Household Hints

YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT THIS WOMAN DOES!

ONE SIMPLE TRICK WILL CUT YOUR HOUSEWORK IN HALF!


 For some reason I have had numerous posts like this show up on my Facebook feed recently. I rarely read them but it made me think that obviously there are people out there in need of my expert advise on HOUSEWORK.

So let me pass along some words of wisdom on how to get some of those pesky household chores you hate done without ANY effort on your part.  That's right - I said NO EFFORT ON YOUR PART.

Do you have hardwood floors? These can be a pain to keep clean. Seems like they always look kind of dusty. Little bunnies always floating around in the air. You try sweeping, dust mopping, vacuuming and they are right back. Here's a simple trick to tackle that job. Let the kids go skating!

I know you are thinking, 'What in the world? How will the kids skating help me with my hardwood floors?'  Easy, peasy.  Push the furniture to the side of the room - put some socks on the kids - spray the floor with Endust (or the bottoms of the socks) and let them loose.  They can run back and forth across the room slipping and sliding.

This has the double bonus of letting kids who have been housebound due to inclement weather release some pent-up energy. This should be used as a reward system for kids. And if you are a fun-loving adventurous mom - JOIN THEM! Trust me - your kids will be begging you to let them go skating in the house and you have the added benefit of the shiniest floors in town.

One of the tasks I dislike the most is cleaning baseboards in the house.  Ugggg!  They get so dirty and there is no easy way to clean them.  Wait! Did I just say no easy way to clean them?  Well, there is if you have kids who tend to get in trouble much. That's right - get in trouble - clean the baseboards! This should be used for more serious offenses such as getting in trouble at school.  Or if you have siblings who just cannot get along and you are tired of listening to them fight/squabble. Fix each one a bucket of soapy water and send them to the floor.  I had one child who spent a lot of time cleaning my baseboards.

Here's another little 'chore' that no one likes to do.

Sorting socks! You know how every time you do a load of laundry you end up with socks with no mates? So you toss them in a basket and it just gets fuller and fuller with every load of laundry you do. You have two options here - wait until the basket is full or wait until you have no matching socks to wear - then you have to attack it.  But wait! You have a child who has not been behaving? Maybe a child who has become a little bit 'mouthy' and you just don't know what to do? Give them the basket of socks to sort. This is the worst punishment ever!  Trust me - all my kids have at some point had to 'go match the socks'.

So there you have it. Three simple cleaning tricks to help you with the housework.

No need to look like this wondering how you are going to get the house work done:

Instead let the kids do the dirty work (or have fun with skating) while you look like this:

Help Wanted

                           

I'm willing to bet that at some point in your life you have checked the help wanted ads. Or at least you have been looking for someplace with a Help Wanted sign in the window. Anyone who wants to succeed in life is always looking at ways to improve themselves. For some it's a better job. 

We scour the ads looking for something that offers the right hours, the right location, the right pay.  We fill out application after application until finally we have if not 'the' job at least 'a' job to help pay the bills. We will continue to search until we find the job that we are looking for. 

What if while scrolling through the Sunday papers we saw the following ad? 


                        HELP WANTED

                         Must be willing to endure great hardship, ridicule and betrayal.
                         Must be able to perform miracles. Must be understanding, loving, 
                         forgiving. Must be willing to give all you have - even your life.  



How many of us would apply for this job? I can't see the line for this particular job as being very long. I honestly don't see anyone in this line.  

There was a person who answered this ad, though.  Jesus. He knew what was coming, He knew there would be ridicule, pain, humiliation, betrayal. But still, He answered the call. 

He has a job for us but many are reluctant to answer this ad. 


                                                  HELP WANTED
                        Must be willing to take up your cross and follow me. 
                                    May be shunned or ridiculed by peers. May endure
                                    hardship. Benefits include salvation, blessings you 
                                    could never dream of and eternal life.  Qulaifications:
                                    Admit, Believe, Confess


 So simple.  Just admit you are a sinner, believe that Jesus died for your sins and confess to  others.  Then tell your story to others; friends, neighbors, co-workers,family,  people you meet on the bus, in the store, at the laundromat. The important thing is TELL YOUR STORY!  

