We have a ton of free samples and freebies for you to request today.  There are a few free printables of holiday gift tags for those of you that are already at the gift-wrapping stage of your Christmas present shopping.  We’ve included a few pet owner samples today too.  Remember the Top 13 Free Things to Stop Paying For Now? They come out of these great free samples lists at HomemakerBarbi.com.  Get yours today!

Free Printables:

• Free printables recipe gift tags
• Free printables of Dr. Seuss gift tags

Free Samples:

• Free samples of Kotex Thin panty liners (Walmart).  These seem cool- they say they’re designed to fit in both regular and thong undies.
• Free samples of Benefiber on the Go fiber packs (Walmart)
• Free samples of NutraSweet Swirl
• Free samples of Head & Shoulders shampoo and conditioner
• Free samples of Whites premium dog food
• Free samples of Bubbles ‘N Beads dog shampoo & conditioner (1st 500 people)

Free Items:

• Free Crib Sheet safety packet
• Free 2009 Pillsbury recipe calendar (new subscribers to their site only)
• Free Burl the Squirrel activity book (free download) or email (I90Snoq at wsdot dot wa dot gov) to request a hard copy of the book.
• Free Cooking with Stock recipe book
• Free shopping list from Marie Callendar’s Signature Sautes (Walmart)

The following is an article written for HomemakerBarbi.com by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H., publisher of James Hubbard’s My Family Doctor, the magazine written by health-care professionals. Read more from Dr. Hubbard at his blog, and get special holiday gift pricing on subscriptions.

9 Tips for Keeping Kids Healthy in the Winter

Prevent infections by getting your children to:

1. Exercise. It boosts immunity. Let them outside for a half-hour or more unless the weather is horrible. (Cold weather does not cause infections. Instead, the culprit is exposure from other sick kids, exacerbated by crowding inside to get out of the cold.)

2. Use tissues. Sharing is not good when it comes to germs. Teach them to use tissues properly to cover their mouth and nose when sneezing and coughing. Just using a hand for cover does not work as well since most germs are spread by contact. So …

3. Wash hands frequently. Teach them the proper technique: Wash with soap and water for 15 to 20 seconds. (Sing "Happy Birthday" twice, says the CDC.) Lead by example. The Scrub Club has some fun online games to help.

4. Consider the flu shot. The CDC recommends it for all children 6 months to 18 years old. Fear of needles? It’s OK to use the nasally inhaled vaccine for those who don’t have asthma and are over 2 years old.

5. Use a humidifier in the bedroom. The winter air can dry up the mucus that protects your airways.

6. Eat a nutritious breakfast to boost immunity.

Prevent trauma by:

1. Protecting them from space heaters and fireplaces. Little ones fall without warning. Every year, I see burns and hear crying (from the parents mostly).

2. Layering. The kids need to get outside, but to stay warm. After they start to exercise, they may need less cover. Don’t forget about the head and hands. Use common sense. Some days it may just be too cold.

3. Using helmets for sledding.

After all that, your child will probably get a cold occasionally. Keep your little one home a couple of days to rest until he or she feels better. Trust me, the teacher won’t mind. For more great health information from your family doctor, subscribe to My Family Doctor’s RSS!

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How to Cut a Pineapple

Many people are afraid to buy whole pineapples, even though they are often a much better value than canned pineapple.  The simple reason why they pass on fresh is that they’re not sure how to cut up a pineapple.  It’s true: with its leaves and prickly skin, it’s hard to know where to start.  You can count on Homemaker Barbi to teach you how to cut a pineapple with this easy step-by-step guide.  We’ve even included a video demonstration at the very end for visual learners (subscribers will have to click through to HomemakerBarbi.com to view the video.)

How do you cut a pineapple?

Materials: Large serrated knife, small paring knife, cutting board, vegetable peeler.

1.  Take off the top (the crown).  Contrary to what you might think, you don’t need to cut off the top; you can actually remove the top by hand.  Grasp the pineapple with one hand and the leaves with the other hand.  Twist the leaves clockwise and the entire top will come off.

2.  Cut off the bottom (the base). Lay the pineapple on its side and slice off the bottom.

3.  Skin it.  Stand the pineapple up on its end and remove the skin by cutting downward.  Make "shaving" cuts around edge of the pineapple until the entire fruit is skinless.

