Read to your baby.

Do you read to your child? I have a fifteen month old granddaughter that I babysit every day. She has been pretty sick this week and crying a lot, something so unlike her. This baby is one of the happiest kids around and so much fun to watch normally.

I have a number of kids books here as she loves me to read to her. One book that was my all time favorite when my kids were little was "Are You My Mother".

I had hunted for this book at yard sales and in the stores and could not find it. About a month ago I found it on paperbackswap.com

Monday, my poor little granddaughter was so sick and all she wanted to do was go in the car, so we went to the post office. The book had come! I was hoping that this would make her happy.

It is now Wednesday and I could not tell you how many times I have read the book over and over. She loves it too! In fact, I took her out on the porch and she pointed to a spot where a bird was building a nest in a can. I told her it was a bird's nest, not even thinking about the book. Scout, put her finger to her mouth ans said "shhh baby birdie". She had made the connection with the book!

Read to your baby! even when you think they are too young, they are learning. It works for me and my granddaughter!

igoogle To My Internet rescue

It is Works for Me Wednesday ant Rocks in My Dryer. I enjoy Wednesdays as I am able to hunt our what other people do and what works for them.

I love to read other blogs, as well as some web sites and was having a hard time keeping up with all of them. One thing I have found that works for me is igoogle. igoogle is the personalized google homepage that you can add what you want to. My igoogle home page has my rss feeds from the places I want to keep up with reading.

What is great with igoogle is you have tabs so you can put different things on the pages and have them organized. I have my first tab with my weather, blogs that I read and news. I also have a game on there for when I get bored.

My second tab has more blogs, a few web pages and some funny blogs/videos etc feeds.

My third tab is my google reader and more info places and my fourth tab is blog helps. This is where I have blogs like problogger, blogging 101 and other blogs that help bloggers.

This way I can see right away what my daughter is writing about at Beauty from Chaos, what her husband is writing about, what Natural Mommy is writing , Families against Feminism, Real Life and other blogs.

When I find a blog that gives info and support to what I am writing about I also put that on one of the tabs.

I love my igoogle homepage and it works for me, give it a try!


For more ideas head over to Rocks in My Dryer!

Kids Cup Cakes

Last night I went to a Bible Study that my husband and I attend. They always have some kind of goodies there that are very hard to resist.

There is one woman who makes the yummiest, most fattening things every week. However, she was not there yesterday and someone else brought a treat that reminded me of when my kids were young.

You know how you need cupcakes for the school parties, or just for treats? Well, Lacy made a school treat last night. She took some ice cream cones that were getting a bit stale. Rather than throw them away, she made them into cup cakes.

A few tricks to doing this:

1. make sure your cones stand up and can't fall over, a pan with sides and them in tight works.
2. be sure your cake mix goes to the bottom, if not you will have a gap in there with no cake. Tap them to get the mix down
3. bake as you would any cupcake, checking for doneness as the recipe calls for.

Decorate as you want, or just ice.


As you can see, they can be enjoyed by all ages!

This is 15 month old Scout enjoying one Lacy sent home for her.

She had a shower after she was done!

For more Works for Me Wednesday go to Rocks in My Dryer!

Scrapbook Help Needed

Today is Backwards Works For Me Wednesday at Rocks in My Dryer. This means that it is a time when I ask for your help and you leave me a comment helping me!

I am looking for ideas for starting a scrapbook. Now, I have never done a scrapbook but have bought all kinds of supplies and have been getting my pictures sorted. I want to make a family scrapbook to share with my kids but am stuck on the starting part. I have ideas, but do not know how to decide to make the pages, where to start in the book or anything. I want to include great grand parents as well as recent.

Do you have ideas how to get started? How to get that first page going? I am normally creative, and think once I get it going I will be fine, it is the starting that has me baffled.

Any ideas would be very appreciated!

To help others, go to Rocks in my Dryer.

For the love of your husband

Today is Works for me Wednesday and I want to share something that really works, not just for me, but for most wives.

Some time ago I wrote about honoring your husband and how today's women seem to have a problem in that area. Yesterday I was reading some of the blogs I normally read and went to Real Life's post "All Husbands are idiots..." It is not what it sounds like and really worth reading.

As I read her post I was thinking about what works for me. I am in my second marriage, both to wonderful men. My first marriage was for 29+ years and ended when death parted us. I am now married to another man who is a gem also.

While I can't take the credit, because I feel God is the one to get all the credit, I can tell you some things that I do and do not do that I know makes a difference. Both husbands have told me so.

• I praise my husband. He has many good features that are worth praising.
• I talk positive about him to others. My talk is uplifting, letting others see his good qualities.
• No negative talk to others. If i have had a problem that I did not know how to handle I sought out someone older and wiser and one that had enough wisdom and sense to not hold anything against my husband (and to keep their mouth shut!). This has almost never been an issue, but in 29+ years of marriage there were a few times where I was dwelling on negative and could not see it.
• It is ok to tell funny stories, if they are not degrading. We have some funny things that happened that could be told in a negative way, but yet do not have to be. For instance, and my husband would tell you this one himself if he were writing, he has a bad throwing arm. We live in Texas and sometimes there are rattlesnakes in the pasture. He was crossing the pasture to look for a cow that was down and saw the snake in the path. Rick decided to hit it with a rock. He threw, missed, threw missed, and so on until he had this nice fort built up around the snake. That snake was peaking out the hole, sticking it's neck out, then its tongue out and hissing at my husband, then ducking back behind the fort. I had to go out to the pasture with a shovel to kill the thing. (He did the killing, eventually). My hero! We laugh, but I could make that into something really negative and put him down to someone.
• I try to make dinners he likes, get him drinks when he is working hard and such little things to show my love.

