Saving Money at California Stores!

Today's Works For Me Wednesday is a backwards edition where I ask a question that I hope hope hope you, the readers, can solve for me.  So here's my question:

I follow several blogs that compile store sales and freebies (like Money Saving Mom), but they're all located in other parts of the country, so they have many stores that don't apply to me.  I'm certain to be missing other sales in my area for stores that aren't found in their areas, and often the sales are different in different parts of the country, even for the same store chain (like Wal-mart).

I've emailed these blogs to ask if they know people who are doing the same thing in California, but the blog writers are busy, I'm sure, and haven't responded.  I've Googled this problem as well and come up empty.

So that's my question for you:  do you know any (California-based) blogs that compile store sales and freebies to be found in California (especially Southern California)?  Thanks so much in advance!

More people need your advice at We Are THAT Family!

The times, they are a-changing

As a mother of small children, the time change in the United States to "save daylight" concerns me more than ever before in my life...it concerns me in the sense that I give more than two thoughts to it, like I used to.  But then Tom realized that we're going camping a few days after the time change, which might mean that the kids wake up at 6 a.m. in the old time, which is really 5 a.m. in the new time.  NOT a happy thought, especially since we're camping with friends....and I gave about two hundred thoughts to it...especially since Tom kept mentioning it!

So we decided to transition our family more than a week early (the time change is this coming Sunday, in case you weren't anticipating it!)  Friday, Tom started keeping the kids up 30 minutes later.  He was disappointed they didn't sleep in 30 minutes on Saturday morning, but I reminded him that our kids make up for lost sleep the second night, and sure enough, after going to bed 30 minutes late on Saturday night, they slept in 30 minutes on Sunday morning.

It's not just enough to keep them up later at night:  we also have to change their meal times to really help them adjust their sleep clocks.  So starting today, I'm serving each meal 30 minutes later than normal.  


Sleeping in on the weekend is ok, but during the week, it can be a challenge to have kids getting up 30 minutes later and still get out the door by 8 a.m. for therapy Monday and Thursday, and school today.  That's why we only transitioned 30 minutes this week.  It would be too much of a hardship to have them a full 60 minutes off the real time this week, or to serve meals a full 60 minutes later.

But we're hoping that with a 30-minute change in sleep (and nap!) times and meal times this week, the 30 minutes next week to the new real time will be easier.  After all, it's closer to William Willet's original idea with the time change.  And we really hope they're not wide awake and singing at 5 a.m. while we're camping.

What are your tricks for transitioning kids during the time change?  To see more fun ideas, go to We Are THAT Family.

Make spring mix salad last longer

Don't you love to buy the 1 pound box of spring mix salad at Costco or Sam's Club? It makes great salads for our family for almost a week. Don't you hate when it goes bad after a few days? Have you ever noticed that there is one type of lettuce in the spring mix that goes bad first (fast), while the rest of the lettuce is still edible?

I remember my mom mentioning that the purple lettuce is the one that doesn't stay fresh as long. She lamented that "they" put it in the spring mix, sure it was a conspiracy to make the spring mix not last as long, so we'd have to buy it more frequently. The green lettuce may still be edible, but you can't convince me that green lettuce with black slime is still edible.

The other day, I had a Eureka moment...why not take the purple lettuce out? So I did it. I sorted out the purple lettuce from the green lettuce and put the purple lettuce on the top of my bag of lettuce. Our salads for the first two days were the purple lettuce, and by the third day, we were down to the rest of the lettuce mix that is green (and lasts longer).

No black slime on green lettuce! To see more Eureka moments from bloggers across the planet, visit We Are THAT Family.

More camping with small kids

I first posted on this a year ago, after our last trip to Joshua Tree National Park. A lot of people are surprised that we tent camp with three small children, and now it's been a year and a few more camping trips, so I thought I'd share new things we've learned and encourage you again to try it with your kids. You'll make memories you'll never forget and the kids will treasure forever!

I won't say it's easy...camping never is. But if you have low expectations of what you're going to get done on the camping trip, and do a little planning in advance, you can have a fun family adventure that you'll remember forever. If you haven't seen pictures of our trip last week to Joshua Tree, or Tom's artistic pictures of our trip or his funny story from last year, check them out and see how much fun we had!

