This week many people will be heading to the grocery store to gather supplies needed for the big game this weekend. The Super Bowl is the major football event of the season. The game might be the same length, but everything else will be longer – pre-game show, halftime show, and post-game show. Guests will be over for hours and hours, so it’s important to have good snacks on hand to feed everyone.

Nuts are a good crowd pleaser. You can do mixed nuts, peanuts, cashews, pistachios, etc. They are filling food and also good for you within moderation of course.

Sandwiches should be on the menu as guests will be there for hours and hours. You can do it like a buffet spread and let guests fix their own. Also ask them to bring something to contribute. It’s less prep for you. There’s no need to spend hours in the kitchen preparing for the big game. Take it easy and make sure you enjoy all the fun, too.

Chips are a must even if they aren’t the best for you. Nachos and cheese feed a bunch and are easy. Just put some Velveeta in the crock pot for a few hours and you are done. Add some Rotel tomatoes to add some kick to it.

A fruit and vegetable tray is also a good choice. Instead of buying one, make it with your guests favorites. It will give your more food for the same amount of money. Shop at your local fruit stand for great prices on the freshest ingredients.

The Super Bowl is fast approaching and already friends are making plans where to watch the big game. No doubt if you have a big TV and comfortable seating, your home is an ideal place to watch one of the biggest sporting events of the year. Before the big game, you need to prepare your home and yourself for the football fans.

Football fans are an energetic bunch especially when everything is on the line. Prepare your home by removing those breakable heirlooms. The last thing anybody wants is Grandma’s vase from Italy broken during a bad call from the referee. So if you some nice items displayed in your living room, remove them before the guest arrive.

Of course you’ll be cleaning the bathroom. But you may want to keep an extra toilet paper roll in plain sight. That way if the roll runs out, guests will easily find another roll and won’t go rummaging through your bathroom. If your bathroom is like mine, that’s the last thing you will want guests to do! To keep your toilet clean, use one of those toilet cakes for the tank. We personally like Toilet Cleaning Gel by Scrubbing Bubbles. It lasts for around seven days and has a very strong, clean smell – perfect for keeping the bathroom fresh even with a lot of company.

Clean out the fridge to make room for beer and other beverages your guests may be bringing. You might want to even consider using a cooler with ice if you don’t have the room to spare.

Oh and don’t forget to clean the TV. Remove any fingerprints and dust particles with either a microfiber cloth for LCD screens or a Swiffer duster for older televisions.

Now that the house is ready for the big party, let’s talk about snacks. Tomorrow I’ll talk about some great idea for snacks for the ultimate football party.

So, as I’m sure you know, today is Inauguration Day. President Obama became the 44th president of the United States. There’s been lunch, parades, swearing in, and balls. During the swearing in ceremony, the Bush’s were moved out of the White House while the Obamas were moved in. Now that is the way to move.

After my daughter was born, I requested a White House greeting and soon received it. You can also request birthday, anniversary and other greetings. The White House greetings website is no longer working. But you can mail your request for a birthday or anniversary greeting. Here is a link that has all the information you need to get a White House greeting.

It has been one cold week here and across the country. When it is extremely cold, it makes me realize just how we are not prepared for cold weather. So now that we will have a reprieve for a few days of the bitterly cold, or at least I hope so, it will be time to winterize our home.

First we will seal all drafts. Drafts are bad under the door and the floor vents. I’m crocheting something to keep the draft from coming under the door. We will most likely need a rug for the vents. The windows are a bit trickier. We do have some expanding foam for windows that we might as well give a try.

Right now I hear that we still have a mouse. He is in the walls as I can hear the little bugger scrambling around. Ugh. Guess it’s time to seal up any holes around the baseboards and put out several mouse traps. We also need to clear out gutters and debris from around our house. Hopefully we catch this rodent and keep others from coming in.

We use our ceiling fan in the winter to help spread the heat around. Just set it to turn the opposite direction. In fact, ours needs cleaning before we use it again. We want to spread heat, not dust!

Our floors are extremely cold. Rugs help but they can’t cover the whole house. My house shoes do help but my feet are still cold sometimes. I found a winter pair of clog-knockoffs that are fleece-lined. Those shoes are really warm and keep my feet from touching the cold floor. Best $5 I’ve spent in a while.

The cold days make me really appreciate my grandmother’s quilt and our small heater that keeps the feet warm while watching TV. I really can’t stand cold weather and will be glad to see Spring.

Who says watching TV isn’t educational? I was watching Ace of Cakes and picked up a pretty good tip about cracking eggs.

Duff Goldman was making the world’s largest cupcake and had to use 90 or so eggs. Yikes! That’s a lot of egg shells. No doubt some will wind up in the eggs. His tip is to let the eggs sit for a little bit and the shells will fall to the bottom. Then when you pour the eggs into the batter, the shells will stay in the bottom of the bowl. But he said if you see them then remove them because salmonella lives on the outside of food and not on the inside. Good to know.

It’s amazing the tidbits you can pick up by watching TV. I always fear that I have egg shells in my cracked eggs and usually just use a tea strainer to make sure I didn’t miss any. This method might take a few minutes longer but it’s less dishes to clean up, so I think I will be letting the eggs sit next time.

