I never thought I’d need to know how to get melted crayon out of laundry. I remember leaving crayons in the car when I was a kid, where they melted into a congealed mess in their box. But I never remember leaving any in pockets to go through the wash. (Why would you put crayons […]
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I’ll admit it. The name Yummy Summer Breakfast Parfait is a blatant attempt to follow my long-standing rule of giving foods appealing names. A recent scientific study at Stanford confirmed my practice: People are more likely to try strange foods with appealing names. But like other recipe names I’ve bestowed, it’s also based in reality.
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I have to admit, I was pretty proud when I dropped Kimmie off at her first sleep-away camp adventure yesterday. She’s there for all of two nights, and her luggage reflected this fact. Thanks to the family camping splurges we invested in last summer, she was one of the best-outfitted kids there. And also one
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As longtime readers know, I’m not a fan of having stuff one doesn’t need. But if you camp often enough, these family camping splurges are worth considering. And many of them have uses beyond family camping trips. I added these things to our family camping checklist after three back-to-back camping trips last summer. While we
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(NOTE: I first wrote “Loving the Environment for Kids: My Top Five Tips for Raising Eco-Friendly Offspring” as a guest post for The Everyday Ecologist in June 2016. Since it’s no longer available on that website, I’m republishing it here with a few updates while I’m traveling. Enjoy! – Flossie) What do your kids know
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Tick season is going to be especially bad this year. More ticks = more tick bites = greater risk of contracting Lyme Disease or another tick-borne illness. And as I noted in my last post, permethrin clothing treatment is your best bet to keep ticks away. Of course, you can buy clothing commercially treated with
Permethrin Clothing Treatment: A DIY Guide (Save Money!) Read More »
Does your family have a Tasting Garden yet? If not, and you have a little chunk of ground (or even a large pot and a sunny spot), you need one. Our Tasting Garden is the girls’ favorite spot in the front yard, and Essie especially loves to sample its goodies and share them with our
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Do your summer plans already have you reeling from sticker shock? Mine do. However, there ARE ways to save on summer camp. I’ve already put several of these hacks to use, and saved hundreds of dollars. So I decided these tips were too good to keep to myself! 10 Tricks to Save on Summer Camp
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Some of you may have been wondering why, for a parenting blog, photos of my children are noticeably absent. I’ve been wanting to write for awhile now about why you won’t see my kids’ faces here, but honestly, I’ve been afraid to do so. However, this absence has been weighing especially heavy on my heart since Easter.
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Have you fallen in love with melamine sponges yet? Those things also known as Magic Erasers truly do work magic, if you’ve never tried them. They’re also a great way to get your kids into the cleaning act. If this cleaning powerhouse is new to you, here are my Top 10 Cleaning Hacks with Melamine Sponges 1.
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I’m now just over two months into my bullet journaling experiment. For those of you who’ve thought about bullet journaling – either to become more efficient and organized, or to help you juggle your competing to-do’s – yes, it’s made a huge difference in those areas. But I’m also surprised to discover another upside: Bullet journaling has unquestionably made
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So you’re a parent of older kids, whose new-baby days are long since a mental blur. Or the “fun aunt/uncle”-to-be who’s never been a parent. Or you’ve been invited to the shower for a friend’s soon-to-arrive grandbaby. You want to honor the pending arrival with THE BEST baby shower gift ever. Now, if only you
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Perhaps you’ve read my previous post on things you could toss from your garage (or other favorite personal dumping-ground) NOW. And you’re ready to make the most of your newfound space, so it stays neat for more than two seconds. So it’s time for a post on my favorite hacks to organize your garage. While these hacks
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Spring is nearly here, as my children keep reminding me. Time for some spring cleaning. Or making good on those New Year’s resolutions to clear out the clutter. Either way, here are ten things to purge from your garage NOW. If you don’t have a “garage,” substitute “attic” or “basement” or “junk closet” – wherever you stuff things
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It’s a fact of life. As the crowded image above suggests, baby gear takes up a LOT of space. So how do you manage a baby in a SMALL space? We were facing this prospect when I was pregnant with Kimmie, and my husband and I were still living in his bachelor pad. We finally
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French Toast is one of those things I’ve always known how to make. Don’t ask me how; I just have. It never occurred to me that anyone would need a recipe for French toast until a month ago. That’s when my husband, the more skilled chef in our household, got the uncharacteristic urge to make some. And
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When’s the right time to teach your kid to budget? I vaguely recall my parents mentioning budgeting before college, which is when I became responsible for handing over a check each month at the bursar’s office. Nothing drives home the importance of budgeting like making sure your earnings will cover next month’s tuition payment. We’ve all heard of – and
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Or laundry-routine must-haves, if your laundry “room” is the nearest laundromat. These laundry hacks have saved my clothes more than once over the years. They’ve also helped keep the girls’ fave outfits in the rotation, especially after major mealtime mishaps. Far as I’m concerned, keeping things organized around a home with small children starts in the
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The ultimate parenting hack, if I could pull it off, would be figuring out how to bring back my mojo. That sense of bigger-picture control over my life that I vaguely recall feeling before Kimmie was born. In other words, the Ability To Get Things Done that I had before becoming a parent. Memo to self:
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Happy New Year! I’m in the middle of several weeks of enjoying holiday and vacation time with my family. Hence, in lieu of a longer post, I thought I’d share seven-year-old Kimmie’s resolutions and goals for the new year. Kimmie’s New Year Resolutions Kimmie actually volunteered some personal new year resolutions to my mother a
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