Triple Clicks

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Things Around Here and a Recipe!

To say we've been a little crazy around here is a severe understatement.  

The kids and I spent some extra time at my parents a few weekends ago.. Had lots of fun and made peppernuts-an old family recipe that is a blast to make with kids, trust me, you'll want the help. 

We brought a flu bug home, thankfully it was just the girls and I and only lasted a few days.  Then grocery shopping right after we got better.  My stomach has had a few issues recovering from that. 

I'm also combating morning sickness (Baby Hidalgo due in April! YAY).  So finding things I can eat lately are challenging.  My usualy remedies are not working this time and it's leaving me a little puzzled.  I'm usually fine eating what I'm craving and being done... But no, this baby decided that wasn't going to work. :p lol. So it seems my go-tos are pizza and tomato soup.  But hey, it works. I also have Morning-Ease herbal pills from SolarRay and Papaya Enzyme to help.  

The kids are back in the swing of school.  We are working our way through the alphabet, on letter J this week.  I'm trying to think of ways to make the letter writing fun for my five year old, he's not much of a writer.  I simplified from my original plans and we are incorporating chalk boards instead of doing everything on paper and playing some board games.  

I'm still working on Christmas stockings, have the cross stich part done on two, now I need to do the sewing part so they are ready to hang next month. We'll see if I can get another done before Christmas.   I have to make pajamas for the kids and slippers from the scraps of the fleece.  

We are working on establishing a cleaning routine, something I've never been great at it, but I think it will help my anxiety level if I can figure something out.  I'm trying to pick an area of the house and do that a day out of the week.. Plus the typical and daily laundry and dishes.  

The weather has turned colder here so we are wearing sweaters and not going outside as much (where'd my sanity go again?).  It's definitely cocoa and hot tea season.  YUMMY. :D  My favorite.  

Onto the promised recipe. This has been passed down for at least three generations on the German side of my family.  Trust me, you'll want kiddo help to make the cookies. :) Makes it go a lot faster and they'll have fun. 
Fair warning-the 'anise' flavoring is the same flavoring as black licorice.. Personally, I HATE black licorice but LOVE these cookies. Also, this recipe makes 3-4 GALLONS of bite size cookies. 


Peppernuts (Pfefferneusse) 
3 cups brown sugar
3 cups white sugar
2 eggs
1 scant tablespoon anise
1 cup shortening or butter
1 teaspoon each of ginger, cinnamon, cloves, coriander (or       cardamon), nutmeg
1 tablespoon baking powder 
About 5 lbs of flour

Soften shortening, cream in sugars, mix in the rest. Then add the flour. It will be almost as stiff as bread dough and require your hands to work in all the flour. You don't want it to stick to your hands, but more flour can be added and will be needed later-probably a cup or two.  
Chill for a couple of days.  
(Now comes the fun part, and the part where you want help!)  Roll out the dough and cut in small pieces.  How we do it, is we sprinkle flour on the table or cutting board-whatever you are using. Work a chunk of the dough soft (treat it like you would sugar cookie dough, get out a little at a time then put the rest back for a bit), roll it out like play dough in about 1/2 inch diameter 'strings'.  Take a table knife and cut in about 1/4 inch long bites.  
Bake at 375 about 10 minutes.  They will be brown on the outside but nice and soft on the inside.  


Wednesday, October 14, 2015

How I Make Money From Home

I keep seeing these posts on how to make money from home.. they give you all these great ideas, but I have to be honest, not many work for me.  

You've seen the ads on my blog, but in order to get paid, enough people have to click... So I would love to say that writing gets me paid, but it doesn't.. 

I have tried many different sites, from a transcriptionist site, to a secret shopper site-but apparently I don't have the stuff it takes for those. So for now, I just stick with survey sites (yes, the links here will make me money if you join and get to so many points)...  While it's not big money, it helps a little.  So I'll share with you my favorites.  

Vindale Research, there are some surveys you get through them but they are mostly a trial and review company.. Meaning you pay a low price for something (we've done coffee and books) and you get paid for the review you provide.. Yes, that requires money out of pocket the first time around, but you get paid quicker doing the product reviews than just the surveys. To get paid, you have to get to $50.. I haven't gotten there yet, so I can't tell you how quick it is, but my husband has gotten paid twice from them so it is legit. http://tryvindale.com/ViowMkJy
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Mommy Talk Surveys is one of my favorites, but it does take awhile to get to the thresholds. They have a lot of different options for payout and it is strictly a survey site.  I've done it a few different ways, $50 paypal and $25 amazon gift card... Both ways it takes them about 6 weeks to get the payment to you... the $50 I hit about once a year, $25 about twice a year, but it really does depend on how much time you are willing to give to surveys. No referral link here, but if you want to give it a shot the website is www.mommytalksurveys.com