Here are new tips we've developed after camping with small children over the past five years (see last year's post for the old tips...ok, well, I left the first two tips from last year and edited them because they're the most important):

Food. I always cook from scratch at home, but I've learned to sacrifice gourmet cooking for simplicity while camping with young kids. The key to camping with young kids is speed and simplicity. This means I use Hamburger Helper.

Ok, don't fall over in shock. The only time I use Hamburger Helper is while camping. I also cook as many things as possible at home before we go. So I fried the hamburger at home with an onion, put it in a ziploc bag, and froze it so it would stay colder longer in the cooler. For breakfast, I had undercooked the bacon and made pancakes at home, so I just warmed up the bacon (made eggs in the little bit of grease that came out of the bacon as it became crisp) and warmed up the pancakes at the camp site.

For lunch, I bring bread, meat and cheese to make sandwiches, and we have Pringles (in a can means the chips don't get crushed). This year I brought more fruit than usual, and I think that helped us all stay more "regular" than we normally do: a serving of fruit at each meal, instead of just one or two meals a day. I brought canteloupe, apples, oranges and bananas. And lots of water, of course.

Bedding. No matter what time of year or what elevation you're camping, it's going to be colder at night than your child's bedroom, so it's important to make sure you have bedding for the kids that will keep them warm. Trust me: you'll sleep better, and so will they if you make certain of this in advance! Tom and I love the child-sized Nebo Zero-Degree Bags and you can't beat the price at $20. We bought our first one for Lukas, the second one for Natalie, and now Konrad uses Lukas' old one since Lukas has graduated to a larger bag. It's important to bring hats and mittens since sometimes they don't stay in the bag as well as you'd like or it might be colder than you expect. The kids are always (except one time!) warm, they don't wake up at night, and we don't worry.

The first night is the worst night. At least that's the way it is with our kids, whether they're camping in a tent or sleeping in a hotel room or a guest room at relatives. So I suggest you plan to camp at least two nights so you'll have one good night to remember and want to do it again! After the first night, our kids usually sleep without waking up at night at all.

Toys for the campsite. Our typical schedule while camping is breakfast, hike, lunch, hike, drive for naps, come back to the campsite and play, dinner, S'mores, bed for the kids, talk around the campfire, bed for us. Great toys to bring are ones that get more than one person participating together...this year's hit was the radio-controlled car that Lukas received for his birthday. Everyone loved chasing it while Tom drove it on the asphalt. Another hit was squirt guns that Tom and Lukas used to chase each other around the mesquite bushes. We also bring shovels and trucks (the desert is basically one big sandbox) and mega blocks (like legos) for the play tent. The kids also loved chasing bubbles that I blew...I need to bring more bubble juice next year.

Medicines. Bring every medicine for children in your medicine cabinet (and maybe one or two for the adults). Two of the kids were recovering from colds, and one was healthy before we went on the trip. During the first night, one of them had a fever (the one that was previously healthy) and another one decided to do some more teething all of the sudden. When I was packing the medicines, I didn't anticipate needing any of them, but, boy, was I glad I had every one of them with me, because I used them! Ok, I didn't use all of them, but it gives me peace of mind to know I don't have to drive an hour to get Children's Tylenol.

Make a list. We save the list in Word on our computer and add to it after every camping trip. Tom gets the credit for this one, because I'm more of a "put things in the bag as I think about them" kind of person. But I will agree that having a list the last few trips has made packing easier, and we haven't forgotten things.

Clip your fingernails. Ok, I'm adding this to a list of rules for me (it may not work for you). I usually wear my fingernails a little bit long (but they're not going to win any nail polish modeling contracts) and I always chip, break or tear several nails on camping trips, and then I end up clipping all my nails short anyway. It would be nicer if I just started with short nails for the trip. On the subject of clipping nails, I did remember to clip all the kids' nails before we went...it cuts down on the dirt under the nails and torn nails for them too.

Mistakes will happen. No matter how much you plan, something will go "wrong"! But it's the silly things we do that help us to remember some camping trips. This year, we're bulging at the seams when we pack the minivan to go camping...repacking the van when we left was a little bit funny (Tom might not agree on the "funny" part).

I hope these points encourage you to try camping with your young family. This year we were surprised to see so many families with young children at our campground. Some of them used campers, but several of them also camped in tents...and some of them had more kids than we do! You can do it, and your kids will love it so much, they'll ask, "How long until the next camping trip?" like our kids do.

