WFMW | Permission to Peruse

Works for Me Wednesday: The eBook That Works For Me!

April 9th, 2012 at 7:34 am / Amy Bennett / 5 Comments »

Comments are closed and winner is #2 comment, Dani!

Are you ready for the latest useful, organized, interactive eBook to hit the blogosphere? Kristen Welch who weekly hosts Works for me Wednesday teamed up with blogger Jennifer De Groot to publish That Works For Me! The new eBook compiles over 800 categorized tips helping you do life better.

And it appears my iPhone escapades have finally paid off. I’ve put more than one cell phone down a toilet, cracked more screens than I can count and my latest, lost functionality of my lock button. That Works for Me! includes my post What to Do When Your iPhone Lock or Home Button Quits Working.

I’ve been able to browse the eBook and this has everything: blogging tips, laundry tips, cooking tips, marriage tips and it goes on and on into 24 different categories.

Not only will you have 800 tips at a very low rate of 1 cent per tip, part of your money will be donated to Mercy House. Mercy House gets pregnant women off the streets in Kenya, Africa and helps them in “nutrition, housing, prenatal care, Bible study, counseling, and job skills for sustainable living.” I love it!

Now the very best part is I have a giveaway! Just leave a comment here telling me in what area you could use a tip? I’ll close it out Wednesday morning. Also, if you submit a tip during the month of April, you just might win a free house cleaning! Think up your best tip and be sure to submit it!

In the meantime, feel free to check out my past Works for me Wednesday posts or go ahead and buy the book! TODAY ONLY the eBook is only $5!!

That works for me!

Popularity: 26% [?]

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WFMW: Apple Chips

March 21st, 2012 at 12:23 pm / Amy Bennett / 2 Comments »

OK, this is one of those Works for Me Wednesdays where you find something new and you want to share it but you’re pretty sure everyone already does this and you’re about 33 years too late on the whole deal. But I’m just going with it.

Growing up and even until recently, we always ate an apple either the old-fashioned way or used Pampered Chef’s apple slicer to produce 8 (?) even slices. Well, recently we went somewhere and all I had was a knife and Lexi had no front teeth so I ended up slicing off thin pieces of apples for her. She LOVED it. In fact, we all do. We call them apple chips.

Something about them being thin and easy to eat a whole slice at one time. Or the texture seems better. Maybe they remind us of potato chips. I can’t exactly figure it out but getting the kids to eat an apple is now a cinch! Just plop a bowl in front of them and they disappear as fast as a bag of potato chips. Give it a try. It works for me!

This post is linked with We Are That Family

Popularity: 29% [?]

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Works for Me Wednesday: Siri and the iPhone Reminder App

February 15th, 2012 at 11:36 am / Amy Bennett / 10 Comments »

I’m a diehard iPhone lover but there is one feature that I think has fallen flat. Siri. Just this morning I saw my cousin complaining on Facebook with another example of how Siri did not interpret her request even close to correctly. My problem is not so much that it doesn’t understand me but in the limited functions it can do. For example, I can’t tell it to do anything on Twitter or Facebook, or any other app for that matter. I could understand except Twitter is a built-in app now. It should at least be able to open and refresh my timeline.

I’ve found it’s pretty limited to calling and texting people, weather, music, directions and searching. Some of it is helpful but when it can’t understand what you’re saying, particularly when you’re requesting street addresses or names, it’s dreadfully useless.

However.

The one thing I constantly use Siri for is reminders. I didn’t even know I had a Reminders app until a few months ago. I was previously using my calendar to schedule things. These days, if it’s not on my calendar, it’s NOT happening. Funny enough, last week I saw Lexi had an upcoming dentist appointment. I started warning her to get prepared 3 days in advance. Finally, she said, “But they said they wouldn’t see me until May last time!” Well, just in case, I made the phone call and sure enough the appointment in my calendar was still in there after we had already taken a canceled appointment a few weeks back and I had forgotten to remove the original appointment.

The calendar is great and all but I schedule silly things like going to the pharmacy or calling a friend or leaving Amazon feedback I promised. It’s not really an appointment but I need to do it at some point. Reminders are great for this. You still can schedule them, on repeat if needed, and it still reminds you at a certain time but it’s not clouding your calendar with the rest of the REAL appointments.

However, I find the reminder interface a little confusing. It’s one of the few iPhone apps I say that about.

Enter Siri.

I find it MUCH easier to say, “Remind me take out the trash every Tuesday at 7am.” Bam! It’s done, repeating reminder and all.

Here’s a transcript for my lunch today:

So it’s not grammatically correct but at least the words are correct. It will show a pop-up notification on my screen at 12. When I’m done, I can check it off in my Reminders app. And if you know me, you know how much I love to do that!

Works for me!

This post is linked up to WeAreThatFamily.com

Popularity: 35% [?]

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Works for Me Wednesday: Dishwashing Tip

February 8th, 2012 at 7:00 am / Amy Bennett / 12 Comments »

Why is it so many times I think of a great tip, it’s something Scott came up with? Hmm. In any case, he doesn’t have a blog (and barely reads mine, for the record) so I get to post all his great ideas.

