Living On A Dime - Valentine's Day On A Dime

Valentine's Day On A Dime
by Tawra Kellam
http://www.LivingOnADime.com

Using a little imagination, you can make your Valentine's day a little more fun and a lot less expensive. If you want to add a little personalized romance or if you don't have the time or money to buy all the pre-made things in the store, here are some ideas to help you make the day special.

For The Kids:

• My mom always made a great but inexpensive Valentine's Day treat for us. She would take construction paper and cut a big heart out of it. (About 8x10 inches). She would staple the edges together and write our names and an I love you on the outside. Then she would fill the heart with candy, purchased on clearance after Christmas. It was very inexpensive but we loved it!
  
• Have a Valentine's Day treasure hunt. Leave little notes around with the last one leading back to the kitchen table with a heart full of candy.
  
• Leave sticks of red gum in their Valentine's Day cards.
  

For The Lunches

• Make heart shaped Valentine's cookies. Cut the kids (or hubby's) sandwiches with a heart shaped cookie cutter. Add a few Valentine's chocolates and put a note in red with a big heart on their napkin.
  
• Serve anything red for the day. Serve red Jello, red pudding, red apples, toast with strawberry jelly, tomato soup, red applesauce, red Kool-aid, strawberry milk, or red frosted cookies. Use powered food coloring from the cake store to get the deepest shade of red. Serving all red things at a meal will really have wow factor even if it is something as inexpensive as red jello and tomato soup.
  
• Make red heart shaped cupcakes. Make cupcakes as usual but place a marble down the side of the muffin tin between the muffin tin and each cupcake cup. This will make heart shaped cupcakes.
  
• Make hearts out of chocolate chips in each of your pancakes.
  

Things To Do With Or For Your Honey

• Mail your pre-addressed and stamped Valentines to Loveland, Colorado and they will postmark them and mail them for you. Send them to: Postmaster, Valentine Re-mailing, 446 E. 29th St., Loveland, CO 80538
  
• Make a treasure hunt for your spouse. Start by mailing or e-mailing him the first clue. Then leave clues all over the house, yard, car or his office telling him where to find the next clue. End the hunt by making a picnic in the back yard or going to a park for a picnic. Use your imagination and have fun. The simple things are the ones people remember.
  
• Go to a bookstore together and enjoy the silence and browse. Get a cup of coffee and make a date of it.
  
• Celebrate Valentine's Day AFTER Valentine's day. Everything is half off.
  
• Mail a love letter to your hubby's work.
  
• Send your spouse a sexy email message.
  
• Leave "Why I love you" message all over the house. Buy a package of the cheap Valentines. Leave a message on each one and hide them all over the house for your honey. They will get to enjoy the gift for months!
  
• Use lipstick to make hearts and love notes on the rear view mirror, car windows, bathroom mirror or windows of the house. Leave a kiss on his napkin for lunch or dinner.
  
• Make a bunch of hearts out of construction paper. Put a love note on each one. Paste them all over the front door or car before your hubby or kids come home from work.
  
• If you don't have money to go out, have a picnic on the floor. Use some candles and lay a soft blanket on the floor. Put on some soft music and have a romantic Valentine's dinner on the floor. Use some white Christmas lights for additional romantic lighting!
  

Jill Cooper and Tawra Kellam are frugal living experts and the authors of the Dining On A Dime Cookbook. Dining On A Dime will help you save money on groceries and get out of debt, by cooking quick and simple homemade meals. For free tips & recipes visit http://www.LivingOnADime.com

Today's The Day!

"The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come..." (Song of Solomon 2:1)

It's an annual event at our house...waiting for the first tiny, little, purple crocus to pop its head up out of the ground in anticipation of the soon to arrive spring...and today's the day...January 29, 2012! I went out first thing this morning (which I do quite often come warmer, sunny days...be it January, February, or March when they come) and discovered these little beauties standing up tall and proud all along the south side of our property. As always, I picked one to put in water on my desk and left the others to dot the south lawn in an array of purple glory. The grandchildren delight in this annual event, as well, and, after church today, were they ever surprised to find that it had already happened! It's not quite spring, yet, but the promise of it has burst forth from the ground, and I, for one, am happy to know that it's on its way! Thank You, Lord, for your lovingkindness and unfailing promises! I love You, Lord!

