Seven Ways to Make the Most of a Moment - Week 12

Life is made up of many moments.  

Getting the very most out of your life starts with how you use each one. 

Here are this week’s suggestions:

1.  My favorite yard tool: the dandelion digger!

My well-used dandelion digger!

I use my dandelion digger more than any other garden tool I own! 

•  A dandelion digger, an unassuming piece of metal with a wooden handle and a prong on the end, is a mighty weapon against weeds. 
• To use it:  

• Slide the pronged end down into the earth along-side the root of the dandelion, crab grass, or whatever weed you want to remove. Doing so will make it much easier to pull out the weed, with the root intact.
•  It also works well as a digger, sliding it underneath the soil and back and forth to loosen roots.

It is best to slide the digger straight down, right beside the root.

 I would recommend, however, when you buy one, to get a brightly colored handle. I frequently set mine down and then have to hunt for it, as the green is hard to spot in the grass!

2. Don't get rid of all your kid-sized plastic hangers, even after your children begin to wear grown-up sizes!

This type of youth hanger is useful, even after your children are grown.

I really like this type of hanger (see photo above) for hanging up jeans and slacks. Here's why:

Adult pants sizes fit perfectly on this hanger.

• they are wide enough that they won't crush the fabric
• there is not enough room for the pants to slide around on the hanger

3. Protect your pets during tick season. (As I mentioned earlier this week, tick season is now!) 

Your pets can bring ticks into the house, and they can get sick if bitten by a tick.

• Try to do a tick-check after your dog or cat has been in tall grasses or around bushes and trees. (My dog's coat is very thick, so this is difficult - but I actually did find a tick on her once by running my hands up and down her extremities and through her fur.)
• If you are not sure what a tick looks like, there is a bigger-than-life photo on yesterday's post on this blog! (Ugh!) 
• The Center for Disease Control and Prevention provides an excellent resource for learning about ticks, and what to do if a human or pet is exposed to one.

4. Call now and schedule annual doctor, dentist and eye doctor visits for your kids if you haven't already done so, while summer appointments are still available. We all know how inconvenient it is to take kids out of school for these appointments. 

• Don't forget to schedule any required sports physicals as well!  Even if teams do not require a physical, it is a good idea to have a baseline concussion assessment done, and have your child evaluated for cardiac risks.

5. Instead of recommending an individual book this week, I am really excited to share a website I found, called “What Should I Read Next?”

• This phenomenal resource I just discovered is easy to use.

• Go to the website, type in a favorite book or author, and you will be provided with a list of recommendations of similar literature that you might enjoy!

6. An uncomfortable movie to watch, but one I highly recommend seeing is “12 Years a Slave.”

• This movie is based on a true story. Solomon Northup was a free black man, well-respected in the New York community where he lived, when he was abducted and sold into slavery.A winner of academy awards, this movie is an unforgettable portrayal of Northup's struggles, the pain and rare kindnesses he experiences, and this shameful pre-civil war period of American history.

7. Recipe Country-Style Boneless Beef Ribs.

Boneless Chuck Country Style Beef Ribs

I don't make ribs very often.  But this week, a package of Boneless Chuck Country style Beef Ribs looked good at the grocery store.  These are an inexpensive cut.  (I paid $12 for 2.5 lb. of meat.)  I knew it would need to be marinated to make it tender.

But then I forgot to add the marinade 12 hours in advance.  In fact, dinner was only 5 hours away when I remembered. I was sad. Thank goodness for the internet though, which helped me figure out a solution.  Dinner was on time, and the ribs were delicious! 

I will post the directions for this method of cooking ribs on this blog tomorrow.