I don’t mean to scare you, but Christmas is only 3 ½ months away and Jewish holidays start today.

Ok. I’ll give you a minute to pick yourself off the ground before I start again.

Are you ready?

Good.

One of my favorite things to do each year is send out holiday cards. I may not always have the money to be able to afford buying gifts for everyone in our family, but I always try to send a card to our friends and family to let them know we’re thinking of them and wish them a happy holiday. Each year I scour the internet for my favorite Christmas card or just the right Holiday Card (for my friends who don’t celebrate Christmas) and each year I get frustrated by the lack of originality. But this year, thanks to Global Influence, I found CardsDirect.

CardsDirect offers a variety of Christmas Cards, Holiday Cards, and Photo Cards to fit your needs. My personal favorite are the Christmas Photo Cards since I can add my favorite family photo and have a fantastic personalized card to send to our closest family and friends.

About Cards Direct

CardsDirect offers the very best in personalized greeting cards for business or personal use. Over 2,000 card designs are available in categories that include holiday cards, birthday cards, thank you cards, photo cards, baby shower invitations, birth announcements and many more! With free personalization and custom imprinted verse, CardsDirect offers an easy online ordering process and top quality cards with the best selection, customer service and pricing found anywhere.

Here’s a look at some of my favorite cards offered at CardsDirect.

Christmas Cards

Hanukkah Card

Christmas Photo Card

Still freaking out just a little bit about the Holiday’s fast approaching? Well, calm down! Thanks to Global Influence and Cards Direct, I can offer you the opportunity to win a $50 gift code to be redeemed for up to 25 cards!

Giveaway only open to US addresses due to shipping policies with the company.

Here’s what you need to do to win:

Head over to CardsDirect‘s website and look around. Come back here and comment on this post what your favorite card design is.

This contest will close and the winner will be randomly chosen on September 30, 2010 at midnight. The winner will have 48 hours to claim their prize or another winner will be chosen.

Disclosure: I was offered the opportunity to do giveaway with Cards Direct through Global Influence and in return was given a $50 gift code to use at Cards Direct.

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The Dream Jam Band

As I mentioned last week I have just started writing for The Music Mamas and along with writing for that awesome site I also get the opportunity to write for The Music Minis, a music site for smaller ears to enjoy.  Today is The Music Minis’ debut and I am honored to have the very first post up.  The girls and I recently got the opportunity to listen, watch, and review some new music from a great kindie group called The Dream Jam Band.  Head over to The Music Minis and see what the girls and I thought about The Dream Jam Band and give the music a listen for yourself.  Be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think about the band AND the new site.

PS. Ri, Music Savvy Mom, is the founder, designer, and head of The Music Mamas/Minis so head over to her site too and show her some love!

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1. I am A Music Mama!

Circa Spring 2001

Jon & I have been together 10 years this month, so in honor of young love everywhere…here’s a flashback of our early years.

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Well, as I said I am in desperate need of some new clothes {or new to me} for Type A Mom Conference at the end of September where I will be speaking {!!}.  So Lisa and I hightailed it out of church 30 minutes early {I know.}, headed out to the sale armed with a budget of $10 each and the knowledge that we must find bargains.

Exactly 17 minutes after the sale began we were done. Having been some of the first to the sale {the idea all along} we were able to secure the best deals on the clothes we wanted. Now the clothes were already picked over having been up there most of the summer anyway, but I was still able to find some really great deals and stay within my budget. Wonder what I got?

Check it:

Total spent: $10.76

Now I went .76 over my budget, but come on…it’s .76 cents! Look at the great stuff I got! I’m thrilled with my purchases and can’t wait to wear them. They are {mostly} my style and the ones that aren’t are just outside my spectrum of comfort {and since my spectrum of comfort is blue jeans and a tee-shirt it’s probably a good thing I branched out a bit.}

Anyway, did you find any good deals this weekend?

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Image Credit: DiscoveryEducation.com

use brown paper bags), and Mommy to a sometimes daycare-goer (but who must always have her lunch packed) I have run into a familiar problem. While we use plastic reusable sandwich containers and plastic reusable containers for our fruits and other goodies, I still can’t help but feel we’re just not helping the environment all that much.

True, we no longer use the 15 plastic sandwich baggies/snack baggies a day that we used to, we are still using plastic containers.  Bear with me while I work this out on here…my blog {The blog I’m fairly certain few people actually read anymore…sure it might come to your inbox/google reader, but do you actually read this stuff?}.

I’m ready to forgo using plastic, of any kind, in favor of products that are sturdy, easily washable, ec0-friendly, and frugal.

Do these products even exist?

Am I doing more harm than good by getting rid of the plastic containers I already have to trade up/out for cloth or wooden containers?

What do you use in your child’s lunch? Are you a baggie person or do you have a clever, eco-friendly, and frugal way to send your kids their lunch in style?

I’m all ears! Share!

