Window Blind Cleaning Made Easy

Most of my windows have vinyl blinds and they are always so difficult and time consuming to clean (I don't do it very often). However, a friend of mine recently shared a tip with me on how to easily clean vinyl blinds.

First you find a pair of white cotton gloves. In a small bucket, mix 1 part vinegar to 1 part hot water. Then put the gloves on and dip your fingertips into the vinegar solution and run your fingertips over each slat in the blind. I found that the vinegar solution picked up the dirt easily and made the blinds shiny. This method sped up the cleaning process and I would recommend to anyone to give it a try.

Chantal Kreviazuk

I recently watched a show on HBO called In This Life - Chantal Kreviazuk with the Niagara Symphony. I was never a big fan of Chantal's until I saw her perform live on this program. She has such an amazing voice and she is very talented on the piano. Her talent paired with the wonderful symphony in the background makes for a spectacular performance. Her songs on the radio don't even compare to her live performance with a symphony! I would love to see her in concert. My 10 year old son is a talented pianist and I hope to be able to take him to see her one day.

In the program she also shares her personal associations with some of the songs she performs. For her song Surrounded, she explained that she lost a good friend at a young age from suicide and that she wrote this song to feel close to all people she knows who have died. The song never made sense to me until I heard her explain it. She closed the show with an emotional and powerful performance of Leaving On A Jet Plane. Again, the song sounded so much better live than the recorded version you hear on the radio.

I have been trying to locate a clip from this show but have not been able to find one so I have posted a video of her song Invicible which is one of my favourites. The boy in the video is actually her son.

How To Read A Grown-Up's Mind

My son has a book entitled The Encyclopedia of Immaturity and there is a trick in it which children can play on grown-ups. My son did the trick on both my husband and I and it worked both times.

Here is what you do:

Ask a grown-up the following questions. Tell them its part of an important nationwide survey and thank them for participating.

1. Think of some country that starts with D. Don't tell me what it is. (A typical grown-up will think it is Denmark).

2. Take the last letter of that country and think of any animal that starts with it. Again, don't tell me what it is. (A typical grown-up will think kangaroo).

3. Take the last letter of that animal and think of a fruit that starts with it. Don't say anything, just think. (A typical grown-up will think orange).

Finally put your hand on their forehead, close your eyes, and say the following: "Orange...you're thinking of an orange."

Try it out and let me know if it works on others!

Treating Insect Bites and Stings

Do you know the signs of an allergic reaction to an insect bite or sting? Kids are always playing outside and they will get bitten or stung at some point. Mosquitoes, blackflies, and deerflies or horseflies are the most common bugs to get bitten by in the summer. There is also a chance that your child will get stung by a bee or wasp or get bitten by a spider and you have to keep an eye on them after they have been stung because you never know how they will react to it.

If they happen to get stung by a bee, you must get the stinger out as quickly as possible. You can do this by scraping it with a credit card or carefully picking it out with tweezers if you have a pair handy. Its important to get the stinger out because it contains a poison sac from the bee. If you spread the venom around the wound, the skin will become more irritated. After you have removed the stinger, you can apply some ice to the wound and give your child an antihistamine such as Reactine or Benadryl. If a wasp or any other type of fly, spider or bug bites your child, there will be no stinger left behind. Simply put some ice on the bite and give your child an antihistamine.

There are certain signs to look for to determine if your child is having an allergic reaction:

1. Wheezing or difficulty breathing;
2. Swelling of the lips, tongue or face;
3. Tightness in throat or chest;
4. Dizziness or fainting;
5. Nausea or vomiting.

Your child should seek urgent medical attention if the above symptoms occur.

Your child may have a mild allergic reaction if his/her skin develops red bumps, is itchy, and swells mildly. Itchiness can be treated with calomine lotion.

I have found an instruction sheet for the treatment of insect stings and bites and you can print it off at the link below. This would be a great item to display on your fridge for the summer months.

Insect Stings Help Sheet

How To Coverup Scratches On Dark Hardwood

I noticed this morning that there are some noticeable scratches on my hardwood around an armchair that sits in my livingroom. It was really bugging me because I don't want to show the house with these visible scratches. So I did some research and came across a great tip on ehow.com. All you need to do is mix a couple of teaspoons of coffee grinds with a small amount of water until it forms into a thick paste. Then carefully rub the paste into the scratches and voila, the scratches are covered up.

This is only a temporary fix however but will do the trick in an emergency. The coffee makes the floor somewhat sticky on the area that I covered but this does not matter because it is under a chair where nobody steps. I will properly fix it when I get some wood stain that matches the colour of my hardwood. Please also remember that coffee only works on dark shades of hardwood.