How about it? Are you willing to answer the ad?  

                                               

Good Old Home Cooking

New Food Night -- have you missed it? We cancelled last week because of the weather. Let me tell you, though, this meal was worth waiting for. We had chosen American food as the theme for this week.  What's more American than Chicken Fried Steak and Mashed Potatoes?

Tables ready now to get the food ready.

We started with a simple lettuce wedge. This was Chris' contribution. I had some Poppyseed Dressing on mine. We also had Ranch or Dorothy Lynch.  Don't you just love a wedge of crispy lettuce?

All the ingredients for Chicken Fried Steak.  We had some cube steak (thanks Red and Vicki). Good old corn fed beef straight from the farm. Dip the steaks in egg then in flour and fry in a cast iron skillet.

Here's a little kitchen secret for you. How do you make steak extra tender? Salt. That's right, salt. The cube steaks were still partially frozen. Gary liberally sprinkled both sides of the meat with salt and let this melt down into the meat as it finished thawing.

How does that Chicken Fried Steak look?  It was yummers!  I'll be honest, I don't know that I had ever eaten Chicken Fried Steak. I don't eat a lot of fried meat unless it's hamburger and I have only had a couple of them this year (my new diet).

Some gravy to go along with the steak. Make a rue by adding flour to the grease and meat crispies in the cast iron skillet. Add milk to this and stir until thickened.  Good old gravy!

Some rolls (Sister Shuberts) brought by Rick.  Sister Shubert sure does make a good roll!

Look at those mashed potatoes. Creamy - buttery - yummy! This was a new recipe for Miss Annette. Now she has made mashed potatoes just not this recipe. She used Yukon Gold Potatoes - a stick of butter and 4 ounces of cream cheese. Yes, that's right - cream cheese. You have got to try this recipe.

For dessert I made some gingerbread cookies.  I've got to tell you, I have been so looking forward to this dessert. Not the cookies but the extra part of dessert.

GLOGG! Isn't that fun to say? Go ahead - say it a couple of times. Glogg - glogg- glogg.  The only thing more fun to say is squab. (One of mine and Gary's favorite episodes of Two And A Half Men is when Evelyn is going to keep Jake for the weekend and offers him squab).  Glogg - it's a 'traditional Scandanavian Winter Drink'. It said to serve warm with  gingersnaps or gingerbread.

We warmed the bottle up and poured into glasses to eat with our cookies. It was wonderful! Cinnamon, cardamon citrus, apple and grape juice. Reminded me of Christmas :)  I will definitely have to remember this for the upcoming Christmas season this year. It is traditionally drank after outside winter activities or while sitting around the fire on a chilly evening.

There you have it - good old home cooking with a little foray into Scandinavia with some Glogg. Who wants a seat at next week's table?

Long Distance Grandparent

Isn't it fun to be a grandparent?  I love it!!!  Unfortunately my grandchildren all live far away - very far away. Now, I'm not trying to make any of their parents feel guilty, we are very happy for our children and the lives they have made. Instead, it's to give encouragement to grandparents who also find themselves unable to be 'daily' grandparents.

I was fortunate enough when my first grandchild was born (almost 20 years ago) that they lived in the same town. What a wonderful first year we had! Then they moved over a 1.000 miles away!  Wow!  What a change that was for him and I!  We were blessed with the fact that for the first few years he could come back and spend a couple of weeks with us every summer. Air fare was cheap and frequent visits were made. This worked well for the first 6 years or so and included the birth of our first granddaughter. Fast forward 4 more years and add in 4 more grandchildren and the rising cost of airfare and the visits were not as frequent.

I wanted to be sure that my grand kids knew me so I became a long-distance grandma of fun.  Let me share some tips I have used.

When my first granddaughter was born I wanted her to know the sound of my voice. So I made a recording.  I took a favorite book of her brothers and recorded myself reading it.If I remember right the book was Pokey Little Puppy. I would make a comment when it was time to turn the page. I also recorded myself singing some of the songs I used to rock her brother to sleep with. I then packed up the tape, the book and recorder and sent it off to Arizona.

