Works For Me Wednesday - High Chair Alternative July 16, 2008

When The Bean was born over 3 years ago, we opted not to get a high chair.  We just didn’t see the point.  Plus, we really had no good place to put it.  Instead we got the Fisher Price Healthy Steps Booster Seat.  It’s adjustable and straps directly onto your dining set chairs. 

Now, I should clarify that we fed her in her bouncy seat until she was sitting up well enough to use the booster.  But it didn’t take too long for her to get there, and we haven’t looked back since.  She sits in the booster seat every day.  I love it so much that it’s become my standard baby shower gift.  I mean, how many of your baby shower gifts are you still using over 3 years down the line. 

Click here if you’d like to see the booster.  I’d show you a picture of The Bean’s, but trust me when I say it’s in desperate need of a power washer.  I really should take it outside and hose it off…which if you think about it, the ability to be hosed off is another, highly-desireable characteristic of a kid product. 

So there you have it.  The Fisher Price Healthy Steps Booster Seat work for me.

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Works For Me Wednesday - Recipes! July 2, 2008

Shannon asked for 5 ingredient or less recipes for this week’s Works For Me Wednesday.  Although, I’ve posted this recipe before, I thought it deserved a re-run!  Enjoy!

Egg and Sausage Muffins

1 pound cooked, drained sausage

12 eggs

1/4 cup cream

A dash each of salt and pepper

Optional ingredients according to your personal taste: shredded cheese, salsa, bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, etc.

Spray a muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray.  Spoon browned sausage into each tin filling halfway.  Mix eggs, cream, and other ingredients.  Spoon on top of sausage filling the tin nearly to the top.  Bake for 20 minutes in an oven pre-heated to 350 degrees.  Remove from oven and let sit for a few minutes.  Use a spoon or knife to gently remove from the tin.  Serve warm.  This recipe makes a dozen muffins.

These muffins can also be frozen to thaw for a later date, or pop one out of the freezer each night to thaw in the fridge for the next day’s breakfast.  Yummy!

Head over to Rocks in My Dryer for more great Works For Me Wednesday recipes!

Works For Me Wednesday - NOT Arguing June 25, 2008

Any mom will tell you about the challenges of hearing your toddler/pre-schooler tell you “no” when you give them an instruction.  The Bean can pop out with it in response to everything from “eat your chicken” to “wash your hands” to “it’s bedtime.”  She usually isn’t shouting it defiantly, but simply states it as her preference to not do what I’ve asked. 

For a while (as I think is probably true of most people), my response to her “no” was “yes, you are!”  However, that usually only led to us volleying “yes” and “no” back and forth.  Not very satisfying and definitely frustrating for both of us. 

So I started responding differently.  When I told her to go wash her hands, and she replied, “no”, instead of a “yes, you are,” I say something like, “Let’s wash our hands very fast so you can get back to your books.”  I usually will be physically taking her hand and leading her towards the bathroom to wash as I say it.  Usually, she goes right along with whatever I’ve asked her to do.  She may still give a little whiny protest, but generally acquiesces to what I’ve told her to do. 

I know that her “no” is still a definance of what I’ve told her to do, but leading her to do it anyway instead of entering a pointless debate with a three-year-old shows her that she has to do what I tell her to do.  It Works For Me.

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Works For Me Wednesday - Delicious Water May 28, 2008

Drinking water is one of the healthiest things you can do.  With all the stuff, like germs, dissolved meds, excess minerals, that can be found in water nowdays, fresh, pure water is hard to find.  But I’m excited to say that a source or wonderful, pure water now can be found out our house.

This past Christmas, my sister was generous (I still say you shouldn’t have spent that much money, Fred.) enough to get us a Big Berkey water filter system.  I looked at the website and saw all the testimonials from people raving about how good and pure the water was, and thought, “Yeah, yeah, it’s just water.” 

After several months of drinking water from my Big Berkey, I am prepared to eat drink my words.  The water from our Big Berkey is truly the best water I’ve ever had.  It’s unbelieveably good.  I should know.  I didn’t believe it. 

But great tasting water isn’t the best thing about the Big Berkey.  It uses no electricity.  It’s a gravity filter.  The filters last for a VERY long time.  The filter not only gets out minerals and impurities, it also gets out disease causing microbes and such.  If the website testimonials are to be believed, and I think I’ve established that I’m now convinced, Berkey water filters are what people take with them when they volunteer for the Peace Corps or do mission work in countries or locations without a source of clean water. 

All I know is that the delicious water from my Big Berkey definitely Works For Me!

Head over to Rocks In My Dryer for more great Works For Me Wednesday tips!

Works For Me Wednesday - Freezing Homemade Chicken Stock May 20, 2008

I have started to make my own chicken stock to use in cooking.  It’s so easy and why let those wonderful flavors go to waste when you do a roast a chicken or cook it in the crockpot! 

Anyway, I was stumped at the best way to freeze the stock after it’s made.  I started by freezing it in some plastic containers, but was frustrated since I usually either needed more or less than the container held for whatever recipe I was making.  Because of that, I ended up wasting that wonderful yummy goodness that I took the time to make. 

One day, an idea just smacked me in the head as I was driving home from work.  The next time I made stock, I put it in the 1 cup plastic containers I had on hand and popped them in the fridge to cool and then the freezer to freeze.  When it was frozen, I popped the stock out of the containers and into a large plastic freezer bag so that the containers are available for using on a day to day basis instead of stuck in the freezer. 

