I do hope each and every one of you out there have a safe and happy 4th of July. Remember to thank God for the freedom that we share and the ability to do what we like, go where we'd like, and to live and love like we want.  Sometimes we take these things for granted, I know I tend to. Have a great day!

                    Morning Walk

               Amidst the dew of early dawn,
               I took a morning walk.
               And along with me, I took a Friend,
               For I felt a need to talk.
               I unburdened both my heart and soul,
               And spoke many things:
               Of plans gone wrong, of failure's pain,
               And how to live with shattered dreams.
               My Friend just listened quietly,
               And uttered not a word.
               For it was His time to listen,
               And my time to be heard.
               His sympathetic ear brought peace,
               As we walked this earthly sod.
               And I learned to trust life again,
               On my morning walk with God.
                                Poet, Barbara Cagle Ray

I think I'll take a long morning walk.......Kitty

I got this from my Living on a Dime (linked) newsletter today and thought I'd share it. Any way of beating the heat is a good thing.

For non-traditional popsicles:

• Freeze applesauce in popsicle molds.
  
  
• Mix fruit or jam into yogurt. Freeze in small, snack sized Ziploc bags for frozen yogurt on the go. Cut a hole in the end of the bag for easy access/eating.
  
  
• Mix gelatin and freeze. Add gummie fish or worms before freezing for added fun.
  
  
• Freeze syrup from canned fruit.
  
  
• Add food coloring or sprinkles to yogurt or softened ice cream for added pizzazz. Then freeze in popsicle molds.
  
  
• When you have leftover jam or jelly, put 1/4 cup of hot water in the jar and shake well. Pour into popsicle molds and freeze.
  
  
• If jelly or jam doesn't set up well, use for popsicles or add more water, boil and make syrup.
  
  
• Make a batch of pudding. Add coconut, nuts, marshmallows, crushed cookies or sprinkles if desired. Pour into molds. Freeze several hours until firm.
  
  
• Stick a toothpick in the center of blackberries, strawberries, raspberries or sliced bananas.
  Dip in chocolate if desired. Freeze on a tray. Once frozen, store in freezer bags.
  
  
• For easy snow cones, freeze orange juice (or any other flavored juice) in ice cube trays. Store frozen juice cubes in a plastic bag. Blend 5 cubes in the blender until they have a shaved ice consistency. The shaved ice will keep its consistency if kept frozen in a container.
  
  
• For watermelon popsicles, blend one cup each watermelon chunks (seeds removed), orange juice and water. Blend well. Then pour and freeze into molds.
  
  
• For strawberry popsicles, blend 2 cups strawberries, 1 cup vanilla ice cream or yogurt, 4 cups orange juice and 2 tablespoons sugar. Blend smooth. Pour into molds and freeze.
  
  
• For banana popsicles, dissolve one 3 oz. package strawberry gelatin with one cup boiling water. In a blender, mix gelatin, 1 banana and 1 cup yogurt or ice cream. Blend well and pour into molds.

    This is my 1,000Th  post. WOW!  I can't believe I actually had 999 things to post about. It only took me a little over three years to do it  too, lol. I noticed the number sometime last week and thought to myself that the post should be a special one at the least. Well I have been sitting on it for over a week now and it's come down to this. "I have nothing of importance or excitement  to say at this time". LOL I guess my life is a little boring, which is not a bad thing, it means no drama.  So this is it, my big 1000th post.
     I would  however like to say  a big THANK YOU to each and every one of you who have come to visit my blog throughout these last three years. That is what has kept me blogging and finding 999 things to say. Please continue to visit me here, because who knows,  I may have something to say soon, .
   Have a blessed day!

                     Louisiana    VS    Georgia

• La. Wal-mart 5 minutes away ---- Ga. Wal-mart  35 minutes away
• La. spicy foods a must ----Ga. you have to ask first
• La. my kids are there  ---- Ga. my kids are not here
• La. I left my car behind ----- Ga. I left my car in La.
• La. the houses are straight -----Ga. the houses are crooked
• La. no hills -----Ga. lots of hills
• La. never see deer on roads ----- Ga. watch out, they're everywhere
  
