A couple of weeks ago I promised, mainly myself, to post my plan to get me motivated and then we had a fun and crazy week that interrupted that plan! HA! Is that not how it always happens? You start to make a plan and all of a sudden you find yourself sidetracked!…Well, last week’s sidetrack was definitely a new adventure and a lot of fun. We were invited to show off some inexpensive Mother’s Day ideas on a local morning news show. Since most of the ideas were food, there was a lot of prep the night before and then getting up super early so we could be on the set at 5 AM. We did three different segments between 5:15 AM and 7 Am, splitting up the 5 projects and talking about each.What a great experience!

Here is a clip below of the first segment. I am a little bummed that the network did not post the other two segments, though. My daughter warmed up a lot more in the other two and the chocolate dipping video was probably the best one of all. Thank goodness for modern technology and the ability to schedule your TV to record or we would have missed it. There were so many things my daughter was saying to the news anchor that I did not hear at the time. Gotta love a girl who knows her chocolate dipping. (click here if you cannot see the video)

My Mom was able to join us on our adventure to help work the behind the scenes. She helped me prep the display and was there just in case Little Miss decided to going running around while filming, which she never did. Yes! And the only reason I look cute is because my mom found that shirt! AND another thank goodness to family, my Mom and Debra (SIL), who have cute decorations and let me borrow them! Someday I will have my own stash, but until then I am so glad they let me borrow from their cute stuff.

My daughter still talks about this “House” that she had lots of fun showing how to make chocolates. As you can see, she warmed up… a lot!!!

All these Mother’s Day ideas I shared can be used for Father’s Day, too. So make sure you check them out!

WARNING: Ladies, if you are reading this, email it to your hubby or leave it up on the screen for your family to see. Maybe they will get the hint! =-)

We all know the best Mother’s Day gifts are from the heart. When I was a younger my Dad used to go into panic mode when it came to Mother’s Day and trying to make it nice. One year when I was a teenager he told us that our Mom was not his Mom and so we needed to do the planning. He would go get anything we needed from the store (we usually made her a breakfast) or help make anything needed. We just needed to make a list and tell him what we needed help with. We just had to remember that Mother’s Day was not about big extravagant gifts but showing our appreciation for our Mom. Suddenly Mother’s Day became a lot more fun and had a lot more meaning for everyone.

Here are some meaningful Mother’s Day ideas that are perfect for any Mom, can even be done last minute and will not break the bank. These are all gifts that can be Dad driven or kid driven and are definitely from the heart!

Personalized Breakfast

Check out how to make an easy Personalized Breakfast. You can do more than just pancakes. A super easy way to make an ordinary breakfast a little more fun and personal!

Personal Notebook

Make a personal notebook that will be a keepsake for years to come. We did one when I was in my twenties (youngest sibling was 7) that we put together the night before. My mom still has it! Click here to get more details on how to make your own.

All About Mom Video

This is part of our family tradition that we do ever few years for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. It is one of my favorite gifts! Click here to see a video and a list of questions that will get you started.

Chocolate Madness

Another night before or day of gift that any chocolate loving Mom will be excited about. Super easy to do and my children L.O.V.E. to help dip anything in chocolate. They are getting pretty good at it! Here are more details and simple tips to make chocolate dipping  a breeze and super fun for everyone participating.

Heart Attack

You can never go wrong with a heart attack! What Mom does not like to see or hear nice things being said about them? Cut out hearts from paper, write nice things about Mom on each heart and tape them all over a place she will get to see them often, like the kitchen or her bedroom. My children love to contribute and are just as excited about taping the hearts up!

A special breakfast for Mom is a great way to make any Mom feel important and a fun way to start Mother’s Day. You can add a fun and personal twist to breakfast by using some simple Cookie Cutters. Use hearts, flowers, letters or whatever else you have on hand that might work well for you. If you are lacking in the cookie cutter department, I found this 4 piece Heart Cookie Cutter Set for less than $3  and this 101 Piece Cookie Cutter Set with letters and a variety of shapes in the Party Section (specifically the Wedding and Cake Decorating Isle) at W-Mart.