4.  Remove any remaining pits of skin with a vegetable peeler.  Either use the tip to pull them out, like removing eyes from potatoes, or use the blade to peel the remaining skin off.

5.  To make pineapple rings:

• Lay the pineapple on its side.
• Slice into rings of the desired thickness.
• Lay each ring flat on the cutting board.  Using a small knife, remove the core by cutting a small circle out of the middle.  Discard the core, as it’s too tough to eat.

6.  To make pineapple chunks:

• With the pineapple standing up on its end, slice down the middle to cut the pineapple into fourths.
• Cut the core out of each quarter with your knife.  If you have an apple corer, use it to "punch out" the core.  You can tell the core from the flesh because it is a slightly different color and has a hard, tough feeling.  Discard the core; it’s too tough to eat.
• Slice the remaining pineapple into bite-sized chunks.

7.  Refrigerate remaining pineapple in a food storage container.

Check out Tammy’s Recipes for more Kitchen Tip Tuesday tips!  Video included courtesy of Maui Gold Pineapples via YouTube. Photo courtesy of stock.xchng.

Announcing contributor Dr. Hubbard from My Family Doctor magazine!

We have an exciting announcement to make today:  Homemaker Barbi has a new contributing writer who will be writing for our Health Corner column- Dr. James Hubbard of My Family Doctor Magazine!  We’re so excited to have a medical doctor providing timely health information that homemakers, moms, dads and household managers need to know.  Look for the first Health Corner column to appear Tuesday, November 18th.  Feel free to e-mail ideas/suggestions you’d like to see in our Health Corner column to Health@HomemakerBarbi.com. 

Motrin Angers Moms - Have You Heard?

Motrin released an online commercial over the weekend that has moms across the world in an uproar.  I like to call the scandal MotrinMomsGate (hey-it’s an election year!  Can’t I make up my own ‘gate?!).  Watch the scandalous Motrin commercial here.

The focus of the commercial is babywearing moms who carry their little ones in slings and characters.  Seems like a nice commercial, right?  Well, the voiceover, narration and condescending wording have caused such a disturbance in the mom community that Operation Twitterstorm was launched!  Motrin’s commercial says moms look "crazy and tired"… oh boy.  Moms everywhere voiced their disapproval on Twitter, forcing Motrin to figure out where they went wrong.  What do you think about the MotrinMoms scandal?  Leave us a comment!

Expensive Prizes for You!

As we get closer to the holidays, watch for the values of the Saturday Giveaways prizes to increase dramatically!  If you didn’t enter to win the iPod shuffle, $100 shopping spree, Bosch blender, ZUNE media player ($230), or $50 Visa gift card, go to Saturday Giveaways to sign up.  And as always, if you are having a giveaway on your blog feel free to link your giveaway.

Holiday sales and coupon codes

Retailers are starting to offer free shipping and great specials to pump up holiday sales.  Following are the offers that showed up in our email today:

Kmart.com is doing free shipping on the online orders over $49.00 (excludes TVs, furniture, and computers).  They also have 40% off all women’s sleepwear and robes.  Expires 11/22/O8.

Organize.com is offering 20% off select china storage and 8% off purchases of $35 or more.

Roamans.com (women’s clothing) is offering 35% off your highest priced item using coupon code RD16660 (expires 11/24/08).

Chadwicks.com (women’s clothing) is offering $50 off $150 purchase or $25 off $75 purchase with coupon code CHGIVE (expires 11/23/08).

Amazon’s holiday toy list is out, and rumor has it that they have planned some awesome doorbuster sales for Black Friday shopping (day after Thanksgiving).

Dr. Hubbard’s photo courtesy of my family Dr. Magazine. 

My job is great, because I get lots of free goodies to try out and give away as prizes.  Thanks to my friends at Proctor & Gamble, we received a bottle of dish soap to try and review: Dawn Plus Hand Renewal.  I only got one bottle, so no giveaway this time, but I have included $4 of coupons for Dawn soap below!  *This is NOT a paid product review.*  My family and I have been using it for the last week, and I have to admit that I’ve been using the soap NOT as directed on the package. 

