Penny's Passion: January 2022

Thursday, January 27, 2022

Five on Friday - January 28, 2022

Happy Friday! I'm just back home from a business trip and can't wait to wrap up work today so we can have a couple days to relax. Before I kick back and start the weekend, here's my five for this week ~

1. National Puzzle Day

Tomorrow is National Puzzle Day! We love doing puzzles, especially on cold winter days. You can bet we'll be huddled over our kitchen table tomorrow celebrating by putting our current puzzle together. It's such a fun winter activity. We have the pandemic to thank for getting us hooked on them! Did you start doing puzzles over the pandemic? Studies have found that when we work on a jigsaw puzzle, we use both sides of the brain. And spending time daily working on puzzles improves memory, cognitive function, and problem-solving skills.

2. Conair Steamer

One of my very most favorite things is our clothes steamer. Our iron rarely makes an appearance because this little thing takes most wrinkles out of your clothes so simply. No more ruining your favorite article of clothing with the iron! This week I remembered just how much I love the steamer because I forgot to pack it for my trip. Trust me - if you start using a steamer you will fall in love with it too!

3. Pop-It Toys

Valentine's Day is just around the corner and I'm giving my niece and nephews a pop it toy this year with a cute little note saying I'm poppin' by to say Happy Valentine's Day. I'll be doing a whole post on the completed project because they are just too cute not to share. Grab a set of pop-it toys for yourself and be ready to put smiles on the faces of the kids in your life on Valentine's Day.

4. Inspirational Stickers

One of the people at the meeting I was at this week had really cool stickers all over her computer. I immediately started searching for some to put on my computer and found this set of 50 inspirational stickers on Amazon. A couple of clicks later they were ordered and are heading my way. Soon my computer will be as cool as the one that made me want stickers in the first place!

5. Don't be so quick to judge...

Have a great weekend! We are excited to watch the Chiefs play on Sunday with our son and daughter-in-law. My plan is to get decorated for Valentine's Day. Pop back on Monday to see how that went!

Monday, January 24, 2022

Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop - January 25, 2022

Welcome!

Welcome everyone to another week of our blog hop!

Here you will find inspiration from dozens of bloggers including recipes, home DIY, gardening, decor, family fun, traveling, fitness, and so much more. A friendly reminder to our guests that as a courtesy to the hosts, we ask that you follow every host on at least one social media channel. If you find something you particularly like, please pin it and even add a comment telling the writer that you love her work.

A friendly reminder to our guests that as a courtesy to the hosts, we ask that you follow every host on at least one social media channel.

Don’t forget to use this hashtag #wwbloghop when sharing our party!

Before we get this party started, let's meet the hosts and check out this week's featured favorites.

Be sure to grab our Specially Featured graphic below if your post was featured this week, and hyperlink it to this post on your blog or sidebar. We love showing you off!

LET’S GET THIS PARTY STARTED

Please follow all hosts on AT LEAST 1 of their social channels.
Add as many family-friendly posts as you would like to. NO Etsy shops, adult sites, or blog parties, please.
Visit others. Caring is sharing. Like, comment, and pin posts.
Party entries appear in REVERSE. This way your entries will be seen no matter when you arrive.
Please TWEET our party and invite others to join.

Thursday, January 20, 2022

Five on Friday - January 21, 2022

It's Friday! We've been busy this week, so I'm really looking forward to having a little downtime. Before I get too relaxed, let me share my five for today ~

1. Ozark

Season 4 is here! We can't wait to see how they get all the blood out of their hair. This final season will be divided into two parts, with each part consisting of 7 episodes. Sad news is we don't know when Part 2 is coming. Until then, I plan on enjoying Part 1. As a matter of fact, as soon as we are home from work this will be on our television.

2. Ice Roller

Last Saturday, I celebrated Christmas with three of my girlfriends. One of my friends gave us these ice rollers. It's amazing! This little baby has been by my bedside and every night this week I've been rolling it all over my face. It claims to prevent wrinkles and relieve eye fatigue. Whatever it does is just a bonus to the way it feels. Give this thing a try and you'll see what I'm talking about.

