Welcome to Simple Mom Readers!

If you have stopped by through my guest post at Simple Mom today, welcome!

Here at Many Little Blessings, I write mostly about faith, family, and household management topics (cooking, cleaning, menu planning, and the like), as well as posts about crafting, homeschooling, going green (including gardening), and attempting to live a more content life.

From time to time, I even add a new free downloadable Mommy Calling Card design!

And, while you're here, be sure to enter for the Motivated Moms Planner giveaway that I have going on through Tuesday!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Oh, and for my regular readers -- thanks for stopping by too! You can check out my guest post Composting Bins: Benefits, Rules, and How to Make Your Own at Simple Mom!

Many Little Links: The Back to Cold Weather Edition

After my first full day back at home after vacation, I can't quite decide which is worse -- having a cold and snowy day, or having just been walking around outside in a swimsuit a few days ago and then having a cold and snowy day.

Either way -- I am still dreadfully behind in everything I need to do -- inboxes are full, I have to go back to seeing kids for therapy tomorrow, and I'm still kind of in vacation mode, I fear.

So, for now, I'll just share some links that I have enjoyed over the last two weeks:

Recipes / Cooking:

Basic Cooking Terms and Abbreviations -- From the Land of Monkeys and Princesses (Posted at Blissfully Domestic)

Make Your Own Luck: Black-eyed Pea Salsa -- The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Arts / Crafts:

Copy Art -- LaPaz Home Learning

Learning Activities / Homeschooling:

Taming Those Stacks of Schoolwork -- Happy to be at Home

Locks and Keys -- Itty Bitty Love

Setting Up a Rice Center for Your Preschooler -- Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers (posted at The Homeschool Classroom)

Classic Toys that are Worth the Money -- Simple Mom

New Years Interview for Kids -- Let's Explore (posted at Blissfully Domestic)

Family Sketchbook -- Cakies

Teaching Math Around the House -- Happy to be at Home

Chinese New Year -- One Child Policy Homeschool

Nature Journaling Supplies -- In Heywood's Meadow

Goals for the New Year (lots of great posts, and I plan to do one eventually):

20 Questions for Planning New Year's Goals -- Simple Mom

My Goals for 2009 -- Five J's

Goals for 2009 -- The Happy Housewife

Healthy / Beauty:

Helpful Tips to Get Your Kitchen Into Shape...Then You're Next! -- Happy to be at Home

You Don't Have to Guess My Weight -- Five J's

Miscellaneous:

IndieSacramento Wrap Up -- Handmade and Homebaked by Peptogirl (just loved all the photos in this post!)

5 Steps to Enjoying Your Home to the Fullest -- Nesting Place

Small Space Solutions: Kitchen Pantry -- Small Notebook

What is Black Tie? -- Kathy Friend (posted at Blissfully Domestic)

photo by tamaki

Do they speak English there?

I had this plan over the last week and a half to be all over posting on my blog. Instead, I only managed to post a few times because we were busy having two days of driving, spending seven days in Florida, and then two days driving back home.

So, while I try to settle back in at home, I'll share a funny from our trip...

When we had been driving for a few hours, the kids inquired into where we would be driving and how long it would take us.

I told them, "Well, we still will be driving through Kentucky, Tennessee, and part of Alabama before we stop for today."

Jack looked particularly concerned.

"How will we talk to them?" he asked. "Do they speak English there?"

I'd like to say that we just nicely informed him that they speak English in all of those states, but instead we burst out laughing. Then we told our little traveled son that, in fact, they did speak English in all three.

I am unsure, however, if he thought we were telling the truth after he listened with raised eyebrow to the sweet cashier with the southern drawl at the McDonalds that we stopped at in Kentucky.

photo by jimmywayne22

Motivated Moms Works For Even An Unmotivated Mom (Plus a Planner Giveaway!)

This is certainly not a new topic for Works for Me Wednesday -- Motivated Moms works for me. But, my story is perhaps a little different than some of what I have read before (even when I wrote about Motivated Moms previously).

In case you are unfamiliar with Motivated Moms, you can click the banner above to visit the site (and here is a sample page). It is a FlyLady-type of system, except you print out your task lists and don't have an inbox full of reminders to put your shoes on. (Because, know what? I don't always wear my shoes around the house. In fact, it's not uncommon to find me barefoot, though I will often wear Crocs now that my bad knee has gotten worse.)

Anyway -- do you know why I like Motivated Moms? Because I'm not really all that motivated to keep up the house.

Sure, sometimes I'll get a bee in my bonnet about it, and I'll do a ton of cleaning. But, sometimes I just don't. Motivated Moms allows me to sometimes just let it go. I know that doesn't sound good, so let me explain why it's a good thing.

When I tried to sign up for FlyLady, I would get to the unmotivated phase, and I'd get tired of the emails. So, then I would cancel the emails and that was that. But, with Motivated Moms, I buy the $8 planner at the beginning of the year. And, when I go a couple of weeks without doing it, I don't feel horrible. It's a whole new sheet of paper in the planner, and I just start up again.

So, while it might be nice if I was guilted into cleaning more, I am more apt to just shut down about it. So, I need something that lets me take time off, but then I can literally start back with a clean slate page!

Because I like Motivated Moms so much, I want to share it with someone who hasn't tried it, or maybe who is already a Motivated Moms user. Either way -- a 2009 copy (of your choice, since there are different types) could be yours!

There are two ways to enter the giveaway (you can do both or just one):

1. Leave a comment with a quick household mangement tip -- could be cleaning, baking, laundry...whatever!

2. Subscribe to Many Little Blessings (via email or RSS Reader of some sort, such as Google Reader). There will be a secret code for this giveaway at the bottom of the feed. Just email me at manylittleblessings {at} gmail {dot} com with the secret code in the subject line. I won't read the emails, so make sure to put the code in the subject line.

I will do a random drawing on Tuesday, January 12th at 12:01 pm EST. Good luck!


To read about lots of tips and ideas from other bloggers, be sure to check out Works for Me Wednesday at Rocks in My Dryer.