Chores for Toddlers

I've been browsing the Simple Mom site and borrowing some of her ideas for simplifying and organizing my life. One of the things I read about on there is chore charts for toddlers. I've been thinking about this for a few months now... Cecelia is almost three and I definitely feel as though she is old enough to start doing some chores. I want to do what Simple Mom does and give her a sticker on a sticker chart for doing them and at the end of each week she gets a nickle for each sticker. Then she can set aside 10% for tithing, 10% for saving and the rest can go in a jar for spending.

My problem is, I can't come up with a list of chores for her!! I want them to be things that she can do somewhat independently, for example, picking up her toys before nap time and before bedtime each day. I also am planning to include helping me empty the dishwasher and feeding the fish. I will have to help her with those things a little bit- more like, she'll be helping me, but I want her to begin to learn responsibility for animals and I'd also like her to be learning to help with chores that benefit the whole family.

So help me out! Do you have ideas for other chores that a three year old would be capable of doing?

Landscaping

We just bought our first house a couple weeks ago. It is on a fairly big lot (for the suburbs) that is just under a 1/4 acre. The back yard is an overgrown mess of shrubs and weeds. We have a lot of work ahead!

Anyway, I wonder what you guys love/hate about your yards? We have 2 boys (2 1/2 yrs and 3 mo) and love to be outside. In Albuquerque, NM, we can play outside nearly year round. We plan on a fair amount of grass, a spot for a veggie garden, and some areas for flowers.

Any tips, tricks, suggestions would be appreciated. Is there anything you wish you had in your own backyard? Or a feature you always get compliments or a ton of use out of?

Freezer Tips

Every Friday on my blog I post a recipe or some other food-related thing. As I was doing this week's I thought, I should share this on Sugar and Spice. And so I am.

Here are some ways I use our freezer. We have a deep freeze but any of these would work in a conventional freezer too. For me it is largely about convenience. I'm lazy like that. It is also a way I can make good use of grocery deals and save some money.

• I've already blogged about freezing cheese. See here for that.

• I've already blogged about freezing fresh chicken strips or breasts so that they aren't all clomped together when you are ready to use them. See here for that. Also, this same concept works for pork chops or steaks or any other kind of meat.

• Did you know that you can freeze fresh spinach? I wasn't sure so I did a little googling and found that about half the people said "no way!" and the other half were divided in the ways you could do it. Some said to blanch it first, some said it had to be fully cooked, but some said to just buy the washed and dried stuff and stick it in your freezer. I like that idea. I had just purchased a HUGE amount at Sam's Club and was anxious to not waste it. So I pulled out my trusty qt. sized freezer Ziploc (no, I'm not being paid) and made several serving-sized bags and threw them in the freezer. It worked great! Here is the important tip: don't thaw it out. Take it straight from the freezer and steam it immediately. I've made several batches of spinach pasta (see here for a great tutorial and recipe) and it really does work great. You can use it in anything that calls for steamed or cooked spinach. Obviously it doesn't come back well enough to use in a green salad or anything that calls for raw spinach.

• I hate fatty hamburger. I've been paying the $4/lb for the really lean stuff but then I see the 80% stuff on sale for $1.50/lb and I think, "even when I subtract the weight of the fat it is a better deal." So what is a frugal-and-trying-to-be-healthier girl to do? Well, I bought the 80% and fried up the whole thing (several pounds). Then I drained and RINSED it to get all that yucko fat off. Then I took out the Ziplocs and created several bags of pre-cooked ground beef. This has been AWESME because I can pull it out to make any number of things (tacos, sloppy Joes, spaghetti, pasta bake, etc.) and my meat is already cooked. One less step for me and one less pan to wash for Phil. If this isn't a win/win I don't know what is. I got cheap meat, made it less unhealthy and I get the convenience of pre-cooked meat. Voila! (Oh, I still buy the expensive 95% stuff for those rare times we have hamburgers or some other recipe that won't work with pre-cooked hamburger - like meatloaf or something.)
  

• Cottage Cheese freezes pretty well so if you find a good deal on it, stock up and put some in your freezer.

