Some Tips

Many tips and tricks are handed down from grandmother to mother to daughter. They always seem to work well.

I came across some tips I thought I would share with you. Try them and see if they work. I sure intend to. :-)

If you peel a banana from the bottom you won't have to pick the little 'stringy things' off of it. That's how all the primates do it.

Separate your bananas when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen much faster.

Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. The cheese will stay fresh much longer and not mold!

Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

Add a teaspoon of water when sauting ground beef. It will help to pull the grease away from the meat.

To make terrific scrambled eggs or omelets add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, heavy cream, or Fat Free Half and Half before beating them.

For a super brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Get set for a wonderful minty frosting.

Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and add at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.

Leftover snickers bars from Halloween or Christmas make a delicious dessert. Simple chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over th e apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream.

Reheating Pizza
Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy microwave pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.

Easy Deviled Eggs
Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw the bag away when done for an easy clean up.

Expanding Frosting
When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You will also be eating less sugar and calories per serving.

No doubt in my mind you got some tips as well. I sure would like to hear them, so please share! Thanks. :-)

Be Careful With What You Teach

When lil' Kc was here, we went out in the yard to play. The first thing he does after stepping off the patio, is run as fast as his little legs can carry him, all the way to the end of the yard.

Then he turns back and starts examining the tree, the leaves and achorns on the ground. He has a great passion for sticks though. Whenever he finds one, he is in little toddler heaven.

Yup, he found one. A huge branch that had fallen off on of the trees. It was so large, he could hardly carry it, so Opa told him to put it over the fence in the woods. Lil' critter tried, but could not get it over, so Opa did it for him. The same happened with a smaller branch he found.

Oma did not think it was such a good idea, to show him to throw stuff over the fence and .... she was right. Kc found a golf ball, which was our dog's toy, ran straight up to the fence and since he could not throw it over, he pushed it through. Bye bye golf ball.

We better be careful, what we teach them! :-)

No More Wasting Time

We have been busy little beavers, these past few days. We finally attacked our daughter's bedroom. Repainting, reorganizing and redecorating were at the order of the day. It required some new bedding and drapes and I went through the trouble of doing an extensive search online, to find what she liked.

What a waste of time. I am such a nerd. I got the Shopwiki site bookmarked in my favorites and totally forgot about it. Searching for what I needed, would have been so much easier and less time-consuming. The site lists all the online stores, offering anything I would be looking for.

I also need to expand, or switch out some of our kitchen ware. I have to replace one pan, that is way too heavy for me to handle. It is not a Teflon coated one either, so everything sticks to and burns on the bottom of it.

While I am at it, I might as well replace our utensil set. The nylon set I use now, is starting to deteriorate fast. I think I rather have a stainless steel one instead. That will not burn, when it would get too hot.

All that is of later concern though. Our bedroom is next and this time, I will make good use of my bookmark!

Little Game

Lil' Kc and I like to play. It is funny at times, to see how different a reaction one gets, then what would be expected. Let me clarify that with this occurrence.

The little rascal loves to run to the end of the hall and sits down in front of the closet door. He looks at me with anticipation. I sit down at the beginning of the hall and playfully tell him, in a pretend threatening voice: "Oma is gonna get you!" As soon as I have said that, I start crawling slowly towards him.

One would expect the little critter to get up and try to run and get away. Nope. Instead he gets up, laughing out loud and runs towards me as fast as he can, his little arms spread out wide.

What else can Oma do, but laugh as well, catch him as he almost stumbles in my arms and be grateful and enjoy the hug and the always too short lasting cuddle, that results from this little game. :-)

A Joyful Day

We had lil' Kc, our oldest grand son over last week Saturday. Yes, all day! :-)

His mom dropped him off at 10 am and we kept him until around 7 pm. The little critter was as sweet as can be and enjoyed all the attention his Opa and Oma gave him.

Right now, it is easier for us to have one grand son over at the time, until they get a bit older. I think it did little Kc some good, to have the undivided attention for a change.

Even though it had been freezing and it was still quite cold during the day, we had some outdoor activities, which he loved. It is obvious, he is an outdoor boy. It was good to see he had a ball.

