skincolour

In some countries and during some times in history a white skin was a sign of wealth. People who didn't need to work outside or on the land had a white skin.

Now a white skin is consideren healthy, even though we start to understand that sunbathing can be dangerous.
A healthy skin is considered to be brownish.

When you take great pride in your teint, relaise that there are places on the skin with a thicker layer of cells than at other places.
So scrub well before sunbathing.

Remover for your nails

Red nails can be nice, or black or blue ones, but when you want a new colour it's time to use the remover and start with a new colour all over again.

But do you know that even when you don't have coloured nails it's best to use remover before painting your nails again?

It's because remover also removes the fat on your nails and this enables the new colour to adhere a lot better.

Try it out and you'll see I'm right.

Hairmask

When you've been in the swimmingpool a lot or when you just want an afternoon to pamper yourself, don't forget a nice hairmask.
You can find them in all sorts of smells in the shop, but you can also make one yourself.

Any good ideas? You're welcome to post them here.

Red, white and blue.

It's Queensday in The Netherlands. A special day for all the Dutch and certainly a day to use the national flag.

Already in 1572 the Dutch had their own flag, which consisted of three horizontal colours: orange, white and blue.
Soon after it came to use the orange colour was exchanged for red.
It's not known why. Maybe the orange colours bleached too quick in the sun, maybe the sailors wanted red as it can be seen better.

Some americans mean they have to claim the colours, but they forget that the american flag was not even in use in 1572 and it would take another 200 years before some consensus would be reached about a flag there.

Because in the past century the colours red, white and blue got associated too much with america and the american politics and wars, the dutch started to use the colour of orange far more than before.
When I was young the colours of Queensday were red , white and blue, and the orange was only used as an accent. Now the flag is still decorated with an orange fane on special occasions to honour the royal house, which is called the house of orange, but the main colour of queensday has become orange.

Watch the wedding on TV with kids

Small children love to feel like a prince or princess.
Why not provide them with everything they need now the royal wedding of Wliiam and Kate is on TV?

Children will love watching the wedding dressed like their favorite person.

Take photos!!

Photographs

When you're visiting elderly people of your family ask them to show the photographs they have.
Take notes of names, so they won't be forgotten.

It's also nice to record the songs old people know from their youth.

Clean your bicycle

People often forget that cleaning a bicycle prolongs it's lifespan and makes bicycling a lot easier.

Clean it by using the same shampoo as is used on cars.

Oil the parts that needs oil, or use sillicones instead.

take special care of the places that might get in touch with your clothes or shoes.

Pancakes

Do you know you can make very tasteful pancakes with.....coffee?

Just add some coffee you've left. You'll love it.

To make a pancake a real surprise add some chocolate. You can smash the eastereggs and add the little pieces. Yummy!

Scissors in the kitchen

My grandmom always had a pair od scissors in the ktichen to use when preparing food.
She used them to get rid of the fat on meat.

My kids found out that those very same scissors are also perfect to cut a thin pizza in pieces. It's a lot easier than using a knife.

Peel a tomatoe

Some people take a lot of effort to peel a tomatoe.
All they get is a mess.

You can keep things clean by using the next tip:

Put the tomatoe in boiling water for about 10 seconds. Then put it in cold water.
You can peel it without any effort and without getting a mess.

Carrots

Do you know you can peel carrots with a cheese slicer?
It's a very fast way of dealing with the peeling. ofcourse you'll lose a bit more of the carrot than in the regular way, but it's handy for older people.

Exchange alarms

When you won't wake up at the sound of your own alarm anymore, why not exchange it with one of your friends?

Many people need a new sound once in a while, so you're both helped.

Cleaning the Senseo machine

Cleaning the Senseo machine can be done with tablets you can buy in the shop where they've sold you the machine.
They're quiet expensive.

Do you know lemonjuice works as well?

Put about 5 ml of lemon juice in the watercan.
Heat the water and pour 1 cuppa.

Repeat this after about half an hour.

Then clean the machine from the lemonjuice with making two cuppa's with clean water.

Buy eastereggs

It's almost easter and that means there are plenty of chocolate eastereggs in the shops.
Most shops provide a free taste, when you ask for it or just because they want to be nice.
So you'll know which shop has the best eggs.

Keep a close watch on what they have in store.

Some only sell a limited amount of eggs. Others simply have too much and sell them with a huge discount the last hour or hours before the shops close for easter.

