“There’s No Crying In Cooking!”

Nov 282011
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The other day I was in the kitchen chop­ping onions in my nifty Vidalia Chop Wiz­ard. (this is one of my favorite kitchen gad­gets) Tears were just gush­ing down my face and it was burn­ing like crazy.  I hap­pened to glance over on the counter where my sun­glasses were. I decided to put them on to see if it would help. It totally worked! No more tears! I now store a cheap, but cute pair of sun­glasses in my uten­sils drawer. They’ve worked every time. Yes, it’s a lit­tle dark, but only for a few minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look at these chic glasses I scored for only a buck at the dol­lar store! They fit per­fectly in my kitchen drawer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, you can always pur­chase kitchen gog­gles but you’ll save money and look more styl­ish my way.


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We’re Almost Ready!

Sep 182011
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took a poll last week ask­ing if you’re dis­as­ter ready and here’s what you said:

  • Totally ready 13%
  • Almost ready 78%
  • Not ready at all 8%

I’m very happy to see most of you have attempted to be pre­pared. For us who need to fin­ish get­ting ready or start get­ting ready (please do!) I’ve listed some sites that pro­vide lists of rec­om­mended things to have. Let’s make it our goal to fin­ish our emer­gency kits before November!

ready.gov : A list of things you should have in case of an emergency,

the fam­ily plan :Your fam­ily may not be together when dis­as­ter strikes, so it is impor­tant to plan in advance: how you will con­tact one another; how you will get back together; and what you will do in dif­fer­ent sit­u­a­tions. A good sim­ple plan can be found on this site.

food safety : Guide­lines on food saftey if you’ve expe­ri­enced a dis­as­ter or power outage.

Costco : Pre-packaged emer­gency kits and tools you can pur­chase on-line from Costco (no, I have no finan­cial gain. I just thought it was con­ve­nient for some who don’t have the time to assem­ble one).

This is just a sam­pling of how we can be pre­pared. There are other ways and many more resources to be found. Hope­fully this will help you get started or help you finish.

Nellene’s extra tips:

  • Dur­ing our power out­age it was inter­est­ing that my husband’s phone car­rier worked where mine didn’t. Maybe it’s a good idea to be on two dif­fer­ent plans to increase the chance of hav­ing a work­ing phone.
  • I added a few “lux­u­ries” to my emer­gency kit that of course are not neces­si­ties but may come in handy. Who wants caf­feine with­drawals? Add instant cof­fee. Who needs to calm their nerves or relax? Add boxed wine. Who wants to stink? Add  body/baby wipes, deodor­ant and dis­pos­able teeth clean­ing strips.
  • Although we are reminded to be pre­pared at home, we should also con­sider hav­ing mini emer­gency kits in our car as well.
  • Have “to go” emer­gency back­packs for each mem­ber of the fam­ily that are eas­ily acces­si­ble in case we have to flee on foot in a hurry. Include all the basics that are listed on the above site that will fit. Also add a pair of ten­nis shoes.
  • Have extra ice stored in your freezer so if there is a power out­age you can pro­long the fresh­ness of your food. We imme­di­ately put bags of ice into the refrig­er­a­tor to make it act almost like a big ice chest. It really worked well.

 

 

 

 

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Don’t Put the “P” in Pool!

May 182011
 

 

 

 

 

 

Sum­mer is around the cor­ner and many will find them­selves hav­ing some “fun in the sun” by the pool while their cabana boy Mr. Clooney brings them a drink with a cute umbrella and all. (a girl can dream, can’t she?) So that brings me to our impor­tant topic of the day…Pool Safety. I am by no means an expert on this, but I have researched some good reminders for all of us. Espe­cially if we own a pool like myself.

Adult Super­vi­sion

-Never under any cir­cum­stance leave a child unat­tended for any amount of time by a swim­ming pool. If you need to use the restroom, answer the front door, grab a water or what­ever it might be take the child with you or move them into the home you with access to the pool locked.

–Be sure to assign an adult who is in charge of super­vi­sion espe­cially at a gath­er­ing. Often a mis­un­der­stand­ing of who is in charge can arise. To avoid this from hap­pen­ing, make a sim­ple neck­lace that the per­son in charge at the time wears. For exam­ple get some yarn and make a “par­ent on duty” tag that is large and bright. Print the emer­gency phone num­bers on it as well so in a panic they’re handy. You can even add a safety whis­tle to it. That way when you’re wear­ing that neck­lace you know it’s your respon­si­bil­ity not to take your eyes off the swim­ming pool and chil­dren no mat­ter what.

–Remem­ber no flota­tion device can be sub­sti­tuted for adult supervision.

–If you know you can­not pro­vide proper super­vi­sion you can hire a life­guard for your party or event. Be sure they have the proper credentials.

Safety

–This may seem obvi­ous but be sure every­one has plenty of sun­block on. Don’t for­get to reap­ply every few hours.

–Hydra­tion is often over­looked as hours pass by when we’re hav­ing fun in the pool. Be sure to have plenty of water. Per­haps have an ice chest filled with waters and sports drinks. If they’re handy and in site peo­ple will not for­get to drink.

–Learn to per­form CPR. (Car­diopul­monary Resus­ci­ta­tion) I highly rec­om­mend Keep the Beat for cer­ti­fi­ca­tion. They will come to what­ever loca­tion you pre­fer, which makes it very easy to have an “in-home” CPR luncheon/dinner for all your friends and fam­ily. Tiffany, the owner, is very up beat (no pun intended!) so it makes it a lot more fun!

–Enroll your chil­dren in swim­ming lessons.(remember this doesn’t replace supervision)

–Keep a phone by the pool at all times and have the emer­gency phone num­bers posted. Be sure to have a first aid kit on hand.

May is National Water Safety Month

The above link will take you to a site that has more detailed infor­ma­tion to help you and your loved ones stay safe this summer.

Tips from our “Pool Boy Roy”

1. Hire a qual­i­fied pool guy. This would mean he has a contractor’s license and insurance.

2. Glass is a “no, no” around the pool.

3. Take all mea­sures to ensure the pool gate is locked.

4. Don’t pee in the pool, we can tell when you do. ;)

5. Treat your sis­ter in-law to a day at the spa since she’s prob­a­bly really amaz­ing and deserves it!

 

Do you know any­one who puts the “p” in pool?

If you want to know if the “pool water is clean” and things like this, read here.

 

 

 

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