Simplify

photo © 2008 Lauren Nelson | more info (via: Wylio)Are you part of a growing trend dreaming of a green Christmas? You are if you are interested in protecting the environment and concerned about the over commercialism of Christmas and how much packaging goes to landfills each year. The following are some smart ways to put more green in your Christmas. Think about the environment and how the extra trash can affect it when planning this year’s gift giving.

One way to put a green spin on Christmas is to make your gifts rather than buying them. Besides making less of an impact on the environment, making gifts will make less of an impact on your wallet as well. Think about the people you plan to give gifts to and then think of things you can make or repurpose to create one-of-a-kind gifts.

Homemade cookies or candies can be a great holiday gift. Take a weekend and spend the time with your immediate family making several different types of cookies, squares, loaves or candies. Think of what the people on your list would enjoy and make enough that you can create several gifts from your time in the kitchen.

Some people are crafty and are able to crochet or knit. If this is you, why not make them a scarf, cozy slippers or dish cloths? Those who sew may want to make table runners with matching placemats and napkins.

Children love stuffed animals. There are many types of stuffed animals you can make either from sewing, crocheting or knitting. You can find instructions and patterns at craft stores, in craft books in the library, or on the internet. Any child would enjoy a stuffed animal made with lots of love.

Is there someone on your list who loves to cook? There are many things you can give that will be helpful in the kitchen. An assortment of organic herbs and spices will be a well received gift. Check out this article for more unique holiday gift ideas for the cook or baker. Wrap it with a holiday colored tea towel. You’ll have given them a gift they can use year round and they will have no trash to throw away.

Bath oils, bubble bath and bath salts are great gifts to give to the women on your list. You can make your own relatively easily and for very little money. You can find recipes for these types of items in books, magazines and online. Here’s how to make a delightful Chocolate Body Scrub to help you get started.

Try to find local arts and crafts shows or festivals. You can find some unique locally made gifts at these events. Not only can you find great gifts, you’ll also be supporting the local economy. Gifts made close to home require less fuel for transport.

Choose a small, real Christmas tree which can be planted after the holiday rather than an artificial tree. Most people don’t realize artificial trees are made from petroleum products. A live tree will improve the air quality in your home and give it an awesome winter scent. Even though artificial trees are supposed to retain their shape, they often can become ugly after repeated use and they end up in landfills where they remain.

These are but a few of the many smart ways to put a green spin on your Christmas this year. Remember to try to repurpose, recycle and reuse wrapping items you already have. We like boxes and bags that can be reused year after year. Make as many gifts as you can rather than buying. Most importantly, enjoy the time with your friends and family during this holiday season.

Ideally a marriage is a partnership in every sense of the word. A husband and wife should work together to keep a household running smoothly. However, who should do what is often a big source of conflict in most households.

Women usually get the job of taking care of the kids and keeping the house clean while their husbands work. But unlike several decades ago, wives and mothers usually have to hold down a job as well, in order for a family to make ends meet financially. It can be very difficult and stressful to juggle all of these things ourselves. Getting your husband to help around the house can make our jobs easier and less stressful.

1. If you need help with something specific, ask. Most husbands are willing to do specific tasks when we have our hands full and they don’t. If possible, ask him to do something that he enjoys, or at least doesn’t openly hate to do.
2. Offer to help him with his projects. If you are willing to help him clean his car or do the yard work, he will surely appreciate it. Then he might be more likely to offer to help you out when you are working around the house.
3. Find tasks that you can do together or alongside each other. This will allow the two of you to spend time together while also getting something done. And the pleasure of your company might make an undesirable chore more palatable.
4. If you prefer a more structured approach, assign specific chores to everyone in the house. You could make a chart that tells which chores everyone is to be in charge of. Consulting with your husband when doing this is crucial. If he is included in the decision making process, he will be more willing to follow along.
5. Talk about how your day went. Husbands often don’t realize how much their wives do in one day, and this can lead them to believe that we should accomplish more than we do. Filling them in on all of the things we have to contend with could evoke some sympathy, possibly even inspiring them to volunteer their assistance.
6. Give lots of praise when your husband does help around the house for positive reinforcement. Nitpicking about the things he did wrong will only make him less willing to help. While it’s acceptable to offer some constructive criticism, it is essential to find something positive to say as well.
7. Reward your husband for pitching in, we’ll leave it up to you to determine an appropriate reward. I’m sure you can come up with something good!

