Tips on How to Maximize Your Frequent-Flier Miles

This is the time of the year, and for many it's even earlier, that we plan for our summer vacations and many of us make plans that require traveling by air.  Also, many of us belong to a frequent-flier miles program with select airlines.  Here are three good tips on how to maximize your frequent-flier miles so that you get the most out of the program!

Home Made Face Mask for Dry Skin

Today's home-made mask is for dry skins.  When you treat dry skin, the moisturizer you use can be the product that makes the difference between dry skin and perfect skin.

How to Create a Monochromatic Makeup in Your Eyes

Every now and then I like to feature makeup tutorials by different makeup artists or bloggers.  A makeup tutorial by Makeup by Risa is the one I chose for this post on how to create a monochromatic makeup in your eyes.  Just as I am a shoe lover, I am also a makeup lover, and I am sure there are many other moms who love makeup. 

Watch this cool video and get the tips you need to get the look you want for your eyes.  Anything you will learn here you will be able to apply for a monochromatic look or any other look you may want to achieve in your eyes.  Have fun!

- The Moms Buzz

Quick Tips About Online Bill Pay

In today's world, many people pay their bills online.  I am one of those.  I pay everything online except my cleaning lady because she wants her check upon exiting my house.  But, other than that I play electronically all my bills.

I think it makes a busy mom's life easier when you organize yourself with online bill payments.  Here’s are great tips for better online banking. You can use the tools in your online bill pay where you bank to help organize your finances every month.

10 Ways to Protect Your Texting Kids

A new study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project shows that 75 percent of 12-17 year olds now own cell phones.  The report also shows that one in three teens sends more than 100 texts a day, and more than half prefer texting as their main form of communicating with friends and only a third prefer face-to-face contact! 

A lengthy article in iVillage gives parenting advice on 10 ways to protect your texting kids!

1. Explain the Dangers of "Sexting."
2. Encourage Face-To-Face Communication
3. Learn Your Child's Language
4. Don't Let Your Kids Use Texting To Isolate You From Their Friends.
5. Keep A Lid On Excessive Texting
6. Try a Cell Phone-Free Family Challenge
7. Consider Using Parental Controls
8. Be a Good Role Model
9. Keep Cell Phones Off-Limits During School
10. Keep the Lines of Communication Open To Prevent Cyber-Bullying

To read additional explanation of these 10 ways to protect your texting kids, please click here.

- The Moms Buzz

Make YouTube a Little Safer for Your Children (Young and Older)

If you did not know here are some facts about YouTube:

• Kids are supposed to be 13 to use YouTube
• Anything -- from fabulous to icky -- can be uploaded or viewed
• YouTube relies on community monitoring to flag iffy videos
• Safety Mode helps filter inappropriate content

Since many of out children watch and look for children stuff in YouTube, you may want to make YouTube a little safer for your children.  YouTube has a SafetyMode that you can turn on to filter our the iffy stuff.  Here is a YouTube video tutorial with safety tips and that will tell how to do it:

- The Moms Buzz

Women's Spring 10 Shoes Essentials

For those shoe lovers, enjoy this Earth Day Promotion at Shoes.com 15% Off Sitewide! Promo code is EARTH! 

- The Moms Buzz

Free Coffee! Earth Day Giveaway! Win a $50 Starbucks Gift Card

To celebrate Earth Day, The Moms Buzz is giving away a Starbucks Coffee Gift Card worth $50!  It's easy to participate and win! 

Here's now to participate and win your free coffee:

Food Safe Picnics Tips

Spring weekends mean picnic time with family and friends, and it is important we take care the right measures for keeping our food safe while outdoors for long periods of time. 

Preparing, serving and eating safe food is important.  We must constantly practice safe food handling to avoid illness.  Here are some food safe picnics tips so that you make the best of your fun time outdoors:

Safety Tips When Buying Frozen Foods

When you are at the supermarket, don't think that everything you see if perfectly safe.  Here are some safety tips when buying Frozen Foods:

Featured Site: Clicker.com - the Ultimate Online TV Guide

A friend of mine approached me this week raving about Clicker.com! So, I went and checked it out and I was more than impressed.   Clicker is essentially a TV guide for online television, the one place you can search for any TV that is online without knowing what site (like Hulu or HGTV) the show might actually reside on.

The site is rich in content and very well organized.  You get to see on the main page the most popular shows, episodes, those which have been recently seen/clicked-on by visitors and trendy episodes. You can browse by categories, keywords, titles from home & cooking to health and lifestyle to comedies, documentaries to kids's stuff!  The results are listed chronologically by episode and organized by season. 

Another featured that I loved is that you can add a TV show you like to a playlist that you can create! So, you organize your TV shows the way you want them! 

Also, for those iPad users, you will love this functionality that Clicker.com offers: Clicker helps you find iPad-friendly videos on the web! Sweet! 

As you can see, Clicker.com is the go-to resource for online TV.

Have a visit to Clicker.com, browse around, and you will see you will get hooked on TV again! ;)

- The Moms Buzz

100 Health Hacks Every Mom Should Know

Becoming a mom means that you wear many hats, from chef to family nurse. Most moms don’t have a nursing degree, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use a little medical knowledge at home. Check out our collection of hacks to take care of your little ones like an expert.

Sites that Help you with Your Grocery Shopping

Don't we wished we could have a little and smart hand when doing grocery shopping before we get there?  Here is a short list and highly recommended sites by Better Homes & Gardens published recently at TheWeek.com that can make your grocery shopping a bit easier.  Any helping hand is welcome when you are busy mom! 

