Tips For Homemakers

I managed a coffee shop for awhile and we had a drink there called Javachino.  I fell in love with it.  The shop closed and I can’t get the exact ingredients but I made a drink that is almost as good.  Use a blender and put:

1 cup of cold milk (2 %)

1/4 cup of ice cream

8 to 10 ice cubes (mine are those skinny half circle cubes)

2 tablespoons of Folgers Cappuccino french vanilla (or other flavor)

I blend it until the cubes are crushed thoroughly.  The drink should be icy.  It is delicious.  It is a great afternoon treat.  When my niece comes over or my girlfriend, we always enjoy one.  But keep in mind, it is fattening with the ice cream so I wouldn’t suggest drinking one every day.

We live in Florida where there is a lot of lightning striking the trees.  We have actually lost 5 trees in 13 years on our two acres.  We had over 300 trees but we cut them down and only left about 12 scattered on our property grouped in threes.

I buy bark chips for my flower beds.  So when the last tree was hit, we did not immediately cut it down.  The bark started falling off in big chunks.  I collected it and broke into smaller pieces for my beds.

Another benefit of leaving the tree up, the wood peckers love to peck on the dead trees so we enjoyed more birds in our yard.

There are a lot of different shelving ideas as well as containers for organizing your storage areas.  When my dresser drawers started filling up, I knew I needed a solution for too many clothes.

I started looking through my lingerie/underwear clothing and realized I had a variety of clothing that I seldom wore–example:  pantie girdles, slips, footies, pantie hose and so on.

In another drawer, I had pajamas for warm weather and some for cold weather.

I bought 2 of those $15 three-drawer plastic containers and slide them under my hanging blouses/slacks/jackets in the closet.  I stored my less-used items in the two containers.  There was a large wasted space under those hanging clothes.

Another idea is to look at your local thrift stores and buy a low dresser and put in your closet.

I love to put a roast in the oven before I go to bed and let it cook overnight on about 200 degrees.  I often put a frozen roast (London Broil or Rump Roast) with an inch of water in the pan and cover with aluminum foil.  Add spices of your choice…I use Nature’s Seasoning, garlic salt and beef bouillon and Worcheshire Sauce.  The roast is fall-apart tender.

Let the roast cool and refrigerate until dinner.  I add potatoes and onions and carrots and then put it back in the oven for another hour or so.

Well, my husband is a potato-eating man and I end up with a lot more meat leftover than potatoes.  So, I wash a couple of potatoes, poke holes in them and microwave them.  After quartering the potatoes, I drop the potatoes in the broth and meat to flavor while cooking.  Also, I reheat my roast in a skillet on top of the stove, often slicing the roast into smaller pieces to make it reheat faster.

If you are short on broth,  just add a couple beef bouillon cubes and some water.  And if you like it thicker than the au juis like gravy, add a mixture of one heaping tablespoon of flour to a cup of cold water that has been stirred well.   Upon heating, it will thicken.

I was struggling walking my daughter’s two dogs because they kept tangling up around each other.  My husband took one loop of the leash handle  and put it through the other one.  This meant I would be holding on to only one leash and the other dog could walk out farther from the first dog.   Thus, no tangling of the leashes.

I so appreciate the little things my husband does for me.  I thought I was going to fall on my face a couple times while the dogs ran circles around me.

I mentioned before my neighbor, Gail gives me her horse manure over the fence….into a wheel barrow/wagon.   I found another purpose for the manure.  She has two large horses now so there is an abundance of manure being thrown over the fence.  lol

We live on two acres that use to have over three hundred pine trees planted on it.  We had the trees cut down and were paid for the timber which was great.  Unfortunately, the roots are composting/rotting away under the soil.  Thus, we have low spots in our yard.

We started filling the holes with the horse manure and now after more than a year, we have great grass growing in those low spots.   The horse manure Gail gives to me has a lot of wood chips and straw in it from the barn area.

The reason it makes my life easier is I can now walk outside and not fall into low spots in my yard and it sure makes it easier to mow the lawn when the yard is level.

We still have a lot of low spots to fill but Gail assures me that as long as she keeps feeding those horses, the manure will continue.

I previously peeled potatoes over the trash can.  But for years now I have used another method.   I put a paper towel in the sink and then peel them over the paper towel.  When I finish I just fold the towel up and quickly throw it in the trash.  No sore back from bending over.  The sink is just the right height.

I only see my grand daughter two or three times a year.  She is now 7 years old.

This year when I went to my son’s house for Thanksgiving I took a few craft items to share with Madison.   We had so much fun.  It also helped me to stay focused on her.  Making memories !!!!!

I bought a artificial wreath to decorate.  We went to the park and collected tiny pine cones and some of the Sycamore balls.  We painted them with glitter paint and let them dry.   We attached them with green pipe cleaners.    I also bought some very small red jingle bells that I attached together in bundles of three with the green pipe cleaners and attached to the wreath.  Then we added some candy canes for some extra color.

I also bought a pottery kit which was $20 on sale.  It was great.   We made one large and two small bowls…cups???  They air dry and then you paint them.  Great for sitting on your dresser and putting hair accessories or change, etc.   My daughter had taken a pottery class so she was a lot of help and enjoyed the time with her niece also.  Now I am thinking I want my own real pottery wheel.   Retirement is right around the corner…plenty of time for that stuff.

I also bought a few of the foam Christmas ornaments to put together, with glue.   Also, we painted some sun catchers.

My grand daughter cried when I left and it broke my heart.   It also made me feel good that she didn’t want us to leave.   I am looking forward to retiring and being able to go visit more often.

I love you, Madison.   I am very blessed to have such an intelligent, beautiful grand daughter and three great kids and an exceptional daughter-in-law and son-in-law.

Just a reminder to get your tax deductible items to the Goodwill and Salvation Army.

If you need to do any repair jobs or additions to rental properties, you can purchase the items before the end of the year and do the work in 2009.

It’s a good idea to get medical receipts and charity receipts together now, too.  I can’t tell you how many times I find receipts after I do my taxes.

I am looking forward to a NICE tax refund.  Woo Hoo

I was thinking about buying an incubator because I keep paying for new chickens as the older ones die.  But fortunately, I have a hen that sat on the eggs long enough to hatch five of them.

A few tips for anyone wanting to let a hen hatch eggs….

If you have more hens laying in the same nest, make sure you mark an X on the eggs you want to hatch out and remove the other eggs.  It takes 21 days for the eggs to hatch so I kept removing the eggs after there were eight eggs for her to hatch.   The eggs hatched out every other day.

Our hen would help peck the shell once the chick broke thru the shell.  The sixth chick pecked it’s way thru and then died. My husband and I had helped one other chick out of the shell by breaking part of the shell away to make it easier for it to get out.  Unfortunately, we didn’t help the sixth one because we were on our way to work.  Darn it.

We actually used a large plastic kid’s toy box without the top when it got closer to the 21 days.  We made a nice nest with hay and transferred the eggs while the mom had a fit.   We needed something large enough so the chicks could get out and walk around and have enough room for the food and water, too.  It was perfect.

We also made a rain cover which was a 4×4 board with four legs which were about 4 feet tall.   It kept the rain off the box and allowed the mom room to jump out and  get food and water with the other chickens.

We later transferred the chicks and mom into a 4×8 chain link cage with a heat lamp.  We live in the country and the danger of some animal preying on the baby chicks is very likely.

The chicks are a couple weeks old now and really growing fast.  I wanted to put the mom back in with the other chickens but my husband insist that we leave the mom with the chicks.   Sweet, huh?

Now I will put a perch in the cage so the chicks can start perching at night.

Just hope they aren’t all roosters…