5 Itty Bitty Housework Hacks to Save Time and Money

12. March 2014 · Comments Off on 5 Itty Bitty Housework Hacks to Save Time and Money · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags:

HouseworkHacks

This is a post I originally published at GeekMom on March 5, 2014. I’ve made a couple modifications for context.

I don’t care for housework. I understand it’s a fact of life and I do get a feeling of accomplishment when everything is clean.

Thirty seconds later, the boys (and/or Howie) come home from the park and undo it all. Oh well, at least I tried, right?

Over the years of keeping my own home, I’ve come to rely on numerous “life hacks” that buy me a few minutes of time savings (and sanity) from housework.

Allow me to share with you some of the smaller, more subtle housework hacks that I have come to rely on. I’m sure these tips exist already, and many of you will say, “Well, DUH! Who doesn’t do that?”, but for me, I found some of them genius! And if you try some of the ones that seem new to you, you might ask yourself in a few weeks, “Why did I not do that all along?” More »

Colorado Discoveries 30: History Colorado Center

05. March 2014 · 3 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,
DSC_0549

This beautiful new facility opened in Spring 2012. It’s not completely full, there’s plenty of room to populate with more exhibits.

I’ve been remiss. 2 1/2 weeks since my last post. Things have been getting progressively busier in the Vollmer house as our boys have started their baseball practice with their new baseball program: Academy Little League.

The boys were out of school on Valentine’s Day, so we took the day and cashed in on part of the Christmas gift from my dear sister’s family: tickets to the History Colorado Center in downtown Denver. As I’ve written for the GeekMom blog, I love state history museums, and I’ve dragged our sons to the history museum for every state we’ve lived in since they were born. More »

Pinewood Derby 2014: The Electric Wedge and Howie Car

14. February 2014 · Comments Off on Pinewood Derby 2014: The Electric Wedge and Howie Car · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,
Our winners! We're so proud of our boys this year. Not only did they do most of the work (really!), their cars performed very well.

Our winners! We’re so proud of our boys this year. Not only did they do most of the work (really!), their cars performed very well, earning first place trophies for each of their age groups.

Last month the boys participated in their Cub Scout pack’s Pinewood Derby. I thought I had written about our sons’ Cub Scout Pinewood Derbies before, but I guess I hadn’t. This is Jacob’s 5th year competing, and Timmy’s 3rd. And our third Cub Scout pack experience with it.

Because this is a much smaller pack than we had in Florida, the entire event was completed in less than two hours. It was nice to see the boys pay attention to the entire event…unlike in Florida where the event was around 4 hours long.

I’m going to discuss the cars our sons chose to make, and then discuss the event itself. I guess I’ll be spilling some trade secrets and monetary investments we made in the boys’ cars, but I don’t think what we did was too unreasonable. More »

The SodaStream Chatterbox “House Party” Pack

05. February 2014 · Comments Off on The SodaStream Chatterbox “House Party” Pack · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,
If you talk about the product, you get to try out the product.

If you talk about the product, you get to try out the product.

Today I will be talking about our SodaStream again. I had written about it last year when we first got it, and one of the most popular posts I’ve ever written for GeekMom is about a Soda Stream syrup hack using real sugar.

We’ve had our SodaStream just under a year and we like it a lot. We’ve had to replace the CO2 cartridge three times in that year, meaning we’ve made nearly 200 liters of soda with us. We’ve tried the SodaStream-brand syrups, we’ve made our own syrups, and we’ve tried the Mio-type concentrated flavor syrups. The latter option has been the most convenient for us, and that’s what we tend to do most often.

With that background, I had applied in January through the House Party social service to try out some Soda Stream flavors and talk it up through social media.

The SodaStream pack arrived in mid-January. You can see what I had received in the photo above. The sampler box of syrups, two 1L bottles, a recipe that mixes flavors, and several coupons to give to friends. I was surprised to see that most of the flavors in the pack weren’t necessarily new. In fact, we had tried the Country Time and Kool-Aid flavors in the past. Read on for my impressions of the Chatterbox. More »

Colorado Springs School “Choice” Drama Part 1: School in the Woods

31. January 2014 · Comments Off on Colorado Springs School “Choice” Drama Part 1: School in the Woods · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , ,
Making the right school decision in Colorado Springs can make you lose your mind.

Making the right school decision in Colorado Springs can make you lose your mind.

Earlier in January, Timmy came home from school and asked if he could apply to the “School in the Woods.”

I hadn’t really heard of “School in the Woods” (I saw a girl at the boys’ school wearing a “School in the Woods” hoodie every day and that’s it), so I had to interrogate Timmy a little more about what it was.

“It’s a school for 4th graders and you spend all your time outside studying nature.”

Hey — outside is good, right? More »

Colorado Discoveries 29: Ski Cooper (Not Copper)

26. January 2014 · Comments Off on Colorado Discoveries 29: Ski Cooper (Not Copper) · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,
The snow, the views, and the lack of crowds makes Ski Cooper (not Copper) a local favorite!

The snow, the views, and the lack of crowds makes Ski Cooper (not Copper) a local favorite!

