Smellyann Strikes Again

Hey! That Works For Me!

As I mentioned previously, my pet tips "Works For Me Wednesday" post from several years ago was selected to be featured in this awesome new e-book, That Works For Me! How exciting! And now you have a chance to win a copy of that e-book from my little ol' bloggy here, Smellyann Strikes Again.

Check out this video to learn more about what's going to be in this book:

  

There's also another That Works For Me! contest going on, to win a $150 house cleaning, throughout the month of April. Submit a tip here for your entry to win!

Follow the e-book on Twitter for an extra entry, and for another extra entry, like them on Facebook!  Check 'em out and follow on Pinterest - you can add your blog posts with tips there, too!

Last but not least, if you don't win the giveaway copy of the e-book but would like a discount, here's your coupon code for $1 off the regular price of $9, making it $8 (but you could figure that out, right?): SAVE1. (Not sure when it expires, so don't wait!)

Giveaway ends April 18th at midnight EST! Just comment on this post about the e-book or whatever's on your mind, and don't forget about the contest they're running, too. Good luck!

Fin.

WFMW: Pet Edition

 

I have a few pet tips to pass along that work well:

1. If your dog has eaten chocolate or some other substance known to be harmful, get a medicine syringe and inject a shot of hydrogen peroxide into his/her mouth. Watch out! S/he will immediately start vomiting.

2. Have an anxious dog? Give her a little cheap beer to drink. This tip came from a vet himself. Don't do this every day! It's a once-in-a-while type thing.

3. Did your dog cut his tongue? Give him an ice cube to lick to stop the bleeding.

4. Stinky litter box? Just dump some baking soda in there. My friend buys the really big box at the dollar store and uses that in the box instead of buying the expensive litter.

Have any more pet tips for me? We have a dog, cat and bunny, so we can use them! Please leave a comment below; thanks!

If you're playing along, link up here.

Fin.

 

WFMW: Matching Socks

 

I have a system for everything, even matching socks.  Well, my kids' socks. Rob doesn't like his socks paired up, so I made him a white-sock drawer and a colored-sock drawer (he has a lot of both) and just throw them in for him to match them himself.

I don't wear socks. It's a very rare day when I put on a pair.

But my kids have oodles of them, and they take them off, willy-nilly, wherever they happen to be in the house. So of course, one is forever getting lost before they even hit the washing machine, and I am stuck with tons of matchless singletons.

What to do?

I have a box for those unmatched socks. An empty Pampers wipe box serves for now, although I could stand to go up in size. Everyone in the house knows it as the "sock box." All socks go into the box as I am folding laundry (although there are so many, they usually overflow and make a nice mound, but ykwim). After the rest of the clothes are sorted and put away, I tackle the socks.

I match up all the socks I can, and the rest without matches remain in the Sock Box until that one wonderful day when its mate finally shows up again. Voila! No more loose socks roaming around the house.

Works for me!

Fin.

 

BONUS WFMW: Cashbaq & Restaurant.com

 

This was too good a deal to pass up - I had to post again! Keep reading if you want to know how I just got $325 worth of restaurant certificates for $26.00!!!

Thanks to DealSeekingMom for the information!

Restaurant.com is offering a new code for 80% off the purchase of gift certificates through them.  Pair this with the cash back deal through Cashbaq, and you can get a $25 gift certificate for just $1.40 (or free if you’re new to Cashbaq – they are offering a $5 signup incentive right now)!

Taking advantage of this offer is easy:

• Sign up with Cashbaq and click through their site to get 30% cash back from any Restaurants.com purchase.
• Add your gift certificates to your cart in increments of $25.
• Enter the code SANTA at checkout.
• Use the gift certificate code generated to select and print out gift certificates to the restaurants of your choice.

It really works! Rob (the Hub) and I just went through all the restaurants within 15 miles of our zip code and picked out 13 that we really wanted to try. American, Seafood, Indian, French, Lebanese... and more! He was just complaining about the fact that the only dates we go out on are for mystery shops where I'm preoccupied, so now I'm going to print out all the certificates and put them in his stocking. Now he can take me out on dates for way cheap! (And we're nothing if not in need of the cheap right now.)

