Works for Me Wednesday- Take Your Vitamins July 8, 2008

  You know how you are supposed to take a daily vitamin. Well at least somebody says you should. And since they don’t make adult ones shaped like Pebbles and Bam-Bam, I can’t seem to remember to take mine. Ever. And I really want to be one of those people who remember to take their vitamins. It seems very responsible and grown up like.

So last week I decided to do something to help me remember. So I went out and bought one of those daily pill reminder things (they probably have a way more technical name). Then I put my daily vitamins in there. A multi, some fish oil,  a calcium, whatever else I decide throw in there.

Now the system isn’t fool proof (or child proof so be careful). But it has raised my vitamin taking percentage from about 10% or the time to about 60% so that is something right? I am sure my bones, brain and other vital organs are thankful. And if I could just carve them out into the shape of Dino and flavor them like berries I would surely be at 100%.

For more tips, head over to Rocks in my Dryer.

Works For Me Wednesday- Dishwasher Organization. June 24, 2008

    First some quick bloggity business. Thanks to all of you for your brilliant advice last WFMW. I am happy to report that we are 90% of the way to being funk free thanks to some hot water, bleach and vinegar. In case you want an update, we ran an empty load with hot water and bleach and then threw in the towels with some vinegar. There is the smallest trace of funk left so we are doing a little “second verse, same as the first.”

Also last week, I started a new blog carnival over here on Thursdays called “Things I Love Thursday.” If you are lacking in inspiration tomorrow, come on over and tell us about a product you love. More info here.

Now onto the tip. I might have mentioned a time or two (or twenty) that I am bit anal about the organization of my dishwasher. And other people’s dishwashers are not immune from my meddling. So imagine my delight when a while back I was hoping around on WFMW and stumbled upon this tip from Blog in my Eye. She somehow moved me from anal to anal 2.0. When arranging your silverware in your dishwasher do it by type so that when you are putting it away, they are already grouped by where they go. You should also mix up their orientation for the best cleaning (that’s a bonus tip I got from Martha Stewart so you know it is good).

Now, here is where you get a tiny bit of insight into my crazy. I have 5 sections (spoons, forks, knives, steak knives and other utensils that don’t go in the silverware organizer thing, and kid utensils). I am slightly bothered by the fact that my small spoons and soup spoons intermingle as well as my forks and salad forks. Sometimes if I am feeling particularly anal, I will orient each one in the same direction so that the intermingling is offset a bit.

*uncomfortable silence, crickets chirpping…ahem.

Please come back and read me again after that was just put out there for the world to read. I swear in many ways I am a very normal person (hubby, mom, dad, bro and Nicol-shut it).

For more tips, head over to Rocks In My Dryer.

Works For Me Wednesday- We Got The Funk June 17, 2008

   You gotta love it when a Works For Me Wednesday post is born out of a rather embarrassing problem. Our problem du jour- funky towels. Towels that smell of mold and must even after washing. As in they come out of the dryer that way. We have tried re-washing, doing smaller loads, not putting semi-wet towels in the hamper, changing towels more often. All to no avail. Then I happened to be reaching down into the washer to pull out a stray sock and whew!!! It appears our washer is also smelling a bit on the funky side.

Here is the problem with the funky towel. I never realize it’s full funkiness until I have dried of my whole body and go to dry the face. Then I am hit with an overwhelming funk and realize it has attached itself to the rest of my body. So I go around all day smelling whiffs of funk. Or I lean in to kiss the hubby only to realize he is wearing eau de funky towel cologne. This problem has got to stop. Is anyone else with me or have you not had the pleasure of using some delightful smelling body wash only to have it negated by you recently washed towel?

So after some research a la google, I think I have stumbled upon a cure. Run a very hot load of wash (yes, bad for the environment, but I am not sure my funky smell is all that good for your environment) and add in a cup full of vinegar (God’s greatest invention). I must confess this WFMW post is written a bit prematurely as we are trying out this tip as we speak (write), but maybe if it doesn’t work you can flood me with comments telling me what works for you. Or at least that you sympathize with my dilemma. Or maybe confess that you too have been smelling a little funky lately. Please don’t comment that last time you saw a member of my family, you left distinctly feeling as though we were giving off an odd smell. Although that could be the case for completely unrelated reasons.

For more fabulous tips, head over to Rocks in my Dryer.

