Spot Shot

I have to give credit for finding this GREAT item to a book my sister gave me for Christmas one year. The name of the book is How the Queen Cleans Everything. The wonderful product?

Spot Shot. It's awesome at getting out stains. Let's just say that a purple grape had been on the floor of our vehicle a few days and left a stain and the stain came out easily. I find it in the cleaner aisle at Wal-Mart.

I never win anything. Well, I can't say "never" anymore. These are some cute shoes that I won for my little girl's feet. As you can tell, they are cute even though they have cupcake frosting on them in this picture. To check out more adorable shoes from the same company please visit http://www.bugabooshoes.com/

Pampered Chef

I have had the opportunity to go to some Pampered Chef parties over the years. Some of their items have been great and some not so great. I just received their carousel to hold utensils as a gift, and I love it. As you can see in the pictures, my white utensil holder had just a few things in it, and honestly I could hardly squeeze anything else in there. The black one on the bottom is the new one I have received from Pampered Chef. It takes up about the same amount of space, but it holds so much more. Now I have room in some of my drawers that I was having a hard time closing because I was able to move so many items to this carousel.

If you will, please notice the bright green knife in the middle of all the utensils. That is my new, nylon lettuce knife. While it does a great job not turning the lettuce green, it needs to be made of a thicker material. Instead of cutting the lettuce straight, it cuts at a rounded angle because the knife is not sturdy enough to keep it's form. I do think that it's going to work well on cutting brownies though. It's supposed to work well for nonstick pans.

Your Opinion Needed

I am a hands and knees kind of floor mopper, AND I have these ugly light colored vinyl kitchen floors as well as tile in the bathrooms, and hardwood floors in just about the whole rest of the house. On top of that, I have four little ones constantly trampling the floor and bringing dirt in. Honestly, I only mop my kitchen once a week although my floors could stand a lot more, but my knees just can't. "Why not use a push mop?" is the famous question. The reply? Because all they do after the first use is push dirt around, not clean it up. Imagine my interest when I saw the infomercial on the Shark Steam Mop. Wow! Does that look great! It says that it can get your floors cleaner than anything else, and it has a washable mophead........just what I would need if I were to use a push mop. After asking around, I have found a couple of people who have purchased this mop and really like it a lot. My brother being one of those people, testified to the fact that they USED to have a paint spot on their floor that they could never get up until they bought the Shark Steam Mop. Sounds great to me. Here's my delimma. I started looking at reviews of steam mops on the internet and found that the Shark has a competitor with a much higher rating. It's called the Bissell Steam Mop. What I would like to know is, are there any people out there who would like to testify to the goodness or badness of either of these mops. One thing I do know. I sure am planning on eventually getting one.......which one is the question.

If you are interested in either of these products, Target carries the Shark Steam Mop in its store, and Wal-Mart carries the Bissell Steam Mop on its website. I'm not sure if they are actually in the Wal-Mart stores.

Health Insurance

It's been a long time since I've written anything up here, and I had planned on dropping the blog as I wrote earlier. However, I kept seeing people dropping by reading the little bit that I had written before, so I decided to start back telling about good things (and sometimes bad things I've come across.)

Given the concerns about health insurance, I thought people might be interested in finding different options available to them. We have insurance through my husband's work, and they have changed companies that they use down through the years. However, the company that was easiest for us to use was United Health Care. We really liked their services a lot and had no hassle with them. My husband's company now uses Blue Cross and Blue Shield. It has been adequate with a few set backs along the way. It's just not as user friendly as the other was.

I guess the upside for Blue Cross is that they provide health care to self employed people, while United Health Care only provides health care to individuals employed through a company. For health insurance information in your state click here.

Let me recommend........

My sister has a blog designed for the same purpose as this one except that she posts things on her site once or twice a week. For some reason, I can't find the time to do that here. For that reason, I am no longer writing for this blog and wish to recommend rantsravesandrejects.blogspot.com as an alternative to my "Good Stuff."
Thanks!

TV Guardian

Our old DVD player went on the blink, so my husband went and bought a new one. When he did, he saw that it came with TV Guardian capabilities. It cost us a one time fee of $20 to sign up for it, and we love it. What TV Guardian does, is read the closed captioning on a DVD and based on how strictly you put the settings, blocks out inappropriate language. It says that it is 95% accurate. We have been happy with its performance thus far.
You can also order a TV Guardian box that will work with your TV programming. It costs more, but I think it would be worth it to keep from hearing all the inappropriate language. Check out their site for more info and prices.

Photo courtesty of: TV Guardian's Web Page

Some Helpful Hints

Being a parent of three little ones, I often come across something that my children have done and wonder how in the world am I going to remove that!!!!!!!!!! Here are a couple of common items that I love.
Rubbing alcohol--does wonders on ink and permanent marker. One of my little girls decided that black marker would look beautiful all over her pink wall. I took a baby wipe and poured alcohol on it and washed the marker off the wall. The more porous the object, the more difficult it is to get the marker or ink off, but I still recommend alcohol. If a regular ink pen marks on a garment, try pouring alcohol on the mark and throwing it in the wash. That usually works pretty well too.
We also use rubbing alcohol to clean our CD's that have little finger prints all over them.
When I was in college, we also used rubbing alcohol to clean our telephones. Have you ever looked at your telephone. It gets this gunk on the earpiece......anyway, you get the picture. In fact, I may go clean my phone right now!

This wasn't so good

I got my husband a Durabrand wireless optical mouse for Christmas. We really liked using it for a while, but after a while the arrow on the computer screen was jumping all over the place instead of where we were pointing the mouse. It became so bad that we went back to using our old mouse. I think a wireless optical mouse is great...........just don't get a cheap one like I did!

Photo Courtesy Of: Wal-Mart Website

Back With the Program..........I Hope!

