Being here this year is exciting.  I’m so ready to see the friends that I made a year ago and to meet new ones.  I’ve already had a talk with Carmen, spent some time with our amazing Blissdom hosts, Alli and Barbara, and had dinner with the wonderful Esther.  I’d say this conference is off to a great start!  I’m really looking forward to attending the panels and learning some new things, and I’m excited to explore this crazy humongous hotel that looks like the set of “Lost”.

Are you attending?  Be sure to say hi!  I’d love to meet all of you, and I can’t wait to spread some Zwaggle love!  But now?  Sleep.

(Can’t make it to the conference but want to know what’s happening?  Follow along on our Twitter account, or follow the Blissdom hashtag.)

If your goals include being more green in 2010, saving money, or getting rid of some of the clutter in your life, Zwaggle is here for you.  By posting your gently used kids’ items on Zwaggle, you can help the environment by keeping those things out of landfills, and you can reduce some of the clutter that you have in your attic or basement.  By checking what other members have posted on the site, you can save money by using Zoints on new toys, books, and clothes.  Is one of your goals to give back to your community more?  Zwaggle has a great charity application that allows you to donate your Zoints to a charity in your area so that they can get what they need in 2010.

It’s an easy and fun way to make 2010 a better year for you and the rest of the Zwaggle community.

The Zwaggle Team wishes you all a happy, healthy 2010!

Getting together with your family during the holiday season can be a great and wonderful thing, full of excitement. It can also be a stressful time, and meeting up with those certain special family members that you only see once a year and that you might not care for - well, that just  can make it even more, shall we say, interesting. I’m here to help. In fact, we are ALL here to help each other.

Share with me your humor. Share your funny. What happened to you, one bright and sunny Christmas, that still makes you chuckle years later? Did you see something over the Chanukkah menorah that caused you to giggle like a lunatic? Don’t celebrate the holidays? Well, maybe you have a story about the snow that never fails to crack you up. Whatever it is, the Zwaggle team wants to read it. Leave it here in the comments. We have three prizes to give away: 1 copy of Prima Princessa, a great ballet DVD for the younger set, 1 copy of Spyborgs for Wii, and a set of ten Beanie Babies. These great prizes can help you finish up your shopping, and you can help us all out by providing some much needed humor. First prize gets their choice, second the choice of the remaining two and third place the remaining prize.

You only have until December 13 at midnight to enter, so get typing and crack us up! MAKE US LAUGH - PLEASE!

Thanksgiving makes people think of a lot of things.  Family, traditions, FOOD.  (When else are you allowed to eat marshmallows on your vegetables without people judging you?)

It can also mean Stress with a capital S (sometimes for the very same reasons: family, traditions, food).

It also marks that time of year that we cannot continue to deny one simple fact - and I apologize to any of you who are trying your best to deny this fact for as long as possible.  When Thanksgiving is over, we cannot be angry that the neighbors have little twinkling lights all over their house.  We cannot groan when we walk into the mall and there are giant ornaments hanging everywhere.  We cannot be annoyed that the grocery store is playing THOSE SONGS over and over (and over) again.  (Well… in theory.)

It’s time for those next holidays.  The ones that involve singing and cheer and gifts.

So now is the time to start planning.  Why not take the first step and post those books, toys, and clothes that you’ve been meaning to put on Zwaggle?  Not only will you have a chance to increase the amount of Zoints in your account to use for your own holiday shopping, but you’ll be giving other families the opportunity to give those items to someone they love.

And that can help with the whole Stress thing.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

No, you didn’t mistype the Zwaggle blog address and land on a farm site. Those would be the sounds of MY house this week, as first one child, then a second, and then a third fell victim to the dreaded H1N1 - the so called “swine” flu. I’ve considered bathing the remaining kids in Purell, but I doubt it would do any good. Instead, I’ve decided to buy stock in Kleenex and Motrin, and cleaned the drugstore shelves of all of the Nyquil/Dayquil/Vick’s Puffs/Tylenol/orange juice that one woman could buy in my fair city. I despair of any of it doing any good, though - I think, at this point, that the flu will just have to run its course. And hopefully not run over me in the process. It’s been a good two weeks of at least one person being ill and I’m ready for a vacation. My most commonly heard refrain? “Wash your hands like Lady MacBeth!” (I swiped that from a friend - it just fit so, so well!)

