WFMW: Another use for baking soda

Baking soda has got to be one of the most useful things on the planet. It seems like I am always hearing or reading about a new use for baking soda.


Now I have another one. I read it in Paula Begoun's Don't Go To The Cosmetics Counter Without Me. When you feel like your face could use a little exfoliation, do not reach for something harsh like a ready-made scrub. Instead, put your normal amount of liquid cleanser in your hand, then add about a teaspoon or so of baking soda. Wash your face as usual.

I find that this smooths out the places that tend to get a little rough, but it never leaves my face red or feeling irritated.

And here are more Works-for-Me tips!

How cute is this?

I saw something on the Internet this weekend, called a Wubbanub. This is just the cutest thing, and they're not too expensive if you get them from the right place. I think I'm going to order one, but of course I had to try making one for myself. It is not "safety approved" but it's a temporary thing. Peanut donated a little stuffed bear and I sewed one of his pacifiers onto it's head. It works great! Bubby was not a paci boy at first, so he did not really learn to keep one in his mouth. Now that he is teething, he likes to have one. But you have to sit there and hold it in. He chews it and works on it so that it doesn't stay. Now he can hold this sweet little bear and the paci stays right there!

Whoever came up with this was a complete genius!

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Two funny comments:

Peanut was trying to teach Junior a new tongue twister. He was supposed to repeat it back to her, but he said, "Betty Botter bought some butter to make her bottom bigger." True. I think I like that one better.

Dad walked by Junior's room the other day after bathtime and overheard this: "Underwear, prepare to Do Your Duty!" We didn't even ask...

Reading

I am trying to put a column on here that would show what we are all reading, but I never get more than a handful of minutes at a time. Peanut and I just got finished with Strawberry Girl, and now we are reading Pippi Goes On Board. We love those Pippi books! By herself, she read a book called Cora Frear. Junior is reading a few pages at a time in Grasshopper on the Road by Arnold Lobel. He wrote the Frog and Toad books. I didn't know if he'd like the Grasshopper book, but he finds it quite funny, and that is his requirement in books.

Works-for-Me Wednesday - Tiny Recipes

I have certain recipes that I use often, but not often enough that my little mind can get them memorized. I ended up getting out the recipe book just to remind me whether that was ½ tsp. of salt, or 1 tsp. of salt.

I finally had a brainstorm. I opened up my Word program and wrote out my most used recipes in the smallest font possible. I posted these recipes on the inside of the cabinet door that is closest to my stovetop. Later, I improved this by making a table in Word and typing each recipe into one of the cells. To save space, I often just write the list of ingredients.

To do this yourself, just tell your word processor program to create a table. I’ve found that three columns works best. Set your viewer to 100% and pick a font. You can make it as small as you want, just make sure you can see it on the screen without difficulty. Start typing recipes, one recipe per cell, adding a row to the table when necessary. If you have the recipes on your computer already, you will only need to cut and paste, then select the text and shrink the font.

I think you could also do this with a spreadsheet program, like Excel.

WFMW: Potty-training Idea

When my older son was a little over two and a half, I was trying hard to think of some kind of reward to use while potty training. One of the things he loved, and still loves, was to be told how something worked. He would ask over and over again the way some children ask for their favorite bedtime story. One day I asked him if he would like for me to show him how the toilet worked. He was very interested in that, so I told him the next time he went potty, I would take the lid to the tank off and show him what was inside. If he wanted to, he could flush the toilet and watch it work.

This worked very well for him. Each time, after he went to the bathroom, we would reward him by taking off the tank lid so he could see inside. Sometimes he wanted an explanation of what was going on, and other times he just silently watched the “show”.

We found an added benefit to this when we were visiting away from home. Our friends and family almost always gave their permission to remove the lid to their tanks. Toilets basically work the same way, but the internal parts are often slightly different. This was exciting to our two-year-old, and helped him not to forget a trip to the toilet when he was having fun away from home.

This should be a good tip for those who have children with a bent towards things mechanical. It worked for me and my little guy! For more tips, visit Rocks In My Dryer.

Works-for-Me Wednesday - Double Sheeting

This is my first Works-For-Me-Wednesday post. I have gotten a lot of great ideas, so this week I’m going to play too.

Double-sheeting my kids’ beds has made life a lot easier for me. It came in handy just this week as my son had a stomach bug. I have talked to some moms who don’t know how to do this, so here is how:

You will need the following to double-sheet the bed: Two waterproof mattress pads and two fitted sheets. Put a waterproof mattress pad over the mattress, and top with a fitted sheet. If you are not working on a crib, go ahead and add a flat sheet and a folded pillowcase. That way you have a complete set underneath.

Now top with the second mattress pad, and finish making the bed as usual.

Now, whenever you need to, you can quickly remove the fitted sheet and top mattress pad to reveal clean sheets! This has helped me on so many levels. When my babies were small, I sometimes found myself standing at the crib with a sleeping baby in my arms. I would look down and see a drool ring on the sheet (or a worse ring!) In that case, the crib sheet and pad could be taken off with one hand before putting the baby down. It worked so well that I kept it up when they got older. It worked during night-time potty training, but it has been most helpful when a child gets sick in the night. I won’t be graphic, but you know what kind of “sick” I mean. This is usually accompanied by crying and chills. By double-sheeting, you can quickly remove the mess, and the sick child can crawl back into a nice, clean bed.

