Helping Kids Cut Their Own Food

"Mom, will you cut my waffle/chicken/pizza/cinnamon roll...?" I hear this question often...and times three kids. I did not want to be cutting other people's food at the expense of my own hot meal for years and years. I had to end this. So at a young age I set out to teach my kids how to cut their own food.

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The Secret to Brushing Tangled Children's Hair

Once upon a time I hated American Girl Dolls. This time was very, very recent. And truth is I still dislike their massive commercial nature. We have an American Doll Store in my town and it is insane to walk in there. I'd hoped to keep Princess Fierce away from them forever but she was lured in a few months ago. Fortunately she has her momma's thrifty streak and even at five could not fathom the need for a $100 dollar doll when a very similar one was available at Tuesday Morning for less than $20. And the Tuesday Morning doll, from the Target line, looks like her.

She scored that bargain doll for her birthday. Here she is with it the very weekend after her birthday taking Remember on a hike to see waterfalls. But do you see the back of Remember's ponytail? That's a plastic hair rat nest and the doll is only days old. Uh-oh. Princess Fierce was not happy with how fast her hair was tangling.

A quick turn to the Interwebs and I found a solution. A wig brush and a mist of water. Whatever you do don't dare touch their tresses with the plastic toy brushes sold with the dolls. We headed off to our local Sally's Beauty Supply to score an inexpensive wig brush. Only $3.99. A quick mist with water and strokes of the right brush and Remember's hair was smooth and ready for a braid.

But this post is not about how to brush a doll's hair. Nope, this is about a bigger problem.

My own daughter's hair. This is what I'm dealing with when Princess Fierce wakes up. And guess what? She HATES me brushing her hair. She also hates brushing it herself. She also is not a fan of headbands or barrettes and will tolerate a pony tail on rare occasions. Rare! So this means daily we battle over just trying to brush her hair. Regarding style, it just hangs free and wild...like her spirit. I will even confess some days I don't have the fight in me so we just skip brushing and this is her hair for the entire day. Bad mommy!

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How to Make Cheap Snow Gloves for Southern Kids

We're still in the throes of a freak snow event down here. Schools, and the city itself, are on day four of a shut down. I lived here during the blizzard of 1993 and don't remember the roads being out of commission this long at all. However, unlike in 1993, we had a lot of warning this was coming. But since snow is very uncommon in Atlanta I do not buy real winter gloves for my children. It's just a waste of money. My 10yo son only saw his first snowfall three years ago. The inexpensive $1 knit gloves at Target have served us well. Until this week. On Sunday, the day before the predicted white stuff would fall, I tried to find real snow gloves for my youngest children. I had no luck. These gloves are just not easy to find in Atlanta...especially past Christmas; we have swimsuits out in many stores, long johns, hats and scarves are already on clearance shelves. I was excited about the largest snowfall in years for my kids and wanted to have something to keep their hands dry so they could sled and play for hours. I was not to be deterred.

And then I found the answer...

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How to Remove Nail Polish from Clothing

Princess Fierce wanted to paint my toes the other day with her dark blue glitter nail polish. Her first attempt at giving a pedicure resulted in my having blue nails and toes...and nail polish on her pretty new-to-her dress. Oy.

The polish couldn't have been red? Nope blue polish that dried practically black.

Close up on the polish.

I didn't even attempt nail polish remover fearing it would take the color from the dress. I was planning to cover up the spots with some type of new embellishments on the dress. But before I did that I thought I'd just google my problem to see if there were an answer. And I found an improbable one.

But one that lots of people swore worked.

So I gave it a try.

And check it out. No spots!

Look closer. Can you see the polish?

Look as close as you can. I can't even tell where it was. Amazing.

And what exactly created this miracle?

Bug Spray!

Yep, this bug spray right here did the trick. I didn't believe it until it worked. I first tried with pump bug spray and nothing happened. I didn't give up after so many interweb comments said it would work. I bought aerosol bug spray and tried again. A spray. A rub with a white wash cloth. BOOM! Immediate lightening of the TWO WEEK dried nail polish. All in all it took me about five minutes of spraying and rubbing. A toss in the wash to remove the buggy smell and all was new again. Unbelievable. I absolutely had to share. Next time you have nail polish land on your favorite fabrics give it a try.

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