Getting your husband to help around the house may be effortless, or it may require a lot of coaxing. By letting him know how hard you work to trying to get everything done and asking him to do specific things rather than expecting him to know what to do on his own, you can often get some willing assistance. And the end result will be a neater, cleaner home and a happier you.

Superb Substitute

My husband and I love grilling fresh salmon. I like to let it marinate with a little olive oil, Watkins lemon pepper and Watkins Dill. Recently I had no fresh lemon to squeeze over the top. Looked in the cupboard and found some Watkins Lemon Peel, so decided to try it instead of running to the store! It tasted so good, I use it along with fresh lemon all the time now! Isn’t necessity the mother of invention!

Poor Man’s Pie

This is such a simple recipe! Mix right in the pie shellJ

1 unbaked pie shell 12 oz half and half

1 cup brown sugar 2 ½ tsp butter, cut in small bits

3 Tbsp flour Watkins Ground Cinnamon

Speck of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In pie shell place b. sugar, flour and salt. Mix with your fingers until combined well.

Pour milk over flour mixture, but do NOT stir. Dot with butter. Liberally sprinkle Watkins Ground Cinnamon over all. Bake for 50 mins or until filling bubbles up in the center. Filling may not completely set, but that is the way it is supposed to be.

Are you living in clutter and chaos? Try this fifteen minute pickup trick to control clutter, simplify your life and banish chaos in your home. It’s common to feel that the biggest challenge to cleaning up is the sheer magnitude of the task in front of you. Is “So much mess, so little time” your motto? Do you ask yourself, “Where do I begin?”

Busy Mom living in chaos

This is where the fifteen minute pickup trick comes in. A fifteen minute pickup is simply fifteen minutes of time that’s spent focusing on tidying up a place of your choosing. It can be a particular room or area in your house, or it could be the entire house. Here’s what you do, set a timer and get to work until the timer goes off. Then you stop and consider yourself done. You’ll probably discover that stopping is just as important as the starting. The reason for this, is no matter how busy or overwhelmed you are, you can always find time to do something for fifteen minutes. But if you feel that fifteen minutes is going to drag into a half-hour or more, then you’re not going to want to get started. You’ll find this is also true with your children and spouse. They may be happy to help out for a limited amount of time, but may resist helping in the first place because they fear the work will take too long.

The best place to start is with one general fifteen minute pickup per day. Set a regular time that fits your schedule, or maybe when you are freshest! If you have children, a good time is in the evening, just before you begin getting them ready for bed, as it provides a transition from play to bedtime, and it’s time to put the toys away. Get the entire family involved. If your child gets distracted, gently remind him or her to pick something up. You’ll be totally amazed by how your home can go from looking like a tornado ripped through it to being basically orderly after just fifteen minutes of everyone working together.

The first time you do this, you’ll most likely just be getting stuff off the floor and into the general vicinity of where they belong. However, if you keep at it every day, you will start finding time to do some sorting and be able to put things away in a more organized manner. You might even have time to do some quick vacuuming. You’ll find that each day, you’re able to clean a little deeper before that timer goes off!

Once you have gotten into the habit of doing one general fifteen minute pickup a day, you can add one or two more at different times of the day to focus on specific rooms or areas of your home that need more attention. For example, a fifteen minute cleanup of your kitchen counter can do wonders. The main thing is to institute these pickups gradually enough so that you can be consistent and get into the habit of doing them. Won’t it be nice to watch your house get clean fifteen minutes at a time, and know that you hardly spent any time at it at all? Then, you can focus your time and energy on the more fun aspects of living!

The summer heat is here and we are all doing our best to stay comfortable and cool  but that usually means a high electric bill! Here’s how to save energy and money this summer.

Keep the sun out! Close the curtains, drapes or blinds to keep the sun and heat it generates out of your home. Plant a vine so that it grows over your windows to shade them in the summer. Hang bamboo blinds over the outside of your windows. Add a heat blocking  liner to your drapes or temporarily hang a sheet or towel over a window with sheer or lace curtains to block the sun.

Turn your portable air conditioner down, and use the power saver option if it has one. Use fans to move and circulate the cool air. If you have central air, turn the thermostat up. 75 degrees feels cool when it’s hitting 90 or more outside!

If it cools off outside at night, open all your windows and let the cooler air in, then close them in the morning before the temperature rises. This works even better if there is a breeze, if not place fans in a few window facing out to blow the warm air out of your home.

Keep your home from heating up by keeping the sun out and letting the cool night air in, plus adjusting your air-conditioning to a warmer temperature and using fans will all save you energy and money this summer!

