Mommy Octopus

We can all use a few more hands

Weekend Boredom Buster- Make Bath Salts

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This craft is about as simple as it gets.  All ages can help out, and the results are amazing!

What you’ll need:

Epsom Salts

Sea Salts

Food Coloring

Scent (you can use essential oil, specially designed bath craft scents, or even raid your cupboard for things like almond extract)

Gallon Sized zip-close bag

Jars or Baggies for the finished product

You can pick up most of these items at a Craft store, or even a dollar store.  

You can make this in any quantity depending on the size of the containers you are putting the finished salts in. In the zip-close bag add 3 parts Epsom Salts to 1 part Sea Salts.Add a drop or two or food coloring and a few drops of your chosen scent.

Close bag and shake until all salts are mixed and evenly colored.  If you want the color darker add more dye and shake again, do the same with scent, if it is not strong enough add more and shake well.

Pour the salts into your containers. You can decorate the bottles or leave them as is.  These make great Valentine’s Day gifts for friends and teachers!

Tasty Tuesday: Homemade Fried Chicken!

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Okay who DOESN’T love fresh, homemade fried chicken?  It is a favorite around this house!  Fried chicken doesn’t have to be hard.  In fact, it can be super simple and very tasty!  This week’s Tasty Tuesday is going to show you how incredible easy it is to make fried chicken!

Ingredients:

  • Boneless, skinless chicken breasts – enough for your family
  • All purpose flour
  • Buttermilk
  • Salt
  • Canola Oil

First step – Cut boneless, skinless chicken breasts into strips or nugget size pieces.  This is some of the chicken that I received from Zaycon Foods.

Next, soak the chicken in buttermilk for at least an hour.  Plain milk will work in a pinch, but buttermilk is best.

When the chicken has been soaked for at least an hour, go ahead and heat up a skillet of oil  Place about 2 inches of oil in the skillet and heat on medium for a few minutes until the oil is ready.

Coat the chicken with all purpose flour (no seasonings and nothing else added) and gently place into the hot oil.

Cook until browned, gently turning halfway through.

Place cooked chicken on a plate lined with paper towels and lightly salt while they are still hot.

 Mmmmm…. these are so yummy!  Words doesn’t even begin to describe it!  I know you’ll love them too!  Give it a try and see what you think!

Huge thanks to my friend Janet for sharing her recipe with me.

Where Can I Store My Stockpile?

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A question I received recently was where do I store my stockpile.  The answer is…. everywhere!  Find space that isn’t being used and utilize it.  I do not have a garage or a basement, so storage is a problem at my house.

Here are some ideas:

  • Get decorative boxes to use in your kitchen above the cabinets
  • Organize under your bathroom counters and install shelves
  • Put an extra shelf in your pantry or above your washing mashine
  • Put risers on your bed to raise it allow for more storage underneath

Really anywhere that you can put an extra shelf, do it!

An odd place at my house where we store items is….. UNDER THE COUCH!  Yes, under the couch.  We have a couch that came from Ikea that we bought for a fraction of the price on craigslist.  It is a section and under each of the long parts, there is a drawer that slides out for storage!  I keep all our toiletries under here that we need often – deoderant, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and shoebox full of sample/trial size items.  No one even knows it’s there!

How about you?  What unique places have you found to store your stockpile?

Merry Christmas From Mommy Octopus!

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Merry Christmas to all my wonderful readers!   I hope each and every one of you have a fantastic day!  Here in Georgia, it’s pouring down rain, but I’ve had a great day so far.  Opened presents with the kids, went to church, lunch with my husband during his break, and now back at home to let the kids play.  I plan on taking  the rest of the day off, but my assistant may post a little. Thanks for taking time out of your day to read my blog and Merry Christmas!

Tasty Tuesday: Make Muddy Buddy Mix!

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One of my favorite things to make when it starts to get cold is Muddy Buddy Mix!  If you haven’t tried it, you’ll want to give it a whirl!  It’s easy to do and you may already have the ingredients on hand.

Ingredients:

9 cups Chex Cereal
1 cup  chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Add the chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter together in a microwave safe dish.  Microwave for 1 minute, stir, and again for 30 seconds.  Stir.  Add in the vanilla and stir again!

