Christmas Card 2010

Pop Art Ornaments Christmas

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Len's friend/co-worker Ben Baxter took this great photo of us. Can you believe it was in the 40's outside when this shot was taken? Love the style of this card from Shutterfly. They've got the best selection that I've seen online. So easy to create with one photo like this, or with multiple photos if you have individual shots of family members or want to do a mini-collage of different poses. Shutterfly has promotions fairly frequently so it's easy to get an even better deal on Christmas cards like these, photo books, calendars (we do one every year for my mother-in-law), and lots of other classy gifts. They have so much that's customizable and it's easy to do. Gotta say that I *heart* Shutterfly. They've got the photo card and gift niche down pat.

Swagbucks!

I'm so excited for next month! Why? I'll be getting a brand new Chi flat iron for FREE to tame my wavy tresses into smooth styles for summer. I've been wanting one for quite awhile, so I'm extra stoked about it. So how did I snag that deal? SwagBucks.com. I won enough swagbucks to redeem them for the amount of Amazon.com gift cards to get it.

Earning points or 'swagbucks' is really easy. You just sign up for SwagBucks.com and just use their search engine to search for stuff that you'd normally search for. There are other easy ways to earn swagbucks as well, including:

• Downloading their toolbar; you get swagbucks every so often just for using it.
• Checking their blog and facebook page for special swag codes
• Recycling your old cell phone through their easy service
• Completing special offers (you can get swagbucks for just LOOKING at some...no participation in the offers needed)

You earn 30 SwagBucks just for signing up.  Also, as a bonus, my friend Kim with Maven on a Mission is doing a SwagBucks-related giveaway for a $5 Amazon.com gift card (her favorite SwagBucks prize, and mine too!)  Kim's the one who got me into couponing and uses her blog to help coach many of us in the Orlando area and beyond in our frugal pursuits.  I'm so excited for her doing her blog's first giveaway, so go support her and hopefully win!

So what would you like to get for free?

Swimming Like a Fish

Being attracted to nearly any source of water, having parents who enjoy swimming, exhibiting a huge interest in fish and aquatic animals, and being a Florida resident have almost destined Li'l Girlie for swimming lessons early in life. Infant/Toddler swim programs abound in Central Florida, but I wanted to make sure that we did one that would help Li'l Girlie if she was in a potential drowning situation. Knowing her enjoyment of water and curiosity, it seemed the smartest thing for us to do.

We know of several families who've lost children in drowning accidents and another family whose son is still alive and well only by the grace of God including his quick-acting mom and the help of an EMT. Drowning is a leading cause of infant/young childrens' death in Florida, so we're so glad that something like Infant Swimming Resource (ISR) is out there to teach young children skills they need to survive in the water.  For toddlers, ISR teaches a swim-float-swim sequence to help a child get to the edge of a pool or shore of a pond/lake.  Lessons are 10 minutes each, 5 days a week for 4-6 weeks, and parents learn a lot about swimming safety as well through interacting with the instructor and the parents' resource handbook.

While it can be tough watching your child through the first several lessons especially -- many kids cry or fuss due to the completely new situation they're put in, seeing your child learning life-saving skills is really rewarding.  The instructors take great care to insure the childrens' safety and personalize the intensity and duration of the lesson (up to 10 min.) depending on how the child is doing that day.  I also love that the lessons are one-on-one; my child has her instructor's full attention, and in the case of our instructor training a new instructor, 2 on one.

Yes, it's a bit pricey.   Yes, you keep a log of your child's eating, sleeping, pooping, etc. each day to help the instructor determine what is the safest and best way to handle your child's lesson each day.  But knowing what she's learning could one day save her life in a situation as common as falling into a pool is priceless.

Here's a short clip of Li'l Girlie's 6th lesson.  You can tell she's already digging it.  :)



We ended up doing our ISR lessons through Safe Start, a unique drowning prevention effort in central and south Florida that partners with community centers like YMCAs and JCCs.  We have a YMCA 10 minutes from our house with an indoor pool, so it's a sweet situation.  For those of you who wonder why an indoor pool is important to me...Central FL late spring/early summer afternoons = thunderstorms.  Not so swim-friendly.

I've had some great conversations with Li'l Girlie over the last week since she talks about swimming lessons a ton during the day.  My favorite: 'swim underwawa touch fish, pop up see mama' (swimming to the wall where there's a fish decal, then pulling up on the wall to see me sitting there cheering her on).  That, and 'more swim underwawa please.'

Mother/Daughter Smoothies

Taking a sip of smoothie
Originally uploaded by bunnyfabulous

I like cooking and want to help Li'l Girlie get involved with it from early on and have fun with food. She's two, so I can't exactly hand her a knife and have her help chop, so I'd been trying to think of something she could help with on a regular basis. Then, to try get out of the rut of having cereal for breakfast every day, I started whipping up some healthy smoothies for the three of us, and our kitchen adventures began.



Li'l Girlie names the ingredients as I plop them into in the blender, and she, of course, is the official 'vroom-er' A.K.A. the person who pushes the buttons on the blender to make it go vroom. She takes her job very seriously, and consults with me on whether it needs more juice or soy milk. We pour it into glasses for Mommy and Daddy, and she gets to sip out of each.

Even better, these smoothies are super-healthy, delicious and contain VEGETABLES. Yes, it's a great way to get a little extra green into a choosy toddler's diet.