Keyingredient.com features a shared library of 100,000 recipes. Even before you sign up, you can search by ingredient or peruse the latest listings to decide what you’ll be making for dinner tonight.

Shortcuts.com helps you find savings at local stores. Simply enter your shopping list, register your store card, and the site will suggest coupons. The coupons you choose will be deposited onto your card and automatically deducted at checkout. I love this one!!!

Alice.com is a site for household staples that “mimics real-world shopping” by displaying products on virtual shelves. Compare items by price or coupon availability, and receive reminders when your pantry is running low. Free shipping is available, and prices are 20 percent to 30 percent lower.

Love these grocery tips!

- The Moms Buzz

What are Electronic Coupons?

Electronic Coupons are a convenient way to save money at the grocery store. Free coupons load directly to your participating grocery store savings card, so there are no paper coupons to lose or forget.

My favorite site for this is Shortcuts.com!  Sign up and save instantly when you register your local grocery shopping VIP or savings card!

- The Moms Buzz

Why Every Busy Mom Should Consider a Personal Trainer

Personal trainer: Ellen Yates and two busy moms!

As busy mothers, we all get pulled in a thousand directions every day, and when that happens we tend to drop the activities that we do for ourselves to stay healthy and fit. If you have ever considered a personal trainer but thought they are too expensive or only for hard-core athletes, think again. Here are a few reasons that may change your mind about the benefits of working with a personal trainer:

Tips on How to Protect Your Sweaters

By now most of us have put away about 80% of the winter clothes and some of us are still procrastinating on engaging in such a chore, especially if you have to do this for every member of the family.  Regardless of where in the process you find yourself, here are some practical tips on how to protect your sweaters:

Off My Bookshelf - Books I Recommend

As a busy moms, you can't really be ambitious about having a long list of books to read.  So, usually, I pick books that are short, that give me courage to continue my demanding agenda as a busy modern mom, and also books that make me laugh to reignite my sense of humor. 

Currently, I have three books that I keep reading back and forth, switching from one to the other, depending on my mood of the day, and availability of time. 

  
On the top of my list is Mommy Prayers by Tracy Mayor!  Every busy mom out there MUST have Mommy Prayers by her nightstand.  It is small book filled with wry and witty prayers for moms who need divine guidance to keep her cool and loving motherly face while cooking, answering a phone or the doorbell, a nagging child, doing homework, changing diapers, searching for a a lost toy, and/or  putting out a temper-tantrum or dealing with time pressures.

This book is hilarious. My favorite prayers have been so far:

• Prayer for Chardonnay in the Afternoon
• Prayer for the Beach 
• Prayer for the My Unwashed Hair
• Prayer for my Fashionable Co-Worker
• Prayer at Costco
• Prayer at the Preschool Pick-up

There are so many funny prayers that will crack you up when you read them because you will see yourself in each of those passages.  Those prayers are like a caricaturization of busy moms.  Love it and highly recommended.

For those days that you feel a bit more spiritual and want to be in touch with your soul that we so easily forget about, I like to read a book that one of my sister's in law gave me.  It is Joy for a Woman's Soul.  These are promises and Scripture-based thoughts to refresh your spirit.   Again this book is small, short and each chapter is like a page or two long - perfect for a busy mom, who needs a pick-me-up right before going to be and sleep like a baby.  I love this little book because it does make you reflect, organize and helps you calm down your feelings after a long and exhausting day.

My third and last book in my list.  It has been out there for a couple of year now. It was one of Oprah's pick:  A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle.  This book I leave it for those nights that I go to bed earlier than usual, that I am really wide awake to get into the depth of the powerful spiritual ideas of the book.

I know it is a short list, but you know, if I can't check off all of my "long" to-do list, much less have a long list of books that I will never get to read.

Happy reading!

- The Moms Buzz

Online Boutique Buzz: Bonpoint Boutique

Busy moms need to be on top of what the new buzz as fas as online boutique are concern whenever need to look for something in particular or exclusive.  You will be happy to know that you now have a new option for online shopping for children: Bonpoint Boutique from Europe.

Following the success of the online European Bonpoint boutique, Bonpoint Boutique has now launched the US online boutique tailored specifically to the US clientele. Shopping online at Bonpoint from the US is easier, cheaper and quicker with no custom duties or deliveries from Europe.

Purchases are all luxuriously wrapped and perfumed with Bonpoint’s signature sent. They offer a fast and reliable delivery service with FEDEX for all of the US starting at 10 dollars.   The US Clients can expect the same high level of customer service with a dedicated Bonpoint customer service team now based in NYC for their every need from 10.30am until 6.30pm Monday to Friday.  

To find out more and to view the Bonpoint Collection please visit www.bonpoint-boutique-us.com.

- The Moms Buzz

10 Celebs Who Homeschool Their Kids

If you think that celebrities do not homeschool their children, you may want to think twice and read this interesting article on 10 celebrities who homeschool their kids. Keep on reading and find out which famous celebrities are also homeschoolers: http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2010/04/10-celebs-who-homeschool-their-kids/.

Enjoy!

- The Moms Buzz

Facebook® Guide for Parents - A Must-Have for Parents

A few weeks ago I offered to do a review of a guide for parents about Facebook called Facebook Guide for Parents by Supreme Social Media. As a busy mom and blogger, I tend to avoid reviews (it's time consuming) unless I find the product or topic provides a true benefit for busy parents.  Facebook Guide for Parents is one of these topics that I considered would be worthwhile to cover in today's modern world of modern parents with children born into an era where everything can be handled online, even socialization and networking. 

As you know, evenings after children have gone to bed is when our productive intellectual time starts, and in this limited time I watched the videos of the guide and the document of Facebook Guide for Parents.