Need to Vacuum? 10 Ways to Motivate Yourself

Oh yes, I am all about the helpful housework tips.  Housework is my all-time favorite thing...HA!  Here's a good pic of me - obviously loving the housework.

I do vacuum, really, but not as often as I should.  I tend to put on the blinders until I get really motivated to do it.  But I've got some great ideas that can motivate me, er...I mean you...to vacuum!  ;)

Not that I have tried any of these...*ahem.*

 1. Make sure your dog is shedding to the point where fluffs of dog hair are floating happily around your floor.

 2. Let ants invade - not with one trail to a specific spot - but with scouts sent out all over the place hunting down those remaining Thanksgiving crumbs.

 3. Let the wind and rain drop plenty of leaves on the ground so they can stick to all shoes and get tracked evenly throughout the house.

 4. Have your son take the garbage out by walking through the house instead of going out the back door, with the bag leaving a trail of drips from some mystery substance.

 5. Break a glass or a bowl, but really shatter it completely and from a decent height so that it spreads nice and far. (Actual helpful tip - did you know you can clean up remaining unseen bits of glass with a soft piece of white bread?  Press all around the area and the glass bits will stick to the bread - works like a charm and you'll be amazed at what you missed!)

 6. Have your son do some crafting, especially with glitter.  Make sure he gets up and down and moves around a lot, causing a "breeze" to blow the glitter everywhere.

 7. Spill some food in the kitchen, preferably something out of a box, preferably because somebody put it away with the open end hidden so you accidentally point that end toward the floor.

 8. Use a 3-hole punch on a whole stack of papers, but make sure you don't notice that the bottom isn't on all the way so that when you pick it up the bottom falls off and little paper circles fall all over the place.

 9. Let the dog throw up, in the kitchen, on a rug, right in front of the back door just as you are approaching it to let him out.

10. Walk around in the mud, then let it dry on your shoes and forget all about it.  A couple days later walk all around the house in those shoes so little clumps of dried dirt mark your path.

I am so motivated to vacuum now!  Except that I just did.  Because of the ants.

Are you the sort of person who vacuums daily or are you going to use some of my motivators to help you out?  What vacuum motivational ideas do you have (you *must* have 1!)?

I'm linked up with the fun & fabulous Oh Amanda for Top Ten Tuesday!  Stop over there for more fun!

Have a lovely day friends!!

My Thanksgiving Menu ~ 2011

I hope you are all getting ready for a lovely Thanksgiving whether you are celebrating with many or few.  And prayers for comfort and strength if you are dealing with loss at this time (we have some family members who are).

I thought I would share my menu today even though it's basically the same as past years - you know, just in case you want to come over.  ;)

Appetizers
Boy Scout Popcorn - assorted flavors (purchased from our handsome son) :)
Pumpkin Bread
Holiday Cranberry Spread

Main Dishes
Brined Roasted Turkey - 2! Roasting 1 today and 1 tomorrow.

Side Dishes
Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
Slow Cooker Stuffing
Roasted Spring Veggies
Pantry Cranberry-Apple Sauce
Rolls

Desserts
Amaretto Cake

Pear Custard Pie 

Pumpkin Truffles

Pumpkin Pie - believe it or not this is the first time ever that I will attempt making a traditional pumpkin pie (it might be in the oven right when you're reading this)!
Homemade vanilla ice cream - a bro-in-law is bringing some - yum!

That should be enough.  LOL!  I cooked yesterday and will cook more today and tomorrow.  I always cook extra so we can send plenty of yummy food home with all the bro-in-laws.  On Friday, you can just picture me on the couch all day, recovering!  People will have to heat up their own leftovers on paper plates.  :)

I hope you all have a blessed and wonderful Thanksgiving and have fun shopping afterward if you're that kind of brave person (I am not)!!

Encouraging Bloggers ~ The Blessings of Blogging

This is the first chance I've had to get this posted and it's already Sunday evening!  Go ahead and laugh - but I'm backdating it to Thursday 'cause it just makes me feel better.  :)

Welcome again to Encouraging Bloggers - Part 9 today!  Be sure to stop by the Intro post with links to the series if you've missed anything.  Though every post might not apply to you, I hope that you find encouragement somewhere within the series.  Thanks for hanging in here with me!

