All posts by NerdMom

As Seen on TV, crafts, Holidays, kids, Tips

Personalized Easter Baskets

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(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!

 

Contesting Monday

Contesting Monday 4/2

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So here is the deal. If you are hosting a giveaway or have a post about someone’s giveaway just leave a link. Make sure this link is to the giveaway post itself and not just the blog or it will be deleted. If you listed it last week but your giveaway is still open, list it again! Also your link must be to something family friendly or it will be deleted.
So now you need to add your giveaways and go enter some giveaways! Let them know that Contesting Monday sent you!

Businesses, headlines

Citibank, Frequent Flyer Miles, and Taxes

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Airline miles. You know, those fairly worthless things that you get back on some credit cards? I say fairly worthless because you have to jump through a fair amount to use them, if you ever can. Well, Citibank has started giving out these airline miles to people who open a new account with them (I am assuming a bank account but I don’t know that). Well, according to an article in the 3/19 Newsweek, what you may not realize is that Citibank is reporting that to the IRS at a rate of 2.5 cents a mile. They were giving new account holders enough miles that they could have a $350 in tax liability.

According to the LA Times it has to do with the fact that these miles are akin to the toaster you used to get, which was technically taxable because it was considered income. Now because it was such a low amount no one ever did, but I am sure that Citibank took a deduction as it is a payment. It seems as if the IRS rules on this are a little foggy.

There are a few issues I and many other people seem to have with this situation. 1) You may never be able to use these miles! When you take the toaster home you could actually make toast with it. I am not saying you will make toast with it but you could, at your convenience, make toast. Due to schedules, black out dates and the many other restrictions, you may not actually be able to use these miles. Yet you will be taxed on them.

2) Can you deny these miles? Say you don’t want to risk the tax liability, can you refuse them? If you can’t refuse them it doesn’t seem right that you would have to pay the tax on it.

3) Between the LA Times article and the Newsweek article, the evaluation on the value of these miles it outrageous. Some people give a valuation of 1.7-2.5 cents per mile where as the airlines value it at less than a cent a mile (Newsweek). There is an inference in the LA Times piece that Citibank is valuing the miles at more than they paid American Airlines for them.

This is a warning to everyone! Beware the air miles! Make sure, before you accept them, that you know what tax laws come with it because nothing could be worse than paying taxes on something you don’t want or won’t use. And Citibank, shame! From all the articles it appears that you didn’t make this clear to your customers until they received notice. It seems a little underhanded and I don’t think that is how you want your company to be perceived!

Books, Educational, Free, Frugal Homeschooler, kids, literature

Free Poetry Month Resources!

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Graphic of Jack Prelutsky from Scholastic's Page!

Did you know that April is National Poetry Month? It is and as always there is a wealth of free resources out there to teach your kids about poetry! And I mean kids of all ages!!!!

Scholastic has a ton of activities for kids k-12. There are workshops, printables and prompts but it all starts with a reading from Jack Prelutsky!

The Shel Silverstein site has a ton of resources from mini units to single printable pages. They have simple printables under kids and a ton more (including this and last year’s poetry month packs) under educators. 1 warning about the site, it pops up with music and you have to click through a few pages to get to anything.

Poets.org has a variety of units available. They were all created by secondary teachers. It also has poems to teach with some of them even being read to you!

Do you like poetry? I loved Shel Silverstein growing up and gotten his books from the library for my kids. But honestly, other than to answer trivia questions, I don’t know much about poetry. So I look forward to learning about this with my kids! Go get your literature arts on and teach your kids to enjoy poetry!

By the way, make sure you check back because later in the month I will be reviewing some poetry apps too!

Food

Free White House Cookbook

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I love, love, love cookbooks! So I was stoked to see the The Whitehouse Cookbook (1887) available free on Kindle download. It is full of great basics and throwbacks. I guess a committee of volunteers donated their time to convert this to an e-book. I love the fact that it is considered a “Cyclopedia for the home”. I love it!!!

This thing has a ton of information! It even has mushroom and cucumber catsup. It is awesome!

life

Its My Blog and I Will Whine if I Want to!

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I know, I know…poor baby. But you know what? I warned you in the title;). So I get a cheap iPad2 cover off of Ebay. It is like $15 and has a hard plastic bottom and a cover to it. I had it a couple of months and the hard plastic bottom starts to chip. And that made for sharp points but since I am not rubbing on them it isn’t a problem, right?

Well, a big piece broke off so that the iPad could actually slide out. But it was still in there so I mustering on… until last night. I reached behind me to grab my iPad. It started to slide out of the case so I juggled for a minute and the cover scratched up my arm.

The worst part? It is on the part of my arm that rests on the table as I type. So it has hurt and been bothering me all day! I am annoyed!!!

Whine over, for now;).

Food

Gluten Free Spinach Fritters

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Ok I admit it, I am bored to death of rice and potatoes. I needed a new side dish. One of my favorites were fritters before we went gluten free. So I started thinking, why not figure out a gluten free fritter recipe?

I went with spinach because then I wouldn’t need as much breading. This was pretty easy and came together super quick. I think it is decently healthy. Next time we will have to make a double batch. While it is plenty for a family of 4 for a family of 6…my kids would have had more.

Ingredients:

1 10 ounce box of chopped spinach, thawed and drained
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp pepper
2/3 cup shredded cheese
2/3 my gluten free flour blend

Process:

Mix all the ingredients together. Then fry tablespoon sized dollops in a skillet with a moderate veil of oil. Fry on both sides until it is crispy. Drain it on some paper towel (there isn’t much oil). And devour! That is it!!!