The Confident Mom Affiliate link

Reposting this for those who are getting my posts via email . . . I discovered after I wrote the post that The Confident Mom does have an affiliate program, so I signed up and edited the post to include the affiliate link and expand the info. about TCM a bit more.

My affiliate link is http://www.theconfidentmom.com?ap_id=purplekangaroo 

This gives me a percentage of any purchase you make through that link.

I'm using The Confident Mom Weekly Household Planner, a system my mom discovered and started using, that I decided to try too . . . it incorporates elements from Sidetracked Home Executives, Flylady and similar systems in a way that seems to be a really good fit for me. The lady who wrote it has chronic health issues (lupus) and it is designed in a way that seems so much less overwhelming and easier to do than other ways of organizing household tasks I've tried.

The tasks are divided up in a really incremental, manageable way, and I can just tell the kids to pick a job off the page posted on the refrigerator when it comes time to assign chores. It's pretty flexible, and at this point I'm just doing what I can and not worrying too much if it doesn't quite all get done.

No pressure at all, but if you do decide to check out the program and purchase it as a result of my post, I'd appreciate the affiliate points. :)

Scheduled Day

Day one (again) of trying to have a more planned-out schedule for the entire day, both for myself and the kids. So far it seems to be going pretty well, actually.

We just finished spending 30 minutes on chores, and now the kids are exercising (walking the dog and going up to the end of the driveway to meet our neighbor at the school bus stop and get the mail) while I take a bit of a rest break. I've been sick for the last several weeks with a respiratory and sinus infection that's been sapping my energy and putting me into a flare-up, but after 26 days it finally seems to be in the process of getting better, hopefully.

We had a hot breakfast (side pork, home-grown fried eggs, and bananas) and the kids are mostly done with school (7yo still has some to do later during her scheduled free time, because she wasn't diligent during school time, but AJ and M&M got done early enough to have an hour of extra free time).

Dinner is well underway--soup is put together and simmering on the stove, and I'll probably make biscuits or muffins to go with it. The main part of the soup is legumes--quinoa and a variety of split legumes--red lentils, matpe beans and pigeon peas. I added homemade broth (from simmering the bones from a chicken and a rabbit we raised and butchered and had for dinner earlier in the week); some fresh carrots, tomatoes, onions, garlic, sweet potato and a tomato; celery, chickweed, dandelions and deadnettle from our garden and fields; and some Himalayan pink salt and black pepper. So far it's looking and smelling very flavorful. I have some additive-free country-style breakfast sausage that I may cook up and add for flavor, perhaps--or maybe I'll just add a pat of butter and garnish with sour cream. If I don't add the meat, I may try blending up the soup with an immersion blender before adding some frozen sweet white corn just before serving (yes, we can have fresh corn now!). We'll have a green salad alongside, with some more wild greens added to the store-bought salad mix to add interest and nutritional density.

Now it's time for the next thing on our list--working on caring for the animals, cleaning out cages, etc. We'll have about an hour of family fun time together after dinner.

I'm using The Confident Mom Weekly Household Planner, a system my mom discovered and started using, that I decided to try too . . . it incorporates elements from Sidetracked Home Executives, Flylady and similar systems in a way that seems to be a really good fit for me. The lady who wrote it has chronic health issues (lupus) and it is designed in a way that seems so much less overwhelming and easier to do than other ways of organizing household tasks I've tried.

The tasks are divided up in a really incremental, manageable way, and I can just tell the kids to pick a job off the page posted on the refrigerator when it comes time to assign chores. It's pretty flexible, and at this point I'm just doing what I can and not worrying too much if it doesn't quite all get done.

* Full disclosure: After writing this post, I decided to look at see if TCM happened to have an affiliate program. They do, so I set up an account and edited the post to include my affiliate link. The link above will give me a kickback of any sales initiated through that link.

Dressing Your Truth

Today is the last day to sign up for the Dressing Your Truth special promotion to get full access to the Dressing Your Truth course to try it out for 5 days for only $1.00

So far I've watched the Energy Profiling Class and am just starting into the actual Dressing Your Truth class, but what I've learned and gleaned already is already well worth more than $1.

The Energy Profiling stuff does have some hints of philosophy I don't personally agree with, but overall I'm highly impressed with the materials. It's not completely unique in that people have divided up personality traits and connected them with different elements, shapes, colors, parts of nature, etc. for generations.

But Carol Tuttle presents it in a unique and highly accessible way, that pulls parts of different ideas together with her own twist to make a rather unusual approach to understanding both the physical and personality traits that are inherent to you, and working with rather than against them in the way you live and even the way you dress.

