I Like You (by Sandol Stoddard Warburg)

I Like You (by Sandol Stoddard Warburg)

Someone in my family used this poem in their wedding recently and I really liked it so I thought I would share. 

I like you and I know why.
I like you because you are a good person to like.
I like you because when I tell you something special, you know it's special
And you remember it a long, long time.
You say, "Remember when you told me something special?"
And both of us remember

When I think something is important
you think it's important too
We have good ideas
When I say something funny, you laugh
I think I'm funny and you think I'm funny too
Hah-hah!

I like you because you know where I'm ticklish
And you don't tickle me there except just a little tiny bit sometimes
But if you do, then I know where to tickle you too

You know how to be silly
That's why I like you
Boy are you ever silly
I never met anybody sillier than me till I met you
I like you because you know when it's time to stop being silly
Maybe day after tomorrow
Maybe never
Too late, it's a quarter past silly!

Sometimes we don't say a word
We snurkle under fences
We spy secret places
If I am a goofus on the roofus hollering my head off
You are one too
If I pretend I am drowning, you pretend you are saving me
If I am getting ready to pop a paper bag,
then you are getting ready to jump
HOORAY!

That's because you really like me
You really like me, don't you?
And I really like you back
And you like me back and I like you back
And that's the way we keep on going every day

If you go away, then I go away too
or if I stay home, you send me a postcard
You don't just say "Well see you around sometime, bye"
I like you a lot because of that
If I go away, I send you a postcard too
And I like you because if we go away together
And if we are in Grand Central Station
And if I get lost
Then you are the one that is yelling for me

And I like you because when I am feeling sad
You don't always cheer me up right away
Sometimes it is better to be sad
You can't stand the others being so googly and gaggly every single minute
You want to think about things
It takes time
I like you because if I am mad at you
Then you are mad at me too
It's awful when the other person isn't
They are so nice and hoo-hoo you could just about punch them in the nose

I like you because if I think I am going to throw up
then you are really sorry
You don't just pretend you are busy looking at the birdies and all that
You say, maybe it was something you ate
You say, the same thing happened to me one time
And the same thing did

If you find two four-leaf clovers, you give me one
If I find four, I give you two
If we only find three, we keep on looking
Sometimes we have good luck, and sometimes we don't
If I break my arm, and if you break your arm too
Then it's fun to have a broken arm
I tell you about mine, you tell me about yours
We are both sorry
We write our names and draw pictures
We show everybody and they wish they had a broken arm too

I like you because I don't know why but
Everything that happens is nicer with you
I can't remember when I didn't like you
It must have been lonesome then
I like you because because because
I forget why I like you but I do

So many reasons
On the 4th of July I like you because it's the 4th of July
On the fifth of July, I like you too
If you and I had some drums and some horns and some horses
If we had some hats and some flags and some fire engines
We could be a HOLIDAY
We could be a CELEBRATION
We could be a WHOLE PARADE

See what I mean?
Even if it was the 999th of July
Even if it was August
Even if it was way down at the bottom of November
Even if it was no place particular in January
I would go on choosing you
And you would go on choosing me
Over and over again

That's how it would happen every time
I don't know why
I guess I don't know why I really like you
Why do I like you
I guess I just like you
I guess I just like you because I like you.

My Growing Garden

Despite all of my bug and critter issues, my garden is growing! Here are some pictures I took yesterday.

Little tomatoes

YAY, I see canning in my future!

Onions

Potato, I covered him up after the picture!

Brussels sprouts

Peppers

Cucumbers

Halushki Recipe

Halushki is a cabbage and noodle dish. It is very popular in Slavic and Polish cooking. Every family makes it a little differently. This is my Great Grandma Baba’s recipe that was given to me by my Grandmother Mema - that makes this recipe at least 100 years old, maybe more.  It will always remind me of family events and although some people think that fried cabbage smells funny, to me it smells like home.

Prepare Ahead (If you want to, you can make everything the same day)

1 medium head of cabbage, chopped into small pieces. Fry in skillet with 1 stick of butter covered, until transparent. Remove cover and continue frying until cabbage has become slightly brown then put it in your crockpot. (May be done a few days earlier and kept in the refrigerator until needed).

This is a huge cabbage, look at it compared to the bowl behind it!  Because it was so big I only used half.

4 medium potatoes, peeled and diced into cubes. Cooked until done, I boil them until fork tender (this can also be done early and refrigerated until needed). Add those to the crockpot.

