How to clean oven fan filters.

  So over the weekend, blame it on the nesting, lol, I cleaned my oven fan filters or whatever you want to call them.  As usual I happened to see how to do this on the internet.  But the process was very easy and all I needed was a pair of tongs and a little bit of baking soda, which I always usually have on hand.

   So this is what my vents looked like when I took them out of the fans.  Mine were on the underside of the microwave, which I don't like having above my stove, but don't really have any other option for that.  We have lived in this house for almost three years and have never cleaned these.  As you can see one side of the stove gets used more than the other, anyone else do that?

   So first things first, get a pot, from what I've seen it needs to be a stainless steel pot, not something that has a non-stick coating on it.  My filters were a little to big for my pot so I did have to flip them over to get the whole filter clean.  Back to the water.  Once it's boiling pour in some baking soda (I do not have an exact measurement for this), but be very careful.  Your water is supposed to fizz up but mine didn't fizz up too much until I put the filter in so beware, I don't want your pots fizzing over.

   This is what my pot looks like when I put the filter in the water.  See all the grease on the right side of the picture, yuck.

   After I took the filters out of the pot I did rinse them off in the sink.  Make sure you use tongs to retrieve the filters since they will be hot!  The filter that is on the right took awhile to get as clean as it is, but I may have to clean that one up again using a little more elbow grease to get it completely clean.  But for now it is a lot better than what it had been, so I'm ok with that.  The filter on the right was not as dirty and only took about a minute on each side to get it clean.

   You can use the same water to clean both filters, you just may need to add a little more baking soda to the water.  This is what my pot looked liked after I was finished cleaning the filters.  Don't worry, it looks a lot worse than it is and was very easy to clean up.  The site I got my directions from suggested dumping your water outside somewhere because your water does get pretty greasy and she didn't want that on her pipes.  So that is up to your own discretion.

   And to round out a post about cleaning greasy, grimy filters, a picture of little Sebastian.  I caught him snuggling up on big brothers bed hanging out with all the soft toys. 

Dreaming of warmer days

   So, as with a lot of people he new year brings with it thoughts of spring and gardens :)  After one of my favorite past times, searching Pinterest I have discovered something called snow sowing.  Since I don't yet have a greenhouse I have been looking at ways to start some of my plants early to hopefully keep costs down.  Buying plants in May or June can get expensive.  This year I am also going to be fencing in my garden because if you looked over my garden posts from last year I had a problem with something eating my broccoli, and when you buy 24 broccoli plants that can be a real pain in the but and loss of money.

   So back to this snow sowing.  What that basically is is you take gallon size clear plastic containers which can be milk jugs or in my case since I have a lot of these, old vinegar jugs, (just make sure to thouroughly wash them before use.) 

   You cut the container about half way up, but do not cut the whole way through the container, leave a piece still attached so it acts like a hinge.  Drill about 15 holes in the bottom of the jug and a few around the bottom this allows for ventilation and drainage.  Next fill with potting soil, wet the soil, plant your seeds then you are basically done.  Tape the container back together then using a permanent marker write what is inside the container and the day planted so you can keep track of when to transplant.  Oh, and don't forget to take the caps off and leave them off.  This is how your plants gets water, but make sure to check in early spring to see if they need a little water from you.  Unlike when you start seeds indoors, this method does not require you to harden your plants off before transplanting to your garden when the time comes.

   I am really excited to try out this method of gardening and hoping it will turn out well for me and my garden.  This year I have decided to change up this a little bit and only grown about a dozen or so veggies so that I can hone in on how to grow these few crops well.  So this year I have decided to try my hand again at broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, lettuce, cucumbers, peas, carrots, and green beans. I ordered these seeds yesterday online.  I will not be using my mini greenhouses for all of these, some of them are direct sowes.  I will also be planting potatoes again.  Last year my corn did not do well so I am going to be buying that in bulk again like I did last year.  It worked out very well and I was able to support local farmers.  I will also be buying tomatoes this year since I did not have good luck with those last year.  By the time I had enough ready to can, half of them were already rotten.  I have only planted carrots before once, and I have no experience with growing peas but I am thinking ahead and plan on making them into baby food for the little one on the way.

   Here are some trow back Thursday picture for you of my garden from last year.

   Follow along with me on Facebook A Life of Organized Chaos and Instagram under m_mitchell07. 

Starting off our Christmas fund.

   So sometime last year I was looking into ways to make money from home.  Being a full time mom leaves little spare time to do other sorts of things.  I have tried doing some other things in the past that didn't work out for me, everything from survey taking, (which works for a lot of people, just not for me) to more costly adventures like when we spent $2500 of our tax return money on a course to become a medical transcriptionist that I wasn't able to complete within the time frame I was given, I really thought I could do that one.

   But then I found something on a blog I follow.  Actually several blogs i follow seemed to have a high opinion of Swagbucks.  It didn't cost me anything to join so I figured it couldn't hurt anything to try it out.  So try is what I did, and it worked for me!  Swagbucks gives you swag points for doing simple things like watching a short video, which you can do with the sound off and as time allows you, playing games, taking polls, or even surveys.  I recently downloaded the app for my phone and I can get points for downloading apps and all I have to do is open the app to get credit for using the app, then I delete the app.

   All the points you gain add up and you can even get bonus points for reaching a daily goal that Swagbucks sets.  Once you earn enough points you can turn them in for rewards which are very numerous and cover a wide range of things but my favorite is the gift cards.  Last year all the points I earned went towards gift cards to Amazon, (it's the best deal where you can get a $5 gift card for 450 points, most other $5 gift cards require 500 points.)  With these gift cards I was able to pay for almost half of my Christmas presents for free :).

  So this year I am starting off a little earlier in the year, I believe I started last year in April or so, I'm being a little more aggressive in getting my swagbucks, and I'm going after the $25 Paypal cash (which is 2500 points but I'm still hoping to get at least one of these each month.)  With what I leaned from last year is that I can sometimes get presents from other sites with better deals than Amazon and can just transfer the money over to my bank account to use or just pay the merchant through Paypal.

   So that is how I hope to achieve one of my goals for this year.  Last year Christmas kinda snuck up on me quickly, plus we have yearly taxes due at the end of the year so money is tight then.  That is why this year I am being more proactive about Swagbucks this year and I hope to be ahead of the ball.  Plus there is also the addition of another child to buy Christmas present for next year.  If you would like to check out Swagbucks for yourself here is a link to check it our for yourself.  And yes they have a referral program in which you can earn points for everyone who signs up using your referral link, but I just want to spread the word how easy it has been for me to earn free money that will help us tremendously at the end of the year.  So head on over there and good luck!