Thrifty Thursday - cleaning shower curtains

I have been surprised how many people are unaware that you can easily clean dirty and/or moldy shower curtains. All you need to do is take them off of the rings, and wash them in your washing machine on hot, and hang them back on the shower rod to dry. I only buy new liners when I get a tear - otherwise, we just wash the crud off easily - and without using bleach or other harsh chemicals.

Wordless Wednesday - Zoo Video!

ish Mash Monday - Play to win.

We like to play a lot of board games at the Chewy house - and one thing that has come up before is "Do you ever let the kiddo win?" We don't, and have tackled how we play games very similarly to this post titled Who wins? Playing games with kids. Check out the article for some great ideas and games.

I think the points are pretty valid - and go right along with the article. I don't think I have ever let a kid win. We all play to win.

Wordless Wednesday - Taking over the kitchen, one cupboard at a time

Mish Mash Monday

It's been a busy couple of weeks at the Chewy House - so I need to catch up a bit.

Mr. Chewy has been busy roasting his own coffee in the garage. As an official taste tester - I can say it's pretty good! If you want to know how he did it you can read about it at his blog "Stuff I Like". He's got a pretty good photo log of the process. By roasting it himself, some really nice beans are suddenly in our price range, and it's fresher. Sounds like a win/win to me!

I've been back on the "diet" for a week now - and it's going well - Well, at least the holiday weight is gone, now we've got to tackle the vacation weight, and the baby weight. I'm keeping track of my food and progress on CalorieCount.com again. It's been updated again since I reviewed it last summer here, and is even easier to use. If you are looking for a free tracker that helps you not just track calories, but fat, fiber, vitamins, minerals, and more it's a great place to start.

The Chewy Kid loves to read - and is supposed to track reading minutes for school. For YEARS we have struggled with this and keeping track. While sometimes maybe he "stretched" the amount of time he read, for the most part I think it was grossly underestimated. Thanks to my friend Amy, I became aware of the Mark-My-Time Digital Bookmark. It has both stopwatch and timer features, and can pause as well. I think using the bookmark has allowed us to take the focus off of watching the clock, and back onto the book.

Looking for a fun Saturday afternoon date idea? Mr. Chewy and I are planning to hit Farms Uncorked at Living History Farms on January 22nd. A couple of years ago we went to Beer and Bread with some friends and had a great time. (Even though I was pregnant at the time and all of my beer was of the "sasparilla" variety.) I great, casual event and a chance to try some great local food and wine! If you want to wait for Beer and Bread, it's the first Saturday in March, and you can find more info at the Living History Farms website.

Simple Saturday - roasted carrots

I haven't posted a simple recipe for awhile. This one is healthy, inexpensive and easy in addition to being tasty.

Roasted Carrots

1 pound carrots, peeled and cut into sticks.
italian seasoning
salt
non-stick spray

Heat oven to 400. Arrange peeled and cut carrots on a baking sheet. Spray with the non-stick spray. Sprinkle with seasonings and toss to coat. Bake for 30 minutes.

Of course you could easily change up the seasoning. I'm thinking dill might be good. They had a lot of flavor, and since I was heating up the oven to bake our entree for 30 minutes, didn't take much extra time. Everyone seemed to like them too!

Free For all Friday - Garbage Limits

This community in Canada is limiting the amount of garbage you can dispose of without paying an extra fee. Right now, I think our family would be ok and this wouldn't affect us at all. There is an exception if you have more than one child in disposable diapers, however, should there be? It is a choice. Cloth diapers are certainly a viable option - and why they wouldn't be forcing people to use cloth, they would pay the extra fee for the garbage as opposed to those of us who are using less landfill space.

Find the article here: http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2916002


What do you think?

Thrifty Thursday -- making the gifts last

I'm not sure if this is more a thrifty thing or a sanity thing! The chewy tot received several new toys for Christmas. I can't blame people - it's fun to buy toys for little ones! We had decided ahead of time that we would open one or two toys at each stop and put the rest up - and then, every couple of weeks we'd bring out a new toy. We did this last year and it worked splendidly! We even saved some that we knew he would be able to play with after his surgery until then.
I'm also planning on storing the toys once "released" in tubs in the "toy cubby" and get out one at a time to build in some more variety as well. Of course a few favorites will stay out more!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from the Chewy Family.


I'm pretty sure this was the first time in awhile I've been awake to welcome in the new year. Mr. Chewy and The Chewy Kid had started Star Wars (Episode 4: A New Hope) at the right moment for the Death Star to Blow up right at Midnight. I think I've seen this movie exactly once before in it's entirety. The Chewy Kid did make it to midnight though!

Last year - I made my resolution on my birthday, instead of on New Years Day. It seemed to work better, so I think I'll stick with that again this year - so I guess you'll have to wait another month to find out what that is!

Wishing you blessings throughout the coming year.