Boospire… For Women!

When I make a birthday cake I do it using the easiest, most affordable method possible. Growing up, we had box cakes with the little carton of frosting you get from any grocery store, and however many candles we needed for our age. Sometimes if we were lucky we’d get sprinkles or candy on it. I thought this was great. I do remember one year getting a crown cake. I loved that cake. It was awesome!

Lately I’ve been putting a little more love into the cakes I make for the birthdays of my family members. Of course, I’m not going to put hours into decorating a cake so I always find the easiest method possible. Here are three cakes recently done in my household that were RIDICULOUSLY easy.

I made this avatar cake for my husband. We just finished watching all four seasons of Avatar a couple of weeks before his birthday, so I knew he’d love it. This cake was by far the simplest cake to make, and it looks the best! All I did was go on eBay and do a search for an Avatar cake topper. This one cost about 9 dollars shipped. It’s just an image printed with edible ink on edible rice paper. All I had to do was frost the cake and put the image on the frosting. After a while it just molded to the cake. So easy! You can find a lot of different images on eBay, not just Avatar. You can even have a custom cake topper printed if you want.

A friend made this cake for her little boy. Obviously, he loves batman. The bats I bought in the Halloween section at Smith’s. For the black frosting she took all the colors we had of food dye and mixed them with the white until it was dark. We never did get it black, but it became a dark gray and it darkened as it sat there. I don’t recommend eating the black frosting though because it tastes terrible. Just saying. For the batman image she freehanded it, which I thought was pretty impressive, but she just pulled up a picture on her phone and went for it. Obviously it worked pretty well. Her little boy loved this cake.

This cake was also ridiculously easy. I found the spiderman toy at Ross, for like four dollars. I put toys on the cake because my kids love that they can play with them after. I found the spiders in the Halloween section at Walmart, and I let my son pick out the cake and frosting, which is why there are sprinkles all over it. I never would have picked sprinkles for a spiderman cake, but I didn’t exactly tell him he was getting a spiderman cake so this was just a happy surprise to him.

To make this cake I baked it as you would a normal square cake, and then cut off about a third of that and stacked it on the bigger half, just to give it some dimension. Then I frosted it (I let Jakie help) and he put the sprinkles and a few spiders on. After that I sent him on his merry way so I could finish it. the spiderwebs are made out of chocolate. I couldn’t bear the thought of sticking black frosting on the cake where my kids might actually eat it, so I got creative. Chocolate worked great. I bought a pack of chocolate chips, melted some of them in the microwave, and put them in my cake decorating bag. Using the small round tip I made the spiderweb on a glass plate that I had previously covered in plastic wrap. I used plastic wrap because the chocolate will come off the plastic wrap when it hardens, but it won’t come off just a plain plate and I haven’t had much luck with wax paper. After I had made my webs I put them in the freezer to harden. I didn’t put them on the cake until just before we served it, because I knew the chocolate would soften and I wasn’t sure how much. After I put them on the cake the chocolate did soften but it basically just made the spiderweb almost mold to the cake. It looked great. I tried to have some standing up behind spiderman but those softened and fell, so I don’t recommend that. This method works best for flat decorating.

Once the web was on, I put black spiders all over the cake and I was done. Yae! It was so easy and my son loved it.

I found this blog post on the web today and I liked the message it had to share. It talks about how important we are to every person we come in contact with, about loving yourself, and becoming aware of people and life around you.

“I share my heart with you today as an invitation to allow more consciousness into your life. I pray that you truly understand how important you are with each and every life you come into contact. We are here to teach and support each other. Every single interaction is here to support you on your journey of becoming more connected to your heart.” This is written by the original poster. I liked what she had to say here, as well as what she had to say in the rest of the post. At the end she says, “You are so much more powerful than you realize. You really are.” I love this. I wanted to share the post with you.

http://www.positivelypositive.com/2012/10/19/stop-you-might-just-be-making-a-memory/

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.” Thoreau

“Your life is an occasion; rise to it.” Mr. Magorium of the Wonder Emporium.

