Works for me...what works for you
The last few years I've been obsessed with recycling. I love nature.
This morning I walked outside in my pj's and went looking around the garden. I have to go out and pull all the caterpillars off the plants so they don't look like swiss cheese. I throw them in the pond for the fish to eat. YUM! :P
While I was out there I went looking for worms for my worm farm. I know what your thinking, (crazy lady). But you know, even when I was little I would wait til the rain stopped and go looking for worms in the puddles and save their little wormy lives.
I've been trying to raise worms for a year with no great success. When I thought I was doing really well, they all died, or so I thought. I'm now thinking they escaped. Anyway...
What I've found really interesting is that worms collect under a rabbit cage. So if you have a fascination with worms, get a rabbit, or go find a friend who has a rabbit.
I've been composting for a year also. It's very cool. For a family of 6 we end up with about one bag of trash a week, if that. Everything that can be composted (you can find a list online) ends up in the compost pile. I keep one of those gallon ice cream buckets in the kitchen to collect for compost. It breaks down really quick if you keep the pile damp and turn it often. I get a kick out of it. Go figure.
Now, one of the most interesting things I've been doing this last year is using home made liquid laundry soap. I think it's fun. You have to grate the soap and melt it, but that's about as difficult as it gets. I bet it takes me 10 minutes tops. You can find all kinds of recipes online for hand made laundry soap. I use a Zote laundry bar. I've tried others but that's my favorite so far. The recipe is basically soap, borax, and washing soda. I don't always use the washing soda. Might cost you less than 3 dollars a batch and that washes over 30 loads of laundry depending on how much you use per load. It doesn't suds up but it works. When I run out and don't feel like running to the store, I grab a bar of whatever kind of soap I have and cook up a batch to tide me over. I've become very creative when I'm desperate to finish my laundry. :)
The last thing I can think of, that has been great for us in this last year, has been the whole crock pot soup thing. I've really enjoyed getting creative with crock pot cooking this year. And it's so nice to have something cooked up by the evening and I didn't have to work on it more than a couple of minutes.
I throw in some raw chicken breasts, legs or whatever and it doesn't have to be thawed. I'll add water, chicken bullion, lots of potatoes pealed and cut up, and then any kind of veggies you want. Cook it on high all day. When the chicken looks done, I pull it out and cut it up into small pieces or even shred it with a fork. About 30 minutes before your ready to eat, you take some of the liquid out, mix in some powdered milk, poor that in and then add Velveeta cheese or cheddar. It ends up like a veggie/potato soup. You can make it without the chicken, you can blend it up in a blender, you can make it with chopped spinach. It's all up to you and fun for the kids cause they think their creating their own recipe. As long as you have the potatoes, water, bullion, dry milk and cheese, as your base.....your good. You can even throw in left overs. I even season and toast up some bread, cut it up like croutons, make some bacon bits, chives, or even sour cream and throw it on top of my bowl of soup.
Ok.....So....now that I've given you my favorite tricks. Let me hear yours. I'd love some new stuff to try. I'm really interested in finding a chore chart idea for the kids and any ideas on keeping them on task with their rooms, cleaning up after themselves, etc......
Any Ideas?
This morning I walked outside in my pj's and went looking around the garden. I have to go out and pull all the caterpillars off the plants so they don't look like swiss cheese. I throw them in the pond for the fish to eat. YUM! :P
While I was out there I went looking for worms for my worm farm. I know what your thinking, (crazy lady). But you know, even when I was little I would wait til the rain stopped and go looking for worms in the puddles and save their little wormy lives.
I've been trying to raise worms for a year with no great success. When I thought I was doing really well, they all died, or so I thought. I'm now thinking they escaped. Anyway...
What I've found really interesting is that worms collect under a rabbit cage. So if you have a fascination with worms, get a rabbit, or go find a friend who has a rabbit.
I've been composting for a year also. It's very cool. For a family of 6 we end up with about one bag of trash a week, if that. Everything that can be composted (you can find a list online) ends up in the compost pile. I keep one of those gallon ice cream buckets in the kitchen to collect for compost. It breaks down really quick if you keep the pile damp and turn it often. I get a kick out of it. Go figure.
Now, one of the most interesting things I've been doing this last year is using home made liquid laundry soap. I think it's fun. You have to grate the soap and melt it, but that's about as difficult as it gets. I bet it takes me 10 minutes tops. You can find all kinds of recipes online for hand made laundry soap. I use a Zote laundry bar. I've tried others but that's my favorite so far. The recipe is basically soap, borax, and washing soda. I don't always use the washing soda. Might cost you less than 3 dollars a batch and that washes over 30 loads of laundry depending on how much you use per load. It doesn't suds up but it works. When I run out and don't feel like running to the store, I grab a bar of whatever kind of soap I have and cook up a batch to tide me over. I've become very creative when I'm desperate to finish my laundry. :)
The last thing I can think of, that has been great for us in this last year, has been the whole crock pot soup thing. I've really enjoyed getting creative with crock pot cooking this year. And it's so nice to have something cooked up by the evening and I didn't have to work on it more than a couple of minutes.
I throw in some raw chicken breasts, legs or whatever and it doesn't have to be thawed. I'll add water, chicken bullion, lots of potatoes pealed and cut up, and then any kind of veggies you want. Cook it on high all day. When the chicken looks done, I pull it out and cut it up into small pieces or even shred it with a fork. About 30 minutes before your ready to eat, you take some of the liquid out, mix in some powdered milk, poor that in and then add Velveeta cheese or cheddar. It ends up like a veggie/potato soup. You can make it without the chicken, you can blend it up in a blender, you can make it with chopped spinach. It's all up to you and fun for the kids cause they think their creating their own recipe. As long as you have the potatoes, water, bullion, dry milk and cheese, as your base.....your good. You can even throw in left overs. I even season and toast up some bread, cut it up like croutons, make some bacon bits, chives, or even sour cream and throw it on top of my bowl of soup.
Ok.....So....now that I've given you my favorite tricks. Let me hear yours. I'd love some new stuff to try. I'm really interested in finding a chore chart idea for the kids and any ideas on keeping them on task with their rooms, cleaning up after themselves, etc......
Any Ideas?
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