Debi Gutierrez - The Mad Mom In The Minivan

Get yourself a gallon of distilled white vinegar and be prepared to conquer common household problems for a fraction of the costs of chemical cleaning supplies.

Add 1/4 cup of vinegar to the final rinse water  when washing clothes.  By rinsing off dulling saop residue, vinegar brightens colors and whitens whites.  It even keeps your black clothes as dark as when you bought them.

Add 1/2 cup of vinegar to laundry detergent  when washing new clothes. It gets rid of manufacturing chemicals in new clothing.

Add 1 cup of vinegar to your dishwasher and run it empty for a cycle.  The vinegar gets rid of any soap residue that makes glassware cloudy.

Make a spray bottle of a mixture of vinegar and water to clean and freshen counter tops, inside of the microwave, lunch boxes, plastic food containers and  the refrigerator.

A mixture of white distilled vinegar and water (mixture amount depends on the size of the job) will get rid of varmints such as fleas on your dog, or ants in your yard.

I know this blog entry may seem lack luster is comparison of what is going on in the world.  We have an economic crisis, two wars, a new president, and sometimes with all this going on, I feel like the only thing I CAN control is the health, and happy hum of my home!

Last night I got in to a heated debate about Christmas trees.  My husband is suffering from a umbilical hernia and has surgery scheduled 2 days before Christmas.  He will have a few weeks of recovery after that.  I mentioned to some friends that this Christmas we were not going to put up a tree.   I realized people have strong opinions about Christmas trees.  First of all, I don’t think our Christmas is going to be anything less without a tree.  Every year my husband climbs into the crawl space of our home to retrieve our artificial tree…YES, I SAID ARTIFICIAL TREE!  That’s another whole topic!  So, every year my husband drags the tree down, I haul out boxes of ornaments and we start the process of decorating.  It is nothing like they show on tv!  You know the picture, the entire family is dressed in red velvet,  singing carols

Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live…as much as I enjoyed the two skits, especially the rap by Amy Poehler, I must quote the SNL update reporters in their segment entitled. “Really?”

Sarah Palin, during your campaign trail, with the responsibilities of mothering five children, you have time to attend a table read, rehearsal and performance of a SNL show?  REALLY?
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Yes, you can buy your milk, eggs, bread and your Christmas gifts for your family during your weekly grocery trip!

Most grocery store chains have a gift card mall with gift card for everyone! There are gift cards for everything you can think of! Of course we are all know about gift cards to the book store and restaurants, but you should stop by and look at all the new and unique gift cards that are now available! Give your babysitter a gift card for gasoline! How about a fast food gift card for your postman? Your child’s teacher would love a gift card to Michael’s craft stores. What college kid wouldn’t love a gift card toward the purchase of an airline ticket?! Give that “hard to shop for teen” a gift card to a show store. My mom loves to go out once a week with her girlfriends for lunch and a movie. I am getting her some gift cards for her Girl’s Day Out.

You can find a gift card for any budget and anyone on your list!

I have always shopped year round for Christmas and enjoyed having everything done by holiday time. But, I did have to secure one whole closet for my purchases, boxes and gift wrap. I am able to store all my Christmas gifts in an envelope! Wrapping is so easy! I can use an decorated envelope or a small gift box or bag.

I don’t have to run around the mall looking for deals, I am crossing people off my list every other week, and I don’t have to worry about storage!

I had some new photos taken last week. I went with a photographer named Melinda Kelley. She was fantastic! I loved every minute of it. And that’s coming from someone who hates to have her photo taken! Anyway, I thought I would put them up so people can see her work… and my new head shots!

VISIT HER WEBSITE:
Melinda Kelley
www.melindakelley.com

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It’s time to take care of what you have!  Let’s face it, times are tough and are about to get a lot tougher.  Families in most homes across the country  are rethinking their budgets.  Every news program, talk show and magazine and news paper articles are featuring how your family can employ budget cuts.  Budget cuts, like diets, focus on what you CAN’T have!  I do agree cuts have to made in our family budget, but I am looking at enjoying what I have.
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I belong to a wonderful group of women who are wives and mommies. They are called the Manic Mommies and they are a network of moms like me who listen to and love the Manic Mommies Podcast by the founding manic mommies, Kristen and Erin!  I encourage all my friends to listen to the podcasts and visit the website. (www.manicmommies.com)

In a day and age where friends, girlfriends, are so very important, the manic mommies offers a place where other moms can get advice, empathy, ideas or laughs!  I don’t know my next door neighbors, our schedules never really permitted us to bond.  I have some good friends from church and school, but again, our schedules get hectic and we get busy.  Many of us grew up with stay at home moms who had good friends up an down the street!  They helped each other out, watching kids, borrowing a can of tomato sauce, doing laundry for a sick mom, helping with carpool.  But today’s woman doesn’t have that.  We can,  however, reach out out to other moms on the web.  I am hoping my own blog can do that.  I do enjoy the Manic Mom Web site, blogs and message boards.  There are so many  smart, savvy, and humorous women who share ideas, thoughts and suggestions.  It’s like a neighbor who is available when you are!