Also, I have known about Restaurants.com for a while and have used them in the past, so I can tell you that these certificates really are valid and do work. Nothing to worry about, nothing to lose; lots to gain!

Please use the links above, and let me know if you go out and have a great time!

Fin.

WFMW: Facebook

 

Surely you've heard of it? Facebook, that is. I can't be bringing you news.

The thing is, I'm not in high school. I'm not even in college or graduate school right now. So what business do I have being on a social network site?

That's what I thought a year ago, anyway. Maybe two, I forget. But then people I knew, here and there, started joining and asking me to join. So I did, and now, all these months later, I've reconnected with nearly 200 people from my near-to-distant past! Well, and my present.

It's fun stuff. You can leave each other public or private messages, play music, post pictures, join silly groups and much more. It's not just for the kids, it's for us grown-up types, too. Even stay-at-home moms.

So, join. You never know into whom you might run (had to say it that way, for my friend L's sake)!

Fin.

WFMW: GoodSearch

 

We happen to have a charity, my husband and I, called CARE Package, Inc. It's a very small nonprofit dedicated to helping bereaved parents by giving them layettes for their angel babies, among other things. Our budget is minuscule - at times, nonexistant - but we get a little bit of help each December from GoodSearch.

GoodSearch is a search engine, powered by Yahoo!, that pays a penny or more to the charity of your choice for each search done on its site. You just go to the site - or better yet, you can make it your homepage or download the toolbar insert available right there on its front page - type in your charity, and then start searching!

And the charity really does get paid! I get my check, like clockwork, every December.

Now, there is also GoodShop! Simply go to the main GoodSearch page and at the bottom, you'll find the GoodShop information. Like lots of other rewards programs on the 'net, there are kickbacks available from shopping online, only this time they go to your preferred charity.

Isn't that a great, easy, free way to help charities all year long? I hope that you will consider using only GoodSearch from now on, and maybe even putting CARE Package of Virginia Beach, VA, in as your charity!

It would me a great deal to me.  Thanks!

Fin.

WFMW: Snapfish

 

I was going to post about something else today, but I had such a fabulous experience, I'll just have to share this one!

On Sunday, after planning to do it on Thursday (oh, but the cooking and the eating got in the way), then Friday (but the leftovers! and the sleeping in because we don't do Black Friday!), then Saturday (oops, it's raining), yes, just this past weekend, we took our kids to an undisclosed location to do a photo shoot for our family Christmas cards.

Normally we go to Sears Portrait Studio, get a whole mess of portraits done and have tons extra left over, spend a lot of money, and then have to tuck a photo in store-bought cards each year. This year, I wanted something different.

I pored over the photo card options at Snapfish.com, Shutterfly.com, Kodakgallery.com, tinyprints.com and so on. I decided that would be our option this year: I would take the pictures, saving us loads of money, and then the actual photo would be the card itself, saving me lots of time! But which site to use?

In the end, Snapfish won out, not only for its 20% off code (use bestsellers2008 or winter08, I believe), but because I could get even more kickback from shopping through MyPoints.com. Regular readers should know that I frequently get Panera gift cards from MyPoints, all for clicking on their emails and doing a little shopping through their site when I need to shop anyway! Plus, I actually appreciated that they had far more limited choices as compared to the other sites, which meant I didn't actually blow my mind thinking of all the possibilities and comparing them to how well they'd look with the picture we selected.

You know? You follow?

Anyway, so Sunday, we took the pictures. Monday, I ordered the cards. And Tuesday - yes, yesterday - they arrived in the mail!! For less than $40, I received 80 cute, glossy photo holiday cards which I then addressed and put right out in the mail before ever receiving a card from anyone else. What can I say? I like to be first. And Snapfish.com helped me do it!

So, Snapfish. Check 'em out.

Fin.

Works For Me Wednesday: Etsy!

 

It's no secret for regular readers of my blog that I have an Etsy shop. Do you know Etsy? (I always think "Betsy without a 'B'.")