For the last couple of months I have felt like I’ve acquired a never ending case of the flu. Of course, this isn’t the case. Nope. I’m going to have a baby. I’ve been been dealing with the morning sickness. And it’s awful! This is my fourth baby and the first time I’ve really experienced bad morning sickness. Last time I didn’t feel well but I could still mostly eat and some food sounded good. This time, I’ve had to force myself to eat and nothing sounds good, edible, or even appetizing. I know this is common for a lot of women so I consider myself blessed that it waited until my fourth baby to hit me. But since it decided to hit me, I decided to hit it right back and fight the bugger. Okay, okay. I didn’t really hit it right back. I tried but failed miserably. Still, I’ve been given lots of good remedies that have helped a lot of people, so I thought I would share all of those in one happy place. Here we go:

Here’s a pic with a couple of ideas. Sleep, lemons (I know, I didn’t have a lemon so lemonheads get to represent!), bananas, a bowl of boring cereal…

• Dry saltines. Eat this in the morning before you get out of bed. Getting something in your stomach before you get out of bed can help.
• Cheese. This is one of my go to’s. Cheese usually helps to tone down the nausea.
• Preggie Pops.
• Peppermint Candy
• Gum
• Sprite, coke, or any type of soda.
• Sleep. Lots and lots of sleep. I noticed that I felt worse on the days I was exhausted.
• Healthy fats. I know this might sound strange but for the first few weeks these were the things that settled my stomach. Protein was no way going to happen, but the fats helped. And your body and brain need the fats, so enjoy them. Some people suggest you don’t eat fatty foods because of their digestion time, but this was not my experience. They helped.
• Whatever your body is craving. If you’re craving something, get it! For some reason the foods I craved the most were the foods that made me the least sick. Of course, I could only eat them once or twice but they helped for the once or twice that I could eat them.
• Raisin bran. I don’t know why but dry raisin bran really helped keep the sickness at bay, especially on the days I was at work. This seriously saved me a few times.
• Eat every two hours or as often as needed and eat small meals.
• Plain, boring foods. They’re easier to digest.
• Yogurt, dairy products. This one sounds weird coming from me because I swore off milk and yogurt a long time ago. They usually give me brutal headaches. But I had to come back to them to get through the morning sickness. I really don’t know why but the dairy products helped significantly when it came to settling my stomach and for the most part the headaches remained at bay.
• Kefir. Kefir in a smoothie or something may not settle your stomach but it’s on here because it helps your body maintain healthy flora in the gut, which i believe can help with morning sickness. I’m positive my morning sickness was bad this time because my body was having a freak out session. Keep your gut clean and you may just notice a reduction in your sickness!
• Bananas. This one might also sound strange but when I was starving and sick, bananas really helped.
• Lower your stress. Fun to hear, I know, and it’s not always possible, but keeping your stress levels low just might help!
• Take your time getting out of bed. I noticed this one for sure. On the days that I work I hop right out of bed and go on my way. Those were the days I ALWAYS felt worse. But on the days that I could mosey my way out of bed, I felt a little better.
• They say fluids help. This deserves to be on here because fluids are ridiculously important. But honestly, water was kind of brutal. I didn’t get much of it. However, I did notice that juice seemed to help.
• An acupressure band. I didn’t try this one. I found out about it right around twelve weeks, but I heard that it really helps. I wish I would have known!
• Catnip and Fennel tincture
• Homeopathics
• Lemons. Again, I didn’t hear about this one until about twelve weeks, but I’ve heard it works and I have been craving lemons…
• Popsicles. This one actually did kind of help. Nothing really knocked it but it provided a little relief.
• Vitamin B6. I didn’t know about this one but if I had known, you can bet your boots I would have been lining up for a vitamin B shot.
• Take care of yourself! Sometimes, you have to put your needs first. Rest when you need to, let little things go if you have to, put yourself first for a while. At least then you won’t be making it worse.

So there you have it. A list of morning sickness remedies. Will they all work for you? Probably not. Will they cure it? No promises. But maybe something on this list will provide you with some relief.

Last Friday my husband and I were spending some quality time together on our bi-weekly date night.  We traveled over a mountain pass to see the beautiful fall leaves which were breathtaking in their many shades of reds, yellows and oranges. After enjoying Autumn in all of its splendor we decided to go a little slower and drive through some small towns and enjoy the countryside.

We had just driven past a beautiful church, when my husband quickly stopped the car and backed up. ” What is that?”, He asked.  I had no idea what he was talking about, because I hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary.  He pointed to a bird that was hopping across the lawn of the church.  I noticed the black and white feathers on its back and immediately thought it must be a Wood Pecker or something like that.  My husband didn’t agree.  He said he thought it was a Robin.  A Robin?  I thought.  No way!  ”Robins don’t have white feathers on their backs and they certainly don’t have white breasts”, I exclaimed.  My husband wouldn’t hear any of my doubting exclamations.  He pointed out that the birds body was the shape of a Robin, and that even though most of its breast was white, it did have red spots on it. It was also hanging around another Robin and had the same mannerisms. They were both hopping across the grass and pecking for worms. Wow! My scientist-like husband had made some great deductions, I thought, but could he really be right?  Is there such a thing as an Albino Robin?