I’m a compulsive hand washer; I know many of you germophobes will relate with me on this point.  My tendency to obsess about germs combined with a house full of children equals one mom who washes her hands about 100 times a day!  I wanted to see if the Dawn soap would make a difference on my hands, since I wash them so frequently that it gives me very dry skin. I filled my handsoap pumps in the kitchen and bathroom with this soap, which is supposed to transform your skin’s look and feel in 5 uses.   The consistency of the soap is very thick and moisturizing and I noticed my skin not being as dry since I’ve been using it. 

Of course any soap that smells good is a hit with my daughter for the bathroom soap pump (the Pomegranate Splash scent that we tried is great)!  I used it to wash dishes as well, and it was a great cleaner as expected.  But I think the big benefit of the Dawn soap is the "hand beautification" it provides with it’s targeted enzymes that regenerate the surface of the skin.  It’s supposed to be retailing for only $2.99, which is a pretty good deal for having a built in moisturizing system.

Get $4 of Dawn dish soap coupons here from our friends at Proctor & Gamble (they mail you an entire booklet with $27 of coupons, $4 just on Dawn soaps!).

Benefits: Combining the moisturizer and the soap in one bottle means that you don’t have to have two pumps next to your sink.  This Dawn dishwashing soap is a space-saving double-duty product at a great value, making it a frugal buy with Homemaker Barbi’s thumbs up.

Dawn picture courtesy of Procter & Gamble.

Enter all the best contests and giveaways on the web, all together in one place, at Saturday Giveaways! 

Want to participate by posting your contest?  Just leave a link to your giveaway below.  (You must use your permalink, not link to your homepage, and follow the guidelines:  How to participate in Saturday Giveaways.)  Feel free to let everyone know your giveaways are listed at Homemaker Barbi by using our Saturday Giveaways banner on your blog!

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Financial situations can change dramatically without warning, and have enormous effects on your household’s spending money.  Whether your main breadwinner has lost their job, had work hours reduced, or you’ve lost the second income in your family, there are ways to make ends meet even when the going gets rough.

Get Frugal with $5 a Week

A while back, a reader shared this problem with me. She described how, after many years of two incomes, they now have only $5 a week leftover after paying for necessities.  She had gone back to school, leaving their family of 5 to get by on only her husband’s income. 

We may forget how tight a budget can be if we’re not in an extreme situation right now, but it is a real possibility for many and a current reality for others.  How can you possibly get by when you pay for your bills and necessities and have only $5 per week leftover?  Get frugal!

10 Tips for Tightening the Household Budget

1.  Learn the difference between needs and wants.  This can be difficult when you’re used to having a little flexibility in your shopping budget.  When that flexibility disappears and you have to cut back your budget, identifying needs and wants becomes crucial. 

2.  Forget brand loyalty.  Buy the cheapest brand that will meet your needs, whether it’s a generic, a store brand or a brand name on sale.  This is not about disliking your favorite brands, so don’t feel guilty for leaving them behind temporarily.  Sometimes price and value have to come first.

Even a teenager that thinks they have to have a certain brand of shampoo can be taught the importance of forgetting brand loyalty.  How?  Let them (make them) ration their "expensive" shampoo over an entire month!  Chances are when they see how hard it is to make expensive products last a reasonable amount of time, you won’t hear as much complaining when you buy several bottles of the 99cent shampoo instead!

3.  Gather coupons.  Ask friends and family to save coupons for you, cut coupons out of the newspaper, and print free coupons online.  Many companies, like uPromise, are now offering e-coupons that can be loaded directly onto your grocery store card.

4.  Use coupons only when it’s cheaper than generic.  Check the prices carefully.  Very often, a generic or store brand is still a better value than buying a name brand with a coupon.

5.  Cook with cheaper ingredients.  World famous chef Gordon Ramsay may be foul-mouthed, but he sure knows a thing or two about being frugal in the kitchen.  He identifies how restaurants are losing money by using expensive ingredients, and helps them find cheaper ingredients that will make good substitutes.  You can do the same in your kitchen! 

6.  Request and use freebies.  There is an abundance of free items online, from toothpaste to food to laundry detergent.  Homemaker Barbi lists the best free samples every week, so start requesting them today and see your mailbox fill up with free things you’ll never have to buy again.

7.  Don’t be wasteful.  From throwing away leftover food to doing extra loads of laundry, we can all identify areas in which we are wasteful.  Tighten up those areas: for example, use bath towels more than once to cut down on unnecessary laundry.  That ONE simple action will save you water, electricity, laundry detergent, money and time!

