The Luck Of The Irish Won’t Keep The Roads Safe

Are you headed out with friends after work this Wednesday to celebrate the holiday?  No?  Well when you and your family are on the road headed to choir practice, a t-ball game, or coming home from school, you may be sharing the road with those returning from a fun St. Patrick’s Day event.  It’s time to spread the word about the dangers of buzzed driving and to remind people that Buzzed Driving IS Drunk Driving, and the best way to stay safe is to plan ahead.

Let’s remind everyone about the importance of remembering to:

• Designate a sober driver before you leave for your event.
• Be ready to take alternate transportation such as a bus or taxi. Have the phone number of a taxi service stored in your phone before you leave for the party.

Even if you will not be celebrating this St. Patrick’s Day, keep in mind that in 2008, 1,179 people in other vehicles were killed in crashes involving alcohol-impaired drivers.  And for those who don’t plan on over-indulging, a buzzed driving crash looks the same as a drunk driving crash.

Global Influence is working with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Ad Council as they continue their efforts with the ‘Buzzed Driving is Drunk Driving’ PSA campaign. Buzzed drivers drink and drive, but do not consider themselves a hazard on the roadway because they have had ‘only a few drinks’. The campaign hopes to educate people that consuming even a few drinks can impair driving and that Buzzed Driving is Drunk Driving.

We need your help in keeping the roads safe for everyone this St. Patrick’s Day by spreading the word that buzzed driving IS drunk driving.

To learn more about the impact buzzed driving can have on a life, please watch this important video about the financial and personal repercussions of getting a DUI: http://buzzeddriving.adcouncil.org/sign.php#video

Remember: Buzzed Driving IS Drunk Driving. Plan ahead and ask your loved ones to do the same.

For more information, visit Buzzed Driving Is Drunk Driving on Facebook and Twitter (@Buzzeddriving).

Happy Anniversary To Us

I can’t believe it. Today Hubby and I celebrate our Tenth Wedding Anniversary. In one way it feels like we were married just yesterday. Yet in another way, I feel as if we’ve been together forever.

This morning I was watching him play in the snow with our son and had tears in my eyes. I was filled with such  feelings of love, happiness and pride that I began “welling”. He asked me what was wrong. I told him “Nothing. I’m just having a moment.” In ten years of marriage, I’ve had many of those moments. He just laughs and says “Poor Weepy Girl”.

We’re no different than other married couples. We’ve had our share of troubles – physical, emotional, financial. But as a team we’ve managed to get through them. And I think that’s why our marriage is stronger than it’s ever been: we’re a team.

Don’t get me wrong – there are days I still refer to him as “Jack Ass”. But at the end of the day, I love him. And I wouldn’t change a thing about our life together.

Happy Anniversary Bubbie!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

For the past few weeks, I’ve been making changes behind-the-scenes here at The Household Helper. You may or may not have noticed them. Some obvious (like the new background) and some not-so-much. Now that I’m mostly done I thought it was time to ’splain it all.

First, right now there are 4 major parts to The Household Helper:

1. The Website: In-depth articles and announcements are here.
2. The Blog: Where you’re at now! It’ the place I share my daily tips and resources. OK, well almost daily.
3. The Talk Show: Yeah I know, I’ve been real bad about this. But I promise to get back to podcasting and produce a new talk show at least every-other-week. K?
4. The Recipes: This part is in the works. I have a ton of recipes to add and I’m working on creating a better, more-searchable page for this.

Next there is my eBook shop. This is where you can find the how-to-guides and cookbooks available for purchase straight from me. This area will be forever a work-in-progress because I have lots more guides and cookbooks to offer!

And then there are My Favorite Tools. Guess what it is… Can you guess…  Yep – it’s a list of the resources and tools I love and recommend. This list will continually grow as I become aware of new tools and services that will help us manage our homes.

Along with My Favorite Tools is my Amazon Store. It’s funny – I’ve had this for YEARS and promoted it on-again-off-again. Now suddenly it’s become the “thing” to add to sites. Anyway, it’s more stuff I love and find useful that are available to purchase on Amazon.

And finally, I’m pleased to announce that I’ve begun personal coaching again. I’m very excited about this because I just love getting on the phone and helping someone out!

So that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. I hope you like the changes going on here. More so, I hope you find the changes useful and helpful! Please let me know.

PS: Still have the song in your head? “Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes”

PPS: In case you were wondering, maybe you’re a geek like me, I have made all the changes to my site myself. It’s a very customized version of the Lifestyle theme. I do this work through my other business, Jersey Girl Webs.

Wordless Wednesday – SNOW DAY

If you have a Snow Day Wordless Wednesday post, please share your link in the comments!

Friday Faves

Before I get my my faves this week, I just wanted to remind everyone to enter to win a $50 Walmart gift card! I’m loving the links to favorite Super Bowl commercials – keep them coming!

Now to this weeks Five Favorite links:

• I’m totally inspired by The Nester to frame a precious memory and incorporate it in my decor.
• My friend Nell started a new healthy eatingblog, Crunchy Pea. Already from her I learned about what to do for candida overgrowth.
• Great tips here about organizing your kitchen if you’re a baker from OrganizedHomeInc.
• Hillbilly Housewife had me cleaning my fridge on Tidy Tuesday.
• Lynnea has great info on what to do if your Toyota is recalled

Enjoy!

