What child doesn’t grow up with Dr. Seuss books? We have quite a few of them lying around the house. The kids love the silly characters and the rhymes. The Dr. Seuss inspired recipes and activities that I’m about to share with you have been a great hit in our house. Of course the famous green eggs and ham are included, but there are also quite a few other snack and meal ideas. Create a fun Dr. Seuss inspired afternoon with some of these recipes and of course don’t forget to read a few of the books with your kids. (If you don’t own any, enjoy a trip to your local library.)

Green Eggs and Ham
This has to be the most famous Dr. Seuss inspired dish. Scramble a few eggs, add a couple of drops of blue food coloring to the mixture and cook as usual. You can serve a warmed up slice of ham with it, and if you want to go all out, brush the ham with a little green food coloring.
My kids love either biscuits, or mashed potatoes with this dish. Add a little food coloring (either green, or a complimentary color like red) to the biscuit dough or the finished mashed potatoes for even more fun.

Cat in The Hat Snack
Make the Cat’s Hat for a fun snack. All you need is a few Ritz crackers, gummy lifesavers (preferably in white/clear and red) and a little vanilla frosting. Put the Ritz cracker on a plate. Use a little bit of vanilla frosting to glue the first lifesaver on the cracker. “Glue” more lifesavers on top of the first one alternating between red and white.
These snacks are so cute; you may want to take a picture of your child’s creation before it is devoured.

Wiggly Fish
This snack was inspired by “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish”. Prepare several different colors of Jello according to package directions and pour each flavor into a shallow pan. Use a fish shaped cookie cutter to cut the Jello into fish shapes. (If you don’t have a fish shaped cookie cutter you could also just cut fish shapes with a knife.) You can also add small pieces of fruit to the Jello mixture before it cools. This is a great way to sneak an extra serving of fruit into your child’s diet.

Pink Ink for The Yink
The Yink in “One Fish, Two Fish” love to drink pink ink. Make your own version by combining a few strawberries (either fresh, or frozen and thawed) and some milk in a blender. Add a few drops of red food coloring if the “ink” isn’t pink enough.

A Fruity Hat For The Cat
How about this for a fun Sunday breakfast? Whip up a batch of silver dollar pancakes and cut up some fresh strawberries. Grab some whipped cream and let the kids assemble the Cat’s hat by stacking pancakes, and strawberries on top of each other using the whipped cream as “glue”.
Enjoy a few of these Dr. Seuss recipes and activities with your family, or invite a few neighbor kids over for a Dr. Seuss party. Either way they are a lot of fun and a great way to bring some of the Seuss stories to life.

Want more family friendly recipes and crafts ideas? Visit http://www.dinewithoutwhine.com/info for a sample weekly menu plan your entire family will love and www.kinderinfo.com for tons of craft and activity ideas that are sure to keep your little ones entertained.

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by Michelle Howard

Have you ever stopped to wonder why it is that after slathering on the moisturizer, your skin returns to it’s ashy state by (and sometimes before) end of the day?  Well, wonder no more.  It’s time to get educated.

As a woman of color, I’ve had to roll up my sleeves and engage in the “battle of the ash.”  That’s because when you have darker skin, dry skin is much more visible.  Hence, I’ve had to really figure out what it is that my skin needed to stay hydrated throughout the day. The answer may appear simple.  Water!

Yes, that’s right.  Water is the hydrator.  However, water alone does not a moisturizer make.  In order for your moisturizer to really do it’s job, it must contain certain skin moisturizer ingredients and omit others.   It all starts with checking out your ingredient labels.

It’s not time to shop for your skin moisturizer.  (face and body) The first thing you must do is read the ingredient labels.  Here’s what you want to see:

• Water as the FIRST ingredient
• A natural oil like olive oil or hemp oil as the SECOND ingredient – It seals in the moisture
• Natural Humectants such as Hyaluronic Acid (also manufactured by the body) Vegetable Glycerin, Vitamin E, Collagen, Panthenol or Elastin – These help to attract moisture from the middle layer of the skin (the dermis) toward the top layer (the epidermis) which increases your skin’s overall moisture level.  Humectants are especially beneficial to have as a part of your skin moisturizer ingredients when the temperatures are high.  This is because they have the ability to draw moisture out of the air into the skin which further enhances your skin’s moisture levels.