3. Enough Already: Learning to Love the Way I am Today

Valerie Bertinelli's new book came out this week and I'm anxious to read what she has to say. Here's the summary from Amazon ~

Beloved actress, Food Network personality, and New York Times bestselling author Valerie Bertinelli reflects on life at sixty and beyond.

Behind the curtain of her happy on-screen persona, Valerie Bertinelli’s life has been no easy ride, especially when it comes to her own self-image and self-worth. She waged a war against herself for years, learning to equate her value to her appearance as a child star on One Day at a Time and punishing herself in order to fit into the unachievable Hollywood mold. She struggled to make her marriage to Eddie Van Halen — the true love of her life — work, despite all the rifts the rock-star lifestyle created between them. She then watched her son follow in his father’s footsteps, right up onto the stage of Van Halen concerts, and begin his own music career. And like so many women, she cared for her parents as their health declined and saw the roles of parent and child reverse. Through mourning the loss of her parents, discovering more about her family’s past, and realizing how short life really is when she and her son lost Eddie, Valerie finally said, “Enough already!” to a lifelong battle with the scale and found a new path forward to joy and connection. Despite hardships and the pressures of the media industry to be something she’s not, Valerie is, at last, accepting herself: she knows who she is, has discovered her self-worth, and has learned how to prioritize her health and happiness over her weight. With an intimate look into her insecurities, heartbreaks, losses, triumphs, and revelations, Enough Already is the story of Valerie’s sometimes humorous, sometimes raw, but always honest journey to love herself and find joy in the everyday, in family, and in the food and memories we share.

4. Herr's Fire Roasted Sweet Corn Potato Chips

We were given a bag of these chips and, let me tell you, they are DELICIOUS! I asked my friend who gave us a bag where she got them and you will never guess what she said. Menards! Eric made a trip there this week to restock. Menards also had fire-roasted sweet corn flavored popcorn. We'll try that as soon as we've polished off all the bags of chips we bought.

5. My wardrobe...

Hope you have a wonderful weekend. I'm flying to Florida on Sunday for a business trip, so I'm going to try to squeeze in all the relaxation and fun I can into tonight and tomorrow. I can't even express how excited I am to escape our frigid temperatures and arrive in the sunny, warm climate I'm going to! See you soon!

Wednesday, January 19, 2022

Let's Make Strawberry Bread

Today on Thinking Out Loud Thursday, I'm thinking about the loaf of strawberry bread I made over the weekend. It looked so scrumptious when it was finished! We made this bread last year for Easter and I've been wanting to make it again. On Sunday, I made a loaf for a friend and now I'm dying to make it again for Eric and me to enjoy. I thought you'd like to make a loaf for yourself and enjoy it too!

I originally found this recipe over on Pinterest from Tastes of Lizzy T. There are tons of great recipes on her site, so make sure to bounce over there and check them all out.

Here's What You Need

for the Bread

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup milk

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups diced strawberries (about 12 large strawberries)

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place your diced strawberries in a bowl and toss with 2 tablespoons of flour.

In a medium bowl, stir together the sugar, milk, oil, egg, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix the two bowls together and stir until just combined. Fold the floured strawberries gently into the batter.

Pour the bread batter into a greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes. You'll know it's done when an inserted toothpick comes out clean. I had to bake my loaf closer to the 55-minute side.

Allow the bread to cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then remove it and let it cool on a wire rack.

Here's What You Need

for the Glaze

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tablespoons melted butter

1/3 cup finely diced strawberries

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1-2 tablespoons heavy cream

While your bread is cooling, you can make the glaze. Combine the powdered sugar, melted butter, diced strawberries, and vanilla extract in a bowl. Add in the heavy whipping cream 1 tablespoon at a time. One tablespoon might be enough, but if your glaze is too thick, add in a second one.