Five Minute Friday - TENDER

It's FRIDAY! That means it's time for another 'Five Minute Friday' where as, our hostess, and inspiration, The Gypsy Mama, puts it, we write "For only five short, bold, beautiful minutes. Unscripted and unedited. We just write without worrying if it’s just right or not."

Want to join us? Then be sure and visit The Gypsy Mama today! 

Now...for today's assignment...

 

Go!

I don't have a lot of time today, but, when I saw today's assigned word, I didn't want to not take time to do today's Five Minute Friday assignment. 

 

When I saw the word 'tender' I immediately thought of Psalm 40, in which David declares in verses 8-10, "I delight to do they will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart. I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD thou knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindess and thy truth from the great congregation." 

 

Then, in verse 11, David petitions the Lord, "Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me."

 

May it be the same with us today. May those who are reading this now never cease to delight in doing God's will in their lives, holding His Word and His righteousness in their heart, refrain not their lips from declaring His faithfulness, salvation, and truth, and may the Lord, in turn, withhold not His tender mercies from us. May His lovingkindness and truth continually preserve us. 

 

In Jesus' name...Amen!

Stop!

Celebrating Burn's Night/Scottish Recipes

Our Beautiful Crockpot Haggis

As home educators our family has always enjoyed celebrations of all kinds...especially ones that celebrate our Italian and/or Scots-Irish heritage. Well, today we celebrated a new holiday for the first time. One that, in truth, we didn't even know existed until late last night!


Last night I was on Facebook and something was posted on one of the Scottish groups that I'm on about Burn's Night (an annual celebration in Scotland commemorating the life of bard, Robert Burns, who was born on January 25, 1759). After doing a little research, I decided that, while it might not be completely traditional, we were going to celebrate Burn's Night anyway!

In researching I discovered that the traditional Burn's Night supper consists of haggis, tatties, and neeps. Now...how was I going to pull that off? I mean...haggis? Cooked in a sheep's stomach? Uh-uh! Not happening here! I looked around and, after a while, found a recipe for haggis made in a crockpot. I tweaked it a bit and made it my own. Here is a link to the original story and recipe which I enjoyed reading very much!

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/08/crockpot-haggis-recipe.html

(I will share the recipe I made in just a moment.)

I also made the traditional tatties (mashed potatoes) and neeps (mashed turnips), and added my own favorite version of Scottish Oatcakes (recipes included). It all made for a delicious meal! One that I will definitely make again and again! (Probably every January 25th!)

To make it even lovelier and more special we were joined for supper by our daughter-in-law and three of our grandchildren. It was fun to share a new experience with them!

We ended our celebration by listening to two of Robert Burns works...Auld Lang Syne and Address To A Haggis (which I absolutely delight in!).

Here are those recipes as promised...

CROCKPOT HAGGIS


1 pound lean ground turkey
1 chopped red onion
1 cup whole oats
a pinch each of nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. salt
1 egg
1/2 cup chicken broth

In a large mixing bowl, mix all of the ingredients, minus the broth, the same way you'd make a meatloaf. Plop it into your crockpot that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Press meat down to form in the shape of the crockpot. Pour broth over top. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 7 hours, or on high for about 4. This is cooked fully when it has browned on the edges and is beginning to brown on top. Don't overcook and risk drying out. Using a large spatula, carefully remove from crockpot and place on cutting board (I loosened ours by running a table knife around the edges first and it came out beautifully). (Save broth to serve over top.) Let rest for 30 minutes before slicing.

