My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings » dirt

Transform Your Bedroom with These Four Top Tips

Guest Author — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 12:50:22 +0000

My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings - A day in the life of a busy mom . . .

This is a guest post.

Clear The Clutter

Bedrooms are magnets for clutter. Since most of us tend to spend very little time awake in the room, we think nothing of throwing clothes on the floor or leaving the bed unmade as we head out the door. Yet the old saying ‘tidy house, tidy mind’ really does ring true, and a cluttered room is actually able to impact our sleep.

Yet ‘clearing the clutter’ doesn’t merely mean tidying away clothes, books and anything else that covers the surface area of the room. Anything that doesn’t assist with relaxation or romance should be removed – and this includes the television. As pleasant as it may seem to lie in bed and watch TV, save this for sick days, since research has demonstrated that not only does a television in the bedroom affect the sleep, but it also affects the sex drive.

Dress Up Old Furniture

There is no need to replace tired looking wardrobes and drawers – a lick of paint or carefully applied wallpaper can give old furniture a complete new lease of life, while simultaneously brightening and complementing the room’s décor. However, be careful not to make the room appear cluttered again by using too many patterns. If your walls are already very decorative, ensure to keep your furniture a plain colour. However, if your walls are painted in block colours, jazzing up your furniture with some bright pictures or patterns should look fantastic.

Don’t Forget About The Windows

While we take it for granted that the outside of our windows will be washed on a regular basis, we often forget to do the same to the inside. To ensure you’re able to get the maximum amount of light into your room, wash the windows regularly.

Additionally, if your windows are sporting a tired looking pair of curtains, take them down. Curtains attract dirt and dust and can start to look worn quite quickly. Roller blinds are a great alternative, and due to the simplistic nature of the product, usually very budget friendly too. Roller blinds are additionally very easy to clean, and are incredibly versatile. In fact, some stockists of roller blinds allow customers to choose whatever image they wish to be printed upon them, meaning that if you can’t find a design to fit with your décor, roller blinds may be the answer.

Bring Some Life To The Room

Plants are a fantastic and cost-effective way to make over any room, and not simply because they look good. Plants improve the air quality of a room – which is of great importance in a bedroom wherein the windows may not be opened often in order to reduce noise or maintain temperature while sleeping. What’s more, if you have children it can be great to get them involved in learning to care for something. This can benefit them in the future should any new additions to the family come along.

This article was written by Amy Fowler on behalf of Creatively Different Blinds. Amy writes on a variety of topics including roller blinds and other ways to make over a room.

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I’m Saving Babies Lives And So Can You

Lisa — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 21:43:51 +0000

My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings - A day in the life of a busy mom . . .

One of the things I have to write about the Pampers Mommy Blogger Event was meeting the CEO of Unicef Caryl Stern. Pampers and Unicef have teamed together to rid the world of tetanus. When we got to talk with her, there was not a dry eye in the room. Let me show you why:

First, to get a better understanding, you need to watch this video. I need to warn you though, it will break your heart. I watched it again today, and it still brings tears to my eyes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0ii6r6DiQI

This is not some marketing piece that Pampers did. This is an inhouse video that we begged them to let us show the world. I’ll admit, before this, I didn’t see the big deal. We all get vaccinated, so you don’t even think about tetanus. However, after watching these poor babies, how can your heart not go out to them? Let me give you some basic facts and statistics:

*Tetanus spores are found in soil, animal excretion, and can be airborne
*It acts through a production of a a toxin that effects your nervous system
*This disease rages through newborns within days of their exposure to the bacteria
*140,000 newborns and 30,000 moms die from this
*The fatality rate is 70%-100%
*Symptoms include muscle rigidity, painful muscle spasms, inability to eat, and seizures triggered by light or touch

If you didn’t watch the video, let me explain how these babies and moms are getting this. In Africa, there is no way to sanitize your hands before you deliver a baby. They use sharpened sugar cane to cut the umbilical cord, and they pack your wounds with dirt. Do you see a problem here since tetanus lives in the very dirt that they are using to stop bleeding?

