This is a very busy season of my life and I need to cut back.  I’ve deleted The Cardamom’s Pod Facebook and Twitter pages, but will still keep the blog up and running. If you would like to know when I post again, just subscribe to my Feedburner emails.

Blessings to you all!

What is it?  Leave your guesses in the comments.

• someone at church meets you for the first time and says, “Nice to meet you. Wow! Either you don’t use birth control, or it’s not working!”
• you are at a thrift store and people ask if you run a daycare – before they look at your children and notice they all look alike.
• you can strike fear into the heart of your misbehaving toddler: as you actually get up, while carrying the nursing newborn, and step over the baby gate without falling.
• you label the 8 brooms and dustpans with the names of where they “live”, so that when you find them all over the house, you can put them away easily. Even if they’ve been taken apart so the handle is the spear and the broom part is the Spartan helmet ornament…
• you’ve been pregnant and/or nursing for so many years that one day your children ask you, “Mom, can you run?” and you answer, “Sure. But why?”

Supplies needed:

• clipboards – I purchased three 3-packs at Sam’s Club
• heavy duty sheet protectors – already had these (purchased from Sam’s Club)
• card stock – you can also use paper, perhaps with some scavenged thin cardboard
• old rags, chamois clothes, microfiber cloths – whatever you have

Tools needed:

• scissors

Insert the card stock into the plastic sheet protector.  Cut the hole-punched edge off of the sheet protector.  Clip the sheet to the clipboard.  Now that I think of it, you could also leave that edge on, and just stick this in a binder!

I’ve found that washed and dried chamois cloths make an excellent homemade microfiber cloths.  I actually bought microfiber cloths for cleaning, so I put my old do-it-yourself cloths to good use – I cut them into pieces for homemade erasers.  Works great!

It’s that easy!  My children use these for schoolwork.  For my younger children who need to practice handwriting, it is so easy to print out something free from the internet that they can trace over and over.  My kids will sometimes put the “whiteboard” aside and use it as a portable desk for drawing while I read aloud.

Check out my other WFMW tips.

Linked to: Works For Me Wednesday

Now I have nothing against healthy fats and oils – they’re good for you! When you are canning stock, however, you are supposed to de-fat it – get most of the fat out, otherwise the oil prevents a good seal on the jar lids. The usual way to do this is to take your hot stock, and chill it until the fat hardens so you can easily scrape it off.

Well, that seemed to me like I was doing double-duty on the heating thing. The stock was already hot, and it needed to be hot for the canning process. It didn’t want to double-heat it. So I skimmed as much fat off as I could with a ladle. That was slightly tedious.

I remembered the idea behind a little gizmo that allows you to pour broth in a measuring cup, with the spout on the bottom so the clear liquid pours out, leaving the fat to float on top. Those work wonderfully, but I haven’t seen one that will hold more than a quart – usually they only hold a pint. That’s when the idea hit me. I pulled out my one-gallon drink dispenser, preheated the glass with some hot water first, then poured in the stock. After a few minutes, the fat settled on top, and I began filling my jars. That was a little tedious, so I just filled a stock pot.

As the liquid neared the bottom, I had to tip the jar a bit to keep the fat from flowing through the spout.

There were a few drops of fat left on top, which I blotted up with a quick dab of paper towel.

And THAT time-saving, labor-saving, energy-saving tip definitely works for me!

Check out my other WFMW tips.

Linked to: Works For Me Wednesday

Linked to:
Wordless Wednesday
5 Minutes For Mom