Here’s what you don’t want to see:

• Mineral oil- While it does contain the word “oil”, mineral oil does not allow your skin to breathe.  If you take a graham cracker and sit it in mineral oil for an entire day, you will notice that the cracker remains sturdy. Mineral oil does not penetrate the skin. On the contrary, it sits right on top.
• Petroleum- Another substance that just sits on top of the skin and clogs pores.
• Alcohol – To have this ingredient in your skin care product defeats the purpose.  Alcohol is drying and you are trying to moisturize, not dry out
• Other non-natural ingredients that dry the skin out such as sodium laurel sulfate, propylene glycol and methylparaben (any word ending in paraben really) which can also irritate sensitive skin

Now that you know what to look for and avoid in a moisturizer, you can shop with confidence that your skin will receive the attention it needs to stay hydrated because you are well armed with knowledge.

Michelle Howard is the owner of Fresh Radiant Skin, an online shop and resource for women of color.   Michelle offers a wealth of skin care and related beauty information on her site and in her monthly newsletter to help with many common conditions that trouble women of color.  Subscribe to her newsletter and receive a Complimentary Basically Beautiful Tips Gide.

1.  Planning and cooking ahead will save you the added expense of  eating out for how ever many meals you need to purchase or that dreaded last minute grocery store trip.  I know it used to be a $20 stop a few years ago, it’s not even close now for our family if we haven’t planned ahead.

2.  Some nights there just isn’t time to cook.  We get home from work or finish our appointments and it’s time to run the kids around.  Or we need to get to the gym and take care of our own health.  We are very important and need to workout as well, so we can take care of our families for many years.  The fact we need to get dinner on the table keeps a lot of people from making healthy choices.

3.  Eating healthy makes the entire family more productive.  Healthy foods keep everyone’s body in check.  If you aren’t planning ahead then it’s much easier said than done.  If you have the meal already cooked and just have to reheat, then you are so far ahead of the game it can’t even be counted.  Very few take-out meals have nutrients.  But menu planning makes sure that you are ready for all those busy days and everyone is getting the nutrients needed to push ahead.

Meal plans come in all shapes and sizes.  Your diet needs come in those same needs. For many, the general Once a Week Cooking menu plan is much better than they are eating already or it is what the majority of their family will eat. Join the newsletter for more info when specialized menu plans become available.

Val Selby is a certified personal trainer. She’s been married for over 15 years and has 2 kids that are teens. She does know about having to balance everyone’s chaotic schedule and get the food on the table. She also has to help create her clients meal plans to fit their goals and schedules. Frugal cooking, meal planning and freezer recipe tips can be found at Once a Week Cooking.

New Year’s resolutions are made every year by millions of people. Unfortunately, many if not most of them are never completed. If you plan to make a resolution, you may want to set a New Year goal that is not beyond your reach.

Your ultimate New Year’s resolution may be to learn a new language or how to dance all forms of ballroom dance. However, an unreasonable goal is to assume you could do either of those in a short period of time. Some goals are possible within a month, such as losing five pounds, but learning how to speak fluent Chinese in that amount of time absolutely is not.

It is important for us to plan for the future so we’re not aimlessly wandering through life. Sometimes setting long-range goals can be overwhelming because they’re so far out in the future that we doubt if we’ll ever meet them. If there aren’t intermediate goals along the way to your ultimate goal, it will be too easy for you to lose focus and give up.

Instead of having just the one, long-range goal, consider having small goals that you can work on – even on a daily basis. This will help you by allowing you to feel a sense of accomplishment when you meet one of the smaller goals, as well as letting you know you’re on the right track to reach your goal.

How do you break down one big goal into several smaller goals? That all depends upon what your goal is. You can choose best what you need to do each day to help keep you on track. Don’t let your gaze go too far down the trail that you have laid out for yourself. If you don’t stay focused on the day at hand, you might miss something wonderful along the way.

Remember that reaching a goal is much like going on a journey. If you’re too focused on the destination, you’ll miss the beauty along the way. You can stop along the way and smell the roses rather than speeding along the path you’re on and missing them entirely. By setting smaller goals that you can reach, you’ll be moving toward your goal and be much more likely to actually reach it.

