Simple Air Freshener

  It's Friday!!! Yeah!! I have another Fantastic Friday tip for you today.  At our house, we're trying to have less chemicals and stuff in our home so I've found a great homemade air freshener.  Super simple, easy, and works pretty well.  I found this idea here.

You all know how great baking soda is with removing odors from your fridge, well, this is the same concept.  Take a small, 1/2 pint or jelly jar or reuse some other jar, punch some holes in the lid (if reusing a canning lid I turned it over so it doesn't have my writing on it), and fill with some baking soda (around 1/4 - 1/2 cup.) and if you want, several drops of essential oils stirred in.  Put the lid on and use a hammer and nail to punch holes into the lid.  I tried to make a star on the first one, which didn't work that well, can you tell it's a star? :)  Since the second one already had the cute fruit lid, I just punched a circle of sorts. 

I have a bathroom in our bonus room that doesn't get used a whole lot but has the door shut most of the time - gets a little musty in there.  Also, my room is at the top of our stairs and all the odors seem to get pulled up the stairs and into my walk-in closet.  Since we put saloon doors on our closet it seems to trap the odors, go figure.  So I put one of these in both these areas and they are working very well.  If I walk into my closet and it's a little smellier, I just shake up the bottle a little which releases the essential oil smell, too, and soon it's smelling much fresher again.  Occasionally, I also sprinkle some of the baking soda right out of the jar onto the carpet in the closet, let it sit for a while and vacuum it up.  Instant carpet freshener, too.  Great simple little air freshener.  Try it!

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Menu Planning

I've been meaning to do this post all month, so nothing like waiting for THE last day. :)  Since it is the month of love and heart health month, too, I'm challenging you to try menu planning of some sort or another.  Now don't roll your eyes or close your browser, menu planning does not have to be hard or complicated.  It takes many different forms.  So how does menu planning relate to love and heart health you might ask?  Well, nothing says you love your family more than a nice, warm meal, good conversation together around the table, and a happy mom because she's not stressed out over dinner.  Also when you plan your own meals, you control what you're putting in them and not putting in them, not giving up and ordering pizza or hitting the drive-thru on the way home - both of which are NOT heart healthy.  Also you save so much money when you plan your meals rather than just throw something together which usually ends up with a quick ($50) trip to the store.

There are many different ways and levels of menu planning, so just find one that works for you.  You can plan a whole month at a time, having one major shopping day and then just buy fresh produce weekly.  You can plan two weeks at a time or even one week at a time.  When we were growing up, my mom had little binder that had a rotating menu, complete with shopping list, for three weeks.  Now that is organized!  Pocket Full of Posies has a similar idea, only they do all the work for you. :)  Food on the Table is another simliar one, complete with apps for your smart phone.  There are many more, too.  Of course these options aren't free, but if it gets you planning and works for you, do it!

This is how I do my menu planning.  Tuesday nights/Wednesday morning I grab a my "tools" and get to work.  This is great to do while watching tv, makes me feel like I'm being productive while chillin'. 

My pile along with my pretty daisys from my sweet friend.

Tools of the job:
My calendar
Cookbooks - The blue "What's for Dinner" cookbook above is awesome! I bought it several years ago and loved it so much I bought one for my SIL, too. It has 52 weeks of complete dinner menus - main dish, salads, even desserts. Now I don't love EVERY meal they have planned, but I've found some really good ones and it's a great starting point. If there's a meal my family doesn't like, I either substitute my own recipe or a different meal.   If you're interested, you can find it here:

I also regularly use the "Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook", too. I LOVE my crockpot!! I use my crockpot at least once a week and have many, many recipes that I enjoy in this book.   You can find it at Amazon also:

