How To Carry A Purse Like A Real Man- WFMW

It seems that as mom's we have our hands full. Not just figuratively but literally. My family and I took a walk on the beach on Sunday and even though I requested that all kids carry their own shoes, by the end of the afternoon I had five pairs of shoes hanging off the fingers of my left hand. When the kids were in the baby stage I had no less than one car seat, a diaper bag, a special blanket and three toys in my arms every time we left the house. Now that they are older my arms are full of coats left behind on church pews, stacks of papers regarding the details of their full social lives, as wells as my own things. And I often find myself saying, "Honey, could you carry my purse for me?"

And I'm usually greeted by a look of horror on his face as his testosterone levels plummet at the mere thought.

Come to find out, the whole "husband carrying the purse" thing is a topic of conversation among men in various locker rooms, Starbucks and men's groups because recently my husband informed me that he was advised on a solution for this masculine problem.

The Football Hold as demonstrated by my very own husband.

This is no joke. For some reason this really makes him feel better about the dreaded task. He wraps it into the shape of a football and shoves it under his arm like he's getting ready to plow towards the end zone.

So pass it on girls and maybe you can avoid the look of horror from YOUR man.

***participating in Works For Me Wednesday.

Works For Me Wednesday - Toilet Paper Edition

My kids think that rolls of toilet paper are toys. I can’t tell you how many pictures I have with a child sitting on the bathroom floor in a nest of toilet paper.

Funny at the time, but not so funny when you’re stranded on the toilet with one square left on the roll.

So a while ago we instituted a new plan called STP or Stomp the Toilet Paper for those of you who aren’t in the know.

This is where we give each new roll of toilet paper a good stompin’ before we place it on the holder. That way when a little one decides to yank on it with glee, hoping for a waterfall of white to cascade down on their little toes, what they actually get is about 3 squares of toilet paper in a very unsatisfying thunk.

Ha! I just love it when I can outsmart my kids.

Saving myself from the humiliation of screaming for more toilet paper while sitting on the throne is just the icing on the cake.

For more great ideas go have a visit to Rocks In My Dryer.

Works For Me Wednesday - From Trash To Wall Art

I have a big empty wall in my very outdated (think brown wood paneling, yuck!) family room. I stare at it several times a day with disgust.

But in what could only be a Divine Inspiration I came up with a solution today and my arm is a little sore from patting myself on the back.

While cleaning out the game drawer and sorting through the monopoly money, broken poker chips, cards with only 36 to the deck and sets of half missing pawns and tokens, I got fed up and decided to just chuck every little piece.

Into the garbage went Dora pawns from the Chutes and Ladders game, torn monopoly dollars, ripped Go Fish cards, half of the cherries from Hi-Ho Cherry-O, scrabble pieces, and my personal favorite; all those metal monopoly hats and cars that hurt when you step on them.

But for some reason I had a hard time letting go of all the game boards. They were in such good shape, probably because everyone played with the pieces instead of the actual gameboards, and an idea went through my head.

Why not hang these on the wall in our homeschool/game/movie/play/ family room?

Great idea, right?

So not being one to resist a Divine Inspiration, (unless it’s inconvenient, costs too much, makes me cry or requires the absence of chocolate) I did it.

And I can’t quite decide if it falls more on the “tacky” side or the “Gayle, you are a gigantic genius" side.

Whaddya think?

**Don’t forget to check out the other ideas at Works For Me Wednesday!








****this post was recycled from an earlier post.

Beauty Bargains - WFMW

****This is a recycled WFMW tip from my other blog. For more great tips go visit Rocks In My Dryer.

Every time I run out of make up or some beauty product, it freaks me out because it costs so much to replace. I could spend half my grocery budget on buying replacement items and have nothing leftover to eat with.

But through the years I’ve gathered some tips from magazines and books and little old ladies that have really saved me some bucks and left me with pretty darn good skin.

And I’m going to share them with you because we are in this thrifty thing together, right?

In most beauty regimens it’s suggested that we use a toner after washing. A toner is supposed to remove any impurities left after washing, shrink down the pores, balance our skins PH and prepare it for a moisturizer. It’s usually applied with a cotton ball dampened with your toner and wiped all over your face and neck. You’ll be amazed how much is left behind after washing.

Yuck!

