Sunday Fun

Happy Sunday -

Now click HERE to be thoroughly "cute-i-fied"

Tip Goodies

These were passed along to me and I thought they were fun to share! They're good ones! Hope you all had good weekends to blog about! -C


Reheat Pizza

Heat up leftover pizza in a non-stick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.

Easy Deviled Eggs

Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.

Expanding Frosting

When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar/calories per serving.

Reheating Refrigerated Bread

To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.

Newspaper Weeds Away

Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers: put layers around the plants overlapping as you go cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers.

Broken Glass

Use a dry cotton ball to pick up little broken glass pieces of glass - the fibers catch ones you can't see!

Squirrel Away

To keep squirrels from eating your plants sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.

MINE!!!!!

If you purchase a new bike for your child, place their picture inside the handle bar before placing the grips on. If the bike is stolen and later recovered, remove the grip and there is your proof who owns the bike.

Flexible Vacuum

To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.

Reducing Static Cling

Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and - voila - static is gone.

Measuring Cups

Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill it with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry the cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.

Foggy Windshield?

Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!

Reopening Envelope

If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Voila! It unseals easily.

Conditioner

Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's a lot cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair...

Good-bye Fruit Flies

To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass fill it 1/2" with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dishwashing liquid, mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

Get Rid of Ants

Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it "home," and can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, ESP. if it rains, but it works & you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

Take Baby Powder To The Beach

Keep a small bottle of baby powder in your beach bag. When you're ready to leave the beach sprinkle yourself and kids with the powder and the sand will slide right off your skin.

The Shot Heard Round the World

So let's talk needles for a minute. I have an aversion to needles that goes way back to my younger days. Young as in very young. I was a bone breaker. Not anyone else's, mind you. My own bones. I broke my arm, wrist, ankle (twice), and let's not forget my collarbone (ouch!). And I never just "broke" them, I BROKE the heck out of them. So that they had to be set. So that I had to get a shot to numb the pain and sometimes several. This in addition to all your usual blood work, labs, vaccinations, etc so that by the time I was a wee lass, I had worked up a solid fear of needles. One that went as far as climbing under the patient table in a doctors office and screaming bloody-stinkin-murder. To say my parents were embarrassed when I had to be held down by three nurses, is a bit of an understatement.

This trauma (as I like to call it) spread well into my adult life and still nags at me every time it's "that" time. Time to get blood work done. Time to check the ol' thyroid. Time to measure the blood pressure. Time to adopt from a third world country. Shoot. I forgot that when you travel abroad, there are certain things in the fine print of the adventure that read like this: "unless you want to die a most untimely and miserable death of the Yellow Fever - or unless you want to be stuck in our country should an outbreak occur and you are not vaccinated - we heartily recommend getting a freaking immunization from it". The list of immunizations that we will need between China and Ethiopia reads like a John Jakes novel. It actually spans two pages. I'm not even kidding you.

Now people - you just don't do this to a needle-phobic. Have you noticed, the way that I have, that things that you need and are good for you come in rotten packages? For example:

Health (Cardboard) Food = Good Health and longer life, as well as a smaller dress size
Exercise (yawn!) = Good health and longer life, as well as a smaller dress size
Greasy Sales people = New Cars
Immunizations from horrible diseases = Needles stuck into your body

On the other hand, we could list the things that are terrible for us, but come in oh so lovely packages. Such as chocolate cake, chocolate ice cream, french fries, chocolate brownies, fried chicken, soda, chocolate bars....but I digress...

About two months ago, we applied for a new life insurance plan. The nurse came to our house, took our vitals and our information, and then proceeded to bust out his handy dandy needle case. I gasped. Audibly. My palms began to clam up and my feet got cold. I started cold sweating. I went into panic mode and started thinking of ways to get around it. I got so worked up, that by the time I had to sit there and allow this stranger danger to poke stainless steel into my flesh, I was actually crying. I was sooooooo embarrassed - so please hold the "big baby" comments. I could have died from feeling like such a fool. But I could not overcome my fear long enough to allow him to do his job without me freaking out. It was over in a flash and there was no pain. I sniffed into a tissue and off he went, probably thinking he had just witnessed the world's oldest surviving cry-baby.

Background on said fear: As an adult, I did ok for years. I would just suck it up and go get it done when it had to be done. I would be a nervous wreck and then I would want to vomit, but I would just get it over with. Then I had to get a blood draw for our China adoption two years ago while paperchasing. What should have been in and out, took 45 minutes of two techs looking for a vein. Five sticks later, I was in tears, demanding someone who knew what they were doing. I was devastated to learn shortly after that I'm what they call a "tough stick". Apparently, when you are blessed with extra poundage and beautiful extras all around, your veins - I don't know - go South for the winter. They take refuge beneath the folds. Including the ones on your arms. They just...disappear. And when they are spotted via a very tight and uncomfortable tourniquet, and then subsequently poked, they retreat hastily and dry up - so that no blood can exit through the infiltrating enemy. Thus started the next two years of difficulty with any type of blood draw. It was like overnight, I had been labeled and it never failed to happen. Every time I went for blood work, the same thing occurred - I was a miserably difficult "stick".

