If you didn’t catch it live, here is Moxie Girl founder, Amanda Thomas on Sonoran Living with tips to keep the stress out of holiday decorating.
November 30, 2010
November 22, 2010
Stress-Free Traveling?
It’s almost that time of year again. Holiday trips are about to begin! For moms who tend to burn out before vacation even starts – put the kids in charge of packing and planning for themselves. Yes, seriously! Empower your children and use the vacation to teach valuable life lessons!
The whole family can be involved in the planning the budget and activities. Everyone will enjoy the trip more if they have some say in what will happen. Plus, it’s a great opportunity to teach your kids that fun sometimes costs money and time management is still necessary, even for play. Use our Kids Vacation Planning worksheet to help them brainstorm, research, and plan their special activity for the family.
Instead of packing all the suitcases yourself, this year tell everyone they are in charge of their own suitcase. Use our Kids Packing List to make a list of how many tops, pants, shoes, etc. your children will need and let them choose what items they bring. This is great for younger kids who are learning to count, and older kids who like to argue because Mom packed all the dorky clothes. Added bonus? The younger you teach this skill to your children, the younger they will be when they can pack their bag completely on their own! If there are special outfits they will need for family pictures and special events, you may want to help direct their choices for that one outfit, but still let them make the decision.
We do realize that implementing these two processes may lead to outfits don’t match and more trips for ice cream than you ever imagined, but the pride your child will have in doing this “grown-up” task will outweigh the pain you feel while biting your tongue. Besides, what’s cuter than pictures of a kid in mismatched clothes and covered in ice cream?
November 1, 2010
Preparing for Thanksgiving: 6 things to do early
I believe that some of my best work is done under pressure. In college I was the girl who, when I had a 10 page paper due Monday morning, I would start writing at 11pm Sunday night and get an A on the paper. Why stress for weeks about a term-paper? Instead, I would stress for 6 hours while writing, take a 2 hour nap, and go turn in my masterpiece to my 8am class.
As I have gotten older, I have had to learn the hard way that the rest of the world does not operate on my same timeline. For this 
reason, I will share with you some of the things I have learned cannot (or should not) be done the night before hosting Thanksgiving dinner.
1 – Invite guests for dinner. While inviting guests the day before will produce a couple lost souls, inviting friends and family a few weeks in advance will actually make your day an event. And don’t assume that just because you hosted last year people will assume they are invited again this year. You actually have to invite them again.
2- Buy the wine. This can be done the day before Thanksgiving, but you will end up spending more. The Bevmo 5 Cent Sale and other wine sales happen the first week of November, so stock up early. Just make sure you don’t drink it all before the big day….
3- Take your linens to be cleaned. Some cleaners have a 10 day turn-around for linens. To make sure your guests aren’t eating off of stained tablecloths, placemats, and table runners, take them in 2 weeks before dinner.
4- Plan your meal. Your guests will ask what they can bring, and if you don’t have a specific answer for them, you will get duplicates of side dishes. Trust me, you don’t want your dinner to turn into a competition of who makes the best green bean casserole. Plan your meal 2 weeks in advance so you can make specific requests and have a variety of dishes on the table.
5- Inventory your serving dishes, cookware, and serving utensils. After hosting Thanksgiving with mashed potatoes being served with a teaspoon out of Tupperware, you will realize the importance of doing this at least 1 week before. This will allow you enough time borrow or buy additional pieces if you need.
6- Buy your groceries. Doing this the day before almost guarantees you will have to go to multiple stores to find all you need. Do your shopping 1 week before Thanksgiving for the best selection of turkeys and vegetables. And then remember to keep your turkey in the freezer after you purchase it. No one is thankful for food poisoning.
Those are my 6 tips this year. I’m sure there will be a #7 after this year because, even though I do more preparation than I did in college, I still enjoy the adrenalin of getting things done just in time.