On our weekly talk show “Mom’s Coffee Break” ,featuring Myself, Tonya Ramsey and Jody Maley, I have noticed that the last two shows we have talked alot about teenagers. What they do, don’t do, how they behave and so forth. I thought this would be a great article idea, not just because I have one, but because many parents are going through what I call ” The Teenager Experience”, but also because many will go through it someday.  All children, no matter what their age or what they say, want to be paid attention to. They NEED to spend time with their parents and families. So here are some ideas of spending time with your teens: go to the zoo. Noone is to “old” to enjoy animals. The monkey exhibit is always fun, they seem to do some pretty inappropriate stuff that most teens, especially boys, find amusing. If your teen enjoys music, take a couple of pills for the headache that will occur, then go to a music store, concert ( if you can handle it), etc. If he/she is into gaming, check out some game stores or exhibits. There is  local facility here that hosts monthly gaming tournaments. The point is to try to spend some time with your teens that focuses on their interests.

Let your teen help prepare at least  one meal a week. It might be a little stressful for you in the beginning, but this will teach them valuable skills that they will need when they venture off on their own (hopefully) in the not so far off future. You don’t want them living on pizza, ramen noodles, and macaroni and cheese, do you?

Have them participate in the cleaning of the house. Yes, I am speaking of CHORES! If your child(ren) do not already, assign some household duties for your teen to complete. Reward them appropriately for your families situation and value system. If your teens don’t know how to keep up a home, can you imagine what theirs will look like?

Teach your teens the importance of doing what we can to help the environment, even if it is as basic as recycling and using reusable shopping bags. Maybe you will learn something, too.

As always, make sure you communicate with your teen. Your child(ren) DO listen to you, even when you think they do not. Let them know, and prove it, that they can always talk to you about anything, even things that they think “will make you mad”. It is so important for your kids to know that they can ALWAYS come to you about anything and you will help them work out the tough problems that is best for them and your family.

I hope this article provides a little bit of information. As always, please leave your comments! I hope everyone has a great week!

The Dometic Goddess

My best friend and my stepmom and I were sitting around talking the other day, and knowing that I am a frugal person and have this website the conversation naturally drifted towards “thrifty” topics, and some mom topics. I decided to write a post about these ideas. They are very good tips and I hope you all like them. The first one was brought up by my step mom. She is a “hair dresser”, i apologize that i do not know what the current professional term for this is, and has been since before I was born. She gets an hourly wage, but mostly survives on tips, like a waitress does.  For years, she has “put away” $5.00 a day out of her tips into envelopes. She has an envelope for each month. She uses this money to pay for her camping expenses (she owns a very nice camper in a camp ground, where it stays permanently year round). She saves the money in her envelopes all year. She also uses this money as an emergency fund, and pays the envelopes back by increasing the dollar amount per day, say $10.00 a day instead of $5.00. This system has worked for her for years. Just in case you are all wondering, she does not trust banks and likes to keep her money close by. This is a very useful tip that all of us can use. I have an old tootsie roll container that i put all my spare change in. When the Tootsie Roll is full, I cash in or deposit the money into my bank account, depending on what I need at that time.

The second tip was provided by my best friend, Tonya Ramsey. She has a four year old son, and when her son was small, her and her husband wanted to combat the “scary monster under the bed/in the closet” problem all of us parents face. They took a unique, and frugal, approach. They filled a spray bottle with water and told him it was monster repellent. Every night at bedtime, they sprayed the “monster repellent” around his room. They also gave him an empty 24 ounce soda bottle, and told him to keep that by his bed, and if he got scared or needed to ” beat up the monster”, to use the bottle. These two things worked like a charm, they have NEVER had to deal with him waking up in the middle of the night crying because of “monsters in his room” I think this idea is brilliant! Hats off to you, Tonya!

I hope these two tips prove useful to many of you. Please comment or email me with your tips and hints, just follow the links on the website! I look forward to hearing from you!

