Stay Away From My Butt and Thighs

While extra money may be scarce around the holidays, extra pounds seem quite easy to come by. With all the parties and events and delicious food constantly surrounding us through this last part of the year, keeping unnecessary pounds off can be a serious challenge.

Thankfully, there are some very simple, yet effective tips you can use to combat that extra flab and keep those pounds from immediately attaching themselves to your butt or thighs. ;P

TrimMom.com has a free guide to help you stay slim during the holiday season. Find out:

• why your so prone to devouring comfort food
• how you may be setting yourself up for failure and
• why cutting all fat from your diet is NOT the answer

Plus find out how to create your own easy-to-follow game plan for overcoming holiday temptations. CLICK HERE to get your free guide today.

Mothering By Email

I came across this site of emails from moms to daughters and it made me think about how email has opened up a whole new avenue for mothering older children and those who have 'flew the coop'.

There are some ROFL emails and some made me grab the kleenex.

This is the one that struck me, what a great mom! And doesn't she just sum it up?

Your Stuck With Me

My email to my daughter has been limited since she is 15 and lives here but I did recently email her to get her email address just in case I ever need it. I'm sure she doesn't get her sense of humour from me...

Hi Robyn, I'm just trying to get the honour of your presence into my address book by sending you an email so that I can spam you when ever I want :0)

Love Mom
xoxoxo

Ah, mom mom mom, now that I have yours ill be mailing you all of my bills, this could be the beginning of something beatiful, now make me some dinner, im simply starved. It better be delicious, or ill be writing a very aggressive email to your boss (me)

Love Robyn

resisting urge to correct her spelling and punctuation, and yes, I wear my pants too high too...

(seriously, have you tried on a pair of jeans lately? I don't know how girls keep warm these days)

5 Free Ways to Further Your Education

This is a guest article that I thought might interest some of you. You might also enjoy the videos at Ted.com. I find them fascinating and can watch and learn for hours!

5 Free Ways to Further Your Education

Between the economic downturn and the ever-rising cost of tuition, most people have less extra cash to spend these days on education and personal development. But whether you are interested in increasing your expertise in a particular subject for your career or just have a life-long desire for knowledge, there are many options for furthering your education without breaking the bank. Here are five free things you can do right away.



1. Make use of your local museums. Most museums offer at least one day a month where admission is free. Check the website of your local museum to find out which day(s) they offer no or even low-cost admission. A museum is a great place to learn about history, art, fashion, technology, and more. Many museums also offer free lecture tours, lecture series, or supplementary educational materials.

2. Learn a new language on the Internet. Livemocha (www.livemocha.com), an online language learning community with over 1 million members worldwide, provides instructional content and the opportunity to practice language with native speakers through chat and video. The site includes lessons in 12 popular foreign languages, including Spanish, French, German, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, Arabic, Icelandic, Hindi, Italian, Portuguese and Korean. Best of all, it’s free to join!

3. Get a library card. Most libraries offer free or low-cost, one time membership. After you get a membership, you can check out as many books as you want for free. If you’re interested in a particular subject areas, most libraries have computer catalogs that allow you to search titles for specific to your interest area. The library can also be a great place to get involved with a book club or study group on a particular topic of interest.

4. Enroll in free community college courses. A number of community colleges offer non-credit courses at no cost. Chances are there may be courses available in your subject area. Check with your local community college to see what they offer.

5. Find free online resources for computer training. Various vendors offer free online tutorials for their software. Whether you’re interested in photo restoration or programming, you can probably find a free course online. You can check out current offerings from HP here: http://h30240.www3.hp.com/index.jsp

Which Classic Screen Dame Are You?

Yeah, they're a little silly. But these online quizzes are fun and take just a minute. See which screen dame you are.

Let us know in the comments.

Your result for The Classic Dames Test...

Myrna Loy

You are class itself, the calm, confident "perfect woman." Men turn and look at you admiringly as you walk down the street, and even your rivals have a grudging respect for you. You always know the right thing to say, do and, of course, wear. You can take charge of a situation when things get out of hand, and you're a great help to your partner even if they don't immediately see or know it. You are one classy dame. Your screen partners include William Powell and Cary Grant, you little simmerpot, you.

Find out what kind of classic leading man you'd make by taking the
Classic Leading Man Test.

Take The Classic Dames Test at HelloQuizzy

The Dreaded Electric Bill

Do you dread looking at your electric bill every month? I certainly do. Seems every time I get another one it's higher than the previous month's bill. Do you wish there was something you could do about it? Believe it or not there is a fairly easy solution to reducing that bill.

