Detangling Hair

If you have little girls with long hair, you understand the constant battle I am in to keep that hair free of tangles. Lydia is growing her hair out to donate. She needs ten inches which she has, but she also doesn't want to cut her hair above her shoulders. We are almost there, just one inch to go. Her hair is about at the middle of her back, and if we don't stay on top of it, her head quickly becomes a jungle.

Vivian's hair isn't nearly as long or as thick, but she is two. Her hair is constantly getting tangled by her pulling at her hair bands and twisting her hair. Between the two of them we deal with a lot of tangles. Here are some tips that have helped us a lot.

1. Detangler
Use it generously. You can buy it, but a much more economical solution is to make your own. I picked this tip up over at Frugal Upstate some time ago. Simply take some of the cheapest conditioner you can find. Put some in the bottom of a spray bottle and fill the bottle with water. Shake it to mix together.

I use detangler pretty much every time I comb their hair. It is also a great quick fix when the toddler has yet again gotten her lunch in her hair, and we don't have time for a bath.

2. A wide toothed comb.
Always comb the hair out first with a wide toothed comb. Start at the bottom and work your way up.

3. Keep it up.
Keeping their hair in a pony tail, pigtails or a sloppy bun while they play helps keep the tangles away.

4. Keep it trimmed.
Dry or split ends tend to get into more tangles.


Little girls and long hair don't have to be a nightmare combination. Keeping it combed out regularly and using the tips above can help you keep their long hair pretty and manageable.

The photo is from Easter. Their hair was rag rolled.

Works for Me Wednesday

Wheeee!

Wordless Wednesday

Social Spark; Open for Business

SocialSpark is up and running? Have you checked it out? I signed up a little over a week ago, and have since been exploring the huge number of features on this site.

There is the social aspect of the site. You can find other liked minded bloggers out there to build some community with. Check out my profile on SocialSpark. I am Stephanie A. Be sure to put in a friend request and to give me a prop. Let me know if you've given a prop and I would be more than happy to return the favor.

The site also offers many resources to bloggers. You can find stats including your traffic and real rank. You can also see the demographics of your readers. You can build traffic through sparks. A spark is an opportunity to create buzz for your site by asking fellow bloggers to blog about one of your posts or topics. You can create sparks for your site or take them for another site or topic you find interesting. In many cases they will share the link love and link back to you.

Of course there is also the business side. Advertisers created opportunities. Bloggers choose the opportunities they are interested in, and get paid. Much like the PayPerPost system. There are also blog sponsorships available. These create a pop-up screen for the advertiser when readers visit your site. These pay by the day.

So many options and features to Social Spark. It is like one stop blog shopping. So stop by my profile and say hi and check out all the Social Spark has to offer.

Make It From Scratch #61

Welcome to Stop the Ride, home of Make it From Scratch. This week is our 61st edition and it is full of good stuff. Come take a look for yourself.

cooking

This carnival is always a source of inspiration in the kitchen. Check out these delicious recipes!


Breakfast
Pancakes Made From Freshly Milled Wheat (pictured)

Classic French Toast

Five-Minute Homemade Pancake Syrup


Lunch/Dinner
Spinach Pie Quiche

Slow Cooker Lasagna

Cream of Green Chile Soup

Sorrel soup

Healthy Chicken Tacos

Spicy Chickpea Pasta

Desserts
Low Carb Cheesecake

Naughty Naughty Matzoh Crunch

Other Kitchen Goodies
Breadmaking Tips

Anzac Biscuits

Barcelona Open Market

Strawberry Tea Party

crafts

You never know what kind of crafts you may find here. Sometimes they are pretty. Sometimes they are practical, and sometimes they are both.



Flowers for the bride(pictured)

A Quick Blanket

Organize with Baby Food Jars

Green Tote for Earthday

other

So many things that can be done from scratch! They just don't always fit nicely into categories!




