I don’t know about you, but with nine grandkids I LOVE great prices on clothes for them. Then I can indulge in all my grandmommy desires to help my kids and grandkids without breaking my bank! Thanks to HomemakerBarbi, we can all indulge in that kind of fun for them AND for us.

She has written a fascinating two-part series all about shopping for nice clothes and more and only paying 10 cents on the dollar, just by knowing where to shop and when!

My mom got so excited about this, she’s asked me three times to print the information out for her. Unfortunately, she had to wait until I got back home and reconnected my laptop to my printer. But you don’t have to wait! Just hurry on over to HomemakerBarbi’s for the first article on How to Save 90% on Kids Clothes . Immediately follow that by going to Part 2, Buying Cheap Kids’ Clothes . This article posts the best buying times for regular and thrift stores. I learned a lot from these articles and can’t wait to try them out! And not just for the grandkids clothes. I’m thinking jeans for me,  jackets for mom…. Talk about a great Frugal Tip for the Sandwich Generation!

I’m starting today’s resource list with an important reminder. When you set your clocks forward tonight, don’t forget to change the batteries in your smoke and fire detectors. While you’re at it, make sure you go change them in your elderly parent’s detectors as well, or give them a buzz to remind them to do it.

Did you ever use Yahoo Briefcase to store files online? They closed on March 30, 2009.

Another excellent verse for all of us multi-generational caregivers!  The people who know their God will display strength and take action.

I have a Mileage Plus credit card with Capital One. I find them to be easy to work with and wonderfully proactive at making sure my credit (and their credit card) stays safe! In fact, a few weeks ago I dropped my card without realizing it. They called me later that day about some strange charges. Sure enough, someone had found it and immediately started using it. I was really appreciative they caught it so quickly so I didn’t have more headaches to deal with! This past week, I enjoyed reading Consumer Boomer’s great article about Capital One along with their 10 helpful tips to prevent ID theft. These would be good tips to review with your elderly parents. They are also excellent to share with older grandkids when you’re sitting on the pier fishing or out taking a walk together.

I appreciated the suggestions in this article by Senior Support regarding eldercare dignity while eating, etc.

Rebuild Your Back had some good information on Sciatica back pain. We’ve had to deal with a bit of that ourselves after our move. It’s no fun! This puts to rest some popular myths and adds a couple of tips.

Do you have a child, or even a grandchild, getting married this spring or summer. You’ll be thrilled to hear that there’s a movement afoot, in this tough economy, to strive for more frugal weddings. Here’s an excellent article from Shoestring Magazine to help with the brainstorming for that. “Dream Weddings in Downturn: Embrace yr inner tightwad.”

Encouragement – The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are attentive to their cry.

Dementia: It’s not always Alzheimer’s. MSN has an excellent article discussing various causes and types of dementia.

Police: Live Oak Man Sold Meth in Canes When my four grandkids on one coast or five grandkids on the other coast get sick, they all seem to get sick at once. Moms and Dads also get it and no one wants to have to run to the store when they’re sick. Unfortunately, due to drug dealers misusing the ingredients in various cold medicines, it can be a royal pain in the neck to buy the medications, and to buy enough for a big family. Now there’s news out that they are hiding drugs in canes! Do you think we’ll have to start showing our ID to buy canes and find that they are also being rationed!!!! It’s funny, but in a rather sad and irritating way!

Encouragement – He who pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity and honor.

And finally, if your elderly parent is thinking of a retirement center, here’s an interesting option. You can now buy a retirement condo on a cruise ship. “For less money than many senior independent-living facilities charge, retirees may now live on a cruise ship. Prices for individual condo cabins on the 300-foot Algeria range from $159,000 for a single room to a larger suite for $399,000 plus a nominal “Resident’s Care” monthly fee which covers all the operating expenses of the ship including crew, staff, fuel, maintenance, insurance, three meals daily, port fees, the medical center, and housekeeping. A huge difference between a senior care facility and living on Algeria is that the residents actually own the ship.” WOW! I wish I didn’t get seasick! 

