Busy Mom linked to Unclutterer.com on her Career and Kids blog (you know she has like 50 blogs, don’t you?) I think I’m in love…with the site, not Busy Mom, although I hope to finally meet up with her and Lindsay from Suburban Turmoil this summer since we are all practically neighbors and if one of us gets too drunk we can rely on someone else to drive us home.

I just saw BabyCheapskate.com linked from Linda’s blog. It’s definitely worth checking out.

I recently met the fabulous and fun Amy from MomAdvice.com who is the cheap grocery shopping QUEEN. I bow down to her and her frugal shopping skillz (and she doesn’t use coupons!)

I think “manscaping” is my new favorite word, thanks to Back in Skinny Jeans. The hubby, being of the hairy chest type man genre, remarked (ironically while on vacation at the beach) how the attractiveness of body and facial hair on men in our society has been on the rapid demise. I mean I can’t recall when a moustache or a gold chain burrowed in chest hair was really a turn on since Magnum P.I., can you?

Pioneer Woman Cooks shares a recipe for a gorgeous July 4th cake.

And if you need to do a little shopping this weekend, Horchow.com is offering free shipping. If you’re headed to any summer cookouts, these funky food containers would make your potato salad pretty sexay. And check out this fun bright-colored table fan all retro style.

Although we are not a Veggie Booty family (we’re more of a Cheetos and Cheez Nips booty kind of household), I know it’s very popular. Here is information from their website regarding this week’s FDA recall of Veggie Booty.

Have a great weekend!

My mom watched Miss C after Vacation Bible School yesterday while Miss A was at daycare (she had a fine morning yesterday as opposed to Wednesday when I thought we’d both spontaneously combust from stress during the short drive to daycare). I needed to run to the grocery and I had something to return to TJ Maxx and a birthday gift to buy.

I walked in TJ Maxx and my retail radar honed in on some laptop bags in a cool Asian print fabric that had just been unboxed and weren’t even priced yet. I just went on a business trip and I carried my Sony laptop in the equivalent of a brown paper sack–a cumbersome (i.e. ugly) black utilitarian laptop bag–so I nearly tripped over myself to look at these pretty bags. I reeled myself back to reality, because I don’t travel that often for work or with my laptop, but I did file them away as pay day is Monday and I’m going to come up with some dire reason I need a fashionable laptop bag, so help me God, even if I use it to transport a turkey sandwich to my office.

Back when the hubby and I were DINKS (Dual Income, No Kids), I would hit our local TJ Maxx every Thursday after work when their weekly shipment of discount designer goodness was delivered. The hubby always knew where to find me if I didn’t come straight home from work. Either that or he may have suspected I was having an affair and I was just running up my debit card to buy yet another discount designer sweater to cover the whole sordid thing up.

I’ve definitely put my inner shopaholic on the backburner the last few years. If you have two children enrolled in full-time daycare (or private school for that matter), you can probably relate to the budget crunch. Frivolous “just because” shopping doesn’t happen much any more. There are diapers to buy and mortgage payments to make, refrigerators go belly up while you’re enjoying yourselves at the beach, and unexpected boob MRIs take precedent over those hot pink wedge sandals that you would have bought in a heartbeat pre-kids. Instead, you tend to run around in Target sandals you bought on clearance and a pair of $12.99 Old Navy capri jeans with some unidentified stain on the knee and a black t-shirt.

With only six more weeks of double daycare left, I find myself counting the days when our budget isn’t squeezed quite as tight and I can buy a new laptop case and not equate the money spent to the number of diapers I could have bought (in this case, about two cases of generic Publix size 4 diapers.) Ahem.

Despite us trying to pull a fast one on her, Miss A has picked up on the fact that big sister is not going to daycare this week, but is instead spending her mornings attending Vacation Bible School, learning rah rah Jesus songs, and getting temporary tattoos of the Southern Baptist approved variety.