You can see more of our Works for Me Wednesday, see more of our camping trips, and visit We Are THAT Family for more great ideas across the planet.

Keeping track of medicines

We've got three sick kids this week, and that means several different kinds of medicines to keep each one as comfortable as possible.

Tom and I have gone the route of writing down the time each medicine is given throughout the day, but that's too much like a hospital and we don't need to keep an in-depth medical chart each time a kid has the flu.

We don't want to put them all on a schedule of medicines, because they're each in a different stage of the flu, and while one might need more pain relief, the other might need it less frequently. But we do want to make sure that each child remains comfortable and doesn't get an overdose...which can be hard to do when you can't remember who had what medicine at what time!

So our solution is indeed to write it down, but in a format that's easy to find, doesn't take up a ton of space, and we can each know what medicine to give the next child who wakes up crying in the middle of the night. Usually I'm the one getting up with the sick kid, but once in a while Tom is up before I am, so I let him take care of it and he knows which medicine to give next.

Here's our solution. We create a grid on the white board with the initial of each child across the top, and each possible medicine along the left side. Then we write in the time we give each medicine. If you can't remember the dosage between each child, you could also write the dosage in the box. We usually alternate between Tylenol and Motrin for pain and fever relief, so we can anticipate when the last dose is wearing off and know which medicine to give next. Then we wipe out the previous time and write down the new time.

This system works for us. For more brilliant ideas from other bloggers on the planet, visit Shannon's site.

Save the drapes!

With our last curtains, Natalie and Lukas loved playing in them, and especially with the sheer curtains. Sadly, they often looked quite dirty.

I'd read about kids having "play silks" and I had the idea that giving the kids something like the sheer curtains to play with might keep them from playing with the actual sheer curtains. So far, so good. Lukas and Natalie love their sheers, but Konrad is not really interested yet (I got three different patterns so we could tell them apart--you can see Konrad's on the floor behind Lukas).

Since it's pretty slippery on our hardwood floor, the "rule" is that they play with them sitting down, or at least they're not running through the house with them.

The material was on sale for $4.99 a yard, so I got a yard of each for a rectangular play silk, edged the two sides that are rough, left the selvage edges, and I have a cheap deterrent to getting our curtains dirty and torn. That works for me!

What about the marks that are on the curtain, above "kid height"? Tom and I will have to point fingers at each other about those!

A toy with endless possibilities

Leaving plenty of time for Christmas planning and shopping, Shannon asked our opinion on "The Toys Worth Buying". Here's a frugal toy from our home that might be considered mostly for boys (but girls who like Legos would also enjoy) and is mostly used outside (but, hey, if you want to bring it inside, no problem!)

Lukas gave us the idea for this toy, because he was always playing with leftover pieces of sprinkler piping...you know, the leftover pieces that you're looking for when a sprinkler breaks and you have to make a repair, but you can't find the pieces because your child has absconded with them for his own creation and enjoyment.

So instead of wondering if we would have enough pipe pieces in storage, we purposefully bought Lukas a set of his own sprinkler pipe pieces. You can buy a 10' piece of schedule 40 white pipe for about $5, cut it into pieces with a pipe cutter (if you don't already have a pipe cutter, this will cost about $10), and then buy 10-20 fitting pieces for $0.10 each: straight connectors, elbox, Ts, Ys, etc. There are so many different kinds of pipe fittings, that the possibilities are endless. (It goes without saying that we don't give Lukas the pipe glue, so the pipes come apart at the end of playtime!) Natalie and Konrad also get into the action with the pipe set.

Here are a few pics of Lukas using his pipe set (he's made many creations with them, but these are the only pictures I could quickly find). Lukas stores his in a real toolbox (less than $10) in the garage.

Plastic sprinkler pipes as toys works for me! Visit Rocks in My Dryer for more toy ideas.

Staying ahead of the flu

Here's something I learned the hard way with my first child: if I don't sanitize his hands as soon as I put him in the car after playing at the playground, it is GUARANTEED that he will have a cold or the flu within two days. Lukas was a great thumb sucker (he's still a closet thumb sucker, but that's another story) and the moment I started the engine, the thumb went in his mouth and the germs spread throughout his body.

Yuck!