• Butter freezes just fine so you can stock up on that too when there is a sale.

• If you grind your own wheat into flour, you should freeze the flour that doesn't get used immediately. It retains the nutrients better in the freezer than at room temperature.

• Bacon bits (either that you create or if you buy the big bulk bag) can just be kept in the freezer and then used as needed. They will last much longer in the freezer.

• Yeast should be kept in the freezer and just used from there. This will keep your yeast much fresher and it will perform better for you. While we are on the topic of yeast, I highly recommend Fleishman's Yeast found at Sam's in bricks. I open one brick and dump it into a freezer Ziploc and then keep it in the freezer.

• My freezer also has lots of frozen veggies. Whenever there is a deal on frozen corn or beans or broccoli (Eden's favorite) or stir fry or whatever, I stock up.
  

• Cake freezes great. Make cupcakes and freeze half of them for the next time. (Frosting freezes ok but it is messy so it works best to freeze them before frosting.)

• Breads and rolls freeze pretty well too. This recipe freezes and then thaws out really great and tastes yummy after freezing too!

• Pizza dough freezes well. This recipe is the one I use and it makes two pizzas. We don't eat two pizzas at a time and so I take half the dough and put it in a freezer Ziploc (really, no payment) and then I have a pizza crust just waiting to be used. Do not defrost in the microwave though. It will kill the yeast and your dough will be flat and tough. Take the dough out of the freezer at least two hours before you intend to use it.

• And now, for my number 1 favorite thing in the freezer:

Ice Cream!

What's in your freezer?

Foil

I just received a forwarded e-mail about foil that I thought was interesting. Something I didn't know!

"I've been using aluminum foil for more years than I care to remember. Great stuff, but sometimes it can be a pain. You know, like when you are in the middle of doing something and you try to pull some foil out and the roll comes out of the box. Then you have to put the roll back in the box and start over. The darn roll always comes out at the wrong time.

Well, I would like to share this with you. Yesterday I went to throw out an empty Reynolds foil box and for some reason I turned it and looked at the end of the box. And written on the end it said, "Press here to lock end". Right there on the end of the box is a tab to lock the roll in place. How long has this little locking tab been there? I then looked at a generic brand of aluminum foil and it had one, too. I then looked at a box of Saran wrap and it had one too! Ican't count the number of times the Saran warp roll has jumped out when I was trying to cover something up."

Hate it...

I hate to take out the garbage. When I was single (for many more years than I ever planned) I said there were three things I needed a man to do:
1 - Take care of my car.
2 - Handle the finances.
3- Take out the garbage.

Well, I learned to take care of my own car (including putting in a new catalytic converter) and got really pretty good at managing my finances (including long-term retirement etc.) but I never got to the point where I could take out the garbage unless I absolutely had to (thank goodness for good roommates who did it). Now Phil does the garbages (and actually, the car care and finances too).

What chore do you just refuse to do and who ends up doing it instead of you?

What would you do?

Let's say you have some friends over and they bring their kids. You have a great time. After they leave you find out that something has been broken (likely by the kids). Do you tell them or suck it up? If you tell them, how?

candles

I burn candles a lot, mostly to get food smells out of my kitchen. When I have piano students over, I don't want them to have to smell my dinner. Plus, I don't want to smell what I cooked for dinner the previous night when I wake up in the morning. Anyway, I love Yankee Candles, and I usually purhcase them when I can buy one and get one free. I'm wondering if there are more affordable options out there where the candles actually release enough scent to get other smells out. Some of the generic candles I have just don't do the trick. Any suggestions? There was a post about Scentsy awhile back. I thought those sounded cool, but I assumed that it was a type of room fragrance that was continuous. Am I right about that? I don't necessarily want something that will always be releasing its fragrance, just something I can use like after dinner.

Grocery Bill

Just interested in how much you each budget for groceries. Would you mind leaving a comment on what your grocery allowance is each month and then for general comparisons, the price of milk in your area? Thanks!

