Mandi Ehman's Blog, page 62

50+ Slow Cooker Recipes to Simplify Dinnertime

While we seem to have gotten back into our homeschool and work routine in the months since Jackson was born, getting dinner on the table continues to be a struggle since my freezer stash ran out!

The idea of finding time to refill the freezer honestly gives me a panic attack, but I recently pulled my Ninja 3-in-1 back out and began searching for more slow cooker meals, which I had gotten out of the habit of making.

There’s so much to love about slow cooker or crock pot meals:

You can assemble the ingredients early, during the time of day when you have more energy and “want to”.


Most dishes are one-pot wonders, so you don’t have a load of dirty dishes to deal with.


Slow cooker recipes are almost always warm and cozy comfort food.


If you really get your act together, you can fill your freezer with bags of ready-to-go slow cooker meals for an even simpler dinner solution!

I’m happy to report that we’ve been eating so much better — and trying lots of fun new recipes — in the past two weeks thanks to the slow cooker!

Here is a list of 50 recipes I’ve added to my meal planning queue so that we don’t get stuck eating the same 3 slow cooker meals each week:

Soup & Stew

Minestrone Soup with Sausage
Moroccan Chicken Stew
Orange Beef Stew
Beef and Cabbage Soup
Guinness Beef Stew
Tex-Mex Chicken Stew
Bean & Rice Soup
Cheesy Cauliflower Soup
Apple and Split Pea Soup
Pasta e Fagioli Italian Soup
Chicken Tortilla Soup

Chili


Blue Ribbon Chili
Creamy White Bean and Apple Chili
Braised Short Rib and Bacon Chili
Chicken Taco Chili
Meatless Chili
White Chili with Black Beans


 Chicken

Gluten-Free Orange Chicken
Chicken Parmesan
Whole Chicken
White Chicken Lasagna
Salsa Chicken Wraps
Chicken Sausage Ragu
Enchiladas
Honey Barbecue Chicken Sandwiches
Tex Mex Chicken & Beans

 Beef

Mongolian Beef
Italian Beef Sandwiches
Philly Cheesesteak Sandwiches
Pot Roast Italiano
Flank Steak Fajitas
Sweet & Sour Meatballs
Carnitas Tostadas
Cheeseburger Meatloaf
Beef Brisket
French Dip Panini
Beef & Broccoli
Southwestern Casserole
Beef Barbacoa

 Pork

Texas Pork Chops
Teriyaki Boston Butt
Spanish Rice with Sausage
Ginger Cranberry Pork Roast
Cumin-Lime Pork Loin
Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes with Ham
BBQ Ribs

Pasta

Macaroni & Cheese
Lasagna
Creamy Chipotle Chicken Tortellini
Beef Ziti Recipe
Chicken Fettuccine
Bacon Ranch Chicken and Pasta
Cajun Chicken Spaghetti

 Slow Cooker eBooks

For those of you who prefer having your recipes compiled in a cookbook, here are three ebooks that are packed full of delicious recipes:

Slow Cooker Freezer Recipes eCookbook
Crock On: A Semi-Whole Foods Slow Cooker Cookbook
Keep Crockin’: Poorganic Slow Cooker Cookbook

 What is your favorite slow cooker recipe?

This post contains affiliate links. Thanks for supporting Life Your Way!

Mandi Ehman is the blogger behind Life Your Way. She and her husband have four beautiful girls plus one baby boy, and together they live, work and homeschool on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia. Mandi loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

50+ Slow Cooker Recipes to Simplify Dinnertime

© 2010-2014 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

    Related StoriesManchego Olive Freeform BreadMore Than 200 Recipes for Just $7.40! {BundleoftheWeek.com}

Who’s Your Favorite Strong Female Character?

As the mother of four girls, I love that books with strong female characters abound for every age:

Nancy Drew and Annie (from the Magic Tree House) set out on adventures to solve mysteries and help those in need.

Hermione is unabashedly smart, never pretending to be dumb around boys or other girls, and her genius helps solve more than a few mysteries along the way.

Tris and Katniss refuse to accept the way things are and stand up against injustice.

Alice (from What Alice Forgot) fights to rediscover herself and rebuild her life.

Summer (from Wonder) befriends the friendless and discovers a best friend in he process.

