What about this?

Out came the pool floats! On went the ceiling fans! Out came the iced tea! On went the garden sprinklers! The summer solstice roared this week with a triple digit heat wave. Summer is finally here, but I would have preferred a little 85 to 90 degree warm-up first!

#1 – Ransom Notes
If you think you’ve seen it all, you probably haven’t! Here’s a site where you can create a message in ransom-note-style (letters cut from miscellaneous pieces of paper). Go to Ransom note generator, type in the words, and click “create.” That’s how I made the message above – “I have a heart with room for joy.”

#2 – People That Come Into Your Life
Sometimes people come into your life and you know right away that they were meant to be there, to serve some sort of purpose, teach you a lesson, or to help you figure out who you are or who you want to become. You never know who these people may be (possibly your roommate, neighbour, co-worker, longest friend, lover, or even a complete stranger) but when you lock eyes with them, you know at that very moment that they will affect your life in some profound way.

This is the opening paragraph from a piece of writing I found on the internet. This feeling of “I know we were supposed to meet” has happened to me and, perhaps, to some of you, too. Click here to read the entire inspiring piece.

#3 – Food Journal
I am in a self-imposed M.O.G. (mother-of-the-groom) boot camp now. I have a year to get in shape for the wedding and I’ll need every bit of it, plus any other help I can get! I found this free and easy to download food journal at The Project Girl. Besides the weekly format, I also like that it includes snack and water entries. I made a little packet of the sheets for me and the F.O.G. – let the food journaling begin!

#4 – Dating Your Food
I’m not suggesting you go out on a date with your food, but rather I’m offering a method for keeping track of food purchase dates and dates indicating when items were opened. For example, do you know how long the bottle of cocktail sauce has been sitting in your refrigerator? How long has the jar of instant espresso, which you bought to make a chocolate glaze, been sitting in the pantry? As someone who likes to cook, I have a pantry and a refrigerator filled with items I use only occasionally. Since expiration dates or sell by dates don’t really apply to all products once they’ve been opened, I keep track of their freshness by marking them with a little code I devised:

1. Using a permanent marker, all items that are recipe necessities, but used only occasionally, such as jam, condiments, nuts, specialty items, pasta, baking items, ethnic foods, etc. get marked with a “P” (for purchased) and the date when they are put away for storage.

2. When items are removed from storage and are opened, they get marked with an “O” (for opened) and the date they are opened.

Following this code makes cleaning my pantry and refrigerator faster and easier, and probably more safe, since there is no second guessing to the freshness of products!

#5 – Change Gives Us Branches
“Continuity gives us roots; change gives us branches, letting us stretch and grow and reach new heights.”
—Pauline R. Kezer

Have a wonderful weekend!