Senate Approves Health Care Bill Reform

The health care debate is one that I have been hearing alot about lately. On the T.V., on the radio, in the papers and yes even from the mouths of those I am around. Whether for it or against it I believe that I have heard many different opinions. I believe that I am for it as I see my brothers go without doctors because they have no insurance. They both work but neither of their jobs offer insurance and they do not make enough to pay for insurance their selves. Yet at the same time I hear older friends at church worried about losing their choice. While congress debates and now the Senate has approved the Health Care Bill reform we all wonder what will be the out come

What do you think?

Outdoor Wednesday: A bit of snow and ice

This reminds me of the old Christmas I love snow and winter for like one day Christmas but with 40+ degree weather we are not going to see this. Unfortunately the bad thing is this picture is what happened in January so I guess we should keep our eyes open.

EcoStore review and giveaway

More than 15 years ago EcoStore NZ was founded by Melanie and Malcolm Rands. The couple were living in an eco village in New Zealand at the time. The couple with all the other families that were living in this village shared a commitment to organic growing and healthy living. Each household was responsible for their own waste water which is where the thought of safer cleaner products started. The store bought chemicals left the waste water with petroleum based synthetic residue. Malcolm became determined to protect the rural waterways of the eco village accepted the challenge to develop household cleaning products using plant based ingredients. The plants were biodegradable quickly and were safer to use than the other cleaning agents. Word spread and a company began to grow.

EcoStore now sells the same "No Nasty Chemical" cleaners on their website. The EcoStore USA loves to make a difference in their customers lives. Like the early cleaners the new products which are now more than 100 in number are all the most stringent environmental and sustainability standards. EcoStore stands by the guide line that any product that they sell is not only good for the user but also for the planet.


We were able to receive a couple of cleaning products from EcoStore and must say that they are powerful cleaners. I also love the fact that they are safer for my family. With little ones running around the house as well as a couple of my children with breathing problems I know I can use the cleaners without any bad results. Now while this is only my opinion the only way that you can gather one of your own is to try the EcoStore products out for yourself.

Buy: you can buy any of the EcoStore products which include baby, hair, bath, body, household and pet off their website located at http://www.ecostoreusa.com EcoStore has a great sale going on where they are offering 40% off of all of their products

Win: Good News!!! The EcoStore would like for one of Annie's Home readers to be able to try out an ecostore product for their self. They are offering a $25 gift card to the EcoStore.


To enter giveaway: visit the EcoStore website and let me know what you would use the $25 giftcard on if you were the lucky winner

Extra Entries:

• follow my blog
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• read the review of cowgirl chocolates and leave a comment

The contest starts now and will run through January 13, 2009. Email must be in comment or on blog

$5 Dinner Cookbook giveaway

The blog $5 dinners is hosting giveaways for the cookbooks that contain the same sort of information you can find on her blog. These great books were shown on GMA as one of the top books for Christmas and now you can win one. Simply head over to the blog $5 Dinners and enter the giveaway. These giveaways started yesterday and there will be 10 days of giveaways

Pictures with Santa

This is a picture of my niece and nephews

shared at 5 minutes for mom

Kiss My Thistle review and giveaway

Kiss My Thistle

We have been busy making delicious goodies to share with all those that we love. One thing that we do not make well is shortbread partly because it is not a traditional recipe of ours because we normally always find a shortbread to buy. Let me tell you all the shortbread on the market are not all the same. Some have great taste while others are a bit lame. The shortbread that Kiss My Thistle creates is good and sweet an light. Not only me but my children loved it. Your opinion may differ but the first thing you will have to do is to order some of your own to find out. I even love the name Kiss My Thistle sounds like something my late mother in law would have said she was a lovely lady that loved to have fun in all aspects of life.

Julie Heveran has been eating, sharing and creating delicious shortbread for many years. Kiss My Thistle Scottish Shortbread has been a labor of love for her family for many generations. Julie's grandmother Kate McKechnie from Glasgow Scotland immigrated to the U.S. and brought the recipe with her. Julie learned to make the shortbread as a child and continues on.

Julie has fond memories of both her grandmother and grandfather and the Scottish recipes they would create. Julie brought back the memory of the shortbread when she would create it and give it as Christmas gifts. It always pleased those that received and they would ask for more. Julie became involved in Celtic events and even won first prize in the shortbread competition at the Highland Games. As the shortbread became popular she began to receive orders and requests. This quickly led her to develop the Kiss My Thistle where she would sell the delicious shortbread that was enjoyed by many.

