Consumer Reports

My fiance is an elementary school teacher and sometimes I think she gets more excited about summer vacation than her students. This doesn’t mean she doesn’t do anything school-wise during her break; summer reading is a big part of her R&R. In fact, last week she went to the local library , checked out a couple of books and finished reading them within three days.

Home, it’s more than brick-and-mortar, wood, or even blocks of ice shaped in a dome! Home is your place, your retreat from the world, your sanctuary for the soul. For me, home is all of those things and toilets to clean, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Everyone should have an opportunity to live in a decent, affordable home. No one should have to worry about being able to find a safe place to live. On July 12, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that more than $550 million will be made available in housing assistance to very low income elderly and persons with disabilities. The funding will provide interest-free capital advances to non-profit developers so they can produce accessible housing, offer rental assistance, and provide supportive services. The assistance will be in the form of grants. These grants will fund 169 projects in 46 states. To see what kind of assistance is being provided to your state, you can read a detailed summary of each grant. If you have questions regarding housing assistance for low income elderly and persons with disabilities, or any of HUD’s other programs, you can search for a HUD-approved housing counselor in your state. If you are not elderly or disabled, but you need housing assistance, you should know there may be a program to help you. The Obama Administration’s Making Home Affordable Program includes opportunities to modify or refinance your mortgage to make your monthly payments more affordable. It also includes the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program for homeowners who are interested in a short sale or deed-in-lieu of foreclosure. Check the HUD website to find out if you are eligible for this program or call 1-888-995-HOPE (4673) for help with the Making Home Affordable Program and to speak with a HUD-approved housing counselor for free.

I’ve really been into grilling this year. I like it because of how food cooked on the grill tastes, because I can make a meal without heating up the house or producing a mountain of dirty dishes, and most of all I like to sit down and relax in the cool evening air while I patiently wait for my food to be done. For the record, I’m an old-fashioned charcoal grill girl, and sometimes I get really old fashioned and cook over an open fire. The thing that always bugs me when I’m cooking meat on the grill is that it’s hard to tell when it’s done. I love that smoky goodness, but I’d rather not serve it with a side of food borne illness. Luckily you can take a little care and safely prepare food on an outdoor grill even if you, or someone you cook for is especially at risk , like pregnant women or people with compromised immune systems. Last week I bought one of those instant read thermometer forks to help me tell when my food is cooked to a safe temperature. I’m still getting the hang of it, but it’s going to be a better method than going by the color of the meat. Remember too that red meat and poultry aren’t the only things you can cook on a grill. I’ve been experimenting with vegetables on the grill, and you know what?

Sunday, June 20, is Father’s Day . As I was thinking about what I would say for my Father’s Day blog, I began thinking about my own dad. He died a couple of weeks after Father’s Day two years ago. Even though my dad only went to school through the 8th grade, I consider him to have been one of the smartest and wisest men I’ve ever known. This Father’s Day I wanted to share some of the things I learned from my dad. I heard my father say, on more than one occasion, “If you’re gonna look up a sow’s rear… don’t expect a purty view.” In other words, Dad felt that if he chose to look at things in life expecting to see the ugly or the bad, that is exactly what he would see. He felt that looking for the negative in life took so much more energy, so he might as well try to see the good in things (both in people and in life events), and hope for the best. My dad was mostly a quiet man, although he could slip into story mode and tell the funniest stories. As a little girl, I was a total chatterbox. Dad would advise me, “Sometimes if you just sit patiently, don’t talk, just listen and observe, you will learn the most amazing things.” Dad grew up in the country, in the hills outside of Dubuque, Iowa. He hunted, fished, farmed, and he grew up learning to listen to the land. He was quite skilled at understanding nature and working with nature. He said the ability to listen and quietly observe doesn’t just work with nature, it would also teach me a lot about people. He was right. My dad was a “do-it-yourselfer.” He rarely paid anyone to do home projects. Dad was an electrician by trade, but he was also a very capable plumber, and an all around handy-man. If he didn’t have the skill set he needed, he would go learn it. He always felt, “If you can do it yourself, you will save yourself money and at the end of the project you will be rewarded with that feeling of great achievement.” I took this philosophy as my own. I try to do many of my own home projects. His philosophy taught me to be self-reliant, it gave me a lot of confidence, and a strong belief that I can do anything, if I put my mind to it. These are just a few of the things I learned from Dad. He had such a huge impact on my life. I am the person that I am today, because he was in my life. I want to give all of you the opportunity to share lessons from your fathers. Please take the time to drop me a line and share your stories.