One chore I do not look forward to is cleaning the bathroom. It is something I do first just to get it out of the way. When it comes to cleaning the bathroom, I like fast solutions that work well. When I first heard about Scrubbing Bubbles product Action Scrubbers, I knew it was something I would be interested in giving a try.

The starter kit comes with the green handle and four scrubbing pads. Stick the pad onto the green handle and wet thoroughly. Now you are ready to clean. When the soap stops flowing, re-wet the pad to get more. It cleans well. I love that each time I clean I start with a clean pad. I’ve tried cleaning with sponges and hate it. They are never ‘clean’ except for the first time you use them. It’s great to have that new sponge clean every time you clean.

The best thing about the Action Scrubbers is that they are husband approved. I loved those products that the husband likes when it comes to cleaning because he is more like to use it. That means that I don’t have to do all the cleaning. This is one product I will make sure to have in the house at all times.

The holidays are over. Now it’s time to put up all that left over holiday wrapping paper. Usually I use every last scrap I have but this year I have four rolls left over. This is the first time in a long time that I’m actually putting up wrapping paper for next year.

Most of what I have isn’t opened yet, so storing it is pretty much a toss into the top of the closet. But the opened rolls are a different story. If something isn’t done, then the paper will most likely unroll, crinkle, and not be usable next year.

Here is what I do to store rolls of open wrapping paper. Take three small pieces of invisible tape. Use one in the middle and one on each end to secure the loose end to the paper on the roll.

This keeps the edge from getting messed up. It’s also easy to remove and won’t ruin much if any of the wrapping paper. Once you have it taped together, if you would like a better solution than tossing into the top of the closet, try a tall garbage can. I had wanted to buy one of the tall plastic wrapping paper containers but waited too late. Then it dawned on me how much it reminded me of a garbage can. It might be exactly the same but it’s close enough for government work. Wait a minute. I’m not sure that is meant to be a compliment anymore. Anyway, I think the garbage can could work well if you prefer to toss the rolls in the bottom instead the top of the closet.

My laptop is something that I use everyday for at least a few hours. My desktop is hardly ever used because everything I need is on my laptop. I do like to carry it with me when we travel or to work. But I find my regular laptop case is bulky, heavy, and cumbersome.

When asked if I would like to review Designer Sleeves, I was intrigued by the sleekness and look of the product. It seemed a great alternative to my bulky laptop case, so I agreed to try it.

I love the feel of the material. It’s waterproof and is wetsuit grade Neoprene. It also provides some padding in case, Lord forbid, I drop my laptop. There is also a nice pocket on the side to hold a power cord or my portable hard drive. My laptop fits nicely into the sleeve and is the perfect size for carrying it like a book. It’s so much easier to cart around this way especially on short trips where all I really need is my laptop. I have a tendency is use my laptop bag as an extra luggage bag, filling it with books, magazines, the DS, and other small items.

Also I just love the design. So very pretty. It’s one of those bags that is functional yet looks good enough to take anywhere. You can get the designer sleeves with a strap, too. I think I prefer it without the strap as it is very easy and comfortable to carry it around.

The Designer Sleeve is the perfect way to tote around a laptop without having to tote around a huge laptop bag. It’s been very handy for laptop storage and travel.

Cleaning is one of those chores that I don’t mind doing. Well that is once I get stated. Up until that point, I’m dreading every minute that I must wield a broom, mop, and toilet brush.

One of my resolutions for the New Year is to keep a cleaner, more organized house. Here are some guidelines that I plan to follow to help me keep on track:

Schedule cleaning – First of all, I hate schedules but love them at the same time. They really do keep you on task but seem so planned. That’s the whole point I know but there’s just something deep inside that wants to rebel against that. But if each day I have time set aside for dishes, sweeping, and other tasks then I’m more than likely to get it done. I will just have to move past my hatred of schedules and realize that they are a good thing afterall.

Get the family involved – When we worked together, my husband and I get household chores knocked out in half the time. And since he doesn’t mind doing them, I just have to ask and follow through. You see, when I ask him to do something, I mean do it now. He thinks it means to do within the next three days. When I ask or schedule, I will have to give complete instructions including a time frame. Also, Rae is getting to the age where she can pick up her toys. If she wants to help more with things, then I need to have patience and let her. Who knows. That helpful attitude might hang around and be really useful when she’s a teenager.

Keep supplies together – I have a plastic bin under the sink where I store all cleaning supplies. It has a handle, so it is easy to carry with me around the house. Usually I just grab what I need and return it when I’m done. If the house was bigger then I would probably carry it around.

Everything it’s own place – If everything you own has a place it belongs, then in theory it should be easy to straighten up since you will know where to put it. This is the area that needs the most work in our house. Too much stuff and not enough room. It’s time to thin down to what we use and what we like. From there we need to decide what needs to be in the house and what can be stored.

One day I hope to have our house in order as it will make cleaning easier. Until then we will have to keep slowly clearing away the clutter and chaos.