Spagetti Squash

Best Life Newsletter: "Spaghetti Squash
This veggie is a great twist on pasta. To cook spaghetti squash, simply pierce with a fork and bake whole at 375 degrees for an hour. Let cool before cutting in half lengthwise. Use a fork to scrape away seeds to reveal the spaghetti-like strands. Top with your usual sauce and a sprinkle of Parmesan."

No Bake Oatmeal Cookies

¼ c margarine

½ c milk

2 c sugar



Mix the above and boil for 1 min.



¼ c peanut butter

6 Tablespoons cocoa

3 c. quick oats



Mix well.

Drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper.

Lasagna as easy as 1,2,3

Easy Lasagna

1 1b. hamburger
1 can/bottle your favorite spaghetti sauce
12 lasagna noodles
1 - 8 oz. package shredded mozzarella
1 – 16 oz. cottage cheese
Parmesan Cheese

Bring water to boil in a large pan for noodles. Cook noodles as directed
on package. Brown hamburger (can add onions for taste if you like).
Once noodles are cooked drain water and pour cold water on noodles
to cool them. After hamburger is cooked add spaghetti sauce to meat.
In a 13x9 pan spray Pam to coat the bottom of pan. Layer as follows. Noodles, meat sauce, cottage cheese, mozzarella cheese and sprinkle parmesan cheese. Layer again, and on final layer you will only top with
meat sauce, mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Cook for 30 min. at 350 to
375 depending on oven. Let cool 10 min. before cutting. Enjoy!

Oh my heck!

sometimes I get easily offend. The Bible warns us not to so I am always striving the 'not to' part but it still happens.

I've come a long way. I used to get offended at the drop of a hat but as I've grown up I've discovered that just because another person says something about me that is mean or thinks something about me that is not true, it is my own choice to let that offend me. If I know the truth and I'm in the right, then that's all that matters.

I encourage you to always remember make it a goal to not be easily offended. People are often foolish with their mouths and say things they shouldn't say.

Stay close to God, tell Him when others offend you....He will wipe your tears away!!!

Love you girls!!!!! Kiiiisssss Kiiiissss.

Ham Fried Rice Recipe

To make this great dish you will need the following ingredients.
cooked rice
I use white rice but you could use brown

ham cut in cubes
2 - 4 eggs (depending on how many you are cooking for
soy sauce
green onions


You begin preparing this meal by cooking rice. When it is almost done cooking, cut up ham. Fry two eggs and cook them in a skillet with cut up onion (put in as much as you want). When the eggs are almost cooked push them to the side and add chopped ham. You are basically heating the ham up so that’s why you add it right before the eggs are completely cooked. Then add cooked rice (assuming it is cooked up by now). Then add soy sauce to your taste liking.

Tip: You can always add more sauce but once you add it you can’t take it out LOL.

Trust Him for He knows what we need!

When Maren started to crawl she appeared to be easily motivated by an objects in which she decided that she wanted.

I remember watching her crawl towards what I thought would be one of her toys but instead I watched her select a dog toy instead. I couldn't believe my eyes, as there were several baby toys laying in front of her but she selected the one and only dog toy in sight! She wanted the one toy she wasn't supposed to have! This particular event was significant to me as it immediately made me think of adults and objects in our lives.
How often we humans tend to want the one thing we cannot have. Why is that? Why do we often times, focus on and think about the one thing we don't have.

I know I've been caught up in this way of thinking. Wanting something either I wasn't supposed to have or wasn't ready to have in my life. God's timing is perfect and we need to trust Him for that. And in case you are wondering, Maren didn't get to keep that dog toy she wanted, it was taken away from her, for her own sake!

Cleaning your washer?

Clean your washer, dishwasher, and any other appliances as needed. Often time our washers have a soap scum that builds up on the top around the top of the barrel. Often times there is hair mixed in with it or lint. You can make it a habit to wipe it down once a month....but don't fret. You'll notice if it gets too bad and you can take care of it then.
Give it a quick wipe and you are good to go.
Same thing with the outside of appliances. Wipe down as needed. Life happens, food spills and spots come....but they go, as soon as you say so!

Credit card or Debit card, which do I use?

Which is better to use? Credit card or debit?

A credit card has it's perks but you must be careful or it can become addictive and you will feel the pain. The perks for credit cars are the additional 15 % off they will give you when you use their credit card to buy with. Or the incentive of, once you charge $200 they will 'reward' you with a $10 in house card to buy MORE items at their store. Nice rewards, but you have to be careful and manage that account to make sure that the bill that comes in the mail at the end of the month isn't more than what you are able to write a check for to keep the account paid off. Bottom line, pay credit cards off every month when the first bill comes in. Then the rewards really will be rewards, otherwise you will get stuck with an annoying monthly interest on clothes you already bought, in fact you probably can't even remember what you bought, but you still get the bill.