As I said, I really enjoy a good cookbook and have been known to sit and "read" cookbooks often. :) I usually try to try a new recipe every week, with Pinterest now, I have even more new recipes to try. When I make a new meal, I have my family give it a rating of 1-5 (5 is the best) and I write it down in the book. That way I won't make the same mistake twice. lol If it's on Pinterest or from a magazine or something like that, if it's a keeper it'll get typed up and added to the recipe box. 
My local ads (or circulars as my Grandma called them:) ) - We only have two grocery stores here, so it's pretty easy to quickly scan through, see what's on sale, build a meal around it if I want or just jot down other sale items I want to stock up on.
My grocery list - I found this awesome grocery list printable from the girls at The Letter 4.  You can print 3 to a sheet and print off 17 sheets and have enough for one a week for almost a whole year.  I cut mine apart and glued them together to make a notepad like I did here.  I also glued two magnets on the back so I could hang it right on my fridge so everyone knows where to write something down when we run out.
The big "How To":
I scan through the calendar and see what we have going on. I know Monday's I need something quick and easy or in the crockpot because I teach piano lessons until 5 and often take Natalie to karate at 6. Depending on what's going on, when basketball practices are, or band concerts, or whatever else, makes a difference in what I'll plan for dinner. That's probably the biggest reason I only plan one week at a time.  I usually have a mexican meal, italian meal, an asian meal, and in the winter I add a soup meal each week, that's just how it works out.  Now I use those terms very loosly, lol, if it's pasta it's counted as italian, if it involves tortillas it's mexican, and rice = asian. :)  If I think of it that way, it's easier to figure out what to eat.  We also have pizza usually every Friday night, and then leftovers or grilled cheese sandwiches or something similarly easy on Saturday.  I pretty much plan for 4 meals.  I also have a list of "Family Favorite Meals" I've made over the years so when I'm stumped I can pull that out and see what we haven't had for a while.  I have also started a "Summer Meals" list, too, okay so I like lists and my husband get's picky about what's "too heavy" to eat in the summer.  Just makes things easier.
Speaking of easier, the easiest way to plan your meals is have 6 kids and make them all pick one meal a week.  Now that they're older, I do this quite often now.  Everyone has a say, and you know there's at least one meal a week each person won't complain about. :)  I do limit them sometimes because we can't have spaghetti or chicken curry every week and I also threaten, lol.  If Cheyenne won't come up with a meal I tell her I'm adding stir-fry to the list and if Natalie won't pick something, it's tacos.  That usually works.
That's it!  It's really not that much work, it's not rocket science, and it only takes about 15 min., maybe.  So here's my challenge to you, if you're not planning your meals yet, try it out, see if it's worth that little bit of preparation and if the time and money savings at the grocery store is worth it.  If you are a planner, how do you do it, what works for you?  Any tips?  Please share in the comments and let's make supper time a happy time. :)



 

Lotion and Lip Balm - Beat the Winter Weather

It's the middle of January, the bitter coldest winter month; snowflakes flying; kids praying for wind so we can get out of school; the temperature dropping to negative digits - again the kids praying it gets to the magic number for school closure.  Well, that's usually what January is around here.  Today is a balmy 35 degrees already at 8 a.m., rain if we're lucky, and not a trace of snow. :(  However, my hands and lips are still feeling the effects of winter's wrath, always dry, chapped, and cracking.  I have a solution, and this year, my hands are much better than in the past.  I found two great recipes for making your own lotion and chapstick and they are great!

I found this recipe from Katie at This Chick Cooks.  She also has a great cost break down if you're interested in the nitty gritty of it.

Homemade Bee Balm Recipeyields 16 ounces of balm 1 1/4 cups grated bee wax (about 2 ounces)
2 cups light olive oil or coconut oil
15-20 drops of essential oil (optional)
Containers for your balm

Set out your containers that you will be putting the balm into so that they are ready. Next, find a large pot and a smaller pot that will sit in your larger pot (or a double boiler). Add enough water to the larger pot so that it comes up around the bottom of the smaller pot. Bring the water to a boil.
In the top pan, add the olive oil and cook for 15 minutes. Next, add your grated bee wax. Stir the mixture until everything is melted. Add essential oil. Dip a spoon into the mixture and set it aside for a few minutes to see if the balm is your desired consistency. If you want thinner balm add more olive oil, and if you want a thicker balm add more bee wax.

While the mixture is still liquid pour it into your containers. Let it sit uncovered for several hours until totally cooled and it will harden and be ready to use. 

I used coconut oil and a some mango essential oil and it smells delicious.  However, the coconut oil really overpowers the other smells and the essential oil isn't noticed much.  Also, when you grate the beeswax it smells like honey, who knew?! Probably all you smart people out there. :) I've never used beeswax for anything so this was a nice little surprise. lol  Anyway, this is SUPER easy.  I'm not sure why you need to heat the oil for 15 min. because it took maybe 1 minute for it to all melt so I might try shortening that time next time I do it.

