I don't know if some schools have a late spring break, but I saw lots of kids while shopping this morning, and when I texted my cousin to wish her happy birthday, she mentioned that she's in Paris with her son for his soccer camp. So color me green, because I'm super envious (she didn't actually say she was in Paris, she just texted a photo of the Eiffel Tower and said she was on her way to dinner 😂). For those of us stuck at home, here's this week's roundup (I've marked affiliate/referral links with a *, which means I may make a little bit of money if you make a purchase or sign up using that link - thank you!):
- If you have a child who recently became an adult, or a child heading off to college, you'll definitely want to make sure you have them fill out a power of attorney so you can help them if they become incapacitated. I used MamaBear's forms to get my son's power of attorney before he headed off to college - the "Young Adult" package includes a Health Care Power of Attorney, HIPAA release, Financial Power of Attorney, and FERPA. I've read too many stories about parents who couldn't get access to their child's health information when they were rushed to the hospital while they're away at college (HIPAA) or information from the college itself (FERPA). So a POA was important to me, knowing that if the unthinkable happened, I wouldn't have to fight for the right to get info or make decisions on my son's behalf. MamaBear has given me a referral code so you can get 20% off the Young Adult Power of Attorney Package - just use this link.*
- Money Saving Mom offers some good ideas on how to graduate from college debt-free (if you're having a tough time financially, it's worth searching for and reading her old posts on when her husband was in law school for inspiration on living very frugally - like rice and beans every night frugal). I've also shared some info and tips on sending your kids to college without taking out loans, as well as a review of a great book called Debt-Free U: How I Paid for an Outstanding College Education Without Loans, Scholarships, or Mooching off My Parents.*
- This week's easy recipe of the week is Pollo Ai Peperoni. It was a hit and is going into my regular rotation, but I made lots of modifications, starting with the quantity. Since I wanted lots of leftovers, I used 3 pounds of chicken, which I cut into bite-size pieces (I knew that would be more appealing to my family than whole thighs), and cooked the pieces in four batches in my Lodge Dutch Oven.* I doubled the quantity of bell peppers and cut them into 1/2-inch pieces (and the quantity could easily have been tripled), and minced the garlic instead of just crushing them. On the advice in the comments, I cooked the garlic and bell pepper after the chicken, reduced the vinegar to 1/4 cup, and increased the quantity of white wine. I would have gone for a full cup, but I only had 3/4 cup of white wine, so I supplemented with some chicken broth. I also stirred in a tablespoon of butter at the end, off the heat, to add some silkiness to the sauce. It's pretty much a one-pot meal, although I roasted some cauliflower in the air fryer to go with it. I particularly like that you can do all the prep ahead of time, i.e., cutting the chicken and peppers, so you don't have to stand at the stove for a long time all at once.
- Since local honey might to help reduce environmental allergies, I like to buy honey at the farmers market, and I did so last week. But I was a bit stymied because there were several different kinds, so I was happy to come across this article explaining 6 popular types of honey. Next time, I'm going to try the orange blossom honey.
- In case you've ever thought about converting old photos to digital: In addition to the old family films and slides I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I returned from visiting my parents with a bunch of old photos. I noticed that DVD Your Memories, the service I used to convert the film and slides to digital, also converts photos and that they do so by hand. That made me curious, so I did some research and it turns out that manually putting photos one by one onto a flatbed scanner does in fact produce the best results. There are faster ways, but the photo quality will be reduced. So I've decided that if my best options are to scan the photos myself on my HP all-in-one* or pay 69 cents per photo to have them scanned (albeit with slightly better results), I'll scan a few photos a day, and when I'm done, I'll multiply the number of photos I've scanned by $0.69 and use the money to treat myself to something! 😂😂
Please let me know if there's something you'd like to see in the roundup. And don't forget to sign up for my monthly email newsletter!
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