Speaker 1: 0:03

Hello and welcome to Inside Marci's Mind. My name is Marci Backus and I am your host. Well, it's about time I get an episode out. Sorry, I was traveling and I thought I could upload an old episode using my phone. I did not take my laptop, so we were dark last week, which I don't like to do and I apologize for that, but you know, life's what happens when you're making other plans. Had a great trip to California. Unfortunately, the first four days were gross ugly, cloudy, yucky but I was with happy people, good people, and I was at my happy place Disneyland so I'll take it. The last three days were fabulous at my sister Cindy's, my husband and my son flew in. We had a wonderful Easter weekend. My sister Cindy is a very gracious and fabulous host. It was very nice. It was nice for them to get to spend time with my son, alec, and their nephew and godson, so I think that was all real good and we really had a good time.

Speaker 1: 1:07

I've been dealing with a lot of personal stuff, as you guys know, um finishing up my chemo. Thank you, jesus. This wednesday will be coming. Wednesday will be my last day of any pills. Um, the last few days have really taken its toll on me. I've done really super great up until now and now I'm feeling just a little bit of the effects. I'm a little slower and my whole mouth is just blown up with blisters and sores and ouch, ouch, ouch. But none of this is permanent and this too shall pass. I'm sitting up in my little perch here in the world on the 36th floor here in Chicago and we have a thunderstorm coming in, which are my favorite, so I'm looking forward to that. Once that's passed, I'm going to go out to the suburbs. I've got some errands to do, so that's kind of what's going on in my life.

Speaker 1: 1:58

It's Friday. I know it's a late episode, I apologize. I have been toying with the idea of re keeping this podcast and restarting my aging ain't for sissies podcast. I think I want to separate the two things, the Marcy part and the aging part. So look for that. I think next week we're going to do both and I'm going to work on that. That gives me something positive to look forward to and positive to work on. I hope your life is going well. I hope spring has sprung here in Chicago. Let me tell you, I left and everything looked like winter. I came back and the tulips are blooming, which there's 100,000 planted in the city of Chicago. Fyi, the trees have little green buds on them or they have flowers. It's quite delightful. It smells so good out there.

Speaker 1: 2:49

We were very lucky, craig and I a friend of our son's from junior high and all through high school and college and they've been friends forever now was coming through the city with his girlfriend and we got to take them out for dinner. And what a delight. Two wonderful kids. They are sailors and they sail a boat, a personal boat. They work when they can and then they sail when they can up Mexico, california, san Juan Islands, back and forth. They've sold their boat, or I guess it's for sale, but they've bought themselves a new one that is up in Canada on the Atlantic side, and so they are going to get that and they are driving and it was delightful to have dinner with them and show them a little bit. They were here just for a quick minute, but we showed them some of the best parts of the city because of course we live in the best part of the city, so it wasn't hard. That was really, really nice.

Speaker 1: 3:42

This week has been just trying to get you know when you travel and then travel when Not 100% Takes you a little while to get back. But I think I'm back today, shaved all my hair off. My hair is as short as it could possibly be. I was so glad to get that sick, gross, nasty hair off my head. I don't know the chemicals are in it, it just smells. Anyways, it's gone and I have a shaved little head and I bleached it today and toned it and it looks super cute, makes my ears look really big. But guess what? I just don't care. I don't care. Your ears grow your whole life. So you know, if you start out with big ones, they're going to be big. If you start out with little ones, you're lucky. I started out with a little nose. Your nose also grows your whole life, so my nose is still small.

Speaker 1: 4:31

We have some fun, more tips and tricks today. I I'm going to finish up that series of tips and tricks. We have some fun little things for using odd things for other things. That's what we're going to talk about. We're also going to talk about entertaining, but I have I love this where you can use things that you have for other things, and then we're going to talk just a little bit more about entertaining, and that's going to sum up this series of tips and tricks.

Speaker 1: 5:01

Tips and tricks, let's see. Is there anything else? There was something else I was going to talk about. I thought I should write it down and I thought, no, I'll remember, because it was just a second ago. Huh, don't know what it is, do you? Sorry, just wetting my whistle there, my throat gets a little dry. Nope, thunderstorm is getting darker. I think it's coming. That's exciting, all right. Well, I'm going to leave you with this part. Oh, got a couple of fun things coming up this weekend with friends, so I'll share that with you next week. Anything else I can think of, no, life is going okay. Got a lot going on personally, but you know what? It could always be worse. So I'm going to think positive.

