Organization, like weight loss and laundry, requires daily effort.

This is a realization I’ve come to only recently.

I don’t like to work hard, so organization has been a constant struggle in which I feel like the loser in tug-of-war.

I work for a company that makes an organization app. I have several planners and organizational devices. I just haven’t been able to figure out why they couldn’t keep me organized.

I know the reason.

No matter how great the organizational system, it only works if I use it.

I’ve always been curious about the Neat company, having seen advertisements like this one, for the NeatDesk:

Is that not cool?

Earlier in the year, with tax season breathing down my neck and a huge pile of papers on my end table, I reached out to Neat. I needed help. They agreed to send me a NeatDesk.

The day it arrived, I set it up, attached it to my computer, and began tackling the mountain of “important” papers on my end table.

I used the scanner for a couple of weeks, processing receipts and business cards, bills and statements, maps and Grace’s artwork. The NeatDesk is so fast that it made easy work of all of these.

But then, the novelty wore off. I stopped using the NeatDesk every day, and I let the mountain of papers slowly accumulate on my end table again.

The NeatDesk wasn’t the panacea I had hoped because the problem is that I don’t do the work to stay organized.

When I came to this (painful) realization, I dusted off the NeatDesk and got back to scanning. It is amazing how fast it is, scanning a double-sided document in black and white or color in less than one second.

After you scan your documents, the NeatWorks software processes them, pre-filling information in its database using Intelligent Text Recognition. Whether you’re scanning business cards or receipts or workbook pages, the program guesses at the type of item (receipt, contact, or document), and pulls the information it thinks is most important. You can then use the program to file and keep your information or you can export the files and upload them to a cloud-based service like AboutOne.

Every month, I have to scan 10-15 pages at a time to send to Grace’s cyberschool teacher. The NeatDesk holds 50 pages at once (or a combination of 10 business cards, 10 receipts, and 10 full-sized pages). The NeatDesk scans them all in less than 30 seconds, whereas it took me a half hour or more to scan them when I had to use my flatbed scanner.

The only thing I’ve scanned that the NeatDesk had any trouble with was business cards with non-standard print. Some bloggers have creative fonts on their business cards, and the NeatWorks software misread those consistently. Everything else scanned well and interpreted correctly.

I’d like to tell you that the NeatDesk has revolutionized my life, and that I’m totally organized now.

I’m not.

I have to take 3 minutes to scan my papers and file them correctly; NeatDesk can’t do that work for me. Still, it is really, really cool and really helpful, and I’m glad to have it. You will be glad to have one, too.

© 2012, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

Last year, on Memorial Day, I posted my then favorite hamburger recipe. I have a new favorite, so I thought this would be a good time to share it.

Joe found this recipe on AllRecipes.com; just like the reviewers say, the burgers fall apart when you cook them.

After some experimenting (and advice from our Facebook community), we made some adjustments to the recipe that kept it together.

This recipe was worth the work. The burgers are spicy – full of garlic, full of grilled onions, full of BBQ sauce – and oh so good.

I wanted to eat two burgers, just for the sake of it, but I didn’t have enough calories left in my day.

gah.

Joe put the rest of the burgers in the freezer so I wouldn’t eat them all we’ll have a quick supper another time we stay outside too late in the evening.

The Best Hamburgers I Ever Ate

Print

Ingredients

• 2 pounds ground beef
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1/3 cup minced garlic (most of a bulb, probably 5-7 cloves)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 envelope dry onion soup mix
• 1/2 cup BBQ sauce (Jack Daniels Original is our favorite)
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Instructions

1. Mix everything together in a large bowl.
2. Divide the mixture into 8 equal balls. Flatten each ball into a patty and place the patties on a cookie sheet in the refrigerator for an hour.
3. Preheat your grill to high. Cook the patties to an internal temperature of 160 degrees, about 6 minutes per side.

Notes

Joe topped our burgers with cheese right before taking them off the grill, making cheeseburgers. They are so flavorful and spicy that they need almost no condiments. We ate a little bit of Miracle Whip on the buns, but nothing else. (And, no, these are clearly not the burgers in the picture. We ate all of these burgers before I could take a picture of them.)

2.2.6

 

© 2012, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

Here’s what I found this week:

Parenting & Having Fun As A Family

• You know I am in love with this list of Positive Princess Books. Many of our favorites are on the list.
• This question can change your parenting. I’ve been doing this for a year or so, and it really works.

Cooking: Recipes & Kitchen Tips

• Nutella is not part of a healthy breakfast.
• 10 10-minute meals – Many of these are unexpected, but great. I emailed this list to Joe.

