YOUR CHALLENGE - Daily Thankful Journal

I have a challenge for any readers of my blog - start your own Daily Thankful Journal.  Basically find yourself a notebook, small, large, plain, fancy - whatever you'd like.  Then, I challenge you first thing in the morning, or perhaps last thing at night, take a few minutes to jot down the date and something you are thankful for.  Do this for an entire year and I promise you that your outlook on life will drastically change for the better!

This may sound like a daunting task.  After all with the state of the economy and all of the horrible things we hear about on the 11 o'clock news, some of you are probably saying to yourselves, "Yeah right, I'll last for one week and then forget about it."

  

Well I am here to challenge you to start thinking differently about your life and about things that you are thankful for. It is this hope and thanks that will help lead you out of the dark and into a better place spiritually.  Too often we all get wrapped up in our problems and what we don't have, rather than really concentrating on what we do have and how "rich" we really are, just by enjoying the simple pleasures that we are all too often quick to forget.

It could be something as simple as a child's laughter, or a heartfelt conversation with a loved one.  Or you could be thankful for a day at the beach.  Whatever it is that you are thankful for in your life, start writing down one thing each day.  You may surprise yourself and realize that life is truly a wonderful gift that we are all entitled to, and it is up to us to make the most of each and every day, not knowing when the last one will be.

Please feel free to comment/post things you are thankful for, and let me know how it's going.

Good luck and have fun!

Meatless Faijita Chickpea Burger - YUM!!

Fajita Chickpea Burger!!! YUM!! Even if you're not vegetarian, this burger is DELICIOUS!!! Made with yummy Wildtree products of course!  Find out more about Wildtree and the wonderful, delicious healthy products we carry - visit my website http://www.mywildtree.com/sherritaliercio/

Fajita Chickpea Burgers - Provided by Wildtree Herbs from Warwick, RI     

SERVINGS: 4

INGREDIENTS:

• 6 ounces low-fat plain yogurt
• 1 tablespoon Wildtree Chipotle Lime Seasoning
• 14.5 ounce can chickpeas, rinsed and dried
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Wildtree Fajita Seasoning
• 1/4 finely diced red onion
• 1 egg beaten
• 1 tablespoon bread crumbs
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 4 hamburger buns
• 1/3 cup roasted red peppers
• 1 cup lettuce or spring mix

PREPARATION:

Preheat oven to 350°F. In a small bowl, combine the yogurt and Wildtree Chipotle Lime Seasoning; set aside (there will be plenty extra). In a food processor, or medium-sized bowl, puree or mash the chickpeas. Add the Wildtree Fiesta Seasoning, red onion, egg, breadcrumbs, and parsley. Portion the mixture into 4 equal burgers and place on a parchment lined or lightly greased sheet pan. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until an internal temperature of 145°F is reached. Serve burgers on toasted buns with lettuce, roasted red pepper and chipotle sauce.

 

Calories 272; Fat 6g; Saturated Fat 1g; Carbohydrates 43g; Fiber 6.5g; Protein 13g; Cholesterol 55mg; Sodium 709mg

Adorable End of Year Teacher Gifts

OK, so how darn cute is this idea?  Instead of giving your teacher or teacher's aid another coffee mug, why not give them one of these great reusable, earth-friendly BPA free plastic tumblers, fill it with some instant drink mixes and a gift certificate and maybe even a hand-written note from your child, print out the adorable tag for the straw, and you are good to go!  

You can print the tags for the straw here: 

straw tags 

As for the cups, I know I've seen these at Bed Bath & Beyond, but I would bet that a Marshall's or Home Goods would also have them and probably at a much cheaper price!  You may even want to check 5 Below or Christmas Tree Shops for snagging these cups at an even better price!

Thanks so much to Lisa Storms blog for this wonderful thrifty idea!

Lowe's Build & Grow FREE Kid's Clinics

Lowe's Build & Grow

Lowe's offers a wonderful FREE program for you and your child every other Saturday.  You will get to build super cool projects - this month you get to build a terrarium and next month a picture frame.  Who isn't looking for something fun to do on the weekend and oh, did I mention FREE?!  

Make sure to go to the link above to register your child/children, then head out on Saturday morning and enjoy your special time together, building something fun!  This program runs throughout the entire summer, so this should help with keeping the kids busy while school is out.  Enjoy!

WILDTREE

simple. healthy. natural.

 Yummy flax seed beer bread, all natural and healthy too!

Quick and easy pizza dough.

Wild blueberry jam - YUM!

