Firepit, Smores, Roasting marshmallows

Happy Halloween! My wizard and ballerina will be trick or treating later tonight as I am desperately in need of a chocolate fix...did I just say that outloud? My oldest no longer goes but stays at home and hands out candy. Sigh...how did he get so big?

Mommy is not an ATM! Teaching Children about Money

Mommy Is Not An ATM! Money Lessons for Children



As a mother of three children, I realize it costs a lot to raise a child. I am a firm believer that it is my job to provide food, clothes and a place to live. Anything else, however, is extra because I am not an ATM. If we have the money, of course, we want to pay for it. If we don’t, we ask them to work for it themselves.

Family Saved from Fire By Crying Doll

Article first published as Family Saved from Fire by Crying Doll on Technorati. The Deason family's house was on fire. It was dead of night and everyone was sleeping. No smoke detectors going off...they had them but for some reason they weren't working. (Please check your smoke detectors tonight). The daughter's high school project saved them. The Lavergne, Tennessee family is thankful to their daughters teacher and a baby doll.

10 Ways You Know You are Parents of a Teenager

1. You can't find your phone.

2. Your laptop has completely disappeared for hours on end.

3. You have cabinets with food in it that is constantly disappearing and needing to be refilled. Empty boxes live in your cabinets and on your counters. (Why can't they throw the box away when they ate all the food out of it?)

Heelys...shoes or skates?

They are shoes and skates. I must say they are way better than those metal skates we had to attach to our shoes when I was growing up. Remember those? Those were the Heelys of our day. I miss skating. It was all I did as a kid. My children are so cautious that they rarely adventure into the world of skating. Heely's gave me the opportunity for my son to give them a try. He loves them as shoes. He is tolerating them as skates. It's not the skates fault. Kids now days don't seem so inclined to stay outside and just play. Or do what I did, practice for hours on end getting better at skating. Here's a very short video of my son trying to skate on his heelys.

Being a short person stinks...

what makes me say that? Well, I'm 5'1 and my hubby is 6'2 for one. For another, I walk around grocery stores with kitty litter buckets. Kitty Litter,that I will never buy, so I can reach what is on the top shelf. I even bought these beautiful shoes:

Cherry Frozen Salad

Oh man,
This stuff is the devil. It is so good. I've seen other recipes but mine is a bit different. Here's the cast of characters.

1 tub of lite cool whip
1 can condensed fat free milk
1 can cherry pie filling
1 can pears chopped
1 cup marshmellows

A Family Comedy the Whole Family Will Enjoy!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of American Family Insurance for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
Stand Up For Family brought to you by American Family Insurance are videos that the whole family can enjoy.  As a mom of a teenager, 9 year old, and  a 5 year old it's hard to find a comedy that is appropriate for all of us and clean at the same time. Well, Stand Up For Family is! We watched all the videos the other night around the computer and we just kept laughing.

Do you know how much you're worth?

This was an eyeopening activity for me. It's not about self esteem. It's about how much money you are worth. This in no way is a reflection of who you are as a person. However, it might open you up to see things that need to change or to see what you are doing correctly.

Shower head? I have to clean that?

Well, technically, no. However, if you want to improve your water flow it is a very good idea. It's also very cheap to clean and very earth friendly and also, easy. You will need:

rubber band
ziplock bag
vinegar

10 Ways to Identify the Parent of a Toddler

I want to thank Dina for allowing me to take up some space on her wonderful site! As I was trying to decide on a topic, I ran across someone’s blog that posted her top ten ways to identify a parent of a toddler. I thought it would be fun to compile my own list, although narrowing it down to only ten was difficult. So below, are my ten indicators that someone is a parent of a toddler.

My Top Ten Kitchen Items

Here's a list of the top 10 items in my kitchen, in no particular order.

Have your cake and eat it too?

Article first published as Have Your Cake and Eat it , too. on Technorati.



Cake, invites, food, music, and clothing are required and this is not a wedding or a birthday celebration. You get to shop for all of this just the same. This is a divorce party. One of the newest trends may now very well be appearing at your local bakery. A Florida bakery owner says her divorce cake orders are slowly increasing. One cake features the bride dragging the groom out with the trash. On a different divorce cake, your ring goes in a coffin in a cemetary on top of the cake. The ideas are endless. Orders for her bakery treats are being purchased by both men and women.

5 quick but effective exercises with no equipment or aka Green Exercising

In this day and age time is so important to us. We need to condense our workouts down so that we can move on to whatever is next on the list. Some have said that it's not the length of time that you workout but that you try to increase your intensity during that workout. Ponder that while you do these in front of the tv with nothing needed but your body and a floor. We'll call these our green exercises. These are very effective lasted the test of time exercises.

Wordless Wednesday

I so remember being this limber...what happened? Notice she's doing the backbend on the couch and the ottoman. Crazy kids!

Ten foods that will help you feel fuller longer!

I'm constantly looking for something that will fill up my boys. Here's what I found works best.

Rice (brown) Easy to make but not a quick food. It takes about 40 minutes to cook.

Potatoes Easy to cook and my kids love them. Make them red potatoes if you want to bulk up fiber.

Hill's Pet Nutrition Wants My Dog to Be Active and Healthy too!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Hills Pet Nutrition for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
Hill's is my favorite dog food. I love taking my dog to my local pet store and getting his food. Hill's is doing a healthy mobility challenge for our dogs. When you register on their site you get $30.00 worth of Hill's Healthy Mobility Coupon. Once registered, this also makes you eligible to win free pet food for a year!  My  Snowball would love free food for a year. Ok, so, maybe it's more me than Snowball. But he would love eating free food for a year.