Fantastic Deal on Hunt's Tomato Sauce

See this gigantic container of tomato sauce? All 6 and 1/2+ pounds of it? It's mine and I've got 3 more coming. Now, why on earth am I buying gigantic food service sized cans of Hunt's tomato sauce? Glad you asked.

A couple of months ago I snagged a great deal on 15 oz cans of Hunts stewed tomatoes. By combining a sale with coupons I was able to get 4 cans for .23 each. Great deal, I thought until I emptied them into a pot of chili and found a ton of tomato peels. Who wants to eat stewed tomato peels? Blech!

To their credit, the nice folks at Conagra (the parent company of Hunts) promptly made the situation right by sending me 4 coupons for any Hunt's product valued up to $3.00. Last week I went to use these coupons and my frugal nature kicked in to full swing.

I wanted to find something pretty close to the $3 mark, so I ended up going with the gigantic food service sized cans priced at $2.99.

I figure I can use all this tomato sauce to make into chili sauce, spaghetti sauce and pizza sauce and can it. At the very least I can store some of the sauce as is in small recipe sized freezer containers and then just thaw and use as needed.

Do any of you have any good recipes for chili, pizza or pasta sauce?

Rodeos and Parenting

One of my brothers was pretty big in the Midwestern rodeo circuit -- until he developed some sense and realized he could easily get killed, maimed or break some important bones at the very least. We tease him that it took him quite a while to catch on that he was finally an "old timer".


He finally gave it up at 41. He was always one of the oldest cowboys participating in his events. In case you didn't know, 41 is considered kind of old for a hobby like rodeo-ing (is that a word?) We still aren't sure if he hung in there so long because he is so very tough and filled with courage or because he's an idiot. Maybe it's because he's never been in a full body cast.

Recently he and my mother were joking about this and she said: "well, I was 41 when I had your brother".

A long pause ensued. Everyone broke out in agreement that my mother had more courage than any 41 year old rodeo star.

Fall Cleaning Extravaganza

I've started Fall Cleaning a little early this year with my unintentional fall cleaning spree last Saturday. Usually, I schedule fall cleaning to take place a couple of weeks from now, so the house is all spic and span for Thanksgiving company. But, this year it will be nice to have the cleaning done earlier and we may all be going to my sister's for Thanksgiving anyway.

Here's a list of what all needs to be done in the upcoming weeks. I like to spread out the work over a couple of weeks so that no one day or weekend feels overwhelming when you add in the all the regular every day type cleaning that needs to be done. Hey, it works for me.

Kitchen:

Clean out cupboards; wipe down the insides and rearrange the contents. This includes the pantry cupboards, they are getting pretty disorganized making it hard to see what all I've got on hand.

Clean top of kitchen cabinets and wash the items sitting on top of the cabinets

Clean top of fridge (inside was cleaned 2 weeks ago) and finally trash the dying plant that's been sitting up there for the last 3 months mocking my green thumb.

Clean the oven and broiler compartment and drip pans

Mudroom:

Wash the walls

Sort through all of our outdoor clothing and do something with the clothes we are not using.

Clean and polish shoes and boots, waterproof any shoes or boots that need it.

Clean and reorganize the big set of shelves and the laundry cabinets. These are shelves where I tend to just stick something to get it out of the way. Needless to say the junk builds up fast in this area.


Living room:

Organize and clean bookshelf and entertainment unit

Clean the carpet (been putting this off for a long time)


Bedroom:

Clean under bed and dressers and night stand

Clean out dressers, wipe down the drawers and get rid of any clothes we don't wear

Bathroom:

Clean and organize the vanity and the linen closet

Use a Mr. Clean magic eraser to get the tub sparkling clean

Whole House:

Clean all light fixtures (and both ceiling fans) and make sure we have the right bulbs for the job in each one

Take down all curtains and wash and hang to dry. If you hang to dry on a windy day, you don't get any wrinkles.

Wash all windows

Search and destroy all cobwebs and dust bunnies

Wipe down light switches and outlets


As I go through the house paying attention to all the stuff I don't get to on a daily or weekly basis I hope to gather up at least a couple of good sized boxes of stuff we are not using anymore for our next yard sale. It's always such a rewarding feeling to eliminate stuff you never liked in the first place and can't even remember why you have it or stuff you just don't have a use for anymore.