Make day you are serving

Prepare 16oz of Kuluski noodles according to package directions then add them to the crockpot. I cheat sometimes and cook the potatoes and noodles together, they seem to do fine and make fewer dirty dishes, YAY.

These are what I used but you can use the ones that come in a bag dried or make your own!

Brown ½ pound of bacon, drain some of the drippings off but leave at least two tablespoons in the pan. Take bacon out of pan and brown 1 medium onion, chopped. After onion is browned, crumble bacon and add back into the pan.

Mix bacon and onion together then dump the whole thing (including the drippings used to brown the onions) into your crock pot.

Mix together well and add 1 cup of chicken broth and salt and pepper to taste. Cook this mixture on low until ready to serve. Cook at least an hour in the crockpot but can be left on low most of the day if needed. If you will be leaving it in the crockpot for a long time you might need to add more chicken broth.

If you do not have a crockpot you can still make this dish, just combine all of the ingredients in a big pot on the stove and cook it on a low temperature until ready to serve.

Baba's Halushki

1 medium head of cabbage

4 medium potatoes

16oz thick noodles

1 medium onion, chopped

1/2 pound bacon

1 stick butter

1-2 cups chicken broth

Salt and pepper to taste

Crockpot

Prepare Ahead

1 medium head cabbage, chopped into small pieces. Fry in skillet with 1 stick of butter covered, until transparent. Remove cover and continue frying until cabbage has become slightly brown then put it in your crockpot. (May be done a few days earlier and kept in the refrigerator until needed).

4 medium potatoes peeled and diced into cubes. Cooked until done, I boil them until fork tender (this can also be done early and refrigerated until needed). Add those to the crockpot.

Prepare 16oz of Kuluski noodles according to package directions then add them to the crockpot.

Brown ½ pound of bacon drain some of the drippings off but leave at least two table spoons in the pan. Take Bacon out of pan and brown 1 medium onion, chopped. After onion is browned, crumble bacon and add back into the pan.

Mix bacon and onion together then dump the whole thing (including the drippings used to brown the onions) into your crockpot.

Mix together well and add 1 cup of chicken broth and salt and pepper to taste. Cook this mixture on low until ready to serve. Cook at least an hour in the crockpot but can be left on low most of the day if needed. If you will be leaving it in the crockpot for a long time you might need to add more chicken broth. 

 Have you ever had Halushki? Do you like it?

Giving Used Coffee Grounds A Second Life

I drink a lot of coffee... iced coffee to be precise. Not the fluffy blended stuff, just ice, coffee, cream and Splenda.

I use a cold brewing method (which I can talk about another day) and this process leaves me with a lot of used coffee grounds. I hated just throwing them out so I started putting them on my compost pile. That is a great use for them but I wanted to know what else they are good for and to my surprise all kinds of stuff! Here are some ways to give your coffee a second life!

• Put coffee grounds in your compost bin. As noted above, they are a valuable source of nitrogen.
• Create a slug and snail barrier. Coffee grounds are both abrasive and acidic, so a barrier of grounds placed near slug-prone plants may just save them from these garden pests. 
• Deodorizer. Dry them out on a cookie sheet and then put them in a bowl in your refrigerator or freezer, or rub them on your hands to get rid of food prep smells.  
• Dye. By steeping grounds in hot water, you can make brown dye for fabric, paper and even Easter eggs.
• Make homemade tattoos (temporary) with henna and coffee grounds.
• Happy worm home. Keep bait worms alive by mixing coffee grounds into the soil before you add worms.
• Mushrooms. Grow mushrooms on old coffee grounds.
• Ant repellent. Sprinkle coffee grounds near cracks to keep ants at bay.
• Squirrel repellent. Keep squirrels from digging in your beds.
• Dust inhibitor. Before you clean out the fireplace, toss wet coffee grounds over the ashes to keep the ash dust under control.
• Flea dip. Follow up Fido’s shampoo with a coffee ground rub down, working them down to his skin. Not only are the fleas suppose to vamoose, but puppy’s hair will feel soft too.
• Kitty repellent. To keep kitty from using the garden as her personal powder room, sprinkle grounds mixed with orange peels around your plants.
• Cleaning product. As they’re slightly abrasive, grounds can be used as a scouring agent for greasy and grimy stain-resistant objects but be careful if they are white.
• Furniture scratch cover-up. Steep grounds and apply a bit of the liquid to furniture scratches with a Q-tip.

