Thanks for the article from Robin Woodard

I was watching Oprah last year when I saw a piece about how Jessica Seinfeld worked fruits and vegetables into her kids’ meals. I thought this was brilliant! My kids won’t even think about eating a vegetable, so it was only natural that I decided to start pureeing them and adding them to foods they already eat. I looked up some recipes online using our home internet connection from Wirelessinternet.net and found that the best place to start was pasta sauce. I’ve been grinding up cauliflower and carrots and adding it to spaghetti sauce which my kids already ate without abandon! The neatest trick I found was adding spinach or beets to brownie! s – my kids didn’t notice the difference! I feel a lot better about their pallets getting used to the subtle hint of vegetables and this way, they won’t be so offended when I start them on whole foods. My next step is to mix vegetables in so they can see them, in stir fries or omelets, and see what kind of reaction I get. It probably won’t be pretty but I’m closer than I was!

Easter candy is by far the best candy of all the holidays. I always enjoy looking down the Easter aisle. I love the packaging of some sweet treats even if I probably wouldn’t buy or eat it.

My daughter eats very little sweets, and this year I’m on Atkins. So the sweet-treat-buying-this-Easter will be very limited. It is kind of depressing to wait all year for super sweet treats and then not fully partake in them. A cheat-on-my-diet-day may be in order.

I like to refer to our Jeep as our money pit. It seems every few months it needs some sort of repair. Friday we got it out of the shop where it had been for transmission problems. Got that fixed and then Friday night the ignition switch won’t turn. Luckily, it happened at my husband’s work, so we had access to the Internet and a place to wait for a tow truck if needed.

Apparently this is another common issue with Jeeps. The good thing about having a common car issue is that you can find out how to fix it on the Internet. Apparently you can use some spray graphite in the mechanism that will help with the problem. Here is the solution we used – with your key in the ignition, gently tap the end of it. It was a very Fonzie moment when this little trick actually worked. The key turned right over.

It is a little unnerving that this tapping the key worked perfectly. However, I’m not complaining. There are very few free fixes with this Jeep, so I will take it. If it works, then it works.

Last week I attended a local .net user group meeting. My husband has been wanting to attend one for quite some time, and so I agreed to go with him since he asked if I wanted to. I’m an aspiring programmer, so I thought that attending this meeting would be good motivation. Much to my surprise, I actually understood some of what was discussed – or at least I had heard the terms before.

Terms I had heard of included – code, class, execute, method, UI, shell, Life cycle, public, parent/child and Hello World. The subject was something I’m not sure I understand why you use it even though my husband explained it to me. I’m hoping the next meeting isn’t so ‘inside’ and will cover a broader topic. I was the only one who wasn’t a developer and truth be told, I agreed to go when I knew food would be provided. Oh, and door prizes were given away.

It was a fun experience and I plan on attending the April meeting. My goal is to finish one of the many programming books by the time of the next meeting. Maybe I will understand the next subject a little more.

About two years ago, I wrote about my smelly washing machine. Much to my surprise, it has received some attention. Apparently this is a common problem. We are still living in the same house, so we are still on well water – which could be a culprit of our problem. But I have found a solution that works quite well.

If I go three or more days without washing a load of clothes, that first load will stink to high heaven. Instead of doing laundry everyday (who would want to right?), I use about three tablespoons of lemon juice with each load. This really cuts down on the smell. In fact, it is barely noticeable. I buy the generic lemon juice that is found on the juice aisle. It comes in a 16 ounce bottle that retails for about $1.15. The bottle usually lasts about a month.  I’m not sure where I read this tip, but it works wonderfully.

Right now I’m doing laundry but ran out of lemon juice. Luckily I used bleach with my first load, so there is no smell. So if you don’t have lemon juice on hand, use bleach with your first load. It should help with the smell. It has worked great for me.

Our automobiles are something we pretty much take for granted. We expect them to crank on the first try, run smoothly, and deliver us home safely. When something is wrong with one of our vehicles, it causes us great stress. We are do-it-yourselfers and when it comes to vehicles, that can mean saving money but also a lot of frustration.

