Tips from Mom

flowers from Laura Brown-thank you!

Happy Mother's Day!

I learned so much from my mother, Marie. A home economics (home science) teacher, she had the social graces of Emily Post, the advice of Ann Landers, the culinary talents of Betty Crocker and the overall family devotion of Donna Reed, Carol Brady and Stella Dallas, combined. 

I got to thinking about those everyday lessons from Mom and these random tips popped into my mind:

Always close kitchen drawers when you are cooking or baking to avoid having to clean out any falling crumbs.

Turn the top sheet hem back over the blanket when making the bed to keep the blanket clean longer, since you change the sheets more often than you do the blanket. 

When you finish using the oven on those cool or colder days of the year, leave the oven door open a few inches to release the expiring heat into the room.

To prevent stretching out the tops of your socks, tie each pair of socks into a simple knot rather than stuffing one inside the other. 

Ever have a cake come out of the oven and be high in the middle? To help keep a baked cake flat, push the raw batter toward the sides, leaving a shallow hollow in the center, then bake.

If your sheets have a printed side and a plainer side, in the summer, when it's hot, lay the printed side up so the pattern shows when you've no need for a blanket.  In the winter, face the printed side of the top sheet down and cover it with your blanket.  Then, when you turn back the covers, the pretty pattern will be seen. 

Sure you can buy pre-made cinnamon and sugar to sprinkle on toast, but you have no control of the amount of sugar.  Save an empty shaker bottle and make your own, lessening the sugar or adding more, for that matter!

Store household extension cords in toilet or paper towel tubes.

Save shelf space by hanging your toilet paper. Find an old paint can lid, punch two holes in that lid with a nail, thread an eight foot cord/heavy string through and tie it securely against the lid.  Take an old fashioned clothespin and tie it to the other end of the cord.  String your rolls of toilet paper over the closespin and hang your contraption  on a nail inside the linen closet!  (We still use one of these at the family home and it brings a smile every time I see or even think of it.)

There you have some of Mom's common sense teachings.  I know you have more from your mother and some of your own.  Send them along to graciousjanemarie@yahoo.com and we'll add them to our list of helpful hints.

P.S. Readers often ask me if the characters in my novels are copied from real people I know.  The answer is no.  However, I will say that my dear mother was the inspiration for Miss Ella, the matriarch of the Dunnigan family of Fernandina on Amelia Island, Florida in the late 1800s...