Gratitude has special powers that can make magic happen. Did you know that gratitude rewires the brain and allows you to see the world differently? That is pretty much like magic, right? The more you do it, the more your brain will tell you to do it again and again.
One thing I noticed about gratitude is that it changes you. You begin to see the good or maybeeven the great in things. You are happier with your life. You are happier at work. You are happier with your family. You are satisfied more. You aren’t sweating the small stuff as much.
Gratitude is powerful, folks! I hope you have experienced gratitude this month. If not, I am going to encourage you to do one more exercise.Write three thank you notes to someone you are thankful for. It could be your boss, co-worker, friend, spouse, family member, neighbor, or even that person you see each day where you get your Iced Tea. Not that I know anyone who is addicted to Iced Tea.
People who continue to express gratitude demonstrate increased purpose, devotion, zest and energy. Couldn’t we all use that in our life?
I’m always looking for new ways to get my kids to eat green veggies. None of them appreciate roasted Brussels sprouts the same way I do, but I’ve recently found that they go over much better when thinly sliced and sautéed. Add some sausage and you’ve got a side dish not many can turn down.
There are just a couple of tricks to making this dish perfectly. The first one is to slice the Brussels as thinly as possible. You can do this in the food processor with a slicing attachment. Secondly, after you add the Brussels at the end, watch them carefully to keep from overcooking them. Ideally, you want a little crunch left in them when you pull them off the stove and serve them.
If you’re in charge of bringing a side vegetable this year to Thanksgiving, you can’t go wrong with these! Plus I would think you would be in no danger of bringing the same dish as someone else!
2013 has been an amazing year for my family. It feels like the perfect time of year to look back and see all of the blessings that have come our way. We have been blessed with wonderful family and friends that have showered us with love. We were fortunate to wrap up our time in Utah and find a new job in Arkansas that puts us significantly closer to our families. We were blessed with our first child in May. We had a successful move across the country this summer and are starting to feel right at home living in the South. We are one lucky family!
I am extremely grateful to have become a mom this year. My husband and I have been married for 9 years so we feel very fortunate to have had many years to ourselves. We enjoyed traveling, going to grad school, sightseeing and sleeping in for plenty of years. We both agreed that it was time to expand our family so we began to pray that God would bless us with a baby. Our prayers were answered when we met our healthy baby girl on May 29, 2013. Olive Kate joined our family and we can’t believe she’s ours. She is a sweet, spunky 5 month old baby and we are fortunate to be her parents.
I’m appreciating all of the highlights that come with motherhood. I adore witnessing all of her “firsts” – smiling, rolling over, sitting up, eating solids, and babbling the day away. It’s amazing to see how quickly she learns new things and she is growing up so fast. I love that Olive recognizes our voices, lights up when she sees us and seems to be most content when we are talking to or playing with her. I’ve also really loved watching my husband become a dad this year. He is head over heels for our daughter and she already has a very special place in his heart. She thinks he’s hilarious and definitely has a strong bond with him. Olive is such a blessing to us!
Parenthood isn’t for the faint of heart. My husband and I have never been so sleep deprived in our lives. We sure love our little alarm clock but sometimes wish she had a snooze button! We have come to the realization that our schedule and plans now hinge upon feedings, sleep schedules and finding baby friendly activities. We are learning to enjoy the “to go” options at our favorite restaurants as dining out with a baby isn’t always fun. We feel so lucky to be in this phase of our lives even when our patience is running low, our expectations have to be adjusted and we have to be more flexible than ever. Our new normal is shaping up to be a pretty great life.
I’m thankful to get to share our family traditions and interests with her. We love football, traveling, going on walks, reading, cooking and just being together. My husband and I work hard to maximize our time together and enjoy our new life as a family of three. I am a teacher turned stay at home mom and I am so thankful to be able to share my love for reading with Olive. She’s really enjoying books and shows her excitement by swatting the pages and trying to eat the books. I cannot wait to introduce her to my favorite authors and illustrators; I can only hope she’ll grow to love them as much as I do. We have recently moved across the country and done a lot of traveling since Olive was born. She has logged upwards of 6,000 road miles with us. I’m so thankful that she’s such a great traveler and seems to enjoy our trips. I also love to cook and Olive makes an excellent little sous chef. She sits in the kitchen and I talk to her about the food I’m preparing. She smiles, babbles and loves to chew on spatulas as we cook together. I can only imagine that our lives will continue to be greatly blessed by doing things together as a family.