Etsy.com is the place to go for all things handmade! From classic artwork to knitted and crocheted items (me) to greeting cards (hopefully me in the future!) to tutus (me again! hi!) to pins and hair accessories to jewelry (oh, the jewelry that can be found on there!)and beyond anything you can think of, Etsy is the place! It's the online marketplace for buying handmade goodness.

As for my shop, I'm doing modestly well but am supplementing right now with local craft shows. Every time an Etsy sale comes through on my email, though, I'm jump-up-and-down excited! It's really wonderful, between sales and feedback, to have something you have created from your own two hands be so appreciated by others.

So whether you're looking to make a buck from your own creativity (you can also sell craft supplies and vintage items on there) or shop for the holidays and special occasions without spending money on what I call "cheap plastic crap from China," consider Etsy. I promise it's worth the look.

Fin.

WFMW: Toys Worth Buying

In keeping with this week's theme of toys worth buying, here's my list:

1. A Play Kitchen and Play Food - my kids are constantly cooking up new concoctions and feeding them to us. It keeps all of them entertained for hours on end. And we don't even have a very nice one! Definitely something every kid should have.
2. A Dress-Up Box: Another essential! Great finds can be had in grandma's closet or at the thrift store, for a cheap way to build things up. I was also told to buy costumes on November 1, but I forgot to get out there and look around for stuff. My children love to dress up, especially the youngest! (By the way, if you're looking for more dress up stuff, what about a tutu? I make very nice ones for less than most! ;) And of course the little girls wear them constantly!)

3. Fisher-Price Bounce and Spin Zebra: for the toddler-preschool set. When we get it down from it's little hidey spot on the fireplace and put it in the middle of the room, the two little ones go to town on it all day long! It's fun and durable, and they love it.

4. Cars: any kind of cars, or planes, or trains or trucks or whatever with wheels. For the boy set. My kid goes nuts for cars.When he goes someplace new, he has a sixth sense for where they can be found. It's uncanny.

5. Webkinz:  just as much fun for Mom as for the kids! It's supposedly for the 6+ crowd, and I agree with that, although the little ones enjoy collecting the plushies and watching as we play the computer component as well. We have about 45 of them and are still going strong!

6. Digital Camera:  My kids love to take pictures. Bad pictures. Film-wasting pictures, if we had that kind of camera. Last year (two years ago?) we gave our oldest a Fisher-Price Kid-Tough camera, and she LOVED it. She was forever using it, until we lost the uploading cord. But it was pretty crappy, picture-wise. This year, we're giving her a real camera for better shots... and don't plan to lose the cord.

7. Books: Not really a toy, but always worth buying!

8. Crayola products: My kids could go nuts in the Crayola aisle! Everything is so fun, and they keep coming out with great new stuff. We love to create for creatin's sake here, and Crayola is good quality stuff for kids.

Eh, that's all I can think of off the top of my head, but it's a good start! What are your kid's favorite toys?

Fin.

WFMW: Portraits

 

It started when I was in grad school. The pictures would come every single month. I didn't know where to put them, in my tiny little apartment, but I sure appreciated getting them. My sister was so thoughtful, taking her new baby in to Sears every month to get her portraits taken. Every. Single. Month. And I'd get at least a half-dozen different poses, with all different outfits, of my cute little niece. I loved it, since she was so many states away! I was in Florida, she was in, well, at the time, Georgia, which really isn't so many states away, now is it? But too far to visit, and soon they were in New York. Stop it, you're getting me off track!

By the time I had my first baby, nearly two years later, my family was well ensconced in the monthly picture tradition. I had no choice but to carry it on - not that I minded. After all, I'd just birthed the cutest thing this side of Venus, and I wanted to share her with the world!

And, just like Stacey, our family and friends were spread across the country, too. No one came to see her for four months, for Pete's sake! We had to rely on those monthly pictures (and the monthly email update I would send out detailing all of her habits and progress).

And then Stacey had another kid, and then I popped out, well, three more.... and the pictures haven't stopped. Of course, they're no longer monthly, but annually, with a few more thrown in for good measure: Christmas, maybe Easter, maybe Halloween, maybe first day of school... if I have a good coupon for Sears, that is. They've gotten kind of chintzy with the deals compared to seven years ago.

