Time Change Chores

Hey There Peeps!

I'm here today to talk about some chores that tend to be forgotten but doing these little things when you change your clocks forward/back are easy to manage.   Several of these are things we all know and remember to do without fail and some I've just recently added to my list of chores to do when resetting all the clocks.

1) Change your smoke alarm batteries.  I think this is a no brainer but an important task that bears the reminder.  Twice a year change the batteries in your smoke detectors and/or carbon monoxide detector.   It's an easy chore that could save the life of you and your family or quite frankly just stop those irritating little tweeps going off sometime during the year when the battery is dying and you are running from room to room trying to figure our which smoke detector is chirping...sanity is important my friends.

2) Change the batteries in your thermostats.   Yep, most thermostats have batteries in them and a good rule of thumb is change the battery because you've probably got to change the time on those too.

3) Change the direction of your ceiling fans.  Hey, you've got the ladder out anyways so change the way the fan blades are moving when the time changes too.  No more wind gushes in the middle of winter because you forget to switch the blade direction.  

4) Clean your oven.   In the fall your oven is clean and ready to go for the holidays and in the spring you can get off all that winter cooking grime.   I read an article recently that said many people wait to clean the oven the day or so before Thanksgiving and end up with no oven because the heating element burns out.  Save yourself that headache and clean the oven out with the time change then if the unfortunate occurs you've got time to get a repair person in and the oven fixed before the holiday season hits full swing.

5) Clean your dryer vents.   This one is SUPER important.  I mean this could mean the difference in burning your house down or sleeping safely.   Want a super helpful hint for doing this?  Use your leaf blower!  Just pull off the piece of duck work from the wall and stuff the end of the leaf blower in the hole and then just put that baby on full blast and blow out all that yucky stuff.   We were a little late getting this done but we did it this morning and man, you can't believe the stuff we blew out of that vent.  Twice a year to keep your home and family safe is important.

6) While you are in that laundry room cleaning out the dryer vent let's just give the area behind the washer and dryer a good vacuuming.  I also pull the lint filter from the dryer and rinse it off under water, set outside in the sun to dry really good and stick the long skinny attachment on your vacuum and put it down inside where the lint filter goes.  Also grab some cleaner and get to work on that washing machine.  I clean the little compartments where the bleach/detergent/fabric softener go and on my front loader, I wipe out the rubber seals really good too.   Be prepared to be grossed out, it's amazing the gunk that gets under those rubber seals.  I also have a little filter thingy down at the bottom of the front of the washer that twists out.  Make sure you put a big towel down before pulling that filter because a ton of water will spill out and you can rinse and clean that plastic filter off too.  

If you have a sink in your laundry area go ahead and give it a good scrub.   Wipe down any cabinets, shelves, etc. that you may have in your laundry area and finally give it a good vacuum and mop and there you have a it.  A clean, tidy and safe laundry room!   I sweep and mop my laundry room every week but often times it's the last area I'm cleaning on house cleaning day and I'm tired by the time I get to that room so it gets the bare minimum.  At least this way you know that twice a year it's gotten a good cleaning.

There you go!  Such quick, easy but yet important chores to do twice a year to keep your appliances running smooth, keep your family safe and give you a little bit of piece of mind.  Not to mention you feel like you've accomplished great things when you get this much done in one day so put your feet up watch some football and eat some nachos. After all, you deserve it!

Peace, Love & Safety !!

What is Samma Reading?

Hi Dee Ho there my Peeps!!

LONG LONG TIME, no write but don't think for one minute I didn't miss you guys.  I'm going to try and ease myself back into the blogging world.  I'm going to make some changes on the blog but I'll decide the details on that down the road a bit.  For now we're just going to take it easy peasy and see where things lead us!

As you guys may or may not know, when I make a trip to the beach I read a LOT.   I do mean A LOT, with that said I think I'm going to try and start doing some :What's Samma Reading posts on the blog.    Hopefully you'll find something you want to read and then maybe you'll send me some ideas because quite frankly I'm hitting a dull spot on the reading front and struggling to find something I want to read.