Works For Me Wednesday- Meals on the Road June 10, 2008

   As my regular readers know, I am on vacation to Chicago this week. We lived here for 5 years so it i kind of like coming home. On a side note, we are staying in a rented condo (which relates to my WFMW so bear with me) and next door there is a man who must bathe in cologne because that is all I smell when I walk out my door. I also quite often hear a yippy dog so I am thinking the cologne might be some sort of subconscious attempt to appear more masculine while walking a tiny dog. Just a little psychoanalysis to start us off.

My tip today (besides to lay off on the cologne for my gentlemen readers) is to look into staying in condos and villas when traveling. Especially in big cities, you can sometimes get them for less than a cost of a room. I don’t know about you, but there is nothing less relaxing in life than cramming into a single room with two kids who go to sleep and wake up at different times. A condo gives you space and sanity all wrapped up into one.

The other cost saving benefit of a condo or villa is that you can make your own food. I don’t know about you, but eating out is not only bad for the wallet, but horrible for the waistline. So I find it is much more economical to cook myself. However it isn’t so economical to buy 50 things at the grocery store necessary to make 2 meals. So I brought some frozen meals that I got especially for the trip. In the interest of full disclosure, I should note that I purchased the frozen meals at one of those assemble your own meals places (which are also fabulous and possibly a future WFMW). I got a meal to feed 3 people for less than the cost of an entree. And when my kids decide to throw a tantrum about how yucky the chicken is (IT TASTES FUNNY!!), it is solely for my delight and not an entire restaurant.

So that is what works for me. For more tips, head over to Rocks in my Dryer.

Works For Me Wednesday- The “Mom I’m Bored” Edition June 3, 2008

 My kids, thankfully, don’t utter that phrase too often. Well, Hannah still isn’t taking so she doesn’t offer any phrases, but she keeps us very entertained by putting on a ruffled dress up skirt and twirling around till she is so busy she runs into things. That is a big boredom buster here. So my advice is to rent my 2 year old for hours of endless entertainment. Word to the wise, she eats a lot and tends to get very cranky if she is woken up from her 3 hour afternoon nap early.

I kid, I kid…you so couldn’t afford to rent my kid (but if you want both for a weekend, I might cut you a bargain). What we really do to cut the boredom around here is some road trippin!! Although with the current gas prices, this might need some re-evaluation, we have several road trips planned for the summer (to be paid for my hiring my kids out for cheap entertainment).

Now, you might remember a while back, I actually posted some tips on how to road trip with the kids. I still stand by those recommendations, but recently I was made aware of another great website to help you plan your road trips that I have become a big fan of. Get Road Ready is a great website that has a some great features I must let you in on.

• A Best of the Road map that has pre-planned road trips mapped out for you. Helpful for the uncreative or directionally challenged among us. I am actually super excited to check out all the things it suggests to do right here in Michigan, including Traverse City which we are already planning a road trip to in July.
• Hello, Trip Activities!! I am going to bravely challenge the hubby to a round of State Capitals. Game on, baby.
• Tips and Checklists: This is going to be my hubby’s department. Apparently the car has something called a spark plug that needs to be checked from time to time. Car talk=Klingon to me. My OCD father will be happy to know there are some tips about keeping your car clean because apparently “THE CLEANLINESS OF YOUR CAR IS A REFLECTION UPON YOU!!!” Was I yelling? So sorry. And don’t even try to throw the “I have kids in the car all the time” line at him. He practically vacuums them while driving.
• There are even some coupons. Don’t tell Jenny, she has an addiction.

Here is a bonus for those of you who like some multimedia presentations with your blog post. The lovely people over at Get Road Ready have put together a little video with some of their tips.

Any fun road trips you have planned for the summer?

For more ideas, head over to Rocks in my Dryer.

Works For Me Wednesday- Fill Your Sink May 27, 2008

   In my new quest to fly high I have been trying to tackle the biggest and most important fly lady rule. Fly ladies say it with me…SHINE YOUR SINK!! So I am trying to keep my sink dish and pan free.

Here is our previous system. The family puts dirty dishes into the right side of the sink that I load into the dishwasher. If you haven’t read my 100 things you might not know that I am a expert at loading the dishwasher. Absolutely no one else is allowed to load it cause frankly, they just screw it up. Just between you me and the lamppost (how weird is that expression?), I have also been known to rearrange other people’s dishwashers when they aren’t looking. It’s a sickness, don’t judge. Sometimes, things get loaded right away, other times, I’m not gonna lie, they might sit there a little while.