TATTIES AND NEEPS

1¼ lb. potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
1¼ lb. turnips, peeled, roughly chopped
A generous pinch of grated nutmeg
4 tbsp milk
4 tbsp butter
Sea salt and pepper

Tatties - Place the potatoes in a large saucepan, cover with cold water, add a pinch of salt, cover the pan with a lid. Bring the potatoes to the boil, reduce to a simmer and cook until tender (approx 20 mins). Drain the potatoes and keep to one side. Add half of the butter and half the milk to the pan the potatoes were cooked in. Melt the butter and warm the milk, add the cooked potatoes and mash. Add the nutmeg and stir well to create a smooth, creamy mash.  

Neeps - Place the turnips in a large saucepan, cover with cold water, add a pinch of salt, cover the pan with a lid. Bring the turnips to the boil, reduce to a simmer and cook until tender (approx 20 mins). Drain the turnips and keep to one side. Add half of the butter and half the milk to the pan the turnips were cooked in. Melt the butter and warm the milk, add the cooked turnips and mash.

SCOTTISH OATCAKES

2 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 c. old-fashioned oats
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 c. light butter
1/2 c. water, or more if needed

In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or 2 knives until the mixture resembles coarse meal. With a fork, stir in the water. Dough should just cling together. Divide into 3 portions.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out each portion as thin as possible. Cut into triangles. Place 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 10-15 minutes. Oatcakes should not be brown but be still quite blonde when done.

Happy Burns Night!

~Rebecca

And The Winners Are!

It's Friday! And it's time to announce the winners of Darlene Schact's new The Good Wife's Guide e-book (there are three)!

For those of you who are wondering how I selected the winners, I did it the old-fashioned way. I put all the entrants' names (individually, of course) on the backs of old business cards, folded them over, put them in a big bowl, and while my husband held the bowl over my head, I reached in, and pulled out the winners.

And they are...

1) Melissa Nassraway - hkittycrzy@aol.com

2) Sandy Holtgrewe - (Sandy, I need an e-mail address to send to Darlene so she can get that out to you.)

3) Carla Beatty Evans - carlaevans_2000@yahoo.com

Congratulations, Ladies! And enjoy! You are going to LOVE this new e-book! Guaranteed!

God bless and have a beautiful day!

All My Love,
~Rebecca

P.S. - Darlene, thanks, again, for allowing me the opportunity to share this lovely e-book with my readers. It is much appreciated, my friend! God bless! <3

Giveaway!

I'm excited to announce that tomorrow (Monday, January 16th, 2012) Darlene Schacht of Time Warp Wife will be releasing her new e-book...

Find it on Amazon here

Book Description:

In The Good Wife's Guide author Darlene Schacht encourages women to joyfully serve their families. In doing so she offers reasons for achieving a well-managed home backed by scripture and gleaned from experience. As well she provides readers with detailed cleaning and organizing schedules for practical application.

The Good Wife's Guide encourages women to make faith and family their first priorities from a place of sacrificial love. It reminds women that they were created with a specific purpose in mind, which is that of being a help meet. In supporting our husbands and living in unity we reflect God's blueprint for marriage.

About the Author:

Darlene Schacht is an ordinary mom, living an extraordinary life, because of who she is through Jesus Christ. As help-meet to her husband Michael, she guides and nurtures their four children, leading them toward a deeper walk of faith.

Her work has been published in anthologies by Thomas Nelson, Tyndale Publishing and Adams Media. As well she has co-authored a book with actress Candace Cameron Bure, the award-winning and New York Times Best-Seller, Reshaping it All: Motivation for Spiritual and Physical Fitness.

Forward by Candace Cameron Bure.

Here's an excerpt from the book:

"Stop right where
you are and consider this thought: where you are
today does not dictate where you will be tomorrow. You
have the ability to get your surroundings under
control, to manage your home well, and find time to
relax. My goal is to teach you how." -Darlene Schacht

Darlene has given me the privilege of giving away 3 copies of the book. 

Here's how to enter:

1. Comment on this post with your email and name.
2. Visit Rebecca's Hearth and Home on Facebook, find the giveaway post and comment there also, make sure the name is the same as you commented with here. 

You will get one entry for each of those that you do. I will pick the winners on Friday, January 20th. The winners will be announced here and on Facebook.