Showing posts with label helpful hints. Show all posts
Showing posts with label helpful hints. Show all posts

Monday, November 4, 2013

Helpful hint: dealing with Halloween Candy

Are you sick of the incessant BEGGING for Halloween candy yet?


Are you sick of the crazed constant-hyper sugar rush?


Seriously...I'm about desperate to get this crap out of my house.


I've taken to smuggling a few of the crappy pieces out in the garbage...


...I got caught.

You'd think I was an informer for the Gishtapo from the looks I got.
 
 
 
I found Operation Gratitude that we'll be sending some candy off to.
 
 
But I also want to be mindful of the boys' wants and desires.
 
 
After all, A. RAN for 80 minutes straight for candy.
 
 
RAN.
 
 
This was obviously something that meant a lot for him to put an effort forth.
 
 
 
So, we're devising a plan....a strategy, perhaps...to share this candy with others.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Papa Ken LOVES Snickers. 
 
 
He'll be hunting with Papa Ken in a few short weeks.
 
 
 
 
So, he put all the Snickers in a plastic bag and popped them in the freezer.
Next stop:  deer camp.
 
 
(Read:  NOT my hips)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Next up:  The rest of the darned chocolate.
 
 
This strategy I've employed for the last few years...and had a HIGH rate of return on it.
 
 
Save it for s'mores.
 
 
That's right.
 
 
 
 
Take the meltable chocolate, place it in a ziplock, and freeze it until next summer.
 
 
(Yes, Reese's Peanut Butter cups make the MOST amazing s'more...if you haven't had one, you don't know what you're missing.)
 
 
This way, most of the Halloween candy is widdled down, and the good stuff will get eaten by them....
 
 
.....eventually.
 
 
 
And you save a buck or two come spring.
 
 
 
Win/ win, right???

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Thursday Miscellany in pictures

Thursday Miscellany seems to work well for me.  :)

So, here we go!



Today was our last (ever) meeting with our Bright Beginnings lady, Miss Kathy.
We did a 5 year old Ages & Stages Questionnaire- and even though C. isn't quite 5 yet,
he passed with flying colors.

We won't be seeing her for #3 simply because there's a LONG waiting list of families waiting for home visits.

So, we're going to let her use her services on first-time families instead of us old-hats.

She and her husband have become regular customers of D's business, so we'll still see them around.

She gave C. a little see-ya later present.

We'll have lots of fun this summer fine-tuning our "listening ears."



Last night, C. and I finished planting our garden.
Back to front:
tomatoes, lettuce, eggplant, red bell peppers and bush beans.


Aside from the 1/2 quart of strawberries in the fridge, this is the only fresh fruit I have left in the house.

This is an emergency in my book!


Our finished concrete pad.

I cannot tell you how much cleaner the stairs (in inside the doorway!) are since this pad was installed on Saturday.

I can't wait until the entire driveway is done!

(Answer to your question:  4 years from now)



Ally waiting for me to return inside from taking the above picture.

She's a little Houdini who is getting off her chain.

She loves to run.

This is currently the bane of my existence.

She's lucky she's so cute.


C. was upset that Ally got on the table and ate all the peanut butter out of his cup.

He was making a funny face while crying.

He also rocks when he's tired, nervous, or upset.

So, here....he's crying and upset.

It's an interesting picture, no?

Also note:  he dressed himself this morning.
A (close to) record high day today, and my boy comes down in (too short) jeans and a turtle neck.


Then he got over the peanut-butter-incident-of-May 24, and decided to place some pretzel rods above his ears.

"Mommy, take a picture of me!"

Ok.



This deserves a picture. 

Our basement floor clean. (and vacuumed, I might add!)

The couch void of laundry waiting to be folded.

(It's folded, in a laundry basket waiting to be brought upstairs. hehe!)

Never mind the pile of clothing on the lateral file waiting to be ironed.

Hey....it's progress.


This is my summer strategy for good behavior.

I picked up these jars at Wal-Mart of $3.97 each.
(by the way, the EXACT same jar is $5.99 at Meijer!)

I wrote chores and fun activities on the back of post-it notes so the sticky side would keep
the papers folded neatly.

Pink ones have chores such as:  sweep the kitchen and bathroom floors, dust the furniture in your bedroom, clean the toilets, vacuum the basement, pick up rocks in the yard and bring them to the rock pile, clean out the van, etc.

Our Summer Fun jar will be used as rewards for good behavior and ideas for days we have a free day.  Ideas were taken from this post, my MOPS newsletter (thanks, Ingrid!), and my own imagination.
Some items cost money, some don't.
Blue papers are indoor activities (for rainy days, or lazy days...(calling a spade a spade)).
Green papers are more active and require a nice day out.

Either way, I'm hoping for a fun, memorable summer with the boys.


I wanted to post this.

C. drew this at school during "free time."

I asked him to tell me about it.

He said,
"I drew a picture of Heaven.  See?  Jesus is in blue in the middle, it's very colorful there,
and the streets have gold."

Sigh.



Then....last night I caught A. in a(nother) lie.

I grounded him from all screens for 2 days, and I laid out some sentences for him to write this morning.

When I got out of the shower this morning, he left this in the bathroom for me to find.

(Coincidentally...he wrote it on the BACK of C's Heaven picture- above).



What did I think when I read that?

He used the possessive apostrophe appropriately.

Although we need to work on the correct spelling of "poop*."



And last, (but not least!!!)

I'm at 19 weeks today!

Almost half way done with this pregnancy.  :)

My Dr's appt on Monday went swimmingly, and he upped my weight lifting status since there's been no drama for the last 4 weeks.  I can now lift 20 pounds...max.

