Grasshopper New Media Presents...

My first forray into the Festival of Family Flair! I hope I can do Barb and Erica justice with the submissions.

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I am so thrilled that Erica of Little Mummy (and right here at GNMParents) submitted her article on what to do with old birthday cards.

I came up with this idea when I was staring at the piles of old birthday cards I am (supposed to be) scrapbooking.

As I type, I have a stack of last year’s Christmas cards that I hate to throw away. They’re so beautiful and festive and our friends took a lot of time to fill them out. I feel the same way about birthday cards or all of the beautiful tenth anniversary cards we got last summer.

Her Birthday Card Mosaic really is a wonderful idea and easy enough for even the biggest crafting novice – Me!

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Improving my life and health is always a goal of mine. I was thrilled to read Scott Lee at Dirty Mechanism’s submission, Twenty Ways To Improve Your Life And Health. Sometimes we can get so mired down in the stresses of life that we need reminders to wake up and take stock.

From obvious, but something we all often forget and often need to be reminded:

Get enough sleep. While a common rule of at least 8 hours per night holds true with many people, everyone is different. Some people function with 10 or 12 hours much better, and medical journals and magazines have been raving about sleeping in for years; sleep is not a bad thing. But do not oversleep, of course, and do not let sleep interfere with your daily functioning.

To the truly thoughtprovoking and inspiring!

Hold back on the TV, or quit television all together. Some people I know are personally terrified to quit watching TV – they think it will be the end of the world or something. My suggestion is that you try it and see what it might do for you. For 30 days, lay off television and see what happens as a result. Take all the time you spend watching TV and hit the town – go meet new people, get involved in other activities, or read. Your perspective, even within a very short period of time, may dramatically change as a result, and your brain will thank you.

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Valentine’s Day is coming fast. My favourite part of the day isn’t chocolates or flowers or a card – it’s making a nice romantic meal, for my whole family! Julie at More4Kids submitted this awesome post of Valentine’s Day recipes including Heart Cookies, Pancakes and Cakes! They’re not only really cute, but very easy.

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I know a lot of people who make money on the web. Some spare change or extra coin, and some downright make a living! Supermom in NY has a really interesting post on how to use the web to your advantage with Clickback, Paypal Payments and Weight Loss.

And then there’s the part we can all relate to:

Not too long ago, I wrote about how I was going to take a break from blogging to lose weight. I have lost weight, but it’s not because of diet and exercise. I’m now down to a size 6. Why? I’ve been very busy with the kids, dentist appointments and so on.

Testify Supermom! Testify!

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Whew! That’s this week’s carnival! I had a great time reading the posts and discovering new blogs. I hope you’ll all find something inspiring.

What’s that you say? You’d like to host an upcoming Festival? We’d love it! Please leave a comment or email Megin. You can submit to next week’s Carnival right here.

[tags]humor, birthday cards, parenting, scrapbooking, money, finances, diet, weight, learning[/tags]