WFMW thin mint cookie alternative

Are you enjoying your Girl Scout cookie stash? Pretty soon it will be gone, but if you live near a Dollar Tree store you can satisfy that Thin Mint craving all year long. They carry a mint fudge cookie that tastes just like a thin mint. They are square instead of round - similar to a fudge graham cookie. Soooooooo yummy & only a dollar, that works for me!

WFMW - candy cane hearts

I needed a little treat to take to our Valentine party this afternoon. Being the cheap lazy frugal person that I am, I decided to use what we had around the house instead of dragging 4 kids to the store in the freezing cold. This is the end result:

Preheat your oven @ 250. Unwrap candy canes & form hearts on a foil-lined baking sheet. Make sure that both ends of the candy canes are touching. S-l-o-w-l-y & carefully put them in the oven. Bake for about 5 minutes. Let cool & peel off of the foil.

Easy, cute & free - that Works For Me

**Updated to add: If you happen to forget that you put your hearts on the bed to take a picture, and if your two-year old happens to snap them all in half....... don't fret, just pop them back in the oven for a couple of minutes & they are as good as new!

WFMW - don't be selfish

This week's Works-For-Me-Wednesday has a theme in honor of Valentine's Day - Love, Sweet Love.
I remember as a newlywed being told that the first year is hard, but just wait until year 7 - that's when it really starts falling apart! (These encouraging people also believe that teenagers are genetically programmed to be moody, sassy & hate their parents.)

Our first two years of marriage went like this :
-DH doesn't call to let me know he is going to be much later than expected because he "didn't think about it"
-I sit up on the couch furious & worried that he's dead on the side of the road
-He walks in, sees my face, & says "What's wrong?"
-I reply "Nothing" , which of course is Wife-enese for "You better figure out what's wrong with me & fix it!"
-He says "Oh, ok!" because
a) surely his wife wouldn't lie to him &
b) if she did lie, he is not about to give her the satisfaction of playing along with her little game

Does that sound familiar to anyone? Well, we got bored with that rather quickly & decided maybe we should try it God's way instead. In a nutshell, that means put your spouse before yourself ALWAYS.

Self is such a hard thing to let go of, isn't it. When do I get a day off? Why should he get to do something with his friends when I've been home with the sick kids all week? I've had a long day, can't I just roll over & go to sleep? I'm not in the mood to fix dinner, can't you just pick something up on your way home?

I am happy to say that after 14 years of marriage, we still haven't hit that rough patch. We both try to always put each others needs before our own, and amazingly our own needs get taken care of or we realize it wasn't all that important to begin with.
Warning: Be prepared for no one to believe you if you choose to have a peaceful & happy marriage. I look forward to the day when they also don't believe that I have well-behaved, thoughtful teenagers who love me!

Speaking of love, you are going to LOVE this sale!
A fellow homeschooler is offering a special on her site to pay off medical debt. You get a variety of items like e-books, discounts to other sites, recipes, a lapbook - 24 special offers in all for the amazing low price of $29.95!! You must hurry because the offer ends February 10th. You can check it out here.

it snowed! - WFMW

.....for a whole 10 minutes.....but we take what we can get around here. It was beautiful to watch even if it didn't stick.

If you've never seen photos of individual snowflakes, you need to visit one of my favorite websites . My kids and I have had some great discussions about God's creativity while looking through these amazing images.

Want to make some snowflakes of your own? You can find tons of patterns here . Last winter we had a snowflake-cutting party and then pasted our results onto our dining room window with a gluestick - it washes off with a little warm water when you are ready to remove them.

If you are a homeschooler, you've got Bible, Art, & Science all rolled into one lesson - and that Works For Me!

I am so excited to be participating in my first Works-For-Me-Wednesday. I look forward to reading all the great tips every week. Head over to Shannon's to check it out, and to add a tip of your own.