Top 10 Tuesday: Follow Up

Well, it's been a bit busy around here lately so I didn't finish everything on my list from last week. 

1. Pay the water bill Probably a good thing I did this since I like my clean laundry and showering:)

2. Clip and organize my coupons

3. Go grocery shopping - need chicken, triscuits and other stuff I can't think of at the moment...

4. Put together an Easter basket for my God-daughter Zoey:) This is her first Easter and I'm super excited. Her mommy, Maria, is my cousin and one of my very best friends. 

5. Vacuum the upstairs at my house - pretty sure I lose enough hair in a day to make a wig. - Did not do this but maybe tonight:)

6. Go buy all my garden seeds so I have them for when it's time to plant.

7. Drop $10 off to my priest for the Basketball bracket my husband is doing at church. We are currently tied for first but that probably won't last long since we had Gonzaga going to the Championship. oh well. 

8. Go by the bank. Need to go again. dangit. 

9. Continue reading my books for Lent. Everynight I crawl in bed and pass out. I haven't been reading anything at all. Need to try to finish though.

10. Talk to Seth about when and where we should vacation:) We both need one!  Talked about it. Still no decision. 

Hopefully, I will get more accomplished this week because I think my list has gotten longer. Doesn't it always?

Top 10 Tuesday: To-Do List

It's Tuesday!!

That means it's time for another Top 10 Tuesday list:) 

I feel like I have been so busy these past few days that I haven't even thought about writing. I even debated just skipping a blog post for today but I skipped yesterday because I was beyond busy. 

So, I have decide to just make a short and sweet "To-Do" list for todays Top 10. Basically, these are things on my to-do list for the week. 


1. Pay the water bill
2. Clip and organize my coupons
3. Go grocery shopping - need chicken, triscuits and other stuff I can't think of at the moment...
4. Put together an Easter basket for my God-daughter Zoey:) This is her first Easter and I'm super excited. Her mommy, Maria, is my cousin and one of my very best friends. 
5. Vacuum the upstairs at my house - pretty sure I lose enough hair in a day to make a wig. 
6. Go buy all my garden seeds so I have them for when it's time to plant.
7. Drop $10 off to my priest for the Basketball bracket my husband is doing at church.
8. Go by the bank.
9. Continue reading my books for Lent.
10. Talk to Seth about when and where we should vacation:) We both need one!


Let's see how many of these things I actually get accomplished. Hopefully all of them. 

Top 10 Tuesday: Garden Plants

Below you will find 10 of the plants that I cannot wait to plant and have fresh produce from. Most of these plants are the same as what I planted last year but I love them so much I will plant them again this year. 

1.Tomatoes - My very favorite item from the garden! I like to plant the big slicer tomatoes as well as some cherry tomatoes for salads and such. I'm hoping to find the kind my mom planted last year that are smaller than a Roma but bigger than a Grape tomato. They were awesome.

2. Strawberries - When you plant strawberries it usually takes a year before they produce and since I planted last year I'm hoping to have them this year. I love to make freezer jam with strawberries. 

3. Corn - Does anything say summer more than a nice ear of corn on the cob? I didn't think so.

4. Potatoes - Digging up potatoes is like hunting for buried treasure. It's so exciting when you pull them out of the ground and then they keep for such a long time in a cool dry place. 

5. Onions - I love onions. On salads, sandwiches, in potatoes, on kabobs...pretty much anywhere really.

6. Lettuce - Making a salad with fresh lettuce from your own garden is strangely satisfying. Make sure you wash it good to get the dirt off and then throw it in salad spinner to dry off. Yum!

7. Peppers - These are so great to dice up and throw on fresh salads or with the onions on some kabobs. My favorite are probably the red peppers while my husband loves the green.

8. Green Beans - For some reason I forgot to plant these last year and I was super disappointed. Hoping to plant a bunch and then can them for the winter.

9. Cucumbers - My cucumbers last year turned out pretty bad. I think I got a bad variety (that's my excuse anyway). This year I want to try planting some pickling cucumbers and then make homemade pickles. Seth and I both really like pickles so why not.