It’s that time again. Time to check out all the great resources from Twitter over the past week or so. I’m going to start with the most recent as it’s also the most important.

If you get an email from Delta about a ticket, DON’T open any attachment. A nationwide fraudulent email scam has hit millions!

Another vital tip – don’t forget to set your clocks ahead tomorrow, Saturday, 3/7/09. Spring forward, Fall back!

I don’t know about you, but I have several friends and acquaintances who have either been laid off or are concerned they will be. It’s especially hard for the Baby Boomer Generation as ageism can rear its ugly head at times. Seems silly, as we have more experience, but we can also require a higher salary and that is a key concern in this economy. Here’s a great article about some of the creative ways people are using this forced time off to learn, help, and/or recharge, as they wait to get another job.

I found some great new add-ons for Firefox. I gave up on Internet Explorer a few months ago due to so many crashes. Firefox crashes as well, but it doesn’t seem to be as often. On top of that, they have such great add-ons, I haven’t looked back. My favorite is called Morning Coffee. It allows you to enter as many of your favorite websites as you like. Then, when you have some time to just read, you click the cup of coffee and they all open at once. It’s great for people who always read certain sites each day. It’s also great for caregivers like me who don’t often get that luxury, but know it’s there when we do.

Another useful add-on that I just found out about yesterday is called Session Manager. “Session Manager saves and restores the state of all windows – either when you want it or automatically at startup and after crashes. Additionally it offers you to opportunity to reopen (accidentally) closed windows and tabs. If you’re afraid of losing data while browsing – this extension allows you to relax.” Talk about perfect timing. I had just installed this when I got called away from my desk. While I was gone, one of my grandkids accidentally closed all the windows. Session Manager did, indeed, save the day!

Isn’t this perfect for Senior Home Care Givers  - The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He won’t grow tired or weary…gives strength to weary!

I love working on the computer and the internet. I can spend hours at it and the time flies. I love playing with grandkids as well, and again the time just soars. Housework is a whole other kettle of fish. I work on tidying, vacuuming, making beds, etc. and the time just drags. Or it did. Now I listen to my iPod with great sermons, educational business shows, and interesting books and the time flies. It really makes things much more interesting. I’ve already listed my favorite sermon sites. Here’s a couple of great sites for podcasts.

Blog Talk Radio – . This site is well set up and easy to navigate. You can go through it by channels or use the search button. There is plenty to find there to interest you, from caregiving to frugal, from business to blogging, and more. Many, if not most, of the shows are available through iTunes but it helps to have specific names/titles which you can get from here. You can also download the podcast directly following their directions.

Another resource I just found that looks quite useful, RadioPaq -– offers shows from BlogTalk Radio, along with the BBC, several French stations, a Jazz station and more. Between these two, you should find plenty to get you through your housework, your commutes, and more.

Are you a writer, a reader or do you know someone who is. I just read an interesting article in Publishers Weekly about RedRoom which is set to be a Facebook for authors and readers. Currently it has 2000 authors/20,000 members. It’s free for readers. I’m not sure about writers. If you know, tell us about it in the comments section below.

Do your favorite ways to save money include shopping at the Dollar store? Read the article to find out the goods and bads there.

For senior home care givers, It’s always the right time to brush up on our stroke awareness, such as signs and symptoms to watch for in your elderly parents or yourself!

Here’s some great health news! An early non-invasive cancer test is coming soon, in the next two – three years.

Encouragement – A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all!

This article has some great ideas for putting together frugal gift kits for kids and grandkids using items found at yard sales and thrift stores. I’ve got it bookmarked for my grandkids. It’s definitely one of those great ways to save money.

Well, that should keep you busy for now. I’ve got plenty more for tomorrow as well!