And so did we! :-)

Big Decision

I had to share this with y'all, because I thought it was too funny.

What will I be when I grow up?











I know from experience how slow the government works. Unfortunately, we can not always and constantly avoid the red tape.

I can imagine though, many employees must get frustrated not to be able to make any forward motion. They have to wait until it cleared one department, who have to wait until it cleared with another department, who are waiting for it to pass another etc. etc.

Sigh, just thinking about that already makes me tired!

Smiles and Tears

I know, it can not always be avoided. Growing up includes stumbling, falling down and hurting yourself. No exceptions, not even for our little critters.

Lil' Leo is pulling himself up and moving around, as long as he has something to lean on. Last Sunday, he was shuffling around the coffee table and having a ball. He maneuvered himself between a recliner and the table and how it happened? I don't think anyone could really tell, but it did. The little critter lost his balance and hit his mouth on the table.

I suspect one of his little toofers cut in his upper lip. He was bleeding profusely. Poor thing! While his Mom held him and tried to stop the bleeding, he looked at me and guess what? He smiled through his tears.

I felt so sorry for him and on the other hand, I could eat him up. The bleeding stopped rather quick and he was fine, but I will not forget how he tried to make my day, in spite of his pain.

He did and my heart swelled up with pride of and for him!

How Beautiful

We love to go exploring and almost always find a spot we have not seen, or noticed before. Most of the times we forget our camera. Not this time and we came across some breath taking scenery.



Normally, we drive around in our own area, but this time we ventured out to Jackson and explored whatever we came across. Low and behold what we found near a camp site! Isn't that beautiful?

How would you like to wake up to a view like this, every morning!

Setting Up The Tree

Well, guess what? We got no further then assembling our natural looking Christmas tree. After dinner, we got the tree and all the decorations out and... just decided to enjoy the grand children and the visit of the kids.

It probably would have been difficult to decorate the tree. I suspect, both boys would have been way too interested in all those glimmering and shiny ornaments.

Lil' Kc was a big help when we put the tree together. He handed us the branches and got all wrapped up and fascinated with the tree that took shape in front of his eyes. He had to feel it and pluck at it.

There has no progress been made since then. But we are not in a rush. It is a step in the right direction and that is the main thing! :-)

Family Tradition

I am so looking forward to today. The kids and grandkids will be over after church, we will have dinner together and then set up the Christmas tree and put out our decorations.

It is a family tradition to schedule with everyone and do all this together. This year, both the boys will be present as well and even though I foresee several broken decorations, it does not weigh up to having them here and enjoying and participating in it.

Our hope is, that we can have this tradition for many years to come. Yup, we will have the camera ready! :-)

Still Standing, But...

Leo, our youngest grand son, has been pulling himself up and standing up for quite a while now. When being held, he walks a bit, on his little toes. Scooting around the coffee table is no problem whatsoever.



He is finding his balance. While holding him by his arms, I noticed the other day, that he had gotten more stable. He even stood by himself for just a few split seconds. Wow, I was quite impressed, seeing how he is only almost 10 months old.

It is obvious, he would love to be able to walk and as soon as he does, there is no doubt in my mind, he will follow his big brother around everywhere. Right now, he already does, using his walker. That has made for blue heels on several occasions.

I don't know why, but I have a hunch those two little rascals might get into a lot of mischief together. They might make some team.

I wonder why the 'Dukes of Hazzard' come to mind, haha.

Here They Come

Our Lil' Leo has got 3 teeth now! The two lower ones came in one after each other, accompanied by an upper one. They decided to come in almost at the same time. No wonder the little rascal was kind of whiny lately. It sure must have hurt.

But... there they are and it is odd to see, how it changes his entire little face. Being accustomed to a toothless huge grin, it takes a little time to get used to seeing those little white sparklers in his mouth.

He already found out how to use them. When given a tiny piece of cracker, he positioned it between his teeth and chewed it to pieces. Way to go, little buddy!

He still has the tendency to stick things in his mouth and chew on them, so I have to remind myself, not to let him chew on my fingers anymore!

In case I forget, I have no doubt I will find out soon enough! :-)