Friday, May 30, 2008

Freebie Friday: May 30, 2008

Thanks to Heather, from Freebies 4 Mom, for helping us with our list this week. Don't forget to swing by to get your weekly list of coupons and just to prove that you really can get something for nothing, Heather shares her latest Wal-Mart trip!!

Health & Beauty

Food

Wish-Bone Bountifuls (free after rebate if purchased Fri, Sat, or Sun)

Entertainment

Sesame Street Magazine Download - digital edition offered each month
Ludo - Go-Getter Greg (Walmart song download)
Elle Magazine (offered by Mercury Magazines)
Bluetooth Headset ($10, but free if you sign up for the Google Checkout option)

Pets

Mark Your Calendars

May 30 - Walmart Dannon Activia Event from noon to 6pm
June - MaxFactor Lash Lights Tour from 10am to 4pm get a free mini makeover
June 7 - The Home Depot Kids Workshop - make a Catamaran from 9 to noon
June 16 - Free Small Root Beer Float at A&W from 2pm to 8pm

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Thursday, May 29, 2008

I Give In!

You can find me on Twitter now! Here's to another black hole sucking up my time!

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No Dental or Vision Coverage- Now What?

My husband's health insurance with his new job is so much better, but now we no longer have dental or vision coverage. Ethan & I went to get our teeth cleaned last week and the bill came to $350. We do have an FSA, but it still hurts to fork over that much.

Does anyone have any companies that they have worked with that they could recommend? I am curious what others are doing that are missing their dental and vision coverage? Do you just suck it up or is it worth it to get an individual policy?

Thanks so much for your help!

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Deals from Hubby: Cheap Bread Machine

My husband is just as good at spotting a deal as me. He often sends emails to me throughout the day about things he has found on sale. This is the message I received yesterday:

"I know you prefer growing your own grain, harvesting it with an ox, and baking your bread in an adobe oven in the hot summer sun, but this could work as a backup on rainy days."

$35.99 for a bread machine- pretty sweet deal! It looks like free shipping on this item too.

You could buy this... or you could just do what I am doing, which my husband enjoys making fun of while stuffing his face with homemade bread!

If you are at a loss as to what the heck to do with that old bread machine, make sure to check out my post on the ins and outs of making bread in the machine!

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Notebook Experiments: Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, & Pecan Cookies

Experiment: Will Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, & Pecan Cookies satisfy my sweet tooth?

Experiment Taken From: Notebook Entry 11.14.07

Materials Needed: Please see Smitten Kitchen for specific directions on how to complete this experiment. We did omit a couple of ingredients in the recipe because of our personal taste. The recipe called for two cups of pecans, but my family doesn't like pecans so we left those out. The batter was pretty wet without this addition though so I added an extra cup of the quick cooking oats to firm the dough up. I also omitted the orange zest because I had no oranges here.

Results: With the addition of the extra cup of oatmeal (minus the pecans), these turned out delicious. The dough was very easy to work with, in fact, I could mold the balls in my hands without sticking.

The first batch was a tad too crispy because the cookies did not look done and I left them in for an extra two minutes. This was a mistake. The next batch was perfect at 12 minutes at 350 degrees. Don't make the same mistake and it should yield a cookie that is chewy, but also soft. The edges should be a light brown and don't worry so much about the tops!

Conclusion: These cookies were absolutely delicious and the hint of cinnamon in them gave them that extra something special. By omitting the pecans and replacing this ingredient with oatmeal, it helped to keep the cost low on making this treat and yielded delicious results. Thank you, Smitten Kitchen, for generously sharing your recipes with the public!

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Amy's Notebook 05.29.08

I want to try this homemade bubble solution (@ Sparkle Power)

This post on booties for babies made me a little misty-eyed, as the beautiful Soule Mama always does (@ Soule Mama)

These decorated lampshades would be a cool and easy project to do (@ design sponge)

These homemade fudgesicles sound delicious (@ Serious Eats)

I love this formula for disinfecting your sink in a green way (@ ohdeedoh)

I love this idea for using your child's artwork on a cake (@ Bakerella)

I want to try this recipe for good old-fashioned burgers (@ The Kitchn)

This scarf pattern looks like a fun one, but I would need some more needles (@ bag 'n' trash)

I love this idea for displaying your child's artwork (@ ohdeedoh)

This craft room makeover is fun and thrifty- part one, part two, part three (@ Storybook Woods)

I love this Baby Yeti sweater pattern (@ Berroco)

I really like this idea for organizing your child's artwork (@ maya made)

These framed pictures would make the cutest teacher gift and display my child's talents (@ the long thread)

I want to try this recipe for homemade caramel corn (@ Sew Liberated)

This recipe for lemon squares will have to be tried in our house (@ Polliwog's Cakewalk)

I am loving this birthday theme and the ideas for the favors- perfect for my summer birthday for Ethan (@ Thompson Family-Life)

These ideas for practicing our writing are excellent (@ Blue Yonder)

This idea for blowing bubbles in the car is incredibly inventive (@ Parent Hacks)

I want to try this recipe for homemade soft pretzels (@ Pepper Paints)

I love my Dr. Scholl's sandals so I was excited to see these ideas for embellishing sandals (@ Mad About Martha)

This pattern for a baby blanket looks super cute and easy (@ Purl Bee)

I love these email cards and they would be perfect for all of these birthdays coming up (@ Make & Takes)

These honey bars sound delicious (@ Grace Violet)

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Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Redbox Code 05.28.08

Today's free code for a Redbox movie is RBM14V. 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.

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Knitted: My First Blanket


Well, I finished my first baby blanket- I am so proud! I have a couple of weeks to spare before our trip to St Louis so I did get this done in plenty of time.

I tied the blanket off with some ribbon and stamped up a little congratulations card to tie on the outside. I spent $8 in yarn (a little more than I maybe should have, but I am still learning) and I know I would have spent a lot more if I would have bought this in the store. This yarn is so soft and irresistible and this blanket was like a little furnace on my knees as I knitted it.

The garter stitch worked well with this bulky yarn, but I was pretty bored with this project about two days into it. It was great to work on though while I watched television and hung out with the kids and was a fun project for a beginning knitter.

The next project I am working on is sets of washcloths for my mom and sister. My mom's birthday is coming up and I thought I would make her some of these to go along with her present. My sister requested some of these because she loves them for my nephew's sensitive skin. Washcloths are a lot more portable than this giant blanket was so I look forward to experimenting with some patterns and different colors. I have been finding some great patterns online and have been adding my own little touch to them. I will be sure to share this when I am done.

Thanks for bearing with me through all of these knitting posts. It feels as though a whole new world has opened up to me and I am enjoying it so much!

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Happiness Is...My Favorite Coffee Cup

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Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Our Forum Is Up & Where Else You Might Find Me

Many apologies for the delays, but we are happy to report that the forum is back up. Please head over and chat it up! We are so glad to have things up and rolling again. Thank you for your patience!

I also added some new guest entries for Frugal Hacks and Blissfully Domestic. On Frugal Hacks, I am discussing ways to strengthen your old noggins and on Blissfully Domestic I share a fun and frugal recipe for pudding paints!

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Adventures in Bread Making: Fiddlin' With Temperatures

My first batch of bread yielded a gummy texture on the inside of my loaf which was commented on by all of the culinary critics in our house. I really loved the ease of this bread though and wasn't willing to give up just yet. These next two loaves were cooked at 475 degrees for forty minutes.

The exterior ended up being a tad too crunchy, but the interior was gosh darn perfection. These loaves were not gummy at all and the bread sang to me when I opened the oven with that beautiful golden crust. I think we will try it again at 475 for 35 minutes and see if we hit the ultimate perfection.

As we dined on roasted chicken salad sandwiches on this amazing bread, I looked across the table and said to my husband, "You realize that no one else does this, right?" In spite of his full mouth, he grinned and said, "I know, I know."

Sometimes I feel like I am running the America's Test Kitchen show over here and I fear that if something should ever happen to me, my husband's next wife will have one ridiculous act to follow.

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Kentucky Derby Bunco

Good cheap fun...that's what Bunco is! I blogged about our fabulous wedding party and my retro housewife themed Bunco that turned out to be a blast. This month's Bunco theme was the Kentucky Derby so we all donned our fabulous hats and our high heels for a fun time.

I had to borrow a hat from girlfriend so here are some pictures before I got my hat on. Ethan & Emily think it so cool when mommy dresses up for these events so they wanted to get some pictures with me before I left. The kids kept touching my dress and smelling me....hmm...I wonder what they are trying to tell me?


Just call me Sandra Lee, as I was running short on time with a ton of appointments and events going on that day. I found a Suddenly Salad in my pantry and used up what was left in our fridge to make my dish. This is their classic pasta salad flavor with a few of my own additions- romaine hearts, tomatoes, sliced black olives, and narrow slivers of pepperoni to dust the top. Despite it being convenience food (bought deeply discounted, of course!), I thought it turned out really good.

This was our lovely hostess, my friend Jessica. Jessica is also the one who taught me how to knit so I especially love her right now! She has been to the real Kentucky Derby so she wanted us all to have a taste of the food that we would eat there. She served us Kentucky Hot Browns, Cheesy Grits, Derby Pie, Mint Juleps & Mimosas. We all agreed that the food was great, but the Mint Juleps were extremely um...refreshing, but tasted horrible.

Here we all are with our hats on! We are all wearing our very best summer dresses and it is about fifty degrees outside. We all wished we were in Kentucky for this shot, but we were enjoying some derby fun in Indiana!

Gotta love a good Bunco theme and this one was GREAT!

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Monday, May 26, 2008

Redbox Code 05.26.08

Today's free code for a Redbox movie is JG552P. 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.

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Adventures in Bread Making: Artisan Bread in 5

After our discussion on my old school baking day, I had lots of great ideas for how I could get around actually buying a bread machine. One of our readers, named Noreen, suggested that I check out a book called, "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" which would help me get around the whole bread machine process and required no kneading.

As soon as I read her comment, I put a hold on it at our library and picked it up the next day. With a cup of iced coffee in hand, I read through the entire process and what I would need to complete it.

For copyright reasons, I will refrain from going into the recipes themselves, but I will explain the process of this method so that you can decide if this something you could/would do to make bread for your family. The master mix recipe I am using is actually located here so you could attempt the first recipe without even getting the book.

There are lots of different recipes in the book and then different ways of shaping the dough recipes. I attempted the master recipe which included just the basics- water, yeast, flour, and salt.

The difference between making this dough and the traditional dough is that you literally dump the ingredients in (no need to even proof the yeast) and use a wooden spoon to just mix everything together. The dough is very wet and easy to stir and you don't even have to break out the mixer.

You cover the dough and let it rise for two hours and then you stick it in the fridge for a minimum of three hours and up to fourteen days. Yes, that's right..fourteen days! According to the authors, the dough will taste better and better the longer the dough sits in there and you can even use some of your old dough as a starter for a new dough, much like the process of making a sour dough starter.
The first picture shows what this dough looks like when it is just incorporated- stringy and yucky looking. This second picture shows what the dough looks like after it rises. This master recipe was enough for four loaves so that is why it looks like there is so much. They have bigger recipes than this, but this is the amount of fridge space I could spare for the week.

