Tweaks and Overhauls

New week. New day. New blog design.

Routines are good but change is good too - and sometimes it is just necessary. You always have to clean your house - at least I do - and periodically I do things just a little bit differently. Other times a complete overhaul is required. On the home front, this is what I have been doing with the boys clothes. It's necessary when the season has changed and they have grown.

The same truth applies to my blog. I resisted change for awhile. Why? I loved my design. I really did. So I survived for a long time with small tweaks and updates. I wrestled with the thought for a while but I finally had to face the truth - the time had come for a complete overhaul. Simms didn't think it was necessary but he isn't a huge lover of change either. That was one thing I tackled last night - after we pruned a tree (Simms pruned, I was the spotter for where to cut which branch), enjoyed an impromptu dinner by a fire in our backyard (mountain pies) and said good-night to our kiddos. The overhaul is complete and I still have time to tweak the details.

How do you deal with change? Do small tweaks give you the chills or do you love the challenge of a complete overhaul?

Interviewed at 5 Minutes for Mom!

Do you ever mark an email as unread with the full intention of returning to that email when you have more time? I do this. More than I'd like to admit. It's usually because I know I only have about 5 minutes to glance over the message and attempt to give an adequate reply. If more time is needed then it has to wait until later. Sometime later is that night but sometimes it lingers in "marked unread" mode for a week, month or longer. Usually the length of time is proportional to the priority of the message. Usually.

Recently I came across an email that I received a while ago and my schedule has finally allowed me to give it the due attention.

You see, I was interviewed at 5 minutes for mom which you are welcome to check out - when you have time of course.

I think I had the most difficulty deciding which button to use for this blog. LOL.

C'mon Football Fans

This one makes me smile. I miss football and am looking forward to next year. Very sad about the prospect of the NYG losing Toomer - 13 years a Giant and one of my favorite players. Happy that Jacobs is staying and not looking to leave the BBWC. Now to figure out how to deal with the loss of Buress and hoping that Ward and Bradshaw stay. Who am I talking to? Probably myself unless The 4 He Adores decides to pop by - or any other NYG fan. LOL.

You Are an Extra Point

You are reliable, steady, and a good team player. You may not take risks to get glory, but you always deliver on what you promise. When it comes to what you're good at, you know your stuff. You have years of practice to thank for that. Your success rate is unmatched. If you say you're good at something, it's likely you're the best.

What Football Scoring Method Are You?

Fun Little Filler

Until I have more time to sit down and actually write...

You Are FAQ

For you, the internet is like your personal library. And you know more facts than fifty normal humans. Your brain is basically like a computer at this point. You have a lot of information stored up there. You spend hours looking up obscure information and learning things. If you have question, you always Google it. You can't help but be a bit of a know-it-all. You can answer everyone's frequently asked questions.

What Internet Slang Are You?

I'm not certain that I can answer everyone's FAQ but I could probably point you in the right direction - meaning a resource that could help answer those FAQ. ;)

What Is Going On?

Where is my coffee mug?

Where are the relaxing chairs where I can sit and relax with a friend?

Where are the hues of blue and brown with purple thrown in to the mix?

Where is the Bible verse and the name of my blog?

I. DON"T. KNOW.

Maybe you see it?!? I don't. I've sent out numerous emails hoping that whoever is responsible for this will fix it. I've also contacted my former blog designer. I know I'm typically good with change but I don't want to change my blog design. I like it - a lot.

Promises Hearts TCC

Promises says that she hearts my blog. Better yet, I know she loves me too - and that's even better. Well, I finally got around to answering the many questions below. Enjoy the read.


Where is your cell phone? In my purse - the pocket that's created for it to fit.

Where is your significant other? He is at work.

Your hair color? Naturally - when I was younger dark brown. Now, probably a lot of white BUT what you see is a medium brown with highlights.

Your mother? Naturally she is white (guess who I take after!) but she too is a medium brown with highlights.

Your father? He has medium brown hair with an increasing amount of white.

