New Year. New Goals.

The New Year is a perfect time for a fresh start, a clean state, or a new beginning, and that is why so many people look forward to this day.  Some people transition into the New Year by declaring a resolution, making predictions, choosing three words to live by or doing nothing.  For me, I set goals.

Goals are great because they help you think thoroughly through your ideas.  I can't help but think of making goals for 4-H in my youth when I write down my goals every New Year.  A goal must contain 1) the action, 2) the result, and 3) the timetable.

New Year.  New Goals:

• My goal is for our family to go on dates with each other, My Farmer and I, My Farmer and LP, My Farmer and MP, LP and I, and MP and I, four times each this year.
• My goal is to create more me time by waking up at 6:30 am daily to do things I find enjoyable.  I will also plan on connecting with friends by doing something special for a friend monthly.
• My goal is to preserve memories and special dates for my children by journaling in specific journals for each kid.  I will keep the journals in my office where they are easy to get to.  I will plan on journaling at least once a month.
• My goal is to promote my blog more by sharing each post on Pinterest and Google+.  
• My goal is to start a Comments for a Cause program by choosing a new organization monthly to donate 50 cents for each blog comment to.
• My goal is to attend a blogging conference or gathering by the end of the year to help me learn more about blogging and make more blogger connections.  I will ask other bloggers what conferences they recommend to help me determine which one to attend.

Happy New Year everyone!  What do you do to transition in the New Year?

Developing Your Pinterest Potential

How many of you enjoy going on Pinterest?  I know I love going on Pinterest to get ideas for holidays, kids crafts and activities, photography, recipes and I've been on the site a lot lately getting ready for a certain soon to be 2 year old's birthday party.  Besides collecting ideas for myself, what is my "Pinterest Potential" to reach others?

Pinterest is simply a virtual bulletin board.  What makes it unique, is that your pins on your bulletin board can be seen by millions of people.  This is an opportunity to reach millions of others with similar interests as you and grow your network, your business and your views.  So how are you going to utilize your "Pinterest Potential"?

My "Pinterest Potential" is showing the value of agriculture in every day images and pins.  I've been on Pinterest for over a year and about a year ago I started a board that shared different fun facts about farming and agriculture called "Living to Farm, Farming to Live."  Then around nine months ago I was asked to join a couple "shared board" about agriculture.  The first is "Farms & Rural America, Food & Agriculture".  This board is a "tribute to farmers, rural lifestyle, those working in agriculture and people with an interest in any of those."  It is a great board for people that have an interest in where their food comes from.  As of this morning, there are 199 contributors to the board and there are 2,147 followers to the board.  The second is "AgNerd".  This board has a similar purpose as the other and has 69 contributors and has 555 followers.

One person who I think has done a great job of developing their "Pinterest Potential" is Katie On the Banks of Squaw Creek.  Her blog and Pinterest boards center around her family, kids and renovating her 100 year old farmhouse on a turkey farm.  Katie has seen a lot of traffic to her blog from Pinterest.  What might draw people to her blog initially are her decorating for small room ideas, or her tips on working with kids that are picky eaters.  But once they get to her blog they have the opportunity to learn more about her family's farm.  One of her blogs that I pinned about a month ago included a cute printable sign she made that said "Wash your Hands and Say your Prayers because Germs and Jesus are Everywhere."  Once a person clicks on the pin to visit the website to download the sign, they'll also learn about how they care for their turkeys on their farm.  Katie has found her "Pinterest Potential."

So whether you'd like people to learn about your business, your product or even your farm, think about what your "Pinterest Potential" is and don't forget to utilize Pinterest, one of the fastest growing social media tools available!  Also, don't forget to follow my boards and pins on Pinterest and check out other social media goals I have set for the year!

Travel Midwest Part II

Last month I talked about the Fly In To Fly Over Country initiative in my first Travel Midwest blog post about my "Girl's Weekend" in Dubuque.  Today, I'm going to share about an Iowa Farm Bureau Young Farmer day trip that My Farmer and I took to Marquette and McGregor, Iowa last weekend.

Our friends Mike and Kaylee with me and My Farmer along the Mississippi River

Last Saturday around 50 Young Farmers from Northeast Iowa (and a few from North Central Iowa!) traveled to the Mississippi River for a day in Marquette and McGregor, Iowa.  These towns are both along the river and are a couple miles from each other.

The day started by going on a tour and eating at Old Man River Brewery in McGregor.  This was a great place to meet up and visit with everyone, as well as try some beer!  My favorite beer was their Gold Coin Helles.  There top selling beer is their Slingshot Dunkel.  They are selling so much beer that they are brewing daily!

After the brewery, we all went on a two-hour river boat cruise where we learned about agriculture and shipping on the Mississippi River.  It was a lot of fun to be on the river and to see barge traffic in action.

The last tour of the day was at Eagles Landing Winery in Marquette.  It was a lot of fun to get a tour of the winery from one of the owners.  You could really sense his love and passion for agriculture, viticulture, his winery and Iowa.  My favorite wine probably was their Campfire Hootch, which also happens to be their top seller.  The neat thing about this wine is that they created it by chance by combining the bottom of their wine tanks.  No two batches of this wine will ever be the same.

My Farmer and I had a great time during our trip to the Mississippi River.  Remember to join the Fly In To Fly Over Country: Travel Midwest facebook page.  Also, check out the groups's Pinterest page too.  This campaign was started in May when National Geographic's Aric Queen announced he would be traveling the United States on a "Classic American Roadtrip."  The only downfall of this roadtrip was that it started on the East Coast, went down South and then over to Los Angeles - completing bi-passing the Midwest!

