Twenty-two years ago we bought two acres of land.  We bought it during the wintertime.  It was covered in snow.  Snow that glistened and sparkled like diamonds in the sun.  I thought it was beautiful.

Then spring came.  The snow melted.  What I thought were small snowdrifts were actually big rocks.  Rocks!  We’ve been battling rocks ever since.

Planting grass, flowers, trees, and shrubs was a difficult task.  We had to pick rock and haul them away.  When we dug holes, we had a six-foot long heavy pry bar to dig out the boulders.  Yard work was WORK!

That being said, I thought that I would share with you a fun site for creating springtime flowers.  (I wish it were this easy in real life!)

Click here to create your springtime flower garden.  Click your mouse on the screen to ‘plant’ flowers.  You can also hold your mouse down and drag across the screen.

Spend some time with your grandchildren making your flower garden.  It’s a delight to watch the flowers appear.  (Send the URL to your far away grandchildren so they can have fun, too.)

P.S. Don’t forget to make a comment on my PLAY-DOH giveaway!

Having babies is expensive — more than when I was a young mother back in the Dark Ages. (If I was a young mother back in the Dark Ages, that means I am OLD. But, that means my children were alive back then, too. Which means THEY are old! Heh heh . . . I’ll have to share that idea with them . . .)

Now, where was I?  Oh yes, the expense of having babies.

I don’t know of one single young mother that uses cloth diapers.  I’m sure there are ‘green’ mothers somewhere out in the world who use them for the sake of saving the planet.  Which is all good and well.  I just don’t happen to know any.  Disposable diapers are great — and expensive.

And, I must say that I am totally impressed by the quality of disposable diapers of today.  Totally.  They are so much better than the ones that were available back in my day that shredded into soggy pieces of cotton when they were full.  And the marvelous tabs on today’s diapers that hold the diaper on.  You can actually ‘undo’ them without wrecking the diaper and the tab will still ’stick’ afterwards. It almost makes me wish I had a baby.  Wait!  Who am I kidding?  I don’t want a baby at this stage of my life.  I am very happy with being a grandmother and loving the babies that my daughter and daughters-in-law have.

Okay.  Let’s move on to the topic at hand.  Homemade wet wipes.

I read a young mother’s blog yesterday where she shared the ‘recipe’ for homemade wet wipes.  It seems that her delightful son seems to have lots of blowouts lately and that she has been going through tons and tons of wet wipes.  (Is wet wipes a registered trademark for a specific product?  Probably.  I ought to use a different phrase here . . . but I’m too lazy to come up with a generic phrase.  I’ll probably get sued for using this name without it’s registered trademark symbol. . . )

Back to making a homemade product that you can use to clean a baby’s bottom.  (Saying ‘wet wipes’ is more succinct.  Less words.  Aren’t we all about conservation?  Word conservation is good.  You know, I’ve just realized my words are forever getting off track here.  Sheesh!)

Here’s the ‘recipe’ to make those wipes.

Baby Wipes

1 #6 Rubbermaid container (or any container that won’t leak and can hold half a roll of paper towels)

In container mix:
2 cups of water
3 tbs baby oil
1 tbs baby shampoo

Take one BIG roll of Bounty paper towels and cut in half with your electric knife or a knife with a serrated edge.  (So when I’m carving the Thanksgiving turkey, I need to be sure there aren’t any chunks of paper towel still clinging to the knife.)

Leave in the cardboard tube. It will be easier to take out after wipes are made.

After you have your mixture made and your paper towels are cut, put the paper towels in the container and put the lid on. Tight.  You don’t want anything leaking out here.  Then put the container upside down for about 4 hours so paper towels will get entirely soaked. After it’s soaked, remove the cardboard tube.

Voila!  You now have cheaper baby bum wipes.

The mother who shared the recipe says that only Bounty paper towels will work for this.  She also said that her husband didn’t like the fact that they were so ‘wet.’  So, she reduced the amount of water to 1 1/2 cups.  You might want to keep this in mind.

So, there you have it. A great recipe to have tucked in your recipe file box between the Rollo Cookies and the sinfully rich chocolate dessert recipes.

