Search Results for: blog find what you love and then make it

The Many Ways that Toddlers Play

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Toddlers are very interested in exploring their world. They haven’t yet developed the social skills that preschools use to play with other kids. Parents might wonder what their toddler is thinking when he or she starts playing with “boring” household objects. Here is some insight about what’s going on. Parallel Play One of the earliest ways for toddlers to be social with each other is through parallel play. One toddler sits on the floor next to a huge pile of cars and trucks. She selects one, and starts rolling it back and forth on the floor in front of her. … Continue reading →

Be More Compassionate at Work

People who are under a great deal of stress tend to forget to be nice to their coworkers. This is a very human reaction to being tense, overwhelmed, or scared about the future. One way to make your workplace less awful is to be more compassionate at work. If you really don’t feel like it – then it is even more important that you rediscover your compassion. Times are tough. You and your coworkers might be struggling to finish a big project in the days before its deadline. There might be quotas that each worker must achieve. Someone calls in … Continue reading →

Where to Find Great Recipes from Kraft

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What will you be feeding your family for dinner tonight? There are times when that is a rather difficult question to answer. It helps if you have plenty of recipes to choose from. Fortunately, there are many places to find recipes from Kraft. There was a time when people had to rely on cookbooks, women’s magazines, and the box of handwritten recipes that their mother and grandmother handed down to them for recipe ideas. Today, companies that make food products are very active online. This makes it really easy to find plenty of recipes that include products from your favorite … Continue reading →

What to Know about the Glow

Glow sticks are extremely popular this time of year.  You can find kids sporting them at summer fireworks shows, evening baseball games, backyard barbeques and during bike rides at dusk.  My 8-year-old loves to bend them into bracelets, necklaces and headbands and wear them while we stroll along the beach after sunset. While I’m game for the glow, other parents are not as thrilled to see their kids playing with the popular, yet potentially poisonous neon sticks.  Many moms and dads question the contents of glow sticks.  After all, if the liquid inside the sticks can make plastic light up like … Continue reading →

Have Fun Repurposing School Supplies

Forget about packing lunches; unpacking my kid’s backpack on the last day of school has got to me the worst mom job ever. The sheer volume of crud that is shoved into that Scooby bag is mind-boggling.  While I’d love to dump the contents of the entire bag into the trash, I am far too frugal to let even the smallest pencil stub enter the garbage if it can serve a purpose somewhere in our home. If you are looking to save money this summer, don’t give into the temptation to dump your child’s old school supplies.  Rather, sort through … Continue reading →

Simple and Affordable Mother’s Day Fun

If your budget doesn’t allow you to lavish mom with expensive gifts this Mother’s Day, don’t fret.  With a little planning and creativity you can make your mom feel like royalty minus the queen’s ransom. The key to creating memorable Mother’s Day gifts is to make them with love.  The other requirement is to have fun in the process.  The following homemade gift ideas are simple enough for young children to help with; plus, they don’t require a ton of money to make: Pretty Pots Materials: Unglazed terra cotta pot Acrylic paints Paint brushes Craft glue Embellishments (buttons, gems, stickers, … Continue reading →

The Mother’s Day Sales have Started!

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Mother’s Day is just around the corner. Have you bought you mom a lovely gift yet? If not, then take advantage of some of the Mother’s Day sales that are going on right now. You can get something lovely for your mom without having to spend a fortune! Barnes & Noble has a “Buy 1, Get 1 50% Off” sale. There are a total of 81 titles of books to choose from including: Mom & Me & Mom by Maya Angelou, Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg, and many more. This sale will continue through May 13, 2013. Some Barnes & … Continue reading →

Staging Your House for Less

Something about spring makes me start watching all of those home shows. You know the ones where couples and sometimes singles look for the perfect house, fix up and put their homes on the market or just do some renovations. Maybe it is because spring is the most popular time of the year to list a house and get a buyer. While the housing market has promise of turning around, there is still quite a lot of “stock,” houses on the market. This means that in order to make yours sell, it needs to shine. One thing that helps house … Continue reading →

Is It Cost Effective to Keep Chickens?

We have been wanting to explore keeping chickens (click here for an interview with the chicken lady) for a while. It is a project that would be educational, and provide us with some fresh eggs. Our environment is perfect for it. We live on two semi-rural acres and would have plenty of space for a coop. Many of our friends already have chickens. It has been a trend in this area for a number of years. They are happy to answer all of questions about raising chickens, what works or doesn’t work, how to keep the foxes out of the … Continue reading →

The Poor Woman’s Guide to Gourmet Coffee

I love my coffee. What I don’t love is spending money on it. After all, water is free. Add some brewed beans, and you have to pay for it. Doesn’t seem to make much sense, does it? Well, combine my need for coffee and my need for living at our means and you get one motivated woman. I’ve learned a few things about saving money on coffee, even the gourmet kind. Organic coffee usually doesn’t cost any more than standard coffee. It is one of those weird but true things. So, if you only want organic, you don’t usually have … Continue reading →