You’ve put it off long enough, and it’s time to clean the refrigerator! Since you have the time and the patience; let’s give you some quick refrigerator cleaning tips to hurry along the process.

• Take everything out of the refrigerator, I prefer to do one shelf at a time so I can quickly and easily put items back in the same spot.
• Throw away any outdated cans, jars and plastic bottles.
• Take out the vegetable bins; wash and dry.
• Use a wet cloth to clean the shelving and the inside of the door. You may want to add some baking soda to the wash water.
• Put the bins back, and sprinkle a bit of baking soda in each if you like.
• Put back whatever items you have left.
• Place an opened box of baking soda towards the back top shelf.
• Wipe down the exterior of the refrigerator; top sides and doors.

You’re done! That was easy enough, right? Well that’s because you have been cleaning it religiously every month. Alas, there are some refrigerators which have not been so lucky, and cleaning will require more time.

To keep your refrigerator clean so that a simple once-over is required, here are some additional tips to follow.

• Use tin foil under your milk cartons to prevent leaking.
• Use food containers to store your leftovers.
• Change the box of baking soda every three months.
• Set the temperature to the manufacturer’s recommendation.
• Try not to accumulate more than two items. Check certain items before buying them. Oftentimes, we buy too much of one item, and it just stays in the refrigerator for months on end.
• Keep your vegetables in zip lock bags or better yet re-usable plastic containers to maintain their freshness.
• Line the bins with paper towel or something similar to absorb moisture and spills.
• If’ it’s not a frost free model defrost your freezer at least once a month. Don’t forget to place a box of baking soda in there as well.

By following these simple tips, your next cleaning will be easier and faster and you’ll feel like a lazy man.

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and the usual candy, flowers and cards can be so expensive these days. Wouldn’t you rather make homemade valentines? If so, here is how easy it is to make homemade valentines and save some money too.If you have a computer, (if you are reading this you probably do) you can make homemade valentines cards. Use Photoshop or some other card-making software, it is not only fun, but easy too and you can make loads of valentine cards in no time.

How about making a valentine wreath for your door? It’s easy, use red fabric of different textures to make heart shapes. Then stuff them with plastic grocery bags to give them fullness. You can make several hearts and sew them together to form a larger heart which you can then add to a round piece of wire.

How about a valentine’s basket? Fill the basket with homemade heart shaped cookies, your loved one’s favorite or some decorated with red icing. Here’s a quick and easy recipe:

Vanilla Wafers

Ingredients:
Watkins Cooking Spray
1 tbsp/15 mL all-purpose flour
1/2 cup/125 mL sugar
1/4 cup/60 mL cornstarch
2 tbsp/30 mL butter, melted
1 egg
2 tsp/10 mL Watkins Original Double-Strength Vanilla or Vanilla Nut Extract
1/2 tsp/2.5 mL Watkins Butter Extract
3/4 cup/180 mL all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp/2.5 mL Watkins Baking Powder
1/8 tsp/0.6 mL salt

Cooking Directions: Preheat oven to 350ºF/180ºC. Spray two large baking sheets with cooking spray. Sprinkle with 1 tbsp/15 mL flour; set aside. Combine the sugar, cornstarch, margarine and extracts; mix well. Stir in flour, baking powder and salt; mix well. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls 2 side by side, using spoon to shape into a heart on prepared baking sheets. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from pans and let cool on wire rack. Decorate as desired.

Makes 3 dozen, 30 calories each 2 per serving.

Or use your baking skills to prepare a homemade valentine cake, you can even shape it into a heart. Surprise your family with a wonderful after dinner treat!

You can make a valentine heart for your loved ones with some red construction paper, glue; and sparkles. Write your heartfelt sentiment on it and hang it so that your spouse can see it as soon as they walk in the door. Cut out heart shaped cards and write notes of love on each one! Give them to everyone who is special to you.

It doesn’t need to take much time or money to make homemade valentines. Just a little imagination and a few items you have around the house can really make a splash without having to spend a fortune. Remember, it’s the thought that counts!

