no duh

did you have have a time in your life when you're doing something, and you think that there must be a better way? or you're just minding you're own business, when all of a sudden, a brilliant idea just comes up and whacks you upside the head, and you're first reaction is "why didn't i think of this sooner?" or maybe, and one of the things i really hate, you're surfing around online or reading a magazine or just out and about, and you see an idea so simple and yet perfect you secretly start hating the inventor because they became bazillionaires from their idea and you so wish you had thought of it first so you could have been a bazillionaire instead? and if not a bazillionaire, then maybe you could have just made life better and easier for everyone.

yeah, that stuff happens to me all the time. and i love it and hate it. love it because the ideas that come really do help. but i hate it because i really do feel silly for not thinking of it sooner. please tell me i'm not the only one that goes through this.

and just in case i am the only one who feel like this around here, i figure i will share some of my brilliant ideas with you. so even though you might not mind the fact that you didn't think of it first, you too can benefit from my amazing brain.

first i'll share my great idea for taking kids to the beach. well, not taking kids, because it's kind of obvious that kids like playing in the water and the sand. which also means taking all sorts of necessities, and in the eyes of children, a definite necessity is buckets and shovels and other fun toys to make castles and dig for treasure with. which means that the toys get covered with sand. and do you want to know the easiest way i found to clean all those little plastic toys? i store ours in a mesh laundry bag, so not only are they easy to carry and keep together, but i can pull the drawstring closed and turn it upside down to shake all the sand off. and if things are really dirty, you can hose everything off in the bag, so you're not spraying shovels halfway across the yard while cleaning them.

another brilliant idea that kind made me wish i thought of it sooner was the way i deal with my super dry hands. the water here is very hard, and being that i have to wash my hands like ten million times a day thanks to a messy toddler, my hands sometimes crack and bleed. normal hand moisturizer wouldn't work, either it didn't help enough or it made my hands too greasy instead of absorbing into my skin. and so, i created a two step process to fix my problem. first i use a face scrub, something for sensitive skin that won't irritate. and then i use this moisturizer. yes, i know, it's technically supposed to be used on your feet, but i have found foot cream absorbs in better. i think it's made that way because people don't want to walk around with greasy feet, lest they slip. and the best part is i only have to do my two step treatment once a day (before bed) and it works!

most of the rest of my amazing ideas have to do with food. like the easiest way to make pineapple upside down cake. or using these instead of kisses on the top of peanut butter blossom cookies. and when i need to dispose of bacon grease, i line a small, heat-proof bowl with foil and then pour the grease in. then i just put the bowl in the fridge, and after it hardens i can remove the foil and wrap it around the grease cake. that way, i can throw the grease covered foil out without it getting all over everything.

my most recent bout of culinary brilliance came in the form of cookies. i have a very old recipe for chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. it doesn't use any eggs, so it's the recipe i used to make all the time when the boys were little, because they could safely eat the dough when they "helped." i've been thinking about making these cookies again, because fishie is almost old enough to start helping, but honestly, i never really liked how they turned out. the cookies were always very thin and crunchy, the opposite of how i like my chocolate chip cookies. my preference is for a nice chewy cookie, and i knew i had a good recipe for a chewy oatmeal raisin cookie. and then it hit me, i like chocolate chips in cookie and i like raisins in cookie, so what about putting chocolate chips and raisins in the same cookie? and what if i took it a step in a different direction, and instead of using chocolate chips, i used chocolate covered raisins?

and that's exactly what i did. i made oatmeal raisinette cookies. being brilliant never tasted so delicious.