You'll Crack Your Head Open!

(I know this doesn’t look like a Works for Me Wednesday post, but stick with me, it really is.  :)  )

They’re taking over!!!  Okay… They took over years ago.  And really, if I’m gonna be honest, they just took over from whatever the heck used to be MY junk messing up the house.  I can’t even remember what it was that I used to leave lying around the house.  But it was plenty.  Trust me.

I’m actually proud to say that my daughter’s room is right now the messiest spot in the house when it comes to toys.  And other than the fact that there’s no path to the unmade bed, it’s not that bad.

By the way, his room is only clean because I just cleaned it.  Up until then it was about three feet deep from wall to wall.  I’m not kidding.  There are only four bins in his room, but if I took every one of his toys from everywhere else in the house and garage, he’d easily have more than double that.  Easily.

For most of the time we’ve had kids I’ve used those clear plastic bins like the ones in my son’s room up there.  I even tried to color code them by using different colored duct tape around the edges, but it still wasn’t working because those bins take up a LOT of floor space.  After Christmas, it only got worse and I’ve decided we need to go vertical and do one of those cube bookcases with the fabric drawers.

The problem with that type of setup is that you can’t see what you’ve got because the fabric drawer fills the whole cube.  Not being able to see drives me nuts, which is why I thought those clear plastic bins up there would work.  If I can’t see what I’ve got, it doesn’t work for me at all.  I can’t keep track of what stuff is where, so I would just end up taking out every box to find what I’m looking for.  You’d think that it would be simple after a while, but let’s just say I’ve lived in this house for three years, and I still pull out the wrong kitchen drawer when I’m looking for my spices.

Now that I’m thinking about it, I’m starting to remember what was all over the house.  I like to have things where I can see them so I don’t forget what I have or where I put it.  Which means everything is everywhere.  Not such a good thing.

So anyway, I saw THIS post at We Are THAT Family with one of those cube things (the very last picture), but she used these half-height baskets.  You could see what you had, but it still looked organized.

I think I heard angels singing…

How perfect is that?  I think I can do that.

But you never know with me.  I tend to have a problem with follow through.  So instead of spending a ton of money on the nice wood(esque) bookcase thingy, I stopped by Goodwill to see what they had.  They had one of those wobbly wire ones, but I knew I’d never be able to deal with that.  Then I went down one of the aisles and saw this.

I found some half height baskets at Target and got three of them.  I figure if I can keep three categories of things organized, then I’ll let myself get some more.

That brings me to why this is my Works for Me Wednesday post.  What works for me is blogs and especially other bloggers.  Where else can you get so many great ideas?  There is also something about blogging that makes it so much easier to talk about the things we struggle with, big and small, and look for solutions to our problems and predicaments.  I’ve gotten fun things like recipes and decorating ideas, but I’ve also gotten messages of faith and comfort to help me get through whatever day or season I’m struggling with.  Sometimes all it takes to get through a bad day or a “parenting issue” is just knowing that there’s another woman out there dealing with the exact. same. thing.

And she’s probably got pictures.

So for everyone out there in blogland – Thanks!  You Work for Me!

For more Works for Me Wednesday posts, visit We Are THAT Family.

This is the coolest thing ever.  And it’s at the DMV.  Go figure.

If you go to the California DMV website (not sure about any of the other states) and select your local office, over on the left they have the actual wait time for your office.

In the interest of bloggy security and stealthiness, I’m not linking to my local office to show you what I’m talking about, but I’m choosing the first town name on the alphabetical list.  Which is Alturas.  Hmm… Apparently this system isn’t available in all of the offices.   Sorry Alturas.  But you can go with the rest of us to check out the next town on the list, which is Arleta.

If you go to the Arleta office site, on the left it tells you the Current Customer Wait time for Appointment and Non-Appointment customers.  Underneath that, it even shows the current wait times for other nearby offices.

How totally cool is that?

I found this nifty setup yesterday when I had to go to the DMV.  I decided to go to the DMV site for some reason and there it was.  If you’re anything like me you may be wondering how exactly they figure out how long the wait is.  I was wondering if they had some sort of sensor system on the floor where you stood in line or the doors had sensors that showed how many people came in and how many people left.  Cuz I’m a nerd curious like that.

It turns out that when you walk in to the DMV now, there’s a line where you talk to a person and tell them what you’re there for.  They print out a little computerized ticket and point you over to a waiting area where you sit down.  In chairs!  I know!   Then a computerized voice announces the ticket number and which window they want you to go to.  You give the ticket to the person at that window and they log it in.  TADA!  Wait time calculated.

DMV Awesomeness!!!  Who’da ever guessed they’d be the ones to get techy?

