My WAHM Plan

Family Night with General Mills Awesome Movies #biggcerealmovies #sponsored

in #biggcerealmovies, family, fun, movie, night., by Linda A Kinsman, Friday, July 11, 2014

Friday nights have been Family fun nights at our house for years. Now that the girls are in their teens and tweens, we let them decide if it’s game night or movie night and it just so happens, tonight is going to be movie night thanks to Big G Cereal Movies. This post is sponsored by General Mills but my love for their cereal and family fun is all my own.

Big G wants to inspire family nights together with classic movies that you can share with your loved ones anytime, anywhere by offering a free HD movie download when you purchase 2 boxes of these participating cereals:

Honey Nut Cheerios
Fruity Cheerios
Frosted Cheerios
Lucky Charms
Reese’s Puffs
Trix
Cocoa Puffs
Golden Grahams

We chose Lucky Charms and Frosted Cheerios. We had to look through the Big G cereals available to make sure we selected boxes with the General Mills and Fox MovieDownload Promotion movie banner across the front to ensure we’d get the code needed.

Big G Cereal Movies

Once you have your Big G cereal home, it’s time to decide what movie you are going to download. There are 10 great movies to choose from.

Big G Cereal Movies

We chose Mr. Popper’s Penguins. Downloading our movie was easy.

We found the codes needed in each cereal box.
Went to Big G Cereal Movies and entered codes.
Downloaded our free movie.

No family movie night would be complete without a snack, so we were happy to see snack recipes on both boxes of Big G cereal. The girls and I raided our pantry and came up with our own version of Lucky Charms Peanutty Good Luck Snack. We added Cashews, Pretzel bites and Frosted Cheerios to our recipe. It is so sweet and salty good that we had to put it away to wait until official movie time tonight.

Here is the recipe for Lucky Charms Peanutty Good Luck Snack from cereal box:

Ingredients:

4 cups Lucky Charms cereal

1 cup candy-coated peanut butter pieces

1 cup yogurt-covered raisins

1 cup peanuts

Directions:

Place all ingredients in resealable plastic food- storage bag; seal.

Shake until mixed. Store at room temperature up to 3 days.

Enjoying our family movie nights is just one of the ways we spend quality time together as a family, and now thanks to Big G, we’ll have Mr. Popper’s Penguins in our movie collection to watch again and again.

Please share in comments: What are some of your favorite family movies?

Disclosure: Many thanks to General Mills for sponsoring today’s post and sharing their family fun with us. I will receive compensation for sharing my thoughts on Big G,. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be a good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

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Slap ‘Appy: Sherwin-Williams’ ColorSnap

in #homeimprovement, App, color, painting, by Linda A Kinsman, Tuesday, July 08, 2014

We’re starting our home improvement projects, and I’ve discovered an app to help us choose just the right colors for each room: ColorSnap by Sherwin-Williams. This app allows you to make color palettes based on Sherwin Williams paint colors.

When you open the app, it brings you to the main menu, where you can choose how you want to make a color palette. One way to do it is to take a picture of an object with a color you like, for instance the pretty blue on the birdhouse below. Choose “Snap New Photo”. Then, you can take a picture with your phone’s camera. Or, if you already have a previously taken picture in mind, choose “Use Saved Photo”.

Once you’ve taken the picture, the app will ask you to crop the photo so it’s small enough to use.

Then, you can move your cursor around and pinpoint the color(s) in the picture that you liked and wanted to use in your palette.

The app can choose coordinating colors to go with the color you’ve chosen.

Color Snap App Coordinating color palette

You can also create color palettes by looking through Sherwin-Williams’ complete collection of paint colors. To do this, choose “Explore Color” on the main menu.

Once you find a color that you like, you can click on it and have the app choose two coordinating colors for it. You can also continue to browse through the colors and create your own.

If you like the palette, you can save it, and even adjust the colors you’ve chosen for variations on the original.

ColorSnap can help you create color schemes for one wall to a whole house, and it’s a lot of fun to play with and save your color ideas. (Saved palettes can be accessed when you choose “Saved Colors”).

And, when you’re ready to buy your saved paint colors, you can click “Find Store” to locate your nearest Sherwin-Williams location.

While we haven’t narrowed down which of our color palettes to use, we are having fun creating ideas.

Want to give this app a try? It’s available on the iTunes App Store for Apple devices and Google Play for Androids.

My oldest daughter assisted with the research and writing of this post and is looking forward to helping with more Slap 'Appy posts.

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15 chores you can tackle in 15 minutes or less

in chores, cleaning, home, homemaking, quick, summer, by Linda A Kinsman, Monday, June 30, 2014

Summer is such a fun season. We wait for it all year, planning and dreaming of those long, hot summer days and what we’ll do in them.

