Amy's Wandering

wfmw – online stopwatch

April 14, 2010 By: amyswandering1 Comment

No one in my house wears a watch – we just use our cell phones – so I was excited to find this handy-dandy free online stopwatch.

I think it might be useful for our cleaning competitions – set a little fire under those kiddos!

Run on over to We Are That Family for tons of great tips!

stuffed french toast

April 8, 2010 By: amyswandering5 Comments

We love this recipe! I just threw a few things together one day and it has turned out to be one of our favorites.

Stuffed French Toast (makes 8 )

3 eggs

1 1/2 c. milk

1/4 t. nutmeg

1/2 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. vanilla

16 slices whole wheat bread

4 oz. cream cheese, softened

naturally sweetened jam or jelly

oil or butter

Directions:

Beat eggs. Add milk, nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla. Whisk until combined.

Make 8 jam & cream cheese sandwiches – jam on one slice, cream cheese on another, stick the two slices together.

Heat 1-2 T. of oil or butter over medium-high heat in a skillet or griddle. Quickly dip your sandwiches into your egg mixture, making sure to coat both sides. (Do not dip until you are ready to cook because the bread will get too soggy.) Cook approx. 3-4 min on each side, or until golden brown.

Top with syrup or powdered sugar.

Note: This is also delicious with cinnamon & sugar inside instead of jam.

review – Family Mint

April 7, 2010 By: amyswanderingcomment

Maybe you were like me and ventured out on your own without having a clue how to even open a bank account. Family Mint is a tool that can help your kids learn how to budget and manage money while they are still young.

Family Mint is a free online virtual savings plan. You, the Banker, set up an account for each child. There is junior interface and an advanced interface, depending on the age of the child. No real money is deposited or withdrawn. This is a tool to help them manage their money and set financial goals.

Here are some of the features:

Automated Allowance
Automated Interest
Matching Deposits
Transactions
Goals
Personalization

My husband has been between jobs during this review time, so allowances have been on hold (hope my kids don’t expect back pay!). His lab will be up & running soon, and allowances will be back on the table. FYI – we do allowances at the end of each month according to age, 12 yr. old gets $12 a month, etc. Here is how I will use Family Mint:

Automated Allowance – I am terrible at remembering to actually get cash and hand it out. I will set up the accounts to automatically add an allowance to a child’s account each month.
Transactions – My kids usually don’t have money with them, so we buy things for them and they pay us back later. We are not going to give them cash anymore (unless needed). We will just transfer funds from their “account” to ours. We will be giving them cash for tithing – I think it is important to keep that hands-on & not virtual!

Family Mint is a great tool even if you don’t do allowances in your family. Print out play bucks (down on the left) and try out some of these ideas that our Crew members thought up: