This past week, I read three different blog posts about simplifying and this really made me start thinking beyond just simplifying our physical belonging but also simplifying our lives.

First, I read this post from a friend. I really started thinking about her challenge:

If you made a list of the top four things you would like for yourself and family…What would they be? There is a rule though…these four things need to be met every day.

1.

2.

3.

4.

I am still thinking about this, below are my four goals I have come up with.

My four things that I would like for myself and my family are:

1. Show and tell my family how much they are loved

2. Encourage others

3. Serve others

4. Take care of myself (so I can fulfill one through three)

Then the next day I read this post, I love how Carly says she is not sure what simple is for her but she wants to find out. Again, I think many of us desire to find out what simple means for us.

Then two days later I read this post. Love the printable, I think I want to put it in my bathroom, so I will see it everyday, as a daily reminder.

I think we are all trying to simplify. For each of us this can take on a different meaning. How do you simplify your life?

I recently moved all my favorite blogs over to Bloglovin since Google Reader will be gone come July. If you would like to follow The HoB, head over to Bloglovin!

Karie @ The HoB

First on our list is to rip up the nasty, cheap, ugly, and very well used (read dirty to no end) carpet. We know we will be having wood grain laminate throughout most of the house and ceramic tile in the bathrooms and laundry room/pantry. What I cannot decide on is the color of the laminate, oh my word there are so many choices! I think I have it narrowed down to these two:

Choice 1 – Hickory-Gunstock                            Choice 2 – Hickory-Mocha

I love these looks:

I just love the dark floors with the white cabinets. Carmel did a fabulous job! Check out the rest of her house at Our Fifth House!

Again, love the dark floors with the white walls, and the addition of the accent door is just amazing!!! Love what Shelley has done with her house too! Check it out at The House of Smiths!!

Again, just love the dark floors in Megan’s kitchen. Check out the rest of her gorgeous home over at Honey We’re Home!

Here is the slightly lighter flooring, I still like it. Though I cannot find as many examples of this being used. I found this picture via Pinterest, but the link does not go anywhere.

Another one via Pinterest.

Another one via Pinterest.

So, I think I like the darker one better, but then the flooring guy told me that the darker on will show dirt/dust easier. So with that I started leaning toward the lighter one. Oh, I hate making decisions like this. Which do you like better? If you have dark laminate or wood floors in your home, do you notice the dirt/dust?

We love when Happy Elf, our Elf on the Shelf, shows up each year at The HoB! This year Happy started a new tradition and brought us a special elf breakfast this morning!! The boys were so very excited to have our first Northpole Breakfast. Happy Elf had all kinds of yummy sweet treats and even brought the boys some fun ornaments for the tree in their room and a fun Christmas Craft.

Happy found these great Northpole Breakfast notes at 505 Design+Paperie! The PDF file is editable for the names on the notes. The title card does say 2011, Happy just used a sharpie to write 2012 and it worked great!!

Do you have Elf on a Shelf visit your house? Do you have a Northpole Breakfast?

I linked here:

I love pumpkin and during the fall I cook and bake with pumpkin at least once a week! Here are the Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Mini-Muffins I whipped up this morning! They are delicious and all of us at the HoB agree! Here is the recipe, a printable version is available at the end! Happy Fall Y’all!!

Ingredients:

3 c Bisquick (either store bought or homemade, here is a great homemade recipe, way better & cheaper!! )

2/3 c Brown Sugar

1 can (15oz) Pumpkin Puree

1 egg

1/2 c Milk

1-2 tsp Pumpkin Spice (either store bought or homemade, here is a great homemade recipe, I use the Pumpkin Pie Spice#2)

1/2 c Cinnamon Chips (if you don’t care for the cinnamon chips, just add an extra tsp of Pumpkin Pie Spice)

Mix all ingredients together, spoon into a greased mini-muffin tin

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 mins or until done, makes approx. 48 mini muffins

Printable Recipe

There are a ton of green smoothie recipes going around on Pinterset lately. So we decided to try our own here at The HoB! And WOW!! All of us are really liking it, so much that we all have had one yesterday and today!

