Helping Your Child Learn Responsibilities and Value In Working

In our house, I want my boys growing up learning that everyone within the home contributes.  They see mom and dad going to work and I explain to them that is what pays for our home, food, clothing and day to day living.  Within the home I want them to learn that we all can help our house run.  This involves chores that help mom and dad out and help out the whole family.  Chores are always assigned in an age appropriate manner and they do not get paid for chores because as a family we have responsibilities to help each other out.  Chores in our home involve the boys picking up their toys and other items, picking up their rooms, helping me carry groceries into the house, setting and clearing the table at dinner and other little tasks along the way.

Outside of chores, sometimes we have "jobs".  I also want my boys learning that if there are things they want to have, they have to learn how to save money and be able to buy them.  I want them to understand that you don't always get to have everything you want, that if you want something really badly you have to work for it, and that everything isn't always given to you.  Sometimes they get money from birthdays or other occasions that they can save and spend, while other times they can ask us for jobs to help them earn some money.  We save all of our soda cans, and the last few years it has become my oldest son's job to crush them.  He has learned that we will pay him a dollar or two for crushing them and that then he can save them up and take them with his dad to cash them in and earn money.

My youngest son who is 5 has really latched onto the concept of working to earn money and it has been really cute to watch.  Last spring he helped my husband with the deck he was building in our back yard.  He brought my husband the nails he needed and carried him bricks continuously and was excited to do it.  My husband was quite impressed with him and told me that he really worked hard to help.  That is when he decided to pay him $2 for helping him.  You would not believe how excited he was!  Now he loves to ask for "jobs" so that he can earn money.  I think it is so important for children to gradually start to learn how to work and what some responsibility involves to help them grow into responsible adults.

A week and a half ago, my husband had Good Friday off work and was eager to get some spring yard work done.  My youngest son also had the day off school and was excited to help his dad and wanted a job.  My husband got out our wagon and told him he could pick up all the pine cones that the tree in our front yard drops all over our cul de sac.  He was so excited to help out and proud of his work!  When I came out to take this picture, he said to me "Look mom, I'm helping make our home look more beautiful"!  It was really awesome to see him take pride in his work and want to do the job as best as he could.  He even walked across the cul de sac to pick up the pine cones on the other side.

Beauty On A Budget!

There are very few things that I will pay regular price for.  Almost everything I buy is on sale and then I use coupons as well.  I learned very early on that you didn't have to sacrafice quality to get a good deal.  Quite often when you are couponing you can get brand name products at a better deal than generic or store brand.  The cosmetics above were on sale this week.  There was also an in store coupon for $1 off each item.  I also used a $4 manufacturer coupon off of each one. When you use a store coupon and a manufacturers coupon, this is called "stacking". I buy a coupon clipper subscription to the local newspaper, which means that I get 5 Sunday papers with coupon inserts every week. As you can see from the picture above, I spent $6.75 and saved $31.80.  This added up to a total savings of 87%!

This is how I shop for my clothes and shoes as well.  Quite often people don't realize how well you can dress and take care of yourself on a tight budget.  

Making Homemade Baked Fries

My potato cutter you see above has been a great way to make my boys fries in a healthy way over the years.  I simply wash and scrub my potatoes, cut the ends off, and put them through the potato cutter you see above.  I spray my pampered chef stone pan with Pam before putting the fries in. Then I either spray the fries with Pam or use a brush to brush them with olive oil.  This pan of fries has kosher salt sprinkled on them to have fish and chips with vinegar (on the fries) and tartar sauce with the fish.  I set my convection oven at 400 degrees and bake them for 28 minutes.  Sometimes I sprinkle garlic salt and sometimes I use seasoning salt on them depending on what we are having with them. Sometimes I make homemade chicken fingers using sliced chicken breasts with shake'n  bake or bread crumb coating.  I have also made poutine with fries baked this way.  This way I can cook/bake a meal in the oven in a much healthier way than if a similar meal was gotten at a fast food or regular restaurant and fried.  High cholesterol runs in my family and at 40, mine is already borderline high even though I lead a healthy, active lifestyle and maintain a healthy weight.  This makes it even more important for me to be conscious of the types of food I eat.  I also hope and believe that I am helping my children in a day and age where childhood obesity is such a huge problem.  It is very rare that my kids eat fast food and even rarer that I do.

Here are what these fries look like coming out of the oven.  Depending on how crisp you like them, you can bake them a few minutes less or longer.

The Proof Is In The Picture - Tria Age-Defying Laser

I wasn't going to post on Tria's Age-Defying Laser  for a few more weeks, but when I saw this picture I just had to!  In the side by side picture above, the one on the left is right before I started treatment and the one on the right was taken last Tuesday morning before I started getting ready for my day.  I think that when you look at the pictures side by side, that the results I have been telling people that I think I am seeing show very clearly here.  The first thing that I want to point out is the scar on my face.  If you look at the picture on the right, you will see that I have a scar right below/up to my nose on the right side of the picture.  This is a scar that I got when I was 5 years old.  That was 35 years ago!  When I was a little girl I was pretty self conscious about it and always though that when I got older, that I would seek out some type of treatment to get rid of it.  However, as I got older I grew used to it and stopped noticing it so I stopped worrying about getting rid of it.  This scar fading or diminishing with using the Age-Defying Laser was not something I expected as I started treatment as this is not something the laser has been tested for,which is that it is "indicated for wrinkles around the eyes and smoother skin in the treated areas".  A couple weeks into treatment I thought I was starting to see it changing, but I thought that maybe it was just me.  When I put these 2 pictures side by side yesterday, I was amazed to see the results very clearly.  To me it is obvious how much the scar has faded.  I cannot say for sure, but I am thinking that the treatments must be helping rebuild/renew the collagen around and nder the area of my scar.  If you go back to looking at the side by side picture, I think you can also see how my skin tone has increased which has made my skin feel much smoother and looks more radiant.  Also, I can tell that my wrinkles on my forehead are fading and around my mouth you can see my laugh lines decreasing as well.

I have just finished my second week on level 3 treatment.  That means that 5 nights a week I am treating each of the 4 zones on my face for 2 1/2 minutes which makes my total treatment time 10 minutes.  My face has become accustomed to the treatments and I barely notice any prickling or discomfort during and after the treatment.  The redness I am seeing after a treatment is minimal.  I continue to use the Finishing Serum right after my treatment and sunscreen before my makeup in the morning.  I am following the directions and taking a 2 day break between each 5 day treatment.  I will continue this for another 7 weeks in order to complete the full 12 weeks of treatment that is recommended.

I even packed it on our weekend spring break trip and took it with me to the hotel so I could stay on schedule.  It was easy to take along and use.  It really has become a part of my evening routine and I am very excited with the results I am seeing!

Tria Age-Defying Laser