Glo-Stick Fun With Friends (Mom Swap)

Okay, rather than post the whole she-bang again, I'm going to annoyingly send you over here, where I originally wrote about this evening of fun. The pictures would not post over there, though, so you get to see them here! Let's just say I had a lot of fun at a friend's house. Her husband so kindly supervised my kids riding their bikes out in the street, and my oldest son/husband could not make it because they were at a Scout thing, unfortunately. Still, we are planning to do it again in June for Father's Day ... a dad's swap ... we have some naughty ideas, but that's another post.

 

Seriously, though, this is some cheap fun when you have kids, moms and dads all mixed together. Who says you can't have fun with kids around? I mean, that was my whole stinkin' childhood, people ... a bunch of 20-somethings having way too much fun while the kids messed around all over the place dancing to Sultans of Swing and Foreigner songs and the Beatles and anything else that rocked in the 70s.

Here are some pics!

I'm thinking in June we should make it super dark and put glo-sticks in the swimming pool. Or make our own glo-sticks using Mountain Dew. Wait, that's not true.

Kids and Cell Phones

As parents, we want to keep our children safe, and cell phones seem to promise to do just that. But at what age does a child become responsible enough to be able to handle all that might go along with a cell phone, like texting, the Internet, minutes and charges, manners and more? And what guidelines do you need to have in place before handing over that phone?

Some parents are dead set on their pre-teen not having a cell phone. Jennifer McClure, mom of 3, makes the point, “I don’t think a pre-teen needs a cell phone. Until they or their classmates are old enough to drive, they shouldn’t be stranded anywhere, because some adult should be with them. So why would they need a cell phone?” It would seem that few elementary age children are responsible enough to be able to handle a cell phone. To combat some of the bigger problems, you can get a phone without Internet access or texting services, and it can also have set minutes and a tracking device.

Read the rest of this piece here and weigh in!

12 Ideas for Cheap Summer Fun

Too often summer goes so fast that before you know it the kids are back in school and schedules fill up with sports, lessons and other activities. If you’re looking for some cheap, fun activities to do with your kids during the summer, read on for a dozen ideas. Some can be done in the evening, all can be done on weekends, so whether you work full-time or have the summer off with your kids, pick and choose a few of your favorites from the list below and turn them into summer traditions!

 

1.      Plant a garden as soon as school is out and your family will see the fruits (or vegetables!) of your labors by the end of summer. If you don’t have a backyard or much space, many vegetables can be grown in pots on a deck railing or even inside. Head to www.KidsGardening.org to get started.

2.      Read all about it when you join a summer reading program, like one your local library system might offer (check www.publiclibraries.com). Other organizations that offer rewards for reading over the summer are Chuck E. Cheese’s (www.ChuckECheese.com), Scholastic (www.Scholastic.com) and Barnes and Noble (www.BarnesandNoble.com).

 Please head here for 10 more ideas I do with my own family!

How I Like to Spend Mother's Day ...

Subtitle: I Wasn't Sure I'd Get to be a Mom at All

Uh, yeah. I'm an ONLY child.

Here's more of a tease than you usually get on pieces I post at other places. Here's the tease, then the rest you can click on a link to get to. Enjoy your Mother's Day!

"Usually I try to be offline all day on Sundays, just to have one day off during the week so I can relax and get some things caught up on. Today being Mother's Day, the vibe is a little different, and I have more downtime than usual!

Some moms like to be gone for Mother's Day. They see it as a holiday for them and they work hard, so they need a break. Maybe they go out with friends, maybe to the spa, maybe even away for the weekend. That's fine for them. I am not jealous and wish them well.

For me, however, I like to be all up in my kids' business on Mother's Day.

I accept their homemade gifts and extra hugs. I revel in their love today. We went to church and each of my kids got me a rose afterward. I got to see my other mommy friends there (some of them, at least, as I don't just hang out with other Catholics!).

I got a quasi-nap and did not get annoyed at the whining and the kids ringing the doorbell and making noise while I tried to sleep on the couch. I enjoyed their kid noises.

You see, I am a mom. This is a title I always wanted to have, probably from the time I was born.

I was pregnant when I was 18 and something bad happened to that pregnancy ..."