Speaker 1: 5:49

I have a strong faith and that is what gets me through the dark times. What gets you through the dark times. Think about it. Hope you have something, because my faith is everything and my times are a little dark right now. I can't share it with you, but just know, if you can pray for me, pray for me and my family, I would love it. Thanks so much, and we're going to go on to some fun stuff now. Thank you, hold on. All right, so we have things around our house, but you know what's fun is when you find new ways to use them. So we're going to go through some things and tips and tricks.

Speaker 1: 6:28

Some of these I've tried, some of them I haven't. The first one is eggshells to fertilize soil. So save your eggshells. Um, ferns love eggshells. Keep them, scatter them throughout your garden, grind them really fine and then put them in your garden. You'll flowers will flower better, everything will be happy. There's so much nutrient. Think about that. That shell is part of what neutrifies that chicken, so it's. It's got a lot of good stuff, so don't throw them away.

Speaker 1: 7:00

I I'm not sure I love this one, but taking like old knee-high stockings or long socks or tights, anything like that, cutting off the legs if they're tights and using them to put around a roll of wrapping paper, maybe it is a good idea, I don't know. Try it, see what you think. I don't know. That one's just weird to me, but try it. Here's a really good one. Did you know that you could take a tennis ball and clear up scuff marks? Those streaks on your floor are about to meet their match. Use a tennis ball like an eraser to scrub away the scuff. There you go.

Speaker 1: 7:39

Now this one I've known forever. You use a penny to check your tire treads. My dad taught that Turns out Abe Lincoln can tell you how your tires are doing. Insert a penny into the groove of your tire with his head pointing inward are doing. Insert a penny into the groove of your tire with his head pointing inward, so you want his head pointing towards the tire. If part of his noggin is covered by your tire ribs, then you're good. If you can see his entire dome, you need new tires.

Speaker 1: 8:03

Now. This one I have. I've done that one because my dad, like I said, daddy taught me that one, this one, one, excuse me, this one. I also used An empty toilet paper roll on the end of your hose, of your vacuum, and squish the end of it and you can do cracks and crevices. It does work really well. I really do. I love that one. This is a great one. Can't believe I never thought of it. Number one can't believe I ever, never have done it.

Speaker 1: 8:33

Use a fitted sheet to cover a picnic table. A twin size sheet fits fits ideally over most picnic tables, giving you a clean, splinter free surface and then you can just wash it and the the um, the elastic cause. You're using the fitted sheet. The bottom sheet goes around and it it stays fit. It doesn't blow away with the wind. A really good one. I love that one. I have used this one.

Speaker 1: 9:03

Use a pillowcase to dust a ceiling fan. Put a pillowcase over the blade of a ceiling fan and then pull it with using your pressure to pull the dust off and it goes right into the pillowcase. The reason I love this? First of all because cleaning a ceiling fan just makes everything dirty down below, especially. We had one over our bed and I didn't want all that dust. How do you get that? Just gross. Anyways, this one I have done works great. The next one I also have done I use a paper straw when I'm packing necklaces.

Speaker 1: 9:34

Run your necklace through the paper straw or plastic straw, it doesn't matter and clasp it. It'll keep them from tangling. You can do that at home too. I mean Whatever works for you, but I do know that one works really well. I didn't know this one. I think it's pretty good when you're using packing tape and it gets stuck to itself and you can't find the end. Wrap a little toothpick just around that last piece and then let it go, and you're going to always find the end. How great is that? Never tried that one. That's a really good one.

Speaker 1: 10:12

Clear nail polish will rust proof shaving cream can. So if you're still using shaving cream that's in a metal can and you're getting those rust marks in your shower or on your counter or in your especially in your if you have a medicine cabinet, just use clear nail polish and run it around the bottom and it seals it and you're not going to get those rust marks. I don't use that anymore, but I do remember getting those. Use a bobby pin to hold a small nail. So if you're trying to nail something, just put it through the bobby pin. Use the bobby pin to hold it and then nail it, and that hammer is not going to get your fingers.

Speaker 1: 10:47

Here's an interesting one. If you have a lot of suede now, those Uggs and all that are made out of suede, and I know every girl in the city is wearing them Uggs so if you've scuffed up your blue suede shoes, gently rub an emery board. An emery board is an old-fashioned nail file those brown ones across the fabric, working in the direction of the grain, don't go against it. Go with across the fabric. Working in the direction of the grain, don't go against it. Go with it and it can remove stains and it'll refresh your suede Rubber bands to straighten wobbly taper candles.

