Ready to escape the summer and pull your hair out yet? I sure am….
Are your kids fighting? Ready for school to start back up like me? What creative things do you do with your kids to keep them from driving you bonkers during the summer?
Crusing For Giveaways 6/16
June 16, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Happy Father’s Day! Be sure to spoil your pop with some of these great giveaways! Remember many giveaways have daily entries so you can have multiple chances at winning the giveaways you want most!
Welcome to Cruising for Giveaways Hop! This hop is brought to you by Charisma Media!
Cookin’ With Hayley- Rosemary Tumeric Chicken
June 14, 2013 By 4 Comments
Happy Friday ya’ll!!! It’s Hayley again from Hayley’s World with another super yummy,super easy and healthy recipe.
So as you can probably tell I like recipes that don’t require too much measuring. This one is no exception.
What you’ll need:
*4 chicken breasts (boneless and skinless)
*Fresh rosemary
*a lemon
* 1-2 cups chicken broth
* 1 tbsp coconut oil
*2 tsp onion powder
*1 tsp sea salt
*1/2 tsp tumeric
*freshly ground pepper
What you’ll do:
*Heat oven to 400 degrees
*Mix spices in bowl and rub on both sides of chicken
*Brown both sides of chicken in coconut oil (about 4-5 each side)
*Quarter lemon and squeeze juice on chicken and throw in lemons peels.
*Throw in a few sprigs of rosemary
*Pour broth over chicken to come about halfway up the chicken
*Place pan in oven and bake for about 30 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink
We served it with brown rice and fresh steamed green beans. So yummy! Total cost was about $8 ($5 for pack of chicken, less than $1 for lemon and a couple bucks when you portion out the spice (if that)).
Enjoy!!!
Another fabulous recipe from Hayley and I love How simple this meal is. A great choice instead of brown rice, that I just learned about is Freekah. It has twice the protein and fiber that brown rice has!
Be sure to leave your comments below and if you try this recipe come back and give us a shout, and let us know how you liked it!
Save Time and Work Less Tip #9
June 13, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Unsubscribe and Organize your email addresses.
You probably find that throughout the day, you get flooded with junk mail that you do not read or you subscribed to e-mail newsletters that no longer interest you. The easiest way that I found to do this is to open and scroll down to the bottom of unwanted e-mail and hit unsubscribe.
Do this at least 5 times each time you access your e-mail inbox and before you know it your junk will dwindle down. There are services that help you unsubscribe but you have to take the time to enter the e-mail into their system. I believe it to be more more time effective to just do it a little bit at a time using the hyper links already provided to you.
When it comes to organization, you may wish to set up new email addresses and organize them something like this:
- cratchit@bobsyouruncle.com = Family, close friends, contact address for your kids’ school or lessons (your strictly personal email)
- info@bobsyouruncle.com = your blog email address
- offers@bobsyouruncle.com = your subscription address: The one you sign up with
- clients@bobsyouruncle.com = Correspondence to and from clients only
That way, you should never experience inbox confusion (or miss important emails) again. And you will know where to look for particular types of email.
You can even read each inbox on different schedules, instead of compulsively checking each one, all at once.
Another option is to make different folders within your inbox if you have one or two main e-mails you use. I have a folder for family e-mail, work, kids stuff, newsletters etc. then instead of everything all going to my inbox they automatically are separated by their category. Also this helps with keeping track of e-mails I do not want to put into the trash.
I recommend using a calender in your email system as well. This can keep track of your entire household schedules and will e-mail you to remind you when something is up. I prefer to have everything all in one place if I can.
How do you like to organize your e-mail?
Free Bowling All Summer Long!
June 12, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Every year we sign up Kids Bowl Free the kids get two FREE bowling games under 12 years every day all summer long and it’s a nationwide program and now extends into Canada!!
This is our fourth year signing up for this program. It’s completely Free to use so if you never make it, it’s nothing lost but a great deal even if you only go once! We usually take advantage a few times during the summer. You do however, have to pay for shoes.
During a hot summer day when your ready to pull out your hair or worse, on a rainy day when the kids are ready to kill one another….
Mommy saves the day with bowling!
I print out our tickets that are e-mailed once a week and off we go! 2 games for my kids are plenty all you pay for is the shoes plus tax!
It’s 100% FREE other than the cost of shoes, shoes you can find at a thrift store or online cheap and then you no longer have to pay for shoes!!
However, if you want to bowl your kids you can buy a family pass for up to 4 adults to receive 2 FREE games every day all summer long for only $24.95. This is completely optional but a great way to save!! Plus, you can add any four adults or children over 12 no matter where they live, unlike other family passes where you all have to be in the same household.
