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Friday, May 9, 2008
Happy Birthday, Dear Jocelyn!
Posted in Having Fun Learning
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My dearest sister, Jocelyn, HAPPY 17th BIRTHDAY, DEARY! I hope you have the most terrific day ever. I hope your *real* birthday party is over and beyond what you expect! You are THE best and most wonderful in my life. Every time I am starting down a road I shouldn't be going, you are there to point me back to the right road. You are my guardian angel and I THANK GOD for you everyday.
Your party is in an elegant English hall especially open for your party, so have a seat at the head of the table, the honored guest's place, here:
Here is your cake. I hope you enjoy it. It looks a whole lot better than the cake that I am going to make for you. I thought this cake was purdy awesome!
There is so much I wanted to get you for your birthday: stationary, clothing, Medieval dresses, friends coming out to visit. Anything you need or want, I wish I could get you. I hope that what I do get you love. There is so many surprises for your birthday that I can't wait for you to see! I love you, Jocelyn, and I hope you never forget this birthday! Now you thought a lot of people weren't coming to your party, didn't you? Well look at all the below parties that are being hosted for you! Please go leave Jocelyn a comment and tell her Happy Birthday and how much she means to you! Love, Amanda |
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Important Nutritional Information
Posted in Having Fun Learning
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Here are some health questions and answers, I think everyone needs to know about. Laughter is the best medicine, right? Q:I've heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life; is this true? A: Your heart is only good for so many beats, and that's it... don't waste them on exercise. Everything wears out eventually.. Speeding up your heart will not make you live longer; that's like saying you can extend the life of your car by driving it faster. Want to live longer? Take a nap. Q: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables? A: You must grasp logistical efficiencies. What does a cow eat? Hay and corn. And what are these? Vegetables. So a steak is nothing more than an efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system. Need grain? Eat chicken. Beef is also a good source of field grass (green leafy vegetable). And pork chop can give you 100% of your recommended daily allowance of vegetable products. Q: Should I reduce my alcohol intake? A: No, not at all. Wine is made from fruit. Brandy is distilled wine, that means they take the water out of the fruity bit so you get even more of the goodness that way. Beer is also made out of grain. Bottoms up! Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio? A: Well, if you have a body and you have fat, your ratio is one to one. If you have two bodies, your ratio is two to one, etc. Q: What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise program? A: Can't think of a single one, sorry.. My philosophy is: No Pain...Good! Q: Aren't fried foods bad for you? A: YOU'RE NOT LISTENING!!! .... Foods are fried these days in vegetable oil. In fact, they're permeated in it. How could getting more vegetables be bad for you? Q: Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the middle? A: Definitely not! When you exercise a muscle, it gets bigger. You should only be doing sit-ups if you want a bigger stomach. Q: Is chocolate bad for me? A: Are you crazy? HELLO Cocoa beans! Another vegetable!!! It's the best feel-good food around! Q: Is swimming good for your figure? A: If swimming is good for your figure, explain whales to me. Q: Is getting in-shape important for my lifestyle? A: Hey! 'Round' is a shape! Well, I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have had about food and diets. And remember: 'Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways - Chardonnay in one hand - chocolate in the other - body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming 'WOO HOO, What a Ride' ". For those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word on nutrition and health. It's a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting nutritional studies. 1 The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.CONCLUSION: Eat and drink what you like . . . Speaking English is apparently what kills you. Ok... so maybe that last line isn't exactly true, but it sure is hilarious! You can always see what My Tasty Treats are and maybe they will become yours too! BON APPETITE! Be Blessed As Always,  Find me here: The Daily Planet ©AmandaDixon2008 |
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Gorgeous!
Posted in Having Fun Learning
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I have kinda struggled with what to do with this blog. When I got it, it was mainly supposed to be about stuff about My Girls, but since I sold them, I have had a hard time deciding what I want to do with it. I have figured out what I want to do with it! I am going to mainly post pictures on it. I will add the occasional recipes, but I am going to turn this into a photo blog. So... have a real treat today! Here in Indiana, we have had some GLORIOUS weather. It has been really awesome. Our flowers have started blooming and they are gorgeous. I have found the perfect verse for this entry. This is exactly what I want and I am so thankful for the promise of spring! Song of Solomon 2:11-12Here is a pink hyacinth. These flowers smell so wonderful and are so beautiful! Not to mention they are pink. ;)  
 Here are some yellow daffodils. This picture is quite neat. I love it that I got the sun in them! 