Our family took two day trips over two consecutive weekends to Ski Cooper, a small resort just north of Leadville, Colorado. The lift tickets are very inexpensive, there were never lift lines, and we took advantage of the boys getting to take two full days of lessons through the resort’s “Panda Patrol” program.

I have to make clear here — such as what I put in the title — that we did not go to Copper Mountain, which is often what Google hands back to you when you Google anything like “skiing cooper” or something like that. Copper is a much bigger, more vacation-resort-type of ski area, but is only about 20 miles north of Cooper. That’s not where we went. More »

Colorado Discoveries 28: Sports Authority Field, Home of the BRONCOS!

19. January 2014 · Comments Off on Colorado Discoveries 28: Sports Authority Field, Home of the BRONCOS! · Categories: Uncategorized
Sports Authority Field is open daily (on non-game days) for tours.

Sports Authority Field is open daily (on non-game days) for tours.

After our surprisingly-short trip to the Denver Downtown Aquarium, we ended up with a free afternoon. My friend Paige suggested we call over to Sports Authority Field at Mile High and grab reservations for the stadium tour. Luckily we got the last spots for the tour! After a nice lunch nearby, we got to the stadium with enough time to view the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame before our 1pm tour.

The Denver Broncos is an immensely popular NFL team, having a long presence in the area, so getting tickets to Broncos home games is very difficult. In fact, Broncos home games have been sold out since their 1970 season! There’s a good chance this is the only way we’ll get to see the stadium. I doubt we’ll make it to a game. More »

Colorado Discoveries 27: Denver Downtown Aquarium

14. January 2014 · Comments Off on Colorado Discoveries 27: Denver Downtown Aquarium · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,
I'd never been to an aquarium with REAL LIVE MERMAIDS before; those little girls were mesmerized!

I’d never been to an aquarium with REAL LIVE MERMAIDS before; those little girls were mesmerized!

During the kids’ winter break we took a day trip up to Denver for a little sightseeing. First, we stopped at the Downtown Aquarium.

I will say up front that if you find it a little strange that there’s an aquarium over 1000 miles from the nearest major body of water, you aren’t alone. My friend and I were certainly curious about what kind of aquatic life we might find. More »

Major Mom’s Back to Basics Campaign: Homemade Corn Tortillas

09. January 2014 · 1 comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , ,
No, not pretty, but so tasty!

No, not pretty, but so tasty!

My husband and I made a radical change to our diets this new year. We are attempting a Gluten-Free lifestyle. We aren’t allergic to gluten, but we are trying to see if some lingering ailments subside: joint discomfort, congestion, and (for Dave) IT band problems. I’ve not had arthritis in my hands or knees for the past week (a problem I’ve had in cold climates for many years) so I think we might be on to something. More »

They Multiply…

08. January 2014 · Comments Off on They Multiply… · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,
I haven't done a good old fashioned rant about household clutter lately...

I haven’t done a good old fashioned rant about household clutter lately…

The images you see in this post are snapshots from around my family room and kitchen on Tuesday, January 7, 2014. Those piles have since moved around and spread out some.

Today my sons went back to school after 19 days off for the holiday break. That is by far the longest grade school break I’ve ever dealt with, perhaps even as long as some college breaks.

We had a great time: we did a ton of sightseeing around Colorado, the boys enjoyed time with their grandparents, and had hours…upon hours…upon hours of video game, Kindle game, and TV time. But now it’s time to ratchet all that back and hunker down, at least till Spring Break in 2 1/2 months.

One of the perks of their going back to school is that I have the house to myself now for the first time in nearly 3 weeks. I have been able to keep it pretty clean…and sometimes even with their help! But something happens when my sons are home.

Little things start to accumulate everywhere. Over the holidays this usually involves stocking stuffers.

The Tabasco and test tube of fake snow were among Jacob's stocking stuffers. The letter opener is mine.

The Tabasco minis and test tube of fake snow were among Jacob’s stocking stuffers. The letter opener is mine.

The kids begin to leave little piles of “stuff” all over the house. I do my best to keep it somewhat neat and orderly…but believe it or not, the kids are using this “stuff”. They will suddenly play marbles…or pick up a sheet of jokes from our Christmas crackers…or decide to whittle a stick…or enjoy a block of Pez in their new Perry the Platypus dispenser.

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Actually, the “MakeDo” set is my contribution to our piles of stuff. Yesterday I was collecting our holiday Amazon boxes for the boys to use the MakeDo connectors.

The center of my coffee table has a decorative wire basket that I use to attempt to keep the “stuff” under control. Before long, you can’t even see the basket, you see the pile of Rubik’s Cubes, stuffed animals, SparkFun kits, and Nerf blaster darts.

Can you see the basket under there?

Can you see the basket under there?

I try to keep the piles of “stuff” nice and neat at least. But it doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a pile of random “stuff”…and when I visit other peoples’ houses, even with kids around, there doesn’t seem to be this “stuff”.

Where do you put it all? Don’t your kids play with toys? What’s wrong with us?

</rant>

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