Summer Fun Activities:

Swimming
Traveling
Enjoying summer fruits
Picnics
BBQ’s
Bonfires
Sleepovers
Gardening

The one thing we don’t plan and dream of is summer chores. I don’t know about you, but at my house, once the kids are out of school my chore time increases. From sticky kitchen tables and counters to the ever-present need to sweep up tracked in grass and dirt, I felt like I could not keep up until I made this one simple change.

Take a Break from Work-do a quick chore:

I take a break from work every 30 minutes or so and do a quick chore. Taking these mini-breaks helps me be more productive, helps increase my energy while decreasing my seat time and helps lessen my chore list when I do switch gears and stop working for the day. You’d be surprised how much you can get done in 10 - 15 minutes!

15 chores you can tackle in 15 minutes or less:

Here are 15 quick chores that I do. Feel free to copy my list to get you started.

Fold a load of laundry, put it away and start a new one.
Sweep the kitchen and mudroom floor.
Wipe down bathroom counters and mirrors.
Water plants on the front porch.
Clean out the trash in the car.
Go through the mail and recycle junk mail.
Deadhead flowers and pinch back herbs.
Check pantry supplies for a weekly meal plan.
Dust a room and put away discarded items.
Unload dishwasher.
Wipe down kitchen table and chairs.
Clean out Frig drawers.
Clean photo frames in the hall.
Update coupons.
Wipe down glass doors.

WAHM's Re-Energize:

If you work away from home all day, you can still use this list to tackle your chores. Taking a break every 30 minutes to do something you enjoy like sipping a cool drink while reading will help you feel re-energized once you do return to your chore list.

Delegate Chores:

Be sure to delegate some of your chores to your kids if they are old enough and especially if they find you mid-task and tell you they are bored! I always find a task my daughters can handle. Just remember to be good to yourself and step away from work too so you can fully enjoy this special season.

Enjoy Summer!

Please share in comments: If you could wish away one household chore forever, what would it be? For me, it’s cleaning showers!

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Picnic Basket with Goodies Giveaway

in basket, family, fun, picnic, summer, by Linda A Kinsman, Thursday, June 26, 2014

I have a quick question for you, when was the last time you went on a picnic?

Has it been a while?

Then you are going to love this giveaway hosted by Womensforum.com.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive compensation depending on your participation.

The Giveaway:

Gather your family and friends, because Womensforum.com is ready to set you up with the perfect summertime picnic!

The Prizes:

Prize pack includes: a picnic basket, blanket, outdoor dining kit and even an outdoor MP3 speaker to create a fun, and delicious, day under the summer sun!

Giveaway dates are 6-25-14 through 7-16-14 at 9pm PT for U.S. residents 18+. Please visit Womensforum.com for official rules.

To Enter:

Entering is easy, using your email and Twitter account. Click here to enter and good luck!

Disclosure: This post does contain affiliate links, which may result in compensation for My WAHM Plan depending on your participation, however, My WAHM Plan only shares information we feel is relevant to our readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising." - See more at: http://www.mywahmplan.com/#sthash.TcdaH4AT.dpuf

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Cute & Easy Birdhouses #craft

in birdhouse, craft, Cute, easy, kids, painting, by Linda A Kinsman, Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Inspired by all the cute birdhouses I saw recently on Plaid Craft, I thought this would be a perfect rainy day craft for my girls, and they happily agreed. So, off to Walmart we went.

You can pick up the supplies at any craft store, major retailer, or purchase online. Before you go shopping, double check your crafts supplies for foam brushes, stamps, stencils, etc. You may only need to buy the birdhouses!

Supplies Needed:

Small Birdhouses (we bought two)

1 Set of foam brushes

Assorted Apple Barrel paints (we bought six)

1 set of Stencils

Another great thing about this craft is it is budget friendly. I spent $11.32, and we will be able to re-use all the supplies except the birdhouses.

Directions:

Make sure all the glue from the labels/price stickers are off.

Pull or buff off any rough spots on wood. (Use a fingernail file if necessary.)

Now, your birdhouses are ready to paint.

Allow base coat to dry. (About 4 mins.)

Add additional colors as desired, using stencils, stamps, or free style; anything goes.

Freestyle Painted Birdhouse

Stenciled painted Birdhouse

As you can see, my daughters used different styles and painting techniques on their birdhouses. Both of them are very happy with their finished project, which makes crafting so rewarding.

Pretty Birdhouses

This craft really is cute, easy and budget friendly. Please let me know if you try it with your kids.

Share in comments: Have you tried a painting craft lately?

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Family Night with General Mills Awesome Movies #biggcerealmovies #sponsored

Slap ‘Appy: Sherwin-Williams’ ColorSnap