Finding Fun Books With Multicultural Messages

Many Years ago, I was visiting a church in a city quite far from my own and remember a man speaking. I can't tell you another person that spoke in all the times I visited that church over the years. I went almost weekly in the summers for years while my kids were visiting cousins on the weekends. 

I only spoke to the man two or three times over that time as I ran into him at a dance once and danced with him there. We never had any deep conversation and I had no idea what he did. A few years back, out of the blue, I felt like I should contact him and tell him about a product that I have that makes yogurt easily and for some reason he needed the information. It turns out it did help him. Here is a link to that product.

I knew someone who would probably know how to get a hold of him, so I contacted that friend who attended that church regularly. She was able to give me his number. I contacted him and told him about the product. He tried it and when I contacted him a few months later to see how it was working for him, he told me that it was helping him. 

I then didn't speak to him for years. I felt to contact him again for another reason, and in the end, I spoke with him for a few hours about health things. 

Then, a long time without speaking to him. Obviously, we aren't friends, but every so often, I have just felt like I should share something with him, and contact him. 

In taking my new thyroid medication, I was having some reactions, and one was insomnia. For three nights, I was only able to sleep for a few hours. While laying there exhausted and not being able to sleep, I accidentally clicked on his contact information and somehow all this time, I had missed a link to his company. He works for a publisher. I guess he sells books and many of them are multicultural. 

I started looking through the books offered, and there were several from an author who write books about immigrants. One of the books was very close to my ancestry with family crossing the ocean on boats and settling new communities. Both sides of my children's parents had people crossing on boats to America!

I contacted the author and asked about ordering some of the books for my grandchildren and their was a book called "grow" and I thought it would be a good book for Grand-Princess One as she was telling me recently how excited she is that her mom is going to allow her to have her own garden. 

She is so excited about planting a garden, that she drew a picture of how she wanted to lay it out and they have already purchased the seeds for her garden. 

The kids are going to visit me on their way to meetings, so I was hoping the books would arrive before they passed through. I was SO happy and excited to get the books before the kids arrive. 

It was so nice of the author, and my friend, to get my order done quickly and send them to me. I think my grandchildren are going to LOVE them! And, they are personalized as well! 

I am excited to read the books to the kids! I am feeling very blessed!  

Book Journals - Fun Idea Part 1

A few weeks back, I took a road trip with one of my best friends from town. We went to a fair that was a German themed.

At one of the booths, I saw something I thought was adorable. Someone had taken a bunch of books from thrift stores or yard sales, and cut the binding off, and then added blank pages in between every few pages of the book to turn the book into a journal, diary, or a notebook. The books were ones that my girls would like, so I thought about purchasing them until I saw the prices. They were over $30 each.

I wondered if my girls would actually use the books if I made them, and when we did a road trip to visit Princess Four at her new office, she had this cute notebook on her desk, so it was at that point I decided to go ahead and try to make them. I pondered on if I could make them myself and called around to many different places as the bindings on the books were decorative. I looked online and couldn't find the exact bindings. I called different places and started shopping at all sorts of thrift stores. I went to six different thrift stores and found quite a few books that would work for my girls as I asked them their favorite top three children's books and their top three teen books. 

There were some of their favorite books that I had at home, so I did use some of the thrift books as well. I decided to just go with the bindings that our local printing shop has which are the black and white spiral bindings. 

I dropped them off and was told to come back the next day and they would be done. When I got there after five, he had cut one and put the binding holes in the wrong side of the book. I then reminded him that we needed to put the plain white papers in and they needed to be cut at the same time as the bindings. So, I stayed and helped him cut / organized the papers with the books to be cut and then brought them home to put the plain paper in between the pages of the books. 

This was on a Friday, so I brought the books home and spent the evening placing the paper in the books. 

I will do another post showing how I bound them and how they turned out and me giving them to the girls. Stay tuned for part 2.

Have a blessed day!

Husky Work Light Verses Power Zone Work Light

I had a situation where I needed to have a high lumen work light and my sister let me borrow her Husky Battery powered work light that has 1000 lumens and its low is 300 lumens. 

I loved the light and used it for three projects I had. I thought that I wanted to get my girls one each for Christmas. I went and purchased them and I had to go back to home depot four different times looking for them. The workers kept telling me they were in the work light section. Then they told me they were in the tool area. Then they told me they were in the lighting area, and finally the last time the worker walked me to the "flashlight" section and there they were! 