Pancakes

Use plastic or metal cookie cutters to make your pancakes into fun shapes. Make huge heart pancakes, a ton of small hearts or even letters to spell out “MOM” or “WOW MOM” when you turn “MOM” upside down. **You can use the metal cookie cutters to cook a specific shape, BUT to be honest, it was easier to cook the pancake and then use the cookie cutter once it had cooled a minute. If you don’t have any pancake mix in the house, it is easy pancake recipe to make from scratch. Here is a no fail pancake recipe I have made that tastes great and is “no-fail”.

Eggs

You can even shape your eggs. We only did it with hearts. Again, you can cook the egg inside the metal cookie cutter and wait to flip it until all the egg white is cooked OR you can cook the egg as usual keeping everything compact and then cut the egg into a heart shape after avoiding the yolk, of course.

Fun, right? Here are our 2 cooked eggs. The one on the left is the one cooked with a cookie cutter and the one on the right was cooked after.  Doesn’t that look cute with the mini pancake hearts?

French Toast

You can even cut the French Toast into a fun shape. You can do “MOM”, hearts, or anything else you desire. Again, it is easiest once the french toast has been cooked.

Make sure you let your children help you. My daughter was right there begging to cut hearts into the pancakes. So simple and she was having a blast!

Need some more ideas? Check out these 5 Simple Mother’s Day On a Dime Gifts

An easy and very personal gift for any Mom is to put together a personalized notebook. And don’t think you are too old for this! You are never too old!! You can do pictures, hand prints, notes, or whatever you think your mom will love best. Here are a couple of ideas that we have used for my Mom.

Favorite Memories of Mom

Idea # 1: We made this book with all the children in our family ages 7-25 and spouses were included. The youngest drew a picture or the cover. Every member of the family has 2 pages in it. One to share their favorite memories of my mom and the second for a painted hand print. (We thought it would be funny to add a hand print. lol) Everyone typed something up (or told/gave me what they wanted to say and I typed it up) and we placed each sheet of paper on a piece of colored card stock. We attached all the pages together with 2 hole punches and some colored yarn. Honestly, we used what we had and we put this together the night before Mother’s Day. My Mom  loved it and still has it 8 years later!

Here is the Cover:

The Cover was followed by a list from the youngest of things she liked about our Mom and then her hand print, which she embellished with glitter (her idea).

The following pages were letters and hand prints from the older children. Most were specific stories and memories they loved to remember about our Mom. My other sister added a foot print to her “print” page.

To Have a Mom Like You!

Idea # 2: This was put together by my Sister-In-Law, Emali. It is a simple folder with clear plastic sheets. We were each asked to write “What it means to have a Mom like you”. Most are letters that start just with that. The youngest made a cute colorful page that spelled out “MOTHER” and a word for each letter. Below is an inside cover. And again, this is another of my Mom’s favorite Mother’s Day keepsakes.

Need some more ideas? Check out these 5 Simple Mother’s Day On a Dime Gifts

Chocolate dipping is perfect for any occasion, Mother’s Day, a gift for a friend, a fun family night activity, etc. This is also great for a last minute personal gift, because you can do it the night before or day of. My children love to help and for some reason everything just tastes better with chocolate…but that is just my opinion!

What You Need:

• Chocolate to melt and dip in. Options:
  • Chocolate chips – add oil to get the desired consistency
  • Candy Melts (Click link to see picture)- Cocoa and White  found in the Party Section (Wedding/Cake Decorating Isle) at W-mart for $2.50
• Bowls for dipping – the smaller ones are easier to use less, but get more depth for dipping. We use pastry dishes
• Wax paper
• Cookie sheet or tray to place wax paper and dipped chocolates on while drying
• Favorite foods to dip
  • Strawberries
  • Oreos
  • Shortbread Cookies
  • Cinnamon Bears (my favorite)
  • Pretzels – any type
  • Marshmallows
  • Graham Crackers
• Optional: Toppings
  • Sprinkles
  • Mini M&Ms
  • Coconut
  • Mini chocolate chips
  • Nuts
• Apron or old t-shirts for helpers to wear- They will want to wipe their hands on something.

