Works for Me Wednesday - Cleaning away a grounding

Every Wednesday I go here to read a blog carnival called "Works for Me Wednesday" during which a bunch of bloggers log in and write down tips that keep their lives working! Everything from stopping temper tantrums to cooking tips! I have found many new ideas over there for many aspects of my life! I suggest you check it out.

I usually join when I think I have something to say.

This week my tip is: Use cleaning as a form of punishment! Yep, you heard me! I will ground my kids for a weekend, then when they whine and cry and tell me all the wonderful things they are missing out on by being grounded (usually "but my webkinz will die if I can't feed them!!!"), I let them work off a day of their grounding by giving me 2 hours of service. I get mean too! They have scrubbed dust off baseboards, swept and mopped kitchen floors, cleaned out closets, etc. Plus this is on top of their regular chores like putting away their own laundry and emptying the dishwasher! Working off groundings works for me!!!

Works for Me Wednesday

Works for Me Wednesday is getting personal this week and I thought I would join in with my top 10 ways to please my husband. (It's not as dirty as it sounds!)

1. Give him a back and neck rub while he is sitting at the computer.
2. Keep the freezer well stocked with pizza pops for those midnight snack attacks.
3. Keep the laundry caught up.
4. Keep the front entrance free of clutter such as shoes, coats, backpacks and other kid gear.
5. Keep a jug of his favorite juice in the freezer at all times (otherwise he will drink my pop!)
6. Make him 3 egg sandwiches every Saturday Morning.
7. Shovel the driveway for him (he has a bad back)
8. Keep the kids quiet when he is working or goes to bed early.
9. Have dinner prepared quickly when I get home from work (it helps to prep the night before and menu plan!)
10. Keep my credit card spending on the lower side. (I am trying REALLY hard)

And just for the heck of it... here is 10 ways he pleases me!

1. Gets up with the kids on Saturday and Sundays and lets me sleep in (until one or all three of them get hungry)
2. Randomly does things to my car like take it in for a new windshield or fills it with gas or takes it to the car wash.
3. Reminds me to do important things when I have too much on the go.
4. Keeps me grounded and spend conscious.
5. Thinks I am beautiful even on days I don't quite see it staring back at me in the mirror.
6. Always sides with me when I whine about someone else (family, coworkers etc.)
7. Spoils me with expensive appliances and electronics.
8. Makes me laugh every day.
9. Does his own laundry.
10. Gets movies for me that he thinks I will like even though he has zero interest in seeing them!

And those work for me!!!

For other works for me Wednesday tips click here.

WFMW - It's good to know people

On Tuesday!

I am writing this post on Tuesday, if you would like to know why, please read last week's WFMW posted Here.

A lot of things don't work for me, but one thing that does is having friends I can call on when I need help. As a single mom, I don't have a handy husband to fix everything. In comes my friends. One friend (you know who you are) is a handy dandy furnace and hot water installer and had the necessary skills to hook up my new bathtub! While he was at it he also installed shut off valves for the sink and tub. What does it cost me? Free babysitting. It kind of reminds me of the olden days when you would trade a chicken for a check up at the Doctor's. I am going to babysit his lovely daughter for a few evenings in trade for labor. Another friend came and installed my drywall and did the mudding and taping. I might babysit for him too, but he has 3 rambunctious boys and I am not sure I have the patience for that! Then, yet another friend came and helped me move all my furniture on Saturday. I owe him pizza and beer. Maybe I am lucky I don't have a husband. He surely would have gotten irritated at his honey-do list by now. OH! And of course I wouldn't be anywhere without my Daddy. He runs me around to hardware stores in his truck when something won't fit in my little car. What would a girl do without her Daddy? So, in summary, what works for me is having friends work for me!!!

P.S. Remind me not to "gut" any rooms in my house in the near future or those friends might become "people I used to know". ;0)

WFMW Doesn't WFM!

Ok, so I get excited about Wednesday's because that's when it is Works For Me Wednesday at http://www.rocksinmydryer.typepad.com/ I get tips on child care, cooking, cleaning, and everything else! Reading this blog and following the links to other blogs is actually what inspired me to start my own blog. So! Every Wednesday I decided I would join and post my own links there. Only I suck at it. Last week I didn't post my link properly, so it got deleted. This week, I didn't write my post quickly enough so I didn't get to join again! Argh!!! Why can't she cut it off at 10:00 CST instead of 7:00? Then I could write my blog and post it in time! Or... I could start writing it on Tuesday's so I can post on Wednesday... hrmmmm... interesting. I need to find a way for WFMW to WFM!!! sigh...

For posts from people who have their lives together and remember to post on time, please visit http://rocksinmydryer.typepad.com/shannon/2008/10/works-for-me--1.html

OH! The bathtub installation worked!!!! Wooohooo! Drywall is going up on Friday night, furniture is getting moved on Saturday, and the rest will be done between now and next weekend! I see the light!!! I can't wait to move into my pretty new (Ok, reallly old but renovated) townhouse! It's mine! All mine! Mwahahahahahhaahah!

Works For Me Wednesday - Organizing for quicker lunch making

There is a blog I follow called Rocks in my dryer that hosts a blog carnival called Works for Me Wednesdays. Bloggers post links to their own blog and tell about tips that work for them! Today's is a themed WFMW about kitchen organization. One of the things that I find tedious in the kitchen is making the kid's lunches every night. I am a working single mom, so unfortunately my kids get a lot of pre-packaged foods in their lunches like granola bars, apple sauce, pudding, fruit snacks, etc. One of the things I noticed was that my pantry was filling up with all these boxes of lunch snacks that only contained 6-10 items in them! So, my solution was that I bought a rubbermaid bin that fits on one of the shelves, and when I get home from grocery shopping I empty all the boxes into the bin. Then when I am making lunches, I just grab the bin and put it on the counter and grab what I need out of it. It sure cuts down on the time I spend searching for that box of granola bars that I thought I bought last week! Now everything is in one place. This is one organizational solution that WORKS FOR ME!

For more great tips, visit: http://rocksinmydryer.typepad.com/