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Bundle Up: It’s Freebie Day!

~ Midwest Storyteller ~ 3 Comments

I glanced at the post for last month’s First Friday Freebie and saw that I had encouraged you to get outdoors and enjoy the beautiful weather while it lasted. Well, of course, it didn’t – and now it’s time to bundle up and stay out of the cold. Lil’ Snookie and I played Monopoly this afternoon. I’ve never seen a five-year-old so good at it! Fruity Pebbles played the role of the catastrophic tornado that threatened to wipe out houses, hotels and pretty much the entire economy. We survived, but barely. And then we bundled them up and sent them home.

I bundled up a Christmas Freebie for the month of December. Let’s take a look –

The “All Is Calm – All Is Bright” wall hanging measures 13.5″ X 9.5″. It features a wood tone finish, shimmery lettering, snowflakes and hangs by a twine roping. The “Noel” piece of word art is wood with a metal overlay and features a wire hanger with a cute red plaid bow. In addition, I’ve included a Christmas Planner for you. Of course, if you’ve got yourself all organized for 2025, you can save it for next year as it is undated. I got multiples for myself as I thought these were handy-dandy! It measures 8.5″ X 5.5″ when closed so it slips nicely into your purse for shopping days or to keep handy when a good idea strikes or an event pops up. Spiral binding makes it lay flat and who doesn’t love that? I liked the features inside because they seemed so practical! It has two full calendar pages for November and December with a “To Do” column at the left of each. There are separate pages for gift lists for teachers, friends, significant others, plus one for gifts for the whole family and a wish list for yourself. Then, for each family member (up to eight) there’s a page for their wish list and below a grid to record gifts bought, the store, the price and boxes to check as to whether you’ve gotten them purchased and wrapped! This great for me, because every year I have the habit of losing at least one present and then finding it somewhere between Valentine’s Day and the first day of spring.

There are even plan sheets for your Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping, plus a gift budget sheet and spending tracker. After all that, when you’re exhausted, you flip the page to the lists for Christmas books to read and movies to watch. You can track Christmas cards, thank you notes, guests lists for your events, food prep, grocery lists, menus and more.

I personally love to fly by the seat of my pants as I go through life, but I find that if I go by my natural inclinations, I end up in tears. Organizing myself is the only way I ever arrive at Christmas morning with my sanity and a smile – and I consider our holiday efforts small in comparison to many households!

The first thing you need to do in order to win the Christmas Bundle is to become an email subscriber HERE if you haven’t already done so. Once you’re a subscriber, “Leave a Comment” on this post, saying, “Merry Christmas, Midwest Storyteller!”

Subscribing is FREE and First Friday Freebies are FREE – don’t you just love it?

Often I fail to invite you to follow Midwest Storyteller on Facebook HERE and on Instagram HERE, so check those out.

SHARE this post through Facebook, Instagram, X, Pinterest or send the link in an email to all your friends so they can enter to win!

Previous freebies can be found on the “Freebies” page.   Take a look at the gifts subscribers have been winning.

Once again, a winner will be chosen at random from those subscribers who enter before midnight tonight, December 5th by leaving a comment on this post, saying, “Merry Christmas, Midwest Storyteller!”

You can see the complete First Friday Freebie Rules by clicking HERE.

Don’t delay.  You know you’ll forget if you don’t enter now!  Subscribe if you haven’t already, confirm and comment to enter before midnight tonight, December 5th!

And remember, my new novel, “Hear My Whisper” is available now at Ozark Hollow Press as well as Barnes & Noble and Amazon . If you’re local, you can get a signed copy directly from me. Now wouldn’t that be a great Christmas present for yourself or someone on your list?

TIPTON BOOK SIGNING POSTPONED

~ Midwest Storyteller

Oops! The scenery has turned white and beautiful, but the roads have turned nasty and treacherous. Therefore my book signing scheduled for tomorrow, December 3rd in Tipton, Missouri will be reschuled. I’ll post the revised information as soon as I get it.

So sorry – but it keeps our lives interesting, right?

Another Freebie Winner

~ Midwest Storyteller

I’m a little behind in letting you meet the winners of my First Friday Freebie.

Check out the First Friday Freebie rules below. You’ll find out how simple it is to enter to win.  This is a special monthly gift for my email subscribers only.

Meet August’s winner –

Winner Liz https://midweststoryteller.com/category/freebies/

Liz from Boonville, Missouri.

Congratulations, Liz! 