8.  Save on heating costs.  Save money on heating fuel overnight shows how a little investment in quality supplies will cut down your heating costs.

9.  Save on laundry costs. 

10.  Learn to do things yourself (DIY).  Services provided by professionals can be very costly.  If you learn to be self-sufficient and take care of those chores yourself, you’ll save money by paying only for materials.  Learn these DIY projects: unclog a drain, replace a broken window pane, change the oil in your car, and more.

If you found the tips in this article useful, please consider subscribing to our updates for more frugal living tips!  Photo courtesy of stock.xchng.

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It can be difficult to learn the difference between needs and wants when you’re used to having a little flexibility in your shopping budget.  When that flexibility disappears suddenly and you have to cut back your spending, identifying needs and wants becomes crucial.  This is a great exercise for children and teens to do with you.

It’s true that frugal living can cut your shopping expenses dramatically, but the decision always lies with you, the frugal homemaker, to say what’s really needed.  These easy questions can help get your mind discriminating as you distinguish needs vs. wants.  Take this list with you to the grocery store (or during other types of shopping) to have a reminder of your temporary focus on need items.

11 Questions for Needs vs Wants Shopping

For Grocery Shopping

1.  Would I put back the milk and get this for my family instead?  If you answered yes, you must really NEED it!  Milk is such a basic necessity and ingredient in most families that using this as a comparison will likely give you a Need vs. Want decision pretty easily. 

2.  Is this a healthy food?  Healthy foods are needs. Junk foods, prepared foods, sugary desserts, and convenience foods are wants.  Under this rule, fast food drive-thru will always make it to the want category.

3.  Can this be used as an ingredient to cook a healthy meal?  Doritos and diet soda, for example, may be items you want, but they won’t help you cook a casserole for dinner!  If you can’t use an item as a healthy ingredient to prepare meals for your family, just say no.

4.  Can I substitute something I already have in its place?  Do you need to buy jarred sauce or could you make sauce from ingredients you already have?  Do you need to buy sour cream for a recipe or could you substitute the plain yogurt you already have?

5.  Is this something that can wait until later?  Do I really need to buy a cake mix now for a birthday party that isn’t for three months?  Probably not!  Just because we’re thinking about something right now, doesn’t necessarily mean we need to buy it now.

6.  If I go home without this, will things be okay? 

For Non-Grocery Shopping

7.  Can I substitute something I already have in its place? 

8.  Can I borrow it from a friend, family member, neighbor, or library?  Things like books, magazines, and newspapers can be borrowed instead of purchased for huge savings.  Find frugal friends who are willing to share and trade all kinds of things, even trading clothes outgrown by your kids.

9.  Is buying this item brand new a need?  Will buying it used still serve the same purpose?  A thrift store, garage sale, or second-hand dealer may have just what you need at a fraction of the cost.  (Example: Used sports equipment for kids can usually be found at a second hand sports store for cheap, then sold back at the end of the season.)

10.  Do I have enough of these already?  This works great for clothing shopping.  If you have enough socks, jeans, or shirts, another one probably isn’t a need.

11.  If I don’t buy this, will things be okay?

You may have noticed that #6 and #11 are very similar.  The bottom line when determining needs vs. wants is simple:  if everything will still be okay without the item, it’s probably not a need.  Learning the difference between needs and wants is a skill that will serve adults and children alike in many different situations.  Homemaker Barbi Says: Make smart choices between needs and wants to save your money and control your budget!

If you liked this article, please consider subscribing to our updates for free.

Photos courtesy of stock.xchng.

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Get Started Planning Thanksgiving by Choosing a Location

With 16 short days left before Thanksgiving (in the USA), its time to start preparation for those of us who have been procrastinating!  A little Thanksgiving holiday planning now will go a long way towards lowering your stress level on Turkey Day. 

Thanksgiving preparation - where to start?  Every large project can be traced back to one single starting place, so today let’s choose the location for your Thanksgiving feast.  Email or call your family members to decide the location (using the guidelines below if necessary).

Those with large families in the same town/area will be choosing a location:

• At whose house will dinner be held?
• If no family members have a house large enough for the gathering, will you rent a hall or room at a restaurant?
• If renting a location, who will pay?