But the cosmetic companies don’t let you know that toner has been around for ages. Those black and white pictures of relatives with beautiful skin reveal a knowledge that has gotten lost with all the beauty advertisements and marketing ploys. One of the best and most frugal toners you could use is sitting right in your medicine chest.

Witch Hazel is your answer.

Witch Hazel is a naturally occurring purifying agent that works as a cooling astringent, anti-inflammatory, and wards off harmful bacteria. Indians and pioneers used it for insect bites, burns and irritated skin. And the cosmetic companies have been using it for years in their potions.

And to prove it, I looked at my $11 bottle of Clinique toner to find that, yes it’s ingredients consist of witch hazel (hamamelis), water, alcohol, coloring, glycerin (which helps seal in moisture but using a moisturizer afterwards would do the same thing), sodium borate (which I was freaked out to realize was Borax and I use that in my laundry soap) and menthol (for the cooling sensation).

I can do without all the extras.

But the tipping point for me was that the pure witch hazel left me with the same tingly clean feeling but cost only a fraction of the price.

6.7 ounces of Clinique Clarifying Lotion (toner) = $11 per bottle

6.7 ounces of generic Witch Hazel from the drugstore without all the added ingredients = $1.20 (and I bet you can find it even cheaper than that.)

Which would you prefer to use?

***I'm not picking on Clinique, it's just what I had it in the back of my cupboard.

Works For Me Wednesday

My Works For Me Wednesday tip is over HERE today!

Ways To Make A Little Extra Casharooni!

Being a “stay at home” mom, (gosh that sound like I’m locked in the house eating chocolates) I’m always looking for ways to add to the family coffers. And I’ve found a few things that really work for me.

The first is E-bay. Not only can you find super bargains there but you can have your very own virtual garage sale without the hard work of sweeping out and organizing your garage. It’s pretty easy to sell as long as you have a digital camera and the ability to form a sentence. There are a ton of books out there that can walk you through the steps of selling on ebay. My personal tips are to take good pictures and research what you want to sell before you list it. If you have an old Elvis album but there are already 20 already listed and not selling, than you don’t want to add yours. And the most important tip is to always search for it on E-bay before you throw something away.

Case in Point:

When we bought our current house it came with a built in mixer in the counter with tons of attachments like a meat grinder and mixing bowls and stuff like that. I was putting it into the Goodwill pile but something made me stop and check if it was in demand on E-bay. Well lo and behold, they didn’t make the built in mixers anymore and everyone who still had one in their house was vying for the pieces to replace their old parts. That box of goodwill stuff sold for over $500.

The next great way to make a little cash if you’re a crafty sort is an Etsy store. It basically works similar to listing on E-bay but the fees are much cheaper. Again, all you need is a digital camera, the ability to form a sentence, and something handmade to sell and you’ve got a great source of income. The buyer pays shipping, it only costs 20 cents per item to list it, and Etsy keeps 3.5% of your sales. Cheaper than E-bay folks and really user friendly.

My Etsy Store is HERE!

So go see more Works For Me Wednesday tips and get ready for lots of Turkey on Thursday!

My Nasty Nasty Car

My car is messy. Like, find-three-week-old-petrified-french-fries and lollipops-stuck-to-the-carpet, messy!

Yuck!

But I think I’ve finally got a solution!

I went and bought a little handheld car vacuum that plugs into my cigarette lighter and I keep it in the trunk of my car. So, when I’ve got 15 minutes until one of the kids is done with soccer and I’m just waiting in the parking lot twiddling my thumbs, or I’ve arrived at the library to find out it doesn’t open for another 30 minutes, I whip out my new best friend and vacuum all the scum that my kids have tracked in.

Now go check out more WFMW tips here.

A Plea For Help

This week Shannon is doing a little something different for Works for Me Wednesday. It’s Backwards day so instead of giving out tips we get to ask for them.

If you’ve read my blog at all, you know that I have a plethora of poop stories and the reason behind my fascination is that I have a four year old who still refuses to do his job on the toilet. A pull-up is his receptacle of choice but sometimes underwear will do in a pinch.

So, lay it on me ladies. What can I do to save y'all from anymore poop stories and get this boy to do his bin’ness where it belongs?

Diet Secrets From Guru Gayle

***I've pulled out this golden oldie because I not only need the reminder, but after the day-full-o-discipline I've had, my brain cells have turned to oatmeal.