Like many of you, I’m sure, I keep a hand towel by the sink. In the case where I have to hand wash dishes, I always spread the hand towel out on the counter, wash, rinse and then like a game of Jenga, place all the dishes on the little hand towel. For years. And I mean YEARS, if I was losing at my game of Jenga and really needed more drying space, I’d just get another hand towel out and lay it beside the other and keep going. This was fine and all but Scott made it a little better.

See, about a year or two ago when I finally figured out how to cook something besides spaghetti (thank you, Ree), we figured out that the best way our house worked (ie, not have dirty dishes lying around for a week) is if I started and emptied the dishwasher, he reloaded it and he washed any of the larger dishes/pots left. I take out the trash normally so don’t feel too bad for him. This is the part where I don’t mind feminism so much. In any case, because he normally was left with several pots to clean, rarely was the one hand towel enough.

So.

He started keeping a large beach towel in the adjacent laundry room. When it was time to do dishes, he folded it in half and used that as the drying towel. It’s GREAT.

It’s super absorbent, unlike many of my hand towels
It expands to take up the entire countertop if we need it
We can use it forever because it’s never getting dirty, just wet. I do wash it occasionally just to calm my germ fears.
I only have one hand towel out at a time.

Ya’ll. It works for me! Or him. Whatever.

This post is linked up to WeAreThatFamily.com

Popularity: 49% [?]

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Works for Me Wednesday: Winter Coats

January 25th, 2012 at 1:51 pm / Amy Bennett / 6 Comments »

OK, to really get this tip, you have to know I’m located in the South. As I type this in late January, it’s 61 degrees outside. All the rumors about us being unable to handle cold weather is pretty much truth. Unlike my northern extended family, we don’t own a snow shovel. We don’t own a snow blower. I don’t even have an ice scraper in my van. And most of all, we don’t have a place in our house set aside for all the jackets, shoes and other paraphernalia you need during the cold months.

Most of my northern family have basements. In those basements, many of them have cabinets that hold all the shoes. Shoes don’t go to the main level of the house. There are also lots of hooks and cabinets for coats.

And we? Don’t.

We don’t have room in our garage for this type of thing. Our hall closet is small and packed. So what happens during the winter months when we do need coats when we walk in the house (with our shoes) is lay them on the closest surface. Some of my friends here have a coat closet and actually use it. My mom has a coat rack near her garage they use. But us? Mine is usually hanging on a chair somewhere and the girls are usually on the floor in the playroom.

Well.

Here’s what we did to fix it.

We decided to use the outside of the hall closet. When we were visiting an organizational store recently, I had the idea to get an over-the-door set of hooks, that I normally would have thought to use behind a door for towels or robes in a bathroom or closet, and put it on the outside of our hall closet door. Now, it’s not that pretty but now we don’t have to try to squeeze our coats in and out of the closet, the kids can use it and it’s near the front door. Best of all, we can take it down easily during our warmest months and stuff all the coats back in the closet for storage.

Here it is with the front door closed.

However, our front door is usually open and they’re mostly hidden.

Depending on your weather and house floor plan this may or may not work for you, but it works for me!

This post is linked to WeAreThatFamily.com

Popularity: 38% [?]

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What to Do When Your iPhone Lock or Home Button Quits Working

December 27th, 2011 at 9:28 pm / Amy Bennett / 2 Comments »

I’m hard on phones. I really am. It’s sort of a joke to the folks around me. I’ve had two drop in toilets, screens shatter in my driveway on more than one occasion and the latest mishap is my lock button has quit working. Don’t be shocked but this happened last February too. Since my phone was still under warranty, Apple was quick to replace the entire phone. But now? I’m out of warranty and the only thing they offered is a new phone for the low price of $149. I only have 2 weeks until my phone upgrade is available (hello, Siri) so it’s silly to pay for a new one. Without my lock button functioning, I can’t shut my screen off which means I’m draining battery about as fast as my kids can make a mess. And I can’t restart it.

Well, I found this handy thing called Assistive Touch and I just think it’s the neatest little thing. I’ve had 3 models of the iPhone and have never heard about this. I have no clue how long it’s been there.

Oh and PS, I can’t take screen shots on my phone since, you know, my lock button is broken. This fix doesn’t fix that unfortunately. If you know of an alternate way to do that, please let me know.

Go to settings:

General:

Accessibility:

Turn Assistive Touch on.

A little black box with a white circle will show up somewhere on your screen. It kind of jumps around on the screen depending on what you’re doing. You can see it here on the right side in the middle-ish of the screen.

You can also drag it around on your own. Here I’ve moved it to the bottom right. You can see it right under that fingerprint and glare.

When you need to lock your screen or go Home, click on it and you’ll see this menu pop up:

For Home, click on Home or for the lock button, click on Device and you’ll see this sub-menu:

Click the Lock Screen and voila! Your phone is locked and you can see your fingerprints and smudges perfectly!

As you might have seen in that submenu, you can do several other things. This can also be used when the volume/mute button is broken. Handy little thing.

So for two weeks, this is how I have to lock my screen. Works for me! Think it might work for you one day, pin it to keep it handy!

