I Finally Cleaned My Blinds

 

Cleaning blinds has never sifted it's way to the top of my list of priorities. I can probably think of a hundred things I'd rather do than clean blinds.

Let me try:

1. Wash dishes

2. Cook a meal

3. Sort laundry

4. Take a walk

5. Practice piano

6. Go to the library

7. Read a book

8. Go grocery shopping

9. Meal plan

10. Write a journal entry

11. Brush my teeth

12. Make my bed

13. Teach 1st grade 

14. Hang clothes

15. Go the park

16. Clip fingernails

17. Supervise bath time

18. Do hair cuts

19. Weed a garden

20. Cut flowers

21. Bake a pie

22. Write a blog post

23. Crack nuts

24. Climb a tree

25. Ride a bicycle

26. Vacuum the carpets

27. Water plants

28. Watch a movie

29. Sew a dress

30. Knit a wash rag

31. Change the sheets

32. Can tomatoes

33. De-bone chicken thighs

34. Call my Mom

35. Write a letter

36. Paint a picture

37. Make a card

38. Clean the bathroom

39. Rinse diapers

40. Fold towels

41. Weed wack

42. Edit photos

43. Bird watch

44. Sing a song

45. Play a card game

46. Go fishing 

Well, I am grasping at straws now. I made it to 46, not quite 100. You get the point, though. I have so many things that I'd rather do than clean mini blinds.

That is why my blinds look like this:

Yuck! The dust is so thick they look as if they have grown a fur coat! 

After I cleaned the blind on the left I was so impressed with difference in the amount of light that filtered though that I took this side by side comparison picture. The picture doesn't do the the visual justice. In person the difference was more drastic. It's a good thing, too, because it gave me the motivation to wash the rest of the blinds in the kitchen and living room.

I have been enjoying my clean windows and dust free blinds for the past few days, now that the job is done. It does feel nice to have clean window dressings!

Are there any jobs that you put off because you really don't like the work? Or, am I the only whiny, lazy housewife? Please share your stories in the comments!

Tightwad Tip | Lids Instead Of Foil

 

Lids for baking. Save foil. No waste!
In this post I am sharing some of my ideas for how to save aluminum foil and use lids instead of foil.

For a conservative on the political scale I sure live a "green" life. Haha! From cloth pads, to cloth diapers, to cloth wipes, to flannel "Kleenex," to fabric napkins, to using rags instead of paper towels I am pretty waste free. I recycle and upcycle at every opportunity. 

Frugal people hate to spend money on stuff that is going to be thrown away after one use. This applies to aluminum foil, too. I have reused sheets of aluminum foil several times over by wiping them clean and folding them up neatly after each use.

Having a few nice, oven safe, lidded, casserole type, cookware pieces are a valuable addition to your kitchen. By keeping your eye out at thrift stores and garage sales for pieces like this you can find some nice lidded casserole dishes. 

I recently found two smaller corning wear dishes that are good size for leftovers. By storing leftovers in containers like this you can save yourself dishes later by being able heat the leftover's in the same container that they were stored. I also have a few larger lidded casseroles. One large size and one medium size. I use them when I am baking potatoes, heating up leftovers, bringing dishes to fellowship meals. Dishes like mashed potatoes, baked beans, stuffing, or macaroni and cheese are good candidates.

Having lidded casserole dishes helps cut down on the need to use aluminum foil, but sometimes I have to get a little more creative to avoid aluminum foil.

I can use sheet pans to cover 9×13 pans and even my really large roaster.

Using sheet pans as covers can be very handy when I am short of space. The rigidity of the sheet pans allows me to stack the different pans of food on top of one another. This is helpful in the refrigerator where space is limited, as well as counter tops in a small kitchen.

Covering pans with rimmed sheet pans can be really useful when transporting food to fellowship meals. The sheet pans don't slide off during the drive and they can survive being stepped on, which may happen by accident in our van.

When it comes to rising dough, I have used a bowl turned upside down to give the dough plenty of room to rise while blocking any drafts, and keeping the dough from drying out. These bowls are oven proof and I have used them in this configuration to cook a ham. Hams come in such awkward shapes. It is really difficult to cover them without using foil. 

For smaller batches of dough I just use a plate over my kitchen aid mixer bowl.

Iron skillets are a versatile solution for cooking on a grill. Sometimes the cleanliness of grill grates can be questionable and lead one to cover the grates with aluminum foil. We recently faced this situation. Mr. In The Mid-west wanted some aluminum foil for the grill, but  we were out of aluminium foil. I brought him an iron skillet. Problem solved! Iron skillets can handle open flames. It takes a little scrubbing afterwards to get the smoke and soot off the the outside of the skillet, but I love to use my skillets to cook over a campfire. 

These are my ideas. Do you use any of these strategies? Please share your ideas in the comments! 

Have I Found The Key To Laundry?

