Make Your Own Heating Pad

Rice Bags are cloth bags filled with raw rice and heated in a microwave. You can use them
just as you would a heating pad. They have the advantage of being able to be made in any
size such as long and narrow for wrapping around a sore neck. Being that they cool down
on their own you need not worry about dropping off to sleep while using one of these bags.

I have given the basic instructions for a square rice bag, but as you will see it will be very
easy to make one in any size or shape that you choose to make.



Inner Bag



Cut a rectangle 9" x 18" out of 100% cotton muslin
(poly blends could melt in microwave)


Fold in half and sew a 1/2" seam as shown at left. Be sure
to leave opening in top for filling. Fill bag 2/3 full of rice
(must be raw rice not instant) Stitch opening closed.


Bag Cover



Out of 100% cotton decorative fabric cut one, 9" square and 2
pieces 6" x 9". Turn under one edge of each of the 6" x 9" pieces
as shown.


With right sides together place the 2 6" x 9" pieces on top of the
9" square. The two smaller pieces will overlap a bit. Sew all the
way around as shown.
Turn right side out and place rice bag inside of cover.


Using your Rice Bag


Place your rice bag (without cover) into microwave and heat 2-3 minutes.
The time will vary depending on the microwave. Start at 2 minutes and if
its not hot enough increase by 30 seconds till you get the desired warmth.
The rice bag should stay warm for about 15 to 20 minutes which is the
recommended amount of time for heat therapy. Place the cover on your
bag and apply to where it hurts. You can wash your cover but NOT the
rice bag itself.

TIP: Use a little dried potpourri in the bag with the rice to give off a
pleasant aroma while you warm away those sore muscles.


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Oil Lamps Are Great!

Have an oil lamp in every room! They are great for light. We use them all of the time, even though we have electric. Put them in safe places and to where they cannot be knocked over. I also have to keep them up to where my toddler cannot get to them or knock them over when he is throwing toys!
Oil lamps are pretty bright and not hard to use. You can get them pretty much anywhere. Most of mine I have gotten at yard sales and thrift stores. I keep a box of wicks on hand and oil lamp fuel! Now we are never in the dark!


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Stockpile Money Too!

This is one thing that we are finding out while my husband is laid off - WE NEED TO STOCKPILE MONEY TOO! We have tons of food and other stuff , but the money is slowly dwindling away. His unemployment is taking so long to start getting and we are just living off of savings! Which we are finding out was not a lot. It seemed like a lot when we had money coming in , but with no income it is not a lot. This will be my first thing to work on when we start working again and have money coming in. At least we have food and all of our needs.



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When to start planting your garden

I have been getting all of my catalogs and ordering seeds for my garden. Next I needed to figure out when to plant the darn things. I found this LINK that was very helpful. Shows all of the seeds that I am going to be planting. I think sometime next week though I am going to start some of them indoors. Just a little experiment I want to do to see how well ones I start early do compared to ones that I just plant straight into the ground. I also want to grow some inside in containers and find out how hard it would be to have an indoor "garden". If I can get good with an indoor "garden" than we could have herbs and veggies all year around.

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Wordless Wednesday!

This is an almost Wordless Wednesday!

I cannot remember where I saw this , but I think that it is awesome. I would love to make one for us. It is a solar shower.


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