I know I haven't written anything up here in a long while. I was discouraged with the lack of results from this site, and then..........I got morning sickness. It was not at all conducive to writing blog articles, home schooling, and just being a mom. Hopefully the trend of nothing up here will be over for a while.
As a quick recommendation, I would like to say that I really like Shout stain remover gel. I just came across a site that tells the opinions of different stain removers. You might like to check it out too!

Bath and Body Works

It's been a little while since I've written anything because I have not been feeling so well lately. Today, I'm feeling a little better, so I'll take time to recommend something today.

My little girls both like lotions. One loves perfume, and one loves hand sanitizer. Bath and Body Works has a line of products for little girls that, of course, smell really good. The line is called "American Girl." I got one of my daughters roll on perfume with glitter for Christmas and our other little girl strawberries and cream hand sanitizer. They think they are just something special now that they have their own little primping products.

Phonics

I taught sixth grade for two years, and I now homeschool two of my children. May I recommend teaching children phonics when they are learning to read. It eliminates memorizing words, and a lot of hard work. There are different phonics programs available, but all are not equal. some teach a little bit of phonics but still leave a lot of guess work for the children. I personally like the phonics program available from A Beka Books. It is a step by step program with that makes reading simple. It leaves a child with very little guess work when it comes to reading.

(After you click on the above link, log in as a guest. After logging in as a guest, type "phonics" in the "category" box and click "Go.")

Phonics also helps children spell better. My kids can spell some words already even though I have not taught them how to spell yet because they can sound out the word. Give phonics a try. It really works.

Games for Teens

My husband started working with the teenagers at our church almost two years ago. He has been very hard pressed to find some good, exciting things for the teens to do. He finally found this site and loves it. If you're throwing a party, or work with teens too, you need to check this site out.

A Couple of Good Sites

There are two websites that I enjoy looking at. One is Craig’s List. And the other is Free Cycle.
craigslist.org is a site where people sell, trade, and give away items and services. I personally look at their furniture items for sale. We happen to have an especially frequented Craig’s List. Other locations in the US sometimes do not have such variety or as many offers available. If you are interested in looking at a Craig’s List site near you, click on the link above. It will pull up the San Francisco area or Raleigh, NC Craig’s List. Off to the right off the page is a list of countries and states. Click on the state where you live, and it will pull up a list of Craig’s List sites available in your state.
I like to use Free Cycle to get rid of items that are still good, and would like someone to be able to use. Of course, it also lists free things that are available. You have to sign up for this one at freecycle.org. When people post items they are giving away, a message is sent to your email to let you know what is available.
Check out both these sites. I really like them.

Nuby Sippy Cups

Sippy cups – the bane of our couches, and floors, and … you get the picture. It does not matter what kind of claim the manufacturers made to market their product; every cup I tried leaked from the first moment it was used – until I discovered Nuby cups. The difference lies in the fact that the valve is built into the silicon nipple, removing the possibility of a premature dislodging of the valve. After prolonged use, the valve may begin to tear, causing the cup to leak; however, as you will see, the cups are cheap enough to be able to replace one without breaking the bank.

Another Nuby cup feature I like is that it is much easier to clean than the normal valve cups. I could never get the valve areas clean in the other sippy cups, and all kinds of nasty crud would build up, posing a potential health hazard for my children.

Last but not least, Nuby cups are much cheaper than other sippy cups. You can purchase them at Wal-Mart for $1.57 (unless they have recently changed the price).

submitted by RS

Magic Erasers

If you have been looking for that “magic” cleaning tool, you need search no longer. The Magic Eraser by Mr. Clean is the end of your quest. I know from personal experience that not only does it do a great job of cleaning surfaces soiled with dirt and grime but it is also fantastic at removing unwanted pen, crayon, marker and pencil marks. Believe me, with three little children, I use my Magic Eraser often! There are several different kinds of Magic Erasers targeted to different needs, and they are widely available at such stores as Target and Wal-Mart.

submitted by: R.S.

photo courtesy of: Mr. Clean

Sony Under Cabinet Clock Radio

Under Counter Radio
I love music. I also spend a lot of time in the kitchen. This meant that we had a radio sitting on the counter along with a ton of CD’s. About a year and a half ago my husband bought me an under the counter radio/CD player. Talk about clearing off the counter. It was great. The only problem is that I have yet to find a CD holder that I would like to hang on my kitchen wall. Any hints anyone?

Only Hearts Club

I don't know about you, but at my house, baby dolls never seem to stay dressed. This includes the busty Barbie dolls. I just don't care for such naked detail lying around for my little boy to see. Last month, I came across what I think is a great alternative to Barbie dolls. They are dolls that belong to the Only Hearts Club. The dolls are about the same size as Barbie dolls, but they look more like ten year olds than grown women. I think they make a much better role model for my girls to play with, and definitely are not as offensive when you find them undressed as a Barbie doll is.

You may or may not like some of the role models, but there is a good variety of role models and clothing accessories to choose from.

They are available at Target, and if you hurry, you might find some of the accessories on clearance.

Microfiber towels

We bought a new vehicle about two months ago. For us, that meant getting new car care items. My husband came across some great towels to dry off the vehicles. I love them. You may already use them, but they are new to me. They are Microfiber towels made by Calderon Textiles. They just seemed to suck the water right up. The ones we bought are orange, but I have noticed that they come in a variety of colors. My husband bought ours at the Dollar General; however, they are also available at you regular old Wal-Mart and Target.

Home Made Salsa

Salsa
My mom gave me this great and very inexpensive recipe for salsa. We are going to start making this instead of buying it.

Salsa:
1 can diced tomatoes and chilis drained
1 4 oz can tomato sauce
1 clove of garlic

Combine ingredients in blender and puree.
Enjoy!