Put out the fire!

We have to put the dog dish on the stove (ideally it would be the counter but the place where it is out of the way is by the back door, which is right next to the stove) when it is not in use because Miles likes to eat the dog food and play in the water. Amelia has been vigilant about watching out for Miles and the dish.

A few days ago I had finished processing some jars so I moved my steam canner to the sink. The element on the stove was still super hot. As usual, Miles was making his way for the dog food. Amelia, being on the look out, promptly moved the plastic dish to the top of the hot stove. Melted plastic dish and smoke ensued. I grabbed for our baking soda and dumped a generous amount of it onto the plastic that was melting/melted onto the element and the smoking stopped. Once it had cooled completely, it was much easier to scrape off (than it would have been without the baking soda).
Keep baking soda above your stove in case of melting plastic or small oil fires. It will smother the flames and stop the smoke.

Yeast Daiper Rash??

For those mothers out there, I would be shocked if none of your babies have ever had a yeast diaper rash. Many of you know that you can get a perscription of Nystanin yeast diaper rash ointment from your doctor. But did you also know that there is an over the counter product that works to treat yeast rash??
True story: We were on vacation in OR and Amelia and Miles had yeast diaper rashes from the antibiotics they were taking for their ear infections. I asked my father-in-law, who is a doctor, to call in a prescription for Nystatin. He told me to just pick up some Lamisil when were in town at Walmart, that it has the same active ingredient and would work just as well.
Sure enough, Lamisil did he trick for both bums.

Save at Savers

Did you know that there are coupons to use at Savers Thrift Store??
I didn't, until one time I was checking out and the lady at the register asked if I had a coupon to use for the transaction. I was a little confused and asked her how I would get coupons? She said that when you donate stuff, you ask for a coupon and they will give you one to use on a future purchase.
I was a bit bummed seeing as I had taken loads and loads of stuff in the past to Savers and none of the men working offered me a coupon for my donations. Apparently this is something they don't offer you, you must know about it and ask for it.
Now every time I go to drop off stuff to my neighborhood Savers donation center, I am sure to ask for a coupon.

Get rid of the wall paper!

Some of you know that I am in the midst of a "Repainting the kitchen!" project. For this to happen, I first had to take down wall paper the covered the upper half of my kitchen walls. (The bottom half was paneling which is a different story entirely.) This has near been the death of me! I spent roughly 6 hours scraping a 6x4 foot area, after puncturing the paper with the hole gadget ("the paper tiger", but lets face it, hole gadget sounds cooler), before hand, then using the special gel/non-drip wall paper remover that I bought at the Home Depot, ). Needless to say after hours of work, and little result, I was not the happiest of campers. Thankfully a dear friend came to the rescue and told me this tip. The results were almost instant and it gave me the courage to continue scraping the wall paper. I am happy to report the walls of my kitchen are near paperless!
Here's what to do:
Pull the top layer of paper off the walls (this shouldn't be difficult). Put some dish soap in a spray bottle with hot water and spray down the walls. Let it set for a few minutes (3-7). Using a putty knife, scrape the glue gunk wall paper right off!!
Why this bit of information isn't in every do-it-yourself book and web site proclaiming to have tips for removing wall paper, is beyond me. But you found it here!