Vinegar, lots of vinegar.

Alright, so I've said how you can use vinegar with baking soda to wash just about anything. But. Vinegar itself is great for so many other things. When I cook bacon, which I hate doing. It gets grease on the floor,no matter how hard I try to keep it from splattering yet still get the crispyness I like.. it splatters, and before you know if my floors are covered in grease! I'm sure you know where I'm going with this. Mopping the floor with Mr. Clean doesn't get that grease off! Sooo I could A get a wash cloth and wash the floor by hand with dish soap or B I could endure the putrid smell of vinegar for a minute while I almost effortlessly mopthe floor with a vinegar and hot water mixture! Work great!


Now here's a little story to illustrate the need or vinegar in your house: when my son was about 3 years old we were going to a birthday party for his best friend. I was unloading my two year old and one year old as my mom helped get my oldest son, Elias, out. We opened the trunk of the car to get diaper bag and presents, after telling elias to back away from the trunk (he was sticking his head in to see something) well my mom didn't realize that elias was still peering into the trunk when sh went to close it. Sure enough the trunk hit him right on the top of his head scaring my mom silly, and blood gushing everywhere. Now, I may loose it and yell or panick about minor thing but when its big things... I'm instantly calm. I grabbed the nearest blanket or towel or shirt, I don't even know, and stuck it on his head as we briskly walked to the party. When we walked in, I honestly didn't know what to do since it cut to his skull. What do you use? What's safe? Come to find out use vinegar! Better than neosporin, and safer when you have big giant open wounds like that. It works as a natural antibacterial. Its what they use in other countries that don't have fancy medicine on hand! Elias was fine, aside from the initial shock and lots of crying, he does have a scar now (two years later) but his hair is so thick I. Can only tell because every so often I go looking for it.
And we used I think it was apple cidar but they said white vinegar is bettter (less sugar, I imagen) so there you have it... let me break it down for you

three things to do with vinegar

1.) Condition your hair, works especially nice on greasy hair
2.) Mop your floors, dilute with water. The smell will go away.
3.) Use in place of things like neosporin, on scrapes even on big open wounds.


Hope that helped... now off to mop my floors ;)

Lovely Lavender Essence

I bought some lavender essence oil for an all purpose cleaner that I sell, it was pretty expensive but I've found it to be pretty useful! I don't usually shower in the morning because if I do I wind up with a big blond fro! My hair gets pretty stripped with the cheap shampoos I use. (Thatts what I've been told anyways) but the other dayit was drizzly out and I had to shower that morning so my hair was especially poofy. I looked around for my sample of hair straightener that I havebut either I've used it all or I lost it, so I took two drops of the lavender essence oil rubbed it in my hands then worked it into my hair from the roots up. Not only did it take the frizz awayinstantly, it made it super soft and it smelled good! So I thought Id share. :)

before you toss the necklace!

What was once my favorite necklace, quickly became another piece of jewelry being tangled in with all my other necklaces, never to be worn again. I was missing one of the feather dangles. But even though I couldn't wear it, I couldn't bring myself to throw it away. Today while trying to find the right accessory for my outfit, I saw the beads on that necklace (the colors matched what I was wearing) and bingo, I had it! I took off the dangly feather things, and because the necklace could be sized, I wrapped it around my wrist a few times, and voila'! New bracelet. The feather dangles will become earrings once I get the stuff! Nice deal! Two accessories out of one, and if I loose an earring I a spare! :)

I've also seen and heard of using opera length necklaces as belly chains or belts. Pardon the picture... its from a cell, not the best example I have but it gives you an idea of what can be done with your opera length necklaces!

4 Chop quick prep chicken noodle

Try saying that 10 times fast (or even once!) Well, today was a hot day but I ha ingredients for chicken noodle soup, and you can't beat how cheap it is! I hate chopping things. Seriously! I really don't have time to stand there and chop twenty different ingredients, so most of my meals that I cook have as little chopping as possible, and as much flavor as possible! Here is what I've come up with for simple chicken noodle!

3 sticks of celery
4 carrots
1 onion
4 frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 32 oz box of chicken broth
3 cloves of garlic
(I love spices so its a bit lengthy)
2 TBS italian seasoning
1 tsp rosemary
2 bay leaves
2 TBS garlic salt
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 squirt (around the pot once) brown mustard
1tsp terragon
Dash of chili powder


*in large soup pot pour in the chicken broth,dump in your chicken breasts (whole And still frozen) add some water leave room to add veggis and remember you will put your noodles in there. Add all your spices.

*chop your first three things (carrots, celery and onion) add to chicken and broth.

*take out your whole chicken breasts and chop them up and put them back into the soup. (They should still be kinda raw)

*when the chicken has cooked through, add half a bag of egg noodles (I used 6 oz. Of dried noodles)

*serve once noodles are cooked. And u can salt and pepper to taste :)



Its a lot it looks like but for soup that's done from start to finish in under 50 minutes, that's pretty good!
Hope you can enjoy!

Coffee grounds and Baking Soda

Typically, at least of the moms I know, coffee is a moms best friend! Every morning there is a mad rush of mini vans, not heading to school, heading to starbucks first, then to school dropping off the kids. Sure starbucks isn't just popular among mothers, but the workaholics, the over worked, ... and pretty much everyone else ;) but all those coffee grounds... what is being done with it? Those old coffee grounds have a suprisingly wide veriaty of usefulness. (And so does baking soda, but I will get to that in a second) if you go to starbucks for your coffee, they have a program called coffee grounds for gardens (or something to that nature) but if you brew your energy at home here are a few uses for those.

1) Dry it out on a cookie sheet and it can be used in place of banking soda to deoderize your bathrooom/fridge/closet etc. So you know those baking soda boxes you buy to deoderize various things, well dried coffee grounds work the same and just as well.

2) Use it in your garden. Just as the starbucks program suggests, its great for your soil. I use it in my house plants, justset it right on top. (You can also mix it in if you want) this stuff is really high in vitamins and nutrients essential for healthy plants.

3) If you have some scratches on your wood furniture, use the old coffee grounds by putting it in a few tablespoons of hot water, then use a QTip, dip it into the coffee ground/water and rub in into the scratch then wipe off. If its not dark enough, do it again. (Apparently you can also use old strong brewed coffee to stain your wood instead of buying wood stain)

Now onto Baking Soda!
I've got to say, baking soda is a good friend of mine! I use it very frequently for just about everything. What A nice mineral that God put in the earth for us! Here are two things I use it for the most
Febreze: in a spray bottle put a table spoon of liquid fabric softener and a tablespoon of baking soda, add hot water, until full, shake it up... there you go. Spray on fabrics and couches. Not so much for the air or bathroom. But works great on anything cloth.

cleaner: a couple TBS of baking soda half a cup of vinagar, a tablespoon or few of water, shake (yes it will fizz, add the vinager slowly) and your cleaner will work great on almost anything!

Now you have it. Just another solution to saving some cash!