Answer Me This: Playing cards

Do ANY of you actually pay attention to what cards could be missing from a set of game cards?  {Not talking about a regular deck of cards, I'm talking about games like SkipBo or UNO}  Have you EVER used the blank extra cards to make replacement cards?  Is there any reason to actually keep them in with the box of cards for years after years??  Just wonderin'. 

What's in my head...

These are some of the really random things I've been thinking about this week, usually as I lay in bed waiting to fall asleep.  If any of you smart people have answers for me, do answer!

* How did Native Americans get here?
* Did the continents really used to be all together and break apart later?
* If we all come from Adam and Eve how do we have different races of people?
* If we all come from Adam and Eve, that means brother and sister had to mate/marry in order to continue population?


See, I told you, RANDOM!  What random things have you wondered about??

Answer Me This: Wordpress

I know most of you use Blogger, but does anyone know how to Log In to Wordpress?? I used to have a blog there when I first started but shortly after switched over to Blogger.  When I leave comments on certain people's blogs, it has a really old profile pic (Eli was 4 months old or something) and I'm wondering if that's linked to my Wordpress account and would like to change it or something but can't find where to log in anymore.  Anyone know??

Answer Me This: Crockpot Recipes

I'm not very good at the crockpot.  If it's supposed to cook for 8hrs and I want it done at 6pm, that means it needs to go in by 10am.  And by 10am I'm well into my day and I plumb forget to get the darn thing started and it's already 4pm and then I have to scramble around to get an alternate dinner prepared.  But I want to get better.  I love the feeling of dinner being "done" already in the morning!  Plus, it's easy for my little girl to throw things in there for me and help!  Now that Eli's first year in AWANA is starting up, meaning early dinner on Wednesday nights, I'm thinking of doing more crockpot meals.  I have a crockpot cookbook, but it doesn't have pictures so things don't look very appealing. So what are your favorite meals and recipes for the crockpot??

Answer Me This: Kids Toothbrushes.

Can someone please answer me, what is with the age ratings on kids' toothbrushes??  I was picking out Eli a new one today because his was all "hairy" (AKA the bristles were really frizzled.  hmm, I like that word, I think I just made it up) and looking at all the brushes on the shelves they all look the same to me.  I select one that I think looks good, then flip it over and it says 5-7 yrs!  So I put it back and kept looking.  There's Stage 1 and Stage 2 and maybe Stage 3 or whatever, but what's the difference in these brushes?  And does it really matter what I use when??

Answer Me This: Kids Movies

Okay peeps, I need some advice. We're leaving for our vacation to Colorado on Friday. Something like a 9 hour drive. I'm actually not too worried about the kids in the car at all, but we probably will do one movie with them in the van along the way and then on the way back. I can pick one Netflix movie to arrive before then but want your suggestions on what they might like. Of course they love Lightning McQueen but it would it be fun to do something different besides that. They get scared at pretty much any PG movie. Is there anything G-rated that they would love?? Besides SHOWS like Thomas n such. Do they even make G-rated movies anymore?? LOL Anyway, what are some of your favorite kid movies??

UPDATE: So I'm browsing Netflix right now and I see that yes, indeed, G-rated movies are still being made. I'm actually surprised at some of the movies rated at that, because I know my kids would still cry at those! Sheesh!

Some movies I'm considering:
The Tale of Despereaux
The Princess and the Frog
The Incredibles
Horton Hears a Who

I dunno, that' all I got so far. What are your ideas/suggestions??

Answer Me This: Blog comments

So today I'm wondering how you read blog comment replies. I've set my profile so that after I leave a comment on your blog my email address shows up when you get a comment notification. (under "edit profile" checkmark "show my email address") Then you're able to just reply to me directly in your email instead of back in the blog comments section. I know I rarely remember/have time to go back to blog posts to check for more comments, unless it's something I really wanted to read more answers on. So if you comment on my blog I love being to reply to you personally directly in my email although if it's something I think other readers might want to know too then I'll post it on the blog comments too. If you're leary (sp?) of putting your email address out there, you could create a new email account just for blog things. Since you're my readers, I'm asking, how do you prefer to read replies to the comments you leave??

Answer Me This: Laundry

What's the best way you get stains out of your laundry??