Then our daughter was born, and in addition to more doctor visits than I would care to remember, we spent three days a week at the local children's hospital as Natalie learned to eat by mouth through e-stim therapy. Three days a week, for six months...then twice a week for another six months. I loved seeing all the friendly faces at the hospital, but I was secretly grimacing at the thought of the rampant germs running all over my kids' bodies the moment we entered the building. Because, when you enter, you touch! And those fingers eventually go into the mouth, nose and eyes.

So here's my solution for me to REMEMBER TO SANITIZE the hands when I buckle them in the car: instead of drinks, the cup holders in the back door of the car (where little kids can't reach) hold hand sanitizer. That way I don't have to fumble through my purse to find the little bottle of hand sanitizer...there's big bottle right there reminding me to clean the children's hands.

Our previous vehicle was so old...how old was it?...it was so old that it didn't have any cupholders. So I stashed the hand sanitizer right behind/next to the carseat. There was a little pocket of space where the child couldn't reach, but a bottle of hand sanitizer would fit nicely.

For me, it had to be visible when I was buckling the kids in after a visit to [insert favorite germy outing here], or I would completely forget until I turned the engine on, and by that time--as already mentioned--it is ENTIRELY too late, because the thumb has already gone in the mouth and the germs are coursing through the body, determined to keep the child in bed for four days with fever, runny nose and aches, and to eventually spread to each member of the family.

This has worked for us to keep the number of illnesses down, I hope it works for you! Go to Shannon's site for more useful ideas and tips from bloggers across the universe...I mean across the globe.

Always clean kitchen sponges

This week's Works For Me Wednesday is supposed to have a "kitchen organization" theme. Since I don't consider my kitchen spectacularly more organized than the average person's, I thought I would share a kitchen tip that I first wrote about almost exactly a year ago (see, I have only one kitchen tip, so I need to recycle it...but I do have other fun tips!)

I updated last year's post, to take into consideration the helpful comments I received, and because I am fastidious about editing, so OF COURSE I am going to critique my writing from a year ago very closely and change a few words here and there. "Fastidious about editing" does not mean I never make errors, but I do try to avoid them. But I digress...

Let's move on to the disclaimer on this kitchen tip: if you don't have a dishwasher (the electric kind, not your husband), this tip is not for you.

Have you ever wondered, "When was the last time I cleaned that kitchen sponge?" or "How dirty is that sponge, really?" I use my kitchen sponge to wash dishes and wipe down the counters, and a couple years ago I hit upon my method to keep it from becoming a smelly mess when I forget to clean it.

My solution is to use two new sponges: one sponge goes in the dishwasher right away (in one of the silverware compartments), and the other goes on the countertop behind the sink. Then every time I empty the dishwasher, I switch the sponge in the dishwasher with the one on the sink, so the sponge gets washed at least once a day. Without a sponge to pull out of the dishwasher, I forget to wash the sponge in the sink; but when I have to pull the sponge out of the dishwasher, it reminds me to put the "old" one in the dishwasher to be cleaned.

When they get old, I start again with two new sponges.

When I posted the last time, one person commented that the dishwasher water wasn't hot enough to disinfect the sponge: it takes a microwave oven to do that. My response is that the soap from the dishwasher also cleans the sponge, just as the sponge would be cleaned if I put it in the washing machine (and my dishwasher water is much hotter than my washing machine water). I readily admit that I have no scientific data to tell you that washing it in the dishwasher disinfects it...and I'm not claiming that it does. But it does make it clean (whatever that means!) and keeps it from smelling bad. I don't want to dissuade you from cooking your wet sponge in your microwave if that works for you.

Fresh smelling kitchen sponges work for me. If your kitchen is in need of organizing, visit Shannon's blog for more ideas from the truly organized.

Nothing like a placebo

Lukas has confidence that Tylenol and Motrin will cure all his illnesses...if those won't work, then Benadryl, Mucinex, Dimetapp or Zyrtec will help.

But what do I do when he has something that can't be cured (or, rather, the symptoms can't be suppressed) by a medicine, or it's too soon to give another dose of Tylenol...and he's begging me to give him a medicine? I give him a placebo.

My placebo of choice is apple juice...but I give it to him in the same medicine dispenser he gets his REAL medicines in. Nothing like a disguise!

The first time I ever did this, he asked me what it was (he always asks me the name of the medicine I give him). And I used my usual tactic when I don't want to tell him what something is...I give him the French name for it. So I said, "It's pomme." "Mom, pomme tastes like apple juice."