Crafts & Other Projects

• 10 travel photography tips from the photographer who took our Christmas portraits last year.
• I love this! I take quite a few Instagram shots, but I never thought of displaying them in a homemade Instagallery.

Have you posted something this week that was worth writing Home about? Send me the link, and maybe you’ll see it here next Sunday!

© 2012, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

Since Allie was born, we have used cloth diapers. Needing to find the most economical diapering solution, we spent $100 on prefold diapers and diaper covers. Joe and I washed diapers every other day, and we made it work for over 15 months.

Then my dad noticed that Allie, who had been walking for almost 6 months, wasn’t walking correctly. When she walked, her legs stuck out much further than is normal. My cloth diapers were holding her legs out and forcing her to waddle.

Until my dad pointed it out, I had never noticed.

Once I noticed, I couldn’t see anything else.

The next afternoon, I drove to Walmart, and I bought a big box of Huggies Sung & Dry diapers, and we’ve used them ever since. Allie went from waddling to sprinting in about three weeks, further confirmation that her diapers were impeding her movement.

I want to be as frugal as I can be, but I won’t do it at the expense of my daughter’s development. I had experimented with several different folds and tried to reduce the bulk between Allie’s legs, but nothing was snug enough. Every fold and twist I tried pushed her legs apart.

Around the same time, Allie had developed a diaper rash that wouldn’t heal. I tried my favorite diaper rash cream. It didn’t work, so I tried four others. Each time, the rash improved through the day while I changed Allie’s diaper every hour or two, but it would come back, red and angry as ever every morning, after a long night in a wet diaper.

Huggies keep babies’ skin dry by wicking urine away from the skin; cloth diapers hold urine next to the skin, keeping the skin wet. Having a dry bottom most of the time allowed Allie’s skin to recover.

The day after we started using Huggies, Allie’s rash began to disappear, not to return. We haven’t had any significant rashes since.

The movement and diaper rash were reason enough for us to stick with Huggies, but we have noticed one more benefit. While we were using cloth diapers, leaks were a fact of life. I could leave a diaper on Allie for 2-3 hours (as long as she didn’t have a rash), but any more, and the diaper would saturate and pee would leak out all over the place.

We had gotten used to traveling with a couple of spare outfits and a wet bag big enough to hold pee-soaked clothes. It was annoying, but a fact of life.

Now that we’re using Huggies Snug & Dry, we don’t have leaks. I still finding myself checking Allie’s legs and bottom to see if they’re wet, but they never are.

I thought we would use cloth diapers forever. Really, I did. I was committed to saving as much money as I could save.

Parenting isn’t always about intentions though, is it? Sometimes, parenting is about recognizing your kid’s needs and adjusting accordingly. I hope I can always be flexible enough to abandon something I believe in when it’s not right for my kid.

And also? Huggies are way easier than cloth diapers.

You can follow Huggies on Facebook for special offers.

This post is part of a Mom Central campaign for Huggies. Though I received product samples to review and a promotional item to thank me for participating, we had switched to Huggies a few weeks earlier and had been purchasing Huggies diapers on our own dime.

© 2012, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

I found this video while I was looking for a photo to go with tomorrow’s post (about Huggies). It makes me laugh.

Allie is like a moth to a flame where electronics are concerned. She wants the tv to be on all day. She can find my iPhone and the iPad no matter where I hide them.

It’s not unusual for her to sit in the living room, using the iPad (correctly!) for 10 minutes or more. She just does it.

Usually, her magnetic attraction vexes me. I want her to play with some toys, but on this day, I thought it was funny. I grabbed my phone and took this video.

iPhones take video that’s really tall, and when I cropped it, it went a little out of focus. Watch it anyway.

© 2012, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

Joe and I bought our gas grill the day we created our wedding registry at Sears. We knew we should wait for my bridal shower, but we just couldn’t be patient.

We wanted to enjoy grilled food out on our deck as soon as the weather warmed up.

We primarily grill hamburgers, chili burger, hot dogs, chicken breasts, and veggies. Oh, and kielbasa. I can’t forget kielbasa; Joe’s dad has worked at a world famous kielbasa shop on and off throughout his retirement.

My mom grills all kinds of adventurous things – pineapple, peaches, corn, and stuff I’d never even think to put on the grill.

Who am I kidding? I don’t grill anything. I leave that to Joe 100% of the time.

Anyway, I am excited to participate in Sears’ Grilling is Happiness program because I love cookouts. It doesn’t matter to me who’s doing the cooking or hosting the shindig, but cookouts are a good time all summer long.

