$5 Amazon Gift Card Winner

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Hello Fans, Friends, and Family!

I really quickly wanted to announce the winner of the $5 Amazon Gift Card GIVEAWAY!

The winner is my friend Autumn! Yay! Congratulations Autumn! I’ll be sending the e-card your way shortly!

There were *SO* many great responses.   I’ve been away all day and am really longing some family time before the kids go to bed, so I’ll real quickly sum up the tips I received:

*Try not to run the air as much as possible

*Don’t use lights unless it’s dark outside! And then we usually only use enough to see.

*When we are putting things away after meals, we try to gather all refrigerator items, so we only have to open the fridge once.

*Clean your air conditioner yearly and change the filter monthly.

*Use quilted window curtains.

*Turn the Heat down in winter.

*Set air hotter in summer and use your fan on slow or medium.

*Keep curtains on sun side of house closed.

*If the humidity isn’t too high, once the temp drops in the evening, turn off the air and use fan on low.

Here was my favorite tip of all:

Invite my daughter over; then she unplugs everything.

HAHAHA! I wonder who wrote that one… hmm 😉 I love my mom!

Thank you to all who entered! I look forward to hosting another giveaway in the future.

 

Have a Happy Fathers Day weekend! 

Don’t forget to take time to thank your Heavenly Father for all you have, and wish Him a Happy Fathers day as well.

DIY Table Top S’mores

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Last night we made Table Top Driveway Smores.  I had everything on hand already except the charcoal and the pot.

Driveway S’mores
Being impatient we roasted some while there was still a little flame, this makes deliciously burnt mallows. 😉
The Basics.  I think this bag of charcoal will last us all summer, and then some!
Update: 6 years later, we’re still using the same bag!

What you’ll need:

First I made a ball of tinfoil to put into the pot (about softball sized).  This way the pot wasn’t so deep.  Then I lined the pot with another piece or two of tinfoil.

Next, I added about 5-6 pieces of charcoal along with a little dryer lint to start the fire.  This wasn’t successful, so I resorted to lighter fluid (back up when you squirt this on-  It really works fast! Be so safe with this, please)

The coals will get hot while the flame goes down, then you will have flameless table top s’mores!
Much safer for little people, although it is still crazy hot up close, you won’t have to be quite as paranoid about the flame catching their clothes on fire (maybe that’s just me that worries about that), or burning little hands if the wind comes along.

The heat of the coals is enough to roast your marshmallows, and I’ve read the pot gets hot enough to melt whatever it’s on- that’s why we chose the driveway for this.  You could also put it into a stoneware bowl or something if you wanted it on a table outdoors.

The original pot of 5-6 coals stayed hot enough to roast on for at least 3 hours.  After that we just called it a night, we maybe could have gotten more time out of it, but we were exhausted from being out all day!

Best of all-  Our clothes didn’t stink like smoke when we were done!  Yeah!

Go on, try this out and make some memories with your precious family!

Declutter: Magazines

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The neighbor just stopped down for a few minutes.  While we were all talking in the kitchen I sort of mindlessly started a recycling pile of store ads & magazines from around the kitchen. Isn’t it funny how you realize your messes so much more in front of company.
It wasn’t a terribly big stack, but I knew all those papers were holding me back, & making me feel guilty that I hadn’t yet dealt with them, so they got tossed into the recycling bucket.  After he left, instead of trying to skim the magazines I decided to leave them be.  I went to lay on the hammock & blog.  I enjoy this activity much more.  & I’m sure what ever was in the magazines wasn’t all that important anyway.

What material thing is holding you back or dragging you down, even if just slightly?  Make a point to deal with it before the next week begins.  The sooner the better.

TV Free Summer?

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I’m thinking out loud tonight and wondering what it would be like to go the summer without TV.  I mean like actually unplug the TV for the summer & buy a weather radio.

Woah!  Did I really just say that?  Well yes, faithful blog follower, I actually did!  You’re thinking I’m crazy, & I slightly agree with you!

The main concern I hear seems to be that we wouldn’t be able to know if bad weather was coming our way.  I just disagree though.  I have a smart phone and have signed both my husband and I up for weather alerts from the local news station.  So in the event of poor weather we get a phone call to let us know what is coming our way.  So that issue is taken care of, for the most part.

I really have a strong desire to “unplug”.  But I wonder if I’m being unfair to my husband.  He uses TV in his down time to relax and be entertained.  But truthfully, he doesn’t even watch TV most nights in an average week.  He’s good at occupying himself with other things.

I’m not too worried about the kids, I mean that’s a big part of the reason I want to do this.  To help them explore more, and not be sucked into meaningless shows strictly for entertainment value.

Here’s where I struggle though…  There are so many times that I’m guilty of letting the kids watch a 30 minute show just so I can get some rest or tackle a project.

I wish watching the tube was a special treat and not the default option as soon as someone feels bored in the house.

I think summer is a perfect time to try this, because the weather allows us to spend more time outdoors.

In my dream world the kids would help me for hours (rather than minutes) in the garden, they’d play in the yard and in the evening we’d all go inside and enjoy dinner together followed by several board games & laughing the night away.

I’m going to keep dreaming, and if our entertainment center that I posted on Craigslist earlier in the week sells, I’m going to do my best to make this dream a reality!  Of course, after my husband and I agree on  the terms of being “unplugged”.

Would you ever consider this?  or have you done it?  We’ve gone TV free for almost a month before, it wasn’t so bad at all, but this time I want to actually take the TV out of the living room, which is a whole different ball game.

