Have you made some goals for 2010?  Have you jotted down a few resolutions in the past few days?  Maybe you’ve already broken one or two (notice I’m not at the gym right now).

If your goals include being more green in 2010, saving money, or getting rid of some of the clutter in your life, Zwaggle is here for you.  By posting your gently used kids’ items on Zwaggle, you can help the environment by keeping those things out of landfills, and you can reduce some of the clutter that you have in your attic or basement.  By checking what other members have posted on the site, you can save money by using Zoints on new toys, books, and clothes.  Is one of your goals to give back to your community more?  Zwaggle has a great charity application that allows you to donate your Zoints to a charity in your area so that they can get what they need in 2010.

It’s an easy and fun way to make 2010 a better year for you and the rest of the Zwaggle community.

The Zwaggle Team wishes you all a happy, healthy 2010!

When you say that title, stretch out the word EYE.  Like this - eeeeyyyyyyeeee. That’s how I say it in my mind, anyway. Also, you could possibly spell it the British way “HUMOUR”, if you wanted to jazz it up a bit. Personally, I’m not finding much humor in the fact that the holidays are right.around.the.virtual.corner and I’m freaking out just a wee bit. I’m shopping like a fool and I’ll bet you are as well.

Getting together with your family during the holiday season can be a great and wonderful thing, full of excitement. It can also be a stressful time, and meeting up with those certain special family members that you only see once a year and that you might not care for - well, that just  can make it even more, shall we say, interesting. I’m here to help. In fact, we are ALL here to help each other.

Share with me your humor. Share your funny. What happened to you, one bright and sunny Christmas, that still makes you chuckle years later? Did you see something over the Chanukkah menorah that caused you to giggle like a lunatic? Don’t celebrate the holidays? Well, maybe you have a story about the snow that never fails to crack you up. Whatever it is, the Zwaggle team wants to read it. Leave it here in the comments. We have three prizes to give away: 1 copy of Prima Princessa, a great ballet DVD for the younger set, 1 copy of Spyborgs for Wii, and a set of ten Beanie Babies. These great prizes can help you finish up your shopping, and you can help us all out by providing some much needed humor. First prize gets their choice, second the choice of the remaining two and third place the remaining prize.

You only have until December 13 at midnight to enter, so get typing and crack us up! MAKE US LAUGH - PLEASE!

Oink. Oink. Oink.

No, you didn’t mistype the Zwaggle blog address and land on a farm site. Those would be the sounds of MY house this week, as first one child, then a second, and then a third fell victim to the dreaded H1N1 - the so called “swine” flu. I’ve considered bathing the remaining kids in Purell, but I doubt it would do any good. Instead, I’ve decided to buy stock in Kleenex and Motrin, and cleaned the drugstore shelves of all of the Nyquil/Dayquil/Vick’s Puffs/Tylenol/orange juice that one woman could buy in my fair city. I despair of any of it doing any good, though - I think, at this point, that the flu will just have to run its course. And hopefully not run over me in the process. It’s been a good two weeks of at least one person being ill and I’m ready for a vacation. My most commonly heard refrain? “Wash your hands like Lady MacBeth!” (I swiped that from a friend - it just fit so, so well!)

One thing I discovered this week while my kids were down is that I am woefully unprepared to deal with this many kids at home at once, all under the weather and lounging around on the sofas. We don’t seem to have enough to do when you are too sick for school but not sick enough to nap all day. (Wait - that sounds AWESOME to me - I’d love to nap all day.) When I have sick kids, I try to set up a “Command Central for Illness”.  I keep the thermometer, Motrin, cough medicine, and tissues in one place, so that I don’t have to keep searching for things. (Not that I EVER misplace stuff …looking away, whistling innocently.) The sick kid can lounge on the sofa with a pillow and a blanket and when not sleeping, I do allow television watching - I know some people say that if you are home sick, there’s no tv, and I am usually of that mindset - but when someone is home with a fever - all bets are off.

But what, exactly, do you provide as busy work or amusement for a sick kid? Well, DVD’s are always welcome, as are new games for the Nintendo Gameboy or Xbox. New books are a tried and true pleasure, and I’ve been known to break out the Playdough for a fevered preschooler who is  just well enough to drive me bananas. In fact, homemade Playdough is exceptionally fun and I’ll give you our favorite recipe at the end of this post. What about other arts and crafts? Coloring pages can be printed off the computer, glue and sparkles and paints can make the hours fly by.

How do you handle having your kids home sick?  Share some of your tricks of the trade here and help us all get through what’s going to be a long, long winter.

Here’s to good health for all of us and a quick, fever free winter!

Homemade Kool-Aid Playdough

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup salt
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 cups boiling water
• 2 packages unsweetened Kool-Aid- any color

I’ve added glitter on occasion.

Mix dry ingredients. Add oil and water.  Wearing gloves, knead for 10 minutes. Store in zip lock bag in refrigerator.

One other really delicious playdough recipe comes courtesy of my mom. This was my very favorite when I was a kid.

• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 cups powdered sugar

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, using your hands. This edible play dough recipe should feel soft and pliable. Form shapes and be creative!