About Me

This is my story about me and my website, how it came to be, and why I must work from home. It is about a passion that developed as a little girl and continued to a retired woman.

I am retired, but like many retirees, I wanted more than the rocking chair. That lifestyle didn't suit me. Unfortunately, that lifestyle was the only lifestyle I could afford.

I turned to my hobbies to produce the income I needed. One of those hobbies was candle making.

My son and I developed a unique candle and other wax products and crafts that served us well until I developed health issues that prevented me from running the retail shop, I so loved. I couldn't hear a word my customers were saying!

While my son continued to run the wholesale part of the business, I once again retired. I still didn't like to rock... in a rocking chair, that is!

I went online to search for something I could work at home and not have to ask anyone for money. That's where I met Site Build It! (SBI!), the people who teach you how to build a website that earns money.

At first, I was skeptical. I had heard stories of how some folks had been scammed out of their hard earned money by unscrupulous people on the Internet.

The more I researched SBI!, their background and statistics, the more I became interested.

Still, I was scared. The only thing I knew about me and a computer was how to turn it on, check e-mails, and search for topics of interest.

When I saw actual professional websites as testimonials of what could be and was being done, plus the fact I could contact the webmasters with questions, I joined!

SBI! helped me to recognize a hobby that I have had for over 50 years. I didn't even know it was a hobby! Cooking? How could that be a hobby? Didn't everyone cook and eat?

I began looking through my old recipes and found an old journal about me and my recipes. It contained an entry that read "I am going to write a cookbook of OLD FASHIONED RECIPES " That clarified my niche.

My Cooking Background

At age 8, I baked my first cookies with Mama helping me to read her old Spry Cookbook. It was actually a booklet. The cookies were named Spry Christmas Cookies.

For the next few years, I helped Mama with her cooking as much as she allowed. I hated cleaning up the kitchen, but my twin sister loved it. So I cooked, Martha cleaned.

Mama went to work in the mill on 2nd shift when I was 13, leaving me to cook the evening meal. Mostly, I cooked beans and boiled potatoes. I also made biscuits.

It wasn't long before I became bored with the same old thing. I started experimenting with ingredients and coming up with dishes no one had ever heard of. Some of them were good and some of them were awful!

I remember my little 5 year old brother crying and crying, because he didn't like what I cooked and made him eat.

Things got better when my husband and I married. Right away, he wanted me to learn how to make tasty meals like his mother and sisters. That's when I became a serious cook!

I bought over a dozen cookbooks, read and studied them, trying and tweaking the recipes until I learned to cook well. It became a passion!

Family and friends who knew how much I loved to make delicious meals for my family, began gathering their best recipes and passing them on to me.

I entered county fair baking contests for several years, winning a lot of first place Blue Ribbons for cakes, cookies, and pies.

Recipes Turn To Income

Being a stay-at-home-mom, I loved being with my children all day. I also felt guilty not helping my husband earn a living. He owned his own company and worked hard from sun-up to sun-down.

So, I did what I loved to earn money. I cooked! At first, I baked pies for a local cafeteria business. Then I made and decorated cakes for friends and their referrals. Next I baked cakes and breads for a wine cellar and cheese shop.

I self-published a small cookbook in 1982 and sold a few copies.

Most of the recipes used in these activities are published on this website.

About Me Now

Just a few short months ago, I saw the opportunity to build a website using my lifelong passion. I joined SBI! and started building.

I work on this website a little almost every day. I LOVE IT! I can't wait to start every morning. Yet, I have time to visit my precious family, even those who live out of state, visiting as long as I want to.

Now, I can do some traveling I have wanted to do for quite awhile. Just take my laptop along!

I am having the time of my life! I feel I am in my second childhood, because I am having so much fun.

Thank you for visiting and reading about me. I hope you enjoy this website and the recipes as much as I do.

By the way, if you or anyone you know, are looking for a way to make money online, do yourself or them a favor and check out the Graphic or Powered by SBI! link below.

Afterward, contact us if you have any questions.

Pursue YOUR passion and it won't seem like work! It will be Fun!

Sincerely,
Mary Oxendine

Testimonials

"I no longer work from home in the evenings and my income is constantly growing. Right now, it's double what I was making when I was standing behind a chair... I do what needs to be done the most at any given time and the nature of website building is such that I can stop or take a break at any point and carry on when time allows. I can work in my pyjamas and fuzzy slippers and switch from work mode to mommy/caretaker to silly dance partner whenever the mood strikes."
~ Michelle Schill

"What can I say? Life has never been better. Freedom is something that can't be paid for. It's not that I work less, I probably work more than I ever did, but I do it on my own terms. It doesn't feel like work at all.I am confident that I will never have to work for others again unless I want to!"
~ B. Bradtke

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