Fun blog find

I found this totally cute blog that has a ton of homemade projects. My favorite is the binkie clip! And if you don't like to make things, she sells a lot of her projects on etsy. Check her out!

Food Storage Helper

A friend of mine sent me a link to this website. It is a free website that you use to help you rotate your food storage. This is what the website has to say about it.

"My Food Storage currently* has a very basic feature set- it keeps track of food expiration dates. You enter food items and their expiration dates, and My Food Storage will send you email reminders as you approach those expiration dates giving you enough time to use up your food storage as well as replace it.

My Food Storage was created to be an easy-to-use, "set it & forget it" type of application that will help you remember to rotate your food ensuring that you have fresh food storage."

I think this is great!!! I know I need food storage for not only emergencies, but to save money so I can buy a lot when prices are low, but I'm lousy at getting it all together. I know I find cans of food all the time that I have bought years ago. (Some from when I was first married. Yikes!) What a great organizing tool for the naturally unorganized, like me. If any of you try this site, let me know what you think of it.

Check it Out: www.myfoodstorage.info

One Cookin' Mama

When reading one of the many blogs I am subscribed to, I came across a link to an amazing blog. That is if you love to crockpot like I do. (I suppose crockpot isn't a real verb, is it?)

A Year of Crockpotting

She has a tons of great crockpot recipes. I can't wait to try some of them! I think using your crockpot is such a time save. Throw everything in in the morning and come home to a great diner.

Plus, if you or any of your family members have celiac, all her recipes are gluten free. This is wonderful! I was diagnosed with celiac (Lucky for me it was a misdiagnosis and we dicovered the realy problem a year later) and it is tough to find good gluten free food that your whole family wants to eat. (Note: If you are eating gluten free, she reminds you to check all your labels because manufacturer change ingredients without warning.)

Storynory

I just found a great website I wanted to share with you all, storynory.com. It is fantastic. they have tons of audio books for children that you can download for free. They have fairytales, classic, and even some original stories.

Here is how to download them onto your computer so you can burn them on a CD. (I only share because R had to tell me how to do it) When you pick a category then pick a story, the script of the story is there. above the script is a play button, so you can play the story from you computer while following along in the story. Above the play button it says "Download the audio" (or something close to that. It's different for every story) You want to right click on that (or control-click for a Mac). Click on "Save As" or "Save Link As." This should allow you to download it onto your computer.

What a great thing to listen to in the car. I'm planning on making a CD for B and S to listen to next time they come down. Plus, I bet you have children's book of many of these stories. You children can follow along with the book. Don't worry if the story isn't quite the same. Your young children will love to follow the pictures.

Thanks Storynory!

Princess Hairdos

I was looking online for some cute Halloween ideas and came across a fun hairdo blog, shedoeshair.blogspot.com. If your daughter is a princess this year, you might want to check out some of these great tutorials.

Snow White Hairdo
Jasmine Hairdo
Cinderella Hairdo
Tinkerbell Hairdo and my favorite,
Belle Hairdo

Even if your little girl isn't a princess this year, still check out her blog. She has some great ideas. And she takes pictures of her creating from all angles, so you can see what they are suppose to look like. Some of them look hard to me (but what do I know, I have a baby boy) but others look easier. All of them are definitely worth trying.

Happy Hairdoing. (Is that a word? :)

Power Of Parents

I came across a website with tons of information to help keep your children safe from abduction. It's called PowerOfParentsOnline.com. It has tips on how to keep you kids safe, how to talk to your kids about how to keep themselves safe, and what information you should have available and updated if you child should ever be abducted. I know this topic isn't really Fun 4 Mommies, but it is Important 4 Mommies to know.

You Can Cook Scholarship

Gourmet Mom on-the-go shared a $25,000 scholarship opportunity for your children related to making a PB&J sandwich. It's for kids between 6 and 12 years of age. Go to Jif.com to get all the info. And make sure to check out Gourmet Mom on-the-go's post for some ideas she is willing to share. Or use them to inspire your ideas. I would have D enter if he was old enough. Too bad. And check out all the fun posts at GourmetMomOnTheGo.blogspot.com. She is full of tons of ideas. I plan on trying some of them in the future.