Taking some time to check your home making sure it's as energy and cost efficient as it can be can aid in reducing that outrageous bill. Due to lack of efficiency you could actually be loosing 25 % or more of the energy you use in your home.

With a few calculations and a little common sense, you can be on the road to savings and increasing your home’s use of energy.

Here are some common every day things you can do to save energy and money around your home:

1. Calculate your energy cost. To determine how and where to lower your costs you'll need to know how much fuel it takes to actually run your home and how much it costs. So, grab a few of your electric bills and check out those numbers.

2. What will it cost you to save? Now that might sound a little strange but you'll have to put some new practices in place to help reduce your energy bill as well as possibly taking some step to make your home more energy efficient.

3. What is your largest need? Some practices will save you much more in the long run than others so you'll need to figure out what the biggest need is and then go from there.

4. Develop new habits. Many of us have habits that waste energy every day. Recognizing these bad habits and replacing them with new energy saving habits will save energy, time and money.

These are only a few of the ways that you can begin to save money on your energy bill and have a more cost efficient home. There are many more ways to save and you will love how easily those savings come.

Cara Mirabella of TheHouseholdhelper.com is a mom just like you, her site is dedicated to saving you time, money and your sanity when it comes to managing your home. I really enjoy visiting her site and find it extremely helpful. She's also written several articles, reports and e-books including
How To Make Your House Energy & Cost Efficient. Take a few minutes and check it out I'm sure you and your checkbook will be glad you did.

American Society Is Full of Baloney

Sarah Palin's daughter is only 17, she's having a baby.......

...and, she's not married!  *gasp*

Of course she's not married, she's 17!  But the media has been saying that "unmarried" part like it's such a dirty little secret.  Would they find anything better to say if she was 17, having a baby and already married?  I doubt it.  It would still be "dirt."  

It boggles my mind how the media and society can be making such a big deal of Bristol Palin's pregnancy.  We live in a society where:

• No one wants to promote monogamy
  
• No one wants to tell teenagers to stay abstinent until marriage (much less practice it themselves)
  
• No one wants to promote saving "intimate relations" for the marriage bed 
  

...and yet the pregnancy of Sarah Palin's daughter is somehow a disgrace?  

Forget all the grown and matured ADULTS who are making this same mistake and "falling pregnant" when they are unmarried and at a point in their life when they didn't plan to have kids.  Forget all the grown ups who AREN'T having children as a result of their choice to abort their baby because they are unmarried and didn't plan to have kids at that time in their life.  Yeah, all that is common, it's not that big a deal, but God forbid a teenager be in that predicament.  This young lady, without all the "life experience" that adults have makes a mistake, keeps moving forward and it's somehow such a shameful situation?  That's so full of baloney!

I'm not saying I would want that for my kids.  I don't.  I'm just flabbergasted by how the whole situation is being painted and looked at my the media and by society when those groups of people are the very ones who accept, and sometimes even promote, the actions or life choices required for a young individual to end up in that situation.  

You can't "hang loose" with standards or moral codes then rail and criticize someone when they end up in a situation that is a direct result of living the a manner that you readily accept as "the norm."

In Their Own Time

Kids are funny. They never seem to do things when we want them to. With my oldest, I was always trying to "help" her to her next milestone. She was at about 6 steps, as far as walking goes, on her 1st birthday.

Now, with my youngest daughter, I was in no rush. She could take her sweet time growing up and I wouldn't worry one bit. Of course, now, at 9 months, she's already broken the "record" her biggest sister had at 1 year of age. Yesterday, I saw my baby girl take 10 steps in a row completely unassisted.

Then there's this bouncer I got her when she was little. My son loved his bouncer so I figured I'd get a cute one for her too. She couldn't use the one my son had because my older kids used to like to sit in it too and they sort of broke it. So a new bouncer it was for my baby.

Before she was born I saw the cutest pink bouncer! So when I saw a gently used one at a garage sale when she was a few months old, I had to get it. Of course, my little one didn't think as highly of it as I did. She never stayed in it for long (unlike my son in his bouncer) and I seriously was going to throw this thing away.

But of course, now that she's mobile and can go places on her own, she LIKES to climb into her bouncer and cruise in it. Go figure. I have a twit pic of her in it.



Now my oldest DD wants to potty train her. Maybe I should have her read some EC articles.

Who Says Geckos Aren't Cuddly?