Thursday, December 24, 2009

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Everyone getting ready to celebrate the holidays with their family and friends. Presents are being wrapped, food is being prepared, and little ones are anxiously awaiting Santa Claus. Please be remember to be safe and have a truly blessed Christmas!

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Personalize $1 Store Calendars

You really can have a great looking fully functional calendar that fits your personality and your budget.

Lots of people use a $1 calendars or planners to keep track of their appointments, but I'm going to suggest using them for something else as well. Plus I'm also going to share with you an idea on how to decorate to make them more fitting to your life and personality.

First here are 4 ways to use a calendar besides keeping track of appointments.

1. Keep track of your finances. Write down every purchase on the corresponding date. Also write down when bills are due or need to be mailed and mark your paydays.

2. Write a couple words or even a sentence or two to describe your life on that day. One example would be "Date Night w/Hubby - Movies saw The Blind Side and ate dinner at my fave restaurant." Include everyday events and the special moments.

3. Instead of writing about your life -- write about your children's lives. A couple words each day to describe your child's development and daily life. Ex. Little Man took 5 steps in a row today or Becky had a field trip to the Zoo--she loved the monkeys.

4. Another option is to record you work schedule. Whether you work at home, from home or outside home you can keep track of which project your working on.

If you can't find any dollar calendars that fits your personality -- not a problem. Find a calendar that has the insides you life and can work with. Do you prefer monthly pages, weekly pages or daily pages? Do you want something that you can hang on the wall or fit in your purse?

If you like the insides, but the cover really isn't your taste here is a simple solution. If you are tiny bit crafty you can create a cover for your calendar. Here is a link to a great pattern to create a fabric book cover that you can customize to fit any size book. http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2009/08/how-to_sew_a_simple_fabric_boo.html. By visiting your local craft store you can find lots of fabrics in a variety of colors, textures, and patterns to fit your personality.

There are lots of other uses for those $1 calendars in addition to the four listed above. Plus you can completely customize any calendar, so there's no need to go out and purchase one of those expensive day planner.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Make Chinese Food at Home


Just thought I would share with you something I found that my family loves. I bought this kit at my local grocery store. It's made by Wanchai Ferry and it includes all the ingredients to make Orange Chicken (except the chicken). It even includes the rice! I've made this a couple times before and my family absolutely loves it.

I don't know about you but my family loves Chinese food. The only problem is to feed my family of 5 it costs about $50 at the restaurants near my home. That's a bit expensive for my family nowadays. Whereas this kit only costs about $5 and the price of chicken (on sale of course).

I'm sure there are other companies that make the same type of kits. We've only tried this one because we had a coupon for it.

Anyways, I'm not much of a cook, but this kit is really easy to make.

Just a note: I was not paid, given anything, or in any way compensated for this post. I just love the product and thought I'd share it. Hope you enjoy it also. :)

Monday, December 07, 2009

Little Nightmares

My littlest one had some pretty weird dreams the other night. She woke up around 3 a.m., went to our craft cabinet, got the scissors and proceeded to cut holes in her bedspread. She thought her brother's stuffed animal was lost under her covers and was trying to save him.


There were lumps in her comforter from washing it so many time that the stuffing bunched up a little bit. She must have thought that was the stuffed animal. She was only using safety scissors and managed to cut all the way through to the sheets. Ugh!


This was a first for our family. None of my kids even tried to cut their own hair. I guess it's pretty common though, just like sleep walking or talking in your sleep. My little on was just having a bad dream. This is one of the funny (odd) things I'll remember when she's older. :)

The lesson I learned was to keep the scissors up higher - even the safety scissors. I probably should keep the markers up higher also, but that's another story. :)

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Bring on the 25 Days of Christmas

Today is December 1st - which means the 25 Days of Christmas on the ABC Family channel starts today. 25 days of wonderful Christmas specials (movies and cartoons). I'm sooo excited!!!

Tonight it all starts with The Year Without a Santa Claus at 7 pm and The Santa Clause 3 8 pm EST. I love The Year Without a Santa Claus with the Heat Miser and Cold Miser. It's one of my favorite Christmas shows.

My family all sits down when our favorites are on with some popcorn and cover up with a blanket. Getting all cozy. :)

Now don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of the 25 Days of Christmas on ABC Family channel, however, I was wondering - when Harry Potter became a Christmas show? Not just Harry Potter, but The Incredibles, Cars, and Mary Poppins just to name a few. My guess is they needed a couple shows to fill up a big bulk of time over the month and picked kid's show.

I can think of at least 25 Christmas shows they could use instead of substituting regular kids' shows. Here is a list of just a few:

  1. Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer
  2. Rudolph's Shiny New Year
  3. Frosty the Snowman
  4. The Year Without a Santa Claus
  5. The Santa Clause Part 1, 2 & 3
  6. Elf
  7. The Charlie Brown Christmas
  8. The Little Drummer Boy
  9. Jingle All The Way
  10. Miracle on 34th Street
  11. Home Alone Part 1 & 2
  12. The Polar Express
  13. Mickey's Christmas Carol
  14. How The Grinch Stole Christmas
  15. Twas The Night Before Christmas
  16. A Christmas Story
  17. It's a Wonderful Life
  18. White Christmas
  19. Jack Frost
  20. Santa Claus is Coming to Town
  21. A Miser Brothers Christmas
  22. Olive the Other Reindeer
  23. Yogi's First Christmas
  24. A Flintstone Christmas
  25. Scrooged
  26. Nutcracker Scoob - Scooby Doo Mysteries
  27. Barbie in a Christmas Carol
I could go on and on, but you get the idea. There are tons of Christmas shows the networks could choose from instead of the regular shows.

*Please note: I am in no way being paid for this post to promote ABC Family Channel. I just have always like Christmas shows.