Holidays

Matchmakers or Heartbreakers: is online dating the best way to find love in the 21st century?

November 12, 2013 by Painter Mommy Leave a Comment

In recent years the global search for love has made its way online, with one survey showing that two out of five single Americans aged between 24 and 50 have used online dating sites. As the shift to an internet love-hunt grows, with people everywhere settling in front of their stylish new Asus Laptops to look for The One, many are wondering whether online dating really works or if it’s just another way to get our money.

There are plenty who are prepared to argue that online dating is the best way to meet your perfect partner. Effectively a catalog of single-and-ready-to-mingle men and women, online dating opens up new possibilities for meeting people you would never otherwise have stumbled across. With the increased choice comes the benefit of being able to make informed decisions about who you meet. Unlike blind dates set up by sympathetic friends, with e-dating you can check out someone’s profile to find out their quirks and interests and to screen out undesirable traits.

For party animals meeting someone in a bar might be relatively easy, but for the rest of us online dating spares you the stress of trying to find someone spontaneously.

Safety isn’t always a certainty, however. You can’t know for sure if the person you’re speaking to is being honest about themselves. The lie may be something as trivial as a profile picture from their hey day, or a carefully tailored list of interests that doesn’t remotely reflect reality. In more serious cases, though, the risk may be greater, and the possibility of being misled by someone with unpleasant motives is a real one.

There is also the risk of information overload. With pages of profiles to fill, people often share too much information, alienating users they could have a great connection with in person. If you meet someone in a bar, differences of opinion on popular culture can be dismissed because of the chemistry between you, something it is difficult to measure behind a computer screen. Of course, if you do find that connection, there is the stigma of having met someone online to deal with. While the earlier stats prove that this is an increasingly popular way to meet your partner, there are still unpleasant stereotypes that can be hard to navigate.

Both sides of the debate point to some important lessons on human interaction in the digital age. Meeting people online could be a real risk to your safety – but so could meeting the wrong person in a bar, and for some dating on the web provides protection from discrimination. There is no ‘best’ way to find love in the 21st century, but online dating is certainly one that has worked for many people, besides also being fun. For the cynics, remember that some good dating sites are free, meaning that taking a chance on online romance needn’t cost you a penny.

Fun Christmas Crafts for Kids and Parents

November 2, 2012 by Painter Mommy Leave a Comment

Christmas is such an exciting time for children, it is not just that one day of the year where gifts are given and received. It is the anticipation and the preparation as well. Any part of Christmas that you can include your children in will make it that much more memorable and exciting. I have found a lot of great ideas for including your child in decorating this holiday season which I am going to share with you.

Handprint Christmas Tree – This is a wonderful craft to do with younger children. You will need green, brown, and yellow construction paper, pencil, scissors, glue stick, and decorations for your tree. Decorate the tree using glitter, stickers, crayons, paint; small craft store pom-poms would be cute as well. They recommend that you trace your child’s handprint and then cut it out and use it as a template for nine more handprint cutouts. You glue the handprints in an overlapping pattern, four at the bottom, three above that, then two, then one on the top. Fat at the bottom and narrow at the top just like a real tree. The addition of a yellow star on top and a brown trunk on the bottom and there you have it. Now let your child decorate their very own tree! Craft Idea found here.

Cotton Ball Santa – What fun your children will have making a Santa with a beard of cotton balls! You start with a paper plate and then add some paint, googly eyes, a pink pom-pom from the craft store for the nose, red craft foam for his hat, and cotton balls for his beard and hat tassel. Younger kids may need some help cutting out his hat but other than that it is something that kids of all ages will enjoy and it is also super cute. You could even give them away as gifts to friends and family members. Craft Idea found here.

Sugar Cone Christmas Trees – Here is a decoration that is really sweet! I imagine there will be a lot of finger licking going on while making this Christmas tree. This is a fun project for younger children. You will need sugar cones (the pointy ice cream cones) and ready-made or homemade icing colored green with food coloring. Start with a paper plate or something to catch the excess decorations and spread the icing on the cones. Have the children decorate with candies of your choice. M&M’s, licorice ropes, sprinkles, gumdrops, and any candy you think will look festive. You can get really creative with it and your kids will have fun eating the decorations too. Craft Idea found here.

Coffee Cozies – These are so cute and can be used as gifts for teachers or neighbors from you or your children. Using inexpensive woolen, colorful socks cut off the ends of the socks and use the middle part. Make sure you get a sock large enough to go over those nice disposable cups with lids. You can use buttons and felt glued on for a snowman or you can get self-adhesive felt stickers from the craft store. What a neat idea and so very festive and Christmassy! Craft Idea found here.

