Or camping in the living room, if you don’t have a back yard. Don’t want to leave the apartment and condo dwellers out.

Set up the tent and have a nice little campout. Fire up the grill for dinner and don’t forget the s’mores!

Tell stories, talk, do the usual camping stuff, but from home.

If you don’t have a tent you can fake it in the living room. How often do kids want to set a tent up for playing? Use some chairs and a sheet, or get more creative, and you have a quick tent to sleep in. Doesn’t work so well outside, but since we’re trying to keep to things you have on hand, buying a tent is something you should do only if you’re going to be using it anyhow.

I found out from the CDC that this week is Hurricane Preparedness Week. While hurricanes aren’t a problem where I live, I know a lot of people do have to consider them. I get less warning for my natural disasters – earthquakes. But I still keep disaster supplies on hand for those.

Their website has a variety of tips on how you can prepare your family for a hurricane. These include preparing for a hurricane, emergency supplies you should keep on hand, tips on if you are ordered to evacuate, and more.

Hurricane season begins June 1, so they’re really trying to get people along coasts that get hit by hurricanes to prepare in advance. Much better to be ready than to have to fight the crowds when the warning is given.

Let’s all hope for a mild hurricane season.

One of my biggest challenges right now in working at home is dealing with my 3 year old son. He’s in a massively clingy phase right now.

Not just out in public, although that makes it worse. All day long, even at home.

He can be distracted for a time, sure. Turn the TV on and he’s happy. But I can’t let him do that all day. I have to get more creative if I’m going to satisfy myself that I’m still working at home for the right reasons.

Let Him Cling

One of the simplest ways to get him to not cling is to let him. I let him show me what it is he wants from me. I play with him. I give him some of the time that he wants from me in the hopes that he will give me some quiet time later.

Plus it means I can help to tire him out so he’ll take a good nap later. If he’s asleep he’s not clinging, after all.

Tell Husband to Help

When my husband is home (a lot right now since his layoff), I make sure he gets involved. It doesn’t matter that my son tries to insist that only Mommy is good enough. We insist that he learn to accept help and do fun things with either of us.

You’d be amazed at how much he (my son) can resist this idea. But I think it’s important.

Get Some Time Out of the House

With gas prices the way they are right now, this doesn’t happen much unless I’m running errands. Most times my errands are a kid-free time for me. It’s a nice semi-break. Can’t call it a real one since I’m still doing something for my family. But it does help to ease the stress of always being on call.

Send Him Outside

The one thing that holds my son’s attention better than the television is the outdoors. He will cheerfully spend an hour collecting pill bugs and ladybugs. Without me around most of the time. I can just check on him out my office window.

With summer coming I do have to make sure he wears his sunscreen and that he doesn’t stay out too long if the day is particularly warm. Young children aren’t always going to be aware of what their bodies need.

Work Around His Schedule

I do a lot of work late, late at night. That way both of my kids are asleep, and once again there’s no clingy issue, aside from occasionally with my husband. Not saying that’s all bad, of course!

It takes some extra effort to not be completely exhausted at the end of the day when you work around a clingy child, but it can be done. Spend some time figuring out what routines work for you. And share tips if you have them!

I’ve had a section for people to advertise their direct sales and network marketing opportunities on here for a long time. But I did it all manually, which was tedious and all too easy to forget about.

I’ve upgraded it now to a proper directory.

Just as before, you can get links to your opportunity for free. I have also added a Featured Links option so that if you want your link to be above everyone else’s in your opportunity you have the chance to do so. Only a limited number for each, and it’s a monthly subscription so that if someone loses interest they aren’t tying the spot up forever.

There’s plenty of space available; I used to keep it to just one rep per company, but with this new directory everything is split out by company rather than just category. Write your ad to appeal to those who are looking at the opportunity you represent for the best results. I’m not limiting the number of free links; only the Featured ones.

Going to try a new feature here – fun and free things to do, posted on Fridays. There may be the cost of getting there or for food you bring, but these are idea where there’s no entry free. And you have to eat sometime anyhow.

This week’s idea is to go on a family picnic. Pack up some lunches or even dinner, and find a park, a beach or even your backyard.

Bring toys or sports equipment so you can play as a family.

Take your time and let the family picnic be about having fun together. Don’t stress about what the house looks like or any work you need to get done. Just take the time to be a family.