Babysitter Express's Blog

Be handy this Halloween

babysitterexpress — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:49:07 +0000

Be Handy This Halloween – Easy DIY Halloween Costumes

This Halloween why should you spend a fortune on Halloween costumes for your kids? You shouldn’t! With the economy being down, I would suggest making a Halloween costume with your kids to teach them how to be creative and resourceful. Check out the link above for some easy DIY Halloween costumes you can put together with your kids!

Another great creative idea for Halloween fun is this Puffy Candy Corn craft!!

Random Recipe: Mac and Cheese Dog Casserole

babysitterexpress — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 13:11:48 +0000

Mac and Cheese Dog Casserole

Total Time: 30 min
Prep: 10 min
Cook: 20 min

Yield: 4 to 6 servings (4 huge, 6 normal)

Level: Easy



Ingredients

1 pound elbow macaroni
Salt
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 package beef or pork hot dogs, chopped into 1-inch pieces
1 tablespoon butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons all- purpose flour
1/2 cup beer, 1/3 of a bottle – whatever you have on hand, chicken broth can be substituted
2 cups milk
Pepper
1 rounded tablespoon spicy mustard
2 rounded tablespoons ketchup
3 cups yellow sharp cheddar, shredded, divided (Buy preshredded cheese. You will need 1 1/2 sacks of 10-ounce packages.)

Directions

Boil a large pot of water for macaroni. Salt water and under cook macaroni, cook about 7 minutes until just under al dente in doneness.

Preheat broiler and set rack 12 inches from heat.

While pasta works, heat a large deep nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1 turn of the pan, then add hot dogs and brown on both sides, 4 minutes total. Remove the dogs with a slotted spoon to a paper towel lined plate. Add another tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1 turn of the pan, and the butter. When butter melts, cook onions 4 to 5 minutes, then add flour and cook another minute. Add beer and cook off completely, 1 minute. Whisk in milk and bring to a bubble, then season the sauce with salt and pepper and stir in the mustard and ketchup. Lower heat and add 2 cups of the cheese. Stir to melt, 1 minute. Adjust mustard, ketchup, and salt and pepper, to your taste.

Drain pasta well. Combine pasta and hot dogs with sauce and coat evenly then pour into large casserole and top with remaining cheese. Melt and brown cheese under broiler, 2 minutes. Serve.

Recipe found at: FoodNetwork.com

First Monthly Coloring Contest Starts TODAY

babysitterexpress — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 10:15:36 +0000

Babysitter Express’s first monthly coloring contest starts TODAY! For the September Coloring Contest, the winners in each age category will receive a Regal Entertainment gift card!

Our monthly coloring contests are open to children ages 12 and under. Only one entry per contest will be accepted per child and prizes will be awarded to one child in each of the following age categories: ages 4 and under, ages 5-8, and ages 9-12. Prizes will be awarded based on creativity.

Entries can be submitted by mailing the picture to:

PO Box 52634; Knoxville, TN 37950

Emailing the picture to: contest@tnbabysitterexpress.com

Please include in your submission the child’s name and age, address, phone number, and email address so that winners can be notified.

Click on the links below to choose a picture!!

http://tnbabysitterexpress.com/Documents/Football%20Character%201.pdf

http://tnbabysitterexpress.com/Documents/Football%20Character%202.pdf

Keep your family organized this Fall – c

babysitterexpress — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 17:25:08 +0000

Keep your family organized this Fall – check out these 8 calendars! http://ow.ly/5XXsb

Moms are eternally busy! How do you save

babysitterexpress — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 17:25:04 +0000

Moms are eternally busy! How do you save time to get everything done? http://ow.ly/5XXmM

4 days ’til school starts back!!! How d

babysitterexpress — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 20:00:28 +0000

4 days ’til school starts back!!! How do you organize yourself and the kids for back to school time? http://ow.ly/5XXen

Guest Blog Post: Keep track of your gift cards! Here’s how!!!

babysitterexpress — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 09:45:29 +0000

Keep Track of Your Gift Cards!! Here’s How!!

Enjoy this blog post by Evette from the Rachael Ray show! I found it valuable and interesting because we all have a ton of gift cards crowding our purses that we never seem to use! Enjoy!!

While I was doing some post holiday cleaning and organizing of all my paperwork, a seemingly never ending task, I noticed that I have a boat load of gift cards. I have cards with balances from when I returned stuff without receipts (which I often do), gift cards that I’ve received as gifts from friends and colleagues and they were all stashed in one corner of my junk drawer, out of sight and unfortunately out of mind.

It got me thinking, why don’t I devise a way to organize them so that I can have them in my purse at all times and actually use them instead of leaving them lying around.

So yesterday, after attending a funeral, picking up my brother Derrick from the airport and having a nice glass of wine, I got to solving the gift card conundrum, and I came up with (drum roll please) the Gift Card Key Ring! It took me 15 minutes to do, I think this is going to work GREAT for me, and I hope that it does for you too!

