Tag Archives: home

Five Favorite Uses for White Vinegar!

19 Aug

Keep Your Change

I love cheap and simple solutions!

About a year ago, I discovered the awesomeness that is white vinegar! I buy this stuff by the gallons now, because I use it so much! Here are my five favorite uses for white vinegar!

{1}

pancakes

If you are making a recipe that calls for buttermilk, but don’t have buttermilk on hand, just add a little vinegar to regular milk! The pancakes that I make every Saturday morning are made this way and they are fluffy and delicious! I like to substitute wheat flour for half the flour and mix in chocolate chips!

{2}

spray bottle

White vinegar, water, and a squirt of dish soap in a spray bottle is my favorite go-to multi-purpose cleaner! It’s excellent for glass and stainless steel, especially when cleaning with a microfiber cloth! I have a poor sense of smell, so the vinegar doesn’t really bother me, but my husband can’t stand the smell! Fortunately, it dissipates quickly!

{3}

drain

Baking soda combined with white vinegar makes a great de-clogger and deodorizer for drains. Just poor some hot water in after!

{4}

fruit

One part vinegar and three parts water makes a good rinse to clean the dirt off produce.

{5}

weeds

I haven’t tried this one yet, but I’ve recently heard that white vinegar can be sprayed on weeds instead of using costly chemicals to kill them.

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I know there are so many more uses for vinegar, and I’m discovering more all the time! It is definitely a must-have staple in my house!

Happy Tuesday!

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Be sure to check out Hallie and the other ladies for the Five Favorites link-up this week!

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{7 Quick Takes #11}

15 Aug

7 quick takes sm1 7 Quick Takes Friday (vol. 228)

So it has been quite awhile since I have joined Jen and the 7 Quick Takes crew! I have so much randomness to share about what’s been going on in the Shick household so far this month that I thought breaking it down 7 Quick Takes-style would be good!

{1}

house

Our house is officially on the market! It’s exciting and highly stressful at the same time! Someone is coming later today to take video for a virtual tour thing and my house is going to have to be even more meticulously organized and spotless than it already is! Yikes! AND two showings are scheduled for this evening!

{2}

C started preschool earlier this week! She’ll be going two days per week. I felt like I climbed another step on the mom ladder when I made her lunch and packed it in her own cute brown and pink lunch box!

{3}

33 Days to Morning Glory: A Do-It- Yourself Retreat in Preparation for Marian Consecration

Last week, I started the 33 Days to Morning Glory retreat with several other Cathsorority ladies via Facebook. My mom had given me the book for Mother’s Day, but I hadn’t gotten around to checking it out yet, so it worked out perfectly to start this with a group! It’s going great so far!

{4}

With all of this crazy house stuff going on, I have gotten really behind with my coupon cutting – like at least 6 weeks worth of inserts piled up on me! I’ve been slowly tackling them this past week and now my least favorite part, filing them in my binder, awaits me! Fun times ahead for the weekend! 🙂

{5}

The beginning of August, Adam was gone as a tech at Lollapalooza in Chicago for nearly a week. It was the first time the girls had been away from him for such a long time! Daddy made some funny videos for the girls, which made it easier on me at bedtime! So, yeah, I kind of don’t miss the days of Adam being out on the road for 3-4 days at a time every weekend!

{6}

Changing the subject, I have a rare rant that I have to get off my chest! This week alone, I’ve been behind three different drivers who have tossed cigarette butts out their windows. I don’t know about anybody else, but anytime someone does that I feel like it is a personal “screw you!” I’m no environmental activist, but I feel it is so disrespectful to, like, the whole rest of the human population to litter. It’s not that hard to wait 10 minutes to throw your trash away or empty an ashtray!

I guess this is just a symptom of where our society is right now – selfish, no respect for life, etc…

Okay, rant over. Deep breath! Moving on…

{7}

On a happy note, I have to brag on my friend Abby of Creative Crumbs for a second! (You may remember that I featured her as my Dreamer in the Spotlight earlier this year.) She recently was invited to participate in Nashville’s first The NotWedding event at The Cannery Ballroom last month. Her delicious cake was called the “shining star of the reception” by one columnist!

