If you’re a fan of shopping online (as I am), a few minutes of searching before you make your purchase could net you a few percent of your purchase in cash back. A cash back website works by providing you with a link to an online retailer. By using their link to access that retailer, they get a commission if you make a purchase, which they share a portion of with the you. How you receive payment varies from website [...]

Smartphone on a Budget For those of us who want the features of a smartphone without the huge monthly bills, Futureshop has a fantastic deal on Telus prepaid Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray smartphones ($99.99). http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/sony-ericsson-telus-sony-ericsson-xperia-ray-prepaid-smartphone-ray/10210008.aspx?path=953285cb84c1d326c720633ad12d7578en02 I picked up one of these phones for myself to replace a 6 year old LG Rumor that had gone through the washer. The phone is upgradeable to the latest version of Android, has a gps and fm radio built in, and Telus’ prepaid rates [...]

What a week-end! As usual, my kids and my cat only ever get sick on week-ends. This week-end was the cats turn. He had ended up with a urinary tract infection and we had to figure out how to remove the smell of cat urine from the flooring. The cat pee’d everywhere. We took him to the vet clinic and they solved his problem and we had to solve the problem of getting rid of the cat pee smell. We [...]

Organic Hardwood Flooring Cleaner Today I decided I would scrub the hardwood flooring in my living room. It was really nasty, you could see every mark on the hardwood, and with a toddler, 4 month old and a husband you can only imagine how bad it truly was. I ended up cleaning it twice. The first time round here is the solution I used. 1/4 cup olive oil 1/2 tbsp cider vinegar Mix the ingredients all together in a spray [...]

Organic Sticker Removal on Hardwood Flooring What little kid doesn’t love stickers? What mommy regrets giving their child a sticker package containing 600 stickers?  Well, I can say my daughter loves stickers and this mommy will never leave her alone with a book of stickers again!  I was dealing with Baby Brother and when I turned around I discovered my floor was covered in stickers. Peeling them off wasn’t working so I set out to find a way to remove [...]

I don’t know how Baby Brother does it, but somehow he/we always manage to get poop on his sleeper.  Most stains I can ignore, but I really really hate poop stains.  Usually I use a store bought stain remover, but recently I’ve become increasingly more aware of the chemicals we’ve been putting into and onto our body so I thought I’d do a little experiment and try a homemade stain remover. (more…)

Today I finally made it out to the seed store to pick up some seeds for my daughter and I to plant this week.  I know it’s much to early to start planting my seeds for the square foot garden, but I thought it would be lots of fun to try anyway (and maybe she’d stop watering my artifical plant…yes, it’s my Christmas tree and yes, it’s still up).  We purchased some Marigolds, String Beans and Tomatoes.  I have to [...]

I’ve been sitting down trying to plan out what I’m going to plant this summer in the garden. We’re doing the square foot garden again and I can’t wait. I’m sitting here listening to the snow outside and watching the ploughs as they go buy wishing for springtime already. Sadly winter has barely started and I’m wanting spring already… (more…)

Winter has set in again and it’s about this time every year where I start getting the itch to start planning my garden.  Last year we tried square foot gardening and had great success.  Every other year we planted a huge garden at my parents house next door (we live in the country so we have fields to spare) but it mostly ends up going to weed.  My parents are aging and find it difficult to till and hill the [...]

Christmas time is almost here!  I’ve made my list and I’ve checked it twice…okay maybe three or four times.  I know what I’m getting everyone and what my budget is going to be.  I’ve clipped my coupons, hired my babysitter and I’m off to the store! Today was another one of those rushed trips to the grocery store.  It was a no tax day, I had coupons for diapers (Go to the Huggies website to print your own) and the [...]