 

Am I so presumptuous to claim that I have found the key to the looming task that is LAUNDRY? Du...Du....Dah... (Dramatic music)

Perhaps not everyone loathes laundry as much as I do. (as much as I did) I used to say many times a week, "I hate laundry. I hate folding clothes!" 

It dawned on me in back in December that chanting, "I hate laundry. I hate folding clothes!" probably wasn't a healthy habit. I was reenforcing and entrenching a pathway of thinking that was unhelpful to me. The more I said it the more it became true.

My Grandma told a story of how that when she was a little girl she hated Ox Tail Soup. She had the poor judgment to say out loud how much she hated Ox Tail Soup when it was served to her one supper time. Her Daddy said, "There are staving children around the world who would be happy to eat Ox Tail Soup." She had a smart alec retort: "Well then send it to them!" Her Daddy made her say, "I love Ox Tail Soup." every time she took a bite. And every time Ox Tail Soup was served she had to say, "I love Ox Tail Soup." And Ox Tail Soup became her favorite soup. Right up to old age she said Ox Tail Soup was one of her favorites.

I experienced something similar with eating tomatoes. When I was a girl I hated tomatoes. They made my stomach turn. When that slimy gel surrounding the seeds in a tomato hit my tongue it made me gag and want to puke. They were acidic gross little fruits not meant for human consumption in my opinion. When I was 10 I decided that I was too old to be a picky eater anymore. I made a resolution to like tomatoes. My rule for myself was that every time tomatoes were available I would take one on my plate and eat it. Cherry tomatoes in salads and vegetable trays, sliced tomatoes on sandwiches and just as a side I now took every opportunity to eat. Before long I got accustomed to the texture and flavor and eventually learned to like tomatoes. Today I love tomatoes!

These stories testify that you can change your feelings towards things. Your mind is in control of your feelings. 

The Psalms show this too. How often does the psalmist say, 

"I will rejoice," 

"I will praise," 

"I will declare," 

"I will not fear," 

"I will offer," 

"I will sing," 

"I will arise," 

"I will be glad," 

"I will give thanks," 

"I will trust,"

"I will hope,"

.......?

There is no mention of being filled with joy prior to the declaration, "I will rejoice." The goodness of God is the only fact that precedes this rejoicing, or gladness, or praise, or trust, or hope. No feelings are mentioned, only a declaration of an action that the psalmist will take: 

"I will rejoice."

"I will praise."

"I will declare."

"I will not fear."

"I will offer."

"I will sing."

"I will arise."

"I will be glad."

"I will give thanks."

"I will trust."

"I will hope."

I was in the midst of a smoldering depression one time when I read Psalm 28:7

"The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him."

And I thought, "I can't rejoice." "I can't praise." This verse is not for me now.

Then I read Psalm 70:4

"Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: and let such as love thy salvation say continually, Let God be magnified."

I began to realize the ball was in my court. It was up to me to rejoice. It was up to me to change my feelings. One of the key factors to changing your feelings, based on these and other verses, seems to be changing your words.

Now we are getting back around to the laundry topic...... My feelings towards laundry needed to change. To rephrase that, I needed to change my feelings towards my job of laundry. I decided to start with the words coming out of my mouth. I made two rules: 1) no saying, "I hate laundry," and 2) everytime I fold a piece of laundry I would say, "I love folding (insert child's name) pants." "I love folding so and so's shirts." And so on and so forth.

Everytime I say, "I love folding Mr. In The Mid-west's t-shirts," or, "I love folding the baby's onesies," my heart warms a little. A surge of satisfaction with my own work wells up inside of me. I hear my family members names and I am reminded of how much I love each of them. I am forced to recognize what a rich life I am blessed to be living. Slowly, I am learning to like folding laundry. Forbidding spoken complaints and instead requiring spoken gratitude has led my feelings. I am changing my mind by changing my language. And that is the key to laundry for me. I have been able to conquer the laundry mountain and keep it in check since implementing this technique. This is a huge victory for me! Perhaps you will be intrigued to give this method a try in any areas that you are struggling to overcome.

Proverbs 15:23
A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth:
 and a word spoken in due season, 
how good is it! 

Fun Pretzels!

 I made pretzels with my children yesterday.

When I was a little girl my mother let us make pretzels one time. And she let us use food coloring to color the pretzels!

I wanted to give my children the same experience.

I told my children, "Now you have to say that I am a fun Mom."  Haha! 

I sprinkled some food coloring on their individual chunks of dough. (This was natural food coloring so it took a lot, and even then it didn't make a bold color.)

They mixed in the color.

Then they had to make long snakes of dough.

Roll, roll, roll.

The shaping of the pretzels was a little tricky for the children. I did the shaping for the most part. My oldest son was able to learn the right moves to shape his own pretzels after a couple tries.

The pretzels had to be boiled in baking soda water for 20 seconds.

The pretzels were finished by baking in the oven.

Violá!

Tie Die Pretzels for lunch and fun points for Mother!

