GET RID OF GNATS!!!

I loathe gnats! No kidding. They are so aggravating and getting a few in the house is really annoying! They won't stay out of your face, or your food! And if you happen to have some fruit around they really get crazy. In my search for something that would rid these tiny pests from their favorite place, my kitchen, I came across something that actually works pretty well. You probably have the couple of ingredients it takes to put this together right in your cabinet. Simply take a small bowl and pour some apple cider vinegar in the bottom of it. Add a couple of drops of dish liquid and give it a little stir. Set this simple concoction around in the room where you're seeing the gnats. I usually just set mine right on the kitchen counter. Apparently the vinegar attracts the gnats and the dish liquid prevents them from being able to get out and they die there. Change as often as necessary.

There you have it. Pretty simple and quite effective.    

DUCK DYNASTY PARTY

Our church recently had a Fall Festival. Looking for something a little different than the norm this year, we picked a theme, Duck Dynasty. In a rural area like ours, where hunting and camo are common place, the hit show is popular among our church family. We had a few ideas but needed more so I set out on a search for some Duck Dynasty games, food ideas, decorations, and prizes. I went to the internet of course :-), but with little success. I ended up combining some of our own ideas with a few from my search and we had a great Ducky Dynasty themed event. I am hoping it will help to share these ideas so that anyone else hoping to host a party with this theme will have some ideas. 

                               My two kiddos as Willie and Jase

DUCKY DYNASTY GAMES
Duck Call Making - turns out you can turn a straw into a pretty good duck call. all you need is straws and scissors. if you google making a duck call from a straw you can get step by step instructions on making them. (sorry, if i was a good blogger i would have the link for you wouldn't I?). we used those bigger milkshake straws and with just a point cut in one end and some practice blowing in it, we had lots of great duck sounds! warning:  they get addictive and you get kinda tired of hearing them after a while :-)
Duck Hunt - a great family at our church took on this game and did a wonderful job. they stacked some hay bails and then put balloons that had a duck stenciled on them in front of the hay. the kids used a BB gun (yes, an actual BB gun, I told you we live in the country!! there were adults helping with every step so it was very safe!) to shoot the balloon. they used helium for the balloons and tied candy bags to the bottoms of the balloons to hold them in place, but I believe you could easily pin the balloons to the hay, too. as an alternative to the BB gun because I know that won't work everywhere, you could use darts to bust the balloons. As an alternative to the balloons you could stencil ducks onto something else (say milk jugs??) and shoot them with nerf type guns.
Go Fish - we went with the traditional game here. we put up a barrier, decorated it like a pond with some artificial trees and plants around it and put someone behind it with prizes. the pole was just a large stick with some string and a clothespin on the end to clip the prize "fish" to.
Lawn Mower Races - on one episode of Duck Dynasty they had a lawn mower race so we gathered together a couple of toy lawn mowers and made a "finish line" with some streamer and viola! instant race! the toy lawn mowers we had were the type that kids push and bubbles come out, but we didn't use the bubbles of course.
Frog Hunt - had a couple of ideas for this so i'll share them both. we were planning to hide frogs and have the kids hunt for them "egg hunt" style, but our festival was at night so that would have been difficult, even with flash lights. soooo, we created a pond using a sled. i put in some water, added some cocoa powder and maple flavoring to make it "murky" and added some toy frogs from the dollar store. they were different colors so that's how we did the prizes..find a pink frog = 1 candy, orange frog = 2 candies, etc... you could use something different to make the water dirty looking and murky but i just used what was on hand. caution here: i would use something without sugar so there is no "sticky" and have a couple of towels handy to dry hands.

