According to BankRate, there are a few home upgrades that pay off for resale. The suggestions are: Upgrade the kitchen with nicer cabinets, fancier hardware, and good fixtures. Make your kitchen appliances match in color/design. Spruce up the bathrooms with new toilets or contemporary vanities. Brush a fresh coat of paint on just about everything. [...]
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[Sitting with mom, in the wee hours of the morning, guiltily watching the train wreck known as Toddlers & Tiaras.] Belinda (21): You know what’s scary about this? Mom: What? Belinda: These people can vote.
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When I was 19, my dad took a sabbatical to the United Kingdom — he was a math professor and did collaborative research at a university in Leeds, England. Even though I was only there a few months, I take the fact that I actually lived there as some kind of indicator that I have [...]
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For the past 16 years I’ve been the accountant for our engineering company. That explains why I get crazy angry and show signs of battle fatigue and hair loss once per quarter — on approximately January 31, April 30, July 31, and October 31 of every, single, solitary year. The certified idiots public servants who [...]
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[Looking up requirements for various Boy Scout merit badges online.] Samson (11): Mom, all of these require explaining. Mom: Yea. Samson: Well, I don’t really like explaining.
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If it’s about organization, I’m all over it. And with the information era has come a barrage of incoming stuff to organize. It can be overwhelming. This week I found a great (and free!) online organizing tool called clipix. I signed up for an account to try it out. You simply drag a link [...]
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When we built our first home, there were a number of windows that had to be made of tempered glass or safety glass. Due to their location, regular window glass wouldn’t be strong enough to provide the needed safety. For example, our second story balcony walkway ran right next to an enormous glass window. The [...]
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Before I had any school-aged children, I typeset my sister’s master’s thesis. It was titled Scientists, school teachers, and the two cultures of mathematics. Her research showed how school teachers generally think math is a magical machine that chugs out mysterious answers when you drop in numbers. Scientists, on the other hand, think math is [...]
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I live in Utah. Our official slogan is “the greatest snow on earth.” We hosted the winter Olympics (quite successfully, thanks to Mitt Romney) in 2002. Our governor just announced this week that he’s assembled an exploratory committee to review the idea of competing for the Olympics again. In other words, we do snow very [...]
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Since 1994, I’ve been making money online. From my first, fledgling website — that comprised a catalog of educational items I offered to homeschoolers and other parent — to my latest venture — a blogging network focusing on making money with blogs — the internet provides a world of monetizing opportunities. The best thing about [...]
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This post brought to you by Triad Retail Media. All opinions are 100% mine. The odors associated with nursing homes are well known. Some odd mix of medications, cleaning supplied, skin potions, body fluids, stuffiness, and decay all mingled together. When an elderly person moves in with you, you might be surprised at the odors [...]
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[Overhearing the TV in the other room while studying.] Belinda (21): It’s not even 1:00 am. Why do they have psychic commercial on?
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Monica (14): Mom, who’s Eddy Murphy and Freddie Mac?
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This post brought to you by. All opinions are 100% mine. You know Walgreens. It’s the pharmacy you can always count on, even when others are closed down for the night. Having been a mom for over 24 years, I can’t even count the number of times I’ve had an emergency resolved by the local [...]
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This post brought to you by Bulbs. Dig, Drop, Done.. All opinions are 100% mine. There isn’t a single bulb flower I don’t love. Because my dad served a three-year religious mission to Holland when he was young — and my husband and I returned 50 years later to celebrate our 15th anniversary — I [...]
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When we moved to Eagle Mountain, we thought we were going to do the farm thing. Not a full-fledged, up before dawn, milking the cows kind of farm, just a little gentleman’s ranchette. With a couple of horses, a goat or two, maybe a few mini-cows (OK, so maybe a little milking), and some chickens. [...]
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I have a dream laundry room. It’s so amazing that a number of people (honestly!) snuck downstairs to see it when I held a large group event. Now, it’s true that I talk about my laundry room in one of conference speeches on home organization systems. So it is famous, as far as laundry rooms [...]
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Professional results and professional products go together. A few days ago I wrote about my decades-long use of janitorial cleaning supplies to clean my home. Not only do I use professional products, I use a professional system. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to spend all day cleaning. Rather, I want great [...]
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Some people are just more talented than others. And that goes for bloggers as well. Some of us (ahem) write about things we love and things we hate and things that make our hair stand on end and things we are passionate about. And we use stock photos or marginally identifiable photos we took in [...]
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As the snow finally begins to blow in Utah — we were all beginning to think winter would just pass us by this year — I am reminded of one of the best things about living in a place with seasons. A good hard winter freeze does wonders for keeping bugs at bay. Growing up [...]
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