Read the rest here!

Mother's Day Challenges Solved!

1. Yes, I know I look high, but I am not; B. Aron and the kids got me a columbine plant which; 3. makes me think of my mom and Colorado!

Remember Mother’s Day before you were married? The day probably revolved around your own mom, stepmom or other mother figure. Then your mother-in-law came into the picture, and you had to really split your time every second Sunday in May. Once YOU became a mother you probably realized that juggling Mother’s Day visits (as well as your own “selfish” needs and wants) should be an Olympic event. While it’s true you can’t make everyone happy all of the time, I believe you CAN honor all the moms in your life — including yourself — every year. Here are some ideas:

Dilemma: So many moms, so little time.

Solution: Change it up. Who says Mother’s Day should only be celebrated on that specific Sunday in May? I like to have my stepmom over for dinner one night during the week leading up to Mother’s Day. Then maybe we take my mother-in-law out to dinner the night before. When Sunday rolls around, I have my mom over to hang out with us at our house for part of the day, and we make sure to serve her a special meal and shower her with cards and flowers. I get the best of both worlds on Mother’s Day: being with my own mom and being with the little ones who made ME a mom.

Click here to read the rest of this piece! And if you'd like to find out how you can write for parenting and family magazines and earn a real income doing so, check out my site The Published Parent!

Product Review: Liquid Gold

It's always fun to have pictures of me cleaning so I can show my husband that it does indeed happen. So when I got a big can of Scott's Liquid Gold to try out, I knew he would be happy because it meant our wood would most likely be shiny and pretty. Check out these photos!



This is my gorgeous wood vanity that my parents bought for little ole me when I was but a wee teen girl, just a few short years ago.

It resides in my daughters' bedroom so it takes a bit of a beating. Check out the big scratch on the left side of the vanity.

Don't see it anymore, do you?

And check out how mottled this wood looks!

Liquid Gold took care of it and nourished the wood on this antique vanity the ways it deserves to be nourished and loved.

I was happy to know Scott's also makes these dust 'n go wax-free polishing cloths, which my kids will have fun using to polish wood around the house. I love that Liquid Gold is not greasy. Some products I've used on my treasured vanity are greasy and smelly. Scott's LG is not greasy and smells nice and mild.

I give them 5 out of 5 carrots (remember I'm trying to be healthier so my rating system must keep up!) I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Birthday Party Ridiculousness

It seems like kids’ birthday parties are getting out of hand these days, with parents trying to top each other for some non-existent “Most Elaborate Party” award! It can be difficult – if not impossible – to keep up with the intricate, expensive and often highly structured parties that are thrown by our child’s friends and classmates. Whether your child is in school, is homeschooled or is not yet even in preschool, the politics of birthday parties affect everyone. Save your sanity and stay out of the Poor House instead by considering some of the options and tips below.

1.      Realize that you don’t have to invite the whole world to an expensive gathering. One of my favorite parties growing up consisted of about five friends and an ice cream parlor. Every few years you could save up for something special and a little more costly like a moonwalk in the backyard or taking five friends to Paradise Park. If you’re having the party in your spacious backyard, by all means invite your child’s entire class. But …

You can read the other 7 rockin' points in this article over here ...

My Proofreading Love Affair With Fiverr.com

I have a new addiction, and it is making money doing something I love.

Sorry, this photo has nothing to do with this post but reflects my life lately and I think it's killer funny!

I also make money when you check out these teaser posts (which may annoy you, Mom and Husband, but the point is to get you interested and get you to click over to where I write more cool stuff). So if you love me, check it out! [What? You thought I only lived at The Kerrie Show? Nope. I am all over the place.]

And if you want to know more about my proofreading and writing gigs, in case you are a Grammar Nazi like me/myself, head to The Published Parent!

Homeschooling 101

Although it’s becoming quite a popular education choice, the decision to homeschool can lead to some overwhelming questions like: 

How do you get started? What does a typical day look like as you entertain and educate your kids all day long? How do you keep toddlers from emptying the cabinets on a daily basis while you teach your older kids? What about socialization?

8 Tips for Saving on Birthday Gifts

I don’t know about you, but it seems like I’m always toting my kids to a birthday party. Buying all those gifts can be a real budget buster, and nobody wants to go into credit card debt trying to impress little kids (and their parents!) with lavish gifts. Below are 8 money-savings tips to save hundreds of dollars every year on birthday party presents.

Check your budget. This will be harder for some of you than for others, but I promise if you stop worrying about what other people think, you will automatically save some serious cash. Focus on your own finances, and spend only what you can afford.

Click here for the other 7 tips!

8 Birthday Traditions You'll Want to Try

Every year when I was a kid my parents would let me choose where I wanted to eat dinner out for my birthday. Another birthday tradition they kept going was to have a small party for me with family and friends, including a cookout since I have a June birthday. Kids love to feel special, and it can be a challenge to find the time to come up with ways to make a birthday a knockout. Never fear! Below are 8 ideas for birthday traditions to start with your own kids. Pick and choose a few of them each year … and stick with the ones you and your birthday kid love!

Read about all 8 traditions here!

Woolzies Wool Dryer Balls #Review

Okay, so everyone is going green(er) these days, right? I mean, going green is not new. We were kinda green in my family back in the 80s when my mom was big into recycling and could not stand to see someone throw an aluminum can in the trash. She rescued several poor cans during the 80s.

Mom (she reads this blog, go figure!) used Bounce as her fabric softener in the dryer always, and so did I. Then I learned about these wool dryer balls and wanted to give them a try.

The positives of Woolzies wool dryer balls are:

1. They are good for the earth
2. You buy them once and they are good for 1,000 loads, so you are saving money over buying sheet fabric softeners
3. They are hypoallergenic, so nobody is going to get a runny nose or have a reaction after wearing clothes dried in a dryer with these
4. They work: our clothes were static-free and soft!
5. They are just fine for people with a sensitivity to wool

The one negative for my household personally (and it probably won't affect you) is that there are SIX of them to keep track of. I had a hard time sorting them out from my clothes and leaving them in the dryer. Some would always come up in the laundry basket with me, then when I would try to get them to walk themselves back down to the basement, invariably a kid or a dog would get ahold of one of them and it was time to PLAY BALL!

I still give them 5 protein bars out of 5 (I've moved away from the Dove chocolate system, sorry to disappoint)

Protecting Kids From the Internet

Do you ever wish you could “un-see” something? Maybe you’ve driven by a violent car accident and glanced over, catching a horrid vision that you now can’t get rid of. Sometimes you see it in your sleep, sometimes when you are awake. It has affected you.

We protect our kids from violent and racy movies when they are young for a reason: we know those visions will stick with them and sometimes even give them nightmares. (who wants to be up in the middle of the night soothing a freaked-out kid?!) So why do we think that letting our kids have unlimited access to the Internet, via personal computer, laptop, iPad, tablet or phones, is a good idea?

You might know that my husband finally agreed to let us get Internet access in our home. Of course, we are worried about things our kids might see when they are on normal sights like YouTube or when they do a Google image search of something as innocent as, say, “cats.” My laptop is the only computer with Internet access, and it has my own password on it. My kids have to ask to use it, and I try to only agree when I will be around them to check in.

But, having 5 kids and homeschooling, I often get busy and am taken to other parts of the house (to wipe butts or take my hourly bubble bath … ha!). I want to know that my young kids are not seeing violent images or naked ladies in precarious positions while I step away.

That’s where eHomeShield comes in. It’s a new Internet monitoring product that I personally know is HALF the cost of some other software out there. It analyzes content, blocks potentially naughty sites and is only a few bucks a month. (but of course if you deem something blocked as fine, you just type in your own little password and BAM, you are good to go, for that site anyway). And for you non-techies like me, it’s easy to set up AND it covers all devices with Internet in your home.

Check them out here at their helpful website for even more great reasons to get this product for your own home. They are now raising money in a campaign on a Crowdfunding site called Indiegogo, and they would appreciate your support there to help get their product out and to get the word out about what they offer.

Saving My Family Money ... or Not (Be Mindful!)

Okay, so I have a ton of giveaways coming up Wednesday, so this will be the last post written all about moi for a couple of days before you have to get busy entering giveaways for awesome stuff like a $300 American Girl Doll gift card, a $115 Hyland's starter kit, a Gotz Doll and a SURFACE PRO computer! These all hit on May 1, MAYDAY, MAYDAY!