Speaker 1: 11:21

Do you have taper candles that are too small for your holders? Now, a taper candle for you youngins that don't know is the long, tall, skinny candles. Those are called a taper and sometimes they are too big, which you need to shave them off a little bit to get them into your holder. Sometimes they're too small. If they're too small, just take a rubber band, wrap it around it and it gives it a good grip and it'll stand up in that holder that's too big. This is a great one.

Speaker 1: 11:49

When you're and you want to water your plants, use an old wine bottle, fill it full of water, turn it upside down and push it into the soil. The water will slowly come out. You know, when you turn a bottle upside down and you kind of put something. Anyways, here I'll read you, if you are going into a trip and find time to drink a bottle of wine before you leave and rinse it out, fill the bottle with water, replace the cork and hammer a small hole through the cork. Okay, this one's doing it that way. So put your cork first. Nail a hole through your cork before you put it in a glass bottle. So put a hole through your cork before you put it in a glass bottle. So put a hole through your cork with a nail, throw it in, turn it upside down, shove it in the ground or in the dirt, or you can even do this in ground plants around your house and it'll slowly water while you are gone.

Speaker 1: 12:42

A coffee filter to clean a mirror they are excellent. Coffee filters are cheap. You can get them anywhere. You can get them at the Dollar Tree $1.25, for like $300. They are actually excellent for doing all kinds of cleaning, but especially mirrors, because they don't have fuzz or like fibers, like a paper towel does. I also use newspapers. Newspapers are great too. I have done this one. An empty tissue box to hold plastic bags. So you put your plastic bags in your old tissue boxes and they work great. So there are some tips and tricks using things that you already have in your house. Anyways, that's what's happening there.

Speaker 1: 13:29

There, let's talk about entertaining real quick. Okay, just some quick tips and tricks. Craig and I. I've talked about other entertaining tips and tricks, I know, but we've always loved entertaining. We do miss it. I'm going to try to do a little this summer on our patio outside.

Speaker 1: 13:45

Several things, three things to keep in mind Simplify the menu. This is not when you have to show off your frickin' culinary skills. Make your menu as simple as possible. If you have a salad that's your favorite from Costco, grab that salad. Make it easy so that you can actually enjoy the friends that are visiting.

Speaker 1: 14:08

Choose reliable party tools have your. Craig and I used to have a system and we had things that we put drinks in and he had his jobs, I had my jobs. Find that balance with your party tools. I keep here, I keep, everything that we may use for a party large bowls for chips, things like that and all our stuff has to be plastic out on the deck. May use for a party large bowls for chips, things like that and all our stuff has to be plastic out on the deck. Which kind of threw me for a little bit of a loop, but I've, I've. I got rid of a lot of my plastics when I moved, so that was kind of a bummer. I didn't realize that. But have your stuff ready to go. Have it in a Rubbermaid, have it in a tub, have your your entertaining things are in a cupboard. That's all in one space.

Speaker 1: 14:50

Whatever you need to do, keep them together and plan a seasonal activity. Coordinating an activity for guests to enjoy at the party will go a long way in making your get together one to remember. We at home we had the giant Jenga and that was super fun for everybody to play. Funny enough, on our giant deck here at our condo they have a box of outdoor toys. They have giant Jenga. Every time we've had people over and on the patio for a barbecue we've played giant Jenga. Everybody loves it, super fun. So those are my entertaining tips. That's what I got for you.

Speaker 1: 15:23

Hang in there and I'm going to give you an interesting fun fact. An interesting fun fact, all right. So since lightning is on its way, I thought I'd give you a fun lightning. Lightning, a powerful display of nature's electricity, is hotter than the sun, more common than you think and can even occur in snowstorms. Here's our fun fact. It's surprisingly frequent event, striking the earth about 8 million times a day. Think about that. Not a thousand times, not a hundred times a day, every day, 8 million times a day. A single lightning bolt can release enough energy to power a hundred watt light bulb for three months. So there's your lightning fun facts. Go share that with your friends. Blow their minds right Like that's a lot of lightning strikes. I hope your life is good. I hope things are going well. And what I always say go out and do something positive.