Have You Checked Your Air Filters Lately?? Tires? Detectors? Teach Your Kids Important Life Skills.

Old and New Lawn Mower Filter

Sometimes we get so overwhelmed making sure our kids get good grades, their homework done, and do extra-curricula activities we forget we need to teach life skill too.

Well by accident I found an important teachable moment for my older kids.  I regularly change not only my car air filter but my car cabin filter.  The last time I changed mine I realized that I had never seen neither my kids nor their dad change their filter. Their dad always harped on regular oil changes but that was it.  I wish I had pictures of what their cabin filters looked like.  I wasn't even sure they had cabin filters as their cars were older than mine, but all three of them did.  They were very dirty. We changed them, bought new ones and put the filter number in their glove box.  Then I went out to check our lawn mower.  Ugh!  And I checked the house filters.  Ugh!  Sometimes we get so busy we get behind in our home maintenance and we never show our kids what types of things they need to keep up on.

What about smoke and carbon monoxide detectors?

Picture From Paradise-Leaman

It is recommended to change your batteries when you change your clocks.  Haven't  checked or changed batteries lately?  Go check it right now and make sure they are working.  It is also recommended that you test your detectors monthly.  

Buy Here With Your Business

You can buy these and hand them out with your business name. What a cool way to advertise and help remind families in your community to test their smoke alarm.

Tires?  No one wants a flat tire or an accident.  They now have a test you can do with a quarter to see if your tire still has tread.  If at all in doubt take your car to your tire servicer for inspection.  Getting regular tire rotation improves your tire wear and gas mileage and allows your auto mechanic to check your tires.

Holiday Cooking with Little Ones

This little guy can help you little ones be very helpful in the kitchen.

Scrub those potatoes (and carrots if need be) to bake, chop, fry or mash for dinner.

They can scrub the veggies for you and you know this brush is just for veggies because of the potato head!  Click here to see where we got our brush.  Kitchen Collection

My new favorite is potato salad.  Kids rather have mashed, baked or homemade french fries.

Donate Money & Have Fun With Your Family

Pick Your Cause and Take Your Family

Neon Night #NAMI

There are so many runs you can take your family to and you save quite a lot of money if you preregister.  The last few runs I have been they offer dancing, snacks, race t-shirt and the run.  The cool thing is that you no longer have to fight to get to the front if you are a competitive racer as they have an automatic race chip you wear and times when you start and when you finish.  A few years back you had to tie them to your shoe and some people would lose them.  Now they are taped to the number on your shirt, which is why so many races now have you wear your number on the front of your t-shirt rather than the back.

Color Runs

Night Runs

Fundraisers for schools, rotary clubs, food pantries, girls activities, suicide prevention services, rescuing animals and helping build homes for people are literally just a handful of choices. 

Click below to search for a run near you.

Find a Run

Sample Warm Up at a  Race for Life

The Easy Way to Make a Camp Fire

Easy to lit.

Makes camping easier.

Even vegetarians can find something to roast.

We bought ours at the grocery store for $11.

Family Fire Pit Project DIY

Family Fun Roasting 

I saw this DIY ad on Zillow and the kids and I decided to try it.  We finished it in one day and had a marshmellow roast that night.

https://www.zillow.com/blog/building-backyard-fire-pit-219141/

First we dug a hole.

Arranged the rocks in a circle.  

We found the bricks at Orscheln Farm and Home

Added the gravel.

Finished.

We bought these extendable BBQ forks at Kitchen Collection for under $4.  See link below.

Extendable BBQ Fork

Enjoyed it!

Positive Thinking Day- September 13th

😀Positive Thinking Day

Yes there is a holiday for positive thinking and I missed it.  I think we get so busy that we don't realize home many things there are to be grateful for in our life.  My favorite beverage is water. Something I usually don't appreciate that until there is no clean water available.  Simple things like health, shelter and other necessities are things we take for granted.  Have you ever pulled a muscle and have trouble walking?  During dinner tonight have everyone say what little thing in life they could not live without.  I would hate to go without ice water and hot showers. Those are two things that I hope that I never have to give up.

🎭 TurnThat Frown Upside Down 🎭

You could add to the discussion to have everyone tell someone else one nice thing they appreciate about them.  You could even let your boss, co-worker, teacher or other person in your life know.  I know I cashiered for years never realizing how important that job was until I had to shop with kids in tow and the cashier was sometimes the only adult that said hi to me all week. I coach soccer and last week after our game I remind my players to thank their parents for driving them to their soccer game.

Smile😏 

Years ago when I was cashiering I thought that the customer was being rude and started to think those thought.  Found out that as she was leaving she was of to see her daughter's newborn child and to comfort her own daughter who had just lost her husband that week.  You never know what is going on in someone else's life. Your smile or kind remark might be the only one they get that day.  

Keep a Lookout For Great Opportunities👪

I remember the days my kids were young, I was not getting much sleep.  Not a lot of adult time.  My spouse worked a lot.  I would be shopping, or at the park or just trying to do the best job I could as a parent when IT would happen.  Not often but when IT happened, it made my day.  What was IT? Usually an elderly person, often a women, who would walk over when I had my rumbustious kids and I would be like "oh no".  And the person would say, "What a beautiful family you have." Nothing else could make a mom beam and smile from ear to ear like that.  I don't do it often but when I see a mom doing her best and looking like she is struggling a bit, I walk up to her and pass along that random act of kindness shared with me years ago.  "What a beautiful family you have."

I wish all my reader and their families a wonderful day! Smile, you don't know who is watching you.

Dairy-Free Frozen Treats Fun to Make as Home

Mmmm.....Strawberry, Banana and Peach

This little machine cost less than $30 and makes delicious fruit frozen treats in minutes.  Dairy free for kids that can't or don't drink dairy.  Fast and fresh tasting.  

This machine worked with all the different fruit we tried with it.

Also you can view a recipe book online from Gourmia (see link below) but we have not tried these yet, but they look really good.

Gourmia Fruit Recipes