• Uncategorized

    Deb Matthews’ Children’s Book Drive

    January 9, 2011 - By 

    Olivia? Chronicles of Narnia, or Diary of a Wimpy Kid? No matter what your favourite children’s book, buy, or bring a gently used copy, to Health Minister Deb Matthews office and you can share it with a child who might not otherwise have a chance to discover your memorable childhood read. For the seventh year running Health Minister Deb Matthews children’s book drive is in full swing. This is a local literacy initative that Londoners support wholeheartedly every year. This year, like last year, I will take my children with me and encourage them to donate a new book to the…

  • family

    Friday Finds: Outerwear Because Baby It’s Cold Outside!

    January 7, 2011 - By 

    Hey all: I have found some great deals this week to pass on  for all of my loyal readers.Save.ca has some very good coupons including a $5 off Aleve coupon. Also look for my Healthy Resolutions giveaways this month. Thanks to everyone who took part in my first ever Twitter party. It was a success and I look forward to having more and bringing giveaways to you that way as well. Canadian Tire this week still has 50 % off their treadmills, bikes and elliptical machines.Children’s Place has extra 40 % off already marked down items.Old Navy: Kid’s uniform sale…

  • family

    Healthy Resolutions and a Twitter Party #drheather

    January 5, 2011 - By 

    Well, this month, with the theme of fresh starts and a brand new shiny year stretched out before us I am happy to announce my first ever twitter party. I hope this will be a regular feature for thriftymommedia, so join us for information and to win some of the great prizes we have available. Join us Thursday at 1 p.m. (that’s this week. the 6th) for a twitter party with @drheathernd, a naturopathic doctor and author of the very cool, educational and engaging Human Body Detectives series and myself @inkscrblr. Dr. Heather will take questions about your child’s health and…

  • Giveaways

    More Kickass Blogging Lessons From 2010

    January 3, 2011 - By 

      It occurred to me after my post the other day – part one of my Kickass Blogging lessons that I had a bit more to say and a few more tips to pass on to others. So here is part two for you. 1. Be true to your genre. If you are a blogger who writes about technology, own it. Don’t suddenly deliver, I dunno, food blogging tips, because that will be confusing to readers. 2. Be true to your voice. If you are bitchy, snarky and all that, maintain it across media: twitter, linked in, Facebook and blogger.…

  • blogging
    family

    My Many Kickass Lessons in Blogging 2010

    December 30, 2010 - By 

    I believe it’s important to take stock every so often and reflect on what worked and what didn’t work in business. Same is true for blogging. Blogging is a business and it grows every year and changes too so it’s vital to stay on top of some trends, while avoiding roadblocks when you can. Here’s what I learned from blogging this year. Well this is my second year blogging and a much more successful one than the first. I attribute much of that to treating the blog as a business this year. Many of the lessons I learned in 2010…

  • Technology

    Yogi Bear in 3D: A Vanilla Movie Review

    December 30, 2010 - By 

    Well I have had a run of bad movies here lately and this one sadly is just another silly notch on that list. I was looking for something fun to do with my children the other day on Christmas holidays and well, we decided a movie was in order. We went in hoping to see another show which had been moved and stumbled upon this one, newly released and based kind of, on the cartoon series of my childhood. The story was thin – a scheming bear, named Yogi, a park ranger and the bear’s little buddy Boo-Boo set out…

  • family

    Savvy Saving at Christmas

    December 24, 2010 - By 

    Well, I realize this one is late, but better late than never as I say. I once had a colleague who worked every year at Christmas. She was young and had no children herself and she enjoyed making the extra couple of dollars that working that day afforded. So, when her extended family gathered together in Kitchener, it was after Boxing Day. She smartly did all of her shopping on Boxing Day and saved a lot of money that way. If that is not an option for you and you still struggle to meet your budget, there are some other…

  • family

    Nanny McPhee Returns – Review

    December 22, 2010 - By 

    We missed this one at the movie theatres and had our first chance to see it yesterday. After my daughter had several teeth pulled, and others fixed, we were looking for a quiet way to spend the afternoon. So we curled up and put Nanny McPhee Returns on the television. My kids and I are both big fans of the first Nanny McPhee movie, in which a hideous nanny with a heart of gold and a tricky disciplinary strategy comes to help a widowed undertaker care for his brood of really rambunctious children. Nanny McPhee was a fun, surprisingly clever…

  • Back To School - FASD - special needs

    When They Exceed Your Expectations

    December 19, 2010 - By 

    My children have both given me hundreds of proud moments. They both excel at something. My eldest is bright and talented and pretty much every year from the time she started school she has won awards. Student of the month. Check. A’s in every subject. Check. Friends. Check. She is a beautiful smart and creative overachiever. My youngest child is now six. She is beautiful and smart and incredibly athletic and she also has special needs. I love her madly and we agonized for years over the choice of school for her. We kept her at a great private preschool as…