8 Christmas themed Blogs worthy of mention!

For the last few days as I waltzed my way through the various Blogs, I was wondering how many of you actually are feeling any sort of Christmas Spirit right now. Of course this developed into this month Blogs worthy of mention post. Allow me to point out that finding 8 Christmas “Themed Blogs” was extremely difficult to find on Entrecard. I would say, that most people are just no longer in the Christmas Mood or I am way too early! So without further ado, here are the 8 Christmas Themed Blogs worthy of mention.

1. http://chica-pumuckl.blogspot.com/ (Cat Lovers need to take a look at this cuter then dickens Blog. Thanks for always bringing a smile to my face when I need it the most)

2. http://lingzspot.blogspot.com/ (Not particularly “Christmas fancy”, but I did appreciate the “Christmas Graphics Comments”

3. http://www.singaporeaninlondon.blogspot.com (For the Santa Claus Photo and Blog Post about Christmas coming to Selfridges in Oxford Street)
4. http://amylilleydesigns.blogspot.com (check out Red, Red, Red…. Those Ornaments are darling!)

5. http://sewingmom.com (Well MOM knows how to sew, and since I love to put needle and thread to material myself as often as possible, this blog with their ideas for Christmas got my attention. Happy Holidays “mom”.)

6. http://gruggersway.today.com (ok, maybe not the way I was thinking, but this is definitely “Christmas themed”, this Gent talks about a few very pertinent ideas in regards to Christmas)

7. http://www.thriftymommaramblings.com (Again no cute holiday graphics on this one, but a lot of fun information for your shopping and making ends meet pleasure)

8. http://www.symphonyoflove.net/blog (Just read the post http://www.symphonyoflove.net/blog/177/spread-the-christmas-spirit-and-positive-wishes.html and you will understand)

The original Idea was finding 30 of them, but after surfing for 2 hours I gave up on the idea. To be honest, it was getting rather depressing. Not that I have anything to say here, my blog is not particularly Christmas Themed either.

So this is your big chance dear fellow Bloggers, do you know of any Christmas Themed Blogs worthy of mention? Please don’t just nominate your own Blog here either (yes you can tack your URL in here so you can have a link out, but you have to nominate at least 1 other Blog that does not belong to you!).

This Posting will be cross posted at one of my other Blogs: http://www.ReginaSunderland.com so you have two chances of getting your Blog and that of those you admire known!

Merry Christmas Theme hunting everyone!

Getting ready for Thanksgiving.

Associated Content published Author!


Thanksgiving is right around the corner again and I am wondering just how many of us really feel thankful for what has happened this year.
It is extremely difficult to fell grateful when you or your spouse lost their job, when another person in your family died, or you are just about to lose your home.
It is difficult to remember that there is someone that loves us, when depression is eating away on your mind and soul. It is even more difficult when you can't even put the traditional meal on your table to feed those that are going to pretend to be grateful.

But perhaps there is something we have to be grateful for afterall. If you are reading this Blog Post right now, you can be grateful that you have access to a way to gather information regardless how useless you may find it at the moment.
If you still have a roof over your head that keeps you warm at night and dry in the rain, the you can be grateful because there are so many people out there who don't.
If you are currently depleting your savings account just to make ends meet and buy food or pay those bills, then be thankful that you even still have that savings account to use.
If you have a family that is still together even in these hard times, then you better hit the ground and thank whomever you believe in because they have not deserted you when times got tough.
Thursday is Thanksgiving in my house and I have been watching my income drop daily, my bills are barely paid and the food that I have in the house is not easy come by. But I have a family that I can feed on Thursday even if it is only 2 people left to me, I have a meal that may not be as huge as it once was, but it will feed them easily. I still have a roof over my head and I still have loving arms that can hold those I care about then times make it tough to remember what we should be grateful for.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

I am going to make this year a hand crafted Gift year only!

I don’t know about you, but I love hand made items. To me they are a lot more personal then store bought. Not to mention in most cases they last longer and are cheaper. I keep hearing about the great Change that is coming, but I don’t think that it will come in time for the Christmas / Winter Holidays.
For that reason I have decided that this year it all I am giving to anyone are hand crafted Gifts. Sorry, but that is all I can afford and that will have to be just good enough.

So here are my Gift Ideas that I have come up with so far.

