Have you seen the new MyEducation.com commercial? It’s perfect for this time of the year, comparing zombies to people who feel like they are stuck in a dead end job.  Pretty creative, actually.  I know there was a point in my life where I felt like I was stuck in a job that wasn’t fulfilling so I can relate.

Furthering your education as an adult is not uncommon.  After working in the same career for so long some reach a point where they want to try something new or learn a new skill.  Funny how when we are in high school and college we can’t wait to get out of school yet after being adults for many years we look back and wish we could do it all over again.  MyEducation.com helps you figure out how.  They match you with the perfect school that offers exactly what you need and determines if you qualify for grants to assist with the cost.

Right now MyEducation.com has a #ComeAlive contest going on where you can create your own short video for a chance to win $2,500.  That’s a nice chunk of change to assist you with your future!  What would help make you feel like you are ‘coming alive‘?

Do you feel like a zombie?

This woman reminds me of many moms I know that make sure the house is clean, the kids are taken care of, the dog even looks cute yet she never takes time for herself.  Taking the time to get back into college even part time or to take just one class can help you come alive with education!

Full Disclosure: This post is sponsored by MyEducation.com. All opinions are my own. Find out more information about the ComeAlive with MyEducation.com.

Last week The Motherhood hosted a class on Tweens and Communication thanks to Unilever and it turned out amazing.  If you missed the live online class you can read everything you missed on The Motherhood or just the summary of Tweens and Communication.  Several amazing women joined us to chit chat about raising tweens/teens, how to get them to open up about life and school without prying and how to comfort them as a mother without crossing the boundaries of being too much of a friend and not a parental.  Everyone shared advice and experiences while best-selling author and parenting expert, Rosalind Wiseman lead us in the right direction.

During the live chat they gave away a nice gift bag filled with goodies.  Two of Rosalind Wiseman’s books and some Unilever products that are perfect for building self confidence in teens by helping stay dry and fresh.

Unilever has also provided me with the opportunity to give one Vera Bradley filled tote bag away to a lucky reader.

How to Enter:

Leave a comment sharing one tip on how you encourage positive communication with your tween/teen. {ex: during dinner time have everyone share favorite part of the day at the dinner table}

Additional Entries: (one entry per comment)

• Tweet the below tweet and leave permalink in the comments

Enter the #giveaway hosted by @MommaDJane to #win a Vera Bradley tote bag filled with goodies http://ow.ly/6U2VU #DontFretTheSweat

• Follow @MommaDJane on Twitter
• Subscribe to MommaDJane RSS Feed

*Giveaway is open to all US Residents 18+ Entries will be accepted until Tuesday, October 18th at midnight CST. Any and all comments after that time will not be counted towards giveaway entries. Reader must leave a method of contact within comment and must respond within 48 hours of contact, otherwise a new winner will be chosen. Random.org will be used to select a random winner from comments on this post.

Full Disclosure: I did receive a complimentary Vera Bradley tote bag filled with the same goodies I’m offering as a giveaway.  All opinions are 100% mine.

Positive communication with your tween/teen is extremely important.  I’d love for you to share this post with others that you feel the live talk may benefit. Just a simple click of like or share on Facebook would be awesome!  You can also follow the initiative by Unilever on Facebook for their Don’t Fret The Sweat campaign.

Congrats, Tshanina

Tuesday, October 4th I’ll be co-hosting a live chat on The Motherhood around the topic of Tweens and Communication with best-selling author, Rosalind Wiseman at 11:00 PM CST.  The live chat is open to the public for you to join free.  You can come chat with us or submit questions beforehand.

It’s very simple to register at The Motherhood and join the Tweens and Communication chat.  Simply visit TheMotherhood.com and click to register if you aren’t already a member of the network.  Then visit the class page, Tweens and Communication and click register and join live on Tuesday.  Remember, if you can’t make it you can submit a question today that will be answered by Rosalind Wiseman during the class.

As a mother of a teenager and currently one tween I know communication isn’t always easy.  During the text-based chat we’ll discuss ways to open up communication with your children and help make it a two-way talk.  As a teen mom I know how important communication with your children is and being able to learn how to listen and respond in a way they will feel comfortable opening up to you again.  By joining the live chat you can ask questions and even share your own experience and advice.

There are 5 other blogger co-hosts joining me.