It’s surprising at how much I already love my little girl after just a few months. She’s just joined our family and suddenly I don’t remember how we spent our days without her. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be a stay at home mom but I am so thankful that we were able to make it work. I treasure our time together because I know that each day with her is a gift. Olive will be in school before we know it and I can always return to teaching. I didn’t expect to feel so tender-hearted in regards to everything related to Olive. I get teary eyed at the drop of a hat, I want to protect her from any harm that should come her way and always be there for her. I pray for her to have good friends, wonderful people in her life and for her to always be thankful for the blessings she has been given. My husband and I strive to be good examples for her and want her to know just how much she is loved.
I feel extremely blessed this year and pray that the coming year will be filled with many new blessings and happy times for our family. I plan to slow down during this busy holiday season and soak in all of the things we have to be grateful for at this moment. Don’t rush the holidays and overbook your schedules. Enjoy your families and make the most of the time you have together.
Hello! My name is Whitney and I blog at Polka-Dotty Place. I am a new mom and my family just moved to Arkansas. We are enjoying the state and like to spend our weekends exploring our new home. I love to take pictures, blog, organize, make lists, bake, accessorize, do DIY projects and watch football. I am always looking to make new bloggy friends so please stop by and say hi.
Jerusalem Jackson Greer is a writer, speaker, retreat leader, nest-fluffer, urban farm-gal, and author of A Homemade Year: The Blessings of Cooking, Crafting and Coming Together. Jerusalem lives with her husband and two sons in a 1940s cottage in Central Arkansas at the crossroads of beauty and mess with an ever-changing rotation of pets, including a hen house full of chickens and a Hungarian Sheep Dog mutt. As a family, they are attempting to live a slower version of modern life. She blogs about all of this and more at http://jerusalemgreer.com
Do you ever travel outside the region and people inquire where you are from? I have a great amount of pride when I tell everyone I am from Arkansas. I try to explain how beautiful of a state it is and how great the people are, but you really just have to see it to believe it. Arkansas is one of those states that surprises people. It is so beautiful in all four seasons.
Have you noticed lately how many people have Arkansas pride? We have always had Hog pride, but now it is just as trendy to put the great state of Arkansas on a shirt with a big heart. I have even found myself owning two necklaces with the state being center attention.
We have diamonds, technology, industry, enterprise, and entrepreneur spirit like no other. Arkansas has rivers, mountains, lakes, waterfalls, caves, and a ton of wildlife. Also, we have state parks and world-renowned museums that are magical.
I remember when I was little, I would tell my dad how much I loved the beach, and how I thought we should just live there. My dad knew I loved the beach, but he always responded that I would miss those hills and mountains in Arkansas. Now I know what he means each time I come home from a trip, there really is no place like home in Arkansas.
What is your favorite thing about Arkansas?
P.S. I love Arkansas-based companies, which is why I am hosting a Petit Jean Meats (of Morrilton, AR) Peppered Ham giveaway on my blog. Please check it out and enter the giveaway!
Before I had kids, I threw the best parties. Any occasion to celebrate, I would open my house and gleefully experiment in the kitchen. I would decorate my house for every holiday and had cute dishes to take to all the parties we went to. Ohhh… and I was a size 4.
Now…
There are two rotting pumpkins on my front porch which, although gross, shows signs of progress as per the fact that we actually decorated with something this year to celebrate fall. My husband Ben is already groaning that he will have to get the Christmas decorations out soon and last year- try not to judge- we didn’t even have a Christmas tree up. I can’t serve more than five people with matching plates at the moment and my “fancy Christmas dish” is a bent Christmas-colored tin that I saved after someone gifted us with a plate of cookies. Moving, having two crazy boys and just good life living have broken a thing or two along the way. C’est le ve. Ohhh and I’m not going to tell you what size jeans I’m wearing today…
Life has been very different- working full time obviously takes up a lot of time and since I’m not home physically anymore, those little free pockets of unexpected time that I had to play with flour, water and sugar in the kitchen have evaporated. These days, I need something quick, dependable yet delicious as chocolate chip cookies for pop-up dinners, community groups and parties.
