Tag: shopping

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More Thoughts On Gardening

So you want to build a pond in your garden? There is a right way and a wrong way to go about it. First you have to pick the area in your yard that you want to build it. In order to do that, you have to know where all of the underground utility pipes are located. Whether it is water, electrical or cable, you don’t want to hit any of them when you start digging. You utility companies will be happy to come out and mark the locations to prevent any mishaps.

Next you want to decide how large you want the pond and make sure it is not near a lot of trees. The leaves will clog it up and make a lot of extra work for you. An average pond is two to three feet deep, unless you plan to put Koi in it, then it will need to be three to four feet deep. Even if you decide against the Koi, it is always best to make sure you have running water to keep the mosquito population down. A simple pond pump will help ensure that the water is always moving. A few gold fish wouldn’t hurt either, as they will eat the mosquito larvae.

Now comes the time to go get your supplies. You can buy either a preformed or flexible liner for your pond. A flexible one allows you to determine the shape and size and are relatively easy to work with. You can build your pond with common garden tools, there is really no need to have heavy machinery, unless it is going to be a really large pond. You will also need sand to spread around before you put down your liner. This prevents tears from happening due to rocks and roots. Just spread it evenly and as thick as you can to be safe.

Make sure you get the rocks you need to line around the outside and to build a waterfall should you decide you want one. Most hardware store will deliver them, so you shouldn’t need a truck. Don’t forget your water plants and decorative plants for around the pond either.

Not everyone has a yard or the space to build a pond. However, do not be discouraged, because you can still have a water garden by using a sealed decorative container. Just put rocks on the bottom and choose what water plants you would like to have. Once again, you will have to do something to prevent mosquito’s, even if it is only a small water garden. They will breed in any standing water. Either the water has to move, or you need gold fish or something to kill the larvae.

A pond can bring a lot of joy to you and your family. They are very calming and soothing to sit next to after a hard day at work. Especially those with the gentle sounds of water flowing over rocks. It is amazing how relaxed you will be when you can enjoy it at the end of the day.

 

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Prevention and Protection

Moms are the beginning and the end when it comes to keeping our homes running smoothly. Not only do we take care of balancing the checkbooks, paying the bills, cleaning the house, and raising the kids, we also have to see that our home and family are protected. Protection comes in many different forms, from safety to pest control.

When you buy a new home, you have the obligatory inspection done. They test for everything from water damage, roof leaks and termites. When the report comes back, you decide if you really want the house or not. Ours came back clean but in order to keep it that way, it needed regular maintenance. I saw to it that we are continually protected from infestation by Terminix pest control.  I don’t want my dream home damaged by little bugs.

There are a few things that you can do for some extra prevention:

  • Make sure the soil slopes away from the house
  • Keep plants at least three feet from the house
  • Use plastic sheeting under the house to cover the dirt.
  • Point sprinklers away from the house

You should never have any standing water around the base of the home, as termites need water for survival. Get rid of any dead or dying trees and don’t pile up firewood against the house. You shouldn’t have those anywhere near it in fact. Make sure the base of the house shows about six inches of the concrete foundation all the way around it. Don’t use a lot of mulch around the house, as it breeds termites.

Depending on your area and the regular weather you have there, you might want to make sure there are no large trees too close to the house either. They can be knocked over by storms and you don’t want them to fall on the house. I know that they shade the house and help keep electricity bills down, but in areas with high straight line winds, those trees can be dangerous to your home and your family. Keep the trees well trimmed as well. This way you won’t have to worry about dead branches falling from them.

When you buy a home with a pool and you have small children, you should invest in a safety pool fence. Some of them are removable for those pool parties and such, but they are definitely worth the expense to keep your children safe. In addition to the safety fence, you can put latches or locks at the top of the doors to your home to keep the children from wandering outside. Kids have a tendency to do that the moment you turn your back or use the restroom.

Make sure you have the safety plugs for all of your outlets as well. We all know that children love to stick things into small holes and spaces. We buy them lots of toys teach them to do just that and need to make sure they can’t do it in the wrong space. This goes along with cabinet locks to keep children out of chemicals and such as well. You would be surprised to learn how many children are able to get that Pine-sol bottle open and drink it.

Protecting your home and your family is not very difficult or even expensive if you take simple precautions. Most of it is common sense and easily done on your own without the help of professionals. If you do need a professional to help you, just do your research and you will be fine. I hope this helps you ladies. I know that a lot of it helped me when we first bought our home.

