Mar 24, 2007

Uses For Baby Socks

Parenthacks posted a suggestion to use baby socks to keep pajama legs in place. It reminded me of my favorite baby sock use: as hand mittens. I found the mittens never stayed in place, so Ellen Steinberg recommended I try "hand socks," as I now call them. They work like a charm!

Mar 21, 2007

2 Random Kitchen Tips: Saving Burnt Cookies & Sneaking in Veggies

  • To save burnt cookies: Use a microplane grater on the bottom of your cookies to shave off the black part. (I got this tip from an old episode of Cooking Live and used it the other day to salvage some scones.)
  • Use baby food to sneak in veggies: Actually, any pureed vegetable will work, but I happened to have a jar of peas when I was making meat loaf last week and tossed that in for good measure (I had already added some shredded carrot). I'm now ready to go out and buy a variety of jarred baby food to have on hand to add to just about everything. (I'd originally bought the jarred peas hoping to convince Alex to use them as a dipping sauce but that sure didn't work.)

Mar 9, 2007

Good is Good Enough

I have to admit, with great chagrin, that I am a perfectionist in the worst sense of the word. I've been working on improving myself, however, so this post from The Happiness Project about aiming for "good" rather than "perfect" was particularly meaningful to me. It's exactly what I am working on accepting - and it's comforting to know that I'm not the only one.

Mar 6, 2007

I finally signed up for Upromise

I hesitated for a long time before finally signing up for Upromise. My biggest concerns were giving up my personal information yet again, and not accruing enough money to make it worthwhile - after all, we haven't funded a 529 account yet. But a few months ago, I learned from Five Cent Nickel that you can withdraw the funds in your Upromise account. That was the clincher - I could start the account, and if the money wasn't enough to make investing worthwhile (taking fees into consideration), at least we could withdraw the money and do something else with it. Additionally, thanks to Consumerism Commentary, I've learned that I might be able to apply the funds to my own student loans. All in all, it added up to free money that I could no longer pass up.