Pour over your chex cereal and gently stir to coat.

Add in the Powdered sugar.

Put a lid on the bowl and hand it to a kid to shake until their little heart is content!

Then enjoy!  Make sure you store it in the fridge.  Give it a good shake every 30 minutes or so while it chills to make sure the pieces don’t clump together.  Although it’s so yummy, it may not make it to the fridge!

What’s your favorite thing to do with Chex?

Ebates Explained – Sign Up And Earn Cashback On Online Purchases

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This is a re-post, but with the holiday shopping in full swing, anyone who shops online will love to save even more with Ebates cashback!

I’ve received emails lately asking about Ebates and how to earn money back for shopping, so I figured a post about Ebates was in order.

First, go HERE to sign up for Ebates.  You’ll earn a $5 credit just for signing up!

The next time you want to shop online, login to your Ebates account.  For example, if I want to place an order for Christmas cards at the Kodak Gallery website, I just login to my Ebates account.  In the search field at the top, I would type in Kodak Gallery.  I find the right website and click SHOP NOW.  It then takes me to the Kodak Gallery website.  You’ll see a “tracking ticket” screen pop up before you go to the other website.

Now that I’m at the Kodak Gallery website, I go through and place my order as normal.  Within a few days, I’ll get an email from Ebates telling me how much cashback I’ll be receiveing into my account.  Kodak Gallery gives you 15% cashback right now, so if I made a $100 purchase, I’ll get $15 put into my Ebates account.

The money sits in your Ebates account and every quarter you’ll get a “Big Fat Check” or a paypal payment of your accumulated amount.

The key to Ebates is to remember to sign into Ebates before you checkout at other sites, so you get your cashback.  There are TONS of sites that offer cashback through Ebates, so I’m sure if you shop online, you’ll find a site that you can get cashback on.  Some of the sites are Walmart.com, Target.com, Sears.com, Gap.com, Vistaprint.com, Ebay.com, and many MANY others.

If you have any more questions, please let me know and I’ll answer them as best as I can.  You won’t regret signing up, you’ll just wish you had signed up earlier!

Review: VTech Innotab

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VTech’s Innotab is supposed to be one of the HOT items of the year.  Already, they are starting to sell out online.   I was recently asked to review this product for you all.  I had my kiddos put it to the test and they all really like it.  My 8 year old is impressed with the calendar feature.  You can add your birthdays to the calendar and decorate it to remind your kids of important events.

The Innotab come pre-loaded with several apps  including an interactive, animated e-book, motion games, creative activities, music player, photo viewer, video player and more.  This tablet comes geared toward children age 4-9.  My 2 year old absolutely LOVED it though, but then again, it was pink 😉  You can also choose a blue tablet for the boys.  There are lots of games that you can purchase to add to the tablet and some that you can download as well.

The tablet comes with a stylus that slides in the tablet for storage.  This concerned me a little since children are likely to lose things.  I would have been a little happier if it was attached somehow.  The other thing I didn’t like is that it seemed big for little hands.

Other than those 2 things, it was pretty good.  My kids all loved it.

If you’re interested in finding out more, check the Vtech website or watch this short video on youtube.  The Tablet sells for $79 on Amazon.

Disclaimer: I received the VTech Innotab with hopes that I would try it out with my children and provide a review.  All opinions are my own.

What’s Up With Me?

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I got a couple emails today wondering about Meal Plan Monday and other normal blog posts.  And why the heck am I so behind?  The answer?  I’m losing my mind!  Okay, not quite, but we’re preparing for a cross country road trip, leaving at 3am Friday morning!  I’ve been scrambling to pack for 6 people, make sure we’ve got our house and pet sitter ready with instructions, moving everything back in from storage (house didn’t sell, so staying put right now), and everything else.

So the answer?  There is no meal plan!  Eating leftovers, stuff from our bountiful basket, and anything else that may go bad while we’re gone.  Although, I suppose I could leave some of that for our house sitter….

Anyways, we’re gearing up to spend 2 days in Hershey and Lancaster, PA.  Then on to Buffalo New York!  Any readers out that way?

