Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Mold Ice With a Bundt Pan

I LOVE a good tip! Don’t you? I especially love a tip that allows me to use what I already have lying around our home. At a stage in life where parties are frequent, I thought I would pass along a great way to repurpose and everyday item.


You can give a punch bowl an elegant (and functional) touch with this floating ice sculpture. Simply fill the cake pan with nonalcoholic punch, freeze, and pop out before serving!

Source: Real Simple

Monday, June 7, 2010

Build a Better Grandparent


You might find this funny, but I have already began taking notes on how to be a better GRANDparent (God willing). I simultaneously take daily notes on how to be a better parent and I’m sure that will be a life-long process.
My children are blessed to have loving and involved grandparents. And just like parenting, I have found that “involved” is the key word. In my “How To Be a Great Grandmother” notebook that I keep, I have listed things like:

Play, play, play and play endlessly
Pretend, pretend, pretend and pretend endlessly
Send pictures in the mail
Call often
Send care packages (whether a coloring book, an age appropriate kids meal toy or balloons delivered by the florist)…just send care packages!
Read books over the phone
And much more…

While speaking with friends, I have also found that many mothers have expectations that aren’t met by their children’s grandparents. If you’re lucky, you can get a head-start on this tricky relationship by taking a look at this article posted at http://www.pregnancy360.com/you/build-better-grandparent.

Also, if you are like us, we have long-distance grandparents. A super username and password protected tool is www.myfamily.com. You can keep your family connected with a protected family blog and online events calendar. There is also a new fabulous iPhone app!