“It is not quantity that should define our lives, but the quality with which we live it.”

The Domestic Goddess

Everything we do impacts the environment. All the foods we eat, the products we use, the items we buy and put into our home affects our planet. It is up to us to make the wisest choices for our families to help clean up and preserve our environment and our planet. We only have one Earth. Let us all do what we can to keep it livable.

I watched the Ellen DeGeneres show last Wednesday. On her show she had a woman on that works with ocean creatures. She helps educate people about extinction of sea creatures (by the way- hundreds of species of fish are extinct now..never to return!)  Specifically, she spoke about how baby Albatross (birds) are dying because of the TONS of plastic in our oceans. PLASTIC! What happens is this: Either consumers (us) or manufacturers throw the plastic away instead of recycling it. At some point is gets broken down into little tiny pieces and then DUMPED in oceans. The Mommy Albatross goes out to get food to feed her babies, thinks the little pieces of plastic are food, eats it then takes it home to baby to eat. The babies stomachs get full of plastic and can’t eat, then they die. How sad! It proves my point, everything is related, from me going to the store and buying a soda then throwing the empty plastic bottle away….and a bird species becoming extinct.

My son is 15 years old. He just completed his freshman year of high school. He joined a group called “The Parker Green Squad”. This group is helping to educate the students about the dangers to our planet and the environment, recycling, etc. They are trying to raise money to put recycling bins through out the school. I couldn’t be more proud! He joined all on his own, and when he told me he said he felt that he was doing something important. Of course, I cried because I was so proud of my baby…almost grown up! It amazes me how a young man can do whatever he can to help save our planet and US, yet a grown person is to lazy and selfish to simply recycle a plastic bottle!

For several years now, I have kept a  ”junk cupboard”. In it I put odds and ends for future use. I should probably rename this cupboard,but it works. I have toilet paper/paper towel tubes, a baggie of soap slivers, bread bags, empty coffee cans, empty cereal boxes, empty/clean milk jugs. Whatever I might possibly find a use for later. Maybe for a craft project, maybe I have a need around the house. Whatever comes up, I go to the “junk cupboard” first to see if I something that will work instead of buying a new something. My bathroom garbage can is an old, re-used, large coffee can. It works perfect. I currently do not have a filing cabinet, soon but not yet. In the meantime I have a couple of clean, re-used cereal boxes; the tops cut off on a diagonal line; to store and keep my important papers seperate. It works well, actually. The wall above my computer is decorated with my son’s art work and his kindergarten graduation certificate ( it has his picture on it…very adorable). As I looked around my home the other day, I realized 99% of my possessions are used. Very little was bought new. I feel good about that because I know I am doing my part to keep items out of the landfill, taking up space and ruining our environment, killing species of animals that, once gone, will never come back.

By the way, I am now boycotting fish. I love to eat fish and will miss it, but I feel a higher calling and it is a sacrifice I am willing to make. I will never be able to eat a piece of cod, or orange roughy, again and not think of the dying baby albatross!

So, we all need to pay attention to the big picture! We need to realize that EVERYTHING we do affects the entire world around us, even the fish in the oceans, the birds and wildlife in the rain forests. We can ALL do something, however small a something, to make a difference!

“The quality of our life should not depend on the quantity of our possessions”

Thanks to All!

The Domestic Goddess

The Domestic Goddess is now published on a website and in an online magazine! Follow the links below to read about saving money while going green and about delicious summer beverages!

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1826087/iced_tea_the_original_summertime_beverage.html?cat=22  - this is Associated Content site

http://healyourselftalk.com/magazine/going-green-reducing-household-expenses   -  This is on the Heal Yourself Magazine site. This magazine will be going into print soon!

I hope you enjoy these articles. Look for more articles monthly in www.healyourselfmagazine.com in the Domestic Goddess section!