Happy New Year!

Wishing you much love, happiness and prosperity in the new year!

PS: If you notice a few wacky things going on with my blog and site, it’s because I’m performing maintenance over the next few days. Come Monday, everything will be back to normal – actually it will be better, faster and more efficient!

Wordless Wednesday: Veterans Day & Rememberance Day

(source: dunno – I’ve had this on my computer for quite some time)

Thank You for protecting the American dream and serving our country.

Thank you and sending kisses and hugs to:

• My Little Brother, currently serving in the Army (hoo-ah!)
• My Father-In-Law, Army Vet
• My Grandpa Jack, Navy Vet
• My Uncle Jackie, Navy Vet
• My Uncle Ken, Marine Vet

And Thank You, Canadian Troops, for protecting the dreams and freedoms of my friends up North.

OK, not really wordless, but I get wordy when I’m feeling mushy!

PS: There is a great post by TheHappyHousewife that lists ways to support our troops. I loved her quote: “Not everyone is able to serve in our Armed Forces, but everyone can serve our Armed Forces.”

PSS: If you are a Veteran or Active Duty, check out TheThriftyMama for a list of freebies available just for you!

New Talk Show Episode and a Reminder

I just published a new episode of The Household Helper Talk Show! You can listen or download here: http://thehouseholdhelper.com/podcast/episode-29-tech-talk-for-moms/

And don’t forget about today’s Twitter Clean-Up Party! Here’s the details…

I’m Just Bragging…

Karen at Keeping The Castle posted her Cars Movie Cake today, so I was inspired to post my cake too.

This month we celebrated Little Dude’s 4th birthday. OMG – how did he get that old already?? {sobbing}. Anyway, he thinks the big deal about birthday parties is the cake. I’ve made his birthday cakes myself – and I must say they are impressive! I’ve made the Baby Einstein Lion, Blue and Thomas. (I’d show you them, however they are on back-up disks and it will take me way longer to find them than to write this blog post. Maybe I’ll get back to them…) I say I make them myself, but really they are semi-homemade – I give credits below. Regardless,  he loves them and the cake is the highlight of his day.

This year the party theme was Disney’s Cars. He wanted a Lightening McQueen car.

I baked the cakes the night before as well as prepared the frosting so I would have time to get the color right.

I stacked the cakes, using some frosting for filling,  and then carved the top one to be the right shape. I frosted it completely with the red icing, and then I decorated it. I don’t use anything fancy like a professional piping bag. I use sandwich bags with a corner snipped. Oh, and I used mini-chocolate donuts for the wheels.

Betty Crocker helped me make the cakes (one devils food, one vanilla).

The frosting was made using the classic Domino Confectioners Sugar Buttercream Frosting recipe. I made two batches: one for the red coloring and one for the rest (including the filling).

It was a little time consuming because each color of frosting had to “set” before I could move on to the next. But otherwise it was easy

Tell Me Thursday: Christmas Trees and Trumpet Vines

There are two parts to the story about my Wordless Wednesday post, and two lessons learned.

Back in the Spring, Little Dude found these itty-bitty pine tree seedlings in our back yard. He grabbed my hand and dragged me to them “Mommy, I have to plant these. I want to grow them and make Christmas Trees”.

Super cute right?

So I carefully dig them up and together we replant them in the pot. They live on my deck along with their flag and rocks (“to keep them safe”). Each day, Little Dude checks on them and waters when necessary. He pulls weeds out when he sees them and adds plant food once a month.

These seedlings were no bigger than my fingernail when I dug them up. They are now each just over 4 inches tall.

Lesson learned: anything will grow when nurtured correctly – even by a toddler.

Now notice the vine and flowers growing on the rack and surrounding our precious “Christmas trees”? It’s actually called a trumped vine, and it’s a weed.

I’ve been diligently weeding my veggie garden, which is along side the deck, to protect my tomatoes and cucumbers from this aggressive weed. But I neglected to pull it from the lattice surrounding the bottom of the deck. Now the trumpet vine has made it’s way all the way up onto the deck and wound itself onto the rack in the picture. It’s also making it’s way around the furniture and other plants I have on the deck.

Lesson learned: Well, there are two lessons here.

1. If I had just taken a few extra minutes while I was weeding the veggie garden, this trumpet vine wouldn’t be taking over my deck.
2. Another point of view can be that even weeds can be beautiful. The flowers are lovely.

Be sure to visit TellMeThursday for more stories behind the pictures!

Wordless Wednesday

I promise, there is a story behind this! Come back tomorrow for TellMeThursday!

For more Wordless Wednesday fun, visit 5MinutesForMom!

Friday Faves: More Homemaking Help

Keeping in the spirit of last week, I’d like to share more helpful links for homemaking, housekeeping and home management.

I’m a big fan of delegating chores! My friend and life coach Aurelia Williams agrees. She posted an article about children and chores.

Here’s a list of 20 ways to waste less food.

Mom Soap Box tells her story about her epithany that things are not really “on sale” or a “good deal” if you do not have the money or means to buy it at that time.

Erin from Rubbermaid shared where she uses hooks around the house.

And finally, a little self promotion: here are some tips on improving your family’s time management.

Did I miss you’re great post this week? If so, leave it for me in the comments!

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