So I hope you will join in me in a photographic journey. I really do enjoy taking pictures. I usually take the camera with me where ever I go, so hopefully I will have quite a few pictures to keep up this blog. |
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Cake Baking Photo Essay
Posted in My Tasty Treats
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I can't believe it has already been 2 weeks since we went down for Paulie's birthday. Doesn't seem like it, but yet again... it does. Anyway... I had the honor of making Paulie's cake. Here is the recipe I used for the cake:  1 cup unsifted unsweetened cocoa powder 2 cups boiling water 2 3/4 cups sifted all purpose flour 2 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp sea salt 1 cup softened butter 2 1/2 cups evaporated cane juice 4 large eggs 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract In medium bowl, combine cocoa with water, mixing with a wire whisk until smooth. Cool completely. Sift flour with baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Preheat oven to 350'. Grease well and lightly flour dish. In mixer, combine at high speed butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light, (5min.) scraping bowl occasionally. At low speed beat in flour mixture (in fourths) alternately with the cocoa mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Do not over beat! Pour into pan and bake fore about 45min. Check the center and then bake til done.  Paulie wanted a caramel chocolate cake. While we tried to think of ways to put the caramel into the mixture, but we instead came up with another way. I took our Tupperware cake decorator and poured caramel ice cream topping in it and put it into the cake like a filling. It worked great. When I made it for Paulie's party though, I didn't get to do it that way. I just ended up spreading the caramel on the cake and then taking the cake that stuck to the pan and kinda gluing it back on. That worked great. For frosting I usually buy the Betty Crocker Whipped frosting because it is so good and reasonably priced. But for Paulie's party, he wanted REAL whipped frosting. I do not have an exact measurement or recipe for it because I just stood beating it while Auntie poured in the ingredients, but I can give you what we used and you will just have to work it to your own liking! 1qt heavy whipping cream 1cup? powdered sugar 1tbsp vanilla extract Mix well until starts to look like frosting. It took about 30minutes, I think, for it to start to be the consistency we wanted. For decorations, Paulie really wanted white chocolate bars. When I first talked to him about his cake, he just wanted those in some sort of design. Then we talked about a skaterboard, or computer and then I  mentioned Tux, the Linux mascot , because Paulie love Linux and Tux. Before I went to TN, I made a mock cake to make sure I knew everything would go smoothly. Well I tried to make a tux with frosting, but there was NO WAY that was even remotely possible. I tried and failed greatly at it. So I was talking to Mom and Dad a few days before we were going to go and we were trying to figure out how we could do a Tux. Dad suggested see if one of the local chocolate shoppes could make one out of chocolate, but I thought that would be really hard to transport. Then I thought about going to the bakery and seeing if they could do a sugar paper thing. I went to the bakery at Kroger and asked about it. I had a picture of Tux on my phone and showed it to the lady. She told me that if I had a large printed picture of him they could do it. So I went and printed off the Tux I wanted and took it to the bakery. Well it was so COOL! Dad picked it up for me the next day and oh my! it was so awesome! All they did was scan the picture into their machine and printed it onto edible paper. Amazing! The actual edible paper even had the url and date on it from the printed picture. lol!  So Paulie had NO idea about this. We kept him out of the kitchen while we decorated the cake. I was a little worried about the way it looked because it was kinda faded. When I put it on the frosting and cake though, it sorta melted into it a  nd looked perfect!I put that on there, we wrote in orange gel for him, and then I stuck his white chocolate bars into the sides... Yeah a little weird. The joke on those are they are skaterboards that he kicked into the cake... lol Here is what the finished product looks like. Everyone raved it, but I was not so enthusiastic about it. Thank goodness Paulie liked it. I guess that was all that matter! :)  There is my cake baking excursion. The cake recipe is a really good one and so was the frosting. Let me know if you try the recipe! Thanks to Timothy and Levi for some of the pictures. :D Be Blessed!! As Always, Find me here: The Daily Planet |
Saturday, March 8, 2008
And... They're Gone!
