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Do You Have A Smart Home? @DirectEnergy #DESmartHome

It was only recently I got my first smart phone, and after realizing how utterly amazing they are, I can’t believe I held out for so long. You can organize, shop, and communicate all with the touch of a few buttons on a gadget that fits into the palm of your hand. I even work […]

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  • We have some things that are “smart”, but I would like to get our home more home smart!

  • I definitely love all these new home automation products. If we had central heating/ac this would be a great item to have!

  • I’ll definitely have to keep this in mind for my future home. 🙂

  • We replaced the 27 year old duct work in our home and 3 of our doors – it’s made a huge difference.

  • These are some great energy saving tips. I’ll have to look further into some of these and see if I can’t save some money on my electric bill.

Tri-Color Rotini With Chorizo Recipe

This is a compensated campaign in collaboration with Barilla and Latina Bloggers Connect. Chorizo is something the men in my family like a lot, because it’s full of flavor and can be thrown into most stews and pastas to make it more wonderful. While I usually stick to my usual Arroz Blanco con Chorizo (White […]

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  • I don’t think I’ve ever made a dish with Chorizo before. Is it spicy? Barilla Blue box pastas however… those are a staple in my grocery cart weekly! We eat a lot of pasta around our home.

  • Penelope

    It can be quite spicy 🙂 We tend to get one that is less so because I have a sensitive tummy.

  • A tasty looking meal for sure! I’m always looking for new pasta recipes, thanks!

  • I’ve never had Chorizo before but your dish looks amazing!

  • Going to try this, I only use Barilla especially for my pasta salad.

  • This looks great, I love the sausage and for some reason I just love the looks of the tri-colored pasta.

  • This looks like a great recipe, though I tend to shy away from spicier foods.

  • This looks really good. Thanks for sharing. I love how colorful this pasta is. It looks very festive to me.

  • I love using tri-color rotini. I’ll have to try this recipe out.

  • Oh my goodness, does that ever sound incredible! I can’t wait to dig in!

  • My husband is gone most evenings, so I admit I’m not great about having everyone sit down together to eat. I feed the kids first and then at some point myself. It’s not a great system!

  • I’ve always liked this type of pasta, especially in a ranch macaroni salad.

  • That looks so amazing!

  • This looks easy and delicious! My husband is a huge fan of Spanish chorizo, which is a bit different than its Mexican cousin.

Nourishing Picky Eaters + Giveaway #Enfagrow AD

I received compensation and free enfagrow products for this post. My sons are picky eaters, so I generally try to make each bite they do actually eat as nutritious as possible. Every mouthful counts, so I focus on vitamins and anything that nourishes them. After learning how important DHA is in a toddler’s diet (supports […]

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  • It’s reassuring when you know your kids are getting all the necessary nutrients.

  • My oldest is a picky eater also. We try to have conversations about eating properly & making good choices so that she will have the skills to manage her own meals when she’s an adult. Good nutrition really does start young. My kids are a little old for Enfagrow, but I’ll share this information with my friends and fmaily who have younger children.

  • I didn’t realize so much brain growth happened during that time. Great to know there’s something like this out there to give their body a boost!

  • If I hadn’t been able to breastfeed my son (and for the first week I thought I wasn’t going to be able to) I would have appreciated something like this!

  • Brittany Turner

    I would love to give this to my toddlers who are twins. They are so active and such picky eaters that I think this would be great for them. Thank you!

Generate Positive Energy, Starting With Your Home

It’s been almost two years since we’ve bought our home, and we’ve gone through a great deal of changes. In fact, there is really not much left on our home that is original…we renovated, improved, restored, and we still have quite a bit we’d like to do. Something we’ve been considering are solar panels, because […]

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  • Solar Panels aren’t incredibly popular here in our area (which is crazy because TX gets SO much sun!). We were interested in a house that was solar powered when we were house hunting last year, but alas it got sold before we had a chance to look at it and put an offer in.

