It’s been awhile since I have done WFMW.  But as I broke out my faithful air popper  popcorn maker the other night, I knew I just had to tell you about it!

This $1 yard sale find over 10 years ago has evolved into legendary status in our household.  It’s something family traditions are made of!

And it makes the BEST popcorn, it makes microwave popcorn taste like cardboard with lots of calories!

I simply pop the popcorn and mix with 1 stick of melted butter ( yes 1 stick! This is how the popcorn has acquired legendary status in my family!) and salt. Then serve hot during a family movie.  My kids still ( they are 14 and 12) clamor for this favorite.  This popcorn maker is more than just a small appliance to make popcorn with, it’s something that makes great family memories.   And with the holidays approaching I thought you too may want to purchase your own “family, memory maker.”

It’s a simple special treat that I can bless my family with….and that Works For Me!

Friday again, thank goodness!  I have been staying up late this week to watch the Phillies in the World Series. So I am really looking forward to sleeping in a bit this weekend!  It so fun to reflect upon some of my favorites for the past week each Friday.  Thanks to Susanne for coming up with such a insightful meme!

Enjoyed visting my college Alma Mater last weekend for the first time in 20 some years for Homecoming.  The weather was dreadful, humid, windy and rainy.  But rekindling old friendships with my college roomates was priceless.  We even indulged in the infamous pizza joint we always hung out in during college.  It’s still there and it is still making good, greasy food.

This simple, lovely, pumpkin candle.  A friend gave me this candle last fall.  I just love the smell, and there is something relaxing about lighting a candle at the dinner table on a busy week night.  It seems to soothe and bring a calm to the evening.

I love the view out our bay window this time of year!

I rediscovered how much I like baked potatoes.  While looking for something simple to go with ham, I threw in the oven some baked potatoes I had gotten at the local farmer’s stand.  Wow, with a bit of sour cream and butter, those fattening babies were delicious!

I am enjoying this book!  It’s FULL of helpful, and practical suggestions on how to feed my family healthy food.  My kids at first wanted to burn the book, but then The Inventor read that Fruit Loops might not be all that bad for you, and she suddenly loved the book and started to read it!

How was your week dear friend?

For more Fun Friday Fave Five, visit Susanne.

The corn is gone,  I noticed it the other day while out for a bike ride workout.  I could now see the beautiful fall view beyond the tall corn.  It has now all been harvested, and stored away for the winter.   There is nothing left but a brown faded stump of a corn stalk.  It seems like just yesterday I was out riding and noticed those teeny stalks of green corn emerging from the soil.  Now the field looks so bare and empty.  The splendor of a healthy summer crop is gone.

While continuing on my bike ride I was reminded once again that to every thing there is a season!

Ecclesiastes 3

¹ There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

² a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot

I am in a busy season right now with my kids and family, but it seems like not that long ago  I was a stay at home mom with a 2 year old and 4 year old. Or I was up nursing babies in the middle of the night and wondering when I would ever be able to sleep through the entire night!

Now I am sleeping through the night, but I am still exhausted!   But I am reminded  this is a season, things will change, just like the corn does.  It’s all part of God’s plan and I am so thankful that I can see God’s handiwork and plans in our life.

I miss the tall, lean corn stalks that greeted me on my summer rides, but I love the farm view that  the corn stubs now give way to.  Seasons change, and so does my life, it’s all part of God’s plan, the good and the bad.

Friday again….how did that happen!?

What a week, I am thankful for some down time to reflect on the week.

I LOVE the stunning fall colors I see in my front yard!

I got out for a nice, long bike ride on a beautiful evening yesterday.  I love the stunning beauty of this time of year!

Well going with the fall theme, I am really LOVING this coffee each morning!

We are Phillies fans, so we have all be staying up to all hours of the night to watch our Phillies win the National League Championship and head to the World Series for  the 2nd year in a row!!  It’s been a fun week, but we are all tired!

Taking my students on a field trip today, we are heading to Subway for lunch and walking into our town.  Should be a great day for it!

How was your week?

Please visit Susanne for more Friday Fave Five!

]]> http://samismom22.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/friday-fave-five-14/feed/ 13 samismom22 fall colors T shooting hoops orange mum pumpkin-spice-1 16ncls_600 http://samismom22.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/did-you-know/ http://samismom22.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/did-you-know/#comments Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:29:55 +0000 Sandy@ Jesus and Dark Chocolate http://samismom22.wordpress.com/?p=2138 ]]>

So the other day while enjoying some free time in a quiet bathroom (sorry if that is TMI!)  I was astounded to read this information on the back of the Clorox Wipes;

To Disinfect*
Wipe surface to be disinfected; use enough wipes for treated surface to remain visibly wet for 4 minutes. Let surface dry. For highly soiled surfaces, clean excess dirt first.

