works for me

Well, now Shannon, the host and creator of "Works for me" describes so well a product that works for her and that's worth sharing, I'll share something too of my own free will.

Some people wonder about the Buzzfuse banner on my site.

Well, it's a great addition to blogging.

When I've written a post I register it at Buzzfuse and put the code under my post.
Membership is free.

Without doing anything Buzzfuse sends a mail to my fans at Buzzfuse to tell them I have posted at my blog. In a daily mail other members of Buzzfuse are informed.
All they have to do is click on a link to visit the blogentry(, or click on the delete-button.)

The widget enables readers to rate the item, to comment, to become a fan, etc.

Last months I've won a premium edition of Buzzfuse, which means I can win money with the hightest rated post.
I know I've won last month, but I don't know how much yet.
fact is that the toprated items win thousands of dollars.
That's why I would love people to rate my posts.

Additional pleasure for me is that I can see how many people have read my post.

Being a Buzzfuse member has enabled me to find blogs I wouldn't have found otherwise.
Because I get a mail with all the topics each day, I sometimes can read about matters that have my interest without spending long times surfing.

Bussfuse is run by a very dynamic team who're constant developing the service.
The widget will get even better soon, but even now it's well worth a try.

In case you want me to invite you, leave your emailaddress, or use the contactform to send your address. (slowloading page).

I'm glad to have been able to share this with you, because it has made blogging more fun and worthwhile.

Tomorrow I'll blog about what smallpipes are for those who have asked.


Want to read more tips
or want to take part in "Works for me"?
Click the logo.

Read more...

works for me

Today "Works for me" goes the other way around.

So you won't get good advice, you'll get a question.

How do you keep all those girly hairthingies clean?
My twingirls have so many clasps and bows and such.

What do you do with them to clean them and to store them?




Want to participate?
Click the logo.


A post that might interest you:
a day in the life of a stay at home mom

Read more...

works for me

Today works for me is about favorite shopping sites.

I don't shop much online, but I have to for my instruments.

At the moment I'm trying to earn money for smallpipes.
I can't blow the highland bagpipes all the year because of my asthma, but I need to practice and hopefully in the near future: perform.

I'm longing for the AD combo smallpipes with bellows from John Walsh.
I'm not sure I'll ever be able to buy them, but who doesn't dream doesn't play.

Other shops that display items I love:
ScotClans
ElfSong Whistles
crosstitch patterns at cosmic handmade
Peter Stone

Want to take part too?
Click the logo.

Read more...

works for me

We have a flashlight standing near the back door.
After some jerk stole a bycicle out of the garden I wanted one to be able to react appropriately when I hear someone during the evening or night.

I think light is a good prevention and apart from that, it helps me to see what is happening.

Last time the sound came from a hedgehog who enjoyed himself for quite a long time with a pot the children had put ready on the ground for the next day.
It was fun to see.

So, a flashlight beside the door works for me.


Want to take part too?
Click the logo.

Read more...

works for me

Noop, I'm not blogging about christmas...
I'm blogging about the last evening of the year.
We call it old year.

The last years a tradition slipped in and I won't change it for a million dollars.

It was initiated by one of the boys, who wanted sausages just before 12, and threw a fit after closing time of the shops.
He wanted sausages at old year and nothing else.

Foreseeing a whole evening of a bad mood and an angry face, I told him that if he wanted sausages he'd better step in an do all the old years preparations himself.

He stepped in and even found in the back of the storage room a tiny tin with 5 sausages.
That posed a problem: we have 6 kids.
So he had to make something that one of the kids liked better.

Another boy jumped in and helped him.

The next year they asked me if they were allowed to do the preparations.
"OK."

Now most of the children are involved in the planning, the shopping and the making of plates with delicious treats.

I have to say, now they're getting older I have more fun trying out their creations.

I still feel odd.
After working for them all year, it's not easy to let them do what they want.
It's not easy to stay away from the kitchen, because I would love to see the mess they have to clean up themselves.

But it's nice to have the time to say goodbye to the year and focus on the new one for a while, before plates with apple pies, cheese sticks and other delicious dishes are placed on the table.

It works for me.


Merry Christmas and a happy new year!!

Want to take part too?
Want to see other tips?
Just click the logo.

Read more...

works for me

When one of the children claims to be ill, I have a great solution.
Most of the time it works.

I state firmly what I want, for instance: "I know you're not feeling well, but I want you to go to school", and offer a tablet that works for that illness.
I have a box and it contains vitamin C. A pharmacy label states a very difficult name.

That pill does wonders!

It works for me.


Want to take part too?
Click the logo.

Read more...

works for me

This week something about hiding Sinterklaas and Christmas presents.


With a family of 8 hiding presents can be terribly stressful. When they find something the fun is taken away and buying something new is often out of the question.

