Make-Do Monday - February 1st !! Where is my Hair Dryer?

At Make-Do Mondays we discuss how we’re simplifying, downsizing, repurposing, buying used, and using what we’ve got.

It’s a carnival celebrating creative problem-solving, contentment, patience and ingenuity. To participate, share your own make-do solution in the comments or write up a Make-Do Mondays post at your blog, then return here to link via MckLinky. Enjoy others’ ideas by clicking on their link in the MckLinky list.







****************

This week for my Make-Do................   

Sometimes my hairdryer is strewn around the bathroom.  

But then I rarely use it, it is mostly used by my little Angel.  

She sometimes forgets that my bathroom is not hers and she sometimes forgets to put things away. 

So one day in frustration after finding the dryer in the middle of the counter I grabbed it and hung it up out of the way.  It would have been almost as quick to put it in the drawer, but my hands were full and it would have been hard to get the cord wound up.  

So into the hand towel holder it went.  Well, it liked it's new home there and Angel seems to get it put away 99% of the time now.  So I am letting it live in this new spot.  

I hated having my hand towel there, it just wasn't convenient for me to reach over my sink to dry my hands.  So my hand towel lives behind my back while I stand at the sink.  I just turn around and dry my hands.  Much easier for me.

  Please link and come back soon...........

....Have a wonderful week of Making-Do....  

......See you soon......

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 

If the main button is too big, try this one:

.

The Term is OVER! Some Grades have been Posted!!

  Finals are over!!!  

School starts again on Feb 3rd- next Wednesday.  

I am grateful for a couple of days off to recuperate 

and organize!

Second Term Grades:


Intro to Pharmacology - A+
Pharmacology Math - A+
Intro to Anatomy & Physiology - A ('ish our grades are not posted yet)
Oral Communications: A ('ish our grades are not posted yet)


So it appears that I will remain on the Presidents List with a 4.0------ I sure hope I do.


Thanks to everyone for your support and prayers.  I am having a great time and learning so much that all the stress and busy-ness is so worth it.


Have a great day and see you all soon.

Make-Do Monday - jan 24 drawer organization

At Make-Do Mondays we discuss how we’re simplifying, downsizing, repurposing, buying used, and using what we’ve got.

It’s a carnival celebrating creative problem-solving, contentment, patience and ingenuity. To participate, share your own make-do solution in the comments or write up a Make-Do Mondays post at your blog, then return here to link via MckLinky. Enjoy others’ ideas by clicking on their link in the MckLinky list.

****************

So this weeks post is a quick fix it all that my daughter put together to keep her make-up drawer neat and orderly.

She had a black binding that was empty and taped it down in her drawer and then put her eyeliner and lipliner pencils between the bands.  Easy Peasy fix!

I usually pull the plastic bindings off any hole punched booklets before I toss the paper.  (To recycle the paper you have to remove bindings, staples and plastics.)  

So here we had a binding that is quite expensive and is reusable if you have access to the binder machine that cuts the holes and attaches the binding.  

Our school district has an place that we can use to do die cuts, laminating and binding.  It is really a nice resource for our classrooms and teachers.

....Have a wonderful week of Making-Do....  

......See you soon......

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 

If the main button is too big, try this one:

.

72 hr Kits Resource Sites

Below are links to some sites for preparing 72 hour kits, they all have wonderful ideas and information.  

Make your own kit from their suggestions and modify your list for any special needs for your own family.  For example, baby items, grandparent items, medicines, equipment, games, books, etc.  

Check your kit/kits every six months and rotate the perishable items, including the water.  Change your kit for the weather/seasons as well. 

We usually go through our kits in April and October, when we have to change our clocks.  At this time it is a good idea to change clothing sizes, seasonal clothing needs- coats verses jackets, footwear, etc.

Tip:    When you plan for a change of clothing for kids, go with the next size up to store and then when you rotate, they can still use what you had in storage.

http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net

.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_H-3SEo02w&NR=1&feature=fvwp
.

http://bereadyutah.gov/family/documents/72-hourchecklistpdf.pdf

.

http://www.pdxprepared.net/72hour.php

.

http://www.theblufish.com/checklists/72hour/print.html

.

http://www.ahappycamper.com/services/checklist/72-hour.html

.

http://www.mormonchic.com/crafty/72-hour-kits.asp

.

http://outlands.tripod.com/survival/72hrkit.htm

.

http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/

.

(Video: 72 hr kit made in a milk jug)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8zrkENy9QM

.

http://www.equipped.org/72hourkit.htm

.

