Fireworks and the 4th of July are a big deal here in the NerdFamily!  TNT/Daredevil is one of our favorite brands. Every year we get the $10 off $50 coupon every year!
(Continue reading at NerdFamily Things)
Category Archives: Holidays
Fireworks Coupon
Fireworks and the 4th of July are a big deal here in the NerdFamily! TNT/Daredevil is one of our favorite brands. Every year we get the $10 off $50 coupon every year! All you need to do it go to the page and fill out your info. Then next year you will probably get one in the mail!
You can get the coupon for stands or for the supercenters so there is a coupon for everywhere!!!
Also, you don’t need to worry about the groups you are buying for losing money. The $10 comes completely from TNT and not from the organization selling!
Grab a coupon and then grab some fireworks! Be safe and have a great 4th!
Tips for Travel, Health & Comfort
It is blog conference season and for me that means lots of travel. Which also often means illness and discomfort! But I don’t have to be miserable and neither do you! The ever fabulous Tracy from Tide Massage, who is my massage therapist, has some great tips for healthy, comfortable and stress free for travel this summer or anytime!
(This was originally posted Tide Massage’s blog in 2010)
There are loads of good things about the holidays, unfortunately sometimes those good things are a long way away and our holiday fun is overshadowed by the pains of holiday travel. I have half of my holiday travel done already, I just got back from a combined late turkey day/early Christmas with my far away family. Feeling a little worse for the wear upon my return got me thinking about what I did wrong and what I could have done better. So here we go, a Christmas gift to you, learn from my fail.
No Fail Rule #1 Get plenty of rest before you travel.
It’s tempting to stay up late the night before you leave, but contrary to what you think, you will not sleep on the plane…so get your 8 hrs in the night before! Make a list of what you need to pack in the days prior to travel, so you won’t lay awake wondering what you have forgotten.
No Fail Rule #2 Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!
Just drinking bottled water on the plane isn’t quite enough to really keep hydrated. Starting out well hydrated is your first step…but bottled water may not be the best choice. I typically drink tap water (shocking I know!) but when I have ignored my hydration levels for a bit and need a boost I will pick up a gallon of distilled water. The more minerals there are in water, the less hydrating it is, for this reason I choose distilled water, which contains no minerals or impurities. Spring water and filtered water contain many minerals. Don’t ignore the water in your food, watermelon, celery, cucumbers, and many other fresh fruits and veggies contain plenty of water to help keep you hydrated. Stay away from salty or fatty foods, and refined sugar. Avoid drinking alcohol on the plane, not only will it dehydrate you , but the altitude makes you feel the effects of the alcohol quicker and your tolerance will be lower than normal.
No Fail Rule #3 Sit up and Get up!
On a plane, train or stuck in a car, there are some simple stretches and seated exercises you can do to arrive feeling good. Move any parts you can and move them frequently. Roll your shoulders up to your ears and back, then change direction. Roll your head in circles and tuck your chin down to your chest, stretch your arms over your head, flex your toes and roll your ankles in circles, reverse directions. If you are traveling by plane or train get up and walk, do laps around the plane if you can. Check out these Airplane Yoga poses: http://www.suite101.com/content/airplane-yoga-ancient-secret-to-modern-travel-a60545
If you are in a car, make the most of your pit stops. If your travel partner will let you eat in the car, pack your food or take your food to go so that your pit stop time can be spent on your feet and moving around instead of sitting in a greasy spoon. Stretch, wiggle, bounce, do a little parking lot yoga, go for a quick walk or run, whatever gets your blood moving and warms up your muscles. Pay attention to your posture, avoid sitting slumped down or with your shoulders rolled forward.
No Fail Rule #4 Let it go…
Stress can often come from within. When we dwell on negatives, worry about things that are out of our control, and hold ourselves to unrealistic standards we create stress for ourselves. Self created stress has very real physical repercussions, our body releases chemicals and hormones that make our bodies work harder and deplete our immune system. Stressing about delays and missed connections doesn’t change the outcome, only how miserable you are during the delay. Go with the flow and stay clam. Use the time waiting in airports of train stations to move around, do something that refreshes you, take some deep breaths, meditate if you are inclined or pass time by chatting with fellow travelers. If something goes wrong, let it go, describe it as a delay and don’t drag out the details.
No Fail Rule # 6 Reward Yourself!