I love gourmet, will forever search out the fancy and savor the special but for my plain, hectic and frugal phase of life that I am in right now, I have found my special, go-to dessert. Texas Sheet Cake.
Perhaps you’ve heard of Texas Sheet Cake before. It was my Minnesota mother-in-law who introduced me which I find a humorous irony as I’m the one FROM TEXAS but nonetheless I am thankful. At first, I was embarrassed to bring “such a basic recipe” but, event after event I watched people’s faces light up with recognition, watched their eyes close as they took a bite and carried home an empty cookie sheet. I changed my mind.
Really this is the best dessert. You can mix it in a few minutes, it only takes 15 minutes to bake and the homemade icing is a breeze. The incredibly moist, rich, and flavorful cake combined with the chocolaty, buttery icing is one of the best tastes around and because there is no way that I could just follow a recipe without changing it just a little, this cake recipe has been gourmet-ed up for you here today, but don’t worry, it also works when you just have the basic ingredients.
Oh and this is also for my Vlogging Bestie- Taylor over at Texas Women Bloggers! Hey girl! 😉
2 cups flour (OR 1 1/2 cups white flour, 1/2 cup coconut flour)
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 Great Day Farms organic eggs
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon pure vanilla (home-made is best! If you can't, just buy a high quality one.)
1 teaspoon Ceylon cinnamon (I put 2 tsp in my cake!)
1 teaspoon chili powder (optional)
Icing
1 stick margarine (1/2 cup)
4 tablespoon cocoa powder
5 Tablespoon milk (or almond milk)
1 tsp vanilla
1 pound powdered sugar
optional: crushed walnuts
Cake
In a saucepan, add margarine, cocoa, oil and water. Boil for 2-3 minutes.
Mix remaining ingredients together in a large bowl. Add cocoa mixture, mix well.
Bake in a 15 x 10-in.ch jelly roll pan coated with nonstick spray at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.
Cool and frost.
Icing
Boil margarine, cocoa and milk for 3 min. Add remaining ingredients, mix well. While still warm, spread on cool cake.
Notes
Bonus: (for the nights you have an extra 15 minutes)
So much of a recipe is about presentation so on the nights you aren't running out with burning fingers and dripping icing, take a little time to make your cake look as good as it tastes!
After the cake is cool and the icing hardens, carefully cut into large squares. Stack on a plate as neatly as possible in a pyramid shape or put 1 large slice on a desert plate.
Get your sifter out and lightly sift powered sugar on top, then a bit of unsweetened cocoa. Top with a mint leaf and raspberry.
If it's for a Christmas party, sprinkle on some crumbled peppermints.
Enjoy having the best tasting thing at the party!
By Heidi Clark of The Busy Nothings
Arkansas Women Bloggers https://arkansaswomenbloggers.com/
Glammed UpTexas Sheet Cake
Cake:
4 Tablespoons cocoa powder
2 sticks margarine (1 cup)
1/2 cup oil
1 cup water
2 cups flour (OR 1 1/2 cups white flour, 1/2 cup coconut flour)
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 Great Day Farms organic eggs
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon pure vanilla (home-made is best! If you can’t, just buy a high quality one.)
1 teaspoon Ceylon cinnamon (I put 2 tsp in my cake!)
1 teaspoon chili powder (optional)
In a saucepan, add margarine, cocoa, oil and water. Boil for 2-3 minutes. Mix remaining ingredients together in a large bowl. Add cocoa mixture, mix well. Bake in a 15 x 10-in.ch jelly roll pan coated with nonstick spray at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Cool and frost.
Boil margarine, cocoa and milk for 3 min. Add remaining ingredients, mix well. While still warm, spread on cool cake.
Bonus: (for the nights you have an extra 15 minutes)
So much of a recipe is about presentation so on the nights you aren’t running out with burning fingers and dripping icing, take a little time to make your cake look as good as it tastes!
After the cake is cool and the icing hardens, carefully cut into large squares. Stack on a plate as neatly as possible in a pyramid shape or put 1 large slice on a desert plate.