Don’t give up if things don’t work out exactly like you’ve planned. Things in life happen that may keep you from reaching a small goal in the time you had hoped. When things settle back down you can pick up where you left off. It may take longer to reach your goal than you wanted, but that’s no reason to give up.

Give yourself a reward when you’ve reached a smaller goal, rather than waiting to complete the large goal. Knowing you’ll have a small reward when you have met a goal may be the impetus you need to keep going when you feel discouraged.

When you have a goal in mind, consider the steps you can take. Set New Year’s goals that are not beyond your reach. Reward yourself when you’ve reached a small goal and then keep going to the next one.

1. For those who want the sensation of champagne, you should be able to find sparkling grape juice at nearly every grocery or discount food store. You can also make your own by combining white grape juice with ginger ale.

2. If you’re having a Hawaiian or luau themed party, you’ll want a tropical style drink that everyone can enjoy. Try an Island Dream. This drink is made by combining crushed ice, orange juice, pineapple juice, and Sprite. Don’t forget the umbrella to finish this drink off.

3. Another tropical cocktail that the whole family can enjoy is the orange burst cocktail. This is made by combining orange juice, Sprite, and grenadine syrup with crushed ice. Your children are sure to love this one.

4. Strawberry limeades are popular at some fast food restaurants. These would be a great alternative to alcoholic drinks. Of course, with this recipe requiring limes and strawberries, you may have to do some searching to find the ingredients.

5. New Year’s Eve punch is another great alternative to champagne. It is made with several different juices, fruit cocktail, sherbet, and sparkling grape juice.

6. Snowbird Mocktails are delicious. They’re made with pineapple juice, sweetened condensed milk, orange juice, coconut extract, and ginger ale. One of the nice things about this drink is that it keeps for up to one week.

7. Non-alcoholic (or virgin) margaritas are a popular drink and would be the perfect choice if you’re having a Mexican themed New Year’s Eve party. They could also be used for a winter beach party theme.

8. Another summertime drink that would be appropriate for New Year’s Eve is a virgin strawberry daiquiri. Strawberry daiquiri mix is added to Sprite and ice. To make the drink more festive, put fresh fruit on a plastic sword and put that in the drink.

9. If it’s really cold outside, it’s quite possible your guests would prefer something hot to drink instead. Hot spiced punch may be appreciated. It is made with pineapple juice, cranberry juice, all spice, cloves, cinnamon, water, and brown sugar.

10. Spiced punch may not appeal to you, but hot mulled cider may be just the thing. Similar to the spiced punch, hot mulled cider has all spice, cinnamon, and cloves. The main ingredient, however, is apple cider, which makes the taste different.

Everyone wants to enjoy a New Year’s Eve party, but it doesn’t have to include alcohol. By having non-alcoholic drinks at your party, these ten drink ideas are something the whole family will love.

Scrapbooks are a better place to store pictures and mementos rather than keeping them in boxes where they could get lost or damaged. Scrapbooks are also an easier way for people to enjoy the photos they contain. What better way is there to showcase your memories than with pictures and journal spaces to bring those memories back to mind?

Having a New Year’s Eve party is a great time to start a chronological scrapbook for the coming year. You’ve made your list of guests, sent out invitations, have the menu planned, and even have party games planned. Why not have several disposable cameras sitting around the party so your guests can take candid shots while the party is going on. A digital camera would also be a good idea to have available.

How do you plan for a great New Year’s themed scrapbook if you’ve never completed one before? Obviously, for scrapbooking you will need a scrapbook, pictures, and paper to put them on, as well as scissors, photo corners or glue, embellishments, stickers, pens for journaling, and sheet protectors.

As soon as you can after New Year’s Eve, plan on having the film developed or printed if the camera is digital. Gather your materials and plan on spending some time to get each page to look just as you’d like it.

Choose five or six great pictures from the party rather than trying to work on all of your photos at once. You want to enjoy the process, the memories, and the fun of scrapbooking so you don’t want to overwhelm yourself. Take your time and play with the photos and the layout to find what works best.

