Totally Guilt-Free Poppy Seed Salad Dressing
As I mentioned earlier, we’re trying to slim down a little here at our house. After all, what’s the use of running for miles on the treadmill if the food we eat racks up boatloads of calories anyway? One of my favorite light lunches lately is a simple salad with chicken and strawberries and my favorite light dressing – sweet poppy seed. The store varieties of poppy seed dressing can pack in as much a 120 calories per tablespoon so I make my own ‘diet’ version. Trust me when I say that it’s a cinch to...
read moreA Sweet (and simple) Teacher Appreciation Gift
I have a huge amount of respect for teachers. My mom, mother-in-law and sisters-in-law are all teachers and I’ve seen first hand how many hours (and dollars) they put in to their jobs. Next week is national teacher appreciation week so it’s time to share the love with all the fabulous teachers we’ve been blessed with this year. And what better way to say thank you to an overworked teacher than with a jar of my favorite stress reliever? Chocolate. The pink message on the jar reads “Because a little chocolate is...
read moreThe Best Book for Teaching Girls About… well, Girl Stuff
Having six brilliant older sisters comes in very handy sometimes. It doesn’t seem to matter what struggle I’m up against at the moment, chances are at least one of them has been through it before and has some hard-earned know-how to share. A few years ago when my daughter came home from first grade with some big questions about her body and it’s intriguing parts I didn’t panic. I just turned to my favorite resource – my sisters. We were wandering the aisles of Target at the time on a girl’s weekend...
read moreTackling Laundry Mini-Tip 4
For some mysterious reason, mini-tip number 3 has disappeared from the home page. It shows up in the archives, it shows up in the search but won’t show on the home page where it belongs. After trouble-shooting unsuccessfully for the last 30 minutes, I’ve decided to admit defeat and just post the link for you. WordPress: 1, Maria: 0. Dang it, I hate losing to machines. Here’s the link to Tackling Laundry Mini-Tip 3 Laundry Tackling Tip 4: Hang Out Outside the Closet I used to dread hanging clothes. It seemed to take...
read moreTackling Laundry Mini-Tip 3
Laundry Tackling Tip 3: Incentivize to Minimize When it comes to caring for their clothes my kids are pretty lazy. I’ve explained time and time again that jeans and pajamas can be worn a few times before being washed but it never seemed to sink in. Each time I’d fold the laundry I’d find tons of jeans and pjs – most of which didn’t need to be washed. To make matters worse when my kids cleaned their rooms they would often drop perfectly clean clothes into the hamper just to avoid putting them away....
read moreTackling Laundry Mini-Tip 2
Laundry Tackling Tip 2: Get the Right Equipment You’ll spend countless hours of your life lugging, sorting, and folding laundry. So why not get supplies that make the job a little easier? These smart, stacking laundry baskets are among my favorites. I usually fold laundry on the kitchen table or my bed but I hate constantly bending over to reach the clothes. These cool baskets from WalMart solve that problem for me. When the handles are folded in the baskets stack, allowing me to grab clothes from the top without any bending....
read moreTackling Laundry Mini-Tip 1
If there’s one tedious task that we all have in common it’s probably laundry. Regardless of how much laundry you grapple with each week chances are you’d love to get it done faster and with a little less effort. So, I thought I’d share a few helpful tips and simple strategies that make managing laundry for my family of seven a little easier. As I mentioned on Monday, my little one is not a big fan of my laptop these days so these I’ve decided to break up my laundry tips into a series of mini posts. Since...
read moreAdd Some Flair to Your April Fools’ with This Free Printable
When it comes to April Fools’ Day, we like to keep it pretty simple. This year, my husband and I snuck into our kids’ bedrooms at night and signed their faces with washable markers (I made sure to to it in pink and add hearts – just to bug my boys). Our kids quickly retaliated by leaving dry erase messages on our mirrors and by flipping our laptops over on our desks (mine had been invaded by Star Wars figures). I also borrowed an idea from Family Fun and whipped up a batch of orange “Gelled Juice” last night....
read more4 Ideas for Easier Easter Egg Dyeing
To me, coloring Easter eggs is like crafting with glitter – the end result is lovely but the process is a big mess. Since cutting out this colorful tradition isn’t really an option (my kids love it too much), I came up with a few simple strategies to make the egg dyeing process a little easier and the clean-up a lot quicker. 1. Cover Your Bases Newspaper and paper towels can only go so far. When you want real protection for your table you need something stronger. My personal favorite? Puppy training pads. They’re...
read moreMy Favorite Tool for Cutting Baby Hair
All five of my kids were born with gobs and gobs of hair. With my girls it was wonderful because they got to skip the bald phase and go straight to clips and pixie flips. My boys however just looked shaggy – adorable, but shaggy. The long, ultra-fine baby hair just wasn’t very manly in my opinion so I decided to give them haircuts. I was a bit nervous to hold scissors or sharp trimmers anywhere near their wobbly little heads so I looked around for a better option. Luckily I found it in men’s grooming aisle of...
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