Blogs & Tips

I'm adopted and when I was growing up, my family celebrated my adoption day almost as seriously as they celebrated my birthday. My mom always had a cake and presents for me and each adoption day was quite

Like many busy moms, I am stressed almost all of the time.  Unfortunately, I tend to carry all my stress in my neck, so it's constantly tight and sore.  At least twice a week, I beg my super sweet

This is Claudia Luiz's parenting site which is full of parenting advice that is truly "real". Luiz talks about the most difficult parenting challenges - she's not afraid to tackle the worst -

Here is a nice piece about couples that takes the angst out of couples angst. It's OK not to be perfect...and maybe, there is no such thing as sanity in marriage. This writer is local to Massachusetts and

Save those fast food toys you can use them to set theme of cake, We all get duplicates, if not just wash the ones you have.  Toddler toys make great baby shower cake topers depending on what they are. 

I happen to have a blog on green living, and one of my readers recently wrote me about a book/cd program on the market called Earth 4 Energy.  Supposedly, you can use this program to make solar panels. 

A friend of mine was raving about this diet plan that she's been using called Fat Loss 4 Idiots. She has lost a lot of weight and she's looking really good - so I had to check it out for myself. Here's

If you are expecting a baby in the late summer or early fall, you've got some long, hot months ahead of you. Spending the summer months pregnant can be trying, to say the least.  I gave birth to my first

If you live in a cold weather state, using an electric space heater could actually help you to save energy.  Using a heater in the room that you are in will allow you to turn your thermostat down and it's

Would you like to earn money online but don't know where to start? Have you tried some money making ideas on the internet only to find out that they are all scams? There are legitimate ways to make money

I have lots of friends that were fortunate enough to, in their own words, "feel and look better than any time in their lives," while they were pregnant. Unfortunately, I was not one of those people

Now that I've had my last baby, I really wish that I had made a pregnancy journal when I was pregnant in the past. A girlfriend of mine recently got pregnant, so I decided to give her a pregnancy journal so

The morning sickness that I experienced when I was pregnant was enough to make me never, ever want to consider having another baby again. Fortunately, I forgot how bad it was soon after it ended and was able to

When I was pregnant, whether it was my first pregnancy or my last, I couldn't get my hands on enough good pregnancy books. I think I read every one that was on the market. After reading all of them, here's

Sleepwalking affects something like 17% of all children. I never experience a sleep walking child until I had my youngest daughter, who started roaming the house a few months ago.  Sleepwalking is normally

Little kids love to help clean the house. My problem is that I don't allow them to help very much because I'm afraid they'll only make a bigger mess.  As they get older, they no longer want to

We've found that using an allowance for kids is actually helping us save a lot of money.  If this sounds funny or contradictory to you, hear me out before you make up your mind. About a year ago, I realized

If you are like most American families, you are likely looking for the best ways to save money so that you'll have more for your family. Ideally, saving money will be easy and won't result in drastic changes

If your kids are anything like mine, they love their stuffed animals and won't give them up. And if you are anything like me, the clutter drives you nuts! I've started using toy storage hammocks that hang

A few years ago, I learned from a friend that I could use lemon juice to help get my white clothes and linens clean.  I started using it and I loved it.  Then I learned that there is lots of possibilities

If you are sick and tired of mops and swiffers, or even worse, cleaning floors on your hands and knees - a hard floor steam cleaner is well worth your money. We happen to have travertine flooring in our home and

Great ideas to organize and display all types of collections your kids collect, no matter how much they drive you crazy. The article says, "We've come up with storage solutions for even the most chaotic

Usually an exceptionally happy person, I realized the other day that I've been sort of down lately.  Chalk it up to the economic recession or our company's lack of work (architecture), but whatever

Have you heard of community supported agriculture?  If you haven't you're missing out on a great opportunity to go green.  Here's what it is, in a nutshell.  To participate in community

Looking for a unique way to teach your child social and friendship skills and entertain her at the same time?  Check out Cheryl Melody's "Forever Friends" online videos that will help you do

