Practical Ideas

 “I participated in an Influencer Program on behalf of Mom Central for Revolution Foods. I received a product sample to facilitate my review and a promotional item to thank me for participating.”

There’s something about lunch and summertime that just doesn’t seem to jive in our house. 

During the school year, my husband takes on the lunch duties with some help from the kids (they pack their own fruit & snack each day).  So sandwiches are always prepared the night before (I have a great hubby!).

Then summer hits and the idea of doing something in advance goes out the window for me 🙂 

I mean, it’s summer, right?!  No schedules, live-by-the-seat-of-your-pants type of days.

“I participated in an Influencer Activation Program on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for BGCA. I received a promotional item to thank me for my participation.”

For our kids, using technology is like brushing their teeth — they do it a few times a day; it’s just part of their daily routine.

They love to play games, watch videos, stay in touch with friends & family and keep up with all the latest internet fads.

But what are they REALLY doing when they’re online?

With a teen and tween at our house, this is a topic that’s constantly discussed in our home.

I consider myself a pretty involved parent but I want to balance how much I monitor my kids’ tech behavior with being able to teach them good online skills so they can ‘police’ themselves.  So I was really happy when I was asked to tour and read the Boys & Girls Clubs of America Cyber Safe Futures website!

  How many times a day do we reach for our phone when we see something awesome? Think about it – most of us never even grab  a camera any longer.  “Oh, I’ll just use my phone”, right? Because we always want to capture those AWESOME moments —     That gorgeous Saturday afternoon visit …

You catch up with friends on Facebook, check in on Foursquare and tweet on Twitter.  But, do you have an online library account?

Don’t you just love when you can reuse or upcycle something for the kids! 

We needed a back-up backpack for the year {you know, for the days that the regular one gets left at school or to use as a bag for afterschool activities}.

I really didn’t want to purchase another one since we have so many old ones from previous years.  But the issue is many of the older ones have ‘little kids’ pictures on the front or are pretty worn out. 

Anyone who’s met me, or my kids, will tell you that I’m a fairly
protective parent.  Or as my kids lovingly refer to me, ‘The Fun
Police’.  I didn’t plan to be this type of parent – one who monitors
what they eat, where they are and how much sleep they get.  But plan or no plan, it’s happened.

Every year we look forward to summertime at our house!  The excitement of the ‘we can do what we’d like’ days that we all love to enjoy.  But, of course, the kids do want to do some activities that require us to keep track of what day it is 🙂  So, here’s a quick and easy way to pull together all those papers, camp schedules and items needed for on-the-go summer fun!