Have You Seen This!? Homemade Stain Remover

Have you seen THIS post all over Pinterest? It's from One Good Thing By Jillee, a blog FULL of awesome.  Homemade stain remover. And I thought I'd give it a try. The original "recipe" is this: (but I halved it to try...) 2/3 C Dawn 2/3 C ammonia  6 Tablespoons baking soda 2 C warm water Shake it all together in a spray bottle. Shake your boot-aaay while you do it. The kids love that. Grab a preschooler's jacked-up white t-shirt. Cry...

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The BEST Foaming Hand-Soap Refill "Recipe"

I love my foaming hand-soap dispensers. I got them on sale of course, and they REALLY help the little soap monsters not gobble up so much money when they wash their hands. (I'm looking at you, Princess and Calculator...) What I don't like is paying so much for "proper" refill solution. So, I did what every cheap frugal mom does, and turned to bloggerland for a homemade refill. Bingo. THRIFTY and easy. My two favorite adjectives. BUT. They just didn't...

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Ow...ow...ow...

I've been feeling a little achy lately, too many things being a little hard on my bad back. The Princess' allergies have been crazy, her eczema itchy, her personality whiny, and her temper hot. That's a lot of carrying her to her bed "because muh legs dooooon't woooooork....", and helping her on the potty, "becaaaause I caaaaan't by muhseeeeeewf." A lot of "Ow...ow...ow" for Mom. Aches and pains, all part if getting older, especially when you have a bad back. But HOW FREAKIN' OLD am I when my aches turn to tear-inducing, unbearable, debilitating...

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Meatless Monday: Falafels in Pitas

A lot of my Meatless Mondays involve chickpeas. We love them here. Here's a delicious way to use them in something other than hummus ;-) You will need: click to enlarge 1 drained can of chickpeas, or 1 cup dried chickpeas cooked and drained.  (Will be slightly less than 2 cups.) 1 large onion, chopped 2 cloves of garlic, chopped 1 teaspoon ground coriander 1 teaspoon ground cumin 2 Tablespoons flour salt and pepper to taste (about...

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My Most Recent Cleaning Love

I never thought I'd love a product with such hype, but after trying I have to say it:      I love Dr. Bronner's Castile Soaps. I've always been on the hunt for things that are easy on The Princess' allergies and eczema, and for things that make cleaning green a breeze. These bottles of concentrated soapy goodness fit perfectly. A couple drops in bathwater get the little one squeaky-clean without irritating her skin or leaving...

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Our Favorite One Bowl Super Cookies

Mixed in just the right order, these cookies don't need separate bowls for dry and wet ingredients. Preheat oven to 325. In a large bowl stir until thoroughly combined: 1 1/3 C all purpose flour 1 tsp. baking soda 1 tsp. baking powder 1/4 tsp salt 1 cup oats. Quick cooking is fine, but we like hearty old fashioned. Steel cut would NOT work. Definitely not instant. Toss in the flour mixture until coated:  3/4 C M&Ms  3/4 C chocolate...

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Putting in Our Dream Wine Cellar

Guest post written by Grant Douglas There have been so many times that I've been looking through some wine enthusiast website and see where people have some wine cellars built into their homes. We have a basement, but I didn't know the first thing about how to make it into a wine cellar, so I decided to do the homework for it. I had a lot of research to luck up for it and while I was doing that I saw some stuff on seras window replacement and realized that it would really help to probably get our windows replaced in our basement. So I...

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Simple Solution for Hair Elastics!

I've seen a few posts on Pinterest where moms have sorted their little girls' hair things, and recently a few have had the great idea of putting the little tiny hair ties in tackle boxes! Genius! Being super clumsy though, I had to go a step further...push-to-open pill boxes! I got one like this at Dollar General for two bucks. It opens easily, shuts tight, and I can have the ONE color open at a time and not spill all of them EVERYWHERE. These...

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