A Snowy Drive in the Country

I love living in the country! It is so beautiful! It feels like we are WAY out, but we are 3 only miles from our little town. We are 20 miles from the larger shopping areas, what some might call civilization, and the freeway. There are plenty that live even farther out than us, so there is nothing remarkable about it, except the remarkable and stunning scenery!










Living some place that you love is an important part of living well! Being in love with your living environment and the resources it provides is very important to your overall well being. Whether  you live rural, or in the suburbs, or urban doesn't matter as much as much a feeling at home and content!



What do you love about where you live?



Live Well there!

Love SuziQue



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The Red Book Challenge: Writing With Your Spouse and Improving Your Marriage

My husband and I started doing this a few years into our relationship. The original book disappeared several years ago, at an appropriate time at the beginning of our difficult phase. For those of you that have been following along for a while, you know that we have only been married a little over a year at this point, and have been together a total of 7 years now. When we recovered our relationship and decided to get married, I decided to re-institute the Red Book.

I have done this with each of my kids with varying success. I have even done this with my best friend when we lived in different states, and we filled several books, which she holds to this day. We call them "The Tomes".

This is my challenge for you. For your relationship.

This can be started by either partner, but I have written this from the perspective of the woman, since that is my experience.

For my marriage, we have a Red Book. But the color doesn't matter, just choose a blank book that inspires you! It could be a spiral notebook for that matter!

Show the book to your spouse, and tell them that you'd like to write back and forth together in this book. Set any "rules" you need to so you both feel safe with this experience. But keep it light. Keep it fun! This is not HOMEWORK! This is just a way of recording the best things about your life together! If your spouse is not receptive, then do not push the matter. Perhaps you can write in it yourself, and then gift it to him all filled up, on your anniversary. No more words are said about it, once the initial conversation about the purpose of the book is explained.

Note the date, maybe the time if that is important to you.

Write a love note in your book to your spouse.

It doesn't have to be long. But fill a page.

If your sentences are not enough to fill each line of the page, then write huge, or draw some little pictures or characters in between things.

A beautifully crafted but simple "I You!" might be what you need to express!

Share your heart.

Use positive words only.

Write a list of your favorite things about your spouse!

Write a list of things you appreciate.

Write about how your heart aches when you are apart. How you KNOW that you belong together. How you can just know when he's thinking about you.

Use only words that build up your partner. Thank him for being good to you. Thank him for doing some "thing that he does" that makes your life better/easier/more fun.

Write something that makes you feel vulnerable, scared maybe, and follow it immediately with how you know, see, feel, trust, that whatever that situation is, you know you can do it together. You know that you are safe with this person that you chose to have in your life.

Perhaps an apology for a hasty behavior. NOT blaming him for anything, being real ... you acted hastily, or angrily because you felt scared, you felt alone, you felt trapped. And you know that your heart heals past these things by sharing with him, but at that moment, you are feeling very emotional, and feel that perhaps your thoughts might not come out right, and you don't want to cause further drama.

Perhaps you just had a wonderful adventure together, and it made you feel particularly connected, and you want him to know how close you feel.

Write a dream you have for your relationship. Even a little one ... Do you have a wish that you could take a little trip some where special. Do you dream of the day when you will own a home? Or can you envision that time when you will get to build something together? Plans of planting a garden, and working together to grow beautiful food that you will love to eat.

Tell your spouse how excited you are to be doing this life together. How much you appreciate him letting you have these big dreams, even if you cannot act on them now, you can have the dream.

Tell him you love him for letting you cry during sappy movies, or even those commercials with the adorable puppies!

That you love him for loving you, just the way you are! That you want to grow and improve together, because to possibilities together are boundless!

Now, give him the book. Sometimes I hide it in his suitcase when he has to travel. This last time I just left it on his night stand.

This is the hard part for us girls ... The back and forth of the book is not a daily thing. It might be several months before I find that book sitting on my night stand again, or in my purse, or in my suitcase because I've gone on a trip.