Lisa at Lisa Take Six shared this super cheap, you can get everything at the Dollar Store, but wonderful recipe for really moisturizing lotion at her blog a few weeks ago.

Super Moisturizing Lotion

Baby lotion
Vitamin E Cream (found out from looking at other recipes, this was probably supposed to be Vitamin E face cream)
Pictured here is a cocoa butter WITH vitamin E.  Pretty much any lotion will do, the vitamin E cream would just be more nourishing for your skin
Vaseline (small jar)
Containers - these small travel bottles are perfect for a purse, a desk drawer, or to give as gifts

Just dump everything in your mixer or you can use a bowl and hand mixer, and start whipping.  Tip - if you cut down the middle of the bottle, you can use a spatula to scrap out every bit of the lotion.  However, you might want to keep your biggest bottle to reuse and put the lotion back in when you're done.

Looks yummy, doesn't it?  Let it combine until it's all nice and fluffy.

That's it!  Now put it in your containers.  I tried using a funnel to fill the jars, it worked okay, but I spent a long time trying to "push" the lotion down, it doesn't pour.  However, I found an awesome tip from another lotion blog and I apologize to whomever I found it from, I forgot to write your name down, but she scooped the lotion into a ziplock bag and cut a corner off the bag to easily squeeze it into jars.  Trust me, do it this way, it's got to be sooooo much faster! This is a nice thick lotion. It's a little greasy at first (because of the vaseline) but it really soaks in quickly, and I'm a little picky about how greasy my lotion is. I don't like to be slimy. lol  This would be great to rub into feet and wear a pair of socks to bed or into hands with some cotton gloves to really let it soak in all night.

I made these for my friends for Christmas, and to decorate the jars, I used Avery 2x4" labels.  You can go to Avery's website and design them however you want, even bringing in any digital scrapbook papers, or even pictures if you want.  For the lip balm jars, I used the same labels, but used a 1" circle punch to cut them out.  I'm sorry, I don't have pictures, I guess I never took any before I gave them away and the ones I kept are just plain.  Plus, at the time, I only had a black/white printer (got a new color printer now, yeah!) and the labels weren't super cute. :)

Hope this helps with you beat your winter dry skin!  Now pray for snow or spring, I can't decide which I want more now. :)

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DIY Stain Pretreater & Other Laundry Tips

Funny story, a couple years ago our women's group at church was having a Saturday meeting and I was asked to teach a class on making your own cleaning products.  I'm not sure why I was asked as I had never done any of this before.  My mother-in-law was in charge of the meeting and I'm not sure if she thought I made my own stuff or what. lol  I had always wanted to make my own cleaners; I'd bookmarked (back in the days before Pinterest) several sites and recipes I wanted to try but had never gotten around to it.  So I did a bunch of research, tested out a few things, and ended up with a several page handout of awesome cleaning recipes. :)

Anyway, today I'll share my laundry tips and recipes.  Here is one of my very favorites:

Stain Pretreater

• ½ c. vinegar
• ½ c. ammonia
• ½ c. Wisk
• ½ c. water

Mix all ingredients and store in a spray bottle. Spray on anything with grease or food spots and wash as usual.  This is super cheap and will get out about anything.  It'll get out most food grease spots even after being washed and dried - you know, when the kids don't tell you or the kids themselves are doing wash and just shove everything in.  It's also really good at removing ring-around-the-collar.

I also found this recipe for laundry soap - it's all over the internet.  However, I've never tried it myself.  I already ruined a washing machine because I used too much soap and I'm not sure how "soapy" this is.  Plus, when we bought our same washing machine 4 years later, the sales lady told us to only use 1 tbsp. of soap at the most per load.  This has worked great for us, getting all our clothes clean.  I bought a HUGE box (I can't remember how many pounds) of laundry soap when our triplets were born and almost 7 years later I still haven't finished it yet, getting very close though. 

Liquid Laundry Soap- Front or top load machine- best value

• 4  Cups - hot tap water
• 1  Fels-Naptha soap bar
• 1 Cup - Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda*
• ½ Cup Borax

- Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.
-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.
-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)
-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.

Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.
-For Top Load Machine - use 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)
-For Front Load Machines – use ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)
* Baking Soda will not work, nor will Arm & Hammer Detergent

TIPS FOR LAUNDRY SOAP: We use Fels-Naptha  bar soap in the homemade soap recipes, but you can use Ivory, Sunlight, Kirk's Hardwater Castile or Zote bars. Don't use heavily perfumed soaps. We buy Fels-Naptha by the case from our local grocer or online. Washing Soda and Borax can often be found on the laundry or cleaning aisle. Recipe cost approx. $2 per batch.

Fabric Softener for Dryer

• 1 Sponge cut in quarters
• 1 Cup Downy or other liquid fabric softener
• 4 Cups Water

Cut sponge into 4 sections. Mix Downy and water. Store sponge in mixture; drain one sponge for each load of laundry. Put sponge in dryer with clothes. When load is done put sponge back into the mixture to use again.

If you don't like using fabric softener because it leaves a coating on your clothes i.e. your skin; because of allergies/sensitivities; or because like all of my husband's wrinkle-free dress pants say not to use fabric softener; I use vinegar.  I add 1/2 to 1 c. to the rinse cycle, just pour it in the fabric softener dispenser.  You can smell the vinegar when the clothes are wet, but when they're dry they have no smell.  Believe me, my husband with his "super-smeller" can't even smell the vinegar after the clothes are dry. I use dryer balls, like these, to cut down on the static electricity in the dryer.

 Here are a few more uses for vinegar in the laundry room:

• Before washing a mustard, ketchup, spaghetti, or barbecue stain, dab with white distilled vinegar.
• Remove perspiration odor and stains on clothing, as well as those left by deodorants, by spraying full-strength white distilled vinegar on underarm and collar areas before tossing them into the washing machine.
• Get cleaner laundry! Add about 1/4 cup white distilled vinegar to the last rinse. The acid in white distilled vinegar is too mild to harm fabrics, yet strong enough to dissolve the alkalies in soaps and detergents. Besides removing soap, white distilled vinegar prevents yellowing, acts as a fabric softener and static cling reducer, and attacks mold and mildew.  It helps keep colors from running, and helps keep hair (pet or human) and lint from clinging to clothes.
• Keep the steam iron clean and in good working order by getting rid of mineral deposits in steam vents and spray nozzles. Fill the water chamber with a solution of equal parts white distilled vinegar and distilled water. Set it in an upright position and let it steam for about 5 minutes. When the iron is cool, rinse the tank with water, refill and shake water through the vents onto an old cloth. Test before using.

Do you have any more great tips for laundry?  Please share them in the comments.  We can all benefit from being thrifty and a little more "green" health wise in the laundry room.


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Goal Setting and Resolutions Printable

It's that time of year, time to set those New Year's Resolutions.  Time for a fresh start, a new beginning, time to commit to making your life better.  Sounds like an overwhelming feet, right, a nice tradition, but really who keeps their resolutions for more than a week or two?  I challenge you to do something different this year.  Figure out why you don't keep your resolutions.  Is your goal too overwhelming to begin?  Is it something YOU really want to change or others want you to change or it's what everyone else is doing?  Is your goal so vague you don't know where/how to begin?  Do you need to learn knew skills in order to accomplish your goal?  Do you have so many things you vow to change you're burned out and frustrated after the first week? Hey, I'm there with you.  I've done all those things before or even worse, I just forget about my good intentions after a month or so.

So this year I've decided to do some things different this year.  I'm starting with 4 main goals at most.  Plus I'll break them down into smaller "weekly" goals.  I'll be more specific, instead of the always elusive "I want to lose weight," I'm stating, "I want to lose 25 lbs."  Finally, the number one thing experts always say to help accomplish your goal is WRITE IT DOWN!  After all, a goal is only a wish if it's not written down.  Because I always want a cute reminder, too, I made this printable that you're welcome to use, too.  Build a Better YOU in 2012!

Build a better YOU!