For more awesome Works for Me Wednesday Tips, go see Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer.

This is one of those times where a picture speaks a thousand words, but I’ll add some of my own too.  This thing holds 36 cupcakes!!!!  You can carry it with one hand.  There are four locking clips on the bottom that lock the lid to the base.  I carried this to my daughter’s birthday party at her kindergarten, held both my kids’ hands (okay my daughter held a finger) and crossed a street at the same time.  How’s that for a multi-tasking mom?

I bought mine at Target.  It was in the area with the infomercial stuff.   You can also go directly to the company’s website – The Cupcake Courier.

For more Works for Me Wednesday tips, visit Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer.

I don’t freeze meat.  It’s not that I’m against the freezing.  It just takes a blessed forever for meat to defrost.   I’m just not very patient.

I’d work on that character flaw, but it would take FOREVER.   And I’m not, well, you know…

To get around that, I buy all my meats fresh and put them in the refrigerator.   It works great, except for one thing – I tend to forget when they are going to expire.   I’ve had to throw away more meat than I care to admit.   Which made my system not work for me at all.

So now I keep a piece of notepaper on my fridge with the sell by or use by dates AND the day of the week written on it.  As a SAHM, I really need to know the day of the week rather than the date.  Because the only time I need to know the date is when I write a check, which is virtually never.   Tell me the chicken expires on Tuesday and I can work with that.  Tell me it expires on July 1st and I have no idea.

I’m also going to start writing down when other things are getting ready to expire, like dairy products and mayo.

That’s what works for me.  For more Works for Me Wednesday tips, head over to Rocks in My Dryer.

There is a lot you can say about gluten-free bread.  Most of it not good.  I have bought and baked my fair share of loaves of GF bread that have been a dismal disappointment.

It wasn’t long after starting the gluten-free diet that I tried Pamela’s Amazing Wheat-Free Bread Mix.   It really is amazing.  It bends.  Just like real bread.  It also smells and tastes a lot like regular wheat wheat bread (as opposed to white wheat bread).

I’ve found other GF breads like I like just one way, like toasted with butter, but it doesn’t taste good as a sandwich bread.  Or it tastes good as a sandwich with meat and cheese, but tastes nasty as a peanut butter sandwich.  One of my favorite things about Pamela’s bread is that it has a real neutral flavor.  You can do anything with this bread.  It tastes good as toast with jam, pb, honey.  It holds up to making french toast or making a fried egg on toast.  It makes a great sandwich bread for anything you want.  My personal favorite is a BLT on toast.  It also tastes great just eating a piece plain.

Amazing!

I’ve also been known to make gluten-free hamburger buns out of it.  You just follow the mixing directions and divide it into some greased oven-proof ramekins like these.  Let the dough rest for an hour.  They will rise when they bake.  Bake at 325 until done.  I think it’s about 20 or 30 minutes.  I don’t have a kitchen timer, so I hover until they look right.

So that’s what works for me.  Head on over to Works for Me Wednesday at Rocks in My Dryer for more fun stuff.

If you’re a Lost fan like me, waiting for February is driving you nuts.    Part of me feels irritated that they would do this (again) and wants to stop watching it to punish them.   But to be honest, I’d be the only one getting hurt because I can’t stand the idea of not knowing what’s going to happen on that dang show.   So I’m waiting.

But while I’ve been waiting, I’ve discovered the CBS show Jericho.  I read about it first on FiddleDeeDee’s blog, It Could’a Been Worse.  You can read her entry by clicking HERE.

I really couldn’t say it much better than she did, except to say that you HAVE to see this show.  It’s easily just as good as Lost.  Maybe even better. (Oh yes.  I said it.)

If you go to Jericho’s website, you can watch the entire season on CBS.com’s handy-dandy full episode player.

Jericho.  It works for me!

For more Works for Me Wednesday Tips, visit Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer.

A writer friend told me about a site called Associated Content a few weeks ago.

Associated Content is a great place for anyone who likes to write (like bloggers!).   It’s better than PayPerPost because you don’t need to bid or write about what the advertisers want you to write about.  You get to decide what your subject is, how long your article is going to be and when you want to write it.

This is the way it works – write an article about just about anything and then submit it.   If your article is accepted, they pay you a small amount of money and put it up on the Associated Content site.

So far, I’ve submitted three articles.  I got $12 for the first one, $4 for the second and $3 for the third.

It’s not much money, but we’re pinching pennies pretty hard around here, so $19 makes a difference.  And I’ve got to say that it’s a great feeling to make some money doing something I love to do.

I hope to see some of my favorite bloggers on Associated Content soon!

For more Works for Me Wednesday tips visit Rocks in My Dryer.