Those with families living in distant locations will be deciding:

• What town will Thanksgiving be in?
• Which family members will be traveling, and which will be hosting in their town?
• Is the hosting family’s house large enough to host Thanksgiving dinner?
• If renting a hall or room at a restaurant, who will pay?
• Does the hosting family have room for out of town guests to stay with them, or should they book hotels now?

Those with small families (parents and kids only without extended family):

• Will you have Thanksgiving at home or will you go to a restaurant to eliminate the cooking?

If you are military deployed or military stationed away from family:

• Are there friends or other families you will spend your holiday with?
• Can your family back home include you via technology (call in, webcam, etc.)?
• Will you travel home to be with your family for Thanksgiving?

If Thanksgiving is being hosted at your house:

• Is your dining table big enough to fit all the guests? 
• Do you need to bring in additional chairs or tables?
• Will you have a separate kids’ table?  Will it be in the same area as the adults’ table or in a separate area due to space constraints?

Every family has different circumstances, which means the decision you make will fit your unique situation.  Go with what feels right, keeping in mind that Thanksgiving is a holiday during which we give thanks for the people that mean the most to us.  Don’t feel guilty if you’d rather go to a restaurant and skip the cooking so you can spend quality time talking with your loved ones!  Make a choice that is right for your family and kick-start your Thanksgiving planning today.

Photo courtesy of stock.xchng.

We love to let readers know about all the latest free samples and freebie offers online, and your help is always appreciated!  If you find a freebie to tell us about, email freebies@HomemakerBarbi.com so we can share it with everyone.  If we blog about your freebie, we’ll thank you by name (and quite possibly your blog link).

If you missed Saturday Giveaways, check it out to enter all the best blog contests! Enter our breastfeeding set giveaway and our Holiday Hair Bows giveaway. 

• Free samples of GLAD® Food Storage Bags (Walmart)
• Free samples of Huggies diapers (They only have size 1 and size 3 left - Walmart)
• Free samples of Gain laundry detergent with baking soda (Walmart)
• Free samples of Aveeno Positively Ageless lotion + $1.50 coupon
• Free samples of Playtex Gentle Glide tampons
• Free samples of Degree men’s deodorant

  

Free movie rental from your nearest Redbox kiosk.  Use Redbox promo code LK43CE is good today only until midnight. Happy movie night!

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Saturday Giveaways 11/8/08

This is the 2nd edition of our new blog carnival, Saturday Giveaways at Homemaker Barbi!  Every weekend you can use Saturday Giveaways to link giveaways and contests you’re doing on your blog.  The best part about Saturday Giveaways is that you can enter the best contests and giveaways on the web, all together in one place. 

Want to participate by posting your contest?  Just leave a link to your giveaway below.  (You must use your permalink, not link to your homepage, and follow the guidelines:  How to participate in Saturday Giveaways.)  Feel free to let everyone know your giveaways are listed at Homemaker Barbi by using our Saturday Giveaways banner on your blog!

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Adorable Girls’ Holiday Hair Bows Giveaway

Thanks to our awesome contributor, I Heart Bowheads, this week we’re giving away 2 Girls’ Holiday Hair Bow Packs!  That’s right, we’ll be choosing 2 winners for these sets, which would make wonderful accessories for any girl’s holiday outfit this Christmas.  No daughters?  Enter anyway - these packs make great Christmas gifts!

Enter to win the Girls’ Holiday Hair Bow Sets Giveaway, which contain the following:

Pack #1 -Baby Bow-nanza: This hair bow set contains 8 super cute Baby Bow Clips - Seasons Greetings, Deck the Halls, Merry Christmas, Red and Green, Music, Homerun, Brown and pink, Brown and blue.  A $12.50 value. (Left)

#2 - Holiday Ponytail Pack: This set contains three ponytail holders - gold and silver snow angel, Seasons Greetings, and Happy Holidays. A $9.50 value. (Below)

Holly, the owner of the I Heart Bowheads store, has wonderful hair bows for girls of all ages.

• Baby bows are perfect for baby’s portraits or to go with special outfits.
• Baby bow headbands for the newborn without much hair!
• She has awesome tween or teen cheerleaders’ hair bows (or just for sports fans): basketball, football, soccer, baseball and more sports to choose from in a variety of styles/colors.
• Birthday hair bows to go with a special birthday girl’s outfit.
• Seasonal and holiday bows, perfect for Christmas dresses and holiday concerts.
• Ponytail holders featuring cartoon character favorites like Hello Kitty and Dora the Explorer.
• Matching "sisters" hair bow sets so your girls can match.

