I normally don’t re-post news or press releases but found this one to be quite interesting. Hope it helps as we all prepare to do spring cleaning.
Spring cleaning tips for dirty dilemmas
Fast and simple solutions
It’s spring and the experts at Molly Maid come to the rescue with some fast and easy tips to make your house shine.
* For grease stains on your carpet, pour a generous amount of baking soda or cornstarch over the grease and brush lightly over the soiled area. Leave on overnight and vacuum the next day.
* A wad of chewing gum on your carpet comes off with ice. Freeze the chewing gum and when it becomes brittle, shatter it and vacuum up the broken pieces.
* For cleaning stubborn spots, exfoliating gloves are helpful when surfaces need scouring and rubbing to remove caked on dirt.
* Don’t throw out an old toothbrush or denture brush. They come in handy for cleaning around sink faucets and grout.
* To dust blinds, wear a clean pair of cotton gloves or an old sock, and run your fingers along each slat to pick up dust as you go.
* Keep kids’ plastic toys clean. Wash them in warm, soapy water.
* Put salt on spills while the oven is hot. When cool, brush off the spill and clean up anything that remains with a damp cloth.
* Always tidy up before any major clean. Take dirty dishes to the kitchen, pick up toys and put newspapers in the recycling bin.
For more cleaning tips, visit www.mollymaid.ca or call 1-800-663-6243.
After 3 weeks of working full-time, I just couldn’t take it anymore. I flat out quit my job - a first time I have ever left a job without a 2 weeks notice. But I felt that I couldn’t work another day let alone 14.
It wasn’t the job or the people that I worked for. In fact I probably would have enjoyed it but I like being a housewife. I like being at home with my daughter. Soon she will be in school, so for now I just want to focus in on spending time with her and getting our very small business off the ground.
Even though I only worked for three weeks, I learned a lot. I learned that even if you don’t have distractions tasks usually take longer than you plan. I always felt that I could get way more done if I wasn’t distracted. Now I know that even without distractions I need to have realistic goals. Working was a good reality check for me. I’m not ready for full-time work and need to be better at time management and goal setting. Hopefully what I’ve learned in three weeks will help me be more efficient and productive.
A few months ago, I got a kitten at a rummage sale. She was free and a Calico. I love Calico cats so I couldn’t resist. When we got her, she was flea-free. We plan to keep her that way.
We had a real problem with fleas when we had cats inside a few years ago. It was so hard to get rid of the fleas that this time we are determined to do everything we can to prevent a flea infestation. We have tried several flea treatments with our cats but this year we will be using Frontline Plus. However last year the flea problem was so intense where we lived that even Frontline wasn’t a good defense. Hopefully this year won’t be as severe. I’m not sure if the cold winter will deter the fleas but here’s hoping it will.
Besides protecting the cats, we will be treating our lawn. I’ve read that the mineral lime is good for killing fleas. I will have to research it more to see how safe it is for pets and children.
Fleas are constantly a problem for us, and now that we have a cat in the house we will have to be diligent with our efforts to keep them at bay. I may not like cold weather but there is less annoyances to deal with in the winter. But with a little planning, hopefully fleas won’t be a problem for us this year.
Since I started back to work, housework is the last thing on my to do list. And apparently I’m not the only one. It seems a lot of working women at the office let the dishes pile up during the week. After I cook and eat the last thing I want to do is wash dishes. But it’s a necessary evil since I will need clean dishes to cook another meal.
My husband asked me this week if I would ever want to hire someone to do housework. I would have to clean for a week before I let anyone else clean my house. My best solution will be just to buy more dishes and then just wash on the weekend. That or just eat out more. Either way I won’t have to do dishes during the week. Both may be impractical but until I’m back to being a housewife, we need some easy solution to doing dishes.
We do use a lot of paper plates but you can’t really cook in paper pots. Guess I will have to keep doing some dishes during the week. If I use a pot a night, then I’m sure I have five pots. Problem solved. I’ll just do dishes on the weekend. Of course, who wants to spend the weekend doing the dishes? Maybe I need another plan..
Well at least for now. A few weeks ago I started a full-time job. What am I thinking?!?! I know what I’m thinking. The money will help us get ahead but still it’s really hard to leave home.
I haven’t worked full-time since I went into labor four years ago. I had never planned on going back to work full-time but decided to give this job a try. To me it’s only temporary since I really don’t want to work full-time while my daughter is in school. I want to be home when she is out of school and there for her if she needs me during the day. I also plan to be a PTA mom, home room Mom, or any other volunteer opportunity.