I let this dough sit for two days before I made my first loaf. When you make your first loaf, you just "cloak the dough," (sprinkle the dough on top with some flour) and then cut off a grapefruit section of the dough for your first loaf. Without any kneading or any real handling of the dough, you tuck the corners of the dough underneath and put it on a pizza peel (I used my extra pizza stone) that has been sprinkled with a little cornmeal. Now you let it rise and preheat your oven for 450 degrees. They suggested twenty minutes, comments on Amazon suggested preheating the entire forty minutes that the dough is rising to help achieve the best crust.


It should look something like the picture above. It is relatively smooth on top, but the corners are all tucked underneath. After you have shaped it like this and let it rise, you can slice the top two or three times.

You now slide the loaf (very awkwardly if you have no pizza peel) and then you fill a boiler tray with one cup of hot water and put it in the oven to help steam the oven up to give you a nice crisp crust. Don't ever open the door and let it cook for thirty minutes.

When I took it out, it looked like this. Now remember, this is my first loaf so I am sure I will get better at it, but I am pretty impressed with how this first loaf looks. Next time I will score it a little more and I will probably make more than one loaf at a time. The exterior of this loaf is nice and golden, and it is solid and crusty on the outside. Perfection!

The interior was a bit gummy though so I may cook it for another ten minutes or raise the temperature. This will just require some tweaking on my part, but our family still thought it tasted pretty darn good.

Now that I have made this first loaf, I am so excited to try the other loaves in the book. The entire process took very little of my time and I had very little clean-up (my least favorite part of making bread) so it is a great solution for a busy mom who wants to make homemade bread, but doesn't have the tools or time to make bread from scratch.

Let's also talk about the cost savings too. In our town, our local market has artisan breads for sale that cost about $4 a loaf. I buy my ingredients in bulk at Sam's Club and I am estimating that this loaf of bread costs me about forty cents or less. What a savings and how elegant is this to bring to parties and when entertaining? You just can't beat it!

A big thank you to Noreen for the suggestion and I hope you can try this recipe and tell me what you think! I have a demonstration from the authors posted below- this might help explain the process further.


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Friday, May 23, 2008

MomAdvice Weekly Recap 05.23.08


Did anyone miss the Carnival of Modern Home Dwelling, hosted by Today's Homemaker, this week? It was EXCELLENT and was a giant notebook of great things you could have fun doing. I was so excited to see a couple of my own posts included. My Retro Housewife Bunco post and our article, "The Benefits of Line Drying Your Clothes," were both included. I also won a prize pack for the Eco-Fab category- whoohoo! Thanks to Today's Homemaker for including us in her amazing carnival!

We are still struggling with technical problems on the forum and review site. We will let everyone know when we are able to get everything back up and rolling again. I apologize for all of the troubles and know that we are doing our best to restore everything to its former glory.

Featured Article:

Summer Survival-
The summer season is here and along with it comes summer vacation for the school-aged kids. Moms are now responsible for coming up with the ideas and curriculum for their children and I am the first to admit that by the summer my creative juices have just about run out. How can you make summer another time of fun and enjoyment rather than boredom? And just how do you do this on a budget? There are lots of great things that you can do this summer and ways to keep organized when doing it.... Continue Reading

Blog Entries for Fun & Discussion:

Something Exciting is Happening -
We are trying to complete our homework for starting kindergarten and this week Ethan got his teeth cleaned. Ethan's teeth looked beautiful, but we discovered a special secret that his mouth had been keeping... Ethan has his first loose tooth. He was so excited to tell me that his tooth was loose and I told him that I had a special book that I had been saving just for this occasion. Hidden in the depths of my closet, I have had a special tooth fairy set that we could get out when this momentous occasion happened..... Continue Reading

Old School Baking Day- My sweet little bread machine kicked the can last week after two years of hard work in our family. I used my bread machine two to three times a week so it does a lot of work for us and I am missing it terribly. I got mine at a garage sale and I just can't see paying for it retail, but my husband is insisting that we just buy one new this time. I don't know though... I think I might check the thrift store a few times before buying one......Continue Reading

The Bad Side of Gardening- Our neighbors have the most beautiful yard on the block. The landscaping is impeccable and they are always working on their lawn. I can see them slaving away while I sit in my little lawn chair in my garage...which is why they have an amazing lawn and I have a so-so lawn.....Continue Reading

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Giving Away the Mother Load!

We hope to return to the land of the giveaways next week. We apologize for our technical difficulties!

Featured Recipe of the Week:

Old Fashioned Spaghetti & Meatballs (and how to eat it)

Play it Again, Momma!

Did you miss these posts the first time around? Here they are for your reading pleasure!

Are Baby Carrots a Convenience Food?

Reducing Plastic Bag Consumption

Sam's Club Click 'N Pull Review

Fun Family Game Nights

Not enough of me yet?

WSBT: Gifts for Grads

Frugal Hacks: Breathing in Some Inspiration

Blissfully Domestic: Avoid Summer Schedule Overload

Michiana Family Magazine: Gearing Up for Summer

Kenmore: Make Meal Planning Easier

FAQ for Amy

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Freebie Friday: May 23, 2008

As always, thanks to Heather, from Freebies 4 Mom, for helping us with our list this week. Heather has a great round-up of the children's summer reading programs so be sure to check that post out for the scoop on what is going on this summer!

Before you do your shopping, be sure to check her list of coupons too! Heather's coupon feature could save you lots of money.

Happy, Freebie Friday!

Health & Beauty
Playtex Gentle Glide (Walmart sample)
Excedrin (Walmart sample)

Food
Ian Frozen Yogurt (New England states only)
Darigold Yogurt & Milk (OR, WA, ID, UT)

Entertainment

Metropolitan Home magazine (from Rewards Gold)
Music CD from Zantac (requires UPC)
BioGolfTee
Antiques Magazine
6" Flexible Tripod (sign up underneath for the Google Checkout and receive a $10 credit, making this free)
Kids Bowl Free (only certain areas apply, two games free everyday all summer)

Home & Garden


Pets

Mark Your Calendars

May 29 & 30 - Walmart Dannon Activia Event from noon to 6 pm
June 7 - The Home Depot Kids Workshop - make a Catamaran from 9 to noon

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Thursday, May 22, 2008

Knitting: My First Blanket



I know that I am supposed to be working on my first hat, but some happy news from my best friend changed my knitting plans. She found out that she is having her first boy and I couldn't wait to put my knitting skills to good use and make her a blue baby blanket.

I originally had the intention of knitting my first pattern, but we are planning a visit in a couple of weeks (she lives in St. Louis) and so I need to work a little faster to have it ready in time. Considering how long it takes me to figure out a pattern, the blanket would probably be ready by the time he was thirteen. I figured the simple garter stitch would be the way to go.



I know, it isn't as impressive, but my girlfriend doesn't knit so I think she will be impressed with my modest efforts. It is funny though, if you would have asked me last month if I would be able to knit a blanket, I would have laughed. Now I am knitting a blanket and am embarrassed that I am choosing garter stitch. Kind of funny how quickly one can blow their hobbies out of proportion, which is probably why I give up on things so easily...I am always trying to outdo MYSELF.

I wish the colors of the yarn showed up better in this picture- it is blue and has flecks of green through it. The yarn is so soft, but nice and warm for the winter. I hope I can get it done in time for our visit. Three skeins of yarn- one down...two to go!

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Amy's Notebook 05.22.08

I want to make this Honey Wheat Bread and Better Butter (@ More Than Survival, Choosing a Simple Life)

This recipe for Moroccan Spiced Chicken Breasts would be great for our summer grilling (@ Simply Recipes)

These recycled cake stands will be great for summer entertaining (@ Design Sponge)

I also want to try grilling some pizzas this summer (@ Paper Palate)

I would never think to use a cream whipper for making dishes lighter (@ Serious Eats)

I love these ideas for protecting seedlings in pop bottles (@ The Kitchn)

Another pizza crust recipe that I can try (@ Home Ec 101)

I love the idea of sharing a day at the wholesale club with a friend (@ 4 Reluctant Entertainers)

These photo coasters would be a great gift for the grandparents (@ Coffee Pot People courtesy of Crafzine)

These tips for washing the car are fabulous- this is a definite on my to-do list (@ Gather Little by Little)

When I figure out how to embroider, I am making these little tin can covers (@ elsie marley)

This cocoa coconut granola sounds delicious (@ Everybody Likes Sandwiches)

This baby onsie pillow would be a wonderful memento from our baby years (@ ohdeedoh)

I love this idea for celebrating your children sleeping through the night (@ The Homespun Heart)

I want to try these play dough cookies (@ The Loria Family Dialogues)

I love these tips for creating a morning routine (@ simple mom)

This list of summer activities for $1 or less is great (@ Baby Cheapskate)

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Notebook Experiments: Making Our Grocery Lists

Experiment: Can making a grocery list with my son provide entertainment for one hour and be educational too?

Experiment Taken From: Notebook Entry 05.08.08

Materials Needed: Please see plumpudding for specific directions on how to complete this experiment. We used some leftover recycled paper from our computer paper to put the lists on and this week's grocery advertisements.

Results: Ethan really needs to work on his writing skills and needs some practice cutting with scissors so we adapted this activity to prepare him more for these skills. We are also in the pre-reading stage where he is sounding out and beginning to write his words. I wanted to work on all of these skills so we made the list in two ways.

The first lists that we made, I just had him cut out what he would want on his dream grocery list. I divided the piece of paper in half and had him add the pictures to one side of the page. In the opposite column, I wrote the word of the item and then I made a line so that he could write the word underneath.

On the second list, I divided the paper into two columns and then wrote down the grocery list. He sounded out the words, to try and figure out what they said, and then drew his picture to accompany them.

When we were done with our list, Ethan played in our little kitchen and shopped for food items off of his list, matching pretend food items with his pretend list. Then he made me pretend dishes to eat and charged me money for them...because that is how we roll!

Conclusion: This activity was great and helped us work on the skills that we need to work on, in preparation for next year's big move to kindergarten. This activity kept him busy for an hour and gave us an opportunity to really work together on his reading and writing skills. Thanks, plumpudding for this great idea!

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Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Secondhand Glam

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Redbox Code 05.21.08

Today's free code for a Redbox movie is 2052DL. 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.

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Gorgeously Green: Becoming Aware

I am so excited to begin diving into a new book this week and to discuss how we begin our journey towards being more green. Our book this month is, "Gorgeously Green," by Sophie Uliano.

I am a newbie to green living, but have been trying to do more things that will have a more positive impact on our earth. It has also been important to me to share this with my children as well. We are always talking about why we do the things we do and how we are trying to do our part to make the world a little better. Right now, I think Ethan thinks everyone is like this, but someday I hope he realizes how different we really are and how much we cared about the planet we are living on.

In the book, the first step towards leading a green lifestyle is simply becoming aware of what you are doing and how it is impacting the world around you. It sounds simple enough, but thinking back to my youth, I can recall many stupid things I did that have impacted our earth in a negative way. I became more aware of what I was doing after I had children and also when looking for ways to save our family money.

In the first chapter, the author suggests setting an intention towards becoming green. Set your intentions in the present tense and make a commitment to yourself. Some recommended statements are:

"I am ready and willing to make the changes necessary to live a sustainable lifestyle."

"I give and receive only the best."

