Nov 30
Here’s an offer you can’t resist. But you’ve got to act fast to get the deal. Seehere.com is offering free 4 x 8 photo greeting cards to new customers. (Today only.) Just upload your photo, enter the code “newbaby” and pay just $3.19 for shipping. (This was a savings of nearly $30.) How can you resist that offer?
Also, CVS Pharmacy is offering 50 free photos to new online customers using the photo department. Order them online and have them shipped to you or pick them up at your local store. (This was a savings of nearly $10.) This offer is valid indefinately.
(Note: This week’s Mommy Mondays post will appear on Wednesday since I posted this week’s deal a few days early.)
Tagged with: holidays
Nov 26
Enjoy your wonderful day with friends and family. See you on Monday for more joy in the journey at 3 Girls and a Pug.
Nov 25
Facebook and Twitter Can Save You Money This Holiday Shopping Season
My husband and kids always tease me that I’m on Facebook all the time. But it really is used for more than just reconnecting with friends. I use Twitter and Facebook to find good deals this holiday season.
Check out www.couponcraze.com (for online shopping codes) or www.coupongal.com for help with your Black Friday plan. Both of these sites also post to Facebook and Twitter.
Whether you plan to shop in the wee hours of the morning on Black Friday or if you intend to shop online instead, these sweet tweets can save you some serious cash.
@shopittome: Information for sales at major retailers from Nordstrom to Gap
@toysrus: Information on toy deals
@BFads: Tweets from the Black Friday ads
Question: Where do you find deals to save you time and money?
Tagged with: Deal of the Week
Nov 24
Whether you’re preparing for your first big Thanksgiving at home or you’re a seasoned veteran, chances are there’s still many things to check off on your to-do list. Here’s a few things to help you prepare for the biggest eating holiday of the year.
Cooking Tips
First, don’t forget to defrost your turkey. During one of our first Thanksgiving feasts we ever made on our own, I oopsed and forgot to take the turkey out in advance to defrost. It all worked out in the end; we just had to move dinner time back a few hours.
The experts at Butterball recommend thawing your bird for 24 hours in the refrigerator for every four pounds of turkey. Or you can place your turkey breast-side down in cold water to thaw for 30 minutes per pound of turkey. For more turkey questions call 1-800-BUTTERBALL or go to www.butterball.com.
You can start doing the prep work for your meal a day or two in advance as well. Chop vegetables, prepare dough, or make pies before your guests arrive. At the very least, make a list of all of the items you are preparing and figure out what order you’ll have to cook them to make sure everything comes out hot at the same time.
Cleaning Tips
If your house is anything like mine, it doesn’t stay clean for long. So if you’re expecting guests, you’re probably worried about how to get all of the cooking and cleaning done in one day.
Get the deep cleaning out of the way early and then you’ll just have to wipe down and sweep up before you set out the appetizers and turn on the football game. You might also want to consider sending everyone outdoors for a bit (for a Turkey Bowl or a neighborhood scavenger hunt) to give you some down time to do last-minute chores.
Question: Do you prefer to cook your Thanksgiving dinner at home or do you hope for invites from family and friends?
Tagged with: holidays
Nov 23
In my efforts to always find joy in the journey of life, particularly motherhood, I find that the journey sometimes takes us places we don’t always want to go. This week the journey took me to the dentist’s chair for a root canal. This is typically not a place most people – with the exception of the dentist – find joy. In my attempts to to find the brighter side of life, here are a few reasons why I think getting a root canal is easier than real life.
1) I get some peace and quiet. It takes almost 30 minutes to drive to the dentist from my house, so in a roundtrip drive (sans kiddos) I get almost an hour of quiet drive time. No one complains about what seat they’ll sit in or not sit in. No one pokes anyone in the eye or behaves in a way to “get the eye” from me. It gives me time to call a friend, listen to good tunes, or dare I say…enjoy the silence.
2) I can watch a movie without interuptions. One of the perks of our dentist is that each room has a large TV screen with your choice of DVDs to watch to help distract you during your cleaning or filling. Sure there’s drilling and numbing, but no one stands in front of the wide-screen television and sings nursery songs at the top of her lungs or asks, “What’s happening now? Why are they doing that? Why was that funny?”
3) I don’t have to answer any questions. Since my mouth is literally jammed open wide and then filled with every metal object in a 20-mile radius, I am unable to speak. On a daily basis at home I field endless questions that are fired at me faster and with more force than a pitching machine delivers baseballs to teenage boys at the batting cages. But not so in a dentist’s chair. I didn’t have anyone ask me to find their glasses, homework, half-chewed gum, or their lucky underwear. It was quiet (except for the endless drilling) and peaceful (except for the wincing in pain).
