5 Things about me

1. I love being home with my kids, but need to get back in the "money" world again.
2. I love chocolate, ice cream and cookies
3. I have way too many cookbooks and I'm not the greatest cook, I have gotten better.
4. A distant relative of my invented or brought Rump Roast to the market
5. I love taking walks to think, relax and exercise, they always clear my head.

MommyFest Potluck

I have a quick and easy dinner that doesn't take much work and has been a crowd favorite so far.
You will need
1 Crockpot
1 Roast of choice
1 Jar of Gardinaire ( I do NOT recommend the hot)
Rolls
Cheese of choice ( I use provolone)

Put the roast in the crockpot cover with gardinaire, set on low and let cook 9-10 hours as you get near the end of the cook time take a large fork and start pulling the meat apart to use for the sandwiches.
Heat up the over to 350 open the sandwiches and place on a cookie sheet with a piece or two of cheese and warm, toast in over.
To complete put the pulled meat on the bread and serve with your favorite side.

What I've learned since I became Mom

Well lets see

1. I can survive on no sleep and no coffee, but not on the same day.
2. You WILL always love your children no matter what.
3. Strawberry milk puke doesn't come out of the carpet (we have 3 stain spots now, I guess I should stop with the stawberry.
4. Your life IS changed forever
5. Your children will find the pens, markers, ect no matter where you hide them.

Mother's Day

Yep it's that time again, well tomorrow. Time to show appreciation for our mothers, now that I am a mother it has taken on a whole new meaning.
In the past I have always stuck to just honoring the "mother's" in my life, after all there is a grandparents day. So of course to all the mother's I know my mother, mother-in-law, friends, sisters ect... Kudos to all of you and all that you do.
But, this year it's a little different as my grandmother passed away a few months back, so I will do my best to honor her here today. Although I honored her as my grandmother, to be honest most of my life she was my second mother. We spent most of our summers at their home in Arkansas and they spent most holidays and many other times visiting and helping my family. She was a warm, loving, talented woman, who was always there with a gentle hug or nudge when needed. She was an excellent seamstress, doll clothes and our clothes too (until the styles got too outrageous for her). She could make a mean Thanksgiving dinner or any other dinner for that matter. She will always be an important part of my life and someone that I look up to and admire. She left behind a husband, 2 children, 5 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren and she always had love and kindness for us all. She never forgot a birthday or special occasion. So here's to you Grandma on Mother's day, sorry for all the years I left you out.


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Budgeting

I am continuing my discussion on tips and tools for mothers. I am going to try and provide some helpful tips for the family budget.

Create a family budget vision. Talk to your spouse and children about whatever budgetary constraints you are facing, or whatever financial goals you intend to set. By being completely honest about the bills and loans you have to pay, or your intention to save a certain amount of money for a family emergency fund (or a college fund, for that matter), you can help your family understand better your collective financial situation. This will allow them to change their perspective on purchases they make, and will help you make sure that whatever money crunching strategies you utilize won’t be counteracted by a subsequent spree by your teen.

Another good technique is to create a list of usual expenditures per member of your family. Together, identify which items you can do away with in order to save up some extra money from your monthly income. By doing this altogether, you are making your family participate better and see the contributions they can make into making your family’s finances better.

Should your child have the habit of continuously asking for money for minor and oftentimes unnecessary purchases, you can let your children learn to manage their own week’s allowance. With their limited money to budget, they will realize the value of money.

Put a cap on the amount of expenditures you make in a week. The best way to do this is set aside a fixed amount of cash that you will spend for a week. By putting this limitation on your spending, you are forced to prioritize spending on the most essential over other things.

Make it easy for your family to save more. How often do you eat out? Most family budgets are blown over because of the frequency of dining out and the accompanying exorbitant expense of that activity. Eating at home will reduce your expenses, not to mention allow for your family to bond over cooking at home. Do you spend on routine purchases like coffee and newspapers? Cut back on the latte and the paper, and put aside the amount you would otherwise spend. Your family’s collective saving will surprise you.

Lastly, don’t be afraid to create a most efficient driving route, as well as grouping together activities into one car trip. This way, you can save a lot on time and even on gasoline and car expenses.






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Great Outdoors

Yesterday I posted an article about kids watching too much TV, okay so now what.
How about getting outside. How do we get our kids outside?

Start slowly - "National Wildlife Federation's education department recommends that kids get one "green hour" in the outdoors per day. It even that is too much start small go for a short walk around the block, stop at the mailbox and smell the flowers along the way.

Try a monthly excursion - It doesn't having something big or far away (although it can be). Talk a walk in a local nature area, or a botanical garden, or a not so local park. You can search for local parks, or try this NatureFind.

Cultivate curiosity - kids are more likely to get excited about nature "when they are captivated by a sense of mystery". Ask open ended questions to get your kids to start thinking and wanting to find the answer. Whose tracks are those? Where did that leaf come from?

Appeal to the senses - help your kids focus on the sensory experience. Smell, feel, sounds

Just don't forget the sunscreen, I bet you end up out there awhile.

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Study: Many moms are making infants dumber w/ TV & DVD's

It wasn't long ago that Baby Einstein DVD's were attacked & now studies say TV viewing of 2 years and under is dumbing down America. Social, motor, behavioral, cognitive and neural skills are being hurt by TV and DVD. On 5/5/08 Archives of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine study released figures that mothers were not interacting w/ infants at TV time.

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