Family Musings

I don't get to attend fancy blogging conferences. I don't have a sponsor willing to pay my airfare to cool cities like Nashville. And I know I'm not the only one. So I want to know, other than attending big conferences - What works for you when it comes to networking with other mom bloggers and increasing your community and influence. Linked up at We are THAT Family WFMW .

It isn't often that I seek out products to review. I receive enough PR emails that I can typically pick and choose my opportunities. However, when I heard about Curly Girl The Handbook and that an expanded second edition was coming out soon, I contacted the publisher. Much to my delight, they sent me a hot off the presses copy to review along with travel sized samples of 4 Deva Curl hair products. Plus, they offered three more books to giveaway to my readers! I didn't expect to love the book as much as I do. But from the very beginning, my eyes were inundated with pictures of curly haired women with gorgeous locks. Never in my life can I recall seeing so many people with beautiful, bouncy curls. It was like hair heaven for me. In the past I've experimented with giving up shampoo . And you've born with me as I shared the results. But I never had staying power. And eventually I decided to add some fun, purple highlights to my hair , so I thought dropping my no-poo rou...

Two days ago I made a big decision. It was a follow-up decision to a commitment I had made last Spring and then broke.  I decided to spend the next 37 days training for the Disney Princess Half-Marathon .  Yes. You read the right. I decided less than 6 weeks before a 13.2 mile race to begin training.  It all started in the Spring of 2010 when I called my friend Kelly in CA and asked her to do this race with me. She said yes and then promptly registered. I enrolled in a C25K class, and then dropped out after 8 or 9 weeks because I didn't enjoy running. Which I had already known. ( Except for this one strange morning last summer .) Then, I kind of forgot about my promise to Kelly. Until she posted on FB two days ago that she bought her plane ticket to come to FL and had made arrangements for someone to watch her 6 year old son. Uh-oh! I immediately checked and there was still room to register for the race. It was 94% full (still is as of this morning). I a...

Recently, my local paper, The Ledger, published an article about local mom blogs. I thought I'd take the chance to share them with you here. Not all of these local bloggers were featured in the Ledger article, but they are all worthy of your time. If you are local and know of any other blogging mommas out there, let me know and I'll add them to the list! The Dearie's Not So Dailies - My friend Amy always has something cute or funny to share on her personal blog, and on her crafting blog (Dearie Designs) she always inspires me to start cutting up paper and gluing it to all sorts of things. She really does have some of the best scrapbooking paper I've ever seen. You will be blessed by either blog. Rogers Family Update - A family-focused blog that features her 3 littles, including stories about how the rules change when Grandma is in town , creating space for a kid's play room , and her cute New Year's tradition with her babies . A Flower In The Rain - Sh...

What's the most unpleasant thing you do on a regular (hopefully) basis? What if I told you about something that could make it less unpleasant? Would you want to know? I thought so! What I am going to tell you about will become a must own item. You'll want one for when you travel, one to keep in your purse, one to give to your father-in-law, even teenagers will want one. This product can help you avoid embarrassment in just about any circumstance. No one will ever have to know the next time you have "tummy-trouble." It's called Poo-Pourri. And I think it is a must have for every bathroom in the house. We've been using it for a few months and it makes a world of difference in our small home. The basic idea is that your spray a spritz of Poo-Pourri into the toilet bowl before you, ahem, take care of business, and it masks the odor by putting a protective layer of essential oils on the water. All anyone smells is the herbal scent of bergamot, lemongrass, and g...

I was looking around at the statistics for my site and thought it would be interesting to share the ten posts that had the most page views in 2010. Giving Birth  - I suppose everyone loves a good birth story. Or that is how it would seem, but this post is mostly about breastfeeding. I hadn't even given birth to my first daughter yet. And I mentioned Victoria's Secret. So it gets a lot of hits from Google. Nearly 2000 last year alone. Originally published: May 2007 My Legs Hurt - What a good post to be reminded of! My feet are starting to hurt again a lot and I really am doing something about it. Only this time I am NOT pregnant! Originally published: June 2007 I Got Purple Highlights - Some of the search strings that bring people to this post include references to 28 or 30 being too old for purple highlights. I don't think so! Originally published: July 2010 Easy-Peasy Dehydrated Apples - I love that this post gets so much attention. This is one of my favorite thing...