One thing I discovered this week while my kids were down is that I am woefully unprepared to deal with this many kids at home at once, all under the weather and lounging around on the sofas. We don’t seem to have enough to do when you are too sick for school but not sick enough to nap all day. (Wait - that sounds AWESOME to me - I’d love to nap all day.) When I have sick kids, I try to set up a “Command Central for Illness”.  I keep the thermometer, Motrin, cough medicine, and tissues in one place, so that I don’t have to keep searching for things. (Not that I EVER misplace stuff …looking away, whistling innocently.) The sick kid can lounge on the sofa with a pillow and a blanket and when not sleeping, I do allow television watching - I know some people say that if you are home sick, there’s no tv, and I am usually of that mindset - but when someone is home with a fever - all bets are off.

But what, exactly, do you provide as busy work or amusement for a sick kid? Well, DVD’s are always welcome, as are new games for the Nintendo Gameboy or Xbox. New books are a tried and true pleasure, and I’ve been known to break out the Playdough for a fevered preschooler who is  just well enough to drive me bananas. In fact, homemade Playdough is exceptionally fun and I’ll give you our favorite recipe at the end of this post. What about other arts and crafts? Coloring pages can be printed off the computer, glue and sparkles and paints can make the hours fly by.

How do you handle having your kids home sick?  Share some of your tricks of the trade here and help us all get through what’s going to be a long, long winter.

Here’s to good health for all of us and a quick, fever free winter!

Homemade Kool-Aid Playdough

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup salt
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 cups boiling water
• 2 packages unsweetened Kool-Aid- any color

I’ve added glitter on occasion.

Mix dry ingredients. Add oil and water.  Wearing gloves, knead for 10 minutes. Store in zip lock bag in refrigerator.

One other really delicious playdough recipe comes courtesy of my mom. This was my very favorite when I was a kid.

• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 cups powdered sugar

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, using your hands. This edible play dough recipe should feel soft and pliable. Form shapes and be creative!

************************************************************************************************************

Holly from “The Cloth Diaper Experiment” here!  I have recently taken a huge interest in becoming more eco-conscious.  The reason for this recent obsession?  My 7-month-old son, Jackson.  Jackson means the world to me and I want to do my part to leave him with a better, cleaner planet.  By making small changes, I feel like I’m doing something huge.

One thing that I’ve done recently is joined Zwaggle!  Zwaggle fits in perfectly with my goals to be an eco-conscious parent.  I love how the site focuses on reusing and recycling, and I also love the sense of community here, because being green is all about community!

So, what else have I done over the past 7 months to become the best eco-friendly mom I can be?

1) I do not buy bottled water anymore.  While water will always be my beverage of choice, I refuse to buy cases of water, which I used to do all the time.  Instead, I got a BPA free, reusable water bottle a years ago and fill it with filtered water from the fridge.  It seems so simple but it’s making a huge difference.  I think that individual bottles of water should be saved and used for emergencies, not everyday use.

2) I take reusable bags to the store with me.  I have about 15 and I try to keep them in my car at all times.  If I forget them and end up with plastic bags, I feel pretty guilty.  If everyone would switch to using reusable bags most of the time instead of plastic, it would cut way down on unneeded garbage.

3) I make Jackson’s baby food.  I am not throwing away several jars or plastic containers everyday and I know EXACTLY what he is getting to eat!  Making your own baby food is so simple and easy:

Cook the food until it is soft (steaming works the best and retains the most nutrients), puree, blend or mash to the desired consistency, and then freeze (I use BPA-free trays, ice cube trays with lids also work great).  After the food is frozen, I pop the cubes out of the tray and into a freezer bag!  When it’s time for Jackson to eat, I just thaw a cube or two.  That’s it!

It’s really easy to make big batches of baby food at one time and store them in the freezer.  The last time I made it was over a month ago and I still have 3 bags of cubes in the freezer!  By doing bigger batches once a month, it’s really not time consuming at all!

4) My biggest (and scariest) change so far has been switching from disposable diapers to cloth diapers.  Did you know that it takes a disposable diaper 500 YEARS to break down in a landfill?  Yes, you read that right, FIVE HUNDRED YEARS!  The average family will use 5,000-7,000 disposable diapers PER CHILD.  That’s A LOT of unneeded garbage stinking up our landfills for A LONG time.

Not many people know about the cloth diapers of today.  They are not like they used to be!  Prefolds (the kind of cloth diapers that you are probably picturing) are still around, but there are so many new varieties that are just as easy to use as disposables!  Sure, you might worry about how to deal with dirty diapers (I know I was), but you know what?  It’s not a big deal with the right products!  I don’t know what I would do without my diaper sprayer; it makes messy diapers so easy to deal with!  For the extra squeamish, there are flushable liners.  They resemble dryer sheets and you lay them on the inside of the cloth diaper.  When it’s messy, just flush it down the toilet.  It’s that easy!

Switching to cloth diapers has a HUGE impact on the environment and it also saves you money.  They’re also ADORABLE and are so much more healthy and comfortable for your baby.

