Zen-Mother

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I had a rather nasty surprise this morning when I was cleaning out my pantry. A huge bottle of organic maple syrup from Costco had spilled..some time ago. So I had a huge circle, maybe a foot around, of crystallized maple syrup. The stuff was hard as cement.

I pulled out a bucket of hot water and a scrubby sponge and started scrubbing. Well the finish on the sponge was coming off before that maple syrup.
It took me about an hour of serious scrubbing to get it clean but at least my arms got a good workout!

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With the holidays behind you, no doubt your kids have received more toys for Christmas. Unfortunately, they are everywhere you turn.  Keeping the toys from overtaking the house is a simple process.  Let’s review some tips to help you bring your house back to order.

There are wonderful Tupperware chests you can purchase to store all of the toys skewed about the house.  In addition, most of them come on wheels, which make the picking up of toys easier.  They also come in colors and sizes, which can compliment any child’s room. Also available are hanging chests which would really make life easier for you. They can be hung on the wall of your child’s room, which is ideal especially if the bedroom is small.

Once you have all of the toys neatly assembled; the task before you is to get rid of the old or unwanted toys in your kids’ bedroom.  This is something you will have to either confer with your kids, or determine on your own which toys should go and which should be kept.  Just gather them up and place them in large boxes.  If they are broken, and you can fix them, give them to a charitable organization. If they are intact; add them to the charity box as well.

When kids receive new toys, they quickly forget the old; well, usually they do.  Again, the process doesn’t have to be traumatizing. Just discuss it with your kids, make a decision, and explain to them the importance of donating their old toys to charities.  Make sure you explain to them the more room they have, the more toys they may receive next Christmas.

Check online to view all of the different toy chests available.  Take your kids with you to buy these chests.  In this way they can participate and choose whatever color or style they like.  You can be assured once you arrive home; they will be bursting at the seams in anticipation of putting their toys in their new chests.

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Hey mom! Have you been longing to get out and have a good time?  Not surprisingly.  When the last time was you indulged yourself?  What can you do when you want to get away from it all? Here is some mom’s night out ideas for you to ponder.

Call a friend and plan on spending an evening together. A movie and dinner at your favorite restaurant sounds great, doesn’t it?  Or perhaps one of your friends needs a partner for their bridge game? Why not call some friends and go to the mall? Check out all the latest styles; then have dinner afterward.

Perhaps there is a play or musical you’ve been dying to see. If you’ve never been to an opera, this is your chance.  You can dress up in your best outfit and prepare to have a wonderful evening.  Are you a baseball fan?  Maybe you’d like to go to a game? You and your friends can have a wonderful time eating junk food and rooting your team on to victory!

Need some quiet time? There is no rule that says you can’t go out by yourself and just do whatever makes you happy.  You can be spontaneous and just get in the car and drive. You never know where you may wind up.  Remember, it’s your night, and you are your own best company.

If these moms’s nights out ideas are not sufficient, there are a plethora of things you can do.  Just ask yourself what is the one thing you would most like to do, now that you have the time to do it. Don’t think about it; hesitate or feel guilty over it; just go go go.  After all, you deserve it. You may not have this opportunity again. Have a great time!

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You know those kinda of days. It all started yesterday when I took my kids out to go shopping and we got a flat tire as we were about to get on the freeway. Well, I called my brother and he drove out to help us. He tried to change the tire only to find that the spare tire did not fit our the van! The tire place we got our tires from last made a big mistake, grrr.

So, my brother had to drive us home and then drop off the bad tire and wheel to be replaced while he went back to work. We ended up getting the van taken care of late that night.

Skip ahead to this morning. I got all the kids up to take Payton to school. As I started getting Paige dressed, Parker decided to grab her Strawberry Shortcake tennis shoes and throw them in the toilet. Aaaagh! It just keeps getting better and better.

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