Jff What New Thing Did You Discover Lately?

I have a cold and lost my voice. Yesterday, I could only whisper.
What I discovered was that because I was whispering, my kids (15, 13, 7, 5 & 3) all started whispering too! They would whisper when talking to me, but they would also whisper when they were talking to each other.
It was the funniest thing. And it made for a very quiet day!!!!!

Best,
T. Y

I have no clue what's in dawn, but it's a wonder Chemical: it stripes diapers, makes giant bubbles when mixed with equal parts water, and now I learn that it will scrub a tub really well. I'm not surprised. I've been using borax-another wonder.

I love my homemade wood cleaner: equal parts water and vinegar, drop olive oil, drop dish soap. Not sure if I'd use it on an antique, but it works great on all my somewhat expensive wood furniture. It cleans up toddler muck like a champ.

I was really excited two weeks ago with my daughter and the camp thing. I asked here about her being distracted by books. She and I had a big chat, and the next day when it was time to leave I couldn't find her: she was in the car reading! I laughed and thought she was one amazing creature -she drives me mad, but man is she amazing. We've had no issues getting out of the house since.

I frequently get excited over silly stuff. Today I discovered that the longer I let my pie dough sit, the easier it is to roll. I never could wait the 10 minutes before rolling, and yesterday it was so crumbly that I balled it up to start over and realized I wasn't letting it sit long enough. So today I let it sit a long time and it rolled beautifully. (It's black raspberry season, so I've made 6 pies in the past week-we love berry pie in winter, and it's actually better baked after frozen.) but I laughed myself silly because I've been making pies for over 10 years! Hubby swears my pies are the best in the world, yet, only now did I discover something so damn simple.

The truth and beauty is in the simplest stuff.

We have a huge ant infestation, and we have tried everything. Then, my mom sent me a link on facebook, and I tried it! Baking soda, powered sugar and water. Kills them and they LOVE it so they take it back to the nest. Gotta say way better than poison.

Fun question!

I'm going to try your tub cleaner. I do think a lot of these recipes are sponsored by the company that makes Dawn, though!

Round-Up is horrible stuff anyway, but in my area, everything runs downhill and ends up in the many streams that feed our reservoir. So whatever people use on their yards, we drink. I saw weedkiller made of vinegar, Epsom salts and a little dish detergent (ratio: 1 gallon white vinegar, 2 cups Epsom and about 1/8 cup of detergent). Mix gently so you don't get all bubbles and put in a spray bottle, and spray on a windless dry day in the morning, stuff should be dead by night. I found it took until the next morning. It kills everything so don't use it on grass. It worked for dandelions and now I'm going to use it on poison ivy.

Baking soda cleans everything: toilets, sinks, counters, porcelain kitchen sinks. I shake a bunch into the toilet and stir with a regular toilet brush. For everything else, make a paste, rub the sink, then rinse - and get the drain deodorized at the same time. I don't use any toxic cleaners at all anymore, and I don't spend a small fortune on the so-called "natural" ones either.

Silly kitchen hacks we use are:
- wash fruit, let it drain in the dishwasher rack pulled out. It gives a lot of extra counter space!
- instead of the typical bowl of olive oil & herb marinade to brush on roasted or grilled veggies, use a tall drinking glass. Put the herbs, salt/pepper in first, then oil, then stand the basting brush up in the glass and it won't keep falling all over the stove or grill, and it won't take up the space that a brush does lying down. The glass cleans easily in the dishwasher.
-a new toothbrush is great for cleaning the stringy silk out of corn on the cob. An old toothbrush is great for cleaning around faucets or in tile grout.

I saw a photo on line somewhere of people using a plastic laundry basket in the bathtub, as a little "cage" for their toddler. There's room for a 1-2 year old, the water flows in through the holes in the sides, the toys don't float away, and the sides help support the child, it rinses well and dries upside down in the tub and goes back in the closet.

I learned how to make a 4' x 4' sprinkler (for kids to run through) using nothing but PVC pipe! We're getting the materials this weekend. Super easy... pipe, elbow attachments (whatever they're called lol) a hose connector and PVC glue. Voila. You get to drill the holes wherever you want the water to squirt and it looks so fun and it's easy to store!! :)

Fun question!

Oh, I also learned my 12 yr. old knows her way around a volleyball and that I am not in my best physical shape!!! :D

For the last I don't know how many years, our dishwasher never cleaned the dishes CLEAN. I practically washed them by hand every time.

So FINALLY the landlord bought a new one...a cheap one, but still new. STILL the dishes didn't get clean!

I happened to mention this to my bff who was over and she said her landlord just replaced theirs with the same cheap new one and she uses FINISH tablets instead of liquid soap and it works!

I tried it and I swear the dishes and glasses look like they are brand new! So that is the latest new thing I discovered and I'm so happy to have clean dishes again. =0)

Some epsom salts sprinked on perennial flowers encourages them to bloom.

I went to a local gardening center, and told the person that I had lilies and irises that were all greenery and very few blooms. He said "I could sell you this stuff that you spray on them (some kind of liquid chemical fertilizer that was fairly expensive), but if you go to any store and pick up some epsom salts, it will do the same thing for a lot less. Just sprinkle a little, not a lot, at the base of the plant." So, I did and it worked! Within a week, my plants had a ton of blooms.

I like how most of these are cleaning related! So is mine - I never realized Murphy's Oil Soap is so good at removing grease! My white cabinets are gross but I was afraid of wrecking the finish.

And now I have to go & finish doing it.

Pepto Bismal for kids. Never knew it existed.

Yes! The water in our pool had turned a deep brown color due to high iron and manganese content in our water. My husband made a filter out of a juice jug and pillow stuffing and attached it to the outflow hose and BOOM, clear water!

My dad has beehives so we eat a ton of honey. But honey containers were such a mess. I found a container that the honey comes out of the bottom with a touch of the handle. No more mess. So happy about this 12 dollar find!!!!!!

•Ants don't like pepper!
(I also like the powdered sugar, baking soda ant killer.)

•A 12 year old on summer vacation can keep ticking a LOT longer than you'd think!

Krylon Metallic spray paint is Ah-May-Zing!
You can spray that stuff on dollar store vases on up to old wood furniture and it looks so darn pretty!!

Oh & putting a bowl of vinegar in a room that smells of cig smoke will help dramatically! We got an old hotel room on the beach awhile back that obviously had been a smoking room & id heard of this trick before ran to the store, dumped it in a bowl left it for the day while we went exploring and when we came back it was really really better!!

I discovered that being the team manager for my son's soccer team is WAY more stressful then I thought it would be. I hate it.

I've heard this same thing about Dawn soap, except mixed with hydrogen peroxide for use on clothes! It's gotten out the nastiest grease stains on stuff that I never thought would come out.