And do you know what? I have ALL of those pictures hanging on our walls, going up our staircase and wrapping around the upstairs hallway. It's kind of ridiculous, I'm sure some people think, but I've always wanted a house full of pictures everywhere, and what else am I going to do with all those portraits? Stick them in a book, never to see the light of day again? I think not.

I love being able to look back at all those occasions, that first smile, the first rolling over, the first sitting up, standing, walking... and the kids love to point themselves out, too.

It's been a great tradition. I thank my sister for starting it.

Fin.

WMFW: Organizing Kitchen Edition

We have a lot of kid dishes around here. Small bowls, sippy cups, and tiny silverware abound in our kitchen. It can really take over, so what I decided to do was dedicate separate cupboards just for the kids' stuff.

We have grown-up silverware in the top drawer, in its own organizer, and the next drawer down is the kids'. All those Gerber forks and spoons clutter up their own drawer and not mine. It's a slight relief, actually!

Above, the kids have their own cupboard for all their cups and sippies. I try to put the lids and valves on the sippies as soon as they're all dry - don't do it when there's any moisture or you'll get gross mold that they'll ingest - and keep them out of sight.

And finally, the kids' plates and bowls have their own shelf in the dish cupboard. It really makes things easier.

 

So the key, for me, is separation. Dish apartheid, that's what it's all about.

Works for me!

Fin.

WFMW: Letting Go

It's not easy for me to do, this "letting go" business. I am overprotective of my children. I'll admit it.  I don't like the idea of them growing up and not being my little babies, under my wing. And I certainly don't like the idea of something bad happening to them.

But I do have to learn to let them go. And I am working on it lately.

For starters, I am letting my two school-aged kids walk four houses down to the bus stop by themselves every morning. That was really hard, but Jack (my 5yo) kept insisting he didn't want me to come, he could go by himself, he was a big boy. No way I'd let him go if it wasn't for his older sister, and if she ever has to stay home sick, I'll definitely walk him down. Every single morning I have to force myself not to run after them, not to call the school and make sure they got there okay, not pace the floors until Jack returns from school safely. But I do it.

For another, I have been letting Chloë, who will be 7yo on Saturday, cross the street by herself. I know!! She is SEVEN, for Pete's sake! But ours is a busy road, and she's a tiny girl. Our mailbox is across the street, and she has been taking my keys, crossing the street and getting the mail every day for the past few weeks. She loves this "chore," and gets irritated on Sundays and holidays when it can't be done. I, on the other hand, spend every second fretting around the peephole, waiting for her to make it safely back inside.

Also, I've been letting her play outside by herself, without me. The other two, I don't trust not to go running right into the street, but I do trust her to stay and play exactly where I tell her. And I watch out the front window. My neighbor actually came over and asked me whether I really thought that was safe, and I had to assure him I'd thought long and hard about it before deciding it was okay. We still have frequent talks about Stranger Danger, though.

Anyway, it's difficult, it really is, but these small steps repeated over and over are starting to ease the process for me. What ways have you "let go" when all you really wanted to do was hold on for dear life?

Fin.

WFMW: Getting My Warm Fuzzies

I'm the kind of person who needs to de-stress on a regular basis. I don't know about you, but I'm a little nutty and can tend to get worked up easily. One of the ways I dump that stress is by knitting and crocheting, but a much faster way I can do it is by getting my warm fuzzies.

If you're a {good} parent, you probably get that feeling from holding your children, kissing their heads, stroking their backs, etc. I need to do this at length every single day, with each of my children. If one of them isn't in a cuddly mood, I just grab one who is! They need it, and I need it.

Another great way is from my pets! Studies show there are great benefits from simply having animals around, but actually petting them? Even better. Simply put, stress dissipates and happiness fills the void. If my kiddos aren't around or in a snuggly mood, I have a bunny, cat, and dog at my disposal! And they are all down with a good petting session. It really works, too. I can literally, physically feel myself loosening up, losing the tension, relaxing, and feeling better.

And that's important.  Does it work for you, too?