Shannon, over at Rocks in My Dryer is doing a parenting edition of Works for Me Wednesday.  There are always tons of people participating, so head over there and read the advice everyone else has for this week’s edition.

Here’s my advice:  Don’t be too hard on yourself.

Don’t worry if the mom you thought you were going to be is not the mom you find yourself being.   They’re probably not the children you were expecting either.

I had my first child at 31.  So, during my 20’s I was that friend who just knew I would never lose my temper with my darling children like some of my friends were doing.  When I’m a mom, I’ll never lose my patience.  Even if I do get frustrated, I will most certainly not yell.   I’ll never yell.   I’ll explain to them sweetly why they mustn’t do something.   And they will understand and look up at their mommy with adoring eyes while we cuddle and quietly read books.   Then we’ll do arts and crafts and make homemade seasonal decorations for the house.

Oh, the preciousness of it all…  It just breaks your heart doesn’t it?

Or maybe, depending on how long you’ve been a mom, you might be laughing your booty off by now.

Suffice it to say that motherhood has not been what I expected.

First of all, my kids do not sit, quietly or otherwise, unless they’re zoned out in front of the TV or sick.   They have always been the exact opposite of the quiet well-mannered cherubs of my imagination.   They are lively, active, loud, wild and wonderful kids.  They do not like to do arts or crafts, listen to books or stare adorably up at me while I cuddle them in my lap.   Because of all the sitting.  Which they do not do.   At all.

TV is my friend.  It’s the only way poor mommy gets a break.

Which brings me back to the mommy I thought I was going to be.  Like I said, I was never, and I mean never going to yell.  But now, I yell so loud and so often that I’m thinking about buying some of those double pane windows so the neighbors can’t hear my voice echoing into the hinterlands.

P.S.:  To see something that definitely did NOT work for me, take a look at my Tater Mitts post.  They soooo did not work for me.

If you have any kind of food intolerances, you should really look at this site www.topsecretrecipes.com .

There are so many great free recipes there, as well as pay-for recipes (only 79 cents each).  I get recipes there because my kids and I can’t eat gluten.   But everytime I go there, it makes me think of people with other food intolerances who may be able to replicate food that they normally can’t have.

If you’ve got soy or corn intolerances you should definitely browse through the free recipes on that site.   Those can be so hard to deal with because of all the soy and corn used in just about everything.

I had to avoid soy for about a month once and I was shocked at how much I couldn’t eat.  That was way more inconvenient and frustrating than avoiding gluten has ever been.   Soy is apparently the go-to oil in food manufacturing.  It’s everywhere.

Then there’s corn.  Specifically high fructose corn syrup.  It’s what they use to sweeten just about everything.  Every time I see a Top Secret Recipe that lists corn syrup as an ingredient, especially in drinks, it makes me think of how easy it would probably be to substitute simple syrup and use that instead.

Simple syrup is made by boiling water, disolving in sugar and boiling it to the soft-ball stage.   I’ve seen varied recipes from 1 part sugar to two parts water, to equal parts of sugar and water.   Once it cools, you can refrigerate it.

Here are some more ideas.

- Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups – If you’ve got a peanut allergy, you could make these with another type of nut butter or soynut butter, or anything else really.

- Nabisco Cheese Nips – Totally on my list as one of the next things to try.  I’ve got two preschoolers who are both gluten intolerant.  Before we found that out, they were eating just as many goldfish crackers as every other kid.   The lack of GF cheese crackers was an adjustment.   Especially at first when they were somewhere like church or preschool where other kids are eating them as the class snack.

- Girl Scout Cookies – The Thin Mints recipe is free (!!), the shortbread you have to pay for.   It might take some experimenting with some of the ingredients, but I’d bet you’d be able to create your own GF girl scout cookie clones.

- Twinkie Filling (new and improved) – The cake recipe isn’t on there, but the filling is.

- Jack in the Box Oreo Cookie Shake – K-Too’s by www.kinnikinnick.com are pre-made GF oreo-type cookies.   I’m not as familiar with dairy intolerance, but you could probably make a great shake out of Rice Dream ice cream.

- Miracle Whip – Just in case you ever wondered what exactly Miracle Whip is.

- Oreo Cookies – Worth the look just for the cream filling alone.   There’s a little bit of granulated sugar to give the very slightly gritty finish to the cream filling.

- Olive Garden’s Pasta e Fagioli – All you’d need to do is sub some GF pasta, such as Tinkyada, and you’re there.

For more Works for Me Wednesday ideas – Go to Rocks in My Dryer – http://rocksinmydryer.typepad.com/shannon/2007/06/works-for-me-ba.html

(Note to self – figure out how to do links better.)