Heather Armstrong, celebrated mommy blogger of Dooce fame, recently announced, via a blog post, that she and her husband are separated. For those of you not familiar with Ms. Armstrong’s blogging success, let’s just say she is the champion mommy blogger of all time with reported monthly ad revenue of $40,000. Read more…

I just learned about a new way to save money for your kids’ college fund. Mission Tuition offers rebates and discounts from major retailers on things you would usually buy like groceries and clothing, and deposits the savings directly into your bank account. Here’s how Mission Tuition works. You shop on-line and the advertised rebate from the listed Mission Tuition retailers goes directly into your savings account. You don’t have to get new credit card, you can use the ones you  already have.  If your favorite card earns miles or points, you will still get them in addition to the rebates from Mission Tuition. You can also open a 529 tax advantage college savings plan. Sounds like a great idea.

My step daughter, Cheryl got a new camera for Christmas and recently she showed me her gorgeous photography! What talent. She really captured the beauty of the sea. Here is a sampling, If you would like to see more, please visit SeaweedArt. We have plans to print greeting cards from her photographs and sell them so she can earn money to travel.

My daughter Sophia left for college a few weeks ago. She was home for winter break for about a month and it was so wonderful having her here. We made cookies, and gingerbread houses, got our nails done, went out to lunch and the movies, went to the beach, finished a sewing project, took a trip to San Francisco and spent our last day together at the Santa Cruz wharf watching the harbor seals.  We sure had a lot of  Mommie and Me time together. I was very pleased and impressed with what a sophisticated, articulate and well spoken young lady she had become.

I won’t see her again until May when she gets out of school since she is not planning to come home for Spring break.

Whenever I think of chocolate, I think of Sees. Actually, whenever I think of delicious candies, I think of See’s.  Truffles, nuts, toffees and chews. You name it, See’s has it all. They even have sugar free and kosher products. What I really appreciate about See’s is how much they give back to the community through their fundraising programs. All of my kids have benefited from See’s generosity. If you have a choice of where to shop for chocolate this Valentine season, choose See’s. And if you see a child selling See’s candy bars out in front of the grocery store, buy a few. You are helping raise money for a worthy cause.

As an ex-New Yorker who has been mugged, pick pocketed and burgled (yes, that’s a word) I’m little more cautious than most people. My kids and my husband all think that I am paranoid. What do they know? They all grew up in a sleepy beach town where the biggest crime  around here is no surf.

Over the years I have learned to relax a little and just when I was starting to let my guard down,  Paul and I were the victims of cyber crime. Our credit card numbers were stolen, most likely by some wait server in a restaurant, but our cards remained with us, so we didn’t know until it was too late that we had been victimized. Next thing I knew, we were being charged for purchases made in countries we had not visited. Fortunately we caught it before it got out of hand, we were not responsible for the charges, but it was still a hassle dealing with canceling the cards and getting new ones. I couldn’t help but wonder I could have done to prevent it from happening again. I searched online and found a solution with IdentityHawk. They are the leaders in identity theft protection. Now I feel secure in the knowledge that my personal identity, property and assets are safeguarded from online predator and thieves.

A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine told me about a diet meal replacement drink she was on that helped her lose 9 pounds in a month. She asked me if I were interested in trying it. Even though I have been trying to lose 10 pounds (OK 20) for the last 10 years, I was interested but skeptical because I’ve tried diet drinks before that always left me  hungry, cranky, unsatisfied with the chalky taste or worse, gave me gastrointestinal distress, if you know what I mean. But this was different. A new product that tastes great so I decided to give it a go. The drink is from Visalus, a new company that is growing by leaps and bounds. I decided to take the 90 Day Challenge. Recorded my weight and my measurements and waited for results.

In just over a month I have lost 6 pounds and 6 inches off of my measurements. No more back flab or layers of fat hanging over my jeans.  And I feel great. I’m not hungry. I have lots of energy and no more sugar crashes in the afternoons. I am hooked. So much so that I have decided to become a distributor and sell the product. If you too are looking to lose some pounds and inches, and want to feel good about yourself, send me a message and we can get started.

Last night, while I was browsing through my copy of Alice Water’s cookbook, The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution,  I found that most of what she espouses, shop local, buy organic, are principles I have been practicing for years. I can still remember as a child, stopping by the New Jersey farms stands with my mom on my way home from the beach. Fresh corn, Jersey tomatoes and melons, as well as home made pies, jams and locally harvested honey beckoned my senses and whet my appetite for good food. My mother had high blood pressure and was on a low sodium, low fat diet, long before it was fashionable, hence fresh fruits and vegetables were always an important staple in our diet.

The most compelling plea of Ms. Waters, and one with which I heartily agree, is her firm belief in packing children nutritious and hearty school lunches. This is a conviction I firmly believe in and have always practiced. I know some parents believe the importance of teaching children independence by making them pack their own lunches, but I know that if I did that, my kids, in their hectic scramble to get out the door each morning, would simply not do it. Since I don’t mind, and because it is so important to me that my children remain well nourished throughout their school day, I am happy to do it. Truthfully, it’s really not that hard or time consuming. Even when I worked full time and had an hour commute, I managed to get the job done. Because I do most of the prep the night before and  have such an assembly line efficient system, I can pack 7 lunches, (including one for me and Paul) in 10 minutes.

Another motivation for doing so is to keep my kids away from the unhealthy junk food crap they could buy at school, which, thankfully,  my kids would never eat anyway. However, I can see what an enticement it can be since it is so readily available and so cheap. My stepson tells me he can buy a slice of pizza and a Coke for $2. Certainly not organic or sustainable. Why do schools sell soda in the first place? Actually, I know the answer to that question. Soda companies underwrite the school with hefty donations in exchange for putting soda vending machines in the cafeteria. Under funded schools are fearful of giving up the resources. An outrage.

Here’s what I packed in my kids lunches today: fresh berry salad, bagel chips with basil and sun dried tomato hummus, and their favorite sandwich– turkey, Havarti cheese, bacon, avocado, lettuce and kalamata olive spread, which I make from scratch. Here’s the recipe: combine 1/4 cup mayo with a clove of garlic, a handful of kalamata olives and pinch of herbs de Provence in a blender or food processor. Pulse until creamy, although a few olive chunks are fine. My kids love it.

I have been so busy with my SeaweedArt greeting card business, which has really started to take off, especially over the holidays, that I have not been writing very much here lately. I’m so excited that I am planning to expand my line to include new products like prints for home decor, journals, note cards and other stationery items. In order to raise funds, I have launched a campaign on Kickstarter, an online crowd funding source for entrepreneurs like myself, who need capital for their businesses.

Here’s how it works. Backers make a pledge (for as little as a dollar)  for a project they like and in exchange they receive a reward. In my case I am awarding my cards and my original seaweed art pressings. You can visit my SeaweedArt Kickstarter project here to learn more. Please make a pledge and pass along to your friends on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. I really need your help.

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Sophia is home from college and Sam is home from the Navy. It was very relaxing and stress free, which is the way I like the holidays to be. We baked cookies, created a wreath with fresh garland and made a gingerbread house from scratch. Looking forward to a wonderful New Year.