Mending Fences.. Not for the Sheepish

Cleaning with Ashes

A little lovin relief from hay fever and colds (pictured)

How to Make Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

How To Repair Your Car With Used Junkyard Parts


Thank you so much for joining us for the carnival this week. We would love to have you join in next week! Submit your blog article to the next edition of make it from scratch! using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page. Next week we will be at Creatively Me!

Rainy Day Lists

Spring is one of my favorite times of year. I love the newness of everything, the green emerging from the dead and brown. I love the planting season, the digging in the dirt, and the anticipation of the fruits of your labor. Yes, spring is probably my favorite season, but spring can also sometimes be overwhelming.

There suddenly is so much to do. There are projects to start and to finish outside. There is a garden to get it in. There is push of activities that come at the end of the school year. There is a desire to just get out and enjoy the beautiful weather, and there is a house with a winter's accumulation of dirt and clutter crying out to be cleaned and organized and share in the new shininess of spring. Where to begin?!

A few weeks ago I sat down and made two lists; one for sunny days and one for rainy days. On the sunny days list are things like repainting the patio furniture, cleaning out the storage area, and working in the garden. The rainy day list is full of inside projects; cleaning out the laundry room, the bedrooms, and my chemise drawer, organizing the school cabinet, making a list of curriculum needed for next year, and writing. Having the two lists helps to make the tasks more manageable. It helps to get it out of my brain and on paper. It keeps me from the constant running over the list in my head.

Spring is a wonderful time, but the list of projects can get overwhelming. Keeping a list helps me to manage all the tasks. Organizing the lists by the weather helps me to enjoy the spring weather and get the things done that I need to.







Photo Credit: dee_r

A Winner and Some Links

The winner of the Microwave Bacon Cooker is Megret! Congratulations!

This is an upcoming carnival and contest that I thought you might be interested. Pick your best posts in a variety of topics about modern living. Submit them and winners will be chosen. For more details see TodaysHomemaker.com


Here are your links for Saturday reading material:

Carnival of the Recipes

Carnival of Money Stories

Festival of Frugality

Carnival of Homesteading

Carnival of Debt Reduction

Make It From Scratch
Make It From Scratch will be hosted here on Tuesday! Be sure to get your submissions in before Monday to be included in the carnival! Anyone have a do it yourself for detergent in steam cleaners? I need to clean my carpets and would like a cheaper alternative!

Have a great Saturday!

Shower Curtain Cling?

Does your shower curtain like to cuddle up to you?

I remember our first apartments had one of the tiniest showers. The apartment itself was rather spacious, but you could barely turn around in that bathroom. It had what I guess you'd call a tub, but it was very narrow and had two levels, like a step in it. It is hard to explain. I wish I had a picture of it. I've never seen anything like it anywhere else. Maybe it had something to do with the fact the building used to be a funeral home. Rumor was there were still caskets in the attic. I don't want to think about what that tub might have been for. Creepy.

Um.... where was I?

Oh the shower. It was tiny. It was hard to avoid the shower curtain even when you were just standing there. Once you turned on the water, the curtain began to hover and seek out your naked skin to stick too. Nothing like having plastic stuck to your hiney while trying to shave your legs.

I never could figure out a good way to keep that shower curtain from attacking. Showers were spent holding off the shower curtain with one hand and washing with the other. Wish I would have known about the ShowerBow then. Its clever counterweight design could have made some more space in that tiny shower, and kept that curtain from seeking us out while we showered. It would have made life a lot easier.

Frugal Cooking Carnival

Have you seen what Owlhaven's has cooked up? She is hosting the Frugal Cookin' Carnival. The idea here is to share three days of meals for your family and calculate the cost. I missed the boat here, and didn't get a post together for this, but I think it will be interesting to see what others have come up with.

Her post is the only one up now, but hopefully there will be more. For now you can see what she feeds a family of eleven for three days. Her final cost was about $0.58 per meal. Now that is frugal!

Coupons and Deals

Amazon Green Grocery Deals
Amazon has several different deals going in the green grocery and household supplies page. Click on the link above to see them all, but here are some examples.