The pots, pans and other odd shaped things that don’t fit in the dishwasher go in the left side of the sink. The hubby is in charge of those. Depending on life, those may or may not sit there for a while too. I’m not callin’ him out, just keepin’ it real (don’t I sound hip and cool?). I am just thankful I don’t have to do it cause I hate cleaning pots and pans.

The new system: when I am cooking lunch and dinner, I fill the left side of the sink with dishsoap right when I start. As I cook, I throw things in there. They soak while we eat, and then before I leave the kitchen, I quick wash them up. At least, I have done this for 2 days now and it seems to be working. I give it 2 more before I get tired of washing pans and pass the job back to the hubby. But if I do manage to stick with it, isn’t it an awesome tip? That crazy purple fly would be so proud!

For more tips that work (for a few days at least), head over to Rocks In My Dryer.

Works For Me Wednesday- How to Set a Table May 20, 2008

  When we got married (7 years ago!!), we didn’t register for china. I know it is what you are supposed to do and the registry lady sure seemed to want us to, but in all honesty, I just didn’t see us as china people. I can remember a very small handful of times we got out china growing up and my mom basically told me I could have her china since she wasn’t using it. I actually really like her china, so we just registered for some upscale every day plates and called it a day.

So if I were to be honest with you (and frankly, when aren’t I?) I also don’t enjoy a formal place setting because I am always way confused about how to set one. I know knives go inside the spoon, but I can’t recall which side they go on. Glasses to the right or left? This is too much stress for my little brain when I am already trying to cook a meal and look cute!

It’s even worse when you are out at a fancy event. There are so many forks, glasses, plates. It’s like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. How many times have you been seated at a wedding and accidentally started drinking out of your neighbors glass. No…just me then…alrighty then.

Anwho, I was delighted when I picked up Real Simple (the best magazine ever) and discovered some handy tips for navigating a formal place setting.

• When you are at a wedding and confused about which glass to sip, picture your fingers making an OK sign. Your left hand makes a “b” for bread and your right makes a “d” for drink. I will pause while you try it yourself. I would suggest however you don’t REALLY do this when at a formal dinner unless you follow it up by making the “L” sign on your forehead.
• When setting the table, remember this little tip: Fork- 4 letters- LEFT; Knife- 5 letters- RIGHT.
• All flatware should be placed about a half an inch apart and line up with the bottom of the dinner plate.
• Apparently the knife blade should point toward the plate. Emily Post says it is impolite to allow a knife blade face other guests. Geez, it’s not like you are pointing it AT them.
• Serve a lot of wine so that nobody really cares where the silverware goes or if you eat their bread accidentally (That’s not a Real Simple tip, that’s a freebie from me).

For more tips, head over to Rocks in my Dryer.

Works For Me Wednesday- Some Blogging Advice May 13, 2008

 Today, I am going to let you in on a blogging pet peeve of mine. Now I don’t claim to be any sort of blogging expert, but I read a fair amount of them and run this lovely one you are reading right now. So, I have begun to develop some frustrations, annoyances if you will. But none bother me worse than this one, so I am going to make a suggestion for you bloggers that I find helps make the whole blog reading experience much more enjoyable (well for me anyway, and really who else do you need to please?).

When you link to something, like another blog, your own blog posts or an outside website, link so that it opens in a separate page. I don’t know why I find this so lovely, but I guess it is just too much work to have to use the back arrow trying to get back to whatever you were previously reading. Here is the bad news, I have no idea how to do this except on wordpress. Here, you just hyperlink to whatever you want and then choose, “open in a new window”. So uncomplicated, yet so not always done. Blogger and Typepad users, feel free to leave a comment telling others how to do this on your platform.

Also, just for fun, I would love it if you left a comment saying what your biggest bloggy pet peeve is. Unless it is bad spelling and grammar. I know mine is less than stellar. I needs me a editer

Works For Me Wednesday- Actually Not So Much May 6, 2008

  So it is another themed Works For Me Wednesday and the theme is “Things That Don’t Work For Me.” I am sitting here wracking my brain and am at a lose. This is either because I am so freakin’ brilliant that I never try things that don’t work for me, or because my brain is fried from an evening spent at the local go-cart track/arcade after consuming large amounts of pizza at the 3 hour pizza buffet. In my defense I tried to hit the salad portion of the buffet, but the line was ridiculous. Who gets salad at a pizza buffet? Did they not see all the pizza??!!