Staying close to elderly parents, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and other family members is a high priority for many of us. Telephone, email, and instant messaging is wonderful, but there are times you really need the good old postal service. I love to send books to one special relative, as she is finding it harder and harder to get around. While enjoying a good book, however, she can travel the world with ease. And nothing cheers up a grandchild on a dreary winter day like a box of reading books frugally purchased from yard sales and thrift stores.

Unfortunately though, with the price of postage going up almost as fast as the cost of gasoline, mailing those books isn’t a very frugal option. But wait, there is a way to do it very affordably, even though many people aren’t aware of it. The post office offers a Media Mail rate. It only applies to books, film, manuscripts, sound recordings, video tapes, and computer readable media (such as CDs, DVDs, and diskettes). You can’t use it with magazines, because they have ads in them. You can’t include any personal notes or messages. It will take several extra days to get there. You will, however, save a micro-ton of money.

If I mail a 6 pound box of books to my grandkids it would cost me about $11.72 to send it parcel post. If I make sure to only send the proper items and no note, Media Mail will only be 3.98 and it should get there within a week or two. I, therefore, pack up all the books, ship them off via Media Mail, and send an email to the recipient to say hello and let them know a package will be there in a while. Now I’ve been able to reach out and touch someone with my love in three different ways (the email, the anticipation, and the actual package) in a very frugal way!

For more frugal tips, you can check out Biblical Womanhood , where you’ll find a Frugal Friday article with over 140 other posts, all on the subject of saving money!

Can you believe it? It’s Valentine’s Day on Saturday! Seems like just yesterday my grandkids and I were singing Christmas carols. Another year is flying by. Holidays are a great time to make some special memories with our grandchildren as we create special craft projects, work on kids coloring pages, word puzzles and mazes, and play fun holiday games together. Here’s several links to some Valentine fun and games for all ages.

Amazing Moms has several adorable Valentine projects including a Hershey’s Kiss Mouse, a traditional Swedish heart basket, and even a cute Valentine made from leftover Christmas candy canes! How frugal is that one!

DLTK is always an excellent source of coloring pages to print, work papers for homeschooling programs, etc. and Valentine’s Day is no exception. From a “Bee My Valentine” Muffin Flower Card that the littlest grandchild can work on, to Valentine anagrams and mazes for the older set, you’ll find plenty of fun projects for you and your grandchildren to enjoy! There’s also plenty of school projects for regular classrooms or homeschool classes, as well. Your grandchild’s teacher will love you if you volunteer to bring some fun Valentine worksheets to the party this Friday!

Danielle’s Place has simple as well as simply adorable Valentines your grandkids can make for their parents, great-grandparents, and you! Who knows, they may even talk you into helping them make these for each of their classmates. They’re really cute. Being a teddy bear lover, I’m especially partial to the Paper Plate Valentine Bear Craft.

Grandparents.com has three interesting projects. A fairly simple Bucket of Love for the little grandkids using marshmallows, a somewhat simple one for the older grandchildren, making a mosaic out of eggshells, and a fairly complicated Heart Keepsake Box that is beautiful.

Family Fun is always an excellent resource. Here you’ll find projects, crafts, kids coloring pages, and even games for Valentine’s Day –

Speaking of games, whether to help with a party for the day, or just to enjoy on the next grandkid visit, here are a couple of other fun links. First head back to Amazing Moms – for a tower race using candy hearts, and a fun story game for the older grandkids.

Then pop over to About.com which also has some useful links for grandkid games and more.  They even have a fun online trivia game about Valentine’s Day. I took part 1 and got an 85! Then got a 95 on part 2. I decided I need to get back to writing this before I tried Part 3, but you can try all the parts and have lots of fun with those grandchildren as giggle and guess while working on the computer! If you take it, be sure to leave a comment and tell us what your score was

Well, time to set out the kids coloring pages, construction paper, and crayons. Let the Valentine games, and crafts, begin!

