I am not a salesperson type. So, I don’t do well with MLM type companies. My Avon sales were beyond dismal and don’t even ask about Usborne Books. (Telling people that you’re pretty sure you saw that title at the library so doesn’t make you money!) However, if you have a lot of friends or co-workers who like to buy the products, you can actually make a decent living from your sales. I found out about Shop the Earth from a family member who has a store there and decided to check it out because it has a green emphasis.

It is pretty much a shopping portal – more of a rewards site that rewards the person managing it after you buy through it than a site that sells products. That is nice, since people who have joined the program don’t have to handle inventory. However, being a shopping portal means you’ve got a TON of competition. If you decide to join Shop the Earth, you really need to plan on dedicating a lot of time to promoting your store, both online and offline.

You can make money be referring others, but, from their presentation, it looks like a percentage (1 %?) of the money people spend when they go through your store will make up most the income you could expect to earn.

I can see this type of site working for someone who already has a lot of followers, doesn’t have time to fool around with affiliate program links or lives in a state that passed the “Amazon tax” law and asks the followers to buy through the portal if they are planning to shop. I wonder if any charitable organizations have a space at Shop the Earth for supporters to shop through?

Do you have a Shop the Earth mall? How is it working for you?

I recently received an EZ-Twist Paintstick from HomeRight to review. I get really frustrated by paint trays and open paint cans because…Umm…I’m clumsy. I have no idea why, but if you put a big five gallon bucket of paint or a paint tray filled with a nice bright color of paint beside me, I immediately develop some sort of peculiar ability to hone in on the container and step in it or knock it over. Since my mom was planning to paint a room, I was pretty excited to try out the Paintstick on it and avoid open containers.

Photo via homeright.com

The paint went on without mess, so I can give the Paintstick a definite thumbs up on meeting and probably even exceeding its promise of drip free, no tray painting. Two thirds of a room got painted without a single drip. Let me repeat that in case you missed it…Not a single drip.

Yup. Two thirds of a room. Which brings me to the drawback of the Paintstick. It sucks up paint like a man who’s been crawling through a desert for a week and finds an oasis sucks up water. It took a lot of paint to fill the chamber and saturate the roller. Then, we couldn’t get all the paint onto the walls. We estimate that we used a third more paint to cover the walls than we usually do. My mom could have painted the whole room with the same amount of paint if she locked me out so I couldn’t wander into the paint tray and just used a regular roller.

Another thing you might want to keep in mind is that there is a tiny bit of a learning curve, or at least there was for us. We spent a bit of time figuring out how to get enough paint inside the Stick to get it started and a bit more time figuring out how to clean everything up.

So, will the drawbacks stop us from using the Paintstick for our next project? Nope. We’ll just buy more paint. It is worth the drip free painting experience to spend just a bit more on paint and, now that we used it once, we know how to get it started. (I noticed that HomeRight will be including a how to paint DVD with this product starting with Spring 2010, so it is possible that the learning curve problem is solved in there.)

To find an EZ-Twist Paintstick in your area, check the HomeRight site for stores that carry the product.

*Disclosure:  I received a free EZ-Twist Paintstick to review from HomeRight. This did not affect my ability to review the product fairly. This is my sincere and honest opinion of the product.

Are you having trouble getting your children to say please and thank you? If so, you might want to check out a fun board game that really appealed to my gang. The Noodleboro learning about manners game has a bright red and white checked tablecloth board and a cute basket that holds game pieces. Kids ask if they can please have a token, take one out of the basket (No peeking!) and remember to thank the other players for letting them have a token. They put their token on their side of the board if it is a match or in the center of the board if it is not.

I was hesitant to buy the game at first because I wasn’t sure if it would be too silly or boring, but the four to eight year old age group really seems to love it. They’ve played it more than any other board game we got over the holidays and still aren’t tired of it. (We got Clue, Memory, Life, Noodleboro and a couple other games when Amazon had a huge board game sale.)

Part of the appeal seems to be that the game doesn’t go on and on and on like some of the other board games we’ve played. Also, the rules are so simple that everyone can catch on quickly and there aren’t any complicated pieces that keep falling apart. (Remember that game with the birdcage thing and the chute? What was that called? We played it a lot when I was young, but we spent most of our time putting the pieces back together!)

The appeal for me is that the game really does seem to work. I already had fairly polite kids, but now they are aware of their manners and will say “I learned that from the picnic game!” after they say please or thank you.

Do you have any manners board games? How well did they work for your kids?

A lot of parents look at the Nintendo DS or DSi and see a kids’ handheld game system. Many of the games for the DS have a definite kid appeal and they are great for playing a game on the go. We thought the same thing. And then, we discovered that a child can really easily snap the DS right in half. Yeah. The DS just snaps right in half, never to work again. I don’t understand why Nintendo can’t make the system a bit sturdier. They know kids are using the DS and DSi.

And why aren’t the little pen things attached? Do you know how many times I crawl around looking for mine? And I’m a responsible grown up.