I used to keep containers of snow in my deep freeze. That way when the kids would come to visit, no matter what time of year, they could play with snow. When it got to the point that I had to many grandchildren to keep that many containers in the freezer I did something different for the ones in Arizona.  I bought an assortment of Styrofoam balls, some special snowmen mugs, a package of hot chocolate and a bag of marshmallows. I boxed this all up and sent it off with instructions that these were indoor snow balls. I told them that anytime it snowed at my house I would let their mother know and they could have an indoor snowball fight and drink hot chocolate and I would do the same thing. It was like we would be together.

Kids love getting mail so I sometimes would print off little notes from the computer and fold up special envelopes and send each child a note in the mail.  As they have gotten older, I have kept a package of note cards on hand. Every so often I will address one to each child and send it off. To make this even more special, I include some confetti in the envelope and when they open up the card it's like a party happened.  Not sure how my daughters feel about this but oh well.

Visit Dollar Tree and buy an assortment of fun stuff for no reason. Box this up and send it off with a note telling them it's a box of fun from Grandma. No reason for the box - no special birthday or anything just for fun. Silly String is always good to have on hand or to include in such a box.

And most importantly, when you do get a chance to spend time with them - DO SO.  This may mean you ride the skateboard when they ask you to. You may play street hockey when the temperature is 118 degrees. You may be playing a game of two on two basketball with 3 teenage boys. It may mean playing video games. You might be making a fort and sleeping on the floor. But whatever it is - if they ask you to do it - give it a try.

And remember, it is much easier to have a relationship now than it was twenty years ago. With my first grandchild it was lots of phone calls and whispers in the closet so his parents didn't know he had called. Now there is phone, Facebook, email, the opportunities are endless. So if your grandson asks you to start playing some online game so you can spend time together - do it. If you find yourself setting goals of how many times in a row you can poke each other on Facebook - treasure it. You won't regret it.

Oh - it never hurts to adopt some local child nearby to use for an across-the-street grandchild for when you need a grand kid fix.

Let me share a few pictures of my grand kids - I'm pretty proud of all of them.

This is my oldest - he'll be 20 this July!  Wow! how time flies.

Here's my Best Bud!  He recently moved to Washington.  We have lots of fun together.

These three boys are quite a mess when they get together!  Only a year apart in age.

The twins!  What one doesn't think of the other one will.  They like to trick me when we play video games and tell me what a loser I am. LOL

  My two granddaughters. Aren't they good looking girls?

Here's me and my Lily Girl.

Cady in her Civil Air Patrol taking a flight.

Me and my girls. Aren't they a couple of cuties?

And here's that across-the-street granddaughter I told you about.  No, unfortunately, she was not bringing the Rocket drink to me.

Winter Finally Arrives

Well here it is the middle of February and winter weather has finally arrived in Oklahoma.

If you have ever lived in Oklahoma you will relate. If not, you will wonder what is wrong with people from Oklahoma. To my friends and family in Northwest Missouri and points more northern or eastern, I apologize. I know what your winter has been like - I follow the forecasts (and Facebook postings).

Now I said winter weather has finally arrived. We have had some cold weather this winter. We have also had some very warm weather. That's the problem. We will have a few days of temperatures in the 20's or 30's and sometimes lower, then we will have a few days of temperatures in the 60's and 70's or even higher. It's been up and down all winter.We have also had some really cold days. Now I'm from Bethany, Missouri, I'm used to cold and snow. Maybe it's the fact that I'm getting older but I sure don't handle the cold as well as I used to.  Not that I really complain about it. We have, however, gone through quite a bit of wood this winter.

So we have had the cold days but we have not had any precipitation. Now here in Tulsa where I live we are in an area that typically misses most of the weather woes that befall the rest of Oklahoma. We seem to be in a dividing area - storms will go just north of us or just south but we remain relatively unscathed for the most part here in Tulsa.

They always put us in the advisories. And when you get a winter storm warning here people take notice. They rush to the store and buy up all the milk and bread that is on the shelves. They prepare themselves to be snowed in.  They are ready!  The kids (and teachers) prepare themselves for a snow day (or two or three).  (Okay I'll be honest - at work we secretly hope for a snow day also).