So what are you waiting for go register for FREE!!
Getting signed up is easy!
1. Go to KIDS BOWL FREE
2. Create your account (I would love it if you mentioned, Leah.Christians(at)gmail(dot)com referred you 
)
4. Add you kids names, print out your coupons!
3. Choose to buy the family Plan then, later or not at all!
Inspirational Tuesday 6/11
June 11, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Have you missed these? I know I missed a few weeks. I got thrown off from our last Holiday and last week I was adjusting to our summer schedules.Please enjoy this week’s moment of inspiration!
What do you want badly enough that your ready to make it happen? Weight, money, organization? I’d love to hear your comments below and be sure to visit me on Facebook!
Monday Mommy Maddness 6/10
June 10, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Summer is in full swing at our house. While I still have a bit of work to do and chores to be done around the house. I plan to make this a productive summer for my kids, both in academics and in fun.
Image credit: momsbyheart.net
How many of you supplement or give your children homework during the summer? I like to make sure their minds stay sharp and on the ball. They are motivated to do so because they know each day holds a fun activity like swimming or playing at the park if they do. Our library also gave out FREE museum passes to local museums so we will be visiting and learning the local history this summer as well.
What are your summer plans with your kids? How many of you supplement or give your children homework during the summer? I would love to hear your comments below and be sure to visit on Facebook!
Crusing For Giveaways 6/9
June 10, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Another week has come and gone so be sure you check out all the great new giveaways going on all week!Remember many giveaways have daily entries so you can have multiple chances at winning the giveaways you want most!
Welcome to Cruising for Giveaways Hop! This hop is brought to you by Charisma Media!
Headed to College? Books Cost a Fortune, or Do they?
June 7, 2013 By 4 Comments
Now that summer is upon us, we have Fall to look forward to.I like to make sure I start my Fall preparations as early as possible so I can catch each item I need on sale without worrying about last minute school needs.
If you have kids going into college, then you have to worry about books and as we all know, books are not cheap. I spent over $800.00 in one semester on books and they were used books for the most part. When I sold my books back, I was lucky if I broke $100.00. I wish they had book rental companies like they do now for College age students and parents.
There are TWO great places to rent books that I have recently been introduced to:
CampusBookRentals.com allows you to rent any book available and then when your done you simply return it.
How does it work?:
www.RentBack.com allows you to rent out YOUR books to other students over and over until the book is no longer in demand. ( HOW COOL IS THAT?) Now your not loosing money your making money!! Perfect for any college goer! Potentially, this program could offset school book expenses down to almost nothing.
What is Rentback?
Comparatively both companies offer
-savings of 40-90% off of bookstore prices
-free shipping both ways
-students the ability to highlight in the textbooks
-flexible renting periods
-a donation to Operation Smile with each textbook rented
- a refer a friend program for additional savings
Bookstores just cannot compete with this!
Operation Smile is a great non-profit organization that offers dental to children across the globe who cannot afford proper dental care. Maybe you have seen their ad’s on TV, you know the heartbreaking commercials with the kids who need surgeries on their face.
Children like this…
image credit: http://www.operationsmile.org/blog/2013/diagam.html
Operation Smile provides free surgeries to repair cleft lip, cleft palate and other facial deformities for children around the globe. and every text book rented helps this amazing cause, a cause that has been helping children for over 30 years now!
Most people know of at least one student headed to college this summer, or one parent who is banging their head on a table somewhere wondering, how they are going to help pay for college.
Do you have a student going off to college soon?
Be sure to share these great programs and let me know what you think below!
Save Time and Work Less Tip #8
June 6, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Find your most productive time of day.
It’s a sad fact that most of us really know our most productive time of day – that time when you can think clearly and sharply, you’re in the “zone” and you get twice as much work done as later (or earlier) in the day. It’s a sad fact because few of us honor those precious hours. Instead we fill them with non-billable, non-creative tasks such as:
- Checking email
- Cruising Facebook
- Making beds
- Browsing news sites and websites
And doing a whole host of other tasks that could easily be done (a) another time during the day (b) after “hours” (c) by someone else.
When you find that sweet spot in your day, make it sacred. Cut out everything that will distract you. Find other solutions, if it’s something you “have” to do. (There’s always a way!)
But honor that sweet spot – and use it!
My best working hours are Typically before the kids are awake and moving, the wee hours where many sleep and few arise. Sometimes they are late at night, but that is rare. Mid-Afternoon is another good time I get moving!
When are your best hours? Do you make the best of them or are you doing other things?