My list goes on, but by doing these things it keeps my mind in a positive frame, shows him I love him and keeps us close. It also works to make him want to live up to what I think of him. He changes as I change and it works for our good.

I would like to ask that if there are those reading who have blogs that promote and are in line with what I am doing here (please read my purpose) that you send me an email using the contact on the sidebar. I would like your blog name. I would like to get other links for blogs and resources that are in line with my stand and desires. Thanks

This works for me! For more works for me ideas go to Rocks in My Dryer.

Back Up Your Computer!

Today is Works for Me at Rocks in My Dryer. I do not have the graphic since my computer went kaput on Saturday and I am working off a friend's computer tonight.

I have learned the hardway what does not work for me. Now I am a computer nut. I have pulled apart computers, replaced parts, love my software and have taken computer courses for web design as well as software courses.

First lesson: BACK UP YOUR COMPUTER!

I get an F. I have no backup and I now have no hard drive.

Right now I am at a friend of my husbands computer shop. He can't get the info off my harddrive either. Now, I have all family pictures, old pictures, all my blog info, affiliate info and passwords. Documents that are needed, my web design files and all my email addresses are all on that harddrive.

Paul tried, but can't get the thing to work and said there is only one chance of getting to work, but he does not have the part. It seems I need to get another drive, same model number and try to take a part off and maybe that is all that is wrong. MAYBE!

I said "what should I have done to back this up?"

Here is what he said should work for me (and you!).

• 
  
  Get another hard drive that you can plug in and have a software program to ghost the hard drive.


• 
  
  Get an external harddrive and software to back up at a certain time every day, week or whatever.


• 
  
  At the very least, make a copy of your important info on cds or some other storage and keep it in a safe place.

So, from now on, I am backing up! This will save me the time, head ache and heartache I am facing now, and that Works For Me!

Check out other blogs!

I think we all loved the bloggy giveaway from last week. It was fun racing through all the 800+ giveaways listed and seeing what we wanted to try for and what we did not. I loved it as much as the other guy.

One thing I noticed as I was racing through though, I was not really seeing what the blogs were about. I was just looking for the giveaway and what you had to do or write in order to have a chance at the prize.

About half way through I began to realize that some of these blogs looked interesting and had some nice things to offer in the way of crafts, how to's, affiliate offerings etc. I still was not taking the time to look, but from there out I took notice of something more than the free gift I was trying for and actually took the time to put a few on my google reader.

Now, I am going back over the list slower, and looking at blogs as I can and seeing what is really there in the blogs that participated. Some are not for me, but others either are on the same line as mine, so I want to see what they are doing and learn. Others are good craft or sewing ones and have good sources listed on their blog or instructions in their posts.

I would suggest for some great shopping, learning and free internet sources, go back over the bloggy giveaway list slow and read the blogs, look at the resources on them and see what is there. Take time and I am sure there is a gold mine for your shopping and learning experience.

Works for me!

Wonderful Brown Soap

I want to share something that works for me and I know will work for you also.

Today there are many soaps on the market, but the old tried and true ones are now considered outdated. In fact some are downright hard to find! We have all kinds of medicines, salves, laundry soaps etc out there, each for it's own purpose. All of them make us feel we need to spend more money.

For many of us, we try to live frugally, try to live simple, yet we often feel there is nothing else to do but buy what is out there. I have some things I do that work and save money. I actually could not decide if I should put this on the works for me Wednesday or on the frugal Friday!

First, many of us make our own laundry soap. For some the ingredients are a bit hard to find, but I found a good source for them which I will share at the end. One of the ingredients in my recipe is Fels Naptha soap or Octagon soap. These are both a bar soap that is great for laundry and stains. I have some other uses too and want to share them with you now.

1. Grate a small amount and let it set in a little water to make it soft. Knead with your fingers until it is "mushy" and pliable. Add sugar. Yes, sugar, plain white sugar. Make a paste out of it and knead till the sugar is softened. Put it on a boil, splinter or other infection and cover with a band aid. It will draw out any infection quickly. As a kid we used this on many infections and splinters and saved many a trip to the dr.!
2. If you find you got into poison ivy or oak wash good in this soap. It will dry up the pimples. If you catch it right away, as soon as you see you got into it, wash in the soap and you will not get the poison ivy or it will not be very bad.
3. Rub into clothing as soon as you see something that would stain. It will usually prevent a stain from setting in.
4. Wash scrapes on kids (or yourself) when they slide on the pavement, fall off a bike etc. It will clear any germs that could cause an infection.

