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As a working mother of three active children and wife of a construction contractor I spend a great deal of time doing laundry. I am particular: the whites need to stay white and the darks need to stay dark. I have learned a few techniques along the way that are worth sharing.

One thing I do, that my mom taught me to do in the 1970’s when energy costs were at a premium, is I wash everything in cold water. Everything! I save the hot water for our bodies and our dishes. Hot water sets stains. Cold does not permit stains to set in clothing especially if the stain is pre-treated before being submerged in the washing machine.

Pre-treating stains is very important and saves time in the long run. Food, blood, grass all can be lifted from material by using Pine-sol or Dawn. Both function as degreasers and grease seems to be at the heart of most stains. Hydrogen peroxide is an effective product for blood removal, but the blood needs to be completely rinsed away, or the stain will just move on the fabric, not be removed altogether in the rinse water.

Pre –treating stains also helps with stains a person can only smell. Pine-sol is great as an all purpose disinfectant, so it removes stains that are visible and stains that are not. Keeping clothes cleaner longer keeps families smelling good and working together longer.

When the economy is down like it has been over the last 2 years, many people start their own businesses as an answer to being laid off or displaced. It has been proven that companies can do very well but it is also a very risky thing to do as most start ups fail with in the first year. So the very first thing you should do is track your money and see if you have enough to live on for several years if you make nothing. The number one reason companies fail is cash flow; that is they take money out of the company to pay personal bills and that squeezes the company dry of assets and money.

That is not to say that your company cannot make it if you don’t have 2 years living expenses but it is saying to use caution if you don’t. One of the things you can do if you don’t have the cash is to sit down and do very conservative yearly projections as to what you will bring in then over estimate your costs and see what you have left over. Divide that by 12 and see if it is enough to live on. If it is, you may have a chance to make it. If not, see if you can pick up a part time job to help with your living expenses and go for it! You will never know if you can do it unless you try. Another great place to get a ton of good information is the Small Business Administration.

In predicting the worse housing markets in the US, markets in 16 states made the list. This simply demonstrates how widespread the housing downturn has become as a result of the financial crisis that has griped the nation in the last two years. Despite the fallout of the credit crisis, there are housing markets that are projected to appreciate in some of the best markets as the nation starts on its road to recovery from the worst economy since the Great Depression in 2010.

It is not a surprise to note that New York, Nevada, Arizona, California, Rhode Island, Illinois, Connecticut, Hawaii, Virginia, Maryland, New York, Virginia, South Carolina and Oregon markets are projected to experience some of the worst housing deflation in the New Year. These states just continue to get hit over and over again as foreclosures are projected to worsen in 2010 with a new round sweeping the nation triggered by bank servicing companies that are ramping up efforts to recover their banking losses. As a result, a high number of markets will sustain double-digit deflation, which could hinder the recovery even further.

Every year about this time my son asks me what my favorite Christmas gift was and this year it came from a very unfamiliar place; my mother-in-law. That’s not to say that my mother-in-law gives lousy gifts; it’s that she hardly ever gives me a gift at all, which is okay since she concentrates on my wife and the kids. So knowing that, I was really surprised to open a small package to find a book called, “I Didn’t Know That – Why We Say the Things We Say” Volume 1, a fun little book written by Karlen Evins.

Ms. Evins has done the research into many of our favorite little sayings such as “Lame Duck”, “No Bones About It” and many more. I like books that give me a good deal of information in a compact space so I can get the information without having to read a lot of fluff. The author has certainly done it with this book and I highly recommend it for either a quick, fun read or to have handy when you just have a minute or two of time to kill. It will enlighten you about some of your vocabulary an entice you to buy Volume II and other books written by Karlen Evins. I just hope my mother-in-law is reading this for next year.