As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday and reflect on the things we are thankful for in our lives, I wanted to include blogging.  Are you thankful for your blog?  How has blogging blessed your life?  Can you easily list out the blessings of blogging?

I wanted to see if I could list out 20 ways that I am blessed through my blogging - or reasons I'm thankful for my blog.  I did the first 10 in under 30 seconds.  The other 10 took a little more time and thinking, but I did get 20!  I would like to challenge you this week to make your own list of 20 reasons that you're thankful for your blog!

For some of you this will be fairly easy.  But there may be some of you that struggle to even come up with 10.  If you struggle with making this list, I'd like to suggest that you consider taking a break from your blog sometime during the next month so you can figure out if you really want to continue blogging or if you need a change of direction or purpose on your blog.  Or maybe you just need to take a step back to let the blessings come into focus.  I can tell you that when I took a break from my blog - absence made the heart grow fonder!

I don't want to tell you my whole list so that I don't influence your list too much, but I will tell you the first 3 that came off the top of my head:

 ~ My blog has provided me with a creative outlet.
 ~ Blogging has given me a sense of community.
 ~ I have made new friends through blogging.

I am so thankful that I have been able to share some encouragement with all of you and am thankful for all of you that stop by and read and share my words with others.  Thank you for joining me!

Encouraging Bloggers will take a break during Thanksgiving week, but will be back the following week.  I believe I have a couple more posts to go in the series to finish it up.

I hope all of you have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving week!  Feel free to share some of your blogging blessings in the comments!  Hugs to all!

My Top Ten Pumpkin Posts

I just got through posting about pears, but what I really love this time of year is pumpkin!  I haven't had any new pumpkin posts this Fall, so I thought I would share my ten fave pumpkin posts from my blog (not in any order).  Just click the link above each pic to get to the post.

Roasting a pumpkin

Quick Pumpkin Pudding

Pumpkin Dessert

Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread

Pumpkin Blueberry Streusel Muffins

Starbucks Pumpkin Scones

Pumpkin-Ginger Pie with Marshmallow Topping

Pumpkin Truffles

Homemade Pumpkin Spice Lattes

Kim & I *star* in a video showing you how to make homemade pumpkin spice lattes!  Basically, Kim does all the work while I giggle along.  :)

I just made Pumpkin Bread this morning so the house smells delicious!  I wish the smell could waft into your room through the computer!  :)

I'm linked up today with Oh Amanda's Top Ten Tuesday!  Stop on by for more fun!  And she is releasing the cutest little ebook - go check it out!

Are you making/eating anything pumpkin besides pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving?  What's your favorite pumpkin recipe?


Have a super day friends!

Got Pears? ~ Pear Week Recap

Thank you for stopping by during Pear Week last week - I hope you found some new ideas!  I wanted to put all the links right here in one place so you know right where to go when you get a crazy urge to buy 50 lbs of pears!  :)

Maple Pecan Pear Muffins

Slow Cooker Pear Sauce

Pear Cake

Pear Custard Pie

How to check pears to see if they're ripe

And I have one more pear recipe that you haven't seen yet - I posted it over at Pennies and Blessings.

It's a quick and easy Microwave Pear Dessert - stop on by and check it out (and say hi)!

In case that's not enough, I do have one more yummy pear recipe already on my blog:

Pear Dessert

Thanks again for coming by!  What's your favorite pear recipe?


Have a marvelous day friends!

Pear Week ~ When is a Bartlett Ripe?

Ah - the end of Pear Week.  No recipe today.  Instead I wanted to share some tips I learned on how to tell when a Bartlett pear is ripe.  Methods are a little different for other types of pears.  I'll only address the Bartletts today since that's what I used for all my recipes!

I always thought that Barlett pears should be fully yellow and slightly soft to the touch when ripe.  Not quite.  When Bartlett pears are ripe, they start changing from green to yellow (so you could have both colors at the same time), but if they are soft to the touch in the center, then they are overripe and will go bad very fast.

