You’ve made it! All your hard work has paid off and you can finally take a vacation! Don’t make packing as much work as your day job, and don’t pack more than you need. A simple checklist of things to bring will help you avoid packing too much.  Research the area you are traveling to. While it’s impossible to predict the weather 100%, you can base your wardrobe on the typical climate.

Make a list, and don’t skew from it. If you’re going to the beach, only pack 1 bathing suit. If you’re going to a colder area, don’t bring more than 2 light jackets. 1-2 dressier outfits will suffice, unless you are traveling for more than 10 days.  Pack 1 pair of sneakers, and 1 pair of dressier shoes. If you wear a lot of jewelry, don’t bring more than 5 pieces, or you’ll be carrying around a lot of heavy things you probably won’t wear. Remember, you will most likely be purchasing things on your vacation, so don’t over pack to reserve room for your souvenirs. Your vacation fun is not contingent on the clothes you are wearing, so remember to relax, only pack the essentials and have fun!

Everyone is doing it. Nowadays, Americans are learning to tighten their belts and live with less. You may be surprised to learn that a few simple cuts in your spending can save you a lot of money. For example, if you skipped your morning stop to the coffee shop, to get your favorite latte, and instead brewed coffee at home you could be saving up to $1,000 a year!

Other simple ways to save money include hanging clothes outside to dry during the warmer months, instead of using your dryer. Also, invest in a water filter and reusable thermos and ditch expensive water bottles that only pollute the environment. Another great way to save money is to eat out at restaurants only on special occasions, and to cook family meals in your home. Eating in the home can save thousands of dollars a year. Lastly, gently used clothes are available in great styles and designer labels, so you can avoid costly department store price tags. Enjoy more time with your family this year, and less time worrying about money. Be creative and discover new ways to limit your budget.

I have heard some people who are training to be good basketball players neglecting to practice their free throws. I have heard talk that free throws are just not that important. Some people think they are useless because they are only worth one point each. Well I consider myself a fan of basketball and I think that that is absolutely ridiculous. Free throws are incredibly important.

In fact, free throws are more often than not the reason teams win games. Have you ever seen a game that ended with the winning team winning by less than ten points? Those teams usually win because they made those ten free throws. And when one team loses a game by one point it’s not because they messed up one or two plays at the end of the game. The reason they lost is usually that they missed one or two free throws.

So free throws are a major factor in winning a game. Not only that but they can also be critical turning points in a game. If one team ends up fouling a lot and the other team makes all those free throws then they will end up winning by a lot. This could also happen if the other team is trying to stop the clock. If they make all of the free throws then they are sure win the game. But that is how it is in most cases. Sound a little bit like life; doesn’t it?

In years past, there were many fun and exciting things to that young people could do for little or no money. Kids used to read comic books or just books or both. They used to play outside with their friends. They would have spent hours building models or simply play with toys. But nowadays, most kids just play video games. Most kids hardly ever go outside and experience fresh air. And many of America’s youth do not even play organized sports anymore.

Action and war video games are clearly the most popular. And with online play kids can play with their friends from school without even leaving the house. They just meet up in a gaming party and work together. Some have even taken it one step further and formed clans, and most of the time these clans take there gaming very seriously. Maybe even a little too seriously. Then again, some are just friends who really, really enjoy playing together. The option to play online with friends has made the already impressive gaming world that much better and even easier to stay inside.

Learning to drive can be very stressful for the person learning, the teacher and the parents. This is especially true if you don’t feel like paying for a driver’s education class and your parent is the teacher. This means all parties have to stay calm. That is truer for the teacher because if the teacher is freaking out about every little thing then the driver will not be able to learn anything. Its chaos and totally unmanageable and places unneeded stress on everyone involved.

The teacher needs to be calm and supportive and start out very slow. That way the driver’s confidence can work its way up. Starting out small lets the driver learn how to control the vehicle and all the little things that go along with that. Breaking smoothly, turning, and turn signals are all things that should be learned before actually getting on the road. And even when you get there, you should go easy.