When I was growing up I spent most of the summer in some state of wetness. My town had a pool that was easy for us to walk or ride our bikes to and it was the center of summer social activity. I took swimming lessons, I swam on the swim team, I became a lifeguard and then helped to teach kids to swim. When I was a freshman in college the perfect opportunity came along – I could get a phys ed credit by earning my certification as a water safety instructor . I took the course, got my certification and then worked for the Red Cross or the YMCA as a swimming instructor. It was a great college job, and now that I look back on it, it really was the single college class that was ever directly responsible for me getting a job. In all my years of working at pools, I never had to save a drowning person, thank goodness, but I did jump in for the dramatic rescue of a panicked baby bunny. Nobody was going to drown on my watch! Unfortunately thousands of people do drown every year and more than 25% of them are children. The sad thing is that I think a lot of these drownings can be prevented by following a few simple rules. Learn to swim and teach kids to float and swim as soon as possible. Children should always be supervised in and around water. Never swim alone. It’s fun to play in the water, but there’s a line between fun and reckless. Don’t cross that line. You know those foam noodles, and inflatable water wings and inner tubes? Those are toys. They won’t keep a child safe in the water. If you want a flotation device that will keep you or a child safe in the water, get a U.S. Coast Guard approved life jacket and wear it properly. So weather you’re at the ocean, the lake, the pool, or just the secluded swimming hole in the river, be safe in the water this year!

I am an awesome driver. The dent in my front bumper? Some jerk hit me in a parking lot and didn’t leave a note. The speeding ticket? You try being on a highway when “Groove is in the Heart” by Deee-Lite comes on the radio and see if you don’t end up going a bit faster than you expected. The gash down my passenger side door? That concrete beam in the parking garage came out of nowhere! Okay, so I have my hands full behind the wheel without factoring in an additional distractions. When I was learning to drive, I wasn’t allowed to have the radio on, and I didn’t even own a cell phone until four years later. Now, it’s a whole new ballgame. Drivers are more distracted than ever- even sending text messages while navigating the road . Such a bad idea. The number of accidents and even deaths caused by distracted driving is on the rise . The government is starting to take action on this- even making it against the law to text while operating a government vehicle . Do you know what your state’s laws are regarding using your cell phone while driving?

I got mine, did you get yours? It’s March and the Census Bureau is in full gear making sure census forms are delivered to every home in the United States and Puerto Rico. The good news is that it’s easy - when you get your form, just answer the 10 questions and mail the form back in the postage-paid envelope they provide (the form cannot be completed online). It only took me a couple of minutes to complete mine. If you don’t mail the form back, you may receive a visit from a census taker , who will ask you the questions from the form .

What’s your favorite Dr. Seuss book?

January is National Radon Action Month . I know that your home radon level is not the fun kind of thing you want to think of every day, but it’s one of those things you need to give a little attention to if you want to protect your health and the health of your family.> /p> Radon is an odorless, tasteless and invisible gas produced by the decay of naturally occurring uranium in soil and water. It accumulates in homes, buildings and drinking water, and causes lung cancer. It is responsible for an estimated 21,000 deaths per year in the United States. That’s the bad news. The good news is that if you have radon in your home, like I did, you can correct the situation. If you’re wondering if there’s radon in your home, first you need to test your home . The tests are very inexpensive and simple to perform. Just open the canister and walk away from it for a few days. You send the canister off to the lab and they mail you your results. We were shocked to learn that our home had pretty high radon levels, so we wasted no time in contacting a local certified radon mitigation company. The installation of the mitigation equipment took a little less than a day, so that wasn’t so bad. The best part is knowing that we can breathe easy in our (virtually) radon-free home. So if you don’t know what the radon levels are in your home – get testing !

Did hell freeze over and someone forgot to tell me? I didn’t notice, but was the moon in the 7 th house and Jupiter aligned with Mars? ( Age of Aquarius ? Doesn’t ring a bell? Never mind.) I don’t know what rare event occurred, but something influenced me last weekend, because I did something that I never do… I organized my paperwork! Just last week, in my blog , I mentioned my total lack of interest in organizing, but on Saturday, something compelled me to sit down to sift through the mounds of paper. My first inclination was to take all of my paper crap (technical term) and, without sorting through any of it, just dump it in a plastic bin to be stashed in the garage attic, never to see the light of day. I resisted that urge and sorted through it. I discovered that quite a bit of it could be thrown away. I organized and filed everything in the expandable folder I had purchased a year ago. I labeled the folder “2009 Crap” (again with the technical jargon). Then I went to an office supply store and purchased another folder for my 2010 paperwork. I learned 3 things from this organizing activity: I feel better when I don’t have all of that clutter surrounding me. It was actually making me feel stressed to see it; I already have most of my stuff pulled together for the upcoming tax season. I am practically giddy with the thought that I won’t be scrambling at the last minute this year; and My desk is pretty. It is made of a lovely cherry wood. Who knew? Am I turning over a new leaf, and will I permanently stay organized? Probably not. Hopefully, another celestial event will drive me to organize again next year, but for now I am feeling very pleased with myself.. If you are like me, you may need a little inspiration to get your office and home life more organized and ready for 2010. Here are some resources that offer some organizational tips and tricks, helpful guidance on what to keep, and where to get copies of important documents: Creating Your Home Filing System Get Organized Blog Getting Organized with Julie Morgenstern Organizing Paperwork and Cutting Paper Files Organizing Your Paperwork Real Simple: Home Office State Vital Records Offices Now, if only someone could send some inspiration my way to get me motivated to organize and put away my Christmas stuff! My goal is to have it all stowed away by Easter….maybe! LOL.