Go Shopping to Celebrate Earth Day: 5 Inexpensive Products to Save the Planet

April 21, 2011

Making fairy beds out of walnut shells and pinecone birdfeeders are great and all, but sometimes a mom needs to celebrate Earth Day with manicured fingernails and a glowing laptop. Here are my top guilt-free ways to ring in April 22 with a credit card and a clean conscience. Please click over to Parentables, where [...]

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Easter Cupcakes: Make These Robin’s Nest Beauties in No Time

April 15, 2011

There is nothing un-fun about making these cupcakes. Kids love to sort out all the blue eggs and press them into the coconut icing. My son Mark has an April birthday, and so we’ve gravitated towards an Easter theme. The year before we made these Chick and Egg Easter Cupcakes, but we wanted to try something [...]

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How to Throw a Last Minute New Year’s Eve Party

December 29, 2010

In case you missed this post last year, I thought I’d update it and republish, because the message is worth repeating: even though we have kids, it doesn’t mean the party’s over! When I was single, New Year’s Eve always presented a dilemma: restaurants and organized parties charged an arm and a leg, but how [...]

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The Most Fun Way to Downplay Gift-Giving

December 10, 2010

This week I had fun writing an article for Slow Family Online about holiday traditions and their power to take the pressure off presents:  Downplay Gift-Giving and Bring up Ritual, Meaning and Fun. Ever heard of the Slow Movement?  Slow Food “was founded in 1989 to counter the rise of fast food and fast life, the disappearance [...]

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9 Ways to De-Stress and Spend Less Over the Holidays

December 7, 2010

Check out Dagmar’s Momsense, a refreshingly opinionated blog about attachment parenting and much more, where I wrote a guest post this weekend called 9 Ways to De-Stress and Spend Less Over the Holidays. The words of wisdom come not from me (I don’t feel very wise anyway), but from a grandmother to six and mentor [...]

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Simplify Your Giving to Teachers and Friends: a Loving Low-Cost Solution

November 27, 2010

Twinkling lights, Christmas carols, and the smell of pumpkin pie make me feel all glowy and wanting to do nice things for others. However, I have to be careful to not overdo it. All this talk about simplifying the holidays gets thrown into the bonfire if we pile on too many craft projects, baking enterprises, [...]

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Don’t Cut Off Your Hair:  Ask For What You Need

November 18, 2010

Remember the story about the young and poor married couple who wanted to surprise each other for Christmas? The man sold his treasured pocket watch so he could buy a fancy hair comb for his wife. She sold her long beautiful hair to buy a chain for his pocket watch. That’s the problem with surprises. [...]

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The One Thing that Will Save You Money this Holiday Season

November 8, 2010

You don’t need any special talent to do it, it requires very little time, and without it, you can end up spending twice as much. What is it? Planning ahead. Here is what I told Sarah from Buttoned Up last holiday season in an article for Scripps News: “As with saving money in general, planning [...]

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Nine (Nearly) Free Things To Do on Labor Day Weekend

August 31, 2010

We had a baby on July 29 and I’ll be taking some time off to welcome him to the world. I am grateful to friends and fellow bloggers who are helping out with guest posts.  This article is by Sarah Welch and Alicia Rockmore of Buttoned Up. Labor Day is your opportunity to give summer one [...]

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Make Your Own Gourmet Easter Cupcakes

March 18, 2010

My daughters still talk about making these cupcakes for their little brother, whose birthday is near Easter. All of the cupcake parts can be made ahead of time and either refrigerated (for a few days) or frozen (for more than a week).  We usually shop for the ingredients days ahead, make the cupcake batter and [...]

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Sleepover Party: Really Cheap but Worth It? (Final Episode)

February 19, 2010

This is the second part of an article that began with a debate over birthday party dilemmas and plans for a new kind of party. So my 7-year-old’s sleepover party is set: the RSVPs are in (two friends will join Sofia and her sister), the groceries are bought, and the goodie bags are ready. Easy-Peasy Preparation Compared [...]

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Sleepover Party: Really Cheap but Worth It?

February 16, 2010

I have a love-hate relationship with birthday parties. The idea — and preparation — are fun and exciting. It’s when the party has to actually take place that I run into problems. For my kids, it’s the best day of their lives so far. For me, it’s stressful, exhausting, and disappointing. Yet I dive in [...]

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Make Your Own Party Favor Lollipops

February 11, 2010

The only problem with these lollipops is that they look so dang good that people think you just went out and bought them. So if you want to get credit for your efforts, I suggest either bragging shamelessly, writing “Made by Me” on the packaging, or making them kinda sloppily. When my daughter was turning [...]

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How to Throw a Last-Minute New Year’s Eve Party

December 27, 2009

When I was single, New Year’s Eve always presented a dilemma: restaurants and organized parties charged an arm and a leg, but how to make the night special? Now that we have children, finding and paying a babysitter doubles the premium for a night out. Over the past few years, we’ve developed a new tradition [...]

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Re-Using Wrap: Order in the Frenzy

December 23, 2009

Even if you appreciate a beautifully packaged present (like I do), you will rarely have to buy wrapping supplies if you can hang onto the trimmings of birthday and holiday gifts. On Christmas morning, we set out several shopping bags to collect re-usable wrapping paper, ribbons and cards. Kids can join in the fun by [...]

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How to Make Easy Chocolate-Covered Toffee

December 20, 2009

This crunchy, salty butterscotch topped with creamy chocolate is a cookie exchange favorite.  (It was introduced to me at a caroling party in New York City by Amy Sevick-Healy from Minnesota, where they call it Lutheran Church Basement Toffee.) It’s so fast and simple that my second-grader and I made it together in about 30 minutes with [...]

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