Bringing Back Style to Your Mommy Wardrobe

Unfortunately, not all mothers today are known for their fashion sense. After all, moms are generally perceived to be ‘behind on the times’, or too exhausted from childcare to care about their own sense of style. Well, it's long past time since society ditched these stereotypes, even if there is a very faint ring of truth to them.

A mom’s self-esteem can have resounding effects on their young daughters, so if you are wanting to get back in touch with your groove, do it! There’s no reason as to why mothers shouldn’t look as good as anyone else, so it’s time to get to work.

Here’s how you can bring back some rejuvenated style to your mommy wardrobe.

Colors That Pop…And No Flowers!

Bold colors are more than just bright and vivid. They scream energy, youthfulness, and fun – words that moms aren’t typically always associated with. Moreover, by wearing clothing with brighter colors, you show a strong sense of style too, demonstrating that you’re happy to be seen around town and away from your duties for the day.

That said, stay away from floral designs and busy patterns at all costs. These literally shout ‘Mom’ to the world, as do faded and muted colors. Go for something contemporary – not from the Junior's department (unless you’re a young mom), but at the same time not too mommish. There is a balance involved there, so take the time to really comb through your options and pick out something that’s most ‘you’. When in doubt, you should ask the store clerk for assistance.

Figure Hugging Clothes

Baggy sweatpants and vests should head straight into storage; it’s time to slip back into something more flattering. Many dresses, jeans, and other pants and t-shirts out there are finely crafted to really accentuate the wearer’s figure, so don’t be afraid to venture out on these kinds of clothing.

Remember, such clothes will make you feel much less like a bum, and perhaps get you back in touch with your more trendy and feminine side. Figure-hugging outfits make you look confident within yourself as if you have nothing at all to hide; and why should you?! Treat yourself and flaunt what you’ve got!

Accessories

Accessories are a key part of completing any ensemble you throw together. They can just be those neat finishing touches, or alternatively, simply give your hands something to do and hold if you’re anxious about getting back out there. For example, a cool wallet from Radley merges both things together very well, giving your outfit an extra boost in the casual department.

As a mom, try not to be afraid to incorporate some practical features into your wardrobe. Being stylish isn’t always about being ‘flash’, sometimes it’s about being prepared and hands-on too, whether it’s for spending at the mall, or picking up the bar bill with your besties. If you’ve got all your bases covered, which a wallet largely helps with, you’ll certainly be more of a cool-looking mom!

Tips for Recycling the Right Way

While recycling is a great way to be environmentally friendly, you should know there’s a right way and a wrong way to go about recycling materials you use every day. The reason it’s best everyone knows how to go about recycling is so you don’t end up doing more harm than good. Here are a few tips to level up your Earth-saving endeavors.

Throw Away Disposable Coffee Cups

Before you toss the coffee cup from your favorite coffee shop into the recycling bin, know that those cups often cannot be recycled. This is due to the polyethylene film lining the cup, which is what makes it liquid proof. That said, you may live in an area that can now recycle such cups. Be sure you check with your local recycling program to know whether to toss these cups in the recycling bin or in the trash.

Plastic Bags Cannot Be Added to Recycling Bins

It may crush you to learn that all those thin plastic bags you get from the grocery store cannot be mixed in with other recyclable materials, but it’s true. It’s not that these plastic bags are impossible to recycle, just that it’s more trouble than it’s worth trying to run the bags through recycling equipment. It’s not unusual for them to jam equipment.

Rather than put plastic grocery bags with the rest of your recyclables, check to see if your city has a special recycling program for plastic bags. Your local grocery store may even collect plastic bags that are otherwise destined for the trash.

Be Careful With Pizza Boxes

After you finish devouring your pizza, think twice before tossing it into the recycling bin. Any grease that soaks into the cardboard essentially contaminates the material and makes is less viable than grease-free cardboard. That said, it’s okay to add the box to the recycle pile if it just has a few crumbs on it. You can also tear off the top of the box if it’s clean to put in the bin and toss the greasy bottom half into the trash.

Plastic Bottle Caps Are Okay

In the past, it was advised that you not try to recycle plastic bottle caps. This was mainly because caps and their bottles are made of two different types of plastic that don’t melt at the same temperature. Recent technology has changed that for the better. You’re now free to leave plastic caps screwed onto their bottles.