Another great thing about them?  They last, so I can use the same diapers on any future brothers or sisters that Jackson has!  When I’m done with them for good, I can post them here on Zwaggle so that other families can do their part for the environment too!

As you can probably tell, I’m very passionate about cloth diapers.  I started my blog to show that it can be done and that it’s not complicated at all.  If you have any questions about cloth diapers or making your own baby food, I would be happy to answer them.  Just visit my blog and leave me a comment there or here on the Zwaggle blog, and I’ll be sure to get back to you!

Making little changes today makes a big difference for tomorrow.  I want to be able to tell my children that I did whatever I could to leave our planet in the best shape possible for them.  Don’t you?

* Be sure to follow Holly on Twitter: @TheCDExperiment

So, Halloween is on the horizon. It’s one of my favorite holidays - the excuse to walk my kids around the neighborhood with good friends, sneaking a candy bar or three out of my kids plastic pumpkins while drinking a hot coffee - well, there’s really not much to adore. Except for trying to find new costumes each year.

My kids have been scouring the catalogs for weeks now, planning the most elaborate outfits involving crowns, light sabers, glitter, sequins and cardboard boxes. All they can see is excitement, festivities, fun and partying, and all I can see is work. How much time and how much work those costumes will be for me. I mean, I hate to be a spoilsport and I don’t want to ruin anyone’s fun, but at the same point in time if I have to create a bunch of homemade costumes that will ruin MY fun - and I’m in the mood for fun not work.

In the past, my kids have been dogs, lions, pirates, ballerinas, Sesame Street characters, prom queens, iPods, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Padme Amidala, fall fairies, and a bag of jelly beans. We reuse some costumes each year but most need to be passed on since apparently its against the law for one of my children to wear last year’s outfit.  Last year I posted a bunch here on Zwaggle and of course, am planning on doing the same this year.  I mean, really - have you seen the costumes that are available right now? There are some really cute ones, and the thought that I could list one of ours and without spending anything, move it on to another family, while obtaining a “new to us” costume that would make my own kids happy - well, that’s just gold right there. So save the money you’d spend on a brand new costume. Trade your Zoints for one here and then use the money you saved to take yourself to dinner. You’ve earned it. I’m sure of it.

I do love to see the costumes kids come up with though, except for some of the costumes I’ve seen for preteen girls - I wouldn’t even wear some of them myself, much less send my 11 year old to walk the streets in them.  Anyway, don’t get me started.

I remember one year, when my son picked a costume - and I don’t remember exactly WHAT costume it was - but the mask was the entire costume. As in, the costume made no sense without the mask - and he refused to wear it. Without the mask, he was wearing a simple robe, and no one knew who he was, but he didn’t care. Or the year that my daughter was a fairy, but she refused to wear the wings, the tiara or the bodysuit - basically, all she wore was a t shirt and some pink tights. It bugged me like nobody’s business, but kids are funny like that - they can create a costume out of a robe and some spray painted ice cream cones with a snake on top.

What about you?  Tell us about some of your favorite costumes (good or bad) from year’s past or even a funny Halloween story.  We all have them.  And we all love to laugh.

I need to practice running, because I am not even close to being a perfect runner.  (Actually, I’m not even close to running at all… it’s more like a limping/jogging/gallop thing… no, it’s not pretty.)

I need to practice time management, because it’s currently 3:15 pm on Monday and I have NO IDEA where the time went.

And I need to practice cooking, because, well, I’m not exactly a great cook.

(I’ve been known to set off the fire alarm while scrambling an egg and boiling water.)

(Separate incidents.)

I love food, and I’d love to learn more about cooking.  I’d love to put a bunch of ingredients in a pot and have something delicious in an hour.  I’d love to enjoy the process of making a great meal that I’m proud of.  And I’m not talking about some amazing Thanksgiving-esque feast (yet).  I’m talking about something simple to put down on the table after a long day.  Because, really, I think that I can handle that, especially with a little practice.

One of my favorite things about the weather getting colder is the food.  You know, the type of stuff that makes you feel warm and happy after a long day of heavy coats and scarves, running errands and shoveling snow.  I’d love to be able to make some wonderful meals that don’t come out of a freezer or a can (tomato soup, anyone?).

So I’m asking you, Zwaggle members, to post your favorite recipes here.  Not just for me, but for the whole Zwaggle community.  Do you have a recipe that you love to cook in the winter?  Or how about one that your kids beg you to make when it starts to snow?  Have you written a blog post with your favorite crock-pot recipe in it?  Or do you have a favorite website where you’ve found a really fabulous meal idea?

