Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Does This Means Somthing...?

I did this at the beginning of the month while listening to a talk from a church leader. I used to do stuff like this in my notebooks while taking notes in college. I also did other stuff that overlapped but I haven't done it that way for awhile. If everything means something what do you think this means?


This only 4 by 4 and done in colored pencil. And don't say you see pizza and smiley faces. I saw that as I did it and couldn't find a way to change it. So what do you think?
Tip Tuesday

I'm not sure if I've done this one before, but I'm too lazy to check.

So this may be a repeat, but good repeat in my opinion, due to the season. Yes, I'm talking about Catalog Season. Merry Catalogs to all, and to all a good night. Now if you like getting all the catalogs you get, disregard this tip. However, if you see catalogs as a evil ploy to make you crave things you never knew you wanted/ needed or to overspend or to turn you and you children into unchecked consumers, then this tip is for you. Okay maybe it's just me (and Webby.)

Whenever I see a catalog I see wasted resources. A tree being cut down, on my behalf, made into paper (lots of resources used there) printed in glossy ink (how safe are they really) and send via airplane or ground (fuel and man power) so my letter carrier can lug it to my house where I promptly put it in the recycling. So I think it is better to cut out all the middle man and just not send it to me in the first place. Maybe you don't go that far with your thought process, I just get tired of them. So I use Catalog Choice
. It allows me to choose which of the catalog I already get to continue getting. (That's a confusing sentence, Webby will fix it, he always does.) Anyway, you can stop getting that Vickies, you never signed up for or the catalogs for the previous resident or with you in-laws name on it. I seldom get a catalog anymore and am so happy about it. I've tried calling the companies, but that's labor intensive and half the time I have to call again. So this works great! I love it. Try it, you'll like it!

Monday, October 27, 2008

Hubby Meme

What is his name? Since I'm not using his real name on the blog, I can't tell you. I can tell you that he and his brother were named after a horse breeder.

how long have you been married? 9 years

how long did you date? We never really dated. We went from hanging out to engaged within a month.

how old is he? 33. I'm older by 9 months. My birthday is 9/6 and his is 6/9.

who eats more sweets? Me only because I eat them while I'm making them and I don't have any qualms about eating candy.

who said i love you first? I did

who is taller? He is by 2 inches, but people usually ask me how tall I am. 5'10" plus Danskoes make for a pretty tall girl. Plus most of the time people don't stand right next to me so when they do they're surprised.

who sings better? me

who does the laundry? me

who sleeps on the right side of the bed? If you're laying in the bed, I do. But if there is a baby in the house I sleep closest to the door.

who mows the lawn? Usually Webby, but this year it's been all me.

who cooks dinner? Me

who pays the bills? Webby, he's great with bills! He's my financial wizard
who drives?

who is more stubborn? That's a toss up. It probably depends on the topic.

who kissed who first? That was a mutual thing. But I defiantly wanted to kiss him first.

who asked who out first? We never really dated. We hung out, first at my house and then we went out to dinner as friends, then at his house.

who proposed? He did. We planned to go ring shopping but he cancelled and went to visit his grandma. I thought he was getting cold feet and was really worried. He went down to get an antique ring from his grandma ans surprised me!

who has more siblings? I do by 1, but he doesn't have any sisters

who wears the pants? Again, it depends on what you're talking about. If it's finances or the car, Webby. If it's about the kids or home, me.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Your Third Choice

I don't take politics. I don't really like politics. But I do vote...most of the time. I'm going to get a little political here, so if you get heated up about it please close this window now.

I know we look at politics in many different ways. I think that it's good. We all have different views and should be voting for the who we think is the best person to represent ourselves. But I think we've fallen into the trap of "am I a Democrat or Republican". I can't really say that I'm either. I've voted both ways and other ways, too. What do you do then when you don't feel either candidate represents you. Because that's the way I feel right now. No, I'm not afraid of who will take office and what they will do. I have faith that, ultimately, God is in control. But that doesn't mean that I shouldn't vote my conscience.

Until recently, I have felt that I needed to pick the lesser of the two evils. Ultimately, that means that I don't agree with either of them. And the lesser of two evils is still evil. There is no politician that can or will represent you completely, but the choices I have seen in front of me have left a bad taste in my mouth.

But there is another choice. Did you even know that? I didn't!




Now that there is someone else, I am seriously considering him instead. Now you can tell me that I'm throwing my vote away, but I voted for Ross Perot, need I say more? Plus, I live in a largely Democrat state, if I vote for McCain I'm throwing my vote away. There are many more things that Baldwin says that I agree with. He is a christian, is pro life, wants to secure the U.S. borders. All things that are important to me. So I'm not saying vote for him, but find out about him and see if he's a better choice for you. Vote for someone you really believe in. Imagine if more people were courageous enough to throw their vote away...it might actually change things.

Please don't send me scathing, unkind messages. I just fell others need to know what I just happened upon. I want what is best for America just like you do. It's just another choice. And I promise I won't blog about politics again for 4 years, if that.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Okay, so I'm kind of coming up empty with my tips. Do you have any ideas? What are your tips? Email them to me and I'll do a post with your tip. I suppose you could always, just do a Tip Tuesday on your blog, too, though. But lets see what I can think of. If it's lame I apologize in advance.

Tip Tuesday
Garlic. I use garlic a lot in my cooking. But I hate peeling garlic. It always seems to stick to the clove, which is really annoying. When I was in the produce section about 2 years ago I ran across something that has saved me so much time and effort. I love it. It is a 2 pound jar of already minced garlic! It's not that expensive either. Now when I need garlic I just pull it out of the fridge and measure out what I need. Sweet Girl eats it by the spoonful that way.