A long time ago, I made Salmon Croquettes following a recipe from Paula Deen. They came out really good and were a frugal choice for lean times. Well, lean times continue so I began looking for more frugal, yet tasty recipes. After looking at several chicken croquette recipes, I combined what I liked best about all of them, using only what I had on hand. The canned chicken goes on sale BOGO at Publix often enough and the rest of the ingredients are what I consider pantry staples. Except for the red peppers, I picked those up at Big Lots a while back and have been looking for an opportunity to use them. Our dinner last night was the tasty result of my searching and pantry pilfering. Even Mary ate about 1 1/2 of them, though Charlotte didn't care for the soft texture on the inside. Jennifer's Chicken Croquettes 1 stick butter 1/2 cup flour 1/2 cup milk 1/2 cup chicken stock 3 cans chicken, drained (about 3 cups of chicken) 1 cup seasoned dry bread crumbs 1 egg, lightly ...

I didn't plan to write a second post today, but I know so many people who are in school or preparing to go on to graduate school that I absolutely had to share this link to 136 free Kaplan test prep books . (Parents of small kids scroll down, I have a free book for you too!) I have had a Kindle for a little over the year and use it weekly. I have never paid for a book, ever. Currently there are more than 100 books on my Kindle and I take it just about everywhere I go. It always excites me when I see people sharing links to free Kindle books, but this one, because I know it can help so many people who want to improve their lives by getting more education, gets me really excited! The free books are test prep and college guides for the following tests - GMAT, SAT, GRE, MCAT, NCLEX-RN, AP, and maybe some more that I missed. I know the AP ones will come in handy at our house and the rest of these will help lots of people since this is the season for testing. Follow this link to fi...

One of the gifts I gave to my daughter's caregivers for Christmas last year was a monogrammed canvas. They are easy to make and you end up with a very personalized gift for not much money. You can choose the colors to match the decor in any room - a dining room, college dorm room, child's room. It is highly versatile. Supplies: 1 8x10 canvas 1 foam brush Bottle of Mod Podge 2 sheets of solid colored 8x11 cardstock for the background 1 sheet of 8x11 cardstock for the monogram (solid or pattered) To begin, tear your background cardstock into large pieces. Be sure to tear every edge because this is not a project that looks good with straight edges. Roughly layout your pieces on top of the canvas to see if you have enough and like the general shape they make. Once you are happy, gently slide them off so you can put them back in about the same way. In your favorite word processing software, type the letter of either the first or last name of the recipient and change it to...

I discovered the joy of making your own granola bars this week. And I might be hooked now. The recipe is super easy and highly customizable. I am looking forward to trying lots of different variations of it. Plus, it is highly frugal to make your own granola bars. For the cost of one box at the store I can make this recipe, which gives you any where from 24-30 bars depending on how you cut them. My friend Kim gave me the recipe, but she got it from someone else. So I'm just calling this Someone Else's Granola Bars. They come out soft and chewy and addictive. Someone Else's Granola Bars 4 cups rolled oats 1 cup whole wheat flour ¼ cup wheat germ or flax seed (I have used flax meal) ½ tsp salt 1 tsp baking soda ½ cup brown sugar ½ cup sunflower seeds, pepitas, walnuts, almonds, pecans, etc… any kind of nut. 1 cup any – craisins, raisins, dried apricots, dried apples, etc… 2/3 cup peanut butter 1 Tbsp vegetable oil 1 egg, slightly beaten ¼ cup water ½ cup hone...

February 1, 2011 EDIT: From now until February 16th, you can once again download Funnix Beginning Reading for free . Take advantage of this offer because when it is over, the price will increase to $38. ******************* After my last post about beginning to research reading systems, my friend Jane recommended Funnix as a free alternative for teaching Charlotte to read. Since I prefer free resources to those that cost money, I downloaded and installed it to see if it would work for Charlotte. She can already recognize all of the letters (90% of the time) and knows at least one phonetic sound for each letter so I think she is ready. We did play the Alphabet Game (also free from Funnix) before we started though to make sure she was ready. Initially, I had some trouble installing the Funnix software. I kept getting an error message regarding which drive I was trying to install the software on. Finally, after re-downloading it, I was able to install it. I will warn you though, it to...