Strawberry picking, here we come!

The ultrasound appointment has been set for a few weeks from now-
the boys are EXCITED to go with me.

Sorry for the quality of the picture-
C. has been taking them, and as noted above, he's got an "issue" being still. 



*sorry I talked about poop on my blog.  A. started it.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

I'm a MONEY saving FREAKAZOID!!!

Ok, I have to tell all my friends about this!!!

If you haven't looked into ebates.com before, you are really missing out!

Basically, it works VERY simply!

You sign on, create an account (takes 4 minutes), and use their home page as a navation tool to get to other websites.

I clicked on Kohls.com, and was taken to the Kohls website.  It probably took an extra 10 seconds for ebates to open my "ticket."    I used ebates for my Christmas shopping, and after a few weeks, I received a CHECK IN THE MAIL!

I did the same thing for a few purchases from Barnes & Noble.  Another $2.18 coming back...

Then, I purchased some new danskos on 6pm.com (at a HUGE discount), and since I went through ebates, I have $3.18 coming back to me in check.

THEN, just today, I realized that they have Restraunts.com on their site.  I went on there, and saw that there's still some left for my MOST favorite restaurant EVER.  I signed up to get a $25 gift cert. for $20.  Then, ebates gave me a coupon code to get an additional 70% off the total bill.  So, essentially, I just paid $6.00 for a $25 gift certificate.  AND, since I went through ebates, I will get an additional 15% back in check!

You can even use it for groupon.com purchaes!

The only bad thing about ebates is that they don't have amazon.com on their register.  Otherwise, I've been able to find each of my favorite web sites (that are hosting TONS of clearance events).

So, I encourage you to check out ebates today!  Just click here to go check it out.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Christmas: on a budget

Yes, this post is about Christmas. I'm hearing Christmas music in the radio, and I'm seeing decorations up.
It's November...Yes...Christmas is around the corner!


Being debt free...

and living on a shoestring budget

makes people ask me not "how do you do it?"

but "how do you do Christmas?"
Ok...this is how we 'do' Christmas.
  1. Establish boundaries!!! Not everyone needs a gift! Friends will understand if you just want to get together for lunch or a craft, etc.
  2. Establish limits. We do a gift exchange for our small bible group. We establish the limit at $15. Manageable if you budget for it (or find things on clearance throughout the year).
  3. Don't be afraid to re-gift. Yes, I am a regifter! I don't burn candles, and I don't use many lotions. Therefore, when I receive one of these, it goes into a regift bin. They are great generic female presents.
  4. Name exchanges. For larger families, its great to enjoy each other's company and only have to bring one or two gifts for your named individual.
  5. Have an idea of what you want to purchase for someone before you go shopping. By having a game plan, you don't aimlessly wander through a store and pick up 'stuff' that someone may or may not need. If you put thought into what you purchase before you buy it, it shows as a thoughtful gift- not a "hey, I saw this on a rack somewhere and figured maybe you could use it."
  6. Try to make some gifts. Photo albums and picture frames are affordable can be personalized easily.
  7. Start early. Like the day after Christmas sales. Cards and wrapping paper, bows, etc. are cheapest then. If you pick them up and store them for a year, it won't cut into your Christmas budget later.
  8. Have a game plan for a budget, get an envelope with cash and STICK TO IT! Dave and I sit down at the beginning of each year and allocate funds to each big purchase- Christmas being one of them. We make a list of each person we need to purchase gifts for and how much we are willing to spend (don't forget to budget for possible shipping fees for those that live far away).
  9. Give with your heart. If you can't be a cheerful giver, don't bother.
  10. Don't forget the real meaning of Christmas.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Helpful Household Hints

First of all, I'm on a bit of a blogging hyatis this week. My brother and his family are in town from Utah for the first time in 4 1/2 years. This is the first time they've met Colin, and Adam last saw them when he was 11 months (and therefore, very little recollection). So, I'm spending as much time as I can with them at my parent's house before we have to say good-bye again. It's really been a great visit so far.

I'm actually home today (without kids!) because my husband is in a ghetto-fabulous* wedding this afternoon, and as his spouse, I am contractually obligated to attend with him. I'm supposed to be cleaning this morning...which I am...but it also preempted this post since helpful cleaning tips is what this is all about.

*Really, we use this term as a term of endearment, not judgement. Dave likes to reference his childhood neighborhood as the 'hood, and his friends as ghetto-rats. FYI: these boys grew up on 43rd. St. (really, not the ghetto), and deemed themselves the Four-tre posse'. I'm married to "Paperboy D." Yep...even as a child, the boy was a worker.



I digress....


This post is actually about folding laundry. I saw this tip in a magazine once, and thought it was a good idea. Some tips I read just create more work in the end, but this one is relatively simple. I'm sure most of you probably do this already....but if you don't- give it a whirl- can't hurt, right?












<------ This is what my laundry basket looked like with all of our clean sheets in it. Although I am not suzie homemaker, I do make it a priority to change the sheets everyweek. All of us- except my husband- suffer from allergies. This is the easiest way to cut down on a lot of allergy ailments...this and vaccuuming.






This is what it looked like after. Yep! Two lumps of sheets.------>
I read from someone in a magazine that they fold the fitted sheet and flat sheet (and additional pillowcase for the larger beds) and put them inside the unfolded pillowcase. This way, all the matching linens are together, so when you do change sheets all you have to do is grab one lump and bring it to the applicible bed.

So, from that full basket, I have two lumps o'sheets to put away.

Easy cheesy!




Ok, I'm off to do a pretty pedi for the wedding today and head back to my parent's house tomorrow for more family fun. Be prepared for lots of posts next week!