The Famundo Blog

We can all use some help this time of year

Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt Thu, 14 Dec 2006 12:13:03 GMT

This has to be one of the busiest times of the year (Of course, each season seems to bring on its own unique brand busyness). The kids will soon be out of school for a few weeks. The evenings are busy with parties and other social affairs. Time needs to be alotted for family and friends.

In the few spare moments during the last few weeks of this year, I intend to get our family organized, which, of course, means getting our family fully on board with Famundo. Several of the local groups that we belong to will also be rolling out their own Famundo sites, so we can subscribe to their calendars.

But there are many other things that we can use some extra help with. A new service has come to my attention, GetVendors.com

GetVendors.com, a web 2.0 start up has taken upon the challenge of relieving stress of household chores from busy lives of working moms (and dads, I might add).

GetVendors.com has three primary functional modules

1. Pro-match (an online service professional match making service)

2. Household Organizer (AJAX based interactive tools to manage household chores.

3. Community Groups that help users share everyday ideas with their trusted friends. is the only service that gets you proposals from professionals who best match your needs & not the only ones who pay for leads

You can create your own groups, but one that looks very useful is one for Working Moms.

So if you need to find someone trim your trees or fix your computer, GetVendors.com is a good place to start.

Posted in Family 2.0, Family Life, Famundo | Tags organized | no comments

Turn Old Shoes into New Playgrounds

Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt Tue, 12 Dec 2006 01:39:48 GMT

Ever wonder what to do with those old worn out athletic shoes that the kids grow out of? Throw them out? (add to the landfill) Donate them? (who wants to wear old sneakers?)

How about recycling them into new playground equipment? That’s what you can do with Nike’s Reuse-A-Shoe Program.

Reuse-A-Shoe is a key component of Nike’s long-term commitment to waste elimination by helping to close the loop on the life cycle of literally millions of pairs of old, worn-out or otherwise unusable athletic shoe material. Reuse-A-Shoe also plays an important role in Nike’s long-term commitment to help increase the physical activity of young people to improve their lives by reusing this old athletic shoe material in new places for kids to play and be active.

In fact, entire cities like Milwaukee have embraced the program.

Milwaukee is committed to waste reduction and diversion.

The City of Milwaukee has participated in the Nike Reuse-A-Shoe program since the summer of 2004 and collects used athletic shoes at numerous locations throughout the metro area. Once the shoes are collected, they are shipped to Nike and recycled into three separate materials. These materials are used in new sports surfaces such as playgrounds, basketball and tennis courts, and running tracks. The City of Milwaukee has already been utilizing recycled rubber products in its playgrounds and tot lots for years and will continue to use these recycled materials. Recycled shoe material from the Milwaukee area will end up in athletic and play surfaces in communities all throughout the nation. From August 2004 when Milwaukee started its shoe recycling program through the end of 2005, over 20,700 pairs of used athletic shoes were collected for recycling from Milwaukee area residents! That’s over 15 and a half tons of shoes recycled and over 135 cubic yards of landfill space saved! Get old shoes back in the game and help conserve resources and landfill space.

This is one way you can help save the Earth, one step at a time (pun intended)!

Posted in Family Life

Hooray! The Spanish-American war is over!

Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt Tue, 12 Dec 2006 00:38:04 GMT

Yes, we can finally stop paying for the Spanish-American war which was waged back in 1898!

According to this article in the Motley Fool:

It seems that we American consumers of telephone services have been paying an excise tax on our phone bills for a heck of a long time. Apparently, this tax was imposed back in 1898 – get this – to help pay for the Spanish-American War.

If you have been using a telephone any time from 2003 to 2006, you are due a tax refund for the amount of Federal Excise Tax on your bills. You can claim the standard deduction or itemize your phone bills from 2003.

You can find out more information in the IRS website here.

Posted in Family Life

Tis the Season to Regift

Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt Tue, 21 Nov 2006 19:47:38 GMT

Regift: (verb) To give an unwanted gift to someone else; to give as a gift something one previously received as a gift. Webster’s New Millenniumâ„¢ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.6).

Tis the season when there is going to be a lot of gift-giving and I am quessing, a lot or regift-giving.

I think I first heard the term on a Seinfeld episode, where George mentions to Jerry how someone regifted him a labelmaker. George goes on to coin the term “degift”, that’s when you ask for a gift you gave someone back.

I have to admit, I’ve done it myself. Those unopened presents your kids gets for a birthday, eventually end up as someone elses birthday gift.