Make sure your loaf is completely cooled before spreading the glaze on top. Last Easter when I made this, I was a little too impatient and put it on too soon. Let's just say it turned out much prettier this time!

I used a few of the extra strawberries to make a garnish for the top, but the loaf is definitely pretty enough without it!

This loaf got packaged up and given to a friend, but it won't be long before I make another one for us!

Now it's your turn - what are you thinking out loud about today? Link up and share!

Tuesday, January 18, 2022

Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop - January 19, 2022

Welcome!

Welcome everyone to another week of our blog hop!

Don’t forget to use this hashtag #wwbloghop when sharing our party!

Before we get this party started, let's meet the hosts and check out this week's featured favorites.

Meet The Hosts

Ahna - HAMMERS N HUGS | FB | IG | PINTEREST
Anne & AnnMarie - SIMPLY 2 MOMS | FB | IG | PINTEREST
Angela - THE SHORT ORDER COOK | FB | IG | PINTEREST
Bev - ECLECTIC RED BARN | FB | IG | PINTEREST
Cindy - SIMPLE STEPS FOR LIVING LIFE | FB | IG | PINTEREST
Emily - LeCULTIVATEUR | FB | IG | PINTEREST
Jana - HARVESTING HOME | FB | IG | PINTEREST
Kera - HAUTE HOUSE LOVE | FB | IG | PINTEREST
Penny - PENNY’S PASSION | FB | IG | PINTEREST
Sinea - DUCKS ‘N A ROW | FB | IG | PINTEREST | TWITTER
Tammy - MY LIFE ABUNDANT | FB | IG | PINTEREST
Tara - STILETTOS AND SHIPLAP | IG | PINTEREST

Top Viewed

ooking for winter decor and style inspiration? Whether its for your home or you, check out these great finds.

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EDITOR'S CHOICE

Decorating Ideas for Valentine’s Day

Be sure to grab our Specially Featured graphic below if your post was featured this week, and hyperlink it to this post on your blog or sidebar. We love showing you off!

LET’S GET THIS PARTY STARTED

Please follow all hosts on AT LEAST 1 of their social channels.
Add as many family-friendly posts as you would like to. NO Etsy shops, adult sites, or blog parties please.
Visit others. Caring is sharing. Like, comment, and pin posts.
Party entries appear in REVERSE. This way your entries will be seen no matter when you arrive.
Please TWEET our party and invite others to join.

Monday, January 17, 2022

Weekending - January 14, 2022

Happy Monday! Many of you might be enjoying an extended weekend if Martin Luther King Day is a holiday for you. Eric and I are both working today, but are still reflecting on the words of this great man.

After a very slow start to the year, this weekend I feel like I finally got some of my groove back. It was busy and fun and just what I needed to lift myself out of the funk I had fallen in. Here's what went down ~

Friday night we had dinner at our son and daughter-in-law's house. The favorite place for one of their cats to be in on your shoulders. Eric's broad shoulders were his place on Friday night!

We brought dessert which was cast iron apple crisp (recipe HERE). I baked it at their house while we were eating dinner so it was served nice and warm with a scoop of ice cream on the side. Perfect for a cold winter night!

Saturday we woke up to a layer of snow. Thankfully it didn't stick to the driveway or roads! It was a low-key day full of football and puzzling.

Saturday night was girls' night and I was so excited to gather with these friends! We have for years celebrated Christmas together after the holiday.

We ventured to our friend Carol's house and spent hours catching up and enjoying each other's company.

Carol had concocted a special peach bellini libation for us and put out quite the spread.

We left her house with our bellies full and our minds content! I love when you get together with friends and come away with new TV shows to watch and books to read. When you're with true friends you can let your guard down and just be yourself without fear of judgment. That is just what happened on Saturday night!

Sunday morning I was up early to get a few things done before we had to leave the house. I got the Crockpot going with Olive Garden Chicken Pasta (recipe HERE) and made a loaf of strawberry bread (recipe coming later this week). While the bread was baking, I hopped on the treadmill in hopes of closing my exercise ring. Mission accomplished!

