Sherry describes herself as a "basic run-of-the-mill stay-at-home mom," but she's anything but basic. She's a creative, caring person whose days center around three boys, a husband and their life raising pigs and Black Angus cows.

Image Courtesy City Chic on a Farm

She blogs as a City Chic on a Farm but she's also committed to writing about charity work, cooking and saving money. She shares beautiful pictures from her family's farm that will make you wish she'd invite you over for country cooking and lemonade ... as long as you don't have to get up before sunrise to help with the cattle or clean pigpens.

Are you a SAHM with a blog? Submit your blog to be featured on the About.com Stay-at-Home Moms site. You could be the next Mom Blogger of the Week.

Get free stuff just for hosting a party. Manufacturers look for people willing to throw a party to check out new products with their friends. One way to get connected is through HouseParty.com.

Members of our playgroup have been chosen to host parties for toys, food and TV show sneak peeks. When you host, you get free products or samples to keep and share with your friends.

For our playgroup's first party, one of our members received a box full of brand new toys from a major manufacturer. At first, the hostess only offered a few RSVPs so every child could leave with a toy. But the response of moms who just wanted to come check out the new toys was so great, the hostess let everyone come over. At the end of the party, she held a random drawing for the toys.

While you wait to be selected as a hostess, get in the habit of throwing parties to exchange your own stuff. A toy exchange or clothing swap are fun ways to get rid of the old in your house so you can get something new to you.

More Thrifty Thursday Tips from About.com Parenting Guides:

• Start Early to Save on Holiday Gifts
• Hand-Me-Downs for Teens Are Trendy
• Save With Toy Store Price Matching
• Check for Senior Discount on Groceries
• Inexpensive Preterm Labor Teaching Tools
• Nordstrom's 1/2 Yearly Sale is On Now!

Cooking with friends and family just got competitive. Food Network has released Cook or Be Cooked on Wii.

Photo Courtesy Food Network

Video games don't normally catch my attention. I wish I had time to play more games, other than Candyland and Chutes and Ladders. But Food Network's first video game teaches you real cooking skills you can use in the kitchen and comes with more than 30 recipes from expert Food Network chefs.

Food Network Vice President of Marketing and The Next Food Network Star judge Susie Fogelson is an in-game avatar along with Mory Thomas of Food Network Kitchens. They offer tips and reviews as you crack an egg or prepare the perfect steak with or against your friends.

I like the idea of this game adding fun to food prep. Some of my most memorable girls' nights in have been in the kitchen. That's where we gravitate even when we're supposed to be watching a movie in the other room. If only there was a game that prepared meals for me.

Now that you've turned the clocks back, it's also a great time to review your family's fire safety plan. Change the batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Test each one. Hold a fire drill with your kids.

Photo © mulad / Flickr

Make fire safety a fun learning activity with printable coloring pages, a fire truck craft and a fire prevention word search. The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) also has a website just for kids to learn about home fire safety and play fire safety games. They can even download an official Junior Fire Marshal certificate if they pass an online fire safety quiz.

Include babies and toddlers in your fire safety plan too. The USFA website for parents recommends you practice with every member of your family so you'll know exactly what to do in an emergency.

Hopefully, you'll never need your plan. But preparing the whole family can help every mom sleep a little better at night.

Need to add flair back to your mom blog? Thinking of starting a blog but you're not sure where to begin?

National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) is a great exercise in creativity and determination. To succeed, write at least one blog post every day in November.

No cheating. No skipping a day. Just write.

It may seem like a mountain of a task when you have kids to raise, piles of laundry to fold and plenty of nights to stand over the hot stove. But it really is an excellent challenge you can enjoy with thousands of other bloggers around the world.

As a busy mom who's successfully completed NaBloPoMo, I can tell you crossing the finish line on that final day is an amazing feeling. Taking the time to do something daily, just for you, is worth it. Sure, you can win prizes too but if you're feeling stuck in your routine and like the countless renditions of the ABC song are sucking the muse out of your body, give NaBloPoMo a go just to give yourself an outlet.

Even if you don't participate in NaBloPoMo, don't forget to add your blog to the directory of mom blogs. I'm always happy to put moms in the spotlight where they belong!

Kim dated her husband for two weeks before they tied the knot. The happy couple merged their families and are now a house of 10, 11 if you include their new dog.