What all would you like accomplish with your fall cleaning? Do you do fall and spring cleaning, or do you like to try and keep up with things as they need it?

Fall Weekend

We had such a busy productive weekend! Hopefully all this productiveness carries through this whole week.

Saturday was a cold, dreary day -- just the kind of day made for inside work. After taking my mom to do some errands and then out to lunch I came home and got busy. After unloading the groceries I started a pot of beef stew for supper and began to get the laundry ready to wash. While the laundry was going, I dusted and vacuumed under all the furniture in the living room.

One of George's customers gave us a beautiful inlaid drop leaf end table that fits perfectly between the end of our couch and the Lazy Boy. I listed the end table we had been using on Craig's List and a couple of other items I'd been needing to purge our house of.

We also decided to reorganize George's desk/book case area so we could include a set of inbox-filing trays. I tell, you, year after year I am constantly amazed at how much paperwork comes in when you have three home businesses. It seems like every year I'm reorganizing and reworking our filing systems (one for each business). Will we ever get it right?

Sunday was the perfect autumn day for working outside. We spent the whole afternoon cleaning up leaves and grinding them down to work into the garden soil. Two acres of lawn is more than enough. Sure, the low, rolling hills look like a golf course when it's freshly mowed in the summer, but cover that much yard with leaves and you start to consider moving. Actually cleaning up the leaves was kind of fun.

Out front, we've got a row of maples along the road and each tree is a brilliant yellow-orange. The edges of the leaves look like God himself dipped them in gold. As I walked our push blower underneath the trees to corral all the leaves into a giant pile I felt like a little kid again as the leaves swirled about me and landed gently on my hair and clothing.

Once it got dark, we came in for a late supper of leftover beef stew and homemade bread. A good way to end a weekend if you ask me.

Menu Plan Monday

Monday

Shepherd's Pie, Garden Salad, Homemade Oat & Flax Bread

Tuesday

Beef, Bean and Cheese Enchiladas topped with Salsa, Shredded Lettuce and Sour Cream

Wednesday

Ham Sandwiches, Bean Soup

Thursday

Lemon, Dill Broiled Walleye, Sweet Potatoes, Green Snap Peas

Friday

Homemade Cheeseburger Pizza

Want to find out what I'm having for breakfasts and lunches this week? Go here.


For even more menu ideas, visit Org Junkie.

Oh the Joy!

I've been a long time fan of the Old Town Blue Corelleware. Not only are these dishes lightweight, stackable, virtually indestructible, they are also blue and white (my very favorite color combination), nostalgic and cheap! You just can't get much better than that!

My sister got me a whole set of this beautiful dinnerware 10 years ago for something like $25 at an outlet store and I've searched high and low to find more serving bowls and a set of place mats. Unfortunately the pattern was out of print; but because it's such a popular pattern, they bring it out every few years.

Today is my lucky day-- I've found that one of the websites I've been periodically checking has a pretty good selection of the Old Town Blue pattern. Yea, finally!!

Just for fun, do you any of you have fond memories of this type of plate? It's often called a Diner Plate because they were so popular in diners. My Grandma had the same kind and I always loved her dishes so. My sister has the green flowered pattern and just loves them.

A Good Life is a Greatful Life

This has been a weird year. We've had three deaths in our family this year and hope to never repeat an experience like this.

We buried my sister-in-law on Monday. The funeral was a lovely tribute to such a beautiful woman and the life she lived -- so many friends came; it seemed like the entire town. It meant so much to my brother to see how many people loved her and the many lives she touched.

This occasion was heart wrenching for so many reasons. Dawn's two boys, although adults are so very young to mourn the loss of their mother. For my brother, losing the love of his life and trying to find some way to make it through the pain each day. For my mother, who so recently lost her husband has had to watch another loved one die from the exact same thing a couple of months later. I hurt for them all because they are hurting so badly.

In spite of our collective heartache this year, I think I speak for the entire family when I say; one of the best gifts God gives us is our families. That's why it hurts so much when we lose them.

Sure, no family or person is perfect. We are often times tempted to think that other families, other marriages, other people are perfect or at least happier than we are. Over time it becomes so very easy to find fault with those we love. Little things become big things, instead of discussing problems or sensitive topics, we leave them to fester until our bitterness boils over. We find ourselves miserably unhappy and we are certain it is all the fault of someone else -- it's our spouse's fault, our in-laws, our children, our parents, the economy, our boss, the driver that cuts in front of us. Always someone else and not us.