You May Not Be Able To Recycle Yogurt Caps

At one point, China took care of roughly half the world’s recycling, but they’ve dramatically scaled back their efforts. This has left a vacuum and resulted in more than a bit of confusion about what to do with certain plastics, like those used for yogurt cups. Plastics numbered three to seven may not qualify for your area’s recycling program. Before tossing butter tubs, yogurt cups and bottles of vegetable oil into your recyclables pile, look to see what number is in the triangle on the bottom. Do some digging to see what plastic numbers can be recycled. There may also be a renewable resource company like the Cadiz Water Project in your area making an effort to recycle yogurt cups and other plastics.  

Styrofoam Is Still Out of the Question

Frustrating as it may be to learn, but Styrofoam is still considered non-recyclable. The main reason is the material is easily contaminated. While it may be clean when you add it to the recycling bin, it can pick up contaminants on the way to the facility. Those contaminants don’t come out easily, and Styrofoam isn’t very marketable.

Do an occasional check so you always know whether you’re doing as good with recycling as you think. The right information goes a long way in saving resources and time. Hopefully, these tips can aid you in your quest to be more environmentally conscious.

Check out the New LEGO Movie 2 Set

Enjoy an epic 360-degree play experience—and prepare for an alien invasion—with THE LEGO® MOVIE 2™ 70840 Welcome to Apocalypseburg! construction toy. An advanced building set, it has over 3,000 pieces and presents an awesome challenge even for master builders.

This THE LEGO MOVIE 2 set features a section of the Statue of Liberty with a chill-out room in the head, café, Scribble Cop’s office with a chair-kicking function, armory, barber’s/tattoo parlor, Lucy’s hideout, Fuse’s workshop, rooftop diner, gym, spa, lookout platforms and loads more! This action-packed toy also comes with 12 THE LEGO MOVIE 2 minifigures to role-play and reimagine your favorite scenes from the blockbuster film.

Check out some of these amazing specs on this new set:

• This creative toy includes 12 new-for-January-2019 THE LEGO® MOVIE 2™ minifigures: Emmet, Lucy, Batman™, Scribble Cop, Harley Quinn™, Green Lantern™, ’Where are my pants?’ Guy, Larry the Barista, Chainsaw Dave, Mo-Hawk, Roxxi and Fuse, plus a rat figure.
• This huge Apocalypseburg construction toy has removable modules for easy play and features a section of the Statue of Liberty, café, Scribble Cop’s office, armory, barber’s/tattoo parlor, Lucy’s hideout, Fuse’s workshop, rooftop diner, gym, spa and more!
• The Statue of Liberty section of this THE LEGO® MOVIE 2™ playset features a buildable torch, opening Lady Liberty head with a chill-out room including a buildable telescope, and 3 lookout platforms.
• The Coffee Unchained café features a service counter, cash register, buildable coffee machine with 2 coffee pumps, table and seat, and an outdoor table with a parasol and 2 seats.
• Scribble Cop’s office features an opening jail door and chair-kicking function.
• Armory features a mannequin, goggles, 3 minifigure helmet elements and 2 buildable weapons. 
  
• Barber’s/tattoo parlor features a barber’s chair, buildable tattoo machine and hair-cutting tool elements.
• Lucy’s hideout features a buildable bed with a secret compartment containing various fun elements including a love letter from Batman™. The room also features weapon storage and assorted elements including new-for-January-2019 barbed wire.
• The removable roof of Lucy’s hideout has a buildable seat, engine truck front and water tower.
• Fuse’s rooftop workshop features a buildable tool chest with a buildable fire extinguisher.
• Rooftop diner features a buildable V8 engine deep-fat fryer, table, oven, ketchup and mustard dispensers, plus frying pan and food elements.
• Train-carriage-shaped gym features a buildable punching bag with alien invader decoration and a weightlifting bench.
• Truck-shaped spa features a buildable hot tub and shower.
• This THE LEGO® MOVIE 2™ toy building set also includes Chainsaw Dave’s surfboard rack with 2 surfboards, lookout area with a buildable telescope, an opening sewer and various ladders. 
  
