It’s already week 10 of Beckie’s (from Beckie’s Mental Mess) Working On Us writing prompts! If you wanna  join in, go check out Beckie’s (she’s awesome!) page!

Prompt #1

Does social media affect your overall mental health? If so, please describe how it affects you?

For the  most part, social media doesn’t bother my mental health. I don’t take it too seriously.

How does it make you feel when you see family/friends posting pictures of them living their life happily?

I feel happy for them! I don’t feel any negative feelings towards them, though sometimes I’m a bit jealous. But I remind myself, just like me, they mostly only post the good parts of their lives or how they want their lives perceived by others.

Do the following people make you feel inadequate in any way due to your mental health?

A few have made me feel inadequate for…

Your blog might be the safest place for you but are you really safe as a blogger? Whether you share your identity publicly or not, you might do some mistakes unknowingly which can potentially harm your safety.

Votre blog est peut-être l’endroit le plus sûr pour vous, mais êtes-vous vraiment en sécurité en tant que blogueur? Que vous partagiez votre identité publiquement ou non, vous pourriez commettre inconsciemment des erreurs qui pourraient nuire à votre sécurité.

Related: My Blogging Regrets & Mistakes

LOCATION TAG ON YOUR PICTURES

If you take and edit your blog pictures on your iPhone (or any phones for that matter) then make sure you turn off your location setting while taking the pictures. Especially if you are going to share those pictures on your blog!

When someone saves those pictures onto their iPhones, they can see your exact location from the ‘Places’ folder so be…

Poor Maggie.
The heat has really been getting to her and like us, it has done nothing to help her arthritis.
We have been aware of more stiffness in her joints, and noticed a couple of days ago that she was limping. On checking her foot, we could see where she’s been licking her feet incessantly which is usually a sign of boredom or anxiety, so I cleaned it with antiseptic and applied the antibiotic cream we keep in reserve for such occasions.

Hubby noticed after her swim the other day that she was a bit stiff in her shoulder, so we have also been giving her the metacam anti inflammatory meds, again something we keep in reserve.
Yesterday, she was in serious trouble, putting no weight on her right foot and in discomfort with her left shoulder. We kept her quiet for the day and she slept for most…

This is the 4th dip recipe from the dry packets my husband and I used to sell. This is on top of the list of my favorite dips. How could it not be, it has bacon in it!  When we sold the dry packets, we used imitation bacon bits to save on the cost. When I make it at home we chop up bacon that we cooked. So the next time you cook bacon, save some and make this delicious dip!

Ingredients

In a small bowl combined all of

the ingredients mixing thoroughly.

Refrigerate at least 1 hour or even overnight.

© Musik: Feel so Good – Alcis Searcy

Man sieht eindrücklich, wenn Evita nur mal  ein bißchen an ihrem “Gashebel” dreht, habe ich Null Chance, mit dem Bike auch nur annährend mitzuhalten 😉

Hinweis in eigener Sache: Windhund und “Senioren”-Trainingsdaten

 A batch of gluten-free blueberry muffins that I baked from a mix. Photo by Cecilia Kennedy

Blueberry muffin treats, in my house, have the power to transform my entire family into butter knife-wielding animals that make crumbs of defenseless baked goods. The primal sounds of “More butter!  MMMM” have alerted the neighbors more than once.  Some think we are watching a horror movie at full volume. Others think we are truly possessed.  However, this morning, I awoke to find a tidy plastic baggie of blueberry muffin treats just sitting on the counter, in the exact spot where I left them the day before.  Yep, they just sit there still.  When I wave the bag around and ask, “Anyone want a muffin?”  Nate and Alex stand there, awkwardly and say, “It’s not snack time yet.”  Telling them, “It’s snack time somewhere” doesn’t make them tear into the bag and grab the…

My blog is all about my experiences with food, health and even beauty. With that being said, most of my experiences with cooking are somewhat failures. I’m really not that great of a baker. But I hope you guys can learn from my failures. That’s why I like to share those experiences. I want to maintain the integrity of my blog and be as honest as possible.

For the past couple of days, I have been wanting to make black bean brownies. Our cabinet has 5 cans of black beans……FIVE…. I love black beans. I am always eating black beans and rice, it’s one of my favorite dishes. But I wanted to use these beans in a different way, so I decided to give these brownies a try.

I will explain exactly what I did that didn’t make the brownies quite right and hopefully you guys can recreate these brownies…

What’s Cooking in Gail’s Kitchen? Be Our Guest: Garlic Clove Little Smokies! I know people often wait for the holidays to serve this spicy little appetizer, but I recently discovered its popularity as a picnic basket companion. By making it ahead of time and storing it in a jar, it travels well. Add dill pickle chunks, bite-size cheese cubes, vegetable skewers, fresh fruit, chips, salsa, and double chocolate brownies. You’ll have the perfect portable picnic. Doesn’t everyone love finger foods?

GARLIC CLOVE LITTLE SMOKIES

Ingredients:

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup honey

1/2 cup catsup

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon roasted sesame seeds

14 ounces little smokies cocktail wieners

Fresh chives for garnish

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 250°. In a medium bowl, combine brown sugar, honey, catsup, soy sauce, garlic, red pepper flakes, and roasted sesame seeds. Mix well. Add…

When I started my journey into Women in translation month I knew there were going to be some questions that would pop up as I read. I have questions lots of questions. These amazing book is marketed as horror but as I read I would defiantly say it is more speculative fiction but there are truly some real life horror elements in this book. The End of Days also made me think about choices in life and where they take you.

Synopsis: Story of a women’s five lives. How small things can effect a women’s life.

What I liked: I loved this entire book. Erpenbeck is ridiculously talented. She is able to take multiple POVs and multiple story lines and weave them together with such brilliancy. The book is broken up into 5 smaller novellas with explanations between them. The writing is heart breaking at times and infuriating at times…