Attitude and Gratitude

Lookie what I got. Woo Hoo! I just loves get 'n me some awards (remember I live a dull life)! This was given to me by THE WIFE over at Gizzards and Calf Fries. This prestigious (okay - I know, it's just a lemonade stand) award, is given to sites that show Attitude and / or Gratitude.

So here we go. First the rules ( and I don't always follow them to a "T" - so I'm telling my nominees that they can just slap this baby on their sidebar, and then give themselves a pat on the back. If they want to participate and nominate others - then they can go for it. If they don't want to do anything but accept the award, then that's A Okay too!)...

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.

2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!

3. Link to your nominees within your post.

4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

5. Share the love and link this post to the person from whom you received your award.

And now, drum roll please......

My list of blogs that show great attitude and/or gratitude are:

Becky - She is new to blogging. She is a dear friend and I love her to bits! I get to see you in April...YEAH! (By-the-way, ya know that you're gonna have to help with the reception - Right?)

Suzanne - One of my lovely daughters, and she is the one responsible for my starting my blog. I love you Suzanne!

Tatersmama - From the land of OZ. Love ya KatieTatie!

Robynn - Funny and Wise. Hi Robynn, hope you are recovering from your medical testing! Do you need a Doctor Voo-Doo doll?

Andrea - When she writes about her insights on life, and her adventures with Sophie - I need my box of tissues.

Pug Possessed - Heck, she's possessed by pugs, therefor, she must be a saint.

SauceOnThe Side - My daughter and her fiancee - they don't have to say a word, because their faces say it all. Stephanie and Cliff...I adore you both. XOXOXOX

TreasuredHeirlooms - Tammy shows attitude and/or gratitude in her posts and her life. Can't wait to see you in April!

NeaBear - Her posts are sweet and filled with sweet people and sweet things!

And for number TEN...

Sara - who has been given this award by others, but I have to include her. When you read her posts - any post - you will know why!

So - tomorrow...Another Award...I'm do 'n a happy dance!

GIVEAWAY

Sandier Pastures has a giveaway for Skin MD Lotion. I've tried this stuff and it really works. It's a little pricey, so winning a free bottle is a good deal. Go HERE to get the details on how to enter!

Financial Planning

Dan was a single guy living at home with his father, and working in the family business.
When he found out that he was going to inherit a fortune when his sickly father died, he decided that he needed a wife with which to share his fortune.

One evening, at an investment meeting he spotted the most beautiful woman her had ever seen. Her beauty took his breath away.

I may look like just an ordinary man, he said to her, but in just a few years my father will die and I'll inherit sixty-five million dollars.

Impressed, the woman obtained his business card and three days later she became his stepmother.

Women are so much better at financial planning than men.

Jientje from Heaven in Belgium sent me this award. It means a lot to me, as I now consider her a true friend. I wish that she lived next door, because if she did, I think that I would have a best friend here in my new home in a new state.

But as always, accepting an award involves certain rules:
The rules for the Honest Scrap award:
The honorees are to:
A) first list 10 honest things about yourself - and make it interesting, even if you have to dig deep!
B) pass the award on to 7 bloggers that you feel embody the spirit of the Honest Scrap.


1. I make my bed every single day. No Exceptions!

2. I have this thing about labels - like the ones on wastebaskets and laundry baskets. I can't stand it when they are left on an item. If I'm in someone else's home, and I see a label on their garbage can or laundry basket, I'll wait until they aren't looking and I'll pull the label off.

3. I get cold really easily (I have Raynaud's Disease) so I often sleep with a sheet, a blanket and a down comforter - but I have to have a fan on - so if it's really cold, I add another blanket or two.

4. If I could afford it, I would get a pedicure every single day.

5. I used to teach: Child Birth Education Classes, Nutrition in Pregnancy Classes and Infant Care Classes. I would also take expectant couples to the hospitals in the area for tours of the labor and delivery rooms. I taught for a public hospital and a birthing center. Sometimes I would be asked to "coach couples" during labor, and to film births.

6. I'm politically conservative, and very active in my church - we are Latter-day Saints (what many call Mormon). My husband and I have been married for 35 years and we have 10 children and 13 (going on 14) grand children, so we are probably considered "out of the ordinary" - especially in the USA!

7.I've taught preschool, and I helped to open and run a small charter school in Florida. This school was designed for children with on going medical issues. We had children with Aspergers, Diabetes, ADD/ADHD, Muscular Dystrophy, Sickle Cell Anemia and many other problems. We also allowed their healthy siblings to go to the school. It was a very interesting mix of kids.

I was the:

A. Receptionist
B. Assistant to the director,
C. Breakfast/ lunch program coordinator
D. Health contact (dispensed meds, did health screenings, kissed lots of "boo-boos", carefully wrapped up teeth that fell out[ so that they could be taken home and put under pillows for the tooth-fairy], monitored diabetic children, etc. etc.)
E. Certified ESE bus attendant
F. Assistant to the massage therapists on staff
G. Laundress
H. Janitor when needed...and
I. Taught in grades 1 - 8 if one of the teachers was absent. I was REALLY busy there - never a dull moment.

8.I sang in choirs in school and in church for many, many years - I'm a darned good alto, if I say so myself!

9. I play the piano

10. I love the color green - olive green, sage green, forest green, kelly green - Yup, I do love the color green!

So there you have it...ten little scraps of me. Maybe not very interesting, but honest.

Now I'm supposed to pass on this award to 7 bloggers that I think fit the spirit of the "Honest Scrap", so I am passing it on to:

Sherri - Because I think that she speaks her mind!

Chele - She's Sherri's daughter - how could she not speak her mind?

