Super Cute (and cheap) Birthday Idea

My friend Maggie sent me this great idea. For her nephew's 5th birthday, she made him a number five shirt. She bought the shirt on clearance at Target for $0.75. Then she took an old stained shirt from one of her kids and used the non-stained back to cut out the number five. Here is what she said, "Here is my crafty effort! Would be easier with a sewing machine, but it's good to something with my hands during book club, other than eat!!" I looks great Maggie!! Thanks for this idea! I am going to do this for my girls this year.

**Home Ec Tips: If you are worried about the number moving around while you stitch here are some ideas. Safety pin it in main areas to hold it in place. You can also buy fusible interfacing if you want it to be stiffer and you can buy a double sided fusible interfacing to kind of glue it on before you stitch it. Also try to do some type of edge stitching (i.e. zigzag stitch or button hole stitch) to prevent the edges from curling if you want. No need to worry about frayed edges if working with t-shirt materials. Also, I'm not sure that a sewing machine would make this look better. Sewing in many directions on a knit fabric can be tricky.

Beware of Helping Husband part II

I have mused on wether to post this, but I think it is insightful so here it is.

A few weeks ago, the girls were doing their life skills. However, they have switched jobs - not a good thing.

DH worked every weekend in January when bathroom training was happening. This morning in an effort to help, he started the girls on their life skills. That was very sweet, however, he just let them loose, chemicals and all with no supervision and let them choose what skill they wanted to do. Then he went downstairs and had breakfast and assumed that he could then go do something else.

Let me tell you the problems with this so that you can avoid the same mistakes. First, before they switch, they need to be able to perform the particular skill satisfactorily, WITH NO SUPERVISION. Then they can move onto something else. It is important they they keep repeating the same skill until that happens (remember the 3-7 times of teaching from a few posts ago.)

Secondly, then they actually train each other on the skill they have learned thus engraining it even deeper. If you can teach it, that's when you really know it. While doing this they are also learning how to do training, which will be important to them as adults in the work force.

Third, this shows that communication between BOTH parents is crucial, as it is in everything that you do with your kids. I assumed that they would do their same skills - that was the plan in my mind, he just wanted to get them started and help out.

I have to admit I lost it. I walked into the bathroom to see how they were doing and it wasn't good. The quality was terrible! He didn't understand what the big deal was. So I told him that today he has to train the girls on the new skills they are doing- and to his credit he is. Hopefully we will all learn from this mistake.

Morning Sickness Helpers

I have a few friends who know a lot about a lot of things. Apryl is one of these. She also happens to be a midwife. The other day we were talking about life and the topic of morning sickness came up.

Her tip to help it? Cut a Granny Smith apple into apple chip pieces. Suck on one chip, then chew and swallow. The acid in the apples helps break up the bubbles in your stomach that cause the nausiating feeling. Also, sip on a drinkable yogurt throughout the the day. The protein is slowly digested and that helps too.

*Home Ec tip from me. To prevent your apple chips from browning, cut the apple under cold running water and then put in a bowl of water. Drain and enjoy!

Dumping the Paper

I had six subscriptions to the Philly Inquirer Sunday Edition - for the coupons. That's right 6. Red Plum recently pulled out so I was left with no choice, I cancelled my subscriptions.

For now I am going to be ordering my coupon inserts off of Ebay, which will save me money. Each paper was costing me about $2.25 x 6 papers = $13.50 per week. On ebay I can get 5 inserts for $3.75 - including shipping. So times two sets of inserts that is $7.50 per week. If I combine shipping I will save even more. That right there is almost a 50% savings on my coupons!

*There are other websites that will clip the coupons and you buy only the ones you want. http://www.thecouponclippers.com/ is one of these. You can also print coupons online from RedPlum and SmartSource. These coupons are different than the ones that come in the paper and reset about 1-3 times per month. Just make sure you know your grocery store's policies on printed coupons.*

*This info was given to me by Mindi Cherry at http://www.momsneedtoknow.com/