Making Motherhood Simpler Tip 1 - Don't Serve Green Beans....

Hysterical! I just had to share!

Great Baby Gift Idea!

I just got off the phone with my older sister who became a new mom three weeks ago. She was excitedly telling me about her baby announcements and the Christmas cards that she was making on Shutterfly. She proceeded to tell me that she got a $50.00 gift certificate to the site from a friend.

It was one of those moments when I was thinking..."I wish I would have thought of that". Actually, the selfish part of me was thinking "I wish I would have GOT that".

What a neat idea for a gift. I've used Shutterfly several times and have always been thrilled with the ease of use and photo quality. Now, I will be using the site as my new favorite baby-gift place.

Tags: baby shower, gift ideas, gift cards, gift certificate, photos, photo development, digital photos, upload, shutterfly, snapfish, photomax

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Christmas...Simplified.

This is the first year that I've ever given some forethought to Christmas. Normally, I am one of those frantic shoppers you see sifting through the Target shelves on Christmas Eve.

Not this year! My daughter turned 3 this year and my son turned two. My daughter is already excited for the holidays which makes me enthusiastic too. I can't wait to make cookies, put homemade decorations on the tree, make flavored cocoas. Yes, I have big plans this year and so does my little girl.

I did some searching this weekend for holiday crafts and came across this wonderful site! They offer craft ideas, meal plans, decor ideas and more! What I love most is the Christmas Countdown. I refuse to be *that* shopper this year and hopefully, this site will help!

Tags: organized Christmas, cards, gift ideas, crafts, meal plans, Holiday, homemade, organization

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Grape Jelly Medicine

I was visiting my parents a month ago when my son started teething. When my mom grabbed a silver spoon to feed him some medicine I cringed. Jakey was wearing my favorite jersey and he has a nasty habit of letting medicine drool out of the corners of his mouth.

Then, my mom did something odd. She squeezed the bottle and out came a perfect little dollop of what looked like grape jelly. He took his medicine, she wiped his mouth, and his Vikings jersey was saved for the rest of the season.

I have been using this product ever sense and I love it (and so does my laundry!)

Mac & Cheese Anonymous.

Yes, I am guilty. I serve mac and cheese WAY TOO OFTEN....and cereal.... & chicken nuggets....and hotdogs.

Ick, I know...but the kids love it, and I hate meal planning.

I am pretty excited about the new site developed by the creator of "Dine Without Whine". See sidebar link.

This is awesome. She actually creates a menu for our kids AND a shopping list. I am so excited about a no-brainer plan for breakfasts and lunches. I have a lot of "meal-guilt" and this certainly beats my mac-and-cheese anonymous meetings.

Enjoy.

Homemade Ornaments Galore!

Family Fun Magazine - Online

If you are like me, you really aren't ready to start thinking about Christmas. You are probably still trying to put together a Thanksgiving dinner menu.

I have the perfect way to get you in the mood for the Holidays a little bit early. Make some ornaments! If you start right now, you can have a bunch of kid-crafted ornaments ready for your tree. You'll save some money on expensive ornaments. You'll create memories. Plus, you will have a lot of quick and easy activities for the upcoming cold winter days. My kids already have cabin fever...only 5 months to go. (Yikes).

Click on the graphic for a mother load of ornament ideas from Family Fun Magazine.

Enjoy & Have Fun!

Turkey Hands...and more

My daughter came home from preschool this week with an adorable little pumpkin that had green leaves that were created using her little hand.

I love, love, love handprint crafts. They are such a great reminder of how quickly time passes and how precious our kiddos are!

Here is a wonderful site I found that offers a wide variety of handprint crafts. Wouldn't it be fun to create the classic Turkey Hand Craft every year and watch how the turkey grows? Okay, so your teenagers may not play along, but it will be fun for awhile!

Check out the site....

Speaking of Crock Pots...

Since I am on this big crock pot cooking kick lately I thought I would share some of my favorite recipe links and books.

You may want to bookmark this post I go back to these sites weekly and know you will too!

• Crockpot Cooking (simple site with a lot of great recipes).

• Cooking Cache (a motherload of user-submitted recipes)

• AllRecipes (my personal favorite...includes reviews)

• Recipezaar (great site with user submitted recipes. Some include photos)

• CD Kitchen (easy to search & navigate and tons of recipes)

• Ladies Home Journal (site includes a top-ten crockpot recipe list)
  

Crockpot Liners

We had a horribly busy week and I made 5 meals in my crockpot this week. I am IN LOVE with my crockpot!

When I was happily bragging to my friends about all of the wonderful "comfort meals" I made this week, a few of them mentioned Crockpot Liners.

What? I didn't even know such a thing existed! After soaking, scrubbing and rinsing my crockpot for at least 20 minutes every evening, I thought I would give them a try.

Now I am even MORE in love with my crockpot! You simply place a liner over the pot...fill it with your goodies, toss and eat. Really, does it get any better than that?

Now someone just needs to come up with plate liners, silverware liners and pot liners. I HATE doing dishes!

Give them a try, and let us know what you think by clicking on "comments".