Finding Rainy Day Fun in Unusual Places

What to do on a rainy, gloomy day?  I love just staying home and playing, doing crafts, messing around with playdoh, etc., but there are just times where you need to break out of the cabin fever and just get out with your kids. 

We didn't discover this newest place to explore under the most delightful of circumstances -- my husband is in the ER with a bad fever and chest pain.  But while they took him to have a CAT scan, my daughter and I checked out the children's section of the hospital and found a Disney-themed play area, a welcome diversion while we waited. 

I wouldn't have thought of a hospital as somewhere to look for rainy day activities, but it sure did fit the bill.  If you've got a good sized hospital in your area (especially a children's hospital) and you're looking for a new place for fun on a rainy or cold day, check to see if they have a lobby with stuff for kids.

Have you found a great place to have fun indoors when the weather's not great for being outdoors?  Please share!

Cash back for shopping online

photo © 2006 Rob Lee | more info (via: Wylio)
Ok, so I wouldn't buy a shirt that looks like a dollar bill, but I'm certainly up for having my online clothing purchases (and all other online purchases for that matter) turning into free money.  I've found a super-simple and very legitimate way to earn a couple extra bucks. 

If you do any online shopping, one of the easiest ways to basically get paid for the purchases that you'd make anyway is to use a cash back website.  They're super-easy to use.  All you do is go to the cash-back site, then

1. Sign up.
2. Choose a store that you want to shop at (most sites have hundreds to thousands of choices)
3. Shop as you normally would, and get cash back on your purchase. 

Just got the latest notification of a rebate check on its way to me.  Yippee!  This year I earned over $18 cash back on my regular Christmas shopping, and I now make sure that any purchase I make, whenever possible, goes through a cash-back/rebate site so that I don't have to pay full-price.

My personal favorite cash-back site is Ebates.  It's the granddaddy of all rebate sites, and is ridiculously easy to use.  When you search for the store you want, it tells you how much cash back they offer, and there are often double cash-back deals around major holidays like Christmas, Valentine's Day, etc.  They have thousands of stores to choose from, including names like Land's End, Gap, Babies R Us, Target, Shoes.com, Bath and Body Works, Sephora and the Apple Store. 

I can always find a use for a little extra cash.  Plus, It's not much effort for a busy mom to use something like Ebates.  Just a few seconds of effort... so easy even a (fill in the blank) can do it.  

Free Chick-fil-A and Learning on the Go

It definitely pays to join Chick-fil-A Insiders.  If  you or someone you love (read:  your kids) enjoy Chick-fil-A, you'll get emails notifying you of when they have exclusive free previews of new products.  Earlier in the year I got a free Spicy Chicken Sandwich, and this month was the Spicy Chicken Biscuit.

Free food was a great excuse for a morning excursion to our favorite fast food place.  Li'l Girlie is beyond enamored with Chick-fil-A...the nuggets, the cows, the play area, not to mention getting to drink milk out of a cute container with a straw.  All happy stuff in her book.

On this trip, we discovered the cow clock table-toppers, which immediately drew Li'l Girlie's interest.  We had fun moving the cow's arms and practicing counting with the numbers on the clock.  We practiced our moos and talked about what cows like to eat and what they do.  Between that and the play area, we ended up spending almost all morning at Chick-fil-A.

And why do I share this?

Well, the first paragraph is all about the free food, of course.  The rest of it is what Miriam Huffman Rockness, in her book A Time for Play - On Childhood and Creativity describes as fanning the flames of a child's interest.  As parents we can push our children to have interest in certain activities, and sometimes our child will glom onto them and have a ball, but what really sparks a child's creativity and desire to learn is parents latching onto something their son or daughter is already excited about and helping them explore that interest.

A boy who loves dinosaurs but doesn't care to read much will readily devour books his parents supply to him about T-Rex, Apatosaurus and Triceratops and learn huge vocabulary words to describe the objects of his obsession.  While that interest may not lead him into being a palientologist, it just might.  Or, at least along the way, it's teaching him both that his parents care about his passions and that there are fascinating worlds of knowledge to explore. 

Right now my daughter loves chicken nuggets and cows.  Who says we have to eat and run when there's an opportunity for learning through something she already thinks is fun.

Saving money and getting famous. Well, not really famous.

 One of my very favorite things is saving money on quality products.  I've met more and more moms, especially in recent years, who've been dipping their toes into the world of couponing to save money on their grocery and household bills, or like me, jumping in and swimming around. 

In fall of 2009, I was fortunate enough to be personally tutored in how to coupon by my friend Kim from MavenOnAMission.  With her encouragement and coaching, I applied what I learned one step at a time, and a few months later I was saving 40-50% on my grocery and household bills, and my family was eating healthier.  

In the summer of 2010, the Orlando Sentinel held a 'Super Saver' contest where they chose the top 10 essays about how people used the newspaper to save money.  As you can guess from the photo, I was one of the winners, and got featured in a print ad campaign.  (They also did radio spots; some of my local friends have heard me on Magic 107.7, but I've not heard myself yet).  While saving money for my own family is rewarding and gives me a sense of accomplishment, I'm also eager to help other moms learn how to save so that they can be better stewards and have more room in their budgets to pay off bills, have more fun, save towards a financial goal or give to their churches or charity.

Along those lines, my first post of 2011 was actually on my friend Kristy's savings & couponing blog, 4our2cents, about my trip to CVS and paying $1 for over $40 worth of stuff.

I'm thankful and honored that Kristy asked me to guest-post on her blog, and it's inspired me to write more about couponing and saving on Mommy's Favorite Things.  If you're new to couponing or not even sure you want to try it ---that Extreme Couponing show is giving it a bad name -- don't worry.  I'll take it one step at a time. 

In case you were wondering, I won a gift card for my Super Saver essay too.  Winning money --that's another one of my favorite things. 

New Year -- Can I Get a Do-Over?

To be quite frank, 2010 was not my best year for writing.  I feel like I let this blog wither like an unwatered houseplant.  Now here I am with the watering can, plant food, and new sunny window to revive it. 

Here's what you can expect for 2011... toy reviews, couponing tips, and family-friendly recipes, to name the main categories.  I'm still centered on the things that help make a mom's life easier, more enjoyable and help save money.  In addition to Mommy's Favorite Things, I also write websites that go more indepth on the stuff I talk about here.

In any case, if you've been following me (you super-loyal and patient person, you), I want to thank you and also apologize for my spotty posting.  I'm kicking it back in gear.

All the best,

Erin
Mommy's Favorite Things

Christmas Card 2010

Pop Art Ornaments Christmas

Create modern Christmas cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

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