Many hands make light work so it’s never too early to teach your kids to help you with chores around the house. Children can even start as early as two years old. While children mature at different rates, you can easily determine what age appropriate chores are best suited for toddlers, kids, pre-teens and teens. Here are some ideas to get you started:

Toddlers can help by:

• making their bed
• picking up their toys
• feeding the family pet
• straightening up shoes
• putting dirty laundry into the basket
• cleaning up spills on the kitchen floor

Even at this young age most two and three year olds can manage these chores. Teach your toddlers to do their chores by making a fun game out of it or improvising different ways in which they can help.
Four and five year olds can also:

• set the table
• dust around the house
• help bake cookies
• carry grocery bags (as long as they’re light)

Six and eight year old’s can add:

• vacuum the floor
• take out the trash
• fold the laundry

They can also help you prepare meals with lots of supervision. Think of the experience you are giving your children at this early age.

Pre-teens can do even more. Some of the more vigorous chores can be relegated to outside work:

• rake the leaves
• wash the car
• help clean out the garage

If you need help inside the house, they can certainly help:

• prepare meals
• dusting and vacuuming the house
• wash dishes
• clean the bathroom

They are old enough to make their own beds, tidy their bedroom of debris, organize their toys, and put their own laundry away.

Teens can do almost any chore that you can do, however they pose a different problem altogether. Sometimes they are willing to help, and other times they’re not. It may depend on how you’ve raised them. If they’ve been doing chores since they were two, you won’t have a problem. They have the ability to prepare meals, clean the kitchen, wash windows, and do the laundry. Just about any indoor and outdoor chore that needs doing! Give your teen responsabilites, you don’t want them to feel like a baby, now do you?

Doing chores will give your kids a great sense of pride and accomplishment, no matter what their age. The added benefit is that when everyone pitches in and works together you’ll have more time to spend doing fun stuff with your kids.

The holidays are coming and that usually means more company as family and friends visit more this time of year. And company means it’s time to do a little extra cleaning, after all you want your home to look it’s best! So here are some quick cleaning tips for the holidays.

1. Plan ahead and don’t leave all your cleaning projects till the last minute. If you do a bit every day it won’t be overwhelming.
2. Look around each room and see what really needs cleaning the most. Focus on those areas first, this way if you don’t get everything done you’ll will have the most noticeable stuff done.
3. You can tackle each room cleaning from top to bottom or work on a specific area, for example all the windows, floors, walls through out your home. Find the method that works best for you and your family.
4. Spot clean, if the whole thing isn’t dirty just clean the spots that are. Wipe finger prints off lightswitch plates rather than wash the entire wall. Dust for cob webs rather than wash all the walls and ceilings.
5. Don’t forget to delegate! When you get the whole family involved you’ll be less stressed and they will be more likey to keep the house clean when they have been involved in the work.
6. Purge, it’s easier to clean and keep your home looking neat and tidy if you get rid of excess things. Now’s a great time to purge before more “things” come into your home.
7. Use a multi purpose cleaner to save time and money.

And last but not least, remember your guests are coming to see you and your family so relax, enjoy the wonderful company and have a safe and happy holiday.

Are you weary of the hassle of holiday shopping? Many shoppers line up for hours on end to get a deal on the hottest toy of the season, or the newest fashion craze. Then there are those who dread shopping and just put it off until the last minute, or give gift certificates to get out of shopping altogether. Which are you?

Holiday shopping doesn’t have to be a hassle. It can be done quickly without so much stress and anxiety, if you plan ahead. Try these tips to make your holiday shopping a breeze this year:

1. Set your budget. Do you know how much money you can afford to spend on gifts? If not, sit down right now and make that budget. This will be a huge time-saver in the end.
2. Make your list; check it twice. Create a list of who you need to buy gifts for this year. Start with family first, then add friends, co-workers, etc. How does this list look, compared with your budget? Too long? Pare it down. Despite what you think, you don’t have to buy as many gifts as you think you do. Trim your list until you have it down to a reasonable number.
3. Ask yourself, “What do they like?” Now that you know who you will be buying gifts for, start thinking about what these people like. You may already have a good idea of what kinds of things they like. If not, do some snooping and find out. Make a shopping list of these things for each person.
4. Do your shopping early. If possible try to avoid the last minute rush and shop early. Another good option is to go late at night. Many department stores operate late hours during the holidays. It’s a good time to leave the kids with your spouse and do the shopping on your own without worrying about the crowds or the kids needing to be fed or changed.
5. Do your shopping online. Now that you know exactly what you need to buy, start by shopping online. You can find lots of good deals on auction and discount sites. Many online stores such as WatkinsOnline.com give you the option of mailing out your gifts to relatives and friends, this could save you a lot of time wrapping presents, fighting the crowds at the post office and gas too. Shopping online could save you a lot more money than you’d think, and it will definitely save you the hassle of fighting those Christmas crowds!