WFMW - Cleaning coffee Stains

Over at We Are THAT Family, there's a themed Works for Me Wednesday this week. We're to share a cleaning tip. The one I'm going to share is one my mom taught me when I was really little (she gave me the task of going through all the mugs and cleaning the coffee and tea stains out of them, probably to keep me occupied), so I thought it was something that everyone knew. After looking around last week on the web, trying to figure out how to get the sour milk smell out of my daughter's lunch box thermos, I discovered that a lot of people were asking about getting the coffee stains out of their thermoses.



My suggestion: Baking Soda!

Make a paste of baking soda and water and rub the coffee stains with it, they'll disappear almost immediately and then rinse. It works on mugs, sinks, coffee pots, etc. The nice thing is that baking soda is safe to ingest if you happen to not get it rinsed completely.



For more great cleaning tips, check out the WFMW post over at We Are THAT family!

Craft Challenge

Over at Blue Eyed Blessings, Heidi does a monthly craft challenge. This is my first entry in the challenge. Unfortunately, I was a little late reading her post about it, so I didn't have much time to do something.




This first one is one I did yesterday. I took some of my washable paints, mixed them with a little dish soap and then painted on the sliding patio door. I don't remember where I saw it, but the soap is to make it easier to come off when we're done.


This one I did a few years ago, I took a regular clay flower pot and painted it with acrylic paints and then sealed it with a clear spray paint. I think I used a Sharpie for the face. I usually use it as a candy dish on my desk, this year I sat a yogurt cup in it and put cut flowers in it. I've done a pumpkin like this too, only I used the saucer that goes under the pot as the top of the pumpkin and I painted a jack-o-lantern face on it. I haven't gotten it out yet this year.

That's it for now! I'm hoping to do more crafts for Halloween, but haven't gotten to it yet. I'm also hoping to do more Monthly Craft Challenges when Heidi posts them.

WFMW - Making closets easier for kids

Today for WFMW, I'm going to share a tip I've used with both of my kids. I've got two girls who love to wear dresses and like to pick out their own clothes (no, they don't always match, but I'm hoping that will come in time, I just don't feel it's worth the daily battle of trying to make them wear something that they don't want to).

The thing is, their dresses are in the closet and way above their head and out of reach so I ended up having to get them down for them. One day while I was at Kmart, I discovered the Closet Doubler. It hangs below the main rod, so the kids can reach it. Now I can put the girls really nice dresses (that I don't want them wearing to school) and out of season dresses on the top rod and leave the ones they can wear everyday on the bottom where they can reach them. As a bonus, they can also put them away on their own now too!

The Closet Doubler is working for us! For more tips, head over to We are THAT Family.

WFMW - Tomato Mozarella Salad

Today over at We Are that Family they're having another themed edition of Works for Me Wednesday. It's a summer recipe edition! I can't wait to see all the yummy recipes!

Mine's a quick one, but one that my whole family enjoys, even the kids (if you get them in the right mood!)

Tomato Mozarella Salad
(the amounts here aren't real important)
10 oz grape tomatoes
4 oz mozarella cheese in small cubes
1/8 cup Italian dressing
1 clove minced garlic (optional)

Cut the tomatoes in halves, combine with the cheese, garlic and dressing. This is better if it's refrigerated a little bit before serving, but I usually end up putting it right on the table.

I've also used string cheese cut up (which is often mozarella anyway).

For more great recipes head over to Works for Me Wednesday!

P.S. My post for WFMW wasn't in Mr Linky when I went back to look this weekend. I don't know if it was deleted or if it didn't work right since I did it from my phone, so check out my Laundry tips.

I'm still looking for 2 people to do my Craft it Forward.