Julie ships the shortbread wrapped and packed in one pound ribbon tied boxes. The shortbread will last around 4 to 6 weeks granted the bag is sealed. For a bit of luck from Glasgow after weight all the candy two more squares are added. Making approximately 35 squares to the pound.

Julie would love to offer one of Annie's Home readers a lb of Kiss My Thistle shortbread.

To enter: visit the Kiss My Thistle website and let me know something that I did not share with you.

Extra Entries:

• follow my blog
• grab my button and let me know where you put it
• subscribe to my blog
• follow me on twitter
• tweet (1 entry per tweet) link in comment
• blog (5 entries) link in comment

Contest starts now and runs through January 10, 2009 Good Luck Email must be in comment or on blog

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Faith Hill Home for the Holidays

Faith Hill will be working with a few friends in the Home for the Holidays special. Adoption is a issue that I hold on my heart as well. I do not share often but the two youngest in our family were adopted when they were quite young. My grandparents were foster parents and adopted three boys as well. Adoption is an important issue but there are several thousand children that do not have families they can call their own.

Faith Hill host Home for the Holidays special that features children and individuals involved in foster care adoption. This is the second year that she is hosting such and event. Joining Faith in the special are Mary J. Blige, Reba McEntire, Shakira and Carrie Underwood. Stores of adoptions will be shared and told by Jenna Elfman and Nia Vardalos The special will air on CBS

Peppermint Bark recipe

This is so easy to make and I have made it for the past 10 years I know and maybe longer than that. Here is what you have to do.

take 10 candy canes and beat into little pieces

melt 1 lb (package) of almond bark

Mix spread on cookie sheet and let cool

Random Acts of Kindness

This morning I saw a spotlight on ideas to share your Christmas spirit. With the rushing around, hustling and bustling of these last couple of days to Christmas take a deep breath and practice kindness. If you see clothing knocked off the rack in store take time and pick it up instead of running over it. Take your cart back to the front of the store or the stall instead of letting it roll away. Perhaps even smile and say thank you to those that are helping you. Little acts of kindness can help you out greatly

Merry Christmas

Pipe Cleaners and Beads Ornaments

You can do alot with pipe cleaner and beads. Which is the reason I keep them on hand. Making cool ornaments like these to making DNA strand for science report both can be done with pipe cleaners and beads. In those days that cabin fever set in drag out some pipe clean and beads and use your imagination and see what you can design.

Heart Healthy Cheesy Potato Recipe

Well we have been attempting to watch what we eat around here more often. I can remember being my kids age and I believe everything we ate was fried. Well those days are gone but the days of having good tasting food is not. There are several recipes over at the Heart Healthy Online website that will help you enjoy great food with health benefits as well.

Heart Healthy Cheese Potato Recipe

1 10 3/4-ounce can reduced-fat and reduced-sodium condensed cream of chicken soup
1 cup shredded reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese (4 ounces)
1/2 cup fat-free milk
1/2 cup light dairy sour cream
1/3 cup finely chopped onion or 2 tablespoons dried minced onion
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 30- or 32-ounce package frozen shredded or diced hash brown potatoes, thawed
1/2 cup crushed cornflakes or crushed wheat cereal flakes

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 2-quart rectangular baking dish; set aside. In a very large bowl, combine soup, cheese, milk, sour cream, onion, and pepper. Stir in potatoes. Spread mixture evenly in prepared baking dish. Cover and bake for 45 minutes; stir potatoes. Sprinkle with cornflakes. Bake, uncovered, for 20 to 25 minutes more or until heated through and bubbly. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving

Prince William sleeps on the street to help bring awareness

Can you imagine a prince sleeping in a cold alley? Well that is exactly what happened recently. Prince William, the son of the late Princess Diana, chose to sleep in an alley to bring awareness to the many homeless British teenagers. Prince William stated that one night could not even come to to compare to the teens that have to sleep on the streets night after night. Princess Diana had always exposed Prince William to the hardships in life and in 1996 actually took him to a shelter. Princess Diana was well known for her charitable work and Prince William is caring on this work as well.

What Do You Think?