Favourite Smells Of Summer

I was sitting on my front porch one afternoon and was surrounded by the smell of freshly cut grass. One of my neighbours had just finished cutting his lawn. This is one of the most invigorating smells after enduring a long cold winter. Some of my other favourite smells of summer are:

Tomato plants
Strawberries
Coconut Suntan Oil/Lotion
Roses
The rain at night
Clothes that have dried in the sunshine
Waffle cones at a fair or carnival
Sweet smell of hay sitting in a farmer's field
Anything being barbequed
Citronella
Campfires
The breeze coming off the lake
Pine trees in the hot sun

Another smell that I will always remember is when I used to sit on my grandma's porch and I could smell the lilacs growing nearby. Such a wonderful memory.

I wish I could bottle these scents to help me get through the long, cold winter.

What's your favourite scent of summer?

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

I was reading the local paper this afternoon and I was shocked to find out that an older man who I just spoke with about 2 weeks ago passed away. I would always see him when I picked up my sons from school. He would pick up his grandson, who was in my son's class. I distinctly remember my last conversation with him. He was talking about his grandchildren and seemed very happy and healthy. He was a very nice man and died at the age of 63. I believe he died from a sudden heart attack at his home. He was very close with his grandchildren and I know they will miss him very much. This is just a reminder that there is no guarantee that there will be a tomorrow.

Announcement

I am excited to announce that I have bought a domain name for Mom To The Power Of Three and my new web address is www.momtothepowerofthree.net. My blog may still be in transition but I am advised by Blogger that all traffic will be redirected automatically to my new address. I am also playing around with a new look so there may be some construction dust. Please let me know if you have any problems.

Loathe The Speakerphone

I am the type of person who normally does not like to talk on the phone. I get very agitated when I make a one on one phone call to someone and they put me on speakerphone. For one thing, you cannot hear someone clearly when they use the speakerphone and it picks up a lot of background noise. Also, the conversation can be heard by anyone near the person you are talking to. I don't like that invasion of privacy. I used to work in an office where lawyers close to my desk would have conversations with their client on the speakerphone. You could listen to the whole conversation and I don't think that is appropriate.

As soon as someone answers their phone, I immediately know when I am on speakerphone and I will always ask that they take me off it. I don't care who I am talking to. My sister-in-law used to always call me on speakerphone until one day I said to take me off it. Maybe that's why she doesn't call me much anymore. The only time that I will talk on speakerphone is when there is a need for the conversation to be heard by more than one person like in a business meeting. Otherwise, I think that if a person wants to speak with you on the speakerphone that they should ask for your permission to do so out of courtesy.

Win $25 Paypal Cash!

I am hosting a contest where you can win $25 Paypal cash! Enter by filling in the form on the top right of my blog. You must have a valid Paypal account. Contest ends June 14, 2010 at 11:55 p.m. when a winner will be randomly drawn by Contest Marchine. I will notify the winner on June 15, 2010 and the winner will have 24 hours to claim his/her prize. If the prize is not claimed, I will redraw the winner's name.

Facebook Lists

I have become familiar with a relatively new feature on Facebook where you can arrange your friends into lists. You can create the names of the lists such as family, acquaintances, old school friends, current friends, co-workers, and so on. You can access this feature by going to your facebook profile and clicking on the friends listed on the left hand side of the screen. Once you click on it your list of friends will appear. At the top of the screen there will be a tab labelled "Create List". Click on that, name the list you want to create, then add your friend's name to that list. Once you are done adding names to the list, click create list. You can edit or delete your list at any time. I find the lists helpful if I only want to share a certain status update or photo with a particular group of people. You may not be as personal with friends in your acquaintance list or co-worker list so you can control what they see without blocking them from your wall. I think this is a great privacy feature.

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Dental Surgery - Stainless Steel Crowns

My son had his dental surgery today and it went very well. He did not complain about any part of it and recovered quickly from the anasthetic. He had to have a couple of steel crowns placed on his molars so he had to have general anasthetic. The surgery took about 1 hour in total and then it took about 15 minutes for him to wake up. He was very unsteady and woozy at first and slept most of the way home. He had lots of freezing in his mouth so it was hard for him to talk at first. After a couple of hours he was back to normal and was able to eat again. He is now trying to get used to having the steel caps on his teeth. The molars will fall out when he is 9 to 12 years old and his permanent ones will grow in. He will not be able to eat candies such as ju jubes, jawbreakers, fruit roll ups, or anything else really sticky for risk of pulling off the steel cap. The dental surgeon was great and I think the day was more stressful for me than for my son who was such a trooper. I am just glad that it is all over.