This can be super challenging, maybe even scary, for us girls, as we want instant interaction. But it's OK for both you and he to just gift him your words, and let his heart mull them over and absorb them.

I have on occasion had something more that I have wanted to add to the book when it's not my turn. I have on occasion asked if I could have it as I have something I want to share in it. Sometimes he will grant that, and at others, he makes me squirm and wait my turn. That is ok too! It is good for me to wait my turn to respond to his thoughts with out piling more and more of mine on! At those times, I might write a little note on a card, and hold onto it until it is my turn again. Generally, I find that if I still want it recorded in the book, I can then just tape that piece of paper to my page, and continue with my current entry. Other times, that feeling has been expressed in other ways, and I don't feel the need to add it.

Loving Well is Living Well!
Try it, and share your experience.

Love SuziQue

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7 Steps to Living Your Dreams

We cannot just think big and dream big, and hope that something good come of it!

We must take action.

A series of small actions collectively become something larger. Start with those big dream, and big thoughts, them start taking little baby steps to bring them to life.

Living Well is a constant collection of small actions and decisions. It is an on-going choice. It is taking ownership of the dreams. It is taking ownership of the opportunities not taken, and the poorly planned action.

It is not beating yourself up for the missed opportunities, or the lack of planning, or the poor decisions. It is seeing the new opportunities and learning experiences found in them.

1.  Think like and action taker. 

What do you envision goes through the minds of those that seem effortlessly productive? My husband is one of those! He amazes me! He seems to have a magical way of not letting the side projects prevent the success of the current one. He knows how much time it will take to do something, and then does it in that amount of time.

2.  Act like a thinker.

What do you see the successful DOING? Are they watching TV? NO. Are they playing video games? NO. They are taking little steps toward their goal. Some times big steps. Sometimes little tiny ones that we might not even see, but they add up to the ones we can see!

3.  Have a plan.

4.  Write it down.

5.  Every day, do 5 things that take you closer to the end goal.

6.  Every time some new thing needs to be decided, ask yourself, "If I choose this, will it take me closer to, or farther from, my goal?"

And 
7.  LIVE WELL!

Love,
SuziQue
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Cinnamon Rolls: Recipe

My Amazing Husband doesn't very often that I cook any particular thing, so when he asked me to make cinnamon rolls for Sunday breakfast, and lemon bars for dessert, how could I resist!??

Last time I made cinnamon rolls, they were good, but not awesome, because I used a quick recipe. This time, I used my full-on-takes-3-hours version. There is your warning! These are not fast to make ... but they are OH! SO! Worth the time and the effort!

They freeze great! So at the end of the day, I sealed each one in it's own baggie to put in the freezer (of course, I left 6 of them out and I know they will not last long). Now we can pop one in the microwave for a few seconds (or maybe a minute, whatever it takes) and have a fresh delicious cinnamon roll!

Helpful Hint: turn your oven on to the lowest temperature before starting. Once your dough is ready to "set to rise" turn the oven off, and place the bowl of dough in the oven. This is called "proofing".

I use a huge stainless bowl, I think it's 32 cups!! You need plenty of room to stir and mix in 5 cups of flour; I like to kneed in the bowl, and let the dough rise; saves a little on clean up later.

Heat 2 cups of milk until it is steaming. Remove from heat and add 3 tablespoons of oil (I used butter, which melts in the hot milk, and cools it enough to add an egg ... Mix this well and set aside.

In your big bowl, mix gently to dissolve together:
1 Tablespoon yeast (I buy it in the jar, so read rounded Tablespoon, if you are using packets, consider using 1-1/2 or 2)
1 Tablespoon honey (you can use sugar, I just see the yeast respond more lively with honey)
1/4 cup warm water (bath water warm)

Once the yeasty water is frothy, add the milk mixture, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 cup sugar and 5 cups of flour. mix well and kneed to a firm consistency, adding only enough flour to control the stickiness.