Posted in Learning About My Girls
February 25th was the day. Karla came and got the Girls.  We took them both out at the same time, Karla had Dulcy and I had Estrella.  Karla took Dulcy to the trailer and had a bit of trouble getting her in, I think.  I couldn’t tell because I was busy trying to keep Estrella from rearing, bucking and kicking me. She wanted to get away and run.  I almost lost her a couple of times, but I think I lost some of my fear of horses when they are acting like that. I kept on her til she quit for awhile. They got Dulcy in and then Karla came to get Estrella.  Well Estrella tried to pull that stuff with Karla and Karla just lunged her right there in the driveway.  She kicked Karla though and she lost her. Estrella then ran back into the pasture and it took about 10 min. to get her. She wanted Dulcy and kept nickering for her.  Estrella gave her more trouble than Dulcy which was very surprising. Dulcy has been the ornery one lately, so I thought for sure it would be her, if either of them, to give Karla some trouble. Anyway… we finally got her and she loaded into the trailer fine. So they are gone now. At a wonderful 300 acre horse farm with 8 other horses. I called Karla later that nite and she said the Girls were so happy to have a huge area to go into. They got out of the trailer fine and had so much fun running around. I am happy and relieved! I can visit them if I want since she is about 10min away. Be Blessed!! As Always, Find me here: The Daily Planet |
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Call for The Homesteading Carnival!
Posted in Carnivals and Memes
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I am hosting the 38th Homesteading Carnival at The Daily Planet this coming Monday. If you have a submission you would like in it, please fill out this form, and I will be so very happy to include you in it! The theme for this week's carnival is "All about Horses" as I will be getting rid of my horses on Monday. Hope to see you there! Be Blessed!! As Always, Find me here: The Daily Planet |
Monday, February 18, 2008
Cowboy Caleb
Posted in Having Fun Learning
 Here is Cal-Eb with Western DVD set mentioned in Feelin' Guilty He loves these movies. I plan on getting him a cowboy hat, gun holister, and boots when I go to town this week. You should see him run up and down the house like he is riding a horse. Sheesh... you would think that since he does that most of the day that he would be tired at nite... go to bed early. Man, that boy is chocked full of energy! One nite last week he was up super late and would just not go to sleep...  well I grabbed his dvds and had him show them to me... then he watched them and finally fell asleep! I went to bed before he did, so I missed getting a picture of him sleeping...Isn't he "just so gosh darn good lookin'?", as Willy Wonka would say. :D He is so sweet... He is my Cal-Eb Superman! He so loves cowboys! He talks about riding a horse. Riding Buttermilk and Trigger and Silver and Buckskin specifically. hahaha... what a cutie! Anyway... thought I would share my lil Cowboy Caleb with you! Be Blessed!! As Always, Find me here: The Daily Planet |
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Feelin' Guilty
Posted in Learning About My Girls
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I have been feeling kinda guilty about the Girls. We have been watching old western tv shows lately because the Littles love them. Dad bought them a 4 disc dvd set of a bunch of western shows, like The Lone Ranger, Range Rider, The Roy Rogers Show, Cisco Kid and a few more. The Range Rider is my favorite! :D We have also been watching many old movies too. I was feeling guilty because in every one of these shows and movies, they characters are riding horses. Their horses are everything. Now, I know that it was back when we didn't have cars, planes, and trains... computers, blogs, and things. The thing that gets me is I have 2 perfectly healthy and fit fillies just standing in my barn. I feel bad that I can't train them and give them a better life. They really are good girls...but then again, I have Dulcy who bites me the first time I go to the barn in like 4 days. ugh... I really do love horses. I don't mind cleaning out stalls, watering, feeding, grooming and caring for them. I really like the work... keeps me fit too! ;) I really like our Girls. I really don't like doing all that stuff when I can't enjoy them. When I can't do anything with them. Right now we are just feeding them and paying a lot of money for them. They are going to be great horses when they are older and trained. I finally have some good news about them. They will be gone soon. Back in September, I had 2 people interested in Dulcy. One fell through and the other I lost the phone # for. By the time I found the #, the lady had already bought another horse. :( I kept