WFMW- How I made Housework more FUN!

I don't like to clean. I don't like to fold laundry. If I had my way, I would leave dirty pots soaking in the sink til I needed to cook in them again. I would much rather be lost in a good book than be doing housework. Except now I do both... I get lost in a great story WHILE doing housework and it makes it so much more enjoyable, to the extreme that I find myself looking forward to dishes, or mopping, or folding laundry! How did I accomplish this amazing transformation???? Hypnosis???? Strong Drugs???? Partial lobotomy????



No my friends, nothing quite so drastic as that... I accomplished this life altering (okay, at least SINK altering feat) with the help of my local library and downloadable audio books! I've always listened to audio books in the car. It turned a boring drive into a chance to get lost in a terrific story and have some ME time. Recently my library began offering downloadable audio books that I could load onto my iPod. Now story time could be anytime- in the car or out! Though I find it hard to watch TV and complete my chores, I can easily stick my iPod in my pocket and mop, wash and straighten anything that I need to. It really makes household tasks so much easier, and that definitely WORKS FOR ME!

Fore more great Works for Me Wednesday tips, visit We Are THAT Family. 


Thanks to AMAZON.com for providing the photo. I'm trying to do more photos in my posts and their widget makes it easy! If you buy something through their link, I will get a small thank you from them. THANK YOU from me! 

Getting Ready to Go Back to Work: Energy UP!

Around the beginning of the year, I was sick and tired of always being sick and tired. I knew that I wanted to make more changes so that I had more energy and wasn't always feeling sluggish and like I wanted to go back to bed. My back constantly felt tight- my muscles always felt on edge and my mood did too. I decided enough was enough and I needed to make some changes. When the new job came along and I knew that my sleep was going to decrease, I realized that I needed to get serious about these changes. 

So what were my huge changes? I've really only accomplished two... there's a third that I'd like to work on, but we'll see. The first two that are really working for me- drinking more water and getting more exercise. The third that I would like to work on is cutting out a lot of the refined sugar from my diet. I am trying to incorporate more fruits and veggies, but the ice cream in the freezer keeps calling my name. My husband has a HUGE sweet tooth, so we always have M&Ms, cookies and ice cream in the house. And I apparently have NO will power, so I'm still eating way too much of said M&Ms, cookies and ice cream. Any ideas of what works for you in that situation?

Here's what IS working for me, though- more water and more exercise. On the more water front- I HATE drinking water. HATE it. I don't know why- just not my favorite thing. There are times that I will have a LONG drink of water and think, "Wow, that's really good!" and yet when I get thirsty, I am far more likely to grab a soft drink or worse yet, eat something. I have to trick myself into getting enough to drink. Target recently had Sobe flavored water on sale. They have a zero calorie version, so I stocked up. There was a peelie coupon on the water- buy 5 get 2 free, so I think that I ended up paying about $5 for 21 bottles when it was all said and done. I know that all of those plastic bottles are not great for the environment, so here is my compromise: I drink the flavored water from the bottle, then I refill the bottle with water and drink that. That's 5 cups of water right there. Then I refill the bottle with water again and mix in come Crystal Light or Benefiber drink mix, so I'm not drinking plain water. Now I'm up to 7.5 cups, and that's  pretty good for me. If there are hours left in the day, I might fill the bottle up with plain water again. I can bring the bottle with my anywhere I go throughout the day and it comes to bed with me so if I wake up in the night, I have something to drink. The next morning, the bottle gets recycled and I start fresh with a new bottle. I can really tell the difference in my energy level when I am well hydrated.

The other thing that helps me have more energy is getting more exercise. This is so much easier said than done! I was having a really hard time waking up in the morning. I found myself feeling grumpy and just really annoyed at the fact that I was someplace other than in bed! My muscles were very sore and tight. I could wake myself off with a strong cup of coffee or a Diet Coke, but I was not thrilled that I was so dependent on a drug to perk me up! My son LOVES to watch Baby Einstein- he begs and begs to watch and though I'm not thrilled with him spending a ton of time in front of the TV, we have a new morning routine that makes both of us happy. He gets to watch baby Einstein and I get a few minutes to wake up! I am fortunate in that I have a lap top. I either put Einstein on the computer of TV for my son. Then, whatever he's not using, I use to access Exercise TV. There are a TON of workouts available On Demand through my cable company, many of them only 10 minutes long. I can find 10 minutes to improve my mood and energy level for the entire day! The great news is that their workouts are also available on-line. I can find one for whatever muscle group I feel like working- lower body, upper body, abs or just general stretching- and it's free and there when I want it. When I'm done, even with that little short 10 minute burst, my muscles feel looser. I feel awake and ready to start my day. I'm slowly getting addicted! Last night I wanted more so I did a whole 20 minute yoga routine right before I went to bed. I slept GREAT and felt better when I got up this morning. I am hoping that if when I continue this when I go back to work, I'll continue to feel better and have more energy.