So for today enjoy the non-musical stylings of some stuff I save bank on (and what I used to spend when I was not saving money):

I used to spend $4 for a box of 5 packages of 2-point Weight Watchers chocolate drizzled crisps. I found these at Aldi ... 6 packages in a box for also 2 points and only $2.

At gymnastics they have a Naughty Vending Machine. Sometimes when I am being lazy and think I am rich, I will give each kid a dollar to buy something like these below. Actually, EXACTLY these. So I would spend $5 for 5 of these. At Aldi, I spent $1.19 for a box of 6.

Sometimes my quick breakfast is an Aldi Fit and Active protein meal bar. The chocolate peanut butter ones taste like a Whatchamacalit bar! They go for about 66 cents a bar, which is not cheap, but if you pair it with a piece of fruit it makes for a decent breakfast.

What do you save money on? I don't save money enough. Sometimes I'll pay $9 for 6 corn dogs at Sonic when I could have Joel run into the store and pick up like 4 TIMES that for the same price! And then I wonder why we don't have any money despite my husband's decent salary! I have to really think before I spend!

My 6th Child ...

Okay, so in the summer of 2011 I posted about Toshiba, my 6th child. (Jeez, you guys always think I'm knocked up when I post about my dog or my computer!)

I would like to update you on Toshiba's formative years:

1. Unfortunately, I did not put the lock on the brakes of her stroller and she rolled in a lake at a park in Lenexa, Kansas in October of 2012. She was taken to the computer doctor, my husband, and was fixed pretty quickly. WHEW!
2. A short time later, though, her brother Joel was getting frustrated with her Internet connection speed and took a fist to her keyboard area, damaging her hard drive. She was in a coma for many months.
3. Just about a month ago, her hard drive was replaced  by my husband the GENIUS, and she is working very well. She helps me make money doing proofreading and writing jobs at Fiverr.com as writerkerrie, write articles, send inspirational emails to friends and screw around on Facebook.
4. We like to make sure she is unplugged from the wall a few hours a day so she won't be too dependent on electricity.
5. Two little paper Pikachus, made by her brothers, guard her screen.
6. She is a hard working laptop and I am grateful for her!
7. If you want to know more, just wait for the family Christmas letter, where I will go into pages of detail about her latest exploits!

Mompetition (and Examples)

Don't you love mompetition [competition between moms]? I've never really been competitive; maybe it's the Only Child thing. I just don't really care what other people are doing and don't have the desire to one-up them.

You know when you're dealing with one of these. They ask you a lot of questions about your life. Not normal questions in a normal manner, but lots of POKING questions, trying to find your weak spots, where can they be BETTER than you?

Here are some examples of mompetition:

"My kid is only 12 and is almost an Eagle Scout." [for those of you non-Scouters, an Eagle Scout rank is HARD to get, takes a while, involves a major service project and is usually earned by an 18th birthday.]

"Yeah, we homeschool using XYZ curriculum, which costs $2,000 per year per kid, and we homeschool for about 8 hours a day. We're on track for Harvard." [WTH? Just put the kids in private school for the same price and go run a small country or something, lady!]

"In the last school fundraiser, we my kid sold $10,000 of wrapping paper and $5,000 of cookies to the diabetic lady down the road ALONE. All together we sold half a mil and SAVED this damn school."

"Yeah, I think we're just going to learn 3 foreign languages this year."

"Wow, you really need a gray hair touch-up! When I get wrinkles like yours I am SO going for Botox. And are your boobs SUPPOSED to hang like that? I'm getting a reconstruction when I can save up." [yes, mompetition is also mom-to-mom combat, not just pitting kids against kids]

"Shoot, I have to go. It's time for 2-year-old Mitzy to go to her gymnastics competition, 5-year-old MooMoo to go to National Cheer Competition and 7-year-old Mark to go to his National LEGO Robotics competition." [it's not all the activities here that bother me; it's the ages of the kids! start 'em early!]

Folks, I'm just happy being me. Maybe that's because I'm almost 42 and I've lived long enough to know what's important and realize it has nothing to do with how much stuff my kid sells, whether or not my kid gets into Yale, how much I weigh, how few wrinkles I have or what I do for work or fun.