Another tip for getting the paper off fresh garlic is thus. I was watching my sister-in law cook one day. She separated the clove and then put the flat side of her knife the clove. Then she hit the other side of the blade with her hand. It cracked the clove open and the paper came right off. That was kind of hard to describe, but I think you get the picture. The garlic is just going to get diced anyway, so having it break open doesn't really matter.

So there's my tip. Let me know if it was any good and send me yours.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Tip Tuesday

Yesterday I was racking my brain trying to think of a tip. I was doing the dishes when I finally thought of something. Of course, my Internet wouldn't bring up my blog. So here it is one day late.

Tip Tuesday
The reason I thought of the tip while I was doing the dishes is because I had to change my fruit fly bait. All the dead little fruit flies were floating in the bait and looking disgusting. Then is dawned on me that you would all probably love this tip. Now, to confess, I have been looking for a way to get rid of fruit flies for years! I've tried a few things that have only kind of worked. But this one works!!

Take a small bowl or dish and put some apple cider vinegar in it. Then squeeze a little bit of liquid dish soap in it. That's it! The fruit flies are attracted to the apple cider vinegar but the soap slicks there wings and they can fly. They sink to their deaths. Change weekly or when the fruit flies cause the soap to float to the top. Yes, it's pretty gross but so are fruit flies.

Where did I find this little gem? Well, I was on Facebook and was reading a friends wall. We apparently he has the same problem and one of his friends gave him the tip. So really I'm passing on a stolen tip. Shhhh, don't tell. Happy hunting!

Oh, if you're on facebook feel free to add me as your friend.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Animated Leader

Just in case you were wondering, this is apparently who I am. What do you think, would you agree?

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Tip Tuesday

Sorry about last week's tip. I know there are certain people out there who anxiously await my tips. You know...because I am a wealth of knowledge. Well, I at least know what works for me. So I share that wealth with you.

I know you've been waiting for the rest of the laundry tips so here it goes:
The Dryer Edition!

Drying clothes is relatively uneventful and there isn't much you can do to make it any easier then throwing you wet clothes into the dryer. BUT if you use a clothes line there is so much you can do to make it easier. So here's my tip for the line.

As I empty the washing machine I separate the clothes into piles according to whose clothes they are. I use a small laundry basket, one corner for each person. I take the basket out to the line. I start with whomever's stuff is going to take the longest to dry. My lines are off my back porch and on pulleys, very nice and convenient. I don't have to move down the line like my grandma did. Anyway, I put all the shirts on, then pants, pajamas, socks, underwear. Then on to the next person's stuff. This may seem tedious and unnecessary, but you're talking to the person who organizes her groceries on the belt according to how she wants her bags packed. It also makes it easier when the clothes are coming off the line. Each item gets taken off the line, folded and put into a neat pile, ready to go into the drawer! In sweetie Hearts case I put her dry clothes in her laundry basket. Sweetie Heart is 6 so she is in charge of folding and putting away her own laundry the day it is done. Sweet Girl helps put her clothes away.

When I use the dryer I adopt the same philosophy. I take the clothes out and fold them right away. That way I don't have to keep touching the same stuff over and over again. And honestly, I only do all of this because if I put unfolded laundry in a basket it often does not get folded. Everyone is wearing wrinkly clothes and digging through baskets looking for what they want to wear. Then clothes end up on the floor and it's all bad news!

So that's pretty much it for the drying. I don't use fabric softener, I don't like melted plastic on my clothes and it gets on my diapers making them waterproof. Not so good when the purpose is to actually catch pee, not repel it. So there you have it. Until next time....

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Lost

Not that Lost. I'm a fan, too, but it won't be on again until next year.

No, the other lost. Sweetie Heart lost her first tooth! She woke up Saturday with it hanging out. It seem the roots on the inside had let go, but the in the front were hanging tough. It look very funny with the tooth tipping forward. It was like a cartoon. She wiggled it, she asked me to pull it out. I tried...kind of. So Sunday evening I went to Institute ( we study the scriptures on a more academic level then in church Sunday School.) Right at the end I got a call from Webby. Sweetie Hearts tooth came out...well he pulled it. HE PULLED IT?! She wanted him to, so he did it. It bled a bit. He called to ask the protocol for a lost tooth. Is there a protocol for a lost tooth? I don't remember anything from my formative years about that. So the tooth fairy came. She must have run out of the gold Hiawatha dollar coins so she left 4 quarters instead. Inflation is something else. I remember when I was little I got one quarter for a tooth. It might have gone up to fifty cents but not more than that. How much does the tooth fairy pay at your house?


We have gone apple picking a couple of times so far this fall. It's been a lot of fun. The girls just love picking apples off the tree. Very different then the grocery. It also good for them to see when their food actually comes from. I hoping to rent a community garden spot next year so we can grow our own vegetables this year. Monday when we went apple again many of the low apples had been picked so they had ladders out. Both Sweetie Heart and Sweet girl wanted to climb the ladder to pick apples. How fun is that. A great deal of fun if you're not scared. Sweetie Heart was a bit on the fearful side. She was alright if she didn't get up too high, AND if someone on the ladder with her. Sweet Girl on the other hand was fearless. She ran over to the ladder and climbed to the top. Now that made me a bit fearful, but Webby was right behind her. How different 2 kids can be.

As you can see from the pictures, Sweetie Heart is about 4 rungs from the top and probably had to be asked to let go with one hand to get the picture. Sweet Girl just climbed right up to the top and wanted to go further. Just hangin' out at the top with all those apple.