Blog

Whether it’s a backyard under the stars, a camper on wheels, or a tent in the woods, there’s no shortage of fun things to do when you’re camping. When you’re sleeping and eating outside, everything seems like a big adventure.
What’s the best way to organize receipts and documents for taxes? No matter which method you choose, getting organized is the first step, and right now is the perfect time to get ready. Knowing which receipts and records you'll need for tax purposes is one step in the right direction. But how do you keep everything organized when April finally rolls around?
The abundance of new hobbies that Americans have taken up this year is certainly one good thing to come from 2020. The uncertainty of life in a pandemic world may have left us feeling overwhelmed, stressed, and bored, but it certainly brought out our need for doing something. Anything. We baked bread, cooked new kinds of food, and dug in and got dirty in our flowers and vegetable gardens.
There’s no sugarcoating it. Sometimes exercising stinks. Your body hurts, your mind says no, and you just don’t want to. It’s a lot easier to just stay snuggled in bed than to get your body moving.
2020 has turned every industry upside-down, especially affecting everyone involved in higher education. Whether your university of choice will be conducting classes face-to-face, remotely, or a mix of both, school supplies are still a must-have to ensure your academic success.
What is the difference between letter size (also called US letter size or standard size) and legal size paper?
If you’re like me, it’s difficult to find just the right printable daily planner; sometimes I don’t like the design, the colors, the layout, or they don’t have a realistic amount of space to write.
Currently, the COVID-19 pandemic has millions of people working from home. But as you’re working remotely, it’s important to remember these key tips and office etiquette standards for when we eventually return to the workplace. You don’t want to allow proper manners to slip your mind when making the transition back to work. So keep these 18 office manners in mind and be sure to practice the ones you are able to, so when you do return, you are still at the top of your professionalism game.
Working from home has recently become the new normal. And we’re still adjusting. With adults and kids at home, all day, every day, there’s one thing we can count on. Paper. Lots of it.
More than four million American adults practice scrapbooking today. The hobby actually started in England during the 15th and 16th centuries. However, cameras hadn’t been invented yet so early scrapbooks contained quotes, poems, calling cards, religious cards, and other small pieces of decorative paper.
No scrapbook albums existed yet either, so Important documents and ephemera that had sentimental value were kept inside regular books. These collections could include just about anything the collector had on hand - recipes, greeting cards, snippets of paper memorabilia, tickets, or playbills.
How do you organize your recipes? Maybe you have them on your phone, or stuffed in a drawer somewhere; if you're like me, you have a stack of old, stained cookbooks with sticky notes inside.
None of these methods are ideal for organizing recipes. Digital can always fail, as phones can die or break with no way to retrieve your files. Unprotected sheets of paper can tear and get lost, and flipping through cookbooks of recipes you'll never use just to find a single one is a waste of time and energy.
Life doesn’t always go as we planned. That knowledge hit us pretty hard during the past weeks as the entire country grappled with the COVID-19 outbreak. Social distancing and working from home have become the new norm and life as we knew it, even a short month ago, has come to a standstill.
When you’re stuck at home indefinitely, what can you do? Eating out at restaurants and enjoying a cocktail at our favorite bar aren’t options now. Downtime means finding new ways to have fun. You’ll learn pretty quickly there’s only so much reading, movie watching, binge eating, and game playing you can do.
The current coronavirus pandemic has affected everyone in the U.S. and abroad. Schools, bars, and restaurants have closed. Large events like conferences, concerts, festivals, and conventions have been canceled. You may be reading this article because you’ve been instructed by your employer to work from home, or maybe you’re in the service/retail industry and you aren’t able to go into work at all.
Though the virus is not fatal for the majority of Americans, for some people with compromised immune systems the virus poses a serious, dangerous threat. To avoid knowingly spreading the virus and putting others in danger, the government has instructed citizens to practice social distancing.
In the age of keyboards and computers, it seems that handwriting is becoming obsolete. You may have scribbled down a shopping list or a reminder on a sticky note recently, but when was the last time you hand wrote a full memo or letter? The digital age’s texting has completely changed the way we communicate.
Laptops haven’t just replaced handwriting words, though - modern music software programs like Garageband, Logic, and Musescore have made writing and notating music easier than ever.
Today, I’m taking a stand for the sometimes forgotten 11" x 17" size paper documents that get crammed into binders that simply don’t fit.
Go ahead, see if you can get them inside a regular-sized binder without damage. They get folded, ripped, spotted, and stained because there aren’t too many binders and page protectors sized to fit. And what if you have both sizes of paper - 11" x 17" and 8 ½" x 11" - that you want to place together - and maybe even show off - in the same binder?
Each New Year presents a moment to pause and reflect on milestones and accomplishments of the past 12 months, and to review what we’d like to improve.
Fresh starts are invigorating. It feels good to set goals for the new year. If you set yearly goals, you’ve probably learned that it’s relatively easy to be motivated in January and February. You may start a new diet, stop smoking, or join a gym. You’re into it, going strong.
Browsing through my loose recipe collection instantly takes me back to my Mom's kitchen in the 1970s, as my sisters and I learned how to make the dough and bake holiday sugar cookies. She must have been very patient to watch as the three of us did our best to roll out the dough and cut shapes with metal cookie cutters.
As we've all gotten older, those memories are even more special and started family cooking traditions we still practice today.
Not that I’m still bitter about it or anything. Prickly might be the better word.
My two sisters and I had to stack three cords of chopped firewood for my Dad so we could earn money to see Barry Manilow’s 1977 concert in Charleston, W.V.
It’s July and it’s already time for back to school shopping. Supplies to organize paper are usually at the top of the list.
Regardless of whether you’re a parent, teacher, or student, keeping school papers organized is tough. Most families use a kitchen counter or table that’s dedicated to the piling and sorting of paper. In addition to your own papers, if you have school-aged kids, you have their daily paperwork too.
Maybe keeping a travel journal is an old-fashioned, romantic notion. But writing down life in the moment, as seen through your eyes for that particular time, takes on a kind of magic when it’s read after your vacation. You’ll never again be in that place, at that age, at that time.
Later, when time provides some perspective, reading old travel journals can inspire tears, laughter, even wistfulness. Good travel journaling tells the tales of our lives.
Americans love their stuff. And we sure have a lot of it. According to Becoming Minimalist, Americans spend $1.2 trillion annually on nonessential goods — in other words, stuff we don’t need (The Wall Street Journal).
Yep, it’s a thing – collecting drink coasters. And you don’t have to visit a bar or restaurant to find them. Known as beer mats, drink coasters, and bierdeckel, drink coasters have found their way out of man caves and into the mainstream.
OSHA requires industrial workplaces to keep track of all safety hazards, illnesses, injuries, and close calls/near misses. Their housekeeping regulation requires certain employers to prepare and maintain records of serious workplace injuries and illnesses.
Imagine this scenario. It’s the fall of 1776 and British battleships are gathering off the coastline of Staten Island. George Washington has been ordered by Congress to hold New York City. Remarkably, he stops reviewing his maps and documents – and writes a letter.