Stickers made easy

If your child happens to be like my child, then they love stickers. if you happen to be like me, then you hate the work that entails for you.
Well, years ago working in the daycare world I discovered a wonderful trick. Instead of trying to peal off sticker after sticker for the children, I would pull off the surrounding "waste" and it made it easier for those little fingers to get the stickers off.
Occasionally I would find they still had trouble. In most cases you can bend whole sections to the backing back a bit. Exposing the edge of the stickers.
It's been helpful, children get the satisfaction of being a bit more independent and I, I don't have to pick at endless sticker edges.

Ball pit

For Christmas this year my grandfather sent my boys some money. And i decided to get them a ball pit. But have you seen the cost of those things? Yikes! So, to save money I diy it. I bought a set of 100 balls and some tents. Sadly the tents did not have a bottom. Which was a flaw when trying to contain the balls. I plan on getting a kiddy pool this spring, but they don't care those things in the winter, in Idaho, go figure. Turns out that people like to stay warm in the winter. And then for my sons 1st birthday he received my parents 200 balls. This would not do to have 300 balls that just sit around until I could contain them.
Enter the solution! One of those wonderful pool noodles with the hole in the center (there is no end to the usefulness of pool noodles!) Pair it with a tension rod and a hallway, instant ball bit!
Take the pool noodle and the tension rod and size then to the hallway. Slip the rod inside the noodle and slide into the hallway. If you have no doorways you will need two.
It works great containing the balls, well minus the children you will add to the mix. Once kids go into the ball pit, balls wont stay as well. But works well other then that!

Waffle Fa Laffle

Tonight we had waffles. I love waffles. And since re discovering butter I enoy them even more. But something that I do not enjoy so much, the drippings. You know what I'm talking about right? The guts from your waffles. And what can you do with them? Clean it up? Yah, if you like burned fingers, be my guest! Leave it there, great then you have to scrub off the caked and baked on over spill. Real fun. Here is my solution. A paper plate. Sure you can use a regular plate or a cooking tray something like that. But then you still have to scrub off the mess.
I on the other hand finish my cooking, wipe off the side of the waffle iron, and then toss the evidence of my overly messing cooking experience. Paper plates are great. They are also handy in the microwave, as a splatter guard. Fantastic. Just toss when they get too dirty. You can use them as a make shift paint pallet, to catch the glue from your glue gun. I am quite sure the list could be endless. But have no fear I am not a total eco-hog. In this house we have a set of plastic plates that we use for big groups. And indecently they work great for waffles, big lip all the way around, no escaping syrup.