"I am living in a way that reflects my deepest values. I'm walking the walk."

"I'm moving mindfully through my day and making choices that are having a positive impact on the environment."

"I'm enjoying living with a deep sense of purpose."

Part of my going green experience has just been trying to get my head out of the sand. All my life, I have kind of lived in my own little bubble of happiness and am blissfully unaware of the bad things that happen in the world. I rarely watch the news, I flip to the fun sections in the paper, I am not passionate about politics...shame on me, right?

When I had our children though, suddenly everything seemed heightened for me. "Why is the world like this? What can I do to make the world better? How can I do my part?" While I might be unaware of many things, I am slowly coming out of la-la land and exploring the world around me.

I can identify with the statement, "I'm enjoying living with a deep sense of purpose." My purpose right now is to be a good mother, a good steward of my money, and to share and do what I can to help other people do the same things. What I could add to that is to make more green choices in my life and pull my head up out of the sand and do things that will have a positive impact on the earth. For me. For my children. For their children.

Sound Off: What are you more aware of now that you have become a mom? What do you find is your purpose at this moment in time?

PS- Once again, I am having problems posting pictures on Blogger. Grrrr....

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Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Old School Baking Day

My sweet little bread machine kicked the can last week after two years of hard work in our family. I used my bread machine two to three times a week so it does a lot of work for us and I am missing it terribly. I got mine at a garage sale and I just can't see paying for it retail, but my husband is insisting that we just buy one new this time. I don't know though... I think I might check the thrift store a few times before buying one.

In the meantime, we are using our trusty stand mixer fitted with the dough hook to do the bread. It has been so long since I have made bread this way that I feared that my attempt might fail miserably.

Ethan happened to watch Sesame Street though and they showed the process of making bread so he asked me if we could do this together. Since we were having sandwiches that night, I told him he could help me make the hamburger buns for our dinner.

We let the stand mixer do the mixing for us and then we pulled the dough out to do the kneading. This dough reminds me of play dough so it is the perfect dough to use with kids. It is not sticky and doesn't even require a floured surface. Ethan mastered the art of kneading and enjoyed working his frustrations out on the dough. Pound, pound, pound, knead, knead, knead...

I cut the dough into nine pieces and then Ethan shaped them and put them on the stone. We talked about how the bread needs to rise and rest while we tidied the house up before dinner. After a little rising, I slid the stone into the oven for fifteen minutes of cooking.


Despite being really out of practice, the rolls turned out beautifully. Ethan pronounced the dinner, "The best dinner in the entire world."

A successful mission completed!

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The Bad Side of Gardening

Our neighbors have the most beautiful yard on the block. The landscaping is impeccable and they are always working on their lawn. I can see them slaving away while I sit in my little lawn chair in my garage...which is why they have an amazing lawn and I have a so-so lawn.

Last week, I headed over there to chat with them and saw them sitting in a huge pile of overturned dirt that they had dug up. They were sifting through the dirt for roots to a plant that had been planted there ten years ago. The family had hired a landscaper to come and do their landscaping and he had the perfect plant for the side of their house...something called the Chameleon Plant (read another bloggers experience with it here).

Over the years, this plant has taken over their beautiful yard so my neighbor searched on the internet to see if she could find out more about this plant. Guess what? It is one of the most invasive plants in the world. So invasive, in fact, that New Zealand has banned this plant from their country.

Desperate to remove this plant from their yard, she has been in contact back and forth with the New Zealand government and they recommended she do the best she could to remove it. The roots to this plant can be planted deeply though and so they are trying to find all of the roots and are burning them because they don't want to put them in the landfill.

When she was browsing at a flea market, this past summer, she noticed that same plant was being sold in buckets for $6.99. She went over and spoke to the person that was selling it and asked if they knew anything about the plant, "It is a great ground cover," they said. She promptly informed them just how wrong they were.

I have heard of other plants taking over people's lawns too. Have you ever had any plant that you have planted that you would tell someone NEVER to plant? What has been your experience with invasive plants?

Now the good sides of gardening... Here are some great gardening reads to help you with your gardens this year:

Miles of Aisles of Chemicals- Except Now Their Green (@ Garden Rant)

BFP Garden Project: The $29 Kick-off (@ Blueprint for Financial Prosperity)

How Much Does a Garden Really Save? (@ Get Rich Slowly)

When Can I Harvest My Basil? (@ The Kitchn)

Free Mulch! (@ Frugal Upstate)

Garden Entertaining Tips (@ The Kitchn)

High Food Prices Lead to Growth in Backyard Gardens (@ ParentDish)

Focus on Garden Flowers (@ Chocolate on Cranium)

Food Gardening Is On The Rise (@ You Grow Girl)

Deck Makeover (@ CraftyPod)

Natural & Green Lawn Care (@ Nature Moms Blog)

Tips for Improving Your Garden Soil (@ Blissfully Domestic)

A Beginner's Guide to Organic Gardening (@ Mad About Martha)

Top 15 Frugal Gardening Tips (@ Thrifty Mommy)

The Makings of a Frugal Garden (@ Keeper of the Home)

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Monday, May 19, 2008

Redbox Code 05.19.08

Today's free code for a Redbox movie is EA5636. 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.

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Something Exciting Is Happening

We are trying to complete our homework for starting kindergarten and this week Ethan got his teeth cleaned. Ethan's teeth looked beautiful, but we discovered a special secret that his mouth had been keeping... Ethan has his first loose tooth. He was so excited to tell me that his tooth was loose and I told him that I had a special book that I had been saving just for this occasion. Hidden in the depths of my closet, I have had a special tooth fairy set that we could get out when this momentous occasion happened.

As we sat down to read the book, Ethan admitted that he didn't know which tooth felt loose. He showed me that he couldn't wiggle it (wiggling side to side) and I showed him that you wiggle your tooth from front to back. The look of amazement on his face was priceless, "OH!!!!!!" he said, and a look of excitement and fear passed over his eyes. While Ethan sat by me and wiggled, I read to him from this wonderful book that explains the entire process of loose teeth. It covers all of the bases like why we lose our teeth, a pillow with a pocket for the tooth fairy, a special chart that you can fill out for each of your children and save for their baby books, and what to do if you (gasp) lose your tooth.

And then we practiced.

And practiced. Then, just to make sure this all will really happen, Ethan wished on an imaginary star that he would lose his tooth so the tooth fairy would come to visit him.

I have a feeling that it won't be long! Maybe I should review the tooth fairy economics that we discussed earlier this year. Yes, something exciting is happening over here!

Sound Off: Did you do anything special to make this event even more special?

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Old-Fashioned Spaghetti & Meatballs (And How to Eat It)

With my grocery dollars screaming for mercy right now, I am trying to focus more on eating more budget-friendly fare. My grocery lists have shifted from what we want to eat to what is on sale and what is going to give us the best bang for our buck. A manager's special on a meatloaf mix of meat dictated what we would be dining on this week...a good old fashioned plate of spaghetti and meatballs.

I really love my spaghetti and meatballs recipe, but I saw a recipe for spaghetti and meatballs in an AllRecipes Dinner Tonight Cookbook (picked up at our local thrift store for $2) and knew that I had to try this recipe.

I followed all of the directions except that I prefer to bake my meatballs rather than fry them. It is easier clean-up for me and healthier for our family. You can bake the meatballs in a preheated oven at 400 degrees for fifteen minutes and then I gave them a little dip in the sauce to take on some of those flavors.

This dish is perfection. I still prefer my meatball recipe over this one, but the sauce recipe wins hands down. This made a large batch of sauce (enough for approximately six to eight servings) and cost about $2.33 to make the sauce. The meatloaf mix was on sale for $2.09 and I used a box of pasta that I had purchased on sale for $.89. Total cost of the meal $5.31 or approximately $.89 per serving (if serving six generous portions).

I made a double batch of the meatballs and we will be having meatball subs on homemade sub rolls this week and leftovers another day. I just love food that can be served over and over again!

Italian Spaghetti Sauce With Meatballs

1# lean ground beef (ground turkey, meatloaf mix, or turkey sausage)
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons olive oil (omit if you are baking these)
3/4 cup chopped onion (we omitted because we don't like onions)
5 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
2 (28 ounce) cans whole peeled tomatoes, undrained
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 bay leaf (I omitted because we didn't have any)
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
3/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

To make the meatballs, in a large bowl, combine ground beef, breadcrumbs, parsley, Parmesan, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, garlic powder, and egg. Mix well and form into 30 balls. In a large skillet, cook meatballs in two tablespoons hot oil over medium-high heat seven minutes or until browned; remove from skillet and drain.

To make sauce, saute onion and garlic in 1/4 cup olive oil until onion is translucent. Stir in tomatoes, salt, sugar, and bay leaf. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer one hour and thirty minutes. Stir in tomato paste basil, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and meatballs and simmer thirty more minutes. Discard bay leaf. Serve over spaghetti.

Spaghetti and meatballs is a family favorite in our house. Now let us show you how to eat it properly and our sweet little Emily will demonstrate.

Emily just loves to eat this, but she likes to have the long noodles for slurping, not short and stumpy noodles. I can understand this, but... She usually ends up looking like this.

Then we have to hold our noodles and balance them at the very top of our head in our hair. Is it sufficiently rubbed into our forehead and hair yet? If you can complete this trick, you can move on to the next step.

Be sure to get your entire face in there so it looks like this.
And don't let the face outshine your toes. After all, eating like a monkey is the Clark way.

Dinner and a show! Two for the price of one!

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Friday, May 16, 2008

Next Book for Discussion... Gorgeously Green


There was some interest in exploring another book together and there has also been some interest in discussing more green ideas on the site. I thought I would pair the two and we could work our way through the book, "Gorgeously Green," by Sophie Uliano.

I received this book from Harper Collins and I really liked the ideas and the message that you could begin starting your green journey with just one simple change. I think many people are scared of the total overhaul process, but we could all make a few simple changes to better our earth for ourselves and for our children.

We can start our discussion next week, but maybe you might like to put a hold on this book at your local library? In the meantime, the author has set up a website and a Gorgeously Green Girls Club that you can join to help teach you simple steps towards an earth-friendly life.

I want this to be a fun and friendly discussion. I know that not everyone is going to be on the same page with a lot of this stuff, but I want this to be a supportive place where you can share freely without judgment! Remember, many of us are still learning and exploring our green sides.

I am looking forward to a great discussion!

Sound Off: What earth-friendly ideas are you really interested in exploring? What changes have you already made in your own life?

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Freebie Friday: May 16, 2008

As always, a big thank you to Heather, from Freebies 4 Mom, for helping compile this week's freebies. Check out Heather's post on The Knack for Crafty Kids and find out how you can score another Michael's coupon. After all, can a family truly have too much craft supplies.... We won't let my husband answer that!

