My husband has been eating a lot of yogurt for breakfast, and I hate to just toss these cute small cups. I’ve been washing them up hoping to come up with lots of different ways to reuse them. So far I only have a couple.
Yogurt containers are excellent to use when the girl wants to paint. She can clean her brushes in the container, and I don’t have to worry about cleaning all of that paint from a cup. It works well since you don’t need much water.
She also uses them in the bath tub. She loves to pour water from the yogurt cups. It keeps her entertained and it’s much cheaper than bath toys.
Next spring I will be using yogurt cups as seed starters for our herb garden. The cups are the perfect size to get a plant started. It sure beats buying small pots.
So that is it for how we are reusing yogurt containers. Do you recycle yours? Share your suggestions.
Lately I’ve been clipping coupons again. I usually clip coupons and let them expire before I ever think of using them. Our local newspaper has recently added coupons to their Sunday newspaper. I’m actually finding coupons of products I buy.
I don’t really file my coupons in my coupon holder. I try to put them in order that they expire, so maybe I can keep up with coupons that are expiring soon and use them. To make coupon clipping more fun, I want to have a goal for the money we saved. Maybe we will go to the movies or do something else once a month. Hopefully by having a goal, I will remember to consult the coupons before making my shopping list.
For the past few weeks, our computer has been acting up. We have a bad harddrive, so I had just chalked it up to it and didn’t think too much more about it. Apparently it was more than the bad harddrive. We got an error message about a missing .DLL file. Well, that is easy enough to fix. You just use the recovery console on your Windows disk to replace the missing file. That didn’t work and after half a day of fooling with it, we decided just to reinstall Windows.
At least we didn’t lose any files since we didn’t format the drive. But still it’s a pain because all of our programs needed to be reinstalled. This brought to my attention the importance of keeping up with your driver disks and purging the older ones that you no longer use. We built our computer five years ago. It took me a moment to remember the brand of the motherboard and video card. At least most of our disks are in a CD binder, but at least half the disks are obsolete. It’s time to have a good purging.
Our computer has been very reliable. We had a harddrive failure in 2008. That could have been the last time we opened the case because it was quite dusty in there. We bought some can air - a supply we used to always have on hand - and cleaned out the inch thick layer of dust. I think that helped more than anything to get better performance from the computer.
So, from now on we will keep a check on the inside of our computer. When we check the smoke alarm batteries with the time change, then we will also check for dust in our computer.
The ants seem relentless this summer. It has been so dry that the little suckers have been invading every small space in our home searching for food and water. The ants unfortunately found the cat food. Last summer the ants found the cat food. After spending what seemed like an eternity picking out the ants, I decided that from now on we would use a plastic box with a lid for cat food.
This year I guess the lid wasn’t on tight because the ants found the cat food. I was about to toss it all out when my husband had this solution. Close the lid and place the plastic box outside in the scorching heat. The ants will die and the cats will then eat the food. I thought he was crazy and a little of a sadist but thought it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try.
Lo and behold the next day the ants were indeed all dead. It worked and it was so easy. I hate to admit that he is right but this time he was right on. From now on I will make sure that lid is closed.
Ants in the house can be quite annoying. It’s hard to get rid of the suckers. Ant spray kills those on contact but does little to get rid of the ant problem. In fact, using ant spray might cause ants to start new colonies. It is satisfying to kill those jokers on contact though.
So I have a new strategy for getting rid of the ants in the house. First is to cleanup and keep it clean. If ants aren’t finding crumbs on the floor or juice boxes on the couch, then their food source will be eliminated. I’ve never been one to clean every day. I plan on cleaning my kitchen and sweeping the floors each day.
I want to control the ants in our house and yard with organic solutions. We have a daughter and cats so we really are seeking solutions that will be safe for them. I have been reading all sorts of home remedies for getting rid of ants. I will try one at a time and document my results. One tip I read reminded me of what my dad used to do. He would take scalding hot water and pour it on ant mounds. I haven’t seen an ant bed in recent memory. Our ants seem to just have small holes in the ground. It makes it harder to find their nests.
Hopefully a little bit of cleaning everyday and some organic solutions will get rid of our ant problem.
While doing the dishes, I couldn’t help but to notice the stains on my husband’s favorite coffee cup. We drink a lot of Diet Coke, so it’s Coke that is the culprit this time and not coffee or tea stains. Still, it’s a stain that just wouldn’t come out.