Cleaning Tile and Grout

Earlier this year my husband ripped out our carpeted kitchen floor (an old lady owned the house before us!) and laid a beautiful tile floor, with very, very light grout. Since then the grout has become quite dingy and in preparation for having all of Scott's family over for Christmas Eve, I decided it was time to scrub my floor with the main purpose of whitening my grout again. (I then plan to seal the grout so as not to go through all this again!) I've read several websites and asked my friends and neighbors for advice on what product to use. I'm happy to announce that I've found one that works!!! I'm so, so excited!! (Well, as excited as I can get about cleaning!)

I thought I'd share the product with all of you because this stuff seriously works! My grout is so light that its almost white and after months and months of walking on it, mopping it and the occasional spill, its quite dirty, but this stuff makes it almost white again! Here goes...

1/2 cup of baking soda
1/3 cup of ammonia
1/4 cup of white vinegar
7 cups of water
Combine all the ingredients in a labeled spray bottle and shake well to mix. (Do not use this in conjunction with chlorine bleach or where chlorine bleach has been used.)

I then spray the mixture on my tile and grout, scrub with a hard bristled grout and tile brush, and wipe up the dirt that is dislodged from my grout with a damp sponge. Hope this is helpful for someone!!

Recipe courtesy of www.queenofclean.com, though I've seen the same recipe on various other sites also!

Ensign Hoarding

Do you keep all of your old Ensigns? We used to, but I used a lot of them last year to make quiet books for my daughter and niece and nephews. However, we still have a lot and I'm trying to convince myself I don't need them. Everything is online now, but do you think there's a benefit to keeping them? (And moving them from Minnesota to Utah? :)

Sharpie Remover

I was just reading a blog (originally from Linz about a JK Rowling comment) and found this great post about removing Sharpie (permanent marker) from furniture. One of the commentors mentioned that when she used denatured alcohol on Sharpie marks, she barely even had to scrub them at all! I was so impressed (probably because I live in daily fear of such an episode, despite my diligent hiding of all non-Color Wonder markers), that I just had to post this! I have no idea where to buy denatured alcohol, but at least we know what to look for if ever a need arises! (I'm hoping it works on pen, too, as that's a much more common weapon on our furniture.)

The Wonder Wash

So this is something I never thought I would do-- hand wash my clothes. But when we moved into an apartment without a washer and dryer, costs quickly were adding up to do our laundry at the apt. machines. At a $1.45 per wash and then another 1.45 per dryer load and doing anywhere from 3-5 loads a week, we were spending from $9-15 a week on laundry, which turned into the lovely amount of $36-60 a month! That is awful on our student budget!!!

In order to save money, we found this amazing little hand washing machine. It costs $43 at http://www.laundry-alternative.com/ and is great! You put in your water, your detergent, then your clothes, turn the crank for 2 min. to wash, drain the water, then rinse, and voila! clean clothes! Here are the advantages as listed on the website:

-Washes a 5-lb. load super clean in just a couple of minutes.
-Has a patented pressure system that forces detergent into the fabric at high speed for a fast, efficient, economic and very easy wash
-Is ideal for campers, single persons and even for the housewife with small frequent loads like hand washables and diapers.
-Is ideal for delicates such as woolens, silks, knitted dresses and cashmere garments.
-Uses 90% less water and detergent than conventional washing machines.
-Uses far less water than even hand washing.

I still do our under garments in the conventional washing machines along with Margaret's clothes. But everything else is done by hand. We can't hang clothes outside to dry so I either take my wet clothes to the dryer (at least I'm saving half the cost of doing laundry!) or wring them out really well and hang them on our makeshift clothes drying rack inside.

At times I feel like a pioneer and get excited about our new found way of saving money. But I do admit, sometimes I get overwhelmed at how quickly laundry piles up and the fact that I have to spend about 30 min of my time after Margaret goes to sleep doing laundry (just about every other night). But it's a budget saver for us and therefore is worth the extra effort to me!

Shelf-life of herbs

Does anyone know how long fresh, store-bought herbs like rosemary or bay leafs last in your refrigerator? I couldn't find an exp. date, just a "sell by" date.

Goin' Green!

