Ashton is trying out a new skill...rapping her own lyrics! She is trying to act like a boy talking about eating, dating, trick or treatin...hot girls, and making cookies. Super fun and cute!

This week, my favorite find is going to save you money, worry, and time! Do your kids have cell phones? Or does that seem light-years away? We have two with cell phones, and another one that is getting close! When our oldest got hers, it was easy to remind her to charge it in the kitchen each night, so that we could monitor her usage and prevent her from texting into the wee hours. Now that we have numerous kids to keep up with, I needed a simple system to keep our kids working within our family guidelines.

I called our service provider for our family plan, and most companies offer this service that is my favorite find, it just has a different name. On our plan, it’s called “Family Allowances,” some refer to it as “Parental Control.” This service helps parents limit cell phone usage through many avenues. In one call, I can designate the time of day that the cell phone can be turned on and off. I can even select different times of day for different days of the week. So we can be sure that our teen & preteens won’t be texting in their bedroom when it’s lights out, and on Sundays, which are designated for family time, I can block out a few hours so there are no distractions.

There are certain times though, that I want my teen to be able to reach me after hours, if she’s out with a friend until 9:00 or 10:00 at night. I can give certain phone numbers permission to be used after hours! Like my number, Mark’s number, etc.

How about ringtones? My kids are crazy about them, and they were downloading them onto their phones, and the price for each ringtone was showing up on our bill. So I just deleted that service from our plan!

Let my favorite find be yours, save yourself the worry & money, and know that this helps your child’s time be well spent!