1. Hand sewn and decorated pretty Pillows for the couch or seat cushion for a Chair.
2. Specialized candles
3. Table Decorations
4. Hand sewn Table Runners
5. Body Mists or gently perfumed lotions
6. Skirts with bead work
7. Hand drawn Shirts (purchase a blank T-shirt at Micheals and draw my own designs on it)
8. A copy of my own Self-published Books
9. A hand made coloring book for the littlest friends
10. Doll Clothing
11. Paintings

Oh and in case you wonder, here are a couple of samples of my handy crafts. Some of my stuff is for sale through my Ebay Store as well.

Baby Diapers, coupons and yes an affiliate link.

Todays Post is a bit of everything really and it is all about Baby Diapers, something that I haven't had to deal with in a long time. Yet today after reading some writing and receiving an Affiliate Offer in my Email it brought me back to those times when I would rip my hair out trying to safe whatever penny I could on Baby Products while still making certain that my kids had what they needed.

Baby Care is never easy and the cost of Diapers is often out of the Roof Top. I remember when my kids were still little I often ended up clipping coupons from Parenting Magazines, or try to trade information with other Mothers to find my favorite Diapers at the cheapest possible price.

I still remember my first time in an american store and looking at the overwhelming selection of disposable Diapers. I was feeling lost and didn't know where to start. Pampers are well known in most Countries of the World and so those were the first I purchased.

I remember thinking of the disposable Diapers automatically as Pampers. It seemed that Pampers had become the default name for Diapers for me, but when I tried them I didn’t find them to be any better then Huggies. The large difference was that Huggies more often give free coupons, discounts, and specials.

A definite plus for those of us parents who have to make due on a bit tighter budget. More often then not you can find off brand Diapers at extremely cheap prices, but even there not all off brands are created equal. Evenso some are just as good as the Brand Names others are truly a poor choice.

These days, with the internet being easily accessable to all of us, we have even further ways of finding savings.

The following is going to be a list of the savings I found by searching a little. Some of them have nothing to do with me while others are found while looking through my Affiliations. I hope you can find some new savings venues for you and if it helps me out at the same time let me say thank you right from the beginning.

Huggies will send you savings coupons if you sign up for their free Newsletter. (Not one of my Affiliations)

Pampers offers a Rewards Program and Sweepstakes. If you are interested in this you can sign up for Free by clicking here. (Not one of my Affiliations. Please make certain you have your Pop up Blocker working otherwise you have quiet a few pop ups.)

This is an official Diaper Site. Safe some money on Diapers and time by setting up direct delivery to you. Take a look by clicking here! (Again not one my Affiliates)

(This is one of my Affiliates. Be aware that you will have to fill out a few surveys and try a few trials. If you are planning on doing this, I suggest you write down when the trial starts so you can cancel it at the end unless you want to keep it. They are good at following through with their offer. If you are are willing to do this, or are just curious about more information, please help me out by using my Affiliation Link / Banner. Thank you!)

For our Canadian Friends only: Enter here for hottest parent offerings from Canada (Another Affiliation of mine. This will allow you to access freebies and coupons for all sorts of Parenting needs and Baby Products.)

If you have any other leads to savings please pass them along for others.

Weekend arguements are starting to become a Tradition.

I am honestly getting just a bit tired of the constant stupid arguments on the Weekend. Alright, let me start at the beginning I guess. My daughter is no longer working and since she is starting her Basic Training in January, she has decided not even to bother getting a new Job. Agree or not disagree, you can only do so much talking until you get tired of it all. Now she is at home every day and mainly just sitting around doing nothing else but reading or watching TV while I am trying to work on my computer.

Now it really doesn’t bother me most of the days, but ever so often I simply get tired of watching her sitting around being lazy. Well that is nothing new either. Most of us Parents get that way from time to time with out teens.

On Thursday to Saturday my husband is at home as well and he spends his time either downloading adult images on his PC or playing one of his hundreds of PC Games. Now he works 4 days out of the Week and so he figures that he is entitled to just sit around doing nothing. I guess I can’t argue that one, but what gets really old is that no matter what each weekend my husband and my daughter both just have an attitude of entitlement that drives me insane.

Weekends never once go by without at least 2 of us are getting into an argument with each other. Today is one of those days where both of those two are walking around as if their Dog has died. (we don’t have a dog).

I am working and can’t make a Sale to safe my life and am wondering why I am not just sitting around being a lazy f**k like the rest of them.

Do any of you have the same experiences or am I just getting old?

Sales, Sales and more Sales

We have started the Yard & Arts/Crafts Sale at our house yesterday and did ok. We noticed that most people seem to be perfectly willing to pay $1.00 to $2.00 for an Item, but after that they simply lose interest.
What was the biggest challenge is to get people to understand that evenso I am more then happy to sell most of my used bought Items for a paltry sum to get it out of my house, I will not and can not sell brand new hand crafted Items for that cheap.