I decided to try baking soda to remove the soda stain. First, I heated up some water in the microwave. Then I added the water and the baking soda to the coffee cup. I let it sit for five minutes.
After five minutes, I took my dish brush and swiped around the sides. I poured out the water and this is the result -
The coffee cup looks really good. There is a slight ring at the bottom. Next time I wash it, I will use the baking soda method again and let it soak longer. My husband will be pleased since those stains really bother him. It just feels like the cup isn’t clean if it doesn’t look clean.
We have recently switched to Charmin bathroom tissue. Why? Because our daughter who is greatly influenced by commercials thinks it’s the only brand to have if you want soft tissue. She is four and actually gave up getting a small, cheap toy to procure the Charmin Ultra Soft toilet paper.
She couldn’t wait to use it and said it felt so soft. It was definitely worth the extra money in her eyes for her soft tissue paper. The rolls eventually ran out and so I picked up another pack. Little did I realize that I picked up the Ultra Strong Charmin instead of the Ultra Soft. There is no getting anything past her as she recognized this Charmin was not the soft Charmin. I was still clueless that I had picked up anything different until we got on the last roll. I noticed the packaging was red instead of blue and only then did I read the full name of the product. Now I make a conscious effort to get the blue packaging of Charmin.
So, even though I couldn’t really tell a difference in either tissue paper, my daughter did. She would recommend the ultra soft since it’s so soft and feels nice.
My new guilty pleasure is the History Channel’s Pawn Stars. It comes on Monday, and they usually have a mini-marathon of shows that day. Luckily the we have a DVR that records them all. Then during the week I watch a few every day.
Pawn Stars is about a family owned pawn shop in Las Vegas. The Harrison family consists of Richard (The Old Man, his son - Rick, and Rick’s Son Corey Harrison(Big Hoss). The show is a cross between Antiques Roadshow and American Chopper. The show focuses on the Harrisons’ relationship. I love the Old Man as he reminds me of my dad in so many ways. He doesn’t hold back on what he thinks. I love when he is negotiating a price for an item. His second offer is usually lower than his first one. People bring in some really unique items to sell or pawn. I love how if they don’t exactly know what an item is, they just give their best ‘educated’ answer. My favorite so far is Corey talking about a salesman Coca-Cola cooler sample as a cooler they placed at the checkout to entice people to buy one on the way out.
If I ever make it to Las Vegas, I will be making a trip to the pawn shop. I might can even round up something old or unique to try to get a few dollars.
My little girl is at the age where she really enjoys stories at bedtime. She is so close to learning to read. She already knows her letter and sounds and has some words memorize. That’s why when asked if I would like to review The V-Tech V.Reader, I thought it would be a good learning tool for my little girl.
The V.Reader can best be described as an e-book reader for kids. The V.Reader comes with one book cartridge and a USB cable to connect to the PC. You can connect to the Internet to download additional content for your V.Reader. The cartridges have a story as well as games. The cartridges also have a dictionary that you can look up words used in the story. The games are centered around the story and can help to build reading comprehension skills. Each story is animated and plays out on the colored screen. Then you can listen to the page being read.
The front of the V.Reader had a clear cover that can be used when a child is listening and watching a story. It also makes the V.Reader more like a book. I noticed my kid using it to hold the V.Reader just like a book.
One night my husband was working late and asked if we would like to hang out with him at work. I grabbed the V.Reader hoping that it would entertain the girl. We were there for nearly two hours, and she played with the V.Reader for a good hour and a half. We had the cartridge the comes with the reader and Toy Story 3.
The V.Reader is a fun learning tool. It has kept my girl entertained for hours, and each cartridge has a lot of replay value since she loves hearing the same stories. It takes four AA batteries that seem to be holding up pretty good so far. Overall the V.Reader has been enjoyed by the girl and has fostered her love of reading. What more can a Mom ask for.
The V.Reader is available at Target.
I was given a V.Reader by VTech for my review. I was allowed to keep the product, but the opinion I am sharing remains my own
Ugly Betty was one of my favorite shows. In fact, I used to blog about the show at WatchingUglyBetty.com before leaving blog network 451 Press. I still get Ugly Betty news on occasion and love that the show lives on in reruns on the TV Guide Channel.
The TV Guide Channel is having an Ugly Betty marathon on July 4th. They are airing nine fan favorite episodes as well as “The Fashion Team: Ugly Betty Style” and “Look-A-Like: America Ferrera.” The marathon begins at 11am eastern time on July 4th. For those missing Ugly Betty like me, here is our chance to get our Betty fix.