Think of a title for each of your pages. “Happy New Year!” is an obvious choice, but you might want something more creative like “Waiting for the ball to drop” or “Auld Lang Syne”. Look at the photographs and decide what title works best with them.

Don’t be afraid to crop your photos to focus on one person or a group of people. If you use scissors to cut the photos, you may want to put photo frames over them to hide the edges. Add boxes to journal the names of the people in the photos or other information you want to remember about the photo.

Scrapbooking continues to grow in popularity and the number of supplies you can find for it is mind-boggling. Take some time to look through the craft stores to find items that will enhance your photos and give your first scrapbook project of the New Year your sense of creativity.

There are events in every person’s life that they want to commemorate, whether it’s the birth of a child, moving into their first home, or their child’s first day of school. You may want to build a time capsule each New Year’s Eve so you can remember the previous year for years to come.

What is a time capsule and why would anyone make one, especially on New Year’s Eve? New Year’s Eve is automatically a time when we think about the future and the past, so putting together a time capsule seems like a great activity at this time of year. Basically a time capsule is a container that can be used to store items that will bring back memories when it is opened at a later date. You may want to include things to help you remember specific events of this year, people that are important to you, and predictions about the future.

If you’re having a New Year’s Eve party, you may want to ask your guests to each bring an item to include in the time capsule. Have them put a sticker or something on the item to identify who put the items in and why this item was important. Decide when you’re going to open the time capsule and write a note not to be opened before that date.

Here’s what you’ll need to make your own time capsule this New Year’s Eve:

* Coffee can or large jar with a lid, a plastic box with a lid
* Any items you may want to include that show what’s going on today
* Paint, stickers, or other items to decorate your time capsule

If you plan to actually bury your time capsule, you may want to paint it rather than cover it with some type of paper. You may want to paint it with a grandfather clock, fireworks, or “Do not open until 2025″ (or whatever year you decide).

After you’ve decorated the outside, it’s time to start filling the inside. Include items that are common today. Some coins, postage stamps, a grocery receipt, mall toys from popular television shows or movies, an extra copy of a music CD, a message for people in the future, or a newspaper for the date the time capsule will be buried. Don’t put in food because it could possibly draw bugs or animals, and it won’t be good in the future.

You get the idea. Put anything into the time capsule that will give someone opening it in the future an idea of what life was like when the capsule was buried. Be sure to include a picture of everyone who shared something so people can see what you looked like and how people dressed at the time.

Glue the lid on the container to keep the elements, bugs, and animals out of it. You can bury it in your yard, place it in the basement or attic so it’s out of mind, or find some other place to store it. Making a time capsule for the New Year is a great way to help you remember the year that just passed and have something to look forward to in the future.

Decide ahead of time what you want to serve at the party and do as much work as you can in advance. This will enable you to relax and enjoy yourself instead of worrying about food that evening.

1. Meat tray – One of the easiest appetizers is to have a meat and cheese tray available. Remember to get bread in case any of your guests would like to make a sandwich.

2. Fruit tray – Along the same lines as the meat tray, you can also buy fruit trays that will provide your guests with a good variety of fruits to enjoy. Buying one of these could save you time if you’re not sure you have enough food.

3. Chips and dips – Different types of chips are a good choice for appetizers especially if you make dips for them. Fresh salsa, guacamole, or other dips would be a great accompaniment.

4. Sausage balls – These little delights can be made several days before your party. A mixture of cheddar cheese and sausage mean, sausage balls are baked treats that are sure to please.

5. Pickle rolls – Spread cream cheese on slices of salami and then wrap the salami around a sweet gherkin pickle. Slice the log and put a toothpick in them if they won’t stay together. Kids especially love this appetizer.

6. Microwave snack mix – Combine at least three types of Chex-type cereal, pretzel sticks, dried cherries, and candy-coated chocolate pieces with ranch dressing.

7. Deviled eggs – This is one appetizer that can be used at any time of the year, but is perfect for a New Year’s Eve party. To spice them up, add smoked chili peppers.

8. Meatballs – Swedish meatballs are usually a good choice for appetizers. Be sure to include toothpicks for your guests to pick them up.

9. Veggie meatballs – For guests that may be vegetarian, you can use tofu to make veggie meatballs. Look online for a recipe that you like.

