Volunteering at The Children's Book Bank (Portland) Searching for an outing that keeps the kiddos entertained and encourages compassion at the same time? Plan an afternoon as a family or with friends volunteering at The Children’s Book Bank in Portland. Look around your house. Look in the kids’ rooms and under their beds. How many books do your children own? The average middle class household owns 13 children’s books. Are you well above average? For those living in poverty, the ratio of books to children is 1 book per 300 kids. The Children’s Book Bank’s mission attempts to raise that ratio. By collecting donated new and gently loved Keep Reading
Are We There Yet? Bags (inexpensive kids’ travel activity bags)
Taking a trip by car or plane with the kids? Make the trip a breeze by making "Are We There Yet?" Bags for your trip -- travel activity kits for kids! Plan out your trip and make a kit for the kids to open every hour or so. You can fill several bags for under $10 with items from your local Dollar Tree, your kid's toy box and existing craft supplies. RELATED: 10 tips for flying with toddlers First, you'll need bags. I found a 10-pack of party supply bags at the Dollar Tree. You could also use plastic zip bags to make them pack well for plane travel. Now, start packing! Feel free to adapt these activities to work for the ages of your Keep Reading
Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Zucchini is one of those items in the garden that I swear, starts to reproduce itself. There's nothing and then BAM. 726 zucchinis the size of your forearm. Don't even plan on going on vacation without lining up all your neighbors to come harvest your zucchini while you're gone. Otherwise, you'll get back and find a zucchini family has moved into your house. Roast it, grill it, shred it and freeze it, give it away. AND BAKE WITH IT. This Chocolate Zucchini Bread just happens to be gluten-free, fairly low in sugar and delicious. Invite your neighbors over for coffee and a slice or even serve this for dessert when you don't want to go sugar Keep Reading
Garlic — A how-to guide to growing your own
Garlic is one of the absolute easiest things to grow in your garden. If you're convinced you don't have a green thumb, just give it a try. With minimal effort, you can get the immense satisfaction of seeing something you put in the dirt grow into something so useful. Plant in the fall (September/October) and basically stay hands-off until mid-summer. Literally, you can almost ignore it and garlic will still pop up out of the ground. #gardeningpro #winning Click over to this post to find out the (minimal) steps it takes to grow your very own garlic. Looking for recipe ideas using your homegrown garlic? Keep Reading
17 Practical Ways YOU Can Support Foster Parents
Foster Parent Support My husband and I spent a few years as foster parents in the state of Oregon and we'd learned a whole lot along the way. The most important lesson for us? How critical it is for us to be surrounded by people willing to help us carry the burden of fostering. There isn't any shortage of people and organizations who want to help foster kids. Seriously, if I took advantage of all the groups that offer free stuff to my foster children, the area under our Christmas tree would have been filled and our dresser drawers would have been packed. But support for foster families? The ones on the front lines, parenting and advocating Keep Reading
How to Build a Reasonable Stockpile
Stockpiling, or buying more of an item than you immediately need because it’s heavily discounted or at a great price point, is essential if you really want to slash your monthly grocery budget. Back in the heyday of couponing, we could get so many pantry and drugstore staples for super cheap (or even free), which is where a lot of us "learned" to stockpile. While the couponing crazy has died WAY down and the deals just aren't as prolific anymore, there are still ways to stockpile without blowing your grocery budget. For some, it’s financially difficult to begin the stockpiling process as there may be little room in the budget to devote to Keep Reading
How to Spring Clean on a Budget
How to Spring Clean Your Home on a Budget I don't know about you, but the first major hint of sunshine I see, I'm itching to open the windows and get my life feeling fresh again. This often means "spring cleaning" or also known as "Cleaning All The Things I've Neglected Over The Winter". But also, I'm the type of person who likes to go buy fancy new cleaning cloths, good-smelling cleaners and organizational baskets. Often just to look like I'm busy "preparing" to clean, but I'm really just putting off the cleaning. Or I say to myself that new fancy cleaning supplies are expensive so I probably should just NOT do any spring cleaning because I'm Keep Reading
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