The story of Jonah and the whale has been at the top of Charlotte's favorites list recently. And some play acting with Daddy recently resulted in this cute short. I guess we could call this her first leading role!

Recently, Charlotte has been begging me to teach her how to read. I don't mind trying, but I don't want to frustrate her. A friend gave me a box of Sing, Spell, Read and Write : Level 1 Kit (SSRW). She used this with 3 of her children and says wonderful things about it. It is also used by a local elementary school teacher with much success. The kit she lent me is old school with cassette tapes and a VHS video tape that I can't use, but all of the other materials are there. I have 2 other friends who have used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons with success. It looks much simpler than SSRW, and requires fewer manipulatives. Do any of you have any personal experience to add with either one. If you've taught your children to read at home, how did you decide which curriculum to choose? Do you think almost 3 1/2 is just too young to even try?

Our budget is tight and if my husband's employer has anything to do about it, the budget will be getting tighter. That's why I was so glad when I got my Shutterfly email today because it included a code for a free gift! Today I took advantage of that and planned ahead for a birthday gift. I don't think the recipient reads the blog very often, so hopefully she will skip over this post and not notice her name! Lovebird Toile Pink Thank You Card Turn your photos into thank you cards by Shutterfly. View the entire collection of cards.

I love to change the background on my laptop every month using the free desktop from the Shabby Princess blog. They are always gorgeous and help me show off my girls. As I said when I shared the 2009 desktops, posting these like this allow me to see how my family has changed over the year.  Apparently I skipped June. Or I misplaced the file. (Mom, do you have a June desktop?) And I know I skipped October & November. I was barely on the computer during that time. And I picked up my camera about as frequently. I suppose their absence says something about our family too. We were busy being together! (Photo credit for December - K Barber Photography ) Do you use any free scrapbook templates?   I'm always looking for consistent, quality sources that are free. Share your link in the comments.

The week after Christmas, Bruce and I finally decided to take a risk and move move Mary into Charlotte’s room. It has always been our intention for the girls to share a room and after 15 months, we were ready to reclaim our space. The crib has been in their room from the very beginning and Mary's been using a pack & play in our room. I didn't make sense to move Mary until she could reliably sleep through the night. Finally, with Bruce home for Christmas break, we were ready to try it.  And you know what, it worked.  We had been generally preparing Charlotte by letting her know the time would come. And the day before the big day, we sat down with Charlotte and told her the exciting news. And she was excited. Bruce was actually really surprised how excited she was to hear the news. Charlotte is a really great big sister. She watches out for Mary, loves to play with Mary, and most of the time, she likes to share her toys with Mary. So, I guess it shouldn’t surprise us too...

I like a challenge. And Babs has challenged me again to go further into the good mother that I am and list another 15 reasons I am a good mom. Yikes! It's a good thing she got me started with the first few. I do crafts with my kids (there are so many more I haven't even blogged about!) I take them to fun places. I try to convince them to eat new foods at least once a week (we tried fish last night!). We laugh together every day (see photo). I chronicle their lives here so they will know what they were like as little children. Even if I am currently months behind. Charlotte had a passport before her 2nd birthday & had used it . We gave them meaningful names . I am teaching them to be generous . I try to let them play outside every day. I made Charlotte write thank-you notes for her Christmas gifts. We limited the number of gifts they received for Christmas. I explained who the real Santa is and the real reason we celebrate Christmas . I asked Charlotte f...

Recently, I've been making my own bread. And everyone in the family loves it. There isn't one of us who doesn't walk past it in the kitchen without at least pondering whether or not to cut off a slice. Some of us ponder whether or not to slather it with Nutella . The recipe is super basic and works well with white bread flour or with a combination of that and whole wheat flour. I adapted an Amish White Bread recipe for our family's personal taste and my bread maker. I picked it up for $10 several years ago at a yard sale. I've seen others just as cheap at the thrift store too. If you have a bread maker, add the ingredients in this order: 2 cups warm water 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1/2 cup white sugar 6 cups bread flour (split between white & wheat if you like) 2 teaspoons salt 1 1/2 teaspoons dry active yeast Once everything is in the bread maker, just set it to the dough setting and you can walk away for 90 minutes (depending on the manufacturer setting...