• Save up to 40% on Newmans Own Dried Fruit.
• Save $10 on orders of $49 for personal care items. Brand include Alba, Better Botanicals and more.
• Save $20 on orders of $99 for household items including brands Seventh Generation and Biokleen.
• Free shipping on orders over $25 on eligible items.

60% off Gift Certificates at Restaurant.com. $25.00 Gift Certificates for $4.00 with code FLAVOR.

Buy gift certificates for restaurants in your area for a fraction of the face value.


Ebates Deals
Ebates is an online shopping portal that earns you a rebate every time you shop. They also list coupons and deals for the 100's of retailers that participate at their site. If you've never signed up before click on the link above. You'll get a $10 bonus, after your first purchase, and I will get $10 for referring you. (Good until May 31, 2008) Here are some deals I've noticed from participating retailers.

Old Navy
Full On Sale - Save up to 50% on summer clothing. (ends 5/1) plus 3% rebate.

1-800-Flowers
$10 off orders over $49.99. Use code FLWR2. (ends 5/12) 5% cash back. There are also several other florists to choose from.

Vista Print
Free Samples, 50% off sale, and 10% cash back.

Office Depot
10% off any purchase (excluding technology.) (ends 5/10) Plus 2% cash back.

Need life insurance quotes?

For more money saving ideas visit Frugal Fridays.

Spinach Pie Quiche

Many of our meals are unique creations made from a little of this and a little of that I have on hand or left from another meal. I've been cooking in this manner long enough that most times the creations turn out very well. Every now and then they turn out exceptionally. So good that the recipe must be written down to be used again. This is one such instance.

This meal began with a desire to use some phyllo and some ricotta cheese. Both were left from different recipes I had made recently. From there it turned into what I am calling Spinach Pie Quiche. This was a hit with the whole family, even the nine year old who does not like tomatoes or cooked spinach.

Spinach Pie Quiche
2 TB butter
1/2 a medium red onion, chopped
1/2 a medium tomato, chopped
1 - 4 oz can mushrooms, drained
1 - 10 oz box of frozen spinach, thawed
2 large eggs
1/4 C Parmesan cheese
4 oz shredded mozzarella
15 oz Ricotta cheese
1/2 package of phyllo dough
1/4 C butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Melt butter in frying pan over medium-high heat. Add onion and sauté for a few minutes until onion starts to get soft. Add tomato and mushroom. Cook a few more minutes. Add spinach, and cook until most of the liquid is evaporated. Remove from heat.

In a small mixing bowl beat eggs. then stir in the cheeses. Grease a 2 quart baking dish. Place two pieces of the dough in the bottom. Brush with melted butter. Spread 1/3 of the cheese mixture on, and then 1/3 of the spinach mixture. Repeat layers until you've used all the mixtures. End with a layer of dough. Tuck the edges of the dough down into the baking dish. Brush with melted butter. Bake for 35-40 minutes until golden brown.

I love experimenting in the kitchen. It is a great way to use up leftovers and bits of ingredients, and every now and then a new dish is created that is fabulous!

Make Your Own Scrubber

Dishes, the never ending chore in this household. Well, dishes and laundry, and picking up toys, and cleaning up mud. . . oh they joys, but I digress. Back to the dishes.

The other night I was washing a casserole dish that had baked on splatters. The dish cloth wasn't cutting it. That handy little scraper tool that comes with stoneware wasn't doing the trick either, and the blue scrubby thing I had was shot. There were no more scrubby things in reserve. The pan was not getting clean.

Then I remembered a trick I read somewhere. I thought it came from the Tightwad Gazette, but I couldn't find it when I went back to the book to look for the reference. So I am not sure where I read about this tip, but this is what you do:

1. Find a plastic mesh bag.
The kind onions come in. My bag once held oranges.

2. Cut a strip of it off.
I cut about a 4 inch strip, but I think a little larger would be better.

3. Gather it all up into a ball and secure the edges with a rubber band.

It got those splatters right off my casserole dish. It is good for non-stick pans. It worked well on my flat top stove, and it would probably even do the trick on bar faucets. It is easy, free, uses recycled items, and works well. What more could you ask for?