In the time that I was looking to purchase one for myself and couldn't find one, I looked at all the stores in town that may have one or something similar, I went to Ace hardware and I found a similar light. I purchased the light and was surprised that the lumens were even better in the new light. 

Each light had a positive and a negative. The Husky light is built really well and I dropped it several times with no problems. The high on that is 1000 lumens on high and low is 300 lumens. The battery case stays closed well and when dropped it stayed closed super well and has the option to run with just one set of batteries. It has a button that has to be pushed on and off to get to high and then low so sometimes you click it on and in the dark you can't tell if it is on low or high until you click it several times and that can be annoying as the other is always on high when you do the first click, and then the second click turns it to low so you are always aware it will be on high the first click. 

The yellow one called Power Zone, is much brighter with 1500 lumens on high and 600 on low. It is lighter made and has no warranty, where as the Husky says it has a warranty. The battery cover falls off all the time even just touching the back. I solved that issue by just putting a piece of duct tape on it. I do feel if I drop it, it won't do as well as it isn't made as sturdy as the Husky. 

With both of them costing about $15. I don't think you can go wrong with either product. I just thought I would share about these lights as I have used them over and over and am so glad I have them. 

It is nice that they can hang, or stand on either end! I would suggest either light. I have only had to replace the batteries once in a year but don't use it much other than setting up my yard sale and taking it down and in the garage for projects. The Power Zone is from Ace and the Husky is from Home Depot. 

Both are a good deal. Have a blessed day!

Can You Tell Me What This Is - Interesting Pottery Find

Last week I was shopping at a second hand store and I saw this cute little "thing" and asked all the employees at the store if they knew what the pot was. 

I thought about it holding toothpicks, but they would fall out the sides and there is no way to make them come out of the mouth. When I asked the employees, they said the exact same thing. It was funny! 

I had to buy it just to see if I could find out what it is used for as it is so unique. 

I am wondering if one of my friends on here can tell me what it is and what it is used for as I have no idea. I can't read the potters name very well either. 

It amazes me that potters work so hard on their items and then use symbols, stamps or messy signatures to sign their work making it hard to attribute the work to them. I don't know why as if I took the time to create something, I would want to take the credit for the item. 

If you have any ideas, please let me know in the comments! 

Have a blessed day!

Compare Paper Towels By Weight Volume - Huge Price Difference

When buying paper towels at my local grocery store, I bought a store brand and national brand larger bag of paper towel. The reason was that I ended up buying both larger bags even though everything seemed the same, was that one felt heavier than the other. 

At the checkout, the store brand cost $2 more per bag for the same size bag than the Sparkle Brand. 

When I arrived home, I weighed both packages and sparkle brand was over 1/2 pound more in weight than the Walmart Great Value brand! It was amazing to me.

So, for $2 less, you get more than 1/2 a pound more! I think I may start weighing my paper towel and toilet paper to find out which brand offers the most paper for the price just to know. 

Have a blessed day!

Best Product to Clean Minerals Off the Windows Tub and Tile Cleaner

I have a product that I really have LOVED for the past 30+ years. I heard of a company in about 1990 that was called "Melaleuca" which had a line of products containing "Tea Tree Oil." 

I tried many of their products and have really loved some. I have used two of their products regularly ever since. My favorite uses for tea tree oil are for burns and for teeth issues. Here is a link to my post about burns and teeth issues. 

The other product I really love is called "Tub and Tile" by "ecoSense" and the company is still called Melaleuca and you can find them on Melaleuka.com. 

I love the product enough that I bought a case of it. I have used it to clean showers, toilets, cleaning plumbing parts, cleaning minerals off the windows, garage door, sinks, etc. 

I have used about half of the case of cleaner I purchased a few years back and really have never found any other product that works like this one. 

I have several posts about using the tea tree oil on burns and pulling teeth etc. I also have a few posts about using "Tub and Tile" that you can search. 

Just wanted to share my favorite product for cleaning minerals. Have a blessed day!

Cutting Down Vines Off Arbor - Dirtiest Job Of My Life

I was visiting my dad recently and while there, my Step-Mother (love her like my mom) showed me her arbor and showed how my nephew had cut it back on the outside edges of the arbor. 

She said she wanted it cut back more but he cut the bottom edges off around the outside edge but didn't cut all the over hang off back to the edge of the deck and arbor wood. I contacted my brother as he was, at that time, pruning his father-in-laws trees, so I asked if he could come and just prune back the vines on the OUTSIDE edges of the arbor for her. 