The Domestic Goddess

Tonya Ramsey, Jody Maley, and I are co-hosts of  the new and exciting internet radio talk show “Mom’s Coffee Break”!  Our show is premiering June 24, 2009 at 8:00 pm (cst) on blogtalkradio.com. The link will be posted on my website and of course, I encourage you to visit the Mom’s Coffee Break website and get all the info on the new show, as well as read the information. Mom’s Coffee Break is filled to capacity with information, contacts and resources to help you build a business and build yourself!

Come check it out!

The Domestic Goddess

Well, this one is a personal issue/problem. We have Charter Communications in this area of southern wisconsin. I have been having some billing issues and have tried repeatedly to reach somebody to no avail until this morning. It took me three days to reach a live person, was transfered several times, hung up on once, given 3 different toll free numbers to call. I finally started asking for the corporate headquarters phone number and/or the Escalation Department and apparently the customer service people guard these numbers with their lives. I searched online for a half hour and FINALLY found the corporate office phone number. So after all my frustration, tears, anger and rage at this company I have decided to SHARE this phone number with all of you! If you are having trouble with Charter Communications and cannot resolve your issue with customer service or any of the other places they transfer you to, call this number and follow the easy instructions to the ESCALATION DEPARTMENT. That number is:1(314)965-0555. I feel I am doing my part to help all charter communications customers in providing this phone number! I also just filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau…. we shall see what happens there!

Thanks to All!

The Domestic Goddess

Imagine your sitting in your backyard or on the porch, it’s warm outside, the flowers and trees are blooming. The kids are playing and laughing in the yard. Maybe your working on a craft or reading a book. Suddenly, your throat feels dry. Nothing sounds better than an ice cold beverage. Here is the  dilemma: do you reach for an expensive soda, energy drink, or juice? Do you drink water, or could you make your own satisfying beverages for much less money than soda, energy drinks, etc? The answer is Yes.. you can! For years now I have been making homemade lemonade, sun tea, or drinking other inexpensive drinks.

Homemade Lemonade: 1 cup real lemon juice, 1 cup sugar or splenda, 2 quarts cold water. Stir to mix and enjoy! I can buy a 1 quart bottle of 100% lemon juice for between $1.00 and $1.50. A large bag of sugar sells for around $1.49.  This is by far cheaper than store bought juice, contains real lemon juice(which is good for you) and delicious.

Sun Tea: I use a re-used, clean milk jug. I fill this with water and put 5 to 7  Lipton orange-pekoe tea bags in through the top, leaving  the paper tags to hang outside the jug. Let sit in the sun for approximately 4 hours and remove tea bags. Refridgerate and enjoy. You can sweeten with sugar or artificial sweetener, add lemon if you wish or any other add ins. I drink this all summer long and it is very nutritious and delicious. You can use your favorite tea and adjust the amount of tea bags used for weaker or stronger tea.

Kool Aid:   I have been buying generic kool aid for years, usually on sale at 10 for $1.00. You can use real sugar or artificial sweetener, I have used both and recommend using slightly less artificial sweetener as it is stronger. You can’t beat this as it is extremely inexpensive. Obviously if you use sugar it is not “healthy”, however you can use this drink to make homemade popcicles, add gelatin and make homemade jello. It is far better than soda or other sugary drinks. A wide variety of flavors are available to please any tastebuds.

Juice from concentrate or ready made :  In my area a large bottle (around 25 - 32 oz.) sells for between $3.00 and $4.00. You can buy a container of frozen juice concentrate for less than $2.00 and it makes about 2 quarts. Do I need to say more?

I hope these ideas help make your summer most enjoyable and refreshing!

Thanks to all!

The Domestic Goddess

For those of us who get the “spring fever”  and feel the need to scrub our entire house with a toothbrush to make it sparkle, you know how manufacturing companies have created “needs”, things we supposedly absolutely have to have or our dwellings are not clean. Obviously, this is a myth. It does not take $100 worth of products and “stuff” to make our houses sparkle. I do a major cleaning twice a year, towards the end of spring and the beginning of winter. Never have I spent more than $15.00 on cleaning products  to clean my home. New items like the Swiffer products are not necessary, convenient and time saving, yes; but not necessary. The chemicals in the cleaning solution on the swiffer and like items can actually be harmful, while the pads take up landfill space. These are all the items and cleaners that you need to spring clean your home.

