I have to say that I am QUITE nervous about all of this, but wanted to share with you the latest project that I am working on. Wal-Mart is partnering with You Tube and will be offering a new feature on their site, sharing video footage of how moms save money. They did some research and picked a handful of bloggers to help them kick this new feature off and sent us Flip Video cameras to document ways that we have found to save our family money.
I am very excited to be included and will be sharing more ways that moms can save through this feature. I do want to be honest with you and let you know that I am not being paid by their company at all and that I am under no obligation to promote Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart products, or am asked to say anything in my segments. The payoff for me will hopefully be getting our website name out there to other people and to have the opportunity to make our community here larger and stronger. It also is a great way to build stronger relationships with the other participants and collaborate together on projects.
Working in this format is new for me so please be patient. I tried to do a fun intro and I am looking forward to your feedback. What would you like me to cover? Is there something you would like to see in my house or in my kitchen? Please let me know and I will try to include the things that will appeal to you guys!
I really appreciate all your support and feel very blessed to have such great readers!
This summer, the kids really loved getting to wash their own cars, but my neglected car was in need of a car wash too. Isn't that why we have kids though? Might as well put these able-bodied children to work, that's what I say!
Emily worked on the car with an old baby washcloth and Ethan used daddy's official car scrubber.
I loved their looks of total concentration. They took their task very seriously and Emily kept wanting to show us how yucky the water was. I am the same way though when I scrub our floors. I just have to have other people witness the gross factor- you just can't experience that alone.
I don't know if I should mention this every single time, but I do feed this kid. These shorts are 3T and falling off of him still. I see pictures like these and feel like I should make a disclaimer- this kid eats me under the table. Oh, to have that metabolism!
Where in the world is their supervisor though? Oh, I think I found him sitting on the step watching the kids work. I don't think we should ever claim to be parenting experts!
He had to break out the big guns though and show the kids how to clean the roof of the car. They thought this part was hilarious.
What's a car wash though without a little water play afterwards? Ethan thought this part was definitely the best. Best of all, I have a clean car AND two exhausted workers to prove that this was a family event worth repeating!
Things are coming along in our garden and I am finally picking some of those tomatoes. This year had been going really smoothly until two things happened.
1. The wascally wabbits found my garden and ate ALL and I mean ALL of my parsley. They barely left me a little stem to remind me of my former giant parsley shrubs I had grown.
2. The wascally Emily witnessed Ethan picking the red tomatoes and has been plucking my green tomatoes for me.
Does anyone have any home remedies for rabbits... or toddlers?
In other gardening news (and things for you to do with all those fruits & veggies):
School days are returning and who wouldn't love some money to put towards their children's school supplies? I am excited to participate again in the Bloggy Giveaways and would like to offer up a $25 Target Gift Card to one lucky winner!
Please leave a comment by Friday (08/01) at 7PM Eastern Time and tell me one way that you keep your family or children organized for returning to school. I am looking for tips for getting your dinner on the table, keeping paperwork organized, managing your day, etc...
I can't wait to hear your ideas and please look around my site, especially if you haven't been here before. I specialize in sharing ideas on money management, home management, and ideas for creative parenting.
Don't forget to head over to the Bloggy Giveaways Carnival and enter to win a whole bunch of cool prizes!
Today's free code for a Redbox movie is JH4KB6. This code is good for one free movie and you can use it until midnight tonight. Enjoy a free family movie together!
Side Notes:
- If you want to rent more than one movie for free, bring more than one credit/debit card. You can use the same promotional code, you just will need different cards to charge it to. The charge will be zero as long as you return your movie on time for the next day.
- When entering in your free movie code, you need to enter it FIRST before picking the movie. On the very first screen, click the, "Rent with Promo." Enter in the above code and then make your selection- the amount should then total zero.
My little supermodel wanted to show off his cool new t-shirt. We wore this out last week to go pick up Ethan's school supplies and got stopped by tons of people in the store who wanted to pump Ethan up about how great kindergarten was going to be.
I took him for a special date night and we went to go get everything from his list of school supplies, a new backpack, and picked up some of his uniforms. I wish we could have taken advantage of end-of-year clearance on the uniforms, but we weren't sure if he was going to get in this school or not. The real dilemma was finding enough clothes in his size and that would fit his narrow frame. We had virtually no luck at Wal-Mart and very little luck at Target. It is difficult to find a boy's size 4 in the appropriate color scheme so I will have to do some additional hunting online for his fall/winter clothes.
$150 in supplies later and we headed over to Wendy's for a special dinner complete with a Vanilla Frosty.
We couldn't end our date there though because we had to head to a very special place to get something very special. Yes, Ethan is now a card-carrying adult because he got his very own library card. It was quite exciting to sign his own name, in his very careful script, and then pick out books and check them out in self-check ALL BY HIMSELF! He kept telling the librarian, "Excuse me, ma'am. Excuse me. I am down here." The librarian laughed and told him that she could see him perfectly, but he kept saying, "Um, ma'am. I'm down here! I need a library card"
The joy in his eyes as we headed out with that little piece of plastic... May that feeling of joy only be replicated with free cards and not a credit card! Isn't that every parent's prayer?
What are you doing to get ready for school and when do your kids start? Where have you found the best deals on school supplies?