Surface should remain visibly wet for 4 minutes!!  You have got to be kidding!   They are called WIPES, that means wipe clean, and disinfect.  Not, wipe, make sure no living soul touches the surface for an entire 4 min., and also check to make sure it remains wet for 4 min.!

I thought Wipes meant..…

Wipe and disinfect

Am I the only one who missed this??!!!  I of course then conducted my own scientific study on surface wetness time, and I will present my data here for the first time on my scientific blog.

• First wipe attempt with nothing extra or fancy just wiping the counter clean – surface dry in 2min 45 sec ( Epic Failure!)

• Second wipe attempt with 2 wipes – surface dry in 3 min 40 sec.

• Third and final attempt, wipe with 2 wipes and soak up excess liquid at the bottom of the wipe container so that the wipe is dripping when I WIPE the surface -  surface dry in 4 min and 45 sec.

So there you have it ladies, data, scientific data, resulting from some intense research on my part.  So now you are in the know!

I was always a girl who would wipe down everything, but now I need to re-think how I do things.  I may have to go back to spraying everything with Lysol!

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Wow this week sure went fast, can’t believe it’s time for another Friday Fave Five!  Susanne is such a wonderful host of the Friday Fave Five each week, please stop by and visit her bloggy home.

It’s spirit/homecoming week at the high school I teach at this week, so I got to wear jeans twice this week!  That is ALWAYS a favorite of mine!  Here I am with 2 of my students wearing jeans and my favorite football teams shirt for sport’s day.

Typos, yes typos!  It’s such a good thing I proofread!    But they sure have given me a good laugh this week.

Almost sent this to a parent – “thanks for keeping me in the poop!”  meant to say keeping me in the loop!

Almost sent this one to a teacher – “please stop by our class boob“  meant to say stop by our class blog!

Watching Drums be a cheerleader at our HS football game!  It was “Dad night” for the cheerleaders.  One of his students didn’t have a dad that could be there for the special night.  So she asked her favorite teacher and he graciously filled in!  What a hoot to watch, he is a heck of a nice guy, but has no coordination!

I had a bit of a migraine Wednesday evening, but it made for a great excuse to lay around and chill out the entire night!

Homemade soup!  It was a very cold and rainy night yesterday, I came home from school and made yummy chicken vegetable noodle soup.  It was so soothing  and comforting on such a chilly fall night.

How was your week?

]]> http://samismom22.wordpress.com/2009/10/16/friday-fave-five-13/feed/ 10 samismom22 FFF+fall+leaves+2 wearing jeans cheerleading hubby http://samismom22.wordpress.com/2009/10/14/things-heard-around-my-house-yesterday/ http://samismom22.wordpress.com/2009/10/14/things-heard-around-my-house-yesterday/#comments Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:17:35 +0000 Sandy@ Jesus and Dark Chocolate http://samismom22.wordpress.com/?p=2120 ]]>

Drums – “Honey where is the salt shaker?”

Me- “Out in the car”

The rest of the story- I took my air popcorn maker to school to make popcorn with my students on Friday, I also took the salt shaker, and I had left it in a bag in the car.   Drums expression was priceless when I told him the salt shaker was in the car!

SportTman – “mom where is the thermometer, I want to take my temperature?”

Me- “I don’t know…….yelling to daughter,” honey do you know where the thermometer is? “

The Inventor – “It’s outside under my swing!”

The rest of the story, both kids have been suffering from the swine flu, apparently The Inventor was answering the door while taking her temperature.  She went outside to get the mail, stopped at her swing and left the thermometer there.

Drums – “Honey I’ll do the dishes for you!”

Me – “hallelujah!!!”

No explanation for that one!  I love my husband!

Both kids are on the mend now, and hubby and I have been swine flu free so far.  But it made for a crazy week and weekend.  But life seems to be returning to some degree of normal at our house.

This has actually been a rough week! Well, that is a great way to start off my Friday Fave Five?!  So let’s see if I can come up with for some favorites amidst a frustrating week………

• SportTman and I were stranded in a Burger King one night for about 2 hours, while we waited for Drums to pick us up, but he could not get to us.  He was surrounded by a parade, he parked in a neighborhood to watch SportTman run a race, but apparently there was NO way out.  He was totally closed in by the parade route!  So SportTman and I tried to make the best of it and made tons of goofy recordings on our cell phones of our adventures in Burger King.  The videos were actually quite hilarious!