Library Collection Agencies and My Multiple Library Credit Cards

I have a problem. I need to attend BLA meetings. That would be the non-existent Book-Lovers Anonymous meetings. I have library cards for myself and my children. When one gets a fine, I just switch to another card. Library cards are like book and DVD credit cards in my world. My husband says when a child is born to me, I get it a Social Security Card and a library card.

The morning of Callie's First Communion I went to pick up Joel at a campout. While I was gone, a COLLECTION AGENCY called and explained to my husband how I have some crazy fines on one of my library credit cards. [When did this turn into a confessional blog? Oh, yeah, when it first started.]

Notice the variety of books in my picture. Some are for article research. Some are for OCD research for one of my sons. I have homeschooling books and writing books. And a book that I think I would love but am afraid I won't get to while I have kids in the house because I have the attention span of a gnat currently: The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing. I think it will rock. I also think it's a hard one to read with kids yelling all around you, and my precious Quiet Time is reserved for writing for dinero.

Other fines are from me being a Pushover Mommy and letting my kids check out too many DVDs which we will never watch. Then they get lost. Then the dog eats them. Then Library Guido comes to my door. Currently we have a REALLY high fine, another one with fines and then there is the third card I cling to with my life.

I'm eyeing my daughters, who are 5 and 8. I think they each need a library card.

I obviously have a problem.

Helping Daddy, by Eva

Wecently I had the opportunity to help my Daddy. He was putting in a handrail at the front of our house for people who might need a little extra support getting up our steps. He's willy sweet like that; thinking about other people and stuff. I asked if I could help with the C-ment.

Daddy said YES! He always lets us help, even if it means we will make a mess or get dirty.

So I stirred and scooped C-ment and helped him complete his project before deadline. Ha!

My #WeightWatchers 25-pound Charm

Okay, so when you join Weight Watchers, your first weight loss goal is to lose 5% of your current weight because there are great health benefits to doing so. Then when you lose 10% of your starting weight you benefit in many more ways (lowered risk of diabetes, greater mobility, etc.). So when I lost 10% of my weight I got a keychain that looks like a 10.

Then as you go along you get more charms. I'm working toward an Activity Charm by being way more active than I ever used to be. I love being able to run and not be out of breath. I'm in better shape at almost-42 than I was in my 20s.

Today I weighed in just in case I couldn't make the meeting tonight and (I'm not gonna lie) because obviously I weigh less before lunch than after dinner!

It's National Ford Mustang Day ... What's Your Favorite?

Today, friends, we celebrate National Ford Mustang Day! Which is fortunate, because I have always been in love with the Mustang (my husband rented one for me for my 40th birthday weekend!). It's my favorite car, followed closely by the Camaro. And you know me, I love the vintage AND the new. But here is my favorite (what's yours?):

Fun fact: Both Aron's mom and mine owned a Mustang in the 1960s!

Wordless Wednesday w/LINKY: Flowers Inside Flowers

One of the girls picked a daffodil from our yard and gave it to me. Then my other girl brought in a tiny purple flower (my mom will kill me for not knowing the name of it! ... hyacinth?) and placed the purple one inside the yellow one. It looked so pretty I had to take a picture.

Callie's First Communion

Last Saturday was Callie's First Communion ceremony! It took her 2 years of preparation, and she was so sweet and beautiful at the service! Nana made the cake/cupcakes, which were gorgeous and yummy! A wonderful and generous friend from church came by with her granddaughter and a gift after the ceremony. Friends and family came to a party afterward, and we had a scrumptious lunch brought by Plaza Catering. It was a special event.

Thank you to Karla, a blast from the past (1995, anyone?), who provided us with the dress, veil and shoes and wanted nothing in return. Karla, I snuck a Target gift card on your entryway shelf and still owe you!

The Clean Plate Club

Below are last night's members of The Clean Plate Club. We joke about this at Weight Watchers a lot since so many of us were brought up to clean our plate at dinnertime before we got to go play or have dessert. It can be a challenge to leave some food on your plate (or not get seconds) when something is super yummy. We try not to place huge servings on our kids' plate so they don't feel like they have to finish every drop. But last night they really dug my Baked Spaghetti (recipe to come with photo, OF COURSE!) and even had seconds!