Let's start with the 4 books I read on vacation last week then we'll go back and pick up a couple others I've read in the last month.
Answer #1:  I was on vacation for a week
Answer #2:  Yes, I said 4 books
Answer #3:   I will rate the books on a scale of 1 to 5   (just a hint- a 4 is a really good review, if I rate something a 5 you should know that I LOVED it and will talk your ear off about the book)
Answer #4:  The links will take you to Amazon through my affiliate link (which I'm obligated to tell you I'm using).  Allegedly I can receive compensation from those links, in many years of use I've never received any compensation from Amazon so don't think I'm rolling it in over here by linking you this way, and no, you won't pay more for buying anything through my link.

Onto the books.....

Book #1:  Tanzi's Heat



This is the synopsis provided by Amazon:
"August is the hottest time of the year in Florida, and Vince Tanzi would just as soon sweat it out in his study chair with a few beers. He's had enough of the world after losing his wife, and spending nine months in jail. He's at the bottom of a downward spiral that began when he "retired" from the Indian River County Sheriff's Department in Vero Beach, and began a second career as a P.I., which has been on hold since he got out.

He gets a call from his dead wife's friend, who has been shot at twice. She doesn't want to call the police. He takes the case, and follows her husband through the groves, beaches, golf courses,cities and restaurants of the Sunshine State. In the process he turns up a secret that changes everything.

Vince's dry humor and keen observations propel this mystery-romance across central Florida, through Buddhist temples, abandoned factories and hurricanes. For fans of mysteries with wit, and an edge."

I can't possibly add anymore to that without giving anything away.  Surprisingly I enjoyed this book and I will probably read more in this series.  A fun mystery that kept me interested, perfect beach read for me!

I give it 4 out of 5

Book #2

Amazon's synopsis:
"When Lane Coolman's car is bashed from behind on the road to the Florida Keys, what appears to be an ordinary accident is anything but (this is Hiaasen!). Behind the wheel of the other car is Merry Mansfield--the eponymous Razor Girl--and the crash scam is only the beginning of events that spiral crazily out of control while unleashing some of the wildest characters Hiaasen has ever set loose on the page. There's Trebeaux, the owner of Sedimental Journeys--a company that steals sand from one beach to restore erosion on another . . . Dominick "Big Noogie" Aeola, a NYC mafia capo with a taste for tropic-wear . . . Buck Nance, a Wisconsin accordionist who has rebranded himself as the star of a redneck reality show called Bayou Brethren . . . a street psycho known as Blister who's more Buck Nance than Buck could ever be . . . Brock Richardson, a Miami product-liability lawyer who's getting dangerously--and deformingly--hooked on the very E.D. product he's litigating against . . . and Andrew Yancy--formerly Detective Yancy, busted down to the Key West roach patrol after accosting his then-lover's husband with a Dust Buster. Yancy believes that if he can singlehandedly solve a high-profile murder, he'll get his detective badge back. That the Razor Girl may be the key to Yancy's future will be as surprising as anything else he encounters along the way--including the giant Gambian rats that are livening up his restaurant inspections."

I do love Carl Hiassen's writing style and I've never read a book of his that I didn't like.   This one was great and if you are a Hiassen fan then you won't be disappointed.   A PERFECT beach read for me and the only thing I regretted was that it was over.  
Another 4 out of 5 for me on this one.

