WE HAVE MOVED BACK HOME: COME VISIT WITH US AT THISFULLHOUSE.COM
I am very proud of this space and it is NOT going anywhere: my family and I have shared many stories and experiences in this space. We have been blessed with opportunities of being introduced to many of our online friends, who we now consider family, because of this blog.
You are MORE than welcome to visit with us at ThisFullHouse.com: I really hope you consider joining us there! We're keeping the porch lights on...here, too...just in case.
As a mom of 3 teens and with our youngest insisting that I quit calling her the baby (she's turning 12 this year, enough said!) I feel it safe to tell you that the secret to balance is really quite simple, because there is NO secret: balance is all a matter of perspective.
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle, while running in 6 different directions (sometimes, all in the same day) and having to plan meals around our collectively busy schedules -- not to mention, those late night, last-minute school projects, due yesterday -- without one (or all) of us experiencing the proverbial crash and burn is a challenge my family and I face, every day.
Together Counts is a program inspiring active and healthy living through energy balance: by balancing the calories we consume with the calories we burn through physical activity.
Together Counts Blog is a place where families can help one another achieve energy balance: by discussing hot topics from family fitness to meal planning to getting involved at your child’s school.
Together Counts also connects families online through social media: sharing information on FacebookTwitterPinterest
I am very excited about this partnership and look forward to connecting with parents and families who are looking to start having more family meals, get active together or simply share inspiration that will perhaps help to make life for families (like yours and mine) a little easier.
After all, we are ALL in this together and some of us parents need ALL the help we can get (ahem!) just sayin' :)
CONFESSION: I am NOT the most organized person. Seriously, you could lose a small child in the paperwork piling up on my desk.
What??? You, too?!? PHEW!!!
Living in a 7 room house, my husband and I have learned to be creative when it comes to disguising the fact that we have accumulated a lot of stuff over the last 20 years: most of it goes in the garage.
Sharing a home office with 6 people hasn't helped any, either. The kids share one desktop, for school work and for play, so time management issues need to be addressed, as well.
Oh, and here's another hurdle: we're facing our second round of college preparations (HOLD ME!!!) so my annual resolution of getting our family organized (for the last upteen years) seems more crucial than ever.
This year, I got a little help from my friends at Kelloggs and their January Photo-A-Day challenge of staying organized: we were sent a Pottery Barn gift card and a month to ACTUALLY MAKE IT HAPPEN, DARNIT!!!
We flipped some furniture around and carved out a beautiful new workspace in our playroom/laundry room.
I accepted the challenge and enlisted the kids (free labor!) to help create a workspace in our small playroom, which also serves double-duty as our laundry room (yeah, I know, good luck with that, right?!?) Aaaand, no one had to move out, or into the shed, to do it :)
I also vlogged it, so you can see for yourself, here's what happened:
Challenge here is to NOT eat them ALL before she's finished!
We did A LOT of crafts when my kids were younger -- give a kid a piece of paper, a crayon and a couple of glue sticks, well, you ARE the Queen (or King) of Distraction -- especially, around the holidays.
What is our favorite wintertime craft? Well, I'm really glad you asked -- stay with me here, it's been a long winter -- two crafts that immediately come to mind are: making paper chains, and stringing together cereal (or popcorn) and then hanging them outside (or on one of the trees in our yard) as a wintertime treat for the birds.
Although my kids are older (our youngest is 11) we still enjoy crafting together and then it suddenly occurred to me: we NEVER did get around to making our paper chains or wintertime treat for our bird-friends, dangit.
Hope likes to coordinate her nerd glasses, for every occasion!
So, for this project, my youngest and I decided to incorporate our two favorite crafts together and created a pretty awesome Fruit Loops cereal bracelet chain -- here's how:
I have grown up with dogs and cats all my life (oh, be quiet, it hasn't been THAT long) and I have a REAL special place in my heart for animal shelters and rescues.
So, when the good folks at Pedigree asked that I partner with them in helping to spread the word about their awesome project to help feed shelter dogs (and cats) how could I say no, right?!?
First, let me tell you a little about our Doofus-Dawg.
Doofus-Dawg, sometimes thinks he's a cat.
We adopted Doofus-Dawg from a local shelter here in Jersey: he was found tied to a dumpster, suffering from malnutrition and some awful skin disease, at the time. The shelter folks guessed him to be no older than a year and, judging by his inability to walk on a leash, without jumping straight up into the air, probably tied up or kept in a cage the entire time.
Doofus-Dawg's grayed a lot over the years (me too, dagnabit!)
Doofus-Dawg (a.k.a. Pinhead) came home on November 28, 2005, which we have since celebrated as his "new" birthday, and although he still can't walk a straight line to save his life, Doofus-Dawg has found a safe, warm and snuggle-worthy place right here with us...in his forever home.