Michelle Obama Christmas Spirit

First Lady Michelle Obama, along with her daughters Sasha and Malia and of course don't forget Bo the dog continued a tradition started by Bess Truman many years ago. The tradition of visiting young patients at Children's National Medical Center on Tuesday afternoon. During their visit they greeted patients, thanked hospital staff for their care and tired less work and read the story "Twas the Night Before Christmas" to the many children, their parents and caregivers



I absolutely love Michelle Obama's caring spirit. She has been a very out going first lady being involved in many worthwhile causes. She reminds me of the presidential first ladies of the past. While Laura Bush had her ideas and goals as well she was mostly behind scenes. I love the way that Michelle seems to be outgoing fighting her own battles yet not over shining her husband or speaking politics. This to me is the way it should be.

What do you think?

American Express gift card giveaway

I am not sure about you but sometimes pay day does not stretch as far as it should. That is why I love to win gift cards on blogs. With the gift cards I can continue in one of my great habits, shopping. The blog Mom Start is hosting giveaway for $50 american Express card. This giveaway ends December 31, 2009.

Random Thought Tuesday

Here we find ourselves just a couple of days before Christmas. Oh wow where has all the time gone. Yes I am done and ready for college yet I have to say that the time went way too fast. Maybe it is because there are not young people in our house. Yes I do have Princess but we had our Christmas last weekend. It was great she is always so much fun.

We will go together to church Christmas Eve this is a tradition that we have had for the last several years. Our friends at church have allready suprised us with a delicious ham. Wow it was the biggest one I had seen this Christmas season. Is it not great to have wonderful friends? We will meet with friends and family and enjoy a night of being together at church. Many of our friends will be there and I think it is just wonderful as some of our friends have either just had babies or are expecting them. I believe Christmas is for the young ones and with them all is brighter.

Two days after Christmas we will head to the youth convention in Springfield IL. It will be so fun as there will be lots of young people gathering together to learn more about our Lord, each other and what they can do to help. This is our first year in attending this event. I have heard it is great though and hope my kids get something out of it.

As my children get older and school is 1/2 way through we look to the future and wonder where my children will be next year. Next year will find only 1 in highschool and the rest in college or beyond. My eldest son will stay where he is, my daughter will transfer colleges and I have 2 more that start college this year. The adventures we have to look forward to.

Well those are my random thoughts and what are yours? Share them at the UnMom blog and see what others are doing as well.

A giveaway to help you relax

The blog frugalrimama is hosting a giveaway that is meant to help you relax. I am sure That you have been as busy as I have during this Holiday season and when it is over you will want a chance to relax. HALLS is sponsoring the giveaway where the winner will recieve a little bit of relief from the Holiday stress along with a set of slippers a robe and a $100 AMEX gift card. Man sounds like a great deal to me. If you agree you will need to head over to this link http://www.frugalrimama.com/2009/12/halls-refresh-robe-slipper-set-and-100-amex-gift-card-giveaway.html/comment-page-1#comment-16949 by January 4th to enter the giveaway

Elks Shoe giveaway

Have you seen the super cute shoes that are located on the elk website? Elk shoes are unique soft sole leather shoes that are perfect for children newborn to four (4) years old. The blog Thanks Mail Carrier is hosting a giveaway for a pair of elk shoes. The giveaway ends January 7, 2009

Frito Lay giveaway

A party is not a party to me without the chips and dip. Oh I love the good stuff such as cookies and snacks but the chips and dips call it for me. Currently there is a frito lay "Party in a Pinch" giveaway on the Getting All My Ducks In a Row blog. The winner will receive a gift basket assortment of Frito-Lay products, decorative serving bowl and a guide to entertaining guests during the holidays (valued at approximately $40) Giveaway ends January 3, 2009

Giveaway where you can win shopping money

The blog Stretching a Buck is hosting a giveaway where the winner will receive a $25 gift card to T.J. Maxx This giveaway ends December 23, 2009. This would be great to have for after holiday shopping. If you plan to enter hurry though.

Kitchen Tip Tuesday: baking tip

Do you hate it when you have trouble getting the brownies or the fudge out of the pan? I must tell you that you all allready might know this tip but I personally found out about it. To lessent the sticking use wax paper to line pan before pouring mix in. This will allow the baked product to not stick to the pan. Like I said easy tip but still I think a great one.