When I was little, we had cookouts at Old Grandma’s or at one of my uncles’ house. The food was cooked in half of a 55-gallon metal drum with grates across the top. Picnic tables were set up across the front yard, and we played lawn darts (the horrors!) and badminton and ran around like nuts.

Oh, to do that again. The thought makes me a little teary-eyed. It would be wonderful.

When we cook out at our house, Joe usually makes grilled veggies – his favorite is squash – and some kind of meat.

Grilled Zucchini

Print

Serves: 10-12

Ingredients

• 2 zucchini (We use them straight out of the garden when we can.)
• 2 yellow squash
• 1 large onion
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• a handful of fresh herbs or a couple of tablespoons of sodium-free seasoning (We use whatever needs to be picked from the garden.)

Instructions

1. Chop the squash and peel and chop the onion.
2. Place all of the chopped veggies into a grill basket. Grill over medium heat until onions are crisp-tender.
3. Let the veggies cool a little, then toss with garlic and spices of your choice.

2.2.6

Win a $25 Sears Gift Card!

Sears is providing me with a $25 Sears gift card to give away to one lucky Feels Like Home reader!

To be entered for a chance to win, leave a comment explaining what you love about grilling (besides the food, of course).

You may receive two (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

• Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post.
• Tweet about this promotion including @TaraZiegmont and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post.

No duplicate comments. This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older.

Winners will be selected via random draw (using a plugin called And the Winner Is) and will be notified by e-mail. Winner will have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

Good luck! This sweepstakes runs from 5/17/12 – 5/24/12.

This is a sponsored conversation on behalf of Sears and BlogFrog. The opinions are mine along, and the text is written by me. Read the Official Sweepstakes Rules for more info.

© 2012, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

Here are a few of my recent Instagram photos:

The girls greeting me after the 2:1 Conference

The sweet smelling blossoms on my kiwi vine

Reading with Daddy

Making a planter at the free Home Depot workshop in May

My poppies! This bloom was as big as my head.

Getting ready to play in a warm spring rain (you play in a sequined dance leotard, don’t you?)

So proud of herself after climbing up onto the hammock by herself

The gorgeous flowers in my yard – iris, bleeding heart, a purple flower whose name I don’t know (do you?), and a begonia

© 2012, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

As I have mentioned a time or eight before, Grace and I have been working our way through the The Complete Little House Box Set that I got for Christmas when I was little.

I’m so excited to be working on a Little House unit to share with you, but in the meantime, I’m going to post some of the activities we’ve done.

This activity wasn’t actually described in any of the Little House books (so far), but we did see something like it in the Welcome to Kirsten’s World book that we borrowed from the library.

One afternoon, I told Grace we were going to make a yarn doll. She thought it was a good idea, and we made it in less than 15 minutes.

Because she doesn’t know how to tie just yet, Grace could only do the first part. I finished the doll while she was playing with her doll house.

I should also warn you that this doll is pretty fragile. We put it way up, out of Allie’s reach. I am pretty sure she would unravel it into a bird’s nest of tangled yarn in about three seconds.

How to Make a Yarn Doll

The materials for a yarn doll are very simple:

• One skein of yarn (even a small chunk will work)
• Scissors
• A large book (ours was about a foot tall, maybe a little less)

1. Wrap your yarn around the book 100 times. This was an awesome reason to practice counting to 100! Grace and I counted together in between her complaints that her arm was going to fall off.

Be careful not to wrap the yarn too tightly around the book. You want it to be snug but not to hard to slide around.

2. Cut the end of the yarn after you’ve wrapped it 100 times around the book. Thread the tail under the whole pile of yarn. I wrapped the tail around, tied it, and then wrapped it again.

3. Slide the tied part up to the top of the book and tie a square knot to hold it tightly. (You know how to tie a square knot, trust me.  It’s like a shoelaces knot that you tie twice.)

4. Very, very carefully, slide the yarn off of the book. Lay it down with the knotted part at the top.

5. Cut a short length of yarn and lay it a few inches from the top loop. This is going to make the neck of your doll. Pull it as tightly as you can and tie another square knot.

Right after I took the picture above, I realized that we wanted to give our doll some hair. Make sure you pull a few strands of hair from around the top loop before you tie the neck. Trim those pieces to the length you want the hair to be. We chose to make our pieces about arm-length. See the pictures below.

6. Before you go any further, braid that hair. If you don’t, it could pull right out of the loop. After you’ve braided it, cut a short length of yarn to cinch and tie each braid.

7. Flatten the yarn out, then cut the loops at the bottom. I picked it up and gently shook it out to make sure I didn’t miss any loops.

