helping nashville flood victims

Cheesecake Factory

One of my blogging friends has a great idea and I would love to share it with y’all. You can help give to those who need it and maybe win something great from a local business at the same time. Let me tell you what she is doing.

I’m overwhelmed with the flooding in Nashville. It doesn’t seem to me that there is enough coverage about it. It took days for the story to go national and then it only got it’s “15 minutes of fame”. Not days as it should have. My local news station only touched on it for 5 minutes – for two days. Twenty Tennesseans lost their lives, and many people lost their homes, cars, pets, and invaluable possessions.

I realize that it is not as large to scale as many other natural disasters we’ve faced, but that does not negate from the pain many people are feeling. I have several friends and family members that are immediately affected by what happened and it is by no means over.

So in my little effort to help, I’ve gotten together some things for a giveaway! Yay! Everyone loves a giveaway, right? The best part about it is that all of these items come from in or around Nashville!

She is giving away great things like a gift card from The Cheesecake Factory, a personalized address stamp from Relish Design Studio, and a  Notably Nashville: A Medley of Tastes and Traditions hardcover cookbook from Amazon.com. What a blessing of an idea! There is power in our blogs! The power to help others. Take a look at

Nashville Flood Awareness Giveaway and join in!

benefits of the job

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Freschetta. All opinions are 100% mine.

pizza 100_2063Now I have shared before that I am a pro blogger, which means I often get paid for my opinion. Nearly always if I am doing my job well :) . Does it get any better than that? But the catch is I have to tell the truth. Ha ha, if you know me you know I wouldn’t have it any other way. I usually won’t accept opportunities to share my opinion if I think I will have something bad to say because my Momma always told me that if I can’t say something nice not to say anything at all. So usually if I am offered even really big bucks I won’t take it if I don’t think I can at least nicely say something truthful. Then on some days I get something free to try out. Now let me tell you blogging is big with advertisers these days so finding free stuff is not hard. In fact it could easily clutter your house if you took everything offered.

But when it comes to free lunch. Hmmm. Well I was willing to take a chance with the latest offer of some coupons for some free pizza. I wondered if they knew who they were offering it to. I mean I write “how to” books on things like making homemade pizza. But you know what? I was pleasantly surprised! I think I might have been tempted by the name Freschetta FlatBread , the fresh part sounded good. We got more than one variety and the were great. Not quite like homemade but definitely good enough to get again. We rarely eat convenience food but this was easy, quick, and tasted good like real food. Three thumbs up! Ok, I only have two thumbs but I if I had three they would all be up. As you can see my family was all digging in too. We got ours at Walmart and they were very reasonably priced, so they are worth it even if you didn’t have a coupon. But guess what again? I have a coupon link for you! You can go online and get a coupon for $1 off!!! (http://www.freschetta.com/thin-crust-pizzas/flatbread-pizza/default.aspx) . I would love your opinion too! We liked the risen bread crust the best. Visit my sponsor: Freschetta Pizza

blackberry winter and a calf

I love living in the South. It has been 17 years since we moved from Southern California to TN. 5 of my 8 children have been born here. I love the seasons changing and the country lifestyle. We thought we lived in the country in California and for there we did but we didn’t have all the rolling acres we do here. And we didn’t have the dairy cows. Mostly all we had were horses and chickens with some occasional goats. Here we have green green green everywhere.

This time of year the weather goes from spring back to wintery feeling a few times before settling int a warm season. Right now it is what is called Blackberry Winter. That is basically a cold snap that happens the same time the blackberry brambles are blooming. It lasts about 3 days or so. Today is cold enough to have the heat on and tomorrow will be 82 degrees. Go figure. But God has order in all things, order and purpose.

Our Holstein dairy cow had her calf this morning so we will be milking again. Holsteins give a lot more milk than Jerseys, so she will be keeping us busy but we have plenty of hands. For those of you who might like to experience the miracle of a cow birthing I will be putting together a short book on it with a ton of  “as it happened” pictures. My children think it is gross but then they see it all the time. I don’t think birth of any kind is gross or boring. I think it is an incredible miracle. :)

So, what is everyone else up to this Monday?

Menu Plan Monday May 10

For my Menu Plan Monday post May 10,

We are experiencing what is called Blackberry Winter, which is really just a cold snap about the same time as the blackberry vines blooming. So we are having my favorite cold weather meal tonight then with warmer weather tomorrow back onto a normal schedule.  I have added several new recipes at my recipe site . Chicken was on sale this past week, can you tell?

Busy week ahead, stay tuned to my front page.

Monday-   southern chicken and dumplins 

Tuesday-  pizza   

Wednesday-  taco soup

Thursday- twice baked potatoes

Friday – chicken tacos

Saturday –   grilled chicken sandwiches

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