Here is the crazy part of all of this; it costs 5 cents per vaccine. Yes, I repeat 5 cents.

I know my next question was “What can we do about this?” There are so many things you can do to help get rid of this terrible disease.

1. Buy specially marked Pampers with the sticker up above. You are buying diapers anyway, now you are helping a child. By the end of the year, they will have more Pampers products with the sticker. Make sure you watch for that.

2. Clean out your change. If you can get one vaccine for a nickel, can you imagine how many vaccines you could provide with the change in your house.

3. Donate. You will notice in my sidebar that I have this widget:

If you donate, make sure you use this. Then your donation will be earmarked for this vaccination program.
4. Blog about this. If you want to include this widget on your blog, let me know in a comment or by email. I will send you the code. We seriously need to raise awareness on this. The more of us who carry this on our blogs, the more people who know, the more people who donate, and the more children who are saved.
5. Talk to people you know about it. Again, get the word out. I have told everyone I know about this since I have gotten home.
6. Give with your kids. In my house, we are going to take the loose change we have and make a donation in my kids names. They are never too young to teach them about charity, and what better of a cause than one that helps children.

Pampers has sponsored 45 million vaccines already since they started this campaign. They also gave 1,000 vaccinations in my name, and gave 1,000 vaccinations for each blogger that was there (there was 15 in total). In a rough economy, I know it is hard to give, but truly, a little can go a long way.

Wednesday’s Hero

Lisa — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 17:22:03 +0000

My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings - A day in the life of a busy mom . . .

This week’s hero is a good one. Robert Cone is the second Cousin of Wednesday Hero’s partner in crime, Greta.

Robert S. Cone
85 years old from Delray Beach, Florida
506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division

Surrounded by family, feted by a U.S. congressman and a Veterans of Foreign Wars color guard, one of the few surviving members of the “Filthy Thirteen” was honored on October 8, 2006 in a backyard on Massapoag Avenue.

Robert S. Cone, 85, now of Delray Beach, Fla., finally received the 13 military medals he was due for his service on D-Day during World War II, including the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, POW medal and Presidential Unit Citation.

“To tell you the truth, I never expected it. I’m very honored to get it and really feel good about it,” Cone said.

“He’s finding it an honor, and he’s a little embarrassed, to be honest,” said Cone’s son, Edward R. Cone, 45, who hosted the family barbecue that included a visit from U.S. Rep. Stephen F. Lynch.

Only a few members remain of the 101st Airborne Division’s famed “Filthy Thirteen,” an elite parachute and demolition unit that volunteered for a suicide mission on June 5, 1944, the eve of the D-Day invasion of Normandy.

The Filthy Thirteen, who shared a Quonset Hut in England, were a group of “pretty bad boys,” Edward Cone said, renowned for hard-living and fierce fighting. They are believed to be the inspiration for the 1967 movie “The Dirty Dozen,” although none of the Filthy Thirteen was a convict.

The unit’s mission was to parachute behind enemy lines on the night before D-Day to blow up bridges and impede the Nazis.

Many were killed on the drop. The survivors found it difficult to reunite on the ground because the pilots had panicked when the Germans opened fire.

Cone said he spent two days in a hedgerow battle and was shot in the right arm. When he escaped to a French farmhouse, the owner turned him over to the Nazis and he became a prisoner of war.

His unit and his family thought he was dead. His mother, in Roxbury, received a telegram from the War Department saying he had been killed in action.

Cone spent 11 months in three POW camps in Germany before being liberated by the Russians near the Polish border. He fought alongside the Russians as they made their escape, his son said.

Cone walked to freedom through Poland, Russia and Romania, journeyed by ship to Egypt and was eventually flow to Italy, finally making his way home.

All the medal ceremonies had taken place without him.

Cone married Ida, now his wife of 61 years; became a postal worker and plumber; raised three children in Hull; and spoke very little about the war, Edward Cone said.

About four years ago, Edward Cone decided to find out whether any of his father’s Army colleagues were still alive.

He found the Filthy Thirteen’s leader, Jake McNiece, in Oklahoma, and put his father in touch by telephone. Their conversation was recorded by the BBC and played on the anniversary of D-Day.

Later, the History Channel filmed its own segment on the pair, which still airs, Edward Cone said.

The group reunited in Taccoa, Ga., the home of their jump school.

“My Dad and I drove from here to Georgia. I heard everything on that trip,” Edward Cone said. “Three were alive from the unit. They talked and drank and told stories for days.”

Three years ago, McNiece published a book, “The Filthy Thirteen: From the Dustbowl to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest: The 101st Airborne’s Most Legendary Squad of Combat Paratroopers.”

It was McNiece who mentioned that Cone was due a few medals. Edward Cone and his fiance, Kate Guthrie of Leominster, who works at the Statehouse, gathered documentation and contacted Lynch.

The result was the Sunday party, also attended by Cone’s daughters, Ronna Townsend of Monroe Township, N.J., and Natalie Gaudet of Hampton, N.H., and most of his seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Cone admits he never talked much about the war before.

“I really didn’t,” Cone said. “But they insisted I tell the grandchildren and the great grandchildren. So I talk to them. I tell them stories. I tell them true stories. They all enjoy it.”

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Toxic Flip Flops: Another Reason Not To Shop At Walmart

Lisa — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 23:06:50 +0000

My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings - A day in the life of a busy mom . . .

I do not normally shop at Walmart due to the fact that they are nonunion. I live in Chicago which is a huge union town, and Bill prefers that I don’t shop there. When I came across the story about the Toxic Flip Flops, I knew that I had to write about it. Kerry Stiles basically bought a pair of cheap flip flops from Walmart to wear. However, after wearing them, this is what her feet looked like:

This isn’t the worst picture either. I picked a picture that wouldn’t completely gross you out. Head over to her site to see more. I have to warn you — some of the pictures are pretty graphic. Obviously, it was pretty easy to figure out what she did that caused these burns. She tried to be nice and filed a report with Walmart. They treated her like dirt and basically told her that she had to contact the maker of the flip flops which of course is in China.

The amazing part of the story is that Walmart never removed the flip flops from the racks. According to Walmart, only ten people have complained. However, she has hundreds of people contact her with their stories. Several people have contacted lawyers. This is what her feet look like 7 months later:

Local news channels picked up on her story also, and Walmart still has these on their shelves! I am guessing she is going to have some permanent scarring from these if it still looks like this seven months later! I do hope that enough people join together in a class action suit to make Walmart do something. I hate it when the almighty dollar is more important the health of American public. You think these companies would learn.

Needless to say, I will NEVER buy a pair of flip flops from Walmart.

Soccer

Lisa — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 16:44:30 +0000

My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings - A day in the life of a busy mom . . .

Since it is a whopping sixty two degree here in Illinois in January, it makes me feel like it is spring which in turn makes me think about soccer. Come spring, we will be signing Madison up for a soccer class. I think it would be good for her. It also will help her release a lot of pent up energy. One of the things that I know we are going to have to invest in then is some
Soccer Balls and nets. I even found some soccer rebounders that we will have to look at getting. These allow Madison not to have to retrieve the ball from the net (of course, she would have to get it into the net first).

Have you ever watched little kids playing soccer? It is one of the funniest things to see. The kid really break down into two groups. You have the group that chases the ball wherever it goes. You then have the group that doesn’t really pay attention to the game at all. They are the ones that just stand there and pick flowers/grass or kick the dirt. It is just blast to watch. I played soccer as a kid, so I would like to give Madison the chance too. We just have to get all the equipment that is involved with it.