Tips for Starting:

Prepare chocolate, layout the food you want dipped and line a cookie sheet or tray with wax paper and place on the table. Prepare the chocolate by melting in a bowl on defrost in the microwave for 1 minute. Stir and repeat defrost every 30 seconds until it is melted completely. I think it is helpful to layout what you want dipped. If you do not want an entire bag of Oreos dipped, do not put the whole bag on the table. Your display does not have to be as put together as below. I just did this for the picture.  ;-)

Start dipping. Some helpers need a little demonstration to show proper dipping technique (i.e. one person dipping per bowl at a time, do not lick your fingers or drop leaves in chocolate). My kiddos picked it up really quick and even asked if I could go away, so they could do it on their own. Ha! Nice try!!

And do not forget about the toppings! Toppings are not required, but are a little additional fun and add some color. You can also drizzle a little of the white chocolate on the milk chocolate (or vice versa) to give it a fancy look. Heavier toppings like the Mini M&Ms are better to put on after the chocolate as set for a minute or two, otherwise they slide off. My little helpers are especially fond of the sprinkles!

Once finished, let them set until chocolate has hardened. If you are in a rush, you can place them in the fridge for a few minutes, but it is not necessary. Having your wax paper on a tray is allows you to move the chocolates out of the way or out of sight while they are setting.

Look at these, don’t they look great?!?!

Need some more ideas? Check out these 5 Simple Mother’s Day On a Dime Gifts

It’s the first Monday of the Month and so it is Family Challenge Time! If you have not been able to join in before, make it a goal to join in this month. I have been wanting to do this activity for a long time and now I have an excuse to motivate me to actually implement it. Nothing like a challenge to put your rear into gear!

Sara from Play With Your Family is hosting this month’s challenge with The Family Network…. Thanks Sara!

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As the school year comes to an end I am wondering what new things I have learned this year. Have I gained a new skill, educated myself, become a better person? Being a mom and staying home to take care of kids it sure feels like I am falling behind in the rate I am progressing. My daughter basically learned a new language this year as all 1-2 year olds do. She also is learning to go potty by herself, get herself dressed, climb up very high objects, hold a pencil, count, get out of doing things with her cuteness, and trying to learn her colors. I am often jealous at how fun and easy it is for her to learn and progress. I wish I was still learning like that and having my eyes opened to the exciting world we live in.

That said, I think there are things we have accomplished this year (even if we have to dig deep) we can share with our family. So my challenge to all of you is to have a family show and tell night. I think I might make the absolutely wonderful and almost healthy chocolate chip cookies that I have perfected this year (I think I have perfected them because I can’t go more than a few days without having a stash of them in my freezer for those moments when you just need a cookie).

May Family Challenge: Show and Tell Night With Your Family

Let us know how it goes by:

1: Commenting right here on our blog!

2: Jump on over to our Facebook Page and leaving a comment or a link for everyone to see!

3: Email us with a picture, if possible, and a description and we will share it!

4: Or share your experience and a picture with us by linking it up here

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I have been dreaming of not only growing culinary herbs (aka my own herb garden) for a LONG time. And since we are on the subject, I would also love my own personal garden! As we have always been in apartments or renting it never seemed an ideal situation to start anything. I did actually attempt to grow a couple herbs in plastic cups for a few hours, once. That is until my 2 very young kiddos thought it would be more fun to dump them out…needless to say, I gave up! lol  So, when the opportunity came to review an ebook that would tell me the secrets and walk me through the process on how to start my own indoor or outdoor herb garden, I decided this was my chance to actually start one now that we have our own house. Admittedly, if I had had this ebook earlier and some good lighting, I would have started years ago!