He came while we were out and did one side of the arbor and when we talked to them later, he shared that even using an industrial hedge trimmer, they couldn't get through the thick vines and so much black dirt was falling on them, they got filthy and had to use eye protection and a mask and weren't getting very far so they pulled out a chainsaw but that isn't the best tool on small things as it bucks each time you start cutting into a new item, so he said there was NO way to do it as holding their arms up for that length of time with the heavy tools and all the "stuff" (not the word he used) falling down on their faces, he couldn't do it and suggested paying his son to come again with his landscaping crew to take it down. 

We were going to leave it at that due to other projects she wanted help with until I went out and heard somethings nesting inside of the vines over my head. I told her I thought there were some birds nesting in the vines and she said it was too late for bird nests. I told her that I heard something burrowing in the vines in two spots over my head. 

Shortly after our conversations, and my brother having been there, I found a dead rodent (I think it was a small rat as it looked really big for a mouse) dead just below where they had cut the vines. I think they had trimmed off the vines the rats had used to get in and out of the nest and had fallen to its death. This made me nervous and I felt like I needed to deal with it sooner than my nephew could get to it. I also knew the tools he had and that they would struggle with the situation and I felt I could use my knowledge to make it easier. 

I have been pruning all sorts of things for more than 20 years. I have many posts of pruning of my trees. Here is one about my fruit trees. Here is one about the large tree in my yard. Here is a post about my front trees. You can type in "prune" into the search box for MANY more posts on pruning. I use my reciprocating saw so much that I had to purchase another one within two years of use because I used it to death! I just bought a new one, but since I wasn't near my home, I had my sister pick one up at the store and asked her to get me a "PRUNING" blade. 

Reciprocating saws are a finicky thing. You have to be using the right type of blade for your project or it won't go well. She purchased a "wood with nails" blade which has tiny hook teeth on it. A pruning blade has long triangle teeth which are more like fangs. They are VERY different things. There was an all purposed blade that came with the saw but it was a six inch blade and we needed a 12 inch blade. I showed my "mom" that neither of those blades would work well on the project.

We went and purchased a three pack of 12 inch pruning blades for the saw. We dug into cutting out the vines between the 4x4 posts on the arbor. The first seven sections went fairly quickly even though we kept running into chicken wire at the one end that we didn't know the previous owners had placed there. The pruning blade doesn't do wire and pulled it towards the motor so I knew when I felt resistance to stop sawing and pull out the blade and use a wire cutting blade to get through those areas of metal. Also, after each cut, the air intake on the motor would be full of mulching black dirt. It was horrible! I had to get a little scrubber from the kitchen and brush out the debris after each swipe of the saw. 

The further we got to the one side of the arbor with the thicker vines, the more black mulchy stuff we hit, and it was falling so thick and fast as I would cut I couldn't look up even with mask and eye protection. I was covered after the first cut with black mulchy dirt. I had my arms above my head for about five hour cutting vines and I called my brother to bring me a trailer so I could haul away the vines but he was a trooper and saint to stay and help me until it was all down and a full trailer load was finished. He missed his Mormon Tabernacle Choir practice to help me get the thickest vines down in a better way as I couldn't get through the three feet of vines above the arbor and the foot to 18 inches of black mulched dirt mixed in! 

My hand started to cramp and freeze in a claw manner for the last hour of working as I had been holding the saw over my head and squeezing the power bar for so long. I have never had that happen in all the years I have pruned. I kept having to cut deeper and deeper and try and pull the cut vines out to get to the higher stuff. 

In this pictures, I pushed the pitch fork to the top of the growth extending my arm to full length and the fork is just above the growth. You can see my brother is six foot four inches, if I remember right, and he had his arm extended with the rake and it was only about a foot over the top of the vines new growth in one area. 

I kept cutting more and more trying to free the vines from the top of the arbor and then we had to push the black soil off as the roots had taken hold in the dirt and had grown into the cracks of the boards so we had to force them out or break them off. 

I am guessing, had someone else come, they would have taken the entire thing down. There was so much weight on top that the cross beams had been pushing out and one had already fallen out. We need to replace a few rotted out boards, but for the most part, it is still functional, but she wants to start over with twine rather than chicken wire as that was what caused all the mulch to build up. 

It is amazing how much light gets into the house without all that growth there, but they will miss the shade until the new vines grow ,but that is a quick thing so it shouldn't take long to get some good coverage. 