Your favorite thing? You mean, like, ever?!? "Thing" would be an object...so I don't know why I'm going to say this but it's the first thing that came to my mind - a roller coaster.

Your dream last night? I don't remember. I slept quite soundly last night.

Your dream/goal? To do what I was called and created to be according to His plans and purposes for my life - and to see the future generations do the same.

The room you’re in? the kitchen

Your hobby? hmmm...crocheting, baking and candymaking are what I am enjoying right now. I'm looking forward to completing other projects that have been put on the backburner - like redecorating some rooms in our home and scrapbooking.

Your fear? I used to have some big ones but not really anymore. Periodically, I have concerns but that is a different classification. If I am ever afraid, I pray and then I'm not anymore.

Where do you want to be in 6 years? Refer to my dream/goal.

Where were you last night? In Maryland, visiting old college friends.

What you’re not? tall

One of your wish-list items? Bummer - only ONE?!?!? Okay, the Canon Rebel Xti

Where you grew up? Long Island, NY

The last thing you did? Take care of our Passport Applications with Simms.

What are you wearing? Black, lined windpants, white turtle neck and green hoodie.

Your TV? Is in the living room. Barber is watching a Christmas movie.

Your pet? Was Gese. We miss her. Barber just drew a picture last week of our family with Gese and wrote the letters "I L U" for I love you.

Your computer? PC/Dell

Your mood? Happy it's Monday. Fresh start to a new week. Trying to make the best of it!

Missing someone? Yes. All of my family that doesn't live in PA - especially those in LI, NJ and Washington.

Your car? Jeep Grand Cherokee and Hyandai Sonata

Something you’re not wearing? shoes

Favorite store? AC Moore and Michaels - because that's where I get my yarn for my crochet projects.

Your summer? Not what I had planned. Dislocated ankle will do that.

Your favorite color? purple and green

When is the last time you laughed? Today. It's something I love about my family - not a day goes by without laughter.

Last time you cried? Does "tearing up" count? If so, yesterday when Jeter told us that when he gets older he is planning on buying five acres of land. Then he is going to design and build a house for himself and one for us. His heart and love for family blesses me so much.


Most everyone I know has been tagged so, if you are reading this and haven't been tagged, consider yourself "it"!

Hmmm...Am I Really So Displaced?

You Belong in the Silent Generation

You fit in best with people born between 1925 and 1942. You are a person of high values and character. Family, your country, loyalty, and hard work all important to you. You are willing to do what's right, even when it's difficult.

What Generation Do You Belong In?

Friday Fun

I first saw this at Livin' Life. Then I saw it at Another Piece of the Puzzle. It looked sort of fun so I thought why not? The rest is history.

Your result for The Best Thing About You Test...

Honesty

Honesty is your greatest virtue.

Honesty is the human quality of communicating and acting truthfully. This includes listening, and any action in the human repertoire — as well as speaking. And you? You cannot tell a lie. Both loved ones and strangers should trust you, because you won't (1) lie, (2) lie via omission, or (3) sit there and let lies be told. (Can you even let a sleeping dog lie?) All 7 virtues are a part of you, but your honesty runs deepest.

Your biggest risk is hurting the feelings of your most sensitive friends. However, most appreciate you for your candor.

Honest famous person: George Washington, if you believe the propaganda.

Your raw relative scores follow. 0% is low, and 100% is perfect, nearly impossible. Note that I pitted the virtues against each other, so in some way these are relative scores. It's impossible to score high on all of them, and a low score on one is just relatively low compared to the other virtues.

YOUR VIRTUES

30% Compassion

56% Intelligence

50% Humility

78% Honesty

38% Discipline

29% Courage

33% Passion

Take The Best Thing About You Test at HelloQuizzy

Shining Brightly

Thank you to Trish at Another Piece of the Puzzle for this award!

I appreciate your thoughtfulness and kind words even though it has been way too long (over two weeks!) since you bestowed me with this honor and although I am slightly embarrassed by the time-lapse, truth is I have been struggling to find the proper way to say "thank you" - as if that isn't enough.