You know, when the cellulite works its way from my neck all the way down to my calves it’s time to get myself physically back on track. The problem is that my staying-power on a diet is usually about a week, before the siren song of fresh warm brownies breaks through my motivational chants of “Burn it off, baby, you can do it!”



So, since I have an exceptional amount of diet experience (wink, wink) I’m going to share with you my Grace For Gayle Super Exciting Diet Secrets that are sure to keep you right on track. (I’m being silly, but these seriously will help!)

1. Graph your progress. I use a piece of graph paper and on the left side I have declining weights and on the top I have the dates that I weigh myself. I keep this taped inside my kitchen cupboard. When trying to lose weight, I weigh myself every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with a scale that tells ounces. Then I chart my weight changes and draw lines between the dots to graph my progress. Even when I go down by ½ a lb it makes me feel good to see that I’m actually accomplishing something more than starvation and body odor.
2. Don’t Deprive Yourself Of The Good Stuff. I NEED CHOCOLATE! It’s just a fact and that’s all there is to it. If I don’t allow myself any treats than the deprivation will finally break me and you’ll find my face buried in a carton of Ben & Jerry’s, making grunting noises. I’ve found that if I eat 5 Hershey’s kisses rather than, ahem, HALF THE BLINKIN BAG than I satisfy my craving without sabotaging my diet.
3. Eat Your Meals Off A Smaller Plate. I eat off a salad plate. That way my eyes are telling me I’m eating a whole plate full of food while my portion sizes are being controlled. Because, let’s face it, those plates aren’t real big. And by they way, put good stuff on the plate…..baked chicken breasts, fish, go crazy with the veggies. Oh, and twinkies on a smaller plate are still twinkies!
4. Reward Yourself. Before I even start, I set goals and rewards. For example, when I lose the first 5 lbs I get to order the next book on my To Read list. At 10 lbs I get to go underwear shopping. At 15lbs I get a pedicure. I’m sure it goes without saying that rewarding yourself with say, a Peanut Buster Parfait from Dairy Queen is counterproductive.
5. Find Out How Many Calories You Should Be Eating. There are a wealth of resources on the internet that you can plug in your current weight, your target weight and see how many calories you should be consuming each day to lose and then to maintain your weight. For me, when I’m trying to lose weight I eat about 1300 well rounded calories a day. By well rounded I mean lots of whole grains, fruits and veggies and protein. If it’s processed in any way it’s probably not a good choice. With the exception of chocolate of course!

Try one or all of these ideas and I just bet your diet will have a longer shelf life than most of the stuff in your fridge.

Oh, and go check out more Works For Me Wednesday ideas at Rocks In My Dryer.

The Key To A Spotless House

My kids, probably like most, hate to do chores. But you know what? In this house we all pitch in. The whining and complaining and fighting though, over who is doing less and who is doing more is enough to send me into a dark corner with a spoon and a pint of cookie dough ice-cream.

One day during early summer I decided to try a different approach. The yard was strewn with toys and instead of them doing it once, not passing inspection, and then doing it a second time (or until they did it right), I decided to just go out there with them and do it together.

They thought that was fun…..no complaints…done right the first time….everyone was happy the WHOLE ENTIRE TIME!

Hmmm…..I just might have something here.

So when school started up again this year (we homeschool so they are home with me all day) I decided I was done tackling this 3000 square foot house all by myself. I could either homeschool or have a clean house but if I continued to do it all by my self, one of those was going to have to be sacrificed.

Unless…..

I remembered our success during the summer and decided to transfer it to the inside. I broke the house into 5 zones (one for each school day). I wrote a list of every little idealistic thing that I would love to have cleaned in that area once a week. Then I assigned a 30 minute group cleaning time to our daily schedule.

The first day of school arrived. We did our lessons, ate our lunches and it was finally group clean time.

“What does this mean, Mom?” they asked as they looked at the next thing on our schedule.

“Well my little darlings…. (clearing throat) good news. No more chores anymore,” I exclaimed and was immediately greeted with shouts of celebration and chants of Long Live Mommy!

“Instead, we are going to clean TOGETHER everyday!” I tried to deliver this with matching excitement.

Didn’t quite go over as well as I’d envisioned.

But when we started working, the time flew by and within 30 minutes all four bedrooms were cleaned and dusted, 2 bathrooms were sparkling, the stairs and hallway were vacuumed and the house smelled like pine sol and lemon pledge.

