Frugal Ways to Entertain Your Kids this Summer

Summer vacation is a time that most children excitedly look forward to. It is easy to see why. They get a whole lot of free time! Parents are going to need some frugal ideas for fun activities that will entertain their children. Here are a few ideas to try. Bubbles Little kids cannot get enough of bubbles! You can pick up small bottles of bubbles, complete with bubble wand, from a dollar store. Check the dollar racks at Target, too. Parents can sit down outdoors and blow bubbles that their toddlers will chase. Older kids can blow bubbles on their … Continue reading

More Fun Pregnancy Symptoms: Leg Cramps

In the middle of the night a few weeks ago I woke up with a terrible pain in my leg.  I cried out about it, and immediately began trying to rub and move my leg.  My more-than-half-asleep husband drowsily watched me do this.  He watched me try to bend my leg, to rub it, to put weight and hobble around the room on it.  When I made it to the bathroom he followed me, and asked me if I thought I was just having Braxton-Hicks.  In my leg.  Now we know that if I go into labor in the middle … Continue reading

Four Ways to Reduce Your Heating Bill

If the weather INSIDE is frightful because you are afraid of home heating bills, you won’t spend a very pleasant winter. A better solution is to stay warm by finding multiple ways of reducing your heating bill and then combine these strategies to reduce your heating bill to the lowest cost possible. Selective Heating Only heat the rooms you are actually using. Are there any rooms that can be closed off temporarily during the coldest part of the year? Even if your home isn’t zoned, you can make it warmer in the rest of the house by isolated unused rooms. … Continue reading

Benefits of Treadmills and Elliptical Exercisers

Going to the gym is not my thing.  And I always crack up whenever I drive past the clubs with the large windows, where you can see people walking on treadmills. For some reason, sweating seems like something that should be done in private.  But maybe that’s just me. At the same time, I’m not the type of person to fork out a lot of money on gym equipment.  Especially if there is the chance I won’t stick to it.  But a few years ago I made a worthwhile investment when I purchased a treadmill. Notice that I didn’t say … Continue reading

Moms Living with Chronic Back Pain

Is lower back pain keeping you sitting on the sideline of your own life? Like so many moms, I have been spending the last several years carting around infants, toddlers, and groceries, picking up stray toys and toting baskets of laundry. Now that my kids are older and I am spending more time working at my desk and driving them around in endless carpools, my lower back pain is flaring up again. Chronic back pain has plagued me in my adult life. I have gone through phases in my life where I have made more time for exercise and health. … Continue reading

How Do You Feel about Your Progress?

Every-so-often my personal trainer asks me, “How do you feel about your progress so far?” Of course, this is my virtual trainer through a Wii program I use, but I still appreciate the question because it causes me to take a step back and really think about how far I have come and how far I have to go. Measuring progress will depend on your goals. Sometimes when I think about progress, I think about the weight I have lost. Other times I think about the changes in the way I feel about myself overall. Or even the amount of … Continue reading

DIY Summer Camp

Spring break wraps up today. Tomorrow it’s back to school; much to my second grader’s chagrin. After nearly two weeks of vacation all I can say is… I’m not prepared for June. Spring break gave us a taste of summer and now I know why area day camps filled up in February. As in the second month of 2012, nearly a half-year away from the start of summer vacation. Parents around here don’t fool around when it comes to getting rid of their kids when school is out. I mean immersing their children in valuable summer enrichment programs designed to … Continue reading

Making Healthy Living Your Lifestyle

Healthy living for some people comes naturally. For others it takes effort, time and some adjustments to their lifestyle. First take a look at your lifestyle. What are you eating? What are you doing in your spare time? How much exercise do you get each week? How many hours of sleep a night do you get? After taking a look at where you are at, pick one or two things to work on. It could even be a small change in what you drink or eat. For example, if you are an excessive coffee or soda drinker, scaling down to … Continue reading

Find Your Passion, Find Your Business

If you are thinking of making the switch to working at home, why not also make the switch to a different type of work. Work that inspires you, work that excites and interests you, work that seems a little less like work because you enjoy it so much. No one ever said that work can’t be fun and if you choose work that makes you happy, your quality of life will improve immensely. When you are choosing a home-based business, it is easy to be tempted to choose the option that you feel will make you the most money with … Continue reading

Will Your Body Bounce Back?

The truth of the matter is, that there are some parts of your body that may never bounce back. I hate to sound negative, but I like to keep it real too!! After all, there are some things that I wish other women would have told me about how much my body would change, and how some parts of my body would never be the same again! Some women have it easy. You know the type. They are most likely thin to begin with, have never struggled with their weight, and bounce back from each and every pregnancy like it … Continue reading