He caught me.

I've also used this "other language" tactic when I'm trying to get him to eat a food that I know he doesn't like, namely potatoes. Oops, the French word for potatoes, pommes de terre (apples of the ground) is a little too close to that other word I've been using for a placebo. So I've also called the dish "root vegetable". And after he takes a taste, Lukas says, "This root vegetable tastes like potatoes."

He caught me.

Back to the placebo. Lately Lukas has had a cough that won't go away (it's been more than 4 weeks since he had the cold that began this cough), especially at night when we're all trying to sleep. A couple of nights ago I tried Zyrtec again, and we all had an uninterrupted night's sleep. Then last night I gave him half a dose (because I had given him half a dose during the day to help his daytime coughing), and he still coughed all night. So I didn't give him any Zyrtec this morning because I want to save the full dose for right before bed.

But he's still coughing during the day, so I decided to give him some Mucinex to see if his cough would be more productive during the day.

Even though I haven't given him a placebo in months, after he drank the Mucinex, he said, "I don't get pomme anymore."

If only apple juice cured all our ills. At least it satisfies Lukas. And he hasn't figured out the disguise yet...pomme is his favorite medicine, perhaps because I don't give it that often...IN A MEDICINE DISPENSER!

Check out other great ideas at Shannon's site!

A fit of giggles

Today I read The Owl and the Pussycat to Lukas for the first time and he collapsed in a fit of giggles several times through the reading.

It began with "You elegant fowl" and continued with "let us be married", which he thought was "lettuce be married".

But the greatest tickle came from "a runcible spoon".

And when Lukas starts giggling in this way, it is quite infectious...I couldn't stop laughing either. And laughter works for me after a busy day keeping three children from playing with electrical cords, pulling glasses off the other sibling, and dropping things on each others toes.

So try this silly nursery rhyme if you're ever in need of a fit of giggles, and check out Shannon's site for more silliness, and not-so-silliness.

Get the chalk out

Today is a backwards edition of Works For Me Wednesday, where I tell you my problem and you give me the solution. This worked great the last time we had a backwards edition...you gave me the solution to my problem...so I'm hoping for great suggestions this time.

A couple months ago I bought Lukas a new pair of twill pants for church. The first time he wore them, he sat in sidewalk chalk in the play area after church and got light blue chalk all over the seat of the pants.

I didn't do anything to pretreat the pants before I put them in the wash, and the chalk didn't come out (I assumed it would). Then I tried soaking in OxyClean, I tried Spray N Wash stain cleaner, I tried blotting with alcohol (after I Googled chalk stains and saw this is what I should have done before washing the pants).

Too late...the pants were ruined...I must have washed them six or seven times...they went in the trash.

So your suggestions are for the next time I have chalk stains in clothing (it's unusual that this is the only time this has happened...Natalie is always playing with chalk, and often ends up sitting in it, and Lukas often sits in chalk too). Please! Suggest! Comment!

Thanks in advance for your suggestions, and visit Shannon to send more hopelessly lost people in the right direction with your wise advice.

The best playground clothes

One time I was at the park with other friends with small kids, and as we were chatting, I kept looking for Lukas to make sure he was ok, and still there. :) Suddenly I realized that at this park visit, it was very easy to spot Lukas immediately, and it was all because of what he was wearing.

He was wearing a red shirt!

I've tried it a few times, and for me, when my kids are wearing red, it's much easier for me to find them in the middle of other kids they're playing with. At the last church picnic, I dressed the kids in red and white striped shirts, and it still worked. Since other kids are rarely dressed in red shirts when we go to the park to play, I'm assuming other people haven't stumbled upon this yet.

So when we go to a park, where I know I'll be talking to friends and might get a little distracted, I try to dress my kids in red so I can easily spot them. Of course, if you dress your kids in red and come play with us, I might have a hard time spotting my kids, but at least we can find each others' kids!

Dressing my kids in red for playground play works for me. Visit Shannon for more great ideas from other mommy bloggers.

My solution for children's manicures and pedicures

Forget about the diapers, teething, breastfeeding, toys underfoot...you know how overwhelmed I am with keeping three kids' fingernails and toenails properly trimmed, right? Well, I've hit upon a solution that makes it a little easier.

I trim their nails outside on the lawn!