Bustin' Beaver Dams - this game was a little tricky to get figured out but we knew we wanted to do it because it is one of Phil's favorite things to do on the show. i printed a beaver picture out and glued it to the front of a small box. we tilted some sticks and limbs around the box and then let the kids use "tnt" baseballs to bust the beaver dams. gave them 3 chances.
Football - because the Duck Dynasty clan has a family history in football we wanted to add that to our festival as well. we ended up with two football games, both centered around throwing the football. one was a board that had holes cut in it to throw the football through. the other one was a duck decoy hanging from a string and the kids threw a football to try and hit the duck. they enjoyed both.
Candy Guess - this is just a take on a popular "guess how many candies are in the jar" game. most fall festivals use candy corn but in line with our theme we went with nerds candies, since Phil likes to call people that sometimes :-) the nerds are small so we used a small jar and had over 1200 in there!!
Costume Contest - we encouraged anyone that wanted to, to dress up as their favorite Duck Dynasty character. we had 3 judges and gave out a prize for each age group's winner.

                                                  all the kids had lots of fun!!!!!

We gave out candy and prizes at the festival. We actually found some Duck Dynasty candy at our local Walmart but I was told at the local party supply store that there aren't any Duck Dynasty party supplies available right now (though I have seen some out for Christmas), we decorated with anything camo we could find and bought some Duck Dynasty gifts for the costume contest winners (calendar, cups, poster). We did not do anything different with our food and served the regular hotdog/hamburger fall festival food with plenty of sides and desserts.  If you really want to go all out Duck Dynasty style you could serve fish, duck, frog legs, crayfish, etc... but the kids might not enjoy that :-)

There you have it! That's how we had a Duck Dynasty themed party and the kids really enjoyed it! Feel free to add your other ideas to the comments section below to help out others looking for ideas.

MY NO-IRON SECRET

I have a confession to make....I hate ironing!! I know, I know, not much of a confession right? Most women don't like to iron clothes. And yet a lot of women do it, a lot!! I mean, we don't want ourselves or our families to go out with wrinkled up clothes on do we?? 
As a pastor's wife, I have the task of picking out my hubby's clothes and having them ready for services on Sunday. Actually, I get all of our clothes ready for Sunday. Where would this crowd be without me?? But, back to ironing....
I, of course, want my husband to look nice when he is on the platform in front of people, preaching God's word. But, that's hard because did I mention....I hate ironing!!  Several years ago I discovered the product "Downy Wrinkle Releaser". Tried it, liked it, because it does actually work pretty well. But, the downfall is it's expensive. I think the last time I bought a bottle it was like $7 or something. Crazy!
One day when I had run out of said wrinkle miracle elixer, I decided to try just a spray bottle of water. I figured if I could smooth the wrinkles and then let the garment dry, it might work. And guess what???? IT DID!!! YAY ME!!!!  
Now, here's another step to my no-iron secret that is an important one because for most garments this step will mean you won't even need the spray bottle. 
Once I've picked out the clothes I need "ready" then I put them in my dryer with a damp washcloth. I set the dryer for 40 minutes and then let the clothes tumble with the washcloth for maybe 5 minutes. I set it for 40 because I want it to use high heat for this and my dryer (most probably do) does a cool down at the end of the drying time. Pull the clothes out quickly and hang them up. Most will be virtually wrinkle free.
Some items don't work this way. Or parts of some items will need more help. For instance, some shirts, skirts, and dressed will "curl" up around the bottom. For any pieces that still have wrinkles, I mist them with water and use my hands to smooth out wrinkles or shape collars or cuffs as they need to be. If left hanging to dry like that it will work. 
I realize this method requires some forethought on what you're going to wear. That is just part of who I am to plan ahead so it works great for me. And it means I don't have to iron. Most days I don't have to worry about this but for certain clothing items or for days like Sundays when you're wearing dressier clothes, this system has proven it works for me.
I often get complimented on how well dressed and neat my husband is because most people know it's me getting the clothes matched up and ready that makes it so. I just smile and say thank you! It's my little secret right?? :-)

RECIPE ORGANIZING

Do you have a recipe box? I do. And trust me when I say it used to be a mess! I had good intentions. I collected recipes from my family, you know the ones...the family classics that grandma used to make. I wanted those so I could make them for my family. 
And I had some that I got from magazines, friends, the internet, and so on. But....there are some problems with recipe boxes. They seem like a good idea, and they make some cute ones. But have you ever tried to write a recipe on a recipe card??? You would have to write like Thumbelina to fit the ingredients and instructions on one of those cards. 
And then there is the feat of trying to actually find the recipe you're looking for when you need it. Now, most boxes include these little dividers that allow you to put your recipes under the right category....desserts, meats, veggies, and so on. But, when you've collected as many recipes as I have over the years it's really aggravating to have to dig through 50 dessert recipes just to find the one you're looking for. 