Schedule a massage, pedicure, facial, Yoga class or visit to the Chiropractor on each end of your travels. Not only will this give you something to look forward to, but it will help you feel renewed and refreshed and bring you back to your old self!
I hope these tips help make your travels a little easier all the year through, and that everyone has a great holiday season, near or far!
Tracy Bohren, CMT
Best Seder in the USA
Hope you are having a great Passover! My kids wanted me to share this with you all!!!
Passover is Here and Here are Resources!
Article first published at Label Daddy.
Passover is the celebration of God taking the Jews out of Egypt! The final plague was the Angel of Death taking the lives of the first borns in Egyptian households. Jewish homes that had the lamb’s blood on the door frame was passed over untouched. Get it? Passed over, Passover;)!
Are you celebrating Passover this year? Do you need some resources? Well, let me share a few!
Aish.com has great resources for all Jewish holidays, not just Passover! I always find great recipes, poignant pieces, and videos over there. A key post of theirs on Passover isHaggadah: An Introduction.
Another resource isn’t really information but food! I am now gluten free so Yehuda’s Gluten Free Matzo page is pretty awesome. You can see all the gluten free Passover options and order from them if you want to (but I have seen the boxes of matzo at Whole Foods). But when it comes to the actual Seder dinner the Chabad has a piece on what kind of matzo is really acceptable (it seems complicated).
Do you have a Haggadah? Looking for one you would like more? Uncle Eli has a kids version. I wouldn’t use it alone but it is entertaining and would print it for the kids to have at their seats. Looking for something a little more mature;)? Check out About.com’s Judaism page. They have a ton of options and a summary about each one.
There are some resources to get you going! Anything else you are looking for? Let me know in the comments and I will see what I have for you.
Happy Passover!
Happy Passover!
Gotta start it off with a song! I love Ein Prat’s Fountainheads. I just wish they would hit out here on their US tour.
Stay tuned for more music videos and Passover posts this week!
Personalized Easter Baskets
(Welcome Central Valley Today viewers! These are the details of my spot today!)
This is such an easy project that I feel kind of guilty devoting a post to it. I mean if it is something I can easily do anyone can. It doesn’t have to be perfect, I mean mine aren’t.
And full disclosure, these here in the picture aren’t mine. I couldn’t get a picture of the ones I did for my older two children without getting their names in the picture. These were done by my friend Angie for our church when my last two were born. And she decorated all sides of the buckets, I didn’t;). And hers are cuter than mine but my kids love the ones I did!
Ok, the main idea behind these personalized buckets is that you don’t have 10 million cheap baskets around the house that won’t hold anything and have to be replaced every year. With personalized buckets you have 2 choices. The kids can use them all year round to transport their things and decorate their rooms. The other option, and the one we use, is we pack them away after Easter just like you do stockings. Then pull them out and use them year after year. The ones I made are 8 years old already and still look pretty good.
The first thing to do is pick the right bucket! I picked awesome paint buckets when I did this eight years ago. They are shallow but huge! I had to get something smaller for my kids to use for egg hunting for the next couple of years. #MomFail Pick a bucket that fits the kid you are getting it for. While it looks cute to see a child lug around a bucket that is 2/3 their height, they find it very frustrating. Same thing with picking baskets that are to wide. Then they just turn and accidentally dump out everything. That makes kids not want to find all the eggs!
Now that we found the bucket we are ready to go! Wipe down the bucket with a baby wipe or cleaning wipe and let it dry completely. Then you just take your paint pens and go at it! If you want you can use templates too. They can help with basic shapes but you probably won’t get anything to detailed with the templates. Let is dry for an hour or two and you can use it! I like to let them cure for a day but it isn’t really needed.
And seriously, that is it! Now fill it with goodies or take it egg hunting! Make sure if you are egg hunting though you are looking for my perfect Easter eggs! Your kids will feel so special and you spent as little as $1 on the bucket! Such a deal!
Happy Easter!
The Perfect Easter Eggs
Ok, was it just my family growing up? My family that would come together for Easter and pool like 7-10 dozen hard boiled, colored eggs. There were so many cousins that we would break up the egg hunt by age and height breakdowns;). It would take a half hour to hide the eggs and something like 3 times as long to find them, if we found them all. Then we would live on egg salad sandwiches for the next week. And after they were outside in the Central California heat for 2 hours doesn’t that sound yummy?
