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Oh, dear. My younger daughter has received a pile of mail from colleges and universities today! She is a sophomore! I am so not ready to let go of Daughter Uno, much less Daughter Dos. I haven't seen Sarah's PSAT scores, but they must be decent, if colleges are already sending junk mail.
Congrats to Meghan on her successful LASIK surgery! I'm 8 years out on mine, and haven't had a moment of regret. I still occasionally am overwhelmed with the thought that I can see--very clearly!--without the aid of glasses or contacts. My vision went from 20/2200 to 20/15 virtually overnight.
I'm seeing lots of leaves on my deck that are begging to be vacuumed up.
I hope everyone has a wonderful, stupendous, fabulous weekend! |
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By special request:
After lugging home umpteen bottles of detergent, and paying a small fortune for laundry supplies, I decided to give this a try. Plus, I'm allergic to the scent of many products (even "unscented" ones), so having control over the fragrance is a big advantage for me. It's a huge moneysaver when you have two teenaged girls who are big into layering and changing outfits multiple times a day. I am really pleased with how well it works!
I have well water and a high efficiency washer--if it works under both of those conditions, it will work under any condition.
I actually have two recipes and tend to use a combination of them; they are pretty forgiving.
Recipe 1
1 cup grated bar soap (bath soap), any kind
1/2 cup borax (more for hard water)
1/2 cup washing soda
Recipe 2
1/2 cup grated bar soap
1 cup borax
1/2 cup washing soda
Mix ingredients together and store in an airtight plastic container or ziploc freezer bag. To use: Use 1 tablespoon of the recipe in place of regular laundry detergent; more if load is extra large or extra dirty.
Notes: I use the food processor to grate the soap and make lots of it at one time. I always at least double the recipe and keep a tablespoon in the container for ease of use. Washing soda is found in the laundry aisle at the grocery store in a box that looks like an overgrown box of baking soda (Arm & Hammer brand). Don't confuse washing soda and baking soda!
***Additional Notes (added 11/19): I use Yardley's of London Lavender soap--it's one of the few scented soaps I can tolerate. The original recipe says Ivory or Dove. Remember, you're only using 1 tbsp. per load--that's not much soap at all, and it seems to rinse out really well. Added bonus: I have not had even one load of wet laundry go sour overnight. Maybe it's the washing soda. |
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Copied from another Pleo blog; can't remember whose.
♥A is for age: 42 (I’d love to say I’m lying. But I’m not.)
♥B is for beverage of choice: Sweet tea
♥C is for career right now: wife, mother, business owner
♥D is for your dog's name: Scout the Cutest Dog in the World
♥E is for essential item you use everyday: Lotion
♥F is for favorite TV show: None
♥G is for favorite game to watch: Hockey
♥H is for Hometown: Washington, Indiana
♥I is for instruments you play: Piano, kazoo, used to play saxophone
♥J is for favorite juice: Grape
♥K is for a favorite keepsake: Poem my non-poetic hubby wrote
♥L is for last place you ate at: Home
♥M is for marriage: September 17, 1988
♥N is for your name: Anita
♥O is for overnight hospital stay: June 1993
♥P is for people you were with today: Me, myself, and I; 7 high school students at lunch; The Guys At Work; Sarah, the cat and the vet. Scout (always!)
♥Q is for what's your best quality: I don’t have one
♥R is for what are you currently reading: Between the lines
♥S is for relationship status: Dating (my husband)
♥T is for time you woke up today: 5:42 a.m.
♥U is for the type of underwear you have on: What kind of ? is this? Suffice it to say that I follow the Latin rule: Semper ubi sub ubi, translated “Always where under where”
♥V is for vegetable you love: Broccoli – honestly!
♥W is for worst habits: Criticism & self-righteousness
♥X is for x-rays you've had recently: I think I have never had an x-ray…maybe when my brother hit me in the head with a golf club many years ago
♥Y is for something candy: Anything chocolate-y and Smarties (not together, of course)
♥Z is for favorite zoo animal: Elephant or dolphin
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The US economy was the most powerful, healthiest, most robust economy in the world. Then came 9/11, and the War on Terror. Then came the Iraq War and the war in Afghanistan. Then came the skyrocketing cost of oil and gas and the mortgage crisis. Down went the value of the dollar. Up went unemployment. Down went the stock market. Up went inflation. Up went the cost of food.
How could all this happen?
The answer is, our enemies used the media to scare us. While President Bush fought the War on Terror, our enemies fought the war on courage in the media and they have been winning. One way to win a war is to make your enemy so scared that they refuse to fight. They run - either actually or emotionally. That is what is happening in the US. The press has learned from Journalism 101 on that "if you want to sell newspapers, you must specialize in bad news." The media is an unwitting accomplice in the War on Courage. The media loves bad news. And we have been getting more and more scared as time went on. The more scared we get, the less we do and the more our enemies win. They could take over this country without firing a shot. How can you fight back and flourish and prosper at the same time?
*****
My husband received ^this^ in a sales e-mail and I don't know who to credit for it. It reflects to a great extent my opinion about the media and their role in the changing of America. However, I don't think the media is an "unwitting accomplice"--I think they know exactly what they are doing.
"News" is no longer news. Opinion is interjected in small, virtually unnoticeable ways, and we need to be able to parse the news and extract the real news from the hype. We need to observe our world and see whether it reflects the news reports or if our reality is something very different from what we hear. For me, there is a huge contrast between the two.
We (Christians) have no reason to be afraid. Our courage, our strength, our faith is under attack, but no more so than at any other time in history. This world *is* evil, and we are the light. The media is just another enemy to face for the cause of God, and we will endure--better yet, we have already conquered! They can only take our courage away if we let them.
"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9 |
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I don't think President-Elect Obama (just trying to get used to the idea) ever called himself The Messiah, but he certainly allowed others to do so, and to my knowledge, has never denounced it.
Read Acts 12:22-23. The people were calling Herod a god, and he did not correct them and give the glory to God. |
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