Works for me Wednesday ~ Magic Erasers!

I am excited about something I just tried for the first time ~ Magic Erasers! A friend had recommended them but when I went to the store and looked at them, I thought that they didn't look like a big enough deal to spend any money on them. However this week they are on sale at Walgreens for an excellent deal (They are 2/$5 along with Cascade, Crest and other items and if you buy 9 of these items you get $20 in Register rewards which is like paying $2.50 for 9 items. Or if you have coupons for any of these then less than that.) so I picked up a couple of packages and our family is impressed!
Last night I decided to try it on the mark on our wall, a mark that would have taken a lot of scrubbing with a rag and it just wiped off with the Eraser. Then I tried my doors. They have gotten very grimy with people going in and out with dirty hands. In fact around the handles was a dark shade of grey ~Very gross! I had tried to wash it off with a spray cleaner and a wet rag but most of it wouldn't come off. I used the Magic Eraser and instantly all the dirt was loose and I could wipe it off with a rag! Yea! Also I easily wiped off some writing that Megan had done in pen on a little table and it came off easily. The Magic Eraser's definitely work for me. That doesn't mean I will be using them on everything, I prefer just plain soap and water and a cloth rag most of the time but for those tough spots I do plan to keep a Magic Eraser on hand.

I wish I would have thought to take a picture of the door in the place it was really bad before I cleaned it, but I didn't think of it. This shows some of it however.
This is the after picture.

One thing that I was hoping it would work on and it didn't was the orange spots we have on our siding from hard water. Oh well!

Anyway Magic Erasers work for me!

Caution!! Since posting this originally a couple of people have told me that these can actually be quite dangerous. If you use them don't let your kids handle them and do wear rubber gloves! Check out Nadine's comment for further information. I think these work beautifully but because of the bad I have heard I am not sure if I will buy them again or not.

Tipster Tuesday ~ cleaning silk flowers

My first memory of artificial flowers is of not liking them. I thought they were ugly and it seemed like they were usually dirty. Since that time much nicer fake flowers are available but they still have the problem of getting dirty. Fortunately cleaning them is not that hard!

My favorite method for cleaning is to either fill the sink with warm water and a little bit of dish soap or simply use the kids bath water after they are done if it isn't to dirty. Then take your flowers (if you are doing a whole arrangement hold it carefully upside down, trying to keep everything in place with your fingers) and simply swish them gently through the water. You will be amazed at all the dirt that will come off. Then gently rinse them with plain water and shake them a little to get the water off and set on a towel to let dry. They look so much fresher after that treatment and all of the ones I have tried this on come through it just fine. A few of the flowers might fall off but you can just figure out where they go and stick them back on.

This week I took down a swag from the door in our kitchen and I hadn't cleaned it in ages, it was so grossly dirty that I thought about just throwing it away, but when the kids took there bath tonight I decided to wash it afterwards instead. It looks much better now. This swag was made primarily of dried Eucalyptus which works fine to wash too.

Now that I can get fake flowers clean I like them much better. I still prefer fresh but in the winter when they are cost prohibitive some fake flowers are nice.

For more tips visit BeCentsible.

Some proverbs of Ben Franklin

I was looking through a book today and came across these quotes and I liked them so I thought I would share them.

"If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten,either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing." Ben Franklin (He certainly followed his own advice)

"The way to wealth...depends chiefly on two words, industry and frugality: that is , waste neither time nor money." Ben Franklin

Fun on May Day

Yesterday we had a wonderful time celebrating May Day. We put aside all normal school work (one of the great advantages of homeschooling and being ahead of schedule) and just had fun making cookies, "baskets" shopping and delivering the baskets (we also had a friend over for lunch).