I was trying to sell handsewn Pillows for $5.00 a piece (my Material cost alone is almost $2.00 and I have worked on those Pillow often for about 2 hours a piece) which makes the cost almost laughable. Yet Customers seemed to turn up their noses. I wonder have we really lost our appreciation for handy crafts as a People in general?

Holding your breath or accepting realities!

I am sitting in my favorite chair and I am taking a deep breath. I am ok with this, really I am ok, I reassure my last fledgeling for the ombteens time in less then 1 hour, but she doesn't believe me any more then she did 1 hour ago.
My Daughter joined the Airforce and today it all become completely official. I know this is for her future and with today's economy it probably is one of the few secure incomes she will have, plus her college will be covered something sadly I can not do for her, but I am still having a hard time breathing.

I know that no matter what she will do in life there is still a chance she can get hurt, but this is the last one out of the nest. My last Baby to let go. Soon I will have nobody left to fuss over, my husband is way to self sufficent to let me baby him. She is leaving on January 3rd for Basic Training and now the count down begins. I have known it for the last month, but for some reason today it became reality.

So I am trying to be happy for her. This will be a big adventure in her life and I have to grow up too and move on. WAAAAAAHHHHHH!

Don't expect anything and you can't get dissappointed.

Most men are notoriously bad with dates. I am lucky enough to have my husband get my birthday off by one day. Our Anniversary Date off by one day and he does remember that Valentines Day is sometime in February, but don't ask him when.

I have learned over the last 8 Years in which I have been with the love of my life to never expect anything. At first I would throw really broad hints at him, up to including giving him a wish list, which I thought would make it extremely easy. No go, because he still would forget the day and the wish list. Then one day I just finally gave up. I swore myself that I would no longer remind him, it is on the calender. I would no longer expect him to remember and to make a big deal out of it.

This year on Mother's Day my husband almost gave me a heart attack. He came home on the right day after work and brought me 1 single long stemmed red Rose. I was in heaven. See, when you don't expect anything, you may just be pleasantly surprised.

"Honey, does this dress make me look fat?"

There are certain questions a woman always asks and should really never ask if she doesn't want to hear the honest answer. Living with a devote "Asshole" (eh he calls himself that-I didn't do it) you never know what the answer might be.

His most recent answer to this particular question just to be very fair to the truth was a solid one. Really you can't argue with it, maybe throw something, but argue no. His solid advise. "No honey, the fat makes you look fat, the dress is just fine!"

Rolls her eyes.

Learning to keep silent.

As a wife and mother you want to make the life of your loved ones easier. You automatically think you have to take the decisions out of their hands and just do everything for them. The reality is however, that you are NOT helping anyone at all when you are trying to change their world on them.

Right now I am trying to just keep silent when I watch my loved ones run head forward into problems. As a female I am very intuitive and often can sense issues coming our way before the others in my home have their fingers put on them.

My hubby is a good man and he doesn't need me to tell him what to do. I know that he can make his own wise decisions and I respect him. It is still hard at times not to try to pamper him the wrong way. I am so used to dealing with kids, but ever since I learned to curb my talking a bit and just let him do his own thing again and me concentrate on mine our marriage is getting almost amazing. Ladies, take it from me, you would be surprised what a bit of quiet time will do for a man. Give him love and respect, not mothering!

The harder part is letting my daughter run into her own walls and make her own mistakes. I hate it. Personally I think that my poor tongue will have deep ridges soon from biting it so hard and often.

Watching my kid slip away.

My 17 1/2 Year old daughter and I went for a walk to the Grocery Store today. A nice little walk of about 1 1/2 Miles that does both our waistlines good. I left the house in a great mood and returned 2 hours later feeling just a bit older and a lot sadder then when I started this journey out.

We used to enjoy our Times together and were able to talk about anything and everything. She is a very good kid, graduated an entire Year early out of High School and has stayed away from the entire drug and alcohol scene. Something to be very proud out. Now she is only 5 month away from her 18th Birthday and life is coming at her fast. We agreed 2 Years ago that one month after she turned 18 she would spread her wings and fly.
Yes, it is hard to watch your kid embark on the real life journey of building her own life, but these days it is becoming beyond frightening for me to have to watch.