I have been enjoying “The Growing Culinary Herbs in Containers” ebook. It gives you just the right amount of information and covers anything and everything that you could possibly need to know about growing herbs inside or outside. The author, Anja Koch (aka Little Miss Greenfingers), gives you information on subjects such as:

• Where to grow herbs and which do best in containers
• What types of herbs are best for what seasons
• Which herbs are best to grow from seeds and which herbs are better to start as a plant from your local garden center
• How to plant and care for each type of herb
• How to deal with pests
• How to trim, dry and use herbs
• And so much more…

Like I said, it is very informative! When I first received the book I was a little overwhelmed by all the possibilities, but I decided I should keep it simple to start. So, I picked two herb plants, basil and thyme, from our local store and with the help of my eager Little Helper we planted them and have been taking care of them successfully for 2 weeks. I was able to follow the specific instructions given for each plant and was even able to practice successfully getting rid of some pests. If we can keep these two alive and edible, then we will add more to our indoor garden. I have been harvesting/using them from the start in some of our dishes and I love what fresh thyme can do to basic chicken! It’s also fun to walk downstairs and smell the plants from across the room. The kids are pretty excited to watch them grow as well.

I also love that this is an ebook. With it being digital, I can search for certain herbs and scan through the book a lot easier on my computer than an actual book. Plus, I have a tendency to misplace books that I actually use or need, so knowing that it is on my computer or Kindle for me to look at when needed is awesome.

How would you like to grow your own herb garden? I’m excited to tell you that I am giving away a copy of “Growing Culinary Herbs in Containers – Healthy & Delicious!” to 10 very lucky Fun On a Dime readers!

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**I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

I normally do not have a problem with vitamins, but lately the only way I have been able to keep down my current prenatal vitamin was to make sure I had a couple of mini peanut butter cups. As embarrassing as it is to admit that, it worked and so I did it for a few weeks. Then I was offered the opportunity to review Premama Prenatal Vitamins and after reading how they come in drink mix form (i.e. powder), I was all for trying something new. Especially, if it would keeping me from making donations of my recent meal and dose of vitamins to my beloved toilet.

Premama has a lot of the same ingredients that my current vitamins have like Folic Acid, Iron, Calcium, Vitamin B(2, 3, 6, 12), plus a few others that my current vitamins do not have like DHA Omega-3 fatty acid. It also has some additional ingredients like Ginger and Magnesium to help soothe nausea. The Premama Vitamin powder come in small packets with the option of taking 2 packs in one serving or splitting them up during the day. It is recommended to take them with 6 oz of flavored fluid per pack and consuming within 5 minutes of mixing.

When my vitamin sampled arrived I dared to try them with just water to see how it tasted. Admittedly, the powder in plain water does not taste absolutely wonderful, but it is not bad, either. There is definitely a slight taste, but it tastes so much better than getting a regular vitamin stuck in your mouth on the way down your throat. Yuck! I have been taking my Premama Vitamins with an orange flavored drink. Although, it does not completely dissolve, leaving the liquid a little thicker than one is used to, it is manageable. I think I wouldn’t even notice it if I added it to a shake. Using these powder vitamins has left me with barely any nausea afterwards. So I am pretty much a fan of that! I love having my mornings back and not worrying about keeping my vitamins down.

Anyone else want to give these vitamins a try? Are you sick of being sick?

I am excited to be giving away a 30 day supply of Premama Prenatal Vitamins to 1 lucky Fun On a Dime reader.

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*I recieved a 7-day sample for the purpose of this review. I thought it would be fun for a reader to get a 30 day supply of their own, so I took the review offer.  =) All opinions are 100% my own!

It’s that time again…

Show me your Hi-5 Moment(s) of the week!!