• Carmen, Mom to the Screaming Masses
• Jen, Jael Custom Designs
• Michele, Scraps of My Geek Life
• Kailani, An Island Life
• Kristin, Only Parent Chronicles

Thanks to Unilever sponsoring this series on The Motherhood they are giving away one tote bag filled with goodies to one lucky participant during the live chat on Tuesday.  It’s part of the Don’t Fret The Sweat campaign and initiative that you can learn more about on their Facebook page.

The Vera Bradley tote bag will be filled with these items: momAgenda Desktop Planner, momAgenda Chores Pad, momAgenda Love Post-It Notes, one sample each of Dove, Degree Girl, and Degree Men deodorant, Rosalind Wiseman’s Queen Bees and Wannabes and Rosalind Wiseman’s Boys, Girls & Other Hazardous Materials.

Full Disclosure: I was compensated for sharing this information with you.  All opinions are 100% mine and I decided to accepted the invitation to be a co-host of this live chat because I strongly believe in the message.

By now schools all over America have started back in session for a new year. My kids brought home their three week progress reports this week to mark the half way point for the first grading period. T has settled into her new classes nicely and Noah has become comfortable with kindergarten. I still walk him into his class each day, he hasn’t reached that comfort level yet. Thankfully I work from a home office and have the flexibility to take him each day.

This year we live close enough to T’s school that she can walk. It’s the first year she hasn’t rode a bus. I was taking her daily and now that the weather has been nicer she is actually enjoying the walk. I’m sure it’s because those are the few minutes each day she gets quiet time alone without her siblings and outside a busy and somewhat chaotic middle school. I bet it’s peaceful.

Gabby hasn’t started back in school yet. She has still been recovering from her surgery. We are keeping our fingers crossed the doctor releases her to return next week. She sure is missing school, her friends and her teachers. Gabby is the only one this year that will still ride a bus. All three kids will be in three different schools, should be fun to keep track of.

Some bus systems are now offering a ZPass tracking method. It’s pretty cool, honestly. The student tracking software allows the students to carry a card that is scanned each time they get on and off a bus. This is the perfect way to make sure your child gets on when they should and off at the correct stop. This would be great for parents that work outside of the home and worry about their child making it to school okay.

The school bus GPS tracking lets you check in where the bus is during their route. This is a great safety feature for unexpected vehicle maintenance needs, I’ve known plenty of buses that have broken down with people on them. Last year T was on a bus that had to pull over and switch the students onto another bus to finish the route home. It’s would also be nice to find out if your child is running late getting off the bus if you have a busy evening scheduled.

I hope one day they offer this in all school buses for all public schools. Nowadays we can never be too safe with our children. Right now I believe it’s only offered for public buses taking college age students back and forth.

Macy’s is hosting a sweepstakes where one lucky classroom will receive a makeover worth $25,000!  Want to share your school spirit?  I’m sure everyone knows a great homeroom that could use some financial help.  Entry is super easy.  Just visit Macy’s Facebook page, click the Classroom Makeover tab and fill out the simple form.  You can then share the sweepstakes on Facebook and/or Twitter.

The Macy’s Classroom Makeover Sweepstakes ends September 15th so hurry and enter right away.  Your child’s school could benefit from $25,000!

Full Disclosure: I was compensated by SheSpeaks for my time sharing this sweepstakes.

Guest post by Erica Mueller

If you’re working towards treating your blog like a business and you’ve started investing in the tools you need to do so, you know you can’t afford to buy everything up front. One of the most important steps towards monetizing your blog is making it look good, so you’ll be shopping for design software for your blog, business cards, and fliers.

While top of the line software can be a bit pricey, I highly recommend the investment. You can get away with free or cheap software for a while, but the more you learn about graphic design, the more you’ll be frustrated with the limitations of beginner software. So, as soon as you can, start saving up for the good stuff!

Free Graphic Design and Image Editing Software for Bloggers:
Picnik. This free software is especially popular with bloggers because there is nothing to download. The service is all online and can be used from anywhere. You can change colors, do some basic editing, add text and if you’re creative, make buttons, banners, and headers for your blog. If you want you can even upgrade to a paid version to make use of some of their premium tools.

Gimp is a free graphic design software you can download and use on your own computer. It’s a little more advanced than your every day photo editor… you can actually create your own graphics. It’s normally compared to something like Fireworks.

