Since saving money is important to the vast majority of stay at home moms, I am in the process of developing an online bargains and deals section. I plan to focus it on, obviously enough, deals you can get online.

This section does have a form you can fill out as well to contact me and let me know about any deals you might know of. Just give as much information as you can, and try to include the day it ends, if known.

It’s going to take a while for me to develop this one fully. It’s a pretty big topic, after all, and deals change all the time. But the system I put in to help me run it will allow me to post things with an expiration date, and it should take care of removing expired deals, which was always the most challenging part for me in the past.

I don’t often use this blog for politics, but this is a topic I’ve been watching and feel we all need to make sure things don’t get any worse. I don’t know that there’s a bill or anything on the topic of Net Neutrality yet, and I would prefer to keep one from being seriously considered.

Here’s the email I recieved:

Do you buy books online, use Google, or download to an Ipod? These activities will be hurt if Congress passes a radical law that gives giant corporations more control over the Internet.

Internet providers like AT&T and Verizon are lobbying Congress hard to gut Network Neutrality, the Internet’s First Amendment. Net Neutrality prevents AT&T from choosing which websites open most easily for you based on which site pays AT&T more. Amazon.com doesn’t have to outbid Barnes & Noble for the right to work more properly on your computer.

Politicians don’t think we are paying attention to this issue. Many of them take campaign checks from big telecom companies and are on the verge of selling out to people like AT&T’s CEO, who openly says, “The internet can’t be free.”

The free and open Internet is under seige–can you sign this petition letting your member of Congress know you support preserving Network Neutrality? Click here:

http://www.civic.moveon.org/save_the_internet

A list of all the ways you might be affected by Net Neutrality is located on the bottom of this link: http://civic.moveon.org/alerts/savetheinternet.html

As I said, maybe this will be a problem and maybe it won’t, but it’s worth paying attention to. My reading on this topic does say that Congress is looking at updating telecommuting policy, so this has the potential to become a serious issue.

No, not me. No need to wonder about why I’m writing about being hooked on pickles. Gage is the one.

He just discovered them this morning. Ariel wanted one, so I gave him a small piece. Then a larger one. Then another. That was finally enough for them, but I think I’ve created a monster.

You just never know what foods your kids will like.

I’m not! At least, not anything I don’t do anyhow!

My kids already have a garden going, so they’re learning about where food comes from. Ariel has been very excited to see the vegetables sprouting. She is very hopeful that the anise my husband planted for her will attract caterpillars like the one we had two years ago did. Yes, she remembers it well, especially having the coccoons and seeing the butterflies come out. She also just likes the taste of the anise, although we’ve told her she can’t pick any until the plant is taller than she is. Have to give the poor thing a chance after all.

I also figure stay at home moms are pretty good for the environment. I drive quite a bit less than I would if I were working. I wish I could walk Ariel to school, but her school is about five miles away, which is much too far for a preschooler and a one year old to walk. Next year, if we’re still at this same house, I’ve managed to get registered at the nearest preschool, which is an easy walk away. That will cut out the majority of my driving right there.

Yes, we do recycle. Ariel even knows some things always go in the recycle bin. And, of course, some things even get reused first. Lots of recyclable goods are great for crafts!

Certainly there are things I could do that would be more environmentally friendly, but I figure I don’t do too badly. I hope when we can buy our own place that I can make it very energy efficient, but at the moment that’s just a dream.

However, I don’t shop that much. My kids have way too many toys, but that’s mostly out of my control… you know how holidays and birthdays can be! They have a good number of clothes, but lots of hand-me-downs – thank goodness they’re still at an age where they don’t think anything of it!

Hmm… I wonder if letting them watch “Go Diego, Go!” counts as environmentally friendly?

Especially ones who really work at it?  Had one person do six spammy comments today. Folks, this is why I moderate comments – you never know what people are going to try to put in your blog comments. I guess this guy figured if I didn’t notice, that would be six places with multiple links to his site. Probably works some places.

I have quite a busy weekend ahead of me. Birthday party Friday, probably going to my sister’s on Saturday, then another birthday party on Sunday. It’s going to be a lot of fun, but I’m looking forward to a nice, quiet Monday.

Ok, so most of the people who hear that you work at home won’t think you need to have more fun. After all, you just sit around and watch TV, and some piddly amount of money just appears with no effort on your part, right?

Don’t know about you, but none of that’s true for me. I work hard, watch very little TV (and I’m generally working at the same time), and the money’s pretty darn good.

But some days it’s just so hard to get going. Things just kind of drag, or maybe you’re frustrated that things seem to be staying in one place. Whatever the reason, sometimes you need to spice things up a little to help motivate yourself when you work at home.

• Work someplace else! If you have a laptop, work in the back yard, take the kids to the playground, just start working someplace you don’t usually. If you don’t have a laptop computer, think of some of your other work that could possibly be done away from your desk. Even if it’s nothing but brainstorming ideas, getting out of your home office can be a lot of fun and actually help your productivity.
• Play some music! No, not the kids’ favorite CDs, something you want to hear.
• Involve your kids. They’ll have a lot of fun helping you and you’re making your work more real to them. It’s a great example for your children to learn that there are more possibilities out there than just a traditional job.
• Take time for you. If you’re feeling burnt out, taking a break can actually help you to get more work done.
• Make more time for your kids. I’ve found I do much better if I make sure to include plenty of time to play with my children throughout my day. They’re much more cooperative when I say I need to work if I’ve been playing with them other times.
• Learn something new! Come on, what have you been considering learning but haven’t found the time for? Maybe it relates to your work at home job or business or maybe it’s about a hobby, but learning can give you a fresh perspective even if you aren’t learning something specific to your work.