Contest Dates: August 4, 2008 and November 14, 2008

German Pancakes....Sort Of

At MakeandTakes.com, she calls the Pop Up Pancakes. They are basically German pancakes, baked in cupcake tin instead of a casserole dish. I suppose you could use any German pancake recipe, but I used the recipe from Makeandtake.com. All I changed was I used 1/2 cup all purpose flour and 1/2 cup of ground wheat that my father-in-law ground up for us. They still turned out wonderful!

We also made some mini-cakes in my mini-cupcake pan. Those were fun. I baked them for 7-8 minutes instead of 15. We tried all sorts of topping on your pop-ups. My favorite was syrup. My husband's favorite was butter and jam. We didn't have any fresh fruit/berries. I think that might have been the best, maybe with a little whip cream. Yum, yum! Just a note: if you've never had German pancakes before, they don't taste like regular pancakes. They are a little more egg-y but still really good.

To my Sis: You should try making them for B. And if she is still stuck on round pancakes, let her know I'll make her some next time you guys come down. My mother-in-law has the pan.

NOTE: If you've never checked out Makeandtakes.com, you should. She is way creative and has tons of fun ideas to try out.

Journal Jars...And A Couple Of Blogs

OK, so as you all may know, I use Google Reader. One of the blogs I have subscribed to is The Plaid Post. I really like it. One of the posts she shared the other day was about Christmas being just around the corner. She also shared a website (which I am now also subscribed to) called Organized Christmas. It is great!!! Full of great ideas to help you with the busy holidays. I really suggest you check it out.

I just want to share one great idea I found there. It is an idea about Journal Jars. The idea behind a journal jar is to fill it with strips of paper with prompts, such as "What is your favorite game to play and why?" or "If I could have any super power it would be..." or "Five things I am most thankful for today are..." If you go to the website, you can download a bunch of great journaling prompts. (click here) Once you have a jar all full, it helps the child with daily (or weekly) journaling. It will become something you child and you can treasure for years to come.

When D gets older, I hope to start a family tradition of journaling. I would like to start a family journal. Also, I think journaling a great Sunday activity. Even when your kids are small, and too young to write, use PIE Night as a time to journal. As your child meets with Dad for one on one time, have Dad help them record their thoughts and feelings.

Let me know what your family does to record your own histories.

***Note: The prompt link was for a child's journal jar. Click here for some adult journal jar prompts. We need to be journaling too. :)

A Couple Of Blogs

Just a couple of blogs/websites I wanted to share with everyone.

First, imommies.com. They have this ability to find some major deals for you. Just this week I was able to order 2 free DVDs from Fisher-Price. I got the info from their blog. And when I say free, that includes no shipping or handling either. They also recently had a link to a website to get gift cards to some restaurants for 70% off. I subscribed to imommies a couple of weeks ago (I use google reader. It is a must for anyone who checks blogs often). It seems to me they don't post often, but when they do they have great information.

Second, seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com. This is a spoof blog.

The Deseret News' Mormon Times: "A clever twist on Mormon mommy blogs," it's "a hilarious spoof...so true to form, you might not catch that all those exclamation points are meant to be ironic."

I just read a bit, but even just reading the "about me" section made me want to pee my pants I laughed so hard. Only because it is all true. And I feel I can laugh because I have one of those personal blog they are making fun of. Some my feel offended by the blog, or just think it's dumb, but I liked it. Comment and let me know what you think.

Pediacast

I have recently been introduced to podcasts. I have an ipod that my husband bought for me a few years back. I usually just listen to music or books on it, but lately I have totally been into downloading podcasts. For those of you who doesn't know a podcast is "a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player" (www.bbn.com) I listen to several, but one I love is called Pediacast.



