I've seen this plant in my yard as long as I can remember.  The only thing I thought it was good for was for the rabbits to munch on.  Who knew there was more to this plant - it's an herb!  It's just a weed in my flower bed that I pull up and throw away but I'll certainly look at it differently now.  Check out the information on Plantain!

10 Tips to Keep Your Clothes Dryer Running Efficiently with Less Energy

Clothes dryers need to intake air from the inside of your home and exhaust heat and moisture to the outside in order to dry clothes.  Dirty lint trays and clogged dryer vents cost consumers millions each year.  Statistics state that there are over 15,000 dryer fires each year causing 15 deaths and $99 million in property damage.  Failure to clean is cited as the main cause of fires.  Add to these losses the energy costs of running the dryer over and over for the same load.  A dirty dryer vent can add $10-$25 to your energy bill each month.  By following a few simple steps, you can make your dryer safer and more efficient saving you time and money. Find our more at Factoidz.

How to Make Homemade Toothpaste

While it may sound like a complicated process, learning how to make your own natural homemade toothpaste couldn’t be easier.  Learn how at dkMommy Spot!

Fall is around the corner!

Fall is a great time of year for Acorn Squash.  This squash can be served for a holiday meal or a Sunday dinner. It's easy to cook, and goes well with any main dish.  Check out recipes and other great info at Old Fashioned Tips.

Kitty Litter Cake!

I'm a cat lover and I also like silly, unusual things so I had to share this.  This is a Kitty Litter Cake and you can find out how to make it by checking out this site... KITTY LITTER CAKE

5 New Uses for Milk!

As a child our mother always told us to drink our milk. As adults the doctors are always telling us we need more calcium. Milk’s not only good for you but here are 5 uses for milk that you might not have thought of.

1. Stain Pretreater
No use crying over spilled…wine. If you dribble some red on a shirt or dress, submerge the soiled part in whole milk, squeeze out the excess immediately, then launder as usual. (If the item is dry-clean only, leave it for the pros.)

2. Bath Soak
Add 1 cup of milk to a tub of warm water before you slip in to zone out. The lactic acid in milk softens skin –so it really does a body good!

3. Shoe Shine
Moisten a cloth with milk and buff dull patent leather back to gleaming glory – minus harsh polish fumes.

4. Burn Soother
Curling-iron mishap? Cover minor burns with a washcloth soaked in whole milk. The fat in the milk calms inflammation and helps skin heal.

5. Plant Rescuer
Mix 1 part milk with 9 parts water and spray on plants dotted with powdery mildew. Repeat weekly to keep leaves fungus-free.

31 Uses For Baking Soda

Baking soda can do a lot more than just sit in the back of the fridge. Try these easy tips and put baking soda to work in every room of your house!

1. Skip produce washes—just put some baking soda on a damp sponge, scrub and rinse.

2. Soak hair brushes and combs in a mixture of 1 teaspoon baking soda and a small amount of warm water. Rinse and dry.

3. Before you store your patio furniture for the season...SEE MORE HERE!

How to test an egg for freshness |

How to test an egg for freshness |

Busting The Myth Of Organic Food

Organic food is 8 times more likely to have ecoli!!!!!   Busting The Myth Of Organic Food

36 uses for vinegar - AllYou.com

Wow!!! Didn't know there were so many uses for vinegar:

36 uses for vinegar - AllYou.com

Press Release - Keller Williams Realty Announces Numbers for 2010, Continued Growth During Real Estate Downturn

Even with all the bad news about the economy, the company I work for is thriving and moving ahead!

Press Release - Keller Williams Realty Announces Numbers for 2010, Continued Growth During Real Estate Downturn

Are You A Good or A Bad Egg?

When I was a little girl my grandparents had chickens, pigs...etc. You get the point.  Now some 50 years later I have chickens again, or should I say my son and his family have the chickens and I reap the rewards.  LOL 

With all the talk about eggs today and all the benefits and objections I thought you might glean some information from this article I found called "Shopping for Eggs." It's written by Dr. Russ and Beth Avery, R.D.

"Eggs are a staple of many people's meals, whether by themselves or as a significant part of a favorite recipe. Nowadays, however, with mixed messages about the health benefits of eggs in the media and increasingly crowded labels on the boxes, buying eggs can get a little confusing. This week I've put together a video to help you make the best choices for your family when it comes to buying eggs. So click here and let's shop and learn together!"

OH NO…School Is Closed Again!

We've heard this a lot this winter and what a winter we've had!   I’ve heard people say they moved to North Carolina because they heard we had mild winters.  HA!  Who told them that? Also heard someone say we had never had this much snow.  Again…HA!  I’ve lived here all my life and I’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly.  In 1960 some areas had as much as 60 inches of snow.  Now that's deep!  I should know...I was 8 years old and couldn't go outside because I would disappear in the snow!!!!!

To this date Buncombe County has missed more school than the State has allotted so now we are looking at Saturday School and classes up into June!!!!  Bummer.

As a mother, and grandmother, I understand the frustration.  Been there, done that...but some of the comments on Twitter and Face Book really have me wondering.  Are parents upset because they have to deal with the children at home...or...are they mad because it may mess up their summer vacation?????  It sure doesn’t sound like they are concerned about the safety of the children.