Premium Image Editing and Design Software for Bloggers:
I learned graphic design and photo editing on an old copy of Macromedia Fireworks. It’s what I used to create Dwan’s button and her In The Twilight banner. Using Firework’s tools I was able to take some images, which I cropped and layered, some font, and a border to create a unique banner to promote her series.

Fireworks is now a part of the Adobe family of design software. Adobe is recognized as one of the top providers of imaging software. Photoshop and PS Elements, Illustrator, Fireworks, and InDesign are all part of the Adobe Design Premium Creative Suite. You can purchase them separately, or all together, but it’s been my experience that most people only need one. What you need will depend on whether you plan to design from scratch or work mostly with photos, in which case, you’ll want to pick and image editing software like Photoshop Elements over a more advanced graphic design software like Illustrator.

What have you designed, and which software did you use?

Erica Mueller is a self-taught graphic and web designer who specializes in WordPress theme modification. She resides in Texas with her husband (also a geeky designer) and their two boys. You can find her on Twitter: @EricaMueller.

For most of us, summer never comes soon enough. With it comes swimming, barbequing, camping, baseball, and for kids – freeeeeeedom! But with these things, come inevitable increases in household spending. Bored kids need entertainment, which usually costs money. The electric bill climbs as the air conditioning gets cranked. Vacation savings are initiated. But there are ways to keep the spending under control, and even add some extra income into your life that are so easy you’ll be beating yourself up over waiting till the summer of 2011 to put them into action.

Let’s talk about that energy. The refrigerator, believe it or not, accounts for one-sixth of a home’s power use. During the summer this only rises, outdone perhaps only by the air conditioning as what sucks the most electricity out of your outlet, but you can cut down on energy use significantly by keeping your refrigerator stocked up. Don’t pack it so full that air can’t circulate, but lots of cold items helps re-cool the inside faster after the door has been opened. Even jugs of water work if you don’t have the funds or the stomachs to keep a fridge full of food.

Your car’s air conditioner is another place where you can cut down easily if you go about it the right way. Everybody knows about the recirculation option available with all car A/C units, but not everybody knows how to use it the right way. The tendency is to hit both buttons as soon as the car starts, but it’s best to run the A/C alone first. This lets the air inside the car get cold before getting recirculated. Otherwise you’re just using more energy making your A/C recycle hot air.

Now we move onto the topic of earning extra income at home. You probably think the concept is ridiculous, and you’d be right if you’re picturing an actual paycheck getting received or some windfall developing out of working from your home computer part-time. But there are plenty of options available online that enable you to get a hold of a number of promotional gimmicks and other giveaways that can help you keep the weekly household budget down. Survey sites like SurveyHead are such places. All you have to do is fill out a few surveys in your spare time and they reward you with gift cards and other perks. Do enough surveys and you can even turn them in for real dough.

Summer doesn’t have to be expensive. You just need to know how to cut a few of the excesses down and find ways to supplement your income to keep stocked on the necessary summertime supplies. The annual family vacation doesn’t need to be cancelled to make ends meet so long as you stay vigilant as to ways to keep your household spending from rising with the temperature.

In celebration of Cars 2 hitting theaters June 24th State Farm partnered up with Disney Pixar to bring the Agents on a Mission Cars 2 tour to multiple big cities. Lightening McQueen, Mater and Finn come out to meet the kids and pose for photo opps. A fun Cars 2 theme bounce house obstacle course is setup for the kids to have some extra fun.

State Farm is giving away 18,000 prizes to represent the 18,000 agents they have. The State Farm and Disney partnership to promote the launch of Cars 2 is a great combination. Both companies support families and State Farm believes in driving safety. What better way to reach that audience than through the promotion of the most popular cars related family movie?

The kids had so much fun.  The temperature was a little hot out but luckily they were handing out free cups of ice water to everyone.  The kids came home with a fun Cars 2 character magnet and keychain and we were able to download our free photos from State Farm online.

Even though Gabby and Noah have seen Mater and Lightening McQueen before at Disney World, they were extremely excited to see them again and absolutely giddy about meeting Finn for the first time.  They haven’t stopped talking about the new movie that comes out next week for months.

You can enter the sweepstakes even if you didn’t make it out to your local city event.  Just visit the Cars 2 sweepstakes entry form online.  The event was free to the public and no purchase is required to enter the sweepstakes.