Book #3


Amazon's synopsis:
"We expect our judges to be honest and wise. Their integrity and impartiality are the bedrock of the entire judicial system. We trust them to ensure fair trials, to protect the rights of all litigants, to punish those who do wrong, and to oversee the orderly and efficient flow of justice.
     But what happens when a judge bends the law or takes a bribe? It’s rare, but it happens.
     Lacy Stoltz is an investigator for the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct. She is a lawyer, not a cop, and it is her job to respond to complaints dealing with judicial misconduct. After nine years with the Board, she knows that most problems are caused by incompetence, not corruption. 
     But a corruption case eventually crosses her desk. A previously disbarred lawyer is back in business with a new identity. He now goes by the name Greg Myers, and he claims to know of a Florida judge who has stolen more money than all other crooked judges combined. And not just crooked judges in Florida. All judges, from all states, and throughout U.S. history.
     What’s the source of the ill-gotten gains? It seems the judge was secretly involved with the construction of a large casino on Native American land. The Coast Mafia financed the casino and is now helping itself to a sizable skim of each month’s cash. The judge is getting a cut and looking the other way. It’s a sweet deal: Everyone is making money.
     But now Greg wants to put a stop to it. His only client is a person who knows the truth and wants to blow the whistle and collect millions under Florida law. Greg files a complaint with the Board on Judicial Conduct, and the case is assigned to Lacy Stoltz, who immediately suspects that this one could be dangerous.
     Dangerous is one thing. Deadly is something else."

I'm going to tell you when I read the description of this book my first thought was "oh no, another John Grisham flop".  Fortunately I was VERY mistaken.  I have actually skipped the past few John Grisham novels because I felt like they were not quite up to his legal thriller par but this one (at least for me) brought John Grisham back into my list of favorite authors.  It was a great legal thriller written in the way we'd come to expect from him.   If you loved the old John Grisham then definitely pick this one up.  
I give it a solid 4 stars, coming very close to getting that elusive 5 for me.

And Book #4  (final vacation book)


Amazon's synopsis:
"Lee Jordan has spent 10 years on death row for a murder he didn’t commit. He’s lost everything—his wife, his dreams, his future. He finally enters the death chamber at the famous "Walls" prison in Texas. He’s strapped to a gurney and given an injection of lethal drugs in front of witnesses. Minutes later he’s pronounced dead. But that’s not the end of it. After the execution comes the shocking revelation—Jordan is still alive. And to stop him talking he has to die all over again—before he brings down the entire American justice system."

I've never read anything by this author, this one didn't come recommended by anyone I know and I'm not even sure how I found it except it was late Friday evening and I was desperate for a book to read on the flight home Saturday.   By the time our 2 hour flight was complete I was over half way finished with this book and I didn't stop reading until we were at the gate ready to deplane.   I finished it late last night.   He has several more books and I believe this will not be the last of his books that I read.  Still not getting that elusive 5 but it was pretty darn good and it gets a solid 4.

That covers vacation and I should probably wrap this up as that's quite a bit but I did want to mention 2 other recent books I've read because one is now a movie and the other was recommended and was quite good as well.

Book #5

Amazon's take:  "EVERY DAY THE SAME
Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning and night. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. Jess and Jason, she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost.

UNTIL TODAY
And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel goes to the police. But is she really as unreliable as they say? Soon she is deeply entangled not only in the investigation but in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?"

My take:   Definitely a 4 out of 5.  No, I haven't seen the movie.  Ask anyone in my family about going to see a movie with me that I've read the book.  Let's just say I'm VERY vocal when they don't follow the book, especially if it's a book I enjoyed.  I'm looking forward to more books by this author for sure and I'll probably wait for the movie to hit the ole Netflix.  At least the book (which will probably be way better) won't be fresh in my mind by then.


Book #6

Amazon's synopsis:

"Everyone knows a couple like Jack and Grace. He has looks and wealth; she has charm and elegance. He’s a dedicated attorney who has never lost a case; she is a flawless homemaker, a masterful gardener and cook, and dotes on her disabled younger sister. Though they are still newlyweds, they seem to have it all. You might not want to like them, but you do. You’re hopelessly charmed by the ease and comfort of their home, by the graciousness of the dinner parties they throw. You’d like to get to know Grace better.

But it’s difficult, because you realize Jack and Grace are inseparable.

Some might call this true love. Others might wonder why Grace never answers the phone. Or why she can never meet for coffee, even though she doesn’t work. How she can cook such elaborate meals but remain so slim. Or why she never seems to take anything with her when she leaves the house, not even a pen. Or why there are such high-security metal shutters on all the downstairs windows.