In Stephanie's blog below, there were a few great hints on "green" cleaners, so I thought I'd throw my two cents in! I'm a huge fan of vinegar and water (I do usually put a couple drops of dish detergent in it, just for scent and suds--I doubt my Palmolive is eco-friendly, but I'm okay with it). For scrubbing the sink/tub/oven, baking soda is the way to go (not with the vinegar, just with plain water--ever make a volcano in science class?) However, vinegar and baking soda do a great job of cleaning the garbage disposal--they break down all the fats and oils that build up. (Run a few ice cubes in there every few months to sharpen the blades, counter-intuitive though it may seem.) I wondered for a while if I was just being cheap, but Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook backs me up, and I love that my toddler and preschooler can "help" me clean, with no worries. Plus, vinegar, baking soda, and water can all be part of your food storage, so in an emergency, you can still have a clean house! ;)

Here's a great article I found that talks about how and where to use vinegar and baking soda, as well as lemon (which I'd never thought of, but which totally makes sense): http://housekeeping.about.com/cs/environment/a/alternateclean.htm

As a non-green aside, although I've read that vinegar and water can be used to clean glass, I can never depart from NAME BRAND Windex--nothing else compares, in my humble opinion. Also, I love Lysol Power toilet bowl cleaner (blue bottle). I've tried a few different toilet cleaners, but this is the only one that gets rid of major hard water stains (as in "I never thought that'd come off!"), which was a big problem for us in our last apartment.

Okay! I will now close my epistle.

Swiffer WetJet

I give the Swiffer WetJet 3.5 stars. The product itself I truly give close to 5 stars, but I rated it less because the accessories add up in price. For myself personally, a woman who has never enjoyed the mopping process, the price is totally worth it and it works for me because I don't have a whole lot of tile floors to mop (so I don't have to pay for replacement stuff too often). Swiffers are so easy and incredibly user-friendly. The bottle of antibacterial liquid slides right into the wand and you just plop a pad onto the bottom. I usually run my vacuum across my kitchen floor first and then swiffer away. It sprays with a button you press on the handle and then you just wipe it up. It dries quickly too. You have to pay for replacement pads (there's like 6 per box), bottles of liquid, and occasionally AA batteries. That's the downside to the Swiffer.

I'm such a dork!

Today is one of those days where I am dilligently working my way through my to-do list. However, it seems like I'm not getting very many things crossed off, for how much work I've done! I keep getting busy doing other (also important) things, that aren't on the list! So what do I do? I write them down anyway, just so I can cross them off! I know, I know, I'm a dork. It's not even like I'm married to the kind of guy I feel like I have to report to at the end of the day. It's totally for myself. Somehow, it just makes me feel better to look at a long list of things I've accomplished at the end of the day. Anyone else do this, or am I alone here? :)

Vacuum cleaners

Anyone have a vacuum cleaner you love, that you would recommend? Ours died the other day. It was never great to begin with, but now it is definitely out of commission. It stinks because you can't really go without a vacuum for more than a couple days, so I need to buy one now without having a chance to save or anything. So, we don't have the money to get a really nice one, but at the same time I don't want to get a cheap one that doesn't work good again! I helped a lady from our ward clean her house last week. She had a vacuum cleaner that practically propelled itself, had great suction, AND had a retractable cord (which I fell in love with.) But I don't think they make that one anymore. Anyway, sorry for the boring post, but it'll really help me to hear your input!

Scented candles

I just bought some fresh ripe nectarines. They are delicious. I love the smell of them!! If I could I would love to have a nectarine scented candle. I would probably use it all the time, except for Christmas. I have a cinnamon and something scented candle that, to me, fits the season perfectly. Do any of you use scented candles much, what are your favorite scents?

Upholstery cleaner

What a boring blog post title.

Can anyone recommend an upholstery cleaner and a place to get it? My hubby and I looked at Lowe's and Target tonight with no success. I have a spot on my couch that needs some extra help to get it out.

Moving Craziness

Okay, so after two weeks of waffling, my husband and I finally decided to move closer to the university, where he'll be taking pre-reqs for dental school at night while working full-time all day. Now the fun of packing begins...ugh. What are your favorite tips/hints, or what is your best (or worst) moving story? The more horrendous the better--misery loves company! :)