WFMW: How to never forget a birthday card again

This year one of my New Year's resolutions was to take advantage of greeting cards to stay in touch with family and friends. I wanted to never again realize that it was one of my nephew's birthdays and that I hadn't remembered to send a card. It's such a SIMPLE thing, but something that can mean so much. We're always saying, "It's the thought that counts." Well, forgetting until AFTER a birthday or never sending a "congratulations on your new baby" card to a college friend is not the way to build strong bonds and keep long distance friendships.

So this year, I vowed to do better. And so far, I'm on target 100%.

I'll tell you my little secret. Come closer...here's a peek

(I just covered the address with a sticky note. I thought they might not appreciate me blabbing their address to whomever might read this blog!)

I have an index card for each month with all the important "greeting card" dates. The last week of each month, on errand day I make a trip to the Dollar Tree where you can get cards on the cheap. They have a great selection too! With index card in hand, I can choose a greeting card for each occasion.

When I get home, I go ahead and sign and address all the cards at once. Then, I put them in my bill folder which is divided up into weeks. Each Friday, when I do bills, I can mail the appropriate card for the following week, so that I will never have to call my nephew again and tell him, "hey kiddo, sorry I didn't get your card in the mail, but..."

Before I devised this system there were many times that I had remembered to buy the card, but never mailed it because I put it somewhere and forgot. I've even put it in my purse and then been out somewhere, actually REMEMBERED to mail it but with my address book at home I would have to call my brother for the address. This way, things like addresses, stamps or location are never a problem. The whole process takes maybe ten minutes out of the day and I'm done for another month.

Preparing cards once a month...it sure works for me. What works for you?

To see more Works For Me Wednesday, visit We Are That Family.

Prep Day

About once every two or three weeks, I try to have a prep day. I'd like to say that I have a prep day EVERY week, but that just doesn't seem to happen. Prep Day is a day when I go through my pantry and look at the mixes that I keep (homeade shake and bake, biscuit mix, cornbread mixes, rice mixes, seasoning mixes, etc) and see if there is anything I am low on.

I also spend that time in the kitchen making baked goods of doubled or tripled recipes. We can eat from this days baking and also freeze some for next week.

It's also a good time to work on things that slow cook. Or I will put together meals for the freezer, a couple of lasagna's or chicken cacciatore's.

I try to time my prep days for a day after grocery shopping. That way if I find a good sale on something like chicken quarters I can process them on my prep day. It's also a good time for chopping vegetables and getting things ready to make mealtimes easier.

This week I baked three batches of orange muffins and two doubled recipe batches of chocolate chip cookies (without the chocolate chips...I know, it's weird but husband and daughter don't like chocolate but love the cookie part, so I do it that way once in a while for them.)

I also put together my mixes that I was short on. I made a large jar of homeade Shake and Bake (which will do us about three or four times), my regular house seasoning mix (two parts salt, one part garlic powder, one part black pepper) I just put that together in a shaker and use it very often as I'm cooking.

This whole process took up just a small portion of my day and I enjoyed listening to one of my favorite radio programs while I worked.

I intended to have pictures of this for you, since I finally got my camera back this weekend, but NOT having batteries for it DOESN'T work for me. So I'll just do that next time.

What DOES work for me though, is having these things done and ready when I need them by spending a few minutes in the kitchen once every couple of weeks. What works for you?

To see what works for other people on the blogosphere please check out We Are That Family for more Works For Me Wednesday.

My Errand Book

Do you have errand days like I do where you have ten pieces of paper to keep track of, coupons for three or four different stores that you plan to use, and a plan or map in your mind of where you need to be when so that you aren't back-tracking all day? If so, then you need an errand book like I use.

I love my little errand book. I picked it up on clearance and it sits on my desk all week long as I make my list of errands, then I can assign each errand a pocket. I add to my shopping lists, add in deals that I want to do with coupons (and add the coupons to the smaller coupon pocket). So when I'm ready to go make my errands, I'm all ready to go, book in hand.

The front of it looks like this.


I put my list of where I need to go in the front so that I can know where to drive next (without backtracking if possible). Have you ever driven all the way across town just to remember that you had planned on stopping in at Target or Kmart to pick up something that was on sale? I've let alot of good deals go that way, to save the drive, but if you remember when your a block away, you might as well stop in.

This is what it looks like when you open it up:

There are eight pockets. So I usually have one each for Walgreens, Dillons, Aldi's, and the bank. I add in Walmart, Target, Kmart, tag agent, library, insurance, or anywhere else I need to go each errand day. Each errand will have it's own page/pocket. There is a large pocket and a small pocket for each page. I put my grocery or deal list in the large pocket and then put my coupons to use in that store in the smaller pocket. I also have my regular coupon binder in the car, in case I find something on sale that I hadn't planned on. But I've found planning my coupons beforehand saves me ALOT of time. Organizing them this way saves me alot of stress. I feel more organized, and while I may APPEAR to be organized to alot of people. I'm NOT. I'm constantly struggling to find ways to keep me more organized because I'm not organized naturally. It takes effort for me to keep things in line.

And my errand book...that's what works for me.

What works for you?

To see what's working for others in Bloggieworld, visit We Are THAT Family for more Works For Me Wednesday.

How I Clean The Bathroom WITHOUT Help

I have a little helper.

Whatever I'm doing, she's doing. If I'm washing dishes, she's up to her shoulders in dishwater "helping". If I'm vacuuming the living room, she's holding the cord and dancing around the furniture. If I'm dusting, I'd better know that she gets a dustcloth too and she will polish anything that will hold still.

I have one room where I don't let her help me. The bathroom.

It's the one room where I use actual cleaners and I don't want any of that getting on her skin. I don't want to encourage her to put anything into the toilet, or use the brush...at least not before kindergarten! So I have a system. I clean the whole house and let her help me, EXCEPT the bathroom. For the bathroom I wait until she is taking a bath.

She "cleans" the tub with her bubbles while I clean the mirrors, sink, toilet, empty the trash and mop the floor. Many times I can even get some organizing in while she's in there cleaning herself, her toys and the sides of the tub. Then when she's finished, we pick up the toys, drain the water and after I get her dried and dressed I can comet out the tub real quick while any hard water spots are still soft from her soak.

I know it's a simple solution, but it sure works for me.







Then, after the house is clean, we can both dance.








For more Works For Me ideas, visit Rocks In My Dryer for The Works for Me Wednesday Carnival.

How to make a Sauce

When I walk through the grocery store and take a look at the pasta aisle, it never ceases to amaze me the variety of sauces on display. I can't imagine spending $3 on jarred sauce when it is SO easy to make. I think if people realized just how simple it is, they would be making their own and saving more money.

To make any sauce there are basically four components that you can mix and match:

Oil Base-butter, oil or drippings from meat

Thickening Agent- flour if making a roux or cornstarch if you are thickening from a broth

• When making a roux, heat your oil base and then add a bit of flour to thicken, you will want to cook the flour a little bit to get rid of the "doughy" taste. Depending on the depth of the sauce you are making you may or may not want to brown the roux. Always stir constantly when making a roux, burned roux will need to be thrown out.
• When using cornstarch the rules change. While you add flour to hot oil, cornstarch ALWAYS needs to be added to cool or cold liquid. Never add to warm/hot liquid or it will not dissolve (it's backwards, I know) and you will get lumps in your sauce. I like to use a little pint jar, put a little bit of cold broth or water and add your cornstarch and shake it. You can add a bit at a time until you get the correct thickness for your sauce.
  

Liquid-there are a variety to be used here, broths, bouillon broth, milk or cream, tomato sauce or juice, even water.

Seasoning Elements-This of course is defined by the type of sauce you are making and is only limited by your imagination. Some suggestions are Meat, Cheeses, Vegetables, and spices of all types. Even sweet flavors like cocoa and coconut can be found in sauces. Flavors like onion, garlic, salt and pepper can be found in almost all sauces and if you don't want chunks of certain flavors in your sauce but want the aroma and taste, you can infuse the essence by boiling the liquid you are using with the ingredients of the flavor that you like before you begin. Just discard the ingredient after the flavor has been infused into the liquid.


Here is an example of how these steps come together. This is how I make Alfredo Sauce:

1. Melt half a stick of butter in large skillet
   
2. Throw in diced onions.
3. When onions are translucent and aromatic, throw in some flour to make roux. (hint: if you add too much flour and find your roux is a thick paste instead of a roux, just add a touch of oil. This is so simple, you can add more oil or more flour until you get the roux consistency just right)
4. Add chicken broth, then season with salt, garlic powder and pepper. Taste with small spoon to see if flavors are right.
5. Add cream or milk a bit at a time, to get the perfect consistency...the sauce will thicken as it cooks until it reaches a certain point. I just add a bit at a time until I get there.
6. Last step, add a half cup or so of Parmesan Cheese.

See how easy that is? No special ingredients, no special equipment, and no reason to ever use sauce in a jar again. It sure works for me!

To see what's working for others, please go visit Rocks In My Dryer