1. Baby poop.
2. Spaghetti sauce.

For baby poop blowouts I usually soak the clothes in a bucket of Oxyclean for a few days hours and then include them with the regular laundry. But lately that hasn't exactly been working as great. Probably because I've been forgetting about them soaking them too long, the clothes come out a little nappy. or something. Or the stain is still not out completely. Probably because I let them sit for way too long before doing anything with them in the first place! But still, there's gotta be something that works.

For spaghetti sauce I usually throw it in with the regular clothes and just hope it will actually come out clean, but it never usually does.

So help me! What are your tricks?? I always feel disgusted when another perfectly good outfit gets "ruined" because of stains! But I don't exactly have time to manually treat every piece of clothing that gets anything on it! Is there a magic potion I could use??

Answer Me This: Ikea

Okay guys, fill me in, what's so great about Ikea?? I've never been there and never even lived near one, but based on friends' comment I read here and there, I must be missing out on something. So tell me, what is this store like and why is it so great??

Answer Me This: Swords

For moms of boys, please help me! What's your take on your kids playing with swords or guns or pretending fighting?? I just don't really like it, the whole pretending to fight, violence in our home, even when it's just play. It doesn't fall into the godly life I'm trying to encourage, but at the same time I'm not very good at knowing when to just let kids be kids or if that's the girl in me that's just not interested in that stuff. We don't have guns or sword toys at our house but the kids are wanting to pretend their umbrellas are swords. So anyway, what's your take on the matter?? What do you do?

Answer Me This: First Babysitter

Lately it's becoming more clear to me how much I want to establish a "babysitter" for our kids. Because of Kevin's rotating work schedule he's not always available to watch the kids when I have weekly things like Bible study at the church or whatever and it's something that pushes past the kids' bedtime. I hate to have the kids go to their friends' house those times and then keep them up past their bedtime too, and beyond that it's hard to think of people to watch the kids for me (usually because the people I know are at the same event I'm at!). Wouldn't it be so nice to come home from Bible study and the kids already be in bed for me instead of getting home at 9pm and rushing around?? Ahhh... Then there's date nights. Same deal. If the kids are at a friends' house then we have to be back by bedtime, and around here there 'aint much to do in such short time. I'd just love if Kevin and I could have time together on a somewhat regular basis. I think we'd feel so much more refreshed and we'd all be happier for it and our family life would be so much more peaceful. So I want to find a babysitter, but I'm nervous to make that step. To trust some high schooler with all three of my kids. Three is a lot of work, especially for someone not used to the juggling act. And right off the bat I can't really think of any young girls at our church that are quite old enough. A couple friends have referred me to their babysitters, but that just makes me nervous because I don't know them! I've never done this before and don't know how to take the first step! So what's your experience?? When did you get your first babysitter? Who is she and where do you find her? And how much do you pay??

Answer Me This: Pampers Wipes

Okay, can someone PLEASE fill me in here?! WHY do some Pampers refill wipes packages have the sticky top so you can use the refill package as your actual travel wipes, and other times they don't have the sticky top and you have to actually cut open the package and place the refill into a plastic wipes container? Did that even make sense? Has anyone noticed this same problem??

Answer me this: This is the year!

Alrighty, friends, I really want your input on this one... Christmas is coming and with that comes Santa. We don't do Santa at our house, but Eli's old enough this year and already asking questions, I need to explain who Santa is. He's been seeing decorations/pictures of him around the stores and asking "Is that Jesus? Who is that?" I casually answer that it's Santa and then change the subject. I want him to know a) where the idea of Santa Claus came from, b) that he's no longer real, and c) that many people like to believe that he's real. And then we continue on with what Christmas is really about--celebrating the birth of Jesus. I want him to know the truth but not walk around blowing the cover to other kids! Of course this is something Kevin and I will have to sit down and discuss, but I thought I'd see if you had any advice to share! How do you explain Santa to your kids?

Answer me this!

Okay, so I have some random questions I'd love you to answer for me, and instead of continuing to add them to the end of my already-long Meanderings, I thought I'd start a new series. Nothing regular, but just whenever I have a question. Sometimes it's about parenting, like last week. Sometimes it's about homekeeping, like this week. And sometimes it's just completely random, like what's so special about dairy cows, if all cows make milk? I told you, random.

So here we go, this week's question:

Do you clean the inside side of your shower curtain? Do you spray it with cleaner or wipe it down? And if so, how often?

I was just looking at ours the other day, thinking it could use a clean. I usually do nothing to it, we just occasionally buy a new one when it's reeeeaally bad. So here I'm wondering what you do?