I'm certainly glad that someone is concerned for the safety of the children!  I'd much rather they err on the side of caution than see the results of a school bus accident due to ice.

As a child I was on a school bus that hit a patch of ice and slid out of the road and was tilted at the edge of an embankment just waiting to flip over and roll down to the bottom.  We were trapped there for SEVERAL hours before they could rescue us! I remember thinking I was going to die!!!  No child should ever be in that situation!!!!

Someone at our school board had deemed the roads to be in good shape and had not closed or delayed school that day.  They had not taken into account that some areas and roads might be in worse condition than the main roads so therefore everything was good.

Thanks you Buncombe County School Board for being concerned for the safety of our children. I know it's not an easy job!  Saturday and Summer School isn't what we were hoping for and I may have to change some of my plans...but I'd much rather have my child in school than in the hospital or in a grave!

I’ll get off my soap box now!

Relaxing on a Sunday Afternoon!

Sometime you just need to slow down, sit back, and enjoy life!

Recharge Your Battery!

We all need a "pick-me-up" from time to time and here is a quick and easy solution.  Massage peppermint oil on your temples and wrists!  Aromatherapy studies show the scent cues your brain to wake up and focus.  Another benefit - you'll smell good too!  To find essential oils check with your local health food stores or online Amazon.com.

DIY Ice Packs

Forget about paying big bucks for ice packs ever again. It's easy to do and anyone with a Ziploc Bag and some cheap dish soap can make them by the dozens if you like.

DIY Ice Pack Recipe
1.    Select Ziploc Bag size of Choice (double or triple bag to protect against leaks)
2.    LOTS of cheap Dish Soap
3.    Load up the Ziploc about 1/2 – 3/4 full. Close, re-bag a couple of times squishing out the air each time and freeze.

Being frugal, you can do the same thing with Ziploc Containers for your food. Just fill a Ziploc bag pretty full and fit into a Ziploc Container.  You could seal shut with a few drops of Super Glue to ensure no leakage.

Thanks to Attention Deal Shoppers for this great tip.

So Lucky to be an American!

White Christmas!

We all know the song "I'm Dreaming Of A White Christmas"....and I didn't have to dream this year.  It sure is beautiful but the goats and chickens don't agree.  We have approximately 8 inches and it's still coming.  Here are the icicles that were on my back deck.

Buy THIS, NOT That!!!!

Came across this article and thought everyone should know!!!! Start replacing items you normally buy with these money-saving options and notice the difference at checkout.

Buy THIS, NOT That

Cleaning House

Do you like to clean house? I don't...but it's one of those necessary evils you can't deny so I'm always looking for ways to make it quicker and easier.

My children are grown and have families of their own now but I would have given my right arm for a Hoover FloorMATE(tm) when they were babies. It seemed that no matter how often I mopped the floor, when they were in the crawling stage, their pants would always have dirty knees and the bottom of my socks would be dirty too. This meant that my floors weren't clean and then the guilt trip would start. "O NO...I'm a horrible mother."

One day, while using one of those old string mops...UCK, I started thinking about what I was doing. I realized the only time that mop was clean was when I used it for the first time. After that, no matter how well you rinsed it out, it was still dirty. So I tried rinsing it in bleach. YEAH...that would clean it and kill the germs too! NOT. Oh it did clean and kill for the moment but as soon as you used it again you were back to dirt and germs again. Not only that, but once you made the first strokes on the floor and then rinsed it out to go again... you were only moving the dirt around on the floor where it would stay and wait on some friends to join. I was never going to get the dirt off my floor!!! So I lived with it and did the best I could.

Now with the arrival of grandchildren I again found myself with the thought of dirty knees on pants. One day, while browsing through Walmart, I spotted something that gave me hope. It was the Hoover FloorMATE (tm). It could be used to both vacuum dry debris and wet clean non-carpeted floor surfaces such as vinyl, tile and sealed wood. It was a wet/dry vacuum with little scrubbing brushes. That meant it would scrub my floor and then vacuum the water AND the dirt off the floor. The floor was almost dry when you were done. How many times have you mopped a floor and then realized there was something in that room that you needed? So here you go tippy-toeing across the wet floor, leaving behind MORE dirt and risking the possibility that you will fall and go boom (as I usually did).

I purchased my FloorMATE(tm) and hurried home to do battle. My kitchen floor had a raised design and had become dingy over the years. With great anticipation I unpacked my toy, read the directions and went to work. Now I am slightly skeptical about new products and have to see appreciable results before I will get excited and tell others about it. WOW! Suddenly my floors started to brighten up and the dirty water container started to fill up with BLACK water. I was appalled and ecstatic at the same time. OMG that came off my floor???? My floors were finally clean and I was pouring the dirt out and not leaving it on my floor!!!

Long story short - I would recommend this product to everybody that wants a nice clean floor, especially those that have, or will have, babies on the floor. Doesn't matter what kind of mop you are using, you are still only moving dirty water around on your floors. I will never use a mop again!!!!