The storm came in on Sunday night. The weather forecasters did their job and started preparing everyone a week early for the upcoming winter weather storm.  As the week drew to a close their predictions became more dire. The forecast went from 1-2 inches of snow/ice accumulation to 2/4 inches.

Did you catch that snow/ice? Yes, we typically get more ice here than snow. So what did we end up with? Probably about 1 1/2 inches of ice followed by an inch or so of snow.

I know that some of you are saying 'Is that all?' Well, it's enough here to shut things down. The problem is the equipment needed for removal is not available. Although, they do prepare themselves much better now than when we first moved down here 11 years ago.

Snow plows will run the main north/south and east/west arteries. Forget any neighborhood streets - that won't be happening at all. Now when I say they plow let me set you straight on this. There will be a main path plowed, but they don't usually start until after there is already a significant accumulation and possibly even some snow pack. This has improved in recent years though.

They always recommend everyone stay home if at all possible. DO NOT GET OUT. The news channels report of numerous cars that have been stranded, multiple wrecks occur. It's not safe as most people don't know how to drive in weather like this. (Though to be honest - it's just as bad in the summer when it's raining. No stranded vehicles but numerous wrecks).  They forget that they key word is SLOW DOWN!

Ice accumulation - well I don't know when they should start putting down the salt/sand but it's typically not early enough.

So Sunday night they had already called most schools off that were not already closed for President's Day. The storm that was supposed to arrive by 5 pm has yet to make an appearance .When we went to the store for our regular grocery shopping (to find many empty shelves it started raining. I awoke in the night to hear the rain/ice/sleet hitting the house.

At 6:30 am Monday morning  my work called for a late start of 10 am which they amended a couple of hours later to fully closed. I did not leave the house yesterday. (I love days like that).

This morning when I left for work (a late start day of 10 am) I pulled out into my neighborhood which still had fully at least an inch of ice on the street and proceeded to work. Once out of the main neighborhood the main street was fairly clear. Pulled on the expressway and it also was fairly clear - until I got to my exit for downtown. The exit was icy and not fully cleared at all. The lane I typically stay in was not cleared at all. The downtown streets were absolutely horrible!  Ice covered is the only way to describe them. Fortunately the parking lot at work was nice and clean.

A friend just came in from a meeting she had attended and said the freeway is worse now than this morning when we came to work. It appears that they have taken the snow plows to the side of the road and pushed all the snow out onto the middle of the freeway!  What a brilliant concept!

So here's to winter weather and all that it entails, whether this is your first real taste of winter for the year or you have had numerous rounds of it already.

Fashion Tips

Well, I'm sure to get some comments regarding this post.  LOL

The following definition comes from the dictionary:

FASHION:  a prevailing custom or style of dress, etiquette, socializing, etc. : the latest fashion of dresses.

There are numerous articles, magazines, shows, and books regarding fashion. You can learn how to dress for your body type; be it pear, apple, hourglass or magazine. You can learn how best to dress for success. You can learn how to dress for your 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's -- you get the idea.

My fashion advise:  go with what works for you.  I will add though that there are exceptions to this.
My list of fashion do's or don't's

     DON'T:  Wear pajama pants out in public. What are you advertising here? You want someone to follow you home and go to bed with you? They are pajama pants meant for the bedroom or around the house not for public viewing.  This just says you are one extremely lazy person to lazy to even dress yourself for the day. Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with wearing your pajamas all day, just keep it at home.

    DON'T:  Wear bedazzled jeans unless you are a teenager. I'm sorry but I just don't think wearing jeans with sparkles (bedazzling) all over the pockets in back is attractive for women. I don't necessarily  like it for teenagers either. Why call attention to your backside?  And frankly, most bedazzled jeans are found in the Juniors department.  If you are over 20 you do not need to be shopping in the Juniors department. (This will definitely bring on the comments as my oldest daughter and I disagree on this.  LOL  When I go shopping with her I steer her away from that department and she continues to go back there.  Glad the size fits but don't think clothes made with pre-teen or teen girls in mind should be worn by women no matter how cute they are).

     DO:  Dress appropriately for the occasion. Yes, you  may look good in the workout outfit but it is not office wear. Same vein, that awesome looking nightclub dress is called a nightclub dress for a reason.

     DON'T:  Wear skin-tight clothes. I'm sorry no matter how good your body is your clothes should fit. That means that if you need help putting the outfit on, most likely it is at least one size to small. No one but your husband or wife needs to see every detail and outline of your body.

     DO:  Have one person who will be totally honest with you in regards to how something looks on you. This may be your husband, your wife, your sister, your best friend but be sure they are honest. They must not tell you how awesome you look unless it is the absolute truth. In our house, Gary is our go-to person. When we got married he very politely would let the girls and I know if something did not look right on us. He was never rude about it. There have been a couple of times that Charlie and I have looked at a picture of us and said 'What was Gary thinking, letting us go out looking like that?"

     DON'T: Go with the fashion. It may be all the rage but that does not necessarily mean that it is the right item of clothing for you to wear. Not every one can pull of skinny jeans.

     DON'T:  Follow every piece of fashion advise you see or read. If you look long enough you will almost always find something that will contradict what another article said.

     DO: Know your body and what looks good on you. That's the best piece of advise you will find anywhere. Know your body and what looks good on you. But also, make sure that you are comfortable in what you are wearing. No matter how good something looks on you, if you spend your time pulling or tugging at the clothing you are wearing you spoil the effect of the outfit,

Going Asian

It's New Food Night!  Have you been waiting in anticipation all day just wondering what we were going to have? Well, wait no more!  Last week when we were contemplating what the menu should be this week Rick remarked that he had been wanting some more of that stir fry we had a while back.

Well, imagine our surprise to hear him say this. Rick is not a big fan of Chinese food. It was a really big step for him to try it the first time. And now here he is telling us he has been wanting some!  Didn't have to tell Gary twice.

Gary decided to make something he had been wanting to try for quite some time. Hot and Sour Soup. This involved buying something we have never in our life purchased.

Tofu  Yep, we bought it. Not sure what we are going to do with the leftover tofu.

Look at all the ingredients needed for Hot & Sour Soup and Stir Fry. We have some rice, some pork, tofu, eggs, chopped onions, chopped carrots, chopped bamboo, chopped green onions, mushrooms,  Sesame Oil, Rice Wine Vinegar, Soy Sauce, Garlic Chili Paste, Chicken Stock.  That's a lot of ingredients.

The soup consisted of the chicken stock, to which Gary added the green onions, bamboo, tofu, pork, mushrooms, chili paste, soy sauce and vinegar. After this was boiling he took an egg and beat it. He drizzled this into the soup stirring the entire time.

Looks pretty good doesn't it?  This was the first time I had ever eaten Hot & Sour Soup.  It was pretty good.  Not extra spicy but there was some heat to it. The vinegar gave it the sour taste.  Must have been good, Chris ate four bowls of it.  I think he would have eaten more but we told him we had to save some for Miss Annette. She wasn't able to join us tonight as she wasn't feeling well. She was wanting to try the soup though. It happens to be a favorite of hers.

To make the fried rice Gary took the pork that he had fried earlier and stirred this in the wok. He then added an egg and mixed up with the pork.  After this, he added the rice, onions, carrots and soy sauce. Mix this all up and there you have it - pork fried rice.

We didn't have anything special for dessert. We had ice cream and cake.  Chocolate ice cream for Gary and Chris - Vanilla Bean for Rick.  (I declined dessert).

See how Chris is looking with anticipation at the meal?  He was not real sure when he heard we were going to have Hot & Sour Soup. He never orders it when we go out for Chinese. Think he will be changing his mind next time.

There you have it - our Asian night. Wait until you find out what we are having next week. You will be so surprised. We have a seat at the table if anyone wants to join us.

Walking Week 2

Well, I have completed two weeks of my walking.  Two weeks -  it takes 21 days for it to be established as a new habit.  I'm almost there!

So how did my week go?  I wouldn't say it was quite as good as the first week but I'm still satisfied with my progress.

