WD 40!

Wow! I had no idea that this stuff was so versatile. Official List of 2000+ Uses

From Gum, Sticker and Crayon Removal, to Cleaning Grease and Corrosion Protection!

• Removes crayon from carpet
• Removes coffee stains from floor tiles
  
• Removes marks from floors left by chair feet
  
• Removes adhesive price tags from shoe bottoms
• Cleans black streaks from hardwood floors
  
• Removes paint from tile flooring
  
• Removes rust stains from floors after mopping
  
• Removes mascara from tile floors and mirrors
  
• Removes felt pen marks from floors
  
• Removes rollerblade marks from kitchen floors
  
• Removes sticker residue from clothes
  
• Removes permanent ink from most items
• Removes grime from grout on bathroom floors
  
• Removes nail polish from hardwood floors
  
• Removes tile adhesive from new no-wax floors
  
• Removes crayon from inside clothes dryers
  
• Removes crayon from walls
• Lubricates screws on lawn furniture
• Removes crayon from wallpaper
• Removes crayon from compressed wood furniture
• Removes crayon from plastic
• Removes crayon from shoes
• Removes crayon from toys
• Removes crayon from chalk boards
• Keeps sewing needles from rusting
• Removes adhesive from precious china
• Helps prevent rust on hide-a-key containers
• Cleans and protects medicine door latches
• Cleans piano keys
• Removes crayon from television screen
• Lubricates zippers

Another product, that I have several cans of, is Spot Shot. It is an amazing stain remover. It gets old dried paint out of carpet like nothing else. I have to wonder what's in it...

From Mommy Life:

The Beauty of a Woman

The following was written by the late educator-humorist Sam Levinson for his grandchild and read by Audrey Hepburn on Christmas Eve, 1992. It was also used by Ms. Hepburn on occasion when she was asked for beauty tips. [From Audrey Hepburn by Barry Paris, 1996, Putnam]

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.

For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.

For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.

For beautiful hair, let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day.

For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed; never throw out anyone.

Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of each of your arms.

As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.

The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries or the way she combs her hair.

The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.

The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mode but the true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives the passion that she shows. The beauty of a woman grows with the passing years.

And the "Grace"?

As we make our homes and grow together as families, we have so much to accomplish within the given day.
There is the cleaning, the cooking, the schooling, the appointments, the classes, and then we find that the day is over and we are contemplating how to get through the next one.
Within the heart of our family, as we are committed to life and love together, is the aspiration to a life of Faith. We don't always look, feel, or sound the part, but the foundation of our family is Christ and His Church.
It is a daily journey and effort, to stretch, grow and polish off all the rough edges, and that is just my personal journey. I have to be a good example to my boys, and I have to be consistent.

Most important though, is that our ultimate goal is to get our children and ourselves to Heaven.
Also, to be closer to Christ on a daily basis just brings more joy to life all the way around. It is such a wonderful place to be!
In this quest for Grace, our family has developed our daily rhythm of prayer and family devotion over time.

I get up and do my prayers from the Magnificat magazine. It is the best aid to my prayer life that I have been able to find. I am able to do morning prayers and a Gospel reflection before anyone else gets up.

We try to start our school day with a short morning prayer, unless everyone grabs their work and gets going independently.

At noon my phone alarm goes off with "Ave Maria" and it is time for the Angelus. We had been doing that beautiful prayer off and on for a couple of years, but we would forget or be busy and not get to lunchtime until late and it would get left out. Now when the song starts, we all jump up and say it no matter what we are doing.

We also go to Mass on Friday mornings and we go to adoration when it is offered at our parish.
We ought to get to Mass more often, but if we go anywhere before school, it is really hard to get back on track. On Fridays, Mass is our Religion class.

Before bed we say a family Rosary. We have been adding a decade every year for Lent and now we are up to four. Next year we will be doing a full Rosary each night.

Add in our special feast days, when we celebrate our patron saints, and the feasts of special saints like St Nicolas, St Valentine, All saints, and All souls days, and we have a year of communion with our Church family.

Brendan has quite a devotion to St Anthony and whenever anything is lost, we all ask him to pray. It is amazing how St Anthony listens. Nina can attest to that!

It is a journey, and it isn't always easy, but I am hoping that as they get older, the boys will have habits ingrained that will help them stay close to Christ and the Church for life!

Great Recipe and a little Demo!

I thought this looked really good! I enjoyed the little demo.
Kind of fun to see the cook put it together and get a couple of tips.
Heck, with the laptop I have a portable cooking show!

Rosemary-Dijon Pork Chops and Oven Potatoes

Homeschool Tracker

I have to plug this awesome tool!

I have been using Homeschool Tracker to keep all of our school records for several years now.
It keeps track of assignments, time spent per subject, attendance, and provides many more options that I don't use.
It has a reading log, so that I can enter all the books the kids have read for school. It also has a field trip log, so that all the time that we spend on field trips is applied to the proper subject.