I just want to thank Heather, from Freebies 4 Mom, for sharing her list of freebies with us. Heather is looking for your feedback on how you maximize your coupon savings so be sure to swing by and share what is working for you!
Instead of my usual Notebook Experiment, yesterday we decided to head over to the AirZoo Museum in Kalamazoo, Michigan. I haven't been to this museum since they participated in the National Museum Day campaign (this will link to the current year & you can mark your calendars for September 27th) with the Smithsonian Museum because they had never participated again. It is a great zoo, but EXPENSIVE! They will be participating in the free day this year though so be sure to head over there then to save some cash! It is worth the drive- i promise! Since we vetoed a family vacation in favor of staycations and occasional day trips out of town, we were able to budget it in for a day trip before Ethan starts school.
We decided to head there with another family because it helps us both to split the cost on gas. We ordered our tickets online, which gave us a savings of fifteen percent if bought three days in advance, and we packed a lunch to eat on the lawn outside the museum. We saved where we could so we could really enjoy this day!
This museum is truly amazing though and boasts the world's largest indoor mural, which encompasses the entire open space that they have built. It is difficult space to really take pictures in, to truly showcase how cool it looks, because it is very dark in the space. Hopefully, I was able to capture it enough though that you can see just how neat it is.
First, this was pretty much Emily the entire trip. See her fingers in her ears? If we said, "Say CHEESE, Emily!" she would rip this bloodcurdling scream unlike any other child I have ever heard. Yeah, good times! Basically, she is two and she wants us to deal with it! Her TWO is what Ethan's THREE was- difficult. I love her like mad though!
This is what the museum looks like. Those hot air balloons are actually rides and they have little planes that the kids can ride on too. These rides are great for younger visitors and the museum was practically empty the day we went so the kids just ran and climbed back on the rides about four times, while we sat on the bench sharing a snack with the younger children. For older kids, they have flight simulators that you can try out and a 4-D theater where you feel like you are watching flight scenes from WWII. The kids did not like the movie theater, but they loved the rides.
This is Emily on the balloon ride. I felt like my stomach was doing a zillion flip flops and she was ecstatic the whole entire time. She cried when the rides ended because they were so much fun!
If you know of a good setting to use on your camera in the dark with a moving amusement park ride, please let me know! These were the best shots of the bunch!
Behind the mural, is an area for smaller kids to play with lots of toys and the best part of all.... tons of rides for tots. The rides were the kind that average about $5 each at the mall. All you had to do was press the start button twice and you could ride them for free.
Here is our silly shot! We had a great time at the AirZoo and our son has been pretending he is a pilot ever since!
Who could resist a fun day at the lake? Ryan's family had a little reunion in Culver, IN and we headed there for the day! Sunburns and freckles all around for our really lily-white crew, but we had an amazing time! My husband took a zillion pictures of me in the water with my kids. Yes, this never happens because I can't swim, but the shallow water and hot sun lured me in. It was wonderful!
We have been trying to accomplish all of the great things off of our summertime list this summer and we had a major event to accomplish... a trip to Chicago's Field Museum. Last week, they offered a free admission day so we made plans to make our trip that day.
When I say we though, I mean my husband & Ethan. The guys wanted to do this trip alone without any girls ruining all their fun so they headed their together for a full day of fun in the prehistoric world. They took the South Shore train to their destination and enjoyed a guy's day together.
When Ethan walked in and saw Sue the amazing T-Rex he said, "I have been waiting my whole life for this moment." Ryan sent me updates via text message about all the fun they were having and he took tons of pictures of all of Ethan's favorite moments from the museum.
Meanwhile, Emily & I had a wonderful girl's day. We played outside, I sat at her mini-picnic bench and shared a peanut butter & jelly sandwich with her, we snuggled, we laughed, and we went to my mom's birthday dinner celebration. We sent dad messages about what we were up to and...well, we couldn't stop smiling. Every once in awhile, Emily would look at me and say, "Where did Ethan go?" and I would remind her that he & daddy had a special day together.
When my husband got home we both remarked that we need to do that more often. We both felt a bond with each child deepen during that day and it was great to be able to devote our undivided attention to each of them.
Do you do dates with your children? How do you manage to make quality time for each child individually? I would love to get some ideas for things we could do with the kids in the future!
Today's free code for a Redbox movie is TW87WR. This code is good for one free movie and you can use it until midnight tonight. Enjoy a free family movie together!
Side Notes:
- If you want to rent more than one movie for free, bring more than one credit/debit card. You can use the same promotional code, you just will need different cards to charge it to. The charge will be zero as long as you return your movie on time for the next day.
- When entering in your free movie code, you need to enter it FIRST before picking the movie. On the very first screen, click the, "Rent with Promo." Enter in the above code and then make your selection- the amount should then total zero.
A package came for me in the mail. They had to ring the doorbell and have me sign for it. My sweet postal worker was so excited to hand me a package from Japan. She said, "I've been wondering what this is?" as she handed it to me. I had to laugh because this little envelope was full of these...
I ordered my knitting needles through eBay and found that I could get an entire lot of bamboo needles (each size between 0 through 15) for only $20, which included the shipping total! It is hard to do projects when you only have one set of needles so I was so thrilled to finally get them. It took an entire month for them to make their way to my house, but they were in surprisingly good condition. Two of the little tops did come off, but with a little crafting glue, I was able to put them right back together. I started using them as soon as I got them in my hot little hand and I plan to order circular and double-pointed needles through eBay as well.
