Mom Knows Everything

With Christmas quickly approaching I thought I would start doing some ways to save money during Christmas. One way in which I save money during the holiday season is by making my own wreaths. This is something my mother taught me to do when I was about 12 years old. We all know that going out and buying a fresh wreath can cost you around $15 or more. During Christmas I make quite a few wreaths for relatives and I also make some to put on my parents and grandparents headstones.

Making wreaths is really simple actually all you need to start with is a metal coat hanger and shape it into a circle. We all have lots of coat hangers at home.


Then you take some greening, cut it to size and wire it to the circle. Apply the greening in layers as you make you way along the wire circle. Getting the greening is simple, all you have to do is take a walk in the woods and pick the tips off of the trees. The wire can be bought at the dollar store.


When you're done filling in the wire all you have to do is trim the wreath to make it perfectly round and attach a bow. Bows and ribbons can also be bought at the dollar store.
It is a messy process that leaves a lot of fir needles on the floor, but once you get used to making wreaths it only takes about 30 minutes or so to make one. It costs me less then $2 to make a wreath as the wire only costs about $1 or $2 and it makes lots of wreaths and since I buy the ribbon at the dollar store it only costs $1. Making your own wreath for $2 is saving you a lot of money instead of buying a ready made fresh wreath.

Oh boy it's going to be one of those days! I woke up this morning and found out my son wet the bed, I then spilled my hot cup of coffee all over my self, and to top it off the part that took me forever to find to get my car fixed is not the right part. I really need my car fixed, but finding the part is harder then a disability appeal. If anyone has a rack and pinion for a 99 Taurus let me know because I need one right away!

Let us never forget the brave men and women who have served to keep us safe and free.

We are very big on reading at my house. All of us are avid readers. I encourage my children to read often and I read to my 4 year old all the time. Not only is reading a great form of entertainment, but it can also be a great way to learn while still having fun. This is the concept Miss Trimble's Tapdoor has.

Miss Trimble's Tapdoor is a series of books by former elementary school teacher, Lori Jordan-Rice. Her goal is to create a series of books that are not only entertaining, but also educational by helping kids learn basic US history.


Miss Trimble's Trapdoor is the first book in a series of books about Tyler Thompson. In book one we are introduced to Tyler Thompson. He hates school and he hates the fact that he doesn't know the answers to his teacher, Miss Trimble's questions. He does not have many friends and he sits at the back of the classroom trying to disappear. One day Tyler discovers something amazing while his nervous foot tapping unlocks a secret trapdoor beneath his desk. He soon discovers a dark and mysterious basement filled with old books guarded by a magical talking dog named Barnabas Bailey. With the help of the books and his guide, Barney, Tyler can travel to any time in the past to learn about history up close.





Miss Trimble's Trapdoor The Perseverance Of Christopher Columbus is the second book in the series. Using Miss Trimble's trapdoor Tyler continues his travels through time with his, Barney, the talking dog who guards the books in the basement. They witness Christopher Columbus as a boy, a young man, and finally they set sail aboard the Santa Maria with him. Tyler discovers that even a great explorer like Columbus can face setbacks before reaching his dreams. He learns he has to believe in himself. By believing in himself he can achieve his dream of playing on the school basketball team and his goal of delivering an oral report on Columbus in front of the whole class.



I totally agree with the author, Lori Jordan-Rice, these books are both entertaining and educational. They are aimed for children aged 6 - 12. You can find out more about these books by going to www.MissTrimblesTrapdoor.com. Kids can also write to the main characters, Tyler and Barney there. There are also helpful educational links, crosswords and word searches there. Links for purchase of these books from Amazon and Barnes & Noble are available on the website as well.

To win a copy of these two books simply...

• Leave a comment on this post.
  
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• If you don't have a blog/website just leave your name and email address in the comment section.
• Contest open to Canada and US residents only.
• Contest closes midnight AST November 30th with the winner to be announced the following day.