You are supposed to "check the neck" to tell if they are ripe and at the peak of sweetness.  Grab the pear around the center and use your thumb to gently press in just under the stem.  If it presses in easily - it's ripe!  If it gives some resistance, it's not quite ready yet.

I learned something else interesting.  Bartlett pears ripen best off the tree.  So they are picked well before they are ripe.  This gives them the best texture and the sweetest flavor.  I could never figure out why our grocery store always had firm green Bartlett pears.  That's on purpose!  In fact, you shouldn't buy really yellow, soft, bruised Bartlett pears - they will be overripe.  You'll have to have a little patience and ripen the pears at home.  Once ripe, you can also store in the refrigerator to lengthen the time before it goes bad by a few days.

Whew - that was a little too educational for me.  I think we need a pear joke here.

If you had 5 oranges in one hand, and 5 pears in the other hand, what would you have?

Massive hands.

BAhahaha.  :)

Thank you again for joining me for Pear Week - I hope you enjoyed it!  I think I'll post a recap on Monday with all the links in one place so it's easy to refer back to when you have a bunch of pears to use up.

Did you learn something new today (besides the joke - LOL)? 

Just picture me checking the neck of over 100 pears to see which ones were ripe.  I'm an expert now - HA!  I'll picture all of you in the grocery stores now checking necks and nodding to yourself while other shoppers look at you like you're a little odd.  :)

Have a wonderful day friends!

Pear Week ~ Pear Custard Pie

So glad you're hanging out with me for Pear Week!  It's my last recipe today but it's a yummy one!  Don't forget to check out my recipes for Maple Pecan Pear Muffins, Slow Cooker Pear Sauce, and Pear Cake.

But now it's time for pie.  (This is linked up to the Love The Pie Party at TidyMom - check out the info below.) I didn't want to make just a pear pie that was exactly like a typical apple pie.  So when I saw this recipe shared in a little booklet that I got at Apple Hill (where I bought my pears) a few years ago - I knew it was the one!

Fill those pie crusts up with those yummy pear slices!  Aren't you so impressed with how perfectly I crimp the edges of my crusts?!  Or maybe those crusts were frozen Marie Callendar's pie crusts because of my previous pie crust disaster- it's so hard to keep track of these things.  ;)

Doesn't that custard filling look yummy?  And you should know that it's hard to take good food pics when you're trying to make sure that all the messy disaster in your kitchen doesn't show up in the pics.  :)

Pear Custard Pie

9" unbaked pie crust
6-8 medium sliced pears (core and peel first)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 egg unbeaten
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Arrange pear slices in bottom of unbaked pie crust shell.  Mix remaining ingredients and pour over sliced pears.  Bake at 425 degrees for 5-8 minutes.  Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake approximately 45 minutes more.  Cool on wire rack.

This pie was so yummy!!  But I do have to say that the flavor of the pears is what really makes it good.  You won't want bland pears in this recipe.  Taste your pears first and be sure that they're ripe to get the sweetest flavor.  I'll actually share a couple tips tomorrow on how to check if pears are ripe (it's completely different than what I thought!).

Have you enjoyed Pear Week so far?  Do you have a favorite recipe?

I'm happy to tell you that this pie post is also in preparation for TidyMom's 3rd annual Love the Pie Party!

Come join Love the Pie with TidyMom  sponsored by Cherokee USA, Le Creuset, Wilton,Bags by Bloom and  Harvard Common Press.

Have a fantastic day friends!

Pear Week ~ Pear Cake

I'm enjoying Pear Week and I hope you are too!  Be sure to check out Slow Cooker Pear Sauce and Maple Pecan Pear Muffins if you missed them.

I thought that I should use up a few pears by putting them in cake.  I found a great apple cake recipe at Reluctant Entertainer and read that she had subbed pears in the recipe.  I added pears and healthified the recipe a little with a few other changes - turned out great!

I knew that I wanted to make this cake to put in the freezer, so how was I supposed to sample it to make sure it really was delicious?  Well, putting some of the batter into a jumbo-muffin tin was just the thing!  C'mon - I gotta have a taste!  :)  This cake is perfection with whipped cream added!