You go Manic Moms!

My hubby’s Sausage & Peppers recipe. It’s fast and so delicious! Serves three. (With a little left over for a lunch the next day!)

Ingredients:

• 1 package of Polish Sausage (Chicken, pork or beef… your choice)
• 1 green bell pepper (Chopped or sliced)
• 1 red bell pepper (Chopped or sliced)
• 1 green apple (Chopped or sliced)
• 1 pat of butter
• Salt and pepper (to taste)
• 1 cup of rice

Slice the sausage into small pieces and heat them up in a skillet. When they are cooked, drop in the bell peppers and apple. Heat until the peppers and apple are soft. Serve over white rice. An alternative is to not use bell peppers and add more green apples. Either way, this dish is perfect for those cool Autumn evenings. Your whole house will smell wonderful and your dinner will be delicious!

Enjoy!

“Black Wednesday” will be a date our children will study in their American History, economics and social studies classes.  I hope and pray they are not going to be paying for the fall out of this crisis!  If not handled correctly, hell, if even handled the only ways possible, may still put the burden of paying for this mess on our kids!  I have two grown children.  My daughter is in grad school and studying to get her Master’s in Library Science.  ( A career she will shine in and love every day she goes to work!) My son is in his second year at Humboldt and studying stage craft. ( A career he has grown up around and so it is second nature to him!)  My kids are hardworking and honest people.  My daughter is looking for a job now. She is going to have enough of a challenge to land a job, especially when you consider so many Americans will be working well past retirement age just to make ends meet.  She will be competing with many other people to get a job and once she gets it, she will be taxed to make reparations for the mistakes made by Washington and supporting mistakes for an  economy she had nothing to do with!
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Where the heck have I been?  Has it really been 2 weeks since I blogged?  I have so many ideas on which to blog because my family and I have been through so much since I last wrote an entry.  Of course we are all in the middle of the nation’s financial crisis and it seems like the news changes hourly!  Since “Black Wednesday” there has been so much financial chaos on Wall Street and the effects are now being felt on Main Street.  We are all awaiting to see what happens on Thursday, the first day back to work since the Jewish High Holidays.

My uncle lost his best friend and partner of 33 years 2 weeks ago.  My sister’s husband and one of my favorite people in the whole world, Uncle Dave, had a stroke.  We looked at a public school for our daughter and had to make a choice as to where we were going to send her to school for the rest of the academic year.  My unions are back to fighting and a possible strike once again looms over Hollywood.  My husband saw his doctor yesterday and now has to have a surgery he has been able to avoid up until now.  Throughout it all, I have been auditioning for TV shows and have had some great stand up spots in town.  I have been managing my home  during financially tough times.

No wonder I haven’t had a chance to blog!  But I have missed it.  Those of you who journal know just how therapeutic it can be.  I will be blogging on all of this and more.  I am having a cup of coffee while my little girl sleeps well into the weekday morning.  We were all up until 4 A.M. with the noise the wind makes when it whips through our canyon.  My poor husband didn’t sleep at all.  He was like a guard dog over his family trying to figure out if the noise was actual damage to the house!  I look forward to sorting out the thoughts in my head and sharing with you.

I was looking forward to blogging today.  But, I will be spending the entire day sitting next to my fifth grader at school.  My daughter continues to not take her school work seriously.  I will sit right next to her and WATCH her all day.  Hopefully one day of your mother sitting next to you will be enough.  I will let you know.  Stay tuned!

I like my husband! Believe it or not, this statement is ground breaking in the world of marriage! I have heard many wives talking about their husbands and read many posts from still others who can’t stand their husbands. It is almost as if when we are in a group, we are supposed to run our guys down, complain about them and put them to shame! Why? I liked my husband when we were dating. I fell in love with him and then I married him. But you know, I still like him.
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Now here is a marriage that will work!  I can tell just by the wedding cake topper!