The uses I found that were strange but intriguing…

• Cellulite reducer. Mix 1/4 cup warm, used coffee grounds and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. While standing over an old towel or newspaper, apply the mixture to your "problem areas." Next, wrap the areas with shrink wrap and leave on for several minutes. Unwind the wrap, brush loose grounds off your skin and then shower with warm water. For best results, it is recommended to repeat this procedure twice a week. A little weird to be sure, but as high priced cellulite creams have coffee in them, it just might work.

•  Soften and add shine to hair. When washing your hair, rub coffee grounds through wet hair and rinse. For brown hair, coffee grounds add highlights

• Face mask. Mix coffee grounds with egg whites to make a mask for your face. Slather it on and let it dry then rinse it off with water.

• Carpet Cleaner? Sprinkle them on your carpet and then vacuum up to remove funky odors (I'm not so sure about this one…)

Even something for the kids!

Treasure Stone Craft 

By S herri Osborn About.com Guide

Materials Needed:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup used coffee grounds
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1/4 cup sand
• 1 cup water

Instructions:
Mix all dry ingredients together. Slowly add the water to make a stiff dough; you might end up using only half the water - add it slowly or your dough will be too runny!!

Knead on a floured surface until fairly smooth. Break the dough into desired rock sizes. Hide toys and surprises in the center of a ball of dough. Set in a safe place until totally dry. Atleast 3 - 4 days.

Once it is dry, the dough will look and feel like a rock. You can carefully break open the home-made rocks with a hammer to reveal the hidden treasures inside.

  

Hee hee hee!

 

Homemade Pesto

Homemade pesto is super easy and can be a great gift! Here is a link to the blog were I found the recipe I use: giverslog. She also has great label printouts for the jars. I have a lot of basil in my garden and this is a great use for it but you can always buy basil in big bunches at the store. A little goes along way for me so I keep most of what I make in the freezer. It can keep for up to a year. Here is the recipe

Ingredients
4 cups packed basil leaves
5 cloves garlic
½ cup butter
2 cups Parmesan cheese
Olive oil
A handful of pine nuts or walnuts


Put first four ingredients into the food processor in order given: mash as many basil leaves in as you can, just as long as you leave a few inches of space at the top of the bowl, then add garlic (the Trader Joe’s pre-peeled stuff is great), slice up the butter on top, and dump the cheese on top of that. Pulse and gradually add olive oil until mixture is the consistency of thick paste. Taste it at this point and see if it needs more of anything, I will warn you that tasting pesto strait up from the bowl is a bit much for me, so if you think it tastes very strong don't worry it will mellow when you put it in as an ingredient. Add nuts and continue to blend. Once done, spoon into jars and keep in fridge or freezer until ready to enjoy. Yields about two cups.

Four cups of basil

Into the food processor

The finished product - isn't it pretty!

Bathtub Cleaner Proof!

Hello! I hope that your July is going well, ours is going very quickly! I did a post a few weeks ago about a homemade tub cleaner. Well, I had the opportunity to clean a very dirty tub today so I thought I would post some proof that it really does work!

He who shall remain nameless had to replace the brakes on our family car Sunday night, and that resulted in a very very dirty tub that I did not find until the next morning. Well by that time the oil and brake dust had begun to take up permanent residence and I did not have time to face it until today.

So here we go, the cast of characters

 

Here is what the goop looks like mixed with a little water

Now for the tub....

Sad looking isn't it.... and I had already rinsed it once

Look at all that dirt coming off! 

Here it is with one half scrubbed and the other half not!

This stuff really does work. It only took me about 1/2 an hour to clean the whole thing maybe less and I used about half of the goo. Here is the recipe so you don't have to go searching for it. 

Tub and Tile Cleaner

3/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup powdered milk
1/8 cup liquid castle soap
5 drops lavender essential oil
Water

 - Recipe from "The Naturally Clean Home"

Combine all ingredients in a container and add enough water to make a paste. It did not take much water so go slow.

Handwritten Recipe Books

 I am the very proud owner of quite a few handwritten recipe books that have been passed down though my family. I have two from my dad’s side of the family and two from my mom’s side.  My dad is all Polish, his family immigrated from Poland and kept many of the Polish cooking traditions alive and well. My mom’s side of the family is a mix of Irish and Eastern European and cooked similar things to my dad’s family. 