The recipe that we used is from Sally's Baking Addiction. If you are looking for something fun to do with your children, I recommend that you make pretzels! This was an easy project and the memories that we made will last a long time! :-)

Tea, Cleaning, And Creative Use Of Ham Glaze

Tea

Jennifer from My Cubby Crafts talked about mixing tea blends in a post last week. She put it in my mind to share the tea blend that I have been brewing lately. I prefer herbal teas to black tea. I have Anise seeds that I crush with a knife.

I combine the crushed Anise seeds with some Chocolate Mint that my Sister-in-law gifted me, (She blogs over at Sunshine Country) in my new tea bags. I am really liking my tea bags. They work better than the tea filter spoons. Those spoons are nice, but they usually leak some tea leaf particles into my cup. 

This tea is pleasant to my palette; a little cooling from the mint and a little sweet from the anise. This blend is soothing for the belly.

Cleaning

Here is a little cleaning inspiration. My Lazy Susan hadn't been cleaned in a couple years, since the initial clean before we moved in two years ago. 

There was crumbs from the toaster, browning sauce that leaked, and general grease and dust.

It looks much better now and it didn't take long to unload the shelves, wipe them off and scrub them a little, and then restock the shelves.

Not and eye sore any more! :)

Ham Glaze?

I don't know about you, but I never use the package of ham glaze that often comes in a little pouch attached to ham from the grocery store.

I mean I never use it for it's intended purpose. I used to stash the glaze packets in the spice cabinet. They accumulated there until there was quite a pile.

One time I had a creative idea to make the glaze and pour it over popcorn. I liked it a lot! It was sweet and spicy. That is how I use ham glaze now. :)

 I just follow the instructions on the package for preparing the glaze. It works fine. It is a good caramel-y texture. 

Do you use the ham glaze that comes with the ham? Tell me if you like it on your ham, throw it out ("I can't believe you would serve your family silicon dioxide and who knows what else!"), have a stash that you don't know what to do with, or have come up with your own creative use for ham glaze. 

I hope everyone is having a good week! Until next time, here is a verse in parting:

Revelation 7:12  
Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom,
 and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, 
be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.

Oil Lamps!

 These oil lamps were my Grandma's. They used to live on her mantle above her fireplace. They never struck me as pretty, in fact I thought they were pretty ugly, to be honest. 

I have an affinity for anything old-fashioned and reminiscent of pioneer days, though. When my Mother offered me Grandma's oil lamp set I was excited to receive them, even though they were ugly. They are my first set of oil lamps! I couldn't wait to try them out! 

I began to wash them in warm, mildly soapy water. The dimpled surface had years of dust packed so hard that it took a scrub brush to loosen. And the  orange color wasn't part of the glass or finish, just layers of film from kerosene. Once they started to come clean they actually were quite pretty! The details on the stand part had some pretty swirls and scrolls!

After all the scrubbing they are a beautiful set!

I watched some videos on YouTube to learn how to set them up properly. I bought lamp oil from Walmart to fuel them with. It is supposed to be low/no smoke and odor free. Once the reservoirs we're full of fuel and the burners and wicks assembled, the wicks had to be allowed to soak up fuel for at least an hour before lighting.

We have lit the lamps and used them a few times in the evening. I am a little wary of keeping them out for regular use. I am afraid they will get broken. I don't have a mantle or shelf to place them up high when not being used. I may have to store them in the shed while we live in this house, and only pull them out for power outages or special occasions.

Do you have oil lamps? How do you use them: power outages, special occasions, regularly?

Matthew 5:15

 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel,

 but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 

How To Fold A Flat Diaper

 I have been cloth diapering my one year old for the past month or so. Lately I have spent a lot of time washing and folding cloth diapers.

Flat diapers on the clothes line.

My favorite cloth diaper method has been to use flats or prefolds with water proof covers. And between the two, (flats and prefolds), I prefer flats. 

Here is how to fold a flat diaper.

Lay the diaper out in front of you.

Fold the right side toward the center.
Eye balling it,
Fold the right edge just a few inches past
the center line.

Fold the left side towards the center.
Again,
fold the edge just past the center point.
You want the fabric in the middle to
over lap by 3-4 inches.

Fold the lower edge up towards the middle.

You want to fold the lower edge up more
for smaller babies and less for 
larger babies. This adjusts the size of 
the diaper for the size of the baby.

Fold the right third over the middle.

Fold the left third over the middle.

I like to tuck the left flap into the pocket created by folded down bit 
on the right side. 

Ta-da! The diaper is ready to be used!

To put the diaper on a baby:
Open the flaps at the top, this will
be the back of the diaper.

Position the baby on the diaper.

Pull the front portion of the diaper,
the part with the extra absorbancy,
up between the baby's legs.

Pin the back corner, on one side,
 to the front of the diaper.
Careful, don't poke the baby!

Pin the back corner, on the other side,
to the front of the diaper.

And that is a wrap!

Let me know if you cloth diaper or if you would like to see more posts about cloth diapering!