Each and every day I come across some great parenting tips across the internet. And I always think that I should share these great ideas with all of you. Then something else captures my interest and onward I click.

But not today. Today I was bound and determined to share some excellent parenting tips and here they are!

• Organize your coupons - I always clip coupons, after all saving money is a good thing. But filing them away is a problem. I find coupons in the bottom of my handbag, crumpled in my pocket, int the kitchen drawer - you get the idea. Well, the folks at TipNut have put together a comprehensive list of ways to organize my coupon mess. No more of these regrets at the store - I just know I have a coupon for that …. somewhere!
• It is not often that you find two great things in one place. Asha Dornfest, of Parent Hacks fame, has written an informative guest post at Zen Habits. Asha’s post offers up a list of 20 Top Parent Hacks with links to the full posts. There is a parenting tip here for everyone.
• Boogiemum brings to light a potential lead danger lurking in all of our homes: the dishes in our kitchens. Yes the very ones that we eat dinner off of daily. Apparently many ceramics and their glazes can contain lead. What next?
• Jennifer at De-Clutter It! gives us some tips for more efficient freezing. No, I don’t mean us freezing, I mean the stuff we put in our freezers - how to make more efficient use of the limited freezer space that we have.

Many stay at home moms try to juggle an at home business in addition to their parenting responsibilities. Like all other entrepreneurs some have more success than others. But moms, in general, may be more vulnerable because they don’t take their business seriously enough.

Often when a family makes the decision for mom to stay home and raise the kids, they ensure that the family can manage on one income. If mom eventually decides to launch her own business she will usually put family first. If the business takes off - great, but if not then the family is no worse off than before. This approach may work for some people either due to luck or charisma or both, but for most that type of effort is just not enough.

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I have been tagged by Tamara Wilson in a 7 Weird Things About Me Meme. Given that I write about parenting tips, I have modified it into a 7 Weird Things About this Mom meme.

If Tamara had asked my children, I am sure that they could have come up with more than 7 weird things about their mom, but since she asked me, well, I’m not weird am I?

1. I am a computer geek parent. I love gadgets and wish that I had more time to figure all of the technology out.
2. Beating dead horses is my expertise. I will research the cr*p out stuff, and in the end go with my gut feeling - which is usually the best choice anyway.
3. I love vegetable cream cheese on cinnamon raisin bagels. Sounds great, doesn’t it?
4. Meeting new people is something I enjoy, but I need to work at being more outgoing. And remembering names - I try every gimmick in the book.
5. I usually wear my pajamas to the school-bus stop. Gotta love those long stadium winter jackets.
6. I can’t cook any meat that resembles its living counterpart.
7. I really don’t like soda.

Now it’s my turn to do the tagging. Since I have committed to blog everyday in 2008, I will tag some of my new friends at Blog 365, and get to know them a little better.

Steph, Abby, Rebecca, Jen, Cassandra Rae, Cricket, and Sweetisu, consider yourselves “it”!

Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person’s blog who tagged you.
2. Post these rules on your blog.
3. List seven random and/or weird facts about yourself
4. Tag seven random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by posting a comment on their blog

This is how to make festive Kellogg’s Rice Krispie Treat Holiday Wreaths.

• First you will need the ingredients to make homemade Kellogg’s Rice Krispie Treats.
• Begin by melting the margarine.
• Add the marshmallows and melt them down.

• When the marshmallows are melted, add some green food coloring. The paste food coloring (found in cake decorating specialty shops) works better than the liquid food coloring. The color is more robust and intense. Wilton is a brand that I use.
  
  
  
• Remove the melted green marshmallows from the heat and add the Rice Krispies.
  
  
• Spray your hands with cooking spray. Take a handful of the warm Rice Krispie Treat mixture and form into a ball. Flatten this ball slightly and poke a hole in the middle with your finger to form a wreath. Place on a wax paper lined cookie sheet and decorate with red hots, and colored sugar sprinkles. Cool.
  Repeat with all of the remaining mixture.
  If the mixture in the pan begins to cool before you are finished, reheat slightly to a workable consistency.
  
• Kids can help too. Just make sure the mixture is cool enough for children to handle safely. Here is my daughter’s masterpiece:
  
• This nonstick stir fry skillet is great pan for making Rice Krispie Treat Wreaths
• You can make dairy free Rice Krispie Treats by using dairy free margarine and marshmallows. Always read the ingredients to make your own determinations.
  This recipe is not truly gluten free, as Rice Krispies contain malt flavoring, which is usually derived from a gluten containing grain, such as barley. Again make your own determinations.

I was recently contacted by a representative General Mills to review their new Cheerios Snack Mix. Since I am always looking for healthy ways to fill my kid’s seemingly bottomless tummies, was happy to give it a try.

I promptly received in the mail one bag of the cheddar flavor of Cheerios Snack Mix. Upon tearing open the bag of Cheerios Snack Mix our family’s unanimous vote was - Yum!

Now that the important stuff was out of the way, I took a closer look at the facts.

It seems that I am not the only parent in search of healthy, convenient and tasty snacks for my kids. To provide parents a solution to this problem General Mills created Cheerios Snack Mix. The first step in the right direction is that Cheerios Snack Mix is baked, not fried. It contains MultiGrain Cheerios cereal, Chex cereal, pretzels, crackers, and seasoning. It is similar to Chex Mix (also by General Mills) but in my opinion Cheerios Snack Mix Cheddar flavor is more tasty.

Taking a closer look at the nutrition information, I see that one serving of Cheerios Snack Mix is about 2/3 cup and there are approximately 7 servings in each 8 oz. bag. For our family, that serving size was a little small - 1 cup was more satisfying. Each 2/3 cup serving contains 120 calories, 30 of which are from fat. However, Cheerios Snack Mix contains NO trans fats or cholestorol.

The “make mom happy” factors are that each serving of Cheerios Snack Mix contains 1g of fiber, 3g of protein, 4% of daily value for calcium and a whopping 30% daily value of iron.

Cheerios Snack Mix comes in two flavors - Original and Cheddar. Cheerios Snack Mix retails for about $2.59 per 8 oz. bag. For more information visit cheerios.com.

Cheerios Snack Mix is an excellent alternative to other empty calorie snacks that children like to eat (like potato chips, pretzels, and cheese curls). I, for one, will be adding Cheerios Snack Mix to my weekly shopping list.