The bread turned out beautiful! I was gifting it to a friend, so I popped it in a special box for the delivery.

For lunch, we plopped ourselves in front of the tv to watch the football games. It was a perfect Sunday afternoon!

We were meeting one of our bridal couples at their venue and when we were leaving captured the most beautiful sunset!

From the venue, we went to our friend's house to watch the Chiefs game. It was the perfect opportunity to bust out my Nora Fleming Football charm!

We also took a sampling of Thelma's ice cream sandwiches to share. Those things are so delicious! By cutting them up you're able to eat more than one flavor. We sampled chocolate chip cookies with vanilla ice cream, chocolate chocolate chip cookies with mint ice cream, sugar cookies with strawberry ice cream, and snickerdoodle cookies with vanilla ice cream. Seriously, if you haven't tried Thelma's Ice Cream Sandwiches, you are missing out! In the St. Louis area, you can find them at Schnuck's.

Thanks to the Kansas City Chiefs for the big win and for making everyone at our party happy!

Hope you have a wonderful week! I'm hoping to keep my motivation going and finally get our Christmas decorations put away!

Friday, January 14, 2022

Five on Friday - January 14, 2022

Happy Friday! Can you believe we are 14 days into 2022? I've had a bit of a slow start to the year, but hopefully, I can get it together soon before the year is half over! I did pull together a post for today, so here's my five for today...

1. National Bagel Day

Wondering what to have for breakfast tomorrow. Have a bagel to celebrate National Bagel Day! And add some pizzazz with your favorite schmear. I might even double up and have a sandwich for lunch on a bagel!

2. New Girl Scout Cookie

Have you heard it's Girl Scout Cookie season? We've placed our order and are excited to try their new cookie - Adventurefuls! The description makes my mouth water - Indulgent brownie-inspired cookies topped with caramel flavored creme with a hint of sea salt. If you don't know a Girl Scout to buy cookies from, go HERE to get yours.

3. Baby Steps Millionaires

Dave Ramsey's new book came out this week. How many of us have New Year's resolutions around saving money and gaining wealth? This book might be the guidebook to help. Here's the description from Amazon ~

You Can Baby Step Your Way to Becoming a Millionaire

Most people know Dave Ramsey as the guy who did stupid with a lot of zeros on the end. He made his first million in his twenties—the wrong way—and then went bankrupt. That’s when he set out to learn God’s ways of managing money and developed the Ramsey Baby Steps. Following these steps, Dave became a millionaire again—this time the right way.

After three decades of guiding millions of others through the plan, the evidence is undeniable: if you follow the Baby Steps, you will become a millionaire and get to live and give like no one else.

In Baby Steps Millionaires, you will . . .
Take a deeper look at Baby Step 4 to learn how Dave invests and builds wealth
Learn how to bust through the barriers preventing them from becoming a millionaire
Hear true stories from ordinary people who dug themselves out of debt and built wealth
Discover how anyone can become a millionaire, especially youBaby Steps Millionaires isn’t a book that tells the secrets of the rich. It doesn't teach complicated financial concepts reserved only for the elite. As a matter of fact, this information is straightforward, practical, and maybe even a little boring. But the life you'll lead if you follow the Baby Steps is anything but boring! You don’t need a large inheritance or the winning lottery number to become a millionaire. Anyone can do it—even today. For those who are ready, it’s game on!

4. New Puzzles

This week I ordered a couple new puzzles for me and Eric to do. As soon as I clear away our Christmas decorations that are still on the table (yes, I still have Christmas decorations everywhere!), this puzzle will begin. We started doing puzzles during the pandemic and found we loved them! It's a fun winter activity that helps pass the time until Spring gets here.

5. Sometimes this happens...

This weekend I'm willing myself to get my act together and finally take down our Christmas decorations. There are some fun things I'm looking forward to doing - we're having dinner with our son and daughter-in-law, I'm getting together with a group of girlfriends and we're going to a football watch party. Good stuff! Hope your weekend is wonderful and I'll see you back next week.