Daily Dose

It’s like rain after you wash your car!

I spent my weekend doing this:

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That would be 53 bags of leaves and ferns. 53 and the front yard isn’t even close to being free of leaves or the ferns that have been taking over the yard. 53.

And then this pulls up in front of the house this morning.

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That would be the tree truck. Which means more leaves will fall when they do whatever trimming the city has requested they do.

Sheesh.

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Lose Weight! Win a Free Cookbook!

Y’all know Carmen, right? Of course you do, everyone knows Carmen.

Since you know her, you know she lost a whole lot of weight and is doing a fantastic job of keeping it off. (That whole keeping it off thing is a lot harder than losing it sometimes.) How did she do it? The smart way. The only way I encourage people to do it. She ate less fatty food.

That’s it, that’s her secret. It isn’t much of a secret but often it takes someone like Carmen to show you the way. Luckily, she’s up for the job and she’s launched a brand new blog called The ELFF Diet.

I don’t like to recommend diets or dieting or anything like that on my blog. In fact I really try to avoid it. But in this case I’m going to do more than recommend her blog and her ideas, I’m going to entice you to go over there and learn from her by offering a prize. One for you and one for Carmen. But you have to work for this prize. (Carmen doesn’t, she’s already done the work and is continuing to do the work by maintaining and by helping others.)

In order to win the prize (and help Carmen also win the prize) you need to go to The ELFF Diet blog and comment on one of her blog posts and be sure to say “Denise said you were smart when it comes to dieting.” That is it, that’s what you have to do. I’ll be checking her comments and she’ll be glad to tell me if you followed directions. Or you can come back here and post a comment to me telling me that you did it.

In two weeks I’ll put all of the names into an empty Cheese Straw box and Michelle Belle will pick one. We’ll post the video of the drawing of the winner ’cause that will be fun, won’t it?

Oh I should tell you what you’ll win, right? You’re going to win a cookbook. A cookbook by a dietitian I have no qualms about recommending any time, The Recipe Doctor, Elaine Magee. It will be your choice – you can either have Fry Right, Fry Light or Comfort Food Makeovers. The one that you do not choose I’ll give to Carmen!

The reason I have selected this prize is because Elaine also believes you can lose weight and be healthier by eating less fatty food. Her recipes help you do just that. She lightens our favorite recipes without losing any of the great taste. She’s a foodie, you can trust her.

What are you waiting for, go check out The ELFF Diet and tell Carmen that I think she’s smart when it comes to dieting!

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Daily Dose of Cupcakes

Here’s a cupcake topper for a holiday you might not normally celebrate. It’s also a great cupcake topper for kids who LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to do hair. Which means all kids under the age of 10 and an awful lot of kids over that age as well.

hair.JPGHappy Hair Stylist Appreciation Day (officially not ’til Monday so you have time to bake some cupcakes, top them appropriately and take them to your salon)

Just run over to your favorite Barbie supply store and grab the “hair care accessories” package. You might get lucky and find the knock off types at a dollar store so don’t overlook that if there’s one near you. If you want to do this for a kid, and not for Monday, then go to ebay and surf for barbie hair accessories. CHEAP and EASY!

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So what if I’m not Jewish!

Is it weird that I was really excited to see The Modern Jewish Mom’s Guide to Shabbat on the BlogHer HarperCollins Virtual Book Tour? Is it even more weird that I was really really excited to find a copy on my doorstep 3 days after I requested a copy? Is it crazy weird that I really enjoyed the book? Nah, you don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy the book or to find value in its message.

The first thing I need to say is not positive – I hated the paper the book was printed on. I hated it so much that I had a hard time turning the first few pages. I almost put it down because I really hate that scratchy paper in a book. But I persisted and fought back the shuddering and found ways to balance the book so I only had to touch the paper when I turned a page.

The next thing I need to say is very positive – Meredith Jacobs is very readable. I had only read a few paragraphs and I was smiling. TW was reading over my shoulder and said “She’s very readable, isn’t she?” Why yes, yes she is! And I love that in a self help book.