Anyone who has worked at home for a significant time knows that working at home isn’t the cakewalk some think it is. But you can revive yourself by changing your habits, even if it’s just for a day or two a month.

How’s the weather in your area? Things here in the San Diego area are nice and sunny, so we went for a family hike today.

I really enjoy taking a hike with my family. It’s a nice family activity and good exercise.

The plan, now that the weather is likely to be good most of the time here now, is to take a hike every Monday. Sometimes it will be a nature hike, other times a trip to the San Diego Zoo or Wild Animal Park, since we have memberships there.

Definitely have to work on the endurance. We hiked just under two miles and I’m feeling it just a little bit.

The place we hiked today was nice, if there was a bit too much poison oak around for us to choose it often. It was the Blue Sky Nature Preserve. Very pretty. Some of you may remember that in 2003 San Diego had a gigantic fire, and Blue Sky Nature Preserve might have been hit by it, I’m not really sure. There were some burnt out tree stumps, but also lots of fully grown oaks and sycamores, so possibly the stumps are from other fires. Some of the areas we do like to hike were burned out, though, and are still growing back. Since poison oak grows quickly, it’s a problem in many areas.

You don’t have to go far to find a place to hike in most areas. You can generally find plenty of places a short drive away no matter where you live. If not, even a walk around a park or in your neighborhood is good exercise and an easy way to spend time with your family.

We decided to have a little fun today and make some Easter Egg Bread for tomorrow. It’s a neat little recipe, although I think next time I might look for a more interesting bread recipe. Seems to me this should work with any recipe where the dough rises enough.

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 2/3 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 eggs
• 5 whole eggs, dyed (do not boil in advance!)
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

1. In a large bowl, mix 1 cup flour, sugar, salt and yeast well.
2. Warm milk and butter in a small saucepan until butter is softened but not melted.
3. Gradually add the milk and butter to the flour mixture, stirring constantly. Add two eggs and 1/2 cup flour; mix well. Add the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring well after each addition until the dough pulls together. Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for several minutes, until smooth and elastic.
4. Place the dough in a lightly oiled large bowl, and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place for about an hour, or until doubled in volume.
5. Deflate the dough and place it on a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into two equal parts. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes. Roll each part into a long roll about 36 inches long and 1 1/2 inches thick. My daughter loved this part, it’s kind of like playing with play dough.
6. Using the two long pieces of dough, form a loosely braided ring. Pinch the ends of the ring together and use your fingers to slide the eggs between the braids of dough.
7. Place loaf on a buttered baking sheet and cover loosely with a damp towel. Place loaf in a warm place and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes.
8. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Brush risen loaf with melted butter.
9. Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 55 minutes, or until golden.

This looks to have turned out fairly well. We aren’t eating it until tomorrow, so I can’t say anything about taste just yet.

Ah, the delights of plotting surprises for the kids for Easter morning! Well, for Ariel at least. Gage is still young enough we could do everything in front of him and he’d still be surprised in the morning. Babies are so easy sometimes.

It rained hard this morning, so we’re a little worried that we’ll have to hide plastic eggs instead of the real ones Ariel and I dyed yesterday. I had turned off the sprinklers already, explaining to Ariel that we didn’t want them to turn on and scare the Easter Bunny away.

Tonight we’ll be putting the candy in the baskets. I think we will unfortunately have to keep the candies either wrapped or in Ziploc bags – this place has a major ant problem and any food left out rather quickly gets a trail of ants to it.

Probably the hardest part for me will be getting up so much earlier than normal so I can shower and help hide the eggs before we get Ariel up. We have to have time to do all this before Mass because we’re meeting my mother there and then going to her house for a family get-together. Then it’s dinner at my in-laws’.

Ariel’s plotting too. She keeps telling me she’s going to catch the Easter Bunny and pet him.

This project is going to take a while, maybe a couple of weeks. It’s been on my mind for a while, and I finally decided to sit down and just work at it. I’m going section by section, and hopefully make each one pleasanter to go through.

This site is much bigger than I had in mind when starting out, which is why I’m needing to reconsider how I have things organized. There are some things I’ll have to really think about how I want to handle them. For example, I have a lot of items in the main navigation, and it’s hard to say if it’s best to keep having a lot of things there or simplify the main navigation. I like having a lot of things there just so people know there’s a lot to see here, but the hard part is figuring out if that’s the best way to handle things.

It’s pretty interesting some ways going through and looking at articles I haven’t looked at in a year or two. Most aren’t information that tends to expire, but a few could use an update, which I guess will have to be the next step.

Doing big projects like this can be pretty challenging. After all, I have to find time to play with my kids and work on other websites. Good thing I love doing all this stuff or I probably would be going nuts about now.