Works for Me Wednesday

Teach Them Young

Wordless Wednesday

Make It From Scratch #60

Today Midwest Neurotica presents a Make It From Scratch Earth Day Tribute.

To see all the entries for this week's carnival please see below.

Country Magpies presents Lemon Lime Bars with Coconut Macadamia Crust.

Erica Burgan presents A Frugal Gift Made From Scratch posted at The Sojourner.

Karen McLaughlin presents RECIPE: Lime and Garlic Chicken posted at The Speeding Kitchen.

tipsandtricks presents Getting More From The Tube posted at tips and tricks 4 me.

Heather L. presents Italian Meatballs posted at The Fat Bottomed Girl.

Kate presents Gran's Apple Tea Cake posted at Our Red House.

Katie Gregg presents Five-Minute Homemade Pancake Syrup posted at Frugal Fabulous.

SeaBird presents Crafts for young children (and Swap!) posted at SeaBird Chronicles.

JennyAnyDots presents My Birthday Cake: posted at The Common Room.

Amy Allen Clark presents Rainy Day Survival Kit posted at Amy Allen Clark.

Stephanie presents Planting Potatoes in Old Tires posted at Stop the Ride!.

Kristen presents High Altitude Cornbread posted at GreenStyleMom.

Autumn Beck presents Flat Diapers?No Pins Necessary! posted at All About Cloth Diapers.

nichole halsey presents Eat something good tonight (black beans and rice edition) posted at Bad Human! Don't take chemicals from strangers!.

Laura Williams presents Enchilada Casserole posted at Laura Williams' Musings.

Alex presents Make You Own Weekly Menu Planner posted at Home Life Weekly.

Suzanne presents Breakfast with Grandmother Bread posted at Chickens in the Road.

Maria presents MIFS: Chicken Strips posted at Life on Both Sides of the Pond.

joanie presents Something blue and a dolly too posted at Nini Makes.

Marc Basile presents Keep a Love Journal posted at The Incurable Romantic.

vh presents Friday Frugal Crafts: Cure Your Own Olives posted at Funny about Money.

SeaBird presents From the butterfly garden posted at SeaBird Chronicles.

Jenny presents The Green Life posted at the so called me.

Tea Party Girl presents Is It Too Much Work to Brew Looseleaf Tea? posted at Tea Party Girl.

New Old-Fashioned Gal presents Homemade Vegetable Stock in a Jar posted at Diary of a New Old-Fashioned Gal.


Thanks! The carnival will be here again next week!

For more information about the carnival or about hosting see Make It From Scratch - the carnival

Bloggy Giveaways - Microwave Bacon Cooker

It's is here! The quarterly phenomenon where hundred of bloggers giveaway hundreds of things to readers everywhere. It is the bloggy giveaways carnival!

How do you play? To give something away post about it on your site then head over to bloggy giveaways and put up your link. To win something head over to bloggy giveaways and pick from the 100's of entries to go visit and sign up for their giveaway. Easy huh?

Okay, so what am I giving away? A Microwave Bacon Cooker. Regular readers may remember my review of this product, but for those who didn't read it, please check it out: Microwave Bacon Cooker.

Simply sign up by leaving your comment. Sorry, this one is open to U.S. residents only. You don't have to have a blog to play, but I do need an email address to contact you. So, please leave your email address in the comments! The winner will be picked, at random, this Friday! Thanks so much and happy bloggy giveaways to you!

Peppermint Sun Tea

Ice tea is a year round drink in this house, but it tastes so much better in the summer. What is it about sun tea that makes it taste so good Maybe it is the slow processing that makes the flavor smooth and refreshing. I'm not sure about the science behind it, but I do know it tastes great. Throw a little mint in, and you have a perfect drink for a hot day.

Our Peppermint is only a few inches high, but I just couldn't resist snagging some for sun tea yesterday. I carefully snipped what I could, being sure to leave enough of the plant for new growth. I probably had about 1/2 a cup. More would have been better, but this worked. I washed the leaves and tied them up in a coffee filter.

