Household Hacks/Tips

Do any of you have special household tips that you have "hacked", I mean learned?  We may call it "hacking" when we "steal" others' household tips.  But, really, isn't that what learning is all about?  After all, we all learn from others who have obtained wisdom from someone else.  And, in rare instances some very innovative individuals just happen upon a new discovery.  But, even that was really never new.  It was just a fact waiting to be found out.  There's really nothing new under the sun, which the Creator hasn't already designed.  So, here are just a few really cool household tips which others have passed on to me, which I have adopted because of their amazing usefulness in daily living.  All of the ones I am going to share just happen to be kitchen household tips.  Perhaps another day I'll share other household tips.  But, for now, allow me to pass on these five amazing kitchen tips.

1.)  To keep Brown Sugar Fresh....

 

Keep a slice of bread with it in an air tight container.   (I usually use the "heel" or crust of the bread that I don't necessarily like to eat as much.)

2.)  To keep apple slices from turning brown...

Assemble the following things...

 

Slice your apple...

 

Put salt in bowl of water and place apple slices in the bowl of salt water for a few minutes.

 

Put in a ziploc bag and pack for a lunch and have no worries about your apples turning brown!

 

3.)   To preserve your onions...

 

Keep in a paper bag with holes inside a drawer.  They will stay nice and fresh for a long time like this...

 

It works with your garlic, too!  But, keep them separate from your potatoes.  The onions and potatoes have different enzymes that cause them to rot faster when placed close together.

4.)  To keep from crying when you slice onions...

 

Keep a pair of swimming goggles close by and actually wear them while slicing your onions!

 

It makes your kids smile, too!

5.)  Use a bag of mugi-cha (barley tea) from an Asian market to make the greasiest pan as clean and slick as a whistle!

 

Take your greasiest pan, you know the one that you cleaned with Dawn dish soap, but which still has a greasy residue left like this....

 

Then, add water and wipe with the bag of mugi-cha.

 

You will immediately notice how the barley tea causes the grease to separate and break down....

 

And you will be left with a slick, clean new pan just like brand new!

 

So, those are some of my favorite tips which I have picked up from sweet older ladies or Japanese t.v. shows or a random website or blog.  Sometimes I can't remember where I picked up the tip.  I'm just thankful that they have passed along this bit of wisdom, which has made life easier for me.  So, I gladly pass it on to you and hope it will make your life a little easier, too!

 

Cleaning Up (お掃除) and Setting Goals for the New Year

I don't know about you.  But, whenever the New Year comes around, I love to think of ways in which I can better organize my life and clean up my messes.  And, since we had a home appraiser coming over, I thought, "There's no time like the present to clean up my act!"  Yes, my house was becoming a disaster!  I suppose another reason I thought of cleaning up was because of the several years that I lived in Japan.  It is a tradition to clean up your entire house there just before New Year's.  There's a special word for it.  It's called お掃除 (o-souji) or "big cleaning". The worst rooms in the house were our master bedroom and the downstairs office.  While we cleaned up the entire house, I only took before and after pictures of the biggest transformations.  Yes, it's sad to admit, but certain places in my house were becoming dumping grounds.  When there's little time, it's easier to just dump things in piles for clean up at a later time.  So, I don't need to say much.  Pictures speak volumes.  Here's what I've been cleaning up....

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

Transformed!

 

A New Fresh Start for the New Year

Now, for some pictures of the transformation in the office.  This room has become the place to pile all messes that I didn't want to deal with.  There were still piles of papers that I hadn't filed away after our homeschooling finished last Spring among other new piles of papers.  I find that books/papers are my biggest nemesis.  But, I finally took action and conquered these enemies.

Before

After

Before

After

 

All Cleaned Up and Ready for Tax Time!

While I had already organized my pantry last year and it's not in need of major renovations, there was one thing that was really driving me crazy about one shelf, in particular.  I put our salty snacks, like potato chips on the top shelf, because there's more space there for tall packages.  The only problem is that random bags of half-eaten potato chips would like to slide off the shelf and come crashing down when you opened the pantry door.  So, I decided to corral them, as I have many other items in my pantries, by putting them in a box.  Of course, I wanted to save both time and money by not going out to buy a plastic storage box or basket.  So, I just took a cardboard box and covered it with shelf liner adhesive paper and used my label maker to label it.  So, here's the newly updated top shelf of my pantry.  It didn't cost me any extra money to fix it up.  The other plastic containers are ones that I covered and labeled last year.  They were from gifts that people had given us.