As I was contemplating what I wanted to improve this year, I thought back to my younger years of goal setting for my "Personal Progress" in our Young Women program at church.  I pulled out my very first book and found this great reminder of setting and reaching goals with 5 steps.
1 - Evaluate.  What do I want to be?  What do I want to learn?  What do I want to have happen in my life, now and in the future?
2 - Plan.  What do I need to do?  Write down EXACTLY what I want to accomplish.  Write down what I will DO to reach the goal.  Write down the name of the person to whom I will REPORT - be accountable.  Set a DATE by which I want to complete my goal.  I may need to reset the date occasionally while I continue to work on my goal.
3 - Act.  I will follow my plan of action.  If I need help, I will ask someone (spouse, friend, parents, leaders, experts) to help me accomplish my goal.
4 - Report.  Talk with the person (friend, spouse, especially Heavenly Father) I selected to discuss my progress with.  Get some support, some accountability.
5 - What will I do next?  Begin the process again, deciding what I want to do next and continuing my person progress.

I hope this will help you become the best YOU possible.  Let's do it together!  I'd be happy to be your "report" person if you want.  And I'll be reporting to you for some of my goals, too.

Let's make 2012 our best year yet!

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Today is a New Day Printable

Hi everyone! If you'll remember back a couple weeks ago I posted about starting each day with a plan and organizing your day.  I don't know if it's helped any of you, but it has sure helped me get a lot more done each day.  Anyway, I really liked the printables I had listed there, but neither were exactly what I wanted.  So I decided to make my own.  I was so excited to try this, and I even made those water bottles from a real picture of a water bottle.  New technique for me and I was so impressed with myself for figuring it out. lol  Here's the link: Today is a New Day

Today is a New Day

I printed mine out at my local copy place and had them laminate it, too.  Then each night, after the kids are all in bed and I'm relaxing for a bit, I take 5 min. and plan out my next day.  It's really been working well, and it helps me sleep better, too.  Why, you might ask?  Because as soon as my head would hit the pillow a million things that I needed to do the next day would start racing through my head. lol I know I'm not the only one who does this, right?  Now, I've already gotten at least most of those things planned out or there's no room to add anything else anyway.  It really does help me fall asleep faster.  Try it!

A big shout out and a thank you to Krista Sahlin for letting me use her buttons on this to share with you.  They were a freebie from her site here.  I also want to thank Summer Driggs for letting me use the rick rack on this, too.  They were a freebie from this kit here.

Anyway, I hope someone else might find this helpful. I'd be happy to change any of the box headings if you'd like, too. Just let me know.

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Big party when I hit 100!

Laundry Baskets

Laundry is FUN! Okay, okay, maybe it's not that much fun, but it can be cute. :) Laundry is one of those chores that I don't mind too much.  I usually do it twice a week, with my older girls doing towels on Mondays and I do sheets on Monday, also.  I'll get things started as soon as I get up in the morning and then bring up the baskets to my room to fold while I watch tv. After watching my little ones trying to balance a big pile of clothes (they'd insist on taking them all at once) while going to their rooms and seeing half the clothes fall on the floor along the way, I decided we needed some baskets to make it easier for them.  While growing up, we each had our own color of basket to distinguish whose was whose.  I'd never seen colored baskets, or any baskets like we used to have for that matter.  So when I stumbled across these plain black and white buckets in Walmart one day, I decided with a little vinyl they would work.  I let each child pick their color for their name and went to work.  The vinyl worked great, except for Cheyenne's name, for some reason that vinyl didn't stick as well and we have to keep smoothing it down. I think they turned out pretty cute and make me smile as I fold clothes.

Oh, one tip I have for making folding laundry a little easier, use a Sharpie marker and mark the bottoms of everyone's socks with an initial.  Since my little three fold all the socks, and 3/4 of our socks all look alike, as I open a new package of socks, I immediately put a letter on the bottom of each sock.  It makes it much easier for them to match letters (especially when they're watching Word Girl and not paying very close attention to the socks) and hopefully get them in the right basket.  It's also given Cheyenne and Natalie something to talk about as their friends ask "Why do you have a C (or N) on your foot?" :)

So what is your best laundry tip or what do you do to make it a little more fun? Share your best ideas with us!

Linking up with:
House of Hepworths
Fireflies and Jellybeans
Somewhat Simple
A Glimpse Inside
Thrifty Decorating
Thrifty101
Yesterday on Tuesday
Happy Hour Projects
Fingerprints on the Fridge
Tidy Mom
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