Robynn - She tells it like she sees it, and does it in the sweetest, funniest way.

Queenie - This woman is a great writer. She writes from her heart and is usually very funny, so - like I have to do with Robynn - I tend to run to the bathroom before reading a new post, so that I don't run the risk of wetting my pants, from laughing so hard.

Robin - This woman is a wonder. She lives in Isreal and is able to continue her blogging even though she must live in terror a great deal of the time. She is also a fantastic photographer ( like Jientje)! Maybe doing this will help distract her for a few minutes.

Sara - She's as honest as they come. Sara should be the poster "child" for "Living With Adversity - With Love In Her Heart and a Smile On Her Face"!

Marni - Oh, how I love her Percy and the newly added One-Eyed Jack! The rest of her life adventures are fun and honest, too.

I was going to pass this on to KatieTatie, TheWife, and SmilingSal, but they already received the award recently, and I took pity on them;)

So, there you have it. Thanks Jietnje - you rescued me - I didn't have to come up with a new post idea for today!!! Love You All.

I had no idea that there was a Delurking Day - and I missed it. So, I'll just pretend that it's today.
Please, please, please, if you are dropping by today... leave me a comment. Just tell me how you came across my site, and let me know if your are a "regular lurker", or if this is your first visit to my humble little blog .
That's not too much to ask, is it?

Now on to business. I want to thank Lois for the coffee filter tips. There are several of them that I want to try out. I'm going to see if my local Dollar Tree has them. I go there to get my pink, baby powder scent diaper disposal bags, that I use to pick up after my dogs when we are out on walks!

Scroll Down For New Tips!

I got a lot of good responses about the coffee filter tips (both in comments and emails), so I decided to post a few more hints today. A big shout out to Lois for yesterday and today's tips.

I haven't tried them all out, so if you know of any on the list that aren't true or don't work - please let me know...also, if you have some tips that you would like to add - give me a holler and I'll post them at a later date! Hope that you all have a great day:)

Peel a banana from the bottom and you won't have to pick the little

'stringy things' off of it. That's how the primates do it.

Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave

them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.

Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh

much longer and not mold!

Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating.

Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the

grease away from the meat while cooking.

To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of

sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.

For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in

double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty

frosting.

Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and

at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.

Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply

chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place

them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples.

Bake

at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream.

Reheat Pizza

Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick 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

and 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 wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you

can't see easily.

No More Mosquitoes

Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.

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.

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 pantyhose. Place pin in seam of slacks and -- ta da! -- static

is gone.

Measuring Cups

Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot

water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry 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. Viola! It unseals easily.

Conditioner

Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's 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...

Goodbye 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 dish washing 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,' can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so,

especially if it rains, but it works & you don't have the worry about pets

or small children being harmed!

INFO ABOUT CLOTHES DRYERS

The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman that fixes things

around the house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and

he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was

clean. (I always clean the lint from the filter after every load clothes.)

He told us that he wanted to show us something; he took the filter over

to the sink, ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh

material - I'm sure you know what your dryer's lint filter looks like.

well,...the hot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn't go through

it at all! He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh

that's what burns out the heating unit. You can't SEE the film, but it's

there. It's what is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and

static free -- that nice fragrance too, you know how they can feel waxy

when you take them out of the box, well this stuff builds up on your

clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to

catch fire & potentially burn your house down with it! He said the best

way to keep your dryer working for a very long time (& to keep your

electric bill lower) is to take that filter out & wash it with hot soapy

water & an old toothbrush (or other brush) at least every six months. He

said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long!

How about that!?! Learn something new everyday! I certainly didn't know

dryer sheets would do that. So, I thought I'd share!

Note: I went to my dryer & tested my screen by running water on it. The

water ran through a little bit but mostly collected all the water in

the mesh screen. I washed it with warm soapy water & a nylon brush & I

had it done in 30 seconds. Then when I rinsed it the water ran right

through the screen! There wasn't any puddling at all! That repairman knew

what he was talking about!

NOTE FROM LOIS: I have been using dryer sheets for years and have never heard of the above information. I took my lint filter out and also ran it under water. Low and behold very little water ran through......after taking hot water, dish soap and a brush to it 100% better.

Coffee Filter Tips & A Giveaway Alert!

COFFEE FILTERS

I don't even drink coffee, but I'm going out to buy some of these right away. I've been told that you can even get them at "dollar" stores!

1. Cover bowls or dishes when cooking in the microwave. Coffee filters make excellent covers.


2. Clean windows and mirrors. Coffee filters are lint-free so they'll leave
windows sparkling.


3. Protect China . Separate your good dishes by putting a coffee filter
between each dish.


4. Filter broken cork from wine. If you break the cork when opening a wine bottle, filter the wine through a coffee filter.


5. Protect a cast-iron skillet. Place a coffee filter in the skillet to
absorb moisture and prevent rust.


6. Apply shoe polish. Ball up a lint-free coffee filter.


7. Recycle frying oil. After frying, strain oil through a sieve lined with
a coffee filter.


8. Weigh chopped foods. Place chopped ingredients in a coffee
filter on a kitchen scale.


9. Hold tacos. Coffee filters make convenient wrappers for messy foods.


10. Stop the soil from leaking out of a plant pot. Line a plant pot with a
coffee filter to prevent the soil from going through the drainage holes.


11.. Prevent a Popsicle from dripping. Poke one or two holes as needed in a coffee filter.


12. Do you think we used expensive strips to wax eyebrows? Use strips of coffee filters.


13. Put a few in a plate and put your fried bacon, French fries, chicken
fingers, etc. on them. Soaks out all the grease.


14. Keep in the bathroom. They make great "razor nick fixers."

Be sure to scroll down for the giveaway info!