Button Ornaments – These are the cutest ornaments for older children to make. The younger ones would need help with this one but it is really adorable. Using pipe cleaners and various sizes of buttons you can make several different types of ornaments. You may need a little felt, glue, and thread to finish these off but basically they are buttons! The site offers the detailed instructions for these but they donot sound too hard at all. Craft Idea found here.

Crystal Snowflake – This one is a cross between a terrific Christmas decoration and a science experiment! The snowflake is made from pipe cleaners and suspended down into a jar or glass container large enough so that it doesn’t touch the sides. You combine a mixture of Borax, blue food coloring, and boiling water and let your snowflake hang in this overnight. As the water cools it creates the crystals! What fun to get up and discover what happened to your plain pipe cleaner snowflake over night! Craft Idea found here.

Button Wreath Ornament – Another sweet button ornament which calls for using copper or floral wire, satin ribbon, seam binding, and some needle nose pliers. The site says not to worry if you don’t have that many buttons around at home because the craft or fabric stores offer them up by the bag full. This is such a sweet ornament for your tree; it has a nostalgic feel to it for me because it reminds me of my Great Grandma’s button jar that we played with when we were young. I am going to give all these button ornaments a try! Craft Idea found here.

Light Up Christmas Tree – This Christmas Trees lights come on in the sunlight. Cut out a Christmas tree from green construction paper and use a hole punch to punch out a hole everywhere you want a light to show up on your tree. You will need a multiple color pack of tissue paper which you can easily get at the dollar store. Have some kid safe scissors on hand for your children to cut out small squares of tissue in all colors and then using a glue stick, glue them on the back of the tree over the holes you punched. After it dries you can hang it in the window and let the sun come shining through and watch your Christmas lights glow! Craft Idea found here.

Homemade Christmas Ball Ornaments – This is an easy decoration for a child of just about any age with a little supervision. According to this site you can purchase clear glass or plastic ball ornaments from craft stores. They recommend watering down your glue to make it thinner. Taking the top off of the ornament you can then pour the glue into the ornament and swirl it around to coat it and then pour excess glue back into the cup. Then do the same thing with glitter, pour into ornament, swirl, and then dump it out. After letting the ornament dry fully place the top back on and use a pipe cleaner for a child safe hook. This could be used as a gift for grandma and grandpa! Craft Idea found here.

Gumdrop Pops – I think these gumdrop pops are just precious! You can create them to put in cellophane packages and use as edible package decorations, stocking stuffers, or you can put them on display. They are made of gumdrops of course along with sprinkles and other small candies. There are step by step instructions on how to make Santa, a snowman, holly, Christmas trees, and even mushrooms. It takes a steady hand for those sprinkles I would think but what a cute outcome! Craft Idea found here. Craft Idea found here.

Pom-pom Christmas Tree – What a sweet, soft little Christmas tree this is. What a great decoration for the little ones to make. This tree is made using a cardboard Christmas tree cut out of a cereal box or other light weight cardboard. You will need some Elmer’s type glue and different colors and sizes of pom-poms. You can make your tree the traditional green adding the other colors of pom-poms for the lights or make a not so traditional tree. Or maybe your children are like mine and love the pink, purple, or silver artificial trees they see at the stores and they want to duplicate. They will have fun making these trees no matter what they choose. Craft Idea found here.

These are just a few of many holiday decorating ideas to create with your kids. It is a wonderful way to be with your children over the holidays and to create fun decorations and wonderful memories together.

Guest Post Author Bio:

Jack Meyer is a regular contributor for http://www.nannybackgroundcheck.com/. As a detective he wants to spread the knowledge of terrible things that can happen when people don’t fully verify the credentials of a caregiver or any employee. He also writes for various law enforcement blogs and sites.

The Advantages of Giving Homemade Mother’s Day Gift Baskets

May 3, 2012 by Painter Mommy Leave a Comment

Giving Mother’s Day gift baskets to your mom during Mother’s Day is a special thing you can do to make her feel special. Regardless, if you are close to her or not, she deserves to be appreciated because of the hard work, love, and sacrifice she went through during her motherhood.If you are hesitant to buy Mother’s Day gift baskets from stores because you are on a tight financial budget, then you can make it from your home.

The good thing about making home-made Mother’s Day presents is that you have the freedom to personalized the present. You will also be able to mix and match for gift items that the recipient may want or need.The following are some of the home-made Mother’s Day gift baskets ideas you can consider this coming Mother’s Day.