Since we live in such an amazing world of technology, I pulled out my smart phone and googled Albino Robins.  I was completely surprised by the many  images that came up.  They ranged from completely albino to partially albino birds like the one we were looking at.  Since we are bird lovers, seeing this rare bird was a huge treat for us.

I didn’t have my camera with me, so the only picture I could get of it was on my cell phone. Unfortunately, It wouldn’t zoom in on the bird enough to get a good picture to share with you.  Luckily, I was able to find a great website that has a lot of pictures of Albino Robins.  Just copy and paste this link to see many varieties: http://www.seed-solutions.com/gregordy/Stuff/AlbinoRobin.htm   The Robin we saw looked very much like the one in the picture on the website that is marked Albino Robin, April 8,2008, Vassar, Michigan, USA.

I am continually inspired and in awe by the wonderful things that God has provided for us to enjoy while we live on this Earth.  This Unique and beautiful Robin is a perfect example.  We couldn’t have asked for a better gift to make our date night complete!

I’ve written posts before on the importance of backing up your computer because if you don’t you can easily lose your files to a virus. There are a lot of different types of viruses, but the one I’ve gotten a few different times always comes the same way. A box will pop up that says something about an important update to your computer and when you try to say no, the box will just keep popping up. You won’t be able to get rid of it. If you end up with this on your computer, turn the computer off!!!!!! Seriously, just turn the computer off. If you click yes, you’ll get something that pops up claiming you have tons of viruses and you need to purchase the antivirus software that pops up on your computer. You will not be able to do anything else. It will say that your hard drive has been corrupted and shut everything down. So again, don’t say yes!! You’ll pay eighty bucks or something to some jerk scammer that gave you a virus and in the end, still have the virus. And I wouldn’t be surprised if they steal your credit card information too, though I haven’t confirmed that.

Now in the event that you click the button because, guess what, you’re not thinking turn the computer off, you’re thinking get rid of the stupid box and you click yes, you’ve got to now get rid of the virus.  Below are the instructions that I have learned for doing that. I’ve gotten this same type of virus three times on three different computers and I now finally know how to get rid of it. Hooray! So follow the steps below. Hopefully they’ll help.

1. Turn on your computer (also known as reboot).

2. Press F8 while the computer is booting up, before the operating system turns on (while the screen is black).

3. After you’ve pressed F8, a new screen will pop up with a few options. There will be one that says ‘repair your computer’. Select that option and press ‘enter’. Once you’ve selected the option, a new window will say something about windows loading files.

4. Your computer will then look like it’s turning on your operating system, but instead of your normal opening screen popping up a box will pop up that says ‘system recovery options’. Select your language and hit next.

5. You will then be asked for a username and password. If you have an admin password established on your computer, it should just be that password. If you haven’t set up a password, simply click enter and the process will continue.

6. The next box will have about five options. Choose the ‘system restore’ option.

7. It will open up the ‘system restore’ option and it will tell you that none of your documents, pictures, or other personal data will be affected. This refers to data that has been previously saved. Anything that you were working on that you haven’t saved may disappear, so make sure you save your work frequently while you work.

8. Click ‘next’ to continue. You will now have the option to choose a restore point. To fix my computer, I chose the most recent system restore point with a time before the virus hit. The restore points will have a date and time on them.

9. Select your restore point to continue with the restore. When you restore your computer it will basically put your computer back to a point before the virus hit. It should remove everything that happened after the restore point, which means the virus should be removed. The restore can take a while, but once it is done you should be able to restart your computer and not have an issue with the virus.

10. After you’ve gotten rid of the virus, download legitimate antivirus software onto your computer. I use Microsoft Security Essentials and have never had a problem with it. A friend of mine prefers the Avast free version. Either way, get something you can trust. Believe me, it’s worth having.

Anyway, this may not fix your computer every time depending on the virus you get, but it’s definitely something worth trying when you get a virus. The first time I got one, I ended up spending $300.00 to get my computer repaired. If I had known this little trick, I would have tried it before taking it in.

If you haven’t saved a document you’re working with, you might lose some data. It’s still a far cry better than losing everything on your computer. This is why I spent $300.00 for the repair. I could have just wiped the computer but I couldn’t stand the thought of losing all of that data.