Some might wonder what’s really going on once the dinner party is over, and the front door has closed."

Let's be real here people...this is a work of FICTION but this book for some people is apparently difficult if not impossible to read.  If you read the reviews you will note that many people hated this book, demanded a refund, etc. and I was not one of those people.   Yes, there were parts that I was like "WOW...really??" but then again I remind myself, and you, this is a FICTION book.  Just be prepared if you are deeply disturbed by psychological abuse as this one is full of it.  All in all, I'm still giving it 4 stars even if I did find myself going WTF??  several times.   Was it as good and as sadistic as Gone Girl? No but it was still good and I'd still recommend it but with a warning that it is difficult to read at times.  

Oh and I've got one more bonus book because as you can tell I do love me a really good mystery, thriller, suspense book.

As much as those types of books are my go to fave's I've never read a single Agatha Christie novel...until now.  

Bonus Book #7:

Amazon:  

"Ten . . ."
Ten strangers are lured to an isolated island mansion off the Devon coast by a mysterious "U. N. Owen."

"Nine . . ."
At dinner a recorded message accuses each of them in turn of having a guilty secret, and by the end of the night one of the guests is dead.

"Eight . . ."
Stranded by a violent storm, and haunted by a nursery rhyme counting down one by one . . . as one by one . . . they begin to die.

"Seven . . ."
Which among them is the killer and will any of them survive?"

I'm just going to go with these thoughts: 1) Agatha Christie is indeed the QUEEN of a good thriller mystery 2) This will NOT be my last Agatha Christie 3) Thank goodness I have many, many AG books to choose from  and 4) I will not read Agatha Christie until 1 am when I'm home alone if I want to get any sleep.  She's good people, she's good!    A solid 5 indeed! 

That's all I've got for you today and if you've made it to the end of this post then you probably feel like you've just finished a novel.  So, have you read any of these, intrigued by any now?  What have you been reading and finally, I'm open to suggestions.   I'm out of books....again!  

 Peace, Love & Read On!                                        

Cleaning with Samma

Hi Dee Ho and Happy Leap Day Peeps!!













I know I still haven't posted on my San Francisco trip but I haven't forgotten and I promise I WILL get to it!!

Now, let's talk about something no one likes to do but we all gotta do it.  Cleaning the house!!  But before we talk about the dreaded chores of housecleaning let us laugh a bit shall we?

seriously this is so very much ME!!!

Oh yes, don't think those exact thoughts haven't crossed my mind!

This one is especially true right now- I'd rather be in the yard or garden than in the house.

I'm going to share with you a few tips and products that help me clean my house. First of all contrary to my family's belief.....  I detest cleaning but I really detest the feeling I have when someone knocks on my door and my house is a mess.  I mean come on, it's bad enough that they find me in yesterdays clothes and unshowered.

(a side note: some of the photos/descriptions are affiliate links which means I could receive compensation for using those links)

To start things off I want to say that I don't follow FlyLady religiously any longer BUT if you need a place to get started then you won't go wrong with her plan.  I do not work outside the home at this time (not a Payroll SHE) so I'm a bit more flexible with my routines now.   I will tell you that when I was a PayRoll SHE  I followed FlyLady to the very last detail.   If you hate spending your weekends cleaning or nagging your family to help you and are tired of living in CHAOS, sick of tackling Mt. Washmore  and have more HOTSPOTS than you can count then I encourage you to read her site .  She's done the hard part for you in figuring out where to start and how to keep going without burning out.  With that said, I do maintain my routines and I still receive her daily emails and I know when it's time to clean something because she reminds me.  I'm old and my brain is full of wonderful memories  and I don't need to waste valuable brain space remembering when to clean my trash cans.   :-)   (wonder what I was talking about with all those acronyms? click here)

Let's get started with my house cleaning and products because after all, I've got work to do!