It is a weekly podcast produced by a board-certified pediatrician and Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Dr Mike earned his medical degree at The Ohio State University and has over 10 years of parenting and clinical practice experience. He answers questions sent in by parents. It is full of information. Give it a try. You can download current and old podcasts for free with itunes. But is you don't have an ipod or mp3 player to listen to it, you can listen for free on your computer at pedicast.org. The show notes are on the main body of the blog and to listen to the show click on the podcast player in the left side colunm.

If anyone else has discovered any other great family oriented podcasts, please share them with us.
Happy Listening!

Cheerios Anyone?

Kami shared a great blog she came across. chasingcheerios.blogspot.com
It has some great ideas. I really like all the homemake toy ideas she has, especially using photo copied family pictures to make easy two or three piece puzzles for a toddler. Homemake toy ideas are the best.

Thanks for sharing Kami!!!

Kids Can Cook

Kraftfoods.com has been a favorite of mine to find easy recipes, but did you know that have a whole kids section? The have lots of fun things that are easy for kids to make (such as the links below) Also kids-approved recipes and nutritional facts. Check them out. You'll fins something fun.

Cheesy Pizza “Fundue”

Cheesy Volcano Meatballs

Buried Treasure Cupcakes

Geocaching

Some girls at work were telling me about this. It's pronouned "geo-cashing" like cashing a check.

Geocaching is an outdoor treasure-hunting game in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers (called "geocaches" or "caches") anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook and "treasure," usually toys or trinkets of little value. Today, well over 800,000 geocaches are registered on various websites devoted to the pastime. Geocaches are currently placed in over 100 countries around the world and on all seven continents, including Antarctica. (wikipedia)

My friend L did it when her family went to West Virginia. You find the GPS coordinates only. You find the area and such for the "prize." L had purchased souvenirs from Utah, and when they found the "prize" they left their "prize" in it's place.

You need a GPS receiver and to sign up at the Offical Geocaching website (It's free). Let me know if anyone out there has tried it. It sound like a fun family activity. It would be a modern day treasure hunt.

****The official site (www.geocaching.com) answers any questions you may have.

Happy Hunting

Food Coloring Flowers

You can get a $4 bunch of white carnations at the local Walmart. Then get out your flower vases ready with water. Don’t use the flower food it may come with, it didn’t work as well. Then pour in about 10 or so drops of your desired food color. Cut your flower stems off a few inches and place in the water.

I got this idea from an awesome blog, www.makeandtakes.com. I love this blog. She has so many great ideas plus tons of links to other great blogs. I'm sure I'll post other great ideas from this creative lady.

Summer School!

Here is a website that has lots of coloring pages and worksheets you can print off. It will help you make sure your kids keep up on their letters and numbers during the summer.
abcteach.com

A Little Plug For Family Fun

I just wanted to plug a website that I love. It's familyfun.com. It has tons of ideas. I will still probably post ideas I get from the website, but I wanted to tell you guys you should all check it out. It's a blast. And make sure if you try ideas you find from there, post them on here and tell us how they worked out. Have Fun!

Bakerella

I found a fun blog.
http://bakerella.blogspot.com/
She has lots of fun ideas for cooking. Some are easier to make than others. I did the Shamrock Truffles (I just did strips not shamrocks on top) They turned out so yummy. A little messy but not too hard. And the Kiddos could help you roll them into balls.

Grocery Guru

KSL has a way you can sign up for a free podcast from the Grocery Guru. http://www.ksl.com/?nid=209
The instructions explain how to get the free podcast, and if you scroll down the right side, you'll see Grocery Guru. Click there and you can sign up. I've listen to him before and he seems to have some good ideas. I know the guy also has free seminars you can sign up for (I heard about it on the radio), but I can't find the info anywhere online. Let me know if anyone know anymore about it.

More Fonts

More fun, free fonts that aren't all handwriting fonts. They are done by the same guy as the other post. http://www.kevinandamanda.com/scrapbook/fonts/
Hope you guys like these one's too.