Never fear though, I have a great assistant who is going to be doing some blogging for me and I’ll try to blog some as well when I’m not trapped in the van with 4 kids and a hubby.  Pray for my sanity on our adventure… and that I don’t freeze going from the warmth of the south (70s here today!) to the north.  I shiver just thinking about it.  I will be back in a week or 2 to defrost and then we’ll be back to business as usual.  Or not so usual since it will be crazy until after Christmas.  Nevertheless, I shall return!

Let Swagbucks Pay For Your Holidays!

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Swagbucks has a new promotion!  If you complete a wish list, you’ll be entered to win $2,500 in Amazon giftcards!

Here’s how to enter:

– Complete your Wishlist (1 Entry) – Wishlist can be found here.
– Share your Wishlist on either Facebook or Twitter using our Share buttons (1 entry per day you share). These shares act as a special referral link.
– Have a new user register for Swagbucks through your Wishlist share (1 entry)
– Have that user complete and share their own Wishlist (4 additional entries)
In addition to the grand prize, they are giving away prizes every week day on the Facebook wall, Twitter account, and in the Blog.
Not a Swagbucks member?  You’re missing out!  Here are a few questions most people have about Swagbucks:
What is Swagbucks?
Swagbucks is a search engine, where you can search for website and randomly win Swagbucks.  Save up these Swagbucks for prizes such as Amazon Giftcards, Starbucks Giftcards, and many more!  You can earn more Swagbucks by taking surveys, watching videos, voting in polls, and keeping an eye out for random swagcodes.
How long does it take to earn prizes?
This depends on if you use Swagbucks as your main search engine and how active you are.  Many people earn several giftcards a month with very little effort!
Is it legit?
Absolutely!  I’ve been with them almost 3 years and LOVE it!  I love earning FREE giftcards!
Okay, I want to sign up!  Now What?
Just click here and sign up!  If you enter code SBPAYSFORME when you register before 11/18, you’ll start with 110 swagbucks instead of the usual 30!  This means you’re well on your way toward an Amazon giftcard!  Then start searching!  Today is Friday, so that also means it’s Mega Swagbucks Day, when you can win really large amounts of swagbucks using the search feature!  Let me know if you win anything big!

LeapFrog LeapPad Explorer Learning Tablet and Tag System Review!

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This morning I hosted a toy testing party with a few friends and their children.  We received a LeapFrog Tag Reading System, books, and map to try out along with the new Leapfrog LeapPad Explorer Learning Tablet.

 

LeapFrog Tag Reading System: 

First off, I was very impressed with this product.  I had seen the Tag Reading System before but had never played with it.  It was very easy for the kids to use and they all were really surprised that it could read the books to them and also the maps.  I was super excited about the map and think it will come in handy with our homeschool lessons.  It was a hit with all of the kids and the moms as well.  I love LeapFrog products since I know my kids are learning when they are using them.  I plan to use the LeapFrog Tag Reading System frequently with my almost  5 year old as he starts learning to read.

Checking out the Leapfrog Tag Reading System Map

"Reading" a book with Tag

LeapFrog LeapPad Explorer Learning Tablet 

The LeapFrog LeapPad Explorer Learning Tablet was by far a HUGE hit with the kids.  Think of it as an iPad for kids!  The setup is great, having the games loaded on the tablet so that you can select which game/application to play.  It has a built in camera to take photos and record video.  The kids had a blast with that along with editing the photos and making silly pictures.  The LeapPad allows kids to take more than 30,000 photos or shoot 120 minutes of video!  Not only was the Learning Tablet extremely fun for the kids, with so many endless possibilities, it was also educational.  When you sign onto the LeapPad, you select your child’s grade and then it will adjust the games to be more on your child’s level.  The LeapPad is geared toward age 4-9, but I think out of all the kids at the party, my friend’s 3 year old had the most fun with it.  Every single one of the kids that left the party were asking for their own LeapPad Learning Tablet, so I’m pretty sure this is going to be one of the hot ticket items this Christmas.

Loving the LeapPad Learning Tablet

Taking Turns with the LeapPad Learning Tablet

What great products these were and we had such a blast trying them out.  I would definitely recommend both as you start trying to figure out what Christmas presents to get this upcoming holiday season.  I know I will be getting a few to give as gifts!

Disclaimer: I received these products in exchange for my unbiased review.

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