With the kids playing outside almost every day, I am doing the majority of my knitting outside. The wind was blowing my patterns all over the lawn though so I brought my cookbook stand outside and rested my books and printed patterns in there. Mine has a plastic cover that protects the book and I thought it would be handy to jot down where I left off in my pattern with a dry erase marker. This has made it a lot easier to see my pattern while I am knitting!
My mother-in-law also purchased one of these knitting canisters for me so I could take my knitting on the road. I love it because it keeps my yarn nice and clean if we are outside or in the car. I was planning to make one out of a coffee canister with a hole on the top and she ended up buying me one instead. Much more fashionable than my hobo version!
One of you lovely knitters also recommended that I join ravelry and I finally joined! I absolutely love this site for finding patterns and sharing my work. It took two days for my invitation to join the community came, but it was so worth the wait. I am now able to work through patterns on the site and it motivates me to work towards some new knitting goals. My username on this site is momadvice, just in case you want to look me up and be my first friend!
This has been a summer of washcloths for me and the latest pattern I completed was two double-woven washcloths. I am working on these for Christmas and holiday hostess gifts. The next item to work on will be knitting some slippers because I want to put together spa baskets for some of the great women in my life. Hopefully, I can master increasing (which seems to be difficult for me) so I can start making pairs of these to go with all of these cute washcloths.
Materials Needed: Please see ohdeedoh for the full instructions on this task. I used the vinegar and a lavender essential oil to make my homemade disinfectant, but you could also use tea tree oil. For extra credit, grab some baking soda and use this to scour the sink before disinfecting.
Results: I will admit that I really used to love bleaching my sink. I am all about cleaning the sink and have been ever since I read Sink Reflections. There was just something so therapeutic about having a fresh clean sink and there is just something so cleansing about that sparkling white sink after a good bleaching. To this day, if I smell Comet cleanser it makes me think of my mom and her sink cleaning days when I was a little girl.
But the times, they are a changin' and I am trying to incorporate more green living into my life. I have talked a lot about implementing homemade cleaners into your routine, but I was still dragging my feet on cleaning my sink with the green stuff.
I really wanted to try this homemade disinfectant and thought I would give my sink a good scrubbing with baking soda instead this time.
I just sprinkled my sink liberally with baking soda and ran a tiny bit of water. This made it more of a scouring paste and I scrubbed it with a little brush (or whatever else you have on hand). Once I scrubbed it well, I gave the sink a rinse and then wiped it out with a towel. I finished the routine off by spraying my homemade disinfectant and wiping the sink down again.
If you are a bleach user, I wouldn't say it was exactly the same type of white, but it came very close. It did require a bit of elbow grease and took longer, but it was oh-so-worth-it!
Oh, and did you notice that sweet little dishcloth hanging over my faucet? I made that! It is a gift to myself after all of the gifts I have made. It isn't even a reject one (which is what I normally give myself). It is the first item that I have knitted for myself since I have learned how. Oh, and it also happens to be green- just like my new sink routine!
I feel like this is something that I can do regularly and am proud that I have finally given the bleach up for good! Thanks ohdeedoh for this great idea!
Healthy Eating, Summer Slacking, Simple Living, & Live Appearances
POSTED BY Amy at 8:37 PM
Did I catch your attention?
This week on WSBT, I got to sit down and really talk about how to eat healthy on a budget. Since I went to school for nutrition, this is an important topic for me and one that I really enjoy sharing about. I hope that you can catch this segment! You can find me on our local news each Tuesday sharing money-saving tips for moms!
If you live in the Michiana area and have time, please come to the Michiana Family Expo, sponsored by the Michiana Family Magazine, and stop by to say hi. I will have a booth there and will be demonstrating some fun kid's crafts and meeting as many people as I can personally. I will be there on August 9th from 10 AM to 9 PM. I hope to meet those of you who have been so supportive of my work and our family. It has been so great to live in a community like this and I would love to thank each of you personally for spreading the word about our site.
Last thing, if anyone is attending the ad tech conference in Chicago, I am honored to be included on a panel on August 6th from 2:15-3:15 about my experience as a mommy blogger. I will be sitting on the panel with CEO Kate Thorp, of Real Girls Media, whom I have had the great honor of being a part of their Advisory Board. I am very excited about this opportunity and can't wait to share what a wonderful experience blogging has been for me.
Two envelopes came to us this week filled with two things that I had never seen before. No, in my entire life I have never held a title in my hand and I am now the owner of not one, but two old cars. This calls for some celebrating!
Just like our credit card free party, it was time to bring the kids into the celebration and share with them our great news. I decided we would have a Cars Party and hunted in the pantry for what we could fix.
Ethan worked on the centerpiece and picked his favorite cars to display. We put it out on our patio table and started gathering up the food.
No steak for this celebration? I had enough time to throw some hot dogs in the slow cooker and we put out all the hot dog fixings, a big bowl of pretzels, and cheese wedges.
In an incredible twist of good luck, Ryan had a presentation at work so he came home with a projector. I climbed on a patio chair and rigged up that old sheet from this weekend and made a very hillbilly-esque kind of outdoor theater for the kids. Yeah, you know it, they thought I was the coolest mom ever. What did we watch? Walt Disney's Cars movie of course! They have seen this movie a ton of times, but it is like the first time every single time for Ethan.
