• Back To School - Health

    Back to School Backpack Safety: How to Spare Your Child’s Back From Injury

    September 1, 2012 - By 

    I was sent several of these Backpack Binders for review and was the slightest bit confused when they arrived. Are they a backpack? Or a binder? Well, my energetic one shown here tore open the package and all was revealed. They are binders, of course, but with a difference. These Backpack Binders are extremely light, because the company that makes them believes the lighter the better and that children’s backpacks are already to full, which is leading to a large number of back injuries. So lighten the load in the backpack, by carrying one of these and you are off…

  • family

    Summer Night Easy Entertaining

    August 29, 2012 - By 

    Outdoor movie night at my sister-in-law’s house. It was a great way to spend a late August night. A sheet hung off the patio set outside, a projector that is borrowed and a DVD from the library. Use your computer to connect with projector. Add some treats, some family members and enjoy. Also very economical. Wordless Wednesday is a photo meme, hosted by many. Tara’s View of the World is where I usually link up. I hope the rest of the days of summer are good to you and your family.

  • Back To School - FASD - homes - special needs

    Linked Moms Chat is back – Home Schooling Tips

    August 22, 2012 - By 

      We’re Baaa-a-ack! Hey all you savvy moms and dads, we are back to our regular chats on the #linkedmoms channel. So, join us please at 8 pm EST tonight. (Wednesday) This week’s topic is in honor of Back to School. Yes, I said it. Back to School. Grr… not long enough for my summer, but hey I am not pouting. Never. Here at Linked Moms chat we like to bring i8n a guest every so often to take the mystery out of a topic. So, this week I am so thrilled to be chatting with Ann Marie Brown, my…

  • family

    Old El Paso Makes Dinner Fun #Giveaway #LMDConnector

    August 21, 2012 - By 

    Who doesn’t love taco night? Seriously. We spent a week at the cottage recently and the fridge was bare when we got home. Imagine that, no little magical fairies exist that do my shopping when I am away. Luckily a truckload of boxes at my front door revealed this great Old El Paso Family Fun Kit. I was thrilled to crack it open and have a Mexican – themed evening. The kit contained one Old El Paso Extra Mild Super Tasty Hard Taco Kit, a container of salsa, jalapenos, refried beans, and a family-sized container of Old El Paso Hard…

  • adoption_at_camp
    Parenting

    Adoption and Camp: Realities of #adoption

    August 12, 2012 - By 

    My daughter left for sleepover camp tonight. I raced back from Blogher in New York City to drive her down a gravel laneway ever closer to her grownup self. It is a little thing for some, developmental grains of sand slipping through a timer. But, I have learned, as a speaker, an adoption advocate and most of all an adoptive parent, there are very few little things when you are adopted. Everything is amplified. Everything is different. How does adoption at camp differ than any other camp experience? In a lot of ways actually. From separating from parents and understanding…

  • Parenting

    I’m Having Their Baby – on Oxygen – Review

    July 30, 2012 - By 

    In the course of under one hour watching this second episode of I’m Having Their Baby, I cycled through pretty much every emotion on the spectrum for human beings. After being amazed, I cried and then was a bit angry and sad, the horrified, upset and eventually totally grateful for the experience of viewing this incredible show. I received only one episode of the show, the second one. In episode two, two pregnant moms, Claudia and Mary, are seen making the decision to place their child for adoption or raise their child themselves. Claudia is a young woman, herself adopted…

  • family

    Wordless Wednesday: Summer Shadows

    July 24, 2012 - By 

    I was shooting quick pictures of my daughter having fun at a trailer park where friends were staying recently when I spied her shadow. For some reason the image caught me as symbolic.  Wordless Wednesday is a regular photography hop. I like to link up at http://www.tarasviewoftheworld.com/

  • family

    I Am A Sandwich Generation Superhero #sandgen

    July 24, 2012 - By 

    What a difference a year makes. Readers of thriftymommastips.com know all about this journey we have been on with my mom. It started one year ago and led us down a really rough path for a long period of time. It was tragic, drastic, devastating emotionally and financially, and it has left us all changed. Last summer, my Mom spent the greater part of two months in London hospitals as we tried to figure out what was going on. She was hallucinating and she was confused. Meanwhile her symptoms escalated. It was a sad and exhausting time _ one I…

  • family

    American Express Prepaid Card $10 Free

    July 24, 2012 - By 

    The American Express Prepaid Card. Get exclusive American Express benefits- with no credit check. Get your card now! Information about the offer: ORDER AN AMERICAN EXPRESS® PREPAID CARD, LOAD $50 OR MORE AT THE TIME OF ORDER, AND RECEIVE A COMPLIMENTARY $10 GIFT CARD1. Offer Ends July 31, 2012. Limit one (1) offer per Card. After qualifying for this offer, please allow 6 weeks for the $10 Gift Card to be mailed to the Card purchaser. I have not done this offer yet, but it comes to me from Escalate Affiliate network and they are reputable.