I hope that I would be the kind of person to fight injustice, to do what’s right instead of just what’s easy — I hope I am that kind of person — and I love to read stories about girls and women who do just that.

But more importantly, I want my girls to be surrounded by these stories too so that they’ll have these characters in their corner as they grow up (along with the strong women they know in real life) to help them find the strength to do what’s right, to be themselves and to face new situations with courage.

Who’s Your Favorite Strong Female Character?

Vote for your fave books with strong female characters by clicking on the images below and then clicking the done button. Share your picks on Pinterest to be entered to win a $100 Amazon gift card. Contest ends 3/31/14. Official rules.

 


This post is sponsored by Skinny Scoop and contains Amazon affiliate links.

Mandi Ehman is the blogger behind Life Your Way. She and her husband have four beautiful girls plus one baby boy, and together they live, work and homeschool on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia. Mandi loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

Who’s Your Favorite Strong Female Character?

© 2010-2014 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

     
Commentsoh i am right with you — jane eyre is amazing. i love it when ... by katharineOh my goodness, what a great topic! You named some great ones ... by Heather JK 

Baby Necessities {A Little Bit of Minimalism, A Little Bit of Fun}

While I was on maternity leave, I made lists of the things I wanted to share with you about life with a newborn, and I’m excited to do that now through this series: Notes from the Newborn Daze. Because I know not all of our readers are at this stage or interested in reading baby tips, I’ll be sharing those just once a week over the next couple of months, with plenty of tips, stories and encouragement for other stages in between.

It’s funny, but having our 5th baby four years after our last baby was a lot like having our 1st!

Even though he was our first boy, which definitely made it more exciting, there are also so many new baby products on the market this time around. Not just gimicky things like baby wipe warmers but things like the Aden + Anais muslin blankets, which I wish I would have known about with my girls.

I’ve been asked by several friends to share my baby necessities list now that we’re out of the newborn stage, so I thought I’d share it here too. We are definitely minimalists in this area compared to when our older girls were babies, in part because our house is small and we already have so many people in our family. But we’re not minimalists just for the sake of having less stuff, and we buy extras of some things (like burpy bibs) to be sure we have enough so that we’re not having to do laundry every day!

That said, here’s my necessities list:

Bed (crib, co sleeper or rock and play)


Even if Jackson was sleeping in our bed at night, I’d want some place for him to sleep during daytime naps. He’s outgrowing the rock and play, so soon we’ll be transitioning him to the crib that my dad handmade for our oldest daughter!


Seat (bouncy seat, Bumbo or swing)


Similarly, we’ve found that having a place where he can sit and take in the world is helpful when I want to jump in the shower, cook dinner, etc. We’ve opted for the bouncy seat as his throne this time around because it’s comfortable and easy to move around.





Toys (execauser, mirror, mobile)


We’re not big on baby toys, but Jackson has loved his mirror and mobile from the start. These days, he hangs out in his exercauser a couple of times a day, and we’ve found that laying him underneath the exercauser is just as exciting for him as any activity gym!


Eating (high chair or booster)


Our girls have always used booster seats that strap onto a chair as babies and toddlers, but our picnic table is starting to feel small with all of us around it, so we’re excited to have a real high chair this time around.


Clothes (7-10 onesies, 6-8 sleepers, 6-8 outfits, 2 sleep sacks, 10 socks)


Even though I try to be fairly minimalist in the clothing department, I still end up with too many clothes in each size because they’re just so cute! But I’ve found that he doesn’t really need a ton of clothes and we end up putting him in our favorites most of the time anyway.


Burp cloths (burpy bibs or old-fashioned diapers)


I really love the Aden + Anais burpy bibs, which can be used as a burp cloth in the early months and then big full-coverage bibs for table food. We also have a few old-fashioned diapers that I use as changing pads, especially when he’s had an explosive diaper!


Swaddling blankets (cotton for swaddling, bamboo for nursing)


The Aden & Anais swaddling blankets are my absolute favorite baby find this time around, and they get more cozy the more I wash them. I also have a pack of bamboo swaddling blankets that my mom got us. Those aren’t as great for swaddling because they don’t have the same stretch and I find he can “escape” more easily, but they have a cool feel to them which makes them perfect as nursing covers.


