This week Joe and Anita return after a few weeks away and attempt to explain their mysterious absence, in the process, they link back to a couple previous episodes and hit at a Glocal Family adventure that's in the works.

They also introduce the idea of "Eastern" Parenting, which really isn't Eastern, but came to life in an interview with Naomi Aldort. As a means of exploring this approach to parenting, they point out some issues they have today, and offer some practical ways they're trying to implement "Eastern" Parenting with Robbie.

Naomi Aldort is the author of Raising Children, Raising Ourselves. She's a parenting / family counselor who works with parents and educators internationally by phone, in family intensive retreats, and in parenting workshops. She is an inspiring public speaker and an internationally published writer.

This week Joe and Anita stay with the issue of parenting, but this time focus on just how powerful the formative years of a child's life are, and how, by establishing boundaries, helping them learn to make choices, and giving them responsibility, you can set them up for success in their adult lives. They also have an interview with parent coach Shelly Moorman, who offers some advice to those parents who haven't laid a good foundation and are trying to set their older child on a new path.

Shelly Moorman is an independent parent educator, coach and speaker in Denver, Colorado, who facilitates both the Becoming a Love and Logic Parent workshop and the Early Childhood Parenting Made Fun workshops. Sign up for a parenting class, teleclass, or a parent coaching session today and ... Put the Fun Back Into Parenting!

Let's face it, there are few things worse, at least at the moment it happens, than walking through a dimly lit house and stepping on some toy that's been left out. So what do you do about all those toys that kids collect? This week, Joe and Anita handout some helpful ideas when it comes to your kid's toys.

Along the way they get a bit nostalgic about last week's episode on food, share an article from Unclutterer, have a conversation with Beth Engelman from Mommy on a Shoestring, and of course offer a tip of our own.

There are a few toys that every child has that seems to be their mainstays. These are the toys that are played with, week in and week out, while most of the others go untouched with a few specific exceptions. In our episode this week, we suggest that you get rid of toys that aren't mainstays, and in our tip of the week, Anita offers a few examples of how you can create those "occasional toys" out of trash.

Beth began her writing career in second grade when she won her first writing contest with her essay entitled "If I Were President, Bubblegum Would Be Free and Taxes Would Go Up (So Teachers Could Get More Money)."

Clearly not destined for a career in politics, Beth has focused her talents on creative writing, education, and curricula development.

In this tip of the week Anita turns crayons into, well, crayons. Okay, not really, actually, she is turning all those broken bits and pieces of crayon into crayons that are shaped like letters of the alphabet. This not only maximizes the use of the individual crayons, but it provides a fun and educational new way for kids to color.

As a bonus tip, when it comes time for a birthday party, give all the kids that come a bag of crayons that spell out their name.

Zwaggle is a national network (sorry non-US folk) of parents who have come together to share ... well, at least that's how it started out, because if you visit the site now, you'll find that there are plenty of non-parenting items exchanging hands through zoints, the sites official currency.

In this interview, Joe sits down with Zwaggle founder Adam Levy and talks about the site, how it came about, and how you can maximize resources through Zwaggle.