A reader recently left the following comment:

I think you are a grateful person and we need examples like you.

Um, yeah. Thanks, but.... see that paragraph above? You can easily replace the word "we" with Trixie. I do all of those things.

The comment about being a grateful person really hit home with me because it's the key to happiness.

You see, every single time I start to become unhappy with someone or something, it's because I am ungrateful. Oh, that's hard for me to take! I like to think I'm nice, sweet, loving and long suffering -- all of the time ; ) Essentially perfect, which is totally realistic, huh? I feel so much better thinking it's somebody/something else that's causing my unhappiness and discontent. Of course there are always exceptions to this policy, but for the most part, we aren't dealing with monsters, just everyday life stuff that gets us down.

In reality, it's almost always my reaction that's causing the unhappiness and discontent. Here's a good way to tell if it's you or "them" that's causing your unhappiness: what if the person (or situation) just all of a sudden ended tomorrow -- you never, ever had to deal with it again?

What if that job we can't stand gets eliminated tomorrow? What if our spouse never set foot in house again? What if we never heard children horsing around again? What if our modest little starter home with it's junky furniture blew apart in a tornado? What if our old car that drives us nuts with it's quirks gets totaled?

How much would we give to get it all back, including all of the faults? A good life is a greatful life.

Does Penny Pinching Really Help Much?

George and I are always up for saving a buck. We are frugalites primarily because that's just how we are. We like being this way; it works for us. Even if we had a million dollars in the bank I would still happily clip coupons every Sunday night and make out my grocery list according to the specials because it's fun. But, we also have another motive. We want to pay off our house early and finally be debt free.

We believe that debt is bondage, (particularly excessive debt). Imagine being tied up to a chair and being unable to move or barely gasp for breath. If you are in debt or have been in the past, you know what I'm talking about. Any debt that has become even the least bit difficult to manage strangles you and sucks the very life out of you and your marriage. George and I do not want this to happen to us so are taking strides to finally be completely out of debt.


I know penny pinching takes a lot of flak, especially from the crowd that wants to save big bucks by forgoing a daily latte, and yet still live a high consumption lifestyle in every other way.

Penny Pinching does pay off; but only if you are careful about the big things too. Ever heard that old saying "penny wise and pound foolish"? Not a good thing to aspire to.

George and I are pretty careful with our money -- the little things and the big things. You simply cannot have healthy finances if you consistently over spend in either area.



Here are some of the things we've found to be very helpful to us in saving money.


1. We tithe on our personal revenue and business revenue.

Tithing not only opens the windows of heaven; it does a miracle work on the inside of us. When we acknowledge God as the source of our capabilities, talents, business ideas and plans that cause us to prosper we stop being so greedy with the money we do have. We realize our success has a whole lot more to do with God than it does us. We've found the less greedy we are with what God gives us, the more He blesses us.


This technically isn't a money saving idea, but God's always made the other 90% go so miraculously far that we consider tithing as a money saver.

2. We do not overspend on big things... like houses. Knowing a house will probably be the biggest purchase we will ever make; George and I are cautious to the extreme about housing (even before the housing bubble popped). Buying too expensive of a house causes more financial hardship in this country than anything else in our opinion. We figure that if we keep our housing expenses under control, then the rest of our finances would be easy; well, easier.


A little about our housing situation.

George and I both owned modest homes before getting married. Mine was getting close to being paid off and George's was entirely paid off. Rest assured, these were not large, fancy homes in exclusive subdivisions. When I say modest; I mean modest. In our opinion a modest home that's paid off is much more desirable than a much nicer home that comes with a hippo sized payment.


We were delighted to be starting out marriage in such a good position housing-wise (two houses to sell). The home we live in now, we purchased just after we got married. It's an old farmhouse out in the country. We have a modest mortgage on this house that we are working diligently to pay off in the next few years.


We could've bought a much nicer home according to the credit union, but we chose not to. We chose a home where the payments (including taxes) would be less than 20% of the one fixed income source we have, which is my job in the Accounting field. Our credit union was willing to lend us a lot more money, but I shudder to think how painful it would be to write a check every month that would take up such a large portion of our take home pay. Plus, that would make it impossible for us to have enough money left to make extra principle payments so the mortgage could be paid off early.