The basic version is good, and it's a free download online, but I bought the upgraded version at a VERY reasonable price. I am really glad I did. It provides downloads of upgrades for free and they are always working to make it better.

Every so often I print out the "assignments" pages and add them to a binder for each of the boys. I use this at the end of the year when I do my review. The reviewer can see all the subjects, time and completion at a glance.

Yummy Baked Ziti Recipe

This recipe is SO easy and SO good! Perfect if you are making a meal to take to a friend, potluck, or if you just have a lot to do and want to make something warm and wonderful.
This is NOT the Lo-Cal version however!

Baked Ziti

Prep Time:

10 min

Total Time:

50 min

Makes:

8 servings, 1-1/4 cups each

What You Need

1 pkg. (16 oz.) ziti pasta

1 jar (26 oz.) spaghetti sauce

1 container (15 oz.) POLLY-O Original Ricotta Cheese

1 pkg. (8 oz.) POLLY-O Shredded Mozzarella Cheese, divided

1/4 cup KRAFT Grated Parmesan Cheese

Make It

PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Cook pasta as directed on package. Drain pasta, reserving 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water.

MIX spaghetti sauce, ricotta cheese and reserved 1/2 cup pasta cooking water in large bowl. Add pasta and 1/2 cup of the mozzarella cheese; mix lightly. Spoon into 13x9-inch baking dish sprayed with cooking spray; sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese and the Parmesan cheese. Cover.

BAKE 30 min.; uncover. Bake an additional 10 min. or until heated through.

Kraft Kitchens Tips

Special Extra

Prepare as directed, using your favorite flavor of spaghetti sauce, such as mushroom or garden vegetable.

Need Motivation?

If you love checklists...

This is the greatest resource I have found to help get the daily tasks done EVERY day and get the house under control a day at a time as well.

This is just a simple pdf file that you download at a VERY reasonable price. For the attention to detail that has gone into this, the author is making almost nothing!

It is a whole year's worth of daily checklists that you can print out a few at a time.
Check it out!

Motivated Moms

My Laundry System

A few words about our laundry system.
All of the clothing management takes place in the utility room. It's not fancy. It's where the furnace and the cat live, but I have managed to pull together a system that works well for the family.
I try to do laundry every day. While we are doing school I can wash, dry and fold because the laundry area is right off the school room.
I tried a modified "Family Closet" for the two younger boys a couple of months ago and it is working out really well!
No clothes on the floor of their rooms, (OK, we haven't solved the Lego problem, but one thing at a time...) the dirty clothes go straight to the laundry when they get undressed, and when they come down to change in the morning all the clean clothes are stacked neatly on the shelves and they don't have to plow through a bunch of things to find what they want.
I have a tub that has socks and underwear in it. They both wear the same size, but they still manage to find the ones that are theirs. I have done the same thing with the pajamas.
I don't think I am going to try to move John into this system. He is doing well at getting his pile upstairs, and he likes having the privacy.
Tim and I have plenty of clothes storage in our closet and wardrobe and a good laundry system, so we don't need to fix what's not broken.
I have a shelf and a bar for folding and hanging our things until I am ready to take them upstairs.
I have a bin on top of the dryer and the socks all go into it as I fold. I don't bother to pair them until there are a couple of loads worth. I also have a tub on the shelves (not pictured) for the towels and sheets. When it is full I take it up and put them away.
I keep a laundry basket right in front of the dryer and as I fold the warm clothes I can drop the things in that I don't worry about wrinkling and fold them last.
I don't fold or hang things an any other part of the house anymore. I take the folded clothes up to the bedroom and put them away at my convenience. I don't like to have baskets or piles of laundry around, waiting to be folded.
I'll post any tweaks that I make to this system. There is always room for improvement.

Weekly Menu Planning

I am starting to do a weekly menu planning session on Saturday mornings again.
I used to plan every week, and I don't know why I got away from it.
It helps so much to have each day planned and know what to thaw in the morning.
I know a lot of people plan and then shop, but lately, with the budget being what it is. I find that it is more sensible to shop the sales for meat, plan that part of the meal for each day from what I have, and then buy the things that I will need for the sides.
I don't need to plan for breakfast and lunch, because these meals are pretty much the same everyday.
I can do a big BJs shopping trip once a month, get the bulk items, and then do the milk/bread shopping as needed.
It does save a lot of money too.
I am cruising the internet and I have found that some of the websites that I like for organizing have some great menu planning ideas.
What's For Dinner?
The Organizing Junkie
Heavenly Homemakers
I am adding the menus to my google "menus" calendar.
This makes them accessible when I am out.
I have also started doing my shopping list on my Blackberry, because I always have it with me and I can delete items as I find them.
I am trying to cut back on waste and unnecessary purchases. If I can save enough money, I can get new countertops in the kitchen, and that will make fixing all those meals SO much more fun!