This is also part of Works for Me Wednesday. You can see more WFMW Tips at We are THAT Family.

You can see the first in this very informal series here: Getting Ready to Go Back to Work: Stocking the Freezer.

WFMW- Pandora internet radio

LOOK MOM, NEW BLOG POST! (Haha- it's been two whole weeks!!!!)

I'm not sure how I missed out on this whole pandora thing for so long. It's AMAZING. My father-in-law mentioned it the other night since my brother-in-law set things up for him. I'm kind of sick of every single song on my iPod, so I thought I'd give it a try too. AMAZING! Go to here now and set up your own account. (DISCLOSURE: I get nothing if you click on that link. You get great FREE music!)

Here's how it works... simply tell Pandora your favorite song or musician and it will create an entire radio station around your selection. As long as you're connected to the internet, you've got your own personal station. You can add artists or songs to your initial selection to get more variety. You can also tell it if it plays a song you don't like and it will NEVER play that song again.

Here's where it gets really cool though... if you have a fancy phone with internet capability (i.e. BlackBerry, iPhone, Palm Pre), you can go to www.pandora.com from your phone and get the same stations you've set up on your home computer on your phone. It does warn, though, that the amount of data exchanged is HUGE, so you need to make sure that you have an unlimited data plan. My husband says it also can be a drain on your battery. My phone (and probably yours too) has a headphone jack, so I can listen to the music on my phone OR I can plug my phone into the AUX slot on the car and have my own personal radio.

I've even set up my 14 month old with his own radio station. I've nixed anything too annoying, so we mostly get mellow, fun songs. With my phone, if there are not any headphones plugged in, the songs will just play over the phone's speakers. I threw the phone in the side of the jogging stroller today while we were out and it was nice for him to have tunes to jam to while mommy was running!

There are a few ads that run from time to time, but they are infrequent and SHORT. I am more than happy to hear a few ads to get free music! Pandora works for me!

For more WFMW tips, visit We Are THAT Family.

WFMW- The Bruiser Edition

My son went to bed tonight looking like a prize fighter. He tripped over Mr. Potato Head's hat this morning and scraped his forehead. Tonight in his bath, he insisted on standing up, slipped and somehow hit his cheek on the side of the bathtub. My husband kindly informed me that this is where they cut prize fighters when they get hit there because the area is prone to swelling. I kindly informed my husband that under no circumstances would we be cutting my son, thank you. With tile floors throughout and a little guy who's just finding his feet, we have a lot of bumps and bruises around here.

This WFMW comes straight from my grandma. Trying to hold ice on a little wiggle worm is next to impossible. She recommended getting some frozen fruit juice pops so when the little man fell and hit his lip or mouth, we could just give him a Popsicle. This allows us to apply ice to the injury without having to hog tie him and inflict all kinds of mental anguish. You could even make your own juice ice with ice cube trays. Works like a charm! 

Here's the second part to this WFMW- I need a homemade ice pack that's flexible and works for a little head. When I try to use ice cubes in a bag, it seems like the cubes are just too big and don't really get the cold where it's needed. I've seen the Peas Ice Packs at CVS and might just go ahead and get a few, but are there any other solutions out there? Let me know in comments!

Fore more WFMW tips, visit We are THAT Family.

WFMW- Laundry Pretreater

We do lots of laundry at our house. My husband comes home filthy dirty at the end of the day, so his clothes usually go straight in the washer. Our little boy LOVES to feed himself solid foods and HATES to wear bibs- not a great combination for his wardrobe.

I need a stain pretreater that works and is cost effective, so here's what I do:

Mix a cap full of whatever laundry detergent I found on sale with enough water to fill an old Shout spray bottle, then spray this on my stains and let it sit for a minute before throwing it into the machine. So far, this has been working for me.

