Eat, Nap, Play by Robyn Spizman and Evelyn Sacks

Published by HCI Books

Pages: 240

Publishers Summary: Moms will concur—routines and creative ideas help your day and save your sanity. And once you’ve established a routine that works, the inclination is to stick with it until the kids are off to college. But sometimes the rigidity of a ‘tight ship’ doesn’t allow much time for good-old fashioned, spur-of-the-moment fun. Well, hang on to your itinerary because here comes Eat, Nap, Play!

Written by moms for moms, this timely guide centers on back-to-basics philosophies: spend quality time with your kids and spend less money. But this is not a guilt trip—it’s a fun-filled adventure. Jam-packed with clever, cost-effective, low-maintenance, often nostalgic ideas you can easily slip into your existing routine, Eat, Nap, Play shows you how to turn everyday mayhem into precious moments to build memories, foster growth, strengthen bonds, and just have fun.

• Simple trips to the mall or grocery store transform into treasure troves of adventure
• Beat boredom in unique and unexpected ways while in the car or on the go
• Find out how to plan the perfect, age-appropriate parties for less
• Get the most out of the latest technology and discover a ton of useful websites along the way
• Plus, unearth cash-free ways for kids to learn, socialize, and grow into independent and resilient people

“As a parent with two little ones and a husband just out of law school, I can honestly say that I know how important it is to make every penny, every scrap of clothing and every bit of food in the house count. Not only that, but it’s also important to enjoy using up those resources that are available. With the most significant point being that we have fun and do the very best we can for our children in whatever circumstance we are in. Eat, Nap, Play is an excellent resource for trying to accomplish just that.

“I have this fabulous crafty friend, Chef Messy, she makes everything you can imagine from baby clothes to delicious homemade gooey brownies to perfectly knitted socks. Well, in one of the sections of the book it mentions having a ‘special’ plate for certain occassions, like birthdays or great grades and the like. This immediately reminded me of my friend, she has this amazing cake stand and set of plates that she uses just for birthdays. See here:

“Isn’t it fabulous! She made it at a local pottery shop when we all lived in Lexington Virginia during our law school years. I’m totally envious and still plan on doing my best to duplicate her efforts at some point in the future. One of the great things about her project was that a lot of it was done with a group of other law school wives that met every month for different activities. It was a fun, cheap way to all get together, have a great time but still be productive. I always enjoyed the time we all spent together and we always managed to come up with inexpensive ways to entertain each other.

“I learned a lot from those days in law school as well as from my very own mother who is an excellent barterer/swapper. One of the most important being that you should always utilize your talents to help others and in turn they will help you by sharing their talents. It may be a crafting, painting, music lessons or baking. In my own case, I’ll definitely be bartering music lessons for something else my kids might be interested in (maybe they’ll want to learn to paint, I’m terrible, but I can teach flute lessons easily). There’s an entire section in Eat, Nap, Play that talks about how to swap and barter your way to free babysitting and fabulous new toys for your kiddos. This may be a new concept for you and it’s great because they’ve even thought to include ideas on how to organize your own swap or just how to shop a yard sale. They’ve also included great sites to visit like SwapItGreen that gives you the opportunity to help the environment by sharing old treasures you’re no longer using in exchange for something new to your family. It’s all about utilizing the resources you have within your own circle.

“There are many great tid-bits of information in Eat, Nap, Play and although some of them may be ideas you’ve already been incorporating in your own family, there is bound to be something you will glean from it. Even when there was something I wasn’t that keen on (ie. shopping for used brand name clothes, I would never have worn them growing up) I was still able to take something from the idea that was presented (give the used clothing finds as gifts, they may never know!). It also has an incredible directory in the back of the book of some internet sites that are already being used in my bookmarks. This is definitely worth the read and reference for any family looking to squeeze a little more out of the meager means they have and enjoy the time doing it. And in today’s economy who couldn’t use that?”

The1stdaughter Recommends: Anyone looking to save and enjoy life just a little bit more.

Giveaway! One lucky winner will win their very own copy of Eat, Nap, Play by Robyn Spizman and Evelyn Sacks courtesy of HCI Books! Open until April 30, 2010 at midnight EST. Open to US/Canada Residents only.

For the Comments: Is there some talent you have that you would easily barter for something else in exchange? What’s your talent and what would you like to learn?

Other Tour Stops You May Want to Check Out:
Simply Stacie
lit*chick
Red Headed Book Child
Turning the Clock Back
Devourer of Books
The Activity Mom
Heir to Blair
Southern Institute of Domestic Arts & Crafts
JDaniel4’s Mom
It’s a Crazy, Beautiful Life

This book provided for review by the publisher as part of TLC Book Tours.
Purchasing products by clicking through the links in this post will provide us a modest commission through our affiliate relationship with Amazon.com.

The giveaway is now closed. Thank you to all who entered! Please look for results this weekend.

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