The last post of 2013 that is! 

First of all, thanks to all of my readers. I know that there are a lot of you out there that read but don't comment and I appreciate the clicking over almost as much as I appreciate the commenters.  

Tonight will be spent with my three main men. This is the very first New Years that we are all spending it together. Every single year, my parents host a New Year's Eve party for the grandkids where the soda and junk food flow freely. 

This year, my kids feel that they are too big. They were trying to make plans with friends but somehow that does not seem likely to happen so the four of us are going to do something together.  My sister warned that this may be the last New Year's Eve that my teens actually want to spend with their parents. Ever. :(  I'm going to try to enjoy every single moment.


2013 has been a really good year for my family. I have high hopes for this year to be even better.

I hope that every one of you that reads this has a happy and healthy 2014!

Today, my son  and I ran out to Mojo Donuts. It is far away (thank g-d) and we picked up some deliciousness before they sold out.  These were supposed to be for tonight's dessert.  Guess how many are left?

Cheers!

Kids Stuff to Keep...

My sister insists that I give very good helpful advice and suggested that I should blog some of my words of wisdom. I'm not sure that I agree with her but here goes…

At the end of the year, full of food and fun, I always find myself in a purging mood (not bulimic) but purging of the closets etc.  I think it is the mental part of out with the old and in with the new that sends my car full of stuff to goodwill at least two to three times between Christmas and New Years.

There is a fine line between a border and a smart, thrifty homemaker and throwing vs. keeping is the distinction.

Today's post is about Kid's Stuff.


 When you have little kids, there is an overabundance of stuff. Toys, clothes, supplies, etc.  It gets overwhelming. It gets messy. HOWEVER, it is expensive to replace.  You can look forward to  the fact that even though teenagers are moody, their stuff is much smaller and does not require a whole playroom to keep it in check.

 KIDS CLOTHING: 

• If you are thinking of adding more kids to your brood, save anything unstained. You'll need as much money to keep the older siblings occupied while you eat up a new baby.

•  If you are 100% certain that you are done having children, pass most of it on. Give it to charity, a school,  a homeless shelter, a neighbor or a friend.   Saving every little sock and tiny hat seems darling and sentimental , but it is really hoarding.   

• Save the outfit he or she came home from the hospital or a couple of other little pieces that you remember something special about but seriously, unless it is a family heirloom, no one is going to want your carter's onesies in 30 years.

•  If items were super expensive or fabulous, consider selling them on eBay or at a consignment place.   Then you can buy more cute stuff with the cash.

TOYS: 

• If something is great but the kids are bored with it, stash away for a raining day. My middle school kids were still pulling out the magnet toys, legos and board games up until they got laptops and iPads. Then we turned the playroom into a man cave.

• If it is loud and annoying, eats up batteries or makes the kids nuts in a bad way, give to goodwill (Schools don't want them either). All of those carnival type stuffed animals, party favors, etc should go in the goodwill bag in the trunk of your car or outside garbage can as soon as your kids are not looking. They tend to multiply and are really not enjoyed for more than the first five minutes that they are in a child's hand.   

• EXCEPTION: save that special teddy bear or cool toy that will stand the test of time . I'm talking one or two sentimental things per child (not a closet full) 

•  NOTE: If your children have any tendency to hoard, do not involve them in the purging of the toys. Teach them charity in another way. My kids do not want to give or throw anything away. In fact, when cleaning out their room, if they are asked about any item, even a pencil, they become instantly re-enamored with it and cannot agree to part with it.  They stop caring about the orphan that will use that lint-covered pencil to become a nobel prize winner. They will fight with you for an hour over that thing that they forgot ever existed.  Get the stuff out of the house when they are not looking and put it in your car for later distribution. 

BABY GEAR:

• If it is in good condition and you are thinking of having more kids, store it. If your high chair or stroller are gunky and dirty, pitch them. You're going to want the latest and greatest anyway, so pitch them or send them to Grandma's house. My mom and mother in law both had strollers, cribs, pack n'plays etc at their houses which always cut down on the amount of crap that I had to haul there when dumping them off there dropping them off for a visit.