When your internetconnection is down

We're dealing with very bad internetconnections at the moment and it's almost impossible to do everything I need to do.
I'm sure you have to deal with that too once in a while.

Write down the times the connection is down and claim the money you've lost because you couldn't access internet.

You won't get it back, I think.
But you'll make the business aware they have to take care of their services far better.

First go to customer services, then go higher.

They'll settle the matter by giving you free internet for one or two months to make you shut up.
Isn't that nice?

No spilling when boiling

Are you a messy cook?

Do you know what to do when the water boils and you don't want it to spill over?

Just add some butter to the water.
That's all.

Kids and history

History at school can be boring, but witnessing history when it happens never is.

So when something special happens that can be special for children, give them the opportunity to watch it on TV, be present and make a scrapbook about it.

Ideas?

• The wedding of William and Kate,
• Flights of the space shuttle
• the political situation in some countries in Africa
• recession
• changes in the educational system

History is not only what happens at the international level.
Blogging about their hometown can be very educational and make kids aware of what history means to people.

Tip for your hair

Do you want nice hair?

Before you wash your hair, rinse a whole egg in your hair and leave it there for a short while.

Wash your hair throughly after that with your regular shampoo.

When you're done, rinse your hair with the juice of a half a lemon.

You'll smell nice, and look wonderful.

Burned potatoes

When your potatoes are beyond normality and start smelling when on the fire, put the lid well on and switch the flame off.

Then put the pan in water, so the sissling stops.

Then pour the potatoes in another pan and you'll realise they don't smell and can be eaten.

Unless they're black as charcoal. LOL!

Medicine chest spring cleaning

People tend to keep all sorts of pills, lotions and other stuff at the medicine cabinet. They never take the old stuff out.

So take everything out and clean the cabinet. For instance with vinegar, which kills bacteria.

Then throw away everything past the date.

That means that pills have to go back to the pharmacists or have to be disposed of at special chemical waste collectors.

When you haven't used lotions for a year, you won't use them.
They might smell awful too, as perfume degenerates.

No brooms on bristles

My gram taught me: "No brooms on bristles".

She was right.
The bristles will bend and brooming is less well done.
And dust and other things might creep up the bristles.

So hang them.

Curtains in spring

Last week I got a visitor who told me she dusted the top of the curtains as some form of springcleaning.
I was not impressed. Not at all.

Dusting the top of the curtains will rub in the dirt and they won't get any cleaner or less smelly (in case you smoke).

When you don't want to wash the curtains, consider dry cleaning or otherwise take them off very carefully and hang them outside when it's very windy.

I always wash the curtains even when it means new ones are needed after a few years.
It's a nice excuse to change the room. :)

But I want to get rid of all the dust and small creatures that might have made a home in a corner.
There's a lot of life I can't see, but it's my home and I want to stay it that way.

No pollen in bed

People are often not aware that pollen can accumulate in your bed.

They come in when airing the room when you don't have a gauze before the window.

And your clothes contain the pollen that whuirled on them during the day.
So undress elsewhere.

And do you know that lots of pollen are in your hair after a spring day?
So wash your hair before going to bed, and wash your bedwear at least once a week.

You will feel a lot better during the night.

Spring memory

Making your own games is fun.
Why not have a go at making: memory.

With a camera you can make photos which are useful and use the best photos to print them on hard paper and cut them out...twice.

Have fun!

Teaching: flowers

Some children exeprience a bit of difficulty learning at school.
But we can help them at home without them ever realising that.

Take a tulip and make a drawing of the tulip. Do that together. Your child will love making an artwork with you.

Then slice the tulip in half so you can see the inside of the tulip.

Ofcourse you can draw that too.
Name the different parts, and repeat that a couple of times.
Your child will learn what it needs to know at school without any problems.

Your car in spring

I'm sure you welcomed the salt on the slippery roads during the winter, but do you know that your car need a special treatment in spring to leave the salt and cold behind?

Ofcourse the start is a good carwash.
Don't forget the bottom and the inside.

You need to give special care to corners and other paces where there's muck accumulated. It neess to be romoved.

After that a careful inspection might reveal... rust.
Have it treated.

Are you aware that salt is very bad for rubber?
So have an inspection of the brakes.
And inspect the old wax coating and aluminium parts.

