Gimme A Break

Do you have a security system installed in your home? The festive season is round the corner again and many people will be traveling and most would feel uneasy about leaving their homes empty.

I’ve recently had a Home Security System installed. I’ve been procrastinating as it’s not within my budget. I always tell myself I’ll do it next month when I have the money.

But with a bit of searching on the internet, I found that for roughly $1 a day, I can get an ADT monitored home security system. Now that I can afford. I talked to one of the consultants and got a free evaluation and getting the entire system up and running didn’t take as long as I expected. So I’m happy I finally got around to doing it. So that’s one load off my mind.

• broken into
• leaving your front door wide open
• slow
• where the magazines are
• good or bad?

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Woo-hoo, guess what day it is tomorrow. Okay, you guessed it! TGIF. That’s what I live for these days. The ridiculously long school hours are driving me and the kids bazoozles!

I have to prepare 2 sets of school lunches each as they have two breaks. Sometimes they only have one break for 9 hours of school so I tell my kids to just eat when the teacher’s not looking. Otherwise they will starve and come home with stomach aches and then have no time to finish the mountain of homework every day! These are truly the most ridiculous days we’ve had and we still have a whole year ahead. Duh!

• count down
• the boy at school
• mom’s relief tutor
• how to reduce back-to-school stress (2)
• something for my new niece

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As a work at home mom, I’m constantly minding the purse strings and looking for ways to cut back and save. So you can almost be sure that my new best friends are discount codes which, if I remember to use them (ahem!), can really make a big difference in how much I have left over each month of the little perks in life .

I love shopping at the mall but when time is of the essence or in entire shortage, the next best thing is to shop online. Finding the best prices for the best product (that I want and love) is always my biggest challenge.

One of the sites I frequent is Unbeatable. Yes, that’s both the name of the site as well as the description of what’s on the site. They have reviews, news, prices and best of all, Discount Codes all in one place! I can’t tell you what a blessing that is, and how it saves me hours of surfing the net to find something I need.

These Unbeatable guys have done all the donkey work of trawling the internet for all the lowest prices and best discount codes to use. What more can a busy mom ask for?

• slow but at least I’m blogging again
• do these businesses measure up?
• price comparisons made easy for moms
• living slimmer and healthier
• hotelicopter.com makes hotel content portable

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Now that school is in full swing, I’m back to supervising the kids’ homework which often involves solving algebra problems, like it or not. It’s not my favorite job in the whole world but who else is there?

Actually I think I may have stumbled on to the answer to that myself. There’s an online tutoring service which teaches you how to do algebra problems. Now isn’t that every mom’s dream to end all those late night home tuition sessions?

That’s right, TutorVista offers an affordable, unlimited monthly tutoring service for K-12, back to school and college. The kids can get all the algebra homework help they need simply by going to their site any time of day or night. I’m thinking how much stress I could save myself there !

• the fun never ends
• herbal solution for eczema
• do these businesses measure up?
• where to go on our next vacation?
• fish saga continues

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Eeks, Monday is here again. Wish I could shoo it away. A case of the Monday blues definitely. I haven’t got tomorrow’s school lunch planned yet and I hate it when that happens. I don’t like figuring out what to cook and then finding out that I don’t have all the ingredients. I’m a great improviser, yes, but Monday’s brain is usually a little sluggish.

• sleepless
• what to cook?
• big time cooking
• monday blues
• my plan-ahead menu

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I was out all day yesterday with my daughter. We went to two grocery stores at two shopping malls and that took up the better part of our Saturday. When I got home, I was too tired to eat so I hauled the rest of the kids and we headed out for fish and chips. Yum, it’s served in a saute pan, quite a neat idea.

What’s not so cool is that I couldn’t find an oven I liked enough to buy even after checking out a few stores. They were either too small or the door was opening down, which I find quite weird. I have no idea when I’m ever going to find the oven of my dreams.

• mall nostalgia
• keeping track of my amateur driver
• that elusive carry-all bag
• how to keep your home cool
• times are bad

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Although school has reopened and it’s probably way too early to be even thinking about holiday plans, my friend’s kids are already starting to talk about what they want to do on their next break.

Now the poor mommy has no choice but to start surfing the net for Spiderman Tickets and The Addams Family tickets. The kids don’t know it because she wants to surprise them after she gets the tickets. Oh, how sweet!

Since they’re on a budget, she also has to start putting some money aside so she and her husband can also get some Houston Rodeo Tickets for themselves. I think they deserve a night out. They’re always so busy with the family it seems they hardly get any time together.

• what’s up on Valentine’s Day?
• popcorn monsters
• dealing with the business jitters
• so who wants to go where again?
• switching to movies at home

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I went on vacation to the beach just before Christmas and it was way fun. Right now, I’m looking at pictures of the Myrtle Beach Resort which is where I would be headed right now if I could. One vacation is never enough especially to the beach where it’s so warm and sunny.

The Resort in Myrtle Beach is as close to paradise as anyone could be. The long stretches of sand and surf is just beckoning to me. I could bring the whole family and be guaranteed there’ll be something for everybody, whether it’s water sports, seafood dining or just chilling out at the beach.

In fact, Oceanfront Myrtle Beach Hotel which is at the heart of Myrtle Beach is so huge I wouldn’t know where to start. Swim first and eat later or take a long stroll on the beach at sunset? Okay, I’m just going to bookmark the site. If I stare at the page any longer, I’ll go off on a daydream and never get my chores finished .

• leveling the playing field
• the fun never ends
• back from the beach
• where to go on our next vacation?
• island vacation (1) – rooms with views

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At around this time of year, many of my friends’ children are leaving home for college. Well, some are going to far away places, others are luckier to be within driving distance of their parents’ homes.

Since many of these teens are leaving home for the first time, their parents are all flustered over finding the best accommodations for their kids. Money is one big issue, of course. But to be honest, there are many concerns and it can be a very stressful exercise ensuring that the kids live in a safe neighborhood which is preferably close to college and amenities (unless they have a car).

One of my friends is trying to find some suitable accommodation in Boston for her daughter. They’re painstakingly going through lists of Boston apartments in the hopes of finding one that fits their budget and logistics concerns.

Then of course, there are the secondary concerns of whether her fussy daughter will like the place. She’s very athletic so a pool and gym are a must for her even though her mother says she could always use the one on campus. Well, last I heard, they haven’t sorted out this issue yet. So yes, it can get sticky!

• a parent and a friend
• looking for the right player
• fun activities and events for your kids
• home-made vs commercial
• crossroads

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Those of you who are regular readers of this blog know that I’m a stickler for child safety. From day one, I’ve insisted on strapping my kids into their car seats and when they got older, I would ensure they put on their seat belts before I even start the car.

It’s true, when you have kids, there are so many things to buy. Of course, with the current state of the economy, it’s always wise to compare prices before you buy anything for your child, be it car seats or baby carriers.

It’s easy to do your price comparisons at ShopWiki because they present results for every store on the internet. Traditional shopping sites will only show you stores that have paid for their service, but ShopWiki finds everything and anything that’s on sale on the internet. Quite a handy tool, I must say!

Frankly if you’re the mother of young kids, you probably won’t have time or energy to be dragging your kids with you from store to store to compare prices for stuff you need to buy. Searching online makes it a cinch. You just need to find a time when your babies are asleep and then shop till you drop !

• careless parents
• please, no more tools!
• how did your child get his/her name?
• the print fanatics
• later, New York

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