Share them here, in the comments section.  Give us the recipe, or leave a link where we can all find it.  In return, the Zwaggle team will do something that we’re pretty perfect at: we’ll give you 15 bonus Zoints!  Wouldn’t you like 15 extra Zoints to use on a new Halloween costume for the kids, or maybe to save for the holidays?

I’ll start us off with a great chili recipe that my mom wrote.  (I’m still a little scared to try it because she makes it so perfectly, and that’s a lot to live up to.)  I hope you enjoy!

1 tbsp oil
2 lbs beef and 2 lbs pork (or any other meat you prefer)*
1 cup chopped onions
1/4 cup diced green pepper
2-3 large garlic cloves, minced
3 16oz cans of diced tomatoes
1/4 to 1/2 cup of dark chili powder
salt
2 16oz cans of red kidney beans
2 16oz cans of pinto beans

* You can easily make this recipe vegetarian by getting rid of the meat and adding more vegetables and beans!

In a large pot, heat the oil and cook the meat, onions, green pepper and garlic until the onion is tender, stirring often.  Add the tomatoes (with the liquid), chili powder and salt.  Bring to a boil and then lower the heat and let it simmer for about an hour.  Stir in the beans and as much liquid as you feel is needed to make a nice thick sauce.  Heat through, and then serve with lots of crackers, sour cream, chopped scallions and shredded cheese.  Perfect for a cold day!

Now share some of your recipes so we can all have a warm and yummy season!

Yup, now mommies too can win some cash through a myUsearch.com scholarship. You could win a $1000 for answering our essay question by essay or video. Deadline for submissions is December 31, 2009. Below are the requirements for entering.

Photo by OctopusHat.

Scholarship Requirements:
All applicants must:

1. Be a mother.
2. Have a yearly combined household income of less than $100,000.
3. Plan to pursue an undergraduate degree at an accredited U.S. college or university. No graduate school applicants will be accepted.
4. Have NOT yet enrolled in a U.S. college or university and once enrolled, plan to start their first semester on or before October of 2010.
5. Have never attended the college or university in which the scholarship will be applied. This scholarship is for first year and transfer students only.

Essay/Video Question:
This scholarship will be awarded to the student who can best answer with an essay less than 750 words or a video no longer than 5 minutes:
“What is your biggest challenge as a mother trying to get a degree? What can colleges and universities do to help you overcome this challenge and encourage other mothers to further their education?”

We look forward to seeing your essays and videos. Good luck to all participants!

I have big plans for this school year, though. I want to go to the movies at least once a week. I would like to be able to cook more balanced and - shall we say - BETTER meals that I made over the summer.  Those peanut butter sandwiches were good, but with cold weather coming I’d like to make some hearty stews, chilies and casseroles. I don’t know if anyone will eat them, but I’d like to make them. I want to resume running, really get out there and stretch my legs and see what I can accomplish after two pretty severe injuries sidelined me for most of the spring and summer.  I have one other goal - the same goal I set every single back to school season.

I want to organize my entire house.

I know.  I’m a bit of an overachiever.  It’s cool, I’m ok with it.  Admitting you have a problem is the first step, or so I’ve been told.

I’d much rather clean out one of my kids bedrooms when they are all away at school. I can match the game pieces, dress the doll babies, color coordinate the clothing and organize the bookshelves to my hearts content. I can pull out the easy readers that my son has stashed and move them to my first graders room, and move the more difficult chapter books down to the third graders shelf. I can take the opportunity to get rid of the beloved t shirts that I’ve seen so many times I’m sick of them.  You know the ones I’m talking about, the “I ran the race” raggedy piece of fabric that your son insists on wearing every.single.day.  I blast good music, pull out the empty boxes and get to work filling them. After all, holiday season is coming and there’s so much stuff in their rooms that they never play with - and in their quest to get more and more, perfectly wonderful toys and books are sidelined. If they aren’t going to use them, I’m going to find places to put them.

I’m setting a goal this month. I want to rid my house of five bags of trash from bedrooms. (Think this is a lofty goal? Remember I have six kids and they are all s-l-o-b-s. Five bags is probably too easy of a goal.) I also want to find at least ten really good items to list here on Zwaggle.  Then I can use those Zoints to look for holiday gifts for my kids and their friends, my nieces and nephews -because THAT season is all “Items in the mirror may be closer than they appear.”

And then, my friends, I plan to treat myself to a coffee. After all, a week (or two) of really solid work deserves a specialty gourmet beverage loaded with sugar and fat and caffeine - my three favorite food groups. I’d love to treat you to a coffee as well - leave me a comment telling me your plans for house cleaning and organizing - share your favorite tips and time saving moves - and I’ll use my favorite buddy random.org to send one of you lucky readers a Starbucks gift card.

Ready, set, ORGANIZE!