Other ideas from around the web:

Abigail's Mommy has a great post with thrifty recipes for ALL your cleaning needs.

baby tool kit recommends simply using a bar of dial soap to pretreat stains. It could not get easier and this is one that I will be trying soon!

Chief Family Officer is loving Zout for its help in dealing with blood stains.

Do you have any laundry tips or tricks you'd like to share? Comment away!

As always, visit We are THAT Family for more great WFMW Tips!

WFMW- Substitute Yogurt for some of the Mayo in Summer Salads

I haven't been posting any Menu Plans since we've kind of just been flying by the seat of our pants. It's been kind of fun and we've yet to resort to eating out or take out, so we're doing okay. There was a last minute substitution yesterday- I intended to make meatloaf, but then I ended up napping instead of cooking, so we had a quick peccadillo instead.

Here's the easy recipe:

Cut up green pepper. Brown a pound of ground beef and green pepper in skillet over medium heat. Add can of black beans and can of tomatoes, preferably the kind with the jalapeno in them. Rotel tomatoes would probably be good if you live in the part of the country where they sell those. Heat 10 minutes more until everything comes together. Serve over rice with corn bread if you want. We didn't have any corn bread, or tomatoes with the jalapeno in them, so I added some red pepper flakes to the ground beef and it worked. The original recipe also calls for 1/2 cup golden raisins, but that just seems weird to me.

Okay, now that we're back from that little detour- it seems that I have been serving a lot of "salads" right about now, it being summer and all. My husband ADORES macaroni salad. I love that you can call something a salad when it contains about 1/8 a serving of vegetables, but alas, he assures me that pasta with a sprinkling of veggies does in fact count. We also eat a fair amount of coleslaw, and tonight I got adventurous with potato salad. I cringe when I think of the amout of mayonaise in these "salads", so I started subbing out 1/2 to 1/3 of the mayo called for in a recipe with plain yogurt- full fat plain yogurt, since that is what I have on hand to feed the baby, but even full fat yogurt is a TON better than the mayo. So far, he hasn't noticed and I feel slightly better that I've cut out at least a little bit of the fat and calories.

If you are interested, you can get the recipe I used for our potato salad here. I didn't use any green onion because we didn't have any. It was very good- I felt like it had a lot of layers of flavor that they are always talking about on the food network. It didn't involve as much chopping as I thought and I didn't peel the potatoes. Will be making this again, no question. I used 1/2 cup of light mayo and 1/4 cup yogurt with no problem. Hope you enjoy!

More WFMW Posts (Back to School Edition even!) at We Are THAT Family.

WFMW- Glad Press'n Seal® Placemats

This WFMW actually comes courtesy of my mom- this was her idea. My little guy is 10 months old and loves nothing more than feeding himself. He loves Cheerios, carrots, cereal bars, fruit of all kinds- if he can pick it up, smoosh it around and get it into his mouth, he's happy! This is fine at home when he has a huge high chair tray to work with, but what to do when you're out in public and a little worried about him eating right off the table?

A Glad Press'n Seal® place mat, of course! According to the Glad website, "While other wraps cling, Press'n Seal® wrap actually seals to a variety of surfaces including paper, plastic, and wood." So basically, you just tear off a length of the wrap, slap it down on the table, apply a little pressure, and you have a place mat that your little one can't pull off and fling across the room. In all fairness, Tyler did try to peel the edge off the table, but it was a slow process that I could manage and distract him from, not an all out fling as with a plate or normal place mat. I was even able to seal the wrap around the edge of the table- top and bottom- to keep a clean surface for him.

Fore more WFMW, visit We Are THAT Family. Thanks for reading!

WFMW- The TO DO List

Meet My TO DO List. After spending some time (months) running around like a chicken with my head cut off feeling like I never accomplished anything, I finally put some of those free school supplies to good use and created a TO DO list. When a random though crosses my mind (as in "I really need to...." or "Wow, I've got to remember to...") I just jot it down on my TO DO List. When it's done, I cross it off. Can I tell you how great putting a nice thick slash line through something feels?? We have a little celebration and move on to another item.