Spring is coming. Many are moving. Elderly parents are needing assistance. There is one constant in all of this. Decluttering is a necessity. It’s a ritual for spring cleaning. It makes moving much easier. And many elderly relatives are renown for their frugality, translated into “I can’t throw anything away!” It’s not easy. It’s not fun. It is cleansing and refreshing. So join me and let’s peruse some excellent recommendations on HOW and WHAT to declutter. Then, when we’re totally tired of reading about it, let’s go DO IT

Hi. My name is Kaye and I’m a bookaholic! As I weed, weed, and weed some more, my book pile gets smaller and yet is still huge. Reading is one of my favorite hobbies, but it’s also my hardest item to declutter. I give books away, I share books, I love books. As much as I would love to have a huge house and turn half of it into a library, that isn’t a practical or wise option for me. WikiHow has some help for me and any of you who have similar issues – http://budurl.com/DeclutterBks . They have an excellent article on how to wisely sort, weed, store, and even buy books so that you can enjoy them without letting them take over your life!

Now that the books are more under control, it’s time to move on to the rest of the house. Flylady is one of my favorite sites for that. She has so many resources on her site, you’ll be busy for days just absorbing them all. But she is good at not letting you just sit there. She has organization charts, schedules, and emails to help you get going and keep going. For those who like Twitter, she even has reminders she can tweet you! For her specific guidelines on decluttering, you can start at http://budurl.com/FlyladyDeclutter and then move on from there.

Both of these sites are excellent resources to help you get more organized and then help your beloved seniors get more organized. But what do you do with an elderly parent whose home seems to be more cluttered than ever before? It is important to stop and analyze the situation and the person. It could be they are going through a period of extreme busyness. This is probably more prevalent with caregivers though. I know my piles are growing as I try to combine writing, moving, babysitting, and caregiving. Mentally I am fine, but timewise, oy! But an older person with plenty of time, who is starting to stack papers on every available surface, who is not getting bills paid, etc., may have other issues that need to be cared for as well as the symptoms. It would be wise to have them get a medical checkup to rule out such things as depression or Alzheimer’s Disease. If you are already dealing with a parent with Alzheimer’s, I found a very useful article at http://budurl.com/AlzheimersHoarding . Rosemary Bakker wrote a detailed account of how her mother’s hoarding issues progressed and ways she dealt with the situation. I think that article is worth saving, even if you don’t need it now.

Well, our time for reading and research is up. Now it’s time to put some of this into action. I don’t know about you, but I know it’s time for me to hit those boxes and start putting away, with an eye to giving away some of it as well

I’ve got some excellent links for you that first appeared on my Twitter page. In fact, there are so many, I’m going to do half today and half tomorrow. Don’t forget, if you want them hot off the press, come join the conversation at http://twitter.com/SandwichINK .  Without further adieu…

Disaster/Emergency Links:

Here is a great site for disaster/emergency information – CBS News’ Disaster links – http://tinyurl.com/gdj4u

Encouragement – Jesus said…Be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

Salmonella Outbreak and Peanut Butter Recall:

A full list of peanut butter recalls: http://tinyurl.com/8vaywm Thanks to @FamilyDoctorMag  for finding it.

Here’s a definitive statement about the peanut butter and salmonella situation, issued by the FDA – http://budurl.com/CDCPeanut

Encouragement – Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each day!

Small Business Information:

If you run a small business, or perhaps have an adult child or elderly parent who does, this is an excellent list of small businesses who use twitter: http://tinyurl.com/8kmvdq Written by Anita Campbell and found by @Donna606.

Speaking of small businesses, Daiv Rawks pointed out that if you use signs on your car to advertise your business, you’re more likely to get calls if the letters are easy to read in a quick second or two at freeway speeds, which many of the fancy curly fonts are not.

Encouragement – God is the strength of my heart & my portion forever.