 This is so simple, I put 2 cups chopped fresh pineapple, 2 small bananas, 1 cup water and enough fresh baby spinach to fill the rest of my blender. Blend, pour and serve! Yes that simple!!! The spinach has little taste so all that is tasted is the pineapple and banana. We are now on a quest to try many different variations. Today we add some strawberries to the pineapple and banana, very yummy, though the color was not as pretty.

That is right, both my boys could not get enough of our green smoothie, both asking for another one tomorrow!!

Have you made green smoothies, if so what is your favorite ingredients to add?  

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Yes a healthy and delicious chicken salad! I am forever trying to find new, healthy, and yummy summer recipes. Living in Texas, hot foods are just not appealing in the summer, it is just way too hot! Plus who wants to stand in front of a hot stove to cook! One of our family’s go to summer recipes has always been chicken salad, in the past I have always used mayo but in trying to be healthier we tried an alternative this time around, Plain Greek Yogurt! And we were all very pleased with the results!

The mayo, and I was using a reduced fat olive oil version, had 360 calories and 32g Fat for the 1/2 cup I added to the chicken salad. But the plain non fat greek yogurt only added an additional 130 calories and no fat and I used an entire cup! And to tell you the truth I liked the salad made with the greek yogurt better!

Here is my recipe:

approx. 3 cups shredded or diced cooled cooked chicken (I used chicken we had smoked)
1 cup halved red seedless grapes
1 bunch green onions chopped
1 cup Fage Total 0% Plain Greek Yogurt
Mix together, salt & pepper to taste and chill

Approx: 8 servings (about 1 cup)

Nutritional Info:

Calories		125.1
Total Fat		1.2 g
	Saturated Fat	0.3 g
	Polyunsaturated Fat	0.3 g
	Monounsaturated Fat	0.3 g
Cholesterol		49.3 mg
Sodium		66.9 mg
Potassium		270.2 mg
Total Carbohydrate		4.9 g
	Dietary Fiber	0.5 g
	Sugars	3.0 g
Protein		22.8 g

**The nutritional info came from Spark People – Recipe Calculator**

***FAGE nor Spark People know who I am, I received no compensation for use of any products, all opinions are my own***

Sharing at these awesome link parties!

I am loving this summer with our boys. Last week we made GAK! The boys just loved that stuff!! I stumbled upon a recipe on Pinterest, and as soon as my older son saw it he immediately stated “WE HAVE TO MAKE THAT NOW, MAMA!” So I added the few items to our grocery list and then as soon as we had all of the ingredients we went to town making our own GAK! Here is the link to the recipe I used GAK! at Come Together Kids

Shared at:

The salsa on the left if a simple tomato salsa, I coarsely chopped a quarter of a very large sweet yellow onion, quartered 7 medium tomatoes (they were from my garden, even better!!), chopped 1 large jalapeno and added a bunch of cilantro added everything to my blender and blend! Homemade salsa!! Add more or less jalapeno for your taste, our jalapeno was a hotter one so the salsa was hotter, also this makes a thinner salsa but that is how we like it!! Our batch made 1 quart jar!

This last weekend I was visiting my mom and dad, my mom had made this salsa and all of us could not stop eating, so I decided to try making it myself! The salsa on the right is a tomatillos avocado salsa that is very yummy!! I put into my blender 1 seedless cucumber (the long skinny ones that are usually wrapped in plastic, they are worth every penny) quartered, 7 tomatillos quartered, bunch of cilantro, juice of one lime. Blend together then added 1 larger avocado. The salsa will be very thin until you add the avocado, then it will be thicker. This salsa is good on all kinds of food! We had it on shrimp tacos for dinner and eggs for breakfast! Enjoy!! Our batch made 2 quart jars!

What are your favorite foods for summer?

Check out these great link parties I shared at: