Tip Tuesday - S-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g your Fabric Softener

My brother always used to say 'hard times in the Maritimes' whenever he'd catch me complaining about something.  Well, it's hard times all over right now, and any way I can make things stretch and last a little longer is a good thing! 

Here's a tip for making liquid fabric softener last a loooong time.  Instead of pouring in a capful during the rinse cycle, grab an old cloth or mismatched sock, and dab a splash of fabric softener on it.  Then throw it in the dryer - voila!  Instant dryer sheet!  I can make a bottle of fabric softener last for a really, really long time doing this.  Another tip for fabric softener is to cut your dryer sheets in half, to make a box last twice as long. 

If you're one of those super organized types, write the date you open a bottle or box of detergent, dryer sheets or fabric softener.  Then you can figure out roughly how much you consume, and use that for long term storage calculations. 

Laundry is boring, but important.  I have a sign in my laundry room that says:

"Laundry Today or Naked Tomorrow"

Truer words were never spoken.

Tuesday Tip Day - Ironing

Here's a great tip for ironing from one of my friends.  When your ironing board cover starts to look worse for wear (scorch marks) and you're thinking of replacing it, keep the old ironing board cover on and just pop the new one on top of it.  It adds extra cushion for the board.  If you keep doing this over the years, you'll end up with a pretty nice pad for your ironing board.  (I have three covers on my board now.)  Waste not,want not, people. 

All in One Christmas Post - Recipes, Scrapbooking Ideas, Fun Links, Tips......

Well, my friends, the countdown is on and there's lots for all the Mrs. Claus' to do.  In the spirit of gettin' it done and keepin' it real, this is an all in one Christmas-palooza post.  So, here goes....

Recipe:  Raisin Clusters

1 cup chocolate chips
1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups raisins

Line baking sheet with buttered wax paper.  Set aside.  Melt chocolate with milk and vanilla in heavy small saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat when melted.  Stir in raisins.  Drop by teaspoonfuls onto baking sheet.  Refrigerate until firm.  Store in fridge in container between layers of wax paper.  Makes 30 clusters.  This is my dad's very favorite Christmas treat.

Tip of the Week:

If you're making chocolate cakes or cup cakes this season, try dusting the greased cake pans with cocoa instead of flour.  No white flour marks on the cake - yay!

Family Activity:  Christmas ABC Scrapbook

  This is one I'm going to start in the New Year, it's an old idea I've had in my Christmas File for over a decade.  Basically, all the Christmas cards that you've kept through the years can be added to an ABC scrapbook.  Get a nice big scrapbook and make sure it has at least 26 pages in it.  Label each page A-Z with the following verses:

A is for angels, with halos so bright, whose carols were heard on that first Christmas Night.
B is for baby, that Christ child so dear, We celebrate Christmas, His Birthday, each year.
C is for Candles that so brightly shine, To give a warm welcome to your friends and mine.
D is for doorway with garlands of green, To make Christmas merry for as far as they're seen.
E is for evergreen garlands galore, We hang at our window, fireplace and door.
F is for fun the whole season long, From trimming the tree, to singing a song.
G is for greetings, a merry hello- With a heart full of love for people we know.
H is for holly with berries so red, To make into wreaths to hang overhead.
I is for ice on white covered hills, Where sledding is fun along with the spills.
J is for jingle bells merrily ringing To the whole world, joy they are bringing.
K is for Kris Kringle, so merrily he stands.  He is who they call Santa, in ours and many lands.
L is for lantern, I'm sure that their light Helped Mary and Joseph, on that first Christmas night.
M is for Mary, her heart full of love For her little son Jesus who came from above.
N is for Noel the angels did sing To herald the birth of Jesus, our King.
O is for ornaments, so shiny and bright, With lights on the tree, they sparkle at night.
P is for packages, presents so gay, All around the tree for our Christmas Day.
Q is for quiet Christmas Eve night, With snow covered hills glistening so bright.
R is for red, the color so gay, That makes all things bright on that one special day!
S is for shepherds who first saw the star Over Behtlehem's manger and followed it far.
T is for trees we decorate so gay, They wait for old Santa to hurry our way.
U is for universe, the whole wide world, Where Christmas means joy to each boy and girl.
V is for Vixen, the lively reindeer.  He always helps Santa deliver toys each year.
W is for wisemen who brought gifts so rare, and fell down and worshipped the Christ child there.
X is for excitement, the best day of the year, We can all hardly wait until it is here.
Y is for young children who love Christmas so, Who teach its true meaning by the love that they show.
Z is for Zeal, real excitement and fun.  May this book help to bring a "Merry Christmas" to everyone!

This is a project to be brought out every Christmas season.  Keep the Christmas cards you receive every year alongside the scrapbook, so whenever little people get restless, you can get them to look through the cards and find new pictures to add to each scrapbook page.  Warning:  this scrapbook is not for moms to obsess over, it is a yearly activity for the kids, so please put your perfectionism aside!  (Unless you want to do one for yourself, of course.  Kind of like how dads should have their own kub kar/pinewood derby car all for themselves.)

Home and Garden:  It's Yarn Season for me.  I can't go outside and dig in the dirt, so I play with yarn and drool over seed catalogues.  Here's a link to one of my favorite crochet pattern websites, it's pretty comprehensive:  Crochet Pattern Central .  I've made two cute hats already and am working on a Mobius Granny Scarf right now.  Confession:  I drooled over yarn at Michael's yesterday, then reminded myself of the pact I have made to abstain from buying yarn until I have used up my current stock, which is shocking.  I think I have enough yarn to cover a bus.  Did you know there are yarn ninjas out there who do yarn grafitti?  Maybe Beaumont will discover a yarn activist when I run out of people to cover in granny squares........

Review:  The Graphics Fairy

This isn't so much a review as a big thank you to The Graphics Fairy.  Her site is amazing, and filled with free vintage clip art and absolutely cute craft projects.  I am in awe.....

Family Inspiration: 

This was written by Toni Young of Calgary many many years ago:

"Remember---

What children really want for Christmas is a warm and close family celebration and a few carefully chosen gifts from people who care about them.

Build up to Christmas has been lengthened, but its ending has been cut short.  When the gifts have been unwrapped, Christmas is over and children are left dazed and bewildered. 

When parents have family celebrations, kids learn there's more fun to Christmas than just unwrapping gifts.  When children have exciting family activities to look forward to, before and after the present-opening, gifts start taking their rightrful place in the festivities."

 

How do you keep from chasing that ball of yarn?

Since snow is on the ground, my interest has turned to the huge collection of yarn I have.  My project is to work my way through it as fast as possible, as I have taken a solemn vow to abstain from buying yarn until I have used up what I have.  Other people have a thing for buying fabric, for me it's yarn.  There you go.

I work with seniors during the week, and one very aged Ukrainian lady named Mary D. loved to knit, but due to lack of agility had given up on chasing balls of yarn around.  Her solution was to get a small mixing bowl and put the ball of yarn in the bowl at her feet.  The yarn was free to turn around as she yanked on it, but never left the bowl.  Voila! 

Tips - Grandma's Apron

I am wearing an apron right now.  Are you?  I wear aprons every day, because I have learned the hard way the importance of protecting my clothes.  A girl I work with knows this about me, and she brought in a copy of this little story about Grandma's Apron that I thought I'd share with you today.

Grandma's Apron

I don't think our kids know what an apron is.
The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath, because she only had a few, it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and they used less material, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.
It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears…
From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.
When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids.
And when the weather was cold grandma wrapped it around her arms.
Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.
Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.
From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables.
After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.
In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.
When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.
When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men-folk knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.
It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that 'old-time apron' that served so many purposes.

REMEMBER:

Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool.
Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw.
They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron.
I never caught anything from an apron…But Love. (Author Unknown)

Dusting the computer/tv screen

About two years ago while I was at work at the senior's centre, one of the administrators, Cecile, passed on this handy tip for repelling dust from computer screens and televisions.  She said that she dusts her screens with dryer sheets, like Bounce, and that the fabric softener actually keeps dust from landing on the screens.  Nothing gets dustier faster than those electronic devices, so this is indeed a handy tip.  Thanks, Cecile!

How cheap can she get? Re-using Vacuum Cleaner Bags

A very sad event happened this Saturday afternoon.  After a busy week, Hurricane Jen was flying through the house cleaning everything I could get my hands on.  After vacuuming the upstairs, I dragged my faithful old vacuum cleaner to take care of the back step and stairs.  I plugged in the vacuum cleaner, and nothing happened.  Wiggling the cord caused occasional bursts of engine activity, but after quite a while I came to the conclusion that there was no hope, it had finally bit the dust.  Just so you know, it's several years old, getting very temperamental, and yes, duct tape is involved.  In other words, there is no shame for this machine finally giving up the ghost.  Which meant date night involved shopping for a replacement.  Sigh. 

This led me to reflect on how cheap I really am.  Actually, I prefer the word frugal.  Did you know that you can re-use vacuum cleaner bags?  My friend Laurel told me about this many years ago.  All you have to do is take the vacuum cleaner bag out, have a garbage bag of some sort nearby, and be prepared to sneeze.  Place the bag inside the garbage bag, and start shaking and grabbing and pulling all the blech out of the bag.  It's dusty, it's nasty, and I hate doing it, but it works.  Soon you will have an empty bag, ready to be re-used.  There are limitations to how often you can re-use a vacuum cleaner bag.  They will eventually start to tear or come apart.  Then it's time to break out a new bag.  There, true confessions is now over.  My name is Jen, and I re-use vacuum cleaner bags......

Pie Crust Tip

Here's a handy tip for all the pie makers out there, especially as the holiday season (in Canada) has started already.  In order to keep the edges of your pie crust from browning way too much, buy a stack of inexpensive foil pie tins, and cut off the rim.  Place the rim over the edge of the pie crust while baking, taking it off the last 20 minutes or so to let the crust brown a little.  You can throw away the foil rim, or wash and re-use it.  This is easier than trying to form a ring from aluminum foil.  Happy pie making!

The Missing Sock Box

Here's my frugal tip for the day!  Keep those old mismatched socks in your rag bag.  Worn like a glove, they are great for dusting.  This is a good duster to give to children as well.  This is great in particular for woodwork and wooden spindles, the back of the piano or refrigerator, or ceiling fans. 

"The world has enough for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed." - Mahatma Gandhi.

Tip Tuesday - The Tooth Brush - not just for hygiene!

  I have old toothbrushes hidden under every sink in the house.  These are one of my favorite cleaning tools!  They are great for getting around the taps and faucets in the sinks, and any other grungy, hard to reach spot that needs some heavy duty cleaning.  They're good on grout as well.  I also use them on my diamond ring, which I never, ever take off, and therefore gets totally gross with bread dough and other mixtures when I'm cooking or baking.  The soft bristles of a toothbrush get right in there and clean out all the gunk.  I keep them hidden because I don't want anyone to think, 'hey, there's my old toothbrush', and then put it in their mouth, unaware of where that toothbrush has been since it was retired from active duty.  Blech!  So that's my tip, save your old toothbrushes for hard to get at cleaning jobs, and keep them hidden!

Lunch Box Tip - Filling the Thermos

Sometimes it's nice to send a hot lunch in a thermos for your children's lunch.  Whether it's a leftover casserole, soup, or some other concoction that goes well in a thermos, hot food on a cold day can be very comforting.  Here's a tip on how to fill that thermos with less mess.  I use a wide mouth funnel that I usually use for canning.  It fits perfectly in the mouth of the thermos, and keeps the spills to a minimum.  I also preheat the thermos with boiling water before I fill it, it keeps the food hot longer.  I hope you find this helpful!

Menu Planning

Welcome to Tip Day!  Sorry to all those that have been leaving comments, I'm not ignoring you, I just can't seem to reply to comments again!  I need to check a book out of the library - Replying to Comments for Dummies.  I'm what some in the industry would call a 'stupid user'.  Sigh. 

Anyway, back to the tip of the day.  Many years ago, my menu planning style was all pantry, all the time.  I kept my fridge, freezer and cupboard stocked with the usual suspects, and basically winged it from day to day.  And if a whim struck me, I'd toddle off to the store for whatever it was I was itching to bake, stew, braise, fry, roast....you get the general idea.

My menu planning style the last few years tends towards meal planning on a two week schedule.  The day before grocery day (or that very day, more likely!) I sit down with my big mom calendar, a pencil and a highlighter.  I pencil in tentative meal ideas, taking into account what's going on on a particular day.  For example, today is Tuesday, the first day of early morning seminary (6:15 a.m. this year, holy wow!), a contractor came this a.m. to finish the office downstairs, Sarah's friends came home with her for lunch, I had to work from 12-3, pick up the boys at 3 (yes, I know it's impossible to be two places at the same time, they had to cool their heels for ten min.), drop off the car for Jason, take the three youngest to piano lessons at 4:15, home at 5:50.  This was the perfect day for a crock pot meal.  So I penciled in meat balls, which I made at 9:30 this morning, threw in the pot with the tomato sauce, and at 6 p.m. I just needed to cook some noodles and we were ready to roll. 

I always schedule pizza for Fridays, because otherwise the world as we know it would end.  I make the dough in the morning before I go to work.  Thursday is always sandwich night, because four of the children have activities on that evening, and a girl needs a break.  Saturday is Mexican food night, whether that's enchiladas, tacos, fajitas, quesedillas, chili, you get the picture.  Sunday is big dinner day, with a nice dessert.  The other days I fill in depending on what's going on that day.  I highlight the meal on the calendar.  I write it in pencil, because nothing is written in stone, baby!  If I wake up one morning, look at the calendar, and think to myself..."There's no way I'm making/eating_______tonight", I erase the pencil meal and put in what I really want! 

As I'm filling in my calendar the day before grocery day, I also make my grocery list at the same time.  I know exactly what I need to buy, it's all written out on the calendar.  This saves me time and money.  I also still keep staples on the shelf for days when I change my mind.  Like I said, written in pencil, not stone. 

I posted on routines yesterday, and I have to say my children like the meal on the calendar routine.  They check it every morning to see what's for supper, accompanied with the requisite cheers or groans, depending on what's written down for the day (Grilled cheese sandwiches - Yay!  Vegetable soup - Boo!) 

I used to swear I'd never, ever use a meal plan, it was too inflexible.  But now that I calendar our meals, I don't think I'll ever go back.  Ten minutes of planning twice a month saves me a whole lot of time every day. 

Lunch Box Tip

Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike packing school lunches?  I really do!  It's my weekday morning nemesis.  Almost as bad when the lunch boxes come back after school, you never know what you'll find when you open up that Pandora's Box.  *shudder*

Here's my Tuesday Tip of the week:  when you are making muffins or banana bread or other healthy baking, double the batch if you can, and freeze half.  Wrap each individual muffin in cling wrap, then put about half a dozen in a large freezer bag (remember to label and date the bag!).  When you're packing the lunch boxes, throw in a frozen muffin or mini banana loaf.  By the time lunch rolls around, the muffin will have thawed.  They stay fresh in the freezer for about three months.  I like lunches where I just have to grab ready made things and throw them in the bag, it's a real time saver.  This way, you're not throwing in some prepackaged processed food, but something home made and healthy.  Let's just hope the little darlings don't trade it for a twinkie!

Tip Tuesday - A Fog Free Mirror

Hi everyone!  We're back from a little camping trip, more pictures to follow in the next few days.  My goodness, there are still sleeping bags and camping equipment all over the place, I'm going to have to work like a beaver to get things put to rights again!  

I'm just going to jump right in with my Tuesday schedule, which is Tip Day!  Ta Da!  My tip this week is on how to make your bathroom mirror fog free.  This is cheap, but takes some elbow grease and a little bit of time.  All you need is a clean cloth and Sunlight dish detergent.  I'm sure other detergents could work, I only ever have used Sunlight, though.

Put a squirt of dish detergent on your cloth, and start rubbing the mirror.  That's right, apply the dish detergent directly to the mirror.  Cover the whole mirror with detergent, and patiently rub it on to the glass, until the mirror is completely polished and shiny.  This takes time and patience, but for the next couple of weeks your mirror will not fog up! 

Advertising What You Believe

My family is being inundated with marketing all day long.  So is yours.  Everywhere you go, things are being advertised.  People wear clothes with logos on them, or slogans printed on them, or even brand themselves.  Brand names are written on everything, from cars to clothes to...well, you get the picture.  The internet, television, the radio, newspapers, magazines, billboards.  I would love to know the average of how many advertisements a person sees every day, without even being aware of it.  It's probably mind boggling.  Some of the marketing is probably just branding, some of it is the marketing of ideas.  Some of these ideas are harmful to families, to value systems, or to a persons self esteem.  Our families are being taught things we may not necessarily agree with, or be very opposed to.  We all know we should be careful what we allow in the walls of our homes.  We screen content vigilantly, but stuff slips through.  Our boys may hear or see things that are disrespectful to women. They see violent images in the games they play. Our girls are exposed to images that make them dissatisfied with their  appearance.  The media glorifies celebrities, and makes wholesome family life seem old fashioned, out of date or plain wrong. 

We are careful in defending our families, and in protecting them.  We try to teach them by example, and in the lessons we teach in family home evening.  We fortify our family through prayer, scripture study, and attending our meetings.  We can also advertise what we believe.  Fill our home with good books, good music and good movies, so that our children can have a choice.  Something I've been doing lately is using our refrigerator door as a billboard.  Along with our big old family calendar, I have been posting inspirational pictures and quotes that help to remind our family what we hold dear.  It's started some conversations, and I can see them reading the quotes and staring at the Mormonads I've stuck on the door.  I figured this was a good place to start advertising, because I have five kids, and they're always hungry, so they see the fridge a lot during the day!  I'm trying to change things up regularily so they don't get bored, as well.  And, I'm sure, some of it is subliminal.  They walk by that fridge a whole lot......

Tips - Storing Drinking Water

My tip for Tuesday is on storing water for emergency purposes.  It's important to have water stored in your emergency 72 hour kits (enough for 2l per person per day).  It's also a good idea to have up to two weeks of water stored at home, in case there is a disruption of the water supply.  We've all seen the news reels of people rushing to the grocery stores to clean out the bottled water when a storm is coming, or if a disaster has happened.  Why not have the peace of mind to know you're already prepared for such an eventuality? 

This is an inexpensive family preparedness project that can be accomplished over a long period of time.  There are two types of water you need, drinking water and water for washing.  Water for washing is easy to store, I do what my sweet, smart mother did when I was a kid.  Every time I empty a bottle of bleach, I fill it with water and date it on the outside with a sharpie.  Because the water is stored in a bleach container, it will be clean, and ready to use for washing dishes, etcetera. 

As far as drinking water is concerned, you can re-use soft drink bottles as water storage containers.  We don't drink a lot of soda pop, usually only on birthdays or special occasions, or as a special treat.  When we do have a pop bottle that has been emptied, we wash it out really well with soap and water, then rinse it until all the soap residue is gone.  Then we fill it up with water, label it, and put it downstairs in our storage room.  Over the last few years we have ended up with over 40 2L bottles of drinking water.  Since we are using municipal treated water, we don't have to add a disinfectant to the water.  If you're using well water, you will have to add some bleach to your water.  It's also a good idea to store some water purification tablets with your water storage.  You can usually pick these up at a camping supply store or Scout shop.  Here's a link to the Provident Living website with specifics on how to store water. 

Tip - make your own origami gift card holder

Lately it seems that a lot of the gifts received or given seem to be gift cards.  This seems very impersonal sometimes, but because of mailing gifts long distance, it is also more practical.  In order to make a gift card more personal and unique, why not make your own gift card holder, using a little origami magic?  I like to use pretty paper that has a different pattern on each side, it looks nice when you open the holder up.  You can decorate the outside with ribbon, sparkles, stickers, etcetera.  It's inexpensive and fun, and a great way to dress up a gift card.

Freezing Leftover Chicken for Stock

There's no way I'm going to share a picture of this one, it's just not pretty.  Enough said.

My tip this week is about saving the leftovers of a roast chicken for making stock.  The leftover bones and meat and stuff, you know.  I keep a big freezer bag in the deep freeze, and every time I have a roast chicken,  I wrap it in cling wrap and add it to the freezer bag.  When I have four or five carcasses, I make stock.  Because there are so many bones and bits of this and that, it makes a better quality stock.  Not pretty, I know, but useful and frugal.  Ta Da!

Family Calendar

Here's one thing I can't live without, a necessary tool for a large family.  A great big calendar on the fridge, with stickers if possible!  We have been using a family calendar for over a decade now, and it is indispensible.  I'm not going to recommend any particular brand, just make sure it has big spaces for writing on, especially if you have a big family.  I usually write our menu on our calendar as well, but decided to wing it for July.  Our kids know, if it's not on the calendar, it's not happening!  A calendar is only as good as the information written on it.  A calendar only works if you look at it every morning and every night (Thanks, Flylady!).  My kids now check the calendar themselves every day, and write their own activities on the calendar.  I know we're in a high tech world, and a calendar is as low tech as you can get, but having a central family calendar posted in a place every person goes more than once a day (the fridge) keeps our family on track.

Tips - No Wipe Window Cleaner (Outdoor Use)

The windows in our house usually need to be cleaned on the outside in the spring and fall.  We have a big willow tree right outside our front door, and it gets very dusty.  Then it rains, and all that dirty dust gets blown onto our windows!  Yuck!  I found this recipe for window cleaner in the Halifax 1st Ward 2008 cookbook. 

2-3 tablespoons laundry or dish detergent
1 tablespoon dishwasher wetting agent (e.g., Jet Dry)
1 gallon warm water

Brush or sponge on window, immediately hose off.  Water will sheet off, no drying necessary.

I have used this, and it works!  I use a squeegee with a sponge on one side, with an extension arm.