                             Yep, that's what my box looked like!


So, I decided to make a change. I organized my recipes in a binder and it has been so much easier to work with. So easy to find what I'm looking for. I considered several different ways to do this, but went with a plan that has worked great for me.

                                Much better, don't ya think???

I still wanted to have the recipes divided into different sections to make it easier to find them. First thing I did was to go through and clean out my recipe box. There were several I could get rid of and some that I RARELY use. With the recipes I use frequently I typed them up and punched holes in the sides of course, so they would fit in the binder. I typed as many as would fit on a page and numbered each page. The next step was to make an index so I could easily find the recipe I was looking for.

               Little time consuming typing them all, but well worth it!

For the index, I used regular old notebook paper and wrote each recipe name under the heading it belonged under...meat dishes under meats, and so forth. And beside each recipe name I wrote the number of the page it is located on. Now, this does mean that throughout the book, recipes aren't grouped together, but they are on the index so that makes them easy to find. This system makes it easy to add recipes to the book as well. Just add them to a new page, number it, and add it to the index. That's why I decided to do the index hand-written instead of typed. It's just quicker to add the recipes that way.

                               Index page of Desserts...yummy!!

As recipes are added to the end of the book and you index them the numbers will seem out of order under the categories, but that's ok. As long as you have the page number the recipe is on it will be easy to find. Now, I can easily find any recipe and best of all, I can look through my recipe book for inspiration when I'm getting bored with the old stand-by's. 

Alright, I know we've been through a lot of steps and yes, I know it seems like a lot of work for a recipe book. But, for me, it has been well worth it. Once you get it started, it's easy to keep it going. So, let's review....

Organize Your Recipes!!
1. go through existing recipes and weed out ones you don't need anymore
2. get a binder, paper, hole punch, notebook paper, and pen
3. type up recipes you want to organize and number each page
4. make your index with the headings that work best for your book (meats, beverages, appetizers, soups, etc...)
5. write recipe names and their page numbers under proper headings
6. put book together and enjoy having recipes easily on hand

I use the pocket in the binder to hold recipes that I want to try. I don't usually add any to my recipe book until I know I like them.

I don't type up any recipes that I don't have to. Like this recipe from a magazine. I tear out the page and add it directly to the book (and number it of course). 

Same with recipes that I print online. Easily added to book.

I sometimes add notes to the recipes in my book. Like, who I got the recipe from or I may add a note about it being a family favorite, or any changes I have made to the recipe. 

Well, there you have it! That's my Recipe Organizing 101! If your recipe box needs an update, I hope you'll give my system a try. It has worked great for me!

And if you have a favorite recipe, please share. I may just want to add it to my recipe book.

ANNOYING FB POSTS

I guess we will consider this my first real gripe here on my Addietudes blog page. Annoying FB posts.  Oh, they come in many types.  You don't want to read them and yet there they are...in your newsfeed, taking up space and causing you more time to get to the posts you really want to read.  Let's take a look at a few.