Gift Card Key Ring

Here is what you need:

- Gift cards
- A hole puncher
- Binder rings (you can get these at any office supply store)

Directions:

1. First if you have the balance for each card, write it on the back of the card in permanent marker

2. Make a hole in the upper left of your first gift card

3. Line up the next gift card behind the first one and make a hole in the same place

4. Continue this with all of your gift cards

5. Organize them, if you have enough, group them by type, for instance I realized that I had 2 HomeGoods gift cards so I put those together, I also grouped my clothing cards and put my meal cards together.

6. Now open up the binder ring and slip it through the holes in each of the gift cards and Ta Da! You have a key ring with all of your cards that won’t be cluttering up your wallet and you can just throw into your purse!

No more losing those gift cards! Now go out and spend those little babies, after all that was what they were intended for!

VOILA!! Do you have any other ideas on taming the mess in our purses?

100 Days of Real Food – Could Your Family Do It?

babysitterexpress — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 09:45:19 +0000

100 Days of Real Food – could your family do it?.

I just ran across this blog about a woman who pledged to serve 100 days of real food to her family! It worked so successfully she did it again after the 100 days was up with a budget of $125 per week! I give her kudos for this! Many parents give their children junk non-stop and wonder why they are unhealthy! It is definitely a challenge in this day in age to eat healthy and go without fast food… do you think your family could do it?

http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/

WHAT do you do all day!?!?

babysitterexpress — Thu, 12 May 2011 19:32:19 +0000

A man came home from work and found his three children outside, still in their pajamas, playing in the mud, with empty food boxes and wrappers strewn all around the front yard.

The door of his wife’s car was open, as was the front door to the house and there was no sign of the dog. Proceeding into the entry, he found an even bigger mess. A lamp had been knocked over, and the throw rug was wadded against one wall.

In the front room the TV was loudly blaring a Cartoon channel, and the family room was strewn with toys and various items of clothing.

In the kitchen, dishes filled the sink, breakfast food was spilled on the counter, the fridge door was open wide, dog food was spilled on the floor, a broken glass lay under the table, and a small pile of sand was spread by the back door.

He quickly headed up the stairs, stepping over toys and more piles of clothes, looking for his wife. He was worried she might be ill, or that something serious had happened.

He was met with a small trickle of water as it made its way out the bathroom door. As he peered inside he found wet towels, scummy soap and more toys strewn over the floor. Miles of toilet paper lay in a heap and toothpaste had been smeared over the mirror and walls.

As he rushed to the bedroom, he found his wife still curled up in the bed in her pajamas, reading a novel. She looked up at him, smiled, and asked how his day went.

He looked at her bewildered and asked, ‘What happened here today?’

She again smiled and answered, ‘You know every day when you come home from work and you ask me what in the world do I do all day?’

‘Yes,’ was his incredulous reply.

She answered, ‘Well, today I didn’t do it.’

Guest Blog Post: Seeing is Believing… Right?

babysitterexpress — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 17:46:20 +0000

Seeing is Believing…Right?

By Dr. Deanna Brann

Several years ago I was visiting my son and daughter-in-law for a long weekend (I was living out of state at the time). It was getting to be dinnertime, and I was waiting for a sign from my daughter-in-law that dinner was going to be started. Nothing happened. Eventually my daughter-in-law went into the kitchen. I immediately followed her and started to help. I had felt the tension for a while now, but suddenly it just seemed you could cut the air with a knife. Obviously my daughter-in-law was upset with me, but I couldn’t figure out why.

I saw her as lackadaisical and insensitive to others.

She saw me as critical and intrusive.

Perception is a funny thing. We all seem to confuse perception with reality. But then I guess in many ways perception is reality, at least that’s the way it seems. You know the saying – there’s one person’s side to a story, the other person’s side to that same story, and then there’s the Truth. Well, that’s really about perception vs. the Truth.

What we don’t think about often times is that perception – our perception – is directly influenced by our history and “baggage.” So every situation, every relationship is colored by our past experiences, our perception of those experiences, and our reactions to them.

We can feel hurt, angry, frustrated or whatever with another person and feel very justified in those feelings. But what does this really do for us? It doesn’t make the relationship better; it doesn’t fix whatever is wrong; it doesn’t make the other person change how they see the situation. It might make us feel that we’re right – which then must mean the other person is wrong…in our eyes. But, so what. The other person is probably feeling the same way. So you have two people feeling right, making the other person wrong. And then what? Sounds like a stand off to me!

As you read in the story above I’m as guilty as the next. I would have great intentions behind my actions, but my daughter-in-law couldn’t know what my intentions were. All she could see were my behaviors. And then add her perception to what she saw – BAM – problems in the relationship! And I would do the same – see her behavior, but not know her intentions, and interpret her actions based on my history & “baggage.”

It can be a humbling experience. But one of the things I learned from this was that this “exchange” between my daughter-in-law and me did not make my behavior wrong or bad. It was about perception.

Why is it so hard to look at ourselves – our behavior – and see our actions through the eyes of another? What makes us so afraid to take that step? Comment on this post to share your thoughts.

Learn more about Dr. Deanna Brann and her work with Mother-in-law and Daughter-in-law relationships online! Click Here!