Sharpie Baby!!!

The scenario: Your child has a fever. You grab the bottle of Ibuprofen and open it. Then you realize you don’t remember the dose, and you tip the bottle to check the dosage. The Ibuprofen spills onto the counter top and floor. You then check the bottle, looking closely at the small print for the dose. Find it, give it, and then clean up.

There is a better way!

Write with a sharpie pen your children’s name/s on the bottle. You can also just use the first initial of each child. Then put the exact dosage that the child should receive, and I always put how often you can give it also.
Example:

R= ½ t 6-8 hrs E= 1t
I also mark my children’s prescription bottles with their names and amounts.
This makes it so much easier to know the exact dose and be able to do it quickly.
Also I like to make sure the times that medication is given on our calendar. That way everyone is on the same time line, and there is less chance of a double dose.

Example:
E= Ace- 8:30 AM
E= Ibu- 11 AM
Use abbreviations for medications: Ace for Acetaminophen, Ibu for Ibuprofen, anti for antibiotic, A for antihistamine. Whatever you choose will be great! Just makes it easier to use abbreviations.
I used this system when our whole family got strep last year. It helped me to keep track of who needed what and when. We were able the finish the whole 10 days of treatment with out missing a dose! I also put helpful sticky notes on tables and mirrors so I knew when the next dose would be. 

I came up with this idea when my oldest had surgery as a baby. Not only did he need an antibiotic they also had him on two separate doses of pain killers. It was crazy trying to juggle the medications he had to take. Using this helped me keep track.

Hope you find it helpful!

Save Your Chicken!

I've killed many a chicken tender by cooking it too long.  Over cooked chicken isn't something I am proud of, but has happened often at our dinner table.   Making sure the chicken is fully cooked has been my goal, but the result has been chewy unpalatable chicken.  For my birthday my sister bought me a meat thermometer.  It has SAVED my chicken!  The thermometer is called “Thermoworks Super Fast Digital Thermometer.”  This thing is the BEST!  This thermometer takes the temperature ever 3 seconds, and show the reading immediately.   No more waiting for the metal core of the BIG BULKY meat thermometers to warm up.  This one is so quick!  You will be amazed, and your chicken will be tender and YUMMY!  Everyone will be asking for second helpings!

http://www.amazon.com/Thermapen-Instant-Read-Thermometer-RED/dp/B000RPR9LQ

Snowbird Tram Ride

It's that time again to take a trip up Little Cottonwood Canyon and ride the tram at Snowbird.  This weekend and next is customer appreciation days.  Bring a can for the Utah Food Bank or pay $2 and get a ride up the Snowbird tram!  You can ride the tram to the top between 11am-5pm.  This is something our family does every year, and we love it.
Bring your can of food to the tram ticket window and get your passes.  Some years it has been busy, and other times there is hardly anyone there.   You will want to bring jackets and warm clothing because it will be windy and very likly cold at the top.   The ride up is so fun for kids.  If your kids have a tendencly to get motion sick, you might want to stand by a window in the direction you will be traveling.  The tram lifts over the supporting poles and may make the kids a little motion sick.  The ride is a great way to see all the fall leaves, and get the chance to see the top of the canyon.  There honestly isn't much to see once you get up to the top it is pretty desolate and windy.   Once you get to the top you can walk to the base, or ride the tram back down.

Here is a link to the days of the customer appreciation:

http://www.snowbird.com/events/summer/customerappreciation.html

Stay Put Sheet Design!

Many mornings my kids beds look like they slept in a tornado.  The sheets are swirled around in a huge twist and completely untucked from the bottom of the bed.  The morning re-making of beds, by retucking and repositoning sheets has been frustrating.  Asking the kids to make their beds was pretty much impossible. They are still a little to young to understand how to tuck in the bottom of the top sheet. 