Pages from my Great Aunt's cookbook

I grew up eating Haluski, Pierogies, Galumpkis (cabbage rolls), homemade Kielbasa and many other wonderful dishes. My great grandmother made wine, pickles, and even head cheese in her summer kitchen using the vegetables from her garden and I will be following her handwritten directions to do the same. 

Handwritten cards and newspaper clippings from my mom's family

All of these recipes have been passed on to me through these handwritten cookbooks. Sometimes the recipes are in a mix of Polish and English or Slavic and English and have directions like use enough water to make the dough sticky but not wet… but that makes the books even more precious. If you are lucky enough to have an old family cookbook dig it out and start cooking from it. I bet those are some of the best dishes you will ever make and you will be keeping very important traditions alive. 

I am going to be sharing some of my family recipes from these cookbooks. Some of them will be very old recipes and some added from the younger generations but all of them will use a lot of butter and taste fantastic!  I am lucky to have an extremely strong food heritage and I am excited to start sharing that with you.

Juicing Mulberries

Hello all! I hope that you have had a fantastic week. I am going to walk you through how we juiced the mulberries today. It was a messy process, but not too difficult. If you remember I talked about using the berries that are not as clean for juicing? Well because of the way juicing works you do not use any of the pulp in the finished product so if there are a few little leaves and things still in with the berries that's OK you will not use that stuff anyway.

First we skimmed the floating berries off of the top of the tub.  Then picked out the big sticks and gunk.

We used a frying skimmer for this process

After you have the berries you are going to juice ready to go, put together the rest of the juicing gear. You will need gloves, this is very very important unless you want to look like Barney.

Yes I understand this is kind of a creepy picture....

Next set your splatter screen on top of a big pot like so

No tool in my kitchen is safe from multiple jobs!

Then lay out your cheese cloth folded over a few times

Now it is time to squish some berries! Put a scoop of berries on the center of the cheese cloth and pick up all four corners. Then start to squish out the juice thought the mesh screen and into the pot.

Looks kind of weird from this point of view! 

This is why we use the mesh strainer. As you continue to squish seeds with start to get loose.

After you have squished all the juice out throw away the pulp.

Then put the juice in a container for storage in the fridge until you need it. We made all of our juice into jelly. I like using Mason jars to store the juice.

Now sit back and admire all of your hard work! It takes four cups of juice to fill a jar and about 12 cups of berries to get that much juice!

Coupon Post 3 - How to Find Coupons

There are many ways you can begin collecting coupons. I have never used a clipping service and I do not pay for any special websites. I do pay for a Sunday paper and use the coupons out of my parents' and my mother in law's paper. Any other coupons I use I find online or receive in the mail by signing up with a company for special promotions.

Facebook
Many manufacturers have Facebook pages. If you "Like" their page then you can print off coupons they post. Many of these companies also send out information about upcoming sales. Some of the pages that I receive updates from on my Facebook feed are: Ballpark, Burt's Bees, Disney, and Pampers.

To find a manufacturer that you would be interested in, search their name and just click the Like button. This is also a great way to get deals on things happening in your town. Find a local museum, park, or radio station and watch for them to start talking about deals on events.

Manufacturer websites

Manufacturers offer coupons to print from their websites. Many of these coupons are offered in exchange for you signing  up for an account on their site. I recommend creating a separate email account to use only when signing up for coupons and free samples. Many times you will receive follow-up emails from these companies, and I don’t like to fill my regular inbox with these offers. In these e-mails you will often receive additional coupons or notices when big sales are going to happen so for brands that you use a lot this is a great tool. Here are some of the sites that I am a member of. Most of these sites send me booklets of coupons once a month.

P&G

HUGGIES® Promotions and Special Offers

Beechnut

Marzetti

Kelloggs

Johnson & Johnson

Earths Best

Loading coupons onto a card
Many stores like Kroger have a loyalty card and you can load coupons directly onto that card. This is a great option for using coupons with no effort. There are a few problems with using coupons this way, including:
1. Kroger and other stores will not double coupons loaded onto a card. This means that if you use a paper coupon you will get more money off.
2. It is very easy to forget what coupons you have when you can't see them.

To help combat these problems, I only load coupons that are over a dollar and only for products that I am not worried about hitting a sale with. If I do load a coupon that I really need to remember to use, then I make sure to write it down in my binder. We will talk about binders next!

