This is my first week participating in Mailbox Monday, a blog hop to help get you more subscribers to your blog.   It's also a neat way to make new friends and find cool new blogs to read and stay up to date on their latest information.

Here's how it works:

You MUST subscribe to the three hostesses of the weekly meme Simply Stacie, This Mama Loves Her Bargains and A little of this A little of that…
They will return the favor.  Nice eh?


Add your blog link to the linky below this post.


Visit other blogs on the list and subscribe to the ones that interest you.  Leave them a comment with your blog link so they know you came from Mailbox Monday's.

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Each week there will be a new list.  Anyone can join in the fun!  Your blog MUST have a place where people can subscribe via email in order to do so or your link will be removed.

Nothing beats warm weather, lounging at the lake, kids splashing in the water and have a bbq picnic during the summer months.  Each year I'm always on the look out for picnic or summer accessories that make going to the beach easier and more fun for everyone.  So far this year I've found a few cool treats to bring along and must have's.

Messermeister Picnic Knife

Inexpensive and portable and comes in a variety of colorful choices.  The plastic shealth keeps knife safe and is a must have for any picnic adventure.  For Canadian retailers click here.  Knife retails for less than $5.00 at House of Knives.

Picnic Table and Bench in One

This fantastic item is a great carry all for any picnic or BBQ outing with the family.  It converts from a picnic table for the family to a park style bench where you can sit and enjoy yourself wherever you go.  Available at most Walmart locations.



Kids Batman / Barbie Camping Picnic Chairs

Your little girls or boys will love these easy to carry, fold up style chairs.  Printed polyester with steel poles these chairs are a great edition to have on hand when at the park or beach.  Located at most JYSK outlets.  Retails for $7.00 they are on sale now for $4.99


Groovy Colored 15L Picnic Bag

Also available from JYSK these bags are nifty.  I love the colors and they are great for packing those goodies you want to bring with you when either camping or just doing a day outing with the kids.  Available in Pink, Green and Blue Striped they retail for $6.99 but are on sale now for only $4.99.  You can read their weekly flyer HERE.


Home Outfitters Canada has must have's for summer.  If you love ice cream you will love these products and so will the kids!  The Deni Soft serve ice cream maker.  Deni Ice Cream Maker with Candy Crusher and the Back to Basics dual slushy maker.  Price ranges from $39.99 to $59.99 and will complete your summer fun!

I am suffering terribly with allergies which I never had before.  That being said... I have to admit (shamefully) I do not NOT ever garden.  My mother has a "green thumb" not sure why they call it that her thumbs are not really green but I guess it's because everything she touches stays beautiful!  And being married when FD (Forgetful Dad) ends up in the PROVERBIAL DOG HOUSE for some stupid reason like leaving his shavings in the sink (yuck!) or stacking his dirty clothes on the floor until they decide to get up and walk themselves downstairs because even they cannot stand to be in a mound with each other.

He never NEVER buys me flowers to say "sorry".

I have to choose six flowers - right?  Jeez - okay this is will be fun since I'm a rose with a thorns.  Speaking of which that is number one on my list.

1.) THE ROSE - Classic yet beautiful the rose has long since been a flower of choice for it's elegance!

2.) TULIPS - Not sure why I like these.  Mom grows them every year and I love looking at them.  They stand so tall and proud if only for a short while and they are so bright in colors.

3.) BABY'S BREATH - I love this.  I'm not actually even sure if it's a flower or not but I love it!  It adds to any floral arrangement and is perfect for grads and weddings.  There is something so sweet about baby's breath.

4.) VANILLA ORCHIDS - These smell divine and they are pretty.  They also make me think of a cute movie starring Sarah Michelle Geller (BUFFY GOD LUV HER!) called Simply Irresistible.  There is something romantic about this flower I think.

5.) PETUNIAS - I love these!  In fact they are the only thing I have planted in my shameful excuse for a garden at the side of my townhouse because they don't require a ton of light and are easy to care for.  I love them because of the rainbow of colors they come in and how they wave and spread upon one another.

