Gratuitous YouTube

This clip is awesome. It's a British public service announcement.

Shameless Plug

Okay, so...I was over reading the Money Saving Mom blog, and she had a post up about Swagbucks.

Apparently, the deal is that you sign up, and they award you points for making searches through their site. You get 3 points when you sign up, and can win 1-5 points for each search (Apparently it's random, but it didn't take me more than a couple searches to win one for 2 points). A $5 Amazon electronic gift code is 45 points, which seems pretty easy to earn in a month. You can save up to get cards for other stores, but I did a couple of point-per-dollar comparisons, and Amazon has the best return on investment.

They also have toolbars you can add to your browser (including Firefox--yay!) to make it easier to use. It's powered by Google (yay!) and Ask.com. Not a bad deal overall.

What are you waiting for? Sign up here.

To my sisters...I'm looking at you. You know how I make you sign up for things so I can get points? Yeah. And you love My Points, right? Do it.

Pumpkins

1, 2, 3 little pumpkins.

Noah's is a regular scary face he designed. It looks a lot like last year's model. Karen's is a puppy dog with floppy ears. And Sarah's is a vampire pumpkin.

I was fully planning to cook them all up after Halloween, but there was some melted wax I didn't want to deal with...and eventually they were goners. They went in the trash today.

ePatterns

A little late for Halloween, I came across Sense & Sensibility, a website offering digitized ePatterns for vintage clothing, like a Regency dress (with an additional neckline supplement for those who don't want to bare all), children's pinafores and bloomers, Regency underwear (!), Spencer and Pelisse, embroidery patterns...I am so ready for a Jane Austen costume party!

There are also Edwardian, 1910's, 1940's, and Swing items that the owner of the site will eventually have all digitized.

Karen is such a fruitcake

I made chili tonight, and cooked some extra beans to freeze. After Karen ate half her chili, she told me she wanted 'more rice' and pointed at the cooling bowl of plain beans.

Me: Do you want more chili?
Karen: No, don't like it! (pointing again at the beans)
Me: Do you just want beans?
Karen: Yes.
Me: There are beans in the chili. See?
Karen: No! Don't like it!
Me: But here's just a plain bean.
Karen:No!
Me: Fine, here's a bean from the bowl.
Karen: Don't like it!
Me: Wha? What did you want then?
Karen: Lots. On plate.
Me: Okay fine.

I gave her a spoonful in a little bowl, figuring we'd probably throw them out once she finished playing with them. She lifted the bowl up and poured them in her mouth and ate them. Plain unsalted beans. Gross. But I guess she knew what she wanted.

The Halloween Fairy and Russian Tea

It's a double header post. Yay!

The basic concept of the Halloween Fairy is that she comes and takes away all the candy and leaves a toy or money in its place. The kids get something in exchange, and Mom doesn't have to deal with limiting candy, finding candy stuck in carpets, wiping chocolate-y finger prints off everything, or settling disputes over stolen candy. But...

Okay. I couldn't do it. I couldn't make all the Halloween candy disappear overnight. I just couldn't abort the fun of sorting and hoarding the candy for a few days... But I also couldn't dispute the existence of the Halloween Fairy after the kids got so excited. So Miss Fairy took some of the candy (mostly the plethora of things I know the kids don't really like) and left $1. She might be back later for the rest. We'll see.

Per Jenni's request, here's the Russian tea recipe I got from Rich's grandparents, straight from the family cookbook:

Cornaby Russian Tea

11 c. water
1 1/4 c. sugar
2 sticks cinnamon
6 whole cloves
1 c. pineapple juice
3 T. lemon juice
6 oz. (1/2 can) orange juice concentrate

Bring to a boil the water, sugar, cinnamon, and cloves. Simmer for 15 minutes. Add the pineapple juice, lemon juice, and orange juice concentrate. Serve hot or cold. Yield: Enough to cure many.
This is the favorite Cornaby cure for colds and sore throats. A kettle simmering on the back unit of the stove has chased away many a virus.

I like it best hot. They serve it every year during the family Messiah sing. It soothes sore throats from illness...and over-taxed vocal chords.