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Truth Talk Live

Today’s Issues, From a Biblical Perspective!

If you are landing here from Truth Talk Live's Radio Program - Welcome!

I thoroughly enjoyed my spontaneous interview with Stu. I hope that you will pour yourself a cup of coffee and browse through my journey of balancing beauty and bedlam.

If you are new to a weblog, it is slightly different than your typical website in that it is in chronological order starting with today's post and moving backward.

You will find the majority of my topics center around frugal homemaking, and if you look to the left side of the screen, you will find the topics featured in picture boxes.
If you'd enjoy keeping updated with all that goes on around here, you may click on the subscribe button located at the top of the screen. You can then view all the updates in google, yahoo or your viewer of choice.

I found out this interview was airing minutes ago, but I was just leaving to pick strawberries.
Consider yourself warmly welcomed; I'm thrilled you are here. :)
Come back on Tuesday when I share what we did with those yummy strawberries at my weekly Tasty Tuesday Parade of Foods event.

Watching my Garden Grow...asparagus

It's this time of year when the first fruits of my garden (or literally vegetables) are coming to fruition.
When I go to water my precious plants, I still have a spring in my step and I haven't been burned out by all the hard work a garden takes. I just love to see God's creation come to life, as well as feed my family from the work of our own hands.
(Now check back around mid July when we're in the middle of a drought and it's 95 degrees outside. I guarantee I won't be quite so chipper...hee hee).

I know I said I was going to finish this gardening post....but it will have to come in bits and pieces throughout the summer.

I had such an amazing surprise this year. Three years ago I planted asparagus. Being the "Master Gardener" that I am, I didn't research the fact that asparagus takes three years before one ever see its first fruit. THREE YEARS! Yes, you must be a patient gardener and really plan ahead. Quite frankly, I had completely forgotten about them until my son and I were watering the garden and we noticed that we had stepped on something.
Yep, my very first asparagus we had annihilated with our shoes. I was disappointed for a moment, but it quickly passed because I was so thrilled! We love asparagus and it's so fun to have our own.
Look at how they grow. Isn't God creative? They are so uniquely beautiful. I never thought I would describe an asparagus like that, but they are. That is also why we didn't see them. They pop right out of the dirt...one little stem. Isn't that something? I had no idea.

This is what happens to asparagus when you go away for the weekend and no one picks them or weeds around them. Isn't that so funny! It's as tall as the Eifle Tower. Just to give you some perspective on how very huge these grew...

My son is holding two grocery store size asparagus and then the monster asparagus. They are best picked at about 12 inches or the stems get very tough. Hmm...considering my son is almost 6 feet, I think these were a bit taller than 12 inches. We ate them though...they are so good for you.
I love to learn and gardening surely gives me a platform to be a self learner. What lesson did I learn about asparagus? When you have a family of seven, make sure you plant at least twenty plants. Since I only put five in the ground, we each will get one asparagus...

A WEEK! ;)
It's alright though, I'll just plant some more and WAIT FOR THREE MORE YEARS.


Register with the Home Depot Garden Club to receive valuable coupons, savings, and gardening advice.

Posted for Kimba's Garden Party...it's not blooming flowers, but it's quite literally...my garden.

Deals and Steals

It's been awhile since I have done a deals and steals post....enjoy some new ones, as well as the tried and true oldies. :)
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We are loving our frugal nights out...another 80% off code. Make sure you use the word "Special."


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You know I LOVE CVS. Since you are all frequenting CVS now after my getting items for free tutorial (right?), you will want to sign up for the CVS photo center. Just click below. It's completely free to sign up online, and you'll get up to 50 free prints when you join. I'm printing black and white photos and framing them in yard sale frames that I have painted white....LOVE IT!
Includes Free photo storage and sharing.

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My garden is growing and my blueberries are almost ripe. I will be adding these to my crop.

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And getting wonderful garden advice and savings through Home Depot


You may request a free Fitness Plan from Curves, even if you don't join.

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Gevalia is always one of my favorites, but I can only take advantage of Gevalia's deal once. Oh well...onto the Boca Java mentioned above. I am not picky.