4-6 teething bibs


Holy drool, batman! Jackson drools buckets all day every day, so we keep a small teething bib on him almost all of the time, and we easily go through 2-3 a day.


2-3 blankets


When our oldest was born we received so many blankets as gifts. Enough blankets, in fact, that I could match her blanket to her outfit and we could go many many days without using a blanket more than once. This time around, we only have 4 blankets, in different weights, and I’ve found that that was plenty, even in the winter.


Slings (ring sling, Boba Wrap, Boba Carrier)


I’ve always had slings and baby carriers, but this time I’ve been very intentional about using them often, and I don’t know where I’d be without the Boba Wrap and Boba Carrier. I love them so much that I signed up to be a Boba Ambassador, but the truth is I tell everybody I know about both of these anyway. I also have a handmade ring sling, which I used more in the beginning than I do now.


Car seat (infant or convertible)


A car seat is probably obvious, but what may be less obvious is that you don’t actually need an infant car seat. We were fortunate to get a Britax car seat to review this time around, and it was handy to be able to carry Jackson to and from the house in his carseat during the coldest winter in a long time, but I’m anxious to switch him to a convertible seat because we rarely use his car seat as a carrier (they’re so dang heavy, and I’d rather cuddle him in a sling anyway!).


Gas drops


Because they’re a fairly benign “medicine”, we keep gas drops on hand all the time. We’ve found that not only do they help him clear the bubbles that get trapped in his tummy, but when he’s having a hard time for any reason, the taste of the gas drops is often enough to snap him out of it, at least temporarily.

Questionable:

I know many people also use the following items, but we’ve found them to be unnecesary:

Nursing pillow
Monitor
Baby towels & washcloths
Activity gyms
Stroller (we did use a stroller during The Color Run)
Breast pump & bottles

What’s on your baby necessities list?

Mandi Ehman is the blogger behind Life Your Way. She and her husband have four beautiful girls plus one baby boy, and together they live, work and homeschool on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia. Mandi loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

Baby Necessities {A Little Bit of Minimalism, A Little Bit of Fun}

© 2010-2014 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

     
CommentsI'm so thankful for this series. We are expecting baby # 2 ... by CrystalRelated StoriesQuick Tip: Repack the Diaper Bag Right Away

Giveaway: Dryer Sheets from The Good Home Co. (10 Winners!)

Since their start in 1995, The Good Home Co. has always believed in using natural ingredients whenever possible. This means a commitment to creating home care and laundry products that work great and smell exceptional, but are also made with cleaning surfactants that are biodegradable, paraben-free, phosphate-free, sulfate-free, phthalate-free, cruelty-free and 100% vegan.

Because they believe that scent has the power to enrich our lives, they use a combination of essential oils and high-quality fragrances. For someone like my husband, who is reluctant to try natural products because of their light scents that disappear quickly, these products are a great alternative to conventional products.

What really sets Good Home products apart from all other products in the category is their exceptional, memory-inducing scents. Each fragrance made by The Good Home Co. is handcrafted using the finest ingredients and organic essential oils available, which embeds the scent, allowing it to linger longer. Their classic scents include: Beach Days, Lavender, Pure Grass, Summer House & Line Dried plus more than 30 hand-blended scents – including seasonal specials like Gingerbread and Spiced Apple Cider – for laundry and more.

The Good Home Co. sent us a collection of laundry products and cleaning supplies to try, and my husband could not be happier with these long-lasting scents. Personally, my favorite part is the glass bottles that the laundry products come in. They’re so fun to use when I’m doing laundry, and they even look cute on my shelf (the little things matter when you’re stuck in the laundry room doing multiple loads of laundry a day — ha!).

Enter to Win

This week, The Good Home Co. is giving TEN lucky Life Your Way readers a box of dryer sheets!

To enter, fill out the form below:

The giveaway ends at 11:59 p.m. ET on Friday, 3/14. The winner will be selected randomly and notified by email, and this post will be updated with their name as well. Unfortunately, due to the international laws governing sweepstakes and lotteries, we’re only able to offer these giveaways to U.S. residents 18 years and older.

Giveaway: Dryer Sheets from The Good Home Co. (10 Winners!)