• If the gear-ish item really never got used with the first baby (wiper warmer, diaper genie, etc), I can guarantee that you will not use it with the second.    The stuff you should get rid of would be the parent convenience types of things. If you did not have the patience to use them with the first baby or two, you definitely won't with the next kiddo. The exceptions would be items like swings, bouncy seats. One of my babies loved all of those things and the other hated them

KIDS ARTWORK: 

• One of my girlfriends has a storage unit full of every single item that her child produced. I'm not just talking about artwork, but every single test, book report, etc.   She obviously has issues but anything more than a small tote of your child's work seems like overkill to me.   Save the especially cute  or meaningful pieces  (I have a piece framed in my room from pre-school!) but every scribble is going to dilute and clutter it up.   

• Trust me, your children are not going want any of it when they have their own homes.  My Dad texted me a photo of the plaque that my sorority big sister made me when I pledged in 1985 that he found the day after Christmas. I forgot that it ever existed. If I saw it at a flea market, I would have never recognized it. I did not want it. It was taking up space in their closet for almost 30 years! Here it is...
  

• The exception would be if your child is destined to be the next Romero Brito, Pablo Picasso, etc.  If little Johnny is a phenom, you may want to save his finger paintings because they will be worth some serious bucks someday at Christies. Otherwise, display for a while and then pitch most of it. 

• HOWEVER, don't let your kids see you throwing it away as you may need to pay for therapy later on.

ART SUPPLIES:

• This is where I err on the side of hoarding.  Even though my youngest is an uncrafty boy  in 8th grade, we are still doing those horrible class projects on a regular basis.    The projects always require lots of supplies so Avoiding a trip to Michaels is like adding $50 to my IRA. In fact, I always stock up on school and art supplies when I see a good deal (such as after the start of school). I have a whole (small) closet dedicated to art and office supplies.

COSTUMES:

•  Make a costume box.  Put hats and other dress up stuff in there.  I'm not kidding.  If you don't and you are trying to put together a Christopher Columbus Costume in May (long before and after any store has Halloween supplies) you will thank me.  You would think that this would have ended for me by now, but Cinco De Mayo, Black History Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, Famous Book Character Month, etc etc are still alive and well in Middle School and Homecoming Spirit week is still a big thing in High School. Once again, the money saved by having to pay to  Fed Ex an Albert Einstein wig to make sure that your son gets the "A" will help you when you retire (or buy a really nice bottle of wine to deal with the stress of these stupid projects)

What are your hints for throwing vs. keeping kid's stuff? I'd love to hear them.

Some Housekeeping..

First of all, the winner of that gorgeous scarf in the color of the year courtesy of Fresh Produce is VODKAMOM.  Thanks for all who entered. Vodkamom, e-mail me your mailing address and I'll get it right out to you so that you can wear it on your next hot date, which I'm certain is coming soon.

For those of you who did not win AND who did not get anything fab from Santa, treat yourself and buy one on freshproduce.com. They are only $29 and really, really nice. (Fresh Produce must know me and sent me one to  keep and one to giveaway which was really really nice of them)

My Christmas was great. Lots of extended family getting together in my mom's waterfront home and eating bagels and lox while getting up.  It's our family tradition. It happens every Christmas. It is always fun and the time flies.


I am sick of food. Seriously. The giant, fresh bagels (yes, bagel shops are open and baking on Christmas Morning!) pushed me over the edge. It is lettuce from now until New Year's Eve for me.


I don't consider myself new-agey but my one and only favorite guru is Marianne Williamson. Her message for today was something to think about. Here it is…

The worst gift and the best gift

We all know that family, friends and health are the best gifts for the holidays but let's just put aside that serious stuff and let me tell you what the worst gift is..

These tacky calendars that businesses mail to you.  Yes, my mother taught me that you should always be gracious etc. Yes, it's the thought that counts. HOWEVER I received a few of these this year and they go right into the goodwill pile where goodwill will probably throw them away.