Liz is shown here with the “Welcome Home” decor she won. As an email subscriber, Liz commented as directed in the freebie post on the day it arrived in her inbox.  I require this tiny bit of effort each month in order to prevent spam and make sure you’re on your toes and paying attention. 

I send freebies anywhere in the continental U. S., so don’t think you’re too far away to enter.

If you’d like to see other past winners and their gifts check it out here on my Freebies! page.

You can see the original First Friday Freebie offer for the one Liz won here. 

Trying to subscribe?  Here are a couple of tips –     

NOTE:  Subscribe with an email you intend to keep and check the week after the drawings.  This is my only means of notifying winners.  If it isn’t up to date, you may not get your gift!

We live in a life filled with gadgets and you’ll find that this blog can have a different appearance depending on whether you are on your computer, tablet or smartphone.  You can easily navigate to “SUBSCRIBE” at the top of the page or in the drop-down menu. Then, fill in your email and hit the “SUBSCRIBE” button.  Confirm your subscription when the email arrives.  If you’ve don’t receive a confirmation email, please email me at barb@midweststoryteller.com – it seems that from time to time, a subscription will get “stuck”. 

Subscribers get an email reminder each time there’s something new – like when there’s a FREEBIE, news on my “Morgan’s Landing” novel series, a new story or recipe.

Please share what you find here with your friends and family.  When you share on MeWe, Facebook, Instagram, X, Pinterest, you’ll give them the opportunity to subscribe and win also.  Subscribing is free.  Freebies are free. 

On October 3rd, you’ll see the new Freebie.  Enter to win that day.  Then, check your email in the days following. 

Smartphone reminders help.

Take a moment make yourself familiar with the complete Freebie Rules by clicking HERE.

Though we’ve turned the page to October, the leaves are still green and the temperatures are very warm out. I’m hoping that autumn arrives and stays a good, long while.    

Leave a comment – have you any ideas for fun activities that fit between naps so that Lil’ Snookie and Fruity Pebbles can get as much fall fun in as possible before cold weather comes?

The BEST Way to Keep Herbs Fresh

~ Midwest Storyteller

Here we all are with May about to burst on the scene and one thing that is likely overtaking the great majority of us is the desire to grow things.  Whether you are the person who goes all out and plants a full garden of veggies or the person who lines their porch and steps with colorful pots, this urge is one of the main symptoms of spring fever.

Today marked our second, and possibly our last, trip to a plant nursery.  Smuffy remarked that we are doing well at restraining ourselves this year.  He is still in search of a certain tree he wants to plant, so we’ll see if he can manage to come home with just a tree.

I have a soft spot for herbs and like to have a kitchen garden full of pots that boast basil, parsley, cilantro, sage, lemongrass, rosemary, oregano and a special pot of catnip just for Phoebe June’s enjoyment.  This year, however, a brand new grandbaby is on the way and the writing aspect of my life is going to take up all the hours that I am not snuggling her.  I’ve decided that a few colorful pots in addition to Smuffy’s veggies is all I can deal with.

That means I’ll need to use up the remainder of last year’s herb harvest that I dried and if I need fresh herbs, I’m going to have to purchase them. (Insert groaning noise here.)

I cannot adequately express my aggravation at going into a supermarket and paying a ridiculous sum for a half-handful of limp herbs that will still be too much for the recipe.  This scenario is almost always followed by the burial scene as I pull them from the refrigerator, wrapped in whatever shroud happened to be the latest sure thing recommended on a cooking show or blog, and lower their brown, slimy remains into the trash can.

But this story has a happy ending!  A little over a year ago, I happened to be watching “America’s Test Kitchen” and they were testing the best ways to keep herbs. “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I thought to myself and then I nearly snorted with sarcasm as they recommended the Cole and Mason Herb Keeper and claimed that in their testing, this amazing little box kept the herbs fresh for – are you sitting down? – eight weeks!

Soon after, my family asked if there were any additional items I might want to put on my Christmas wish list. On a whim, I told them I’d like to try one of these miracle gadgets.  My wish was their command and after a few months of use I knew I would have to do a favorable review here on the blog (which, by the way, I am not getting paid for).

This herb keeper has gone way beyond my expectations. It truly will keep your fresh herbs fresh for eight weeks! The parsley in the photo you see here has been in the Cole and Mason Herb Keeper for at least a month and just take a look at it! I merely took it out of the refrigerator, sat it on the windowsill and snapped a photo without plucking off any unsightly leaves. As you can see in the photo, there are only a couple of leaves with a little yellowing that need to be removed.