Which is the very reason why I am EXTREMELY excited to announce my partnership with the good folks at Pedigree as a Feeding Project Ambassador and had the privilege of being invited to the Humane Association in Nashville, TN for the filming of Miranda Lambert's awesome PSA, launched today:
Today, I am very excited to tell you that our friends at Pedigree will be expanding the Feeding Project in 2013 and they need our help doing it: by nominating the community where you think the Pedigree Feeding Project can make the most difference in the lives of shelter dogs! Here's how:
Nominate your community. Submit stories of special dogs in your life, share photos and videos; Pedigree wants to know what sets your community apart.
Share Miranda’s video with your friends and encourage them to nominate their community, too.
In March, Miranda and Pedigreewill announce the names of the five communities that have been selected as finalists in the search. America will then vote to determine the next communities to participate in the Pedigree Feeding Project. The winning communities will be announced mid-2013.
In the meantime, I will be sharing more information about my behind-the-scenes look at the PEDIGREE Feeding Project in the next couple of weeks and, hopefully, help give a little more insight into how you (yes YOU!) and I can help shelter dogs (and cats) find their new forever home!
Disclosure: I am honored to partner with Pedigree in helping to feed shelter dogs (like mine) and, hopefully, help them to also find their forever home. I am being compensated for my services for the length of the program.
My sincere thanks to the folks over at Quaker for sponsoring my writing about a healthier lifestyle. Be sure to leave your comment for a chance to win a $1,000 gift card to help achieve your New Year's Resolutions.
I'm not a big fan of New Year resolutions: a reminder of stuff I never got around to doing, or failed to do right, the first time around.
So, I decided to make a list of stuff I would like to do better, instead:
1. Unplug on weekends and make time for family: my day job requires that I spend anywhere from 30 to 40 hours per week navigating various social media platforms, enough said. So, I'm actually getting better at unplugging from all the online noise and learning to embrace being able to participate in several different conversations, at the same time, right here at home.
2. Make time for myself, too: raising 3 teens and 1 close enough, you'd think I would know how to do this, right?!? I'm learning.
3. Inhale.
4. Exhale.
5. Repeat.
Not very enlightening, or thrillingly imaginative for that matter, I know. Then again, sometimes even the smallest step can make a profound difference.
For example: I also have this terrible habit of forgetting to eat lunch.
I've found that eating healthy snacks every few hours, rather than eating one large meal in the middle of the day, helps keep my energy up and, well, it just works better for me.
Another example: Quaker® Quakes® are now Quaker® PoppedTM – a new name for the snack made with the delicious goodness of whole grain brown rice and corn and a great snacking solution.
Okay, now it's your turn. What about you? What small steps are you taking toward a healthier lifestyle in the new year?
WIN IT HERE: Reply below for your chance to win a sample of all 14 flavors of Quaker Popped Rice Snacks and $1,000 gift card to help you achieve your New Year’s resolutions.
Thank you for visiting my shopping blog. Be sure to visit and/or subscribe to my parenting & personal blog, ThisFullHouse.com (when you have time, of course!) or stop by and just say, "Hey!"
We'll leave the porch light on for you, just in case.
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Quaker. I received product in conjunction with this post. The opinions and text are all mine. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. See Official Sweepstakes Rules
I first met Amy Clark at the first ever brand/blogger event hosted by Johnson and Johnson in 2008 and it didn't take me very long (or anyone else, having had the pleasure of hanging out with her for no more than 5 minutes, for that matter) to realize that Amy is just as engaging and emits this positive energy IRL as she does on her blog, Momadvice.com.
Truth be told, I had a little girl crush on Amy. Honestly, in my eyes, she is the definition of a homemaker: the woman cooks, knits and crafts the h-e-double hockey sticks out of...well...anything...and is still able to run a household, while sticking to a strict budget...while I, on the other hand, suffer from severe clumsiness and should NEVER be trusted with pointy objects or run anywhere, without access to a bathroom, close by.
Still, it was her sharp wit and endless enthusiasm that drew me back to her blog, over and over again: Amy NEVER fails to encourage her readers with practical and practicable advice.
So, I was not surprised to learn that Amy was working on a book to share all that she's learned or that her gift of story-telling would also translate well to traditional print and was absolutely thrilled to receive a copy, for review:
My name is Liz and I have been blogging at This Full House of mismatched socks since 2003. This ad-free page is home to all of my sponsored posts. It is also where I enjoy sharing information on stuff that perhaps help make life for families a little easier. Feel free to stay a while, but mind the killer dust bunnies -- THEY BITE!!!
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