Monday Madness: Donation Station

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Monday Madness
As if Mondays aren’t busy enough, let me add one more thing for you to consider adding to your “to-do” list.
If you haven’t already, set up a donation station.  For us it’s a table in the basement.  Whenever the kids are getting dressed and a shirt doesn’t fit, or a pair of shoes get too snug they know just where it goes.  This helps me because it’s taken care of right away.  We aren’t dealing with the same shirt not fitting a week later, and I’m not faced with  looking in the closet to see how many t-shirts they have thinking they have oodles when really only half of them fit.
So First- set up the station.  It could be just a paper sack in the corner of your closet, or whatever works for you.
Next think quickly what could be added to the donation station.  It might be something you want to donate it to a friend, a second hand store, the church, wherever.  The point of this pile is getting it out of your everyday sight so you can live more simply.

Recipes: Organizing

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I mostly just pull my recipes from the internet these days. Somtimes it’s something great I see on pinterest other times it’s something I’m craving (or saw on TV & had to have) so I Google how to make it and use which ever recipe seems easiest.

There are times that I taste what I’ve made and I JUST TOTALLY LOVE it, occasionally even the little people here love it too (praise the man of the house, he never complains about what I make)! So I have decided that some recipes are so worthy & that I must make them at least one more time while I’m on earth. Those recipes get added to my little index card recipe collection.

I also have a 3 ring binder filled with my grandma’s recipes, I love that binder & all the wonderful recipes inside. I am so honored to be able to make the things she made and hopefully someday my children will be using thoes same recipes in their kitchens.

What do you do with your favorite recipes?

Recipe: Baked Oatmeal

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Here is a peek into my oven this morning:

I must have made breakfast too early this morning, or maybe I just didn’t eat enough, Because this delightful dish came out of the oven at about 10:30 this morning.  Yes, that’s right, I had baked oatmeal at 10:30 in the morning.  I chalk it up to being one of the perks of being a stay at home mom, no one tells me when I can take a break & indulge in something so amazing.

Mix all of these dry ingredients together in your baking dish.

2 cups old fashioned rolled oats

1/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup chocolate chips (because chocolate chips are so high in calories I tried to use the least amount I could and still get a good covering of them on the oatmeal).

Add these over the top and push some of them down in a ways.
3/4 cup sliced strawberries- I use frozen, some were sliced, a few were whole.
1 sliced banana

Whisk these 3 things together and pour over the top.
2 cups milk
1 large egg
1 teaspoon homemade vanilla

Baked at 350 for 35ish minutes.

Yummm!
For leftovers:  Since we don’t use a microwave, I scoop what I want into a small pan and heat it up on the stovetop.  It only takes about 3 minutes and it’s heated evenly and stays warmer longer than if it were nuked.

Tip Tuesday- Laundry Soap

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I’m not great at making my own laundry soap.  I have bought all the supplies to do it, a couple of times  actually.. I have never really stuck with it, though I know it is cost effective.

My tip for you today, although it’s common sense, is worth saying-
Use less soap!  The guidelines for how much soap you should be using is set by the company that is making that soap and wanting you to buy gobs of it so they can profit.
With my last batch of laundry detergent I threw out  the ugly green plastic measuring scoop & cardboard box that came with it.  I replaced it with a nice glass jar & a stainless steel tablespoon scoop.
I much prefer the glass jar over the cardboard box, & the metal scoop versus the plastic ones.  I already had these things on hand.
Now I use 1 or two of these scoops rather than half a green scoop.

What do you have on hand that you could use to pretty up the laundry area in your home?

Ditching Toxins- 1 Year Later

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Almost exactly a year ago I posted about how freaked out I am by toxins.  Since then I DID actually pull out the lotions that had parabens listed in the ingredients, or had a list of ingredients longer than I cared to read.

I tried making my own deodorant (& toothpaste), which worked better than the store bought.  That is, until it got too cold and hard (hoping it will work again in the summer, I have hyperhidrosis and am a super sweater.

I’ve gotten a little more relaxed since Christmas and started using a hand lotion that I don’t even know where it came from.  I read that it had parabens but I figured I’d just use a little, and it smelled SO good!

Well, I read an article today that has again sparked my interest to remove toxins, so the lotion will be ditched.

You can read about the article here, it talks about parabens and breast cancer.  It’s not that they may be causing it or even directly linked, but I do feel that women as a whole are using WAY too many products that are unhealthy and our bodies know it.

By the way, if all of you women would stop using so many products to make yourselves look good, then I could stop using so many and it would really level out the playing field.  Just sayin’.

Also- I stopped using my very favorite moisturizer and swapped it for olive oil after a MOPS meeting where I had everyone making a sugar scrub.  Some gals asked if it was okay to use on your face, and I said I wouldn’t, because it’s oil.  Then a few other said that it was actually good to use just olive oil on your face.  I looked into it, and they were right!  My skin loooooves the change.  Although winter winds have been tough, the olive oil is still all I will be putting on my pretty little face.

Think to yourself- What can I do to make a difference for me/my family?  Then do it!

Learning something new.

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My friend Jennifer came over last weekend and taught me how to knit.
I’m thankful for this new activity, & getting to spend time with her.
I’m not sure if it is something I will keep up, but it has been fun to try.
As I struggled with how to hold the needles and where to put the yarn, I realized what my daughter must be going through as she is so often trying to learn something new in school.
We must all begin to show more compassion to others.  Learning something totally foreign is difficult & takes time, but is not impossible.

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