I have a quick and easy smoothie recipe that your kids will love, and they’ll be getting fruits and veggies to boot!  It’s simple and delicious for breakfast, lunch, or a snack.  It’s also a great filler if you’re trying to watch your weight.  (I just keep watching mine go up!) 

You’ll need Vanilla light Soy Milk-1 or 2 cups
Pure organic carrot juice-1 cup
One banana
Handful of blueberries
Handful of red grapes
One apple
2Tbs. ground flax seed
1 to 2 Tbs. cinnamon
1 Scoop Vanilla protein powder

Combine above ingredients in blender and blend to your desired consistency.  You can’t taste the carrot juice at all.  It’s filled with antioxidants that are good for you, and the cinnamon is supposed to be an appetite suppressant.  The apple gives you fiber, so don’t skip it.  It makes enough for breakfast and lunch, so I just usually keep the blender in the fridge for easier access.  I hope you enjoy it, it works for me!  For more WFMW tips, check out Rocks In My Dryer.

Go visit Shannon for some great tips on what works for others.  What works for me today is reusing water bottles.  I have a 32 oz. sport bottle that I refill throughout the day.  It’s easy for me to monitor how much I’m taking in, and I’m trying to do my part for the future of our world.  Did you know that plastic bottles are recycled, but the caps aren’t?  Yep, the caps are discarded, and often times end up in the oceans.  From that point, they wind up in the stomachs of seals or birds, who eventually die from malnutrition because their stomach is full.  From the green standpoint, if the average person drank 8 ounces of bottled water a day, it would take 1.5 million barrels of oil annually to satisfy America’s demand for bottled water.  (Plastic is derived from petroleum.)  If this oil were converted to gasoline, the total could fuel five hundred thousand station wagons for a coast to coast trip.  Considering the price of a gallon of gas right now, I think I can reuse my water bottles!  Try it and see if it works for you.

It’s another episode of Works for me Wednesday over at Rocks In My Dryer.  Hop on over there after you’re done here and check out all the great tips. 

Digital Scrapbooking is what works for me today.  As you may know, I’m a consultant for Creative Memories.  I love, love, love to scrapbook.  Sometimes I just need to throw one together quickly, and lack the creativity that I need.  So I do a digital scrapbook by uploading my pictures, and dragging and dropping, cutting and pasting, and voila!  The end product is a sturdy hard bound book.  I made one for my son’s third birthday and he loves to look at it.  It only took me around 2 hours to do!  I then made one for my oldest sons racing last year, documenting his race for the championship.  I actually made 4, and gave three as gifts, and plan to use the other one to show prospective sponsors for him.  It’s fast, fun, easy, and cheap.  Just visit my website at www.mycmsite.com/jenteike and click on Digital Scrapbooks to learn more about it. 

Yes, I’m trying to help you preserve your memories while having fun, and make a little extra money for me.  I’m really sorry if this offends you.  Please forgive me. 

It’s the backwards edition over at Rocks In My Dryer, and that means instead of me racking my brain to come up with what works for me, I get to ask you the questions.  You then leave me a comment and share all your expertise with me.  For more pleas of help, visit Rocks In My Dryer.

I can’t decide what I need more, so I’ll ask all of them.  The first is about coupon clipping.  I’ve been trying to stay on top of the coupons, but they are overwhelming me.  Do you clip every coupon and file them away, or keep the coupons in the fliers and carry those around with you?  I read somewhere about keeping the coupons in a binder, stored in baseball card sleeves, but after only one month of clipping it is so full.  How do you categorize them?  I feel like a crazy person standing in the aisle looking for that one coupon I know I have for something that wasn’t advertised on sale, but it is.  I don’t think the binder is working for me, but don’t know what would either.  Please Help…

The second thing is a spiritual question.  God is placing something on my heart, and it is so not me.  He’s asking me to step out in faith.  What are your thoughts on teaching young girls about purity, and purity pledges?  At what age do you think this is appropriate to begin?  I read in a magazine a while back about a family that started a purity ball, where the dads and daughters attend together and sign a pledge of purity.  The dad makes a commitment to help his daughter with that pledge.  My daughter will be 12 in couple of months, and the naive mom in me wishes that is too young.  The “in the know” mom tells me I need to open my eyes.  The world is changing, and not for the better in this area.  Things are going on in middle schools that shock me.  So this question may make you think, but please do comment and let me know your thoughts. 

Thanks for participating! 

We don’t have city water, we have a well.  Yeah, we live in the suburbs!  Our water is so hard and rusty.  We used to have a water softener, and then my husband had to disconnect it for some reason, I can’t remember why.  Anyway, it hasn’t worked for a while now.  We have a drip in the kids bathtub, and it leaves a really nice round rust stain.  I’ve tried all the recommended rust removers, and out of frustration one day I squirted a little of the Sno Bowl toilet cleaner on a toothbrush.  Ya know what, it worked really well.  Very little scrubbing and the stain was gone.  Be sure to read the label to see what you can use it on, but it works for me.  For more great ideas, check out Rocks in My Dryer.

I can’t believe it’s Wednesday already, but all the people lined up over at Rocks in My Dryer tell me otherwise.   When you’re done here, drop by using the above link and catch all the other great ideas!

Do you suddenly become overwhelmed and short of breath after the Christmas or birthday gifts have been opened and your floor is covered up with pretty paper?  I do, but I’ve found a great way to recycle this paper.  I just run it through the paper shredder and store it in a bag or box in the basement.  When I have a gift for someone special, or one of the kids friends or teachers…it seems like we’re always needing something for someone…back to the subject!  When I have a gift, I go to the box of shredded wrapping paper and grab a handful to fill in the bag.  It saves money on tissue paper, and I can never make that look right anyway.  Now that I’m clipping coupons, I can also do this with the cutouts from the coupons.  The shreds are so small you really can’t tell what it is.  That’s what works for me! 

 This post is coming to you a little late because I fell asleep snuggling with my sick little one.  The topic this week is online shopping, and where is your favorite place to find bargains on the web.  I have to admit, I’m pretty new to the shopping online because I’m pretty much an instant gratification person.  When I buy something, I like to have it in my hands!  With that said, I’ve just become a fan of ebay, and have found a few really great deals on there.  It does take some time to check it out and bid, but you can come away with some great deals.  I also love to support the artisans at etsy, for their handmade items.  Like I said, I’m pretty new to this, so you can check out tons more online shopping places over at Rocks in my Dryer. 

This is my first attempt at a blog carnival, but I’ve learned so much from some of these women.  Tonight I’m making Chicken and Noodles.  Just poached the frozen chicken breasts in water, added the noodles, and here’s the secret…. added a can of cream of chicken soup to the pot to thicken it up.  It’s really great if you can find the can with the herbs added in, then you have one less step.  It’s so simple, yet so yummy on a cold winter day!  I hope you enjoy the simplicity of it.  For more ideas, visit Rocks in my Dryer.