A few months ago I started thinking of how I could make it easy to keep my boys sheets tucked in.  Something that would work even with their all night pulling and tugging.  My first attempt was with store bought corner sheet elastic snaps.  They didn't work! Not even for one night, and were a pain to put back on when they came off.   Several evenings I worked on designs, ways to place elastic, extra fabric, or velcro to hold those sheets in place.   There were 5 attempts at making my kids sheets stay in place!  None worked until..... NOW!!!!!!

I figured it out with my "Stay Put Sheet Design!"   It is SO EASY, it is just sewing a small pocket in the bottom of the sheets!

A design that finally works!!!  Not only does it work, it is so super easy to make and so simple and easy to use!

Asking my kids to make their bed is now a dream!  The bottoms of my boys sheets stay tucked in, which makes it easy for them to make their own beds.

So here is the trick.

The idea is simple.   Without adding extra material, you are simply sewing a pocket at the bottom of the top sheet.  The pocket hooks over the bottom/foot end of the mattress.
To do this, place the top sheet on bed and set the upper edge of the sheet about 3 to 4  inches down from the top of the bed.  At the lenght you would put it if you were making the bed.

With the sheet sitting with the top exactly where you would want it,  go to the bottom of the mattress.  The top sheet will fall down the thickness of the mattress, this is the part you usually tuck under the foot end of the mattress.   Mark on the sheet where it hits 1/2 way down on the thickness of the mattress.   I like to use a safty pin, but you can use a marker or what ever you like.  This is the point you are going to fold over and start sewing from, and make a small pocket for your mattress to sit in.   The part you are marking is the bottom of the pocket. 

I  used a safty pin to mark the "fold over" point.  Whatever this distance is, make a mark on the other side of the foot side of the sheet.  The points you are marking are where you will fold over the material. You want them to be the exact same length at the foot of the sheet.  Fold over the sheet at the point marked.  Sew a straight stich from the mark point up to the top of the folder over point. Do this along the left and then on right side of the sheet, creating a pocket.

 I like to have the print inside the sheets when I make the beds, so I put my print on the outside as I am sewing.  After sewing, you turn the sheet back right side out.  As you make the bed, the sewing cannot be seen as it is hidden inside the sheet pocket. 

Here you can see the sheet is sewn together just on the edges.  For a twin sheet you will sew about 14 inches or so on each side.  After you have sewn both sides, turn it inside out.  You should have a nice little pocket on the foot end of your sheet.

Now that the sheet is sewn together on both sides making a pocket, you simply make the bed as usual.  The bottom of your sheet has a nice little pocket to snug around the bottom of the mattress.
With this design my kids sheets will not come untucked from the bottom!  It is easy to make and unmake the bed with out velcro, or extra fabric
YEA!
PS I HAVE NOT USED THIS DESIGN FOR ANY LARGER SIZE MATTRESS.  YOU WILL NEED ENOUGH FABRIC TO TUCK IT UNDER THE MATTRESS.
Hope you like it as much as I do!!!

Creative Easter Fun!

At our house the Easter Bunny delivers lots and lots of eggs. Those eggs sometimes appear before Easter morning. They decorate cute areas all over our house.

There has got to be something fun you can do with ALL those Easter eggs???

With the help of my cute boys, we came up with a few EGG-games you can do with your kids.

Egg Toss

Find a spot where you can toss a bunch of plastic eggs around, and not break or tip things over. A hallway is the perfect spot. That way the eggs are contained to a small spot and don’t go flying around the room. The narrow Hallways make it easier for the kids to throw the eggs back and forth and collection easy!

We marked the first line on one end of the hallway with blue painters tape. We then marked the other end line the same way. We measured to the middle of the two lines and placed an blue tape X to mark it.

The eggs were given out and a bucket was placed on the blue X. The kids started trying to toss the eggs into the bucket. If they missed it would roll to the other person. If they made it we would all clap and cheer!

When the bucket is full and all the eggs are gone, you all win!! You can dump it out and play again.

