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.