I filled a gallon jar with water and placed the peppermint in with eight tea bags. It sat in the sun for a few hours. After it was chilled it was so good! You got to love a refreshing treat that doesn't send you looking for the best weight loss pills after you've enjoyed it.


Photo credit: airencracken

Links for the Week

Today you get your reading material on Friday. We will be making a quick trip to visit family this weekend, so Saturday links are out.

Make It From Scratch

Homesteading Carnival

Carnival of the Recipes

Festival of Frugality

Carnival of Green Gardening

Women's Festival

Mommy Blog Carnival

Carnival of Family Life

And to see what the rich and famous like to wear on their wrist - AP Royal Oak

And if you really need more to read this weekend, it is suppose to rain here tomorrow, check out the Make It From Scratch or the Frugal Blogrolls over there on the side bar. You are bound to find some blogs with some helpful and entertaining information! Enjoy!

Patience Pays Off

In a Two Bunk Bed Family, I shared how being patient allowed us to find what we needed within our budget. In that particular case the need was filled with a free item. I also promised a story about another example where patience has paid off. This time there is a vehicle involved.

Clear back in November of 2006 our van hit the 200,000 mile mark. In February of 2007 I was growing tired of the glitches with our van, and was ready to buy something else. Well, until I started car shopping anyway. Then in Limited Resources and Hard Choices, I realized that buying another vehicle was not realistic. So I kept waiting.

Then the transmission went out on a friends van. Long story short, they gave us the van. If you are interested in the longer story, you can read it here. This probably wouldn't have been what I would have picked, but it is in much better shape than our other van that had been used to haul four teenage boys around a few years, and has hauled all my kids for the last eight years. It also has one very important feature that our other van did not; two sliding doors. All you mom's out there with more than one child in a car seat know how vital this feature is.

So let's talk numbers. The Kelley Blue Book private party price for this van is $2810. To get the van up and running it needed a new transmission. My dad and husband pulled the transmission themselves, and then took it to a shop to be rebuilt. The cost $650. They also fixed some glitches, like a power window that was not working, performed some routine maintenance, gave it a tune up and touched up any rust spots. The grand total $1500.

I know some of you are screaming, "What about their time? How much time did they put in to it?" I probably don't count time as much as some. Not that time isn't important, but simply put when you don't have the cash, you make the time. I look at it more in terms of opportunity cost. What would we have been doing instead? With garages charging $50 or more per hour, there is little that we could do to earn that same rate. They spent about twenty man hours on the van.

I've waited a long time to have a better vehicle. The patience has paid off. For $1500 and some time invested, we have a vehicle that is in great shape, and should last us many years. Most importantly, we have a vehicle that we can afford. One that we paid cash for because the best credit card debt relief is to not incur any more debt.

Frugal Fridays

Another Paid Post Option

Blogging is such a wonderful tool for mommy bloggers. It helps us connect without the outside world in the midst of all our responsibilities. It is a place to share ideas and tips, and just to know that there are others who are dealing with the same issues you are. Blogging can also be a tool for those mommy bloggers who need to create a little income.

I've shared with you the frustrations I've had recently with my page rank and paid posting. Now there is something new, SocialSpark. Social Spark is multi faceted. There is a community aspect where you can meet like minded bloggers and advertisers, create friends and leave messages for one another. There is the marketplace where you can find or create opportunities. Some of them are paid, but some are just blogger to blogger. I blog about you, and then you link to me.

Paid posts at SocialSpark are Google bot friendly. Sponsored posts use no-follow tags. Apparently, Google doesn't care if you get paid to blog, but only if you are throwing off their search rankings. Using no-follows tags fixes the problem.

Mommy blogging has been good to me in so many ways, but I wasn't sure how I was going to handle the page rank issues that paid blogging has created. Now there is another option. Don't despair mommy bloggers, help is on the way. You can earn a few bucks, and keep your page ranking too.

13 Things We Will be Growing This Year - TT #25

A few weeks ago I posted about things I wish we grew. This week my list is about the things we are growing, or at least will be if our clay ground ever dries out enough to till and plant!