We put our centerpiece to good use and played with our cars on the real and rugged road.
If that road feels too bumpy though, you can always use your legs for the road.
What's a movie without snacks though? I whipped up a batch of our homemade slushies and we brought the popcorn popper outside and popped a big batch of popcorn to share. Slushie sloshing and popcorn throwing were completely fine at this outdoor event.
If you need to take a nap while watching the show, seating is also available. Ethan pulled his clean blanket off the clothesline and took a little rest while he watched the show.
My liens on cars have been released. With credit cards and car payments behind us, we can start making a dent into those student loans and finally... our mortgage. Each step brings us closer to our goal and each step brings me more peace of mind.
The beauty of it all wore off yesterday as I screeched and clunked my way to stop. My car will be spending this week in the shop for some repairs. My husband's car is lacking A/C and will need a turn in the shop as well.
They might be a couple of old clunkers, but they are OUR clunkers now.
I will be honest and admit that I am completely behind the times on networking through the internet. I find a lot of these social networks to be more maintenance and more bothersome than they are worth.
When my husband suggested that I join Twitter (eons ago), I went into a speech about how I was out living my life while people sat around and twittered about it. I rolled my eyes at people who were glued to their computer screens reading one simple answer to one simple question, "What are you doing?" What am I doing? What am I doing? Um, let's see... yeah doing stuff.
Finally, I decided to really devote some time into discovering what Twitter was and if it would truly be beneficial to me. Reading people's updates about drinking coffee, heading to the movies, drinking wine, blah, blah, blah- that did not sound like fun reading material. What I wanted to see was one thing and one thing alone. Will this improve my site?
Now that you know the attitude that I went into it with, you might be shocked to find out that I am absolutely loving Twitter. No, not for the ho-hum everyday details of people's lives, but I am loving it from a networking standpoint and what it is doing for my business.
First, if you do not understand how Twitter works, I would HIGHLY recommend this video that I am posting here. It breaks down exactly how it works in a way that is very easy and basic to understand. Simply sign up for an account, find your friends (or find a really good friend who is well-networked and then look at all of his/her friends) and then click, "Follow." Now you can post updates to the people who begin to follow you and you can post a quick update (140 characters or less) on what you are doing throughout the day.
Here are some of the positive things that have happened for me since joining Twitter:
Networked With Other Bloggers- Twitter is an amazing networking tool. Do big-time bloggers not know about you? Do you want to connect more with bloggers in your own category? This is the place to do it. Following people requires one click and then you can begin building relationships with others. You might think, how could that possibly help me? Well, within the first week I was able to see how great it really was.
Is a blogger going away on vacation and in need of some bloggers to do guest posts? That blogger will post this on Twitter and you can scoop up a guest post on other blogs in your genre. Is a blogger looking for an article on a particular subject that you just so happened to have written on? That blogger will post that article request on Twitter and you can send them a message to let them know that you have the perfect article ready to go for them.
Not only does it help you network with other bloggers from those superficial standpoints, but it also helps you connect on a deeper level and build friendships with people in your blogging community. You know if a blogger is having a really bad day and can send them a quick message to cheer them up. You also know if someone is having a great day and can be their cheerleader. These deeper connections with other bloggers are what you need to grow your blog.
Pointed People to My Posts- Want people to read what you have written? Point them to your posts! Because of the limited character space, you will want to make a smaller url to point them to, but you can link right up to your blog when you have an update. Let people know about your contests, drive traffic to posts, and get people to read what you are talking about. Many of the people that I follow were not bloggers that I was familiar with, but when I saw that they had posted about something I was interested in reading, I headed over and left them a comment. Guess what? They headed over to my site and then left me a comment in return. You have to love that!
I could see from my web statistics that traffic did increase from direct hits through my Twitter links, but it was not a substantial amount. What did increase though was the awareness of other bloggers who found me and then added me as a link on their page or included me in a post. In an indirect way, my traffic then increased more through that and then the added benefit from the direct links in. Roughly, we had an increase this past month of about 100 hits, which I think is pretty good for just telling people what I am up to. Those 100 hits might lead to many more, when accessed by the right blogger or media outlet.
Got Questions Answered Quickly- The fact that Twitter is in "real time" really helps to get answers quick when you are struggling as a blogger. You will often see questions like, "Can you see this page in IE?" or "Can someone please tell me if my comments are working?" When you have a question, it is hard to wait for a delayed response especially if you are trying to check if things are loading properly and if people can access the information they need. Hopping on Twitter gives you hundreds of people who are not only willing to help... they also can give you valuable feedback right away on what is or is not working for your blog. It is probably one of the best things about Twitter.
I Can Network with PR Folks- If you are reviewing products for your blog, Twitter helps PR people track what you are up to and also find bloggers who are doing reviews. You can add another dimension to your relationships with PR people. By joining the Twitter community, I have gotten some really great products to review for our site and have been able to offer giveaways that would have not come to me otherwise. Twitter updates also immediately notifies the PR folks that a review has been posted and they can pass that info on to their client. I still email them directly, but I also post the link through Twitter as an added bonus. If you don't do product reviews, this might not appeal to you, but this is great for bloggers who do the reviews.