Did I mention that there was nary a complaint during the whole process? In fact, we cranked up Toby Mac and boogied our way through the whole job like it was some kind of party or something.

By the end of the week my house was company ready, in complete order, and I wasn’t exhausted from the whining and refereeing normal involved in this task.

Oh…and since I was working alongside everyone, it was all done right the FIRST time.

So that is the answer (in our house) to having it all….or at least homeschooling four kids and still having a clean house.

For more Works For Me Wednesday tips, go visit the great links at Rocks In My Dryer.

God's Reward System?

**this may be a little out of the ordinary for a WFMW tip but this is what God spoke to me this week and THAT works for me.

Hubby and I have an issue that has kept us at a standstill for a few years. We just can’t find an even ground. I’m passionate about one aspect of it and he’s passionate about the opposite. We can go months without it coming up, but when it does, out come my tears, his anger and a whole lot of frustration

But in the car on the way to church on Sunday, he blew me away by letting me know that God had changed his heart and helped him to understand what this issue truly means to me. How it means security and family and treasured memories and how he realized how much it would affect me when he would devalue my dream. I truly thought it was an insurmountable issue that would only be resolved by my giving in and going against what I felt strongly about, to follow his lead….and I was almost there too. So to have him switch gears and understand was truly a miracle in my book.

I love that guy!

So the next day I was just thanking God while I was alone in the car and in my head pops this stupid thought…

“I must have done something to please God for him to do this for me.”

Whoa! Since when does God offer blessing based on the reward system? Because if that’s the case then the opposite would be true and I should be struck down by lightening for screaming at the guy that cut me off in traffic today, or for seeing that lady in the grocery store with the rowdy kids and judging her because they were out of control.

And on the heels of that thought came this thought…

"I need to be the kind of parent that blesses my kids just because I love them. Not because they’ve pleased me with their actions or words, or because they’ve done their chores or because it’s their birthday. But just because they are alive…because they breathe…because I love them."

Unfortunately my kids learn about God through me. There’s going to be some stuff they will have to relearn and there will some stuff that I got right. But I really want them to know that they don’t have to qualify to be loved by God. That they don’t have to perform to earn his love.

That he loves us just because we are His.

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in sin. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works so that no one can boast.

Ephesians 2: 4 and 8

Cure For End-Of-Summer Boredom

My kids are bored and you know what that means, right? It means fighting and whining and complaining. And there is nuthin’ that pushes my buttons faster than THAT!

Now, normally they can find something to keep themselves occupied, but this has been a long summer. We usually homeschool year round, but this year life just got the upper hand and we’ve probably had 5 scheduled days, while the rest of the summer has been a herky-jerky mish-mash of free time that has resulted in many days of Unpleasantness between the kids.

My answer to the, “Mom, I’m bored,” statement is usually, “Oh, good! I’ve got a dirty toilet and scrub brush right here!” But they just don’t seem to like that very much.

Go figure!

So I’ve come up with some ideas to keep them occupied until I can pull it together and get school started.

1. We make kids scrapbooks. I give the kids a mix of dud pictures and some of the double prints I have left over, a 3 ring binder, and clear page protectors. Then we glue the pictures onto white printer paper, draw and design around them, and slide them into their pages. I just let them loose and then read a good book!


2. They play with corn starch goop! This stuffy is Nas-Tee but loads of fun!


3. Give them shovels and let ‘em dig. I have a place in my yard where I just don’t care what it looks like. It’s off in a corner, and no one can see it. You’d be amazed how much fun 4 kids and 4 little garden shovels can have. They made up stories about treasure, and journeying to the center of the earth, and pirates that lasted from morning till dark. You wouldn’t believe how clean I got the house that day while everyone was outside.


4. I keep several sets of toys in plastic buckets, hidden away. That way when we are stuck inside (we live in the rainy Pacific Northwest) it’s like having new toys to play with. I pull out a bucket and set it in the middle of the room and pretty soon all the kids are building cities with blocks, or playing make believe with the little people set. (Even the almost 12 year old jumps in, but he’d never admit it!)


5. Now, this one sounds too easy and like it would never work, but the thing that works the VERY BEST is giving them each a drawer or cupboard and letting them organize it ANY WAY THEY WANT! If you are a control freak like me, this one might be hard. But once I loosened up about it, I figured the free time I would gain would outweigh the fact that it wasn’t being done MY way. Although sometimes this can cause severe eye twitching in the control freak.