It has a fill line so you know how much water to add. Just tip it over and dump out the old water and add new every week or so. There are removable dividers so that you can separate three types of herbs in one container.  Simply wash your fresh herbs, trimming the stems and any leaves that might fall below the water line, and insert them into the keeper.  Slide the outer sleeve up to the height of your herbs and flip the lid closed.  Keep them in your refrigerator and you’ll be snipping away on fresh herbs for weeks to come.

I found this fresh herb keeper at ColeandMason.com and at Amazon.com for the same price – $19.95.

As a certified lifestyle coach, I love to share great finds like this with my one-on-one clients and those who attend my weekly group sessions. Life is simplified when you can avoid extra trips to the store. You and your family are healthier when you can enjoy nutritious, healthy foods.  On top of that, you’ll have more money left in the budget to spend on feeding your family well when you stop having to throw food away.

I’ll take back that snort of sarcasm that I gave when I heard the claim that the Cole and Mason Fresh Herb Keeper will keep your herbs fresh for eight weeks.  It does and it will!

What great gadgets and helpers have you discovered to help around the house?  Leave a comment so we can all discover what is tried and true for you.

Need great healthy recipes?  You can sit on your porch with a glass of Lime Sillies here, make a quick skillet dish of Saturday Pasta any day of the week, or try my great copy-cat recipe for No-Carb Easy Bread.

Happy planting!

Introducing…Lime Sillies!

~ Midwest Storyteller ~ 2 Comments

I probably should have passed this one on to you at the beginning of summer so you could enjoy it in the summer months, but since we enjoy it year-round I decided to go ahead and share it now that it has a name.

Lime Sillies www.midweststoryteller.com

I’m quite a lot like Anne of Green Gables when it comes to names. I like a little romance or beauty in a name rather than something ordinary. I, like Anne, would never have called it Barry’s Pond when I could’ve re-named it The Lake of Shining Waters and what is a better name for a blooming orchard than The White Way of Delight? It’s like she’s in my head.

I gave up soda a long time ago – decades in fact. After a while, I actually grew to detest the stuff and the way it made me feel.  However, I do somehow miss the bubbles and had to content myself with the occasional bottle of sparkling water because I’m way too frugal to drink it all the time.

Then I did some bartering one day with a friend who was doing a rummage sale with me.  I traded her some tea tree oil I’d over-bought for a Soda-Stream.  We had lots of fun with successes and fails as we tried various additives and blends to flavor the sparkling water we could now just fizz up in our own machine. (There is a cartridge that you trade in when it’s empty so after your initial purchase you pay only half price when you make the swap.)

We found it to be economical.  We started our first cartridge around July 4th and didn’t run out of bubbles till the middle of September!

Flavorings seemed to be the sticking point.  Smuffy is super picky on taste.  I am super picky on healthy add-ins.  Some of the ones you buy turn your carbonated water right back into soda! 

After a while, I just threw something together one day as a “lime thing” and ended up loving it.  Then I started serving it to guests and they liked it, which is good because when they come to my house I don’t stock “junk” drinks.

I knew this was ready to pass on to you when Lil’ Snookie gave it a name.  All on his own, when he was still two years old, he began to say that anything with carbonation in it had “sillies” and would ask Pookie, his mama, if he could have sillies in his drink.

Now he’s grown to love my invention and almost every day asks me if he can have “Lime Sillies”.

And there you have it!  It needed the perfect name and now it’s ready to share.  No free printable necessary for this recipe because this is all you do –

Lime Sillies

1.  Pour 1” to 1 ½” inches of Real-Lime or fresh lime juice into the bottom of your glass.  (Everyone has a different preference as to how much lime they prefer.)

2.  Add a tiny pinch of mineral salt (not the table salt gunk).

3.  Add 1 doonk of THM Pure Stevia or any on-plan natural sweetener.

4.  Add a couple of drops of pure vanilla extract.

Swirl the glass well or stir the mixture with a spoon before filling the glass with cold, carbonated water.  Add ice if you wish.

NOTE:  You cannot add the ingredients to the water.  You have to add the water to the other ingredients.  For some mysterious reason, dropping the sweetener into the carbonation makes the contents of the glass explode all over the counter.  Ask me how I know.

Also, with a SodaStream, you must carbonate only plain water.  Adding any ingredients to the water prior to pumping in the carbonation will result in more exploding things.  Ask me how I know.

There you have it – Lil’ Snookie’s Lime Sillies!  Fix a glass and head for the porch on these beautiful autumn days.

If you’d really like to see me explode things, check out “Don’t Blame the Cat – The Spaghetti Squash Did It”.  I can’t let Smuffy have all the fun, you know, and you can get a taste of what it’s like to live my Life With Smuffy here also.