• La. cable TV  ------Ga. a dish, many more channels
  
• La. lots of seafood ------  Ga. hard to find
  
• La. a few chickens ----- Ga. a chicken farm, 1000s of chickens
• La. milk $3.98 a gal (always)-----Ga. milk $1 a gal (sale)
• La. a few bugs-----Ga. lots of weird bugs
• La. regular cows----Ga. Kitty chasing cows

            

    I LOVE granola, so much so that when my sister in law Nancy would send my family some at Christmas time, I would eat  it ALL. LOL  Yes, I  would hide it all for myself. I know, that's so bad but like I said, I love it. So for a long time I've been wanting to learn how to make it for myself but never got around to doing it. Well now that I am living here with Nancy I figured it was the perfect time to learn. She pulled out her recipes and I choose the Vanilla Granola. It is actually a recipe that she found right here on the HSB. It comes from A Distinctly Different Homestead aka mommaofmany. You can check out her recipe Here.  I did add toasted coconut and raisins to the mix once it was baked. Oh my gosh it's so good! I ate a bowl of it with  my soy milk right out of the oven for breakfast.
  So now that I am a 'granola pro' I will be making it more, much more. Well Nancy, your going to have find something else to make me for Christmas. LOL

Have you ever wondered:
~
Why the sun lightens our hair but darkens our skin?
~
Why can't women put mascara on with their mouths closed?
~
Why don't you ever see the headlines, 'Psychic wins lottery'?
~
Why is abbreviated such a long word?
~
Why do the doctors call what they do 'practice'?
~
Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavors and dish washing liquid made with real lemons?
~
Why is the man who invests all your money called a 'broker'?
~
Why is the part of the day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?
~
Why don't they make mouse flavored cat food?
~
Why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes?
~
Why do they sterilize the needle for a lethal injection?
~
You know that indestructible  black box on a plane, well why don't the make the whole plane out of that stuff?
~
Why don't sheep shrink in the rain?
~
Why are they called apartments when they are stuck together?
~
If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?
~
Why do they have Braille lettering on the drive up  ATM machine?
~
Why do they have 10 hot dogs in a pack but only 8 buns to a pack?
~
Why do banks leave the vault doors open but chain the ink pens to the counter?
~
And finally---
Why do drugstores make sick people walk all the way to the back of the store for their meds when healthy people can buy cigarettes in the front of the store.

Have a good day!

    Before I left home to move here to Ga I found a wok complete with all utensils for a whopping $3. I called my sister in law and asked her if she was interested in us maybe cooking up some much loved Chinese food at home. Since we all love eating the stuff, she said Yeah, bring it along. So I bought it. Well Saturday as we sat down and made our two week menu plan we decided to give the wok a try. We made a list of items that we'd like to learn how to prepare and also made a grocery list and headed to the grocery store.

  Around 3:30 yesterday afternoon I asked her what time did she want to get started on our adventure. She never answered me, we just both found our selves jumping into it. And thank goodness we did start early because it took us a little over two hours to get it all done, lol.

   The menu consisted of: Crab Ragoon, Eggrolls, Fried Rice, Sesamie Chicken, and Stir-fry Chicken with veggies.  The egg rolls, much to my surprise were a breeze to make. The hardest thing in my opinion was preparing all the veggies and chicken for cooking.

  We did have one mishap that I have to mention due to the fact that it may save someone else from making a bad mistake. Back home I cooked on a gas stove and now here I am having to get use to an electric one. The wok came with the cooking ring, the piece that sits on the burner and lets the rounded wok sit onto  the heat or flame. So I figured since the heat was not a flame that it would not be touching the wok itself, I turned the burner up to high to get it started. Well much to surprise it heated up nicely, TOO nicely. Before we knew it the burner was on fire. The smoke alarms were going off and everything. LOL I can laugh now but at the time I have to admit, I was a wee bit scared. I moved the wok and my sister in law and I preceded to blow it out ourselves. We are not sure why this happened due to the fact that the wok ring has holes all around it and should have let the heat out. We moved the whole set up to a smaller burner and then everything went smoothly. So just remember to be careful if  your ever wok-ing with a wok. lol

 All and all everything was wonderful, everyone loved it all. There is nothing I would have done differently except maybe remembered to have taken pictures. The one of us blowing out the fire would have been a keeper for sure. LOL  We even have left over crab meat and cream cheese aka crab ragoon, to eat with crackers. Yummy good stuff. So thanks Nancy for and interesting learning experience. Just think of all the money we are going to save now doing it our selves, lol.