When I had a business I would get at least 10 paper calendars in various forms.  Send me a pen. My bank gave me a cute little spray hand sanitizer.  But an old-school calendar, please save your money Mr. Insurance Broker. A card would have been just as nice.

The best gift that I received from a business this year was from Like Twice.  liketwice.com is a website that buys and sells gently used clothing.  They send you a bag. You fill it up and send to them at their expense and they pay you in store credit or cash!  I've sent them a bunch of stuff that I couldn't sell on ebay and they sent me a lot of money. This was stuff that I would have donated so it was like a gift.  On top of that, they sent me this yesterday.

Way better than a calendar!



Be sure to enter my contest for the gorgeous Fresh Produce Scarf before December 26th!


Merry Chritmas. Hope it is great!

Checking in..

Hi Dear Readers: 

I've been busy eating, shopping and doing other Holiday activities (mostly eating). It is not even Christmas yet, and I'm full of junk. I started a diet today. Yes, two days before Christmas. Setting up for failure OR just getting a jump on the much needed food detoxing? I'm a positive person so I  think I'm getting a jump on things. For example, I ate a lot of this cookie Sunday night for no reason other than it was cute. You can't tell from the photo, but it was bigger than my head. I'm not kidding.

It's not too late to win that gorgeous scarf that Fresh Produce sent me to give to one of my readers. Just leave a comment on the link below
Click here for my Fresh Produce Scarf Giveaway


Sadly or happily, depending on how one looks at it, it is too darn hot to even wear that gorgeous lightweight scarf here in paradise (Fresh Produce sent me one to keep and one to giveaway!)


 Seriously, I rode this morning at 7 and it was already 82 degrees!!!  Here are some photos...

 That one was taken at Sunrise. See how they wrap the poles for Christmas. That is as Christmas-y as it gets.

This one was taken about 20 minutes later (without a filter). Gorgeous huh?

You'd think that this gorgeous weather would make everyone happy but the rudeness is at an all time high around here. After my ride I ran into the drug store and the supermarket for a couple of things and, in both places, people tried to cut me in line! And the road rage is abundant. There is a lot of traffic because the town is packed with tourists, snowbirds and everyone home for the holidays but everyone is so impatient.

Peace, Joy & Love?  Peace, Joy & Love!

COLOR OF THE YEAR SCARF GIVEAWAY!!!

Fresh Produce was kind enough to send me a scarf to giveaway.

No, not the  winter-y kind but a gorgeous, lightweight, wear-any time scarf in the color of the year for 2014, radiant orchid. This scarf is fabulous. How do I know, because Fresh Produce sent one for me to keep and one for me to giveaway.

This scarf is not only a gorgeous color it is the perfect weight and length. It's made of 100% modal…so soft!  It is called the Wanderlust scarf and at only $29 bucks, I'm really considering buying it in a few more colors.

Here is the link in case you want to just buy the scarf instead of waiting for the contest to end! 
Wanderlust scarf

Okay, here are the details…. Just leave a comment below.   Easy right? I'll pick the winner by random, old -fashioned, name -in -the hat on December 26th, so be sure to leave a comment below by Christmas! Sorry, but this is open to my readers in the USA and Canada only :(

Tell your friends! 

A Pain in the neck...

The Doctor put a band-aid on my neck yesterday. (No, it was not botox or anything super fun or glamorous like that ).  When I took the band aid off last night it was a little red.  When I woke up this morning after having slept all night without a band aid, look at what I saw…

How disgusting is the band-aid mark on my neck??? The boo boo being covered is gone. That red is just the band-aid. What the heck? I think that I'm allergic to the adhesive.  Ugh. 

Ok, that is gross. What can I do to bring you back to a happy place and get that out of your mind???

How about some Florida Christmas Photos? 

Miami Peeps…Here is a fun thing to do with the kids this weekend….

The Kendall Ice Arena is having a Holiday Spectacular Ice Show on December 22nd at 5:30.  The cast of Hitstreak will be performing a special concert during the show.

Tickets start at $10 which is cheaper than a movie!

Check out http://www.kendallicearena.com  for more information.

My computer's visit to the Hospital...

