Wintery Fun: Crafts for kids

     With many parts of the U.S. being bombarded with blustery, cold weather, moms and caregivers need to find indoor activities for their still very active young ones. Board games are always a classic go-to for inside fun, but eventually your young child has enough and gets ... bored. Instead of plopping down in front of the television or game console, perhaps some fun, functional art.
     There are plenty of websites out there providing recipes for art or instructions for fun crafts. spoonful.com and Sweethappylife.com are great sites to find very fun actives which you probably have all the ingredients for already. Pinterest also has a wide variety of fun arts and crafts to choose from.
     I'm going to share two that I found children really enjoy. Both should be for children above the age of two or three so they aren't trying to eat the projects and an adult should be watching at all times. The first is great for mom and child, because it's fun for kids and makes the home smell good for mom. It comes out looking and feeling a lot like playdough. You can shape it into figures or use cookie cutters to cut out shapes. If using cookie cutters, you can use a pencil while your project is still wet to make a hole to feed string through and then you have a cinnamon scented ornament to hang on a tree or around the house.
                               
                                 What you will need:
                                                       Equal parts applesauce and cinnamon (1/2 cup each for    
                                                       one child should be enough)
                                                       1 zip lock bag for mixing

                                  Pour ingredients together inside the zip lock bag and squish it together
                                  until it feels like bread dough. Take it out and begin playing. You may
                                  need a little extra cinnamon if it is too wet or little extra applesauce if it is
                                  too dry. When you and your child are finished with your creations, let them
                                  dry on a plate or wax paper overnight and they will harden.
 
      That Idea comes from a book I would recommend to all moms called The Ultimate Book of Kid Concoctions. There are a ton of great ideas in there. The next idea I found a few years ago and it's called moon sand and when you make it you will see why. It's very important that adults be nearby because the two ingredients are flour and baby oil. This one will make your home smell good too. Basically you get however much all purpose, white flour you want the child playing with and you mix a tiny bit of baby oil into it. You can do it in a bag like the last recipe, except this one isn't like dough. Just add enough oil to make sure there isn't a whole lot of stray flour but not enough to make a mushy mess. It will begin to clump up and look a lot like what moon sand would look like to you. Hours of fun and when your child is done, you can store it in a bag or bowl for next time.
     I hope these ideas are useful to you. If anyone has any other fun recipes, lease share them!

Cinnamon art

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About Cloth Diapers ...

      For most new mothers, buying diapers every week is just a realism that comes with motherhood. Any other option seems moot. Cloth diapers? Didn't that end in the 60's? Who could possibly want to deal with the safety pins and rubber pants and the washing? Cloth diapers are dirty words and a thing of the past ... Right? Wrong! There is a whole "underground" movement that is somehow escaping mainstream advertising. Chances are unless you have seen someone using them, you have no idea what the new generation of cloth diapers even looks like!
     Disposable diapers were not available until the 1940's and only to the people who could afford them. Before that, people used cloth - cotton flannel or linen and before that there were leaves and animal skins. As mothers began to join the workforce, there became a need for a diaper service. They would pick up your dirty diapers and leave you fresh ones. If you didn't use a diaper service, you were probably pre-rinsing in the toilet. By the 1960's, the disposable diaper became much more affordable and much more functional. With this, the extra work of the cloth diaper began to look much less appealing, making throw away the new norm.
     What many people don't realize is that the new cloth diapers can look much like a disposable diaper! They can come with aplix fasteners or snaps. You can buy an all-in-one diaper or a pocket diaper. There are hybrid diapers where you can either use cloth inserts or an Eco-friendly version. Or, you can do the classic tri-fold or flat. BUT there is no need for pins with ANY of these options. There is a fastener available. It's rubber and plastic and amazing! The options for cloth diapers today are almost endless.  You can use hemp, cotton, wool, and microfiber. The best part is the money you save using these options, but there are more perks than just saving money.
     I've talked to a lot of moms who have used the cloth diapers and almost all of them have told me their little one's never got rashes while using them. That's almost unheard of with disposables. That means no spending money on powders and creams. Another perk is that children who are cloth diapered tend to be potty trained sooner than their disposable wearing counterparts. Also, your mark on the planet is much less.
     There are a ton of different companies making reusables. Prices vary widely and some can be quite expensive. However, it is very easy to find them in thrift stores. There are even websites devoted to finding used diapers such as diaper swappers.
     Diaper services do still exist, but cleaning them yourself is not hard to do so long as you have a washer. One very useful tool is a diaper sprayer. It is simply attached to your toilet so messy diapers are just sprayed off and the waste is flushed away. A quick search can show the various ways to make a diy diaper sprayer to save money. It is not a necessity, but is completely worth having. Plus, after you're done using cloth diapers, you have a bidet. ;-)
     There may still be some extra work involved, but I think the reward is worth it. There are less synthetic fibers being exposed to baby's oh so sensitive skin, the environment isn't taking on such a heavy burden, and baby can be ready for undies sooner. That's not to mention the amount of coin you can keep in your pocket! So, go do a search of all in one cloth diapers or pocket diapers and see for yourself what I mean. You may even become a diaper junky collecting all the adorable prints.



   

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Finding Work at Home: The struggle is real

     If I got paid to search for online jobs, I wouldn't ever have to search again! It seams like there might be more scams out there than real, legitimate opportunities. If you're a person who's only viable option is telecommuting, this can be quite disheartening.
   
     All of us work at home searchers have done it - the endless google searches for "legit" work at home jobs, "real" work at home jobs,  and any other key words we can think of to find some money. And then, when we think we have found the needle in the haystack, we google search the name of the company with "scam" and find our dreams crushed. It's not that we want to get rich quick or be at the top of a pyramid, we just want a real way to earn money at home using our real talents. Is that too much to ask?
   
      I have found a few great work at home opportunities that really are legit. One is from social spark. If you are great with social media and/ or you are a blogger, this opportunity is a good one for you. However, having a following is pretty essential.  Click here to learn more. WAHM.com is another great source to find a ton of different job listings that include at home sales, IT, writing jobs, etc. Be wary, though, some of the not-so-legit jobs slip through. Click here  to find out how you can earn money by selling jewelry for kitsylane.com. This is awesome if you are great at selling but don't want to spend money on start-up costs. Marketing skills are definitely required to be successful.
   
      If jewelry is your thing but you don't want to sell it online, Titan Chains has some great opportunities for you. You can read more about the company on my post here. Links to their website are also included in the post.
   
      Ratracerebellion.com is another website that posts online jobs. One place to be extra careful when looking for any job is craigslist. While it is extremely useful, it is hard to sort out the real from the fake. Anyone can post a job listing on craigslist. It really doesn't mean it is legitimate.
   
     Maybe some day at-home jobs won't be so hard to find and that sure seems like the direction some companies are going, but for now it is a challenge. Hopefully one of these sites holds the answers we are looking for. Good luck in your searches! Have a suggestion for a work-at-home job? Leave a comment and I'll check into it for a future post!

**UPDATE** follow this link to see my review for working at home for Titan Chains.



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