6.) CARNATIONS - Okay don't laugh these remind me of pom poms lol.  I love them because of (drum roll) how they feel ahahhaha.  They aren't the most gorgeous flower around but they feel so cool when you touch them.

I am participating in this week's Five Question Friday hosted by My Little Life, check her out and give her a visit if you will please.  Comment support is always appreciated for any blogger.

My answers for this week's questions

1.) Is there something you've always wanted to try but just can't muster up the courage to do yet?

Hand in one of my novels to a publisher like Harlequin.  Yes, I write romance novels that have steamy sex scenes in them and things that would make my mother disown me if ever read aloud.  I don't know why I can't muster the courage.  I'm not afraid of failing.  I think I'm afraid of actually becoming successful at something.  I don't like it when things in my world change.  Maybe one day I will do it.

2.) If you had $100 in cash handed to you without your significant other knowing about it what would you spend it on?  

Oh hubby would know.  We have no secrets, strange I know but I never keep anything from him, he manages to drag everything out of me.  I would probably spend it on food because we are always struggling to make ends meat - hahaha get it?  Okay bad joke, but yeah food.  I have 2 boys who like to eat me out of house and home.

3.) What was your favorite piece of playground equipment as a child?

Omg the merry go round.  I loved riding on it, spinning on it, until I felt like I would throw up.  Yeah looking back now that's strange, playing until you puke for laughs... kids are strange.

4.) Do you prefer a sweet or hearty breakfast?

Hearty.  Eggs, toast, bacon, hash browns are my favorite.  Fills you up and makes you feel good all day long.

5.) Are you a neat freak or messy bessy?

Messy Bessy.  Organized Chaos is how I work but I try hard to keep up with the housework.  You can eat off my mother's floors, they are immaculate, it's sick really.  I on the other hand glance down occasionally and go wow look at all those suckers and pop spills maybe I should mop!

In the Shaw household if there is one thing we go through a lot of, it's cheese!  Grilled ham and cheese, bacon and cheese, simple just cheese sandwiches are a popular fav with both PB(Pickleboy) and Gamer around here.  Both boys love tomatoes so when I came across this I had to share this yummy recipe.

PREP TIME: 20 MIN
SERVINGS: 4

INGREDIENTS



DIRECTIONS

	Make aioli by whisking together all of the aioli ingredients. Set aside in refrigerator.
	Fry bacon in a large skillet. Once cooked through, place on paper towels to drain excess grease.
	Toast bread and lay out 4 slices.
	Spread aioli on each of the 4 slices. Top the aioli with 2 tomato slices, 2 slices of bacon, 3-4 basil leaves and then about 2 mozzarella slices.
	Season the mozzarella with salt and pepper and then top with the remaining bread slices to form sandwiches. Aioli is homemade garlic mayonnaise. Add your own twist to it by mixing in your favorite fresh herbs. You can also grill this sandwich. Simply assemble the sandwiches without toasting the bread, brush the outsides with olive oil and grill in a skillet until golden brown. For more cheesy recipes visit here.

Omg, it must be something in the water or the air maybe.  Maybe it's the rain that has befallen upon us in the past two days out here in Abbotsford.  I don't really know but if it doesn't stop soon, I'm going to pluck out my eyes, rip off my ears and run screaming naked like a bush bitch through the mall until security traps me and hauls me away for a much needed vacation at the funny farm.

PB can't stop whining.  He whines about everything lately and it's driving me insane!

PB: Mommy I want daddy to play basketball with me, why won't he play basketball, can you play ps2 with me, I wanna watch Speed Racer, someone get me a drink, no juice, chocolate milk!  I wanna drink now!  No computer mommy let's go outside, no rain I don't care if I get wet, I want a bath, give me a bath Now!

and on and on and on...

He yells.
He screams.
He throws a fit.
And cries like we are beating him.

It's insane!

I sit here and I try to remember Gamer who is eleven now doing these things and I cannot.  It's like that part of my life with my first child has been completely erased, giving me nothing to go on, nothing to draw from, nothing to compare to.  WTF?