One time (recently) at the doctors office, I had sweat through four pokes total between the two arms, and as they headed for the fifth - the nurse was visibly upset. Her confidence was clearly slipping at my body's inability to give up the juice. She had to step out for a minute and bring in recruits to help. I was crying and apologizing for crying. The sad truth? She was rumored to be the best at phlebotomy in the medical office. Are you with me now?

So, this did nothing to lessen the fear that I had yesterday when I walked into the lab. I had to have blood work done in advance for yet another physical, for yet another adoption letter stating I was in good health and free of any communicable diseases. I made up my mind that this time would be different. I made up my mind that I was not going to be afraid anymore. It doesn't even hurt, for crying out loud. It's the mind game...it's the fear of the mental picture we set up. It's the anxiety of the fear of the pain that we might have. So I prayed that God would just release me of this nagging fear I've had for far too long. This "trauma" of getting blood drawn. I just had to let it go and get on with it. There are far worse things in life, I reasoned. And who am I to cry over a needle, when sick children are suffering much worse procedures and bearing up under it with a smile on their face? What kind of freak am I to fear something that doesn't even hurt, really?

Well, I prayed all the way there. Lord! Help me get over it! Help me calm down! Help me release this incessant fear and give me peace!

I walked in, did the paperwork, smiled at the lady behind the desk, and took a seat. Only a moment later, I heard it. My name. I gulped, but remembered my prayer. I took a deep breath and stood up. I smiled and walked forward and in I went. As I rounded the corner, I could see the chair right away. The kind with the folding arm that comes across your chest. I sat down and made small talk while the tech quickly assembled my "stick kit". The fear was not there. Just a few nerves, which I made haste in ignoring. She grabbed a butterfly needle (smaller, but takes a little longer to draw). One last attempt: "Lord, she knows what she's doing, but now it will take longer...help me be calm". Calm came. I smiled. She warned me and there it was - the pinch that hurts far less than slamming my toe into the table, much less than ramming my head into the trunk of the car as I remove groceries, far less than slipping and falling in my kitchen on the two drops of water that I spilled. And just like that...I looked over at her and then at the two viles already filled up and laying on the table beside me. Poof. Done. Bandage on. I'm leaving and she's saying "I wish everyone was this calm!" Did she just say that to me? Am I imagining that I just got a compliment for being so calm whilst having a needle in my arm? Am I dreaming that it took one stick, and no pushing on my arm and coaxing the blood out? Did she really just break the curse of my "tough stick" badge? Let's face it, I'm probably still a "tough stick", but she - glorious needle goddess that she is - managed to do what no one has been able to do in two years. Get me in and out the door with no sweating and no tears, and only one small needle mark to show for it.

Lessons Learned:
Shots don't kill people, people kill people.
I don't like shots, but shots like me.
Shots don't always hurt.
Mind over matter. Thanks Mom, sorry I learned it 30 years too late.
Prayers are answered. Even ones we think are silly.
I'm the world's oldest living cry baby.

Lessons Not Learned:
How to get through the doctors visit tomorrow (said necessary physical) where I will be receiving three of my 216,543,213 shots for travel. Gulp.

It's just a pinch, it's just a pinch, it's just a pinch,
It's just a pinch, it's just a pinch, it's just a pinch,
It's just a pinch, it's just a pinch, it's just a pinch,
It's just a pinch, it's just a pinch, it's just a pinch,
It's just a pinch, it's just a pinch, it's just a pinch,
It's just a pinch, it's just a pinch, it's just a pinch,
It's just a pinch, it's just a pinch, it's just a pinch,

Double Gulp.

I Heart Fall

My friends, the time has come. I cannot contain my happiness any longer - Fall / Autumn is here!. Now, never mind the e-mails to tell me that it really starts September 23rd this year. I don't care what the calendar tells me. I only care that it's September. And in September we can mark the beginning of a change in temperature, a change in weather, a change in ambiance, and a change in color. As you stroll through the stores, you may see pumpkins, Halloween decor, and a variety of things in shades of oranges, browns, tans, and reds. You might start to see cake and loaf pans in the shapes of cornucopia and pumpkins, and you may even catch a glimpse of signs advertising for pumpkin patches and hayrides.