Last weekend we tried a few fixes that didn’t work. Then we were at a loss as to what to try next. After some Internet research, my husband and I tested the coil pack. It’s a part that replaces spark plug wires and apparently never goes bad. Once we tested it, we both determined that it needed to be replaced. So $100 later, our Jeep is fixed.

I was able to help my husband with some of the work – which felt good. I’ve always been interested in learning more about engines. Now with so many computer parts in cars, it’s like they are moving computers. That is something I can definitely relate to since I have fixed a lot of computers. Besides I think it’s important to know how your car works just like your computer. That way if you do have to take it to get fixed, you know the right questions to ask and are not taken advantage of.

Our check engine light had come on and we used our CarMD to find the code. But apparently you can turn on the Jeep 3 times and it will display the error code on the dashboard. That’s handy to know especially if we are off somewhere and don’t have the CarMD with us. Although I do like our CarMD, I really wish it cleared the codes. You can unplug the negative cable battery to clear codes but that takes a few minutes. Pressing a button would be much simpler.

So now that the Jeep is running smoothly, it is time to do a round of maintenance on my truck. That is a project for next weekend. It does feel good to get some things accomplished.

Guest post written by Jan Lively

The jump from being an apartment owner to a homeowner has really opened my eyes to a lot of things. It’s nearly forced me to become a maintenance man of sorts, and I am learning more about home improvement in the past few months that I ever did living in apartment. I realize now how I took my old apartment for granted. Whenever there was a problem, I could call the building superintendent and he would take care of it for me. Now if something goes wrong, I need to hire a private serviceman or go to the nearest home improvement store to pick up supplies and try to figure out what to do by reading books and online articles. It’s not easy when you are responsible for all the repairs.

In my new home, my kitchen needs to be remodeled. That is going to be a pretty heavy job so I just decided to look into sears kitchen remodel options. That is one thing I don’t want to have to figure out alone. In all, being a homeowner is great, but it takes a little getting used to.

The Author of this post is Rory Reilly

I never knew how enjoyable knitting could be until I saw an ad in my local newspaper advertising knitting classes.At the time I was looking for a hobby to fill my time, so decided to join the classes.It seemed like something that I could really get in to, and I was right! The classes are twice per week,and a group of us old ladies sit around and knit til our fingers can’t take anymore.I was surprised at how quickly I picked up on it, and just how easy it really was! I have been taking the knitting classes for just over a year now,and look forward to it every night!

We do cheat a bit, as we keep the Direct TV on our favorite shows as we knit.We all enjoy the same shows, and this keeps us entertained and working hard.There is nothing that we can’t knit. If you want it,we’ll knit it. Currently we are working on Bible covers that are simply beautiful. In the past we have knitted scarves, hats, and baby blankets. Who knows what we will come up with next!

With the new year, we hope to finally fix our Jeep. The transmission has been slipping, so it is a problem that will need to be taken care of soon. My husband is sort of a shade tree mechanic even though he hates to admit it.

He has replaced the timing belt before and done other repairs. There is one more solution that he is going to try before we take it to someone. We hope to get that done in February. Apparently there is a sensor that can cause all sorts of problems.

This Jeep has been one repair after the other. Last Christmas he replaced the water pump. With all these repairs, we need to keep track of just what we have done to this vehicle. RepairPal.com allows you to track service done on your car. It can be quite taxing trying to remember just what all has been worked on with a vehicle.

Our next vehicle will be something like a Ford Expedition so that we can take advantage of my father’s knowledge of Ford vehicles. Anyway hopefully this last repair will fix this problem once and for all. If not, then we will be taking it to someone.

Brought to you by your friends at Repairpal.com

Each year I look forward to receiving a Christmas card from Pazio. My husband orders some RPG books from them, so he is on the mailing list. I love their cards. They make it to the ‘keep’ pile.