Shutterfly!

I'm so excited about Shutterfly's Holiday Cards! They have so many to choose from, it's hard to decide. I love that I can make a collage of different pics of our family from the year, choosing the best pics of our kids instead of trying for one. How many times have you found one picture that has everyone actually looking normal in it? Not too often! Sending out holiday cards with photos is so much more personal than those box greeting cards.


I've been looking at these desk calendars also. They'll make great gifts for the grandparents. My mom loves when I've made custom calendars for her.

The photo books at Shutterfly are absolutely adorable. What a great way to capture and save memories for future generations to look at. They're beautiful and high quality books that will last for years. I love looking at pictures from the past, recalling old memories and good times.

I know I've been looking for ideas for holiday gifts, what's better than personalized custom created things, showcasing your sweet little ones for family to treasure? Shutterfly has tons of personalized gifts to choose from!

High hopes

There's this big rummage sale held over in the 'burbs, I've only been there once, years ago when I was pg with our first...now that I'm on a hunt for things to re-purpose, I thought it would be a great place to go to find some treasures. Meh. Not so much. They changed the way they are doing the sale, it used to be one or two full days, tons of stuff in buildings and set up under tents outside, well now they decided they'd have it in this old building, and they're having it over the course of the summer every few weeks only on Sat mornings, they only put out so much stuff, and still have a bunch in storage, so every weekend they have it, there will be more stuff to see. I'd have rather been able to pick thru all of it at once, since it's 50 mins from home, I'm not sure I'll feel like going out that way again to just see a small portion of it.

Happened to be townwide garage sales in that town too, so we hit a few, picked up nothing (for me anyway). Boo.

Hit or miss. Today was a "miss".

Things I'm on a hunt for
~china cabinet for the kitchen to house some awesome dishes I got at an auction last weekend.
~dresser(s)...either nice ones that we can use as is, or some I can refinish.
~end tables/nightstands
~dining room set

Just to name a few. Yeah, you don't think I'm asking too much, am I?

Homemade food vs. processed/store bought

I love to make things from scratch. I feel better knowing what's in the foods we consume. The whole food industry boggles my mind. I don't want a scientist making my food. Yuck. 

Dh and I have been making steady changes in food consumption over the past couple years. Pretty much eliminated HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) and eliminated all trans fats from our diets. That's not to say we're eating healthy, but I felt better about what we were doing anyway. Sometimes ignorance really is bliss, though, I tell ya...I deliberately bury my head in the sand when it comes to hearing about things I don't want to deal with, and the whole issue of the way food is made and processed was one of those things.

In the circles I run in online, I couldn't keep myself completely in the dark, I read too much. Finally decided to watch Food, Inc when it was on PBS just last week. It's just sickening and unreal. If you haven't seen it, you should. After watching it, I felt like..."what else can we do??" It's become habit to eat the things we do/the way we do. It's convenience and hurried lifestyles and I don't like it one bit. We're researching where we can get our food locally (semi-locally) and I'm willing to drive a bit to know that people are doing things the right way. It's overwhelming.

King corn is another film that dh watched recently (I haven't seen it yet) that helped him in the decision to make the changes we're making. You can check out their website here. I found it to be a great starting point to finding local growers.

Who am I?

I figure it's a good way to start off, right? Who am I? Sometimes I wonder myself. I'm a mom, housekeeper, maid, cook. I'm also a Christian, wife, daughter, sister, friend...and so much more.

There's lots of stuff I'm interested in, so this won't end up a blog about one particular thing. My life is varied, like most people's are, I'm sure. Random ramblings really is a fitting title, and fits the way my brain works. 


I stay at home with my 3 kids. 2 boys, 13 and 10, and 1 girl, 5. My husband and I have been married for 14 years.