  • I think solar panels are a wonderful idea. I personally would LOVE to use them in my home. I think more people would consider it if we can find that it’s reasonably priced.

  • I love the idea of it. I don’t know of any homes in my area that do solar panels, but I’m going to look into it.

  • Yeah the panels look fine on that house and what a nice house it is. I would love the savings. We have a lot to do to our new home too.

  • I would love to install solar panels, the prices can be steep though.

  • I would love to have solar panels on our house. What a money saver and so much more energy efficient.

  • I know it would be a great investment. We will one day I’m sure

  • If we owned our own home, solar is definitely something I’d look into. Love that they save a ton but don’t make the house ugly.

  • WE are hoping to be in our country home within the next couple of years. We’ve talked about solar panels when we do. I hope we can see more homes with them to try and make homes more energy efficient. We still have to get new windows in our home.

  • When I buy my own house, I will install solar panels. I’ll also do other things to be more self sufficient.

  • The house across the street just put those on. I noticed it yesterday!

  • Penelope

    Me too, I just noticed another house in my neighborhood sporting these and I got an email from Sungevity letting me know to join the club 🙂 Well, we are ready to! I hope before the end of summer we have them up.

  • I would totally have solar panels on my home if er had a house. It’s a big energy saver too.

  • We were thinking about getting solar panels ( a lot of our neighbors have them), but we’re just not ready yet.

  • I’ll have to consider this when I buy a home, as I’m not a fan of the $200+ utility bills.

  • You’re right! I had to go back and really look to see the solar panels. In my mind, I picture them as big, bulky, and taking away from the beauty of the home.

  • I would LOVE to further explore the idea of getting solar panels. We definitely pay a very hefty price for electricity, especially during the hot summer months.

  • There are a few things I’d like to change here, solar panels would be pretty amazing.

  • I would love to make use of solar panels too, someday when we find our forever home.

Organized- Home & Toy Storage

Toys everywhere, clothing tossed aside, books piled high- this is our reality with two little boys who don’t clean up unless we march them over to their mess and sing the clean up song while they neaten up, and our home often looks like a tornado hit. We found ourselves using our unused playard to […]

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  • You’re so organized. I’m trying to get our home as organized. We haven’t gotten the furniture yet to put stuff away.

  • Those plastic drawers are a fabulous idea for storing small toys!

  • Wow, you’re very organized! I use to be organized (a very LONG time ago), but I stopped. It seems like every time I tidied up, someone always messed it back up. Now that my kids are a little older I may just start organizing my house again, as the clutter is a bit overwhelming.

  • We’ve actually gotten lazier the older we’ve been getting, it was easier to stay organized when our daughter was younger than it is now! I have a show rack in our laundry room/mud room where the shoes stay organized, and I’m working on our pantry slowly. Right now the biggest challenge is our home office, mostly because it is a huge space but we don’t have a lot of storage in it, that means things just get put down and they tend to stay there and multiply.

  • I’ll have to think about this next time I go to Target, because my son’s room can use some organization! I also love the idea of a shoe organizer.

  • Love the organization and hopefully it will teach your boys that everything has its place.

  • We have done the shelving units, book shelves and baskets too. I actually find organizing more difficult now that my children are older and there are more of them!

  • I love all of these ideas. I have a thing for stackable bins on my shelves. I also love the those cloth bins that you are using on your stand.

  • I so need that shoe organizer, but not sure where I’d put it. 🙂

  • Wow, you got everything so neat, i Need to do the same thing.

  • I want that shoe organizer!

  • I love the cubby style storage. I need to add something like this for myself.

  • I need to get more organized. Thanks for sharing these ideas!

  • I go crazy looking at all of the clutter. I don’t think shoving everything in the closet so I don’t have to see it counts as a tip.

  • I love these ideas! Especially your rule about anything left out at the end of the day getting donated. I think our house would be a lot more organized if we implemented that one!

  • My kids have a toy organizer with colorful plastic bins but are quickly outgrowing that style of storage. I will be replacing it with something more modern, like the cubbies and bins you have pictured above.

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