I Don't Need to Twitter All Day & It Still Works For Me- Part of my issue was the fact that I didn't want to have to maintain one more thing on the web. I am already overwhelmed and spending more time than I would like on the computer so why would I join another program that I had to keep up with? The beauty of Twitter though is that you can check in as frequently or as infrequently as you need to. Some days are too busy to log on, other days are slow and I feel like chatting and bouncing ideas around with people. It is that kind of freedom that really appeals to me and that there are no expectations. Low expectations make it easier for me to check in when I need to, and stay off it when I don't. Yes, it can be addictive to read, but I try to keep it low-key.
Best Part, You Already Have Your First (Or Millionth Friend)- Need to follow your first person? I can be her! Just sign up for an account and follow me!
I hope that this helps explain Twitter a little better and please watch the video for a fun visual explanation for how it works.
Need some more blogging help? Here are a few more posts to help you on your way!
This summer has been a quiet one for our family. Intended trips were vetoed in favor of staycations and saving fuel. Our backyard update has been just the fix we needed though to enjoy quiet afternoons and evenings in our very own space. Our sweat equity has paid off and we have felt less impacted by the rising cost of fuel because all we desire is to spend time in our fresh new space.
I plop myself into a lawn chair and I look out over our large yard. I can see two sets of feet dancing behind the sheets, as the clothes blow on our clothesline. The children are giggling uncontrollably as they play peek-a-boo and try to catch one another, flipping the sheets back and forth.
I have set up all of their outdoor toys and it is always the laundry line that is the most fascinating to them. My daughter pulls off a towel and runs over to me shouting, "Queen, Queen." Yes, she has somehow moved up the chain of royalty and no longer considers herself a princess, but who can blame her? Given the choice, I would aim for the queen title myself.
My son has wrapped a blue piece of tape around his head and tells me that he is a Ninja. I laugh to myself as I see the Ninja and Queen are holding hands and running together. Only in my backyard would moments like these even be possible.
The kids run through the sprinklers and hold their mouths open to catch the water. Drinks rest on the picnic table, but there is nothing like a cold spray of water in your face to catch a drop of water in your mouth. They are soaked, but the sunshine keeps them warm.
I bring out the popsicles- the same exact color, design, and shape so no squabbles can form. I fear what would happen if a Ninja and Queen had to battle it out for the best popsicle in town. Thankfully, they are so excited for their treat that they forget to fight. They sit underneath our small tree for shade and laugh because it is so cold in their mouth.
My queen is getting tired though and I pull her into my lap and hold her close. Her beach towel is wrapped around her and I lean in to smell her hair. It is the smell of sunshine, of baby shampoo, of sweetness that is like nothing else. I curl my fingers around her pigtails and let them go so little wet ringlets form around my finger. In my head, just one word keeps coming to mind and I quietly chant it in my head, "Blessed. Blessed. Blessed."
No matter what happens in the economy, no matter how high the groceries get, and no matter how much the gas prices increase... I am blessed. It is the first thing I think when I wake up and it is the last thought on my mind as my head hits the pillow.
Today's free code for a Redbox movie is 83CB4K. This code is good for one free movie and you can use it until midnight tonight. Enjoy a free family movie together!
Side Notes:
- If you want to rent more than one movie for free, bring more than one credit/debit card. You can use the same promotional code, you just will need different cards to charge it to. The charge will be zero as long as you return your movie on time for the next day.
- When entering in your free movie code, you need to enter it FIRST before picking the movie. On the very first screen, click the, "Rent with Promo." Enter in the above code and then make your selection- the amount should then total zero.
My once-a-year Martha Moment is here! These sponge balls are courtesy of Martha Stewart Kids Magazine (and a double inspiration from Betz White who was featured in one of my notebook entries).
I hit the Dollar Tree and got two packages of sponges to make our creations. I followed the instructions and cut two sponges into fours and then stacked the two sponges on top of one another with alternating colors. If you buy two packages, you will have enough alternating colors to make six sponges with different colors in each. Then, simply tie the sponges off with a long piece of floss and knot it a few times to keep it in place.
Here is my plastic ice bucket filled with these sponges. The colors are so beautiful that I wanted to spend an afternoon photographing this pail of sponges. Do we stop there and let the kids play with them like this though? NO!
You could say that I am even more inventive than Martha this time! Now take an old drop cloth or sheet and use painter's tape, a permanent marker, or paint to make your bullseye. Squares are much easier with the painter's tape so we have a nice square bullseye for the kids.
Now hang your game up on the clothesline (or wherever else you can find). We weighed the bottom of the sheet down with clothespins. This sheet is also folded in half to give it a little more weight. Of course, when the wind starts blowing, give the kids extra points if they can still hit it.
Not challenging enough? Have one of your kids stand in front and block it.
For some reason, that was one roadblock too many for this toddler.
You can also grab two at a time or a whole handful of them. Make it more challenging by backing the kids up further from the mark. Our point system was 10, 20, and 30 points depending on the size of the square they hit. (PS- I promise I feed my children, they just have extremely high metabolism)
An afternoon of water fun cost us $2 in sponges, but this is a game that I hope we can play many more times together.