Get your sifter out and lightly sift powered sugar on top, then a bit of unsweetened cocoa. Top with a mint leaf and raspberry.
If it’s for a Christmas party, sprinkle on some crumbled peppermints.
Enjoy having the best tasting thing at the party!
Heidi is a wife, mom and lover of beauty. She has been blogging since 2007 and enjoys writing about a variety of topics on her lifestyle blog TheBusyNothings.com, which she now writes with a few friends as co-contributors. Heidi is the director of social media marketing for Great Day Farms and loves that her passion for social media and writing are now what she does full time.
They say it takes a village to raise a kid. Sometimes it takes more than one village.
My mom was in high school when my grandpa’s job moved them to a small town in Alabama. She met a guy – the tall, dark, and handsome type. She graduated high school and they got married. The apparent ‘happily ever after’.
It was three-ish years later when they decided to start a family. It was during my mom’s pregnancy that my dad became ill and was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor. In January their baby girl was born (that would be me!). By that time my grandparents and aunt had moved to Arkansas. My aunt was in college. My grandparents were practically done raising children – freedom in sight. But that summer they took in a six month old me.
In October of that year, my mom was 22 years-old, a widow, and mom of a nine month old. Who remembers themselves 22 years-old? Could you have done it?
My mom joined us in Arkansas and we all lived with my grandparents. My mom got herself a job and enrolled in the local university. She went to school in the mornings, worked the 3-11pm shift, and studied/took care of me/tried to sleep during the remaining eight hours a day. The village stepped in. My grandparents, my aunt, neighbors,and church family all pitched a hand to make sure this baby girl was taken care of. My mom and I eventually moved (all the way across the street), but the village never let us down.
My mom remarried – a nice man who had a son my age, and had also lost his wife to cancer. He had a village as well. Their village took me in. My village took them in.
My amazing husband also came from a village. A host of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends. They also took me in when we were married. I love them all like I do my own family.
And now I find myself a mom. I have a completely different story than my mom but I still find myself in constant need of our village.
Our village includes our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. They keep our kids so they don’t have to be in daycare or with babysitters. Our village steps up to the plate every single day to make sure our kids have their every need, want, and wish met. Our village fixes things, gives us tips, motivates us, and provides constant support. Our village makes our like easy.
I will probably never know all the names of all the people who have been a part of my village during my life. I will never be able to thank my village enough for the roles they have played in all our lives. During this Thanksgiving season I am most grateful for my village.
Karen Weido is a full time wife, full time mom, and works full time in Healthcare Marketing & Public Relations. She and her family live in Southwest Arkansas. She has been sharing her family’s stories and activities on Ting’s Mom Blog since 2010. In her spare minutes she tries to read, is learning to cook, and runs around in the backyard with her kids. Karen can also be found creeping around (and often posting) on Twitter and Instagram.
Keisha Pittman can be found over at bigpittstop, a blog started when she was brushing up on her superpowers kicking cancer’s butt. Five years later, it’s a chapter book of a 30 something navigating life and learning lessons along the way. She is a self-proclaimed nerd and every once in a while lets us have a little glimpse into her recipes-for disaster, Saturday scenic drives and mindless thoughts of life in Northwest Arkansas.
These past few months have been crazy. We sold our house in five days and were out in less than a month. I loved that house, but it was the right decision and the right buyer. As the matter of fact, while I was attending AWBU this year, I left my husband to pack us and move us with movers. I know I should really win wife of the year! I hired two men and a truck, but asked that they send an extra man so I wouldn’t feel so bad while I was catching up with all my blogger friends. We couldn’t find an apartment immediately so we moved into my parents’ house. All of our “stuff” is crammed into three storage units. We are still here two months later and at the beginning stages of building our next house.
Isn’t it funny how you can have a whole house full of stuff, and have condensed your so-called necessities into basically a bedroom. I honestly think I packed more stuff for a week at the beach then what I have here with me. I used to like to go shopping at places like TJ Maxx, Target, Home Goods more frequent then I would like to admit. Now when I shop, I don’t buy anything because I don’t have anywhere to put it. Literally. I also have learned something that I wouldn’t trade for anything during this process. Instead of me buying the cutest accessory I think I have to have to make my house more homey, I realize I don’t. When we moved all the stuff out of our house, I looked around that empty house and realized one thing. It was just a plain house underneath all the stuff. It was kind of raw to think that after you take all the stuff away, it was a house just like down the street my neighbor lived in. We had so many great memories in that house, but it wasn’t the house that made the memories. It was all the people and the love in that house. The more stuff you buy isn’t going to make your house any more your home. Your home is wherever you decide to make it and whom to make it with.
