If you drive you probably have car insurance. Or at least you’re probably supposed to have it. Lots of factors have an impact on the price of your insurance besides if you’ve ever had an accident and the type of vehicle it is. Some of the other things considered are your driving record, if you drive to work and how far, as well as where you live and where you keep your car. It didn’t dawn on me at first why the price is effected by where you keep the car but it nmakes sense. Areas with higher rates of crime will have higher insurance rates. the geographical location also tells them if there are lots of children and animals (think deer). Every year or so I call around to see if anyone will give me a cheap car insurance quote. so far the company I’m with is still the cheapest.

We have an awesome kitchen set siilar to the one pictured above that we got from my friend’s daughter. It’s a wood set and the table top is made of square tiles. I always wondered what the best thing to use to clean it was, since I knew I shouldn’t use abrasives. I recently found a possible solution completely by accident. Laundry detergent. I accidentally got some on the table and the table grout lines came out super clean and bright white.

With all of the snow that we’ve had in the area there are actually still Christmas decorations up in people’s yards. There are also Christmas trees in the street waiting to be picked up, finally uncovered from all of the snow. Recently at work we were discussing our holidays and the conversation turned to Christmas trees. Typically we put our tree up around the middle of December, and take it down around New Years. I mentioned that my Mom leaves hers up longer, she doesn’t take hers down until Little Christmas. One of the other girls asked what Little Christmas was. I remembered it had something to do with the Epiphany, but not much else. And here we are.

Little Christmas falls on January 6 and is the Epiphany. It is the last day of the twelfth day of Christmas, which people often mistakenly think start in mid December. The Epiphany is a celebration commemorating the arrival of the Magi and the baptism of Jesus.

That is the most basic answer I can condense my reading into. There is much more to the meaning of the day, and the meaning is a little different for each religion. It is a subject that definitely cannot be thoroughly answered here in this format.

I am not a fan of guns. Too many people that have them make bad decisions. I often wonder if there’s any proof if playing with guns as a child has an outcome on gun ownership as an adult. My Mom bought my brothers toy guns. I’m not a fan of toy guns and don’t buy them for my boys. In our area lots of people play the game airsoft. I’m not a fan. No, as far as I know the kids don’t use a bushnell spotting scope. I just don’t understand the point. Do you think we as a society should tach our children that guns are fun?

Do you need to organize your closets? Do you spend long periods of time trying to find something? I don’t mean spend long periods of time deciding, I mean actually looking. Are your closets so full that you can’t move a hanger one inch? Is the floor covered too? If you’ve answered yes then it’s time to organize your closet. The closet in my youngest son’s room used to be so full of baby clothes that I couldn’t find anything. It took us two days to empty it, clean it and organize it and now it’s not a nightmare to go into it.

So. Start by cleaning your closet. Get rid of things that don’t fit or that you don’t wear. Then put some time and thought into what type of organization system would work best for you. Might it be another bar to hand things on? Might it be some shelves? Might it be something hanging on the door? Do your research on what works and what holds up well. Another factor to consider is installation – who does it and what does it cost? Then do some comparison shopping before you make your purchase. Remember, not everyone needs a closet organization system. There are also ways to organize inexpensively yourself, without purchasing a storage system, but I’m saving that for another post.

Winter is an important time to maintain your garden’s health. It will help you assure a good crop for next year. When the nighttime temperatures drop to less than forty-five degrees Fahrenheit for more than four days in a row, or frost is forecasted for your area it’s time to begin preparing your garden. Now is a good time to evaluate which plants grew well and which didn’t, so you can decide what plants remain in the garden in the upcoming year. This is also the time to decide if you are adding new plants to the garden as well.

The first step to preparing your garden for winter is to clean it up. Pull out any weeds and rake fallen leaves. Next, dispose of spent annual plants. Then, trim dead or unwanted branches that could effect the health of other things in the garden moving forward. Finally, place a layer of mulch 4-5 inches deep over your garden to help protect plants from temperature changes and heavy snow. Don’t do this too early or you could leave insects alive and able to thrive in the mulch.

So what’s in your garage? Tools? Toys? Equipment? Appliances? Has it turned into a storage space for anything and everything that doesn’t fit in your home? It happens. You should see my parents garage. It’s so full of stuff that you can’t even walk through it. So what happens when you need something? You go hunting for it and waste time, possibly hours. Possibly days. Maybe you don’t even find what you’re looking for. That can get pretty frustrating after it happens more than once. Take time to make a plan to make your garage organized and useful. Pick a day and get in there and get to work. Get rid of the things you don’t need or want – either throw it away or recycle it. Organize what’s left. Put away everything you’re keeping in an organized fashion, making use of cabinets, peg boards and storage bins. Store like items with like items and then label, making everything easy to find.

Here are five simple tips to will enable you to turn part of your garage into a useful home workshop.

1. Clean your garage.
2. Create a workbench. You can use wood you already have, such as old doors and scrap wood on saw horses.
3. Hang a pegboard on the wall. Place frequently used items on it, with the most frequently used items nearest you.
4. Create a shelf or area where you can store several glass jars. Use the jars to hold small hardware such as screws, nails and such.
5. Create a trash area. You may think that you’ll take trash to your trash can elsewhere but if you’re in the middle of a project you may not want to or be able to stop. Then you put the trash on the floor and might not get to it. It’s easier to stay organized if you don’t let the situation get away from you.
6. Keep a bucket or carryall for items you need to use around the house or move a lot.

Here are my top three tips for making the garage a friendlier place.

Garage door openers – Save time and energy. The convenience is especially appreciated the first time you pull into the driveway during a big storm.

Bike racks – Get your bike up off the floor and hang it on the wall. These save lots of room on the floor, something that’s especially helpful if you have a small garage that doesn’t have much floor space.

Shelves, Pegs And Storage – Clean up the clutter. Only keep what you use or will need. Store like things with like. Hang frequently used things like small hand tools on a peg board in plain sight and easy reach.