Lifting the ball of dough, add a little oil to the bottom of the bowl, return the dough, then turn to coat. Set aside to rise for half hour.

While your dough is rising, mix 2 sticks (or 1 cup) of softened butter (or margarine if you must) with 1 cup of brown sugar and 2 table spoons of cinnamon powder, until you have a spreadable creamy mixture.

If you are going to add nuts, crush or chop them if necessary.

Helpful Hint: If you are adding raisins, set them to soak in hot water before starting. This re-hydrates them, and helps prevent them from burning while baking. This is also a great tip for adding raisins to oatmeal raisin cookies!

Once your dough is ready, PUNCH IT DOWN! (this is a favorite part for me! LOL) Roll it out into a rectangle about 1/2 inch thick. My pan is a 9x13, but I rolled this about 12x 20!! I got a little crazy! LOL

Smear on your butter/sugar/cinnamon mixture, sprinkle on your nuts and raisins evenly.

Roll it up into a log and cut it in slices 2-3 fingers wide. I could have rolled from the shorter edge, and made fewer rolls, that were bigger around. I really doesn't matter, it's a personal preference!

Place the rolls cut side down into your baking dish, they can be touching as this allows them to grow taller as they rise, but be careful not to crowd them ... I ended up with a few to spare, so they went into a glass pie pan.

Put them back in the (still slightly warm oven) to proof again for about 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes of rising, turn the oven back on to 325 degrees, and let the rolls bake until lightly golden and your house is filled with delicious smells! About 20 minutes.

 If you tap on the golden crust of a center roll, and it sounds hollow, they are done. Be careful if your baking pans are not the same thickness! The glass pie pan is not as thick as the ceramic 9x13, and it is not as full, so those rolls cooked more quickly, and were done several minutes before the others.

I brushed the tops with a little additional butter (I did not promise low calorie, low fat, or low any thing else! LOL)

Serve hot! YUMMY!

THIS is Living WELL!

LOVE, SuziQue!

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See you next time!

Cost Effective Resources for Crochet and Knitting

This started as a post on our FACEBOOK page! But the more I thought about it, the more I realized how important this topic is! But before I get started, I want to encourage you to "like" us on Facebook, and sign up here for your free email updates! I don't want you to miss out on any of the fun!

We all craft for different reasons. For some of us, it is to save money because that luxurious sweater we want would be hundreds of dollars to purchase, but $100 or less to crochet or knit.

Some of us crochet or knit because we love to make one of a kind items for our home and family and friends. Some of us love the magic of watching a tangle of "string" become a garment, or blanket. Whatever your reason, crochet and knitting have some common "threads" (pun totally intended)

We are all, for the most part, aware that quality materials make for a quality finished product; and we are also aware that it can be challenging to invest your hard earned and often sparse dollars in both good yarn and great patterns! I'm sure that many of us have struggled at one time or another (or maybe even many times!) with some variation of this quandary ... "If I buy that amazing sweater pattern that I LOVE LOVE LOVE, can I afford to buy the amazing yarn too, and end up with an amazing finished sweater that will be worn and worn and worn for years to come?"

I'd like to encourage you to think outside the usual! I borrowed these great books (shown in the picture) from my local library last night! There are LOTS more too! And DVD tutorials!

I have lived so many years confined by my budget, that even though I have more freedom, the habits are hard to let go of! SO, I find great patterns this way, and I feel more comfortable spending more of my designated project funds on delicious and amazing yarn! Through the use of the library system, I have also discovered what types of items and techniques I love the most. Then, when I find myself checking a book out for the second, or third time, I know it is time to consider purchasing! And I can search AMAZON for my favorite crochet books title!

It also helps the library system to know what topics they need more books on! & helps keep the library system funded (because part of their funding is determined from the frequency of check-outs!)
 
It's a WIN.WIN.WIN.

Live Well by searching your local Library and shopping your local Yarn Store, post a picture on FaceBook and share what you are making!

Love,
SuziQue