Blogging/Tech Info:

If you are blogging or thinking of blogging and haven’t yet tried Microsoft’s Live Writer, here is the latest version  complete with the newest auto-complete tagging feature. I haven’t tried using that aspect but will try to give it a whirl in the next couple of weeks, after my life starts settling down from all the various colds, bugs, etc. we’ve had going on around here. http://tinyurl.com/wlwtags A big thank you, again, to Brandon Turner who does such a great job for Microsoft as part of the Live Write team!

Another quick note for all you bloggers. Did you know that WordPress 7 lets you drag and reorder your plugins, etc.? I didn’t until I read a note from Chris Brogan! I can’t wait to test drive that feature.

If any of you use Google gmail and other products such as Blogger, Feedburner, etc., please be extremely careful if you have to delete one of those accounts. Apparently it can be very easy to delete all the accounts when you only wanted to delete one account! And once they’re gone, it’s almost impossible to retrieve them even if you discover your error within a minute! A friend discovered this, and in researching options for her, I found several other sad recountings of similar happenings. Might even be best to make them private and not use them, but don’t delete them!

I loved this quote that buildthemup found: If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1000 MPG. Bill Gates Isn’t that the truth!!!

If you use Photoshop, here’s an interesting article: 12 Common Photoshop Mistakes, Misuses & Abuses- http://is.gd/fodk – Thank you to Dawud Miracle for that good info

Hey hey hey, Baby Boomers. We’re the hot topic at computer tech shows! According to Marc Middleton at Growing Bolder, “This weekend, the [Consumer Electronic Show] CES hosted its first annual “Silvers Summit” to discuss how older Americans shop for and use consumer electronics. I’ve been using and loving computers since a year after they came out. I’m very pleased that they’ll continue to age well with me!

Have u ever heard of a warm mouse? I hadn’t but I learned. It sounds wonderful for those with arthritis or carpal tunnel. I haven’t tried it but thought I’d pass the info on for others who might be interested. [The site no longer has the information listed but you can go to http://www.warmmouse.com/ instead ] Two ideas for those conditions that I have tried successfully are to use an oversized mouse and to use a wrist brace. I personally love the glove that goes on with a built in pad made of tiny balls. The one I use most often is called a Smart Glove by IMAK

Encouragement – the gift of God is eternal life IN Christ Jesus our Lord.

Here are some terrific Martin Luther King, Jr. quotes:

“Everybody can be great because everybody can serve.” Caregiving found that one.

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." Found by Copyblogger.

"Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, What are you doing for others?" Found by Mr. ElderCare.

Encouragement – God’s Word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path.

Real Estate Information:

Is your city (or your elderly parent’s city) on the list of the top 10 worst foreclosure cities in 2008? http://budurl.com/10WorstForeclsCities

Several of my elderly relatives enjoy reading about Dubai. Some of yours might as well. Did you know that the world’s tallest home is in Dubai-2559 ft and 160 floors! You can fit a lot of grandkids in there http://budurl.com/TallestHomeIn Dubai

Encouragement – Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.

That’s it for tonight. Check out Part 2 tomorrow, with links specific to health, elderly parents, grandkids, and more…

Flying is expensive. There’s no two ways about it. The cost of the flight itself is pricy. Anything and everything you need to purchase at any airport are usually overpriced. You might even have to add in the cost of a car rental and/or hotel charges at your destination. And then there’s the trip home with the final blow. Picking up your vehicle and paying for the parking. For short trips, it’s not too bad. But if you had to leave it there for a week to ten days, it can equal the price of a plane ticket (to a close destination).

You can use one of my favorite ways to save money as a fix for this dilemma. Of course, the cheapest way is to have a friend or family member take you and pick you up. For the trip out, that’s usually not too difficult. Most plane trips seem to originate during daytime hours. But what if it happens to hit at a time no one is available? Or what if your return flight doesn’t get in until the wee hours of the night?

