Category Archives: Uncategorized

a NEW exploring experience

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exploritorium {source}

I’m SUPER excited to do some NEW exploring in the next several months! I’ll be volunteering at at NEW exhibit in our area that’s all about exploring science and art. It’s a traveling exhibit and last week I went to a training so I could help “facilitate” learning when I volunteer. The trainers were from The Exploritorium in San Francisco and they did a really good job!

Have any of you been to The Exploritorium in SF? It’s now on my list for when we visit there next (not sure when that will be! :o)  But I went to their website and poked around.  It looked like they have some fun online activities and a couple of free apps for iPad that I’m going to check out.

So, it will be a fun NEW experience to watch children (and others)  explore at this new exhibit! It’s called  “The Tinkering Exhibit” and it’s  VERY hands-on!  I’m gonna have FUN!  What NEW thing will you do or learn today?  Hope it’s an awesome day!

NEW photos of my week #24

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flagcollage1

Good morning all!  I went shooting early this morning…not really planning to go on a flag hunt, but it turned out that way:o).  I named my collage ‘July Photo Hunt’….but you’ll forgive me, right? (Since it’s really only June 30th)?  These were all taken within a couple of miles of my home.

I think everyone should go on a flag hunt!!!  Although we love our country year-round, there’s no better time to get some great shots of our beautiful Red White and Blue than this time of year!  Here’s my favorite:

flagbow

And when I was ready to head home (my stomach needed breakfast!)…I decided to drive down one more street…and as I turned the corner, I SQUEALED with delight when I saw this:

flagtrailer

Have a great day everyone.  Do or Learn something NEW!

Linking to

Ni Hao Yall

Little Red House’s Mosaic Monday

NEW Salad Recipes

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vegsalad1

Our family went to a get-together last Friday evening and we were assigned to bring a salad.  So, I took this easy/yummy Italian Veggie Pasta Salad.  BUT…OH.MY!  All the other salads that were there were also soooooo yummy!  I wanted recipes for ALL of them!  I noted the ingredients in one particularly scrumptious salad and then came home and searched for a recipe with similar ingredients.  I think I came pretty close to finding it and I made it for dinner on Sunday.  I need to do that more often!…because  I scored!  Here are both recipes:

Italian Veggie Pasta Salad

1 package colored spiral pasta; Your choice of vegetables (I used broccoli, cauliflower, grape tomatoes, yellow pepper and baby carrots).  Boil pasta and mix together with all chopped up veggies; pour 1/2 to full bottle of Bernstein Italian Dressing over pasta and veggies.  Chill at least 2 hours.

 

Chicken Pasta Salad

2 – 8oz packages of bowtie pasta

1 cup celery – chopped

1 can pineapple tidbits – drained

2 cans mandarin oranges – drained

1 -12.5 oz canned chicken (or chopped cooked chicken)

1 package craisins

2 cups grapes (red or green)

1 cup cashews

1 bottle Kraft coleslaw dressing

1/2 cup mayonnaise

Cook the pasta and drain.  Place in a large bowl.  Add all the ingredients and mix well.  Delicious! Serves 15-25

Thursday’s Thought (by Helen Keller)

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texassunset

I long to accomplish great and noble tasks, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker. Helen Keller

This quote reminded me of a couple of scriptures I memorized recently (did you catch my post on the AWESOME memorization program?…I’ve memorized 83 so far! :o)

The scripture that today’s quote reminded me of is Alma 37:6-7:  Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise. (7) And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls.

Have a GREAT day everyone!  DO or LEARN something NEW!

my NEW genealogical excitement

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wills{source}

As a family historian, I love, loVE, LOVE living in this day and age of computers, scanners, optical character recognition readers etc!  Isn’t it sooo great?!?  Are you wondering what’s in the box?  Well…let me tell you!  They are bunches of old will documents that have been stored away in Maryland for over ONE HUNDRED YEARS….maybe not even opened for that long…who knows!   But now, these records are being scanned and available  for use/research.  Click the ‘source’ link next to the picture to read the article.  It really is an EXCITING time for genealogical research!  If you missed my post about the War of  1812 Project, be sure to check it out too!

I’ve been busy lately with plenty of family history research…mainly USA research.  However I do have English ancestors and I {eventually} would like to get going on researching those lines!

I recently went to a short workshop on how to use FindMyPast at a nearby Family History Center.  Since I’m busy with other research, I don’t really want to pay the money to have access to this database at home (Ancestry.com’s subscription alone about breaks the bank!), so I’m sooooo glad I can go somewhere to use it without signing up and paying yet.  Maybe when I’m REALLY seriously studying those English lines I will, but not now :o)

Just so you know, there is no cost to visit a FamilySearch Center, and they are open to anyone with an interest in genealogical research. There are more than 4,600 Family History Centers in 134 countries – so find one near you!!! Family History Centers provide free access to quite a few subscription genealogy websites.  It’s soooo GREAT!

family communication and a NEW funny video

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comm{source}

How is the communication in your family? Typically, at our house, ours is pretty average…meaning we could do better but we could also do a lot worse 🙂 BUT…on two difference occasions this week I was quite irritated with a couple of my family members! I had to ‘read through the lines’ to know what was going on…and even then, I was just guessing because these two individuals did NOT effectively communicate. I won’t bore you with the details, but one good thing about having ”issues” now and again is the side-effect of trying to do a better job at communicating….so we definitely had our little reminder this week!

It’s funny that this same week, my husband sent me a link to this YouTube video! I thought it was quite ironic because of the week I had with our ‘communication issues :o)!

Check this video out….it’s PRETTY FUNNY! I LOL! 🙂 Have a great day everyone and DO or LEARN something NEW!

NEW cookie recipe…tried and true from off the back of the bag!

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oatmealscotties

I tried a NEW cookie recipe….right off the back of the bag of butterscotch chips!  I figured it was most likely a tried and true recipe and wouldn’t let me down! Right-O!  They were YUMMY!  So…..what do you think?  Should they be called Oatmeal Scotties….OR Oatmeal Scotchies?

Of course, I wanted to learn something NEW today, so I researched BUTTERSCOTCH!  It’s funny…it seems the historians can’t really agree on where the term came from.  Usually when I research something, there’s TONS of information.  Not so with Butterscotch!  Hmmmm…is it named butterscotch because the confectionaries had to scorch the butter and sugar?  I looked up toffee too, since butterscotch is similar to toffee but is only boiled to the soft-stage and not the hard crack stage that toffee is.  Well…the origin of the word toffee is UNKNOWN also!  I’m striking out today!  I think I’ll go have some milk and cookies!

Learn or DO something NEW today!