How to Enter

To Enter: Go to the I Heart Bowheads Store and look at all their adorable hair bows and ponytail holders.  Then come back here and leave a comment on this post telling the name of your favorite bow in her store.  Be sure to leave a valid email address.  This contest open only to USA shipping addresses.  By entering this contest, you agree to our Giveaway Terms and Conditions.

Extra entry #1:  Blog about this giveaway!  Leave the link on this post in a separate comment for an extra entry.

Extra entry #2:  Subscribe to Homemaker Barbi’s free email subscription, then leave another comment on this post for an extra entry.

Extra entry #3:  Twitter this giveaway, including the name of the prize and a link to this post.  Then come back here and leave another comment on this post including the link to your Twitter profile for an extra entry.

When: Leave a comment anytime between today and Friday, November 21st.  Contest closes 11-21-08 at midnight PST.

Winner to be announced Saturday, November 22nd, 2008.

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Two days ago I opened the refrigerator, only to be accosted by a freak accident from a relatively organized appliance.  As I opened the door, the top plastic compartment flung open, hurling a box of butter at me, which - in turn- emptied itself as butter cubes took flight across the kitchen! 

So what?  It’s not the accident that was important, but the OUTCOME.  I recovered the unharmed whole and partial butter cubes, and put the empty butter package into the trash.  Somehow in the scuffle, the cardboard box mysteriously ripped the end off its own box!  Only ONE THING remained on the floor, right in front of my big toe:  the end of the butter box which said: "FIRST QUALITY"

Was it a sign?  What kind of message was the butter trying to give me?!  My mind raced to figure out the possible significance of this cryptic note.  Am I putting first quality into all I do?  Is my website getting first quality?  What about my home, my family, myself?

People tend to get caught up in trying to do so much that they end up spreading themselves thin.  We may get the meals cooked, the homeschooling done, the house cleaned, but did we give any one of those things our full attention?  I am guilty as charged - I try to do it all, but haven’t given my house or my family "first quality" lately.

How can we make time for First Quality?

We’re all busy, it’s inevitable.  Homemakers, moms, dads, household managers: we wear so many hats, are responsible for so many people other than ourselves, and many times bear the weight of all these chores alone.  How can we possibly give first quality in any area when there’s barely enough time to get our work done and still have time to sleep?

1.  Decide what is most important.  Does it really matter if all the DVDs are alphabetized?  Is it essential that all the toothpaste streaks are out of the sink each morning after the kids brush their teeth?  If your answer is no, you can stand to simplify your list of responsibilities you have given yourself. 

2.  Make a "now" list.  Write down all of the chores and responsibilities you have NOW.  Put a star next to the most important things.  Cross out the jobs that can go without making your life crumble! 

Example:  Giving the kids a bath?  Star.  Volunteering for the PTA’s Thanksgiving Carnival?  You volunteered for Halloween already.  Cross it off.

3. Write a "new" list called FIRST QUALITY.  Write down all the starred items from your other list.  This new list should be much shorter and more focused.  Put it on the refrigerator, the bathroom mirror, or wherever you will see it every day.  This new list is to remind you of the things you give first quality effort to.

4.  Work hard on only the most important things.  Don’t feel bad if you spend extra time on homeschool lesson preparation, or do a fantastic job on organizing your kitchen.  If it’s on your list, it gets to claim your time.  If it’s not on the list, feel free to quickly breeze through it - or forget about it altogether.

5.  Don’t feel guilty.  YOU design your life, YOU are in charge of your time.  Feel good about the choices you make!

Every person’s First Quality list will look different, and that’s okay.  My list contains my top priorities, which are:

1. My marriage
2. My family
3. My businesses
4. My home organization and systems
5. My home cleaning

Notice that cleaning is last?!  Don’t get me wrong, I love a clean house as much as the next homemaker.  However, since I also have two children and run two businesses, I’d rather spend an hour on a family meeting than cleaning dust bunnies from under my bed.  Make sense? 