Healthy Fruit Gift Basket

A gift basket filled with fruits would be a healthy gift you can give to your mom during Mother’s Day. The fruits will be useful as a dessert or healthy snack. If you mom is on a healthy diet, then it would be ideal for her. To make home-made fruit gift baskets, you can shop for good and delicious fruits, and then put them in the basket. Wrap the basket with good-looking wrapping plastic, tie it with a ribbon, and then that’s it. To make it look presentable, you can add a small greeting card with your special message to your mom. Before you buy fruits for the gift basket, you should check if your mom is allergic to a specific type of fruit. It is important because it cannot be good to give your mom something she will not like, or fruits that she is allergic to.

Coffee and Cookies Gift Basket

Another alternative gift basket you can make for your mom is coffee and cookies gift baskets. This is an ideal Mother’s Day present for moms who likes drinking coffee. Cookies would be a good match for coffee during snack time with family and friends.

Food Gift Basket

If your mom is into cooking, you can make a home-made gift basket that is filled with the ingredients of her favorite food recipe. For example, if she likes to eat spaghetti, you can make a gift basket filled with pasta, spaghetti sauce, tomato sauce, cheese, and etc. There are other kinds of food gift baskets ideas you can consider for Mother’s Day.

Why is Keeping Commitments So Hard?

January 16, 2011 by Painter Mommy 4 Comments

In honor of this new year, and resolutions and all that good stuff, I want to share about the importance of keeping commitments. It seems like it is one of the things that can be super difficult for us, no matter what the commitment is.

I know God is very serious about letting your “Yes” be “Yes” and your “No” be “No”. I have always been very nervous about giving my word and making sure that my Word stays true. I want to be a women of my word. I really do!

Right now, in our church we are doing a corporate fast for 21 days. Everyone choose one thing to fast many do 1 meal per day, and others fast sweets or TV. I did not take part in it the year before, so I decided to try to do it this year. I cannot fast food because of a medication I am not, so I decided that I would fast TV in the evenings for 30 minutes to an hour and during that time spend time with God and in prayer. I did not fully commit to this, but I told God I would really try my best. My intentions were good.

Well, I did great for about a week and then my husband went out of town and I was on my own with the kids for a whole week. By the end of the day, I was totally exhausted and by the time I put the kids to bed, all I could do was fall into my own bed and watch a little TV before I went to sleep myself.

So, there it is….. lack of commitment. Yes, I feel pretty bad about it. I really wanted to fast and be in unity with my church, but I failed. 🙁 No wonder I was afraid to actually COMMIT to God on the whole “fasting” thing. But the thing is, He knows and I am sure He still loves me. Thank God He is super patient with us.

Then I thought about how hard it is to keep a commitment in this day and age OUTSIDE of the already crazy busy schedules we have on a daily basis. Then add multiple children into the mix and fulltime jobs and meals and….. on and on! LOL There will always be something that comes up to try and break our commitments. Yes, God is patient, but that does not give us the right to be the type of people whose word cannot be trusted.

I run a Mom’s group at my church and we meet once a month on Saturday. We have quite a bit of moms of small children who attend our church but we usually have only a handful of ladies who show up to our meeting. It gets discouraging sometimes because my partner and I pour our hearts into being there and preparing lessons, etc. We often have people SAY they are coming and then they don’t come. It is frustrating sometimes. But who am I to judge? Who says I would not do the same?

In sharing on this subject, I decide to do a little of my usual research and I found a few good articles. One from EzineArticles.com talked about ways to KEEP commitments that you make. Here are a few:

Be Careful What You Agree To: Many people find it easier to say yes instead of no. It is far better to agree to what you can do, than saying yes to please someone at the moment and later fail your commitment because of being over-committed or because you have difficulty saying no.

Manage Your Commitments: Keep a log of your commitments – Write them down. You may have great intentions, but if you forget to do what you agreed to do, the result is the same as your ‘Choosing’ not to keep your commitment.

Renegotiate When You Are Unable to Keep Your Commitment: When you discover you are unable or unwilling to complete an agreement, go to the other party/parties and renegotiate – explain why, etc. Connect – Don’t ignore.

Manage By Agreement: Instead of TELLING someone to do something, ASK if they would agree to doing it. You have a greater chance it will get done if you ask rather than tell

Those are some good ideas. Sharing this has really put things into perspective for me. And again, as in any other thing that we may struggle with – BALANCE is key.

