•A season for giving
A season for giving by Stephanie FosterThe holidays are upon us. It is the best time to teach your family about caring for others. In the midst of all the holiday madness, there are so many people who need and deserve your help, and it can be so easy to do.One easy idea is to contribute to Christmas Child. This program is run by an evangelical Christian group, Samaritan's Purse. All you have to do is fill a shoe box with small gifts for either a boy or a girl. Good things to include are...
•Are we there yet?
Are we there yet? by Stephanie FosterThe holidays are rolling around again, and it's time to figure out how to keep the kids busy as you drive to see your families. Whether it's only an hour or two or most of the day, traveling can be a very boring experience for children.How you handle it can depend on the ages of your children. No matter their ages, you need to take into account your children's interests.Infants are pretty easy, relatively speaking. Personally, I prefer to travel at night...
•Are you making time for your marriage?
Are you making time for your marriage? by Stephanie FosterIt's easy to lose track of the important things when you are raising a family. It's hard enough to pay enough attention to your marriage when you have children; if you add working from home to the mix, it can become nearly impossible. Yet a strong marriage is one of the greatest gifts you can give your children.There are some simple ways to make sure your spouse knows how much he or she means to you, however. These tips won't solve...
•Basic Kitchen Remodeling Planning
There are some basic steps you need to take when you decide to remodel your kitchen. Here I will present to you a quick overview of what you need to do when remodeling your kitchen; you will find more details throughout this website.
The first step is, of course, deciding on your goals for the kitchen. What do you want your remodel to accomplish for you?
You'll want to do some research even at this early stage. What kinds of materials will you want to use for countertops? Granite is hugely...
•Beating The Stay At Home Mom Stereotypes
Everyone has a picture in their mind of what a stay at home mom should be. Sometimes it’s fairly flattering - the perfect mother who is always there for her family, home cooks every meal and keeps a perfect house. Other times it’s a picture of a woman lazing on the couch, watching soap operas, eating bon bons and spending her husband’s hard earned money.
Most stay at home moms don’t fit perfectly into either. Maybe you’re great at cooking meals for your family, but when it comes to thinking...
•Chaos Doesn’t Mean You Can’t Get Things Done!
Life is often hectic for stay at home parents. It gets more so when you work from home. There’s the kids to care for, the house to keep at least reasonably clean and meals to prepare, all while getting your job or business taken care of. It’s not the easy life many people think it is.
But even in the most hectic of times it is possible to get things done. Trust me, I know! I just spent two days helping my sister by watching her kids while she waited for her husband to go into surgery, and...
•Choosing The Right Chocolate Gift Basket
Chocolate gift baskets make a great gift for just about any occasion. They’re personal or professional, depending on the basket selected.
For a close friend, of course, you want to pick something that has some of his or her favorite varieties of chocolate. Maybe they like Ghiradelli. Maybe any milk chocolate at all will do. Or maybe a gift basket filled with the most unique, decadent chocolates you can imagine will be the perfect gift.
You’ll also want to consider the occasion. For a...
•Fine Jewelry: A Classic, Beautiful Gift
Want to see that special someone’s eyes light up? Give jewelry for a present.
Fine jewelry can sound like an intimidating gift to give. There’s so much to know, both about the person you’re giving it to and the jewelry you are buying. You want to get good value for your money while finding something that will be worn regularly.
One trick is to look at what he or she wears regularly. Any favorite jewelry? Favorite colors? Trendy or conservative style? Any hobbies or interests? You want to...
•Flowers In Your Organic Garden
Even though you don’t eat most flowers, keeping things organic in your flower beds is a good idea. If you know what you’re doing, you can control many pests without buying harmful poisons.
One of the most important things is to choose flowers that will grow strong in your area. No matter how much you love a particular flower, if it is going to have a lot of trouble staying alive or is prone to disease, it’s going to greatly hamper your organic gardening efforts. You are better off sticking to...
•Hair Styling Tools
There are a few things you need when you’re styling your hair. Obviously you need a good hairbrush, but some other tools can make things easier too.
A rat tailed comb is very useful if you like hairstyles that involve separating small sections of hair. This can be useful when making some kinds of braids, for example.
Elastics are very important for holding your hair style in place. I strongly recommend you not use actual rubber bands or any elastic with metal. These tend to tear and...
•How to Write a Work at Home Resume
How to Write a Work at Home Resume by Stephanie Foster Finding a work at home job is not easy. The field is very competitive, and it can take months to land a job. You can improve your chances by having a well-written resume.The first thing to remember is that if you aren’t qualified for a job, there is very little point in applying for it. Take a good look at your skills. Do you know what data entry involves? How fast can you type? Do you have a quiet room for taking telephone calls? These...
•Ideas For The Christmas Marriage Proposal
The holiday season is one of the most popular times to propose marriage. It's a chance to tell the entire family what she means to you.
Planning such a proposal can be intimidating. There's a lot of pressure when you propose in front of others, and then there's the question of exactly how to go about it.
The proposal can be as simple (is any proposal of marriage simple?) as pulling the ring out of your pocket and getting down on one knee, or it can be a precisely timed event, planned with...
•Making Working At Home More Fun
Ok, so most of the people who hear that you work at home won’t think you need to have more fun. After all, you just sit around and watch TV, and some piddly amount of money just appears with no effort on your part, right?