Now when I need stock, I can thaw as much or as little as I need in 1 cup increments.  I end up thawing an amount much closer to what my recipe calls for and have much less left over this way.  This definitely Works For Me!

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Works For Me Wednesday - What Doesn’t Work For Me - Early Mornings May 6, 2008

I know Mom after Mom who get up at the crack of dawn or even earlier every day in order to get their households up and running and hopefully have a moment when they are not taking care of someone else.  I know many a woman who says it’s the key to keeping their sanity and getting things done.  I also know those who just couldn’t shake their early morning wake up schedule after their newborn wasn’t waking them at all hours anymore. 

I’m not one of them. 

I am SO not a morning person.  I will stay up 3 hours later at night to get things done if it means 30 more minutes of sleep in the morning.  I know that doesn’t make sense, but it works for me.  I sleep as late as I possibly can in the morning. 

When I went back to school for my master’s degree, my only focus on the days I had classes was going to class and working on my papers and projects.  Since all of my classes were either at lunchtime or in the afternoon, I consistently would stay up until 3 or 4 am every morning reading research and writing papers.  I’d get up about 11am to shower and head to class.  It was the perfect schedule for my natural body clock. 

Sigh.

The working world and my three-year-old have other ideas. 

However, my sweet husband knows that mornings and I do not get along.  Because of this, he wakes me up in the mornings so I can hop into the shower.  While I’m showering and getting dressed, he feeds The Bean her breakfast and gets her dressed.  This allows me to sleep later in the mornings than I would if I had to get up early enough to shower and get dressed before attending to her in the mornings. 

He is truly a treasure of which I am not worthy.

While early mornings do NOT work for me, having a wonderful husband who knows his wife’s little quirks DEFINITELY works for me. 

Head over to Rocks In My Dryer to (this week) learn what doesn’t work!

Works For Me Wednesday - Wonderful Kid’s Music CD April 30, 2008

My daughter, The Bean, LOVES music.  Right now, she her favorite is the CD she calls “Zeros.”  It’s actually Here Come the 123s by They Might Be Giants.  Every time we get in the car, she requests Zeros or High Five (two of the songs on the CD).  The music is catchy and clever.  Unlike the music of a certain purple dinosaur (which is forbidden in our house), I don’t find myself wishing I were deaf.  Instead, I’m singing along from the front seat, which make The Bean enjoy the music even more!  We also enjoy listening to it at home and dancing away in the living room. 

It works for me!  Head over to Rocks in My Dryer for more great Works for Me Wednesday tips!

Works For Me Wednesday - Menu Planning April 16, 2008

I’ve been faithfully menu-planning since the first of the year.  It is such a time and stress saver to know that I don’t have to figure out what to make for supper at the last minute after working all day and making it through traffic to pick up The Bean and make it home.  I know that the night’s meal is already set, and that I’ve already made sure the ingredients are on hand. 

Each weekend, I pull up the file I’ve made that lists out each week’s menu plan since the first of the year.  I look to see what I’ve already tentatively planned for the upcoming week (I plan ahead about 4 weeks or so).  I also look back at what I’ve recently made.  This keeps me from burning us out on a dish.  It also will jog my memory when I see a dish that we really enjoyed that I haven’t made for a while.  I also try to make a point of including at least one new recipe a week so that I can expand my repetoire. 

After the week’s menu is set, I post it in the kitchen so I can quickly see what the plan is when I’m cooking.  T seems to enjoy looking at each week’s menu to see what’s coming up as well.  I also participate in I’m An Organizing Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday each week.  In addition to generating blog traffic, it’s been a way to keep myself accountable and to find and share recipes.  Since I’m jotting down my feedback on the new recipes I try, it’s also made me think about what I do when I cook and learn about what I like. 

While none of this is fancy, these menu planning ideas definitely Work For Me.

Head over to Rocks In My Dryer for more great Works For Me Wednesday tips! 

Works For Me Wednesday - User-Friendly Coupon Organization April 9, 2008

I’ve started clipping coupons to pair with sales items in an effort to cut down on our grocery expenses, and it is really making a difference.  When I started this, I knew that I had to make organizing and using coupons user-friendly in order to make it work for me.  Lets face it.  If they weren’t easy to use, it would just be a huge waste of my time. 

When I was looking at a small, portable way to organize my coupons, I found this at Target and snatched it up. 

 

I just throw it into my bag or carry it into the store with me so I can go through it if needed.  Generally, however, I’ve already pulled out most of the coupons I plan to use on my shopping excursion.  Using this little mini-file for my coupons definitely Works for Me!

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Works For Me Wednesday - Greatest Hits April 2, 2008

**** UPDATE ****  The link below has been fixed and will now take you to the getting rid of toddler cradle cap post.  Sorry for the confusion! 

This Week’s Works For Me Wednesday is in keeping with Shannon’s Greatest Hits theme.  She asked us to choose a previous Works For Me Wednesday post and re-run it for this week’s post.  When I read about this week’s theme, I knew immediately what post I’d be choosing. 

Nearly every single day, I get no less than 3-4 hits on this post from web searches.  This one post has the most hits of any post on my blog except for my blog party post. 

Without further ado, just click this link to learn all about how to get rid of toddler cradle cap.

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