Guidelines:

1. Link up your recent Hi-5 worthy moments, crafts, tips, etc. (especially, something fun you did with your family or friends. )
2. Don’t have a blog or it’s private? Join the party on facebook (here is one example) or send me an email with your pic and I will add it to the party. New to linky parties or need help? Email me at michelle(at)funonadime(dot)net
3. Link to your specific post and not your main URL.
4. It would be awesome if you could link back to Fun On A Dime somewhere on your site. (i.e. snag the Fun On A Dime button from the sidebar and add it to your homepage or a text link at the bottom of your post).
5. Please do not link any online shops, boutiques, giveaways, contests or link parties.
6. Look around at all the fun and get some inspiration for next week!

Have Fun!!

I will highlight a few periodically during the week via Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest! **By linking up you give me permission to use pictures from your post (giving you credit, of course) to highlight future projects on Fun On A Dime.**

I don’t normally get personal on this site. I try to make this more of a place to inspire you rather than all about ME, but I feel like I need to get this out there…I have been on the edge of a blogging burn out for the good first few months of the year. I was debating on quitting, handing the site over to someone else or something crazy. From September up until the middle of December I had been able to keep up with a regular weekday posting schedule. That’s 4-5 times a week. A first for me!  I was pretty dang proud of my consistency. Then the year started with a preschooler who refused to nap, a less than ideally healthy me and our family life started getting really busy. So after talking to the Hubster, we decided to slow down my posting to 3 days a week and with the help of friends and many guest bloggers I was able to prep the site to run on its own for 2+ months. It was crazy to prep, but it was amazing the relief I felt and my ability to focus on my little family. And boy, oh boy am I glad I had that time because we had a lot of really good changes happen all at once!

Image: digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

We had an amazing opportunity to purchase our first house, which equals  no more renting. We are very excited about that! The Hubby had a change in his work schedule which allows us to have a more consistent schedule and spend weekends together as a family. Both of these things pretty much were wrapped up/happened all at the same time. We were hoping to close a couple weeks early on the house and have 1 or 2 weekends to transition between homes. Our closing was pretty smooth, but as most closings go, it got crazy towards the end. Because of some small paperwork delays, we closed later than our original close date on a week day (not a weekend as we hoped) and the seller, determined not to extend a 2nd time, ended up closing in the last few hours of the final day. Good thing, too, because we were packing the truck that day not sure what we were going to do with all our stuff and a 24 hour rental truck! lol But it all worked out!  The only bad part was that we were not able to do basic prep  to our new home before we moved in and only had 2 days to clean our rental out. (The house had been vacant for many months and needed a good vacuum, carpet cleaning, extreme wipe down of everything and paint job. I did not realize how bad/dirty it was until much later….something I’m going to give the blame to higher powers because that was a serious blessing not to notice! lol) With some extreme help of my mom and sister we were able to extreme clean the rental the remaining 2 days of our contract (I am cheap and wanted our full deposit back, which we got!). Then it was back to our new home for me to start the deep cleaning. I think I made it only one more day, Friday, and vacuumed the house like crazy before we had the carpet cleaned that Saturday. The next few weeks are a blur. We soon figured out that we had more good news, hopefully, on the way! My body was exhausted from everything I had been doing (and I was terrified to push it any more for fear of another miscarriage) that I listened to my body and let myself rest… a lot! The couch became my good friend during that time. =) I am officially past that 3 month mark and feel a little better about sharing the news. So, YES, we are expecting a new addition to the family late Fall!

See, I told you…Lots of good things happening, but oh so crazy times! I am so glad I had the time to focus on my family and the amazing thing is, is that my site actually did better with all my pre-planning, post less and on “auto pilot” than it did when I wrote a daily post 4+ times a week. Now that I almost have no other distractions, it is time for me to get back. I am making a plan to help me get my motivation back in all departments and I’ll share that with you soon….hopefully, Thursday.

Until then, share with me:

How do you keep everything in order or plan your day as a mom and stay motivated?