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/72hourkit/

.

http://www.avertdisasters.org/html/72_hour2.html

.

http://lds.about.com/od/preparednessfoodstorage/a/72hour_kit.htm

.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mskMnBNRFBA
.

photos 72 hr kits

Make-Do Monday - Cooling Rack

At Make-Do Mondays we discuss how we’re simplifying, downsizing, repurposing, buying used, and using what we’ve got.

It’s a carnival celebrating creative problem-solving, contentment, patience and ingenuity. To participate, share your own make-do solution in the comments or write up a Make-Do Mondays post at your blog, then return here to link via MckLinky. Enjoy others’ ideas by clicking on their link in the MckLinky list.





*****************  

Make-Do Monday with Shari this week is about one of my camp cooking outfits.  Here you can see my large dutch oven with a rack in it.  The rack I believe might be a cake cooling rack.  Honestly I don't know for sure, I do know that I got it for next to nothing at our second hand store.  And it fits perfectly in the bottom of the dutch oven.


With in the bottom of the dutch, I can put a cake pan or a pie tin inside the dutch on the rack and then it works like an oven with circulation going under the tin as well.  Also it helps with cleanup as I don't have to wash the big dutch oven, just the cake pan or pie tin- easy peasy!


I also have put silicone cup cake liners/(panlettes) on the rack to back them inside the dutch oven.  I doubt I will ever use the propane oven in the travel trailer, because dutch oven cooking is fun and really very simple.  And also I love to make and play in campfires, so if I campfire cooking I can justify playing in the fire!!


Try looking for different used for everyday items.  We never used cooling racks for cookies or cakes so I don't really have experience with these types of racks.  But I can definitely find other uses for them. Go, seek, find and experiment!!!

....Have a wonderful week of Making-Do....  
......See you soon......


''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 

If the main button is too big, try this one:

.

Make-Do Monday - Stale, Dry Bread - Baked French Toast

At Make-Do Mondays we discuss how we’re simplifying, downsizing, repurposing, buying used, and using what we’ve got.

It’s a carnival celebrating creative problem-solving, contentment, patience and ingenuity. To participate, share your own make-do solution in the comments or write up a Make-Do Mondays post at your blog, then return here to link via MckLinky. Enjoy others’ ideas by clicking on their link in the MckLinky list.





******************  

Make-Do Monday with Shari this week is about what we call gross bread.  The store bought bread we love is called Grandma Sycamore's Bread, but it is also very expensive in my book.  
     At the grocery store it is about, $3.00 a loaf, however......... we usually buy it at the Day Old Bread Store for $0.80 a loaf.  And it is still moist and yummy.  (We do have to watch it so it doesn't mold or go yucky on us.)  


     I was just checking in the grocery ad and bread is advertised for 3/$5.00 or 1.99 a loaf depending what brand you get.  Most of the time you can find the store's brand bread for near $1.00 give or take a few pennies.


    I sent Hubby to the store the other day for some Wal-Mart brand bread- Great Value.  He came home with the cheapest bread Old Timey, just under a dollar.  I was after the Great Value bread at $1.29 which is a moister bread than the Old Timey. 
    Wal-Mart is much closer than the bread store and we were not going anywhere near the bread store and so a few extra cents at Wal-Mart is cheaper than driving to the Bread store as a special trip.


    Boy is that a long story.  Anyway he came back with 4 loaves of the very dry gross bread.  Doable, but not what our home dwellers like to make their sandwiches on. 
     So after making all the sandwiches I could, by toasting the bread a little first for PB&J, Tuna or Chicken or making toasted cheese sandwiches it was time to come up with another use of this bread.  
    This bread is perfect for strata as it is already pretty dry.  And since my family loves strata, we have made several stratas this past week.  
    I rarely use a recipe any more,  I just put in it what I have- fresh ingredients like veggies, sausage and bacon or leftovers of meat and veggies.  I also grab things from my freezer and pantry and add them.

    The plain French Bread Strata I made for breakfast one morning smelled totally delish as it baked away in the oven.
    To make this strata I just took some eggs, milk, pinch of salt, some cinnamon, and whisked them altogether.  Then I broke up the dry bread into chunks and mixed them into the egg mixture.  Next I poured the mixture into a pan that I had greased with bacon grease.
    Next I drizzled the top with Maple syrup- ours was syrup with cinnamon.  I baked it at 375degrees for about 45 mins, I think, I was watching it until it was firm and browned.  Ohhhhh....... it smelled awesome!!

     I think I could have put some syrup in the original egg mixture, but it did turn out fine.  