Have you ever thought about or dreamed of receiving an award? Do you know what you would say? I really haven't but considering all that is going on in my life right now my brain is so busy trying to keep so many things straight that I can't seem to put words together and write a proper Thank You. I contemplated telling you that I had this great acceptance speech written but I can't find it now. I'd then try to pretend to fumble through my papers (how do you do that with the written word?) and provide the excuse that maybe my dog ate it or one of the boys took it to color on finally pretending to hear the music that they play at those superstar awards ceremonies to let the individual know that their time is up. I kind of think I hear it now - don't you? No? I know *sigh* none of that would work because you would know. How? You just would. I am just not good at telling falsehoods (obviously) so I really don't bother trying. Thus I'm going to stick with a great big THANK YOU!

Now that that is over *awkward smile* on to the rules...

1. The winner can put the logo on their blog.

2. Link to the person you received your award from.

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

4. Put links of those blogs on yours.

5. Leave a message on the blogs you’ve nominated

And now, in no special order, my 7 nominations (drum roll please):

• Erin at Fully Alive...Ready to Smile who can quickly go from posting great fun about her 27 dresses party to relating the burn of running to everyday life without skipping a beat.
• Tiffany at The Ruda Family who has a style all her own and is always down to earth. One of my favorite posts is Random Realizations.
• And since we are talking about people being real, I have to include Enjoying the Journey who passionately shares her heart amidst the giggles of being mommy to two young boys.
• Change 4 Real has recently joined in the fun of blogging. Her Top Ten Things I Love About Being a Mom is a good read any day of the week.
• Natalie at Politics for Moms has done a bang up job providing us with information and links on what's happening today in the political arena. She's taken some hard hits and hasn't given up! Thank you!
• I've enjoyed getting to know Tarrah at Blue Eyed Babies. She seems like a really neat Mama who just birthed her third child (he is soooooooooooo cute!) shortly after moving down the coast. Crazy lady.
• Thrills at The Thrills of Being a New Mom is actually in the works of being a new mom again. Yay! One of my favorite posts was This & That. She made me giggle - a lot!

Congrats ladies! Keep on shining!

Things That Make You Go Hmmmm

Periodically I hear and/or read about discussions regarding the value of blogging and/or twitter. That isn't exactly what this post is about...

A smirky smile crossed my face and a snicker even escaped as I read Trey Morgan's post that directed his readers to the Wittenburg Blog and their account of what it would be like if Noah Blogged. If that wasn't enough, he then directed his readers to Perry Noble's post What if David Would Have Twittered?

Sounds like good schtick material to me. What do you think Say Anything?

Mother's Day Giveaway

If you haven't heard the news there are some amazing giveaways going on at 5 Minutes for Mom. What are you waiting for? Go check them out!

The Shaklee and Dishcloths Go To...

...(drum roll please)...Where's The Box at Another Piece of the Puzzle. Random.org picked the number 100 which was actually nice because with 111 comments I was able to count backwards instead of forwards. Her comment was:

I like earthy greens and naturals as we have a leaf motif in our kitchen. I used to get dishcloths every year from my grandmother, and my parents actually sold Shaklee for a couple of years, so this is like old home week!

Going green - I can't say that we have done a great job with this. I won't allow CFL's in my home and my husband's car uses way too much gas! We do buy a certain amount of organic and natural foods since the Little Guy reacts to so many different things.

Congratulations! I will get in touch with you regarding the delivery of your prize.

Six Word Memoir: A Meme

I was tagged by Where's The Box at Another Piece of the Puzzle to write a six word memoir of my life. While trying to do this I began to argue with myself about the validity of words like "and" or "of". I finally decided to admit they are real words and wrote my memoir...

Passionate, analytical worshipper and Christ follower.

Here are the rules I had to follow:

• Write your own six word memoir
• Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you want
• Link to the person that tagged you in your post
• Tag at least five more blogs with links, and
• Leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!
  

