The Marble Jar Channel

Hi, everyone.  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar Channel and in today's video, I'll share how I use my vacuum sealer to organize frozen goods, thaw things quickly, and make food last longer.  I'll also show you how you can seal food in generic ziplock bags so you don't have to break the bank. I'm completely in love with my vacuum sealer.  I put off getting one for a long time, mostly because I'm cheap and didn't want to spend money on the expensive custom bags that you are supposed to use with the sealer.  But eventually, the reasons for getting one got more compelling AND I figured out how to vacuum seal somewhat successfully with cheaper Ziplock bags, so now I'm a total convert.  Real quickly, here were my reasons: Quick thaw - I'd like to tell you that I'm the kind of person who always takes meat out of the freezer several days in advance so that it is all ready to go on the night of the meal.  But I would be lying.  Someti...

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'll show you yet another use for the AnyList app -- keeping track of what's in your freezer. If you've watching some of my other videos, you'll know that AnyList is one of my favorite apps that I use virtually every day.  I use it in the normal way -- for shopping and errands.  My video on that  is kind of an app overview.  I have an use that is a bit unorthodox that helps me keep track of items that I have to bring when I leave the house for multiple activities.  AND I also use Today's List as a quick list to remember to bring things, buy things, or do things today.  I have one additional use for AnyList, which I will share with you today and that is to keep track of what is in my freezer. So, I have a friend who is a "just in time" shopper.  Meaning that she buys only as much food as she needs to make meals for the week.  Her freezer is practic...

Hi, everyone. This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today’s video, I’ll show you what I keep in my minivan. I love my minivan. It’s super practical and convenient for a family with active kids and numerous carpools. I have friends who distain the very concept of a minivan — but I have news for them, just because you are driving an SUV instead of a minivan does NOT prevent you somehow from still being a suburban soccer mom. Anyway — I’m assuming I’m preaching to the choir here.  Other than my house, my minivan is where I spend most of my time.  That makes it a highly personal space — and as such, the contents are based entirely on what is currently going on in my life.  The things in my minivan looked a lot different when I had little kids, but now it is the van for a family with sports-oriented teenagers.  So, keep this in mind as I talk about the contents.  I have a 2015 Honda Odyssey.   A little while ago,...

Hi, everyone.  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'll share some tips on how to improve your luck from the book The Luck Factor by Richard Wiseman. About a year ago, I read an article that referenced this book, the Luck Factor, and have thought about it pretty regularly since then. I just got around to reading the actual book and I thought I’d share my thoughts and takeaways with you. This book is about luck. Most people consider luck to be something that is entirely out of our control. Some people have good things that happen to them, some have bad. However, in his studies on luck, Wiseman find that people who consider themselves lucky have a lot of things in common. Note that this is people who consider themselves to be lucky -- which is important to differentiate from actual luck. He makes no attempt to determine whether people are objectively lucky or not. He simply asked them to rate themselves on a scale with very luck...

Hi, everyone.  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I discuss how you can use Gretchen Rubin's Four Tendencies paradigm to find successful strategies to motivate your kids -- and maybe even yourself! I recently read Gretchen Ruben's book, The Four Tendencies: The Indispensable Personality Profiles that Reveal How to Make Your Life Better.  This is not a comprehensive personality system like Myers Briggs, Enneagram, or the Big Five -- rather Ruben seeks to describe 4 kinds of people using one very limited filter -- how we deal with expectations.  The results are surprisingly illuminating and useful for things like motivation and behavior change. I don't want to go into too much detail -- Ruben has a bunch of YouTube videos out where she goes does deep dive explanations -- and I would also encourage you to read her book.  But in short, she categorizes people based on two measures -- how they deal with external expectations...

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today’s video, I’ll share my secret for staying awake during long drives — sunflower seeds! I am generally fairly militant about sleep — anything less than 6 1/2 hours and I’m kind of a zombie.  That said — sometimes I find myself driving with far less sleep than I need OR I’ve gotten plenty, but I’m still sleepy while driving.   So, there are lots of ideas to solve this issue.  The most popular?  Caffeine — which works to a point, but I get diminishing returns and I find myself even more tired once the caffeine has worn off. Plus too much makes me shakey and my stomach unhappy.  My mom cuts up fruit in advance of trips and eats it while she's driving.  Some people eat hard candy, some play music loudly.   By far the best solution I’ve tried came from my cousin who lives in Colorado, drives long distances alone, and doesn’t drink caffeine.  He eats sunf...

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'll show you how I take paperless class notes on my iPad -- even when I'm given paper handouts. I did a video a while ago showing how I take paperless notes when I have been given a digital copy of the PowerPoint slides in advance.  I'm in a hybrid distance learning program, so this happens fairly frequently for me.  However, since then I've been asked a bunch of times how to do it if you are provided with printed handouts of  PowerPoints slides.   Recently, I've done a bunch of full day training, which almost always provide paper handouts, so I've had to figure this out since I don't want to go home with a giant ream of paper that I won't be able to find in two days. Photos of Handout - In Reverse The first thing I do is take photos of each page of the handout.  But for my system to work -- you have to take the photos starting at the END of the hando...