© 2010-2014 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

    Related StoriesGiveaway: Level 1 Homeschool Language Program from Rosetta StoneGiveaway: Strawesome Reusable Glass Straws (2 Winners!)Giveaway: Plan to Eat 1-Year Membership (3 Winners!)

Weekend Reading: March 8, 2013

There are a few stages of babyhood that I love, and 4-6 months is one of them!

Right on schedule, Jackson has become a little ham. He babbles and squeals, tries to mimic our silly faces, and jumps with joy in his exercauser. Although we were keeping count of who could get him to giggle the most, these days he shares his belly laughs freely!

He also loves to squeeze our necks, pull our hair and shove his fist in our mouths — ha!

He’s been sleeping through the night almost from the beginning, but yesterday he also took two LONG naps during the day plus an evening catnap (rather than a bunch of catnaps), which made our day feel much more manageable. I know it’s silly to expect that one day equals our new normal, but we definitely have our eyes set on that prize.

Here are some of my favorite posts from this week. As always, check out what I’m reading and what I’m pinning to see the other posts that make me stop and think (or, you know, drool…). You’ll find new posts all week long!

Family {Raising Adults}

Raising “normal” kids | Inspired to Action


Won’t kids just watch TV and play video games all day? | Unschoolery


10 Common Mistakes Parents Today Make (Me Included) | Kari Kubiszyn Kampakis

Work {It Takes Work}

How to Get More Blog Traffic | Amy Lynn Andrews


Girl Scout cookies | Seth’s Blog


How Busy People Make Time To Read–And You Can Too | Fast Company

Have a great weekend!

Mandi Ehman is the blogger behind Life Your Way. She and her husband have four beautiful girls plus one baby boy, and together they live, work and homeschool on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia. Mandi loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

Weekend Reading: March 8, 2013

© 2010-2014 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

    Related StoriesWeekend Reading: March 1, 2014Weekend Reading: February 8, 2014Weekend Reading: February 15, 2014

Celebrating the Every Day & Printable Holiday Storage Labels

I haven’t talked about it too much here on the blog because I want to guard it as something I do for my girls and not as blog fodder, but one of my goals for 2014 is to celebrate the small holidays that I usually overlook.

You see, I realized on New Year’s Eve — as I was watching people on Facebook share their fun holiday traditions — that I’m really good at Christmas but that the rest of the year passes without a lot of celebration. I really want to change that and create a family culture that’s rich in simple, special traditions.

So we’ve been adding traditions this year — camp outs in the family room for the Super Bowl and Olympics, for example — and I’ve been trying to add small touches of holiday decor as well.

The only problem is I know I won’t have the energy or motivation to remake garlands and window decors over and over each year, so I’ve been looking for a way to store them.

Rewind a few months, and we had received a box of Huggies Natural Care Wipes in their tubs from a family member. The tubs are actually really pretty patterns, so on top of not wanting to just throw them in the landfill, I had been trying to think of something to do with the extras.

It turns out that they’re the perfect size for the small amount of holiday decor I create for each holiday, and they stack really nicely in our “party” cabinet.

I decided to create labels for them rather than writing on the tubs with markers, and I’m sharing those printable labels with you today! If you don’t have baby wipes containers lying around, I wouldn’t recommend buying them just for this, but the labels will work perfectly on the $1 tubs from the dollar store as well. There’s even a blank page so you can add your own descriptions.

I printed mine on the clear sticker paper I had, but they would work on white sticker paper as well.

Click here to download or print the holiday storage labels.

Do you decorate for holidays and seasons? If so, how do you store that decor?

Mandi Ehman is the blogger behind Life Your Way. She and her husband have four beautiful girls plus one baby boy, and together they live, work and homeschool on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia. Mandi loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

Celebrating the Every Day & Printable Holiday Storage Labels

© 2010-2014 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

    Related StoriesFree Printable Labels for Kids’ Clothing Bins!Teaching Kids to Organize Their Time

Reminder: Daylight Savings + Other Seasonal Tasks

Just a quick reminder that Daylight Savings begins this weekend, as we “spring forward” at 1:59 a.m. on Sunday, March 9th.

Unlike the fall time change, when we actually gain an hour, Daylight Savings means we lose an hour overnight, but gain an additional hour of light in the evening, which works for me as the warm weather approaches!