Dogs in spring

Now it's spring again it's nice to take the dog for long walks again.
Be aware of its feet.

During the winter a lot of dirt has been washed away by rain and melting snow and the stones might be sharper

Be also aware that ticks can be having fun again, and all other sorts of bothering animals might creep up.

Protection against the sun

Isn't it nice to see the sun again?
People all start smiling and feeling happy again.

Be carefull though.
The sun can have a lot of power during this time of year, even though we don't feel the warmth.

Protect yourself and take special care of small children as they have far more sensitive skin.

A lovely present for mom, or the child itself

Spring is the best time to take photographs from new life.

So take a day off, pack a bag with goof and drinks, take your camera and leave the house.

A child loves to find nice spots with new life.
Little ducks, new small flowers, new leaves on branches. There are so many small presents in nature.

At a rainy day you can look through all the photos and make a nice booklet for the child itself or for the mother.

It's very special to teach a child the sounds of the animals when it was present when the photographs were taken. And it will love the photos instead of one of those old fashioned picture books.

Dahlias

Dahlias are my favorites and each year I wish I could afford to buy them.

If you can, please do. They're such a wonderful decoration for your garden.

First plant the tree branches or other wood supports your plants will need later in the year, then plant the dahlias.

The ground on top should not be stamped on too firm.

A new hedge wanted?

When you want a new hedge around your garden now is the best time to plant it.

Losen the ground and get rid of weeds and stones and other unwanted stuff.

Add compost and good ground from the woods.

Then plant the new plants and water them until you see they take hold and are doing well.

Cut them regularly to get a nice spread of branches.

Starting again your old compost heap

An old compostheap might have "died" during the winter, and it will take a long time for nature itself to start it again.
A bit of help consists of:

New leaves and grees waste on top.
Raking the old compost and new additions together.

taking compost from the bottom and adding that to the top.

And throwing a few buckets of hot water over it.

When it's an open air compost heap adding plastic on top to have the heap "breed" for a few days will help.

Air for trees

Some people think trees don't need any attention, appart from cutting branches that grow too long.

Well, they do some TLC.

A few times a year you can air the ground around the tree by plowing the ground a bit.
Don't make the ground too loose around the branches though, They need to get a hold.
Adding some compost will be great too.

Gardening in februari - 1

This is a good time to give the plants which are kept in large pots a new pot and new soil.
Be careful, only pot over the plants which are not in frozen soil and those which are not standing too wet. These last ones can wait a while.

You can also give another place to shrubs that lose leaves during the winter
and plants which are longer in your garden than a few years.
Again: only those plants without froozen roots which are not standing too wet.

Compost in the garden

When the temperatures are below zero don't do it, but when they are above zero, you can take the compost and mix it with the topsoil of the garden. Be careful not to harm bulbs or plants.

Only use the compost that is ready, which means that it's sandy and doesn't smell.

Stains on vacation

When you're on vacation you won't spend hours to get rid of stains.
Take a stain pretreatment stick with you and when you've got a stain use the stick well.
Some stains will disappear, others will be more easy to remove at home.

Iron containing foods

Upon request here a list with foods that contain iren.
When you take vitamin c with them, the iron is absorbed better.
broccoli,
raisins,
prunes,
figs,
dates,
lean beef,
lean pork,
skinned poultry,
shellfish,
fish,
liver,
organ meats,
egg yolks,
pinto,
kidney,
lima,
navy,
chick peas,
black-eyed peas,
lentils,
split peas,
green peas,
spinach,
kale,
collards,
beet greens,
chard,
dried peaches,
dried apricots,
nuts,
peanut butter,
whole grain breads.

Bruises and union

Do you know you can treat bruises with union?

Just slice an union and apply it to the skin.
When there's a wound, don't use it.

To keep the union in place you can use an old sock after you've cut the toes off.

To quit smoking

I don't know if it's of help, but there's a natural remedy against the urge to smoke.

Whenever you feel like taking a cigarette, get some salt and put it on the tip of your tongue.
The urge will go away.

let me know if you've been cured. It takes about a month.

Insect poison

My gram always had a small pot of cornstarch in the kitchendrawer and she took it with her during the summer.
When an insect had bitten her she would get a bit of cornstarch in her hand, wet it with water and apply it to the spot.

According to her it soaks up the poison.