3. We save on the little things

Every family is unique so some of the ideas I'll share here might not work for you and that's okay. Here's a handful of the things we do that work for us.

• cook most of our meals from scratch
• eat out infrequently -- usually as a special treat, maybe twice a month
• hang our laundry to dry
• make our own laundry soap
• cover our windows with plastic during winter
• use coupons, coupons and more coupons combined with sale prices.
• plan meals around what's in our pantry and freezer (stocked from great sales, of course!)
• grow a garden

4. We don't shop much.

This is probably the biggest way we save money. We just don't buy very much stuff. We buy what we need, and sometimes even stuff we don't need but just want. But honestly we don't want very many things that we don't need. That's the secret. Seems like it would be the biggest burden to carry around -- always wanting something you don't need.

It's wonderful to save money and everything, but what sense does it make if you were just browsing through the craft store, Target or the hardware store and bought a whatchamacallit on a great deal. Good news if this is an item you needed and were on the look out for. Bad news if this is an item you think you might use someday -- that's cash right out of your pocket.

I don't think it's the occasional treat of buying something just because you like it and want to have it. As a matter of fact, I think its good to do something like this once in a while, providing it's not something hugely expensive like a cruise, new car, etc. Buying something for fun is a nice pick me up. But when you start doing it every week, every day is when the trouble starts.

After going over this before hitting the magic publish button I realized the things we do might seem rather dull and boring to you. After all, you can read the same thing (well, all but the tithing) in any money saving article found in a supermarket check line magazine.

5. I'm rich! It's all about the attitude.

This applies mostly to me, and not so much my husband. Long time readers and those that have read through my Old Fashioned Life series know that I grew up very poor. So poor, in fact that I sincerely thought that anyone that was lucky enough to have an indoor bathroom was fabulously wealthy. I knew what it was like to worry about the garden stores not lasting through the winter. What it would me to our family if one of us got gravely ill or injured or the impact of a crop failure.

If I got to meet the 35 year old Trixie when I was the little 7 year old Trixie I would have thought I was so rich you couldn't imagine. We have an indoor bathroom with toilet paper (read this), we have a furnace for heat, gardening, hunting and fishing are not a necessity for survival, we have hot running water. Really, what more could you want?

I think growing up thinking the basic necessities makes you rich, has dramatically shaped my view of money and possessions today. I don't really ever feel like we need more and therefore seldom feel the need to buy stuff that isn't truly needed. As a matter of fact, I think we could easily do with less. Sometimes I just look around our home amazed; we have so very much! Yet when we have to do without something or get to comparing ourselves to others it's so easy to start feeling sorry for ourselves; isn't it?

Easy Beans & Rice Meals

Crystal shares an interesting menu of what meals she would serve her family if they lived on beans and rice for a week. She issued the challenge for readers to come up with a week long menu of beans and rice. It sounds like a fun challenge so I'm going to share with you what we would eat.

Now, I know beans and rice meals take a lot of flack because they are oh so very cheap and many people think they are boring. My husband and I love beans and rice meals. Often times when I make a beans and rice dish I will add in some diced chicken or browned beef because my husband is such a meat lover. But, he will happily eat just beans and rice for a few meals; I don't know about a whole week.

Here's what we would eat. Please note, our tastes in beans and rice run mostly toward the Mexican options, but there are a couple of non-Mexican flavored dishes. It's nice to know you can easily put together a couple of super simple, super cheap weeknight meals.



Monday: Quick and Tasty Mexican Casserole (omitting the chicken -- really with all those tasty toppings I doubt you would miss it anyway)

Tuesday: Refried Bean and Cheese Quesadillas. (I like to serve these with salsa and ranch dressing. )

Wednesday: Chili (using kidney beans) and cornbread.

Thursday: Bean Soup and Bread -- for this I like to use a 1 lb bag of 15 different kinds of beans. 1 can tomato sauce, a few dashes of hot sauce, 1 grated carrot and 1 medium diced onion and several cups of water. This cooks down slowly (after you soak the beans) over several hours and smells fabulous! Such a good treat in the winter. It's even better if you throw in a ham bone or at least a few small chunks of deli ham. Lacking that I would add a little liquid smoke.

Friday: Chili Nachos Cook the leftover chili from Wednesday night down until it is very thick. Layer some tortilla chips on a dish, top with the chili, some cheese and your favorite nacho toppings.

