Lost & Found....The Sequel

You might be wondering how my Lost and Found box turned out.

Well, it worked!  And it's still working.

After my box filled up, one Saturday I told the kids it was Clean-out-the-Lost-and-Found-Box Day.

If their items were not claimed and paid for, then they would be donated to Goodwill.

I dumped the box in the middle of the floor and each Fish Stick made their pile of belongings (apparently there were items they weren't ready to pay for but items they didn't want to get rid of).

I made a list of the amount of money they owed to reclaim their things.

Then they were given the option to pay up or work it off.

Some kids opted to pay....the ones who actually have money and don't allow it to burn holes in their pockets.

Others wanted (or needed) to work it off.

I pulled out my trusted Home Management Notebook and pulled up the Paid Chores pages.

I ended up having my garage pressure washed, cleaned and organized and my Lost and Found box emptied all in one Saturday.  Everyone was happy.  Well, maybe not everyone was happy but I was happy and all Fish Sticks have since been TONS better about keeping their personal belongings picked up!  My Lost and Found box has never been so full again.

It's working....try it!!

Paid Chore List

Clean Garage!

Plucking and Waxing

I'm almost embarrassed to write this post, but I'm getting over it.  :)

There are several things I have figured out to do on my own so we don't have added expenses by paying professionals to do it.  One is cutting hair.  I learned how to cut hair in high school and have given all the male haircuts in our family and trimmed the girls hair since marriage.

This post is about the other skill I've taught myself.  Waxing eyebrows.  Now I realize that some of you women were born with naturally, pretty, defined eyebrows.  Others of us were not so fortunate and sport caterpillars above our eyes.  Interestingly enough is that it took me years to even realize I had big, bushy eyebrows.  When I was a young mom of 2 babies I got into a conversation with 3 friends over plucking/waxing/threading eyebrows.  (If you don't know what threading is, google it.  It's fascinating!)  Up until then I don't think I had ever noticed eyebrow shape.  Then I got paranoid.  Were my eyebrows defined or bushy?  My good friend (because only a good friend would do this) plucked my eyebrows for me and I was hooked!!  Wow - I did have huge, bushy eyebrows and now they looked so much better.

So for a few years I was a regular plucker.  Then another friend told me about waxing.  I went to a salon for the first time to have my eyebrows waxed and realized how much easier it was to wax them.  $12 later though.  My second eyebrow waxing didn't turn out near as good as the first and it was then that I decided I could do just as good of a job.  I bought my first Sally Hansen waxing kit and have never looked back.

For only $5 you can easily wax your own eyebrows over and over.  I will tell you that in my 11 years of waxing my own eyebrows, only once have I waxed one of my eyebrows almost entirely off.  It really was awful but became a funny joke with my close friends and family whom I disclosed this to....as if they couldn't notice I only had one eyebrow for a month!

First buy your waxing kit (sorry it's sideways but you get the picture).

Here's what the wax looks like.  Microwave it until it's pasty and warm, not runny and too hot.

Here's my beautiful "before" photo.  They don't look that bushy because over time of waxing, they actually never come in as bushy as they once were.  It's more touch-up waxing after a long time of waxing.

Using a popcycle stick, spread the warm wax just where you want it - CAREFULLY!

Cringe and yank in the opposite direction of the hair.  Then use tiny tweezers from the box to get any scragglers.  It also comes with a nice lotion that has some pain reliever in it.  Put your make-up on and voila!  You've saved yourself over $10!!  So easy!  Wanna see a photo of my bushy eyebrows?  I'll consider posting it....maybe.

Call Me Mean

I am a broken record.

I tell my kids this but that means nothing to them in the age that they are growing up in.

My Disney Peter Pan record had a big scratch right when the Indians captured Wendy.
"And a band of indians....
And a band of indians....
And a band of indians.....
And a band of indians...."

Over and over until we knocked the needle a bit to get past the scratch.

I don't know if they will ever understand that analogy but I find myself repeating myself over and over.

Pick up your clothes off the floor.

Put your shoes in the mudroom bench.

Who left their socks scattered in the kitchen?

Put your school folder in your backpack.

Don't forget to clear off your cereal bowl.

I drive myself crazy so I'm SURE I drive my kids crazy.

I know what my problem is.  Say it once.  Expect obedience.  Punish disobedience.  Obedience the 2nd time is disobedience.  It sounds so simple, but for me....well, I must be hard-headed or just extremely merciful which is coming back to bite me.

I'm the queen of new systems to maintain order in my home.  Charts.  Stickers.  Reward systems.  Prizes.  Praise.  Ask the Fish Sticks.  (Rolling of the eyes...."Mom's got a new chart, everyone.")  They are fleeting and it's because of me.  I just can't seem to keep them all up.  OR they lose their motivation with my Fish Sticks.
 
So what's new in the Fish House?  The Lost and Found Box.  New Rule:  Every night after kids are tucked away, I pick up the house....all over....bedrooms included.  Anything OUT OF ITS PLACE gets put into my Lost and Found Box.  No daily reminders.  No repeated directions.  No mercy.  I'm not nagging.  I'm not aggravated.  Just a happy sweep of the house at 8:30.

So how do they redeem their prized possessions that they neglected to put where they belong?  They have a choice:  pay 25 cents per item (that would be 50 cents for a pair of shoes) OR do a chore that is equivalent to 25 cents (I keep a list of pay-worthy chores in my home management notebook.).

This is week 2.  I think 95% of the things you see in this box were collected on Days 1-4.  I think that means its working.

Call me mean, but the needle has been pushed off "And the band of indians...." and I think I've become sweeter because of it.  And what's better than a sweet Mama.....with a picked up house?  :)

Lost and Found Box

Keeping Your Dishwasher Running Well

 When the tech came to fix the trash compactor, he glanced over at my dishwasher and started sharing important knowledge with me about caring for my dishwasher.  He said that middle TN has hard water and that is why I have these awful stains in my dishwasher.  He said over time, as it builds up, it affects the way the dishwasher runs and cleans.  He told me to get Lemishine and run it through my dishwasher 2 times on the hottest and longest setting.  After cleaning it, then ONLY use Finish dishwashing tabs with the red dot in the middle.  NEVER use the liquid detergent as it builds up residue and could ruin the pump of the washer.  Never use off brands as they also will mess up the effectiveness of the dishwasher and ALWAYS use a rinsing agent such as Jet Dry.

3 packs of LemiShine for only $3.20.  Finish was $15 plus a $1.50 coupon off.  There's 85 tabs in this box, almost 3 months supply.

You know that I am a money-saving mom so when he said "no off brands" I kind of cringed, but I also know that my dishwasher has NOT been cleaning my dishes very well recently and this build up inside looks pretty yucky.  I was glad for the knowledge!!

The door BEFORE LemiShine.

The door AFTER LemiShine.

The inside BEFORE LemiShine.

The inside AFTER Lemishine.

Can We Fix It? Yes We Can!!

My firstborn came out of the womb looking for things to fix.  He went to bed with his plastic tool box and spent his toddler years asking me, "Mom, what can I fix?".  He lived for Bob the Builder episodes.  Now that he's almost 14 years old, it's no surprise that he loves to assemble things, take things apart to see how they work and repair things.  Just the kind of guy you want to have around the house!

After our party of over 100 people, somehow our trash compactor got broken.  It wasn't in perfect working order before the party as it had some tricks to making it work right, but after that evening, it wouldn't turn on or close.  Before calling the technician to fix it, My Man called his supplier to see what a new one would cost, knowing it costs almost $100 just to have a tech come look at it.  Add parts and labor and it might not be worth fixing.  For some crazy reason the cost of stainless steel trash compactors have gone from $300 to $800 over the last 6 years.  That ludicrous!  As you can imagine, we called the tech.

He was great and told us we needed 2-3 parts but the parts totaled $300, then his labor was another $100 not to mention the service call we had paid for.  Then he shocked me and did the unheard of.  He told me the part numbers, explained to me how to fix it myself and said we could try that and if it didn't go well, call him back and then pay for his labor.  ("Now we're cooking with peanut oil!" - that's for my fellow Duck Dynasty fans)

I went to www.repairclinic.com and found the parts for almost half what the tech had quoted me.  SCORE!  When they arrived, my goal was to fix the trash compactor with the help of my teenage son and surprise My Man!  We did it!  It went perfect and I didn't even have to find a YouTube to help us.  I even get to return one part as we didn't need it after all.

Maybe I missed my calling...I've repaired my washing machine and now trash compactor.  I think I've found the perfect retirement job for me....appliance technician!