6. And one of the funnest things we’ve done is a treasure hunt. I make each kid a list of things to find outside; a round rock, a pine needle, a feather. Then I send them off. The winner gets to pick dessert that night or pick a book for me to read to everyone.
   

Let me know if you have any ideas. I’d love to add them to my “IF THEY DON”T STOP WHINING I’M GOING TO SCREAM” list.

Oh and check out more ideas at Works for me Wednesday.

Bargain Gift Wrap

I really like to give gifts but the price of wrapping paper can sometimes rival the price of the present. So we’ve come up with a great idea that saves a ton of money and has some meaning to it.

I purchase rolls of brown shipping paper at the dollar store. (It kind of feels like brown paper bag.)

Then I cut off a piece that will fit what I’m going to wrap and set the kids to work at the dining room table, decorating it with their drawings.

We had a birthday party for a two year old this weekend and his theme was transportation. So the kids all drew airplanes and cars and trains all over the paper. Then we wrapped it up and headed out to the party.

For more great ideas go check out Works For Me Wednesday.

Parenting Tip A La Gayle

If Discipline isn’t working, try positive reinforcement.

We have a 3 year old that will not stay in his bed at night. We’ve tried our normal techiniques; spanking, sitting outside his bedroom door until he falls asleep, yelling (not proud of that one) you name it.

So, one night I decided to try the opposite approach. In my most excited voice I told him exactly what I expected of him and that I knew he was going to stay in his bed because he was such a good boy. I also told him that I would be back in 5 minutes to make sure he was still in his bed. All in a sickeningly sweet and exciting voice. It almost made me puke at how “cheerleader-y” I was acting.

I didn’t want to set him up for failure so I came back in just a few minutes and praised him tremendously for staying in his bed. I told him I would check back again in another five minutes and yep, he was still in bed. He loved pleasing me and seeing me all excited. I did it a few more times and whaddya know? The kid was asleep within 30 minutes.

SCORE!

Now that’s not always the case. Sometimes we have to go back through this process again, just as a refresher course. But in this situation it wasn’t the discipline that worked, it was placing the expectation before him and then setting him up for successes rather than failures.

Go visit the other Works For Me Wednesday tips for more parenting

ideas.

How To Feed Your Family Without The Help Of McBarfy's

Our craziest time of the year are the months from September to December. We hit school hard, three of our kids start sports, there are a gazillion birthday parties and meetings and commitments and the last thing I want to do is cook dinner during those months. We were frequenting the fast food joints so much that a week without fast-food diarrhea was unheard of and we’d go through a pack of toilet paper like it was candy. So, I decided the next year would be different.

Throughout the summer, every time I cooked a casserole, spaghetti sauce, chili or anything that I thought would survive the freezer, I cooked a double batch. We would eat one portion and freeze the other. Since I was already cooking dinner, it was really no trouble to just double the recipe. I would pour it into a freezer bag or assemble it in a disposable pan, label it with the cooking instructions and the date, and tuck it away.

When September came around again and life got all crazy I would pull out our dinner the night before to thaw in the fridge and the next day I would either stick it in the crockpot, that morning or pop it the oven that night when we got home from our various activities.

You wouldn’t believe how thrilling it was to know I wasn’t going to have to eat yet another meal of scrambled eggs for dinner because it was the quickest thing I could think of. It was like having my very own little dinner elves.

Not only did we save a lot of money and eat healthier but our jumbo supply of Costco toilet paper was lasting a lot longer.

And if mornings are your rush-time, I always double my batch of pancakes and freeze the extra's. Then on crazy mornings we re-heat them in the microwave and cut them with my gigantic pizza cutter and we're good to go.

Pretty simple but Big On Benefits!

For more Works For Me Wednesday tip go HERE!

What DOESN'T Work For Me!

Its works for me Wednesday and my mind is a blank. Lately, it seems like NOTHIN’ is working for me.

The house is a mess….

Haven’t done school with the kids in weeks…..

Can’t get my ever-growing butt out of bed in the mornings to exercise…..

So I decided to go the other direction....

A few years ago, in an effort to take control of my aging body, I decided to see what all the hoopla was about with this newfangled Wonder Bra thing. After nursing four babies for a year each, I knew I was in need of a little help in the perky department. I marched my self right down to the local department store, grabbed me up one of those silky hot-pink numbers and marched right back home to give myself a little lift. I strapped her on, pulled my shirt back over my head and went about my day.