Debit is wonderful like carrying cash but the caution in using that is ALWAYS make sure there is money in that account before you use it to buy something as there will be fines to pay if the charge comes thru and there are no funds to cover it! OUCH!!!

How do you clean your oven?

Years and years ago the way you cleaned your oven was hard. You can still clean your oven like this but it is time consuming and you gotta put some muscle into it.
Buy SOS pads and scrub like the dickens! Then wipe the entire oven down and most likely you'll see all the places you missed so you do it again. Lots and lots of work.

These days there are easier ways to clean your oven. If you have a newer oven you will see the selection that says clean oven. You will turn it on and walk away requiring no action on your part. It takes several hours for your oven to do its thing but it's pretty incredible to experience if you've never had the chance. The only part that is a little uncomfortable is there will be some fumes that you will smell when utilizing this feature. So be prepared to endure the smell.

The final way you may want to try, in a very well venatlated room, would be the oven spray cleaner you can pick up at the store. This methods, comes with instructions on the can, however, it is basically spray, let it sit for severals hours and then you must be prepared to go in and wipe it all off. Be prepared for more fumes.

I hope you find this informative and helpful! Now go clean!

Expectations!!!

Wow, what a big word! Expectations.

Have you ever gone to a nice restaurant and expected a perfect meal but left disappointed?

Ever woke up expecting a sunny day and it rains all day, even though that's not what the weather man had forecasted?

Ever had a friend make a promise and they forgot to do what they promised they would do?

You know that all these types of expectations are made by us everyday and we are continually being let down when things don't turn out the way we expected them to or people don't respond the way we expected them to.

What we do with that?...... The answer is one of the keys to our happiness.
I have found that even at my age, I still face dealing with the disappointment of let down from the expectations I have set in my mind. No amount of kicking, screaming (LOL), fit throwing (i.e. two year old temper tantrum), or pouting (which by the way we adults can do very well when we want our way) can actually turn things OUR way. So what do we do when we have high expectations and they are let down???

Is my answer easy? Well yes and no. It's easy to say but harder to practice. We must learn to be content in all circumstances. Face it, sometimes things just don't work out the way we thought (expected) they would! So we must deal with it and you and the way you think are the only way to the happiness. As long as you remain mad, you will be unhappy. Once you face the fact that it ain't gonna happen, you FREE yourself to move forward and decide what is next.

I am blogging about this because I find it is something I have to remind myself all the time. You alone are responsible for your own happiness.

With that I say, have a great day!

What do you do when you get scared?

Do you ever get scared? I know I do.

One memory that comes to me is waking up to the loud clap of thunder which sounds like it is right outside your bedroom window. Now that your eyes are open you see the flash of lightening....and then bam again more thunder. I have also had times when I wake up from a scarey dream. I could name more things that scare me but I really just want to make the point of what should we do when we get scared.

Pray.
Cast all your anxiety upon Me because I care for you. 1 Peter 5:7.

Jesus told us to give Him our fears and I have found that when I do this, it brings me great comfort and peace.

Another verse from the Bible is PRAY continually. So I know God wants us to talk to Him!

Please don't ever forget, God is only a prayer away.

Cleaning with Ammonia

When I was growing up, Ammonia was one of the cleaning supplies you could readily find in my mother's cupboard where the cleaning supplies were kept.

I actually remember using it to clean with. I would wear rubber gloves and make the mixture of 1/4 cup with a bucket of warm water. I would use it for cleaning the bathroom floor and wiping down the outside of the toilet. However, at the time as a young teenager, I was unaware of the dangers or shall I say precautions we must take when using ammonia.

You should NEVER use ammonia with any type of product that includes chlorine. You will find yourself making a large batch of ammonium chloride, which can be lethal to be around.

So remember ammonia is cheap to buy and can be used to clean around your house with, in fact my mother even taught me to use it to clean my diamond ring with.

But the most important thing to remember is that you make sure that you are not using it alongside or near any product that has chlorine in it. This cannot be mentioned enough, as it forms a highly toxic gas which can be deadly.

With what I mentioned above and the fact that you must remember it is important to work in a ventilated area by opening the windows when using ammonia to clean with. I could see how an innocent mistake could be made by mixing clorox which is in so many of our cleaning products with ammonia....it's just not worth chancing it. For me, ammonia will stay on the shelf in the store.

My advice would be to stick with household products designed for specific cleaning. My personal favorites are Spic and Span or Mr. Clean for the floors. I also use 409 or lysol products.