Here are some other sites that you can sign up your card and load away!  Again all of these sites are free! I love free things don't you?

cellfire

shortcuts

pgesaver

Online Coupon Website

Companies like coupons.com, smartsource.com and redplum.com require a software download before you print coupons. This is a one time step and is completely safe.They do this so that each coupon has a different bar-code. All of these sites are free.

These sites change the coupons about once a month and you will see some of the same things offered on all of the sites. You can print each coupon twice. After you print the first time hit back on your browser, when it asks if you want to resend the information say yes and you will print again. These sites are a huge source for printable coupons I use them all the time! 

 Redplum

Coupon Suzy

Smart Source

Coupons.com

The Store Website
One of the best places to find store specific coupons is Target. The Target webpage has coupons that you can print out that are only good at Target. The best part about this is that you can use a Target coupon (that you got from their page) and a manufactures coupon on the same product! This is when I can really do some damage with stacking. Here is the link to the Target Coupon Page.

Kroger does something similar to this but it is a mailer. If you go onto the Kroger website and make a profile they track what you buy though your card and then once a month or so send out a packet of coupons specifically tailored to what you buy most often. These coupons are only good for use at Kroger and cannot be stacked.

Catalina Coupon Basics

The term Catalina Coupons refers to any coupon printed at the cash register when you complete a purchase at a store. They are often also referred to simply as “Catalinas,” “check-out coupons,” or “register rewards." They are printed by a Catalina machine that sits right next to the cash register.

Types of Catalina Coupons

There are two types of Catalina coupons. The first and most common type are cents-off coupons that are good on a specific product. For example $1.00 off any box of General Mills cereal.

The other type of Catalina coupon is an on your next order (OYNO) coupon and these are coupons that are for cents-off anything in your next purchase. For example $1.00 off your next purchase. There is usually some fine print exclusions on these that typically exclude you from using OYNO Catalina coupons on alcohol, tobacco, gift cards and stamps, and in some states, dairy or fluid milk.

Both types can either print based your recent store purchases or because the brand is having a special promotion.

Catalina Marketing has recently also launched a new printable coupons product. This is quite different than their check-out coupons, but offers other unique coupon savings. It is called Coupon Network and it allows you to print coupons directly from your computer for use at your local stores.

Other coupon locations that sometimes get missed:

• Peelies: these are the coupons that are stuck to the product. If you don't need the product now, you might later.
• Blinkies: those coupons in the SmartSource machines that may or may not have the little blinking light. Most of the time you want to save these and wait for a sale not use them when you find them.
• Tearpads: usually these pads are on the shelf or display. I see a lot of these at Christmas time.
• Try Me Free or Rebate forms: these are a great way to try a new product and/or make money on a deal! Buy an item on sale, use the coupon, and send away for the rebate!

I know that all of this seems like a lot of time and work, but time is money. Did you know that coupon clipping pays an average of $86 per hour according to the Wall Street Journal? I think that's worth the time and just think of this as a challenge to keep as much of your hard earned money as you can!

Do you have other places to find coupons that I missed?

Homemade Natural Cleaning Products

I started researching and trying natural cleaning products when I became pregnant.  I was told by my doctor not to use a lot of the cleaning products that I used everyday because the chemicals in them could be harmful to the baby. Well I'm glad my doctor was worried about my baby, but what about me and my husband? We have been breathing in that stuff for years, what is it doing to us? Also if you have to put on a haz-mat suit with gloves up to your elbows, then immediately wash your hands if any of the cleaning goo touches you, one might want to ponder what is in said bottle.

I must confess there is another reason for my green cleaning ways, I’m cheap. Yes I said it, I’m just being honest here. Making your own cleaning products is tremendously cheaper than buying them. I mean A LOT cheaper.

The first one I am going to talk about is the tub and tile cleaner. It worked very very well. I am embarrassed to say how dirty my tub was... and it cleaned all the mildew and soap build up without a problem. It did take some work but im happy to say that my tub is now a new color! I ended up cleaning it twice because the cleaning stuff started to dry before I was done but if you are not dealing with a crazy dirty tub it should not take as long. Below is what I used. I mixed up everything in a plastic container and used a sponge to scrub with. I make one recipe of the stuff and use it all to clean the tub, so no left overs to store!