Long Distant Toss

The goal with this game is to increase the distance from the player to the bucket. The player starts off at one end of the room or hallway. That starting point could be marked with blue tape. The bucket is placed about a foot away from the player. Then after every egg is thrown, the bucket is moved another foot away. Move the bucket until you reach a wall.

Egg Hide and Go Seek

This is perfect for two players. Player one is given 4-8 eggs. They are asked to go and hide them around the house, or in a specific area. While player one is hiding, player two is hiding their eyes. When player one is done, player two goes and finds the eggs. When player two has found all the eggs, the game starts again. Player two hides eggs, while player one hides their eyes. It is so fun and the kids love hiding them in different spots, and fun places.

All the games were really fun, and we had a great time as a family. I really had to be active with the game, because my boys could get out of control. As long as I participated they did really good!

Enjoy!

My Favorite Things....

We ALL have our favorite things.  What is the best tasting, most flavorful, most useful! 

There are so many products out there, how can you ever tell what is the best?  I have started making my list of "Favorite Things" related to food.  

All of these products have been found through testing, and retesting.  It makes me cringe thinking of ALL the money I have wasted on stuff I didn't really like, but bought because it was cheep.  Not only did it not taste very good, we didn't eat it very fast.  Now with my list of "Favorites" The food storage turn over is better!  Nothing going to waste.  Also, I can keep an eye out on these products and buy them when they are on sale!

 Here is my list with a brief explanation.

Adams Peanut Butter-NO Partially Hydroginated Oils here....just peanuts and salt. If peanut butter can be healthy, then this is the closest thing.

Best Food Light Mayo- Best tasting LIGHT mayo on the super market shelves! I've tried them ALL!

Wish Bone Salad Dressing(Light)- "Light" ANYTHING can suck, but their dressing is quite yummy!

Cattlemens BBQ Sauce-This BBQ sauce ROCKS!  ALL of the flavors!

Eletes Baby Dill Pickles- These pickles get eaten fast! YUM!

Dan's Food Crab Salad- Seriously this is my down fall!  I LOVE it, and can't help eating tons of it with salty crackers. JUST HEAVEN! (For freshness, check the container at the store, if it is LARGE(over a foot in length), then it is fresh and could last a week.  If it is a small container at the store, it won't last as long in your fridge.)

Gulden's Mustard- like mustard, LOVE GULDENS!  If I am going to have mustard, it's gotta be Guldens!

Frenches Mustard- If I can't get Gulden's Then buy Frenches, the no name is just icky!

Boars Head Lunch Meats-These are more expensive, but you gotta figure you are not paying for the WATER added to the other cheeper lunch meats. Their Chicken is the least expensive, and still really good.

Miso Mayo-Yummy replacement to mayo. Fabolous on fish tacos.

Silk LIGHT Soy Milk- Much better flavor than the original.

These are just a few of my favorite food items.  I hope they give you some insite into what is good when you are shopping at the store.  Try them, you might like em!

Crafty Easter Vase

Willams Sonoma has some of the finest and most beautiful decoration ideas.  The only thing I don't like is the extremly high price.  In the latest cataloge they have a great idea for Spring eggs.  They show a beautiful glass vase, with colorful eggs in it.  The vase itself is listed for $69.00, and it is very beautiful. If you want to add the monogram it increases to $79.00, not exactly in my price range.  The look is really nice, and it is the perfect look for my easter eggs.  Not being detered by price, I knew the perfect place to go to find something similar, Tai Pan Trading.  Tai Pan is one of my all time favorite stores.  It is good not only for decorating, but also to find amazing crative ideas.  At Tai Pan I found a similar vase for $7.00!!!  It is almost the exact design, for 90% off the cataloge price!  How cool is that!  The eggs in the vase are "Robin Eggs" from Whoppers candy.  I actually bought 3 bags thinking it would get filled up, I was wrong.  I really needed about 15 bags!  Especially with how quickly my kids eat the eggs!  Easter is on it's way!  This vase will add a nice touch to any spring decorations.   

 PS sign up for email from Tai Pan and recieve 25% off coupons!  That's Even Better!