I used to have this verse below hanging on a wooden sign in my kitchen. It was a daily reminder that God has given us such great things and way more than we could ever imagine. I hope you look at your own life and find gratitude in the small things.
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday – it is a time to spend with family and friends. Even as a child, growing up in Texas, I loved Thanksgiving. The holiday always consisted of family, friends, good food, the Thanksgiving Day Parade and football.
Moving to Arkansas 25 years ago was an adventure. The adventure has not stopped. I met and married the love of my life, referred to as the Big Man. Collectively the Big Man and I have six adult children. Thanksgiving Day at our home means feeding a minimum of 15 people. The usual number of people at the table is 20 to 25.
This picture was taken 7 years ago – before we added dining room furniture and a couple of new family members.
Like most Arkansans our meal contains the usual meats – turkey and ham. It is the side dishes that make the meal. We have cranberry sauce, green beans, sweet potato casserole and potato salad. There are always chips, dips, veggies and cheeseballs to hold everyone till the meal.
Mom’s very special fruit salad and Mom’s Famous Banana Pudding are those dishes that everyone grabs first and wants to take home with them. Both of Mom’s specialties come from an old cookbook – A Book of Favorite Recipes Complied by the United Methodist Women of The Jewett Texas published in 1988.
The Fruit Salad
Serves approximately 10
3 bananas, sliced
3 apples, chopped, unpeeled, seeds and stems removed
1 smajar maraschino cherrie, halved
2 small cans mixed fruit cocktail, drained
1 cup small marshmallows
½ cup nuts (I like walnuts or pecans)
½ cup whipping cream
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 Tabloespoons flour
1 egg, beaten
¾ cup pineapple juice
1/3 cup sugar
Combine the fruit and the 2 teaspoons of lemon juice; set aside. Combine the flour and sugar in the top of a double boiler; stir in beaten egg. Add pineapple juice and stir until thickened. Chill (I put it in the freezer while I finish the recipe). Whip cream; fold into cooled sauce. Fold this mixture into the fruit and add the nuts. The recipe says serve at once, but I usually make this early in the morning and keep it in the refrigerator till meal time.
Mom’s Famous Banana Pudding
(The most sought after dish at our house.)
Warning – do not eat unless you have room to add to your belt.
2 packages large vanilla instant pudding (I use the FF.)
3 cups milk (I use skim.)
3 cups Pet Milk (I use FF.)
1 can Eagle Brand (I use the FF.)
1 large container of Cool Whip (I use low fat.)
3 ounces of Carnation Coffee Creamer (I use FF.)
8 bananas
1 large box of vanilla wafers
Mix Coffee Mate and Cool Whip and set aside. Mix the instant pudding mix, milk, Pet Milk and Eagle Brand. Fold in 1/3 of the Cool Whip mixture. Layer pudding, vanilla wafers, and bananas. Put reserved Cool Whip mix on top. Serves approximately 10 people.
This year we are unsure of our Thanksgiving plans. But, the one thing I am sure of is, there will be Mom’s Famous Banana Pudding with the meal.
Happy Thanksgiving
I am 50-something wife, mother, Nana, vegetarian, nurse, teacher, volunteer clinic administrator and student (soon to be Advanced Practice Nurse), living in the small community of Blytheville, AR. located in the far northeast corner of the state. I share a home with my husband of 19 years and our 13 four-legged rescue children. Collectively we have six adult near-perfect children and five perfect grandboys and two awesome granddogs.
I love learning. My goal is to learn something new every day.
I like to challenge myself physically by calling myself a runner. I love to practice yoga, knit, and scrapbook. I am teaching myself to quilt. On long weekends when time allows , we trout fish at Mammoth Springs, AR.
I can honestly say, I am living a blessed life in Northeast, Arkansas.