Without any reserve, I can say that Fall is my favorite time of year. Spring is too rainy - Summer too hot, Winter too cold and expensive (ahem). But Fall! Glorious Fall! I love your colors, your windy days with leaves skipping along the sidewalk. I love your cool evenings and the smell of neighborhood fireplaces shaking off the dust from the summer months. I love your hearty soups and warm banana bread. I love your pumpkin pies and your apple cider, sending the perfume of cinnamon through the house. I love your warm colors and your gentle reminders that another year has successfully fluttered away. I love the way your prepare us for Christmas by warming us into the season and filling us with anxious anticipation of the coming holidays. I love your Thanksgiving dinner filled with the turkey, the luscious cranberry sauce, the mashed potato, the green been casserole, and warm browned rolls and butter - all that we can devour in one sitting. I love your Sunday afternoon football and long naps. I love your hospitality - your ability to make us feel warm and snuggly and happy to be together again enjoying your season. How I love Fall!

So for me, it has begun. When the calendar "struck" September 1st, I could feel the season within me shifting. Bidding Summer a fond farewell, with all it's sweaty humid misery and saying "Hello" to a dear and timely friend - Fall. It never comes too soon, and never stays quite long enough. Once the trimmings of Thanksgiving are packed up and put in the fridge, we are often on to the next major holiday. I encourage you all to heartily enjoy this season with your family and friends. I'm no professional decorator, and certainly not a seasoned entertainer - but here are some of my favorite ideas borrowed off my good "friend" Susan Br@nch and excerpts taken from her lovely book simply titled "Autumn", that might inspire you, as it did me, to make your home a lovely Fall sanctuary, filled with the colors and smells of a warm and cozy season. Happy Fall!

Decorating ~

• Set out puzzles and games for cozy and warm nights at home
• Use Candles! Fires in the fireplace, brass, wooden or pewter candleholders are perfect for the season. Place a dark orange or red pillar candle into a large hurricane lamp. Surround it with tiny pinecones, leaves, berries, etc. Bring nature indoors!
• Brew mulling spices and have friends over for tea
• Display old Books and all your favorites for quiet nights spent together

Entertaining ~

• Ask yourself: does it smell good, taste good, feel good, sounds good & look good? Appeal to the senses.
• Plan your menu ahead - simple and delicious, so you can be an unruffled and relaxed hostess and enjoy your own dinner party.
• Use molds to make butter or ice cubes shaped like leaves.
• Hollow out oranges, then draw a leaf on the side and cut out. Slip a small votive or tea light inside and wala - yummy scented orange votive holders.
• Set your table outdoors in the crisp air among the leaves. Or how about in front of a cozy fire?
• Gather small dry leaves and write your guests name on them in gold or silver metallic pen.

Gift Baskets ~

• Apple Bowl - Take an old mixing bowl and wooden spoon, 4 green apples and in the bottom of the bowl, a bag of fresh cranberries. Place a plastic bag with the dry ingredients measured out for Cranberry Apple Crisp. Tie the recipe to the spoon.
• Sunday Breakfast - Into an old fashioned batter bowl put pancake mix, real maple syrup, two bananas, a whisk and lay all this into a dish towel.
• Sock Neck Warmer - Fill a cute knee-high sock with uncooked rice. Tie the open end closed with a satin ribbon. Heat in the microwave for 1 minute and then place it around the back of your neck. Cozy!

Recipes to warm your heart and home ~

Appetizer: Olive Bowls
Hollow out a sourdough round and fill with all sorts of delicious olives. Set it on a bed of herbs, like rosemary. Hollow out several other medium size rolls. Use one for the olive pits, and fill the others with creamy cheeses.

Side Dish: Bourbon Mashed Sweet Potatoes - (Recipe by:Susan Branch)
5 lbs. sweet potatoes (yams)
1/2 stick butter
1/4 c. bourbon
1/4 c. brown sugar
zest of one orange
salt & pepper to taste

Preheat over to 375. Pierce potatoes & bake 1-1 1/2 hours, 'til soft. Let cool 15-min. Halve potatoes & scoop pulp into a large bowl. Partially mash - add remaining ingredients, mash well & serve.

Dinner: To come in another "Fall" post! Yum!

Dessert: Cranberry Apple Crisp -

(Recipe by:Susan Branch) Serves six
4 lg. green apples peeled & sliced
1/2" 1 c. fresh cranberries
3/4 c. brown sugar firmly packed
1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. oats
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/3 c. softened butter

Preheat oven to 375. Butter a square baking pan. Place apple slices & cranberries in the pan. Mix remaining ingredients well & sprinkle over fruit. Bake 30 minutes. Serve hot with ice cream or cold with whipped cream.

We are in for a spell of perfect weather now, every day luminous, every night brimmed with stars. Picnics at noon, supper by the applewood fire at night, a walk in the cool moonlight before bed.
- Gladys Taber