The Sewing Mom

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I hope you all are enjoying a wonderful Thanksgiving. Wherever you are and whomever you are with, may you give thanks. God has blessed us in so many ways and we thank Him for all he has given us. Enjoy your day and remember, don’t eat too much (or keep the Tums handy!).

Here we are, the week of Thanksgiving. At this time of year I find myself spending a lot of my time thinking about family. We are spread out all over the country, and I miss them, particularly at the holidays. For some reason, today I found myself thinking about a time several years ago when my mom, sisters & I went back up to Washington state where my mom was born and raised. It was very interesting and one thing that still stands out in my memory is the day we drove to downtown Lynden, Washington and there, right on the main street of town was a building previously owned by my great grandfather.

I wish I could find my photo of the building to share with you, but unfortunately, I’m not that organized! I can tell you that the building was so easy to identify because of their bronze letters on the upper exterior of the building. After all these years, it still clearly reads Dyke Building, my great-grandfather’s last name. There is so much history in this town that if you just walk along Main Street, there are commemorative plaques on almost every building, including the Dyke Building, showing when each building was originally constructed and by who.

Lynden is really much like any other small town in our country with the brick buildings along main street. What I enjoyed was seeing how the downtown in Lynden was still thriving and that’s what set it apart. In fact, it made such an impression on me that I would be surprised if Lynden wasn’t mentioned in a Wikipedia architecture article!

Anyway, I think it’s a wonderful feeling to know our family history and to see such a solid structure representing our family.

Some may think that fastpitch softball is not a contact sport, but my daughter would most certainly disagree.

One thing that drives my daughter crazy when she’s batting is if the pitcher tries to back her off the plate by pitching to her inside. My daughter will respond by moving closer to the plate. This can throw a pitcher off know that a batter is not being intimidated. Well, that’s what happened in this at bat. 1st pitch was inside, daughter inches closer to the plate. Next pitch, even farther inside and the following is the result.

If you look closely, you can even see the imprint from the seam of the ball!

This post brought to you by Schar. All opinions are 100% mine.

According to Wikipedia, gluten “is a protein composite found in foods processed from wheat and related grain species, including barley and rye. It gives elasticity to dough, helping it to rise and to keep its shape, and often giving the final product a chewy texture.”  Unfortunately, many people are allergic to gluten and must try to maintain a gluten free diet.  I can only imagine how difficult that would be.  Think about it, how many foods do you eat every single day contain flour?  Everything from toast at breakfast, to chips at lunch and even pasta at dinner.

Schar has recently re-release their gluten-free heat & serve items, including sub-sandwich rolls, ciabatta rolls and baguettes.  The great thing about Schar, a leader in gluten-free foods, is that they have created the  Schar Club, a free club that provides everything from gluten-free recipes to the latest in gluten-free news. Joining the club also gives members access to giveaways and special member only promotions.  In fact, for a limited time,  members can get a Schar free sample by being one of the first 2,000 to request one.

After joining the Schar Club, on the left hand side you will see a column titled “toolbox” under that column, you will find the word “Giveaways”, click that and then you will be taken to the page to order your free Ciabatta sample!

I’m not required to eat gluten-free products, but I think these breads and rolls sound delicious and can’t wait to give the sub rolls a try.  Leave me a comment and let me know what you think!

This post brought to you by Straight Talk. All opinions are 100% mine.

I don’t know about you, but I am constantly looking for ways to cut our household expenses, particularly in these tougher economic times  We’ve been working as a family to reduce our electric & water consumption to lower those bills and I’ve been taking a hard look at our family cell phone bill to see what can be done in that area.

My daughter and I both have smarthphones with unlimited text and talk plus we have to have data plans or the smartphones aren’t really worth having  I think maybe I can Feel Richer with Android by switching to Straight Talk which would allow me The power of Android with a smart plan and, get this, no annual contract.  With Straight Talk, it can be as low as just $45 per month with unimited use.  That’s a heck of a lot less than what I’m currently paying.  I could take that extra money and put it in a vacation account and pretty quickly have enough money to actually take a vacation for a change!

Straight Talk comes with nationwide coverage, no contracts and no credit checks, activation or early termination fees.  Even more important, there will be no surprises on your monthly bill to leave you scratching your head and digging deeper into your budget. Get all the apps you can want and they carry all the name brand phones including LG, Kyocera, Motorola, Nokia and Samsung.

What have you done to reduce household expenses?

The getting richer effect has expanded… by LittleBard95