This is a product I use daily.  We have very dark granite in the kitchen and our master bath and they smudge and smear so easily.  This stuff is so handy that I just keep a rag with it and spritz those counters down every day.  Plus it smells good too!   

Method Daily Granite Cleaner

This is just a water/vinegar mixture in a spray bottle.  I use this and a paper towel to wipe down all the mirrors and glass doors in the house weekly.  Keeps things tidy and 1 paper towel will do the entire house unless my people get wild with the dental floss. 

This is my refrigerator and while I love the size it does show every stinking fingerprint and smudge that comes within a ten mile radius.  

This is truly the only stuff that I've found that works this well on stainless steel with NO streaking.  Can I get an amen peeps?!

Be careful of the overspray on your tile floors because it will make them slick.

Zep Commercial Stainless Steel Cleaner

If it needs scrubbing in our house this is what I'm using. It never scratches the surface yet it does an amazing job and it's pretty inexpensive and can be found anywhere.

Bar Keepers Friend®

All the sinks in the house get the Bar Keepers Friend scrub except our master bathroom sinks and those get this crazy good product.  We have Copper sinks in our bathroom and no kidding I used to spend at least 20 minutes every week cleaning two sinks, now it's 5 minutes tops for both sinks.  

We have very hard water and those sinks get stained so quickly so this little gem is a life saver for me cause Ain't Nobody got time for that kind of cleaning every week!

Wright's Copper Cream

Hands down my FAVORITE can't live without cleaning product!!! 

They are under every sink in our house.  If you read FlyLady then you know that Swish n Swipe every day is the way to keep your bathroom clean and happy and these are the perfect solution for that.   I swish and swipe the counters and such while I brush my teeth ( I have an electric toothbrush so I'm only using 1 hand). In the kitchen, they get used daily as well.   I mean seriously, I'm the Clorox Disinfecting Wipes poster child.   

This is another FlyLady Swish-n-Swipe tool.  I keep a toilet brush beside every toilet in our house (and mind you that is a total of 6 toilets!!) but in our master bathroom I keep an old large flower vase filled with warm water and some kind of soap and swish around the toilet bowl every day.   Soap is soap people and you can even use up some old shampoo you didn't like.   I don't like to scrub toilets and with a brush standing ready it's easy to do every day.  

Dusting, I employ several methods with dusting.  Daily dusting gets the feather duster and/or Swiffer Disposable Cleaning Dusters then around once a week I grab the ole'Pledge Orange Clean Furniture Spray and give the tops of the furniture a good cleaning. 

Next up is a good vacuum cleaner.  This is one of those things where I encourage you to visit a professional vacuum store, talk with them about your specific flooring situations and then buy the best vacuum you can afford.   Ours is a Miele Complete C3 Marin Canister Vacuum Cleaner.  We have mostly wood or tile floors but the upstairs bonus room and extra bedrooms are carpeted and we have several beautiful wool rugs we inherited such as the one you see in the photo.  We also have a dog and a cat so this particular model was the best choice for us.  I can't tell you enough how going to a vacuum store and working with a professional will ensure that you get the right vacuum for your home and yes, it is an investment.   Once a week my house gets a very good vacuuming but on a daily basis I have this and I love it for the hard surfaces.

and this for the carpeted surfaces

Once those floors get that good weekly vacuuming then it's time to mop and folks I don't mix up different buckets for my various hard floors.  I just put a little warm water and a glug of Murphy Oil Soap in a bucket and grab a good old fashioned mop and go to town.  

As you can see I really don't use a huge variety of cleaning products as the ones I do use get the jobs done for me.  If I need to deep clean then plain vinegar with some of my essential oils added in are all I need. 

Last laugh for the day!!

So are you a clean fanatic? Do you follow FlyLady?  Do you care?    What are some of your best cleaning tips?  I'd love to hear them and share them with all the peeps!!  You know so we can all just drink wine freely.    

Peace, Love & Leap Day

Traveling with Samma: Waco, Texas

Hi dee ho there peeps!!!!

