Veterans Day and Popcorn Balls

Today I am so thankful to live in the country that I do! I am so grateful to the many men and women who have served and are serving for our country! Even though many people may not be happy with the recent election, I still feel truly blessed to live in this country. I am grateful for the rights and freedoms I enjoy every day that many other people in this world do not enjoy.

Today Travis did not have work and we had an amazing day at home. We were trying to come up with something fun and fantastic to do but then we realized we had overlooked the good and simple. We decided on a day at home doing things together as a family. We took time to stop and smell the roses.

First, we cleaned out our 'pantry' cupboard. It was badly in need of organization so Trav and I attacked it while the boys played outside and got dirty. It was a gorgeous fall day! Then, Trav worked on a leaky pipe and I made homemade fried rice for lunch. I pulled out a veggie tray and the boys went crazy. It was fun to watch them dip their veggies in the Ranch and enjoy licking their fingers. Then, Trav and the boys worked on  pulling out the dead grass in the back yard. Don't know if the boys were much help but the sure loved working next to Daddy. The fresh turned earth reminded me of home and the farm. Lastly we made dinner/dessert. Trav made the homemade pizza and we enjoyed a chicken bbq pizza for dinner with a fruit salad and the veggie tray. The crust was thick and awesome. I greatly enjoy cooking with my hubby in the kitchen. For dessert I made an oldie but a goodie. One of my most fond memories of my Gramma is her popcorn balls. She made them almost every Halloween. I remember that being my favorite treat from Halloween. I want my kids to have a piece of my Gramma and one of the best ways I know to do that is through her recipes. So, I made jello popcorn for dessert. We didn't quite make it to popcorn balls. It was so good that everyone just started to dig in lol. Even William was happy with it.

What a perfectly wonderful day. Nothing major or life changing happened, but we were together and we enjoyed it. Chores were done and everyone is happy and we feel blessed. Sometimes living simple is the best remedy to taming the chaos in our lives!

Self Discipline Book Review

I recently read an Ebook about self-displine. I am attaching the link to the book at the end of my post. :) The ebook is called, 21 Days to a More Discipined Life. When I had the chance to review this book, I jumped on it. I often feel that I am good at setting goals and of coming up with grand ideas for projects and all sorts of cool things, but I feel like I am rarely able to finish everything I want to accomplish. I often try to eat the proverbial elephant in one sitting in less than hour. The problem with that is it doesn't work obviously, and it really is not humanly possible. One day when I was reading another great book The Unstoppable You I realized my problem: I had poor self discipline. This hit me like a ton of bricks. I feel like I try to do my best, but I seemed to fail at a lot of things. This had me discouraged so when I saw this new Ebook I was very excited.
The author breaks up the process into bite sized pieces and habits. She focuses on gaining the little victories and setting a foundation for success. Instead of trying to figure out how to swallow the whole elephant she breaks it up into daily sized portions. It has mini daily tasks and also breaks up one mega task over 21 days.
The first time I read this book, I simply did a read through to see if I thought it was doable. Now comes the real test. I am going to take this book and do it day by day? Anyone else interested? If so please let me know. I would love to have an accountability partner. Someone to share the journey with. I will be posting my victories (and hopefully not too many nonvictories) throughout the next 3 weeks.
Here's to a new way of living!

http://crystalpaine.com/21-days-to-a-more-disciplined-life/