Now that I’m working, it’s been an adjustment to the new schedule. Still I hope that once I get into the swings of things that I can get back to regular blogging and some other ventures that I’ve been neglecting.
Finally a reality TV show that I can totally relate to. Worst Cooks in America is a Food Network reality show where two chefs have recruited some of the worst cooks in America. They will teach these kitchen neophytes how to cook. Each week they both have to let a contestant go. In the end, there will be two left who will cook a meal to pass it off as if it was cooked by the chef. The winning player also receives $25,000.
Each week the contestants are pushed a little more in the kitchen. The latest episode had them preparing two appetizers for 30 New York foodies. It definitely seems some are better cooks than other and some have learned more during this competition. I would love for each episode to be longer to be able to pick up more tips from the chefs.
Let’s hope this show is picked up for a second season as it’s been a lot of fun watching and learning.
What do you do with an old particle board desk that has seen better days? I had temporarily set it on the porch until I could haul it off to the thrift store. Then the rain came and ruined it even more. I then noticed that the cat seemed to enjoy lying on it. We had a spell of cold weather come through and my husband turned the old desk into a cat condo box.
He took some plastic sheeting and wrapped part of the desk. Then he placed on each shelf a blanket for added warmth. The front has strips of plastic sheeting as well as a flap to cover it. It should be very warm and comfortable. Too bad the cat has barely spent any time in it. We may have to tweak the design just a little bit to make it more inviting to her. We may have a few weeks before the next cold snap, so hopefully we can come up with the perfect design by then.
I, of course, think my child is a genius. She is four and already has a strong sense of letters, sounds, and even some spelling. She is definitely ready to learn to read so that’s why when asked if I would like to review a Vtech product I chose the Bugsby Pen and Learning System. We had seen this product in the store and my little girl played with it for at least five minutes before we had to finish our shopping. I knew that the Bugsby would be something that she could handle on her own and would keep her engaged.
The Bugsby learning system comes with everything to get you started - the wireless pen, book, and cartridge. Insert the cartridge into the back of the pen and then turn it on. Open the book and then touch the pen over the words to have Bugbsy read individual words or press the pen to the play button to have Bugsby read the whole page. It’s read in a clear voice and has a volume control.
What I like most about the Bugsy is that it is wireless. The books are about the size of regular children books so it fits nicely into her lap and is easy to store.
One issue I did have with the Bugsby pen is that it accidentally dropped from a chair to the floor with a cartridge in it. The cartridge then didn’t work. At first I thought it was the pen but after buying another book I was able to diagnose that it was the cartridge and not the pen that wasn’t functioning properly. So my advice is to store cartridges inside the book and to not leave them in the pen in case of an accident.
I received the Vtech Bugsby Learning System free of charge for review purposes. The above review is my honest opinion about the product.
Sometimes it pays to run out of an ingredient and have to borrow from your neighbor - in this case my neighbor is my mom. I went to make biscuits when I realized I was out of flour, so I borrowed some of hers. Lo and behold my biscuits tasted better. Could flour really make that much of a difference? Apparently so.
For a lot of ingredients I just put up the no-name brand and flour is one of them. There are some that I’ve come to realize that it’s best to have the quality of that brand instead of saving a few cents. I found out my mom uses White Lily self rising flour. I had been using self-rising flour, too. But my flour was a generic brand. Now I use White Lily since it does make a huge difference in how my biscuits look and bake.
My biscuits still aren’t nearly as good as my mom’s. My mom would tell me it’s from 50 years of cooking that her biscuits taste the way they do. I have a few more years to go but at least now with better ingredients my biscuits are on track to one day be comparable to hers.
Every year I make New Year’s resolutions and keep none of them.
This year I’ve decided to scale back on what I plan to resolve in hopes that I can actually keep those throughout the year. My biggest resolution is to be more organized. There is no telling how much time I spent in 2009 looking for scissors, pens, tape, etc. It’s not only the time spent searching but the frustration that builds from not being able to locate said item in less than a minute. We own way too much stuff that we will never use. This is where rummage sales, eBay, and thrift stores come into play. If I can sell it then I just need to donate it. Live a simpler and less cluttered life. Dream the dream and make it happen in 2010.
I also plan to lose weight but refuse to diet. Why? It never fails. When I start a diet, 3 weeks later I am sick. When I get sick I fall off the diet since I have no energy or desire to follow the diet plan. So this year I will be eating less and exercising more but it’s not a diet.
Or I could follow my husband’s lead and make no New Year’s resolutions. Now that is a sure fire method for keeping resolutions. But hopefully by just concentrating on two items I will have some success.
