PAPER TOWLS: To uze paper towls eficiently for cleaning, dip one corner of the towl into leftover soapy water & squeeze out the exess water. Put a squirt of spray cleaner onto the surface to be cleand, then wipe. The extra water givs mor cuvverage, and can also serv in picking up solid matter, eg on the flor in frunt of the frij. This can then be folded into the towl as u work. Sum peeple using paper towls waste most of the towl. By being mor frugal u end up with the towl condensed to a wod, going into the garbage, not the recylce bin. That way a roll of paper towls can be made to last a long time.

Haf sizes: For menny purposes haf a paper towl is suficient. Keep the haf-size ones on hand along with the ful-size. They arnt very wel markd in the stores, but look for the label Vary-a-Size or the like, & for a size of about 6½X11 inches per sheet [not meters per roll]. The haf-size can also be pind in underwear as protection if needed.

How to Eat a Pomegranat

I hav good frends who gro pomagranats [for my reformd spelling see my other blog at http://scoolmarm-aposteriori.com/]. From time to time they giv me one or 2 of thees helthful dezzert frutes. But they can be awkward to eat if u dont kno how.

Do it like this: With a serated nife cut the frute in haf, then cut each haf into 3 or 4 wedge-shaped peeces. To do it the natural way, now bite into the fruty part of a wedge & with yur teeth remove all of the seeds & juce into yur mouth. Push the seeds aside with yur tung & concentrate on squeezing the juce into yur mouth & swolloing it without chewing or swolloing the seeds. Then spit out the seeds, & go on to the next wedge. Olternativly u can be mor civilized. After cutting the wedges, cut out the part with the seeds & juice and use a strainer to strain off the juce; then discard the seeds & rind. btw pomagranats [or pommagranats] keep wel with or without refrigeration. Dont let them get too damp or they mildew.

However eeven with a bit of mildew on the outside they ar stil good to eat. Just cut off the mildewd part. This is tru of most frutes. Peeple thro away frutes just becaus they hav a bit of mildew or a bruze or a bird bite, or they thro away a grapefruit becaus it split open wen it fel to the ground, but that's wasteful. Farmers customarily feed the imperfect frutes & vegetables to their familys, after cutting off the bad part, & who ar mor helthy than farm kids?

Responsibilitys of Roomers

I took in my first tenant in erly 1977, as a roomer. I hav continnued to rent out rooms ever since, ie for 32 years, and it has mostly been a pleasure. If u ar thinking of renting out a room in yur house and hav never dun so befor, I can giv u a few hints on this blog. [For my spelling rules see my website, http://www.wertheliving.org/.]

The first thing is to get hold of the laws governing landlord-tenant relations, & studdy wot aplies in yur citty & neiborhood. I wont go into that heer. My own policy has been to rent month-by-month, and to stay fairly flexible about exactly wen the rent is payd, within a few days.

=I hav also offen taken work in exchange for rent. But it shud be agreed upon ahed of time wot the hourly wage wil be. One thing to note: If a tenant offers to do

sumthing for u, always offer to pay for it. It's probbable that the tenant wil hav a long memory for wotever s/he did for u, and wil expect compensation in one form or another. I prefer to discuss the issue up frunt, and to repay eny favors erly on, either with cash or in barter. This way they kno u ar not taking advantage; they think of yu as a fair-minded person.

=Make clear wot is expected. My rules state that evryone is expected to keep his room clean & free of ants, bugs, mice & odor. Ware the bathroom, kitchen, hall and downstairs living room ar shared by 2 tenants, I help them divide up the cleaning chores eevenly between them.

=To get off to a rite start I describe our situation to new tenants as one of sharing & fellowship. We ar a comunity. We treat each other politely, we try to be quiet, we sho consideration for those who ar sleeping, in the daytime or erly morning. This sort of talk sets a certan standard, and I hav never had a problem getting a prospectiv tenant to lissen & agree to it. That helps, & it is expressd in positiv rather than negativ terms, rather than waiting until thare is a complaint to bring it up.

=At first I sed nonsmokers only. But I found that smokers tel yu they ar nonsmokers until they move in, then it cums out that they ar meerly trying to stop, but havnt yet succeeded. I now alow smoking, but only if is dun outdors sumware ware no one wil hav to inhale it.

I hav other comments to make about tenants & yu as landlord or landlady. Woch this blog for further chat on this subject. I welcum questions.

A Star at Bedtime

A good way to keep a good child good is to alot a star at bedtime. As the bakground ilustration [I use reformd spelling] shows, my 3 dauters wer each alowd to ad a star to the sky abuv the desert sceen at bedtime if they had dun their chors. Their chors wer their ruteens: put away toys, clear table, feed pets, brush teeth, drink of water. All 3 girls used the same sky, each putting her choice of star, from the box of stars. Time was alowd to each after the placement of the star for her bedtime prayer, then on to the next child. Wen one bakground was used up I created another, using a difrent sceen belo each time but always with a sky dark enuf to represent nite, for placing the star.