Health & Beauty
Ban Deodorant (Walmart sample)

Food
Taco Bell Frutista Freeze (free with coupon, print more at Coupons.com)
Corazonas Chips (free with coupon)

Entertainment
TV Guide 1-yr. Subscription (offered by Rewards Gold)
Columbia University Music Lab (free downloads for taking survey)
Nine Inch Nails free album download "The Slip"
Barenaked Ladies- Snacktime download (I am so excited they came out with a kid's album!!)
Motor Trend Magazine (2 year subscription)
Garden Design Magazine (digital subscription)
Boating World Magazine

Home & Garden
Viva Paper Towel (Walmart sample)
May 18 - Free Sundaes at Walmart 12-5pm
May 21 - Baskin-Robbins Bump Day 11am-10pm (limited locations)


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MomAdvice Weekly Recap 05.16.08

This was an exciting week for me as I have finally hit the landmark of my 1,000th post! In case you missed it, please drop by and say hi. I would love to hear your thoughts on what you would like to see on here so that I have material for another 1,000 posts...and hopefully more.

We are still struggling with technical problems on the forum and review site. We will let everyone know when we are able to get everything back up and rolling again. I apologize for all of the troubles and know that we are doing our best to restore everything to its former glory.

Featured Article:

The Benefits of Line Drying Your Clothes-
There must be something great about drying your clothing outside as it seems all of the laundry detergents aim to get that fresh smell in their detergents. I see promises of fragrances filled with the smell of mountain freshness and April showers. What is not to love about that? Did you know that it is possible to achieve that just by line drying your clothing outside? With a simple clothesline and some clothespins, you can save your family money and achieve the scent that every detergent company is trying to capture... Continue Reading

Blog Entries for Fun & Discussion:

There are Holes in My House Where My Clutter Used to Be -
This corner of my garage has been housing our old dishwasher since we replaced it this fall. It was one of those things that needed to be taken care of, but I kept procrastinating on it. As long as I could get my car parked and open our doors comfortably, did it really matter that it was sitting there?.... Continue Reading

Rainy Day Activity: Popcorn Fun- It's raining, it's pouring...what is a desperate mom to do? My popcorn tub came to my rescue this week and I have pulled it into our guest bathroom so the kids could have a blast in it, with easy clean-up for me.....Continue Reading

Creating Morning Rituals- Today is going to be our last day in the book, "How Did I Get So Busy." We have had such a great discussion from this book and I feel like I have made a lot of positive changes by sharing through this format and from encouragement from you. It has definitely been a positive transformation for me and I hope that you have gotten as much from it as I have....Continue Reading

Don't miss a single entry and subscribe to my feeds! We have made it easy for you to do it- you are just a click away!

Giving Away the Mother Load!

We hope to return to the land of the giveaways next week. We apologize for our technical difficulties!

Featured Recipe of the Week:

Simple Oatmeal & Chocolate Chip Muffins

Play it Again, Momma!

Did you miss these posts the first time around? Here they are for your reading pleasure!

Leaner Ground Beef for Less

Ding-Dong: Did Someone Order Groceries?

A Few Words About Convenience Foods

Make Your Own Flavored Creamers

Not enough of me yet?

WSBT: Getting Ready for Vacations

Frugal Hacks: Keeping Summer Essentials Handy

Blissfully Domestic: Reclaiming Myself, One Day at a Time

Michiana Family Magazine: Gearing Up for Summer

Kenmore: Make Meal Planning Easier

FAQ for Amy

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Thursday, May 15, 2008

Bad Week or Why I Couldn't Be a Single Mom

Editor's Note- I actually posted this post and then deleted it because I was a little embarrassed about my whiny tone. I got some emails that people were looking for this entry in their feeds so it is back up here...only read this if you can handle all the whining and moaning. Seriously, WHINING and MOANING. You have been warned!


My husband has been out of town since Monday and I thought I could do this on my own. I envisioned our fun-filled days and evenings that would be spent painting my toes and catching up on my reading.

Day One- The roofing construction begins on our home. A new roof has been in the works since we moved into this house. I never thought of how this construction would impact our day. No naps for kids means a tired mommy and grumpy children.

Day Two- My son comes down with a nasty case of pink eye. He can't go to school for the next two days until we get it cleared up.

Day Three- Rained all day, which leaves our house quiet. Emily wakes up with a snotty nose and Ethan's eye is gooped beyond recognition. The only thing I have to look forward to is my girlfriend coming for the evening. We cook. We clean. We prepare for her visit...she has an unexpected conflict and can't come. I think we scared her off with all of our illnesses.

Day Four- Our gutters turn up missing (after being removed from our house for the roofing job). I have to file a police report and talk to a detective. I feel ridiculous reporting a case of missing gutters and embarrassed that I am wasting their time with something so trivial. They were our gutters though so I file my little plea that they figure out who the culprit is.

Day Five- Emily is sicker by the minute and wakes up with a 102 degree fever. I get a late appointment at the doctor and he tells me she has a bad case of strep throat.

Day Six- I can only imagine how great the day will be putting drops in Ethan's eye three times a day, distributing penicillin to Emily and medicine to keep down her fever, as I swipe her little nose. I feel so bad for them both and am feeling blue myself.

My days are filled with nursing sick children and running myself into the ground. The evenings are spent playing catch up on the household chores and laundry. Fabulous dinners at home were replaced with two trips to the fast food joint so that I could keep my sanity. No painting of nails or relaxation in the evening, in fact, I didn't even blow dry my hair this week because there was no time.

The final nail in the coffin is calling the bed and breakfast, where we have reserved our room for our anniversary this weekend, and letting them know we can't come. One case of pink eye and one case of strep seal the deal.

How do single moms of the world do it? I humbly bow to them because I am a blubbering mess right now. I am so ashamed that I couldn't do it for one week. I really believed it was going to be a great week, but it seemed I have a little too much confidence.

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Notebook Experiments: Idiot Margaritas

I will admit that my favorite thing to do is my notebook entries each week. I can rely on the creativity of others and it gives me lots of great ideas for things we can try for our own family.

I do try to do a lot of the ideas in the notebooks so I thought it would be fun to have a, "Notebook Experiments," section, highlighting how these ideas have turned out for our family.

What should we start with? How about a little alcohol...I am so naughty, but I always appreciate a good toast to a new section so we shall start there!

Experiment: Are Idiot Margaritas Really Good?

Experiment Taken From: Notebook Entry 05.08.08

Materials Needed: Please see Jane's Apron for specific directions on how to complete this experiment. I like a little something on the rim of the glasses though so I did get out a bowl of water and a bowl of sugar. I dipped the glasses in the water and then dipped them in the sugar to give the glasses a little something special. These large goblets are courtesy of the fabulous Dollar Tree. A lime would have added a little more pizazz, but the grocery dollars are suffering right now so we just skipped that little specialness this week.

Results: We followed the recipe as instructed, but decided to half the amount of tequila (because we are lightweights and didn't want to push our luck) and added one can of water to make them a tad less strong.

The taste of these is excellent, in fact, my husband hates margaritas, but absolutely loved these. We served them on the rocks with sugar on the rim, which resulted in a delicious combination of sweet and tart. The beer adds a foamier feel to the margaritas, but did not add any odd flavor to them. I don't think you would even notice the ingredient was in there unless the "bartender" was mixing them in front of you.

Conclusion: Idiot Margaritas ARE good! Thanks, Jane's Apron for the fabulous new recipe. It will be a hit with all of our friends!

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Amy's Notebook 05.15.08

I love these ideas for throwing a double birthday party and think I might make the daisies for Emily's next birthday (@ Very Merry Events)

Speaking of cupcakes, these little cupcake bites look sinfully delicious (@ Bakerella)

These flower pot treats are about the cutest darn thing I have ever seen (@ The Pioneer Woman Cooks)

I love these ideas for making a Sunday dinner special again (@ The Homespun Heart)

This housewarming basket is beautiful- I am going to be using her coffee filter idea (@ Like Merchant Ships)

This ride-on toy makeover is amazing (@ Ohdeedoh)

I want to try these whole wheat buttermilk pancakes (@ Cheap Healthy Good)

I love this idea for forming a support group to get stuff done around the house (@ i am bossy)

I want to make this oilcloth lunch bag (@ Skip to My Lou)

I love these directions for cooking brown rice (@ angry chicken)

I adore this recycled bird feeder (@ Daily Danny)

I will have to plant some of these low-maintenance perennials (@ Unclutterer)

I am going to have to do some of these ideas for making a fun baking day with the kids (@ Megret)

These easy no sew draperies are so cute (@ Blissfully Domestic)

I want to try knitting these wedding washcloths (@ The Purl Bee)

We are going to try some of these recipes for homemade art supplies (@ DIY Maven)

Another fun rainy day activity, making rainsticks and eating some of these pop up pancakes (@ Make & Takes)

This creamy spinach rigatoni sounds delicious (@ Motherhood for Dummies)

I love this post on the hidden side of our stuff (@ Think Simple Now)

The kids & I are going to need to do this painting project (@ The Artful Parent)

I want to try this buttercream icing recipe soon (@ Mad About Martha)

I need to make a copy of this free scarf pattern (@ Vickie Howell)

I really needed this reminder to be different (@ Down to Earth)

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Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Redbox Code 05.14.08

Guess what started coming to my phone? Wednesday Redbox codes! Yup, they are adding a mid-week code that you can use towards a free rental. Even if you think that there is no Redbox in your area, I would double-check their list because it seems they are adding new locations all of the time. You might be pleasantly surprised!

Today's free code for a Redbox movie is 2672JC. 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.

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1,000 Posts Later

I truly can't believe that I would have 1,000 things to even talk about, let alone write entire entries on. Today I celebrate my 1K of posting on this little blog of mine. What a proud moment!

Please come out of lurking and tell me what you would like me to post about for my next 1K of posts. What on here has made your life better or easier? What do you want to see more of? What can I do to make your reading experience better?

If you just post to say hello (and have never done it but read me regularly), it would truly make my day too. I work really hard to be creative on here and would love to say hi to each of you!

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Creating Morning Rituals

Today is going to be our last day in the book, "How Did I Get So Busy." We have had such a great discussion from this book and I feel like I have made a lot of positive changes by sharing through this format and from encouragement from you. It has definitely been a positive transformation for me and I hope that you have gotten as much from it as I have.

For those of you who are just joining in on the series, we began with a busy bee quiz, questioned our reasons for being busy, had a discussion about technology and how it can intrude into our life, talked about self-care (or lack thereof), discussed our exercise routines (or lack thereof), taming our tech habits, and breaking the procrastination habits. There are many more chapters in the book so I hope that you can check this out from your library or can purchase a copy. I have heard from many of you who have gotten the book so I hope it will continue to benefit you.

Today we are going to discuss our morning routines and rituals. I have read other bloggers who have some really great morning routines, but I will admit that I am not a morning person and carving time for rituals has been something I think about, but don't do. I will say that I have added some workout time to my mornings, after I drop my son off at preschool, and I have also been doing a morning walk with Emily on warmer days.

These are the suggestions from the author on ways that you can incorporate some rituals into your day:

1. Write a vision of your ideal morning. The author actually says she has a list of seven things that she wants to do every morning. She suggests writing a list down of the things you would like out of your own morning and putting this in a place where you will see it each day- on the fridge door, inside a medicine cabinet, next to your alarm clock. This list will help remind you of what your ideal morning would look like. I have seen moms take this a step further and have an ideal day written up for themselves and their children too.

2. Estimate how much time each morning ritual will take you. With all of our goals, we are encouraged to start small and work our way up. Begin with small things that won't take a lot of time and build your routine up from there.