Tub and Tile Cleaner

3/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup powdered milk
1/8 cup liquid castle soap (this will be the most expensive thing you will buy, but it is used in a lot of the cleaning recipes and a little goes along way. I bought mine at Kroger in the organic section. I use the non-scented one because I wanted to be able to use essential oils. Target also sells it.)
5 drops lavender essential oil (I bought this at a health foods store, this step is optional if you do not want to invest in the oil, but it does smell nice)
Water

 - Recipe from "The Naturally Clean Home"

Combine all ingredients in a container and add enough water to make a paste. It did not take much water so go slow.

Then just put some on your sponge and start scrubbing! After you scrub the tub rinse the residue off and admire your thriftiness!

This has a great smell and makes your hands soft!

My Blooming Garden

All of these plants are blooming in my garden! For those of you who took a guess at the plants, here are the answers!

Tomato

Cucumber

Bell Pepper

Potato

Picking and Cleaning Mulberries

Our mulberry picking is almost over! We have spent the better part of two weeks picking and cleaning berries. When we first started this process I looked for the best way to clean the berries but did not come up with much. My hubby and I have come up with a method that works for us so I am going to share it with you!

First lay all of your old sheets out under the tree. If you do not have old sheets go get some at Goodwill or buy very very cheap ones on clearance somewhere. Next year I think we are going to use a parachute but I will talk about that another time. 

We tried to cover all of the big spots. It is sad to see the berries hit the ground.

Then talk someone into climbing the tree... in this case my husband was volunteered volunteered to climb up!

Yay for helpful husbands!

Then shake the tree and watch the berries fall! We choose to shake the tree instead of picking off each one because it is much faster and, more importantly, when you try and pick the berries off the tree they tend to just fall apart and mush all over your hands. We waste a lot less this way.

After you shake the tree pick each sheet up by the four corners and guide all of the berries together. Then take a few minutes to pick out all of the big sticks and leaves. I will warn you that when shaking the tree you also shake out a lot of bugs. Don't be worried, you will wash them all away in the following steps.

Then put all of the mulberries in a big container, we use a large storage tub.

Then fill that tub up with water. The tub will be very hard to move when filled so do it someplace convenient. We did this part on the front porch. After the tub is full let everything sit for a half hour or so to let as much of the bugs and gunk float to the top as possible.

After you let everything sit skim off all of the big stuff on top and put that into a different bucket. You will skim off allot of berries with the gunk. We used these for juicing because you do not need to clean them as much. I will talk about juicing later on in the week.

Then take a fine mesh strainer and get off as much of the little floating stuff as you can. We use a splatter screen that you would use for frying.

Ok, now all of the big stuff is gone. We started doing all of these steps outside on the porch. It was easier to bring smaller batches in to clean rather than try to do the whole bucket all at once.

Now we go to the four bucket rinse method. I know it sounds like a lot but by doing it this way we are able to work together and you do not waste as much water.

The big pot holds the berries right out of the tub then as they go down the line we let the berries float in each tub of water to get the gunk off. As you will see in the next set of pictures each bowl has cleaner and cleaner water. That means the berries are getting clean as they move down the line.

Big bucket gets the really dirty ones then we take a handful and drop them into the next pan

Then they get taken out of the second pan and put into the bowl

Then from the bowl into the colander in a sink full of water. I use the colander to separate the good berries from the little bits of gunk still left, that way I can change the water less often.  Then into the final measuring cup.

This might seem like allot of steps but it is allot easier then picking bugs and leaves off of each one and if you run water over a handful at a time you will waste a TON of water and be cleaning forever.

After the berries are clean I put them in zip lock bags. The pies each get four cups and I also set enough aside for jam.

This is just from one night

Some other tips:

1. Little red bugs like to live on the berries. If you are cleaning in your house, put a towel under the pots and spray some soap all over it to stop the bugs if they try and get out. They are very very small and you might miss them crawling on the counter if you are not careful. 
2. Leave your shoes outside or you will track purple though the house.
3. Do not stand under the tree when it is being shaken.  It sounds obvious but.... well, I forgot once. 
4. As the season goes on, the berries will get bigger and they are easier to clean. By that time you should have shaken a lot of the dead stuff off the tree.
5. You do not need to try and take off the stems. There is really no way to do it and the stems break down and disappear in the pies and jams. I promise you will not even know they are there.
6. Remember that you are doing something good for your family and most good things take time and effort!