 

I think our most important goal that Jay and I are trying to set for this year is to work hard at budgeting and reducing our debts.  We have this wonderful opportunity to consolidate our debts into one payment, added to the payment we'll be making to fix my car, which broke down just before Christmas.  It's thanks to switching it over to a home equity line of credit at a much lower interest rate.  So, I've been working on creating a family budget plan on excel.  We're hoping with our new method to pay down our debts, coupled with my new part-time job, that we might begin to see a light at the end of the tunnel to tackle the financial challenge that we've been facing for years.

Meanwhile, Penny's goal, during her Christmas break, is to learn how to cook more of her favorite Thai/Lao foods.  So, we went shopping yesterday.  Here are just a few of the items that she wanted to buy to start her new cooking frenzy. 

 

I'm glad that she's getting interested in cooking.  That will definitely be a treat and a blessing in many ways!  How about you?  What are some of your goals or projects to take on for the New Year?

Living Life Full of Glorious Hope--Fall 2015

In the midst of this world with its many dark and dreary stories of tragedy, I want to paint a little picture of light, of hope and of peace emanating from our little corner of the world.  The love of God compels me to share this message of His everlasting love shining in the darkness.  Here is a happy picture of a little Thanksgiving decorating in our dining room window overlooking our sun porch.  I love it because you can see the happy, content kitty basking in the sunshine in the background.

 

Both Penny and Jay have been inspired to do some cooking lately.  Jay made a salad from a recipe that he received from his sister several years ago for a party at work. 

It was a real hit!  He asked me to arrange the veggies on top for the final touch.  It looked great and I hear it tasted great!

It must have, because his co-workers ate up the whole thing in no time flat!

I did a little holiday decorating for Halloween and now for Thanksgiving.  I don't go over the top.  But, I enjoy a few decorations to get me in the spirit of the season.

We're so thankful that Jay is enjoying his new job at Sooper Credit Union.  He is also enjoying singing, again, as he joined the Cherry Creek Chorale.  He sang in a Halloween themed concert with the Cherry Creek Chorale.

 

Penny and I were able to go to his first concert on a Friday night.  However, we didn't make it to his Saturday performance.  Instead, she and I went to the Anderson Farms.  It's becoming a family tradition, thanks to our WONDERFUL realtor, Heidi Greer of Remax Alliance.  Every year since we moved here she's invited us to the Anderson Farms for free!

 

So that's where we got our pumpkins this year.

 

It was a fun mother-daughter date together.

 

We also got to go another mother-daughter outing while Jay was at work.  This Friday was a free day at the Denver Zoo.  I wasn't scheduled to work and Penny had no classes.  So, we decided to go out and enjoy the free day.  It turned out to be a very nice day.  So, there were a LOT of people there and it took us almost an hour to find a parking space!  Here are a few photos from our time together.  Not many of Penny because she was not feeling like she'd like her photo taken much.

 

Sure glad that there was glass between that python and my daughter!

Penny and I also enjoyed making some nigiri sushi with shrimp on one of my days off.  Here are some photos of us making the sushi.

 

 Penny inserted toothpicks in the underside of the shrimp to keep their shape straighter when boiling them.  Then she put them in ice water to cool them down after boiling them.

Next, we added vinegar, sugar and salt to cooked Japanese short-grain rice to make sushi rice.

 

I formed the actual shapes of the sushi after struggling to remove the toothpicks (had to use pliers).  We also removed the skin, but left the tails for a decorative touch.  The only problem was that we realized we had forgotten to buy wasabi.  So, it was a little harder to make them stick together.  But, here's the finished product.

 

We enjoyed them and ate them up immediately!  Since Jay isn't fond of seafood we could greedily eat them up before he got home for work.

We also enjoyed going to a Celtic Women's Chorale concert.  It was really special, because Jay's former student was singing in it.  Hard to believe he had her as a 5th grader and she's now a graduate student.  It's hard to tell, but she was the last person on the top row in this photo.

 

Penny's favorite part of the night were the Celtic dancers.  They were really spectacular!

Well, here's hoping that your days will be glorious, like these morning glories....

 

The morning glories have now faded into a glorious memory, since we had our first hard frost this past week.  But, we have hope of a resurrection.  So, let's hold to this glorious hope and keep our eyes fixed on Jesus during these days which can often seem filled with much sorrow!