Monday, June 29, 2009

Mexico Baby!!!

So we again had a wonderful opportunity to go to Mexico with the rest of our family. Although there were some people missing, whom we missed so much, we had a great time. This year we stuck to the cabin with the exception of Church and the aquarium. Mexico always seems to amaze me. It is so beautiful, and I am able to be blessed by silence and time to reflect on my blessings. Megs is so blessed to have Aunts and Uncles with play, and nurture her. My wish is that she develops strong bonds with all members of her family so she can later in life understand the difference between people who do things with standards in mind and people who do things with no regard to others.







This trip was great opportunity to become closer with one another...which is why we had so much fun!


Megs being super cute.
Taking a walk with Uncle Paul

A picture of us swimming taken far away enough where you don't have to see details...thank goodness!



My favorite picture....



A rare present!





Paul, Wendy and I enjoying a beautiful Mexican sunset.




Building sand castles so she could destroy them.
We love Mexico it really is are Paradise, in which we dream of.












Thursday, June 25, 2009

Calling all AZ Renters/ Landlords!


I just found a super cool site that allows you to post your rentals and look for a rental. Mark and I are always looking for a better deal and what I come to find out is houses are usually cheaper to rent over apartments. There are so many benefits to renting a house over an apartment, such as: Not sharing walls, a garage, more storage, a back yard for the kids, more space and the list goes on and on.

If you live in AZ and are renting your home out or are looking for someplace to rent then try checking out this site One Click Rents

Friday, June 19, 2009

All in a Moms life give away!

All In a Moms Life, is doing a great giveaway of a 40 dollar gift certificate to Angela Vinez Designs , she makes the most precious jewelry with pictures! Go check it out here!

All In A Mom's Life

I don't want to be a cowboy giveaway!!

I don't want to be a cowboy is giving away some super cute little gal outfits! Take a peek you know you want to! Go here for the give away!
Love,
Tiff

Fabulous Finds Give Away!

Check this blog out for some fun giveaways!
http://fabulousfunfinds.blogspot.com/
Fabulous Fun Finds Featured Item

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Not so yummy Honey Oat bread....all made better by this recipe






OK so I am new to this whole bread making thing, and I have so much to learn. Oh Saturday I found this recipe for Honey Oat Bread, I was all excited to give my family this super nice treat of the honey flavor, instead of the bread I have been making.



I greedily put the ingredients together and baked it only to find out, it taste like old oatmeal! Come to find out there is not enough honey to make the flavor come out so you have the strong oatmeal flavor, and my shortening maybe might have gone bad. So that's my case I think it might be awhile until I venture out and make bread with oatmeal again.



Here is the good news Megan had a lot of fun cleaning the bottom of the flour can , ei yi ei. Her eyes are there somewhere....

And I got to make my favorite bread Amish White Bread this is my yummy bread. The recipe makes to loaves and we usually eat this first one right up, this taste great for sandwiches.

INGREDIENTS
2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1/3 cup white sugar or for a more sweeter bread 2/3 cup of white sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
6 cups bread flour



DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in warm water, and then stir in yeast. Allow to proof until yeast resembles a creamy foam.
Mix salt and oil into the yeast. Mix in flour one cup at a time. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Place in a well oiled bowl, and turn dough to coat. Cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
Punch dough down. Knead for a few minutes, and divide in half. Shape into loaves, and place into two well oiled 9x5 inch loaf pans. Allow to rise for 30 minutes, or until dough has risen 1 inch above pans.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 minutes.

Let me know how it taste!

Tiff

Source for bread recipe: All Recipes

Saturday, June 13, 2009

The Blessing of Tithing.....







It really hit me today that we have no income coming in, on Monday we will miss our first pay check. ( I hope we don't have to miss many more after that.) As I always do this time as the month I start thinking of tithing. In the church I belong to (The Church of Jesus Christ of Ladder Day Saints) we are taught the blessings of tithing. This is something I very strongly believe in.
We have gone through this before were we had to rely on the strength of our faith to get us through hard times. Tithing is a has already given us so many blessing in this short three weeks;and will stand as one of many foundations we will have to get us through to the end. I would like to share with you some blessing we have received from this tremendous gift from our Heavenly Father.
As we went over the budget for what we can and can't live without we were able to narrow done some main things in the food area where we could cut back.WE have gone from a food budget of $100.00 a month to $40.00. We try to spend just $10.00 a week and then rely on our food storage for the rest. So far it has been working wonderfully,in fact I think we have made it under budget every week. Our big ticket item is Milk, and we mainly just buy produce. We pay in cash for everything so when we are under budget we save the cash until the next week and if we should happen to go over we have some extra cash.
We also price match and buy things only if they are on sale and cater our meals to those items we have purchased.Our first weeks grocery bill was $6.32 and here is what we bought:
2 dozen eggs: .89cents each
10pounds of potatoes: $1.00
20lbs of Water Melon:$2.00
6 pounds of pineapple: $1.00
The next week we were in Mexico ...Look for that in a later post.
This week we spent a little over 9 dollars
2 gallons of milk $2.39 Costco (This will last us two weeks.)
6lbs of pineapple $1.00
3 bell peppers : $1.00
Lunch Meat: 4x.58cents
Sour Cream: 1.00 x2
Then for the rest we rely on our food storage of meat, canned goods and everything else I make from scratch (like bread, cereal and so on).
I know that the only reason that we have these wonderful blessing is because of the tithing we contribute. We are asked to give 10% every month, but that doesn't include just money. You can also give your time this is wonderful blessing all in itself.
When I grew up my family was all into service we had a service project a few times a year. I was taught this is what you do with your most valuable asset time. When you think about it time is really what we have that we can spend freely and never get back. So that being said Tithing for us includes 10% of our time. Imagine if you just spent 2.5 hours of time a day devoted to the Church. This would include scriptures, visiting teaching, your callings in the Church. It is also so nice just spending time to think of things other then what we are going to do within the next hour our think of what I am going to make for dinner and so on. Just something to ponder.
I have a strong testimony of The church of Jesus Christ of Ladder Day Saints. It provides a light in harden times through its teaching and compassion for not just its members but anyone who needs help. I have received so many blessing and I know it is because of my amazing Heavenly Father and his love. I owe so much gratitude to my Heavenly Father, because of his Spirit my family and I are closer then ever and getting through these days with smiles on face.
If you have made this far thanks for reading my post that maybe sorta got away from me.
Love
Tiff

Friday, June 12, 2009

Just somethings to make you laugh.... enjoy!






Monday, May 25, 2009

Why you might not see me .....

So I have been struggling. My husband lost his job last week, and so I might not be able to post for awhile since the Internet will be the first thing we cut. I will miss coming on here and posting, please keep us in your prayers. I might try and sell some things on ETSY so look out for that.
We love you all,
Tiff

Monday, May 11, 2009

You tube Monday.... DIY cleaning supplies.

Ok I always have admired those women who can do it all. You know the ones I am talking about, house clean well behaved kids, and when it time to clean they pull out cleaning supplies they have made themselves.
So last week I totally cleaned out my kitchen and reorganized it. Pictures will follow after I get some batteries. This week I am going to show you how to make supplies your friends will be jealous of, to keep your house sparkling clean.

The first one is .....
Homemade laundry detergent



This video is how to make your own cleaning products.



How to make your own drain cleaner.




I hope you all enjoy!
'This post is part of Homemaking Monday!