Broom, dustpan, mop, bucket, rubbing alcohol, baking soda, all purpose cleaner or a bucket of mild soap and water, rags, and yes: a toothbrush.

Use the bucket of soap and water and the toothbrush to get into any cracks or small areas of furniture to clean away winters grime and dust. Rinse tootbrush with clean water and wipe any soap out of crevices. Use a rag to dry.

Clean all windows, glass, and mirrors with rubbing alcohol and a rag. They will really sparkle. If you worry about lint on these surfaces, use newspaper(black and white print only).

Use a bucket of mild soap and water and a rag or scrub brush to clean walls, base boards, floors, etc. For grungy looking wood furniture you can scrub the wood with mild soap OR my personal favorite, Murphy’s wood oil soap. Rinse with a clean, wet rag then use an oil like olive oil or linseed oil to make the wood shine again!

Use a paste of baking soda and water for “soft scrub”. Use on sinks, tub, and tile.

Don’t buy expensive smelly powders for your carpet. Just sprinkle your carpets with baking soda, let sit for 15 to 30 minutes and vacuum as usual.

Wash all washable rugs, curtains and table cloths in the washing machine. Curtains can actually be hung back up wet and let them air dry. The smell from the soap will make your rooms smell wonderful.

Sweep and mop all washable floors. Apply any floor wax treatments if you choose to do so.

Open your windows and let the entire house air out. Bacteria, dust, possibly mold, and other allergens build up in enclosed houses over the winter. Let them all out!

Following these steps will make your entire home smell and look wonderful! Don’t forget to declutter also! Most often we let mail, magazines, newspapers, old clothing build up over the winter. Recycle and donate whenever possible!

Thanks to all!

The Domestic Goddess

Tomorrow, May 21 at 12 noon cst/ 1pm est I will be on blogtalkradio.com on Journey to Self… Tonya Ramsey’s radio show! We will be talking all about frugality and the environment, including ways YOU can keep more green in your wallet! It will be very exciting and informative.

http://blogtalkradio.com/journeytoself is the link to the radio show.  I hope you all enjoy the show.. please call in with any questions you may have and we will do our best to answer all of them! Look forward to seeing you there!

Thanks to all!

The Domestic Goddess

School will soon be over for the summer for most children. Soon after the “Mom… I’m bored” calls start. My son is 15 and I still here that one. So I spoke with some moms that I know and asked them what they do to beat the summertime boredom blues.

• Play board games or card games. These can be found at rummage sales and thrift shops in mass quantities very cheaply.
• Do some art projects. You can use materials you have on hand already. Anything is fair game. Old colorful junk mail, cotton balls, paints and markers, glitter, construction paper, old scraps of leftover material and yarn. Be creative and so will your kids. I remember making macaroni necklaces at a friend’s house and making a bird house out of a reused large oatmeal container(the round kind with plastic lid).
• bake- kids love to help in the kitchen. They can help make anything: cookies, pies, cakes, get creative with homemade popcicles.
• Take a walk. You could get a book from the library and identify your local birds, trees or flowers. Make a game of it and see how many your child can spot.
• many communities now offer free movies. I have seen them offered in the park or at the library. Sometimes refreshments are even available for free. It would be worth it to check out your local paper or city office to see if your community does this.
• Libraries offer story time for small children in the summer months. Many also have other fun times for kids as well. They can make art projects, get free gifts by reading so many books. Check it out.

Leave a comment with your “beat the summer time blues” idea and help other parents cure the moans and groans of their kids in the summertime while spending good quality time with your children!

Thanks to all!

The Domestic Goddess