*Be sure to let me know in the comment section if you Tweet, subscribe or post about this contest for the extra entries.


The products in this review/giveaway were given to me free of charge for testing and review. My review and opinions are not influenced by this or any source, they are my honest opinion of the product.

For the past week Lysol has ran my life. Seriously, I am the Lysol Queen! That's a pretty hard feat to accomplish around here because actually getting a hold of a can of Lysol is harder then getting a hold of a Tickle Me Elmo when they first came out. It's not that they don't sell Lysol where I live, it's just that there are so many cases of H1N1 and suspected cases of H1N1 where I live that Lysol has been sold out everywhere. I was lucky enough to get a can of it at the third store I tried. My kids are finally feeling better and the quarantine on my son is almost over. If it wasn't for Lysol and Tamiflu I don't think I could have made it through the last week.

The weather here in Canada is really starting to turn cold. Right now it goes below freezing at night and we are lucky if it goes a little above freezing during the day. This cold weather can cause havoc on your skin. It causes skin dries out and often tends to crack.

I've used lots of different types of lotions in the past to combat this dry skin and cracked skin and most of them didn't work very well. They would leave my skin feeling very greasy and I had to keep reapplying the lotion. I first tried Skin MD Natural about a year ago and I am very happy with the results. Skin MD Natural not only moisturizes the skin, it doesn't leave that greasy feeling that most lotions do and it dries on the skin very quickly so you don't have to wipe your hands off after applying it when you need to touch something.

Skin MD Natural is hypoallergenic, fragrance and colorant free, and dermatology tested. It is also paraben free. Paraben has been known to cause skin irritation and has been linked to certain types of cancer. It is unfortunately used in a lot of different cosmetic products, but it's not in Skin MD Natural. Another great thing about Skin MD Natural is that it is not tested on animals.

Skin MD Natural not only heals dry skin it also protects it by forming a shielding bond on your skin. For more information about Skin MD Naturals go to www.skinmdnatural.com.


The products in this review were given to me free of charge for testing and review. My review and opinions are not influenced by this or any source, they are my honest opinion of the product.

It's getting close to that time where our kids sit down to write their letters to Santa. The rule in our house is that each kid gets to ask for 3 things in the letter and Santa will do his best to get at least one of the things on the list. This wasn't hard for Aurora to make her list. She asked for a laptop, a DSI, and the latest music CD's from her favorite bands. Aidan on the other hand is having a very hard time to narrow his list down to three things. We're still working on his list. What are your kids asking for Christmas this year?

I've mentioned before how much I think your children's oral health is so important and that so do the folks at Oral-B. Oral-B has a great variety of Oral-B Stages products such as these and many more that can help your children have good oral health.

Here is a great video of children's oral care tips put on by Oral-B from Dr. Jennifer Salzer, leading dentist and mom of four kids.

Oral-B has teamed up with Scrapblog to create this Smile-Stages multimedia scrapbooks of your children's beautiful smiles.


This is one of the pages I created using Smile-Stages.

It's really easy to use, if you can use Picnik or other similar online photo editing sites then you can use this. It comes with many special extras to make your Smile-Stages scrapblog pictures extra special.

For more information about this Smile-Stages and the wonderful line of Oral-B products for you kids you can go to www.oralb.com/smilestages and start creating your very own Smile-Stages scrapblog of your very own.

This is not a paid post. I simply believe in the product and wish to share the information with you.

Many of you who also follow me on Facebook know that due to illness in my family that I will be taking a few days off from blogging. I got sick kids that need my full attention and care. My sweet sister went out and bought 5 new movies for the kids so today we are going to be lying on the couch all cuddled up in blankets watching cartoons. Thank you Sharla, you're a sweet sister and a great aunt. I just wish I had one of those plasma tvs to watch them on.

I hope you all have a great weekend and remember to cough in your sleeve to help prevent the spread of germs and illness.

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