3. Identify a simple way to connect with loved ones in the morning. It can be a hug and a kiss for your kids, joining your child for breakfast each day so that you have special time together, or exercising with your spouse. Use this time to connect with the people you love most and see if it starts your days out a little better.

4. Choose things you truly want to do, not what you "should" do. Don't do things you think you have to do, you need to do things, "that will truly nourish you and help you create the kind of life you believe is possible."

5. Test your habits- and adjust them. If your routine isn't working for you, don't be afraid to switch it around. Continually tweak the routine until you have something you are really happy with.

In this chapter, the author focuses on ways to end your day as well. I have found that I am better about how I end my day then how I begin it though so this section really stuck with me.

Sound Off: I am interested to hear if you have a morning ritual that works for you? What are your mornings like? Do you struggle with a morning routine too?

MomAdvice Sound Off: Did you enjoy this book series? Would you like to work through another book together? What topics/books are of interest to you right now?

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Tuesday, May 13, 2008

The Naughty Stitch- The "Amy Purl"

Requests were made to show you guys how I messed up my knitting. I am not sure if this is genuine interest or an opportunity to laugh at my ridiculousness, but I will pretend like it was to marvel at how inventive I am. Now if this is a real stitch, please tell me. If this resembles something you have seen before and don't believe that I can get a patent on this fabulousness, please let me know. I was hoping it was unique, but perhaps it is not!

Begin by taking your needle in going up into the top of the stitch and hold 'er steady.



Don't panic this is exactly wrong so you are doing great. Now take your yarn (which should be on top and not behind like that old and boring knit stitch) and loop it around on the outside of that knitting needle. Does it feel wrong and inappropriate? It should, especially if you know how to purl the proper way.


Now you are going to take that loop and slip it off on the right needle. You are so wrong! Don't you feel like you need a shower after this horrible knitting tutorial?

Now you can slip that stitch off the left needle and you have completed the naughty stitch...or the "Amy Purl."



If you alternate this stitch with a row of this and a row of knitting, it will look like this. That's right....completely wrong, but completely straight and right-in-your-head.

Do NOT do this stitch if you are not an experienced knitter and can understand just how wrong this is. I don't want to deter you from the path of the straight and narrow.

Hugs and Kisses,
The Stitchery Satan

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What I Got For Mother's Day

Ethan brought home this beautiful picture for mommy from school. I adore it because he is giving a toothy grin and he has the sweetest smile. When he was little, he knocked one of his front teeth (tragically stunting the growth in one of his front teeth) and his one front tooth is short and his other is longer. It is one of those things you think you won't forget as a parent, but you do...I am glad I have a picture of this precious little smile. I will hang on to it when all those perfectly perfect teeth come in. This little picture was accompanied with a potted flower that I just love. Two of my favorite gifts.

What else did I get for Mother's Day? Oh, don't hate me too much, this was lots of time and research and just happened to be purchased around Mother's Day, but is really an investment for my kitchen and meal preparation... Behold, my glorious Cuisinart Multi-Clad Pro Stainless Steel Pot Set. Oh my goodness! Heaven! Total and utter heaven! I love these pots like I love my children and as much as I love my red pot, red coat, and red shoes. Yeah, that kind of love...a deep kind of affection that only one cook to another cook could understand.

My husband has been making so much fun of me as I clean these precious gems. I am all stroking them lovingly (hoping that phrase doesn't pop up in our keyword phrase searches too often) and just cleaning them like they are the finest china dishes I have ever own. Yeah, I don't care... say what you must, but I have waited YEARS for these pots.

They are every bit of good as I had hoped. Sturdy, heavy, easy to clean, and beautiful to look at. Yes, I can gaze at my freaky expression on the lids as I take a dishtowel to the corners of my eye and weep at their beauty. I don't know why my husband is making fun of me? Perhaps jealousy because it is a love that I cannot explain.


Oh, and one of the strangest things that has happened to me is getting a beautiful flower sent to me...by the TiVo company. Say what? Yeah, Tivo was all like, "I hope you can pause for a moment and enjoy your Mother's Day." Although you can't see it, the company stamped their logo on the corner of the flower and sent these to me one morning via Fed Ex. This was perhaps one of the most creative campaigns I have ever seen. I used to work in marketing so I can appreciate a good campaign- can't imagine how much time and orchestration it took to send these out to mommy bloggers, but very thoughtful and I loved looking at it in my window. What did I appreciate about this campaign? The note was actually handwritten. That means a lot to me because this can be a rarity. I appreciate it when people write notes by hand- it is good form, in my humble mommy opinion!

Not to be outdone by the flower, this entire stack of books came to me from Hachette Book Group. They wanted to send me a, "Mother's Day Package" with no strings attached. Who in the world would turn down free books? In this stack are:

1. Sundays at Tiffany's by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet
2. Your Best Life Now For Moms by Joel Osteen
3. How Not to Look Old: Fast and Effortless Ways to Look 10 Years Younger by Charla Krupp
4. Bobbi Brown Living Beauty by Bobbi Brown
5. Kim Cattrall Sexual Intelligence by Kim Cattrall
6. Sew U Home Stretch: The Built by Wendy Guide to Sewing Knit Fabrics by Wendy Mullin & Eviana Hartman
7. Jewels: 50 Phenomenal Black Women Over 50 by Michael Cunningham & Connie Briscoe
8. On Becoming Fearless: ...in Love, Work, and Life by Arianna Huffington
9. Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy by Sarah Ban Breathnach
10. Days: From the Heart of the Home by Susan Branch
11. Heart of the Home: Notes from a Vineyard Kitchen by Susan Branch
12. Starting Your Day Right: Devotions for Each Morning of the Year by Joyce Meyer
13. Ending Your Day Right: Devotions for Every Evening of the Year by Joyce Meyer
14. I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence by Amy Sedaris
15. Send Yourself Roses: Thoughts on My Life, Love, and Leading Roles by Gloria Feldt and Kathleen Turner

Some of these I already have so I will be giving them away as gifts and for our giveaways on here, but it was just so darn exciting to get all these nice new books. I am hoping we can work through a couple of these on the site since I have enjoyed our past book discussions so much.

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Monday, May 12, 2008

Redbox Code 05.12.08

Today's free code for a Redbox movie is DM1048. 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.

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Too Much Knitting Confidence

Guess what? I didn't know how to purl. This is not the purl stitch, but I will now lovingly refer to this as the, "Amy Purl."

I showed my mother-in-law this scarf and she had a bit of a confused look on her face. She wanted to know which stitches I had been doing. I explained that this was knitting and purling (I thought she would know that by now) and she had an amused expression on her face. Um....yeah, not so much.

This is the "Amy Purl" which actually looks quite lovely and nice and straight, but is not purling at all. Everything I was doing was completely backwards so now I am learning how to purl correctly. This is a lot harder now that I did an entire scarf the wrong way. It is like trying to reteach my brain and I keep wanting to do things the wrong way.

Instead of our planned hat tutorial, my lesson was on how to purl correctly. I guess I will try hats when I can master the purling. We did talk a lot about all of these crazy pattern techniques, which are so confusing and my head felt like it was spinning after learning all of these abbreviations.

I do want to say though that I am not at all frustrated. Nope, not at all. I am good enough, I am smart enough....

Perhaps, I was a bit too confident in my knitting abilities.

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Simple Oatmeal & Chocolate Chip Muffins

I have been looking for a heartier muffin recipe for the kids. My children just love muffins and I love making these fast little treats for snacks and the occasional breakfast. I have had this recipe in my to-be-tried pile for far too long so I decided to break it out this week.

These muffins are hearty, but the chocolate chips make them a little bit sweet too. I was surprised that they had so much oatmeal in them, but the soaking process made the chewiness of the oats disappear. The muffin was still light, although you could tell it was a little denser than the traditional muffin.

My kids absolutely loved these and I did too. I think I will be making these with some butterscotch chips or peanut butter chips next time, just to switch it up a bit!

Simple Oatmeal & Chocolate Chip Muffins
1 1/4 cups quick cooking oats
1 1/4 cups milk
1 egg
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Combine oats and milk (I used prepared powdered milk) and allow to stand for 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). Grease each cup of one 12-cup muffin tin. Stir egg, oil, 1/2 cup of the brown sugar, chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of the pecans into the oat and milk mixture. Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add oat mixture to flour mixture, stirring until just moist. Fill each cup of one 12-cup muffin tin 2/3 full. Sprinkle tops with the remaining brown sugar and pecans. Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 20 to 25 minutes. Amy's Notes: I added a 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1 teaspoon of vanilla to the muffins. I omitted the pecans and instead I topped the muffins with this crumb topping recipe.

Sound Off: Do you have any hearty or healthy muffin recipes that I could try? I am looking for some new ideas for breakfast and would love any suggestions you might have!

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Sunday, May 11, 2008

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day, everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful day with your families and get to spend time honoring all of the great mothers in your life!

Make sure that your family treats you like royalty! Our princess moments are fewer and far between as we get older, embrace what's left!

Hugs to each of you!

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Friday, May 09, 2008

See That Stuff On the Side??

Yeah, some sweet soul nominated me for the Bloggers Choice Awards. I am so stinking honored! I know that you have to set up an account to put in a vote, but man, that would just be amazing if you did that. I would totally love you guys for it because this is such a big deal to me.

And if I win, I will knit everyone a scarf and I will give away a couple more Starbucks cards. You know...just to sweeten the deal! Everyone loves coffee and scarves, right?

Click on the links on the left to give us your vote! Thank you and thanks for our nominations!!

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Knitting: Dropped-Stitch Scarf

This is the last scarf I am sharing for the week. This one was done in about three hours and it is my absolute favorite one so far. Since I am a beginning knitter, I checked out this amazing book called, "Teen Knitting Club," by Jennifer Wenger. If you are just starting out to knit, I would HIGHLY recommend this book because it has awesome beginner projects and they are actually cool too.

This is their Dropped-Stitch Scarf and it requires size 15 needles and a chunky yarn (I used medium yarn that my mother-in-law had given me from her yarn stash and it looks amazing).


Here is a close-up picture of what the stitches look like. I just love the way the dropped stitches make this scarf look a tad more feminine.

And this is what it looks like on someone. Isn't it so incredibly awesome looking? I have to say, this is about as proud as I have been with my knitting. I kept looking at it and saying, "I can't believe I am making stuff."


Soooooo proud!

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There are Holes in My House Where My Clutter Used To Be

This corner of my garage has been housing our old dishwasher since we replaced it this fall. It was one of those things that needed to be taken care of, but I kept procrastinating on it. As long as I could get my car parked and open our doors comfortably, did it really matter that it was sitting there?

While the kids were enjoying some fresh sunshine in our front yard one day though, I started to organize our garage...a dumping ground of activity in our home. Don't know what to do with something? Just throw it in the garage or basement until you can "figure it out."

I started loading items right into our car that we were no longer using and could donate, other items were thrown into the trash. I filled our car up with the first load of stuff and made a pile for a second round later.

I flipped through our local paper and found a company that hauls your junk for free. We have one particular company that we like because they are very respectful and come when they say they are going to come. They arrived the next morning and picked up the dishwasher and some old doors that we had from our closets. The entire process took about five minutes and everything was gone. Yes, I completed this task while watching my kids play in the front yard- a half year for a five minute task, but I guess that is how I can procrastinate sometimes.