   I did drizzle some syrup and a little butter on for serving and at that point, I felt that it was sweet enough.  
     Everyone said it was good and I agree.  It sure was nice to use up the bread, but I think I have a loaf  still lingering around!  So I guess we will have some kind of strata for dinner soon!

Have a wonderful week.  See you soon..................

      ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 
If the main button is too big, try this one:

.

Our Baby Earthquake- Tues at 1:09 am

USGS Earthquake Details  (Click here for more details)

     Early this morning, Tuesday January 5, 2010, at 1:09 am our family was awakened by a baby earthquake!  It was really weird.  But it was interesting.  Not scary, because it was so small, but it was a new experience.  I have never been shaken awake by a quake before.  


   Things in the house were making a rattling noise as well.  Being startled awake like that was really different, but I knew immediately that we had just had an earthquake.  


  Our bedrooms are on the 2nd floor and our house is built on the flat lands of former fields.  (Think liquifaction...............)  We think that these two factors combined with a shallow epicenter( about 1.1 miles deep) and also that we are about 1.3 miles from the epicenter caused us to feel it's movement really well.  I was surprised to find out it was only a 2.9 and not a 3.5 give or take a point.  


   It was kind of hard to get back to sleep.  Hubby and Pilot were on the computers trying to find out information through the US Geological site and the preliminary findings/reports were pretty accurate. 


   There was some fine tuning of location and strength but by about 2 pm, everything seemed to be set in stone for the record books.  I think Pilot learned a lot at 1:15am and didn't quite researching until nearly 2am.  But even though we were all tired in the morning, it was a great experience.


    It made me think about a few things, like are the trailer keys by the front door like they are supposed to be?  Yes they are.  What about car keys and house keys.  I keep them in my school book bag, but could I grab it in case of an emergency?  I think so.  


    Do we have easy access to our 72 hour kits?  Yes.  Have we updated them lately? No.  We try to do this twice a year when we change the clocks.  But I realized that we did not do this in October because we have been busy with this college schedule and homework.  Checking the kits twice a year is probably overkill, but why not do it twice and have fresh items in the kits? 


    We still need to work on water, fuel and some other things.  However, I feel that if the big one came and we were not physically hurt, injured or wounded, we would survive just fine.  Maybe not in luxury but we would certainly be able to handle ourselves and survive. 


   Below is a map showing the epicenter from Jan 5th's 1am baby earthquake.  We live just over a mile to the west, very very slightly moving north.  If you go north on Redwood Road and then Left/West on W7400N, which is really 400 North you will see the Lakeview Academy property just to the west is Bryant Blvd which is the entrance to my subdivision just west of the school.  Pretty close to the epicenter, huh!?



View Larger Map




View Larger Map


The Green Arrow on the map is the Longitude and Latitude coordinates of the epicenter of the great 2.9 earthquake of January 5th, 2010.

Make-Do Monday - Another use for a Beater

At Make-Do Mondays we discuss how we’re simplifying, downsizing, repurposing, buying used, and using what we’ve got.

It’s a carnival celebrating creative problem-solving, contentment, patience and ingenuity. To participate, share your own make-do solution in the comments or write up a Make-Do Mondays post at your blog, then return here to link via MckLinky. Enjoy others’ ideas by clicking on their link in the MckLinky list.





*****************************


Make-Do Monday with Shari -
Again this week I have been having to improvise- due to my lack of keeping up with the dishwasher.

I have made three different versions of strata this past week and have only one wire whisk. (That statement is not totally true as I have a whisk in my flour and one in my cocoa that I keep in those containers at all times. I also have a very small wire whisk that is not good for everyday whisking. I will probably use it for cornstarch or maybe my cornmeal or something else when I get it into a canister. )  

So when it came to breakfast Friday morning, I had not done the dishes from New Year's Eve and so my wire whisk was in the dishwasher waiting for a full load of dishes to be run.  


So I grabbed one beater from my handmixer set and stuck it in the sour cream to scoop an unmeasured amount into my strata bowl.





Then I moved the beater over into the bowl with the eggs and milk. I mixed the eggs, milk and sour cream together and the beater worked just fine. Using this beater was easier to mix in the cheese, veggies and everything else that went into this strata. The chunkier pieces did not get stuck in the beater as they normally do in the wire whisk. 

This tool may become my beater of choice when it comes to making dinner or breakfast stratas. 

When I make my plain French Toast Strata, the regular wire whisk will suffice, because all I do is mix eggs, milk and spices.

Keep your eye out for other uses for all your kitchen tools. Have a great week and see you next Monday!!


.