To say she is not happy about this temporary arrangement is an understatement. This morning was the worse meltdown episode I’ve ever witnessed, even after surviving the “Terrible Twos” with Miss C. Pile on to the emotional trauma the fact that she is two, very two, and that she is also suffering from one heck of a vacation hangover (there were repeated requests for her Papa, who is still in Florida), and you have a recipe for a morning meltdown of the “mama is so glad she is wearing deodorant and I wonder if it would be inappropriate to drink a Bloody Mary at my desk” variety.

In other words, Miss A wants to go back to the beach and back to sleeping in and doing nothing but play all day and hang out as a family.

And you know what? I can’t blame her.

To add to my guilt, I just can’t take any more time off right now since we just returned from vacation.

Most of the time I can honestly say I enjoy being a working mom and getting out for a few hours and flexing the non-mommy portions of my brain. This morning it just downright sucked.

I know that the “solution” is not to hastily yank her from daycare, although it crossed my mind more than once this morning, or let her stay home for the day. Honestly, my work schedule couldn’t be any more flexible now that I am telecommuting half the week. Plus, Miss C also went through considerable separation anxiety at this same age so I know this is but a passing phase. And her afternoon teacher reassures me she is fine.

But it’s still hard.

“Run the race, keep the pace, keep your eyes on Jesus!”

(It’s Vacation Bible School week and Jesus is hotter than Barbie Pop-Tarts and Paris Hilton.)

“Is grass dog salad?”

We are nothing, if not intellectually diverse, at our house.

If we ever doubted for a nanosecond our decision to be “through at two” kids, it was firmly sealed while on vacation last weekend with many tears shed by Miss C over an overpriced foam lion mask accidentally torn by Miss A about five minutes after pulling out of the zoo parking lot. This was quickly followed by a coughing jag suffered by Miss A and the subsequent removal of her frozen lemonade and vomit soaked Old Navy sundress in a CVS parking lot in Pensacola Beach. Of course, being the prepared mother of the year, I had packed no change of clothes for the day so she rode back to the condo in nothing but a fresh diaper. We had been on our way to meet my dad and stepmother for lunch after our morning at the zoo but couldn’t call them to take a raincheck because I had left my cell phone back at the condo, the hubby didn’t have my stepmother’s cell phone number programmed in his phone, and neither of us knew the number. Luckily they called us when we no showed at the restaurant.

These are the family vacation bloopers you don’t capture on video tape. And much like the early months of parenting, these are the memories that will fall by the wayside. Instead, they’ll be replaced by happy memories such as Miss C’s newfound confidence in the pool and her dog paddling for the first time with the help of water wings.

Other than that very angst filled post-zoo episode, which I blame on wandering around in the heat all morning and breathing in one too many rhino poop fumes, we had a great trip. I’ll admit, though, that more than once the hubby and I caught ourselves wistfully imagining vacationing at the beach when the girls are older and more independent. While there is a part of me that looks forward to the days when packing for our beach vacation doesn’t include making sure we have enough diapers, of both the regular and swim variety, there is also a part of me that will miss the sippy cups and floaties at the beach days.

My dad and stepmother have owned vacation property in the same area of Florida for more than 20 years. It hit me profoundly over the weekend how much I have changed in those years, while the sand and surf has remained relatively unchanged, despite a few party crashers from Mother Nature (Opal, Ivan, and Dennis). As a teenager I used to troll for boys and live for hitting the strip in the closest tourist trap town and achieving the perfect tan. As a mother I just want to relax with my family and make it through the day without any temper tantrums or painful sunburns.

Now we as a family are making our own special memories. We have a photo, just the hubby and I and Miss C, from 2004 at Papa’s Beach, our first trip as a family. Little did I know I was barely pregnant with Miss A and we’d be returning as a family of four two years later. And now we are already talking about a return visit this fall.

The ocean has a way of soothing the soul, even when it is worn down by one too many “Mommy, catch me!” requests from the side of the pool.

