Monday, December 14, 2009

Homemaker Monday: My New Blog for Moms of Toddlers and How You Can Help The Children's Hospital Foundation

Welcome to the 71st weekly edition of...


Thank you for joining us! If you're new to this carnival and would like to enter your post, please check HERE for the rules and regs.

YOURS: This week's "YOURS" goes to Geri over at "Heart and Soul Cooking". There is just something I love about appetizers and Geri's post had my mouth watering. I don't know if it's the fact that they only come out during parties or that they are usually rich and decadent, but I just get excited when I see a plate of appetizers! Look at what Geri has lined up for the holiday season...

-HERBED GOAT CHEESE LOG
-SPICY SESAME-NUT MIX
-AVOCADO-LIME DIP with VEGGIE STICKS
-GARLICKY WHTE BEAN DIP

I am definitely going to try one of these for my holiday entertaining and I know I won't be sorry! For all Geri's recipes, click HERE. Thank you so much, Geri, for your participation in Homemaker Monday and please feel free to take the "I Was Featured" button from my left sidebar. Have a wonderful holiday season!

MINE: This week's "MINE" is a couple of announcements regarding how you can help others, including your family, this holiday season....

Announcement 1. Most of you have seen The Blog Frog widget I have on my right sidebar. It's pink and has little thumbnails of various people who visit my blog and participate in my forum. Hundreds of other blogs also have widgets just like this one.

Well, The Blog Frog is doing something amazing this holiday season. For every blog that has an additional 20 participants in it's Blog Frog forum (that is someone who signs up and starts a conversation or makes any comment in the forum), The Blog Frog will give $10 to The Children's Hospital Foundation, an absolutely remarkable organization. It's so easy to get involved and we've got lots of fun and interesting conversations going on right now. Just click the button below to go to my community, then click "Sign Up" at the top right corner.




So don't be shy! Hop on over and meet and interact with your fellow 11th Heaven readers. I'll be fun and you'll be helping a good cause! Thank you!

Announcement 2: If you're like me, you wish you could carve out more time for your family. Daily life just seems to get in the way, though, and sometimes, at the end of the day, you wonder what you did to help your family learn and grow. These thoughts have plagued me in recent months, as I've taken on the challenges of trying to earn extra money for our family via blogging, so I've decided to do something that will hold me accountable to all of you for spending time with my children.

I've started a new blog called 365 Days of TV-Free Toddler Time. Each day I will post about a quality activity I did with my 3 three and under. I will list the materials I used, take cute pictures, and rate the activity with a 5-star system. And guess what? I'd love it if you'd join me! Here's how it works...

1. Grab this button and put it on your blog...



2. Do your best during the week to do at least one 30-minute activity with your toddler(s) each day. If you accomplish this for seven days in a row, leave me a comment on any post (at my new blog), and your name and blog link (if you have one) will be posted on the Smiley Face List every Monday morning.

3. Want more linky love? Just blog about one of your activities (and make sure to take fun photos!), email me your post link at mom2my9 [at] gmail [dot] com, and you could be the featured TV-Free Toddler Time Mom of the Week!

So let's have some fun, shall we? If not, I think you need a time-out. :) I've already put two posts up. One is called "Baking Time" and boy did we have fun...!



...and the other is called "Block Time", and we had even MORE fun...!



So if you have toddlers or preschoolers, please come by and see what we're up to! If you don't have toddlers, but know someone who does, I'd love it if you'd let them know about TV-Free Toddler Time. Thank you again!

One more announcement: Homemaker Monday is one of the events I look most forward to in my blogging life each week and I plan on continuing this for a long time to come. However, because of low participation, I will no longer be including the Mexican necklace giveaway. It's been fun, and I've got a list of winners I will be posting soon, but from now on, hopefully you'll just join me for the fun of it!

OURS: Okay, now it's your turn! What wonderful holiday fare do you have for us today? Don't have anything related to Christmas? That's okay, just feel free to link anything homemaking! Thank you and I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season!

6 comments:

annies home said...

love the tv todler time idea I will pass this information on to my daughter

CM said...

Thanks for all you do. Love your blog AND your new Toddler blog! I'm a fairly new mom and I need all the help I can get :-)

Mom2my10 @ 11th Heaven said...

Thank you so much, Shopannies and Cop Mama! Cop Mama, I hope you'll want to play along. I'll be posting the first Smiley Face list on Monday, so as long as you've spent 30 minutes of quality time each day with your child for 7 days in a row, you (and your blog link) will get on the list!~ :)

Tasha said...

What a great idea! I try to make sure I'm getting some quality time in with my little ones each day, but this will be a great way to hold myself accountable!

Cheryl B. said...

I don't have toddlers, and the grand baby lives out of state, so it is impossible to get that frequent of time with her :-( However, every chance I get - I so thourally enjoy!!!! Yup, Yup, Yup !!! :-D

We too love appetizers!! To the point that upon several occasions, we have scheduled family "appetizer and movie nights". YUM!!! Since we're spending family time together, we don't feel guilty for munching away to our hearts content. And seeings how much I like so many of the appetizers, I don't mind occasionally taking all of that time to make up quite a variety of them. Ya know, cold, blizzardly Jan. is comming ... might be the perfect time to do another one o:-}

For the record, I have no idea what your talking about concerning the necklaces .... honest. I just participate for the fun of it.

Note about a previous posting of yours - concerning tieing the chairs up around the table. A friend had bought a pretty felt back plastic tablecloth for her table, and then stacked all of the chairs on top of the table. They wouldn't all just fit up there, so on each side she'd turn one upside down on top of another. Doing it that way, made it much easier for one person to pull a chair down and sit at the end of the table, whether to do home work, or eat, or what-ever.
Just thought I'd share that idea with you.

Jenna said...

Good for you, can't wait to check out the new blog!

Just wanted to let you know I am hosting a Holiday Treats week this week and will be posting a new recipe everyday, hope you stop by to check it out and maybe link up some of your holiday treats.