• Weapons for THE LEGO® MOVIE 2™ characters include Lucy’s crossbow.
• Accessory elements include Emmet’s 2 coffee mugs, Lucy’s quiver, plus 6 new-for-January-2019 Skeletron head elements (1 as a basketball; 1 on a signpost; 1 as engine decoration; 2 as hair mannequins; and 1 on the armory mannequin).
• Recreate fun-packed scenes from THE LEGO® MOVIE 2™ with this awesome Statue of Liberty toy.
• This new-for-January-2019 toy measures over 20” (52cm) high, 19” (49cm) wide and 12” (33cm) deep.

Available directly from LEGO Stores & shop.LEGO.com from Wednesday 16th January, 2019

Shelly's Easy And Moist Meatloaf

Do you ever crave a hearty home cooked meatloaf dinner? I never used to be a huge fan of meatloaf, because it always seemed to come out too dry or rubbery in texture. That has changed since I have played around with recipes over the years and finally perfected it. My recipe is easy since you will probably have most of the ingredients on hand.

Shelly’s Easy and Moist Meatloaf

• 2- 2 ½ pounds ground beef (chuck)
• 1 medium onion finely diced
• 4 cloves of garlic minced finely
• Fresh herbs (I use basil, parsley, thyme, and rosemary. You don’t need a lot, like a sprig of each, and use what you prefer) 
• Finely diced jalapeno to taste (like half of a small one with seeds removed)
• 2 slices of white bread (torn into tiny bits)
• ½ cup milk
• Dry seasonings of your choice (Cajun seasoning, salt, pepper, garlic powder, etc) Here are my favorites
• A few dashes of steak sauce (optional)
• A few dashes of hot sauce (optional)
• ½ cup Ketchup

Heat oven to 350 degrees. I like to lightly saute the onion and garlic in a tiny bit of olive oil first, then add jalapeno and herbs. Empty on to small plate and set aside to cool down for 5 minutes. In large bowl, add ground beef, seasonings, sauteed veggies, bread crumbs, and milk. Mix everything together by hand and form into loaf shape, and place into loaf pan. Cover the top with ketchup. Bake uncovered for 50 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit about 15 minutes before slicing.

Tips: You can line loaf pan with parchment paper for easier removal and cleanup.
Be sure you do not overcook or you will not have a juicy meatloaf.

This delicious meatloaf goes nicely with traditional mashed potatoes, or mashed cinnamon brown sugar sweet potatoes, and fresh green beans or asparagus. Oh, and the leftovers make the most scrumptious sandwich the next day!

Check out these other delicious recipes:

• Small Batch Homemade Mac & Cheese
• Perfect Potato Salad
• Southern Caviar

Enjoy, and thank you for stopping by.

Teaching Your Kids About Money

Do your kids know that money doesn’t grow on trees? Here are some helpful tips for each age group.

You don’t have to wait until your kids are teenagers. You can start talking to them about the basics of money as early as preschool. Here are some tips about how to talk to your kids about money at any age:

• From ages three to five you can teach kids that money can be exchanged for things. Explain to them the difference between pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters.
• From ages five to nine you can start giving them an allowance. This is also a good time to explain bank accounts and what it means when a bank account earns interest.
• From ages nine to 13 you can help them open a savings account. Encourage them to save their allowance towards a goal (a new toy or a DVD). You might even consider setting up a matching savings plan like most companies do with a 401(k). This is also a good time to start talking to them about the idea of keeping a minimum balance based on the savings account requirement. You can also introduce the concept of keeping savings in case of emergency. Even though they won’t need to pay for an emergency at such a young age, you can explain the importance of keeping a nest egg.
• From ages 13 to 15 you can expand your children’s allowance to include more expensive items like clothes or gifts for friends. This is also a good time to introduce entrepreneurship. Encourage your kids to earn their own money with jobs for neighbors and friends.  Arrange for them to have an ATM card so they can withdraw money from their savings account.
• From ages 15 to 18 and up you can help your children open a checking account with a debit card. Teach them how to manage their account online or with mobile banking. You can even go old school and show them how to use a check register. This is also a good time to talk fiscal responsibility about when they go off to college. Be very clear about what expenses you will pay for which ones they will cover.

Explaining money management to your kids can start out with something as simple as giving them an allowance. If you talk to them regularly, teach by your own fiscally responsible example and give them the right tools, you will do more than teach them about money basics. You will instill in them a respect for earning and saving money that will hopefully set them on a path to being financially independent and responsible in adulthood.