Today is free Slurpee day and Cow Appreciation Day! The links are provided in our, "Mark Your Calendars" section at the bottom of the freebie list.A huge thanks to Heather, from Freebies 4 Mom, for helping us with our freebies this week. Heather was also featured in a great interview over at Blog Coach- don't miss it! Heather also has some wise words on spotting fraudulent coupons.
Materials Needed: Please see SouleMama for the complete recipe and instructions.
Results: I have had this recipe bookmarked for a very long time and have finally replaced my bread machine so I can test another fun bread machine recipe.
We grilled out last night and I thought I would make a loaf of this bread and (just because I am over-the-top kind of gal) I decided to make a batch of my Honey Butter to spread on top.
This bread is delicious and smelled like heaven as it baked. It has all of my favorite elements in it- a dash of brown sugar, honey, oatmeal, and cinnamon. I did substitute one cup of the white flour with whole wheat flour, which gave it a deliciously chewy texture with a nice firm crust.
Conclusion: I would definitely make this bread over and over again. It is such a perfect balance of flavors and adding my addition of the honey butter really made it even more delicious. Every single person in the family loved this bread and I look forward to smearing some jam on it for toast in the morning.
If you don't have a bread machine, don't despair because Soule Mama also has an acoustic version for those without bread machines. Many thanks to Soule Mama for generously sharing her wonderful recipes!
Don't you hate me already? Six months until Christmas, everyone! It is time to start thinking about ways you can save for the holiday season. On Frugal Hacks, I am sharing some things that we have started doing to get ready for the holiday season so we can stay under budget!
Two years ago, I actually started a Christmas journal and now I have created a Christmas file folder of the things that I want to do for the next year's holiday. In our little Christmas Memory Journal, I have included the recipes for what dishes our family loved the most, what the children asked for from Santa, what we spent the holidays doing, and tucked inside are the sweet letters and pictures to Santa. Someday I hope to give each of the kids a journal so that they can share those recipes and memories with their own families someday!
My inspiration comes from so many place so I am bookmarking all of the crafts and projects I want to try. My notebook entries are my virtual bookmarks to holiday ideas and have helped me each year with some much needed holiday inspiration.
Here is a round-up of Christmas fun to help inspire you in this July heat!
Today on WSBT, I discuss some ways to get fit without losing your gym shorts... so to speak! I am trying to get myself back in shape and here are a few links to help with motivation and savings:
I hit the gym this morning and the owner stopped me to tell me he had seen me on the news. He suggested I do a segment on exercising and I told him that I had just taped one. "Did you mention our gym?" I smiled and said, "No, but I did tell them to call around to gyms and see if you can get a free membership for babysitting."
I am thinking that wasn't the answer he was looking for, but I made a beeline to the gym equipment and had to smile a little bit! Just trying to do my part for the moms of the world who can't afford those expensive gym memberships!
Do you have a new workout DVD recommendation or a new workout that you are really loving? Please leave a comment here and let me know!!
My grandfather's birthday party was this past week and I needed to come up with a gift for him. He loves his sweets and he loves coffee so I thought brownies and some coffee would be just the ticket.
I prepared a boxed mix of brownies and then let them cool. In a bowl, I mixed together a container of chocolate frosting and a container of chocolate hazelnut spread (both purchased from Aldi) to make the most delicious frosting. I frosted these and then added a handful of chopped nuts to decorate the top. I had peanuts in my pantry, but I had wished that I had some hazelnuts instead. My trick for getting the brownies to come out nicely is to keep a plastic knife in my silverware drawer. No matter how moist the brownie, the plastic knife slides easily through without messing up that perfect square shape. Don't those look delicious? I found some ribbon and a tag in my craft supplies and tied this around a bag of Carmel Drizzle Folger's Gourmet coffee. Yum!
I think the gift was a hit because in my entire life, I don't recall my grandfather ever writing a note to me to thank me. He had my grandmother call me to tell me that he ate these brownies for breakfast and even wrote a thank you note to me. My grandmother said to save this for the rest of my life because that NEVER happens. How sweet is that?
Grandparent gifts have always been more difficult for me. What are some grandparent gifts that your grandparents have really loved?
Today's free code for a Redbox movie is FW72JG. This code is good for one free movie and you can use it until midnight tonight. Enjoy a free family movie together!
Side Notes:
- If you want to rent more than one movie for free, bring more than one credit/debit card. You can use the same promotional code, you just will need different cards to charge it to. The charge will be zero as long as you return your movie on time for the next day.
- When entering in your free movie code, you need to enter it FIRST before picking the movie. On the very first screen, click the, "Rent with Promo." Enter in the above code and then make your selection- the amount should then total zero.
What a busy holiday weekend this was for us! We celebrated Ethan's sixth birthday with his dream party- a LEGO birthday party. I must say that I tried to put a lot of effort into this one and he was the happiest little boy I had ever seen!
What's a LEGO party without a LEGO cake though? I had bookmarked a recipe in my notebook entry for a LEGO cake, but we were entertaining a lot of people and the cake would not cover the amount of people that I needed it to. I also did not want to try and cut and make shapes out of a sheet cake. I opted to prepare two cake mixes in loaf pans to create this cake. One cake mix per loaf pan, cooked as directed, but cooked for at least an hour (mine took approximately one hour and ten minutes to cook these cakes at the same time). I then froze the cake overnight which helped keep the crumbs at bay and made it easier to decorate. I did use the marshmallows, but opted for blue and yellow for colors. This cake was extremely difficult to frost around and on top of the marshmallows, but I think the results turned out great, even though it was not as smooth as I had aimed for. The cost to make these two cakes was $5.50.