One of the things that God has been speaking to my heart about is being Committed to my family. As many of you know, I am a work at home mom. I run a Graphic Design business called DPK Graphic Design. I have an enormous amount of work coming in and it has been really hard for me to stay in balance. My work time is limited because of the kids and I really only have a few hours each day (usually during naptime). I squeeze time in between, but there are so many distractions and I wind up getting upset more often than not. I really don’t want to live that way (being frustrated all the time).

I enjoy what I do very much, but it can be tedious. I am totally committed to my work and my clients, but it can cause a battle between the time with my family. For a long time I have felt that God has been wanting me to create a work schedule that would help alleviate the stress that I get under and at the same time give more back to my family.

When my 2 older ones get home from school, I do get off the computer and prepare dinner and do homework, but I am always sneaking a few minutes here and there to check email or finalize a graphic, etc. So my time is divided and I know it has an affect on my kids and my husband.

I have 2 options and I am just not sure which to choose just yet. I can either take one or 2 evenings totally off from my work and spend it with my family. I mean computer is totally shut down for those evenings. Or I can make sure that I don’t work for a couple hours every evening and then work later on once the kids are settled (dinner finished, kitchen cleaned, homework done, etc).

I don’t know why I am so afraid to commit to this. I guess I feel like I will fail and then beat myself up. But in my heart, I feel like God is urging me to make some decisions and I also have peace that He will work out the rest.

What are your thoughts on this? Are any of you WAHM’s? What type of schedule do you keep? How do you keep balance between work and family? What kind of schedule are you keeping? Are you able to stay committed to it? What do you think about this whole “trouble with commitment thing”? I always love hearing from my readers!

God bless you guys! And remember… KEEPING COMMITMENTS ARE IMPORTANT!

And finally, here are a couple funny cartoons I found about New Year’s resolutions. Cute…

Shopping Online for Christmas Gifts

December 23, 2010 by Painter Mommy Leave a Comment

I did most of my Christmas shopping online this year. It beats having to drag all the kids out of the house in the cold and deal with the crowds. But there are both positives and negatives to Online Shopping.

Positives:

Ability to price-compare on various stores
Avoid the hassle of going out, finding parking, and dealing with crowded stores
Less chance of other impulsive purchases
Shipping right to your door
Access to unique items that others may not have or buy already

Negatives:

Items may get back-ordered and you may be scrambling for a gift last minute
Sales may be better in the stores and not reflected online
You don’t get to physically see or touch the product
Product may arrive damaged during shipping and leave you in a hurry to replace it
If you get gift-wrapping option you don’t even get to see the product as it will already be wrapped when it’s delivered to you
Can be more costly on delivery charges, especially if you buy from many online stores

Yes, Online Shopping is definitely easier in a lot of ways, but you have to realize that you may need to deal with the above list of negatives as well.

I ordered a few things for myself and for my husband, but never received what I ordered. One of the orders was from Amazon (my husband’s Christmas gift – a nice wallet – shhhhh don’t tell him… I am hoping to still get it eventually 🙂 ) well, they contacted me a few days ago to let me know that the order was never processed. They instructed me to respond to the email that they sent and it would go to the vendor. I did that and never got a response. So, I am up a creek with that one.

I also ordered a couple pairs of shoes for myself. I did a lot of research to find the perfect pair of grey birkenstocks. They are usually around $100, but I found a company who had them for only $49. They had my exact size and I placed my order. I realized today that I never got any email from them letting me know that the order was being shipped. I checked back into my email and went on their site to track the package. And I saw a little note that said “Out of Stock” UGH! They could’ve emailed me or something, right?

I also ordered a pair of crocs from Amazon for a great deal and they were shipped ON TIME. I opened the box very excited to put my new shoes on…. and guess what? THEY WERE TOO SMALL! I ordered a size 8 (even though I am a 7 1/2). The shoes were obviously defective because how could an 8 be too small? Craziness! So now I have to ship them back within 30 days – another THING to add to my to do list. Yuk!

I wound up having to do my online shoe shopping research all over again! See? I went back for more! Thank God I did find a couple alternatives for an even cheaper price, but now I have to wait even longer to get them.

But even with all of that I still enjoy being able to hop on my computer and shop without having to leave my house. I can research ideas and compare prices. And in spite of not always getting what I want, when I want – I still prefer shopping online instead of shopping in stores.

I am the type of person who gets overwhelmed in crowds of people. And I wind up over-buying somehow. Does that ever happen to you? What do you think about shopping online? Which do you prefer and why? Would love to hear from you!