Feeling motivated, I started clearing out the basement, my closet and drawers of too old clothes, cleaned out both of the kid's drawers and closets and loaded up four more loads of stuff that we didn't need. Summer clothes were moved into the closets and an inventory was taken of what little they really did need for the warmer months ahead.

I sold $70 worth of Emily's cloth diapers, $25 worth of her clothes, $10 in Ethan's toys, and am making another $50 on our train table that the kids no longer play with. That is $155 that I made plus a nice tax deduction for next year. Although I might have done well with a garage sale, I really just wanted the items out so I could get on with life.

We miss none of the clutter and I am continuing to add to the car as I see things. I didn't just look at the big things though, there were lots of little things too. For example, every single morning, I would remove this little toaster oven baking sheet that came with my toaster oven so that I could make the kid's their bagels. I never actually used the little cookie sheet because I used my little stoneware pan if I needed to use something, but every single day, I would pull that sheet out to put my bagel in. It would rest on the counter, aggravating me until I could slip it back into its proper place. Last week I looked at that dish and asked myself, "Why do I do this every day?" I didn't use it, it was a nuisance, it got in the way of what I needed to do....so I loaded it into the car. Guess what? It isn't bothering me and I am glad to have it gone.

Is there something that is getting in the way of your life? Why not start a container in your car and fill it as you see things. When the bin is full, just drop it at a charity on your errand day. Start with a small tote and see if you could fill that. What I found though was that I started with a tote that turned into a trunk full of items that were not being used in our house.

Yes, I like the holes in my house where my junk used to be!

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Breaking the Procrastination Habit

One of my favorite bloggers, Crystal from Biblical Womanhood & Money Saving Mom recently gave her readers a challenge to have an anti-procrastination day. She asked everyone to think of the things that they had been procrastinating on and for them to focus their efforts on those tasks. Isn't she just brilliant? I have five things in my head that come to mind that I have procrastinated on this week and I am sure everyone else has things that they know they should be doing...but haven't. In the long run, is it really easier to procrastinate? I will say that if you have procrastinated forever on something, there is certainly a rush when the task finally does get completed, but is your life easier or more difficult when dealing with procrastination? Often my procrastination costs me MORE time and money.

This week's lesson from the book we have been working through ("How Did I Get So Busy," by Valorie Burton) actually has a chapter devoted towards breaking the procrastination habits that you have been living with. The author offers these tips to help you accomplish what needs your attention this week:

1. Commit five minutes to the task. Even if the projects are large, start by setting a timer for five minutes and working on the project for that length of time. Don't you find though that once you start, it is hard to stop. It is the starting in a task that is usually the most difficult part. Go ahead, set that timer...but don't be surprised if you don't want to stop!

2. Stop making it a big deal. Often we make these tasks into bigger deals than what the are and it causes us to become paralyzed and not even start them. Maybe the task is just having a conversation with someone you love and you have something to say. You could start with manageable steps- writing it down, scheduling a date to say what you need to say, and then just saying it. Smaller steps are key towards working through procrastination.

3. Give yourself permission to do it imperfectly. My perfectionism and procrastination go hand in hand. I have the mentality, "If I can't do it perfectly, then why do it at all?" Wrong attitude, I know, but sometimes I have to give myself permission to let go of my perfectionism to accomplish something. The author says, "It's time to let go of your perfectionism. It becomes a stumbling block that keeps you stuck. Be willing to do your best, but be willing to do it imperfectly. It frees you to be human and it frees you to make progress."

4. Make it fun. I have heard of people throwing painting parties to get their rooms painted, or inviting friends over to help them weed through their clothes. Invite someone to join in with you or look for support among your blogging friends to help you! Sometimes it just helps to have a cheerleader, doesn't it?

5. Drop the goal. Enjoy the day. If you are never going to do the task, quit adding it to your to-do list so that you can feel like you have failed. Just give yourself permission to let it go so you can enjoy your day without the dread.

Sound Off: What do you find yourself procrastinating on? What are some goals you could make for yourself?

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Freebie Friday: May 9, 2008

I just want to say thank you to Heather, from Freebies 4 Mom, for all of her help with our freebie list this week! Heather has lots of great stuff on her site this week, continuing her Coupons 4 Mom feature with tons of coupons & the scoop on kid's summer movies! Thanks Heather- you rock!

Health & Beauty

Food

Entertainment

Home & Garden

Mark Your Calendars
May 15 - Free Iced Coffee at Dunkin Donuts 10am-10pm
May 18 - Free Sundaes at Walmart 12-5pm
May 21 - Baskin-Robbins Bump Day 11am-10pm (limited locations)


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MomAdvice Weekly Recap 05.09.08

These past two weeks have been a test on my patience and probably your patience as well. Our web host's server went down and we are still trying to recover from this problem. Please know that we are doing ALL that we can to restore what was lost and our hope is that all will be restored soon. Many apologies to our forum members and those who are waiting on giveaways. We promise to extend these giveaways longer and restore our forum content as soon as we can.

I felt a little lost last week without you guys! I appreciate all your sweet emails of encouragement and your patience- I know I am very lucky to have such great readers!

Featured Article:

Gearing Up for Summer-
Summer is just around the corner and with the warmer weather comes many preparations in both the interior and the exterior of the home. Spring-cleaning your house should not just involve the deep-cleaning of the interior of your home, but it should also include preparing the outside of your home for all of those lovely days that you will be able to be out enjoying the sunshine... Continue Reading

Blog Entries for Fun & Discussion:

Working Out on a Budget -
Our discussion last week about exercise really struck a chord with me. My family suffers from many health problems that I hope to not replicate, but if I am sitting on the couch (or in front of the computer), I may suffer from the same ailments.... Continue Reading

Taming the Tech Habit- I can tell you one of the reasons that I often feel overwhelmed is because of my tech habits. A quick login to my email account can set my day into a tailspin- a review that needs posting, an article that needs writing, a page that needs editing- I have suddenly lost an hour of my day.....Continue Reading

Rainy Day Activity: Popcorn Fun- It's raining, it's pouring...what is a desperate mom to do? My popcorn tub came to my rescue this week and I have pulled it into our guest bathroom so the kids could have a blast in it, with easy clean-up for me.....Continue Reading

Don't miss a single entry and subscribe to my feeds! We have made it easy for you to do it- you are just a click away

Featured Recipe of the Week:

Yummy Jerk Chicken

Not enough of me yet?

WSBT: Cheap Summer Day Trips

WSBT: How to Save Money at the Grocery Store

Frugal Hacks: Simple Writing Brings Simple Pleasures

Blissfully Domestic: Freebies For Moms & Babies

Michiana Family Magazine: Goodbye, Old Friend- Asking Jealousy to Leave

Kenmore: Make Meal Planning Easier

FAQ for Amy

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Thursday, May 08, 2008

Reader Question: Workout DVD Recommendations?

This question comes from one of our fabulous readers! Can you please help her with some recommendations?

Does anyone have a workout DVD they really like? I have come to the realization that if I want to work out more than 1-2 times a week I'm going to have to do it at home after my daughter goes to bed.

I had 5 pounds still left to lose when I cut back to nursing only 2X a day-now I have 8lbs to lose, I need to get moving!

Thanks!
Steph

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Yummy Jerk Chicken

We tried a new marinade for Caribbean Jerk Chicken this week and it was delicious! This spice mix has the perfect balance of spices and coats the chicken beautifully. I marinated the chicken for a few hours and we had planned to grill it outside. The weather didn't end up cooperating so I ended up baking this for 350 degrees for about forty-five minutes, and it was absolutely perfect.

We served the chicken with rice and some corn to complete the dinner!

Yummy Jerk Chicken


1 envelope Italian salad dressing mix
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
2 1/2 lbs chicken pieces

Mix the marinade ingredients into a bowl and then pour over the chicken pieces. Allow this to marinate for a minimum of one hour or overnight. Grill your meat until it is done.

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Amy's Notebook 05.08.08

I love these ideas for what to do with all your children's art (@ Design Mom)

I really like these DIY headboard ideas (@ DIY Maven)

I want to try this recipe for garlic & soy chicken thighs (@ Home Ec 101)

This is a great tutorial for taking measurements when sewing (@ Sew Mama Sew)

I love these tips for a beginner in organic gardening (@ Mad About Martha)

I am going to have to try this recipe for idiot margaritas (@ Jane's Apron)

This is a great little apron tutorial (@ The Feathered Nest)

This is a great comprehensive list of creative container gardening ideas (@ Tip Nut)

This hat embellishment is so beautiful (@ Berlin's Whimsy)

When I get the hang of this knitting thing, I will have to try these patterns for knitting fruit and vegetables (@ Bleu Arts)

These newborn hats are adorable (@ Rookie Moms)

I love this post on the importance of commenting on blogs- hint, hint for my sweet and lovely readers (@ i should be folding laundry)

This lemon poppy seed cake looks delicious- I heart her bundt pan (@ The Long Thread)

I really love these reusable sandwich wraps (@ The Small Object)

Making grocery lists with the kids looks like it might be the perfect rainy day activity (@ Plum Pudding)

These DIY flannel boards would be a fun project to do with the kids (@ Scribbit)

This little nature craft would also be something great to do using items from our garden (@ Write, Mama, Write)

These baby shower cupcakes are so cute and I love the idea for making the shavings on top (@ Notes from a Cottage Industry)

I am loving this discussion on toy storage and how to control the clutter (@ I'm An Organizing Junkie)

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Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Knitting: My Second Scarf


Scarf #2 was finished last night- I am so proud! I alternated knitting and purling in this scarf, after practicing the purling on a separate piece for a couple of days. I did not flip it to each side so the ribbing stands out on both sides. I did drop a stitch, but the sizing of the scarf was a lot more consistent than the first one.

I love the colors in this one, but I had something weird going on with the yarn. I would knit and then find a knot where two pieces of yarn were tied together. This happened twice in this one ball of yarn. Is that typical? I didn't like that at all- it makes it look like I tied off in two spots on my scarf.

I will need to start my next knitting project for tonight. I would say that I have definitely found a new addiction to keep me busy for the summer!

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Rainy Day Activity: Popcorn Fun

It's raining, it's pouring...what is a desperate mom to do? My popcorn tub came to my rescue this week and I have pulled it into our guest bathroom so the kids could have a blast in it, with easy clean-up for me.

I had bought a bag of popcorn at our wholesale club and knew that there was no way we would be able to eat the entire bag in a timely fashion. This popcorn tub was my son's favorite gift for Christmas two years ago and it is still going strong.

We filled the tub with all of the children's toys from their sand box and they have a blast for hours playing in this. When they are done, I just get out a broom and dustpan and make quick work of it. I have found that my sweepers spit the popcorn back out so it is easier to just take a broom to the floors, rather than doing the sweeping and spitting bit that I was doing before.

Emily didn't get the concept of keeping the popcorn in the tub, but she soon got the hang of it after I showed her how she could fill her pails in the plastic container rather than trying to scoop and pour on the floor.

What goes better with popcorn than pajamas? Keep the kids in their "morning clothes" (as my son calls them!) and let them enjoy a quiet day of playing in popcorn.

Popcorn & Pajamas- two of my favorite "P" words especially when mommy is POOPED! Don't you love how ridiculously theme-y I am?