We have a family friend who recently got married.  We are friends of the groom.  We know all about his love of fishing, hunting and camping.  He’s a guy’s guy!  When he shopped for a dining room table, he looked for one that would be strong enough to hold a car engine so he could work on it in his spare time! So, now, you have a picture in your head of the groom.  Now, he announces he is going to get married!  My friend Linda, the groom’s brother, told us how wonderful this woman is.  She is a beautiful, kind and loving woman.  But when I saw her wedding cake topper, I knew she was going to be a wonderful wife!
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Sarah Palin posed the question in her acceptance speech, “What is the difference between a pit-bull and a hockey mom?” Then she pointed to her mouth and said, “lipstick”. So Sarah Palin thinks that is the only difference.

There is another big difference, a pit-bull mother will protect her litter. God help the person who tries to lay a hand on her puppies, the unfortunate person will withdraw a bloody stump! Not so with Sarah Palin! She is willing to sacrifice the happiness and safety of her children for her country. In Palin’s world, Country First, children are much further down the ladder. Apparently Sarah Palin disagrees with President Bush and believes some children should be left behind.
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Poor Bristol Palin. I would like to give her some advice since I think her mother and father are making a bad situation worse. Also, if Sarah Palin does become America’s VP, it will happen the same month the baby is born, so let’s just say Grandma will be too busy to help her daughter take this important step into motherhood.
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It is no secret that I am a democrat, but I would have this opinion no matter what my political party. Gov. Sarah Palin, who is the Republican party’s nominee for the Vice President, has a teen daughter who is pregnant. Though the facts are still coming out, it is certain that the 17 year old is 5 months pregnant. This young girl is just one of the Gov. Palin’s five children!
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Get off the cross Senator McCain, someone else needs the wood!

I know you were a prisoner of war. As the wife of a former Marine, a former Marine who flies his POW flag every Memorial Day, we are a family who remember them in our prayers often. The fact that you were a POW seems to be your platform and your answer to everything.

The biggest slap in the face to middle class of America came when you said you didn’t know how many houses you have! Americans are losing their one and only home on a daily basis and you don’t even know how many you own! Obviously you can’t relate to the American people who are struggling to keep a roof over their heads, food on the table and a tank of gas to get to work to provide it all!

You are like a Catholic priest giving marital advice! You haven’t lived this life, how can you advise?

Even when you were asked to qualify days later about the homes you owned, you still danced around the issues talking about your blessings, and of course, your time without a home, a kitchen table, or a chair at all….

There are Americans who have nothing now! We are desperate for answers.

Here’s my question to you Senator McCain, do you fly the black POW flag with the silhouette of a captured soldier over ANY of your homes? Perhaps the homeowners association in those particular areas won’t allow it. It may “disrupt” the look of those perfect neighborhoods.

Just a thought.

I recently had to defend my view on hiring household help. If you read a prior blog entry, you may know that I do my own housework, not by myself, my family helps too. In a nutshell, my thoughts are, if we dirty it, we clean it! We are the ones who eat off the plates, dirty the laundry and, last I looked, it was our hair in the shower floor! Why is it someone else’s job to come in and clean that? I have heard people say, “Don’t worry about it, the maid will clean it”. Why is it her job to pick up the glass I drank out of? I can take it to the sink and wash it!
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I love watching Jon and Kate plus 8 on TLC! That mom loses her mind on every episode! In fact, I am writing this during commercials and sipping a glass of well deserved merlot! Kate tries to micromanage every move these 8 children make. She is successful too! Now, everyone who blogs or comments on Kate says the same thing; Kate has to micromanage to keep order in the house. But does she have to treat her husband like crap on every episode?
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My husband made 4 of these Emergency Kits last Christmas and gave them to each of our immediate families. You can personalize them to match your needs and even do one with just food and water! Having these little luxuries in an easy to carry duffel bag would mean so much to us if we had mere moments to evacuate our home.

Keep this in an easy to find place. We keep our in the closet next to the front door. Also, you may want to add to it throughout the year. It would be a good idea to open it up and inspect it once or twice a year. Give yourself a visual reference as to what’s in there so if the time comes to use it, you’ll remember more easily what you have.

Putting all this stuff together may seem like a daunting task. If you take it little by little, you’ll see that it’s not that hard and it won’t be such a hit on your bank account. Before you know it, you’ll have an emergency kit and a sense of security knowing you’re covered if an emergency hits.

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