Sensational Stain Removal January 6, 2010

I’m sure most of you have one secret or another on how to remove those stains, you know, the ones that just won’t budge.

Several years ago, probably ten or so, I broke down and bought some Oxyclean.  It sat on the shelf forever plus a day and then I decided to finally use it on something.  It was The Manchild’s L.L. Bean boat tote.  It was the most adorable bag I had ever seen when I bought it, cream colored canvas with different colored hand prints all over it, and bright red handles.  The perfect bag for the day care, the library, long trips in the car.  At some point, I think after a trip home from up north, it was so trashed that I was actually thinking of throwing it away.  Then I thought: Use the Oxyclean!  But, I hesitated.  The red handles.  What if they ran and the bag turned pink?  I thought, well, if I am ready to give up all hope anyway, I might as well take my chances.

I ran the water as hot as I could and filled up the kitchen sink.  Added the recommended amount of Oxyclean and let it sit and soak overnight.  The next morning, I was absolutely amazed to find the bag in the sink (all the water had drained out), looking bright like it was brand new!

Since then, I have had a kind of love-hate relationship with the Oxyclean, as I have had some much tougher stains to deal with.  With the babies, I have had several outfits that were doomed to the play clothes drawer or rag pile, but I have since found a new trick… BOILING WATER.

Whenever I have something that I think is just never going to come out, I soak it in BOILING WATER with Oxyclean overnight, and it has been few and far between that I have been failed.  It works best if you are able to soak the item before washing, so the stain does not have a chance to further set before you soak it, but even so, this wonder rarely ceases to amaze me!

Check out more great tips at Works For Me Wednesday!

Monday Meal January 4, 2010

Not much to say here today, other than I grew some kind of wild hair this afternoon and decided it was time to make some kind of big deal meal for the family.  I didn’t really follow my menu plan last week, which of course is no surprise (to me anyway), but I forgive myself and rationalize by saying that the first step is at least making it, right?  If I at least make the plan, half the battle is won, and I just need to improve on the actual making the food part.

Anyway.  I digress.

This afternoon I came home from class and I was absolutely starving. My wonderful neighbor had offered up some of what she had prepared for lunch, but I just wasn’t really in the mood.  I thought I might like to eat some sleep instead and tried to lie down with the babies to get a few quick zzzz’s.  The first day back to classes wore me out.

And I digress.  Again.

I couldn’t fall asleep so I got up and started rummaging around in the cupboards, when my eyes fell on the lasagna noodles I bought when we first arrived here about 2 months ago.  And I thought of that broccoli that was soon to be unusable in the fridge.  And the tofu that was due to expire in a week.

And my veggie lasagna was born from these.

But I didn’t stop there.  I made a salad.  Without lettuce.  You see, where we are here in Asia, lettuce can sometimes be hard to come by, and apparently I had used up the last of what we had.  Or someone did.  So I improvised and made a salad with just carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, and red onions.  Mixed ‘em all up with a little Italian dressing, and there were no complaints.  I also made some delish garlic…toast I guess we will call it.

I made some fresh homemade garlic butter.  Softened a stick of butter, crushed some fresh garlic, chopped some fresh parsley, mixed it all together, spread it on both sides of some bread and grilled it until it was nice and toasty.  There were no complaints about that either!

All said and done it was quite an enjoyable meal.

Out With The Old January 1, 2010

I’m not very different from everyone else.  The last twelve months have been a roller coaster ride for me.  Every time things seemed to settle down, either in a good way or a bad way, all of a sudden that incline came out of nowhere and I then there I was, facing a landslide decline.  The downhill was not always bad, not always scary, sometimes it was just that rush of excitement that I needed.

I have been struggling over the last few days both with some decisions I have to make in everyday life, and with the decision as to whether I should make The List.  You know the one, it has a Part A: all those things from the last twelve months that I deem to be list worthy, and then comes Part B: all those things I resolve to do in the next twelve months.

But why do we make these lists?  Especially the ones we resolve to do in the next twelve months?  How many times over the course of your life have you made those resolutions and then actually followed through with them?  I have decided not to make a list after all; I have decided that instead of making a list of resolutions to try to stick to… I am doing one thing only, I am going to wake up each morning and take a moment or two to meditate on all of the things I have to be thankful for.  I have been thinking that I need a little fine tuning of the attitude, and I think that this one daily exercise will help keep me centered, focused on what is really important.

While most of you are just waking up and starting your new year, I am half a world away.  My first day of the new year is already almost over.  Today was a challenge for me.   I find myself standing at one of those major forks in the road where I am forced to make some very hard decisions.  Today I made a conscious effort to give thanks for all of my blessings, and come back to center before I reacted to anything.  With this effort, I hope that I smiled at least once more than I did yesterday.  If I did, then I was successful.