I’ve linked this post to Works for me Wednesday at WeAreThatFamily.

Popularity: 85% [?]

Tags: broken, home button, iphone, lock button, mute button, workaround Comments (2)

Works for me Wednesday: Laundry Bins

November 30th, 2011 at 9:16 am / Amy Bennett / 15 Comments »

I haven’t done a WFMW post in a LONG time. I’ve been meaning to do this one for several months. Actually, it could be years by now. I have to tell you about the best thing I ever did for my laundry. It’s not a new concept and we’re not breaking any ground here but I finally got SIX different bins to put mine and Scott’s clothes in (grammar geeks, how do I say that? me and Scott’s? Scott and my?).

Before, we had one hamper with all our clothes and once a week, or whenver we ran out of white clothes (the fastest growing) I would have to sort all the clothes and since they were all out, I’d wash all of them. Sometimes the poor red/pink/purple pile would be pitiful but I was unwilling to put anything back in the hamper.

Scott, my very organized better half, finally went out and bought six of these skinny bins. We sort as we go. We have jeans, whites, blacks, mixed, reds and even one for towels. When one gets full, I wash that and don’t have to wash the rest. As we speak, the blacks are in the washing machine and the rest are waiting for their turn in the closet. The other great thing is it’s so easy to carry them with handles on each side. When it’s time for the clean clothes to go back, I put all the small things inside the bins and then lay pants and shirts over the top but am still able to use the handles to carry it all.

I LOVE them and they were well worth the investment. I figure I’m saving time sorting and washing extranneous loads and money on water and energy. That certainly works for me!

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Works for Me Wednesday

November 24th, 2010 at 2:58 pm / Amy Bennett / 1 Comment »

OF COURSE I would come up with something for a WFMW post when everyone is taking off for Thanksgiving but I’m going to share anyway! I can’t take credit for this one actually. And I don’t know if this is something everyone does and I’ve just been missing out but here we go, brace yourselves…

Put your apple on a fork to eat it.

Let me let Lexi demonstrate:

So the story, according to Emma, is that back at Halloween the girls were eating some leftover candied apples from the Fall Festival at my in-law’s house. There was only one left and Emma had it. Lexi wanted to eat hers on a stick too so they used a fork instead. I know there is no caramel that is keeping her from touching the plain apple directly but this just makes it easier for her to eat and carry around. And if you ask me, keeps at least a few germs off her food.

It works for me!

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Dishes Done!

August 10th, 2010 at 10:00 pm / Amy Bennett / 7 Comments »

It takes less than 10 minutes to empty a dishwasher, reload it and hand wish the big pots. So why do I put it off for HOURS? I can’t stand doing it! I’ve come up with two things that help me do it and help me do it now.

Set a timer. Set it for 5 minutes and see how much you get done. Then leave the rest. If you’re at all competitive like me, you’ll try to beat the clock, move fast and find yourself all done. Five minutes. It feels like an eternity when you’re doing dishes but it’s over in a flash!
Reward yourself. Yep, good ‘ol positive reinforcement. For the dishes, I keep two scrubs under the cabinet. One is a sea salt scrub from Arbonne and the other is a Coconut sugar scrub I got from TJMax. When I’m done, I get to scrub my hands, leaving them super silky and smelling good after such a downer of a job.

This post was linked up at Works for me Wednesday at WeAreThatFamily.com

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Works for Me Wednesday: Backwards Edition

March 5th, 2008 at 12:15 am / Amy Bennett / 10 Comments »

OK, I have two questions.

One is related to my freak-out about Emma starting kindergarten this year. Any tips from those who have been there-done that? Pack a lunch or buy? What to include in a packed lunch? Ride the bus or pick them up? Any other tips on sending your first one off to kindergarten?

The second is about my shower. How do I get the soap scum off the walls?

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Works for me Wednesday: Frugal Tip

January 23rd, 2008 at 1:17 pm / Amy Bennett / 2 Comments »

I’m certainly not known for my frugalness but certain money wasters do bother me. Are you familiar with the Antibacterial Soaps from Bath and Body Works? I’m assuming yes because, I mean who isn’t. Well, it REALLY IRRITATES me to pay so much for a bottle of soap and then when there is an inch of soap left in the bottom, it completely quits pumping the soap and all that soap is wasted. Please someone, tell me this happens to them too.

Anyway, at first I started just removing the pump altogether and shaking down the soap to try to use all that was possible then that just started being a pain to do every. time. I had to wash my hands. And with two potty training girls, I was doing that a lot.

Just recently I had my husband take a sharp blade of some sort (I don’t know, it disappeared into the garage and came back the way I wanted it) and cut the bottle down to right above where the soap was. Then, I had a little bowl of soap to sit on my counter. I put this one in my personal bathroom where no one else goes so our guests weren’t forced to use this. But, we used it up like this. And the soap didn’t even dry out without a top. If that freaks you out, I’m sure a layer of saran wrap would do well.

I’m sure the REAL frugal people would do something fantastic like actually make their own soap with all those yummy scents and never spend so much on Bath and Body Works but this works for me!