THE VAGUE posts.  You know the ones...they say things like "some people really get on my nerves, etc..." or " if anybody..so and so..." or the ones that "tell off" some unknown person. But, WHAT GOOD do they do if you won't name the person they are for??  What good is it to give someone a piece of your mind out on a public forum if you can't even make sure that they know the posts are for them?  Why even mention something that you can't clarify for the numerous people who will definitely ask "who you talking about?" or "what's going on?"  I mean, when people read posts on Facebook they are doing so because they want TO KNOW what's going on with people. When they read vague posts they start asking around about who folks are talking about and that leads to a lot of speculation and assumptions sometimes....and we know how bad that can be!  If you need to speak your mind about a general subject, by all means, on occasion, post away! But if you have a specific word for a specific person, then message them, write them, call them, visit them, or at the very least if you're going to post it on Facebook, include their name so I know it's not about me :-)

WHAT'S FOR DINNER??  Ah, yes, the posts that inform us all of the very important list of foods that people are having for breakfast, lunch, dinner, mid-morning snack, midnight snack!! Why do people do that??? Do we really care what people are eating?  I'm certainly not against a great meal, I'm not even against people posting about a really spectacular dish they have made. A dish that took hours to make and multiple tries to conquer until they have finally mastered it. But, what I do get tired of are posts about the ham, cabbage, and cornbread people have made for dinner. (yeah, I'm from the south).  That's a good meal and I'm sure families appreciate it and enjoy it, but unless you're going to figure out a way to fb message me a plate of what you've fixed, keep your dinner menu to yourself please.

Which brings us to the next annoying FB post....the endless pages of RECIPES. No, I'm not against sharing recipes. Most of the ones on my news feed look good, too good in fact, because it makes me hungry and searching for a snack! But....FB isn't the place for it!! Pinterest is! If you're not familiar with Pinterest, you should be. Check it out. I have a whole board just for recipes. But I digress....quite plainly, FB is not for recipe sharing and if you do find a good recipe and decide to make it for dinner, don't tell us that either.

CAUSE I can...Now, I may end up ruffling some feathers with this one, but here goes.  Posts that revolve around a particular cause. Not just one post, an occasional post, or posts during a particular month devoted to that cause, but those that are constantly, day and night, posting about the cause close to their heart. I understand that we all have things that are important to us and that affect us, there are several close to my heart as well, but constantly posting about it rarely changes people's minds or inspires them to get on board with your cause. Soooooo......whether it's breast cancer, childhood cancer, missionaries, autism, motorcycling, RVing, health care reform, presidential impeachment, homeschooling, breastfeeding, or any other cause, pushing it down our throats just makes us want to gag!

Want some WHINE with that??  One of the most annoying FB post to come across as you're scrolling through your news feed is the one complaining about how bad life is, how bad jobs are, how annoying people's kids and husbands and bosses and in-laws are. The worst are the ones that are just complainers all the time, everyday, about everything. Life isn't always great, that's for sure. Bad things happen and it's a bummer! But, unless your bad situation involves some funny story that can bring a smile to someone's face or help it's readers learn some important life lesson, let's refrain from making every post a complaint about lives that are precious gifts!

There are more types of annoying FB posts, to be sure. My opinion, for what's it's worth, is that FB is a great place to keep up with current events in people's lives, pictures of what family and friends have been doing, a great place to reconnect with school mates, keep up with news and weather, and yes, at times, get the scoop on all things.  Now, I must go, because I need to check my news feed and see what everyone is having for dinner tonight ;-)

MEET MY FAMILY

My family, often referred to as my 3 faves, is my pride and joy. 

My husband, Tommy, and I have been married for going on 17 years. He is the pastor of Second Chance Ministries, which is a small church in a small town :-) but we love it!! He also has his own business doing home and yard maintenance, odd jobs, and pretty much anything and everything at times. He is such a hard worker and rarely complains. He is a very positive person, very patient, rarely upset by life, very faithful, and a wonderful father to our two kids. 

My son, Isaiah, is 9 years old and about to enter the 4th grade. He is a very smart student and rarely makes anything lower than an "A".  He loves video games, reading, Legos, army men, nerf guns, playing baseball and football, and did I mention video games :-). 

My daughter, Isabel, is 4 years old. She is such a fun spirited girl and we spend a lot of time laughing at her. She loves playing dollhouse and has several different ones. She is very smart and will be going to preschool  part-time starting in September. She loves to dance and sing and watch TV and her favorite thing to do outside is swing! 