To minimize the effects of Daylight Savings changes, we usually start adjusting our kids’ sleep schedules 15 minutes at a time in the days leading up the official switch. Those incremental changes are a little easier on their bodies than a full hour at once.

Or, a friend of mine suggested changing your clocks a day early if you’ll be home all day Saturday. A great strategy if you’re planning to go to church early on Sunday and don’t want to give up the sleep Sunday morning!

Many people replace the batteries in their smoke detectors when they change their clocks (which is a great way to make sure you’re doing it regularly and avoid being woken up by a chirping detector in the middle of the night!).

Here is a list of additional activities you might consider with the time change as well:

What other seasonal activities would you add to the list?

Mandi Ehman is the blogger behind Life Your Way. She and her husband have four beautiful girls plus one baby boy, and together they live, work and homeschool on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia. Mandi loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

Reminder: Daylight Savings + Other Seasonal Tasks

© 2010-2014 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

     

Lent, PPD, Coconut Oil and More Random Thoughts!

I have all these random thoughts bouncing around in my head and none of them seems to be quite enough for a dedicated post, so I thought I’d just put them all in one place. Maybe next time I can time my randomness better to coincide with 7 Quick Takes at Conversion Diary (but probably not!).

1. On Lent.

I love the practice of Lent, even coming from a non-denominational protestant background. This year, I’m reading Kris Camealy’s Holey, Wholly, Holy: A Lenten Journey Of Refinement and working through the companion workbook, and Good Morning Girls will be starting an Easter study in two weeks.

I’m also participating in the 40 Bags in 40 Days challenge because the clutter in this house is making it very hard for me to keep my focus where it needs to be.

As a family, we’re reading The Jesus Storybook Bible each morning. (Our pastor is currently preaching a series based on the subtitle of the book Every Story Whispers His Name!), and Amanda White just released A Sense of the Resurrection, a devotional/activity book to celebrate Easter as a family, that I’d like to incorporate into our Easter celebration.

I have a feeling that the decluttering challenge and resurrection activities may be a stretch for our current crazy schedule, but we’ll see how it goes.

2. On postpartum depression.

I don’t know if there are stages of depression, but if there are, I’m at the annoyed-to-be-feeling-this-way stage.

Honestly, I have had some really, really good days — days that make me question if I’m being dramatic when I use the PPD label. Our trip to Florida was virtually stress-free, but coming home was like jumping into a glass of ice water and we had a pretty rough transition. The week after that I had a great week, where everything seemed sunshine-y and lovely. And this week has been tough again.

I’m tired of feeling this way. I can feel myself start to lose it, where the house and the kids and everything on my to-do list become so heavy that I feel like I’m suffocating. And in my head I know that it’s not as bad as it feels and that the depression will lift, but in the midst of it, I sometimes dream of taking the baby to live in a hotel room, just the two of us, without a care in the world.

3. On coconut oil and chocolate chips.

How’s that for a segue? I told you this post was random!

Vitacost has some of my very favorite products on sale this month, plus when you click here, you’ll get $10 to use on your first order:

YS Eco Bee Farms Raw Honey, $6.19 (This is truly raw honey, and my girls love to grab a spoonful to suck on when their throats hurt!)
Chocolove Dark Chocolate Bar with Almonds and Sea Salt, $1.59 (Because dark chocolate, almonds and sea salt.)
Eden Foods Organic Dried Cranberries Sweetened with Apple Juice, $2.69
Enjoy Life Semi-Sweet Mini Chocolate Chips, $3.27 (Dairy & soy free!)
Get a free 4-oz. coconut oil when you purchase a participating product

Don’t forget your $10 coupon!

4. On flexible homeschooling

Although I felt very settled when I made our homeschool plans for this year, I’ve had the nagging feeling that some of it wasn’t quite working like I’d pictured it. So this week I’ve been reading through A Well-Trained Mind (again!) as well as the books from this week’s Beat the Homeschool Blues collection at BundleoftheWeek.com.

Our issue is that the girls seem to be skating through their history and science topics. While I’d hoped to inspire them to read and discover more about the weekly Classical Conversations memory work through our notebooking pages, they tend to just do the bare minimum to check it off their list, which is making it feel like busy work instead of something valuable. I also realized that the downside to building our subjects around the weekly memory work is that I feel like I need to get a full week in before we can move forward, which is actually slowing us down.