Chewing gum in hair

One of my daughters was bullied by a boy. He threw chewing gum in her hair and thought she would have to cut her beautiful long hair to get rid of it.

He didn't know where to look when she appeared an hour later with wonderful hair.

The chewing gum was removed by the real brand cola. I just soaked the hair in it and took the chewing gum away.

Clean silver

I hated to clean silver when I was young. The smell of the stuff in the bottle. Ugh.

Cleaning silver is a lot easier.

take a heatproof glass bowl and line it with aluminimum foil.
Make a solution of 2 cups of water on 1 tablespoon of baking soda. Add this as many times as needed.
Heat it to 150 degrees.
Then put the silver on the foil. It should touch the foil.

Watch.

Rinse well after.

Smelly shoes

With boys and their desire to buy their own shoes I've been faced quite a couple of times weith the results of shoes which were not made of leather.

The smell!!
Arghhhh!!

Take a washcloth or an old sock when you don't want to use your best lace of roses fabric and fill it with either baking soda, tea leaves or kitty litter, close it and put it in the shoes during the night.

These small bags can be used over and over again.

Ink stains

Long ago we used real ink in fountainpains to write.
My uncle kept in in a topdrawer.
One day I had to fetch the ink and when taking the bottle out of the drawer it turned out the lid wasn't closed well.
A few drops fell on my new dress.

I feared the anger of my mother and went to the kitchen and poured milk on my dress, put kitchen paper to absorb the coloured milk and repeated it often until the stains were gone.

When I came home my mom asked me what smelled so sour. LOL!

Some people use alcohol to remove ink stains.

On some surfaces and fabric bleach will do too.

Wax and candle holders

When you don't want the candle to melt at the bottom, just pour a bit of water in the holder and put the candle on top.

You can also use an old aluminium cup of a candle or make one from a tealight.

Marble

Marble need careful treatment.

It's best not to dust with a cloth but to use a feather duster.

Never ever use soap!!!

Best use a soft wet cloth and wipe away the dust and dirt and immediately dry it with a soft dry cloth.

Grease can't be removed from marble. So prevent it.
All you can do is wipe it away as soon as possible and then use a damp cloth that is emerged in water with a little bit of ammonia, a dry cloth, a damp cloth with water only and a dry soft cloth.

Broken glass

We've got a strange tradition here according to some friends, but last week I saw one of them using the trick my gram taught me to take up broken glass.

Take a slice of white bread and make it into a ball.
You can take the broken glass up with it without hurting yourself.

When as much glass is in it, slice it off and you have a clean patch to take up the rest.

Shoebags

Shoebags are perfect oprganisers all over the house.

In the kitchen: for kitchen utensils that don't fity in the drawer.
In the bathroom: for underwear, towels, etc etc.

I can go on, but you'll get the idea.

Weed killer

It gives life to your laundry and home, and it takes life on your gardenpath.

Yep, it's vinegar.

Use it pure on weeds and you'll see that they can't cope with the acid.

That's another clean gardenpath.

Mildew

Best is to prevent mildew, but when you've got it you need to get rid of it.
You can do so with vinegar.

When the mildew is very bad, use plain white vinegar, otherwise use vinegar and water.


Do you know you can use vinegar too when you want to get rid of the black stains in aluminium?

Birthday presents and visitors

In the past I've been invited for coffee and it turned out I was at a birthday.
It was an awful experience to be without a gift. I really didn't know the hostess would be celebrating her birthday.

Since then I keep in the hall a few packages with a towel, washingcloth and soap.
In case someone lands in the middle of a birthday celebration I slip the package in their bag, explain the situation in a few words and the visitor won't feel embarrassed at all.

Don't be a jojo

Some women keep going up and down to fetch things.

Why not keep certain things upstairs ànd downstairs?
Cleaning cloths, cleaner and some othet much used household items can be found upstairs and downstairs in our house since I got this wise advice from the mother of a friend.
It has saved me a lot of time and energy when the children were small.

Pineapples

We've been dealing with painful lips and a swollen mouth due to eating pineapples until
we were told not to use the knife that's used for peeling the pineapple anymore.
One should use a new knife for slicing the pineapple, because the ill effects are caused by an acid in the peel.

In case your mouth hurts or is swollen because of a pineapple, use salt.

Remove chocolate stains

Removing chocolate or cocoa stains shouldn't be a problem.
When it's a large stain why not try the old fashioned way by using borax and water?