Inbox Dollars is really my favorites because there's many different ways to earn and they even have some free stuff available.. There's surveys, product trials, discounts to buy, internet searches and paid emails. You have to get to at least $30 to cash out with them and they send a check or load it onto a prepaid card which you keep around for next time.  http://www.inboxdollars.com/?r=ref13994113

Bing is also one of my favorites.  I get about $5 from them every month.  Bing, you search. That's it. On the computer, you can search up to 30 searches a day and 10 searches on the phone if you have a smart phone. Plus they send out emails with bonus searches and have different opportunities to earn extra each week.  While their cash out options are limited, we find a lot of benefit in the Amazon gift card option.   https://www.bing.com/explore/rewards?PUBL=REFERAFRIEND&CREA=RAW&rrid=_2bbfb1ad-d7ab-589a-01cb-7029fa1cbf9

My Points is also a favorite.  They send out paid emails and offers for many different, have a few surveys available and also pay to search.   I've cashed out with them once and gotten a gift card to Sam's Club. For that one I have to have somebody's email to refer, but if you want to try go to www.mypoints.com

Ibotta is an app I've been trying. Even though my smart isn't hooked up anymore, I'm still able to use a few of the apps through the wifi.  It's an online coupon app basically.  You go through and upload coupons of things you bought (you have to watch a commercial), then when you have your receipt, you sometimes have to scan the product code sometimes just the receipt. You get the money back for however much the coupon was for.  I haven't cashed out on them yet, but I know the threshold is $10 and I'm almost there. You can find the app in the Google App store, I don't know if they have one for apple. https://ibotta.com/r/eqpameo

Another app I used is called Receipt Hog. You scan your grocery receipts and get so much money back-it depends on how much the receipt is for.  I haven't cashed out on them yet, but I'm halfway there.  The referral code for them is STRAY857. Just find the app in the Google App store, I don't know if they have one for apple. 

If you join Inbox Dollars first, they have links to a lot of these and you get money for joining the other survey site.  My husband tried pay to click... that was tedious and a little annoying. 

Like I said, this isn't big money... I've also gotten surveys to enter survey communities-which guarantees me money every months-which is nice... I've made $160 this year...so it's been enough to help with dry goods things we can online, or I bought school supplies from Dollar Tree with a Inbox Dollars payout.  

-Tabitha

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Cloth Feminine Pads

This post is about how I made my light days/panty liners pads... Minus the snaps.. because I'm arguing with Amazon over the payment method.... 

So I made my pattern through measurements I got through the Amy Nix videos on YouTube. That was a lot simpler than it sounds.. Take two computer paper sheets, fold in fourths.  I wanted these pads 8 inches long, so I made a mark at 4 inches, then a mark about halfway down at 1 1/2 inches to get my pad three inches wide, the wings were measured at 3 inches to make sure I had them wide enough to fasten underneath.. Connect all your dots. For your seam allowance, you want to measure 1/4" from the first line. Cut along the outside line and unfold your papers.  Take your second paper, draw a line to cut the wings off, then mark 1/2" inside that line and the edge. (I did 1/4", it was too long.) Cut along the last line made, this is your liner. I marked them both since I plan on making more than one pattern. 
My finished Pattern

 I used flannel for the outside, traced around my pattern making enough for 12 pads.

 Here's the tracing of my inserts, I used cotton for this-old cloth diapers and a tshirt. 

 Here's all my pieces cut out. 

 You pin however much you are comfortable with. For me, it just took enough to hold it in place. I did an assembly line, so one step at a time.. Can you see how there's not much room between the liner and the outer layer? That caused a few issues later on.   A lot of the instructions I have seen, women use a zig zag or decorative stitch for this part-makes it fancy.  So if you have a fancy sewing machine, go for it. I did use a different color thread on some of them... but then the thread decided it didn't want to cooperate with the bobbin.


 My 80 year old sewing machine I'm still learning how to use. :) The only thing I miss is the zig zag stitch some days. 


 My helper. Both girls love to help pin-makes me nervous! LOL 


 So when you get the liners sewed on, you want to sew the right sides together, making sure you leave a spot  (about 2 inches) to turn it right side out, a lot easier on a straight side. 




Here's the two pieces sewn together.   

Instructions I've seen also said to clip the corners, being careful not to clip your stitches, there won't be as much bulk when turned in the seams this way. Personally, I haven't seen much difference, I clipped some and I didn't clip some. 


Here it is after I turned it.  A lot of people use a chopstick to help make sure they get everything flat, my hands are small enough I don't need the extra help-at least with these.  It's also recommended you iron to get the seam flat after this step, but I didn't-mostly because of the little finger help I had.  


And here's the finished project. After you turn, you want to top stitch to keep everything flat and to get that turning spot closed.  If you have snaps, now is the time to do those. Fold the wings around, mark where they overlap and then follow the instructions for your snap pliers/press.  
For now, I'm just using a diaper pin, a little uncomfortable, but until Amazon processes the gift cards, I'm stuck.  
Hope this helps any who are thinking of making their own pads. 

Tabitha