She really encourages you to enjoy and appreciate who you are, and that what you might view as your weaknesses may actually be your strengths when used appropriately. She also teaches women how to dress and wear colors, lines and textures that convey and support their personality and natural beauty rather than fighting against it.

The 4 types are Type 1, the bright animated person; Type 2, the soft subtle person; Type 3, the rich, dynamic person; and Type 4, the bold, striking person.

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I'm a Type 3, but for most of my life I've dressed (and often tried to act) like a Type 2 or Type 4, which gives people a mistaken impression of who I am and doesn't always predispose them to respond as well when my true personality unexpectedly pops out. When I dress like a soft, subtle woman, people often get surprised, taken aback and maybe even a little unsettled when they suddenly get jolted by the fact that I'm actually quite a fiery, active, high-energy, intense person.

I'm also already finding that learning more about my kids' personalities is helping me parent better and helping the kids understand and get along with each other. There are also some great free videos on marriage relationships between the different types on Carol's Blog (they can also be found on YouTube). DH and I laughed all the way through the two videos on Type 2/Type 3 combos since they described us so well (he's a Type 2).

There are also some videos with great tips on parenting and motivating children of different types, also available free online.

Carol also has a couple of books out on the energy profiling and personality components of her ideas.

But the actual information about colors, lines, textures, and even hair and makeup techniques that flatter and complement each type is only available in the Dressing Your Truth course. This is really valuable information especially for someone like me who is style-challenged. :)

There is also extensive information (available only through the course) on learning facial profiling and being able to tell what Types others are likely to be by their features, body language, habits, and even things like how they doodle. If you take the course, the videos with further resources on learning facial profiling in the extra resources section give a lot more in-depth information than the basic course video. There are lots of extra resources available, including access to previous club nights talking about things like how to bring your secondary type into the way you dress, also.

I'm really excited about this special offer, because I think it's well worth more than the $1.

Full Disclosure: This is a sponsored post in the sense that if you click through the links in this post, http://purplekangaroo.dressingyourtruth.com/coursetrial#main_navigation

I do get a kickback from whatever you buy now or in the future . . . they do that as a thank-you and incentive for anyone who has bought something who wants to share with others about their products. It is not a multi-level-marketing type of thing or something they heavily promote, but I thought in the interest of full disclosure I should mention that I do receive some benefit if you purchase through these links. You can also bypass that by going directly to the Dress Your Truth website without using my links if you prefer.

Timez Attack--an amazing resource for mastering multiplication tables

AJ has been struggling with not seeing the need to learn math, and therefore not wanting to do math. So we've been looking for creative ways to teach math facts to her. One of the resources we've found is so unusual and great that it deserves special mention: an unusually well-made RPG adventure math game called Timez Attack.

I'm so impressed by this program that I signed up for their affiliate program--something I don't do lightly.

Timez Attack is a video game with unusually exciting play and graphics. It plays like an role playing adventure game, where you direct your character through a 3-dimensional world. In order to open doors and fight monsters, you have to know your times tables.

Better yet, the way the game is set up actually helps to teach the times tables in a very visual, logical way. For example, early in the game a door labeled 2 x 8 has a graphic of two groups of 8 next to it. Little creatures jump out of the wall, each of them worth 8 points toward getting the door open. The program keeps a running count of your total as you catch the animals and they turn into balls worth 8 points each . . . 8, 16. Then you have to throw the correct number of balls (each worth 8) at the door to open it.

Behind the door is a monster who has multiplication problems appear on his belly. You deal him blows by solving the math problems until you beat him. If you get too close to him or take too long to type in the correct answer, he deals you a blow, which damages your character.

The graphics and game play are reminiscent of a PlayStation, GameCube or Wii type of RPG game, but you play it directly on your computer (there are downloads for either Mac or PC).

My math hater is suddenly very enthusiastic about learning her times tables. She's even happy to watch someone else play the game, and help by shouting out the answers as the math problems appear.

The game is so exciting that even I enjoy playing it. I've even caught NLASS and her friends in their teens and twenties playing it.

Try the free version to learn tables 2-12. It's a fully functional version of the game, but doesn't have the variety of different worlds and creatures that the full version has.

If you decide to upgrade to the full version (you can earn a discount by telling a friend or buying the program at the same time as a friend), I would of course appreciate it if you do it through my affiliate link (any of the links on this post) which will give me a kickback of a portion of the sale for advertising: www.bigbrainz.com/index.php?PARTNER=purplekanga

P.S. Blog posts which are paid for by a sponsor or give me some sort of benefit such as an affiliate program will be tagged "sponsored" on my blog.