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My son enjoyed this one.

Smoothies make Summer Sensational

In our family, summer equals the best in sensational smoothies.
Since I love taking advantage of seasonal fruits, marked down produce, and a produce warehouse where you must purchase in bulk, I often have large amounts of fruit that are all ripe at the same time.
I can only make so much banana bread in bulk, so I have to come up with other creative alternatives. Smoothies are the number one choice.

I freeze my favorite fruits in zip lock bags so that I will have access to the more expensive fruits when they are out of season. I was thrilled that our peaches lasted all the way through the winter. I can't wait for them to come back in season. I have never mastered canning, so I just peel, and stick in the freezer. It works for me, and the smoothies do not care one bit.


Smoothies are a wonderful way to introduce "cooking to kids." All of my children love to whip up smoothies and it teaches them creativity by learning to mix a variety of fruits, consistencies and flavors. They begin to view cooking as an creative "art" and smoothies allow them to master their art with a very small failure rate. :)
Our staple smoothies nearly always consist of bananas, vanilla yogurt and what ever fruit we have gotten marked down. This winter we had frozen strawberries and peaches (from the spring and summer crop) that graced our blender quite often.
Strawberries are my smoothie fruit of choice. They add color, and mix well with all other fruits. So stock up while they are in season.
I love our Cuisinart blender. It crushes ice like nobody's business, but I am quite certain that a man designed this square shape. I bought this on clearance at Sam's Club and the following week, they re-designed the model. I can see why. Have you ever tried pouring out of a square? UGH! It's so frustrating and since we use our blender almost daily, I may need to invest in something different.
A necessity for smoothies in our home? Fancy glassware. Remember to pick up some miscellaneous pieces while you're out thrifting or at yard sales. It just tastes that much better when it's sipped in a special glass.
Remember, it's the little things that create the memory, and for us, smoothies in wine glasses will be remembered (just don't tell my kids what they're drinking out of. :)



Since I don't ever measure our smoothies, I'm not quite sure of ratios. We always base it on a taste test, but here is a guess with some of my favorites.

• 1 cup of strawberries
• 1 cup of raspberries
• 1/2 cup OJ juice
• 1 cup of low-fat natural yogurt
• 5 ice cubes or frozen berries
  

A fancier one - great for company:
1 - 12 ounce can frozen lemonade concentrate
2 - 25 ounce bottles sparkling water
6-8 fresh strawberries

Mix lemonade according to directions replacing water with the sparkling water. Put the strawberries in a blender and puree until very smooth. Mix the strawberry puree into the lemonade. Garnish with lemon slices (if desired). Makes 6 servings.

Please share what you have been up to this week for Tasty Tuesday.

Hopefully, Mr. Linky will play nice today. He's been quite naughty lately all around blogland. They are working to fix this problem, but it's taking a long time.

As always, please follow the simple guidelines or post will be deleted.
1. Include your post showing us your Tasty Tuesday recipe or ideas.
2. Link up below to the permalink of your post. To find out what yours is, simply click on the title of your post and grab the permalink from the address bar.
3. Link your post back to Balancing Beauty and Bedlam as a courtesy to me so everyone will know where to find more recipe inspiration.

So you can't open my blog? Well, Coupons have reloaded

How's that for a professional title?
It has come to my attention that many of you can't open my blog or are having problems with your internet.
I AM SO SAD...I miss you!! The reason for the glitch? Certain versions of Internet Explorer are causing the nasty issue. Microsoft updated IE and it's causing problems. Blogger is attempting to fix the problem, but right now my only recommendation is that you lose Internet Explorer and download Firefox for free. It takes seconds, and that will completely fix the problem. I have both browsers available on my computer, but after IE became more susceptible to viruses, my computer hubby had us switch to Firefox. I have never looked back.
In the words of the Firefox website, "Internet Explorer is so 2006!" hee hee

For the rest of you....the coupons widget has been reloaded. Again, Kraft has added some wonderful savings. Print quickly and enjoy some inexpensive goodies this month.
You can sign up here for emails and access to the coupons or just print directly from my side bar widget. Off to work on my Tasty Tuesday post. :)