Since I started doing this, I don't have to keep track of where the little pieces of nail fly when I trim them in the house. Perhaps everyone else is doing this already, and it took me four years and three children to figure it out, but I thought I'd share in case there's even only one person out there who might benefit.

When I finish with one kid, I can call the next kid over to trim his/her nails, while still watching all the kids play. And I have been known to do my own nails outside, too.

It works for me! See Shannon's site for other bloggers' eureka moments.

How to Calm My Fussy Children

Have I mentioned that Lukas screamed nonstop for the first three months of his life? After that he only screamed half the time for the next year. I seriously thought my eardrums would burst. They had that fuzzy, crackly sound coming out of them like a speaker that has had too many watts of acid rock blasted through it (thankfully, my ears did heal and don't sound like that anymore).

So here's how I survived: I sang to him. Somehow, singing calmed him down and made him stop screaming. Now it was not my favorite thing in the world to be singing most of the day, but it turned out to be much more pleasant to hear myself sing than to hear my child scream. Within 10 seconds of starting a song, Lukas would stop screaming and listen and play quietly or sit enraptured with his mother's dulcet voice. Ahem. You get the point.

I found that I needed to have songs that were fairly long, so I could start a song, sing it through and not have to think of what the next song would be while I'm also trying to read a recipe or multi-task with the laundry and the dishes. The Itsy Bitsy Spider is a little too short, but The Star-Spangled Banner is a good-length song. And can your 4yo sing the national anthem? Mine can, because he's heard it over one thousand times. I may have scarred my kids for life by singing many of the songs from The Sound of Music over and over, but hey, it kept ME sane! Hymns are great too.

Lukas' best lullaby was Edelweiss from The Sound of Music. Natalie's was Amazing Grace. I tried to come up with a new one for Konrad (I started with You Are My Sunshine, but decided the phrase "my only sunshine" might make the other kids jealous) and he doesn't cry nearly as much as the other two did, so I just sing the old standbys. Ok, he's not too old to come up with a personal lullaby, so I'll work on it! I'm trying Love Me Tender to see how that fits with him.

The biggest problem I had was remembering the lyrics! I knew a lot of melodies, and many of the words, but when I'm singing like this, I need to know all the lyrics so I can keep the song going while I'm doing something else. I'm sure there are a lot of lyric sites, but I found this one that I use. It has children's songs, patriotic songs, and musical songs (where I found all the lyrics for The Sound of Music songs).

So that's how my fussy children can be calmed. No guarantees it will calm YOUR fussy children, but it's worth a try! I think that the positive response to singing only kicked in at about four months of age for Konrad, so if it doesn't work for you right away, try it again in a month. Konrad switches from crying madly to the biggest two-toothed grin ever when I start singing to him.

Singing to my kids worked (and still works!) for me. Check out Shannon's site for other things that work for other bloggers across the planet.

Bored kids? Bring out the chores!

Shannon has a great challenge this week for Works For Me Wednesday: activities for kids bored during the summer break from school. Well, I don't have have school-aged kids, so I don't have any direct experience, but here's what I do with my four-year old when he gets antsy (thankfully, he hasn't used the word "bored" yet, but I know it won't be long until he picks it up!)

Lukas loves to help me with chores: emptying and filling the dishwasher, moving wet laundry to the dryer and dry laundry to the laundry basket. But his favorite thing to do is vacuum. Who needs TV if you have a vacuum cleaner? I could (and I have!) given him the vacuum cleaner and asked him to clean his room or his bathroom and he will be completely occupied for at least 15-20 minutes...and Natalie can't wait until it's her turn to learn to vacuum. Lukas especially loves using the tubes and the attachments.

Now I know not every age of child will be as enthralled with a vacuum cleaner as Lukas is, but the idea is the same: give them something to do that involves using a tool that they don't normally use. If they're old enough, maybe this is the summer you teach them how to mow the lawn (and then they can make money off the neighbors too!) or use the sewing machine or the bread maker or the electric mixer. Maybe you've said, "when you're older, you'll be able to use that", and this is the year that they're old enough!

What are your ideas of "chores" (don't call them that!) that kids could learn this summer? Please leave a comment, because I need to know what to do next when Lukas tires of the vacuum cleaner!

Click here to see more ideas that work for me.

Doesn't Work For Me--Backwards Facing Car Seats

The theme for this week's Works For Me Wednesday is...Doesn't Work For Me Wednesday.