I managed 4 days of walking 20-30 minutes for each walk.  I managed to do at least one 10 minute walk every day at work during my breaks.. some days it was two 10 minute walks.

I managed 4 days of my Hula Hoop.  When you are standing for 10 minutes just 'hooping' that can be a long time.  If you happen to have the wood stove going, I would recommend not standing in front of the fire to hoop.  You will be sweating!

The last full walk I did on my route last week I actually increased the route a short ways. This week I plan on another increase in distance and time.

Overall, I am not having any problems with my walking. One day last week was rough but I think it was the shoes I opted to wear that day.  I really hurt after that walk.  Made note to myself and did not wear that same pair of shoes.  I can see that I will probably need to get a better pair of shoes just for my walking.

So here's to the start of Week 3 of my walking.

Pizza Time

Bet you thought you had missed New Food Night this week, didn't you? You didn't. Gary had to work late Tuesday so we moved it to Thursday night this week.

Rick decided he wanted to try some homemade pizza so tonight was Pizza Night!

First of course we have to get the table ready.

Kind of puts you in the mood for Valentine's Day next week doesn't it?

Here's Gary getting the pizzas ready. Yes, pizzas.  One won't be enough you know.

Miss Annette brought over an Italian Salad.

This had spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, pepperocinis, cucumbers, red onion, red peppers, olives. Top it all off with a homemade vinaigrette dressing.  Good stuff.

Add a couple of plates of cheese bread!  Yummers!  Gary took some fresh bread and spread some melted butter with garlic on top of it.  Add fresh mozzarella to this and bake until bubbly  Good stuff, Maynard.

How does that pizza look? Well I can tell you it tasted better.  Homemade pizza dough, fresh mozzarella, prosciutto, caramelized onions.  Oh my gosh!!  You need to try this.

We also had Italian Sausage pizza. The homemade crust, pizza sauce, Italian sausage and pizza cheese.  Kind of hard to beat.

And I did not realize until  I was typing this up that I didn't get a picture of our dessert.  I'm sorry.  Rick brought over some chocolate ice cream. Not just ice cream but Blue Belle ice cream.  This was a first for Rick as he said he had never bought chocolate ice cream before.

We had a couple of guests tonight to join us. Gary's parents came down to spend his birthday weekend with him!  So Red and Vicki got to enjoy one of our New Food Nights.  We certainly enjoy our new food nights. We also enjoy when someone comes to join us. So keep reading my blog, you never know when we will have more surprise visitors.

Go Red

I'm a big supporter of Women's Heart Health. This is a cause I feel very strongly about.  I promote it every chance I get. I drilled it into my children and grandchildren. My grandson was probably the only kindergarten child who went to school promoting 'wear red' to his teacher.

My mother died of a heart attack at the age of 48.  11 months later her first grandchild was born. My children grew up without a grandmother.

They know their grandmother. I kept pictures - I talked about her - I shared stories. My grandchildren know of their great-grandma. I've shared pictures and stories of her to them.

Stories and pictures don't take the place of a real grandma.

     This is a picture of mom and me.  

She would have loved having grandchildren.  Unfortunately, it was not meant to be.

Know the signs of a heart attack in women. They aren't the same as for men.  Shortness of breath - back pain - jaw pain - nausea - trust your gut! 

This is my mother-in-law.  She had heart bypass surgery in 1997. She knows the symptoms - she sees her doctor regularly. She has stress tests, etc. Last July after having an angio gram she did not feel well. She thought she was having indigestion but it did not go away. She kept calling and calling her doctor. She finally sent his wife a message on Facebook and the very next day she had an appointment with her doctor.

After two weeks of 'indigestion' she was admitted to the hospital and tests were run. Sure enough she had had a heart attack. A few days later - surgery to put in two back-to-back stents and she was on the mend. (This is really a very simplified version of the issue but I think you get the idea.)



Don't ignore these.  If something doesn't seem right - see your doctor. Better safe than sorry.

I want to encourage everyone to wear red this Friday, February 6, 2015 to show your support of women's heart health.  I'd love to see pictures of you wearing your red.