I know, I know I promised you a Travel post about San Francisco but quite honestly I've been soooo stinking busy that you're getting this one first.  Don't believe me, let me tell you since I last posted on February 9th this is the craziness that has been my life.

Feb. 10th and 11th I spent attempting to restore some semblance of order back to the house at the same time tearing it apart.  We left on Friday with a U-haul trailer loaded to drive down to Austin where we spent the entire weekend moving Court and Aus to their new house.  YAY!!!  No more apartment life for those two AND they got a new puppy.  As luck would not be in our favor we have yet to meet the new fur baby of the family as they left to go get her after we headed back home on Sunday.  

Monday the 15th arrived and Hubster made his usual flight to Tampa and I had a Young Living oils webinar that evening but spent the better part of the day trying to get the laundry caught up from the weekend and reassemble the house.   Tuesday arrived and brought more of the Amazingly wonderful warm February weather so off to the yard I was to work.  You never know when it will be cold again (ahem today) so I wanted to get as much done of the February yard chores as I could.  Then we arrive at Wednesday and LL and I headed down to Waco for a little shopping road trip.  A twist on craft Wednesday if you will.

Where did we go?  Oh, come on....you know where we went!!!!

Yep, our first stop of the day was Magnolia Market Silos.

Let's just blow through the answers to your questions:

1) No, Joanna wasn't there (her mom was not either)

2) No, Chip wasn't there

3) Yes, the store is beautiful

4) Yes, it's worth the drive

5) You couldn't pay me to go on a Saturday, Wednesday was perfect as far as crowds go

6) No pics of the inside of the store because my hands were full- not kidding

Out behind the Silos is this cute little building, I'm not sure what will be housed in it but it sure is cute!  I kind of wish it was in my back yard actually, it'd make a perfect pool house.

The olive buckets were all over the gardens filled with ornamental lettuces' and herbs. 

Made me wish I had about 100 of them myself and of course if you wished to purchase one they were for sale inside the Silos. 

I can't wait to go back in the summer when the garden is in its full glory!!

LL and I conned some young teen boy who was looking very bored to take our picture.  

What I learned from this pic....I need some sun on my legs and I need a haircut really badly!

LL looks totes adorbs as usual!! 

Now to pick a food truck to enjoy!!

 This is the one we settled on. 

The Sic "Em on a Chicken is why we choose this food truck!

This is mine....I ordered mine without the biscuit. You know since I'm not supposed to be eating gluten and all.  (I've cheated a LOT lately though)

This was LL's, she's a lucky duck and got to eat that biscuit!   

This is my haul from Magnolia.

Of course I had to get me a t-shirt ...they are sooooo soft and I had a hard time choosing from the cute options.   That little pear is wood and then the two candle holders are birch wood and my long olive basket.  

You can kind of see my juice glasses better here.  They have farm animals on them and I adore them!!!

I got this vintage looking poster for my kitchen.  $4 bucks people!!!  Once again, so many cute ones to choose from I should have gotten a couple more. 

(sorry for the bad iPhone pics)

After lunch we headed over to Roots Boutique.  I have no pictures but let me tell you....I wish to move in that store!!  And yes, I did actually buy 2 dresses, 1 top and 1 necklace.  Let me tell you that's a BIG shopping day for me for sure!!!

Then as if the day couldn't get better we went round the corner from Roots and found the lovely gem that is known as the Spice Village.  Lordy mercy me people, you need to have more than a few hours for this place.  SO MUCH GREAT stuff you never knew you needed.  Here's just a couple of my purchases.

This is now our new hamper for wet towels in the bathroom.  Thankfully LL talked some sense into me and I got the smaller of the two.  It's just perfect and Hubster even liked it so it's a double winner.

On a side note I only tripped over it like twice after I put it in the bathroom.   You see that door behind it, that's where the potty room is....so yeah, in the dark I tripped over the bucket!

I picked up this mug because like I had to!!  I mean hellooooo not only is it English Bulldogs but it's got a reference to Winston Churchill 

Speaking of Winston Churchill I seem to have left my dear peeps out of his life lately so here he is in his current disposition.  

