Dabbling Divas

A couple years ago my husband taught me a little trick with super glue and baking soda.  He said if you need something to really hold and super glue isn’t working try this.  I had a wood baby gate that was broken.  He got some super glue and put a big glop around the area that was broken, the sprinkled it with baking soda all around till it set.  It stuck and held it back together again.  It lasted a good couple of years till we were done but it held up rather well.

I would recommend the super glue in a tube that you have to squeeze out not the one that has that little point that you need to press to make it come out.  You’ll be there all day with that one.

With fall just around the corner and cooler days upon us, it’s a good time to start thinking about how to lower our heating costs.  Heating your home is the largest user of energy and with that said can be a biggest saving when you follow tips to use less.  Here are ten no and low cost simple tips on how to reduce the cost of your bill this winter.

1. Change the filters on your units.
2. Turn it down. You can save 1-3% of your bill for each degree you turn it down.  Going from 70 degrees to 68 degrees could save you as much as 6% per month.
3. Make sure you keep closet doors, pantries and rooms that aren’t used much closed.  There is no need to heat spaces you don’t use.
4. Open blinds and curtains on the south side of your home during the day to let in solar heat and close them at night to keep it from escaping
5. Put an extra blanket on everyone’s bed and dial down the thermostat a bit at night.
6. Reverse your ceiling fans and keep them on lower to circulate heat more evenly in your home. 
7. After cooking meals in the oven, turn off the oven but keep the oven door ajar to heat the kitchen.
8. Turn off cooking fans or bathroom fans as soon as they are not needed as they will push your hot air out of your home.
9. Keep throws in your family room to keep you warm and cozy.
10. Use electrical outlet sealers to reduce heat loss on outside interior walls. Find them at Lowe’s.

Please feel free to leave a comment or discuss this on our message board.

The American Cancer Society has recently updated its instructions for monthly breast self-exams to reflect new scientific data.

Follow these steps to perform your own breast self-exam:

Lie down to perform the exam. When you’re lying on your back, the breast tissue spreads evenly over the chest wall and becomes as thin as possible. This makes it easier to feel all of the breast.

Move across the breast in an up-and-down pattern. There’s evidence that this is the most effective technique for covering the entire breast.

Use different levels of pressure; light to examine breast tissue closest to your skin, medium to feel a little deeper, and firm to reach the tissue closest to your rib. A firm ridge in the lower curve of each breast is normal.

Sit or stand and slightly raise your arm to probe the underarm area. Go deep into the armpit.

Check your breasts at the same time every month to increase your chances of finding any lump that shouldn’t be there.

A great resource for breast cancer questions and answers is http://www.komen.org.

The earlier breast cancer is detected, the better chance we have of beating it.

Please feel free to leave a comment or discuss this on our message board.