And here's who I am tagging:

Promises Fulfilled

Krazy Klingers

Say Anything at The House That Jack Built

Erin at Fully Alive...Ready to Smile

The Thrills of Being a Good Mom

Monday's Musings AND Bloggy Giveaway!!!

Is it possible to combine my Monday's Musing with the Bloggy Giveaway Carnival?!? I have to at least try...so here goes everything...

It's better to give than to receive. Especially advice.

~ Mark Twain

Regarding my Monday Musing, I'm gonna try to keep it short and sweet because I know that 99% of you are here for the giveaway...and that's okay because it is a good one and I would definitely like it if someone gave this to me. Now for my MM - it seems to me that most people only quote the first portion of this statement and forget about the 'especially advice' part. That's the statement that makes me giggle and snicker. How often have I heard someone giving advice and I'm thinking "are you even hearing what you're saying? Have you even attempted to apply this to your own life?". Then there are others who I listen to very carefully (especially when it's on a topic that I consider them an expert).

So where do I fall on this spectrum? Truth be told I don't mind advice when I ask for it. It is the unsolicited kind that can be a bother. Now this doesn't include when a mentor of some level is speaking into my life but rather someone that doesn't know me or my family and mistakenly determines that their words have a pearl-like value. Pshaw. Is that a word? Because I really want to use that here. Pshaw.

The next step is applying this to my life. I try my darnedest to not give advice unless it is asked for with the exception of my responsibilities as Mommy to Jeter and Barber - while they are young anyway. That will change when they are adults. I even apply this to the blog world and the commenting area of it. When I comment, typically it is simply noting how I relate to what was said. Rarely (I want to say never but I'm not perfect) do I offer a differing view or dare I say advice if it isn't asked for. At the same time there are many blogs/posts that ask for advice and even though I might have something to say I sometimes choose not to say it. Why? I question my motive - is what I think I have to say going to benefit that person or not. If I really believe it is worthy of statement then I ask myself if it should be in the comments section for all the world to see or if the topic is more personal and better suited for a private email or personal conversation.

Did I say this was going to be short?!? HA! Wrapping up...if you ever care what I have to say then ask because unless it is a forum where everyone is respectfully sharing their thoughts/ideas/concerns/etc I may be more on the quiet side of the table.

Now for the GIVEAWAY...finally! LOL.

In the past my giveaways have represented a facet of who I am. Say Anything would love for me to now state "Hello, my name is TCC and I am a crocheting junkie." So, yes, this giveaway does deal with something I have handmade...but there is more.

If you haven't heard or didn't read through the entire post (because I couldn't even get myself to dedicate an entire post to it) my family took the official plunge to go public with our association with Shaklee through our online store TCC's Wholesome Living. I've literally grown up using these products but many of my friends have never known because I am sooooooo not a salesperson and as mentioned above I am not going to voluntarily tell you how to clean your house or wash your laundry or what vitamins and minerals you should take daily.

What I can do is tell you what has worked for me. For over a year now I have branched out into other areas of Shaklee's line of products - specifically household and cleaning products. Why? We've always taken their vitamins because of the way they are made - "the best of science and nature combined" - so I finally decided to test-drive the cleaning products. It has been an adjustment (I'm not going to lie to you) but I haven't been disappointed. For example, when the Basic H2 Organic Super Cleaning Concentrate (that's a mouthful...I just say Basic H2) is used to make my window/glass cleaner - it is 'wetter' than my former cleaning product and takes a little longer to wipe down the surface (especially if I use a paper towel rather than the microfiber cloth) -that's the adjustment part - but the payoff is worth it for me. I get a clean that I know is not filled with toxins and doesn't compromise the health of my children. Not to mention that I can use the Basic H2 and make an all-purpose cleaner as well as a degreaser (this is my favorite...kind of like my default cleaner).

I am also appreciative of the fact that the products last a long time. This is mainly because they are concentrated and I am doing the diluting. The fact that you don't use as much of their cleaning products to get the job done is important as well. It seems to follow the 'less is more' philosophy.