You might want to make up some wipes and see how this all works.  Then, share this with your daughters and daughters-in-law.  This is a great way to help them save a little money.  And that’s something that all of us like to do in this rough economy.

As a grandmother, what are your uses — beyond wiping drool off a teething baby’s chin or giving birthday money to a teen-aged grandson?  If you’re not quite sure, read 41 Uses for a Grandma by Harriet Ziefert.  It’s a hoot.

My son and daughter-in-law gave me this book as a belated birthday present.  And I was totally delighted with it.  Totally!  I love the ‘uses’ — a time keeper, a security blanket, a hand warmer, a page turner, a ballet barre.   My favorite is a monkey bar.

I also love the drawings. Maybe my favorite use (a monkey bar) is my favorite because I absolutely love the accompanying drawing.

I recommend that you buy this book — and then read it to your grandchildren when they visit.  It will be great bonding time together.

I have found a site that I just HAVE to share with you.  But let me warn you, it could get costly . . .

Perpetual Kid has the sub-title ‘entertain your inner child.’  I couldn’t agree more.  After just a few minutes browsing, I found a plethora of items that I wanted to buy.  They have novelty bandages — pickles, crime scene, Hello Kitty, bunny, cowboy, eyeball, fairies, and toast bandages.  When bumps and bangs bring blood, you’ll need to have some of these fun bandages on hand.

They have a heart egg molder so you can cook a heart shaped egg, a food face dinner plate (where you place food over the face on the plate to make hair, a  beard, a nose, a hat, a mouth), a French toast stamp (stamps the image of the Eiffle Tower on your French toast), and an airplane shaped fork.

And last but not least, I need to talk about toilet paper.  Do you have a grandchild that is going through potty training?  Getting some fun toilet paper from Just Toilet Paper can add fun to the whole experience.  (You might want to share this site with your grandchildren’s parents.)  Some of the toilet paper designs that they sell include hearts, lips, keyboard, music, paw prints, camouflage, rocks, soccer balls, eyes, frogs, penguins, and aliens.  Who ever thought that wiping a messy bottom could be so fun?

I am so not an artist.  I struggle to makie stick figures look like stick figures. . . But, that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate fine art work when I see it.

I have recently come across the fabulous site Feed Your Soul.  Jen, the site owner, knows that when money is tight (as it is in our current economy) that money usually isn’t spent on non-essentials.  But sometimes it’s those non-essentials that bring sunshine to our souls.

Jen’s purpose is to bring a smile to your face and brighten your day.  (I personally think she has accomplished that goal!  At least she has for me.)

Since she isn’t an artist herself, she has asked some of her artistic friends (almost 75) to share one of their art pieces that could be printed up and framed.  (Do you have 75 artistic friends??  I don’t even think I have that many friends!)  Those friends have so kindly agreed and Jen has made them available for download in PDF format on her site.

Here are a few that I absolutely love:

• the little old lady and little old man shown above  (I identify with them) by K*Smith
• “Home is wherever my books are” by Stephanie Fizer
• the little girl with balloons by Shira Sela
• the hot air balloon one by Ellen Currier
• two owls by Amy Ruppel
• an orange by Stephanie Nance
• a snowman by Angela Traunig

Such a fun and artistically pleasing site!  I’m sure you’ll agree with me — as will your granddaughters.

Here are my ideas as to how you, dear grandmothers, can use this site with your grandchildren.  (Probably just your granddaughters.  I think the artwork would appeal more to the females in your family . . .)

Have a printing party!  Get together with your granddaughter and print up one of the pictures that she likes.  Have a frame handy that she could put it in.  (Of course you have gone shopping together beforehand to select the frame.  Of course.)  If you are really skilled, get a frame that could be painted to match the colors in the print.

Print up several so that your granddaughter can create a wall grouping.

Print up several and frame in one frame that has matting areas for multiple pictures.

And don’t forget about you.  Print up your favorites to decorate your home with, too.

Jen, thanks so much for sharing with us.  We are blessed because of your kindness!