Rubbing Off On Me

I have been very fortunate throughout my life to be surrounded by people that I have learned from. Traditions, recipes, life skills.....my life is made up of bits and pieces of the people that are close to me. For example, thanks to Heidi, we make Christmas candy and Candy Turkeys every year. Because of Kristin, I make MORE Christmas candy, in more flavors and colors then I knew existed! She was also the one to introduce me to Oreo Balls and Facebook. Because of my mom.....don't even get me started. I talk like her, I look like her....there are too many things to mention here. Thanks to Wendy, I sell at and attend our local kids consignment sale every year. I also make double batches of cookies and freeze them in dough balls after our short-lived attempt at Once A Month Cooking. Because of Carlee, I now love guacamole and would love to be able to glean groceries like her, but as of yet, no such luck in Georgia. :( Thanks to Chris Pearce, I am growing tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and carrots in containers in my back yard (I'm SO excited!!). She also introduced me to egg rolls, which lead to my fryer, which lead to Southwest Eggrolls, Empanadas, and Donuts! Yummm!!! Because of Tami, I can drive through a thunderstorm without windshield wipers and I know how to escape from a 14-story apartment building. (Ok, that is a really LOOOOONG story.) This week, I have had the opportunity to learn something new from my friend, Heather, and I'm pretty excited about it. She recently posted about making her own household cleaners on her blog. You can read about it here. I have to admit that she is much better about being environmentally friendly than I am, so that is not what really got me thinking about this. After talking with her about it though, I realized that it is so much cheaper and so much safer my kids (AND environmentally friendly!!). So, I ordered the book, had a crash course with Heather over lunch the other day, and headed to WalMart to buy my initial supplies. The total cost for Window Cleaner was $.58!! A bottle of Windex was $2.83! And my homemade cleaner worked every bit as well as Windex. My book
came from Amazon a few days ago, so now I'm looking forward to trying some of the other cleaners as well, but it really did make me think of all the things that I have learned from my friends and family.....I would not be the wife and mom I am without each of you! Thank you!!