So how does this all tie in to my bloggy giveaway? I am going to give the winner 3 hand-crocheted dishcloths AND a 16oz bottle of Dishwash Liquid Concentrate. FREE. I want to make this open to Canadians as well as those in the USA (just hoping that the soap will get through customs). As you may or may not know I went without a dishwasher for the last number of months - meaning I washed every single dish by hand. This made me really appreciate the little things - such as my dishcloths. Would you believe I still have over 1/4 of this bottle left (I started using it last summer!)? Prior to this I used the typical leading brands (and didn't really have a dislike to them) but in the attempt to hold myself accountable for the choices I make and the impact I have on others I can't ignore the fact that this product is nontoxic, natural, hypoallergenic, biodegradable and lacks phosphates.

So...what do you need to do?

• If you want to participate in Monday's Musings, publish a post on your blog and link up below - although I'm sure my 2-3 regulars may be far more busy entering giveaways. LOL. However if you have a moment and choose to link I will look forward to reading your thoughts - and will probably leave a non-advice-laden comment to boot! ***Update: I removed the Mr. Linky on this post to help avoid any further confusion - it seems that some people were linking there instead of leaving comments for the giveaway.***
• If you want to enter the GIVEAWAY, then leave me a comment and tell me what color scheme you like (naturals, brights, pastels, or primary) AND tell me one thing that you have done that would qualify as 'going green' (does not have to be Shaklee related). I'm NOT going to require you to go to my store and establish a wishlist because that's just not my style. However, I will invite you to visit if you are interested and if you have any questions please email me with your inquiry (thecampbellcornerATgmailDOTcom). BTW the pattern I'm using for the dishcloths is like the bright blue dishcloth.
• Comments will be open until 8AM Sunday (April 27th) morning EST. The winner will be selected at that time using the random number generator at random.org and then contacted via email (if you don't leave me a valid email address then I cannot contact you). I will also post about the winner here at our corner.
• For more amazing giveaways from all over blogland, check out the Bloggy Giveaways Site and join the fun!

Heads Up!

Just wanted to give you a head's up for this Monday's Musings quote and remind you to check back here on Monday for my Bloggy Giveaway.

It is better to give than receive. Especially advice.

~Mark Twain

Want to Go to The Final Four?

Go to Promises site and read about an awesome opportunity to win. To be honest, I would simply enjoy the Bloomin' Onion.

For My Sis...

Take the Quiz here!

I might be one of the few women who cannot name more than one of Austen's stories. Actually, now that I've taken the quiz I know two. So why take the quiz??? Because I love my sis (aka Promises) and she wanted to know which austen heroine I would be most similar to...and it's her birthday today! Happy Birthday Promises.

Now I think I will have to make some 'sister time' and watch some of these movies with her. That's a good excuse to get together.

Friday Fun, Monday Reminder and a Cool Contest!

I'll just warn you...you probably will not be able to do this just once if you're anything like me. I know this isn't super fast but considering I've only learned via typing papers in my college days and presentations/tests/etc in my teaching days I was pretty happy with this. And although I don't have time today, at some point I'd really like to get to 70.

66 words

Speed test

***Just a reminder for the Monday's Musings quote for March 31st - if interested you will need to scroll down the linked post.***

For the contest check out this post...it Promises to be yummy!

Do I Hear Your Tummy Grumbling?

Are you up for a contest? This one promises to be flavorful!

Erin at Fully Alive...Ready to Smile is hosting her own contest - just because she wants to. That seems like the perfect reason to me. Visit her site here and enter - she even gives you options. Does that not make sense? Well, you'll just have to go read about her great giveaway and what inspired her for yourself then. And then you'll see that I chose option #3.

Are You True Blue?

How to buy jeans?

Too many times I have gone to a store only to return with nothing. Sound familiar? Did your trip resemble this...go to store, pick out 4 or 5 pairs to try on, try to try them on without reminding yourself that they would look much better after you lose 5 more pounds only to return them and leave the store empty handed? If so, you need to check this out at 5 minutes for mom.

I think the only way that I would be able to purchase one of these jeans is if I win!!!