Question: When was the last time you had find joy in a less than joyous experience?
Tagged with: humor • mommyhood
Nov 16
I’m honored to be a guest blogger for Dr. Greene this week. He is a well-known pediatrician and author of several books. I will post tips each day on his website. Check out my tips for having a green holiday all week at this link — http://blogs.drgreene.com/perspectives/
His website, DrGreene.com, was cited by the American Medical Association as “the pioneer physician Web site” on the Internet. His award-winning website receives a half million hits per month because they’ve got such great health resources for parents.
Tagged with: green living • Guest Blogger • holidays
Nov 13
Potato prices are lower now than I have seen them in years, and they can provide a great supplement to your family meals. I bought a 10-pound bag of Idaho Russets for 99 cents recently. Not only do potatoes contain plenty of fiber, they are also used in lots of recipes. You really can’t go wrong stocking up on potatoes.
Looking for a healthier alternative? Try Yukon Gold varities or go for sweet potatoes or yams. They offer even more nutrients.
Here are a few ways to use potatoes before, during, and after Thanksgiving and stretch your food budget.
· Mashed potatoes (endless varieties)
· Scalloped potatoes
· Baked potato bar (endless varieties)
· Twice-baked potatoes
· Potato skins
· Hash browns
· Hash brown casserole
· Potato soup
· Roasted rosemary and garlic cubed potatoes
· Oven fries
· Homemade French fries
· Potato salad
· Au gratin
Also….
· In a casserole
· In the crockpot with a roast
· In pancakes
Nov 12
Want a jump start on planning your Black Friday shopping strategy? A lot of the deals have been leaked to the media and the deals this year are pretty amazing.
Retailers know that families are holding onto their cash and downsizing their holiday spending this year. In an effort to entice us out of our tight-wad ways, retailers are dangling big screen TVs over our heads instead of carrots. For example, Sears slashed prices on its TVs by $500 on already discounted prices for Black Friday.
In a year when deep discounts aren’t enough to fill up the stores, shoppers should look for coupons to enhance their savings as well as giftcard incentives on some purchases. Stores are going to great lengths to get shoppers to come in and spend this year.
Video games and other electronics are also big doorbusters on this unofficial national shopping holiday.
Check out a few of these finds from Target:
- Polaroid V130 2″ Color LCD Camcorder – $39.00
- Digital Decor Color LCD Key Chain Holds 48 Pictures – $10.00
- Dirt Devil Versa Power 3-In-1 Vac – $9.00
- $10 Gift Card With Any $100 In Store Purchase – $0.00
- Lexar Media 4GB Twist And Turn USB Drive With 50 Free Song Downloads – $10.00
- Wii Play Remote Bundle – $39.00
- XBOX 360 Black Controller – $39.00
Check out deals from your other favorite stores including Toys R Us, Best Buy, Old Navy, Kohls, and many others on www.blackfriday.info. You can even sign up to have emails sent to you as the deals are announced.
Question: Are you planning to shop on Black Friday? What deals are you looking for this year?
Tagged with: deals • holidays
Nov 11
Finish this sentence…
“Thanksgiving just wouldn’t be the same without…”
Nov 10
After a flu bug hits our house, I go to work killing off any trail of germs it could have possibly left behind to infect the rest of my family. I scrub down the bathrooms and wash all of the bedding and towels. I thought all of this white-glove treatment would kill off any vile bacteria or germs, but I recently discovered that your washing machine can have more bacteria than your bathroom toilet.
Scared yet? Here’s how it works. When we wash our clothes we’re really only dilluting the germs so they’ll be less potent. Most residential washing machines aren’t supplied by water hot enough to actually kill the germs. Besides, most families use cold or warm settings anyways.
So after we stir the germs up and dilute them in the washer, we believe that the germs will die in the heat from the dryer. But usually not true, either. Why not? Again, most residential dryers don’t get as hot as they used to because consumers complained about their clothes shrinking.
With all of this new information flooding my mind, I had to wonder, “What’s a mom to do?” The answer was simple. After you’ve done a few loads of laundry, or after a particularly germy load, fill up your washer with the hottest water you can and bleach. Let the washer run through a full cycle. You can also scrub your washer down if it looks like it needs a cleaning. You may also want to use your vacuum and clean up all of the lint and grime. Follow-up your cleaning session by wiping everything down with anti-bacterial cleaner, including the knobs, the baskets, and the floors.
Question: What is the dirtiest or most disgusting thing you’ve ever put into your washer?
Tagged with: War on Germs
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