Shame on me....

I've become a blog-slacker. (that's a real thing, right?)

So to end my shameful lack of blogging...I give you "Pinterest Pins of the Day".

Today's theme is Upcycle/Recycle.

Let's start with an oldie, but a goodie made from vintage photo slides! What better way to showcase vacation slides from your 1960's Disneyland trips but to turn them into a cool lampshade!

Vintage Slide Lamp

Next up, An old pickup truck tailgate turned into a kistchy retro style bench with cool vintage license plate covered arms:

Tailgate Bench

And finally, something useful to do with that old computer tower that you're not using...turn the case into a one-of-a-kind mailbox. Put your mail where e-mail used to go!

Mailbox

Okay, that's all folks-gotta run cuz the dinner bell is a ringing!

And for today....

Pain? I don't have no stinkin' pain!

I just gotta share this real quick:
I have been a sufferer of Plantar Fasciitis (it's a foot pain thing) for years and nothing I have done has helped. In fact, taking massive amounts of ibuprofen for the pain and inflammation actually caused me to have stomach issues. Well suffer no more, I have found a miracle! It's HEEL SEATS from the Heel That Pain website. In a desperate attempt to find something to find help for my feet I did a Google search for "heel pain" and their website came up. I figured for $14.95 I didn't have much to lose so I ordered a pair of their HTP Heel Seats. They came in the mail last Thursday and let me tell you what a difference they have made in my pain level. Within minutes of putting them in my shoes I had a 75% reduction in pain and I noticed this morning that I have virtually no pain at all while standing in my sneakers with my heel seats.

Normally just ordering 1 pair costs $24.95, but you can get them for $14.95 plus FREE shipping if you click on the "renewal"  offer and let them send you a new set every 90 days.
They also offer a Gel Heel Seat which is made of a softer material, but I went with the original heel seats. And they're not just for plantar fasciitis, they're for heel spurs and heel pain as well.
Disclaimer: Heel that pain does not know who I am and is in no way sponsoring the writing of this blog post with free stuff or anything. I'm just a customer who loves having pain-free feet!
Okay, that is all. Have a nice day!

Adapting and changing...

As a homeschooling mom there are many decisions I have to make each school year and which curriculum to use is always the most important. I also love that, as homeschoolers, if something isn't working for us we can change to something else at any point along the way. At the beginning of the school year my 14yo son wanted to move away from some of the online curriculum he had been using since 4th grade, mainly Time 4 Learning, and try something new. So we started the school year using unit studies, workbooks and a rather expensive Christian-based curriculum on cd's, none of which held his interest the way Time 4 Learning did. Being this is my 7th year of homeschooling I have learned that if something doesn't work then put it aside and find something that does, so today marks our first day back on the Time 4 Learning website. Now yes, I realize that their curriculum only goes up to 8th grade and my son is technically in the 9th grade, however, due to his Autism and learning disabilities he functions at different levels than the average 9th grader. I think this change will make our days less stressful and more productive. I'll keep you updated. In the mean time, here is a link to the Time4Learning website.

It truly is "to each, his own" My 18yo daughter loves doing unit studies in fact she loved the Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett so much that she actually asked me to purchase them for her. In her Senior year she used American Government, Scrapbooking, Digital Photography and Pioneers. For my daughter the unit studies provided her with a more research based type of learning experience which is more in line with how she learns the best and is more like what she used when she was at the charter high school she attended for 2 years, the same one her older brother graduated from. The curriculum there was independent study and research based. She would have graduated from the charter school but she wanted to graduate a semester early and not all of the classes she needed to do that were available when she needed them. Their program offers only certain classes in the fall and others in the spring. What I did in homeschooling her was to make her homeschool classes as close to the charter schools as I could. Now I have a brand new college student and she couldn't be happier!

Want List

With my birthday coming up in a few days, My Hubby has been asking me what I would like him to buy me, so here is my Want List:

The Ninja 3 in 1 cooking system. 

This is on my list, the TOP of my list because I have a love/hate relationship with cooking dinner every evening. While we are not empty-nesters (that glorious day is coming soon!) our college kids are almost never home anymore so most evenings it's pretty much Hubby-who now has work hours that can go late into the evening, our 14yo son, who I may have mentioned has Autism and me for dinner. Autism Boy (as he proclaims himself to be) is not a "foodie" so he pretty much eats from his list of about 20 or so foods that don't bother him to eat. (It's sensory integration disorder issue-not related to my cooking...or at least that's what the experts tell me) So anyway, I think that one of these one-pot, dump it in and cook it either slow (if I remember early enough in the day that the family will want to eat dinner) or fast (because I kind of forgot the whole dinner thing, again) would be a valuable asset to our small appliance collection.

Next on my list:

The 5X Lighted, Tri-Fold Makeup Mirror

This baby made the list because let's face it, I'm no spring chicken and seeing the age in my face at 5 TIMES regular magnification will be fun. NOT. But it would be nice to actually be able to SEE my face when I'm putting on makeup, eyeliner in particular, lest I leave the house looking a bit more like Cleopatra than I had intended. Again.

And finally, we're back in the kitchen with this bad boy:

The Cuisinart Elite Collection 12 Cup Food Processor

I currently own a 34 year old Cuisinart food processor that originally belonged to my Mom. And while it still works, and works amazingly, the bowl has finally cracked, there are cracks in the base housing and I've misplace a blade so it's not as useful as it was years ago. Not to mention the darn thing weighs in at about 150 pounds so lugging it from the cabinet to the counter requires either my hubby to be home or a team of at least 3 to pitch in and help. Not that this new one weighs much less, when I was out at Bed, Bath and Beyond with Hubby last weekend, he tried to get me to lift the display model and I couldn't. So I informed him that if you get me one of these bad boys you might as well get the bright red because it's going on the counter and staying there and matching the kitchen color scheme is important to me.

I actually think this would go nicely with the Ninja Cooking System for doing all that choppy prep-work before I toss our dinner ingredients into the pot and I'd really love to have both, but I'm not holding my breath...of course Valentines day IS next month!