Lesson from Lemonade

About once or twice a year I wake up with a really good idea about how to teach something to the kids. Here's last weeks inspiration:

Make homemade lemonade

Have the kids taste the lemon juice--I wish I had gotten pictures.

Talk about how much they don't like it.

Add sugar and water to the lemon juice.

Talk about how much better the sugar makes it taste.

Talk about how Lemonade is like speaking to each other. We can speak sourly to each other or we can speak in a lemonade way.

Practice saying "I don't want to play with you" "Be quiet" and "Give that to me" in lemon juice ways and lemonade ways. The kids loved this part (except grumpy Jordan wouldn't participate--but I could tell he wanted to). They exaggerated speaking really mean and then really nice.

The best part: they got it and I didn't even lecture (a terrible tendency of mine).

Loving the Reel Mower

Scotts Reel Mower, why do I love thee? Let me count the reasons:

You are quiet, so quiet I can mow even in the wee small hours of Saturday morning.

You are so, so easy to push, that even if I mow in the middle of the day, the neighbors won't stop and stare. If they do it is because of the simpleness and beauty of your frame.

You were ever so inexpensive and will continue to be since we won't have to fill you up-ever.

You take up such a small amount of space.

You never stink and you certainly don't leak.

You make me like mowing!

The OATH

Schools out and today was our first summer day. It became necessary to have my children take the oath.

Repeat after me:
I, state your name, solemnly swear that I will not run upstairs, pinch, hit or bite my siblings. I promise that if I want to be wild I will go downstairs or outside. I promise that I will not run around the house acting like a part of a ruccusy circus (I was running out of sense on that last part).

They were laughing so hard they barely finished the oath. So it worked I guess.

The problem was I forgot to include "thou shalt not ride down the stairs in a pillowcase or any thing like unto it."

OH DEAR!

How am I going to last through the summer? I woke up with a such a good attitude but it has blown away like the cotton from our neighbors obnoxious Cottonwood Tree and has spread itself all along my other neighbors fence. Maybe I can pick it all up and try again tomorrow.

getting the hang of couponing

After a couple of months of couponing I'm finally getting it. These are some great deals I've found recently

Best Foods Mayo-$-0.12 to $0.88
Wheat Thins $0.47 and $0.86
Triscuits $0.47
Whole Grain Ritz $0.75
Life Cereal $0.49


Lessons learned:

• find a good website that does all the work for you (I love pinchingyourpennies.com)
• hole punch coupon booklets and put them in a 3 ring binder (I have my coupon dates (the date of the paper) tabbed with sticky notes to find stuff quickly)
• only buy stuff you actually WANT to eat--turns out to be a money saver
• its fine to buy junk you only take on camping trips an picnics as long as you sneak them into the highest shelf of the storage room
• saving coupons takes time. Some great deals are from coupons printed 2 months ago
• printable coupons usually save you more money than newspaper ones

Days 1 and 2 of SPRING CLEAN

closet 1 before


after--20 minutes for cupboards and drawers. I started with the smallest projects.

Closet 2-after (we have two closets that look exactly the same. I was so excited to clean this closet out that I forgot to take a before picture. 3o minutes for cupboards and drawers. Yippee. I'm already happier opening it.

Human Powered Generators

Anyone else see the energy episode of Fetch, with Ruff Ruffman? I love that show and though I don't sit down and watch it daily I'm always happy to catch an episode. Anyway, on the show the kids measured watt hours of different machines--hair dryer, washing machines, small kitchen appliances etc. They talked about ways to save energy (towel dry your hair, hang your clothes out to dry etc.) At the end of the show a scientist was powering his TV with his own energy. As he pedalled on ... pedals (it wasn't even a full bike) the energy created from pedaling was held inside a battery which his TV was plugged into. It was the coolest thing. Wouldn't that be great if your kids could only watch TV if they were willing to pedal? Hmmm, computer time could totally limit itself with something like this. Could also come in handy when your electricity goes out (which is why I really want one). The kicker is, so far there aren't many, and possibly only 1. Its price--$550.

http://www.windstreampower.com/Human_Power_Generator.php

SPRING CLEANING--NOT TOO LATE

While getting ready to have dinner on Sunday with a family in our neighborhood I found myself quickly clearing pretty much every flat surface in the house. Its amazing how quickly they pile with stuff. The husband of this family is a little on the OCD side and I was worried all my piles were going to drive him nuts. I even cleaned the cluttered fridge--the outside--which had all sorts of sticky note reminders. As I was running around like a headless chicken, putting things back in their places, I realized that

EVERY SINGLE ONE

of my closets was bursting. That only means one thing: time for another round of dejunking. The plan is

1 closet or surface a day

everyday until they're done. What do you think? Anyone want to join me on this

SPRING CLEAN

for the next few weeks? Only 18 days until spring officially ends. By the way, my kitchen counter has been completely clear for over 48 hours--its amazing!

I Can Make You Thin

My sister told me about this book. ITS THE BEST! For one thing its NOT a diet book. As you read through it you think, "this is so obvious, why haven't I been doing this all along." Its very much like Intuitive Eating but so much faster to read and has much simpler, clear cut steps.

I should say that I haven't read the entire book (because I didn't start it right away when I brought it home from the library and I couldn't renew it because there re several holds on it) but the first half was fabulous.