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Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Knitting: My First Scarf

I completed my first scarf last week and I am so proud of it! In the meantime, I just finished up my second scarf today and will have to post some pictures of that too. With this one, I just stuck to the basics and did not attempt any patterns. This crazy yarn camouflaged my numerous mistakes that I had made on it, but did not hide the fact that it was a tad wider on the ends then in the middle. I am still learning though so I will let these errors slip... this time!

This scarf took a couple of weeks, but mainly because I cast on with about 42 stitches and then realized that I was practically making a blanket, not a scarf. My mother-in-law helped me take it apart and put on a more appropriate amount of stitches (about half that) and got me started again. Once I got the hang of it, it became less and less tedious. With each stitch, I started to enjoy doing it a little bit more.

My second scarf, in comparison, took me only about two days. I am gaining speed and am having so much fun learning this new skill! I can't wait to attempt some other projects for our family!

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Taming the Tech Habits

I can tell you one of the reasons that I often feel overwhelmed is because of my tech habits. A quick login to my email account can set my day into a tailspin- a review that needs posting, an article that needs writing, a page that needs editing- I have suddenly lost an hour of my day.

Even if you don't have a website or blog, reading other people's websites and blogs can take up a great deal of your time. Reading feeds definitely made things a little easier for me, but I made it harder on myself by subscribing to a gazillion feeds since I was saving so much time. See how your tech habits can spiral out of control? I am trying to follow my own commandments for blogging and not allow my blog to rule my life, but it can be hard.

In our book, "How Did I Get So Busy?" by Valorie Burton, she offers some suggestions for taming your tech habits and getting your life back:

1. Make email unobtrusive. This is something that I had to do in my own house. My computer used to ding at me when email had arrived and I would run into the office to check my account right that very minute. I ended up spending a lot of unnecessary time running in there for junk and spam mail which was time that would have served me better by spending it with my family. The author recommends turning the audible features OFF.

2. Open & respond at specific times. Set specific times that you will check email and give yourself a specific period of time in which to respond. Begin by prioritizing the messages by reading the titles and dealing with those emails first.

3. Set "no email" periods. Create periods of time in your day where you make email off limits- after 8 PM, Sunday afternoons, while on vacation, or when you need to focus on a specific project.

4. Have "no technology" periods. Don't allow technology to intrude in times where it is not welcome. Keep things like cell phones, email, and television out of your life during certain times where you feel it is important for you to be unplugged. I personally loved this idea from Ohmystinkinheck, where Heather suggests making the family members turn in their cell phones and set them to the off.

5. Respond in the moment. Even if you aren't addressing your messages right away, it is thoughtful to send a message to let the recipient know that you have received the message and a promise that you will get to it when you can.

6. Delete the message once it has been handled. Know how many messages I have in my inbox right now? You are going to gasp, but that is okay because I can't hear you. 8,000. No typos, there are 8,000 messages in my account. You can see why this would be tough for me! The author suggests keeping your inbox as clutter free as possible to help free your mind from being bombarded by the sheer volume of your old messages. Maybe this is a reason why I feel stressed when I open my inbox?

7. Tame your Blackberry habit. If people know that you will answer their messages immediately, they will begin to expect it and will take advantage of it. You will attract more requests, demands, and messages than ever.

Sound Off: What do you struggle with on this list? Are there are solutions listed here that could help you tame your own tech habits?

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Frugal Hacks: Simple Writing Brings Simple Pleasures

Today on Frugal Hacks, I share how much reading about the simple life has inspired me and how it can inspire you in your everyday life. I am pretty proud of this piece and I hope you will swing over and check it out!

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WSBT-TV: Cheap Summer Day Trips

On WSBT, this morning, we discussed ideas for cheap summer day trips. This is about the only way we do family trips anymore and I share my tips for getting the most bang for your buck.

Sound Off: Do you have any family day trips planned this summer? Where are some of your favorite places to visit?

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Monday, May 05, 2008

How to Save Money at the Grocery Store

Normally, I am privileged to be included on the morning news for WSBT, but this time I made it to the evening news hour. WSBT is doing a Money Saving Mondays segment each Monday for the month of May and asked my thoughts on the rising grocery prices. This segment has lots of great tips and they compare the prices on the basics- bread, eggs, and milk in our area. Is it any surprise that good old Aldi made the cut?

I hope you can check it out and I thank Darla and the WSBT station for including me in this piece!

Sound Off: How are you dealing with the higher grocery prices? What is the biggest struggle for your family right now?

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Working Out On a Budget

(Ring, Ring)

Me: Hello?
Voice: Hi, it's 1997 calling
Me: 1997? Wow, that was such a great year for me. How is 1997?
Voice: Good, except they want their workout clothes back
Me: What? No, those are perfectly good pants and shirts. I am just working out in them, I don't understand what the big deal is.
Voice: Yeah, and those pants you wore through your pregnancy? You know, the ones with the bleach stains on the butt?
Me: No. Please. Those pants have been good to me.
Voice: Please throw them away
Me: But I don't want to spend money...I could still get another ten years out of them.
Voice: (interrupting) NO! They are finished. Throw them away- you are embarrassing yourself.
Me: But...
Voice: And about those socks from junior high...
Me: One thing at a time, dude.

Our discussion last week about exercise really struck a chord with me. My family suffers from many health problems that I hope to not replicate, but if I am sitting on the couch (or in front of the computer), I may suffer from the same ailments.

As always, the budget comes into play and if I was going to work out, I knew that I needed to do it inexpensively. I am not one of those people that is disciplined enough to motivate myself to work out on my own and I know that I am better motivated in a gym-type setting. Let's face it though, gym memberships aren't cheap.

In a moment of Divine Intervention, my girlfriend called and said that they had an opening for babysitting at her gym. For one hour a week, I could babysit the other client's children and get a free membership. This works out to be four hours a month and my membership is paid for. I did think about the value of my time versus the value of the free membership and it would work out to be about $10 per hour of my time. I think that is a good return on investment and the highlight for me is that they offer the childcare in the first place. I can workout and take classes at the gym and Emily can go with me and play with some other kids. It is a total win-win situation for us.

The next dilemma was getting some things that would be appropriate to work out in. Since I was used to working out at home, I needed to update my wardrobe a bit. I decided to purchase two pairs of yoga pants ($19.50 each) and two new sports bras ($15 each) from Old Navy. I also got a stainless steel water bottle ($6.99) from our local Meijer.

My tennis shoes were looking really worn and needed some attention. I slipped the laces off of them and threw them in our washer (a big thanks to my sister for that tip!). I washed them on a warm setting with a little laundry detergent. When I pulled them out, they looked a thousand times better from such a good scrubbing. I took newspaper and stuffed the interior of the shoe (to help hold its shape and also to absorb any lingering odors) and let them dry outside in the sunshine. When they were dry, they looked like brand new shoes, and acceptable enough to wear to the gym.

While I did make an investment in workout gear, I did save on my membership and on new running shoes. I am proud to say that I have already hit the gym three times and am dedicated to getting in back in shape. It is such a treat to workout in such a nice place and to be able to do it for only one hour of my time each week.

Sound Off: Where do you purchase your workout clothes from? How is the progress going for you with your own exercise routine?

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Sorry- Issues

We are still having issues with the site. We have a temporary fix up, but we are missing a lot of stuff. Our web host's server went down and we were without our site being up for three days. They moved us to a temporary server until the problem can be resolved and then we will hopefully be able to switch back.

This is my own personal little version of hell. I am not getting all of my email, the pictures for our blog are on the old server, portions of our site aren't displaying, and our forum is not runing. I am pretty much helpless until all of this is resolved.

Please be assured that the giveaway will be extended the amount of days it takes to get back on track. I apologize that this is happening, unfortunately we are at our web host's mercy until they resolve their issues.

I don't know what else to say except that I am sorry and please be patient with us. We have never had this many problems before and I am very discouraged that this has happened.

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Friday, May 02, 2008

MomAdvice Weekly Recap 05.02.08


Featured Article:

Gearing Up for Summer-
Summer is just around the corner and with the warmer weather comes many preparations in both the interior and the exterior of the home. Spring-cleaning your house should not just involve the deep-cleaning of the interior of your home, but it should also include preparing the outside of your home for all of those lovely days that you will be able to be out enjoying the sunshine... Continue Reading

Blog Entries for Fun & Discussion:

Retro Housewife Bunco -
This month, I got to host our Bunco group, and I was so excited about my retro housewife theme. The best part about this theme was that I could display my apron collection and I could make all my friends wear aprons too.... Continue Reading

What Would You Buy?: The Ultimate Work Wardrobe- One of our readers emailed us with a question about what to buy for her starter work wardrobe. I pieced together some ideas for what to wear and open the floor up to our readers to share where they have had success shopping....Continue Reading

Knit for a Cause- I am so enjoying learning how to knit and it has been a wonderful outlet for me in the evenings. I have been practicing and learning each day. Progressively, I am getting a little better, but I am no speed demon and certainly am still in the learning stages....Continue Reading

You Knew it Was Coming...Exercise & You- Oh, you just knew that this chapter was upon us after our frank discussion about self-care. I just want you to know that I am not just being Miss Preachy and I promise you that I am making serious changes with the help of this book. The changes I am seeing in myself are making me a much happier mommy.....Continue Reading

Don't miss a single entry and subscribe to my feeds! We have made it easy for you to do it- you are just a click away!

Giving Away the Mother Load!

I am really trying hard to share everything I can with all of our readers and we now have a Mother's Day contest posted with Lands' End! We will be offering one winner a $100 gift card to Lands' End to make her own custom-fit swimsuit! I am so excited that we can offer this and I hope you will head over there to check out all of the contest details.

New Real Mom Reviews:

Lands' End Swimsuits

Mia Reading Software

SimplyMobile Mom

Todd English GreenPan

Phosphate-Free eco+ Dishwasher Detergent


Featured Recipe of the Week:

Starbucks Iced Peppermint Mochas

Forum Discussions:

Do you have anything special planned for Mother's Day? How does your family celebrate? ...Join the Discussion

Girls, I need your help! I am looking for something natural to take for migraines. Most of them are triggered by hormones. I have heard that feverfew and passionflower help. Do any of you use anything similar to these? ... Join the Discussion

Play it Again, Momma!

Did you miss these posts the first time around? Here they are for your reading pleasure!

Leaner Ground Beef for Less

Ding-Dong: Did Someone Order Groceries?

A Few Words About Convenience Foods

Make Your Own Flavored Creamers

Not enough of me yet?

WSBT: Making a Rainy Day Survival Kit

Frugal Hacks: Entertaining in Smaller Spaces

Blissfully Domestic: Thirteen Frugal Momma Bath Tips

Michiana Family Magazine: Goodbye, Old Friend- Asking Jealousy to Leave

Kenmore: Make Meal Planning Easier

FAQ for Amy

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Freebie Friday: May 2, 2008


We are so sorry, but we are experiencing technical difficulties today. We are aware of the issue and doing our best to resolve it. I apologize for the delay on our freebies today.

A big thank you to Heather from Freebies 4 Mom for sharing her freebies with us! I hope you will swing by her site and get her daily reports for freebies and coupons!!