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On the way to school today KG is complaining about how she isn’t learning anything new this year and everything they do in math is just a review of last year. She’s also bragging about how she’s always getting check marks on her work {which is equivalent to a 100%) and that she never misses any questions.  Without thinking I tell her she wont always get them all right.

Wait. Did I just tell her she wouldn’t always do well in class? Did I give her permission not to do as well as she has been?

OMG.

So I rapidly backpedal…

What Mommy meant to say was work would get more difficult in the future and the teacher {Mrs. K} have to review and make sure everyone was on the same page and understood the basics before moving on and teaching new skills. That is not to say you shouldn’t continue to try your best…omg, I think I’m making this worse…what mama meant to say was it’s ok not to get everything right all the time, but as long you do your best work I’ll be proud.

Oh MAN!

Did I mess this up or what?! All I wanted her to know was that there would be harder work this year and she might not always get everything right…but that that is ok as long as she is doing her best.

Sigh. This being a parent thing is hard.

Any suggestions how I can make this better? OR how to handle it better next time?

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Me: “I dunno, but I hope it’s not pee.”

KG: “It IS pee! KAAAATHHHRYYYN!!”

*Head smack*

Me: “Nice. Wash your feet and I’ll get the mop. KAAATHHHRRRYYYNNN!!”

KJ: “What?? I washed my hands!”

Yes, that is how my morning got started. Maneuvering around pee puddles and mopping the bathroom floor.

How did your morning go?

Hopefully you had a better start than me & KG.

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I’m not worthy!

Why am I writing on a music website you ask? Well…allow me to let you in on a little more background info about myself.

I’m a music fiend. There is rarely a moment that goes by that I’m not plugged in, tuned in, and turned up to some rockin’ music. And that’s just what I like. Rock. But with so many different varieties how can one simply say they like rock? I like it all. Ska, Punk, Hard Rock, Metal, and pretty much everything in between.

I’m not going to give you too much insight into my music styles because I want you to check out my “About” page over on The Music Mamas and then stick around to learn more about me. I’m excited to get start blogging with my alter ego and stay connected to part of my life-blood. Music.

So if you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t already checked out the awesomeness that is The Music Mamas, slap yourself and get over there pronto! Discover some new music and relive some of your favorites!

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What does it take to get people interested in their school? I know it was just the first meeting and all, but still. The first meeting of the year is often one of our most important. We go over the budget and start planning for our Fall Festival {our largest fundraiser of the year}.

Our board works hard all summer while even the teachers get to take time off to get ready for the coming school year. We plan out the fundraisers, trying to be sure to only choose high profit yielding ones so we don’t have to beg the already over-extended parents for money over and over. We do landscaping at the school to make sure when the students arrive they have a nice, clean, welcoming school to come in to. Our board plans giveaways for the teachers and little ways to say Thank You {and only 1 teacher out of all of them makes it to nearly every meeting, most don’t ever come at all.}

Again, I know they’re busy…that they’ve been there all day and are ready to go home, but really? Is one day every month {heck I would take every 2 months} that much to ask. We’re always prepared for our meetings with an agenda, we start on time, and end exactly 1 hour later {sometimes sooner}. And by the way, we’re busy too. Most of us would love to be home with our children or relaxing with our husbands, but we’re there…every month. We spend countless hours during the year in classrooms or around the school making sure our teachers have the support they need and deserve.

But really it seems to me that this lack of participation on the part of the parents isn’t contained to just PTSO meetings, we see a slow-down, a lack of volunteering in parents starting in around the second grade. Parents come in with their kiddos in Kindergarten gung-ho ready to volunteer their hearts out and by the time second grade rolls around they’re barely stopping at the front door long enough to drop their kids off. Teachers and students need parental support through out the years, the copies don’t stop when your child reaches second grade and neither do the activities. We, as parents, need to step up and support our children and their teachers through out their school career. As we are able.

I understand work happens, but many of us are able to volunteer during the day {SAHMs I’m looking at you} even just one day a week. If you work, consider volunteering to help prepare lessons after work {like at night when you’re watching Glee} or on the weekends. If you’re a handy man {or woman}, let your school know you’re willing to help with repairs or improvements on the weekends or whenever you’re available. Schools are flexible and always need more help.

The more you volunteer and show your children their education is important to you, the more important it will become to them.

Do you have any suggestions on how to encourage parents and teachers to get involved in their PTSO? How about ideas to encourage volunteerism?

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Facebook is slated to give a big announcement tonight at 7:30pm EST and the interwebz is all abuzz with the possibilities including anything from an official Unlike button to a new location-based network rivaling FourSquare and Gowalla.  Experts have been speculating for some time now about the likelihood of this addition to Facebook’s already enormous arsenal and Facebook has been hinting at a location-based addition since the F8 conference in April.

Now me personally? I’m not really interested in a Facebook offered location-based networking option.  I like being the Mayor of all the local establishments and it’s unlikely I will be using the Facebook option even when it does become available {today, next month, or next year}.

What about you? What do you think will be the BIG announcement? And if it is a location-based product will you be using it?

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