I fully disclose that I am a THM Certified Lifestyle Coach and at times receive financial compensation as such.

If you need support in your journey to better health and weight loss, head to the Contact page or my Food Freedom pages on Facebook and Mewe and let me know.  I’ll give you all the info on group sessions which I conduct locally in person on a weekly basis.  Private coaching can be done in person or by phone.  Share with friends and let’s see how many are ready to get Trim & Healthy!

The Trim Healthy Mama Plan is a great way to boost your immune system, reduce inflammation, and certainly to lose weight safely and sustainably if you need to do that. 

Leave a comment after you sip your Lime Sillies and let me know how you like it.  Do you have a carbonation machine of any kind? What are your favorite flavors to add that keep it healthy and make it tasty?

First Friday Frustrations

~ Midwest Storyteller

Greetings and Groanings,

Just a quick note from my phone to inform you that life, internet service providers and a toddler have joined forces to – for the first time ever – interrupt the First Friday Freebie. As soon as I can align all the ducks in their rows, I’ll be back with you and so will the Freebie. Have a wonderful August!

Hoping the Feeling is Mutual!

~ Midwest Storyteller

Today’s the day! Find an extra special way to tell those you love how much they mean to you today.

I have to admit that every once in a while, when the stuff of life overwhelms me, I question whether or there is room in my world for this blog. Then, snippets of readers’ comments start floating to the forefront of my mind and I realize I may not be the only one enjoying myself here. Whether here on the blog or in line at the check-out, you’re letting me know that you’ve tried that recipe or that your eyes have been opened to a whole new side of Smuffy or that you think Phoebe June is as much of an adorable character as I do.

Happy Valentine's Day Cup of Tea www.midweststoryteller.com

To date, (other than episodes of “Life with Smuffy” – and who can resist those tell-alls – and the best soup recipe I ever invented) the post that has gotten the most views and shares is one about love – a tribute to my wonderful mom. Missing someone as much as I miss her is a great reminder to show people you love them while they’re still here.

Have a big, fat, chocolaty, lace-covered, huggy, kissy day filled with mush!

Life is good. It’s short. It flies by fast. It’s meant to be shared and love is all that matters.

“If I speak in the tones of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing…It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails…And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” -I Corinthians 13:1-3,7,8,13, The Holy Bible

I don’t know about you, but that seems to make Valentine’s Day worth celebrating!

We’ve Only Just Begun

~ Midwest Storyteller

It’s our first day together here at Midwest Storyteller, and to be honest, I have a bit of that “first date” feeling. Having counseled myself that it’s silly to run downstairs to the mirror, fluff the hair and freshen the lipstick, I suppose I’ll push on. You really can’t see me, can you?

New Blogger Complex

Now comes the part where I say something fascinating.

Okaaaaaaay…

First of all, I’d like to say “Thank You” to Jillian Danielle, my daughter and fellow blogger. Having picked her way through the blogworld’s minefield ahead of me, she helped me get started. Were it not for her patient assistance, I’d still be banging my head against the wall, muttering things about the fine folks at Bluehost and WordPress that they might consider just a shade unkind.

Killing Cyberworld

Jillian Danielle’s blog has a wealth of information, reviews and tutorials to help you with make-up, skin care and hair, as well as travel, lifestyle and creative ideas. Be sure to check it out at www.jilliandanielle.com.

www.jilliandanielle.comIn the days ahead, I hope you’ll join me. We’re going to enjoy ourselves! Life rarely brings us a day that doesn’t make a great story. I’ll be sharing many of mine with you. If you’re looking to improve your health, try great recipes, find some great products or timely tips, or maybe just stop for a moment and smile – you’ll find a healthy dose of all that here at Midwest Storyteller. Hop on over to the sidebar and “subscribe” so you don’t miss a thing. You’ll be notified each time a new post appears, which will be a couple of times a week. Posts will vary in length.

Next up: An interesting tale about Smuffy, that darlin’ man of mine. I should have realized that dull moments would come few and far between when I married him, for our honeymoon got us off to what I’d have to say was a “blazing start”! You might want to fix yourself a cup of tea, sit back and enjoy this one.

Cup of Tea & Midwest Storyteller

With that, I’ll leave you for now, but do comment, “like”, share and subscribe. Then, you won’t miss Life With Smuffy (Episode 1): “The Smokin’-Hot Honeymoon” (or, “Where There’s Smoke, There’s Not Always a Fireman”).