up both of the interview posts. So without further adieu here is interview #2, 6 Months after the 1st. Buddy at 4 1. What is your favorite color: Blue 2. What is your favorite food: Fish sticks 3. Who is your favorite person ever: Mommy 4. What is your favorite show to watch: Rolli Polli Olie 5. What is your favorite dessert: Ice Cream 6. Who is your best friend? Mommy 7. What is your favorite thing to do? Play outside 8. What is your favorite song? Dude looks like a lady 9. What is your favorite toy? My guns 10. What is your favorite snack? Bananas 11. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Jelly Sandwich 12. What is your favorite thing to wear? Cowboy Jean 13. What is your favorite animal? Real big horses 14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? play and shoot things 15. What is your favorite cereal? Lucky Charms 16. What do your want for dinner on your birthday? Birthday cake 17. What do you want to be when you grow up? Cowboy 18. What do you take to bed with you? My Nanni and my little woody (Don't laugh) 19. What is your favorite holiday? Pumpkins roar 20. What do you want more than anything? A horse So you can see his answers didn't change too much. He's just a little cowboy in need of a horse. Ha ha... that one won't happen for a while. I'm thinking I won't do the interview again until age 5, but you never know. P.S. I'm not sure why my blog posts are so whacked. This was supposed to be in a list form but when it saves it is not in list form any longer. It is mystifying and maybe one day I'll figure it out. Hope you aren't bothered too much! xoxo, H.

Ok kids, here is the list for photo a day for August from Fat Mum Slim. I plan on doing photo a day exclusively on my iphone and through instagram. I will definitely be posting them on the blog but maybe not daily but I think that using my phone will make it MUCH easier. So here is the list and you can follow as well on instagram hashtag is #photoadayaug Happy shooting! xoxo

Well, I know that I said I was going to do this post on Saturday but man, Saturdays are a killer. So I made the executive decision to do Sunday Pinspiration instead. Works out better this way :) I had every intention of doing something crafty but decided on cooking something as Buddy requested Ba-sketti for dinner. So I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try one of the yummy looking baked spaghetti's that I've pinned. Of course the one that looked super yummy to me seemed a little fattier than I wanted so I decided to try to make it a little more waistline friendly so I decided to change it up make it a little skinnier and get some veggies hidden in there that Buddy might not notice! The result Uh-MAZE-BALLS! It really is super yummy and Buddy loved it!!!! Here is the pin pic.. of course hers looks awesome Looks yummy I know... And here is mine and step by step preparation and recipe. (Hey I'm not a professional food photographer, but trust me this is really good) and no I didn't cut a slice for you...hee hee First I wanted to get some veggies in there because Buddy does not like anything green and if he see's it then he's done with it. So I grated two full zucchini's. This way he wouldn't "see" them. I also added an entire package of baby bella's (mushrooms in case you couldn't tell from the picture). I browned some Lean ground beef (season with garlic salt and pepper) and drained any fat that was in the pan. Then I added the mushrooms and the grated zucchini to the meat. It smelled really good at this point. After the meat and veggies cook for a few minutes I added a jar of spaghetti sauce. I used Ragu just because its what I use and what I had in the pantry. At this point I HAD to make sure it tasted good so I tasted a spoonful and I was very happy! For the noodles I just used regular old spaghetti noodles. And boiled 'em up! I always add salt to the water, just 'cuz I like it that way. After the noodles were boiled and done I put them in a separate bowl and added an entire container of fat free cottage cheese, 3 heaping spoonfuls of fat free sour cream and a good amount of pepper. I sprayed the glass cake dish with olive oil spray, and then I layered the first layer of noodles into the dish. I followed that by a layer of meat and veggie sauce. Then I added a layer of cheese, 'cuz everything is better with cheese! Then repeat Then I popped it in the oven for 20 minutes at 350. So here is the run down on what I used... 1 lb. extra lean ground beef (but to make it skinnier you could use ground turkey or soy taco meat)Garlic, salt and pepper to taste 1 bottle spaghetti sauce (your choice) 1 package spaghetti noodles 1 16 oz. container Fat Free Cottage Cheese 3 Heaping table spoons Fat Free Sour Cream 1 16 oz. package shredded mozzarella cheese 2 Medium zucchini's grated 1 package sliced baby bella mushrooms That's it! Don't think I missed anything. I loved it! But just to be sure that I wasn't giving you a bias opinion, I asked my neighbor Charlie if he wanted some dinner and asked him to give me a review. He took enough food to feed two people but hey that's Charlie. He gave me a nine out of ten. Said it was a nine because when he took it home to eat it he noticed I didn't give him garlic bread or wine... oh well I'll take a nine! But, the opinion that I valued the most my little buddy gave me two thumbs up...and ate two helpings. Never once did he mention the "green stuff" or the mushrooms, just said "mmmmm this is good!". He just ate it up and asked for more. What more could a mama want. Hope you like it! xoxo!!! I linked this post to the following blogs: