More good advice...

My friend Diane S. gave me some great advice.

1. To quit coloring my hair myself and get it done professionally. I did not realize how bad my hair looked until I had it done right and then looked at old photos. Thank heavens she said something.

2. To buy a Food Savor. She was always telling me how wonderful they are and how she uses hers for everything. I finally got one (about 2 years ago) and it quickly became one of my favorite things. I can't tell you how much time this little machine saves me. I buy everything in bulk, cook it and vacuum it into portions that we use. It takes a couple of hours of cooking once a month then super fast dinners for the rest of the month. Here are a few things that I do with it.

Ground turkey(big 4 pack from Costco)- I cook it all at the same time but will make some seasoned with taco seasoning, some with onions, garlic and celery (spagetti ect) and leave some plain for chili or whatever.
Chicken- I buy raw chicken breasts and cook them, shread them and then bag then in spacific amounts that I need for recipies (chicken enchaladas, tortillia soup etc). Sometime I take the raw chicken and put it in the bag with a marinade, vacuum it, then I can just cook it in the bag and it comes out so juicy. I also will cut up chicken and put teryocky sauce in with it so it's ready to go for stir fry.
Ham-I buy one of those big hams at Costco that you bake with the glaze on it. I will make it for dinner then bag up the rest in to 5 bags with glaze and I have 5 ham dinners that I can cook up in minutes. My kids love ham!

Do I sound like Rachel Ray?



I vacuumed our food and clothes for our 72 emergency kits and was able to easily fit all the supplies and first aid for each person in a backpack. I also vacuumed Lucy's emergency earthquake supplies required for her preschool.




Fyi-I have the big machine(V2490) that they sell at Costco, My Mom bought a smaller version for herself and she doesn't like it at all.

Good advice

Eric’s Mom who is a retired reading recovery teacher gave us some of the best advise for encouraging children to love reading. She said to give them a reading light on their bed and let them stay up as late as they want as long as they are quiet and reading. I immediately thought of all the reasons that would not work for us, but she did this with her 4 boys and she swore by it, so we tried it. We have done this with Haley for 3 years and have recently started it with Ruby. I cannot tell you what a brilliant idea this is. Haley loves to read and will usually stay up an hour or two past her bedtime (8:00) to quietly read. She is in 3rd grade but her teacher told me she is reading at a 5th grade level. Ruby who is just a beginning reader will sit quietly in her bed and sound out words to herself. There is something to be said about a child quietly concentrating on reading without any distractions... yet they feel like they are getting away with something because it is after their bedtime.