10. Jalapenos - This goes in my garden for Seth mainly. He loves things hot and spicy and jalapenos are just that. I used a ton of them in the salsa I canned last year but I'm hoping to put in two plants this year so I can can (haha) some as well. 

The plants listed above are just some of what I will be planting. Do you have favorites to plant in your garden?

I hope the weather cooperates so I can get everything in on time this year and have an abundant harvest like last year. 

Check back tomorrow for more about my garden:)

Top 10 Tuesday: Guilty Pleasure TV

So I must admit I'm kind of a tv junkie. Okay, kind of might be an understatement. 

I blame my tv watching on the fact that I am fascinated at getting a glimpse of what other people's lives are like. I'm the person who could sit at the airport or on a bench for hours just to watch the people. Is that weird? 

Anyways, turns out there is a lot of "reality" tv on these days so it's pretty easy for me to get sucked in. I know it's called reality tv but I still realize it's not all "real" so no worries there. 

Without further ado I give you my favorite Guilty Pleasure TV shows in no particular order. (please don't judge me:)


1. Dance Moms - Super talented little girls vie for the attention of Miss Abby, the dance teacher, while the mom's argue about who's going behind who's back to earn their child extra attention from Miss Abby. Lots of cat fights and cute dances. What's not to love?

2.  BuckWild - Basically the Jersey Shore of small town country people in West Virginia. Potato guns, trucks and muddin'. 

3.  Catfish - A series about a guy, Nev, who travels around the U.S. meeting people who are in online relationships with someone they have never met face to face. Nev talks to the person who asks for his help and then does basic internet searches on the other person in the relationship. Many times he discovers that people are not always who they say they are online. Shocker I know.  

4. Teen Mom 2 - This show makes me happy and sad. Some of the mom's are at least decent at parenting their children but there are pretty much terrible at all other relationships. This show doesn't hide how hard it can be to be a teen parent.

5.  Here Comes Honey Boo Boo - What is there to say about this except that you have to watch it to believe it. A family who is very....different:) They like to make their own words such as vajiggle jaggle and sketti and they sneeze more times in an episode than you have fingers on your hands and toes on your feet. It's  like a train wreck that you can't turn your back on.

6.  Toddlers and Tiaras - The show where Honey Boo Boo got her start and Mom's across the states parade their little girls in "beauty pageants." This show draws me in because I can't believe that some people are so crazy as to wax their five year olds eyebrows or spray tan their eleven month olds. When watching it's easy to see that the creators of the show also realize how crazy they think it is by creatively editing a kid screaming bloody murder right after they show a mom say how much their child LOVES the pageants. Not! 

7. Hoarders - Nothing like turning on a good episode of Hoarders when you need motivation to clean your house. I've had to dial this show back a little bit in recent years because they kept getting more and more disgusting and my weak stomach couldn't handle it. Watch at your own risk and don't try to eat at the same time:)

8. Keeping up with the Kardashians (plus the Miami spinoff) - I know people love to hate the Kardashians but let's be honest somebody besides me must be watching them. They are pretty darn funny and entertaining I must admit. Maybe they have no talent but who really cares? At least they seem to have a pretty close knit family that likes to spend time together. I come from a large extended family so I can relate to some of the crazy loudness that goes on that others are baffled by. 

9. Several Real Housewives shows (including but not limited to BH, Miami, New Jersey, OC and New York) - This is the show that I'm pretty sure coined the term "catfight." These women are vicious! Many of the episodes are about absolutely nothing except a ridiculous argument that makes you choose sides. It's nice to see the inside of some insanely lavish houses though.

10.  Extreme Couponing - Seventy two bottles of mustard for free?! Sign me up! Ha. This show has come under a bit of scrutiny with viewers and avid couponers who have pointed out that many times fraudulent coupons are being used to get these "free" items. I still think you can learn something from the show if you are interested in learning to coupon but remember that just because it's reality tv doesn't mean that everything you see is real. 

Well, there it is...the post of television shame. I promise I watch some other decent shows too but that's for another day:)

Happy Tuesday!!

Top Ten: tue...Friday?? Snowdays...