She is working an evening job full time in a Restaurant which brings her NO Benefits at all and pays her all but $7.25 an hour. At about 32 hours a week, you and I know that this is nowhere near enough to make ends meet. She gets home about 11pm at night and then sleeps until about 1 pm the following day. This has caused so many arguments between us by now I have lost count. Ever since she graduated from School that seems to be the extend of her days. Work for 6 hours, come home eat and sleep the rest of the time. She has no Friends and no social life. I am more then worried about that, because she will need the security net of "friends" around her when she first takes the steps into adulthood.

Today was no different. Typical Mom I had warned her against wearing high heeled boots to walk so far, she of course knowing more then me, wore them anyway and that is where the problem already started. Of course it didn't take longer then only a few minutes before her feet were killing her. My typically motherly remark of course was the predictable: "I told you not to wear them" Her typically teenage remark:" Yeah, yeah I know Mom."

On the way I asked her again about getting either a better paying job in the daytime so she could actually try to have a social life and get home at a decent hour. She started snapping all over the place, which truly sat my teeth on edge. I am trying to remember these days that the truth is that she is now at the point of: "I no longer need to listen!" What worries me is that she also seems to have no drive to succeed any longer. Her dreams seem to have evaporated.

I reminded her that she had only 5 month left until her 18 Birthday and what she wanted to do with her life when she got there. Her remark? "I don't know, I guess I figure it out when I get there!"

I am not sure if I want to beat her with a stick at this point or wrap her up in Bubble Wrap. All I know is that we no longer can have any normal two way debate or conversation without me wanting to scream after and her feeling hurt. Watching my kid slip slowly away from me completely without her having a clue how to be anything even remotely adult is killing me.

I guess I might as well print out the "Administration Application" to the School of hard knocks for her now and let her fill it out.

On pride and what is costs you...

once upon a Time there was a german born woman who had a lot of kids. Some died, others were taken away, but 3 of them remained with her to raise.
Times really were never easy, but she loved her Babies never the less. There weren't 3 kids who where closer to each other then those 3.
They were her monsters, her tribe of little wild indians until one faitful day tey all grew up to one extend or the other. Each seemed to believe that they were better of alone and if they did no longer have their mother and each other.
Pride came in a long way and soon enough they couldn't even talk to each other ay longer. As soon as they would get on the phone the fighting and screaming would start. So they finally just quit talking to each other. There was no longer any point in it.

Now years past by and the mother only had one child left. That one had returned to her Mommy, heart sick and heart broken. She missed her older sister soooo much, but thought that her older sister didn't love her, the way she had just turned away from her when she had gone back to her mom. She no longer could speak to her,the wounds were just too deep. But she missed the closeness, the laughter and the silly games the used to play with each other.
She missed her baby brother (who wasn't a baby anymore, but was it to her never the less). She missed the way things were. She missed being a family with them. And she became more and more cynical about life in her young age. She no longer trusts anyone who says I love you.

The Mother too missed her babies a lot. She missed the sparkling eyes of her oldest. Her heart breaking when she couldn't even wish her "happy birthday" the day she turned 19, nor wish her a good graduation. But she knew that her daughter dispised her, having already made it clear that she thought her mother was a horrible woman. So she didn't even call her, but boy did she cry that day alone in her home. She no longer had any photos of her daughter or anything. Looking at them was just too painful. She just hoped that her Baby was having the sort of life she really wanted for her-self and was happy. After all what more could she ask for. She was hurt by the accussation that she had deserted her kids, but it had not been her that had left the family home. The kids had made that choice to depart and never come back. She was still where she always had been, dreaming of long gone days and laughter that could never be again.

Now being an old woman by now, she knew that nothing would ever be the same. She was looking forward to seeing her big boy who would come to visit her after 2 years. She was scared and nervous, dreading the day she would have to let him leave again. And leave he would. She knew that, for he had his own life to live now.

Each in their own way had way too much pride and the cost of that pride was to loose that which once upon her time meant the most in life to them. Each other. Now each has gone their own way and will have to continue to do so. The damage is no longer mendable, but still the mother sits in her home, looks upon the one babe she has left and trembles, knowing that in less then a year that child is gone as well.

She once upon a time had a nest full of laughter, screams, jokes and lots of love. Now soon she will only have one person left and that is her husband. He may not be perfect, he may not be what everyone had wanted him to be, but he still stands by her side and holds her on those nights when she cries for "their" children.
Thankfully those nights do not happen very often anylonger. She has finally grown out of it too as anyone must after loss. But she will never forget those she has given birth to, being part of her for the rest of her life.

The end.