turn the page

Today is March 1st, a new month.
Time to turn the page on baby Elizabeth's picture calendar.
Won't these pictures be fun to look at all month?

ROKU - or how we watch TV

We canceled our TV cable back in 2009 and now use an antenna to get the local channels.  We live in central Oklahoma and get channels from both Tulsa and Oklahoma City including ABS, CBS, NBC, 2 PBS stations,  local Fox, several Christian channels, 4 channels from ION and several others. 

My husband heard about ROKU boxes,  they run on the internet so they require either being hooked in your internet source or with wireless, we use wireless internet for ours.  The boxes are a one -time purchase,  I think ours was about $60 from Amazon, and then you own it. There are no monthly fees unless you have paid channels.



This is our ROKU box and it's remote,  that is a Santa Pez beside it so you can see how small the Roku is. 

My favorite thing to watch is photos on a loop from Flickr. 
Whatever groups you belong to on Flickr can be on your Roku box.
Gavin likes pictures of tractors and animals.
I like groups that feature Pyrex and sewing projects.
My mom liked looking at the quilt groups.
When I am rocking a baby, I usually turn on Flickr, it has no sound
so it is very peaceful.
Nina however is not a fan of Flickr, she says it is as much fun as watching paint dry.




Roku offers lots of channels and most of them are free,  a few require monthly subscription.  


 

Roku has news channels,  quite a few fitness channels and social network channels.

Here are some of the news channels.
It is not exactly the same as turning on CNN to see the news minute by minute. 
I like the NBC one best,  they broadcast the first hour of the Today show all day without commercials,
so if I am busy early in the morning, I can catch up on the news later in the day.
Some of the other news channels show feature stories as well as specials and repeats of their news shows.



The only paid channel we have is Netflix.  Netflix offers so many shows in their watch it now category.
Jeff likes movies,  Gavin likes Bob the Builder,  I've been watching  seasons of Hoarders,  Jamie Oliver and Cake Boss. 
When my parents were here last,  my dad really liked American Pickers.
Netflix costs about $8 a month and I think it is very much worth it.

One of the free channels is Blip.  The offer many independent shows,  some are just quirky but many are very good.
I really like some of the cooking shows. 





We tried a free trial of Hulu on Roku but they show so many commercials, we did not like it.

Shows on Roku are all on demand.  We like that we can watch what we want to when we want too. 

The only thing we really missed out on my not having cable is that most all the college football bowl games were on ESPN.  Roku has some sports channels,  some of them have fees, and we have not really investigated them. I am sure they are the right option for some viewers.

There are so many channels and shows on Roku, and they truly add more just about every week.  I have not looked at every single one to know all they offer.

We do sometimes watch programs on a computer and they are pretty much free that way,  but we like being able to watch shows on our big tv. 
So if you are already paying for internet and don't plan on stopping but would like to watch TV shows or movies on your bigger screen,  a Roku box might be a great option for your home.

We like it so much, we got a second Roku box for the bedroom tv. 



saving a little time in the kitchen

when I look over my blog,  it seems like I spend a lot of time cooking.  I do cook most everyday, sometimes I cook several times a day so I do look for ways to save some time.  If you know me or  read this blog much,  you know I also look for ways to use basic ingredients and to spend wisely. 

We like nuts in our baked goods.  Whole walnuts are a good value, as far as nuts go,  I know nuts are high-priced anymore. 


This is a  12 ounce bag of mostly walnut halves and a few pieces.  The halves are way too big for adding to baked goods. 



so instead of getting out a chopper and cutting board everytime I bake a recipe that we like nuts in,  I chop the whole bag of nuts when I open them. 

then all the extra chopped nuts go into a jar.
I store a lot of things in clear glass jars. 
The label is just a piece of masking tape,  with what is in the jar and the date it was put in the jar. 
If I am going to be baking a lot,  I just keep the jar of nuts in the pantry.  But nuts will go rancid if unused, so if it will be more than a month or before they get used,  I put the jar in the freezer. 

About the label,  I have seen some really cute printable labels online and if I had more free time, I would probably use them,  But for now, masking tape works great.  Just use some scissors to cut the ends straight, that looks much better than tearing the tape.  I use masking tape to label things in the freezer too. 






Lyn asked about the dishes the cut up fruit are in, I showed in them in previous post.  They are from Pampered Chef and work fine as you can see what is in them.  The only thing I don't like about them is the lids are not microwave safe and ruin if used in the microwave.  Mine are the one cup size but I think they come bigger, like 2 cups and maybe 4 cups. 

http://www.pamperedchef.com/our_products/catalog/product.jsp?productId=9792&categoryCode=KW

 my other favorite container for snacks and lunchboxes is little jelly jars - mine are currently filled with jalapeno relish and pickle jalapeno relish though.  I think the jelly jars with screw on tops take up less room in a lunch box and it is very unlikely they would leak.