FD (Forgetful Dad) says it's just a phase PB is going through but phase my ass, the little bum better learn that whining is not the way to win mommy's heart or get what he wants.  Worst part is - I cannot talk to him to explain how we do things.  He refuses to listen.  He covers his ears and shouts at me that he won't until the paint peels off the walls to go someone else's house to sit on because even they cannot stand the loud and obnoxious behavior from this four yr old driving the house mad with his thunder.

Guess I will have to find another approach to parenting because everything I have tried has essentially failed.  So for now I'm back to eating chocolate and wallowing in my dreaded day of events of PB shouting out to the world what he wants.

Lord give me strength!

This week as I came across this in my inbox sent to my husband from a volleyball friend of his.  I cried watching it as it makes you think about your life and I know how FD felt, going through all the things he has in his life with his brain injury, feeling he would never get married, never be a good husband or father because of his inability to remember.

I'm lucky to have him.  Lucky in my life.  We all are, after watching this man Nick Vujicic and his mission to set people straight on what we should appreciate in life.






I am very blessed in my life to have my husband.  He's a good man.  Sure he goes to bed at night and forgets what happened the day before.  Sure he will drop me off and forget to come and pick me up.  Sure he might forget it's my birthday.

But he's loving, caring, sweet, intelligent, amazingly patience, loves his children, a good person, responsible, helpful and kind and basically he makes me want to be a better person.

Please make sure if you participate in Wordful Wednesday you go and visit Seven Clown Circus to post your link and see other WW posts.

I'm on Facebook when Tsunami Mommy puts up a post on an incredible article from U.S.A today about mother's judging one another and the difficulties parents face.  Read it here.

The article is filled with all the things moms and parents can do to judge one another when they are actually trying to be supportive and the nature of how moms feel, always having to defend their parenting actions or love for their children when their choices come into question.

I, like every mom out there has at one point experienced this type of judgement from other parents, friends and even family.

For instance: right now PB is having a difficult time sleeping in his own bed.  He's always had a hard time.  Yes he sleeps with us and I absolutely hate it when friends roll their eyes or my folks (GOD LOVE THEM) give me the lecture of how I'm enabling him by allowing him control by allowing him to crawl into bed with us.

I know as a mom it's not good.  I know PB needs to learn to sleep on his own, without daddy and I with him.  He's getting there.  He's my last child and sooooooooo very different from Gamer who slept in his own bed from the moment he was born and never really gave me any trouble in the sleep department.

It's annoying and frustrating when people feel the need to butt in, even though they may have your best interests at heart and are only trying to help.  It makes me angry especially when as the article states: we as mothers already feel overwhelmed, sleep deprived and on our heels always second guessing if we are doing the right thing or not.   I cannot think of a time- any time really- where someone told me I was a good parent.

That's sad.

Maybe we should go around and pick out all the wonderful things we do as parents, support one another this way instead of putting one another down for our choices and trying to make each other feel bad if those choices don't reflect our own idea of how a parent should be.

I'd like to say thanks to Tsunami Mommy for pointing this article out to us, it is a great resource and gives us all something to thing about.  Take a moment to visit her blog, she's a top mom in my book!

Okay so I have to admit aside from blogging here at Rants n' Rascals, Memories from Mom and my two other blogs Peek-a-boo Blog Designs and Author JP Shaw.  I do occasionally find time to uh... visit Facebook and uh... play a few games.

Okay drag it out of me.  I'm addicted to FARMVILLE!

I can't help it.  I've always wanted to live on a farm.  I love visiting all my animals and collecting from them, building things, planting crops and well - I know it can a useless waste of incredibly valuable time.  But hey - as moms we could all use some of that once in a while.

Farmville is holding a contest on the most creative artwork made strictly with hay bales.  I of course entered my pathetic attempt at art.  But mine was as I said pathetic compared to some of these incredible finalists for the contest.  Take a look below.











These are the finalists and you can vote on Facebook for your favorite under the Farmville application.  So head on over and pick which one you love the best.


Well that's it for randomness today.  If you participate in Random Tuesday then please head on over to visit Keely at the UNmom and post your linky there.