What are some agri-tourism trips you have went on?

Travel Midwest

I promised in my "Purple, Girls, Healthy and More" post last week that I'd explain about Girls and Healthy at a later time, well today I'm going to explain Girls, as well as talk about the Fly In To Fly Over Country initiative going on right now.

At the beginning of the month I had my annual "Girl's Weekend" with my Mom and sisters.  We do it every year as my Mom's Mother's Day gift.  The criteria for the Girl's Weekend is that it must include massages, lots of good food and drinks, be an overnight, involve at least a little shopping and be a lot of fun!  We have traveled several places in Iowa for our girl's weekend and this year was no different, we celebrated our Girl's Weekend in Dubuque!

My Mom, Sisters and I at Stone Cliff Winery in Dubuque

We started out our Girl's Weekend by slowly traveling over to Dubuque.  You see my sister Amanda and I live about 100 miles away from each other and my Mom and sister Rachel live in between, so in order to get everyone in one car it takes a little time and usually means we don't take a direct path to where we are going.  So I figured on our way east to Dubuque we should visit my county's town seat, Hampton.  We started our Girl's Weekend by doing plenty of shopping in Hampton.  This town offers a wide variety of specialty shops.  Great shops to check out in Hampton include (but are not limited to) Freckled Dandelion (baby and kids clothing, books and toys boutique), Orange Possum (teen and young female adult clothing and accessories), Wood Cellar (home decor and gifts), Cornerstone Cottage (home decor, books, gifts, bath & body shop) and Cornerstone Cottage Kids (kids books, games and room decor).

After our shopping in Hampton we traveled the rest of the way to Dubuque and got settled in at the historic Hotel Julien.  After checking-in to the hotel we checked out the downtown area including Cable Car Square, went out to eat at Crust, and then drank wine and listened to live music at Stone Cliff Winery and Star Brewery.

Star Brewery and Stone Cliff Winery, Dubuque

My favorite wines at Stone Cliff were their Riesling and Red Fox.  I recommend going to Stone Cliff Winery because besides being a fun atmosphere and good wine, it is right along the Mississippi River and the River Walk.

Mississippi River Walk, Dubuque

On the second day of our Girl's Weekend the big thing we did was get massages at Potosa Spa.  The massages were great and we all loved to spa amenities and atmosphere.

My Mom, Sisters and I love traveling Iowa, and I love exploring Iowa with my family too!  And that is why I encourage all of you to join the Fly In To Fly Over Country: Travel Midwest facebook page.  This campaign was started last month when National Geographic's Aric Queen announced he would be traveling the United States on a "Classic American Roadtrip."  The only downfall of this roadtrip was that it started on the East Coast, went down South and then over to Los Angeles - completing bi-passing the Midwest!  As a child many of my favorite family vacations were in the Midwest including the Badlands, Deadwood and the Corn Palace in South Dakota, Hannibal, St. Louis and Kansas City in Missouri, and Springfield in Illinois.

If the Fly In To Fly Over Country: Travel Midwest facebook page gets 300 likes by next week National Geographic has agreed to talk with Deb Brown from Iowa about traveling to the Midwest.  So please help this effort to showcase why the Midwest is so great by joining the facebook page and spreading the word to your friends.  Also, check out the groups's Pinterest page too.

What do you think makes the Midwest special?  Where have been some of your favorite Midwest vacation spots?

Cy's Cook Off - Cardinal & Gold Cream Cheese Burger

One of my favorite hobbies and interests is cooking.  I know I've shared about cooking a little in my blog before and today my post will be about a recipe I created.  I produced my "Cardinal & Gold Cream Cheese Burger" by modifying and coupling a couple other of my burger recipes together.  I created the burger for a Pinterest contest for Iowa State Athletics.  There contest is called Cy's Cook Off and whoever receives the most repins and likes wins a $100 gift card to Cy's Locker Room and an autographed Coach Rhoades mini helmet.  I'm planning on giving the helmet to Make A Wish North Iowa for the Wish Upon A Par auction and I'm planning on decking out the family in new ISU gear for football if I win.  I'd appreciate your repin and or like by May 7th!  Enjoy the recipe!

2 pounds ground hamburger
1 packet (1 ounce) onion soup mix
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 T seasoning salt
1 egg
1/2 yellow bell pepper
1/2 red bell pepper
1 red chili pepper
8 oz neufchatel cheese (1/3 less fat cream cheese)
1/4 medium onion, grated
2 large cloves garlic, grated
1 t seasoning salt
1/2 t cumin
6 slices cheddar cheese
6 buns

Mix hamburger, onion soup mix, bread crumbs, 1 T seasoning salt and 1 egg in large bowl.

Form into 6 round patties; make thumb print in middle of each patty so cooks evenly.  Place on pre-heated grill.  Grill each side 3 to 4 minutes.

When place burgers on grill, also put cleaned  (pith and seeds taken out) yellow, red and chili peppers.  Once peppers are cooked, after a few minutes, take peppers off grill to dice.

To diced grill peppers, add 8 oz cream cheese, onion, garlic, 1 t seasoning salt and cumin.  Mix with spoon in medium bowl till evenly combined.

Once hamburgers are almost done (couple minutes remaining) place large spoonful of cream cheese mixture on top of each burger.

Add slice of cheddar cheese on top of cream cheese mixture.

Serve on hamburger buns when done being cooked and cheese is melted.