Right off the bat, one of my kids said, “Mom, something’s wrong with your pillows…they look higher.”

“Well, yes they do,” I thought.

But as I went about my day I noticed something else. I was incredibly clumsy. I was tripping over toys on the floor, misjudging how far away each stair was, and it seemed that my arms were shorter. By the end of the day, I was a mass of sore spots and bruises.

What I realized was this. When you take something heading south and just up and decided it’s going to head north now, well, that can really mess with your depth perception not to mention the ability to see your own feet. If my perkiness could only come at the expense of late night emergency room visits and the possibility of broken limbs, well then, I was just going to have to embrace my mommy bod, in all it’s fallen glory.

So…..Wonder bras DO NOT work for me!

Now, go check out more Works For Me Wednesday tips that might actually be useful.

E-Z Vacation Packing

Family vacations…… (sigh)……I love them and I hate them. It’s great to get away and make memories, but the work required to get 6 people and all their stuff out the door without forgetting favorite blankies and the ever important undergarments would make a drill sergeant go all weak at the knees.

So one day I stopped and thought, “Why the heck am I doing all the work?” I wracked my brain trying to figure out what I was willing to delegate to the kiddos. Which actually means, what am I willing to let them do all by themselves and let the chips fall where they may if the job isn’t done right? Or to break it down even more…..what will I let slip from my control-freak fingers and not stress over?

The answer was packing!

I made a packing list for each of us in the form of a word document. Then found pictures for each item on the list from google images and pasted them into the document so even the non-readers would be able to read it. Then I handed each kid their list and sent them to work.






They loved the idea! I think the pictures made it all the more fun and who knew they would think it was a big game to pack their own things? The non-readers got a little reading lesson in the deal as well as number practice. (ie…. 4 underwear, 3 shirts, etc.)

I let the big kids find it and pack it all away, never to be checked by me. I figured we’d rack it up to Lesson-Learned if they forgot something. For the little kiddos, I had them lay it all out on their beds for me to check, and then let them stuff it all into their own little bags with all its zippered nooks and crannies.

It took all my willpower not to worry about wrinkles, forgotten items, and matching clothing, But it shaved hours off my vacation workload and I was just plain happy with that kind of trade-off.

Now, I even let them do the list for Chris and I and then we stuff our bags ourselves. The time saved gets put into a team effort of tidying the house before we leave, because there’s nothing worse than coming home from vacation to an already thrashed house.

So there it is, another brilliant idea that you’ve probably already been doing for years.

Go check out more great tips at Works For Me Wednesday.

Must Have Gadgets

I had a fit of deep cleaning today. I, by no stretch of the imagination, have an extremely clean house. We sleep on the same sheets for at least a month or two….or ten. When I sweep my kitchen floor it creates a dustpan full of broken crayons, lunch from two days ago, papers from our craft projects, and every pine needle within a five mile radius. And, the bottom of my laundry basket hasn’t seen the light of day for months. My only excuse is that I have four children…home with me….everyday…..24/7! I don’t know what excuse I’ll use when they are all grown up, but I’m sure I’ll think of something.

But in my years of housekeeping I’ve come across some invaluable tools that I often hit my head and think,” Why didn’t I think of this sooner?” And even though this may sound like an info-mercial by the time I’m done pimping these things, please know that I’m not getting paid for this in any way. And if for some reason you are part of a big corporation who just happened to stumble across my blog and who wants to bless an emotionally exhausted mother of four with bags of free products, well, you just go right ahead honey!

First is my giant pizza cutter given to me by my BFF. Folks, it ain’t just for pizza. If you have any kids that still need their food cut for them than this is the key. I just roller over their pancakes, chicken, grilled cheese or whatever and it’s just so much easier. If you get a good one, it cuts through everything.

Second is my Magic Eraser. This thing is amazing. It’s like a big eraser for your stains (hence the name). Today I got crayon off my kitchen counters, years of grease buildup off my kitchen cupboards, permanent marker off my computer desk and the ring around my bathtub is gone!

Gone, I say!!

And to top it all off it came off like chalk on a chalkboard. I didn’t have to scrub my arm off for hours only to wake up the next day and realize I couldn’t reach the top of my head or zip up my jeans.

So, here’s hopin’ I just made some other tired Mom’s day a little easier. Oh, and if you have some gadgets that you can't live without or have made your life easier....please share!