Rent a car one way. Hertz is especially good with this, although many of the others now offer that option as well. Make a reservation, pick the car up at the airport as soon as you’ve found your luggage, and head home. The next day, take the car to the car rental’s local shop near where you live and request a ride home which Hertz, and many others, offer for free. I usually give them a call a couple of hours ahead of time to ensure their office can provide this service within my time frame. The cost can vary from $25 for great deals, on up to about $75 if it’s definitely NOT a great deal. But $75 is still cheaper than the cost of parking for several days. It’s also much more convenient for everyone then having to make some poor friend or relative go without sleep to pick you up, and then leave them stuck hanging around the airport if your plane is delayed, as many are.

It may not be cheap but it does save money and it often gets me back to senior parents and grandkids quicker. I personally love Hertz and their membership program, which I get through AAA (another frugal tip!). It actually gets me on the way faster than if my own car was there!

Are you looking for easy, affordable dinners that can be interspersed with caregiving duties? I know the feeling well. This week I decided to see what recipes were out there for cooking a roast and in the process, discovered some interesting new cooking sites along with a variety of recipes. I thought I’d share some of them with you.

Corduroyorange.com – http://corduroyorange.com/ – is, to quote the author, “The Only Food Blog Written by Jesse Sharrard. Jesse Sharrard is a classically trained chef with an English degree—unless he’s a literary scholar with a culinary arts degree; you decide.” Being an avid reader as well as an avid blogger, and in need of some cooking guidance, this definitely caught my eye. At the point I found this site, I was specifically looking for help in how to Julienne onions, and he had that info for me, complete with pictures. http://corduroyorange.com/?p=31 I enjoyed spending time reading his site. There is a lot of humor mixed in with some great information. I didn’t find a roast recipe, but enjoyed the great “taco debate” at http://budurl.com/CorduroyOrangeTacos . My personal favorite for tacos is corn tortillas,  filled with shredded beef or ground beef, followed by lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and finally the salsa on top.

Continuing with my hunt for a good roast recipe, I discovered Simply Recipes – http://budurl.com/SimplyRecipesRoast . There I found a delicious Tri-Tip Roast recipe (my favorite cut of meat for both roast or steak). Marinated Tri-Tip Roast with Mushrooms and Garlic! Sounds delicious and doesn’t look too hard. Simply Recipes has a variety of recipes on their site. They also go the extra step we caregivers appreciate, and offer an email option so you can have new recipes sent to your email regularly. “Simply Recipes was noted in Time Magazine’s 50 Coolest Websites of 2006 as being a ‘great resource for cooks’” and I have to agree that it is, indeed, an excellent resource.

Returning to my quest, I arrived at Cooks Recipes – http://budurl.com/CooksRecipesRoast . Since I love rosemary, this is another recipe I bookmarked. It looks pretty easy and low maintenance – two more of my favorite cooking requirements.

As easy as these all were, I wanted something with even less work required for this particularly busy day. Ah ha, a crockpot recipe might be the thing. I then discovered About.Com’s Southern Food website where I found an old favorite, Crock Pot Roast with Onion Soup Mix. http://budurl.com/SouthernFoodCPRoast . It’s an easy-to-make recipe that you can start in the morning, leave cooking all day, and enjoy whenever you want to eat in the evening. This is especially nice if you have the grandchildren all day. My only concern with this recipe is the high salt content in the onion soup mix. I did use the low salt/low fat Cream of Mushroom soup, but for those of us who like to eat healthier or who have elderly parents with high blood pressure, this still wasn’t a great option in spite of its ease.

There is a good solution for that at my last site for today. Low Sodium Cooking http://budurl.com/LowSodiumOnionSoup has a recipe for a low sodium home-made onion soup mix and it’s quick and easy to make as well. I didn’t get to try it today but it’s on my list to try later this month and I’ll let you know how it tastes. In the meantime, if you give it a try, let us know how you liked it.