And then there's Louie, our dog. He is part lab and part collie and looks like a black golden retriever. We adopted him from an animal hospital and he is a perfect fit for our family. He is such a good dog and we love him. His favorite thing to do is play and eat :-)

There you have it. My wonderful family. I am blessed to be a stay-at-home mom to my two beautiful children and that is made possible by my husband's hard work. You'll be hearing much more about my family in my blogs, I'm sure. 

Love Language

I've been leading a class at our church on Wednesday nights about the 5 love languages described in the book of the same name. I really like the book and we have had a lot of laughs in our class. Always fun to discuss marriage with a group of married people :-)  

The idea behind the book is that we all have a love language and in order to keep our imaginary "love tanks" (think internal gas tank) full we need to be spoken to in our love language. Dr. Chapman (the Christian counselor who wrote the book) has determined through his years of working with married couples that there are 5 different love languages:  Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Gifts, Acts of Service, and Physical Touch.  When your spouse speaks to you in the language that says "LOVE" to you the most, then you respond to them in a positive way.

On the flip-side, if your love tank is empty, you are more likely to respond to your spouse with resentment and anger and bitterness. That's never fun!

It's like the way different people like different things. Some people are really touched when their spouse spends time with them doing something they love to do (quality time), while some people feel most loved when their spouse gives them gifts (Gifts). Whether it be a flower picked from your own bush or a beautiful piece of jewelry.  

The book has lots of great ideas for couples that want to improve their marriage and in fact, many couples say that it saved their marriage. 

I know my love language is Acts of Service and I'm still working on figuring out my husband's.  

It really is a good book. Check it out for yourself.

I had a convo today with a friend of mine about grocery shopping. I know that doesn't sound very exciting but hey, it has to be done. Her normal approach to this less-than-fun task is to go down every aisle of the grocery store and try to remember what her family needs and then get it when she sees it. I am way too much of a planner for this approach to work for me, plus it most likely costs more and so I shared with her some things that I do to prepare for a grocery store run. 
1 - First, I always take a list. I keep a magnetic shopping list on my fridge and when we run out of something it gets added to the list. I've actually gotten my husband in on this and he will add things to the list that he needs too.
2 - Plan your menus for the week. I look over our family calendar for the week and see how many nights we will be eating at home. I go ahead and plan what I will cook for those nights and add the ingredients to the list. I will usually browse through the sales circulars and see whats on sale and plan my meals around that, which saves more money. 
3 - This may sound a little OCD to some of you, but I keep a shopping list on my computer. I sat down one day and wrote out everything we usually get at the grocery store. I broke it down into groups (paper products, bathroom items, and so forth). It helps a lot to print this out and use it for my list. I look through it and mark through the things we don't need, leaving what we do and then my list is done. Since it is saved on my computer I can print it out anytime and get my list done fast. It also means I don't usually forget things that I should have gotten.  
4 - If possible, I try to go shopping alone. It is quicker and cheaper. If the kids or the husband go with me they always put extra "stuff" in the cart.

There are a few more things that can help your grocery shopping trip be less of a chore. I don't always do these but they can be helpful. Don't go shopping when you're hungry. Trust me, you will buy things that you shouldn't. If possible, go on a weekday before people start getting off of their jobs. For me, the less crowded the store, the quicker I can get out, and the less stressed I get, which results in clearer thinking and smarter purchases. Also, using coupons is a great idea if you can. I do this occasionally but not like I should. 

Feel free to add other tips and ideas to the comments. We can all help each other with this required task! 

Welcome to my first blog. I've been thinking of doing this for a little while now. I guess it seems kinda arrogant to start a blog and think that you have something that people would actually want to read, but I do come up with some pretty neat ideas sometimes that I think would be worth sharing. I will tell you that you never know what you may find here...crafts, recipes, organizing tips, thoughts for the day, probably an occasional rant :-), things that moms and wives go through, and who knows what else. Thanks for checking it out and I hope you become a regular visitor :-)