You can also use borax to make linnen white.

Jeans softener

New jeans and other new cotton fabrics can be unkind to the skin.

When you wash them add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of salt to the detergent.
It will soften the fabric.

It might sound old fashioned, but it helps.

Grease in carpets

Grease shouldn't be in carpets. I bet you know that.
But one can't always prevent spots of grease in a carpet.

As soon as grease flalls on the floor, cover it with fine flour and leave it there.
After a while the grease is in the flower and you can brusgh it away.
Repeat this as often as needed.

Steel knives

Steel knives need special care before you put them away for a long time.
To prevent them from rusting you need to make a strong solution of soda (1 part water and 4 parts soda) and put them in there for a moment. Then dry them carefully and put them in a dry place rolled in flannel.

Cleaning sponges

First decide if you want to clean the sponge or throw it away.

When your choice for throwing away is made easily why not cut a new sponge in two, so you'll be kinder to your wallet and the environment.

When cleaning a sponge use an anti bacterial washing soap for hands.
Use clean water to rinse it out.
Then take a fresh lemon and have the juice go well into the sponge.
Rinse it well with lukewarm water.

Cleaning glass

When you wash glasses you need to wash them seperate from the dishes.
Adding a bit of ammonia in the dishwater will make is shine like it's new.

Don't use too much ammonia and use a clean, non dusty, t-towel to clean the glass or let it dry in the air.

Knee pain

There are so many creams that promis magical healing that you'd better take a native medicine remedy.

Boil some garlic pods in mustard oil.
Soak a cloth in it and press excess moist out of it and apply the cloth to the knee.

It's worth a try and some people love the smell of the boiling garlic and mustard too.

Good health!

Swollen hands and feet

A friend from India is the daughter of a doctor.
She has helped many women here with advice for common diseases.

When you experience swollen hands and/or feet you can drink barley water.
Use that instead of normal water and you probably feel OK.

You can help yourself by putting the hands or feet up.

When the swelling persists, see a doctor.

Earache

Earache is one of the worst pains and especially for young children it can cause fear too.

Warm a bit of garlic or sesame oil just lukewarm and drop 3 drops in the ear.
With the right temperature the child won't feel a thing. Don't forget the tell before that the hearing might be weird or gone for a while.
Recurrent earaches and earaches after an illness should be presented to a doctor.

Bleeding

Today I got a call from a friend who was clearly in panick.
Her son had hurt his leg and it was bleeding profusely.

I asked her some questions and it didn't sound as an arterial bleed.
So I told her to get a bandage or an ironed t-towel and pul the wound closed from behind the leg to the front, carefully observing not to tie the knot on the wound.
Then I had her made an ice compress by putting ice in a clean and ironed washcloth and put it on the material that covered the wound.
She could holt it in place with another clean and ironed t-towel.

She was lucky to be one of the few who love to iron things, so she had it all available.
But you can prepare yourself by taking a plastic box, clean it with dettol or something else anti-bacterial, and put ironed stuff in there and close the lid well.
Refresh every month.

After covering the wound that way she went with her son to hospital where they found that the bleeding had stopped.

She got a compliment for treating the wound so well and after some stitches they were allowed to go home.

Beer is healthy?

Today the newspapers reported the researchoutcomes of a study of the results of drinking beer.

It turned out that using one, for women, and two, for men, glasses of beer reduce the chance of getting diabetes.

Personally I don't feel like drinking beer, not even after this news, because others report an increase of breastcancer risk after drinking beer.

The scientist who reported the research results has some ideas why beer might prevent the occurence of diabetes, but none of his ideas where based on facts.

Unhealthy meds

Some people think that everything made of plants that is sold as a healthy potion or pill is safe.

It's not.

Over the counter plant medication can be dangerous too, even when used in recommended dosage.

So be careful not to cause premature labour, a miscarriage, or a child to be even sicker than he was before.

Medical use of the potato

Haha! You didn't know a potato can help you fight disease?
It can.

The medicinal part, functioning as analgesic and antispasmodic is its swollen underground stem called “tuber”.

It's good against gastric ulcers and duodenal ulcers.
Wash the potatoes well get rid of the sprouts and grate them into a cheesecloth.
Press the juice out.
Half a cup of it before every meal is enough.

Because potatoes also contain atropine itll also handle your gastrointestinal pain.