We had the party outside so I kept the decorating simple. I made pinwheels out of my scrapbook paper. To make these, just fold your paper accordion-style. Then fold your accordion in half and fan these out. You can then staple these to one another (along the back side) to make your pinwheel. Each of these pinwheels had three pieces of paper on them each. You just want to make sure that the paper is very sturdy so it will hold the shape. I gave them a hole with a hole punch and then tied them on the underside of the umbrella with green raffia. They looked really lovely under the patio umbrella.
For the indoor food table, I did a big basket of LEGOS and I framed a letter that I wrote to Ethan about how special he was to us. This is the first year I have done this, and we read this to him as a bedtime story before bed the night before. He loved hearing about how much we loved him and how proud we were of him. The grandparents loved reading it too and seeing what cool things happened this year. Total spent on decorations and party supplies- $0
I did serve food at the party and opted for some take-and-bake pizzas to help save me some time. Our Papa Murphy's is just down the road and I signed up for their e-club so that I could get a new batch of coupons. We printed these out and used these on four family size pizzas. Total cost for pizza for twenty $34 (with plenty of leftovers). We also served some fresh melon, spinach dip with carrot sticks, & tortilla chips with salsa, and soda. Overall, I spent about $50 on food (which includes the cost of the cake), but we also have a couple of dinners and plenty of snacks leftover to eat!
Entertainment consisted of dragging out every outdoor game and toy we could imagine to keep the kiddos busy. The kids also spent lots of time coloring on free LEGO coloring pages that I printed up from the LEGO website. They could take these pages home with them to color too so that filled in for those goody bags. Total cost spent on entertainment and goody bags- $0
All of that effort for this perfect moment right here. Ethan wished for a hundred kisses from his mom & dad. I think we can do that! How I wish he was always this innocent and that I could freeze this perfect moment forever. Perfect moment...oh, you know it... PRICELESS!
Happy Fourth of July to each of you! Please don't forget to swing by and visit Heather, over at Freebies 4 Mom, who helps make our Freebie Friday so much better. Don't forget to visit her coupons section before you do your shopping this week. Heather also has an inspirational comment from a reader who is saving so much money by visiting her site. Awesome job, Heather!
Materials Needed: Please see Homespun Living for specific directions on how to complete this experiment. I followed the pattern and used Sugar 'N Cream cotton yarn to complete the project. Results: I really wanted to try this pattern because these washcloths looked so pretty. The pattern was very easy to remember so that I could pick this up and take it with me places to complete it. These took me an evening to complete, but I am beginner at knitting so I am sure others could whip these up a lot faster.
This was also the first time I attempted switching colors, which seemed very easy, but actually was a little difficult with weaving in the new color and staying on track with my pattern. I did my best though and ended up only having one "oops" washcloth for myself.
Since I can actually follow a pattern now, I also made one of these coffee cup patterns too. You know, just to see if I could do it. Do you think it looks like a coffee cup? I hope so!
Conclusion: I plan to make this pattern for other gifts now that I see how well it turned out. I paired these with some White Tea Method Hand Soaps that I picked up at Target for $3.99. Overall, I think my mom is really going to be pleased with her gift and I am proud that I could actually pull this off! I hope she will find the gift thoughtful and will be impressed with her new set of washcloths. Thank you again to Homespun Living for generously sharing her pattern!
We are enjoying a summer full of fun activities, thanks to our summertime list!
Here is what we have accomplished so far:
Made homemade slushies Ran through the sprinklers Went to the zoo (Ft Wayne and/or Potowatomi Zoo) Went to playgroup(s) Went to VBS Made homemade play dough Made Magic Milkshakes Went to Grandma's house to play Watched the Car's movie and ate Jimmy John's Went to Krispy Kreme and watched them make donuts Had a picnic in the backyard
We still have some more things to do, but we have really been enjoying checking things off of our list. It has been a real family event with everyone pitching in to make sure that we do all of these special things.
With the completion of our patio, we have been enjoying lots of time in our own backyard. I did make a little investment in some family games for us to play outside.
We bought this Franklin 5 Game Set at Target for $14.99, which was about the price you would pay for a nice new board game. This set came in a carrying case and it has a net that you can put up and play games like badminton (our favorite), volleyball, frisbee, horseshoes, and lawn tennis (plastic rackets with a foamy ball to bounce over the net).
This has been such a fun investment because my husband and I can play this on our own or we can toss the Frisbee with the kids. The net is height adjustable and so you can lower it for the wee people in the family. We have also included the kids in the games by parking little lawn chairs for them and making them the judges (which they LOVE).
It isn't the best quality set I have owned, but I am sure we can get $14.99 of games out of it. It has been a great way to spend our evenings and it keeps us active this summer.