Fin.

WFMW: Helping Others

Now, I know this post is going to sound like I'm tooting my own horn, but really, I don't normally like to discuss such things. It goes against the spirit of altruism, after all. But is anything really, truly altruistic if you derive pleasure from doing it?

Anyway, I'm posting it because I couldn't think of something else!

What works for me, mentally and emotionally, is to give of myself where I can. We all do this in some degree, in "normal" places, I would hope. Like, if someone drops a bag of groceries in the parking lot, we may run over and scramble to pick things up before they get squashed. Stuff like that, we all do, right?

That's giving of yourself. And it makes you feel good. Other things I do that make me feel good, are:

- I run my charity, CARE Package, Inc. My husband and I devote our resources, and I donate many hours of my time and also my skills, to making  layettes for these sweet little angel babies.

- I give blood as often as I can. It doesn't cost me a cent and only takes about an hour of my time every other month. And honestly, it really doesn't hurt. Plus there are the free cookies.

- Twice now, I have grown out and donated my hair to Locks of Love, and I'm on the verge of deciding to grow it out a third time. Again, it costs nothing and is completely painless. Why not give of yourself in this way?

I had a mental list of about five items total, but of course now the other two escape me since I didn't write them down. Rats! But please, if you can think of other easy, painless and low-cost or free ways to give of yourself, post them in the comments!

It really, truly does make me feel better, and that works for me.

Fin.

WFMW: Schwan's

Last week, for the first time, I placed an order with Schwan's Home Delivery. Maybe you've seen their trucks around town, or even in your neighborhood? I had never eaten their food before - though my husband had - and kept getting curiouser and curiouser.

Finally, the curiosity got the best of me, and I looked up their site to see what was what. The first thing I spotted was an offer: Free entrée (limited choices; I picked the chicken pot pie) with a  - what? - $30 order, I think.

I'm in!  I can spend $30 on food, no sweat.

Well... $360 later, I had ordered a ton of good-sounding food. I picked appetizers, entrées, desserts, ice creams, veggies... I just went crazy. I just did all my grocery shopping - except for, like, milk and nonfood items - right there in one sitting, and I didn't even have to leave my house!

I set up my delivery on a day and at a time that worked perfectly for me, and that was it! I didn't even have to pay for it then.

Sam, my Schwan's guy, called me up a day or two later to be sure I had enough freezer space for all this stuff. After all, he said, I'd placed one of the biggest orders he'd ever had, and he didn't want to get there only to find out I had just a side-by-side that was already half full. I couldn't blame him. We have a smally deep freezer, mostly emptied, so I assured him I thought I had the space.

Well, he was right to question.

I ended up having to do a lot of reshuffling in my freezer, eating a thing or two with my 3yo, Soap, well ahead of schedule, and freecycling the things we would probably never get to anyway, but then! I had two freezers absolutely stuffed full to the brim with food!

And not only that, but since I ordered a lot of entrées, I wouldn't have to make a lot of different meal plans this time. Just pull something out of the freezer, and voilà! Heat it up, and dinner is served. Plus, there are lots of great things in there to snack on, so when the kids get the munchies and I'm out of yogurt and cottage cheese, there is something reasonably nutritious in the freezer.

And the ice creams? Soooooooo good.

I probably won't order anywhere near that much at a time from now on, but I'm definitely hooked. Give it a try, I love it!

Fin.

WFMW: Knitting and Crocheting

 

When I used to work (at a paying gig, that is) and/or go to college & grad school, I was a giant ball of stress all the time. There were deadlines and exams and papers and research and, oh, the money woes of being a single full-time student. I soon developed an ulcer and reflux disease (from which I still suffer), I would get stress-induced sores all over the inside of my mouth, I literally had a headache every day for over ten years!

All of that is gone away now, but of course there are new stresses that come with being a mother to three kids aged 3, 5 and 6. And if you saw the way my husband drove, combined with his lengthy commute each day, well, you'd be calculating his life insurance money, too!