Is that not the saddest face ever??  He was quite displeased with the weather today. It's raining (we NEED it badly) but Sir Winston is not happy about missing his morning walk.  Sorry Winston, I love you but not enough to walk in the cold windy rain.   

So hopefully this week we'll get you guys caught up with traveling posts and other such things.  

Have you made a road trip to Waco? Do you want to? If you do, just come stay with me and I'll take you.  One last note about Waco and what Fixer Upper and Baylor have down for that city.   We took Abogg down to Baylor in the fall of 2009 and honestly it's like a new place.  Shops are opened back up, buildings refurbished and the city coming back to life.  It's so great to see so many people benefitting from a new football stadium and a TV show.  Crazy how things work out isn't it?

Now I think I should go get dinner made before Hubster eats everything in the house!

Peace, Love & Waco 

Thoughts

Hey Peeps


Happy Fat Tuesday!!!!

1) To start things off today I'm going to share my Lent sacrifices/obligations

--) My Facebook time will be limited to once in the morning for 15 minutes, you know to check for birthdays and such, then once more in the evening for no more than 15 minutes.
--) Add one person each day from Facebook posts to specifically pray for onto my prayer list.  I will also actually write this person down instead of keeping up with it in my head like usual.
--) Finally I will write down in my journal 5 things every day that I'm grateful for.

Now some of you may say "hey Samma, aren't you giving up anything?"  And my reply would be....In the past year I've given up gluten/wheat and artificial sweeteners.  You know pizza and diet coke so I'm thinking I've pretty much depleted that pool of food/drink items to give up!!  Besides, I totally fell off the boat during our San Francisco trip on the bread thing and my gut needs some healing time so the bread thing is already a self imposed restriction again that needs to extend beyond Lent.  Next question, "why are you telling us"?  Accountability, nothing more.

2) One afternoon I had me a nice cup of "Man-a-tea"   The little manatee tea infuser hanging off my manatee mug was too much.   I know I crack myself up!!!

3)  Abogg sent me this caffeinated care package for my birthday.   There was a great Starbies gift card and a box full of k-cups.   Even some of my beloved Holiday Blend that will be December before I get to enjoy again in large quantities.  If you come to my house do NOT touch that Holiday Blend.  :-)

4)  Merebear and Court got me this delightful bucket o'stickers.  Seriously I may have a sticker problem.   (see here and here)    (and NO, giving up stickers for Lent is NOT an option-go eat your bread and leave me alone with my stickers)

5) I spaced yesterday and failed to show you the pictures of all the beads I racked up at Mardi Gras.  I told you about them but I totally forgot to show you.  Bad me so here they are.

This is the pile of "throw beads" taking up most of the bar area.

At the far end there are about 6 full ziplock bags of beads.

These are all the other cool things.  By the way, that King Cake plush and the Friar Tuck are two of my favorites.  There are quite a few of the specialty large beads in the photos too. Many of the items were light up or blinks and lots of fun!

6)  I have started getting ready for spring gardening.  This is a photo I posted on Instagram the other day of my eggplants.  Since then I've gotten the spinach seeds and the lettuce started as well.   I have another order coming with the tomato, peppers, peas and broccoli seeds.  This is new for me starting seeds indoors then transplanting but I'm hoping for the best!    The containers I'm starting seeds in?  My old k-cups, I've been saving them for quite some time just sure they would be good for something.  Sometimes hoarding pays off! haha   I'm also expanding my garden to my second floor balcony.  The balcony will be getting some of the things that the bunnies and small creatures like to nibble on, like my broccoli and my lettuce especially.

So hurry along my friends, you have about 1 hour and 45 minutes to stuff yourself with all the things you're giving up for Lent.

Oh yes I do little girl...yes, yes I do!!!

So tell me, what are you guys giving up for Lent? 

See you peeps tomorrow when we're going to talk about San Francisco!

Peace, Love & Gluttony!