So here's the biggest peeve I have right now: backwards facing car seats. As I mentioned, this weekend we switched Konrad out of the infant carrier car seat into the convertible car seat. By law, he has to ride in it facing backwards until he's one year old (don't tell anyone, but I'm positive we'll be switching him to forward facing a few weeks shy of his first birthday, when we visit my sister for Thanksgiving...read on to find out why).

Here's my rant: the infant carrier car seats are only good up to 20 pounds and 26 inches. As you might remember, Konrad was 20 pounds and 28 inches at his four-month check up, so he should have been out of it before he was four months old. But I delayed switching him for two reasons: 1) with two children who aren't walking, it's a lot easier to be able to put one of them down on the ground in an infant carrier while I switch the other one to my other arm and pick up the carrier again; and 2) I hate backward facing convertible car seats.

Here's the picture to prove my point. The car seat takes up so much space that the passenger seat in front of it is moved very far forward (can you see that the seat is 6 inches closer to the dashboard than it was before?) It's not terrible during the week, because no one is riding in the passenger seat, but on the weekend, when we're out as a family, I usually ride in the passenger seat (now Tom will NEVER ride in the passenger seat!) so I'll be the one with the cramped legs. Sorry, but I can't ride 7 hours in the car to my sister's house for Thanksgiving like that! (We're already planning a visit in the next few weeks that I am dreading, but Konrad won't even be six months old, so I can't justify switching him around).

Furthermore, the seat isn't yet angled forward enough. You might be able to see two lines above the toy elephant on the car seat. Those lines say "Level to Ground" and, as you can see, we aren't quite level to ground with the lines. So I need to move the front passenger seat even closer to the dashboard and stuff more towels under the car seat next to the LATCH system to get the angle right for optimal safety.

I think I'll have to ride in the third row next to Lukas...if I can get back there! Please, if you have a solution, leave a comment. If you just want to commiserate, please comment as well to tell me I'm not alone!

Click here to find other things that I'm really excited about and really work for me, and visit Shannon to meet more people who are admitting things that don't work for them this week.

The one solicitor I do want to see...

I wrote a Works For Me Wednesday post a while back about how we avoid solicitors at our door (we have a small, unobtrusive sign) and how I really get irritated with solicitors who knock or ring the doorbell anyway.

I never thought I would say it, but there IS one solicitor I do want to see! I never would have guessed!

A few days ago, we were having dinner and someone knocked at the door. How irritating is that? (At least, for me!) We ignored the knock, but when they knocked again, Tom got up to answer the door (and I suggested he give the solicitor a piece of his mind for not reading the sign). Tom opened the door, paused, and said "no thanks" and shut the door.

Of course, I had to ask, "What was he selling?" Tom replied that he is the guy who repaints the house numbers on the street curb.

Yikes! I wanted our house number repainted because it was quite faded and smudged from tire marks. Tom went back and caught the guy before he was out our driveway.

Now that we have a fresh number painted on the curb, I don't want to see or hear from any more solicitors for another year! :)

Works For Me--Camping With Small Children

People are sometimes surprised that Tom and I tent camp with small children. Well, we tent camped before we met, after we met, after we were married, and now we've tent camped with one, two, and three young children.

I won't say it's easy...camping never is. But if you have low expectations of what you're going to get done on the camping trip, and do a little planning in advance, you can have a fun family adventure that you'll remember forever. If you haven't seen pictures of our trip last week to Joshua Tree, or read Tom's story about a funny neighbor, check them out and see how much fun we had!

Here are some of the tips we've developed after camping with small children over the past four years (and a combined 60 years of camping experience between us):

Setting up camp. Make sure to arrive several hours before the sun sets. Figure out in advance how you're going to contain your baby and/or toddler while you set up camp, so both parents can set up camp quickly. When we just had Lukas, we brought a PackNPlay for him to play in while we set up camp, to take naps in outside during the day (inside the tent is too hot during the day), and to sleep in at night. Now with three, we don't have space for a PackNPlay, but Natalie is crawling into everything, so we brought our old 3-man tent for Lukas and Natalie to play in. Konrad was in his portable bouncy seat, and everyone was happy.

Location of campsite. We never opt for a site close to the bathrooms (too much traffic and smell) but we try to be considerate of others regarding where we do set up, knowing that our children will make more noise than most adult campers (although we do have a story that will live in infamy in our family--Lukas' second camping trip--where we had the most noisy and obnoxious neighbors ever).