in touch with her through the months because she really did like Dulcy. Well I saw her before christmas and she told me to contact her after the new year. Well... I didn't want to bug her to buy my horses, so I just didn't call her. Well last week, I bit the bullet and decided to call her one last time to see if she was still interested. If she wasn't, I wasn't going to bug her anymore. I called and she was very interested still. We talked for a little while and came to the conclusion that she really did want Dulcy. YAY! PRAISE GOD! She came over yesterday. She decided she would buy Estrella AND Dulcy! I am so happy! She is coming over on Monday to put some money down on them, and then a week later, she will get them and take them to her home! I know this is a great situation! She is really nice and totally loves horses. She knows what she is doing and they will definitely be taken care of and will be trained! As much as I like the Girls, I know this is best for them. Not to mention if we do actually move in the next year or so, we wouldn't be taking them with us across the country. So happening is good. She even told me that when they are trained if by the summer, I would be able to come over and ride them and spend time with them. Thank you all for your prayers on the matter. I really appreciate it! This whole situation has been a learning experience with just the horses. I have learned many things and I am thankful for God allowing me to have them. Everything happens in His time and I am content in that! Be Blessed!! As Always, Find me here: The Daily Planet |
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Cloth Diapers
Posted in Learning On My Homestead
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One of my charges in our home is the laundry. We use cloth diapers for the youngest 4 children. Therefore I have to wash diapers twice a day, because if I don't they will smell pretty bad. I actually already posted about how and what I do for the laundry. I thought I would share how I wash them and what I use. For laundry detergent we use Seventh Generation. It is an organic product. We usually buy the Free and Clear, but they have scented. We buy powder because it lasts longer than the liquid. I use about 2tablespoons of the detergent for washing. We also use the Seventh Generation chlorine-free bleach. I use about 1 tablespoon of this. It works on colors too, so it won't fade them. It has really helped the diapers with the smell and dingy-ness. I also use about 1/4 cup of vinegar in the rinse cycle and some baking soda. That really helps with softness and smell too. I usually rinse the diapers first, so as to get the urine and everything out of them. Then I put in the detergent with warm water so it will dissolve, then I put the bleach in the bleach drain, and I pour the vinegar into the middle spinner, so it will spin out into the diapers during the rinse cycle. I usually extra rinse the diapers after the wash so they are extra clean. During the last rinse, I will usually stick the rubber pants in with them and also a little more vinegar. If we wash the rubber pants in the wash cycle they don't last as long. We do not put our diapers in the dryer. They don't hold as much if we do. We will occasionally though. We hang our diapers out on the diaper rack. In the summer, I hang them outside in the sun and they dry quickly and the sun kills the bacteria. But during the winter, I hang them inside on the rack. We made all of our diapers and they have lasted us for 4 years. We actually need to make some more because we have had these for so long and they are starting to look pretty ratty. Anyway... do you use cloth diapers? How do you care for them? What do you do? I would love to know. Maybe I can pick up a few ideas from you! Be Blessed!! As Always, Find me here: The Daily Planet |
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Delicious Deviled Eggs
Posted in My Tasty Treats
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One of my favorite party foods is Deviled Eggs. For fear of sounding too proud, I must confess that I make THE best deviled eggs. We don't have them very often. Only for special occasions, so when we do have them they don't last long. ; ) On Monday, we made some because we have dozens and dozens of eggs from the chickens. They lay about 2 dozen a day. Well Jocelyn tried to make the deviled eggs and poured too much mustard in them. So instead of deviled eggs, they were mustard eggs. lol. Anyway, I thought I would share *my* recipe for deviled eggs. I don't use specific measurements, so you will have to taste it and see if it is to your liking. 1 dozen eggs 2 spoonfuls of Mayonnaise 2 spoonfuls of Ranch dressing 1 spoon of mustard Mix it up. Taste it. I usually add more of whatever I think it needs. Enjoy! Love, Prayers, and Blessings as always, http://superangelsblog.com |