So for the little presents I keep the washingpowderboxes. The empty ones are stored between the full ones and none ever has told me I don't need much detergent.
I wrap the presents in plastic, so they won't smell afterwards, and put them in a box with a little washingpowder. I cut a little hole in one or two corners, so when someone wants to take a box, it starts leaking powder. (Ha...that'll teach them!!)

For the large presents I have created room at the attick.
In the winter there's a large collection of boxes with summerclothes.
Behind the boxes there's space for real large items, if we have them, and otherwise the presents are stored in a box with "summerunderwear of the girls", right under the lovely T-shirts. So when they start looking in the boxes they'll start fitting the t-shirts. By the time they have seen them all I have found them there. LOL!

I've been doing this for ages and it works for me.

Want to take part too?
Click the logo.

Read more...

works for me

For the first time I didn't experience discomfort when the dentist wanted to make an impression of my teeth.

Ofcourse that was a relief.

What happened?

The assistant was not of the talkative kind and she didn't announce she was coming with that large thing with fluid rubber.
She just asked me to open my mouth and pushed the thing in it.

It happened that I had my tongue upwards in the back of my mouth, instead of well out of the way.
The coloured stuff pressed against my tongue, but didn´t cause me to gag.

So, that´s my little bit of advice for you this week.

It works for me and hopefully it will work for you too.


Want to take part too?
Click the logo.

Read more...

works for me

With the bussy family I have I often forget to look at the calendar, so I miss birthdays and anniversaries.

My father was in the RAF in WW2 and his army chaplain shared with me he had the same problem.

He had an old agenda in which he wrote all special dates.

During quiet days he used to put up some music and a sigar, and he would pull out the cards.

One by one he would write the cards, beginning with january 1.
At the place of the stamp he would write the date to post the card.
Then he would put them on the date in a large box.
All he had to do is check each sunday which cards were needed for the next week and the following monday, and post them all at once when he was having a nice sunday afternoon walk.

It worked for him and it works for me.


Want to particpate or find more tips?
Click the logo.

Read more...

works for me

There's always that last musquito that enjoys going upstairs with you and wants to play all night.

I leave a sharp light on in the livingroom, sneek of to bed, switch out the light, and fall asleep...
...before the timer switches off the light downstairs.

The creeps love light more than they love to follow me to suck all the blood out of me or the kids.

So that works for me.


Want to take part or read more tips?
Click the logo!

Read more...

works for me

With 8 people in the house, all with their own bycicle key and some other keys as well, there's always at least one key lost.

We tried everything, to prevent the early morning search events through pockets, rugsacks, etc etc.

Whenever someone comes home I want all the keys in place.

How?

I have 8 hooks on a row.

Each person has his/her own keycord with the bycicle key and other keys.

When someone arrives home hanging the keycord is an automatic action.

I have a look before dinner.
No keycord? No food.

It works for me.

Want to take part too?
Click the logo and find more than a hundred good tips each week.

Read more...

works for me: waking up fast

One of the boys has serious problems waking up.

He goes to bed in time, but when he sleeps he does it with as much dedication as he dos everything else.

Getting him out of his cosy warm bed became such a problem that I resorted to an age old remedy: cold water.

He takes with him a little tupperware bowl with a very moist washcloth with a drop of peppermint oil.

When it tumbles around it doesn't leak water because the bowl closes well.

When the alarm goes off he can pick up the bowl, open it and put the washing cloth in his face.

If he doesn't do it himself there's almost always someone else who enjoys thoroughly to put the cloth on his forehead.

Untill now he wakes up from the water and the smell.

Works for him and for me.

Want to take part?
Click the logo.

Read more...

works for me: storing socks

With a family of 8 socks are an item.

Especially the kids with autism disorder need a package of a pair delivered straight on their doorway...

You see me running around each morning?

No way!

I let them agree on which clothes they wear the next day and we lay them ready for the next morning.

One way or another putting socks with the other clothes didn't work.

Each boy has his own colour of socks, so it's easy to fold them.

But where to leave them?

A drawer wasn't available, so we went through all sorts of storage untill the fae of creativity hit my head.

I went for a large poster container... a large one. (cilinder)

Ofcourse I didn't succeed untill I walked one evening through the citycentre, just before the old paper was collected.

I found the perfect container standing there.

The shopowner was still there so I asked him if I could take the thing home.
"Oh yes, I'm glad someone can put it to use. It's from the large posters here in the shop. Do you need more of them?"

I got one for each child.

At home I painted them.

Put holes at the top to get a thin rope through them, so I could hang the container.

At the botton I used the middle of a paintyhoseleg.
I glued the toppart to the inner border of the container.

And put a fancy laundrypeg in the same colour on the end, so the socks couldn't slip out.

When I want to store the socks I take the container off the hook, throw the socks in, and hang it back.

