This summer we had a particularly tough time with ants in our house. It’s like they have a high-tech monitoring system set up that allows them 24/7 access to know when and where we drop a morsel of food.

This morning I waltzed into my kitchen promptly at 6am, ready to take on the world. When I turned on the light, it was like a hundred wacked out kids at a rave suddenly had a flashlight shining in their faces… and they all scurried in any which way they could, screaming, “The light, the light! Please turn off the light!”

Anyway, those ants picked the wrong morning to be partying all over my counter! I had heard that certain spices can “render them useless” (is there any good use for an ant?). So I whipped out my jar of cinnamon and sprinkled a nice long line across the counter. Then I stood there and waited.

One of the girls came down and asked what the heck I was doing, staring at a line of cinnamon on the counter. I told her, “shhh! I’m on reconnaissance!”

Eventually a scout made his way to my line of defense and low and behold if he didn’t start jumping all over the place after coming into contact with that spice. It reminded me of the time one of the kids stepped (barefoot) in dog poo and was hee-hawing all over the yard screaming, “get it off, get it OFF!” Yeah – same thing.

I stood there and watched. It was the slowest, most painful ant death I’ve ever seen. He kept shaking and rolling for almost 10 minutes. Finally he flipped over on his back and shook his legs a bit more before taking his last breath.

So, is cinnamon like a neuro-toxin for ants or something? I found some lady on e-how who says that any spice in a large enough dose can be a poison. Hmmm… All I know is that the 6 o’clock hour was huge at my house this morning. What does that mean for the rest of the day?

Almost two years ago I bought into the whole “green” concept and actually bought reusable grocery bags. My husband laughed at me and figured it was a phase that would last – at most – 2 trips to the grocery store. Now, many many trips later, I’m happy to say he was wrong!

Not only do these bags hold up, they can handle up to 40lbs of groceries each! (In case you’re wondering, that’s the same as 4-6 of those plastic grocery bags. Dude, I can pack these things solid and still carry them myself!) I shop for my family of 4 about 2-3 times a month using two of these Pack-n-Tote bags, plus one reusable bag I got from Ikea that is perfect for juice and milk. The Pack-n-Tote bags actually connect to your cart, making it easy to bag your groceries at the end of the trip. I use one for cold stuff, and the other for dry/pantry items.

The clerks are always commenting on how much can fit in my bags, and other customers frequently ask where I bought them. So, I figured it’s about time I post about them here. I LOVE carrying 2-3 bags from my car to the kitchen, instead of making 10 trips with all those cumbersome plastic things that are typically ripped by the time I make it inside. And because I’ve had them for so long, I can now safely say that it’s not a phrase. I will be using these bags as long as they last (and then I’ll get some more).

My only request for the manufacturers? On the off chance you’re reading this, can you find a way to make sure they always make it back to my car for the next trip so I’m never without my favorite grocery bags?

So last Saturday my sister and I had a “girls-night” while attending the Casting Crowns Christmas tour in Reading, PA. We each left our husbands and two children home from about 3 – 11pm that night. As a mom, I always wonder about those special daddy-daughter/son times… did daddy remember to give the girls a bath? What did they eat for dinner? Did he brush their hair before leaving the house? What did they do for fun? You know, basic mom questions.

But usually the desire for some me time is enough to keep those questions at bay. In any case, on Sunday morning, we got some answers. Since the answers to one in particular (the dinner question) were the source of laughter and smiles all around our houses, I thought I’d share them with you.

Drum roll please… my daughter gleefully told me she had cereal for dinner because daddy tried to make rice but it was too sticky. Well, at least he tried! My niece and nephew, however, had 4-day old (reheated) pancakes and… wait for it… Doritos! Now that’s a well-balanced meal if I ever heard of one.

My sister and I had a great time on our trip to PA. We laughed a lot, enjoyed some great music, and (best of all) got to come home to kids (and husbands) who couldn’t wait for us to make dinner. Isn’t it wonderful to be needed?!

I’ve been searching high and low for a better way to handle my kids’ laundry, particularly since my oldest likes to throw ALL the clothes laying around her room into the laundry basket, regardless of whether they are clean or dirty!

When I came across this tip, I just had to share (yes, it’s that good). If you’re already using this method, why didn’t you tell me sooner?!

In any case, each one of the kids gets a laundry bag – those kinds that can actually go into the laundry WITH the clothes. In my house, this means each girl’s bag goes from her room to the washer, then the dryer, then she sorts and puts away HER OWN LAUNDRY! Hallelujah! So if she wants to go to all that trouble for clothes that are already clean, go for it girl. I’m not doing it anymore! Plus, if she forgets to put her clothes into her bag and bring her bag to the laundry room, she can’t blame me for not having any clean clothes! This method means less work for me, and fewer lost or misplaced items (especially socks).

April has been a whirlwind of activity for us, and with all that activity undoubtedly comes a bit of craziness! The start of the month saw us returning from Nicaragua, then just 10 days later we traveled to Maine for a long weekend with my husband’s family. The rest of the month I was busy out straight working on a large project for Let’s Dish!. I think April is notorious for being crazy busy, as people get rush to get outside after the winter.

May starts on Thursday and I just can’t believe summer is almost here already. What is it about getting older that makes the days (and years) seem to fly by so quickly? (OK, just writing that statement made me sound like my mom. *yikes*) This is the one time of year I wish time would slow down. The girls are playing softball, the weather is absolutely beautiful (most of the time), the flowers are in bloom, and it doesn’t get dark until after 8pm.

We built a {insert fancy name for deck cover} to hold our new hammock chairs (direct from Nicaragua) and have since become the new hangout for all the neighborhood kids (who think these chairs are amusement park rides). But they really are wonderfully relaxing places to sit with a book on warm spring afternoons.

But there hasn’t been a ton of relaxing on them yet, what with all that crazy busyness I mentioned. Have you ever wished you could attach some sort of homing signal to various household items? Lots of people lose their keys, but we don’t have that problem too much. Library books are a huge source of frustration in our household. Those should come with homing signals that can be triggered by the library when a book is overdue. Wouldn’t that be great? (Note to any library administrators reading… please invoke the signal only between the hours of 9am and 9pm.) The library has told us we have a book overdue, and my daughter can’t find it (of course). We’ve turned the house upside down but it still eludes us. I know, we should have a better system and stay more organized. Yeah, yeah. Maybe I’ll get around to perfecting that system next April.