So. I decided this week to move memory work back to just that — memory work. I’m going to assign a subject to each day of the week and make playlists of songs for that subject. And that will be it.

Then, for history, we’re going to dive back into Story of the World. We’re currently reviewing (and loving!) the Einstein in a Box STEM activities, and I think this monthly subscription will be a great supplement for science. I also might try Apologia science again in the fall, but we’ll see.

5. On boys and baby food.

I had big plans to hold off the baby food for as long as possible and transition Jackson directly to table food, a la Baby-Led Weaning, but he wasn’t having any of that nonsense. Well, at least not the holding off part. He’s been reaching for our food and smacking his lips since 3-and-a-half months, so we finally gave in and let him try a cooked sweet potato, which he loved. Since then, he’s gone to town on banana “sticks” (if you stick your finger into the middle of a banana, it actually splits into 3 non-slimy pieces!), sweet potato “fries” and, as of last night, avocado spears. This boy can eat! I’m not sure his digestive system is as ready as his appetite, so we’ve only been doing food every 2-3 days, but he gets so excited whenever we sit down at the table!

6. On Harry Connick, Jr. and American Idol

It has been many years since I’ve watched a full season of American Idol, but I started watching at the beginning of the season because Harry Connick, Jr. (who is my very favorite artist) is now on the judge’s panel, and I’m hooked.

This season is so much different than any of the others have been. It’s not about drama or being snarky but on finding and cultivating real talent. I love how down-to-earth all three of the judges are. I love that Harry regularly asked young girls to consider the words they were singing in the early shows. I love that Randy is back as a coach. Sean swears he hates American Idol, but he often sits down to watch it with me when it’s on, something that I don’t think would have happened in any other season!

(P.S. Go C.J.!)

7. On my new Starbucks love.

On Sunday I got a soy latte with two pumps of hazelnut syrup, and let me just say…YUM! Starbucks soy milk already has vanilla flavoring, but when I can have real milk again, I’ll probably do a latte with one pump vanilla and two pumps hazelnut. So good!

Mandi Ehman is the blogger behind Life Your Way. She and her husband have four beautiful girls plus one baby boy, and together they live, work and homeschool on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia. Mandi loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

Lent, PPD, Coconut Oil and More Random Thoughts!

© 2010-2014 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

     
CommentsHi Mandi, I struggle with seasonal depression and I hit that ... by nurturedmama 

No More Magic Erasers or Scrubbing Frustrations

The following post is from Katie of Kitchen Stewardship:

source: Kitchen Stewardship

Wine stains on the counter. Crayon on the wall. The hated baked-on brown guck making an ever-lasting ring or a 10-minute cleaning job on your slow cooker.

If these are messes that send you running for the Comet, the Magic Erasers, and the bleach because it doesn’t feel like natural methods are strong enough, there’s one simple tool you can use to knock all of them off your list without hurting your surfaces or your home’s air quality.

Baking soda.

Since I’m sure you already use baking soda in baking, I don’t need to convince you that it’s perfectly safe.

On the other hand, bleach has known ill effects on humans, Comet has been known to scratch surfaces (and has a pungent odor – what’s in it, anyway?), and the Magic Eraser company isn’t very forthcoming on all the magic parts of their products. Years ago there were stories, some true, some false, about children being harmed by the magic eraser.

For me the bottom line is that I don’t need to buy a bunch of different products, but just one very inexpensive one: baking soda. I’m in!

Counter Stains

source: Kitchen Stewardship

The primary way I use baking soda is scrubbing stains off my kitchen counter. I’ve seen it work when a frantic friend got a wine stain on her fancy granite counter top, on coffee stains on white, and just about anything else you can imagine.

It’s particularly effective at cleaning white tile grout, especially if you use an old toothbrush to scrub and a bit of 50/50 hydrogen peroxide and water to whiten.

To scrub: You can make a paste with baking soda and just a little bit of water, but I find it even easier to just sprinkle dry baking soda on the stain and use a damp cloth to wipe/scrub it off.

source: Kitchen Stewardship

source: Kitchen Stewardship

Sometimes it takes some elbow grease, but that’s cheaper than a gym membership for your muscle development anyway!