Food. I always cook from scratch at home, and I also love car camping (compared to backpacking) because you can eat so much better (ok, you also don't have to carry anything on your back!) But I've learned to sacrifice gourmet cooking for simplicity while camping with young kids. The key to camping with young kids is speed and simplicity. This means I use Hamburger Helper. Ok, don't fall over in shock. The only time I use Hamburger Helper is while camping. I also cook as many things as possible at home before we go. So I fried the hamburger at home, put it in a ziploc bag, and froze it so it would stay colder longer in the cooler. For breakfast, I had undercooked the bacon and made pancakes at home, so I just warmed up the bacon (made eggs in the little bit of grease that came out of the bacon as it became crisp) and warmed up the pancakes at the camp site. I also use canned vegetables instead of frozen while camping: the canned vegetables are already in water. I just dump them in a pot and heat them up. For dinner, that's only two pots to clean: the Hamburger Helper pot and the vegetable pot, and no grease to get rid of. It's major time saving for making dinner out in the open to have things cooked as much in advance as possible, and it saves on cleanup (no pancake batter bowl to clean because I already made the pancakes at home). I have also made dishes (stew, chili, etc.) at home, frozen them, and reheated them at the campsite, but I've found we all enjoy a "new" flavor while camping, and since I don't use Hamburger Helper any other time, it provides new flavors for us. We usually just make sandwiches for lunch.

S'mores. If you bring S'mores, the kids will forget anything (bad) that happens with the dinner.

Wipes. You can't have too many baby wipes while camping with kids. Besides the normal use for them, we use them to wash hands that have been playing in the dirt, wash faces, wipe off sticky messes, basically to give baths. Bring lots of plastic grocery bags to dispose of the wipes and dirty diapers.

Bedding. No matter what time of year or what elevation you're camping, it's going to be colder at night than your child's bedroom, so it's important to make sure you have bedding for the kids that will keep them warm. Trust me: you'll sleep better, and so will they if you do not worry about how warm they are. Tom and I love the child-sized Nebo Zero-Degree Bags and you can't beat the price at $20. Natalie and Lukas each have one, and Konrad will inherit Lukas' when we buy a new full-size bag for Lukas. The kids are always warm, they don't wake up at night, and we don't worry.

Naps. Think in advance how your kids are going to have naps. As I mentioned, if your tent is at all in the sun during the day, it will be too hot for naps (unless you're camping in the winter, which we haven't done with kids). Our solution has been to do our big activity for the day in the morning, have lunch, then pile the kids in the car for a one-hour drive somewhere so they can nap in air conditioned comfort. If you switch drivers after an hour, one adult can nap on the way there, and the other on the way back.

Taking down the camp. This is basically a reverse of setting up: put the baby and/or toddler in the containment vessel while you pack everything. Last thing to be packed is the baby and the containment vessel.

Mistakes will happen. No matter how much you plan, something will go "wrong"! But it's the silly things we do that help us to remember some camping trips. Like this last trip, I forgot floppy hats for the kids and sunscreen. I dug around and found an old stick of sunscreen that we all put on our faces and arms, and I used a hat intended for warmth at night to protect Konrad's bare head, and we were fine.

So that's what works for us, and we have a lot of fun doing it. If you've camped with kids, and have additional ideas I didn't include, I'd love to hear them! Click here to check out my other works for me Wednesday posts.

Works for me--Keep lettuce fresh longer

It's been a while since I've joined the "Works For Me Wednesday" crowd, what with having a baby and all. But there's one product that has worked so well for me that it made me get back on the wagon. It's called the "Evert-Fresh Green Bag" and I think my mom first turned me on to them.

They are advertised to be used for many kinds of vegetables and fruit, but I just use them for lettuce. I love to buy the box of organic mixed lettuces at Costco, and if I don't use this bag, the lettuce goes bad within a couple of days. But by using this bag, I can keep the lettuce fresh and usable (and edible!) for at least a week.

I just take the lettuce out of the plastic box that it comes in, put it in one of these bags, press the air out, and put it in the refrigerator. Voila! We have great salads for at least a week for our family. That works for me, and I hope it works for you. To find more great ideas from other bloggers on the planet, go to Melanie's site, who is hosting it for Shannon this week. For more of my ideas, click here.