So, you’re thinking I hate the DS, right? Well, I don’t. I love it and I have a ton of fun playing with it while I’m somewhere I can’t haul my laptop to. I let the kids play with it, too, but only if they are sitting right beside me without anyone else to fight over who gets to go next. As a kids’ game system, it is a terrible piece of equipment. As a system for responsible teens and grownups, it is marvelous.

Then, there’s the Leapster or the Didj. These educational game systems are very rugged. You can throw your Leapster out the car window, go back and retrieve it and, as long as no one ran it over, it is likely to still work. The Didj has a bit of trouble with the update software at times, but is also very sturdy. So, why would you even consider getting the DS instead? Games.

Leapster and Didj have some very nice, entertaining and educational games for kids. They even have games with popular characters, like Diego, Sonic, or the Disney princesses. The games, despite being educational, are a lot of fun. There just aren’t very many of them and the games for the Didj probably won’t excite kids at the top of the target age group. They will want more action and better graphics.

Both systems have their benefits and drawbacks. You may find that the best solution is to do what I did and buy the DS and the Leapster. Then, you may want to add the Didj as your children outgrow the Leapster’s games. Or, you may want to go with the DS and just really supervise play time.

Do you have one or all of these systems? What was your experience?

We ordered the new Christmas Carol DS game and were nervously awaiting its arrival in hopes that we got it before the fun of the advent calendar was over. Luckily, we got it today and will be able to enjoy the rest of the advent countdown. (A new mini game is opened each day until Christmas day. If you get it afterward, it looks like you don’t miss out on the mini games. The first eight days were simply already opened when I loaded the game. )

Photo via amazon.com

We finished the game (except for the advent portion) and here is what we think of it:

• The cut scenes are awesome. It is fun to watch the movie while playing the game.
• Some of the puzzles are a little hard for kids to figure out on their own. Be prepared to step in with hints and suggestions on the mistletoe puzzle, the door/key puzzle and the rat maze.
• If you can’t read well yet, you can’t play without a lot of help from someone else. The cooking games  required a lot of reading to figure out.
• The whole thing is basically over in a bit over three hours of play time. I prefer to have a game last five to ten hours if I’m going to be paying this much for it!
• Finding all the decorations for the tree and the garland as we played the game made the final scene a lot of fun. We got to decorate the tree and put the angels together. So, be sure to really explore every inch of every scene to be sure to get all those stars and angel parts!
• It was nice to have a game centered around Christmas and the real meaning of the holiday. I wish the puzzles would have been the type you can play over and over so that we could have played it every year instead of feeling like we’ve been there and done that.

So, to sum up, we like the game. I like that it is wholesome, has a nice message and is a nice introduction to the classic story of A Christmas Carol. The kids and I were all disappointed by the length of the game, but they thought that it was fun to play. And, since we beat it, we’ll be happy to help you out if you get stuck. Just leave a comment asking for a hint or tip!

The guys in my family are musical. The girls are all basically tone deaf. Weird, huh? Anyway, having all these musical men means we have been through the “I want to play…” conversation many, many times. The first time, we thought renting an instrument was a smart solution. Then, we realized that renting an instrument was like doing a really bad car lease deal. Now, we’d only rent for a month to make sure the child likes the instrument enough to stick with it.

Photo: SXC/orfeonegri

Once we’re sure the instrument is a hit, we start our hunt for an instrument to purchase. Most people head straight to a music store. You could, but we’ve had better luck finding a used instrument in good condition or a new discontinued model. Often, the instruments in stores, even used ones, are pricey.

One of the best places to start your search is eBay. I know, I know. You’re thinking, “What is wrong with that woman. Hasn’t she ever heard of Craigslist?” Normally, you’d be right, but we contacted three or four different “local” advertisers when we were searching for our last instrument and a few questions revealed that they were on the other side of the country, wanted money orders…Well, it just seemed scammy to us. So, eBay.

(Do your homework before placing a bid. We made sure that we were bidding on the right size instrument and really checked into the feedback the seller had generated before bidding.)

No luck there? Try your local newspaper. You may also want to try posting a wanted ad in a local gathering place where a lot of parents tend to hang out. And don’t forget Freecycle. Someone out there just may be clearing out clutter and will be delighted that their child’s old instrument can find new life in your child’s hands.

“No!” “Get down right now!” “Freeze!” Sound familiar? When you have a preschooler or toddler, it seems like you’re always stopping him or her from trying a new, but dangerous, trick. Your little one is frustrated, you are worn out and…It is time to sit down together to read NO, DAVID again.

We love NO, DAVID so much at our house that we picked up the sequel, DAVID GETS IN TROUBLE. It is pretty good, too, but the kids prefer the original book.

They like “reading” it themselves at bedtime and use their loudest, bossiest voices to shout, “Come back here, David,” when they get to the page where David streaks through his neighborhood without a stitch of clothing. (Backside view only, moms.)

The author, David Shannon, says the book is pretty much autobiographical and is based on a book he wrote and illustrated when he was a young boy. Sounds like he was quite a handful!

I love the slightly crazy illustrations and the fact that the book is short and easy to read over and over again. The kids love that David is a lot like them and they enjoy the happy way the book ends. I highly recommend this book to anyone with kids who hear “No” quite a few times during the day.