Just a short piece of advice: Make sure you're awake before you try to put Visine in your eyes. One day last week I woke up feeling less than refreshed. Actually that happens all the time, but on this particular morning I had been up all night dealing with my daughters' tonsillectomy. I looked in the mirror with barely opened eyes but could see and feel the evidence of the nights’ battle. I grabbed the half empty bottle of Visine I keep in my bathroom drawer and instead of providing relief to my situation, I poked myself in the eye with it, adding insult to injury. I wanted to crawl back in bed but that’s never an option.
Sometimes it’s the irony of my life that keeps me going, just to see what will happen next, and a Diet Coke always helps too.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
When teenagers still need their mom
My teenage girls are probably like everbody else's; they never need my help until their bent over a toilet throwing up. Then they can scream "Mom" like you've never heard it before. After all, they don't want to clean it up. Last night Abby was in that situation and all I could really do for her was hold her hair back and take off her glasses.
They need me for money too. Like last night when Katie ask for $3. It wasn't much so I said sure and wasn't even going to ask why. But then something told me to ask. You should have seen her face. She sheepishly said she had to go to attendance school because she has too many tardies in first period. What?!! She knew I would scream. I told her the first day she started driving to school, and everyday thereafter, that she had to leave the house by 7:20 to find a parking spot, walk all the way in and then to class in order to be on time. But she doesn't need my advice, just my money.
They also don't need your help or advice until their room is so deep they can't find something really important or they need something to wear.
The list could go on and on. I just hope at some point in life my girls realize just how much they really need me, in good times and bad, and then aren't afraid to ask.
They need me for money too. Like last night when Katie ask for $3. It wasn't much so I said sure and wasn't even going to ask why. But then something told me to ask. You should have seen her face. She sheepishly said she had to go to attendance school because she has too many tardies in first period. What?!! She knew I would scream. I told her the first day she started driving to school, and everyday thereafter, that she had to leave the house by 7:20 to find a parking spot, walk all the way in and then to class in order to be on time. But she doesn't need my advice, just my money.
They also don't need your help or advice until their room is so deep they can't find something really important or they need something to wear.
The list could go on and on. I just hope at some point in life my girls realize just how much they really need me, in good times and bad, and then aren't afraid to ask.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Always look on the clearance rack!
CLEARANCE RACK tip of the day
I love to buy clothes. But what I love more is to find a bargain when I buy clothes, and I always do. In fact, I rarely buy anything that isn’t on a clearance rack or at least on sale. I always start at the clearance rack, aisle or shelves in any store I go in, even if I’m looking for household items or toys. My best finds have been at Target and Kohl’s. I already know what I like and what I look best in so I can go through a rack pretty fast. It helps too if you’re willing to make a few simple adjustments to the piece of clothing, if needed. Since my birthday is in November, I do quite a bit of shopping between then and Christmas, and I always spend a few minutes at the clearance rack. I’ve added some pictures of outfits that were made up of completely clearance or sale items. My latest finds are the shirts, all of which were under $10 and most were around seven. These were found at Rue 21, Old Navy, Target and Kohl’s. I usually have a t-shirt to put under them, if needed, and a couple of $10 cardigans in different colors to go over them. Don’t forget to look for clearance jewelry and shoes too!
Blue Dress - Downeast $17
Black jacket - Kohl's $12.49 plus a 15% off coupon, Black capris - Downeast $4, Shoes - Payless $6
Black w/pink floral skirt - Walmart $7, Black sweater - JC Penney $5, Cream heels- Target $7
Boyfriend Jean - Kohl's $8, Plaid shirt - JC Penney $3.49 with a $10 cash promo
The cake pop experiment
COOKING tip of the day
Since the latest craze is cake pops, my girls gave me a Bake Pop pan for Christmas. They wanted to get involved in the trend. Well, they wanted me to get involved so they could eat them. After a couple of hours of hard work I ended up with 18 brownie pops that still had to be glazed and decorated. Next time I won’t make the brownie version since it required filling the pan with batter by using a squeeze tube and hoping that I had filled it half-way without being able to see through the pan. My squeeze tube consisted of a Ziploc bag with the corner cut off. And I over-filled them so brownie spilled out the hole in the top as they baked. If you make them using cake batter you only have to fill the bottom half of the pan. The brownies were difficult to remove even though I had gone to the trouble of greasing and flouring both sides of the Bake Pop pan. Since it was late by the time I got to that point, I put the pops in the freezer and pulled them out today to decorate. This step is just as much work as baking them. You have to melt chocolate and then work fast to dip them and sprinkle them. It was recommended that you have a piece of Styrofoam to stand them up in. But I didn’t, of course. So I improvised with a shoe box with holes punched in the top, as you can see in the picture. It didn’t work out as well, but still got the job done, which is all I was hoping for at that point. I hope they taste like they took four hours to make! I'll find out as soon as I wash one down with a Diet Coke.
Other versions of cake pops just use a baked cake crumbled and mixed with frosting and then rolled into balls; much easier. But we made Oreo balls at Christmas and those don’t even require baking and they taste the best.
Friday, January 6, 2012
No pain, no gain.
EXERCISE tip of the day
Try something new every week to keep your body challenged and changing. This week I did some abdominal exercises that I’m still feeling. And I love it when you feel it working the next day or two because you know you challenged that body part hard enough to make it respond. You want your body to respond and make changes for the better.
The exercises were simple but effective. All you need are two pieces of felt (fabric) and your body weight. Do this exercise on a hardwood floor or other slippery surface. (I used the plastic mat under my office chair. Just move the chair.) Place a piece of felt under the toes of each foot (shoes on) and then get in plank position on your elbows. Pull your right foot in to your chest and back out and repeat with your left foot. Continue for one minute or as long as you can. You’ll build up your endurance over time.
The other move is in the same position but works your obliques. Pull both feet to your chest as you twist your knees to one side. Slide your feet back out to plank position. Repeat on the other side. Continue for one minute.
It ABsolutely works!
Try something new every week to keep your body challenged and changing. This week I did some abdominal exercises that I’m still feeling. And I love it when you feel it working the next day or two because you know you challenged that body part hard enough to make it respond. You want your body to respond and make changes for the better.
The exercises were simple but effective. All you need are two pieces of felt (fabric) and your body weight. Do this exercise on a hardwood floor or other slippery surface. (I used the plastic mat under my office chair. Just move the chair.) Place a piece of felt under the toes of each foot (shoes on) and then get in plank position on your elbows. Pull your right foot in to your chest and back out and repeat with your left foot. Continue for one minute or as long as you can. You’ll build up your endurance over time.
The other move is in the same position but works your obliques. Pull both feet to your chest as you twist your knees to one side. Slide your feet back out to plank position. Repeat on the other side. Continue for one minute.
It ABsolutely works!
Ugly Christmas Sweaters
CLEARANCE RACK tip of the day
I’ve always felt some entrepreneurial urge inside of me and this Christmas I finally let it out. After seeing so many news stories about the increasing interest in ugly Christmas sweaters, I decided to make a few and see if I could sell them on KSL. I finished two and posted them on the website at 9 o’clock one night. At 9:30 I had someone call and want to buy them both. That was all the encouragement I needed. For the next two weeks I spent time searching for plain red or green sweaters at Savers and the D.I. and embellishing them with things I already had or items I purchased at the Dollar Store. As I finished them I posted them on KSL and they kept selling for $20 each. I made and sold twelve in all but the last five I sold to a guy a few days before Christmas for $50 for all five. I just wanted to get rid of them at that point. The entrepreneur in me was ready to move on to something else.
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