When Printakid out of Canada contacted me about reviewing one of their personalized children’s books I was excited to add a new book to our library. Printakid founder Noemi Burlus started the company after she became frustrated when searching for a special personalized book for her goddaughter, whose mom is Haitian and whose dad is French. (Read on …)

We’ve returned from my dad’s vacation condo in Florida, which I guess is technically located on the outskirts of the Redneck Riviera, but because we’re high class we call it Papa’s beach. That way people don’t know if we’re talking about my dad or perhaps Ernest Hemingway. Come to think of it, my dad does bear a slight resemblance to Hemingway when he grows a beach beard.

Having made this trip twice now in the past 10 months, I thought I’d share some tips for driving to the beach with two children under the age of 5 (my hat’s off to any of you who travel with three kids under the age of 5…I don’t think I’m a strong enough woman to handle that):

Do invest in a portable DVD player with dual screens. It’s so much better than drugging your kids with dramamine (kidding!)

Do bring new movies that your children have never seen.

Do stock up on road snacks so you’re not tempted to buy a $6 bag of stale trail mix from the gas station or stop at McDonald’s every 100 miles. Publix had a great buy one get one free sale a few weeks ago and I filled a snack duffel bag with lots of goodies, including cereal bars. I threw in some surprise bonus sugary treats, including the ever popular fruit rollups (tongue tattoo variety…I get a little crazy with the vacation prep shopping!)

Do bring along a favorite book and stuffed animal friend from home, as well as your child’s pillow.

Do stock up on adult snacks, like wine and cheese, once you get to the beach, as well as some breakfast foods because I guarantee your kids will get up earlier than you anticipate. Coffee at your condo or beach house is also essential as is beer. We tried Landshark, a new lager beer, from none other than the mastermind behind Margaritaville, Jimmy Buffett. We also tried the new Miller Chill. Both have a a Mexican influence and were quite good, especially if you’re a fan of Corona with lime, which is a must, in my opinion, as an adult beverage at the beach.

Don’t order two kids’ meals if your kids tend to be remotely picky and eat nothing but chicken tenders, nuggets, fingers, whatever variety of processed chicken on the kid menu they gravitate towards. Order one kids meal and have the server bring two plates and bring the sippy cup kiddos their own beverage. Do you really want to buy a $3 cup of cranberry juice for your 2-year-old?

Don’t count on your kids going to bed on time or napping. And don’t be surprised if they sneak down into your bed at 4 a.m. for a snuggle.

Don’t count on your kids getting along all the time. A precious pink rubber frog will be lost at a restaurant, only to be found and then crippled the next day when baby sister rips one of its legs off. Big sister will cry hysterically and a lesson will be learned about being responsible for one’s treasures. Or something like that. That is my PC version. There was more screaming, by the adults, in the real life scenario.

Don’t forget to have someone take your family photo.

Don’t forget to pack the baby powder. It removes sand! It helps chafing and prickly heat! Why things like this are exciting, I don’t know!

Don’t discount the back of your minivan or, in our case, SUV as a handy alternative to those nasty public restroom diaper stations. Somewhere in southern Alabama I plopped Miss A on some beach towels on top of our luggage and changed her wet diaper when we stopped to fill up on gas. You know how Dateline does exposes on hotel room cleanliness? I dare them to do a special on restroom changing stations. I’d rather spread a blanket on the ground and change Miss A outdoors.

Don’t be afraid to try out that roadside biker-esque open air restaurant because you may be pleasantly surprised to find they have excellent casual beach food and a kid friendly atmosphere, with a corner featuring a big basket of books and coloring books and crayons. Of course the cinder block unisex bathroom was not Ritz quality, but it was clean. Jail cell ambience, but clean potty is A-OK in my book.

And last, don’t forget that your kids, as annoying as they can be at 7 a.m. when they start chanting “SWIMMING SWIMMING SWIMMING,” are only going to be this little for a few years before they head to the other end of the beach and deny your existence .