Tuesday: How to Use Bacon Grease in 5 Different Ways

Did you just make bacon? And end up with a lot of extra bacon grease? Well, lucky for you, there are actually uses for that bacon grease. And they just might surprise you.


1. (most obvious) Replace your spray grease for your fry pans with just a dab of bacon grease. Take about 1/2 teaspoon of the solid fat and put it on a paper towel- then use the greased paper towel to coat your frying pan before burgers, steaks, eggs, you name it. The bacon flavor infused adds an extra level of taste and only will cost you 20 calories.


2. Use it to polish leather. Now, I'm not talking leather couches or any extreme like that, but a dab of cooled bacon grease on a rag is a great way to add back in the suppleness that leather loses over time. Good for boots, belts, shoes and the like. An inexpensive way to replace leather shoe polish.

3. Make your cracked heels smooth again. You'll have to accompany this procedure with a shower, but it is a great way to make you want to show your feet in public. Before bed, dab some solid bacon grease on the dry parts of your feet and put on a pair of socks. In the morning, wash your feet thoroughly in the shower and BOOM! Softer feet!

4. (most awesome) Non-toxic bug destroyer! Take your solid grease and mix in a little bit of vegetable oil to make the grease a little more runny and sticky. Then, just put it in a Styrofoam plate or a pie pan and leave out wherever you want flies, mosquitoes, and bugs to be gone! They will land in the grease and the sticky weight of the grease will hold them down, unable to get free- all you will have to do is throw it away once it is full of bugs!

5. (most time intensive) Make soap! For those of us with a little more time and skills, you can use your bacon grease to make soap! Here's great article on how to make soap using bacon grease easily. DIY Soap


Enjoy your crisp, delicious morning bacon and make something useful from what's left over!
(Note: For the love of all that is good, DON'T use hot bacon grease for any of these.... wait until it cools and solidifies so that you don't burn yourself)

Monday: Teach Your Children to Watch the Horizon

When I was 16, I remember learning to drive with my dad. Still just out with my learner's permit, he took me out on the freeway. I really, REALLY didn't want to drive off the road, so to make sure that I would stay straight on the road, I watched the white line on the road and made sure that it passed by me in the same place in my window. I stared at that white line, making sure that it stayed parallel to me- and while I was busy staring at this white, painted line, my dad was busy staring at the cars in front of me. "Stop! That car is stopping! STOP!"

Yup. I almost hit a few cars in front of me before I realized that the place to focus on wasn't the white line right in front of me, but on the cars and the road in front of me. Once I learned to watch the horizon, I figured out where I was going and how to get there.

Now the tricky part.

Teaching my kids to watch the horizon.

And I don't mean when they are driving. I mean in life.

It is so easy to see the small things right in front of you:
*the pot of spaghetti sauce boiling over
*those 5 pounds that won't go away
*that bedroom wall color you hate
*that job that you don't want to go to
*that neighbor you can't handle

I know that you won't make it far focusing right in front of you- you'll just end up with a fender bender.

We really need to learn to focus on the horizon.

Like, where we are going. And who we can become.

Learn to answer these questions and then teach our kids.

So, when your little boy comes home and is upset because some other kids teased him for his clothes, you teach him that the clothes he is wearing might be right in front of him, but that what is on his horizon is far more important.

When your daughter doesn't do well in her piano recital, teach her that the bombed recital isn't all she is- it's not where she ends up- it's not her horizon.

I hope that I can be able to really teach my little girl not to focus on the trials and disappointments of the day, but to be able to look at her horizon, see where she is going, and know that there is more to life than the day-to-day.

But then again, every mom wants to teach her baby to grow up right.

Friday: Upcycled DIY 3D Dragonfly from Empty Paper Towel Rolls!

I have lots of extra paper towel rolls. I've made  I have this cute dragonfly that I used to make a card for my baby girl's grandma... (inside is complete with her hand and foot print 'signatures', a Disposable Flower Vase, and a DIY Wall Hanging. Waste not, want not, eh?

Materials

*Empty paper towel roll
*Spray paint
*Needle and thread
*Piece of colored paper
*Stickers/markers to decorate with

Step 1

Smash the empty roll flat and then cut into 6 thin 1/8 inch wide strips

Step 2 

Spray paint to your desired color and all to dry

Step 4- Secure with stitch
on edge of each
 middle piece

Step 3

Take your sheet of paper and fold it in half (to make the card). Next, thread and knot your needle and thread and run it through the far end of each piece of the empty roll and knot it at the end

Step 4- lay out flay

Step 4- Secure with middle
stitch

Step 4

Lay out the connected pieces on your card in two sets of three, making it look like a dragonfly. Use your needle and thread to 'sew' the dragonfly on by securing it with a single stitch in the middle and on the far end of the middle wing on each side.
Step 5

Decorate as desired! You can probably make it look cuter than mine.... Either way, have fun with this idea! Make flowers, leaves, whatever! Makes a cute 3-D card.