You don't have to peel the pears in this recipe, which saves you some time (and we all could use a little more time, right?).  Look at those lovely big chunks of pears inside...

Pear Cake
adapted from Reluctant Entertainer

4 cups chopped unpeeled pears
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup pear sauce (could use apple sauce)
1/2 cup organic sugar
1/2 cup raw honey*
2 eggs
1 cup unbleached flour**
1 cup white whole wheat flour**
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup chopped pecans for topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (may want to decrease temp a bit if you are using the raw honey as it browns quicker).  Using electric mixer, mix all ingredients together except pears and topping.  Fold in pears.  Pour batter into greased 9x13 pan.  Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup chopped pecans over top.  Bake for 35-40 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.  Serve warm or at room temperature.  Top with whipped cream and enjoy!

* If you don't have raw honey, increase sugar to 1 1/3 cups.
** Could also use 2 cups all-purpose flour instead of the unbleached and white whole wheat flours

This is not only a good dessert, but a nice coffee cake as well!  Mmph...oh sorry...had my mouth full!  ;)

So now I've covered muffins, sauce, and cake.  Up next is pie!  I've got to cover all the food groups you know - LOL!  :)  Thanks again for stopping by Pear Week!

This post is linked to:
~ Chic & Crafty Party at The Frugal Girls
~ Fusion Fridays at Jane Deere


Have a stupendous day friends!

Pear Week ~ Slow Cooker Pear Sauce

I hope you're enjoying Pear Week so far - did you check out the Maple Pecan Pear Muffins I posted yesterday?  Today I'll share the main recipes that worked for me to use up a large number of pears at once.

My hubs and I have been trying not to eat sugar recently (OK, well except for every single recipe here this week that I *had* to sample) so I knew I wanted to make pear sauce without added sugar.  These pears were so sweet and juicy that I figured it wouldn't be a problem to leave the sugar out - I was right!

So many pears! I sprinkled cinnamon over a couple layers before cooking.

I have made apple sauce in the slow cooker in the past, so I knew I could do pear sauce the same way.  I filled that slow cooker up FULL 3 times!  I found that about 4 hours on low was enough time to get the pears to the point where I could either mash them with a potato masher and fork (to leave a little chunky) or puree with my stick blender right in the slow cooker.

Chunky Pear Sauce with cinnamon and nutmeg - yum!

Pureed Pear Sauce with cinnamon - very rich!

Slow Cooker Cinnamon Pear Sauce {no sugar added}

Enough ripe Bartlett pears, cut in half, cored and peeled, to fill slow cooker
Cinnamon to taste
Nutmeg to taste (optional)
1/4 - 1/2 cup All natural apple cider (no sugar added) or other liquid

Fill slow cooker with pears.  Sprinkle cinnamon over layers as you put them in.  Add desired liquid.  Cover and cook on low for about 4 hours.  Mash or puree pears.  Stir in more cinnamon if needed and nutmeg if desired.  Cool and refrigerate.

Chunky Pear Sauce with a hint of maple and almond.

Slow Cooker Maple Almond Pear Sauce

Enough ripe Bartlett pears, cut in half, cored and peeled, to fill slow cooker
3 tablespoons+ pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon + almond extract

Fill slow cooker with pears.  Cover and cook on low for about 4 hours.  Mash or puree pears.  Stir in maple syrup and almond extract.  I was trying to keep it low-sugar and not overpower the flavor of the pears, so I only used enough to give a hint of flavor.  Feel free to use much larger quantities of maple syrup and almond extract if desired!  Cool and refrigerate.

I put the extra sauce into containers and froze it.  Though the sauce is delicious on its own, it would be a delicious topping for pancakes and waffles too.  Or maybe even over ice cream or mixed with yogurt or in a smoothie - so many yummy options!

Have you ever made pear or apple sauce in your slow cooker?  Do you consider it a side dish, a snack or a dessert?

Thanks for stopping by Pear Week!  Come on back tomorrow for some cake!

This post linked to:
~ Works-For-Me-Wednesday (WFMW) at We Are THAT Family
~ I'm Lovin' It at TidyMom

Have a fabulous day friends!