Here's my 'recipe.' I don't measure much of anything, so this is just my best guess as to the quantities.

1/2 banana
1/2 ripe avocado
1 cup frozen berries (strawberries, blackberries, raspberries or blueberries, or any combination thereof that appeals to you)
1 handful raw spinach leaves or raw kale greens
3/4 cup greek-style yogurt (we prefer vanilla, but fruit-flavored works well too)
1/2 cup soy milk (or regular milk if you want)
1/2 cup grape juice or berry juice blend

Put all ingredients in blender and blend together. Add more soy milk and/or grape juice if needed for consistency. If it's too thin, add more yogurt or banana.

This is to taste; if you need some more sweetness, add a bit of honey. Kale has a stronger taste than spinach, so you might want to go heavier on the other ingredients, especially the ones on the sweet end of the spectrum.

As Li'l Girlie would say.... mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, that tastes good!  Her bunny gets a sip too. 

Spicing it up with some new recipes

I love to try new recipes, and couponing as well as the Eat from The Pantry Challenge that I did in January in February has helped me continue to stretch my creative muscles to use the food we have on hand or what's cheap.  This year I've already found a couple of great go-to recipes that are easy to fix and extremely tasty.   My current fave:  Shrimp Fried Rice.  When you're able to get shrimp and rice on sale, it's a fairly frugal recipe to prepare, with sesame oil being a possible exception if you don't use it much.

If you like to make things ahead, this is a recipe for you.  It's SUPPOSED to be prepared with leftover cold rice, so I just cook that and dice the vegetables earlier in the afternoon during my daughter's nap.  Near dinnertime, just saute the shrimp and follow the directions.  Dinner on the plate within 15 min.  At least to my taste buds, this rivals takeout...mmmm!

Mini Apple-Cheddar Meatloaves is another recent find which can be whipped up in a short amount of time to rave reviews.  It's ground turkey-based, so there's an added level of healthfulness.  To cut the prep time, opted to put my onion and apple in the food processor to get it into small pieces rather than shred them.  You can also substitute regular breadcrumbs for panko. 

I've been able to get amazing deals on pork tenderloin in the past couple of weeks, but I really didn't have any pork tenderloin recipes.  Enter Pan Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Blue Cheese and Olive Stuffing.  This isn't a cheap recipe to prepare, nor is it quick; but it's easy and tastes fan-freaking-tastic.  Think restaurant-quality-impress-your-guests delicious.  I'm still dreaming about the sauce.  From all the money we've been saving, it was a bit easier for me to fork out the extra cash for olive tapenade and blue cheese to make this splurge meal.  Well worth it for a dish that makes me miss going out to nice restaurants just a bit less.  ;)

Best of all, my 2 year old will eat all three of these!  Woo hoo!

photo courtesy of dearbarbie on flickr

Alphabet Train Fun

Chugga chugga chugga woo woo!  Ok, I don't know how to spell train noises, but that's my best attempt.  We got the Infantino Alphabet Train from our church's toy exchange and gave it to Li'l Girlie for Christmas.  It's really designed for kids 3-5, but since she's really, really into trains right now, we figured we'd try it out.

Right now Li'l Girlie just enjoys watching us put the train together, making train noises and trying to say what the object is on the top of the train cars when we point to them.  I can see how it will become a really fun way to learn the alphabet as she gets to be a bit older.  This puzzle, along with several other Infantino puzzles, is an Oppenheim Toy Portfolio winner and has suggested games and activities on the top of the box. The whole train is over 5 feet long, so the size of it even appealing for little kids.  Definitely a floor puzzle that can be worked on by more than one person.

The pictures are cute and colorful; the only kind of odd one is the big Jello mold for the letter 'J'.  But then again, how many easily recognizable things begin with J?

Eat From the Pantry Challenge

There are a couple of blogs that I follow to help me be a more frugal mama and a better steward of the time and money that I have.  MoneySavingMom.com is one of my favorites.  She is co-hosting the Eat from the Pantry Challenge for the month of January.  It's not a contest or a competition, but rather an opportunity to challenge yourself to cut back and use up what you have in the fridge, freezer, and pantry.  Especially with a drop in our income (not to mention my husband spending most of 2009 unemployed) and even more so in this economic environment, the creativity to use what you have is a skill that I'd like to develop. 

While my pantry/fridge/freezer stockpiles aren't huge, I'm still going to give it my best shot.  My goal is to have meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks) for an entire week without having to shop for any ingredients.  My week will start on Sun, January 10th. Any longer I can go is a bonus. 

Here are my own 'rules' and caveats:

• I will still grocery shop during the challenge week, but only for essential dairy and produce (I do have an almost 2-year old in the house) as well as future food stockpiling.  
• I can't use any of the future stockpile stuff for challenge week meals.   
• No stockpiling purchases can be full price...they must be on sale, and preferably have coupons.
• I have a dinner commitment on Tuesday nights which I will keep; I have to make sure that my husband and daughter have ample leftovers to eat that evening.  
  

At least to me, this venture seems less intimidating when I'm doing it alongside other moms, even if they are online and I can't see them. I've felt inspired to continue to try to save money and have fun doing it.  MoneySavingMom has a FAQ's page with some leads on getting started saving  It's easier than you might think.