Staying Warm 101

A couple tips on how to stay warm in the winter when the high for the day is -8.
1) Have a wood burning stove. Very helpful to thaw out snow encrusted boots and children.

2) Eat hot soups or chili.

3) Wear lots of layers.

4) Pile numerous blankets on your bed or, in my case, have two little "body warmers" (a.k.a. two of my little siblings) in addition to the numerous blankets.

5) Stay indoors if at all possible. Or, if you're like some adventurous young boys I know, if there's snow on the ground and if there are friends to play with, outside they go, regardless of the temperature!

Introducing... Helpful Hints!

Okay, so my mom and I were talking about things to blog and my mom had the idea to do a post every week on "helpful hints" - we'll include in each post a tip that we've found useful at our house. So, today I'm going to do the first one!

How many of you have dishwashers? Quite a few of us do! (We do mean the kind that run on electricity - not just two hands :) We have found that when you go to fill up the cups (both the pre-wash and the wash cycle cups) in the dishwasher with detergent, you don't have to fill them up all the way to have clean dishes. My great-grandpa once told my mom that he only used a tablespoon of dishwashing detergent in each cup and it was enough soap for the whole dishwasher. Well, we tried it and, to our surprise, it actually worked! Not only does this tip save going through dishwashing detergent so fast (especially for those of us who do copious amounts of dishes), but it also saves money! We've been using this tip for quite awhile now and none of our dishes come out dirty!