Wordless Wednesday - Locks of Love

Tuesday's Tip - Getting Rid of Fruit Flies

I am so excited about today's tip, and of course, it contains one of my favorite household ingredients - vinegar! So, here it is.

Ever go stir crazy because of those little fruit flies (some call them gnats) that love to hang around your bananas or any other fruit you have lying around? Well, I have found a remedy, and it works great! Take a small bowl and put a small amount of apple cider vinegar in the bottom (it has to be the apple cider vinegar, the white vinegar will not work) then add a couple of drops liquid dish soap (brand does not matter). The fruit flies are attracted to the vinegar and the dish soap changes the surface tension so that they can't fly out. This does kill the flies, they drown in the liquid. If you wish not to kill them, then use a tall glass and still only use a small amount of vinegar and no soap so that flies go down into the glass, then once you have a few in the glass cover it and take it outside to let them escape. I personally prefer to kill them so they don't come back, but you do whatever you like.

This works great! I am so excited that I do not have these pesky little things flying around my fruit, trash can and kitchen sink anymore. Put more than one bowl out in various spots that tend to attract them and catch even more faster than just putting out one. I have a picture below of a bowl that I set out by my sink. It was there less than 12 hours and look how many fruit flies I caught. I have since cleaned it out and done it again, as well as place another one around my kitchen and I'm having great success. Hope you will be pleased as well. Let me know how this works for you.

Yep, those are fruit flies in the bottom.

I placed a piece of paper under the bowl

just so you could see them better.

Climbing Wall

Last night after evening service our church had our End of the Summer Cookout. Some of the things at this cookout were inflatables, a climbing wall and volleyball tournament. It's always a lot of fun and good fellowship.

Well, this year I decided I was going to climb that wall. Last time I had been pregnant and was unable to climb. So, I decided I was definitely going to attempt it, and I did. I made it all the way to the top and hit the button that sounded the alarm that I had finished. Wow, what a sense of accomplishment! I felt so rejuvenated (after my legs and arms stopped shaking, that is). I felt like I could do anything and I felt so young :) It was so much fun! Made me wonder why I don't do more things like that more often.

Everyone got in on it. Even my husband Jim tried it and made it with flying colors. Josiah and Kaitlyn both hung out at the wall the whole time and each went up about 13-15 times. Christiana made it up, her first time climbing a wall t0o. Micah made it up after his 6th try (way to get over your fear of heights. I'm so proud of you!). Jonathan made it half way up and Matthew as well, so glad they tried it. Even Joshua got to try. Little guy thought he was suppose to hold the rope with one hand. Had he realized just to let go and hang on to the wall he probably would have scaled it all the way to the top, he has no fear.

I was unable to get pictures of everyone because we took a lot of video instead, but here are just of few of the pictures we did take.

Me beginning my climb.

Joshua, with some help to get started.

Micah climbing.

Jonathan climbing.

Fun at the Park

For Real Thursdays - Modern Technology, Worth It?

Sometimes I wonder if we're really better off with all this technology. I mean, really, did we stress so much before as we do now? The computer doesn't load pages fast enough, our phones don't have range when we need it most, shut downs happen at the most inopportune times.

The reason I mention this is because yesterday when I went to sync my phone with my computer in order to load a picture that I wanted for my Wordless Wednesday post, my phone decided for no apparent reason to go into recovery mode. Now we could have easily restored my phone but I didn't want to lose all the information (like calendar reminders, contacts and said photo) and have to restore back to before all my new information was added. My precious husband worked for over two hours trying to recover my phone without having to restore it, all the while our computers were not loading pages and freezing up on us throughout the whole process making a stressful situation even more stressful. He finally ended up having to restore my phone because nothing we tried worked. Fortunately, (I believe because I was praying very hard) all my contacts, calendar info and said photo were still there. But really, it made me wonder how much easier things were before all these modern "conveniences" came about. Don't get me wrong, I love my phone and computer, I just wish they always worked when you needed them.

How about you? What do you think? Were things easier and less stressful before it all or do you think it's all worth it?

Tuesday's Tip - A Little Bit of Down Time

Now that school is starting back up and things are a little more hectic than they were before, make sure you are getting a little down time in each day. With homeschooling many kids of various ages, I do have my kids take a little time each day to themselves, usually while the little ones are napping. It also gives me a while to rest and take care of things I need to do, like take a nap myself sometimes. It helps me to have a better attitude as well.

My tip for today is to make sure you stop for just a few moments each day. It helps so much in making your day run smoothly.

Maggie Moo's

Each time one of our kids has a birthday we (Mom and/or Dad) take them out for ice cream. Last year it was Baskin Robbins, this year it's Maggie Moo's. This past weekend I took the girls out for their birthday ice cream. Now those of you who keep up with my posts know that the girl's birthdays were in January. So why am I just now taking them out for their birthday? Because we were doing a churchwide fast in January and time has completely slipped away and we are just now getting around to taking them out for their birthday ice cream. I suppose it's better late than never. The girls didn't mind.

Do you have a special place you take your kids for their birthday? Does the whole family join or do you take the birthday kid out alone? I love input, so share your special celebrations. Maybe you'll inspire someone else to do the same :)

Maggie Moo's!

Yummy!

Mmmm Mmmm Good!