I know there are more uses, but these are the ones most used by me. When my kids were young I was never without this soap in the house. Now it is hard to find in some places. I have to drive over an hour to find a store that sells it, but did find a place I can order it from, Soaps Gone Buy has all kinds of soaps for laundry as well as other older soaps no longer found in the stores.

Give it a try! It Works for Me!

Photo's for family

It is Wednesday again and as usual Rocks In My Dryer is hosting Works For Me.

My post this week is actually because of something my family did for me. As you know from other posts, I live in Texas. My husband and I have three kids and their families here in Texas, but we also have one in NC and 4 more in ME.

Three of our 17 grand kids are here, one in NC and 13 in Maine. We miss so much of their lives as we can't see them very much.

This year I was not only given the trip to NC and Maine, but I was also given a thumb drive and one of those credit card size digital photo albums. The thumb drive was bought with the idea that each family would put pictures on it and then I can have the pictures of the kids, trips, landscapes etc of ME and put what I wanted on the small digital one to carry with me and the rest on my computer. They did not get it passed around as they intended, but I did get some great pictures on it from my son.

If each family did this for those who are away it would be the best gift they could give. I t keeps those of us that are away feeling we are not missing as much. Kids soccer, T-ball etc. is all there for me to view.

This gift is sure something that Works for me!

Sites to Check Out

Today I would like to share three fun links with you. I shared one on my other site and want to share two more with you here. These links help me at times and thought they would be useful for others.

The first one I want to recommend is TipNut. I get a daily summery from them and many days it is really something useful and I save it. For instance, today had one called 11 goals to enhance your life this year. They are worth reading. Sometimes there are craft tips, money saving tips, how to do things, like fix a chair, etc. It is a cute site worth signing up for the newsletter.

Another site is a bit of fun. Want an idea for dinner? Don't have much in the house? Not sure what you can do with what you do have? Try going to CookingByNumbers.com I have never seen a more interesting way to come up with something for dinner! Say you have beef, eggs, garlic, coffee, chocolate, tomatoes and pasta plus some seasonings. Put them in the list and you will find you can make: Chocolate dream, grilled tomatoes, and a few other things. You could also make pasta with seasoned oil, tomato concassee or a number of other recipes. Just put in what you have on hand and it will give you something you can do with it. Try it! Have some fun for dinner tonight! Works for me!

Stress Less

Today's Works for me Wednesday and Rocks in My Dryer is supposed to be about Christmas. I have been thinking about Christmas anyway and decided to play along on the Christmas theme.

I have been busy, as I am sure most of you have, trying to get everything done and ready. I am doing something different this year though, I am not getting all upset and stressed over the day.

Most years I am so stressed as I try to make this, do that, get the stuff for a big meal and try to have it all together. This is the first year in a long time that I can remember not being all stressed about getting things done and perfect.

I still have some gifts to get together and some things to make, but not anything that has me stressed. It will take some time, but I believe it is all under control. If not, I am not stressing anyway!

It has taken many years, but I finally realized the meal will be there, people will eat and everything does not have to be perfect, nor does there need to be 25 different foods on the table. Keep it simple! I am having a big meal, but I am keeping it simple. I also have others bringing some of the meal too.

My gifts will be done, the food will be fairly easy and it should work our for a nice relaxing time.

Are you getting all stressed and ready to bite every one's head off? STOP!!! Relax. It will work out, it does not need to be anything but simple, but simple can be elegant and easy! Enjoy the day, enjoy the family and make it all less stressful.

Quick and easy snack

A fun meal or after school snack is pizza. Most people like it but making it can be very messy and buying it can get expensive.

A way to have it quick and easy is to make tortilla or English muffin pizzas. These are fun to make and the kids can even make their own. If you do not have tortilla's in the house, I have, on occasion (desperate one!) used bread.

Kid's Pizza (That everyone loves!)

For each pizza:

1 tortilla (or English muffin)
tomato paste, OR sauce
cheese (any kind that melts)
seasonings you like, I use garlic powder, Italian seasoning and some oregano
toppings if you have them

Spread sauce on top of tortilla. put seasonings on top, then cheese and any toppings

bake , keeping a close eye on them as they cook fast OR put in microwave for a minute or so. (temps vary)

Makes a great snack for family night movie, after school or at midnight!

Works for me!

Getting kids to pick up their stuff

Today is Works for Me at Rocks in My Dryer. I would like to offer you something that worked for me when my children were school age.

I do not know about yours, but my kids were rather sloppy. They came in from school and set their coat, shoes, books etc all over the place. Then the toys came out and they were all over making it difficult to walk anywhere.

Time out, spanking, yelling, sending them to their rooms etc, nothing worked. I still ended up picking everything up.

My husband and I decided to try to teach them something about life and responsibility. I bought several baskets and when they would not clean up and I had to everything of theirs went into the baskets. Since my time is worth something and they were being irresponsible we would not let them just have their item back. They had to pay .25 a piece per item or do a job per item. In the beginning they thought we were going to give in, they grumbled because they needed that book for homework, or the jacket since it was chilly outside etc. I did not give in!

Soon there was not as much left lying around the floors, chairs, doors etc. It worked for me!