Here is a recap to cutting vines that are thick. Hedge trimmer works best for thin vines. Thick vines need a PRUNING blade on a reciprocating saw! If there is metal, you need a metal blade. Get familiar with the blade types for the saws as using the right blade for the job makes life so much easier and enjoyable. The jobs go quickly! 

The next day we worked on using the dark mulch material to scatter in the garden beds as it was really nice mulch. While working, we found another dead rodent that fell to its death, most likely while we were pruning and we didn't notice it because it crawled away from the vines, so we found it while working on the sprinklers and mulch the next day. 

I shook out my pants outside and turned out the pockets because I had so much fine black dirt all over me. I washed and dried the clothes alone and when I pulled them out of the dryer, black dirt fell out into the dryer and the little dryer screen dumped lots when I took it out to clean it. So wiped it all out and washed the load again and dried it again but that black dust just doesn't seem to want to get out. 

I only had one pair of shoes with me and was wearing my Birkenstocks to work. Every time I put them on, I get black lines all over my feet. I wiped them down with a damp paper towel, have stomped them out, I put on some white footie socks to spray some bug poison as we were getting some spiders in from the vines being taken down, and my socks got black stripes on them. I can't get rid of all the black dust from the mulching debris. 

I am glad we could help her take care of that and get rid of the rodent nest before they found their way inside! 

Have a blessed, rodent and dirt free day! 

Cork Globe To Mark Where The Missionaries Served or Mark Travel

A few years ago I posted about my friend who has a map on her wall with pictures of her visiting different places next to the place visited. Here is a link to that post. 

I talked to my Step-Mother and asked if she would want a map to put pins in and she did. My brother had some framed but I guess in the translation, it never got to her house.

A few months back, I saw a cork globe in a catalog and saw that it had cute little arrow pushpins you could purchase to put into the countries around the world. I sent a link of the globe to my Step-Mother asking if it was something she would like. 

She sent back a text saying "I love it!" So, I purchased the larger of the two offered globes. They have a ten inch and a 14 inch globe and I got the larger one as they have lots of pins to stick in. 

They have had so many of their children and grandchildren go on missions and they have paid for $100 a month for each of their grandchildren's missions. The girls go for 18 months and the boys go for 2 years. They could have bought a big beautiful home or traveled the world themselves but instead choose to support them as missionaries.

My father and his wife also served a mission together and my father served as a missionary to Australia. 

I went up a few weeks back and my girls helped write the name of the missionary on the arrow push pin and the country or state on the top of the arrow. There were some places where multiple missionaries went so they wrote names on each side of the pin in that case. 

As you can see by the pictures, there have been many missionaries and they are still sending them out. There are several out currently including Princess Five and I have a nephew leaving soon for Thailand. 

I think this globe is adorable and if I had unlimited funds, I would buy one and fill it with pins of places I have visited. God has other plans for my life currently but I can't complain as I am truly blessed in the ways that matter.

Have a Blessed and well traveled day! 

A Must For Emergency Situations - Motion Sensor Light Door Knob Lights

The other night, I was working on cleaning the house after the family left, when the power went out. I don't always have my phone on me at home, so when the power went out, I had a second of  "Where is the nearest flashlight?"  panic. 

Usually, there is some type of ambient light in the house at night. The house isn't black as you can still see light through windows as I have neighbors outside lights, and street lights around my home. I could tell something was really off, as there was NO light coming from any windows at all. 

As I walked out of my room, the door handle LED light circle / ring I have at the end of the hall on the doorknob went on. When Princess One got married, I purchased these light rings on clearance for under a dollar as the blue color was her wedding color so I thought it would be pretty under some chiffon on the serving tables. It worked when the lights in the reception center were down some but when the full lights were on, it didn't work well. 

After the wedding, I figured they were wonderful night lights as I had one in each hall plug, so when the kids would come out at night, they would have a way to find their way to the bathroom or my room. I would also check all the door locks each night after the kids were home. 

I found that putting one on the door at the end of each hall allowed me to keep plugged night lights out of baby and toddlers reach and save some electricity by having these motion activated LED's the lights would only go on when someone was in the area. The plug in type were on 24 hours a day if I didn't shut them on and off at night and in the morning. 

I also put one on each outside door so that when I would walk the house checking all the locks at night, I wouldn't have to turn on all the lights or go all the way to the door. When I would walk past the door even at some distance away, the light would go off and I could then see from where I was that the lock was secured. 

