>Question of the Day: Company and your Children

>I need some advice. If you have children, what do you do to help keep them entertained when you have company over for a visit and are making dinner too?

Typically when I cook dinner, my son gets to watch television, but I felt yesterday, when my parents came over for a visit and dinner (we were grilling burgers and making other things), I felt it would be rude to allow him to watch television, when they are here to see all of us.

I also don’t want to just plug him in front of the TV, though honestly sometimes it feels like the safest things altogether, because he can’t get into harm and he’s also happy while people are here. Last year holiday dinners were hard that way because he doesn’t have anyone else to play with. I though of buying him a special DVD to watch after Thanksgiving dinner so the rest of us can still sit back and enjoy ourselves and he has something fun too.

Just a few minutes after they arrived, and we started chatting a little, my son didn’t know what to do with himself, and he will just start to act out, doing things like hitting people, or whining and clinging to me. It is really kind of shocking, because he NEVER acts like that, and of course, a bit embarrassing in front of my parents when he will suddenly hit them. I know deep down, that my son is just missing our attention, and wanting some of his own, but I don’t know how to prepare him for that.

I could sure use some ideas. One time, when a friend was visiting we hadn’t seen in a long time, I got my son a new toy, to occupy him for some visiting time. It somewhat worked. I also tried to prep a lot of the food during naptime and just have a meal in the oven. Perhaps those are some solutions too?

It is amazing as a mom how much you need to prepare/premeditate situations and try to be prepared for them. That, I am definitely learning.

>Seeking Advice

>All you moms out there. I need some advice on a number of things I need to get better at:

1) How can you successfully go grocery shopping with a three-year-old (I’ve been avoiding it, but want to start doing it so he does a good job and has fun too)?

2) Can you only paint your nails during naptime or when your child is in bed?

3) How can you distract your child (or entertain) in the kitchen when you do some extensive cooking?
 (I don’t want to promote too much TV watching.)

4) Can you get bills paid and do paperwork when your child is awake? What is a good activity for them to do while you do this?

In other words, I am in a transition, where I don’t want to try to shove so much into time when he’s sleeping or I need to go off on my own to do it. I want to involve him and/or plan activities for him to have fun doing while I’m doing my tasks too. I’m getting too tired trying to do it all in limited time and want to branch out on my thinking.

Thank you for any suggestions you have!

>Question of the Day: Finding Time

>As I rush through my morning routine, I think “How do I find the time to…”:
*Fold and put away laundry?
*Pick up and put away things from our trip 2 weeks ago?
*Get organized to do scrapbooking one day again?
*Catch up with emails?
*Wash the sheets that are overdue?
*Look at all those great blogs I’m behind on reading?
*Wash or get my car washed, must less really need the detailing it needs?

I know many of you stay up until all hours of the night getting things like that done after your children are in bed, but being an early bird…I just can’t. I’m asleep by 9:15/9:30 most nights, and up by…well, I was awake at 4:40 AM this morning because my son was, even though he played alone in his room and I drifted in and out of sleep until I got up after 5 AM.

I really only have, at most one to one and a half hours in the evenings when I can get those “extras” done. How do you do it?

>Question of the Day: Staying in Budget and Stockpiling

>I have a question I need to ask any and all of you out there:

With managing coupons and sales, how do you try to stay in budget while also stockpiling the good sale items, and getting what you need?

This last week, I wanted to take advantage of some great sales at grocery stores on items we use frequently, like: cereal (I think I bought ten boxes), bread, peanut butter, Eggos, salad dressing, etc. Mind you, these weren’t items we need next week.

I also wanted to take advantage of some health and beauty items using coupons that expired 6/30/10, that we would be using in the future, as well as some extra sunblock we were getting low on (of course I didn’t have a coupon).

Of course, I then added to the list the items I needed to complete meals for the week.

Well, it really adds up, to more than I would, of course, pay in a week for groceries.

How do all these extras fit in, that you don’t use on a weekly or monthly basis, but are items you need (like the $33.00 bag of dog food every 4 months or so)?

I’m such a beginning at all of this, but I also think I’m doing a pretty good job so far. I can just see it can be easy to overspend while also trying to save money.

>Question of the Day: mint.com

>Question for any readers out there. Do any of you use mint.com, and if so, what are your thoughts? It sounds appealing, but I’m concerned about security, what with having to input all your account numbers and such.

I currently do all my tracking in Excel and would like something easier, without paying money for a program.

Any thoughts?