Health & Beauty
Clinique Happy (coupon to take to Clinique counter)

Food
Emergen-C drink (click on "Share the Good")

Entertainment
Vive Mejor (bilingual magazine published by Unilever)
Woman's Day Magazine (offered by Mercury Magazines, company name required)
SPIN Magazine (offered by freebizmag, company name required)
Successful Living Magazine
Coldplay New Song Download
Willie Nelson New Song Download (use the code birthday)
Home Magazine (I selected other industry, homemaker, no job function, and none)
Star Wars e-Book

Mark Your Calendars
May 15 - Free Iced Coffee at Dunkin Donuts 10am-10pm

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Thursday, May 01, 2008

Five Commandments for Blogging

Starting this website has been a lesson in success and failure for me. When we started doing this site, I would have never dreamed that I would become so devoted towards something like this or lovingly refer to the site as "my other child," but something about writing and sharing in this way has really clicked with my life right now.

When you enter the world of blogging, people can start their blog with several different ideas for what they hope to gain from the experience. Some use their blogs to share about something they are passionate about (photography, sewing, politics, cooking) and use their blogs to vocalize their passions. Some bloggers are parents who use their blog as a way to keep family up-to-date on everything that their children are up to. Still other bloggers enter the blogging arena as storytellers and they share their beautiful prose or funny stories with the world.

What you shouldn't enter into this equation with is the hopes of earning wild and crazy money. I will be honest with you and say for the first year or so, I had little more than $20 a month to show for my efforts. If I was doing it for the money, I think I would have abandoned this gig a long time ago. No, money shouldn't be a powerful motivator for blogging because few actually bring home enough to even cover a trip to McDonald's...and yet, we continue to blog. We blog for burgers, we blog for pennies, and some of us blog for not a single dime. I respect all of those scenarios.

This year has been a bit of a new experience for me because new opportunities have come my way and I have been trying to keep the careful and beautiful balance that I am desperately trying to create here. Regardless of what has been thrown our way, I have tried to not compromise my content or to lose focus on why I started blogging in the first place.

Some things that I have discovered about myself....

Thou shalt not exploit thy children for money. I love my kids so much and I would never ever want to exploit them in any way. Our family is the most precious thing in the world to me and I will never use them negatively in my writing. I try to be a positive parent even when stuff gets tough and I don't want them looking back on things I have written and be mortified that their mom shared the stuff that I did. Gosh, if my mom wrote about some of the stuff I did when I was a kid, I would have been so hurt by that. I have even tried doing funny mommy stories and it just didn't work for me because I am a private person and it didn't feel comfortable for me. Blogging about parenting solutions or ways that we save our family money felt like a more comfortable platform for me and that is why I leaned towards it. It felt true to me and true to what I try to share with people. My mommy stories are better shared around a cup of coffee with my girlfriends than through the internet.

I recently was approached by a bigwig site to write a guest post and complain or rant about my kids and I know it would have boosted my traffic considerably. I turned that opportunity down and have had no regrets. I hope people see that writing in a positive way can be just as wonderful as writing negatively. In fact, I would much rather read someone who gave me solutions rather than to focus more negative attention on the problems I have. My life is not all rainbows and sunshine, but I hope to create a little piece of that for our readers. It makes me feel better about myself if I can be a positive person and surround myself with this positive community. I have had slow growth because of some of these decisions, but I would rather have ten really amazing people read my work than fifty who come to hear me rant and complain daily.

This is not to discredit all of the people out there who do that, but I knew I had to be true to myself and true to my kids to create the type of environment that I wanted in my life.

Thou shalt not worship the loot or the people who give it to you. When I first started getting products, it felt like Christmas. I would fall over myself thanking people for the things they sent and making sure that they really loved my review. "Does this sound okay to you, PR person? I hope you love the review I wrote! XOXO, Amy" This was wrong of me and wrong to do to my readers. I would take anything that anyone wanted to give me, and I would write a glowing review. Hindsight is always 20/20 and now I look back and know that it didn't feel right and wasn't cohesive with the parenting site I was trying to build.

I am now very hesitant to take any loot because 1) I don't want the PR people writing me over and over again to see if I wrote what I was supposed to as soon as I received it. 2) I don't want so much stuff in my house.

I have learned to request only the things that our readers will really and truly love and I took it a step further...I give you guys as much loot as I can. If a company sends me a product now, I ask how we can benefit our readers. To me, this feels like a win-win solution and it makes me a lot happier to hear how much you are enjoying the stuff than to write about how much I am enjoying my stuff that you can't have. If the reviews all seem glowing now, it is because I only pick things that I know I will like. For every ten things that come our way, we pick two of the best ones and feature those. Since we are more choosy, it results in fewer opportunities and sometimes fewer reviews to read, but I would rather preserve the quality of the things I can share on and give them away to others. If the company doesn't do a giveaway with us, most of the products do end up getting donated to charity. I will admit that I have kept products too that our family would use, but we try to review items in all age ranges and if my kids are too old for a product or we are out of those stages (or not in those stages) we share them with others in the community. It feels good to do that and I hope to be able to do more of that.

Thou shalt not allow the blog to rule thy life. It is hard to not let the blog rule your life...or reading other people's blogs, or reading blogs about blogging, or listening to podcasts about blogs, or reading books on blogs. Basically, blogging can be a giant hole that can suck up your time and it can be easy to forget why you blogged in the first place. Let's use my blog, for example, because I am narcissistic like that and love to talk about myself. I started blogging because I wanted to share ways that we save our family money and to show inexpensive solutions for homemakers. I also knew that I wanted to be a better mother and to be a "fun mommy" and share our ideas for things I do with my children. Now if I am on the computer all day and blogging all day, I end up doing none of those things. I am not being a fun mom, I am not saving money for our family, and I bet I can't get dinner on the table because I was too busy on the computer all day.

I have learned to take advantage of nap time and after the kids go to bed to do my work. The majority of the rest of the day has to be focused on my family life. I try to jot down ideas or even start drafts of things that I want to write about, but those posts might be weeks or months down the road before I get the time to do them. I do the best I can and I am realizing that our readers will still be there if I write three times a day or three times a week.

Thou shalt not hog the spotlight or forget to network. I have discovered that a big part of whether or not a blog is successful is really based upon the network and the community that they build. Even though I think really good writing and a good design are the most important things, the networking comes in a close third. You can have a fabulous blog, but if you have no one reading it, then it is just a private show for you. Where do you start? Start commenting on other people's blogs and networking within a community of people who will find your stuff interesting. If you blog is about photography, for example, start commenting and linking to the people that you admire most. Do a round-up of great stuff about photography. Highlight blogs that illustrate points you are making in your own entries and email the people that have enjoyed reading to tell them what a big fan you are. Don't spam them, but tell them what their work means to you. Offer feedback, share questions you have (which they could use for future material and even link back to you) and just be a groupie to the people you really love. In turn, they may link to you or might highlight you in an entry.

Thou shalt be open-minded towards things other than blogging. Once you have built your community and have a great blog, other opportunities might start coming your way. Some of these might be paid gigs (speaking engagements, spokesperson opportunities) and others might not be paid gigs (television and print interviews, providing quotes for articles, reviewing products). Realize that whatever you do, you will be representing your blog/site and you will want the things that you say and the things that you do to reflect what you are doing in these other opportunities. For example, if I am a blogger who shares about cleaning & caring for your home, I wouldn't want to go on the news and discuss the pros and cons of fast food. It just wouldn't work together! When these opportunities come your way, make sure they are a good fit for you and what you hope to convey to others. Be open to those great paid opportunities, but understand that many opportunities don't pay out. I look at the unpaid jobs as opportunities to prepare myself and practice for the paid opportunities. If you do something for your local news, save it and when a paid opportunity comes along you can say, "You can view my segment here and see how I do on camera." That opportunity might not have paid anything, but it gives those paid gigs a better chance of happening because they can see exactly how great you are. Once that happens, you might start realizing that you get paid... just in a more roundabout kind of way.

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Here We Come, Kindergarten!

My son is a genius and I have photographic proof now. He asked me to come downstairs, one morning before school, to show me something he had made. This is what I came downstairs to- can you believe it? I still have no idea how he stacked these nesting blocks in their complete reverse order.This is just the kind of kid I am raising- he is an out-of-the-box kind of kid. He is a creative thinker and a human sponge. I say he is a genius, very tongue-in-cheek, but he is one smart little cookie and is really looking forward to kindergarten.

We were in a tough dilemma about where we were going to send him to school. We wanted to support the efforts of the public school system, but we were not in a great district to do that. When magnet schools became available in our area, and after hearing so many great things about them, this seemed like the most viable option for us. We could not afford to put two children into private schools, but the magnet schools were part of the public schools with a great curriculum, uniforms, and an incredibly gifted staff. We applied and waited. And waited. And waited. We went to meetings and we prayed and prayed that our child would get to be a part of this program. Guess what? He's in!

We went to the kindergarten round-up and I was so impressed with everything at the school. I felt like I was on the verge of tears the entire time for a couple of different reasons. The first, was that we were sitting there and would get to be a part of this wonderful community and staff. The second, was the talk of them going off to school and what an important time in their lives this is. The image of my son. My little boy. My child. My sweet and precious little man going on a bus and leaving me for the day was almost too much. Part of me welcomes him going away to school and part of me just wants to hold on a few more years to our special time together. He is my best buddy and I love having him around!

He was so excited about his new school and wants to begin counting down the days until he can start going there. In the meantime, we need to schedule a physical, get his kindergarten shot, a dental exam, a vision exam and sign him up for his first library card as part of our homework before school starts. We also will continue working on our letters, mathematics, and beginning reading skills with Ethan.... and mark off the days for him until he goes off to kindergarten. Kindergarten, here we come!

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Amy's Notebook

This teacher appreciation idea is so precious! (@ Skip to My Lou)

I love these little embroidered aprons (@ The Loria Family Dialogues)

Did I mention I want to try my hand at embroidery? I think these free patterns for day-of-the-week dishtowels would make a fun little project for me (@ Posie Gets Cozy)

These whole wheat sourdough bagels look divine (@ The Lazy Organizer)

I adore this little tin can pin cushion (@ Design Sponge)

If Hannah Montana is still cool, I will have to remember this post for how to throw a cheap Hanna Montana birthday party (@ Frugal Upstate)

I love these ideas for having a television free summer (@ Wisebread)

Another refashioned sweater that I am adoring (@ One Pearl Button)

These cute little garlands are so sweet (@ Nesting Place)

These monogrammed and personalized shirts are precious! (@ Polliwog's Cakewalk)

I love these baby blocks made from recycled packaging (@ Ohdeedoh)

Peanut butter cupcakes? Say no more! (@ The Lylah Blog)

I love this half-hour kid's summer quilt project (@ Crafty Daisies)

I have always been scared to purchase an orchid so I loved these tips for caring for orchids (@ Pleasant View Schoolhouse)

These little key rings would make a perfect gift (@ Ric Rac)

These ribbon valances would be so cute in my daughter's "big girl" room (@ Blissfully Domestic)

This is one of the most amazing photos I have ever seen, oh and did I mention she is my FRIEND- you will see why I am bragging when you see this (@ What Works For Us)

A great knitting tip for the more advanced knitter (also known as not me), using hair clips to help with seaming (@ Not Martha)

I like these cute little homemade oilcloth placemats (@ Make:Grow:Gather)

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