Clothing and Toy Swap Kit

Do you need to de-cluttered your home and get ready for Spring? If so this is a great way to help you do that and have fun as well.

http://www.greenworkscleaners.com/get-involved/

Laundry Tips

For a few years I was always doing laundry every single day, folding and ironing. That can be a lot of work. Then I read somewhere about teaching children at a young age to do their own laundry. So I set up hampers in their rooms for them to put dirt laundry in and once full - helped them do their laundry. They were about 11 & 12 years old at this stage - but you can start as early as you like. Once their laundry was taken out of the picture - I just had towels & linens, hubby's clothes and mine. Not a lot at all. One exception is that I still do all the whites together. This means that I'm only really doing the laundry about 3 times a week - which you can get done easily one weekend morning. If you have an outdoor line use it as often as you can - clothes smell so good and you will be saving money too! If you have little children, you can still but hampers in their rooms and do the laundry by room - this way when you are folding it - you can fold the whole load in their bedroom and put straight away. Just make sure you have enough clothes for every day of the week.

Caroline

Outdoor Bathrooms

I just love this idea, having a bathroom outdoors. It means that you can be one with nature. If you have some land even if it is only an acre - then this is something to think about installing. You can even have hot water by attaching gas under it if you want.

Children will enjoy this too - like a small pool in the middle of summer.

I actually got these images from a farm in New Zealand, where they offer Romantic Getaway's for couples. Which is basically an old farm cottage without power (lots of candles). An open fire for heat and no TV what more would a couple need in a getaway! They offer a simple 3 course meal and a farm breakfast, with fresh farm eggs. Plus they charge about $275 for the night!! Which, I think this is a great way for farms to make a bit of extra cash on the side.

If you need a little more information or links to farm getaway - comment.

Caroline

Monday Monday

Wow, I can't believe a week has gone by and I haven't posted anything! Busy busy I guess. I have been reading some amazing blogs - everything from getting ready for spring planting, up-cycling, great baking and recipes (that I have to try). I will be posting some links on here soon.

Yesterday, I was asked what is the biggest difference between New Zealand and the USA? Interesting I had to think about this a little, my answer was food and the freshest of it. In New Zealand, we are able to eat fish that has been caught that morning - can't beat that. Most people have a veg garden or go to the market in the weekend and buy vegs - straight from the grower. We have a more even temp so we can get a good 8 months out of our gardens. Our main vegs are potatoes, carrots and peas. We also eat a lot of cauliflower, broccoli, silver beat and sweet potatoes. Silver beat is a little like spinach.

So much goodness in it too. So this week check out your local farmers market - fresh vegs are so good plus fresh eggs too.

Game Day

Well today is game day - who will win? Do you watch it? And do you recycle your bottles and cans? In NY state you can return your bottles and cans for 5 cents a piece - how cool is that! My son helps me out about once a month and then he can go and get candy if he wants from the shop. Speaking of that - how much candy is too much for kids? I think from a very young age we need to watch what we feed our children. My teenage daughter has a figure that any girl would want, a couple of nights ago she thanked me for feeding her good food. I had never thought of it like that before, but between my husband and me we try to cook health meals every night, usually with a lot of vegetables - we always eat a lot of broccoli (high in Vit C), peas, carrots and potatoes are always found in our house too. When the children were little and we lived in New Zealand we would always have fish and chips on Friday nights. It is fried so fattening, but then they are having fish which sometimes is hard to fit into their diet. We don't often have soda in the house - our main drinks are milk (not choc), apple juice and water. And I try to have fruit in the house as a snack. My son even asked me to pick up pineapple next time I'm at the shop. And he quiet often boils an egg after school as a snack.

I could go on for ever - I just really think it is so important to develop good eating habits for your children before it is too late. Watch breakfast cereals too, good old oats have so much value in them!