I needed to learn a way to relax, so when I was pregnant with my twins, I taught myself to knit from a book. I do not recommend this at all! There are great, free online tutorials to learn to knit here and here, for starters. I love the videos on the first one; they definitely would have been a help to me in learning to knit.

About six months later, my mother-in-law retaught me how to crochet, too. (I'd learned from my grandmother as a kid but promptly forgot by the end of that summer.) If you don't have my MIL near you, here and here are some great sites to try, for starters!

Now, for my charity, I knit and crochet almost daily. It's such a huge help in lowering my blood pressure and allowing me, for once, to chill out, that I actually fall asleep doing it. Nothing can touch me; I'm in my zone. Kids are fighting? I don't hear it, I just knit away. Scary movie on the tube? I just bury my head in my crochet work.  And the best part is, it's not being lazy but rather quite productive, so it's guilt-free for me!

And that really works for me. If you want to learn and get stuck, I'm here to help!

Don't forget to head on over to Shannon's for more great works-for-me tips!

Fin.

WFMW: Entertaining The Kids This Summer

I'm pretty lucky. As a stay-home mom, I might be afraid of the summer and how I'm going to pass the time in an entertaining, educational way for my children. However, my kids go to a year-round school, so they only have about a month off before going back to the next grade level.

And, for two weeks of that time, we'll be in Europe, so it falls to Stephanie and Tim (who, together, I've renamed "Stim") to keep them busy.

And, for the following week, our oldest will go to sleep-away camp for the first time, so that's even less I have to worry about.

Still, though, there will be some time for me to keep them busy. And this is mainly what we do:

1. Live at the pool. Or the beach. We don't have a pool in our own backyard, but we do have a community pool in our neighborhood, and we live a short 20-minute drive from the beach.  If it were up to me, we'd be swimming every single day. However, the pool closes on Mondays, and it's hard for me to take three small children to the beach by myself (heckuva a lot of stuff to carry, hands to hold, and streets to cross!), so somedays we need to have an alternate plan.
2. Sidewalk chalk. Simple, right? For those Mondays or off-days, we have plenty of Crayola sidewalk chalk tools to keep them occupied for hours on end - at least in the indirect sunlight hours.
3. Free movies! Regal Entertainment Group is once again having its Free Family Film Festival for nine weeks this summer. The one I want to see most (Veggie Tales) will hit our nearest theater while we're in Europe, rats! Check the list to see what's playing near you! I believe AMC is doing a similar film festival but charging $1 admission for charity. GoodSearch it!
4. Festivals. We live in Virginia Beach, where there are tons and tons and tons of festivals nearby during the spring and summer months, for everything from strawberries to yarn and lots in between! They get expensive, but we try to hit a few when we can.
5. Library. Now that we have a voracious reader in the house (besides ourselves), I plan to take Chloë and the Littles often to pick out new books to read.
6. Farmer's Market. We love to go and pick out our seafood and produce each week, give or take, and it seems to make the kids more interested in eating it when they've helped choose it!

Okay, that's all I can think of off the top of my head right now. I can't wait to check out Shannon's blog to see what other great ideas you have for getting through summer vacation!

Fin.

WFMW: Reading Cop-Out

I'll admit, although I try, I don't always have (make?) time to sit and read to my little ones every day.

So I solve this problem by having my six-year-old, who is a new reader, sit with her 3yo sister and 5yo brother and read their stories to them. They all love it! It helps her develop her reading skills, it gives the children great bonding sibling time, and it still does the job of helping the smaller ones develop their vocabulary.

Ideally, it would be me, but honestly, I enjoy watching this sweetness so much, sometimes I purposely don't make time just for the sheer pleasure of observing it!

Fin.

WFMW: The Rug Stick

Here's what doesn't work for me: That new rug stick. From Woolite, I think?

I even got the heavy-duty traffic cleaner to work with it. We have heavy-duty stains, y'all. Three kids, three pets = messy carpet all. the. time.

Well, the rug stick hasn't worked to take out any of the stains I've used it on. None! And it leaves a sticky residue that's not pleasant to step in.  And it's a pain in the butt to get the soap stuff out on the spot exactly where you want it.

Just don't buy it. It's not worth it.

Fin.