Shiny Sinks, Ring Around the Tub

Our sinks get a film of serious grime from children spitting clay-based toothpaste and not always rinsing perfectly, and no way does a cloth alone do the trick. A little baking soda paste, though, especially with a microfiber cloth (but not necessary), and the sink is shiny and smooth again – same with the “ring around the bathtub” that you can literally feel when you’ve fallen out of a regular cleaning routine.

I have baking soda under every sink in our house for this reason.

Pro tip: Use a repurposed Parmesan cheese container to hold the baking soda. Easy to shake, and plastic in case there’s moisture where you store it.

For stainless steel sinks, a scrub with baking soda followed by a quick steel wool swipe makes an incredible difference. Here’s the impact of baking soda alone:

source: Kitchen Stewardship

Dreaded Baked on Food (especially slow cookers)

That dark brown baked-on food stain on glass baking dishes and especially slow cookers just makes my heart drop. You know dishes will take far, far longer than you want them to when you see the dreaded result of home-cooking. Burnt food in the bottom of a pot is just as bad.

source: Kitchen Stewardship

You can use baking soda in two ways to speed up your dish duty:

1. Add baking soda to the soaking water when you fill the dish or slow cooker insert to the top and allow the grime to soak off. The baking soda loosens everything more effectively than water, making it just that much easier to clean off.

source: Kitchen Stewardship

2. Use a paste to scrub the last film of brown. My slow cooker especially gets a stain around the top ring of the food, and you can’t use a harsh steel wool pad there like you can with a stainless steel pot. A bit of straight baking soda (not diluted) and a wet rag makes amazing progress.

Crayon Where It Doesn’t Belong

When the kids draw on the tables, walls, or chairs, it’s tempting to explode like a baking soda and vinegar volcano. Instead, just hand the kids a wet rag, sprinkle some baking soda on the table, and tell them to exercise their scrubbing muscles.

Crayon that didn’t come off with just a wet cloth disappeared in seconds with baking soda (and I have tested it on lightly colored wood chairs, too, much to my kids’ shock when I colored on the chair on purpose):

source: Kitchen Stewardship

source: Kitchen Stewardship

source: Kitchen Stewardship

Always spot test your own paint first, but baking soda also does well when your kids play “Harold and the Purple Crayon” and draw on the walls.

Secondhand Kids’ Gear

I used to get a sinkful of bleach water ready to wash up kids’ toys when I bought them secondhand, but now my classic sprinkle of baking soda, a wet cloth and an old toothbrush, and some 50/50 hydrogen peroxide water are all I need to do a very respectable job on even the grimiest plastic surfaces – whether I bought them secondhand or just pulled them out of the basement from the last Kimball kid.

The Messy Stovetop

Soak your stove grates in baking soda water and use the classic paste or dry baking soda with wet cloth to turn your stovetop from embarrassing back to company-ready. More on cleaning your oven naturally when things don’t go as planned in there.

Urine in the Wrong Place

If you have kids, someone’s going to pee on your carpet and/or wet the bed with their favorite un-washable stuffed animal in the wrong place someday; Murphy’s Law of Children guarantees it.

For carpet issues, use water first to soak up the stain a few times with an absorbent towel. Then sprinkle a little baking soda on the carpet, wait 15 minutes (or if it was wet, until completely dry), and then vacuum it all up. (For bigger jobs, try one of these homemade natural carpet cleaner solutions.)

For stuffed animals that aren’t smelling very fresh, put the plush friend in a bag with baking soda and shake it up – wait at least an hour (or a day or two or three; you’re a busy mom!) and you should be all set. If the buddy just has a little hit on an arm or leg, put straight baking soda on and let it sit for a while.

No Draino for Clogged Drains

I don’t really have to look up the ingredients in conventional drain clog products to know that I want to avoid them – the multitudinous warnings on the bottles are enough for me.

I just unclogged our worst drain, the bathroom sink, which doubles as a laundry room and also a receptacle for things-kids-pour-down-drains-that-they-probably-shouldn’t. It gets hopelessly clogged, draining at a snail’s pace, at least a couple times a year.

I use a toothbrush to pull out as much gunk as I can (not a job for the faint of heart), including far too much of what is probably my own long hair, even though I don’t think I wash it down the sink.

