A friend of mine gave my son a “Little People” house as a hand-me-over. It’s in great shape so I can’t really call it a hand-me-down. She got it from a friend and her daughter already had one so she gave it to us. Well, my son loves this new toy. Daily we have to “play house” together.

We’ve brought all of the Little People that live with us into this new house, but the dining room table that it comes with only has chairs for the Mommy and Daddy of the house. Poor baby has nowhere to sit. And, the guests that come over have nowhere to sit.

So, genius that I am, I decide to go on eBay to look for an extra dining room table and the high chair for the baby because “nobody puts Baby in a corner!”

Well, as I’m searching though all of these stranger’s listings, I am hit with a wave of nostalgia. Most of the entries on eBay are for vintage sets.

Vintage= old

Old= the houses I used to play with as a kid.

I’m looking at the lime green ’70s chairs, the patio loungers and the black and white dog with freckles on his snout. I remember the people too, they didn’t have arms back then. I played with these toys. Suddenly I am transported to a small child, playing with my favorite toys.

And, here I thought that Little People was a new concept.

Related:

• Find out what’s changed in “Sesame Street” since the ’70s.
• Fisher-Price’s Little People Web site.

I’m always looking for things to do with my son and recently found a Web site that is dedicated to telling people about sites that offer free stuff for kids. It has a lot of downloadables: Coloring pages, printable play money and alphabet tracing sheets — just to name a few.

I also found a clever page on the site called, “101 Things To Do with Kids.”

Be sure to spend some time here: You’ll find lots of activities that you can entertain your child with — and he/she may learn something along the way.

I just returned from a weekend trip out of town where I spent a fortune on gasoline. Makes me wonder how American’s will afford family vacations this summer. Prices will be $4 per gallon before we know it.

CNN.com has some advice for us on how to save money at the pump — it’s really quite simple:

Drive more gently, don’t carry extra stuff in your trunk, combine your shopping trips. This is all sound advice but there’s one driving tip that will probably save you more gas than all the others, especially if you spend a lot of time on the highway: Slow down.

Good advice, but hard for busy Moms to follow … combine shopping trips — love to, but don’t always have the time or means to do it. Don’t carry extra stuff in your trunk: OK, good advice here. I usually carry way too much junk in the trunk of my car. Plus, this is especially hard to do on a trip. We need all that stuff.

I guess I need to start heeding this advice so that we can afford our next trip.

Related:

• Read CNN’s full article: “Slow Down a Little, Save a Lot of Gas.”
• Find cheap gas near you :
  • Gas Buddy
  • Gas price watch
  • AAA fuel finder

I found an excellent article called “The Guilty Mom Entrepreneur,”on the struggles that entrepreneur moms face (or any working mother) with trying to balance work, life and some type of career or job. The article mentnons the book: Mommy Guilt: Learn to Worry Less, Focus on What Matters Most and Raise Happier Kids, which highlights seven points for “guilt-free mommy-living”:

1. You must be willing to let some things go.
2. Parenting is not a competitive sport.
3. Look toward the future and at the big picture.
4. Learn when and how to live in the moment.
5. Get used to saying “yes” more often and being able to defend your “no.”
6. Laugh a lot, especially with your children.
7. Set aside a specific time to have fun as a family.

Kind of matches a post I read the other day, “Live Like a Toddler: Six Ways to Change Your Life,” from the “Catch Your Breath Blog.” Karen Murphy outlines six key concepts that toddlers do instinctively that we can all do in our daily lives to make things a bit easier. One of my favorite pieces of toddler advice is number 5 on her list: “let someone help you.” Most Moms I know try to do it all and we need to stop and ask for help when we need it. Read all of Karen’s post here.

BalancingMotherhood.com got props from the Graco Baby Blog, and I’m so excited. Every month, the blog writers choose their favorite posts from around the Internet and create a collection of the best ones. One of mine was chosen for March. Here’s what Melissa says:

Melissa Parlaman: Balancing Motherhood - “Poopy Diaper in the Cookie Line”
I thought this post was hysterical! I love the Superwoman reference & I can totally feel her pain when you experience a temporary feeling of panic when you know you don’t have your diaper bag when you really need it.

Here is the link to the entire blog post … be sure to visit and read all the other winners.

Also, recently I noted that Balancing Motherhood was listed on AllTop.com, in the Moms category. AllTop is a “dashboard” that aggregates sites, along with recent headlines) from famed Guy Kawasaki. I’m really pleased to be selected to be listed on the site among so many really great Mom blogs. Kawasaki continues to add new categories and a slew of Web site links so be sure to visit and find some new favorite sites — either for reference or pleasure. He recently added deals and startups to alltop. I’m sure more categories are coming.