8. Smooth the yarn again and trim any ends that stick out longer than the rest.

9. Next, imagine your finished doll. You will have two thinner arms and two fatter legs. Pull the arms off from the body and tie a short piece of yarn where you’ll want the hand to be.  (Instead of cutting a new piece, use one that you cut off when you trimmed the hair.)

10. Trim the arm 1/2 to 1 inch below the tie.

11. Tie a piece of yarn around the rest of doll’s body to make her waist. You could leave your doll like this, if you wanted her to have a skirt. You could also tie a piece of yarn around the bottom to fasten the skirt together. We decided to give our girl pants, so we had one more step.

12. Separate the yarn below her waist to make two legs, and tie each leg near the bottom.

That’s it! You can play with your doll.

This website uses affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.

© 2012, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

In the Harrisburg area, we have a small restaurant chain called Neato Burrito. I discovered it when I was about 19, when it had been open only a year or so. I was instantly smitten.

The concept is simple; you walk along an assembly line, making choices about the contents of your burrito.

• What kind of tortilla?
• BBQ or brown rice?
• Refried or black beans?
• Chicken, beef, or vegetarian?
• Cheese or no cheese?

There are more choices as you walk along, including what kind of salsa you want. The salsa of the day on Tuesday and Saturday is jalepeno-feta; it is the best day of the whole week.

Anyway. This is not a sponsored post. I just wanted to give you the background of the recipe that follows.

Inspired by the rapidly burgeoning cilantro, I decided to make Neato Burritos at home.

At-Home Neato Burritos

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 4 large tortillas
• 1 can of refried beans
• 1 cup of cooked shredded chicken or ground beef (if you’re cooking it yourself, add a tablespoon or two of taco seasoning to give it a nice flavor)
• 1 cup of cooked brown rice
• Your favorite BBQ sauce
• 1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 cup of frozen corn kernels
• Shredded cheddar or Mexican blend cheese
• 1/2 cucumber, diced
• 1/2 small onion, diced finely
• 1/2 bunch of romaine lettuce, shredded
• 1 roma tomato, diced
• Sliced jalepeno peppers, optional
• Sour cream
• Salsa or pico de gallo
• Salsa verde
• Diced avocado

Instructions

1. Heat refried and black beans, meat, rice, and corn. Place each ingredient in a small bowl or container to make preparing the burritos a little easier.
2. Heat one tortilla in the microwave for 15 seconds. This will make it pliable and easier to fold.
3. Spread 1/4 cup of refried beans over the center of the tortilla. Top with meat and brown rice. Squirt a line or zigzag of BBQ sauce over the rice.
4. Sprinkle black beans and corn over the rice. Top with cheese, salsa and salsa verde, lettuce, cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, and jalepeno peppers, if you’re using them.
5. Fold the bottom end of the burrito in about 1 1/2 inches, then fold the right and left sides over top of the filling. Turn the burrito over (to keep the sides from popping open), and microwave for 15 seconds to melt the cheese.
6. Serve immediately.

2.2.6

Photo source

© 2012, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

I wrote a very nice introduction to this post, and then I deleted it by accident (is there any other way?). This introduction isn’t as nice, but it will have to do.

I used to write a weekly post here every Sunday called Things to Write Home About. I don’t remember exactly when I stopped writing it, but it was always one of my favorite posts each week.

To gather the 20-25 posts I shared in Things to Write Home About, I’d scan a few hundred posts in Google Reader. I stopped because I couldn’t spend that kind of time (on the weekend no less) to cull the number of posts I wanted to include.

Inspired by Tsh (who I’d really like to call my friend even though we’ve only met once), I am bringing Things to Write Home About back.

I’m not going to include as many posts as before. I work and blog and mother and homeschool, and I just can’t.

I am going to include a few posts. It’ll give me a good excuse to see what my friends and other bloggers are up to, and I am delighted to be able to share it with you.

Here’s what I found this week:

Parenting & Having Fun As A Family

• You are so much more than just a mom.

Cooking: Recipes & Kitchen Tips

• I am going to make the overripe bananas on my kitchen table into Hawaiian pineapple banana bread thanks to a tip from my friend Lisa
• I am already harvesting cilantro from my garden, and I’m in the mood for slow cooker pork carnitas.

Home Management

• 7 reasons your kitchen counters are cluttered. I think Joshua Becker has been peeking into my home.

Crafts & Other Projects

• I have a glut of chocolate mint growing in my back flowerbed that will be perfect for making peppermint foot scrubs (or peppermint tea or peppermint bath or…).

Have you posted something this week that was worth writing Home about? Send me the link, and maybe you’ll see it here next Sunday!

© 2012, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.