• We had a free spaghetti dinner at our church for The Inventor’s cross country team.  It was a pre-race pasta party.  About 40 kids from the team showed up and it was a GREAT outreach.  The kids got to hear testimonies from 2 local runners, and they clearly heard about coming to  a saving knowledge of Christ.  What a great outreach for a public school cross country team.

• I was having a crazy day yesterday, going to school and taking care of the poor Inventor who was just diagnosed with swine flu/H1N1.  After a long visit to the Dr, I dropped her at home and made a much needed grocery store stop.  It was right before dinner, but I must confess that I indulged in the most scrumptious pumpkin doughnut I have ever had!  I am looking forward to heating one up in the microwave for breakfast this morning.  Pumpkin doughnuts….Mmmmmmm!

• I live in the greatest small town around!  The Inventor and I had such a glorious, relaxing, FUN Saturday morning last week.  We went to a few yard sales, got a NY style bagel and cream cheese and coffee for me at my fav local coffee shop.  We then hit our local farmer’s markets for yummy baked goods, fresh made concord grape juice and some delicious raisin bread.  It was a beautiful fall morning and the two of us had fun together and had vital time to chat about things that had been on her mind.

• Today is a dress down day at school, it’s a rainy Friday a perfect day for a dress down day!

Yipee, I came up with 5 things!  Now I am off to put my jeans on, eat my pumpkin doughnut with a good cup of coffee and head off to school with a better attitude!

For more Friday Fave Five visit Susanne.

* For those wondering about my daughter with H1N1, it was running rampant at her middle school!  Several of her friends have already had it.  It tends to last about 2-3 days, and kids usually run a high temp with it.  She is on day 2, and had a much better night last night.

I have not participated in a Not Me Monday in some time, but after a few vintage goofs on my parts I decided to let the world know that us busy women can all be prone to losing their minds at times!  For more NOT ME fun visit MckMamma.

• It was NOT ME that put my black dress pants on inside out with out realizing it……until I was about to walk out the door to go to my teaching job!    It was a good thing I thought to myself as I glanced down at my pants while drinking my coffee running out the door, “man these pants don’t have a thick stripe going down the side!“

• It was NOT ME that actually encouraged the 6th grade neighbor boy to climb into a dank, dark, drainage tunnel in our neighborhood.  It was NOT ME that held a flashlight as he climbed in………………to rescue my daughter’s pet bunny that had run 30 feet  into the tunnel!  And it was NOT ME that exclaimed to the kid, “Oh I could kiss you!”  when he came out with the bunny.

• It was NOT ME that slept all night with my contacts in, and had no idea I had done it!  It was NOT ME that woke up the next morning perplexed as to why my eyes were so dry, and painful.  It was NOT ME that actually thought for a split second that maybe God had healed my vision while I slept since I could  see so well.  It was NOT ME that had no idea as to what was wrong with my eyes until I discovered my EMPTY contact case!!

• It was NOT ME who helped with a cross country team car wash, and “accidentally” sprayed some of the teens with the hose!

Yes, being a busy mom is s fun life, and one of the best cures for the “NOT ME’s” of life is to look back and laugh at yourself!

We have been a busy clan again, but I love reflecting upon my week with my Friday Fave Five.  Lots to reflect upon this week.

• I just went for a power walk workout outside, and it was a lovely night.  The air was crisp, the moon was full, and I could smell a fire in someone’s fireplace in the air.  I felt like I should come home and drink apple cider instead of water after such a beautiful fall night!

• I have been helping out with The Inventor’s cross country team twice a week right after school.  Some days I just want to go home and chill out afterschool.  But I must admit, when I get there I really enjoy the team, they have over 70 7th-9th boys and girls on the team.  So they can use all the help they can get.  I can’t run with the team so I ride my bike with them on their runs.  It has been fun, quite refreshing and dare I say these teens are really quite enjoyable!

• I am so busy and not much of a fashionista, but I did buy a few new clothes this week, and I must admit I am enjoying not feeling so frumpy all the time!

• We went with friends last weekend to ride bikes around the battlefield at Gettysburg.  We got our bikes out, started out onto the battlefield, got to our first stop and it began to POUR down rain!  Being the optimists that we are, we continued thinking it would not last.  However, it continued to pour, we were soaked, and cold, and decided to send the men for the cars.  So you are probably wondering how a wet bike ride made it into my top 5?!  Because after we dried out a bit, we all made the best of our day, made some lasting memories and had fun despite the tough beginning.  And I am thankful for friends who were troopers and willing to make the best of a rainy day!

• And I am thankful for all those fall treats, like apple cider, candy corn, apples and pumpkin roll!  All treats we enjoyed this week!

For more Friday Fave Five, please visit Susanne, she does a great job each week!