Happy Sunday!

Homemade Upholstery Cleaner

Love when I find things I can make at home that is cheaper and still as effective as the store brands.  

2 1/4 cups of hot water (from the tap)

¼ cup of liquid dish detergent

1 mixing container

1 large mixing spoon or hand mixer

2 cleaning cloths (old clean wash cloths are fine)

1 towel (Designate an old clean towel as your "furniture cleaning towel". Wash and reuse it for next time.)

1 soft bristled brush

1 medium sized bucket/container filled with warm water (keep this water separate from the mixture)

Directions:

1. Mix the 2 1/4 cups of hot tap water and ¼ cup of dish detergent in a mixing container. Using a large spoon or hand mixer, whip the mixture. You will know it is ready when you see a few dry suds.

2. Apply the mixture to the upholstery/upholstered furniture by dipping a cloth into the sudsy mixture and rubbing it onto the furniture.

3. Lightly scrub problem areas with a soft bristled brush after the mixture has been applied.

4. Wipe away any dirty suds with a clean damp cloth. Ring out the cloth and dip it into the bowl of clean water and continue cleaning the furniture.

5. Repeat if need be and make sure that you continue to rinse and ring out the soiled cloth before continuing the process.

6. Give the entire area one last wipe down with a clean wet cloth.

7. Using a dry clean towel, blot and wipe upholstery/upholstered furniture dry.

8. Open a window and/or turn on a fan to speed up the drying process.

DIY Mason Jar Salt, Pepper, or Herb Dispenser

Click Here to Make Your Dispenser

Celiac Disease Vs Gluten Intolerance Vs Gluten Allergy

So recently I've had some issues adding to my other digestive health problems, I thought at first it was the flu and upon researching my symptoms and talking to friend that is Gluten Intolerant that I may be as well or may have Celiac Disease.


Here's some information I found today.

Celiac and Gluten-Free Fast Facts:
 

• Celiac disease is an autoimmune digestive disease that damages the villi of the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food.
• One in 133 Americans have celiac disease.
• An estimated 3 million Americans across all races, ages and genders suffer from celiac.
• 95% of celiacs are undiagnosed or misdiagnosed with other conditions. (Source: Fasano A, et al. Arch Intern Med. 2003;163:286-292.)
• 6-10 years is the average time a person waits to be correctly diagnosed. (Source: Daniel Leffler, MD, MS, The Celiac Center at Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center)
• 5-22% of celiac patients have an immediate family member (1st degree relative) who also has celiac.
• Celiac disease can lead to a number of other disorders including infertility, reduced bone density, neurological disorders, some cancers, and other autoimmune diseases.
  A 100% gluten-free diet is the only existing treatment for celiac today. 
  • A positive attitude, 100% of the time, helps celiacs create a gluten-free lifestyle for themselves and their affected family members.
  • The celiac disease diagnosis rate may reach 50-60% by 2019, thanks to efforts to raise public awareness of celiac disease. (Source: Datamonitor Group, 2009)
  • Gluten-free sales reached more than $2.6 billion by the end of 2010 and are now expected to exceed more than $5 billion by 2015. (Source: Packaged Facts, 2011)
    For more information visit Celia Central by clicking HERE.

I AM ~ RIP Maison Ortiz

On January 19th, 2011 my daughter lost a friend, he was a 15 year old boy with a bright future ahead of him.  I wanted to share the story and a poem he wrote.  His name was Maison Ortiz.  While snow boarding, him and a friend found the conditions to be too icy so they decided to take it safe and walk down the hill, sadly, they also removed their helmets.  

The story is here: http://www.mynews4.com/story.php?id=36245&n=122 

And here is the poem, the title is "I Am": 

I am colorful and creative

I wonder about later in my life

I hear music

I see amazing things

I want happiness

I am colorful and creative

I pretend to fly

I feel magical

I touch the clouds

I worry about how I do things

I cry when I am sad

I am colorful and creative

I understand why I need to work hard

I say what I believe in

I dream out loud

I try to improve on things I am not very good at

I hope to be successful

I am colorful and creative

By Maison Ortiz ~ 2010

Monday Blues

So today was a day off from homeschooling since it was Martin Luther King Jr's Day.  We still had to get up early to wait for the Direct TV rep to show up and hook us up, we were scheduled between 8am - noon.  


So my sister in law had called last night and we made plans to do lunch here with the girls and her awesome Tortilla Soup and a few rounds of Scrabble.  


Game day was fun, the Direct TV guy was late, called about 11:45am and said he was running behind but would be here in 15-20 minutes.  


I believe our definitions of that time frame are different since he didn't arrive until well after 1pm and actually closer to 2pm.  He was here almost 3 hours and some how disconnected our internet modem and told me he didn't do anything, it was just our router and that the connector slots were broke.  So here I sat trying to fix it before hubby got home.  And guess what, hubby came home to find the Direct TV guy hadn't connected the correct cables into the correct spots in the router; hence the reason we had no internet.


Gratefully hubby's work was short handed so they bought lunch for everyone since they had to work through lunches and he wasn't hungry when he got home, the girls and I had leftovers and I have to say the Spiral Baked Ham I made from last night tasted better today, yummo!