1. Tomatoes
Two varieties; one for eating and one for sauce.

2. Potatoes
Grown in recycled tires.

3. Green Peppers
These were a flop last year; hoping for better this time.

4. Jalapenos
Pickled these last year. They were so good.

5. Banana Peppers
Ditto #4.

6. Cabbage
Tried to start these from seed; tiny little seeds. Almost need magnifiers to see them. They aren't doing too well. I may need to buy some plants, or try again in the fall.

7. Broccoli

8. Cucumbers
Sure enjoyed these pickled too.

9. Zucchini

10 Summer Squash

11. Pumpkins
Some for pies. Some for carving.

12. Corn

13. Green Beans


Well I think that was the easiest Thursday 13 I've ever come up with. I think I could almost make another list of thirteen, but I will spare you.

Happy Thursday Thirteen to you!

Shop Wiki

There are so many online shopping sites to choose from. Each offers its own advantages over other sites. Shop Wiki is unique for its inclusion of all online stores. They search the web, kind of like Google does, to find all stores that carry the products you are looking for. Most online shopping sites only list stores that have paid to be listed there or that pay the site a commission on sales.

So say you are looking for Baby and Toddler items, Shop Wiki gives you several categories to look for what you need. Each category includes a guide with more information and sometimes with links to helpful forums and articles. If you are looking for diapers, the guide gives you information and benefits of cloth and disposable. (I love that they are very pro washable diapers.) From there you can click on a product to find the stores that carry the items, compare prices and see user reviews of the stores. A great way to comparison shop all in one place.

There are so many options when shopping online. Knowing the benefits of them can help you to make the best decision when shopping for the things you need.

Three of My Cuties

Wordless Wednesday

Make It From Scratch #59

This week at This Wasn't in The Plan.

Planting Potatoes in Old Tires

If you've ever planted potatoes, you know that it is back breaking work. Last year we planted a fair amount of potatoes the traditional way. We dug, planted and mounded the potatoes. We fought potato beetles most of the season. We dug again to find there weren't a lot of potatoes. They were delicious, but we didn't get a good yield.

For several years now I've been reading about alternative ways to plant potatoes. Grandmother Wren's post Grow Potatoes in a Barrel convinced me to try something different this year. I've also seen several articles about growing potatoes in old tires. A good one can be found at Back Woods Home, A New Use for Old Tires. The article discusses using old tires for a variety of garden needs, including growing potatoes.

Since I don't have any barrels on hand, and we did have a few tires and a neighbor who has lots of old tires, I decided to go the tire route. If you don't live in the hills like I do, where old tires are in abundant supply, you can get old tires from your neighborhood tire shop. They actually have to pay to dispose of them, so they would be happy to give you all you need.

Here is what you need to do.

1. Lay out your tires. Create some drainage.
The article suggested digging up the soil to create drainage. Since the soil where I laid the tires is rock hard clay, I put some stone and broken block pieces in to create drainage. I also stuffed dryer lint around the edge of the tire. This isn't necessary, but I had the lint and it will help to keep the soil in while the water drains. (Remember 13 uses for dryer lint?)


2. Put in some dirt and growing material.
I covered the drainage material with compost soil. Then filled the rest with leaves. Be sure to stuff the soil into the sides. You can use soil, leaves, or partially rotted sawdust. We will be using a little of all three.


3. Get the potatoes ready.
You'll want to use seed potatoes, not just some that you've had to long in your cupboard. Seems the potatoes you buy to eat have been treated to not grow. Those that do start growing will not do well.

Cut them in pieces so that each piece has two eyes in it.


4. Plant them.
Put three or four potato piece in each tire, and cover with planting material.


5. Water



6. Wait
This is as far as I've gotten. Next I wait for the plants to be about 8 inches tall. Then I will add another tire, and enough dirt, leaves, or sawdust to cover all but two or three inches of the plant. When I get to this step I will post an update. The process will be repeated until there are four tires stacked. To harvest I will simply remove one tire at a time, and remove the potatoes. A four tire stack is expected to yield about 25 pounds of potatoes.

