Potato Chips, Cookies and Yeast, oh my!

Have you ever bought a bag of potato chips and then had it go stale--or worse, turn rancid? Our tip is to store your chips in the freezer. You can eat them right out of the freezer, the cold "blows your mind" (borrowing from '70s lingo). Since we can't eat a whole package of cookies with the kids gone now, we also store cookies in the freezer, Zingers, Ding Dongs, you name it.

Our last tip comes courtesy of Marty's mom. She told us to store our yeast in the freezer. She said once she did she never had another problem with yeast going bad. We tried it about 10 years ago, and we never have either. Before that it was hit and miss with the yeast proofing. Thanks, grandma Clift, for that great tip!

Diaper/Wipes Holder

I noticed that after a baby is about six months old, mothers don't want to carry such a big diaper bag anymore, especially if just running to the store, etc. I've seen so many people just grab a diaper or two and wipes as they run out of the house.

Fiddling around online I found zillions of tutorials for diaper/wipes covers. I did mine as just a band around the wipes and diaper, and added Velcro and an elastic/button enclosure.

Here are the supplies:

Here is the finished product:

 I guess I didn't get a picture with the Velcro showing. I sewed about 2 1/2 inches lengthwise under the cover (as you would look straight down onto the top of it). I added Velcro so that the number of diapers can be adjusted and the cover will still close.

The cover is five inches wide and 17 1/2 inches long. There are two layers sewn together and then topstitched. The elastic is added before sewing together. As you can see from the first picture, the most colorful elastic I could find was really childrens' headbands. They seem to work great. Marty suggests that the button is sewn on through both layers of fabric for strength, but then the underside isn't so pretty. Kerry suggests making one layer terrycloth or cloth diaper fabric, making an instant burp cloth, too.  Don't forget to throw in a shopping bag for diaper disposal.

Randomness

How's this for random? This is Marty on Halloween 2009. He likes to dress up and then he likes to take bunches and bunches of children trick or treating. This year because of colds and flu he only took about half of our ranch-residing nieces and nephews and Katelyn and Benjamin (Alex was also sick). We usually make clam chowder in sour dough bowls. In the days when everyone was home we would add chili to the menu.  Here are the recipes:  http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AdLiexfJqp9sZHd6aGs4Zl8yZHB6Zm5zZGo&hl=en
Happy Halloween--that's right, belated, we haven't gotten our Christmas cards out for two years, either!  Random is good.

Home Sweet Home

We are so privileged to receive this wonderful cross stitch from Beverly, our co-grandparent. Oh my what can we say? It is soooo beautiful! Soooo many hours of work and we feel soooo honored. Thank you, thank you, thank you! 

Veni Vidi, Vici

While we’re on the theme of Caesar, here’s another famous Latin phrase:


Veni, Vidi, Vici (I came, I saw, I conquered). Caesar led many wars. So many that mystical legends began to form around him. He went over to Asia and so totally defeated the army there and finished up the war so quickly that when he wrote an account of it to his friends in Rome he put it in three well-known Latin words, "Veni, Vidi, Vici,--I came, I saw, I conquered."

I.ii.18.“Sooth. Beware the ides of March.”

See my Google Docs article:The Ides of March

Happy Pi day

Today is March 14, or 3.14, which is the number Pi rounded to the nearest hundredth.