Saturday: Black Bean, Rice and Cheese Enchiladas. I would make Mexican rice, by cooking up a pot of rice (we use brown) and adding a can of diced tomatoes, green peppers, onions, chili powder and cumin. Then I would take a portion of the Mexican rice , black beans and cheese and wrap inside a flour tortilla. Once you get a 13x9 sized dish of these, pour enchilada sauce all over the tortillas and bake for about 40 minutes. Great eaten with shredded lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream and salsa.

P.S. Did you sign up to get your Free Fall Samples yet? This deal is still valid for a little bit yet; you can sign up here.

Have We Gone Too Far?

Six year old sent to reform school for a spork?!

Check out the full article here.

Free Fall Samples are Out!

Quality Health has just released their new fall samples. Sign up to get yours here.

Menu Plan Monday

Our grocery store ran some really good specials on meat last week so I picked up a bunch in anticipation of doing a bulk cooking session to stock our freezer. Let's hear it for good sales!

I spent Saturday afternoon cooking up 2 pans of chicken breasts, 2 meatloaves, 3lbs of meatballs and several batches of browned ground beef with onions for the freezer. The chicken looked too good though, so I left out enough of that for Sunday's dinner.

Here's our menu for the week.

Sunday

BBQ Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Beets

Monday

BBQ Chicken, Squash, Beets, Garden Salad

Tuesday

Spaghetti & Meatballs, Garden Salad, Garlic Toast

Wednesday

Walleye, Sweet Potatoes, Broccoli

Thursday

Oven Fried Pork Chops, Au gratin Potatoes, Brussel Sprouts

Friday

Cheeseburger Pizza (this is homemade pizza topped with ground beef, cheddar cheese, onions and peppers)

This post is linked to MPM.

Our Finished Shed

Here are those pictures of our new shed that I promised. We finished this up a few weeks ago. George did a fantastic job. We were planning to wait until closer to winter to put it up due to all the jobs George has scheduled. But, he wanted it up before cold weather sets in, so he somehow managed to do it while working 10 and 12 hour days. What a guy!

Exterior view

Interior view of the ceiling. Did you know you can buy something called a "daylight" vent? Basically it's a clear roof vent to use in areas that you need additional natural lighting. Great for sheds like this and attic spaces of homes where you don't plan to run electricity to the attic, but might need to see for maintenance needs.

All the interior shelving is up. George is still sorting out what goes where and deciding how to reorganize the garage and our other outbuildings now that he's moving stuff out of those to the new shed. We probably need a pole barn.

We have more sawhorses than we know what to do with. But seriously -- they get used all the time. The best pair is on the right. I got them years ago (pre marriage) at Home Depot when I first started to remodel my house. They are really the best sawhorses you can imagine and yes, good sawhorses are actually very important when remodling. George borrowed them for jobs several times before we got married. I always tease him that he married me just to get those sawhorses.

New (to us) Oak Table & Chairs

Here's a couple of the photos of the new to us table and chair set that we got from George's parents. We are pretty excited about it. Well, I'm really excited about it. I don't know many men that develop goosebumps at the possibility of a new table.

I had been looking for a set just like this on Craig's List for months but couldn't find anything in our price range. So it was wonderful news to hear George's parents ordered a new table and would be getting rid of their old one.

Get 50 Free Photo Prints

Do you have a ton of unprinted photos cluttering up your computer? I sure did, and I don't even take that many photos. It's amazing how fast they accumulate.

A few months ago I took up one of several free prints offers out there to get all those photos printed. In all total, I had over 300 done. Right now CVS is offering you 50 Free prints. I did this one, when CVS was running this promo awhile back. It's pretty neat, you can easily download all your photos and have them ready to pick up at your local store. They also offered delivery, but we have a CVS close by so I just picked them up.

Click on the image above to get your 50 free prints.

Menu Plan Monday

Monday

Roast Beef, Baked Potatoes, Garden Salad

Tuesday

Walleye, Sweet Potatoes, Broccoli

Wednesday

Taco Bake topped with Shredded lettuce, Tomatoes, Sour Cream and Salsa

Thursday

Grilled Pork Chops, Homemade Bread, Brussel Sprouts, Squash

Friday

Homemade Pizza



This post is linked to Org Junkie.

Our Weekend in a Nutshell

This weekend was a busy one -- some of it was fun and some of it was work. I wish I could say the work was fun too, but you'll know why in a minute.