Don’t know about you, but none of that’s true for me. I work hard, watch very little TV (and I’m generally working at the same time), and the money’s pretty darn good.
But some days it’s just so hard to get going. Things just kind of drag, or maybe you’re frustrated that...
•Nine Inexpensive Ways to Advertise Your Web Site
Nine Inexpensive Ways to Advertise Your Web Site by Stephanie Foster1. Put your Web address on ALL your regular advertisements for your business.This includes business cards, print ads, receipts, television commercials – EVERYTHING. Your regular customers will often be just as interested as those just finding out about your business. Many people enjoy looking at products online, even if they buy directly from you. Make it easy for them.2. Include your Web address on your signature line.From...
•Oiling Your Long Hair
One of the problems with long hair is how hard it is for your hair’s natural oils to get all the way down to the ends. You can help your hair feel great with a good conditioner, but oil can be really helpful.
My personal preference is to use jojoba oil. I buy it at my local natural foods store. I like to scent it with a bit of lavender oil too, since I love that scent.
It takes very, very little oil to do the job. My hair copes pretty well with being long, so I find I do best by only oiling...
•Parenthood And Long Hair
If they don’t cut their hair in pregnancy, many women cut their hair shorter after the baby is born. The reason, as always, is that it’s easier to deal with.
If you think about it, though, long hair may not require that much extra effort when compared to short hair. You’ll spend less time getting it cut at the salon, which can be nice when you have to fit that in around your children’s schedules. Brushing your hair only takes a little longer for well-maintaned long hair than it does for...
•Resume writing for the stay at home parent
Resume writing for the stay at home parent by Stephanie Foster Maybe your children are now in school and you’d like to go back to work. Or maybe finances are tight and you want to contribute. Or maybe you just really need adult interaction.Whatever the reason, many stay at home parents do eventually decide to return to work. They face tremendous disadvantages, however. They may not have held a job ever previously. Their skills in the field they worked in before staying at home may be out of...
•Seaport Village In San Diego
Seaport Village is perhaps my favorite shopping center in San Diego. I don’t go there often, and it doesn’t have the major department stores, but if you enjoy unique and quirky shops, this is the shopping center for you.
My personal favorite has always been the Lefty Shop. I’m right handed, and they mostly sell tools for lefties, but they have things anyone can enjoy. I love my “counter clock” I bought there. Look at a regular clock in a mirror, and that’s what my clock looks like. The double...
•Shopping For Healthy Foods
The grocery store can be a pretyy hazardous place when you’re trying to stick with a healthy diet. It offers both the healthy foods you need as well as the opportunity to buy all kinds of unhealthy foods.
Today we'll go over some of the basic rules for shopping for healthy foods. You probably know some of them, so think of this as a reminder to follow the rules for them to work.
Never shop on an empty stomach. This is the best way to ensure that you will buy things you don’t need. It is much...
•Solar Energy Is Hot!
No doubt you’ve heard plenty about solar power but always thought it was too expensive, aside from minor uses in the now popular garden lighting systems. However, with fuel prices climbing and solar cells becoming more reasonable, adding solar power to your home is a great, long term solution to high energy bills.
That isn’t to say they’re cheap. Before rebates, it typically takes 12 or more years for a homeowner to make their investment in solar panels back. That’s much longer than the...
•Sweet Memories
These days all you hear about is how to eat healthier, lose weight and get fit. It’s all for the good, but sometimes it’s fun to go back to when you were a kid.
Remember all the games you used to play? Board games like Scrabble, Monopoly and Life. Tag, hide n’ seek.
Running around, riding bikes, skating, rolling down grassy hills.
Ok, I’m getting a little idealized here. So let’s have a little fun. Let’s remember the candy!
What were your favorites? Licorice? Chocolate? Laffy Taffy?
I...
•Teaching Your Kids About Money
Children aren’t born with an understanding of how money works; all parents learn that one quickly. A young child sees the things they want or need just appear from Mommy and Daddy. The fact that Mommy or Daddy gave money to the sales clerk means nothing to them. So how do you teach your kids about money?
You have to consider your child’s age first. My daughter, for example, is three, going on four. Right now she knows the names of the various coins, but the difference in value between a...
•The San Diego Natural History Museum
The San Diego Natural History Museum has an impressive range in its collection. As of this writing, there’s the fossil section, a section on the big fire in San Diego in 2003, rocks and minerals and a variety of educational programs.
We watched a movie in their movie theater. The current one is on Vikings, but of course the selection changes regularly, so don’t count on this being current information for long. The theater is large and comfortable - almost stadium seating with how the seats...
•Update That Room!
How’s your decorating budget? Not that good? Not to worry, there are plenty of ways to update any room in your house without breaking the budget.
The first thing to do is try just rearranging the furniture. It’s a simple change that might amaze you with its effectiveness. Try taking some of the furniture away from the walls perhaps. You don’t have to limit yourself to the basic lines of the walls. Setting the room up at an angle to the walls can sometimes make the room look bigger.
Paint is...
•What To Look Out For When Choosing Health Insurance
One of the biggest challenges of being self employed is having to buy your own health insurance. It’s a major expense and the wrong plan can fail you when you need coverage the most.
One of the big things to look out for is what happens if you come down with a chronic condition; that is, a condition that won’t be going away anytime soon. This is one of the easy times to lose coverage or find out that your premiums are going to go sky-high.
One example of a chronic condition is asthma....
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