Now, about the content. I mentioned I’m not Jewish, right? Well it just doesn’t matter. Shabbat is about being together as a family, making that connection sacred. The religion is icing on the cake and I don’t need icing, I need cake. The very real ideas about how to juggle real life issues and still come together for Shabbat can be used by anyone. They’re simple and reassuring.

I found the religious instruction pieces excellent. Very interesting and not, umm, preachy! Heh. I love religious education of all forms but I don’t like religious education that screams at you, makes you feel guilty or attempts to make you feel wrong if you don’t believe exactly what the writer believes. Jacobs doesn’t do any of these bad things. She’s straight-forward and honest and not pushy.

When I requested the book, I thought I’d read it and then run a contest on ClubMom and give it away. I’ve changed my mind! I don’t want to give the book away. I want to keep it. I want to find a spot in the PURPLE section of my bookshelf and let it live there. I want to pull it down and try all of the Challah recipes (I love Challah.) I want to pull it down and hand it to a kid to read bits and pieces of the Torah section. I want to pull it down after a particularly Jewish service at the UU Fellowship and let the kids look through it and choose a recipe or a craft project or an idea to talk about. Nope, I’m not giving this one away. I might, however, buy another one and run a contest anyway.

I think I need to go and buy some fresh yeast. And think about how to incorporate some of these ideas into our lives REGULARLY.

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Daily Dose of Cupcakes

nb3676.jpgHappy Earth Day! I know, I’m a wee bit early but since communities all over the world seem to celebrate on dates other than the official Earth Day, I can do it too. Especially since I’ll be traveling on Earth Day and won’t have time to do a real Earth Day post. Earth balls come in a variety of styles and would look darn cute on a cupcake. cupcake. If trees are your thing, check out model railroad supplies for some trees to top a cupcake. And of course, there are flower rings to encourage folks to get out and plant a garden.

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Look! A post that isn’t about a book!

I know, you’re in shock aren’t you? Until you find out it’s about a blog! And a woman! If I’m not talking about books, I’m talking about blogs or women or all three! My favorite three things in the world, besides kids and coffee and my hairbrush. But now I have really strayed off topic. I need to write more often about stuff besides books and then this wouldn’t happen.

While you wait for me to find time and energy to write about something besides books (and blogs and women) you should visit Elizabeth at Table for Five. I love Elizabeth! (ha, I say that a lot around here!)

I met Elizabeth (the Table for Five one) at BlogherCon 06 (that was last year for you date challenged people) and I sort of fell in love with her (not like that!) and I’ve been reading her blog ever since.

Elizabeth gave me a nice award ’cause she likes me, and she thinks I rock! (Who doesn’t, though? I did after all just win a homeschool blog award!) She’s also featured today on Mommybloggers! (I love Mommybloggers and the three specific mommy bloggers who run Mommybloggers! I love a lot of people, mostly women – have you noticed that?)

So, go visit Elizabeth. And the mommybloggers. And tell them Denise sent you and you are bored ’cause Denise only writes about books (and blogs and women.)

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365 Cow Jokes Later

OK OK it’s another book, I can’t trick you and pretend it isn’t. I like books. I also like cows. Last year was a good year for cows because of The Cartoonist They Call Stik.

You may remember last year I won a cow tshirt that’s been quite popular around here. You’ll also remember that I really wanted a Flamencow tshirt. You’ll be very pleased to know that I bought myself the t-shirt and I won a free 365 Cow Jokes Later book.

Cows are good to me.

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Daily Dose of Cupcakes

isaspx.jpgI don’t feel so hot and TW is in the middle of a nice little flare. None of this leads to a nice post about cupcake toppers. I was tempted to suggest fake vomit (looks real so if you vomit when you see vomit, don’t click) topped cupcakes but they’re 5″ which is too big for a cupcake. Maybe you can cut them down to size? What about already chewed gum, I feel a bit like chewed gum must feel right now. Instead, I’ll just go with the simple mini-vehicles cupcake topper – because I do feel like a truck hit me.


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