Disney Family has several really fun Cars theme crafts as well as some yummy recipes for treats your kids will love. I can’t wait to try some of these out for Noah’s birthday party in a couple of weeks. Above are a few of the crafts I know will give us some indoor fun this summer when it’s too hot to play outside. Not only do they look fun to make but also very easy with free printable templates.  You can click on each image separately to see the directions on how to make that craft or recipe. There are 20 Cars 2 crafts in all on Disney Family.

You can view all our photos from the Cars 2 event in DFW on my Disney Pixar Cars 2 Flickr set.

Full Disclosure: I was not compensated for this post.  All opinions are my own.  I shared our Disney Pixar Cars experience because my family loves all things Disney, especially this movie.

Juice In The City is searching for moms to join their team.  Applying to be a Local Business Consultant {LBC} gives moms the freedom to be at home with their kids while helping local businesses and making money for themselves.  Juice In The City is a mom-founded company with a sales team made up of all moms.Since their sales team is made up of all moms it gives them the leading edge for local daily deals.  Moms know which businesses are the best, which businesses they want to get great deals at and they know what other moms and kids like!  Those key ingredients makes Juice In The City successful.  Every daily deal is recommended by one of the Juice In The City moms with their own stamp of approval and testimonial listed right on the website.

Juice In The City is expanding into several new markets.  They are searching for LBCs in multiple areas and are building a list for future markets as well.  So no matter where you live if you are interested in joining their successful team I highly suggest you fill out an application today.

If you aren’t already receiving daily deals for Juice In The City then you should be!  Sign up to receive email notifications in the city near you.  Also if you plan to travel this summer for vacation or visit family out of state, don’t forget to check the daily deals in those areas.

Full Disclosure: Juice In The City is a local deal site ran by moms.  MommaDJane.com is an ambassador for them therefore receives sponsorship and uses affiliate links. All opinions are 100% mine, of course.

I recently took the eFoods Global Food Freedom Tour to learn about buying the best storable food.  There are many reasons why families should have storable food in their homes.  We had family members travel to New Orleans to work after Hurricane Katrina and heard first hand how awful the natural disaster was.  Another reason families find themselves without food could be from unexpected layoffs.  With today’s society we are spoiled with such convenience of driving down the block to a grocery store we get into the habit of not storing much.  I’ll admit when I was taking the quick video tour and it asked how many days my family could survive on the food in our pantry, I had to say one week.  And that’s if we ate all the soups.  That’s not very long and I hadn’t truly thought about how dangerous that could be if something went wrong.

eFoods offers many meals on their website that are storable for up to 15 years!  That’s amazing to me.  They also include NO added preservatives since they are fully dehydrated foods that have been flushed with CO2 so all oxygen is removed.  When food is properly dried and stored it usually has an unlimited shelf life.  However eFoods suggests consumption within 15 years to insure the best nutritional value.  When you are ordering your food from their website each meals lists the full nutritional facts, ingredients and directions.

eFoods requires their supplier to follow this strict ingredient requirement:

• Dehydrated from premium-grade fresh raw foods
• No genetically altered food
• No added MSG
• No imports from countries using illegal fertilizers and insecticides
• No hydrogenated oil

Taken from their website:

The eFoods Global™ story began many years ago and centers on our desire to bring quality storable foods to the world. Using the finest ingredients available, our affordable products are both nutritious and delicious—whether served tonight or fifteen years from now. They’re the kind of products you can literally bet your life on to nourish and sustain your family when you need them.

Unlike anything else, food reserves insulate you from outside influences and can literally save your life. Arguably food is our greatest dependency. In a world where market conditions are unstable and cash reserves in all forms may devalue, food remains invaluable. Many experts believe food is the life-sustaining currency of the future. Come what may, when you have food to eat, you are free to be self-reliant.

I highly suggest taking the quick video eFoods Global Food Freedom tour and think about purchasing some food to store.  You never know when you are going to need it.  Plus all of their meals look extremely yummy.  When you take the tour they offer you 6 meals free just as a way to say thank you for visiting and trying them out.  I can’t wait to test out some of their meals with my family, especially the ones where you only add water, how easy is that?!

Full Disclosure: I was compensated for my time sharing this information with my readers.  All opinions expressed in this post are 100% mine.  All information and facts about eFoods was taken from their website.

Do you have any storable food in your home?  How long would your family survive off of the food in your pantry today?