I apparently still have food on the brain (not to mention on the belly) because it suddenly occurred to me what really doesn’t work for me. Chinese food. Let me explain why.

My junior year of college I studied abroad in Asia for a semester. It was an amazing experiece I will never forget. But there was a bit of a problem in that I didn’t like any of the food basically the whole time. In Japan, it was the seafood. Not really a fan of seafood and I’m livin’ in the land of sushi. In fact, we stayed a weekend with a host family and when they asked my what I like to eat, I replied, “Nothing out of the ocean.” They looked at me with a shocked expression and said, “What, not even octopus?” Um, yeah, especially not octopus.

Now at the time I went to China, I liked Chinese food. In fact, the summer before I left, I remember getting together with a fellow study abroad-er and ordering a large amount of chinese food in order to try and teach ourselves to eat with chopsticks (good thing cause they really didn’t have forks over there). Then we actually get to China. Let me just say that what you people are eating and calling “chinese food” is not Chinese food. Their food has heads on it. And sometimes fur. And could have possibly been a house pet at one point. So suddenly my love for Chinese food takes a turn for the worse.

I should also note that at the time I weighed 98 pounds. Please don’t hate me, I just had crazy metabolism. And I didn’t in any way appreciate it at the time. Foolish, foolish youth. Anywho, I was starving over there and desperate for something that resembled food. Sadly, that became McDonalds, which barely resembles food, but close enough. So I would step out of our hotel and hail a rickshaw to have some poor man carry me in a cart on wheels to the local McDonalds where I would order a Big Mac. Man, those had never tasted better. And who knew, but I am a very good rickshaw tipper.

For more tips, head over to Rocks in my Dryer.

Works For Me Wednesday- Never Wake A Sleeping Baby April 29, 2008

  If there is just one lesson you learn very quickly as a mother of young children, it is that once your children, finally, finally, finally fall asleep, you do not want them waking up. And you will inflict bodily harm and anything or anyone that wakes them up. I have thus far pretty good sleepers, but I am kind of a sleep Nazi and will stick pretty rigidly to a routine so that my children nap well. This could have something to do with my firm belief that naptime equals me time. So I am determined to have good nappers.

Sometimes however your kids foil you plans. What I really hate is when you get stuck driving around naptime. Suddenly you look back and your kid is dead asleep and you know the next few minutes are crucial to your enjoyment of the rest of the day. One false move and the transfer from the car inside results in a child who has woken up after a 20 minute nap somehow under the impression that this will suffice for the daily nap. You try and throw them in the crib, but they aren’t having any of that. They feel their nap is done and it is time to par-ty. For about and hour until you find yourself stuck in meltdown city for the rest of the afternoon. Yippee!!

So here is my trick to keep that kid asleep so you can have your 2 hours of peace and quiet to surf People.com, I mean clean your house and do your bible study. First of all, obviously if they are still little enough to be in an infant carrier, they stay in the infant carrier. If they are in a normal car seat, I have a multiple step process.

• I am a firm believer in the pacifier. If it has fallen out, make sure it goes back in. Otherwise the second you move them they will wake up so quickly it will seem like you have injected caffeine directly into their veins.
• Bribe any older children in the car with toys, food, money…whatever works to keep them absolutely silent and to keep their hands to themselves.
• Remove shoes in the car. Throw them on the floor which will probably come back to haunt you later as you search your house from top to bottom looking for their shoes.
• This is the golden tip: Remove the car seat straps very gently and then take the coat off while they are still snuggled in the seat. Just slip their arms out as gently as possible. The car seat will cradle them better than if you try and wrestle that thing off while they are in your arms or lay them down on the changing table prying it off while shushing your baby and pleading with her to please fall back asleep (obviously we have tried a few methods that weren’t so successful in the past).
• Pray all the way to their room, even more as you lay them in bed and then again as you go tiptoeing out of the room being careful to avoid that one spot on the hardwood floor that always creaks when you step on it.
• Give older child chocolate, toy, money, hours worth of TV to reward her for not disturbing her sibling.
• Plop down on the couch with a glass of lemonade and your laptop to enjoy a few minutes of heaven. Aaah.

That’s what works for me. For more fabulous tips head over to Rocks in my Dryer.