So, when the lights were out and it was so dark, the first thing I did was head for the nearest flashlight and in doing that, the hall light when on, then the front door light went on and then the back door light when on, then the one in the kitchen went on. I realized that I could walk in the main rooms of my home with the power out and see just fine. 

I never got a flashlight out. I went out to see what it was like outside as all the street lights and neighbors lights were not on. I took the top picture outside and the only lights I could see were some solar garden lights in the neighbors yard. All other lights in town were out as far as I could tell. 

It was BLACK outside and inside the house. If I hadn't had those lights, I would have had to feel to the kitchen for a flashlight or my phone, which I think was in the kitchen at that point. You can see by the house photos how dark it was. I had replaced the battery in two of the lights just a day or two before as one was out completely and the other was fading. The one that goes off the most does go out every few months but it allows me to not need to turn the lights on when moving around in the dark. 

The LED has many color options and I found that the green and blue allow me to see the locks and they work so well that many visitors have asked where to get them. Some have asked me to keep my eyes open to purchase some for them if I ever see them on clearance again, and I have seen them on clearance again, so I purchased some for them and a few more for the house and my trailer. I have had and used these for over six years now. 

I never thought about their use in an emergency, I just liked the usefulness of them for the kids night lights as I didn't want them to get used to having a light on when they would go to sleep, but wanted one available if they got up, so it worked well for that. 

After this DARK BLACKOUT experience, I will always have these powered up and ready for use. If there were an earthquake and the power was out, I would have a clear way out of the house even in the dark. I was very grateful that I had them and it kept me from stumbling in the dark. 

I used one as a flashlight for the few hours the power was out. I had one in the downstairs hall as well,  so when I went to clean up in the basement, I could find my way easily. I used it on my arm as a sort of bracelet and cleaned up the house and packed to head out of town. 

It is funny what you don't think about until you have to think about it. I was glad I have a home phone as I could still get and make calls even if the battery on my cell died. It was low when the power went out as it was late evening. I thought I could charge my phone on my computer battery but then my computer would be dead but I'd be able to play on my phone but my internet was out, so even that was limited to calls. I do have some rechargeable batteries but, I don't know how good they still are as it has been years since I purchased them. It may be time to think about purchasing some new ones. 

I highly recommend these if you have kids or just for emergency use.They still work great after six years so they are a good product. The brand on these is Sylvania and a quick search says Amazon and Walmart are out of these. I wonder if they are still available. They are up on both sites but say they are unavailable so perhaps they are back ordered. 

Hopefully they still have them as they are a great product I have used and loved for years. Lets hope we never need them for an emergency and that just being prepared is all we need them for ever! 

Have a Blessed and Light filled Day! 

Rehydrating Your Play-Doh or Play Dough - How To fix Dry Clay

I blogged so many things over the years before I was able to put videos up on youtube so often times I think I have already done something when I actually either took a video but didn't upload it, or I blogged about something but didn't make a video of it. 

I got to spend some time with my grandchildren recently and we did lots of fun activities while I was visiting with them. One afternoon, we were able to get out some play-doh and play with the toys my daughter had with the clay. 

When I opened many of the containers, much of the dough had dried out and was crumbly. Even thought it was crumbling, the kids were still having fun. 

I figured I could help the situation while playing with them. I added some water to all the dry containers and let them sit until I had time to mix them up. If you aren't in a hurry, you can just put water in the container and put it back in the cupboard until you want to play with it next, as it will absorb the water as it sits. 

If you want to play with it right away, just add some water into the container and put your finger in the container and start pushing the clay against the side of the container and it will start to soften immediately. or if you want it faster, just flatten it on something and pour water over the entire amount for a few minutes and then mix by hand.

If the play-doh is rock hard, I don't know what would happen if you just let it sit for a few days in water as I haven't ever tried to rehydrate some hard clay. But, I have gotten nearly dry clay to moisten back up. 

I made a video of this and figured I would share it here along with the pictures. You can see it dry and falling into pieces, then the next one you can see I am mixing it and it is looking sticky. It does get super sticky and messy on your hands as you are mixing the water back in but as you play with it, it gets less sticky and then gets to the right consistency. 

In the past, I used to throw it out and make a new batch using cream of tarter, which is quite expensive, so I find it cheaper to buy the dollar store brands and just keep them moist so I will have them for when the kids come to visit. 

As you can see, the kids enjoyed playing with the play-doh with grandma and grandma sure enjoyed playing anything with the kids! It is the best part of my world!~ 

Have a blessed and grandkids filled day!