We started with five tires, but decided it was so easy we would do more. We now have the start for 13 stacks. I will post updates throughout the season.

The Curse of Good Credit

Good credit is a good thing isn't it? I'm not so sure.

We've never made a lot of money, yet we have been offered a lot of credit. Foolishly we have taken advantage of many of those offers. Somehow we've managed to keep up with payments through the ups and downs of our income. Now here we are with a modest income, loads of debt, and somehow, an excellent credit rating.

We should be happy about that, shouldn't we?

Our good credit feels more like a curse.

What good has our good credit done us? It allowed us to buy a house which seemed like a good investment at the time, without a down payment. It did serve us well while we lived there, but our situation, not to mention the housing market, has changed. That good investment is a burden on our finances and time.

With our good credit we have purchased cars, fixed cars, taken vacations, purchased groceries in tight times, paid for unexpected expenses, gone out to eat way too often, and overall lived well beyond our means for the majority of the last thirteen years. Now we pay $100's of dollars in interest to our creditors every month. Money I'd much rather see go to our savings account Yeah, good credit is a wonderful thing.

Though we are neck high in debt, though our income qualifies us for some social services, though I have no desire to borrow any money, creditors are still trying to woo us. Credit offers come almost daily in the mail. Credit limit increases, initiated by the credit card company are a normal thing. The latest credit card limit increase put our credit limit at 70% of our annual income; on one credit card! I'm scared to add up all the available credit we have. It must be triple our annual income. Something isn't right here.

I have no intention of taking advantage of their temptations. Though at this point I really don't care much about my credit rating, I have no intention of losing that rating either. We will continue to pay our bills on time, and therefore continue to have a good credit rating.

In the past we have fallen to the lure of instant gratification. We are paying a pretty price for it now, and have learned our lesson. The curse of our good credit, the temptation to use that credit is no longer there. It is just ridiculous that a family in our situation can be offered such an excessive amount of credit. I thought the nation was in a credit crunch?

For Cindy

A dear blogging friend is in need of our prayers and support. Please read Cindy's post, My Journey into the Pink, and join me in lifting her up in prayer.

Saturday Morning Link Love

Here are some carnivals and festivals from the week for your reading pleasure.

Carnival of the Recipes

Festival of Frugality

Carnival of Money Stories

Make It From Scratch

Living By Design

Carnival of Country Living

Carnival of Family Life

All Women Blogging Carnival

Have a great Saturday. I'm may be working on those potato beds today. There will be a post to follow soon!

Looking for medical insurance quotes?

Beans and Wieners

Funny how simple dishes can trigger found memories. There are many foods that immediately send my mind to grade school; grilled cheese and tomato soup, tater tots, apple crisp, and beans and wieners.

Beans and wieners is such a simple and economical dish to make. The kids think it is fun too because there are hot dogs in the soup. Frugal and fun, exactly why it was served so often in my grade school cafeteria, but you can make it at home too!

Beans and Wieners
1/2 pound dry navy beans
3 hot dogs, slice
1 carrot, chopped
1/2 a small onion, chopped
ketchup
salt
pepper

Soak beans in the morning, or do a quick soak per instructions on the package. Drain beans and put them back in the pot. Add just enough water to cover. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Add hot dogs , carrot and onion. Continue to cook about another 30 minutes until beans are soft. Add a squirt of ketchup. Salt and pepper to taste. Good served with cornbread!

Yard Sale Shopping

The grass is green. The spring flowers are in bloom. The kids are wearing shorts, and I am on the look out for those lovely little signs that make my frugal heart jump a little with excitement; YARD SALE!

I love yard sales. It is like a treasure hunt. You don't know if you'll find anything, and often times you don't, but occasionally you will find that perfect thing, a rare gem, with a tiny little price tag. Yard sales can be very rewarding shopping. Here some things to help you get the most from yard sale shopping.

1. Make a list.
Write down the things you want to keep an eye out for. Do you need kitchen gadgets? Are there games you'd like to have? What clothing, winter and summer, do you need? Write down the clothing and shoe sizes for the family. Keep your list in your car or in your wallet so you will have it when you are out and about.

