Is Your Home Really Ready for Guests?

Your answer may be "yes", but after reading the following tips, you may find that you’re not as ready as you thought.

Spruce Up the Front Entrance. Having guests come to stay with you is a great motivator for home improvement projects you may have been putting off. Start with the front door: A tidy, well-tended entrance lets guests know you're looking forward to seeing them. If paint is peeling, now is a good time to scrape it down and repaint so it will look fresh. For a quick facelift, add color and soften the architecture with pots of plants. If you have room for seating on the porch, make sure it's clean and comfy. Provide a welcome mat so guests can wipe their shoes before entering the house.

Make Your Bath Convenient. A well-designed guest bath puts essential supplies within easy reach. You should include a closed cupboard for extra toilet paper and cleaning supplies, and glass shelves hold stacks of towels and wash cloths right outside the shower. Hand and body lotion and shower gel are generous gestures in case guests forgot to bring their own.

Make Space in the Closet. Even if the guest bedroom closet normally serves as your out-of-season storage, move the clothes elsewhere for the duration of the visit, or at least push them to one side to make space for your guests' clothes. Provide plenty of hangers for skirts and pants as well as shirts and blouses. And if you have clean, fluffy robes available for your guests to use, you get five stars as a host/hostess.

Pamper Your Guests. Guest rooms don't have to be palatial; it's the little things that make guests feel welcome. The room should be a private retreat where a cup of tea and a catnap are pure pleasure. A few thoughtful touches and decorating tricks will make your visitors feel right at home.

Easy Early Mornings. A large pile of pillows on the bed looks inviting, but it also presents a challenge for visitors when it comes time to make the bed. Dress your guest bed simply with pairs of pillows neatly arranged. If you want to offer extra toppings, such as quilts, stack them in the closet for easy access.

Room to Relax. Whether they are family or friends, guests need to know they can retreat to the bedroom for peace and quiet without having to curl up on the bed. Offer comfortable seating with an upholstered wing chair tucked in a corner and a side table to hold a beverage and books.

Now…is your home really ready for guests?

Top 3 Apps for Busy Parents

You might be shocked at how much a choice selection of apps can change your life for the better. It may seem counterintuitive, but adding these handy features to your smartphone will actually make unplugging that much easier, since you know you've got your bases covered.

Grocery IQ
Cut your grocery bill and the time you spend at the supermarket in half with this streamlined app. It’s got all the standard tricks, like creating virtual shopping lists that allow you to check off items as you move through the aisles. Plus, Grocery IQ feeds off coupons.com so you can download and search free coupons, automatically add them to your store card, and never pay full price for staple items ever again.

CollegeSave
CollegeSave estimates the cost of a four-year institution and tells you how much you should be setting aside monthly. It’ll even alert you if the amount you’re actually saving isn’t going to cover the bill, so you can rethink your spending. Though you may balk when you see how insane tuition’s going to be in the future, planning will take away some of the sting, and it’ll be worth it in the long run.

Mint
Are you the CFO of your household? Mint.com’s app makes the job a whole lot less intimidating than it sounds. The app does all the work of organizing and categorizing your spending for you. The app provides all-in-one money management for credit cards, bank accounts, investments, income, budgeting and expenditures.

100 Facebook Friends Show Up
To Defend Bullied Student

A high-school bully decided to apologize after 100 Facebook users showed up to rally behind a boy he had accused of having no friends.

It started as a single Facebook message posted by Halsey Parkerson's aunt. She went to South Salem High School (Oregon) on Thursday to meet him for lunch. She overheard the bully telling her nephew that he doesn't have any friends and that no one cares.

Halsey told her that it happens all the time. His aunt decided to come back for lunch Friday and through Facebook she invited all of his new friends.

And they came. Car after car showed up until South Salem's parking lot became a traffic jam.

It was all for Halsey after his aunt put the message out on Facebook to one of her car clubs. The message spread, and at least 50 cars, containing probably 100 people, came – some of them as far away as Vancouver.

And that's all it took to make a difference.

"It's just unbelievable," Halsey said. "I now know whenever I get bullied I'll raise my head up and say, 'Sorry, I have too many friends to think I'm being bullied.'"

But even Halsey knew the support was bigger than him. It was for anyone who's ever been bullied.

"If you're being bullied, stand up and express yourself," he said. The bully was there, too, and with a hundred people standing behind Halsey, the bully had a change of heart. He high-fived Halsey and said: "I apologize. I apologize. I take it back."