Without further delay, here are my members (and no, we are not in a halfway house; this is our own home, thank you very much, it's just that my husband recently turned into a (wallpaper) STRIPPER:

Picking My Boogahs: A Post by Eva

Last week at gymnaskits I made my teacher laugh. She saw something shmugie in my hair even though I just had a bath. She asked if it was gum or a boogah.

I said, "It can't be a boogah because I gave up picking my boogahs for Lent."

Does anybody know how long Lent is?

The Tone of an Email

I have heard that people should not communicate via email if they can help it. That TONE is misunderstood a lot in email. So I have a plan since I like to communicate that way and especially since I prefer to have confrontations that way ... so I can think about my argument and try to hash things out before meeting in person, maybe.

Here's what I'm going to do with future emails before I start my communication:

Squiggly Wormie: A Post By Eva

Here is a convahsation between my mommy and me wecently.

Eva: Look, another wormie!
Mommy: Oh, he's sweet. You can keep him.
Eva: No,  he's not Squiggly Wormie. I let him back in the wild. I miss Squiggly Wormie.
[keep in mind my Rs sounds like Ws]
Eva: I found a nice comfy bed for new Squiggly Wormie. He's gonna need a pillow.

Later ... "He needs to go flying" as I toss him in the air.

Life Gets Messy; That's How We Learn

Right about now you are probably thinking I have totally lost my mind.

Nah, been there, done that. It's long gone, friends.

Usually I am not great about letting my kids help me in the kitchen. I don't love cooking/baking and like to get it over with. Aron is AMAZING about letting the kids help, so don't feel too sorry for my kids.

On Michael's birthday I was making cupcakes and the Littles wanted to help out. Usually I find a way to distract them or tell them they can lick the entire bowl if they just wait and let me do the complicated and messy cupcake filling.

But this day I decided to let them do it. The batter was runny and dark, but they just wanted to help fill the cupcake tin! Then I kinda realized that if I'm always doing stuff for them they won't learn how to do it for themselves. Don't get me wrong ... they do plenty around the house where they get to make mistakes and learn. But in the kitchen it is time for me to grow some patience.

Good Cook Knives and Guest Post from Frugal Ferret

The following is a guest post from my pal Frugal Ferret. Enjoy and then enter the giveaway please!

"I have to admit… I am a knife snob.

If it’s not forged steel with a foreign name on it I don’t want it in my knife drawer… until now!

We received the set of 6 non-stick knives ($125 value) to test and my husband rolled his eyes while laughing stating that these would not pass OUR kitchen test. WOW were we WRONG!

After testing several of these brightly colored knives we soon fell in love for several reasons:

1.The bread knife {yellow} is our favorite addition to the “sacred knife drawer” – the blade isn’t flimsy like other bread knives and we can cut through our morning bagels or night time Italian loaves with ease.

2.The colors — I can’t tell you how many times I dig through the drawer looking for THAT knife because they all look the same. Now in our kitchen it’s “who has the blue knife?”

3.So far the edge has held very well and is still sharp as the day we got them {be careful – they are sharp!}

 4.LOVE the soft-grip handles which are ergonomic

5.Each comes with it’s own safety sheath – this is great for when we want to take them on the road

6.You will love that with the discount code below, these are a fraction of the cost of other knives

Below is a list of the knives we tested:
1.Nonstick Utility Knife, 5” blade
2.Nonstick Sandwich Knife, 5” blade
3.Nonstick Bread Knife, 7” blade {winner winner bread with your dinner!}
4.Nonstick Chef Knife, 5” blade
5.Nonstick Santoku Knife, 5” blade
6.Nonstick Paring Knife, 4” blade

If you are looking for a great set of knives that will fit your budget, consider these Good Cook knives and if you buy now, you will receive a discount of 30% off your entire order at Good Cook.

■Simply enter promo code: NONSTICK ■

Offer is valid through April 15, 2013

Safety note: Although every knife in this collection comes with its own fitted safety sheath, these products are not kids-in-the-kitchen friendly because they are very sharp. Please keep out of reach of children.