Today marks the first day of Week 3 in my quest to become a running machine. As you can tell, I’m still breathing.  This is good.
Today was also a true test of my commitment to the quest.  See, my friend and running coach, Jodi, was not available to run with me this morning. PLUS, I was up veeeeery late last night at the Trailblazer game (hee, hee!), so I was dead tired.
However, in anticipation of the day when I would have to run by myself, I downloaded some podcasts from …

There have been some fun coupons available lately, and some great sales on meat.  Combine that with a little extra space in the freezer, and it is a recipe for disaster.
I went to Safeway today.  One of my friends gave me some coupons from her Tuesday or Wednesday paper.  It was the set of coupons that included the $10 off a $50 purchase, and the boneless, skinless chicken breasts for $1.49 a pound.  I was quite pleased!!  As she handed me the coupons, she said, “You’re the only one I …

I am very excited about one of my newest templates, which was created at the request of one of the designers at The Digichick. See, every Valentine’s Day, mini mailboxes start showing up in the dollar section of Target, and there is always a mad dash to go grab them for pretty hybrid projects. However, for some, a trip to Target would require loading children into the car and driving great distances. It might even require a hop on the airplane! So, I created a mailbox template …

Every few months, the designers at The Digichick design Grab Bags.  And, every single time, someone starts a thread in the designer forum where some newbie asks, “How much should I put in this thing?” and “How much should I price it at?”
I just gotta say that these “designer” types from The Digichick are putting WAY too much stuff in their Grab Bags, and they are pricing it WAY too low.  Seriously.  If you have ever purchased a Grab Bag from one of The Digichick designers, you know what I …

Ah, yes.  It’s $2 Tuesday!!  This is the day when you can pick up one of my templates for 1/2 off!!  Who doesn’t love that deal, eh?
Today, you can go grab the Top Heavy Bag (oh, the gloriously sophisticated name!!  I always picture a top-heavy lady.  Not a good visual, huh?) for only $2!!
I really like this template, and I’ve used it for quite a few projects.  Obviously, you can see what I did in the sample (and I did a tutorial somewhere . . . ah, here’s that tutorial!!)

I …

I did it!  I actually made whole wheat tortillas!!
I found the recipe on Keeper of the Home.  I think I want to be like her when I grow up. I’m taking baby steps. We’ll see how long this current interest lasts, though. No promises.
Anyway, she shared the recipe she uses, and I used the dumbed down (all substitution) version.  Whenever she says, “or this or this” I used that.  Hee, hee!
Here is my version (which is dumbed down and doubled):
Soaked Whole Wheat Tortillas

2 TBSP melted butter
4 TBSP apple cider vinegar
Pour …

I’ve used dried beans before, but usually just in soup mixes. I typically go the lazy way out and buy canned beans.  Nuthin’ wrong with that.
However, this past week I’ve been reading blogs and interacting with friends on Twitter who have challenged me to use dried beans both for their frugality (’cause they ARE cheaper than canned) and for their healthfulness (no preservatives, etc.).  Okay!  No biggie.
Dried beans (all varieties) are on sale for $1 for a 1lb bag at Safeway this week. I picked up 1 bag of pinto …

There are times that I feel like a total mama failure (I remember the potty training days), and there are times that I feel like I’ve done something RIGHT! I’m just going to have to brag a little bit, so bear with me.
Grant (age 6) is really into learning.  He loves math and science.  Math is sort of a newer passion, but he’s been a science guy since he was about 2.
I think it all started with Finding Nemo.  He LOVED Bruce, the Great White Shark.  (“Name’s Bruce!”)  We actually …

If you follow me on Twitter, then you may have seen my sporadic tweets about #speedclean, and you might have been wondering what in the WORLD that was!  Well, let me enlighten you.
WHAT is #speedclean?
#speedclean is a Twitter hashtag, or keyword.  You can follow the hash by clicking on the hashtag to see what others are saying, or use a third party application like TweetChat or TweetGrid.
The history:

I started speedcleaning a few months back.  It started when The Digichick switched our look from the ugly brown (do you remember …

I’m pretty new to Twitter.
I signed up for a free account a few months ago, just because I wanted to see what all of the fuss was about.  At first, I thought it was kinda dumb, and maybe a time-waster.  Since then, I have made new friends, networked a TON, and I’m learning a lot about improving my blog.  Definitely NOT a time waster!
I don’t have an iPhone or any other fancy device.  I tweet from my computer desktop.  I added TwitterGadget to my iGoogle home page.  (You can Google …