Feature Friday #3

Woohoo! Friday it is! Does anyone have any fun plans for the weekend? 



I know we have New Restaurant Friday and then Saturday the Teenager is having a couple friends spend the night. Sunday will actually be relaxing since there is no cheerleading. Hoping to fit in a run that day.

If you missed last week's Feature Friday make sure to check it out here. This week has been a great week in the blog-o-sphere! I've found lots of great stuff to read!

What I've Read:

The first article I read that really spoke to me is from another fitness mama. She's Rachel & she is over at Random Kings. She writes about Birth Stories and why they are a big deal. I have never judged someone for how they choose to give birth. That is obviously a very, very personal experience and what is right for the goose is most definitely not right for the gander. My friend Rachel had two completely natural births..good for her..I am jealous. I wish I could have done that, but I am a huge wimp and got the epidural...like as soon as I could! I had the most enjoyable, lazy birth. I will say when I tell people my birth story they are amazed my epidural worked so well. I have never felt judged by it though. Maybe I am just not that sensitive to notice if someone was judging me. But, as women I do feel that when we are in online forums and talking with our friends no matter what we should support them, especially with a birth story. Everyone makes the best decisions they can at the time and things don't always go as planned no matter how much you try to plan! So tell me what you think? Have you ever felt "judged" by your birth story? Have you ever judged someone for how they chose to handle the birth of their child? Better yet, leave her a comment on her site ;)

Next, I read two articles that I wanted to feature. Tomorrow I have a travel article coming up and these two ladies posted nice articles about places they have recently visited. The first is from Cosmos Mariners she writes about How to Have an Inexpensive Trip to Scotland. This spoke to me because we just got back from a fairly inexpensive trip to London. We love to save money so any tips on making trips less costly are always appreciated! The final article I am going to write about is from Megan Joy Jaunts.  She writes about visiting Seville, Spain! While there they visited a beautiful cathedral: Catedral de Seville. Go check out her beautiful pictures, this place is definitely on my must visit list some day! 

What I Wrote:

During my Meal Plan Monday post I write about 5 things you can do on Sunday to make your whole week run smoother & make sure you don't miss those workouts ;) This week I also continued on my weekly deep cleaning series: Living Room and Dining Room. Finally, if you didn't see this beauty yesterday I posted my recipe for making Granite Cleaner Wipes. Go over and check these out. Let me know what you think! :)

What I Watched:
I don't really have any links but this week we have been crazy into Big Brother Canada! Any one else watching? I love how they had the new house guest come in! Excited to see how that will shake the house up. 

I've also been way in to Reign.  It's getting super interesting. I love how they are going down an interesting sexual path with the King. This last week when he screwed the woman right out the window was shocking! Who else watched? What do you think?

I'm linking up over at Blogitudes today, if you are a blogger go link up too ;)

Family Favorites Friday #3

This is another classic. My mom made it since I was a kid, but many people don't know what I am talking about when I say what it is: Magic Cookie Bars.

Many people call them 7 layers bars, but not sure why because the recipe I use only has 5 ingredients, or layers, plus they are practically gone the instant they are cool enough to cut, so we will stick with "magic".

This particular recipe my mom always used was found on the inside label of Eagle Brand Sweet and Condensed Milk. I tweak it because, well, my family is picky. So...here is the recipe:

Magic Cookie Bars

-1.5 cups graham cracker crumbs

-1/2 cup of butter, melted

-10-14 oz (about 300ml) can of sweet & condensed milk

-package of semi-sweet chocolate chips

-a little shredded coconut

1. Preheat oven to 350F. In a 9X13 pan measure out the graham cracker crumbs.

2. Melt the butter. Pour over crumbs and mix together. Once combined use your hands to press the crust into the bottom of the pan.

3. Open the sweet and condensed milk and pour evenly over the crust. Try and get it as even as possible because once it is on there you can not really move it, but it does sort of naturally spread and settle so however you pour it so long as you cover most of the crust it will be fine.

4. Evenly sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top.

5. Evenly sprinkle some shredded coconut over the top. We have someone in our house who isn't a coconut fan so I just sprinkle it over half.

See half with coconut, half without! Pretty darn simple!

Here they are baked! Not the best picture in the world, but they sure are heavenly!

What is a favorite recipe you and your family love?