Reusable Coffee Cups

At least 4 billion paper coffee cups are thrown away each year (Neumer Lara, Alison "Starbucks Cup Recycling: What's the Holdup?"), but it's so easy to reduce this number!

The most common way you see this done is through buying and bringing your own mug or tumbler to your coffee shop of choice. Many places offer a 5 or 10 cent discount on your coffee, too, when you bring your own cup. Thus, the cup pays itself off and more! If you're a Starbucks drinker, you can get one of its $1 grande size reusable cups. Did you read that right?! Yes, ONLY ONE DOLLAR. Starbucks recognizes its part in causing the problem of coffee cups being thrown away, and this is one of its attempts to change. If you buy the $1 cup, it pays itself off in only 10 uses, so after the tenth use, you're saving yourself money! Look for the $1 cup on the counter of your favorite Starbucks! (see picture below) When the cup is no longer useable, it's also recyclable. Additionally, I recently noticed recycling bins added to my local Starbucks, so look or ask for them at yours.

Second, a majority of coffee shops offer drinks in a "for here" mug, so you can enjoy your drink like you would at home. Of course, you can only get a "for here" mug if you'll be finishing your drink at the coffee shop. Every Starbucks I've gone to whips out its for here mugs when I ask for it too, so start asking for one! Make sure you tell them right away that you want a "for here" mug along with the size of your drink. Another bonus for this option: Coffee shops offer the 5 or 10 cent cup discount for the "for here" mug option too!

The best part about both of these options: Your drink will stay warmer or colder longer! Paper and plastic cups have no insulation, so your drink loses its perfect temperature much quicker.

Don't you all love to personalize your property or Facebook page now, too? There are so many reusable tumbler options out there, even ones you can completely personalize by adding photos and such. Coffee shops often sell tumblers for an expensive price, so look for clearance sales or deals, or check out your local grocery store, Ross, TJ Maxx, or Target. I have seen reusable cups for both hot and cold drinks of various sizes at all of these stores, and I have ones from all of these stores. I think I purchased my cold tumblers at TJ Maxx for around $5.

Afraid of forgetting your cup? Buy two, and always leave one in your car!

Go out there and find your perfect tumbler for your favorite hot or cold beverage. Purchase one for a friend as a gift too! 

Food Storage

Last night I wanted to steam some foods for my 7.5 month-old to try this week, but I knew they wouldn't keep all week, or even for several. So, how do I steam foods for my baby to try without wasting the extra?? I will eat some of the steamed foods, but I don't need to steam my pears to eat them!! Ick! Like anyone in a situation like mine, I did a Google search for "freeze sweet potatoes." And I stumbled across this amazing website called Still Tasty.

That's a snapshot of it just to give you an idea of what's there. Well, I did learn that I can freeze sweet potatoes and pears after steaming them. I think I'm just going to eat the leftover pear that's not steamed though. The sweet potatoes can be frozen and kept for up to a year in an airtight container or bag.

This site is user-friendly with helpful charts and easy-to-use, concise instructions. The "Keep It or Toss It?" section of the site is an alphabetical index of the information I've been describing, or you can search the site for a food you want to know about. Additionally, each food is broken down by whether it's raw or cooked. Below is an example of the storage information for fresh and cooked yams.

Additionally, I love the "Your Questions Answered" section of the site. It has quick answers to questions like: How can you tell if a watermelon is ripe? Should I store my bread in the fridge or on the counter? Do spices ever go bad? Can you freeze raw eggs for later use? Lastly, the "Shelf Talk" section has articles related to food and storing them, which I found interesting. Did you know that pure honey never goes bad?! And you can "thaw" it by running it under warm water. Too bad I just threw away some!

Paperless Note-Taking

I'm going to try to resurrect this blog! A whole lot has happened since my last post here. Let me give you a quick update:

• I gave birth to a healthy baby boy who we named Elijah just over seven months ago.
• My husband just received a pink slip for his teaching job.
• Elijah is a huge blessing in our lives!! I couldn't imagine life without him now.

With some Christmas money, I got an iPad mini! I love it, too. It has a plethora of practical uses for my life as a wife and mom, but today I'm only sharing one: paperless note-taking. You can do this on any tablet, smartphone, or even an iPod Touch. I'm going to talk about the app I use though, since I'm familiar with it. I'm sure there are similar apps for other devices though.

I use GoodNotes which has a FREE version. The free version allows you to keep two notebooks with up to ten pages in each one. Afraid of maxing out too fast? No worries! You can download your notes as PDF files to your computer, and then clear your notebooks. Want to view your saved files on your device? No problem! Download them to it.

There are lots of neat features for note taking with GoodNotes, as the image below shows:

A plug for the iPad mini: It's perfect for women because it's light and small, which means it fits perfectly in a purse or diaper bag without adding much weight! However, there are tablets of similar size out there; I just got this one.