Image Courtesy So Many Kids, So Little Time

So Many Kids, So Little Time is Kim's blog she started almost two years ago. She has a charming writing voice and even with "so many kids, so little time," she still shares plenty of tips on saving money as a "cheap momma."

When asked for the family photo gallery feature what she enjoys most about being a mom, Kim replied, "Seriously, there are so many things! It is crazy to me that the big guy upstairs entrusted me with these awesome kids. There are moments every day that make being a mom totally worth it."

Kim's continual enthusiasm and whirlwind journey to becoming a happy stay-at-home mom make her the Mom Blogger of the Week.

Are you a SAHM with a blog? Submit your blog to be featured on the About.com Stay-at-Home Moms site. You could be the next Mom Blogger of the Week.

My mom had to buy me a plastic pumpkin pail every year I trick-or-treated. I always managed to break the handle or lose the pail on one of the other 364 days before the next Halloween.

Photo © Apryl Duncan

Stop spending money on treat buckets for the kids. Make a free candy bag out of items you already have in the house.

And if the candy bag gets damaged or destroyed? No problem.

This project is so easy, you can just make another one. No more plastic pails or ripped bags for your kids!

More Thrifty Thursday Tips from About.com Parenting Guides:

• Always Ask for a Discount
• Free Breastfeeding Resources
• Save Money By Combining Holiday Gifts
• Visit Your Library Online
• Recession Payback Game from ConAgra Foods
• Special Offers and Coupons from Fisher-Price and Playskool
• Fix-It-Yourself Manual
• Decorate with Neighbors!
• Use a Binder and Free Printable Worksheets to Organize Foster Care Documentation

When I was six years old, my mom and I made a ghost tree for my first grade Halloween party. It was simply napkin-covered lollipops attached to a big tree limb.

Photo © Apryl Duncan

I will never forget the look on my classmates' faces when my mom walked into the room carrying this dead branch with ghosts tied on. Quite a few of my friends got in trouble with the teacher for jumping out of their seats and rushing my mom. The ghost tree was a huge hit.

Over the years, we've modified the ghost tree from those original lollies on a limb but it's always been a silly family tradition we've carried on every Halloween. Now, thirty years later, I'm continuing the fun with my own child.

Start your own family tradition. Make the ghost and pumpkin tree this Halloween with your kids. Even the smallest hands enjoy drawing funny faces on the ghosts and tying them to the tree.

Of course, you can modify this project to your own needs. It's one of those easy crafts where there's no right or wrong way, just your way. Be sure to send me a picture so I can share your version with other parents.

Take your costumed cuties to Sears on Halloween and they'll be treated to a free Mattel toy. The department store also has a printable coupon for $5 off a $20 toy purchase.

Photo © Tammra McCauley / Flickr

While you're at the mall, you can trick-or-treat at other stores or try other trick-or-treating alternatives that help your family focus on fun more than chocolate, lollipops and bubble gum. If your kids do go on a candy-collecting spree, use a few simple strategies to take control of the sugary treats while still letting your kids have their fun.

With Halloween on a Saturday this year, our idea of fun will be spending lots of family time together. We'll answer the door for trick-or-treaters, visit some of our neighbors we haven't seen in a while and take lots of pictures of our toddler who's chosen to be a spider this year.

What are your family's plans for Halloween?

That's the question I've been getting asked a lot lately. Ten Dollar Dinners with Melissa d'Arabian is currently out of Food Network's lineup.

Melissa d'Arabian Wins
Photo Courtesy Food Network

Don't worry, though. I've confirmed the show will be back for a second season.

Food Network's publicist tells me 6 episodes were part of d'Arabian's prize for winning season 5 of The Next Food Network Star. The show's been a big hit with fans and Food Network has ordered a full 13-episode season, which will begin airing January 3, 2010.

Until then, visit the official Ten Dollar Dinners page for recipes, videos and more information on the show and check out my complete coverage of d'Arabian's rise from reality show contestant to Food Network star, complete with one-on-one interviews, her family photos and a delicious recipe that will even make picky eaters gobble up spinach:

• Before She Won - An Interview With Melissa d'Arabian
  
• Melissa d'Arabian Wins - A One-on-One Interview with the Newest Food Network Star
  
• Melissa d'Arabian's Life in Photos
  
• Audio Interview With Melissa d'Arabian
  
• Melissa d'Arabian Shares Her Creamed Spinach Recipe