This article was meant for Valentine's Day, but is definately not limited to one day a year! Here are some terrific inexpensive ways to be super romantic. For example, "Take a romantic hostage Forget seduction

This article outlines some costs you should not cut even though it's a tough economy. That's because saving a little money now will cost you a lot more in the long run. The article talks about car maintenance

When I was a kid, my brother and I used to fight about everything. My mom would alway step in and settle our fights. She'd set the timer when we were fighting over a toy or she'd listen for as long as it

A lot of couples don't talk much about money when they are planning to get married. It's just not one of those things that people tend to think about when they are busy falling in love.  Unfortunately

Stainless steel appliances can be tricky to clean. Water and cleaning products like Windex leave streaks that can be nearly impossible to remove. Stainless steel cleaners are available, but really, who wants more

If you are considering buying a home security system, you may be confused by the variety of the options that are on the market.  We recently built a house and I know I was!   Here are some tips that

During tough economic times, incidents of crime and robbery go up. It's important to pay attention to home security, especially right now.  You don't necessarily need a fancy home security system

If you haven't heard of electronic book readers, or wireless reading devices, you've got to check out the Kindle 2, this thing is seriously cool.  I LOVE to read.  I spend thousands of dollars

Do you dream of buying a treadmill, but the price is putting you off?  Do you wish that you could buy a cheap treadmill that was also high quality?  If you are patient and get a little creative, you should

You can get printable grocery coupons at http://CouponDivas.com - they even do weekly coupon ad match ups for grocery stores like Harris Teeter, Bi Lo and I think they are starting to do other as well. I found

I found out recently that I'll be getting a tax return this year. After spending awhile daydreaming about all the ways that I wanted to spend my tax return, I decided that I'd learn a little bit about

I recently received this book, "Baby's Little Log Book" by Alexis Ahrens. It's packed with tons of pages to keep track of all those things, feeding, naps, doctor appt., diapers, medication, and

Unless you are an accountant, you probably don't enjoy making a budget.  For years, I thought that family budget planning was for people who didn't have enough money to live the way they wanted and

I've been doing everything possible to purchase green products for my families use. As much as I can, I want to buy items that are good for the environment and safe for me to use on my family. There are two

Have you ever wished that you could build your own website? Is there something that you are passionate about and wondered if you could turn your passion into extra income or even a living? There are people who

Often changing seasons or climate changes can bring on an outbreak of flies. Also depending on where you live, flies can be associated with livestock feces or domestic animal droppings. Some of the flies

Every child, whether in school or daycare is exposed to head lice. You don't want to think about your child having lice, but even the cleanest child will bring them home eventually. They can get them from classmates

Living with Cockroaches is a way of life for those of us living in warm or tropical climates. We see these visitors usually at night, but they do not live in the home, as they prefer the outdoors. Let me tell you

Carpenter ants, once inside your home can be very difficult to get rid of. They eat away at the wood in you home and make a nest for the queen within the structural members, like wood joists, beams and rafters

Killing ants is something that I really don't enjoy. However, when you encounter a colony of fire ants and feel the incredible sting that they can give, I have to resort to some sort of organic home pest control

When we no longer needed the baby changing table/bureau combo that we used for the nursery, we didn't want to deal with trying to sell it so instead I made it into a mudroom catchall.  It's just a solid

I was reading Parenting Magazine recently and I noticed that they had rated the Panasonic HDC-SD9 camcorder as the best camcorder for moms. I was thrilled since I have one of these great toys. In their article

Years ago, I was a single mom and while I was making it, I didn't have a lot of extra money. I knew that investing was important, but I figured that since I only had about $25 extra dollars a week, there was

If you have never had to sell your home when you have kids, be thankful!  I've sold a few of my homes since I have had kids and my home is on the market right now.  I was also a real estate agent

Sometimes moms have to splurge a little bit on themselves. I recently bit the bullet and bought this Microfiber blanket called a Nuddle for myself because I love to be all cuddled up in my blanket when watching