The butter attack gave me a great reminder: I need to keep my priorities in mind and NOT try to do it all.  Life is meant to be enjoyed, not hurried away.  It’s easy to feel good about hard work when you give it your all, your best, your first quality.  If you can look at your project and feel proud of what you’ve done, that feeling will fill you up and spill out to others. 

Whether you give your all to your kids, your house, your job, your blog, your artwork - give it your best and feel great about delivering first quality.  Stop trying to do it all.  Then feel proud - you’ve earned it.

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Many homemakers (including myself) dream of the day when all household cleaning and chores will be delegated to the children so we can finally take a day off!  What better way to prepare kids for cleaning, cooking, and homemaking than with "homemaker toys", also known as the 13 toys listed below!  These teaching toys show off some of the jobs we as homemakers, moms, dads, and family managers do in a fun way.  Children love to help, and doing grown-up jobs with kid-size tools will let them feel helpful and important.

Toys worth buying are the ones that don’t get put into the donation station 2 days after Christmas because they were complete bombs (i.e. nobody wants to play with them)!  Don’t let your Christmas gifts be relegated to the return station either, forcing you to brave the exchange lines at the stores after Christmas.  Choose some double-duty educational toys that let your kids become your little helpers.  Presenting the 13 Best Homemaker Toys Worth Buying!

These 13 homemaker toys will be a great buy for kids’ Christmas presents this holiday season:

1.  Toy cleaning sets.  Dirt Devil Junior ~ 12 Piece Play Cleaning Set.  You never know which toys your child will really take to, which makes a cleaning set with a variety of toys a great option.  For ages 2+, this cool cleaning set includes kid sized cleaning tools: sponge mop, duster, broom, scrub brush, 2 cleaning bottles, dust pan, wet floor sign, and more!

2.  Little Tikes Shopping Cart.  What better way to get your little one ready to help with grocery shopping than with their own mini plastic shopping cart?  Let them practice at home: 

• Have kids unload grocery bags by putting items into their cart
• Have kids "shop for" ingredients for dinner from the pantry and bring them back in the shopping cart
• and many more.

3.  Toy cookware.  Dining Room Pots & Pans.  Let your kids practice cooking with you in the kitchen using their very own toy cook set!  This becomes a great teaching toy for washing dishes, as well.  This set comes with pots, pans, lids, plates, bowls, cups, spatula, plastic silverware, and even a salt and pepper shaker. 

4.  Toy vacuum cleaners. Fisher Price - Laugh & Learn Learning Vacuum Cleaner A nifty toy vacuum will let your toddler or preschooler zip around with you while you do your housework, instead of getting into trouble while you’re not watching.  This toy talking vacuum looks like the real thing, rolls and makes realistic vacuum sounds, but is safe for kids 12 months and older.  

5.  Toy brooms that REALLY clean! The Silly Sam Talking Broom with Dust Pan says cute messages like, "Cleaning is fun."  Finally!  THAT is exactly what we want toys to tell our kids!  This toy broom and dustpan will let your child help clean up real messes while being a big kid helper to mom and dad.

6. Cleaning cart with REAL working hand vacuum.  My Cleaning Trolley Set with Hand Vacuum Cleaner has a real working vacuum cleaner so your child will really be cleaning as they help you with chores! Also comes with broom, mop, hand brush, dust pan, bucket and real working water sprayer.  Recommended for kids 24 months+.

7.  Toy ironing board set.  Let your child pretend ironing and hanging up clean pressed clothes with this great learning toy.  Ironing Board With Iron (pictured at left) is great for boys or girls age 3+, while the Ironing Board Set with Drying Rack (right) comes in pink and purple.  Pink set also includes mini hangers and clothes clips!

8.  Toy washing machine. Washing Machine (shown left) is designed for kids 3+ and features sloshing water, a spinning tub, realistic sounds, and pull-out detergent dispenser.  What an exciting way to get children involved in laundry - just set up the toy washer in the laundry room by the real washing machine!

9. Toy Microwave Oven. For kids 3+, this nifty toy microwave even has a rotating food carousel and a digital countdown timer.  They can practice  heating up leftovers or preparing tasty dishes to share with you!

10.  Toy coffee maker and toaster. A pretend coffee maker and toaster like the iPlay Gourmet Breakfast Blend let little ones pretend to make a "grown-up breakfast" of toast and coffee for their parent before work!  Good practice for teaching toaster safety and dishwashing for the cups.