Fingerprint Friday: Signs of Summer

By MAD21

One of the things I love most about summer is fresh fruits and vegetables. Vine ripened strawberries, snap peas, peppers, lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, and we can't forget about corn!! I have to admit that aside from an attempt to grow carrots as a child, I have never had my own garden. I've always just benefited from the fruits of my friend's wonderful gardens.

When shopping for our flowers this spring, my daughter's asked if we could get a tomato plant (it was at their eye-level and they saw the picture of the plant). I thought... why not?

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Tasty Bites: Grilled Vegetables with Sausage and Penne

By Candy, RN (Steele the Day)

I’ve never been much of a sausage fan. Too many parts. Unknown parts. Ground up. Suspiciously. But on a wander through the grocery store I ran across this chicken sausage with basil and sundried tomatoes that intrigued me, mostly because the ingredient list was very simple and there was very little processing. I decided to live on the edge, despite the “natural pork casing.” And that edge was surprisingly delicious.

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Choose Wisely

By Pat

Have you ever really thought about how your attitude toward God and your faith-walk affect those around you? I used to think my faith was a personal thing, something to hold close to myself and guard fervently. But through the years, as I have grown in my walk with the Lord, I have come to realize that nothing could be further from the truth.

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YOB: Letterbox Retrieval

By Beth

You will recall that the very first thing we did in the Year of the Birthday was to plant a letterbox in Susquehana State Park on January 1st. The plan was to pick this letterbox up on December 31st but knee surgery, kidney stones and mountains of snow prevented us from doing so. Since I was visiting Lara this past weekend for a tatoo party and the weather was decent we made our way to the park to, finally, pick up the letterbox. Our happy jaunt into the world soon took a sinister turn though.

The park was much more crowded this time around, the small lot where we parked was nearly full. The path was also much narrower due to an increase in vegetation since January. We started down the path, eager to see who had found our letterbox over the past year. On the path was a giant beetle. Seriously. It was huge. Naturally, I took a picture of it, not thinking anything of it. I wanted a picture in my scrapbook, that's all. The beetle, however, turned out to be a top of the line, robotic guard (similar to the fly in Get Smart, the one Agent 23 destroyed) and the flash from my camera set off a silent alarm, alerting CIA spies to our presence.

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Works For Me Wednesday: Getting Healthy

By MAD21

Most people who read my blog or have hung around me on Twitter for very long know that I used to be terribly over weight.  At my heaviest, I was 240 pounds, and miserable, to say the least. After my second daughter was born, I made a concerted effort to not just lose the weight, but to get healthy. I know several skinny people who aren't very healthy, so it had to be about more than just losing the weight.

I did a ton of research over the 18 months it took me to get to a healthy body. I did not want to "diet." I did not want to just follow the latest fads regarding weight loss, most of them make you cut certain foods out of your diet, and I didn't want to do that. I like food too much. Plus, I personally don't think it's healthy to cut anything completely out of your diet. Our bodies need everything in moderation.

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