On Saturday we drove up to the lake to visit my in-laws and pick up their dining room table and chairs set they sold us for super cheap. This was by far the funnest portion of the weekend. We had a great time visiting with George's folks and one of his brothers. His brother has a brand new puppy -- an adorable 9 week old Shitzu. She's the size of a guinea pig and looks an awful lot like a skunk with her black and white markings. I told Dave I would try not hold it against him because he didn't get a beagle. (George and I just LOVE beagles.) But, pretty much any puppy ranks right up there on the cute and cuddly scale.



I'll post some pictures of the table and chair set later today. It's a beautiful oak set that looks lovely in our kitchen. My mother-in-law even gave us chair pads and two pretty table cloths to go with it.



There are two things married people should never do together if they want to stay married: put up wallpaper and take up garden plastic.



On Sunday we took the black plastic off garden, so we can let the soil breath and till in some leaves, grass clippings and other debris for a richer soil next year. In theory, it sounded like a good idea to keep the plastic -- save a little landfill space, work next spring to cut out holes for plants and a few pennies from not buying a new roll next spring. Oh, how naive we are. After fighting with 20 x 40 sized pieces of muddy plastic for hours we ready to call it a day after nearly killing each other.



First we pulled out all the corn stalks and various other leftover, dried up plants and uncovered all the edges and pulled up the muddy sheets. They were muddy because this was the only time we could foresee having to get them up before snowfall. Then we dragged these slippery sheets up to the house and carefully spread them out on a slope so we could hose them off. The hosing took a lot longer than we thought due to all the dirt clods and the shear volume of what we were dealing with. Then it got dark.



We somehow manged to get the upper hand long enough to hang one of the sheets on the clothesline so it could dry (did I mention how windy it was?) -- only we forgot the bottom was just as dirty as the top was. Of course it would be because it was lying on the dirt all summer. At that point we didn't care. I don't know when I've been dirtier. In case you didn't know, you can tell you are really, really grubby when you have dirt inside your bra when you go to take a shower. Lovely. But it does beat falling down in a cow pie. Don't ask me how I know.

The sheet of plastic picked up too much wind and was threatening to tear down the clothesline so we took that off and in a fit of anger rolled the whole wet/muddy thing up and stuck it in the shed. And then we still had the other one to deal with... in the dark. Let me just say I'm glad we are done with that. We will be done, because I plan to throw those rolls away.

As much as we like gardening; we're both glad all that stuff dies every fall and we don't have to mess with anything garden related for the next 5 months.

Coupon and Free Product Offers from Ziplock

Want to score some great coupons, chances to try free products, helpful tips and tasty new recipe ideas? Go here to sign up for Ziplock's Right@ Home Newsletter.


This post is linked to Frugal Friday.

Blog Highlight: Point & Shoot: 365

I wanted to share a new blog with you that I've really been enjoying: Point & Shoot: 365. Point & Shoot: 365 is a beautifully simple blog that showcases one photo a day in the life of Tammy.

The main reason I like this blog so much is the type of photos Tammy posts. Her photos are of ordinary, everyday things that we often fail to take note of as we go about our busy lives.

Many times I'm guilty of looking for beauty only in the magnificent and majestic. It's easy to appreciate the beauty of a glorious sunset or sunrise or purple mountain majesty, but when is the last time you've notice how spectacular a blueberry bush is? Or a crate of gleaming apples? Or a stack of your favorite well worn books and a cup of hot chocolate?

Point & Shoot: 365 inspires me to pause for a moment and appreciate the beauty in the small, ordinary aspects of my life.

Here are a few photos of things that I love.

I looked forward to our first spring here so I would finally be able to find out what (if any) beautiful flowers lay hidden under winter's blanket of snow. What a delight to find we had oodles of stunning irises!

I took this on a cold, blustery winter day photo. It's such a wonderful luxury to sit inside our cozy home and curl up with a hot coffee and a good paper or book.

Another blustery winter day. We have a lot of windows in our home -- you can see virtually the entire outdoors from various interior vantage points. I just love to look outside on days like this to watch the thickly falling snow. It's even better if it's a day I don't have to do any driving.

Last year this huge sunflower showed up unexpectedly in my flower bed. I almost pulled it out, but am glad I didn't. I loved watching this giant grow all summer.