Cute Back To School Gear For Teachers

We've noticed a lot of shoppers in our store, looking for back to school teacher t-shirts. Even though there are a few more weeks of summer ahead, many schools are starting back to class this month. It's fun to have a few new shirts in your school wardrobe for the 1st day of school or to wear on teacher work days.

Here are a few of my personal favorites:

Cute Retro First Grade by teachertshirts

4th Grade Teacher Cap by teachertshirts

Flowered School Principal by teachertshirts

Books For Cooks With A Little Murder Thrown In

I love to read, and can't resist a good murder mystery especially if it also involves food in some way. I'm a fan of the Dianne Mott Davidson series about Goldy, a caterer in Colorado. This week I'm reading a new series by Melinda Wells, whose main character is Della, a gal who runs a cooking school and who has a brand new cooking show! Unfortunately her first show results in murder live on tv. The back of the book has some of the recipes featured in the novel - yum!
If you like to read and cook, you might like her books too. Summer is the perfect time to grab a few paperbacks and take them on vacation with you.

Our World From Space

I can remember how much fun it was as a kid to spend a summer night looking up at the stars and wondering what our world looked like from space. One special memory is of a meteor shower at summer camp, with the sky filled with shooting stars burning up as they fell towards the earth. It was so peaceful, just lying on my back, looking for familiar constellations and counting the stars as they fell.
Today I found an online store that offers beautiful satellite photos of earth from space, and I'm featuring it here in my blog so other earth lovers can find prints to frame on your walls, bringing just a little bit of our-world-from-space home. Here are a few examples:

Pearl Harbor Hawaii From Space by terraprints
More Pearl Posters

Happy 4th Of July

The summer travel season is in full swing with plenty of cars on the road. For a recent trip our family rented an SUV, as our own minivan now has 133,000 miles on it and has seen better days in its 12 yr lifespan. What fun to have a 'new' car to drive! There will be many families heading to the shore or the mountains this weekend to celebrate the 4th of July. I just wanted to say, be safe! Here are several simple safety tips to make your holiday better.

Watch your speed - just a little extra caution can save lives. When I was in Yosemite recently, the park had placed little caution signs with a picture of a bear on them and the caption "Speed Kills Bears", a reminder to slow down.

Be courteous - let the other driver merge in when he needs to. Getting to your vacation spot 5 minutes sooner isn't really that important, is it?

Lock your car if you leave it, even for a short time - unfortunately it only takes a second for a thief to slip into your car and steal a purse, a Garmin or an ipod left on a seat unattended.

So have a safe and wonderful Fourth and enjoy your BBQ, picnic, camping trip or beach vacation. Happy traveling!

What's Up With Twilight?

I've read the books and watched the first two movies, and I liked them. But I wouldn't consider myself a true Twihard. My teenage daughter is a different matter. She loves Twilight! We're going to see the new Eclipse movie later this summer when she is home for a visit. But for those of you who have been counting down to June 30, 2010 for this next installment in the theater, TODAY IS THE DAY.
So whether you are rooting for Team Jacob or Team Edward, you'll find cute Twilight themed t-shirts at HomewiseShopper.

Getting Ready For Summer

Today is the last day of school for my 8th grader. This year we are leaving on vacation in two days so the "I'm bored and don't have anything to do" part of summer won't start yet for our family.
I remember feeling overwhelmed by summer in years past, when all the children were home. It took effort to keep everyone busy and productive during those long summer months. About a month before, I would start preparing for summer to make sure there would be fun things to do when the last school bell rang and the kids came home shouting "freedom"! I bought interesting craft kits, English and math activity books, new toys to play with and other stuff.
And here are some of the things we did to make our summer fun:

It may sound overly structured, but I always made sure we kept to a schedule of sorts. Everyone had to be up by a decent hour, and have chores and breakfast over by 10 or so. Then we had activity time, which included things like games, reading, crafts, or attending the summer reading programs at the library. On some days we would go to the park, and we always had at least one 'field trip day' each week where I would take the kids for a day trip to somewhere around our area. Hershey's Chocolate World was a must, as was Gettysburg, the Baltimore Zoo, the Maryland Science Center, the museum in Harrisburg, etc.
Playing with friends had to wait until after lunch, and t.v. was limited to 2 hrs a day, time enough to watch a favorite Disney movie. If a good movie was playing at the theater, we'd take that in as well.
I hope my kids have great memories of all the time we spent together during those long summers.

A New Look

Hi, I'm Nina and this is my blog...
I'm so excited to unveil the new look of my Homewise Shopper blog! These are some of the things you can look forward to finding here:

More fun products from my stores to buy online

Links to hand-picked products from shops I love

Parenting tips from my years of experience raising 7 kids

Info on topics such as autism, Alzheimer's disease, twins and more

Update alerts for my favorite recipes blog to help you keep your family fed

Genealogy links and research information

Musings and mutterings, Nina-style

I hope you'll visit often and join me in a laugh or a cry, and please feel free to share your comments and tips as well! I look forward to hearing from you.