Microsoft’s OneNote has become one of my favorite software applications. It took me a while and years of hearing friends use it for a variety of purposes before I even used the program. Now the more I use it, the more ways I think of using it.

Recently I was asked by a friend if she should continue using Microsoft Word to store recipes or use OneNote. I told her I thought One Note would be a superior choice. OneNote acts like a virtual notebook. You can have several pages within a notebook that are easily accessed from one screen. You can also add blocks of text and easily move them around – so you have a lot of design freedom that is just not as easily done in Word.

I did a mock up of how I might lay out a recipe in OneNote. I’m also using OneNote to keep a journal at work of issues and solutions. So I suggested she use OneNote instead of Word but she can always save her OneNote page as a word document. You cannot save your Word document as OneNote – or I didn’t see it listed in the save as drop down menu.

Sprout is one channel that my daughter knows very well. We enjoy watching all the shows on Sprout. Sprout is launching a campaign this month entitled “Kindness Counts.” It is a way for preschoolers to log their small acts of kindness to show what a huge impact they can have. Sprout is hoping to log one million small acts of kindness.

Parents will be able to log their kids act of kindness at SproutOnline.com. They can also find articles filled with useful information on how to develop empathy in your preschooler. During The Sunny Side Up Show, user submitted acts of kindness will be shared each day.

We have always tried to instill the importance of taking other people’s feelings into account. One lesson my daughter has learned recently is that how you word something may hurt someone’s feelings even if you don’t mean it in a malicious way. It’s best to try to understand each other and to be thoughtful of their feelings.

It really is the small things that count the most. A kind word to someone having a bad day or offering to help someone with a simple task. It’s those small acts that make a huge impact on both the giver and receiver.

Be sure to add your kind act to the count and share your story. I hope that the counter hits one million in record time.

Last night we went to a Girl Scouts meeting. Well it was more like an orientation to the Girl Scouts. The leader relayed this story about a troop that went camping and invited a Daisy – who is a Girl Scout either in kindergarten or 1st grade – to come along. Part of the Girl Scouts mission is to teach leadership and self-sufficiency. So when dinner came around, the leader let the Daisy cut up the potatoes all by herself. When the Daisy returned from camping, it was that experience that she first told her parents.

Now I would have been like one of the other parents on the camping trip who wanted to take the knife away from her – that is only because I have such trouble cutting potatoes myself. It wasn’t until recently – oh how I’m ashamed to admit this – that my husband told me to use a larger knife to slice potatoes. It made cutting potatoes so much easier to use the largest knife I own. It’s also a little scary to wield such a huge knife.

I like to slice my potatoes and then cube those slices. It just seems to make the job easier and the potatoes cook faster – especially if I’m making mashed potatoes.

Now I will need to teach my daughter to use a knife in case she is asked on a camping trip to slice potatoes. A visit to the E.R. is not the way to end an outing.

It is amazing just how fast a trail of ants will appear in the kitchen. Yesterday they were all over the garbage. Not five minutes before my husband noticed them, there wasn’t a single ant in sight.

When I see ants in the kitchen, I avoid spraying poisonous ant spray. It stinks and potentially dangerous – or at least in mind it is. What if I don’t clean it up as well as I should and some lingers around? So I prefer to kill ants in the kitchen with a cleaner – usually Chlorox Clean-up – but really I have found any cleaner that has bleach will work.

I have noticed that some painted walls now are a lighter shade of the original color – I like to think of it as an easy faux finish. But at least the ants are gone, and I’m cleaning at the same time.

My husband sprayed the ants with Chlorox and that took care of them. I then wiped up the trail and so far, no more ants. I’m sure they will be back. Good thing I have plenty of Chlorox Clean-up.

My husband and I have both had a lot of dental work done in the past two years. I am ashamed to admit how many years I went without visiting the dentist. There was a lot of work to be done.

Now we are regularly going to the best dentist I have ever seen. He is also the least talkative dentist, too. Maybe that’s why I like him so much. He just gets the work done. Going to the dentist might be a frightening idea especially if it has been years since your last visit. All that worry will quickly go away once you get that first visit out of the way.

Make sure to properly care for your teeth in between routine trips to the dentist. Floss daily and brush at least twice a day. My niece brushes her teeth after every meal and has never had a cavity. I’m not that diligent but do try to brush before bed time and in the morning. Change your toothbrush every three months. We even change our toothbrushes if we have been sick. Get those germs out of the house. Not sure if it really helps but at least it makes us feel like we are doing all we can.

Devote at least two minutes to brushing your teeth. Some fancy toothbrushes are programmed to let you know when to stop brushing. You could also sing a song, listen to the radio, or buy an egg timer.

Even if it has been a while, get to the dentist and take care of your teeth. You will feel so much better. I know we did.

If someone loans you something like a book, how long do you keep it before returning it? I am the world’s worst – or close to it – person about returning borrowed items. Do not let me borrow anything. I never ask to borrow something but occasionally someone will say “I have that..I’ll let you borrow it.” It causes me a lot of stress because I know I may never return it.