My husband can also see my TO DO list and occasionally decides to jump in and complete one of those tasks that I've got listed. He can also see (as evidenced by the thick slashy lines) what I've accomplished. It helps me from having to point out that even though our house LOOKS like it's inhabited by wild monkeys, I really DO DO things around here. (Wild Monkeys, DO DO, HAHAHAHAH!!!)

Anyway, this is a simple, simple thing that has helped me from having all those random thoughts rattle around in my brain and resulted in less thinking, more doing and a greater sense of accomplishment. It doesn't cost anything and doesn't have any negative environmental impact. Someday, I might get really fancy and start prioritizing my TO DOs, but for now, this is working for me! Try it- maybe it will work for you too!

As always, visit We Are THAT Family for more WFMW.

WFMW- Pre Cook Your Dinner

When I was a work outside the home mom, I very frequently made dinner the night before. Whatever we were cooking would get made after my son was tucked into bed. My husband would finish preparing dinner (or just heat it up) when he got home the following evening. I generally stuck to things like casseroles or skillet meals that didn't suffer from the delay in cooking. The crock pot was also a huge help- if I made something in the crock pot, he didn't even have to cook anything- it was there ready for him.

I thought that this practice was a thing of the past when I became a SAHM. After all, I would have all day to cook delicious, healthy, maybe even gourmet meals for my little family! HA! After the first dinner disaster that left the kitchen messy, me annoyed that things didn't work so well and the baby cranky because he didn't get enough attention, I realized that I was not done with my practice of pre-cooking my meals! I no longer make things the night before, but as soon as the little man is in his bed for his afternoon nap, I am chopping, measuring and mixing whatever I need for dinner that night. Here are some of my pre-cooking tips:

• Put water for pasta on the stove. I don't cook the pasta in the afternoon, but I will prepare the pot so all I have to do it turn the water on to boil and throw in the pasta. This seems like such a small thing, but when you have a baby literally climbing up your legs, every little bit helps!
  
• For casseroles like chicken pot pie or lasagna, I will get everything assembled up to the point it goes into the oven, then let it hang out in the fridge for the afternoon. I add a few minutes to the cooking time since it's starting out cold.
  
• It's amazing how easy cooking even a complicated dish becomes when everything is measured, chopped and ready to go! If I am chopping onion for a dish, I chop the entire thing even if I don't need it all. The leftovers go in the fridge for another night.
• Potatoes for mashed potatoes can be peeled and diced, then placed in a pot of cold water for a few hours. When you are ready to cook them, just turn on the burner and go.
• Peel, chop or otherwise prepare your vegetables ahead of time, then just steam or roast them right before dinner.
  
• When I make something in the crockpot, I try to make a double batch and freeze the other half. When it comes time to reheat, it goes from the freezer back into the crock pot on low for the afternoon. It's ready for dinner whenever we are.

How do you make dinnertime easier at your house?

As always, for more great Works for Me Wendnesday tips, visit We Are That Family!

WFMW- Free-Cycle Envelopes

Do you pay your bills on-line? I do- I absolutely LOVE Bank of America's on-line bill pay service. I can see who I've paid when on one convenient screen and I don't have to pay for stamps, which seem to keep going up in price! I also receive a lot of my bills electronically, which cuts down on the amount of paper I have coming into the house. Less paper to keep track of and file means less clutter, and I'm all about that!

I don't receive all of my bills electronically though, and the ones that I do receive on paper generally include a self addressed envelope for me to send my payment back. I used to just throw these away since I didn't need them for mailing in my payment. Now, though, I use them for other things-

Shopping lists- coupons, ECB or RR and loyalty cards all go inside. My list of stuff to buy goes right on the outside of the envelope. It's an easy way to keep track and look like I have things together at the register.

**edited 8/17/09- turns out this is NOT a good idea... see this post for details.**
Envelopes to mail stuff to other people- I use these free envelopes to mail rebate forms or even printable coupons to my grandma who doesn't have a computer. (Love ya grams!) I have some old blank address labels (also free-cycled) that I just stick right on top of the little window or pre-printed address on the envelope.
**edited 8/17/09- turns out this is NOT a good idea... see this post for details.**

Coupon Storage- I know that there are some people out there who are fans of keeping the coupon inserts whole and just clipping what they need, but they took up too much space for me. I also found that I was missing coupons for stuff that I used all the time since I wasn't clipping them and the coupon blogs generally just list coupons for free or nearly free stuff. I still organize most of the coupons by insert type and date, I just go through and clip everything and stick them in an envelope labeled with the date and insert type. That way, I can just go through and pull out what I need for a shopping trip and I also have a working knowledge of the coupons that are out there.