My computer was in the Apple Hospital.  I was without my beloved desktop for three days. It was torture.  My iPad will never replace my giant desktop.

I bought my iMac exactly 3 years ago come December 27th. It was expensive. Probably 2 or 3 times more than a non-apple computer would have been.   I was smart enough to fork over even more money for "applecare" (I think it was $169 but don't quote me). 

Applecare extends the customer support and warranty on the computer for  another 2 years on top of the first year. During the three years that I have had my precious, I had to lug it in one other time as there was a wifi issue and they replaced whatever in the computer makes it talk to the wifi modem (You can tell I'm really technically savvy).  I also called the nice Apple phone people several times and they were always able to help. They are located in the US and don't tell you to turn on and off the computer ten times and then say that they can't help like PC support had done to me in the past.

The Apple Store is about 5 minutes from my house which is a plus as I had to schlep my big baby in this week as everything was sluggish and they couldn't diagnose it over the phone. This computer is big, bulky and heavy. Luckily I brought it into the store before my warranty expired because when the sweet genius Cory plugged it into a little gadget and ran a test, a huge red banner went across the screen saying "FAILED". They replaced the entire harddrive and because I had AppleCare, it was all FREE! They had the computer for three long days but it is good as new now!

When I purchased this computer I also bought an external hard drive for about $100 at Costco. Using the apple program called Time Machine, it automatically backs up my entire computer on a regular basis. When I got home from apple, I plugged in the external hard drive and clicked enter and within 3 hours, my entire desktop was restored. Exactly how it was before! If you did not know that the hard drive was replaced, you wouldn't have noticed one difference.


I love a bargain more than anyone but I would never buy a PC ever again. Apple is worth the extra money when it comes to computers!

Another Giveaway from BowTie Kids

Tis the season! Last week I hosted my very first giveaway. This week I have another.

This cool company called The Bowtie kids has offered to giveaway a cute item to one of my readers.  This is the easiest giveaway ever. Just leave a comment

Bowtie Kids has adorable little clothes for your little ones PLUS they give 10% of their profits to Austism Charities  which just rocks!

Grandmas, Moms, Dads and Aunties, leave a comment and we will pick a winner by a random old-fashioned pulling a name out of hat.
US addresses only :(

Contest ends Friday 12/13 at noon (EST) so comment away!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Thanks to all of you who entered. The winners of the camjmr webcam covers are

JoJo

Anna

and Bee

Emails have been sent to the winners asking for shipping info.

Don't fret if you did not win because I have another, great giveaway this week!!!!

I'll post it soon!

Contest! Giveaway! Yipeee

 

     A couple of weeks ago, I was watching "The Good Wife" (one of the best shows on tv right now!) and Alicia's daughter's webcam was hacked and creeps were posting photos of her in her bedroom on the internet.  I keep my desktop iMac in my bedroom and this reminded me of my ugly, homemade webcam cover (a business card)   and I googled a better solution.  I found this cool company called   CAMJAMR. The sell cute little reusable webcam covers. You can stick them on your desktop, laptop, tablet and even your phone.  This little solution helps keep your business private. Webcams can be hacked and who needs that.  This little reusable sticker won't goo up your camera and is much nicer looking than a business card!

    
My cute little sheet of these removable stickers showed up quickly and my computer looks so much better without the big card over the webcam. See...

     They come in different designs and are quite affordable.  I loved this product so much, that I wrote to CAMJAMR and they were cool enough to offer a giveaway to my dear readers!


CAMJAMR has agreed to award three of my readers a set of CAMJAMRs !  All you have to do is go to CAMJAMR.com and come back here and comment as to which set you want if you win.  I'll choose the winner by pulling out of a hat and then Camjamr will send your set directly to you.  Contest ends at noon(EST) on Friday December 6th, so please enter now and tell your friends.!!!!

This is a great gift for yourself or the perfect stocking stuffer for your kids, grandkids or any techie in your life! 

(Disclosure: I purchased the camjamr myself and then asked them to donate a set for a contest. I did not get paid to advertise for them and all opinions are my own)