We pretty much have a tradition of delivering May baskets but as usual I forgot about it until the night before. We were on our way home from Church on Wednesday night and suddenly we realized tomorrow was May Day! What to do? I was trying to think of some neat basket that we could make with what we had on hand but one that would also be pretty and easy for the kids to work on. So I did a Google search and I found this site. The idea called for boxes (I hadn't taken the recycling lately so this was easy), wallpaper (I had been given some rolls of border years ago that have just been sitting around for some such project), and then they used ribbon but I decided to use raffia and add a doily too. It was really quick and easy and all the kids got to help. Mara helped to cut the boxes, put the wallpaper on (one roll had a sticky back like a sticker and the other was pre-pasted so we just had to dip it in water)and cut out flowers from a catalog for our little cards. For boxes we used a soda cracker box using both ends, hamburger helper box, Mac and cheese boxes, a spaghetti noodle box, butter boxes and boxes that Walmart samples had come in. Jonathan helped to put the raffia handles on and bagged up cookies and Aaron glued on doilies. Megan tried to help with the gluing and then proceeded to tear up some boxes. :-)

Here is Jonathan ready to make a delivery. For our baskets we put some cookies in each one as well as a couple of flowers (which I had bought) and a little note that said: "Happy May Day!! We hope your day is delightful! Ps. 37:4 "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart."

Here are all the kids at an apartment building that is pretty much for elderly and disabled people.
Here they are with the two men that we delivered baskets to. Wayne and Gerry seemed quite pleased.
This is a picture of my cute girl ready to deliver a basket. She added the hat to her outfit herself, she also got one out for me but I wasn't sure that it was quite neccasary. We made 15 baskets in all (next year I really hope to plan ahead so that we can make more baskets and get them all ready ahead of time and spend more of May Day delivery baskets.) Six of the baskets we delivered to neighbors, most of them with children and we also delivered an invitation to an upcoming kids program at church. For our next door neighbor the kids thought it would be fun to do it the traditional way of delivery by sneaking over, hanging it on the doorknob, ringing the door bell and running away. There was a complication because the owner's dad was in the yard working on a shed, they decided to try it anyway and I had fun watching them sneak along the edge of the woods.

We really did have a fun day. It is so fun to encourage others in that way. I think doing stuff like that helps the kids to learn to think about others too. Did you have fun on May Day?

Saving on Salad dressings

We enjoy eating salads at our house and lately I have decided it would be fun to make our own dressings (I have done that some in the past as well but had gotten out of the habit) to save money and also to give us hopefully healthier food.
I thought I would share a couple of quick salad dressing recipes with you.

Italian Dressing

3/4 cup oil (olive oil is preferred)

1/4 cup lemon juice or vinegar

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper or lemon pepper

2 cloves crushed garlic

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

Just put everything together in a jar and shake it up good. Serve on your salad.

Ranch Dressing
1 cup mayo
1 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons finely chopped green onions or chives
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
2 teaspoons minced parsley (or 1 teaspoon dried)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper.

Mix well and then refrigerate. I actually have halved this recipe because I wasn't sure how long it would stay good in the fridge. Also feel free to adjust spices to suit your tastes. Just play around with it and have fun!

Another nice frugal addition to your salad is Sprouts. Also homemade croutons are very yummy! Here is a recipe for them.

Croutons
Mix: 4 cups bread crumbs
1 1/2 tablespoons melted butter
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
Other optional additions are: 4 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, 1/2 teaspoon oregano, 1/2 teaspoon basil, 1/4 teaspoon garlic salt and 1/8 teaspoon celery seed.)

Lay in baking dish and either

• Microwave on high for 3-5 minutes (stirring each minute) until sizzled and browned. OR
• Bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes, stirring every ten minutes.

When done, store in an airtight container and enjoy on your salad!

I would love to hear about any salad dressings you make or any other frugal ideas for salads.

For more frugal Friday tips visit Biblical Womanhood.

Pancake Supper

This past Sunday night at church we had our monthly Singspiration (a night full of congregational singing as well as special numbers, skits and sometimes readings) and this month we thought it would be fun to have a pancake supper afterwards. So we invited and encouraged others to attend and planned the food. It was quite exciting to have nearly double the regular number of people to come. (Unfortunately we hadn't planned for that much food wise so Emily had to make a quick trip to the grocery store ~ so in the end it turned out fine.) It was fun. Many people helped to work and bring food and the food turned out pretty yummy. In the first picture Luke is working on the sausage and Jake and Mary are working on some pancakes.
Next are Keren and Ben flipping more pancakes!
The next picture is of the kids and I with our neighbor girl Shelby and a Rajdeep a friend from India who had never been to church before. She was quite excited about coming and seemed to have a good time.

Over all the Pancake supper was quite a success and a lot of fun!