So when I had my own kids my husband and I decided to do things a little different. I have bought a collection of cheap, fillable, plastic Easter Eggs. Then I buy adorable and cheap things (often on clearance the year before;) to fill them! We even separate them by colors and assign them to specific kids. So 1 year I filled daughter #1’s eggs with play jewelry, son #1 got plastic bugs and son #2 got leaping bunnies. It is so easy and fun! We have been doing it for 8 years now and it has always been a hit!
There are no nasty egg sandwiches for days. The kids spend the next few weeks or months playing with their dime store treasures. I just bag up the the plastic eggs and store them in the garage for next year!
And if one gets forgotten in the heat? It’ll be fine tomorrow!
(Disclosure: I am submitting this to the Hershey Bunny Trail and am receiving a basket of goodness as a thanks!)
Cheap and Unique Dates
Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to be pricey. We don’t like going out to restaurants or doing anything super expensive. Here are some fairly cheap dates!
If you have been lucky enough to get a babysitter here are a few unique and cheap dates out:
1)The Arcade, We are huge fans of the Oh Wow Nickel Arcade here in Fresno
2)Save your ends from your bread and feed the ducks at Woodward Park (or your local park)
3) People watch at Riverpark (or local mall) and make up their story
4) Bowling or Pool on a buy1 Get 1 coupon!
Personally, we feed our kids and put them to bed early and chill home! Here are some great cheap options!
1) Board game night!
2) Video game night! You can get them for free from the library or cheap from Red Box. TheMarriedGamers.net has great reviews (and I write for them sometimes;)
3) The classic, movie night. Also something you can get free from the library or for only $1 from Red Box!
4) Cook together
5) A picnic indoors. All the romantic benefits with all the comforts of home and no ants!
What ever you do we at the NerdFamily hope you have a very Happy Valentine’s Day!!!
Lincoln, Washington, King, oh my!
Article first published as http://www.labeldaddy.com/blog/jacqueline-from-nerd-family/lincoln-washington-king-ohmy on LabelDaddy BlogÂ
Now that Christmas is over, it is time for the smattering of generic holidays to begin. According to most parents the various times off from school can be more frustrating than any holiday enjoyment possible. One may ask, “Why are we even celebrating these days to begin with?†and I think I can understand some of that frustration.  I mean, there is nothing special that usually goes on to commemorate these days? Well, nothing save teachers getting frustrated with the interruption, parents getting frustrated because the kids are suddenly home again, workers who do not have enough time to get their work done, and the kids who usually get cooped up due to the bad weather.  Let us take these holidays to focus on why Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Martin Luther King, Jr all have ranked federal holidays.Of course, the first obvious choice is due to historical points in time. I mean, George Washington was the head of the Revolutionary Army and our first president!  He crossed the Delaware in freezing cold!  Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves and died for his country!  Martin Luther King Jr. worked to bring all colors together on an even playing field!  What we should be doing on these holidays is making sure that we know all the historical facts. True?  Not necessarily.
I always think the why is more important than the what. Â What did these men have that enabled them to do things that have affected us for such a long time? Â I mean, I will never be the head of the United States Army much less the Revolutionary Army. Â I will never be an integral part of desegregating the South. Â And I am definitely not going to free the slaves. Â So what life lessons am I to take from these historical figures?
That is what I believe should be the focus of these holidays, the life lessons.  And be honest these were just men!  We do not need to study George Washington because of the story of the cherry tree.  We study George Washington’s character because he had the fortitude to stand and look Britain, the largest power in the world, in the face.  His integrity to what was right enables us to have the freedoms we treasure today.
Abraham Lincoln may be best known for freeing the slaves but he was so much more than that.  He came from modest beginnings in a log cabin, and became president of the United States.  He educated himself in the quietness at his mother’s knee.  He proved that determination can actually determine your future.
Martin Luther King, Jr proved that one man who is willing to be the voice for so many can and will be heard! That when fighting against your own, you actually can accomplish something without violence.  He proved that one man’s words can echo in infamy even if they weren’t his to begin with.  I mean, how many of us know “In the words of that old Negro spiritual, free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, I am free at last�
So, maybe what we should take away from this smattering of generic days is a call to integrity of character, self-determination, and being willing to be used.