Borrowed items then become part of the clutter. They are stored out of sight – only to be seen again in six-twelve months. So while I’m in organization mode, I will place a crate close to the door and put all borrowed items in it. My goal is to return items within the next few weeks and then never borrow anything again. I’m not really sure my co-worker is expecting her book back I borrowed ( or she let me borrow. I didn’t ask to borrow it) 15 years ago – but I still have it.

I will just have to graciously decline anyone who tries to give me something on a temporary basis. Also if I let someone borrow something – especially money – then I treat it like a gift. I may never see it again and I am okay with that. PS..don’t ask me for money. I will give someone less than a $1 without much thought – but more than that takes great effort on my part.

So, how long is too long to keep a borrowed item?

Some days, well a lot of days, I don’t feel like cooking. Luckily I have this simple pasta ‘dish’ that my husband loves and never complains when it is fixed even it is the only thing for supper.

Ingredients

Spaghetti Pasta
Butter
Garlic
Parmesan Cheese

Cook your pasta to how you like it. Drain and then toss in butter, either garlic powder or a small amount of chopped garlic, and Parmesan cheese. Toss it all together and then you may want to add a little more cheese – depending how much you love Parmesan cheese. In our household, we love it a lot. The cheese is usually piled on pretty high.

This is a real easy and delicious way to prepare pasta.

So my husband and I were talking about the kid’s lunches when he mentions that you can brew tea in your refrigerator. How did we make the leap from school lunches to tea you might ask? Since school has started, it is once again time for the news to run every frightening story they can find. One said story is on bacteria that grows in too hot conditions. So in theory your child’s lunch could get too hot and be a “breeding ground for bacteria.” He read on LifeHacker that you can brew your tea in the fridge and avoid bacteria.

Martha says that you can brew tea in the refrigerator. I have heard of brewing tea with the sun but never in the fridge. This may be something I have to try. It seems like very little effort. Take cold water and add to it. Then sit in the fridge overnight. Seems easy enough.

I don’t drink a lot of tea but may have to try this for the sheer easiness factor. It just seems impossible to ‘brew’ tea in the fridge. This may be an experiment for the weekend.

When I was in tenth grade, I bought a fishing tacklebox and used it to store my makeup. A couple of years later, Caboodles hit the market. Aside from the mirror inside and the bright colors, it was pretty much a tacklebox. I’m sure I’m not the only person to think of a use for a product and then later find it being marketed as said item.  There are many other  uses for a tacklebox around the house.

Tackeboxes are great organizers. You can buy fishing tackleboxes that come with several plastic divided boxes. This is dream storage for crafters but also is handy to store anything small like tacs, rubberbands, and staples. Everything I don’t want to deal with winds up in a junk drawer. I might as well just throw it away because I don’t want to look at it. Occasionally I will look through the junk drawer for something. It would be better to organize those items we use like safety pins and batteries in a tackebox and forego the junk drawer altogether.  If I really want to conquer clutter, then I need to start with the junk drawer. It is small and should be an easy task to complete.

A tacklebox is also a good choice for those small, tiny toys that my daughter loves. She can’t be the only one who loves microscopic playthings. The only good thing about these toys is that they take up little space – but organizing them now will make it easier when it is time to give them away – or possibly sell it. You know, a complete set will fetch more money than just a few pieces. My daughter would be mortified to hear me talk of selling her toys – but it’s just part of the toy cycle. She’s seen Toy Story. Deep down she knows she will not always find that Barney doll as fun to play with as when she was two.

So, yeah, tackleboxes. They are great for storage around the house. Organize that junk drawer and be able to find items when you need them instead of weeks or months later.

My mornings begin at 6am when my iPod alarm goes off. I then wrestle with the idea of snoozing for a few minutes – then come to the realization that there is too much to do to sleep any longer.

I stumble out of bed and head for the fridge. After I take a couple of sips of Diet Coke, I put some frozen biscuits into the oven. I check my email and contemplate checking Facebook but then decide that will take too much time.

I gather my clothes and iron the girl’s clothes for school. By this time the biscuits are usually done – so I get them out of the oven and begin the task of waking the girl. Usually by this time the husband is stirring – or at least his first alarm has awakened him. I finish getting dressed and pack everyone’s lunch. To save time, I have already placed the day’s snacks in each tote.

This morning – we had the added chore of taking the dog to the vet. At 6am, the dog is no where to be found. After a short drive around the neighborhood – still no dog. Finally she shows up around 7am – still plenty of time before we have to leave. I bring her in so that we don’t lose her again. She does help to wake the girl – so she is making my morning a little easier. It is the least she can do for the worry she caused me by not being at home at 6am.

We get the girl dressed, lunches packed, and everyone loaded into the car by 7:20am. We drop the girl off at school, then the dog at the vet, and finally me at work by 8:20am. It is amazing that it doesn’t matter how early or late we leave the house, I arrive at work at 8:15-8:20am.

We are still adjusting to this new routine as the girl has only been going to school for one week. My husband joked this morning that I did more before he got up this morning than he did all day. A slight exaggeration indeed but the sentiment is appreciated.