Household Helpers.....

I always try to find something ingenious to post under this title.  Today I thought I would share some neat uses I found for everyday vegetable oil.  It's not just your Mother's cooking oil anymore!

• Now this one I had never heard of.  Use plain 'ol vegetable oil to help remove a splinter.  Soak the area in some vegetable oil for a few minutes.  It will help soften the skin giving you a better chance to get that pesky splinter out with your handy dandy tweezers!
• Did you ever have a stack of glasses that seemed to be super-glued together?  Well just pour a little veg oil around the rim of the bottom glass and watch how easily they will come apart.
• Moisten that cracked skin on your feet.  At night before you go to bed, rub some veg oil on your feet and put on a pair of socks.  You will be pleasantly surprised when you wake up how soft your footsies are!
• Furniture polish.  You can make your own polish with veg oil.  Mix 1/2 cup of vinegar or lemon juice to 1 cup of veg oil and add mixture to a spray bottle.  Use it as you would pledge!
• Remove pesky stickers.  If you need to remove a label from a glass jar or just a sticker in general.  Soak the sticker in veg oil for a few minutes and watch it miraculously slide off.

Hope some of these ideas work for you.  I know I'm going to have fun trying them out myself.

Take a chill pill.......

Being the mother of a toddler I can relate to and understand the many frustrations of other Mother's when it comes to raising a child.  I myself have had frustrating days when I felt like punching out a window or such.  But, I must say I have never acted upon those frustrations.  Apparently there was a particular Mother in Ohio that still needs to learn the art of restraint.  A 24 year old woman who was going through the drive-through of a Toledo McDonald's became highly agitated when she was told that they were out of chicken mcnuggets.  Now most people would take that information with a grain of salt and probably drive only 100 or so yards to another fast food restaurant and purchase her food there.  All I can say is that that was not good enough for this particular person.  Her reaction was to punch out the drive-thru window!  Ouch!  Well I guess not only did she not get her McNuggets she probably didn't get her fries or toy with that happy meal either!

An old softie.........

Doesn't it always seem to be the case that when the kids want something and the Mom is on the verge of agreeing that it's the Dad that always put the brakes on?  Friends of ours have had kittens for a couple of months now and I and the girls have been contemplating bringing one of them home as a new addition to our house.  Of course John would hear none of it!  Well FINALLY the girls managed to convince him last week to let them bring home one of the cats.  And yes he would hear NONE of their wishes to allow the poor kitty to come into the house.  The other day John and I were out shopping when low and behold all of a sudden John decides that he and Adam need to go to the pet store to buy Mr. Mittens (yes that's his name!) a collar!  I immediately suspected that someone switched out my hubby with an altar ego somewhere between Books A Million and Target but went along anyway surely thinking this was either some sort of joke or attack of amnesia coming on.  I could not believe my eyes as my Husband searched throughout Petco and I mean everywhere in the store until he finally found the cat collars!  I myself had already given up 10 minutes prior.  I stood there why he and little man decided that the perfect collar was an orange Harley Davidson with a black bell.  Really?!  Well here's the latest........the cat had that darn collar on for all of 2 days before he ditched it somewhere between the house and the woods.  I of course am not going in search of it.  Then tonight after I got home from playing chauffeur Mom you would not believe what I found waiting for me in the living room.  Yep, you guessed it my "No animals allowed in the house whatsoever!" hubby sitting on the love seat (hmm that could be it) watching ESPN with the cat!  I'm telling you my life gets weirder all the time!

Question of the week.......

Well the holidays are officially behind us.  I hope everyone had a wonderful and blessed holiday season.  Our family as usual enjoyed time with family and friends and of course gifts and food.  However, as fun a festive as the holiday are, let us never forget the true reason for the season, our Lord and Savior's birth. 

It seems as though most were planning on using cold hard cash as their method of choice for buying this year.  I know that is one rule that our household sticks to during the holiday season.  As I have said before there is nothing like waking up on the 26th knowing that you won't be expecting a huge credit card bill the next month!

Of course, with this being January 3rd I was wondering if anyone has declared the ever yearly popular New Year's Resolution.  I really haven't declared any for myself this year although I suppose that I intend on canning more during the spring garden so I guess I'll call that mine.  So, what if any is your resolution?  I have listed some classic ones that seem to make the list every year or you can write in your own.

On our way to Wildwood to pick up Jake and Meggie!

Dec28_001|The sweetest little guy I know!

At Newberry sitting on some very old looking bleachers! Wish I weighed 40 pounds lighter!

Thankful for our simple life.......

My Husband and I decided to sneak away for a quick weekend getaway to central Florida this weekend.  Oh the excitement of some alone time without the kids!(Love you guys and gals)  It never fails though that when we're on our way out of town it doesn't take very long for me at least to want to turn around and head out of dodge as quick as our 4 wheels will carry us!  As I am glancing around during the drive I can honestly say that I have seen probably at least 1000 homes that look identical to one another!  It makes me wonder if they have a button they push so their house either does one of the "chirps" or maybe makes the porch light flash on and off so they make sure they don't pull into the wrong driveway!  I guess you could say that there is a convenience to city life.  It seems that on every street corner there is either a gas station, grocery store, pharmacy, wally world, mall, movie theather, etc. to just name a few.  Not to mention every conceivable restaurant you could think of!  But, along with the convenience comes the added benefit of being able to shake hands with your neighbor through your bedroom window!! :o)  No this ex city girl desires nothing of city life.  Give me 10 acres out in the middle of nowhere where my nearest neighbor is more than a stone's throw away, where at night I can hear the crickets and their annoying musical that they put on but I love it anyway!  Plus the added bonus of the natural alarm called the roosters at 5am in the morning!  Lord let me never take for granted the beautiful painting you have gifted me right outside my front door!  How beautiful being a redneck and country bumpkin can be!

Question of the week.......

Well it seems as Black Friday was too much of draw for most this year!  I myself was one of the few that did not get up during the pre-dawn hours to fight the mad crowds of shoppers looking for the must have deal of the season!  My f/i/l actually got up at 2:30am in order to get himself a new battery charger!  I actually did go shopping that day but didn't walk into the local Wally World until 11am and behold the items I was interested in were still there!(Hint Hint for those of you die-hard Black Friday shoppers) 

I have blogged earlier about cutting back this Holiday season.  We are not participating in the annual gift giving exchange with the family.  I think the money would be more wisely used for possibly a local charity that helps the less fortunate during this time of year or in our case put it towards our Church's Lottie Moon Christmas offering this year.  However, regardless of the amount we spend we do have one important rule that we are faithful in keeping.  We DO NOT put our Christmas on credit!  It is a wonderful feeling knowing that when you wake up on the 26th you won't be expecting a huge bill at the beginning of the month!  So, what are you going to use this year?  Cash or Credit?