10. Pinwheels – Flour tortillas can be used when making pinwheels of any type. Depending upon your likes, you can use Mexican fillings, salmon, or anything else that may appeal.

Appetizers can be a tricky proposition if you’re running out of time before your party. Choose one or more of these ten quick appetizer ideas for your New Year’s Eve celebration. They’re easy to make and taste great.

Board games are a great way to spend time having fun with friends and family. If you plan on having guests over for the holiday, why not break out one or more of these great board games to play on New Year’s Eve to help keep everyone wide awake until midnight?

Almost everyone has played “The Game of Life”, the Milton Bradley game that was started in 1961. The game chronicles some of the things that happen in our lives. We get married, get a new job, buy a house, have one or more children, and this is the topic of the game. Of course, over the years there have been many changes to the game and there are a myriad of varieties. If you still have it, why not bring it out and enjoy it all over again.

You can also take games that may not necessarily be associated with New Year’s Eve and adjust them to have a New Year’s “taste” to them. Of course, if you’re planning on using either of these ideas, it will take some planning on your part.

1. Scrabble – This word game has been around for years and is still as popular today as it has ever been. To make this game more along the theme of New Year’s Eve, you may want to come up with a list of words associated with the holiday such as resolutions, midnight, goals, weight, money, or finances. Think of anything that you associate with this day and give extra points to anyone who uses any of these words on the board for their turn.

2. Dictionary – Since you have cards that contain the word clue you need to draw, create some new clue cards with words similar to those in the idea above. Include these special cards in with the regular cards and give extra points to each team when they successfully draw and guess these words.

3. Trivial Pursuit – This is another game that many people have played. You may be able to find a millennial edition to play on New Year’s Eve. Depending upon the number of people you expect to have at your party, you may need to have more than one of these games.

4. Balderdash – This is a great game for holiday game play or for any time of the year. This game has players draw a card with a word on it. The player, or “dasher”, then writes down the definition given on a piece of paper, and everyone else writes down what they think the definition is. The dasher mixes the definitions and then reads them out loud. Everyone, except the dasher, guesses which definition is the correct one. If a person’s definition is chosen, they receive a point. You might be surprised at the definitions you and your friends come up with!

Board games can be used to spend time until midnight and the ushering in of the New Year. These and many more are great board games to play on New Year’s Eve at your party. Pay attention to the clock, however; you may be having so much fun you don’t even realize that the New Year has arrived.

Each New Year millions of Americans make resolutions to change things about their lives. They may want to lose weight, use their time more wisely, conquer clutter in their homes, or take time to learn a new skill. With a new year, a new you is possible if you set goals and work toward achieving them.

Some people haven’t been very good at setting goals or at attaining them. These ideas for setting goals may be what you need to make a new and improved you become a reality.

What is it about yourself that you would like to change in the coming year? Decide what your final goal will be, but don’t fixate on that final goal. Instead, think about small steps that you can take that will lead you, ultimately, to that final goal.

Don’t beat yourself up if you’ve made New Year’s resolutions in the past but haven’t succeeded. The beauty of a new year is that it’s a chance for new beginnings. Start out thinking positive about what you want to change; don’t think back to the failures. Try one more time to affect the change you want to see in yourself.

Even if there are several things you want to work on or change in your life, it’s a good idea to focus on only one aspect at a time. Too many resolutions will cause you not only to fail, but to fail at all of them. You’ve felt bad enough about failing with one resolution in the past, so don’t set yourself up for a fall in relation to all of them.

Make your own resolution because it’s something you want to do, not because someone is pressing you to change. If you truly want to change something about yourself, you may ask your friends and family to encourage and cheer you on, but don’t make a resolution based on what they want. The decision to change has to come from within.

Write down your goal, what it is you want to accomplish, and set a time frame to master it in. Give yourself time if you have a good deal of weight to lose. You didn’t gain the weight overnight; you can’t expect to lose it as quickly. Set small, measurable, and attainable goals.

Remember that New Year’s resolutions are goals that we set for ourselves that will hopefully give us the courage to step out and change ourselves in some way. If you have a day that you blow your resolution, it’s not the end of the world. Pick up the next day right back where you were when you fell, then do your best to reach your individual goals and you’ll be that much closer to the final goal you set.