Topical burns can be treated by a combination of the juice and the peels.

Medical use of the eggplant

I've never used eggplant much.
I don't like it.
But now I know it's so healthy, I have to change my mind.

The medicinal parts are its calyx, leaves, and the fruit.

Take 2 to 3 grams of dried calyx of the eggplant and make an extract. It's one of the best ways to combat food poisoning, I've been told.

When you want to get rid of a wart, just cut a slice of the eggplant and make it a little bit larger than the warth. Secure it with tape. Refresh the treatment every day and after a week you'll see result.

You can use the eggplant also against breast inflammation, boils, chapped skin and frostbite.

Wow!

Medical use of green onion

The stem of the green union, also called spring onion is very healthy.

Chop it very fine and use it in salads, on bread, rolled in a slice of cheese, etc etc.
The white stem contains a lot of glucose and allyl sulfides.

You can use it against colds, headaches, chills to the stomach, indigestion, and insomnia.
It's antipyretic, expectorant, anti-bacterial, and anti-fungal.

Spring onion should grow in every windowsill, that's clear!

Yoghurt with

Children sometimes refuse to eat.
I've discovered many ways to fool my children so they would get enough nourishment to stay healthy.

I never told them yoghurt is healthy, or is a desert.
Yoghurt is a treat.

And I make it even better when there's a reason to do so, and I don't like sugar to play much of a role in it.

I use a smoothy to improve the taste of yoghurt when I have no fruit available.

Pour the fruit in the yohurt and mix it in a blender until it's foam.

Kids, and grown ups, love it!

Report health effects

It's amazing how many people suffer health effects after a fire, for instance.
Authorities get every chance to ignore the health effects of a disaster, because people solve the problems themselves.

Even when you don't want a medical specialist to look at you, you can report the health effect and how you dealt with it to your own family docotr with the request to report it to the authorities.

Cleaning coffee machine

When you're cleaning your coffee machine don't forget to clear the place under the cup.

When you have cleaned the small tray that is supposed to collect a few drops, put some desinfectant gel in it. This prevents fungi to grow and also gives a nice smell.

And it's not so dirty to clean the thing.

Baked apple

Take a goldreinette (apple which is quite firm and stays rather firm when heated).

Peel it and make slices of one to 2 cm.

Take the middle hard part out with a knife.

Heat a teflon pan with a bit of butter.

High fire.

Put the apple slices in and keep moving the pan.

Throw cinnamon on the apple.

Turn the slices,

go on baking and moving and throw cinnamon on.

Throw snowsugar on it and turn the slices.

Bake for 30 seconds and throw snowsugar on the slices and turn.

Repeat snowsugar and turning.

Keep a close watch on the bottom of the pan, because the sugar shouldn't go black but golden brown.

When you like the smell well enough,
pur the whole lot on a plate and either serve them slice by slice with some honey and cinnamon icecream, for instance. Or on a piece of cake.
Or just the way they are.

Yummy!!

Handles

When i entered the kitchen I saw that a repeat of a traditional warning was in place.

Turn the handles of pots and pans to the wall.

OK, it's a bit easier to grasp a pot when the handle is towards you.
But it's also a danger.

Just one uncontroled movement and all the boiling content is spiling right over you, causing serious burns.

be aware of that.
If there chidlren around or not, make it a habit.

Need fancy clothes?

Do you need nice clothes?
This week is the best week to shop for them, because many shopowners put the christmaswear in the sales.

Also consider the services that provide clothes for parties. You know the rental ones.

Often these clothes are still good, but need a chemical clean.

When you need a scottish outfit, try the online rental services.

Good luck!

Resolutions

Many people make resolutions for the new year.
It's a great idea to face up to your weak characteristics and work on them, but when one of those characteristics is to make it easy for yourself you'd better hide until the next new year.

Ofcourse you can help yourself realise your plans.

• Don't make them too difficult,
• cut them into easy reachable small parts,
• work together with other people
• change your life in such a way that you can deal with your plans without missing something else
• create benefits to each goal
• be realistic
  

And...do you have resolutions?
Can we help you?

New calendar

Buy a new calendar for the new year and put all the birthdays, anniversaries and special events on it.
Don't forget the regular appointments, the times you have to order your medicines and other regular occurances.

Put the calendar at a place where you will see it each day, and at such a place where you are bound to look at it.
Like beside the coffee machine.