I can’t imagine having to find a job in this economic climate. The idea of having to find New York jobs seems undaunting and scary. I suppose there are some out there who are seeking the excitement and challenge of a career in New York. Perhaps in another lifetime this might be me, too. I am far too sheltered to consider anything as exciting as this, though.
Sometimes I project ahead to a vague plan that involves a motorhome and some time on the road (without kids). Traveling with kids has its drawbacks…but if we were to take to the road in a motorhome “just the two of us” it would be a whole different story. I would enjoy decorating and furnishing a motorhome. Choosing some muted colors and placing just the essentials into the limited space would be a challenge and a fun project. We have a few years before we are empty nesters…but this is a thought.
Got any old and scratched CDs laying around? I know I do…kids are hard on CDs and they get scratched so easily.
If you love candles and you have old CDs…here is a project just for you!
You will need:
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Place a CD over one of the openings of the muffin pan with the label side facing up.
Place the muffin pan into the oven and watch it for approximately five minutes.
When the CD begins to melt, remove the muffin pan from the oven and with your oven mitted hand, gently push the melting CD down into the muffin opening. The CD should sink into the opening and meld to the shape.
Allow the CD to cool and then place a votive into the CD candle holder.
Recently, a US survey found that women are becoming more unhappy and that they want to spend less time at work and more time at home with their children. These are young women who remember what it was like with a frazzled mother trying to do it all…and they don’t want to make the same juggling mistakes as their own mothers did.
I know…we all have pressing concerns like who is going to carry the family’s North Carolina health insurance policy and I will not minimize or discount these concerns.
I will maintain, however, that women who feel a pull to be home should find a way to make it happen. There is nothing gained in the long run by living a life of dissatisfaction and yearning when there may be creative ways to stay home.
Simply…where there is a will there is a way. Talk to your husband and try to make it happen.
Got any tin cans sitting around waiting for recycling? Here’s a neat idea that will recycle them in a whole different way…make a tin can candle holder.
You will need:
Let’s get started!
Fill the can to the top with water and freeze it until it is rock hard. While the water is freezing in the can, think about the design you want to create on the can. You can keep it simple and stick to geometric shapes or you can try to make some kind of a picture with the holes. Draw out your design on paper and be ready to tape it onto the can for an easy way to transfer a design to your can.
Remove from the freezer and get ready to punch holes with the hammer and nail. Tape your picture onto the outside of the can. Lightly tap the nail to make small holes along the lines of your paper. Make the holes approximately 1/4-inch apart. Continue until you have tapped holes along every line you drew on your paper.
The next step is to paint your tin candle holder. Choose a dark color to set off the candlelight as it shines through the holes. Dark blue or black would be ideal. Or…choose a color to complement whatever room you plant to use the candleholder in. The choice is yours.
Apply the acrylic paint to the outside of the can, making sure you apply it in a thin layer so the holes are not covered by thick globs of paint. Work until the entire outside of the can is evenly painted. Allow the paint to dry.
Place a votive or slightly larger pillar candle into the tin candleholder. The candle should only come up one-third or one-half of the way of the tin can to enable the candlelight to shine through the holes.
Make several tin candleholders to make a cluster group of beautiful candles!
We are approaching our second-old child’s wedding some time over the next few months. Instead of the Cinderella affair we had when our oldest daughter got married four years ago, our son and his fiance are choosing to go a simple and informal route with only immediate family and a minister at home. I look forward to celebrating with them as they want and I can’t help but be pretty thankful that we get to skip all of the hoopla like finding the perfect wedding invitations and flowers this time. Although it makes for a beautiful day, the real meaning of the day somehow becomes lost and convoluted.
I understand the concept behind hand dryers in public restrooms…really I do…I just wish those contraptions didn’t have to be so LOUD! They never fail to frighten my three and five year old kids whenever we have to use one in a public restroom. They are caught between trying to cover their ears with their hands and drying those same hands under the warm air. Doesn’t work very well. I imagine those hand dryers are even quite a bit louder if you are short like they are…
My husband and teenage son both enjoy lifting weights. Due to space limitations inside, we have decided to make them a gym area outside in the garage. Believe it or not, they have managed to make themselves a decent work-out area…even though it is a garage.
The one thing we are still lacking out there, though is proper garage flooring for their purposes. I would like to place something with a little give in it over the cement floor…but I don’t know if this is possible.
For the time being, however, everyone is happy though. They have a great place to huff and puff and we don’t have to trip over barbells and dumbbells!
“Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.” ~ A.A. Milne
How often have you said this: “I don’t have enough time!” or “There aren’t enough hours in the day!”
Of course, these statements are always said in frustrated exasperation as you survey your to do list or your messy house and you tell yourself you just cannot handle everything you have to do.
Time is an interesting thing…and so is the fact that we all have the same amount of it. 60 minutes in each hour and 24 of these hours in every day…seven days in each week and each year contains 52 weeks.
Aside from time it gets different for everyone. Everyone has different amounts of resources and health and usually these resources are a direct result of our efforts.
Nothing we do will give us more minutes in each hour or hours in each day…BUT…what we can change is how we use our time. How much time we use and how much time we waste.
Start by analyzing your use of your time. Jot down what you consider your three biggest time wasters. TV? Internet? Talking on the phone? Write them down. Often just being aware of these time-wasting traps can help us begin to minimize them. The next step is to make a plan. Set goals for each day (make sure they are realistic!). Having goals means you have a clear idea of what you want to accomplish with each day. What? you have more than one goal for each day? The next step is prioritizing your goals. Work on the most important things first and then work your way down the list of priorities.
Work as efficiently as you can to accomplish your goals. Streamline your processes wherever possible. Avoid perfectionism because this will definitely slow you down and impede your progress. Don’t fall into the opposite of perfectionism; however, and resort to sloppy work to accomplish your goals. This will not serve you in the long run. Strive for a balance between perfectionism and sloppiness.
Suggestions For Improving Your Efficiency:
We live in a very old home in the Midwest. Our home is full of the funkiness and quirkiness that just goes with old homes. Doors and windows that are not level and even, floors that slope, counter tops that slope, plaster walls with layers and layers of old coverings from many owners over many years. It is all a part of the house that I could not imagine not having.
I have never lived in a brand new home in my life. The prospect of living in something like a prefab or a manufactured home seems quite foreign to me. I don’t know if I could do without the character. I could probably do without the sloping counter tops…but other than that…LOL