Go see what other great ideas are in store for you at Works For Me Wednesday.

Out With The Old

I got lotsa junk!

Between clothes we’ve outgrown, toys we’re tired off, velvet pictures of dogs playing poker, and a gazillion crocheted blankets from great grandma’s second cousin…..I’ve got plenty to get rid of. But what usually happens is that I look at it, think about getting rid of it, and then stuff it back into the bowels of the cupboard from whence it came.

I’m constantly hearing, “Mom, I don’t want this jewelry box anymore.” Or “Mom, this shirt doesn’t fit me anymore.” And, either one of two things happens;

I have no place to put it so it piles up in a corner somewhere

Or I find it tossed out of a bedroom door and laying in the middle of my hallway.


So, one day I got sick and tired.

I put two big bins in my laundry room and lined them with garbage bags. One is labeled Goodwill and the other is labeled to go to our local consignment shop. Whenever I come across something that I’m ready to get rid off, I march it down to the laundry room and toss it in the Goodwill bucket. Every time I fold the laundry and find that shirt that just doesn’t fit anymore and that I would normally just fold and make the kids put away AGAIN, I toss it into the consignment bucket. When the buckets are full I pull the garbage bag out, plop it into the back of the suburban and drop it off where it belongs.

I’m thinking this is a downright genius plan, right?

So, Please don’t burst my bubble and tell me you’ve been doing this for years. It’s taken me 13 years of marriage, 11 years of parenting, and numerous exhausted brain cells to pull this one out of my magical mommy hat.

Just work with me, people!

*****For more genius ideas that you’ve probably been doing anyway, go check out Rocks In My Dryer.

Staying Motivated While Dieting

You know, when the cellulite works its way from my neck all the way down to my calves it’s time to get myself physically back on track. The problem is that my staying-power on a diet is usually about a week, before the siren song of fresh warm brownies breaks through my motivational chants of “Burn it off, baby, you can do it!”

So, since I have an exceptional amount of diet experience (wink, wink) I’m going to share with you my Grace For Gayle Super Exciting Diet Secrets that are sure to keep you right on track. (I’m being silly, but these seriously will help!)

1. Graph your progress. I use a piece of graph paper and on the left side I have declining weights and on the top I have the dates that I weigh myself. I keep this taped inside my kitchen cupboard. When trying to lose weight, I weigh myself every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with a scale that tells ounces. Then I chart my weight changes and draw lines between the dots to graph my progress. Even when I go down by ½ a lb it makes me feel good to see that I’m actually accomplishing something more than starvation and body odor.


2. Don’t Deprive Yourself Of The Good Stuff. I NEED CHOCOLATE! It’s just a fact and that’s all there is to it. If I don’t allow myself any treats than the deprivation will finally break me and you’ll find my face buried in a carton of Ben & Jerry’s, making grunting noises. I’ve found that if I eat 5 Hershey’s kisses rather than, ahem, HALF THE BLINKIN BAG than I satisfy my craving without sabotaging my diet.


3. Eat Your Meals Off A Smaller Plate. I eat off a salad plate. That way my eyes are telling me I’m eating a whole plate full of food while my portion sizes are being controlled. Because, let’s face it, those plates aren’t real big. And by they way, put good stuff on the plate…..baked chicken breasts, fish, go crazy with the veggies. Twinkies on a smaller plate are still twinkies!


4. Reward Yourself. Before I even start, I set goals and rewards. For example, when I lose the first 5 lbs I get to order the next book on my To Read list. At 10 lbs I get to go underwear shopping. At 15lbs I get a pedicure. I’m sure it goes without saying that rewarding yourself with say, a Peanut Buster Parfait from Dairy Queen is counterproductive.


5. Find Out How Many Calories You Should Be Eating. There are a wealth of resources on the internet that you can plug in your current weight, your target weight and see how many calories you should be consuming each day to lose and then to maintain your weight. For me, when I’m trying to lose weight I eat about 1000 well rounded calories a day. By well rounded I mean lots of whole grains, fruits and veggies and protein. If it’s processed in any way it’s probably not a good choice. With the exception of chocolate of course!
   
   Try one or all of these ideas and I just bet your diet will have a longer shelf life than most of the stuff in your fridge.
   
   Go check out more Works For Me Wednesday ideas at Rocks In My Dryer.