The York Family Eight

The York Family Eight

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

17 Tips To Make Your Life Easier



This was posted on Pinterest... I plan on trying every single one of these. I actually just tried the dryer tip (#17) at the bottom, so we’ll see how that one works out.  A lot of these tips are things that I can actually use on a regular basis, so I thought I'd share!
1. Reheat Pizza
17 Tips To Make Your Life Easier
Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove , set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.
2. Easy Deviled Eggs
17 Tips To Make Your Life Easier
Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing roughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.
3. Expanding Frosting
17 Tips To Make Your Life Easier
When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.
4. Reheating Refrigerated Bread
17 Tips To Make Your Life Easier
To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated , place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.
5. Newspaper Weeds Away
17 Tips To Make Your Life Easier
Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers put layers around the plants overlapping as you go cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers.
6. Picking Up Broken Glass
17 Tips To Make Your Life Easier
Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can’t see easily.
7. No More Mosquitoes
17 Tips To Make Your Life Easier
Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.
8. Squirrel Away!
17 Tips To Make Your Life Easier
To keep squirrels from eating your plants sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn’t hurt the plant and the squirrels won’t come near it.
9. Flexible Vacuum
17 Tips To Make Your Life Easier
To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.
10. Reducing Static Cling
17 Tips To Make Your Life Easier
Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and — ta da! — static is gone.
11. Unsticky Measuring Cups
17 Tips To Make Your Life Easier
Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don’t dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.
12. Foggy Windshield?
17 Tips To Make Your Life Easier
Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!
13. Reopening Envelopes
17 Tips To Make Your Life Easier
If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Voila! It unseals easily.
14. Smoother Legs With Conditioner
17 Tips To Make Your Life Easier
Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It’s a lot cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It’s also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn’t like when you tried it in your hair…
15. Goodbye Fruit Flies
17 Tips To Make Your Life Easier
To get rid of pesky fruit flies , take a small glass fill it 1/2″ with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid , mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!
16. Get Rid of Ants
17 Tips To Make Your Life Easier
Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it “home”, can’t digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains , but it works & you don’t have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!
17. Info About Clothes Dryers
17 Tips To Make Your Life Easier
The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman that fixes things around the house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean. (I always clean the lint from the filter after every load clothes.) He told us that he wanted to show us something; he took the filter over to the sink, ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh material – I’m sure you know what your dryer’s lint filter looks like.
WELL…the hot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn’t go through it at all! He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh that’s what burns out the heating unit. You can’t SEE the film , but it’s there. It’s wha t is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and static free – that nice fragrance too, you know how they can feel waxy when you take them out of the box, well this stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen This is also what causes dryer units to catch fire & potentially burn your house down with it! He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very long time (& to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out & wash it with hot soapy water & an old toothbrush (or other brush) at least every six months. He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long!
How about that!?! Learn something new every day! I certainly didn’t know dryer sheets would do that!


Saturday, January 28, 2012

Triple Bunk Bed


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We finally made it.  A triple bunk!  We integrated it into the wall, each section has their own lighting and plugs.  Will loves his top bunk, and it’s not too tall for me to turn off the lights or make the bed if needed.  We also built a staircase type ladder, so easy to climb.  I am amazed at all the space we have in the room and the beds are so neat and tidy.  Love this! 

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Robert on his bunk. 
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All the boys.  We love our new beds!!

I have the building phases around here somewhere... if I find them, I will post.  But don't hold your breath!
Praise God for His blessings!
Coree

Crazy Hair Day


We had crazy hair day a while back and I am just now posting some pictures!  The kiddos had so much fun with this.  I think the most excited was Robert with his fish head.  We cut off the head of his broken water sprayer and attached it to his head with one of the girls stockings, and added a few scales with foam shapes.  And orange and red color too.



Rob at school with Winston, who got some color in his hair too.





I drew up our ideas for kid approval before we started anything, it sure helped save some time.




Geneve the pretty butterfly.  She had two foam shapes in her hair.  Can you believe these pictures were taken after the end of a school day!?!  Wow, the hair lasted.  We also attached butterfly wings to the top.  The wings were great because they were so light.




Me trying to draw out her design! 

Bella had ivy hair.  We attached pieces of ivy leaves to metal barrettes and clipped them to her hair.  Her favorite part was coloring her hair green and adding glitter.  We made a pink crown to top off the whole thing.  It was a little dollar store glitter one that I attached some flowers to the top and ivy and ribbon around the edges.  It turned out great and was light for her head.





Bella's drawing, I got a little crazy with the ivy!
  

Will didn't want in on all of the hair attachments.  I had some good ones for him too.  We tried and tried to convince him of some fun ideas, but all he wanted was some color... and just basic at that.   I did get a stencil out and sprayed some white stars on the back of the blue part of his hair, it actually looked like Captain America's shield.   Will thought it was ok.  He thought it was cool later on when he decided he like it.







  
I thought all this styling and coloring would take forever, but for four kiddos and one little one to paint up, it took about 45 minutes over and above our regular school day morning routine.  You all would have giggled watching us with me in my bathrobe spraying kids hair on the front porch early in the morning with black trash bags over their clothing!

PS - Even I got to wear the Pink crown...

Well, on to more updates!  I am very behind!  Up next, triple bunk bed goodness!
Coree