The kids have a piece of momma-art in their room that is highly functional.

Works for me.

.

Want to take part too?

Click the logo.

You'll find about another hundred tips there.

Read more...

works for me: recycling garden material

Shannon blogged about her gram.

Mine was and still is also an abundant source for good ideas and habits.

She never took something for granted, never took something from nature without giving something back.

This time of year she pruned the shrubs and trees.

This resulted in a huge pile of cuttings, which was no problem and we didn't need to take it far.

She had my uncle, who lived with her, dig a deep hole in the gardenpath.

We threw all the leaves and chopped wood in and covered it with sand.

The sand that didn't fit in anymore was left beside the garden gate.

When the wintercold would make the road slippery, we spread the sand on the street and pavement.

At the end of the season we swept it back in the garden, and it always was enough to fill the area to an even level.

My gram had the best growing garden in the whole city.

Want to take part too?

Click the logo.

Don't forget thursday bug, tomorrow.
See sidebar.

Read more...

works for me

Twingirls are great!

But at time the wallet doesn't stretch as far as we want.

They're bagpipestudents.

I've found some very nice earrings on internet: bagpipes.

Because they loved them so much, I bought one pair, and made them into pendants.

As earrings they were too big for them anyway.

Now they're both happy.

Works for me.

Want to take part?

Click the logo and read the rules.

Read more...

Works For Me: The Brand-Loyal Edition

I want California instant soup. The kids like my soup better, because it's better.

I want Maggi soupseasoning.

I used to use Yves Rocher suncream as a daycream. But they changed it, and now it smells like babybottoms after a bath... well, after so many babies I don't fancy smelling like that. LOL!

And I love a certain sweet soft licorice. I realise I don't even know the name, so when they change the look of the bag I won't be able to find it. LOL!

At the moment I can't think of anything else...

Want to take part in "Works for me wednesday?"
Click the logo.

Don't forget the september give-away and the hair fundraiser.

.

Read more...

works for me: macaroni

Always, always have macaroni in the house.

Girls love to make necklaces.
Macaroni is great to use, and so are other pastas.

You'll need a firm threat or even ironthreat to make the curve.

Pasta can be painted and spraypainted. Use leadfree paint.

Shoeboxes can be made into wonderful places for dolls and bears when you spraypaint them.
Then spraypaint macaroni and glue it on the box.

Have fun!

It works for my girls and it works for me.

Want to participate? Click the logo.

Read more...

Works For Me: Storage Idea

One of those dangerous habits of many people is to put things they need to take upstairs in a corner of one of the steps.

I've kept the childsafe gate to the attick.
On order not to put things on the steps, I took a bycicle bag... yep, those with the hooks... and hung it on the gate.
It worked so perfect, that when I found little ones, I bought a few, so now some of the children have their bag at the gate.
When I find something, I put it there and they take it to their room.

Downstairs the gate has gone.
But I've made a hook at a safe place and put a bycicle bag there too.
A nice reed one.

Nothing on the stairs again. And upstairs things are sorted before it all is stored.

It works for me.

---

Large families buy large quantities and need to have lots in store.

When I put things away I make rows on the base of expiration date, and put rows of items that combine side to site.

So the tomatosause is beside the pasta.

Works for me.

click the large graphic to take part too.

Read more...

Works-For-Me Wednesday

A friend came this morning and was all in tears.

She'd bought a nice T-shirt and trousers combination for her daughter just when the vacation started and her daughter has outgrown it.

It was a nice pink set, with little flowers.

I looked upstairs and found a matching blue fabric, ready to use.

So we opened the shoulders on top, and sew blue between it on both sides.

Then made a 7 cm extra at the seam of the T-shirt.

We opened the trousers at both outer sides and sewed in two lines of blue, and added blue to the seam.

We even had enough to make an extra pocket at the t-shirt, a little bit of colour at the top of the pockets of the trousers, and a little bag. Added to it two bows for in her hair and this little lady will be happy when she comes home from school, I'm sure of it!

Read more...

Works For Me: What's That Smell?

The smell of the boy's little room...

Ahhha.

Well, we girls go upstairs.
They're too lazy to go there during the day anyway, and they don't have to go as much as we girlies do during the night.

I have taught each and every boy that sitting is best if you carefully guard the way of gravity for the bodypart and the fluids.

Ofcourse they try to do it standing up as soon as they see other boys at school.
By that time they have mastered bodyparts and gravity.
If something goes wrong, I comment.

Older boys who direct their liquids the wrong way get the message that splashing around is done in the pool and they either have to sit down or go on their knees.

And the father?
Well he takes turns with cleaning.... so he has learned the whole hygienic bit because he has the smells.

I clean the wall with vinegar and soap. It's against smells and it cleans well.

Read more...