Four Awesome Family Deals This Week!!!

You know I love a good value. This week is chock full of them!


Check out these four events, all happening this week!!!


Wednesday, Nov 10, 2010, 7:00-9:00pm

Free Parenting Workshop

10 Secrets to Stop Defiance & Power Struggles
at Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church, Severna Park, MD


If you don't have discipline issues, maybe you'd like your family to boost their fitness....

Wednesday, Nov 10, 2010, 7:00-8:30pm

Family Shape Up Solutions

at the Severna Park Community Center
$25 to register, check flyer for details


Thursday, Nov 11, 2010

Free National Park Admission Day – Veteran’s Day



Saturday, Nov 13, 2010 - 2-5pm

Friends of ECI Children’s Consignment Sale
at the Severna Park Community Center



Now you can shop, get informed and have fun while saving money! Enjoy!

An Election Campaign Technique That Gets My Vote

I was dumbfounded when I went to pick up the phone in the midst of all the pre-election frenzy to get votes. Instead of getting another prerecorded message, I got a live person. Even better, the candidate's name was actually displayed on my caller ID. So I took the call.

I told the person, a volunteer telemarketer, that I would be voting in the election, but wasn't too savvy with the candidates. (Yes, I'm terribly uninformed when it comes to politics...) She was able to give me a nice summary of the things the candidate hopes to accomplish if I vote for her and the issues that she will address. Sure, the caller could spin things to make the candidate sound great. But the difference is that I had an opportunity to have a dialog about these issues.

So guess what? I'll be voting for this candidate. Had I been really informed in politics, I would have had an opportunity to ask more questions, ask about specific issues and have, gasp, a CONVERSATION with a real person, instead of listening to yet another message sucking up my answering machine's recording time. With my little guy tugging at my leg and my phone time grinding to a halt, this method worked.

No Slots at the Mall

I am not politically savvy. However, this Halloween, I have to post about the posturing and masquerading of big business and the lobbyists over a big issue here in Anne Arundel County, MD.

Big business and the teachers and police unions are pushing the opportunity to have slot machines installed at Arundel Mills Mall. There are signs everywhere talking about increased jobs and revenue as a result. It's despicable, really. Let's promote a questionable activity that we would not allow our kids to participate in and use it to support our kids. Blood money!

Are we that desperate for money and jobs that we would use any means necessary?
Come on! Let's put the gambling where the gambling already exists - the Laurel racetrack. (If if were me, I'd vote to not have gambling, but that is just a personal, moral issue with me.)

Big business is not exactly being truthful with all this increase in jobs and revenue. More of it is going to end up in their pockets, and whatever is distributed to schools will be distributed across the state.

Are the lobbyists worried? I think so! They continue to cloud the issues and mention all the perceived benefits while ignoring the real issues of traffic, mall access and displaced jobs elsewhere. Not to mention the moral implication of providing money for our children with an activity that causes many participants to lose their savings and encourage indebtedness.

Being a fair person, I'll let you decide for yourself. Compare No Slots At the Mall and Vote for Question A. The No Slots site is much easier to navigate and really gets to the issues at hand. The Vote For site provides a lot of text, but hides under the banner of "More Jobs and Revenue".

Check out this op-editorial in the Baltimore Sun.

Frugal Find: Free Taster's Choice Coffee

Folks that know me know that I love free. So, I registered for my free coffee sample of all 6 varieties of Taster's Choice coffee individual instant coffee packets. Positioned to be a wallet friendly competitor to the Starbuck's VIA, I figured it's worth a shot.

Want your free sample? Just register at www.tasterschoice.com/thesmartchoice

I've had the VIA and it's pretty good. As soon as I get my samples, I'll post my opinion here...

Enjoy!

Frugal Families: Saving Money with School Lunches and Snacks

Check out my latest post for Chesapeake Family....
Frugal Families: Saving Money with School Lunches and Snacks

You can also follow me on Twitter...

Blind Trust

What a difference between a 6 year old and a 3 year old. My poor daughter was busy being conned by her brother for M&M candies as he proceeded to tell her that the green ones were minty and the red ones were bloody. He scared her enough that she readily gave them to her brother, who was more than pleased to rescue her from those dastardly candies. While I didn't condone the cunning used by big brother to inherit more chocolate, I reveled in the purity of the 3 year old, so openly trusting her brother to warn her of the "bad M&M's". One day, she'll be a little wiser and it will be interesting to see how she handles his attempts to outsmart her.

What Would Wall-E Do?

I've been very strict about which movies I'll let my kids watch. Consequently, I don't spend a lot of time watching movies either. However, one movie that I (and not at the behest of my kids) will actually watch again and again is Wall-E. Sure, the movie is for kids, but it's a poignant reminder of how we impact the world.

I could go on and on about the ramifications of the environment and the more obvious message the movie presents, but the thing that really struck me about this movie is the hopefulness that Wall-E exudes. You see, it's not just enough that this poor ol' robot has been attempting to clean the earth by compacting an overwhelming overflow of trash. He's been at it for over 700 YEARS!!!! Although he longs for companionship, he never wavers at doing his thing. He hopes. He endures. He outlasts all the other Wall-E models and eventually gets to meet Eve.

Every time Wall-E interacted with another robot or person, he offered a polite handshake, another nicety that seems so out of place in this hectic, computerized, individualized world we live in. The people who met him remembered him because of his willingness to serve. I know, I'm talking about a fictitious film with an animated droid as a superhero. But it gave me pause. What if I always had hope about the future, even if it would be 700 years before my dreams were realized? What if I put others first and looked to help them, no matter how overwhelming the clutter of life seems to be?

So, there you have it. Wall-E is a great witness for having hope. If a computerized machine with no soul can have a heart, then maybe there's hope for the rest of us.

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Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. - Galatians 6:9 (NIV)