The following is a guest post. I actually have a friend who worked in the UK as a social worker for a while. That's where she met her husband. What a great way to see the world, right? Social work is one of the most varied and rewarding careers you can go into. Social work jobs are dynamic, challenging and diverse, and no two days are ever the same. However, despite this, … [Read more...]
Cooking : The Good, The Bad and The Surprising
I have always loved to cook. I assume it is the same with many families but for me it was always a time of togetherness with a side of great adventure. My mother had this spiral notebook which held mystical recipes that she used to turn boring dinners into tasty delights. I remember fondly my excitement at being old enough to use that notebook with my mom, and one day on my … [Read more...]
How to Make Your Kids Clothes Last Longer…
Confession time -- I am horrible at doing the laundry. Both my mom and my mother-in-law are going to shudder when they read this, but I don't sort things by like colours. I don't sort things at all. I just dump dirty laundry bins into the basket by the armful, toss it in the machine and wash it. Everything goes in on the same setting, heavy, cold water, second rinse, extended … [Read more...]
How I’m Saving Money by Using Thermos Funtainers…
The school my girls go to offers a milk program. For $2 a day you can get a serving of milk to go with your lunch, in one of those wee personal-sized cardboard cartons. They offer both chocolate and white milk, though my eldest daughter confided in me that no one ever takes the white milk. I've been sending my daughter to school with milk in a bottle since kindergarten, and … [Read more...]
What I Learned and What I Know, About Gardening…
Ever since I was a little girl my dad would tell me..."you never want to do anything unless you already know how to do it." This has been a common theme throughout my life. I would always have to read and re-read and study up and explore options and check and check again...before I would even attempt most things. I was never that just try and see kind of kid (or for the most … [Read more...]
How do you take care of your loved one’s Facebook page after they’ve passed away?
What happens to your Facebook page when you die? My father passed away about a year and a half ago. My mom had the password for his Facebook account and she mentioned to me that she intended to log in and delete his account "after a reasonable time". I begged her not to do it because there were so many notes, funny comments and photos from my Dad, many of which existed solely … [Read more...]
How to Kill Fruit Flies with Science! Quick & Simple Two Ingredient Fruit Fly Trap
I rounded the corner into the dining room this morning to find three dozen or so fruit flies perched on my daughters sippy cup, which was left not-quite-empty sitting on the table over night. On the one hand I'm thinking I should have taken a picture before they dispersed, on the other hand, um... Ewww. Gross. So this morning I laid out fruit fly traps everywhere, and … [Read more...]
Getting Free Goodies via the P&G Brand Sampler
This is what came in the last P&G Brand Sampler I received. Check this out: a Venus razor, full sized Cover Girl mascara, Tide pods for the laundry, Cascade pods for the dishwasher, a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, $12 in coupons and wee containers of Pantene shampoo and conditioner. (I love those wee trial size shampoos, I save them to toss in my bag when I … [Read more...]
Save Money This Tax Season? It is Possible.
This post is brought to you by H&R Block Canada. Let’s face it – most of us dread tax season. Sure, it comes at a time when winter is pretty much gone, trees are starting to bloom, flowers are starting to blossom. A lovely time of year, right? But then, you think about having to file your tax return and hand some of your hard-earned money over to the government. Not … [Read more...]
Show Your Cat They’re Loved, On Valentine’s Day & Every Day!
I read the most depressing statistic today: According to the Ontario SPCA, nearly one-fifth of cats were returned to shelters in Ontario in 2013, post-holiday. Ugh. I found that stat, that nearly one fifth of cats were returned to shelters after the holidays, simply appalling. I've read time and again that experts suggest that a new pet should never be given as a Christmas … [Read more...]
Last Minute Gift, Think Netflix?!? #StreamTeam
I am all about the last minute gifts. While I keep a well stocked gift trunk there is always someone I forget about, or someone I don't realize we'll be seeing or exchanging with until that right down to the wire last minute. So every year on here I've highlighted some of my last minute gifts of choice, and this year my suggestion is... Netflix giftcards! I guess they … [Read more...]
The ONE magic ingredient you need to make a Scarecrow Costume in 10 minutes or Less
For Halloween, my Oz loving girls asked if they could be the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodsman. The seven year old had a clear vision of her Tin Woodman costume and some pretty elaborate ideas involving cardboard boxes and tinfoil. I was left wondering how I was going to turn her younger sister into the scarecrow. I had some ideas involving making straw out of yellow felt, or.... … [Read more...]
Momodoro: Hacking the Pomodoro Time Management Technique to make it work for Work at Home Moms
Well over a year ago now, I was reading one of those "how to be a better blogger" articles discussing time management and it mentioned something called the Pomodoro Technique. I was curious, so I tried it out and while I found that the Pomodoro Technique wasn't realistic for a mom with young kids in the house, I eventually was able to hack it into a mom-friendly version that … [Read more...]
We Splurged, Saved and Snacked; Back to School Shopping with CAA Rewards
Ok, please don't lynch me, but I had to buy practically nothing for my kid for back to school. Her old backpack, which lasted two years, was pretty beat up so she needed a new school bag. And she was due for a new pair of runners because her feet spurted up a size and a half over the summer, but that was pretty much it. A backpack and a pair of sneakers. I watched as other … [Read more...]
Learning How to Save Big with CAA Rewards
Maybe a year and a half ago I bought a CAA membership. It was one of those things I always meant to get around to doing. I'd receive the sign-up brochure in the mail, look it over and think "Yeah, good idea. I should so do this.", but I would set it aside and promptly forget about it. Then one night we ran out of gas, with both our kids in the car, on a very chilly, snowy, … [Read more...]