Hello everyone!  I am SO excited to be an independent sales representative for Wildtree Natural food products.  Haven't heard of Wildtree?  Then DEFINITELY check us out!  We offer quick, easy, economical meals in little time and with little effort - all while providing our customers products that are all natural, NO preservatives, MSG or artificial colors or flavors!  Feel good about the food your family eats!  All of our products only require one or two ingredients and all are super easy to make.  Want to host a party or place an order?  Better yet, why not make money while having fun!  Please email me for more details!  Thanks and have a great day!


wildtreesherri@gmail.com

mywildtree.com/sherritaliercio

Spongebob Birthday Party

Is your child crazy about Spongebob?  Then you simply must have a Spongebob themed birthday party for them!  It's super easy and you can get as creative as you'd like.  Below are just a few ideas that I came up with a couple of years ago for my son.  The possibilities are endless when you pick a theme, but definitely make yourself a game plan of what you need so you don't drive yourself too crazy!

I started with a themed invite - below is the wording I used, and I added a picture of Spongebob and printed them out myself!

  

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea…..Spongebob Squarepants 

wants you to celebrate turning 4 with me!

(I inserted the picture of Spongebob here)

Evan’s 4th Birthday Party!

Where: 

555 Anywhere Lane 

Bikini Bottom

Castoff:  

Saturday, January 5th

Dive Time:  

12:00pm - 3:00pm

RSVP by January 22nd

555-555-5555 or anyone@aol.com

SEA you soon!!

This table invited the guests to grab a Spongebob hat to start off the party right!  The centerpiece "big" Spongebob is actually a pinata that you will see below in pics too, and the hat on Spongebob's head will also be used for one of the festivities.  I figured it was a good idea to use the pinata as part of the decoration before it got smashed to bits! LOL

What better game to play then pin the tie on Spongebob!  SO easy, just get yourself some yellow poster board and then cut out some white for eyes and shirt, brown for his pants.  Then cut out some red ties that the kids can each try pinning on Spongebob (you can write the kids names on the ties so you know which tie belongs to which kid)!!  So much fun!  Also, note that the hat in the first pic is being used here instead of a bandanna to hide the kid's eyes - we just pulled it down low enough that it would cover their eyes so they couldn't see while playing this game.

I got these cute hanging lanterns right from my local dollar store and then just printed out some Spongebob pics from online and attached one to each lantern - cheap easy decoration!

These were the kid's goodie bags - another dollar store find, I just dressed them up with Spongebob stickers and the children's names in permanent marker.  

Of course these were filled with gummy crabby patties!

Every birthday party has to have balloons.  So why not make the balloons part of a game?  We had the kids go jelly fishing, but with balloons that I tossed up in the air - the object of the game was to catch the balloons with the net before they fell to the ground!  The kids LOVED this game!  And again I found both the balloons and the jelly fishing nets at the dollar store!  Love a good bargain!

The above picture shows the Spongebob pinata that I made out of two brown paper bags that you would get from your local grocery store. Then I made the paper mache and did a few layers of that, letting each layer dry in between. You could also make a smaller one out of an empty cereal box.  Of course I filled the pinata with candy as well!

Well I must admit that the thought of even attempting to make a  Spongebob cake totally stressed me out!  Besides, I saved so much money on party decor and the other things for the party so I decide to splurge on the cake.  I am so glad it did!  Thankfully I just to happen to have a great friend who makes these awesome cakes for a living, so she totally hooked me up with one of the best cakes I've ever seen - it was just as delicious as it was gorgeous!

Creative Ways to Reuse Your Crystal Light Containers

There are always tons of great coupons and sale deals on Crystal Light and I always end up with a bunch of containers!  I hate to just get rid of them, so often times they become a travel container for colored pencils/twistables crayons.  They are great to bring to a restaurant for the kids since the restaurants around here only give about 2 crayons, which usually break!   

While browsing on one of my favorite sites:  livingrichwithcoupons, I came across some great ideas that were posted on how to reuse these Crystal Light containers and I thought it would be great to share with all of you! 

How cute to repurpose a Crystal Light Container into an Easter Bunny! With Easter just a few days away this is the perfect way to put a candy bar or 2 in your kids Easter Baskets! You can even put them around your house and hide eggs in them. I love this idea!

Here are some other great ideas:

Cheese Storage

 How many times have you had to waste a plastic bag, or all of your tupperware was being used! Now you can store your half used cheese in those Crystal Light containers that you didn’t know what to do with!  

Art Storage

This is a very creative idea, especially if you love arts and crafts. Store your markers, pencils, erasers, anything in these containers. Glue them together anyway you would like and you have some awesome storage!

Sunglasses Case

Wow! I never would have thought to do this! Use your Crystal Light container to hold your sunglasses! You can make this any style you want just by gluing wrapping paper, putting gems or even paint the outside of the box!  

Perfect for Teachers

Teachers should save Crystal Light Containers because they can be used for anything! This teacher used them for her ABC bins. She put different items in the bin that represented the letter! This is just one of probably many uses that these containers have for teachers!

THANKS to livingrichwithcoupons for this great article!