Now there is an entire website devoted to the practice of regifting, Regiftable.com

It has some valuable information, as well as some important questions you need to ask yourself before regifting an item.

Check it out.

Posted in Family Life

Toy Hall of Fame

Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt Tue, 31 Oct 2006 00:42:22 GMT

It’s time again for the annual Parenting Magazine “Toy Hall of Fame.” For the past 13 years, the magazine has created a list of what it considers the best toys of the year, ranked according to age group.

For this year’s inductees, click here.

Posted in Family Life | Tags toys | no comments | no trackbacks

The 10 Best and Worst Foods for Kids

Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt Sun, 29 Oct 2006 12:52:25 GMT

eDiets has a good article on the 10 best and worst foods for kids.

Here are the 10 worst:

1. Chicken Nuggets
2. Chips
3. Doughnuts
4. French Fries
5. Fruit Leather
6. Hot Dogs
7. Juice-flavored Drinks
8. Prepackaged Lunches
9. Soda
10. Toaster Pastries

Read the entire article here.

Posted in Family Life | no comments | no trackbacks

Parent Covenant

Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt Wed, 25 Oct 2006 20:03:27 GMT

We just had our annual parent meeting at our daughter’s middle school this week and, as we did last year, we ended the meeting with, for lack of a better term, a parent covenant. This is where parents agree to set limits on what our children are allowed to and not allowed to do, especially when it involves activities that include other children in the class.

This provides a real safety net when your children are having a sleepover or visiting a friend, you know that the other family has agreed to certain standards won’t be broken. It makes a very powerful statement when you can tell your child that the parents in the class have decided this as a group that some activity is not acceptable.

It is interesting how the concerns of parents have changed over the years with changes in technology . Although the Internet and e-mail is still a concern, there was much more discussion over issues like social networking sites, such as MySpace, and text messaging. These weren’t even on the radar when our son started middle school three years ago.

You can read my post regarding last year’s meeting here.

We are very appreciative that our school provides this opportunity and actually encourages this dialog among the parents.

Posted in Internet Safety, Family Life, Setting Limits | Tags Internet_safety, parenting, setting_limits | no comments | no trackbacks

Just in time for the Holidays

Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt Wed, 25 Oct 2006 14:26:00 GMT

Planning to buy any toys ths Holiday Season? You might want to check out this site before you buy.

ToyTips.com provides independent research and product reviews for hundreds of toys.

Toy Tips is dedicated to providing independent parent and caregiver information utilizing a testing methodology that is not biased by manufacturers in any way. Our methodolgy is based on real market research and product reviews and our results are only published if they are above-standard ratings.

They have a searchable database for all the toys they have reviewed that meet their safety standards.

Toy Tips has no advertisng, is not paid by any manufacturer and works on bringing unbiased reviews of all the products they test. In fact, you can even apply to become one of their testers.

Posted in Parenting, Family Life | Tags holidays, shopping, toys | no comments | no trackbacks

A blog for Parent's Parents

Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt Wed, 25 Oct 2006 14:00:47 GMT

As you can see by our Parenting Blogroll, there are lots and lots of blogs devoted to parenting children and the list is growing daily.

Now there is a blog specifically devoted to the care of the elders in your family. Caregiving Blog is a new site sponsored by Philips Lifeline, makers of the emercency response system for seniors.

Examples of some recent posts include:

• Backyard Rentals for Mom & Dad Get the Cold Shoulder
• Dementia and Those Little White Lies
• Elder Care Tip: Laundry Trip Ups
• Growing Options: Focusing on “the best choice” after Hospital Discharge
• Hip Replacement is…Hip
• Is it Time to Take Mom’s (or Dad’s) Car Keys Away?

This s a subject which is severely in need of a good information resource. Check it out.

Posted in Family Life | Tags elders, families, parentng | no comments | no trackbacks

Not your typical family

Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt Wed, 25 Oct 2006 12:04:40 GMT

The Addam’s Family was a TV series that ran for two seasons back in the 60’s. Based on Charles Addam’s New Yorker cartoons, the series followed the misadventures of macabre family headed by Gomez (played by John Astin) and Morticia (played by Carolyn Jones). Though not very successful during it’s initial run, it later received a cult status.

Now, just in time for Halloween, MGM has released a boxed set, The Addam’s Family – Volume One which includes episodes from the 1964 season plus extras.

The humor is very sophisticated and a its fun way to get into the Halloween spirit!

Posted in Family Life | Tags halloween | no comments | no trackbacks