Photo: All set for The Not Wedding! This beautiful cake is decorated with handmade sugar flowers and chopped pistachios. #nashvilleweddings #weddingcake

Photo courtesy of Creative Crumbs Nashville

Nashville peeps, be sure to vote for Creative Crumbs in Nashville Scene’s Best of Nashville 2013 survey as the Best Local Cake Baker!!

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Have a great weekend, everyone!

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Five Favorites (vol. 12)

17 Jul

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This is going to be one quick Five Favorites post, but I’m happy to be joining Hallie and the other fabulous ladies who are linking-up! I’m in the middle of getting our house ready to go on the market, so time for blogging is in short supply right now! Here goes…

{1}

Edy’s Outshine Creamy Coconut Fruit Bars

Creamy Coconut

I wasn’t sure what I would think about coconut bars at first, but these are perfect on a hot summer day! Yum!

{2}

 The Cost of Discipleship

I’ve been a huge Dietrich Bonhoeffer fan ever since reading Eric Metaxas’ biography, Bonhoeffer, last year. I’ve just started to read this well-known book by Bonhoeffer, thanks to my dad who surprised me with it a few weeks ago! We’ll see how much time I actually have to read now that we’re busy getting our home ready to sell!

{3}

 Prepare Your Home for Sale Checklist

I’m in the midst of de-cluttering, storing, and cleaning! I decided I better make sure I’m not forgetting anything, so I found this great checklist! It would work great for spring cleaning, too! Not that doing all of these things are my favorites, but I’m all about checklists!

{4}

 Noteshelf App

iPad Screenshot 4

I love this iPad app. It’s great for creating a variety of notebooks for all different purposes. You can type, draw, highlight, etc. I downloaded it when it was on sale for $1.99. Right now it costs $5.99, so you may want to wait for a sale. I haven’t used MagicalPad yet, but it seems to be pretty similar and is FREE!

{5}

Chicken Bow-Tie Pasta Salad

Chicken Bow-Tie Pasta Salad recipe

This is a Kraft recipe, but I actually didn’t use anything Kraft-brand to make it! (Boo Kraft! I’m not a big fan ever since I started trying to be more conscious of incorporating more preservative-free foods in my family’s diet.) My husband grilled a whole bunch of chicken breasts for me last week, so I used those in this great pasta dish! It’s really quick to make and can be eaten warm or cold. It’s a great summer meal or side dish!

Have a great week, everyone!

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What if the Grass Isn’t Greener?

12 Jul

road stock photo

Have you ever read or heard something and felt like it was written or spoken just for you?

I had that experience yesterday morning when I opened up my daily 3 Things for Mom post in my inbox. Lisa Hendey was Thursday’s contributor and what she wrote in the first few paragraphs really resonated with me.

“Never leave one good party in search of another,” was one of the bits of wisdom my parents passed along to me before I left home for college. “The party down the hall isn’t any more fun than the one you’re already enjoying.”

My Mom and Daddy were always the life of any party, the first onto the dance floor and the last to leave it, the first to RSVP and the last to hug the host goodbye at the end of the night. Their wholesome “partying” is an example of the rest of their commitment to living life fully.

It turns out that this bit of wisdom works well for many of life’s other circumstances too: for career, for investments, and for marriage and family life.

Click here to read the rest of Lisa’s post.

The reason this spoke to me so much yesterday, is because Adam and I are contemplating putting our house on the market. An unexpected blessing this week nudged us to take this idea more seriously – and we are.

The thing is, though, that we are really happy. Life is good. We love our family. We know that we are blessed and despite some minor frustrations, like neighbors who park their cars in their yards, we are filled with joy everyday.

Adam and I are trying to be objective about this whole selling/buying thing. Ideally, it would be nice to live in a better, newer neighborhood where there are sidewalks for the girls, everyone keeps their yards properly maintained, and cars aren’t speeding by. Now is probably the time to buy before interest rates climb back to where they were.

So, the plan is to spruce the house up as quickly as possible and get it ready to list by the end of the month. We’ll see if we can get an offer that meets our bottom line. If not, we’ll probably just stay put, as we really aren’t under any pressure to move.

My worry, though, is that we’ll sell, and then not be able to find a house that meets our needs and wants in our price range. We also don’t want to be greedy, as if we are not grateful for the home that we have lived in for five years.

What if the grass isn’t greener on the other side? What if this party is better? When do you know if it’s better to stay put or if it’s time to step out in faith?

I’ll keep you posted… 🙂

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