WFMW - Laundry tips

Today for WFMW, I've got some laundry tips to share:



Lingerie bags - they're great for keeping little socks together. At some point in our various moves, we got away from using them. Now I've got a clothes basket full of socks in my room that are missing mates. Every so often, I go through them and mate them, So we really need to get back to using them for socks. But, the original reason I bought them was for my clothes that I didn't want to go through the dryer. I put my hand knits, bras, etc in them and told hubby that when he saw that bag it was stuff that didn't get put in the dryer. It made it much easier for both of us. I've seen different colored bags so you could use one for socks and one for the line dry clothes. Or you could tie a ribbon to one to tell them apart.

Laundry markers - I hate pairing socks. Not so much the colored ones, but the white ones that all look the same. I use to put a little colored thread on the toe, a different color for each pair. But then hubby came up with the idea of numbering them with a laundry marker (Sharpie makes a good one). He numberd them on the bottom for a while, but has switched to doing it on the inside of the cuff where it's less likely to wear off. They're so much easier to pair now!

Odo Ban - I've got a bed wetter and her sheets always smelled until I started putting odo ban in the wash too.

Shout - This is my all time favorite stain remover. It rarely let's me down. The few times it has are either with permanent marker or something that missed getting treated the first wash. I keep a bottle in each bedroom and one in the laundry room. I buy it by the gallon at Sam's club.

I hope some of these tips help. For more tips check out WFMW by clicking the banner above.

Check out my craft it forward post. I'm still looking for a few people.

WFMW - Weekend Breakfasts during the Work Week

It's Wednesday once again and over at We are THAT Family, you'll find Works for me Wednesday.

Around our house, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, if for no other reason than the kids eat it consistantly (every day, and all of it). But I don't like to buy a lot of the sugar loaded cereals AND I work full time, so mornings are a little hectic around our house. I do buy cereal, but I try to stick to ones that are lower in sugar (Cheerios, Rice Crispies, Chex, etc), occasionally I'll buy something a little more exciting like Cinnamon Toast crunch, but it almost always goes stale before the box is finished (which doesn't bother the kids, but it tells me that they don't like the sugar coated cereals much either). So, they get tired of the same old cereals and like something different. Here are a few things I offer them:

Muffins - These can be baked on the weekend and either kept in the freezer or in the refrigerator so they can have one during the week without the hassle of baking.

Oatmeal - I've stopped buying the "Instant" Oatmeal packets. We were only getting the regular flavor anyway (they didn't like the flavored ones). And they were often eating more than one pack a morning anyway. So I've been buying a big container of Quick Oats and just making them the same way I did the "Instant" ones. I like a little more flavor to mine, so I often add something to it (chocolate chips, cinnamon chips, raisins, etc).

Waffles - When I make a batch of waffles, usually there's way more than we can eat in one morning. So, I use whatever recipe I want to use (or a mix) and then make them all. The ones we don't eat, I lay flat in a Ziploc bag with wax paper between layers and pop in the freezer . As long as they're flat, they can then be put in the toaster to heat up. (This is a lot cheaper than Eggos and you can control what goes into them if you make them from scratch!)

Pancakes - Same as for waffles, except I usually make them a little on the small side and microwave them instead of toasting them.

Eggs - I take two eggs, scramble them (sometimes with a little milk or water), microwave them in a bowl for 30 seconds, stir then put them in for another 30 seconds. You can add cheese too for the last 30 seconds.

Hopefully you'll get some ideas from this. Next I want to try to find an alternative to frozen "French Toast Sticks" which really aren't much like french toast, but my kids love them. I want to try to find a way to make them myself.

For more ideas and tips head over to We Are that Family (click the image above).
If you like to do crafts, check out my Craft it Forward, there are still a few spots available.

More summer activities

I found the list of summer activities that I'd saved over at an unpink life. There are a lot of great ideas there!

Today's the last day of school around here. Since I work full time the girls are in day care and I don't get the "I'm bored" nearly as often. But I kept this list on my phone so I've got it handy when I do get it. Part of me wishes that I did get the question more often, because that would likely indicate that the girls were spending more time at home.

Just a reminder, there are still opennings for my Craft it Forward.