Another bonus: We use Peanut’s bed for a guest bed when we have overnight company. Since I double-sheet her bed, there are always clean sheets ready for the guests, I just take hers off to wash and put the blankets and bedspread back on.

For more great ideas, go to Rocks In My Dryer.

Jane Austen Adaptations

While we were iced in a while back, I had the chance to watch two Jane Austen movies. I just love her books, so I was excited to get to see two of them I hadn't already seen.

My mom lent me her copy of Pride and Prejudice. It is the new one with Kiera Knightly. I knew ahead of time that it was not going to be as good as the BBC miniseries. But it was enjoyable, and when you think how little time they had to tell the whole story, it wasn't bad. I know a lot of people like the fact that it is more realistic when you look at the differences in the Bennet family's conditions vs. the Darcy estate at Pemberley. Maybe so, but still it bugged me. And you can't convince me that they would let a pig actually walk through the house.

I also had an issue with one scene where Elizabeth is talking to Charlotte Lucas about Charlotte's new engagement to Mr. Collins. It ends with Charlotte saying, "Don't judge me!" Oh please. That was so out of character. I've heard that that was one of the scenes that was rewritten by Emma Thompson. Hmm...She did a really good job on her version of Sense and Sensibility. I wonder what else she changed in the screenplay?

Then, by accident, I found myself watching Clueless on TV one night. I had never seen that movie. I had heard that it was based on Austen's Emma. It took a little while, but I finally figured out how the movie was going to parallel the book in a few places. It was actually pretty cute. I liked how it didn't stereotype everyone like all the high school movies tend to do. The rich, spoiled girl was actually pretty sweet. And the new girl in school, who I thought was going to get on drugs and be a wreck, was kind of cute and dumb like Harriet Smith in the book. I just really enjoyed it, and I think I will watch it again sometime.

New State Song for Oklahoma

Have you seen this yet? Oklahoma’s new state song. This is for all the whiners, and that includes me! I wish I knew who wrote it.

SNO-klahoma,
with the cold fronts sweepin' down the plain,
And the piles of sleet beneath your feet
Follow right behind the freezing rain.
SNO-klahoma,
ev'ry night my honey lamb and I
Travel home from work and hope some jerk
Doesn't wreck our car in passing by.
We know we belong to the land
But it could use more salt and more sand!
And when we say
Yeeow! Ayipioeeay!
You're slick as snot SNO-klahoma,
SNO-klahoma, Oy Vey!

A New Tradition

"...you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name." Psalm 61:5b

(Sorry about the picture quality. This was all I had close to my computer, and I didn't want to take up a lot of time hunting for a better.)

I am late in posting this. Yesterday would have been my Grandma Mayme’s 101st birthday. I got to thinking about this the day before, and I wondered if there was anything I could do to mark the day. Peanut remembers her, Junior doesn’t really.

At bedtime, I got out a little booklet that my cousin Nancy copied off for us. It is a little handwritten booklet that my grandmother wrote for her telling some of her memories of her growing up years. I went in Peanut’s room and told her what day it was, and I read her just a few paragraphs from the book. Peanut just loved it. She kept asking me to read her more and more. I finally had to stop because I still wanted to read to Junior, and they were already getting to bed late.

Junior had the same reaction. He kept saying, “Turn the page, read me more.” I also shared some of my memories with them. Somebody in my family will have to help me with something. There was some stuffed item at her house that was stuffed with pantyhose. I can’t remember if it was a pillow or what. But there was a little hole in it, and I remember pulling out the pantyhose and stuffing them back in.

Here is one of the exerpts I read to them:

Gertie and I found a lot to play with. We used our imagination in those days. We could make dolls from corn cobs and even sticks. We had stick people, glass people (from broken dishes,) and an out of date Sears or Ward’s catalogue was special. We had families and they went to church. We made towns from flat rocks, the rocks were their houses. We marked rooms. Christmas was the only time we’d see toys in the stores. I remember how thrilled we were to get to go see the toys.

Junior couldn’t quite imagine that part about toys not being in the stores all year.

So we’ve decided to start doing this on each of the great-grandma’s birthdays, just share memories. Todd reminded me that we actually did this on Gram’s (his grandmother's) birthday back in November. It was right after baby Bubby was born, and his folks were all here. They remembered that the day was her birthday, so everyone was just naturally talking about the things they remembered about her.

Junior helps with spelling

Today I let Junior help when Peanut and I did spelling. I always give her the word and then a sentence using the word. Junior wanted to read out the words, and Peanut begged me to let him give her the sentences also. I was glad I did, though I wouldn't do it every day. It turned out pretty funny, and there was too much laughing on Peanut's part. Here are a few of his sentences he came up with:

ruts:  "The pumpkin ruts."
putts: "I splashed in the putts."
bids: "I watched a Bids cartoon on TV." (I don't think there is such a thing!)
forbids: "There are forbids cartoons on TV." (Think about that one!)

I am not sure how many of those he meant to be funny, and how many were just innocent mistakes. Hmmm.