Here is an amusing little video that demonstrates the Kaboost:

What do you think?

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It must be giveaway week around here! Marianne, author of the excellent blog - A Life More Interesting, is giving a away 3 recycled soda can necklaces.

I am all for helping the environment and this is a very creative way to perform the second “r” - reuse. The necklaces come in three flavors - Coke, Diet Coke, and Dr. Pepper. Curious? Click over to Marianne’s site - she has a picture up. And to enter, shoot her an email telling her which neckace you prefer.

If you are looking for more creative ways to “reuse”, Lifehacker recently conducted a poll and came up with an interesting list of unconventional ways to reuse things that you may otherwise throw out.

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I know this book was all the rage a few months ago - but like anything else around here - I get to it when I get to it. So if you missed all the hoopla the first time around then you are at the right place.

Anyhow, in a nutshell, Tim’s methods of reducing a workweek down to four hours can be summed up in two words - efficiency and delegating. If you don’t waste time on all the mundane tasks, and completely eliminate the unneccessary ones then you will free up a lot of time in your day. If you delegate the mundane, even better.

The problem is that, in order to make this work, you need to have a pretty good business sense. You also need to have a good idea for a business that will take off, and you need to be willing to take risks. After all, income is well, - important.

If you are fresh out of college - the methodology in The 4-Hour Workweek is great for you. But if you have one or two or three or four children to support and you kind of need health insurance, or college is looming in the not too distant future, hmmm, it is a little risky.

However, if you already work from home or stay at home and even if you don’t, The 4-Hour Workweek offers some good advice, that could qualify as hidden parenting tips, for getting things done quicker and in a more efficient manner. Things like checking email often and taking phone calls as they come in are all big time wasters. Stuff is another time vacuum. And if you have a family then chances are you have a lot of stuff. I spend a good portion of each day putting things away. Imagine if we just got rid of a lot of that “stuff”. Think about the time you would gain.

And delegating is another thing that I don’t do often enough as a parent. Sure the job may be done quicker if I just do it myself - but I may be doing everyone a disservice with that attitude. My kids are more than capable of taking over some of the responsibilities of the house. My husband is a sweetheart and already does a fair share of house upkeep - but sometimes delegating to the husband is also necessary. And those volunteer activities - PTA, Board of this or that, fundraisers, etc. - lots of room for delegation!

So, parents do have something to gain from The 4-Hour Workweek. But now that I can do one of my jobs in four hours, I wonder what parenting tips exist for handling the other 21 jobs that I juggle as a mom!

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If you would like to win a Dyson Root 6 Vacuum - head over to mod*mom’s site ASAP! She is offering the opportunity to win one of these awesome, lightweight vacuums.

But that is not all - she is also giving 15 winners the chance to attend a private Dyson Vacuum event in New York City on April 9th - where you will be able to meet Sir Dyson himself and learn about the latest and greatest Dyson products. But you need to act quick for this one since the event is this week.

Go to the Dyson post at mod*mom and find instructions on how to enter both contests - the Dyson Root 6 Vacuum giveaway and the New York City Dyson Vacuum event.

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But I am optimistic.

I recently purchased Bento for Mac. This is a home database program. Yes, very geeky. But I figured, hey - I have a team of six to manage and that means a lot of data. Schedules, phone numbers, soccer teams, all that kind of stuff.

One full day later, I know a lot more about Bento and it has a lot of potential. But it can’t do laundry, cook dinner, play with the kids, drive them around, and all of the other parenting stuff that I haven’t been doing because I was learning how to use Bento.

C’est la vie.

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How many times have you tossed one of your kids favorite drinking straws because their was an unknown something growing inside? Or even worse, the straws that come with reusable sippy cups and Thermos containers because they sat, well, just a wee bit too long?

Of all parenting tips, this one is so obvious, it just makes me want to hit my head against a wall for not thinking of it myself.

Two words:

Pipe Cleaners

Yep, those colorful crafty things that kids love to use. Perfect for cleaning drinking straws.

Thanks to Asha at Parent Hacks for another one of her awesome parenting tips!

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In our house we have a lot of recess lights. It seems that I am always changing a blown bulb and with all the choices on the market I never know which style or brand to buy.

So, I have started labeling my light bulbs with a Sharpie permanent marker (oh, you have to love those Sharpies!). Whenever I replace a bulb, either incandescent or energy saving light bulbs, I write the date on the base of the bulb with a Sharpie permanent marker. When the bulb finally blows, I will be able to see the date when I first installed it. This information will help me to decide which brand and style of light bulb to buy in the future.

And this, in turn, should translate into a few extra dollars in my pocket.

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Nowadays, dairy allergy is very common in children. Unfortunately, the pre-packaged Kellogg’s Rice Krispie Treats bars contain dairy (according to the Kellogg’s website). Does that mean that milk allergic children cannot eat Rice Krispie Treats?

Well, the answer is yes and no. Children with dairy allergy cannot safely eat the pre-package Rice Krispie Treats bars. But with a little effort, mom or dad can make their own dairy free Rice Kripie Treats.

According to the Kellogg’s website, original Rice Krispies Cereal does not contain milk. I previously wrote about how to make homemade Rice Krispie Treats. This simple recipe has only three ingredients - Original Rice Krispies Cereal, marshmallows, and butter. To convert this recipe to dairy free Rice Krispie Treats you need to substitute a dairy free margarine in place of the butter. Make sure to read the ingredients on the margarine to confirm that it does not contain dairy!  Also, confirm (by reading the ingredients) that the marshmallows you are using, and the Rice Krispies (it never hurts to double check the ingredients), all contain safe ingredients.

Once you have made sure that all of the ingredients are dairy free then follow the recipe. Dairy free Rice Krispie Treats that are homemade are a favorite in our house!

If you are feeling a bit creative you can take the homemade Rice Krispie Treats Recipe one step further and make Festive homemade Rice Krispie Treats Holiday Wreaths. This recipe can be easily modified to create Rice Krispie Treats shapes for any occasion. I personally have made this versatile recipe into Valentine’s hearts, Halloween pumpkins, birthday cupcakes, and shamrocks. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

And the bonus is that even non-allergic children line up for this childhood favorite.

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Do you fall into an Easter Egg rut every year? Even with the wide variety of kits available to create unique Easter Egg Crafts it seems that we do the same thing year after year after year.

This year Abigail at Free Stuff 4 Kids has some excellent ideas for Easter Egg Crafts - if anything she gives us some good inspiraton.

Happy Coloring!

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Three kids later (four in total), I have done a complete 180. Why? Because there is no such thing as 1 sick child. Never.

Take the past 2 weeks for instance. Wednesday morning my oldest son announced that his stomach didn’t feel good. And then - Blah!. I will spare you the details.Translation: 2 days home from school plus 1 complete wipedown of the entire house, sheets and towels laundered, and all surfaces sanitized, courtesy of yours truly.

By Friday all was back to normal - and sparkling clean.

And then Saturday night, son #2’s tummy hurts. Blah! Déja vu. One sleepless night and 2 days later the house is once again scrubbed and son #2 is back at school.

But the saga continues …..

Wednesday rolls around again, and you guessed it, #3 and #4 down with the stomach bug. Sheets (once again, no details), towels, comforters, all being washed in our laundry room - apparently open for business 24/7.

Two days later and we are thrice again climbing out from under.

So, if by chance we should meet, you will forgive me if I scream in horror and run away if you should so much as sneeze.

Photo by tanakawho

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