The other game we bought was the Eddie Bauer Bean Bag Toss set, available at Target for $49.99 (it is on sale this week, but not available on their website). Yes, this was A LOT to pay for a game, but it is just beautiful and we plan to use it for many years. We both couldn't believe how well it was made and it comes with a case so you can take it with you places. We plan to take this to the grandparent's houses (that don't have a lot of kid toys) or for get togethers with friends who don't have children yet. The kids love playing with it and dropping the bean bags into the nets. We can get pretty competitive with it, but it is a complete blast and will be fun to get out when we are entertaining in the summer.
If you wanted to be more thrifty with a bean bag toss, you could make your own too. Polliwog's Cakewalk has a wonderful tutorial for making some monster bean bags that you could craft up with the kids. I think these would be fun to do with the pails in a row (a la Bozo the Clown Show for my friends who grew up on that kind of entertainment) and do a bean bag toss with them like that too!
Do you have any games that you play with your family in the warmer weather? How do you keep the kids entertained?
Our discussion on self-care was prompted by a lack of care for myself that I needed to admit to and work on. We had such a great discussion and I heard from a lot of you (through email and through your comments) that you were making it a priority to care for yourselves. For those of you that missed our discussion, I encourage you to read our entire discussion and to start taking some steps towards caring for yourself.
I wanted to share with you the improvements that I have made towards these goals:
1. I am managing my time much better. Now that Blogger has finally added the feature where you can publish into the future (doesn't that sound cool the way I worded that?), I am actually able to do the majority of my work on the weekend and I just schedule my entries to publish during the week. I have started devoting my time on Sunday afternoon towards getting my posts ready to go from Monday through Thursday so I can concentrate on family time throughout my week. The computer is ruling my life a lot less and I have less on my shoulders in the mornings to worry about.
2. I am working out regularly. I almost hate to admit it, for fear that I will get off track, but my working out is going really well. I am still going to the gym and am indulging in that in the evenings on occasion, instead of my trips to Goodwill. I am also running in my neighborhood (to help save on gas) and we are planning to invest in a treadmill so that my husband, who is a runner, can also enjoy working out in the winter and training for his runs in the spring & summer. Whether I will continue at the gym, I am unsure, especially if we invest in a treadmill for our home.
I never thought I would be the type of person that would work out regularly, but I really am proud that I am. Some of the positive side effects that happened because I am exercising regularly are that I have more energy during the day, my mood is much better after I have had those nice endorphins releasing into my system, and my troubles with insomnia are almost gone. I am sleeping so hard that we now have a new problem on occasion...snoring! In all seriousness though, I am feeling so much better about myself for adding this to my life.
3. I am making time for hobbies now. My new knitting hobby has been the best form of self-care yet because it has calmed me down a lot in the evening hours. I have found that I am more creative than I give myself credit for and I am trying to focus this creativity into benefiting my children too. We are spending more time crafting and enjoying time together now that I don't feel so busy all of the time. Our evenings are spent in our backyard indulging in conversation and fun summertime activities.
4. I am also continuing to reduce the clutter in our house and am trying to be more purposeful about the things we bring into our lives. One commitment that I made to myself (which has been extremely hard) is to not go to garage sales this summer. I know, HARD! I haven't brought as much in and I am finding that I can be more inventive with what we already own. Best of all, I have a little less to clean and a little more room to entertain in. When things come in, things go out- sounds simple enough, but I am still learning.
5. I am trying to do more for others by donating my time and talents to some great causes. The more that I am doing for others, the more I feel better about myself. It isn't anything extravagant that I am doing, but they are little things that have made me feel better about how I can help other people. I am still working on this so I am looking for opportunities to give back to others in our community.
Basically, I am feeling a lot more balanced than I was before. I am trying to talk less about how busy I am and more about how fulfilled I feel from the great things I have added to my life. I am saying no to more and missing out on some things, but I am concentrating on building our family unit up and strengthening the important ties that need strengthening.
How is your self-care going? What are you doing lately that you feel really proud of?
I have started working on my first prayer shawl, now that I am starting to get the hang of this knitting thing. My mother-in-law had a beautiful pattern that she was working on so I thought I would attempt that. Unfortunately, six tries left me feeling less prayerful and more frustrated because the pattern was a bit too complex for my novice knitting self. The pattern is really lovely, but was all yarn overs, knit two togethers, and purling. No regular old knitting at all! I am hoping that I can do this in the future, but I needed to find something a little easier for my first shawl.
My mother-in-law brought over some patterns for me to try and I went on some websites and read through some comment threads on prayer shawls. One comment suggested a very easy and pretty prayer shawl that would come together well for a first time knitter.
You can use any size of large circular needles with this pattern and the bigger the needles, the more lacy the look. I am knitting with size eleven circular needles.
Here is the pattern:
Knit 4 stitches Next Row: Knit 2 stitches, yarn over, knit two stitches Repeat knitting 2 stitches, yarn over, and then knitting Repeat this pattern until your shawl measures 60-70"
This is perfect because it wasn't a large amount of casting on and you work from the tip of the shawl and build up with each yarn over. The only thing I have to remember is to yarn over after the first two stitches and then I just knit the rest.
This frees my mind to concentrate on the task at hand, which is to pray for someone who needs prayer. I am praying for a woman who is struggling to get pregnant and has not been able to. She has gone through a lot and I am hoping that this shawl will bring her some comfort. I actually have never met her, but she is a friend of our family and I know that it will mean a lot to her to know that someone is thinking of her.
Here are a few free patterns for prayer shawls that I have found:
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