I dump in some baking soda, make sure the drain stopper is lined up for quick closure, pour in a generous glug of white vinegar and stop it up as quickly as I can. When it’s working, you can actually hear the bubbling and glugging of the baking-soda-vinegar reaction deep in the pipes below the sink. Definitely call your kids to watch!

Sometimes it takes 2-3 repeats to get the drain completely clear, and having a few cups of boiling water ready to chase the gunk out after the bubbling has stopped is a good idea, but not always necessary. The whole process typically takes only 5-10 minutes, maximum. Plus, it makes me feel very accomplished for the day!

Beyond the House Cleaning

I also use baking soda in my homemade electrolyte replacing sports drink, homemade deodorant (and here’s Mandi’s recipe here at Life Your Way), to draw the sting out of bee stings (a thick paste will do it), and it’s key in the “no shampoo” method of washing hair.

This would be why you can buy baking soda in 5-pound bags, even though no one can bake that much before it expires. (By the way, all these magical cleaning tips work with expired baking soda, so make sure you always use the oldest in your house for cleaning and the freshest for the best rise in your baking!)

P.S. Check out this free printable with 60 uses for baking soda!

What’s your favorite use for baking soda?

Katie Kimball has been “green” since 5th grade when she read 50 Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth. She remains slightly disappointed that she didn’t actually save the whole thing back then, but now that she has 3 kiddos counting on her, she keeps plugging away hopefully. Katie blogs at Kitchen Stewardship about real food and natural living and is the author of Healthy Snacks to Go and other eBooks, available for Kindle.

No More Magic Erasers or Scrubbing Frustrations

© 2010-2014 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

     

Make Pre-K Fun with EmbarK12 Learning Tools

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of K12, the leader in online education for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

The EmbarK12 Comprehensive and EmbarK¹² Online programs offer a fun, innovative approach to early learning, and if your kids are anything like my Sidney, they’ll love it!

K¹² is the leader in online education for kindergarten through highschool, and they now offer EmbarK¹² to prepare early learners, ages 3-5, for kindergarten.

To be honest, we’re not fans of rigorous preschool programs. My early childhood development studies and experience as a mother have shown me that children learn best through play, and I don’t think pushing children along too quickly does them any good. But at 4 years old, Sidney wants to do school like her sisters, and she also wants computer time just like them.

Enter EmbarK¹² Comprehensive.

This program offers 450+ online activities plus 750+ hands-on activities (and the books and materials needed for each) across 18 thematic units — like Changing Seasons, Family & Friends, and our current favorite, American Symbols & Holidays — and six subject areas.

 


The full program costs $286 for a 12-month subscription and all of the hands-on materials, or you can buy the online-only version for $59 for a 12-month subscription. But the books and materials are the best part, in my opinion.

Our experience.

After we unpacked the box of materials EmbarK¹² sent us to try, we found this great wooden crate at Walmart for all of Sidney’s “school stuff”. She loves pulling out learning activities throughout the day, and it makes it easy for me to find the supplies to go with the various activities that tie in with the theme of the day.

For example, we started the American Symbols & Holidays theme this week. First we read Mack Ate the Cake together (twice!). Then I printed out a birthday cake coloring page with candles for Sidney to color, cut and glue.

Then we hopped on the computer for some interactive activities. These aren’t the flashiest games on the internet, but I actually really appreciate that, as she doesn’t need any extra help getting addicted to technology, you know?

We looked at the calendar and found a months of the year song to sing. We looked for September 12th and added her birthday to the calendar. And then we added everybody else’s birthdays too.

We did a few more learning activities and then she had fun in the Build-a-Buddy workshop making her own crazy monster buddy.

I really love the simplicity and combination of online and offline activities in each module, and Sidney asks daily to “do school”, so I think it’s a hit with her too!

Take a look for your self: Discover the EmbarK¹² Kindergarten readiness programs by K12. Try a sample activity today.

EmbarK¹² Online Giveaway

This week, EmbarK¹² is giving one lucky Life Your Way reader a 12-month membership to EmbarK¹² Online:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Learn more about EmbarK12 Comprehensive- Online and hands-on preschool program for your early learner.

Make Pre-K Fun with EmbarK12 Learning Tools

© 2010-2014 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

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