 

 

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Bring Me an Eggroll

I’m the first to admit that I’m not a big fan of Asian food. I think part of it may be that where I grew up there was no Asian food. I never had anything remotely Asian until I got into college, and that was the cheap take out food that you eat by ordering combination #1 or combo #2. The only food I was willing to try was sweet and sour pork. That was OK, but the best part of the meal was the eggroll. Don’t ask me why, but I like eggrolls.

So tonight we went to an upscale Asian restaurant and I didn’t know what anything on the menu would taste like. They did not have a sweet and sour pork, but they did have eggrolls. So I ordered a chicken dish with a funny name and the eggrolls – the eggrolls were awesome. The best I’ve ever had!

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Unique Wedding Favors

I found some really Unique wedding favors for my friends wedding. There were little candy jar shaped salt and pepper shakers, little bird cages, a Cinderella carriage candle and so many more that it has become really difficult to choose. Some of them are practical things that can be used over and over. This is really cool because it gives the wedding guest a permanent memory that they can see almost daily. Whether it is a wine bottle stopper, stone coasters, salt and pepper shakers or something else. Every time the guest uses it, they recall the wedding and how much fun they had attending.

A lot of the favors are decorative. There are elegant, whimsical, silly, or just plain cute favors that will always bring a smile to the person who takes this favor home with them. I am really in awe at the genius of some of the favors that I have found. Anything that holds candy, is always a good choice. Everyone likes a sweet, and if you fill them with sugarless sweets, even those who are diabetic can enjoy them. You should always show consideration for people who have diabetes when choosing this particular favor. That way, no one feels left out. It is a good practice anyway.

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Keeping My Son From Losing His Things

I really love my child, but my son keeps losing his things. Somehow he managed to misplace his jacket at school, and this was not the first time that he did something like this either. He also managed to lose his shoes. How does a person lose their shoes? The answer to that question still escapes me to this day, and it really does not matter because it happened. What I need to do now is focus on trying to prevent him from losing his things. This is starting to get rather expensive!

I sat down and had a long drawn out talk with my son, but we all know how that goes. I am not even sure if he was listening to me. For some reason, kids seem to have this natural ability to tune their parents out. I don’t remember doing this to my parents, but I think I must have. It must be some kind of built in defense mechanism. Then it dawned on me. I needed to start using name labels for kids. This may not prevent my son from losing his things, but it certainly would make it a lot easier to find the items that he keeps losing.

With a label, I would not need to depend on my son to not lose his things. I could handle every single bit of it myself, and all I needed was something as simple as a label. So now it was up to me to find a label that I could use to label everything that my son owned. I had a plan.

Luckily I did not have to look very far. I found stuck on you and labelcity.com. They had a wide assortment of great labels that I could choose from. Now it was only a matter of getting a bunch of labels and adding the everything that my son owned.

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Shopping

Found a new way to shop online. DealDash is where it is. I have bid on a few things that I really like and actually got a couple of them, really cheap. Deal Dash has all kinds of stuff. No matter what you are into, you will be able to find something you like. DealDash is where I am going to find a lot of my Christmas presents this year.

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Internet

As a middle aged woman I am constantly amazed by the power of the internet. I have recently found family I had not been in contact with in years. I can do my holiday shopping from the comfort of my living room sofa. We can play computer games until our hearts are content and of course there is social networking such as Facebook. I’ve just learned there is also online sports betting.

Some of my friends are really into soccer so I will suggest they check the website out.

I have to admit I am quite addicted to Facebook. I’ve reconnected with Junior High and High School friends and I stay in touch with close friends and current and past co-workers. I do not play the games and I admit I am annoyed when friends send requests over and over for the games. I do however like to post music videos and I am quite a fan of Youtube and sharing those videos on Facebook. I am confident that my friends are just as annoyed by my videos as I am by their games. I try to remain tolerant though, and I never let anyone know that I am annoyed by the games. They are kind as well and hardly ever tell me to lay off the music.

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Shopping online

Today is supposed to be a huge online shopping day even topping Cyber Monday. Some companies are offering free shipping and free is always a good thing. I’m going to purchase some chocolate for a cousin in California. She has a sweet tooth and always enjoys receiving chocolates for Christmas. On another website I will place an order for ornaments and cute felt bags for my staff. I know they will like them.

I will also take advantage of ordering from stores that no longer exist in the malls around me. It’s cool that even though my favorite stores aren’t around, I can go online and still make my holiday purchases.

I traditionally purchase a lot of comfort items, like pajamas and slippers. My recipients may not be thrilled when they first open the package but they are certain to love them and appreciate them when the weather gets colder. My sons would rather have electronics, but those items can be so expensive. I am feeling pressured to find the perfect gifts this year. I usually do not fall into that trap. All in all, Christmas will pass quickly again this year and I hope all my loved ones enjoy the gifts I choose for them.