What else could we be doing with these free envelopes??

As always, you can visit We Are THAT Family for more great WFMW ideas!

WFMW- "MOM, I'm BORED" Summer Edition

We are THAT Family hosts WFMW today with the theme of combating boredom now that school's out for the summer. Since my guy is little, school doesn't really apply and I'm usually the one who is BORED, but here's a tip anyway. And it can be modified for all ages- outdoor water fun.

Here's what I did for my 8 month old- I took an old comforter and spread it on our back patio. I didn't want him crawling around on the rough pavers and scraping his little knees. I brought out a BIG mixing bowl full of water and several smaller cups, a sieve and a few cups. Then I let him go to town splashing, dumping, drinking, whatever he wanted. He splashes in the bath of course, but this gave him a little more control over the water since he wasn't immersed in it.

As he gets bigger, here are some of the other things I can see him doing with this idea:

• Using different colored water to learn what makes secondary colors
• Conducting "scientific experiments" about what floats and what sinks
• Filling glasses with different amounts of water and then listening to the different sounds they make.

As I'm typing this to post, I feel like it's a pretty lame idea, but I can remember how much fun I had as a little girl "painting" my grandparent's wood deck with water. The wood changed color when it was wet, so I could spend a good amount of time out there with water and a paint brush! My little guy also enjoyed actually being allowed to dump water everywhere today, so maybe your kids will too.

WFMW- Instant Coffee = Instant Afternoon Pick Me Up!

When I worked outside the home, coffee was provided at work. Now that I am home, it seems silly to brew an entire pot just for me. But sometimes, in the afternoons, I just need a little something to help me through the day- I reach for instant coffee.

If I want a hot beverage, I heat 6 oz of water plus 6 oz of milk in the microwave for 2 minutes and stir in about a teaspoon or so of instant coffee crystals. Add two Splenda (on sale at Walgreens this week) and you've got it made!

If I want something cold, I heat the water, add the coffee and combine with cold milk served over ice.

Sometimes I even add a little bit of Hershey's Syrup! Not too often that you can turn your day around in three minutes or less and for WAY less that Starbucks or even that new McCafe that they're peddling. Happy Brewing!

WFMW- Vinegar and Baking Soda

We moved into our current home about six months ago. The house is about 10 years old, and the last owners didn't really replace anything before they sold it. That means that small things are starting to show their wear around here- including our garbage disposal. Sometimes it works, sometimes it backs up a little, but generally everything goes down eventually.

My in-laws were here fro a visit and in an effort to clean out my fridge to make room for the groceries my mother-in-law and I bought, I threw a container of rice down the disposal... big mistake. Apparently, rice is a big culprit in clogging up garbage disposals! I didn't get too worried when the sink backed up, I just gave it a minute to drain. And then another minute. And then the dishwasher started getting backed up and I started getting worried! My father in law and husband started apprising the situation. "What did you put down here!?!?" was of course the first question.

Then, "Got a plunger?" my father-in-law asks. "Only the one that we use in our TOILET," came the reply. "That's fine, we can Clorox it."

UM NO! Now I am in the unenviable position of having to defend my kitchen sink from the TOILET plunger. Enter my mother-in-law, a.k.a. SUPER WOMAN. "Why don't you try vinegar and baking soda. I think I saw something about that on Oprah." Vinegar. Baking soda. No random poop particles in my sink. Perfect. In goes the baking soda- an old box that I have laying around. I'm not sure that it's going to work with all the water already sitting in the sink and drain, but it's better than the plunger option. In goes the apple cider vinegar, because that's what I've got. The sink starts bubbling... this is good... little more vinegar... the water starts draining! Crisis averted! Toilet plunger NOT required! Woo hoo!

Apparently, she saw some home cleaning expert on Oprah. Our drains are getting more and more clogged these days because of the liquid soaps that we use. They gunk up the pipes. So dump a little vinegar down all of your drains on a regular basis, and you'll be good. And keep the toilet plunger out of your kitchen!!!

For more WFMW ideas, visit We are THAT Family.