MY FAVORITE LAUNDRY SOLUTIONS

There are three things that are ALWAYS in my laundry room and that I don't think I could live without when it comes to stains.

First is OxiClean powder. I found this via a tip from another young mom when I had Punkin 3 years ago. Both of my girls have had reflux and have been huge spitter uppers. This stuff saved many an outfit over the years. I just always keep a couple buckets filled with a cold water/oxiclean mixture (one for darks and one for lights) ready to go and whenever I have an article of clothing with a stain on it, I just throw it in the bucket to soak until I get around to doing laundry. I hardly ever even have to scrub or anything.....only the really stubborn ones. When I go to do laundry, I just rinse the items out slightly in the water that is filling the washer and throw them in! As good as new!

Buuuuut..... it's not fool proof. There are always a few that don't come out with the soaking or ones that I don't catch until AFTER I've already washed them. Don't you just hate that? For those, I turn to my other two "must haves:" Clorox 2 detergent and Coast soap. First, I pour on some detergent to the stain and let sit for just a bit. Then, I rub the coast soap right over the top of it...kinda hard. I let that sit a few minutes, then add just a teeny bit more detergent and lightly "scrub." Rinse out the soap and throw in the washer. This method has worked 99% of the time even on stains I thought would never come out!

LIL' CHEDDAR MEATLOAVES

We love these at our house...even my 3 year old and my husband who has never liked meatloaf in his life! I make a double or triple recipe and freeze what we won't eat for dinner that night. (Freeze them without the sauce on a wax paper lined cookie sheet until frozen, then put them in a ziploc bag to store. Make the sauce and add it to them whenever you actually thaw and cook them.) Then, when I don't have time to make dinner, I go and take out however many little loaves I want, quick mix the sauce, and stick them in the oven.

Lil' Cheddar Meatloaves

1 egg
¾ c. milk
1 c. (4 oz.) shredded cheddar cheese
½ c. quick-cooking oats
½ c. chopped onion
1 tsp. salt
1 lb. lean ground beef

Sauce:

⅔ c. ketchup
½ c. packed brown sugar
1 ½ tsp. mustard

In a bowl, beat the egg and milk. Stir in cheese, oats, onion and salt. Add beef and mix well. Shape into 8 loaves and place in a greased 9x13 inch baking dish. Combine ketchup, brown sugar, and mustard. Spoon over loaves. Bake, uncovered at 350º for 45 minutes or until the meat is no longer pink and meat thermometer reads 160º. Makes 8 servings.

CLEANING CHART

I am trying to be more organized this year. I have always made sure I did at least one "chore" or cleaning job each day, but I never had a set schedule, so I would often skip over things or forget to do things. I finally made up this list for me, with the goal of keeping my house not only picked up and tidy, but also CLEAN and organized so that I don't have to take a whole week to tackle Spring Cleaning in March or April. We'll see how it goes!

MORE THAN JUST TOT SCHOOL

I decided I am going to expand this blog a bit and include more than just tot school stuff. I want to share some things that I don't necessarily want "pinned" or linked back in any way to my personal blog that has personal and identifying information on it. So, I decided I'd share these things here on this blog.

For awhile now, I have been saving the clear plastic zippered "bags" that blankets, sheets, and other such items come in, but have never known what exactly to do with them. I just figured they were too good to just throw away. Well, a couple days ago while organizing around the house, I found I needed some way to store some of Punkin's toys and supplies in an easy way for her to still see what it was. And I suddenly remembered all these bags I'd been saving! Problem solved!

Punkin always wants to eat the same thing for breakfast EVERY morning (a plain bagel with butter and honey and an egg). I have been trying to figure out how to get her to eat other things. (She is not a picky eater, really. She'll eat almost anything. She just likes her routine and is starting to have a more definite opinion on what she wants.) So, I made this chart that hangs laminated on our refrigerator. She finds the day and tells me what is for breakfast. Then, she marks it off with her dry erase marker. She still sometimes fusses about it, but at least she knows ahead of time what to expect.

We played around with other chore charts and responsibility incentives, even commercially made ones like Melissa and Doug. We finally settled on this one that I made, and Punkin is doing SO well with it, and is very motivated by it. It has helped a LOT with reminding her, too, to do things with a happy heart. (She doesn't earn a mark if she does it while complaining or if she has to be told more than two times.) I like this because it's an ongoing thing. It's not tied to days of the week, and she can earn a mark more than once in a day for some of them (like obeying or doing something good). If she doesn't earn a mark for something on the first day of the week, she is not sunk. Just whenever she gets to the end of a row, she earns a prize, and we erase just that row and start that row over while continuing on with the others. Anyway, it works great for us!

And I thought I'd post our daily schedule now that I think I have it pretty much down how I want it. And now that Firecracker is 6 months old, I don't feel it is constantly changing as much as in those early months. It really works great for us, and since I am such a "routine" person, I love knowing what our day will be like instead of flying by the seat of my pants each day. But that's just me. Other people hate a schedule and like to just go with the flow.

Oh, and one other thing. I mentioned earlier that Punkin is becoming very opinionated about what she wants and doesn't want. What to wear each day is one of those situations. If it were up to her, she'd wear leggings and a dress every day. And the same pink one at that. SO, I made up some "rules" that have helped. If we are not going anywhere that day, she can pick whatever she wants to wear (within season). If we have somewhere to go, I give her two choices the night before and what she picks that night is what she wears the next day...no changing her mind. And finally, if it is Sunday, I pick what she wears to church. So far, it has worked well. Oh, there are days when she doesn't like my choices that I give her and will fuss about it, but we don't have the battles anymore because she knows what to expect upfront.

In conclusion, I am finding that with a toddler, it is best to give them guidelines and let them know what to expect ahead of time. In other words, it works best that she knows ahead of time that on such and such a day we are having this or that for breakfast versus just telling her that morning what we are having. And visual charts are a huge help!

MY ATTEMPT AT SUBWAY ART

I've been on a subway art kick, thanks to Pinterest. I decided to attempt my own for Valentine's Day, and I really loved how it turned out!

You can download a copy for yourself HERE. Enjoy!