Set up two areas in the yard – one without eggs and one with eggs.  Using a child-friendly Bible, tell the crucifixion story up to the point where Jesus was put into the tomb.  Then send the children to hunt for eggs in the part of the yard where there are NO hidden eggs.

When the children have spent some time hunting without success, ask them how they feel.  Have a discussion about their disappointment.  Relate it to how the women must have felt when they went to find Jesus in the tomb and He wasn’t there. Then say, “But this is Easter and Jesus is Risen! Go and find the eggs that have been hidden for you.”  Send them to the area where the eggs are hidden.  End the hunt by pointing out the great joy we have in Jesus our risen Lord.

By using these tips you will save a lot on your utility bill.

• Inspect cold and hot supply hoses for cracks or deterioration.

• Wash your clothes in cold water using cold-water detergents whenever possible.

• Only wash clothes when you have a full load or adjust water usage when washing less than a full load.

Energy savings tip: Switching your temperature setting from hot to warm can cut a load’s energy in half.  About 90% of the energy used for washing clothes is for heating the water. Unless you are dealing with oily stains, the warm or cold water setting on your machine will generally do a good job cleaning your clothes.

Here are two recipes for a homemade all-purpose cleaner that works really well and will save you a ton of money.  The first one is less toxic than the second.

Version One

1 cup 80 proof Vodka

1 cup vinegar

1 tablespoon dish washing liquid

10 cups warm water

Version Two

1 cup rubbing alcohol

1 cup Ammonia

1 teaspoon dish washing liquid

10 cups of warm water

Instructions

Combine ingredients in a large gallon jug.  Decant cleaner into a spray bottle.  Label the bottle as “All-Purpose” cleaner.  Spray mixture on windows, countertops (not natural stone), stoves, mirrors, etc., and wipe away.

Processing your email inbox can take up a lot of time.  It is easy to get lost in reading, replying, forwarding, etc. Before you know it, hours have gone by and you have no idea where the time went.

Here is how you can take control of your email.

1. Turn Off Your Auto-Receive. You don’t need to check your email every few minutes.  By turning the auto-receive off, you are in control.  Why should other people and companies be allowed to interrupt your work?  With the auto-receive turned off, you are in control.  No more getting side-tracked.

2.  Schedule a Time to Process Your Email. Choose a time that will not interfere with your responsibilities at home or work. Process your emails only at these times.  If you let the auto-receive dictate when you get your messages, you will waste a lot of time checking them as they come in.  Treat your time like the big CEOs do.  Put your email on “hold” and get the important things done.

3. Zero Out Your Inbox. When you check your email your goal should be to zero out your email inbox.  There should be nothing in it after you are done.  Use the “4 D’s of Email” to get your inbox to zero.

Deal with each new email in one of these ways: Delete, Deal, Defer and Delegate.  If you have sorting capabilities in your email software, sort your emails by sender, group, etc.  That way you can isolate large blocks of emails from one sender and delete them all if you do not want to keep. 

Delete

If it’s junk mail, hit the spam button.  When you are done, clear out your spam folder.  Also, make sure your spam filter is set so that it can automatically take care of this chore for you in the future.   Then all you have to do is periodically delete those blocks of spam email.  What a wonder feeling that will be!

If no action is required or it’s something you don’t want to read, like another cutesy forward, hit the delete button.

Unsubscribe from all email newletters and ezines that you don’t read.  Doing this can greatly reduce your email load.

Deal

Can you do what the email requires in a few minutes or less? Can you reply, forward, send a document, or attach a file? If so, do it and send it off right away.

If you need the email for future reference you can file it in your Archive folder; if not, delete it. Same goes for any forwarded or sent copies of your emails, but ONLY if you need them.

Defer

If no immediate action is required but you will need the email for future reference, file it in your Archive folder.  If you need more time or resources to respond to the email, file it in your Action folder.

You should have folders under your main inbox folder where you can file these emails.  See Cleaning Out a Stuffed Email Inbox for more information on these folders.

If it’s really an email that requires deferring to another time, make sure you schedule some time for it.

Some scheduling options include:

• Put the task in your schedule for the date (and time, if appropriate) when you’ll do it.
• Flag it. In Outlook you can add a dated flag which puts the email into your task list for the flagged date.
• Put a reminder in your digital calendar (Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo have this option) to remind you that you need to act on it.

Delegate

Is the email for another family member?  Put it in their inbox folder.  If they don’t have one, create it and let them know they need to check it and clean it out once a day.  You can create sub-files for them if needed.

Is this an email you can send to another person for action?  If so, delegate it and send it off.  File a copy in your Action folder if you need to follow up on it later.

Your inbox should now be empty.  Ahhhhh…  What a wonderful feeling.  A clutter free inbox.

If you have a lot of static in your clothes, it is probably because you have: 1) a lot of synthetic clothing and/or 2) you live in a very dry climate. Here are a couple of low cost solutions to replace expensive dryer sheets and fabric softeners that I think you will love; I do!

1. Place a crumpled up ball of heavy duty aluminum foil in your next dryer load. It reduces static by quite a lot.

2. Make your own Wool Dryer Balls. This is something women used to do “back in the day” before dryer sheets and fabric softener. There are some great online instructions at Good Mama.

I’m going to make some of these really soon. What a great tutorial. Thanks Good Mama!

It gets tiresome wading through all the credit card offers and the unsolicited sales calls that I get these day, so I decided to do something about it. I am opting out. That’s right; I put my foot down and gave them “the boot.” Here’s how I did it…

1) I went to the National Do Not Call Registry at www.donotcall.gov and registered our home and mobile numbers.

2) I called 888-567-8688 and “opt-out” of the credit card offer mayhem. The law states that everyone has the right to tell the credit bureaus not to sell their personal information in their credit file to credit marketing companies. But, in order to make that happen you have to formally “opt-out,” otherwise you have given them permission by default. Sneaky little fellows!

It is a good idea to call once each quarter to renew your opt-out for every member of our household. The automated process takes about four to five minutes. You can also “opt out” online at www.optoutprescreen.com.

3) I decided that the coupons that I get are a good thing because I do use them if they are for something I normally purchase. Therefore, I did not try to stop all of my junk mail. I did call a few companies and requested that I be removed from their list.

If you want to be removed from all junk mail you can go to: www.dmachoice.org

To learn more about junk mail and your rights go to: www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs4-junk.htm#stoppart