Cheap and Simple Yellow Jacket trap
Caveat: Despite the nuisance yellow jackets create, they do a lot of good as well. As predator insects they control many pests. You may find that eliminating yellow jackets increases the need for you to spray for pests in your garden and around your home. Use traps only when the yellow jacket situation is intolerable.
Step 1 Obtain a plastic bottle and cut a small hole in the shoulder, large enough for your finger, with a utility knife. Put an inch or two of water in the bottom, squirt a good squeeze of dish detergent into the water.
Step 2 Take some jelly or some other preserves that is sweet, get it on your finger and smear it around the inside of the jar, near the hole. You can increase effectiveness by using a pleasant odor in the jelly, such as a drop of vanilla or peppermint. Caveat: Never use honey for this. It can spread bee disease; bees are vital to your food supply.
Step 3 Yellow jackets will climb in and begin feeding. Most of them are not bright enough to find their way back out via the hole, so they drop into the soapy water. Instantly they are trapped, and in a minute they are dead. You'll have to clean out the dead, and replenish the jelly now and then.

Stretching Fruit

My DH just figured out a way to *sneak* more protein into those fruit smoothies!!! He uses canned, drained garbanzo beans and tofu!! The children LOVE it and have no clue what strange things are in it. :)
*My children love Bananas but I cant allow them to eat too many at a time (digestive issues ;)) So we peel them and put wooden chopsticks (disposable kind) in the end of them and wrap them individually in ceran wrap, put them in a huge freezer Ziploc bag and freeze them until we are out of banana season. They are banana popsicles and they are SO yummy!
*Grapes are fantastic washed and frozen

Practical Tips

Expanding Frosting
When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar/calories per serving.

Reheating refrigerated bread
To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.

Newspaper weeds away
Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers put layers around the plants overlapping as you go cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers.

Broken Glass
Use a dry cotton ball to pic k up little broken glass pieces of glass-the fibers catch ones you can't see! Another trick is to use a fresh bread slice to pick up all those little pieces of glass.

Squirrel Away!
To keep squirrels from eating your plants sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.

Flexible vacuumTo get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.

Reducing Static Cling
Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and -- voila -- static is gone.

Measuring Cups
Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill it with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry the cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easilyit comes right out.

Foggy Windshield?
Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When the windows fog, rub with the era ser! Works better than a cloth!

Reopening envelope
If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Voila! It unseals easily.

Goodbye Fruit Flies
To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass fill it 1/2" with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dishwashing liquid, mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

Get Rid of Ants
Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it "home," can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, esp. if it rains, but it works & you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

Take baby powder to the beach
Keep a small bottle of baby powder in your beach bag. When your ready to leave the beach sprinkle yourself and kids with the powder and the sand will slide right off your skin.

Why Night Lights are Bad

"Experts Finally Recognize the Link Between Night Light Exposure and Cancer

Exposure to electric lights at night could be a cancer risk. Turning on the lights after dark may affect 'clock genes' that control how your cells live, die and function, these researchers suggest.

Specifically, there is evidence that night lighting can cause cancer by interfering with the molecular mechanisms that control cell death and multiplication.

Clock genes were only identified about five years ago. Malfunctions of clock genes can lead to cells no longer responding to signals telling them not to divide, or telling abnormal cells not to self-destruct.

A possible link between light and cancer could be the hormone melatonin, which protects genetic material from mutation. Night light suppresses your body's production of melatonin, and can therefore increase your risk of cancer-related mutations."

MyHealthInsight.com
March 12, 2007
Dr. J. Mercola's Comment: This is a subject that most people never think about and are absolutely "in the dark" (pun intended) regarding how their ignorance on this subject is unnecessarily increasing their risk of cancer. If you are one of the clueless it is time to wake up! You simply CANNOT have night lights on while you or your kids are sleeping. Additionally, and in many cases more importantly, it is crucial to blockoutside light from coming into the bedroom. It is vital that you sleep in absolute darkness or you are just asking for long-term trouble. If you're still skeptical about the damage incandescent night light can do to your body in terms of increasing your risk of various forms of cancer, then you should know a growing number of mainstream scientists have become"enlightened" about these very same risks. Any disruptions to your natural body clock, such as being exposed to artificial light or staying up for long periods at night, increase your risk of cancer. In fact, British scientists have suggested a steady increase in childhood leukemia in the UK, Europe, and the United States may be connected toexposure to light at night. If you're worried about your melatonin levels, you're best off boosting them simply by sleeping in complete darkness, rather than by taking a supplement that won't provide those very same natural benefits. The other way to maximize your melatonin production is to have regular exposure to bright light during the daytime, ideally outdoors. It is the actual tug and pull of bright sunshine exposure in the day and complete darkness at night that causes your body to produce high levels of cancer-protecting melatonin. It is indeed possible to buy full-spectrum light bulbs, and doing so can be of great benefit to your health; the more closely indoor light mimics natural sunlight, the better your body and brain will respond to it, including your sensitive and cancer-fighting melatonin hormonal balance. In addition to full darkness at night, seek to use full-spectrum lightduring the day for maximum health and cancer prevention if your climate does not have regular sunny days.

Blessings

"The Bible calls debt a curse and children a blessing. But in our culture we apply for a curse and reject blessings. Something is wrong with this picture.' ~Doug Phillips"

Congestion

"Lots of chicken soup with lots of garlic, dash of hot pepper will help
clear you out too. We love tiger balm too, instead of Vicks. It helps if you have a cough to just settle that cough down as it loosens everything. It is strong so be careful with it! "

Cutting Down Sugar

"If you want to 'ease' out of sugar, just cut down...half as much in
every baking recipe you do. Buy some green stevia and give that a
whirl; put in half a tsp for each cup of sugar you leave out and see
what you think. Experiment :)"