2. Keep cash ready.
Keep a separate small envelope or change purse stocked with small bills and quarters. If you don't normally carry your checkbook, like me, it may be a good idea to stash one check in there too, especially if you are looking for items that cost more than your cash stash. Keep the sale money in the car or in your purse.

3. Watch for sales.
Sales are often advertised in the newspaper, but sometimes are simply a sign in someones yard. You don't want to be running clear across town for every yard sale. Only make a special trip to a sale if there is a big item you're interested in. Be sure to go early! Keep your eye out for signs when you are out running anyway. Stop at the sales that catch your eye.

4. Neighborhood sales rock!
I try to go to as many neighborhood and town sales as possible. I love these! It is like a yard sale mall. I can get all the kids out and walk from house to house. I don't have to spend my time or gas running from sale to sale. Strollers are a must for these; not just for the kids, but for the found treasures!

5. Use restraint.
The point of going to yard sales is not to clutter up your own house. Only buy things you will use, no matter how good the price is!


Yard sale shopping can be a wonderful thing! What are your favorite tips to get the most out of yard sale shopping?

Frugal Fridays
Photo credit: discarted

Getting Tea Stains Off Plastic

We drink a lot of ice tea. It is the drink of choice here, and my plastic pitchers show it. They turn brown quickly. Every now and then Tim will take some bleach water to clean them out. (Apparently it bothers him sooner than it bothers me.) It works, but I'm not crazy about using a lot of bleach.

Awhile back I accidentally found a tastier solution: make lemonade.

We make lemonade from lemon juice instead of a mix. The lemon juice removes the tea stains. Full strength is works pretty fast on those stains, but even dilute for lemonade the stains are usually gone by the time the lemonade is.

Lemonade
for one gallon

2 C sugar
2 C lemon juice (or mix 1/2 and 1/2 with lime juice)
water to fill the pitcher


I suppose if I alternated tea and lemonade in the pitcher I'd never have to worry about those stains again.

A tasty solution that works for me.

Starting My Potato Beds

Stayed tuned for more information.

Wordless Wednesday

Make It From Scratch #58

This week Make It From Scratch is hosted at the so called me. Stop by and check it out!

If you have participated in MIFS before and would like to host let me know! Now scheduling May and beyond!

For more information about the carnival or about hosting see Make It From Scratch - the carnival

Page Rank and Paid Posting

It didn't take much research to find why my page rank dropped. It is because of the paid content on my blog. I do remember reading a few months back about blogs that were taking page rank hits because Google changed the algorithm to penalize blogs with paid links. This was around the time when my rank dropped from a 4 to a 3. I figured a drop of one was no big deal, and there were still plenty of PPP opportunities, so who cares. Well a drop to 0 doesn't leave me feeling so blase.

Like I said yesterday page rank doesn't mean that much to me. If Google wants thinks I don't have a quality blog because I do paid links that is their choice. I know paid blogging is sometimes controversial, but earning money is a big part of why I started this blog. So let Google rank pages how they like. Problem is PPP advertisers still want to use page rank to determine a blog's quality.

IZEA (parent of PPP) has developed what they call Real Rank as an alternative to page rank. From waht I could gather at the forum boards, PPP wants to phase out page rank, but the advertisers are still demanding that it be used. Hello. If I advertise for you, my page rank will drop, so what does the page rank mean? Can we follow the logic here?

Some, like Court's Internet Marketing School, say that Real Rank won't solve the problem, but just may push Google to stop indexing blogs with paid links. That I care about. If I'm not indexed then Stop the Ride will not show up in Google searches. That means less traffic. Not a good scenario.

So what to do? I'm not sure. I can go on as is and wait to see what happens. As long as PPP is still using page rank as criteria for opportunities, I will have little available there. I can look for alternative ways to generate income from the blog. I have seen mentioned selling links with no follow tags. That would be an option, but I'm not sure how to get that started. I'm going to have to think about this!