Take back roads and roads that aren’t used very often or by lots of people. Guide the driver through these places if he or she is unfamiliar with them. Once they get the hang of the road, then they can learn to navigate themselves. And eventually you can turn the driver loose to be on their own even though you may want to ground them until they are thirty!

Do you ever watch children’s movie that you enjoyed as a kid nowadays. I always enjoy it because there are so many things I actually understand now that I am a little bit older. I think that filmmakers do this on purpose so that even people of all ages can enjoy their films.

Two great examples of these are Shrek and the Wizard of Oz. In the Wizard of Oz one of the witch’s evil tricks is to cover the yellow brick in poppy flowers. This reference just flew right over my head as a child. Now I understand that poppy becomes heroin and heroin makes people drowsy. That got a little chuckle out of me last night. Shrek also has some great ones. My favorites are the Donkeys constant musical references. One thing I’d like to say is that in my opinion, Donkey has a great taste in music. Now that I have become more familiar with music, his character is that much more enjoyable.

There are plenty more examples than these but those were just to name a few. I think it’s a good idea for people to go back and enjoy some of the older movies to see how much more they like them now. It might just be a good idea.

I live in the South and in the South you seldom get the “Winter Wonderland” that you hear about in the Christmas songs and see on so many postcards. However, it looks like we are in for a blast of old man winter in the next few days. When that blast comes you will find a lot of crazy people on the roads down here! Most have never lived in a Northern state so they have never driven with snow tires or had a lesson for how to steer in a slide when driving in the snow as it’s totally opposite of how you would think it was to steer.

I suggest, as well as I will be doing, to go get enough groceries to last you until temperatures get above the freezing mark and make sure you have a full tank of gas just in case you have an emergency and have to get out. You don’t want to get caught in a traffic situation and run out of gas. If you have to travel for work, please give the guy in front of you four to five times more space than you normally do as this is a major contributor to accidents in ice and snow. Other than that, dress warm and keep your walks and driveway as clear as you can (A broom works wonders in powdered snow) and good luck!

I friend and I went to see a movie a few days before Christmas and if anyone was wondering if people had gone out to the malls, I can testify that they were out in droves! The traffic was awful and wonderful at the same time. The awful part was the part we all hate; the waiting, taking of turns and wanting to flip people off that were a bit out of control behind the wheel. (We didn’t though in adhering to the Christmas spirit of the holidays)

The really good part though was that so many were out shopping for gifts. This seems to be a very good sign that the retail sector might be bouncing back after a very tough year. Granted, I don’t know how many of these people were going to a movie like we were or if they were out to get the best deals; but I do know there was a lot of them and for the first time in months the parking lot was full and people were everywhere. I hope it is a Merry Christmas to everyone; including those in the retail business.

If you have not already started your Christmas decorations and shopping you might want to think about starting now! There are only a couple of weeks left and you’ll be left behind if you don’t get moving soon. Of course, you may be like my father who just writes everybody checks so he does his Christmas shopping the easy way.

Speaking of the easy way to shop, we did ours online right after Thanksgiving and had our presents directly shipped to the people who don’t live close to us. It saved time and the hassle and extra expense of shipping because we got some really good deals that included shipping this year. If you hurry, those deals are still out there. Another thing we did was attend a Christmas Open House hosted by one of our friends who sells Pampered Chef. We were able to purchase some great gifts and you can email our friend at mkh37206@gmail.com if you need some great cookware by Pampered Chef. Just a few hints of what you could do between now and Christmas if you need to get started buying presents.

The first thing to do is look at the curb appeal of your home. While you may think having pink flamingos in your flowerbed are great, other people may pass on your home all together because they hate pink flamingos! These are the types of thing you have to think about. So clean up your yard and take out anything that may not look great to just about everyone. Next, check and make minor repairs that could improve the overall look to the home. Check and see if your painting needs to be refreshed at the same time.

The last thing you may need to do is hire someone to help you stage your home. When you are selling a house you need to present the inside as a neutral space so the potential buyers can envision their furniture and personal items in the home. Many stagers will either consult with you or do it for you and you will need to choose the best way to go for your situation. Working with a good local realtor also will help you.