Well, it's been a bit crazy around with SNOW! The snowpocolypse arrived or should I say snowmageddon or maybe the Blizzard of Oz since we're in Kansas. Ok. I'll stop now. 

Anyways, I have missed 4 days of work during the past two weeks due to these darn snowstorms and power was off and on a lot so I mostly kept the computer unplugged. 

Which leads me to why I'm just now posting the...

Top Ten Tuesday Friday List entitled Things I Love *ahem* about SNOW:)

1. Snow days - I had never had any snow days as a real live adult until these past two weeks when I had four!!
2. Cooking/Baking - I just love to cook and bake any kind of warm food when it's too cold to go outside. It helps to warm the house up also. 
3. Snuggling under the blankets - Is there anything better than being under nice cozy blankets when it's freezing outside? I'm sure there are better things but I can't think of any right now.
4. The silence - Have you ever noticed how peacefully quiet it can be when it's snowing? Maybe I notice it because we live in the country and it's pretty quiet all the time. The quiet during the snow though, it makes you feel like you are the only person in the world. 
5. Soup - Eating nice warm soup (or chili) when it is snowy and cold out can warm you right up. 
6. Sledding - I may be 26 years old but I still love sledding down the biggest hill I can find. Maybe when my husband gets home Friday he will take me:)
7. Warm fireplaces - Crackling fire while their is a blizzard outside...awesome. 
8. Beauty - I love the way the world looks after fresh snow has fallen. It's incredible how everywhere you look you see white. Too bad it can't stay this way for long before mud and sand and other yucky stuff covers up the beauty. 
9. Scarves and Boots - I have so many bright colorful scarves and warm snuggly boots that are wonderful and help to keep me toasty warm.
10. The end - I love when the snow has all melted and gone away and you can start to see flowers sprouting up from the ground. Spring will be right around the corner. 

Here's some photos even though I don't have the ones on here from the second round of snow that was even worse than the first!

This was how deep the snow was right outside my garage. Eek.

Gunnar said no way am I going out there.  So did my Honda:)

He changed his mind and decided to show me how he flies. 

The shop/outbuilding my hubby is building was a little bit snowy.  

The view from the back deck.

This photo was after the second snowstorm. My car wasn't going anywhere. 

Top 10 Tuesday: Lenten Sacrifice

Since Lent has started I decided to come up with a Top 10 list of things to give up/do for lent in case you hadn't started yet.

1. Give up some type of social media - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest - Even better if you replace these activities with #4:)
2. Stop using the lords name in vain and/or stop using cuss words. 
3. Give up your favorite dessert/snack or treat.
4. Read books, blogs, magazines and newspapers that focus on faith and strengthen your relationship with God. 
5. Go to weekly stations of the cross at your local church if available. 
6. Give up listening to the radio in your car. Replace the silence with religious music or audio books, talk with those riding with you, or spend time talking to God.
7. Focus more on others instead of self by doing daily or weekly random acts of kindness for people. Do these things anonymously if possible.
8. Give up watching TV or even just your favorite TV shows. 
9. Give to the poor in any way you can. Food, clothing or even time. 
10. Spend time daily talking to Jesus. Thank him. Ask him for guidance in something you might be struggling with. Be sure to listen as well.

I wish I could say that I'm doing everything on this list but I am trying to do a couple different things. I have given up pop (aka:soda for those of you that don't know what pop is;) which is super hard for me. I love to have a nice cold caffeinated Pepsi or Dr. Pepper right after lunch in the afternoons to keep me awake. I also love it with popcorn, pizza, Mexican food, at the movies.....you get the idea. Luckily, I love water and Ice Tea as well so I should hopefully survive these 40 days and nights just fine. 

I'm also working on reading several different books that the head LifeNight teacher loaned me over a year ago (yikes). My goal is to return all three after Lent is over. 

Several of the other ideas on the list I'm trying to be more active in but I don't want to try to over commit and then fail. I guess we will just have to wait and see how I do. My goal is to have a deeper understanding of my faith and closer relationship with God. Wish me luck!

Have you decided to give up/do something for lent? What is it?