There are so many blogs out there it's hard to know which ones are worth a look. Just clicking on "next blog" at the top of the screen is a little dangerous, to say the least, and usually unsatisfying.
So how do you find quality, informative, interesting and even entertaining blogs? www.alltop.com Alltop is an aggregator of blogs. Meaning it collects, categorizes, and ranks blogs. You can find all of the top blogs for most subjects worth looking into. For instance, if you are looking for mom blogs moms.alltop.com and you will get a list of mom blogs that are the cream of the crop (oh, I can only dream!). Going to the main website, www.alltop.com will get you to a large list of topics that seems to be growing every day. Only a few topics include: homeschooling, adoption, theater, tv, and of course, blogging.
I want to share a blog with you that my husband discovered and shared with me, it is not a mom blog and can be found under church.alltop.com . Her site is www.flowerdust.net and she is an author and serves on staff at a church in Nashville. I find her entries to be interesting and real.
Happy reading!
August 21, 2008
August 11, 2008
Beautiful Kids Clothes for FREE??
Check out these amazing kids clothes from Grosgrain, a website I found through Design Mom. The clothes are so cute, one of a kind, and FREE!! The mom who makes these clothes is just blessing the world with her sweet designs. I'm posting this link for a bit of a selfish reason. Creating this link enters me into the giveaway raffle. You can do it too!
Nantucket Weekend GIVEAWAY!!!!
Nantucket Weekend GIVEAWAY!!!!
Bad Mommy
My girls had their yearly well-child visit with the doctor today. Everything went just fine as far as health goes. But while the doctor was talking to my 5 year old, I found out that I was neglecting something pretty important in my parenting. Something I always swore to myself that I would be pro-active on. Safety.
First the doctor asked, where do you live? My daughter correctly answered the name of our town. I smiled with pride that she knew this much. Then, the doctor asked what her address was. I tried to hide the blush as I knew she didn't know that. Next, the doctor asked if she knew what happened if she dialed 911 on the phone. At this, I just cringed. She gave my daughter a second chance, asking "who comes if you dial 911?" My daughter just shrugged and the Dr looked at me. Not necessarily disapproving but more like, "does she really not know these things?" I thought, ask her phone number, this is something we have worked on. No she moved onto something else. She asked if my daughter knows the rules about playing in the street. I thought, she has to know this, we don't even allow her to go past the sidewalk at the end of the driveway. Nope. She answered, "sometimes, if I'm careful." Wrong! I felt like I was failing a test. The doctor finally asked her about swimming. "Do you go swimming alone?" The 5 year old answered, "no, but sometimes when I can touch I go by myself." I thought, no way!! This is the one thing that I was confident she knew. She went on to explain that I was on the side of the pool and I breathed a small sigh of relief. Two out of six. Not a good score.
So, I need work on a few things. We have 14 days left until kindergarten. She WILL know these things before kindergarten, so help me!
Some research brought me to these web sources:
Safe Kids: Focused on accidental injury has printable activities for teaching
Safe Kids Club: This is an organization that I heard about at MOPS one year I bought their workbooks even though I had a 3 month old at the time, it covers personal safety
McGruff: Games and other resources
First the doctor asked, where do you live? My daughter correctly answered the name of our town. I smiled with pride that she knew this much. Then, the doctor asked what her address was. I tried to hide the blush as I knew she didn't know that. Next, the doctor asked if she knew what happened if she dialed 911 on the phone. At this, I just cringed. She gave my daughter a second chance, asking "who comes if you dial 911?" My daughter just shrugged and the Dr looked at me. Not necessarily disapproving but more like, "does she really not know these things?" I thought, ask her phone number, this is something we have worked on. No she moved onto something else. She asked if my daughter knows the rules about playing in the street. I thought, she has to know this, we don't even allow her to go past the sidewalk at the end of the driveway. Nope. She answered, "sometimes, if I'm careful." Wrong! I felt like I was failing a test. The doctor finally asked her about swimming. "Do you go swimming alone?" The 5 year old answered, "no, but sometimes when I can touch I go by myself." I thought, no way!! This is the one thing that I was confident she knew. She went on to explain that I was on the side of the pool and I breathed a small sigh of relief. Two out of six. Not a good score.
So, I need work on a few things. We have 14 days left until kindergarten. She WILL know these things before kindergarten, so help me!
Some research brought me to these web sources:
Safe Kids: Focused on accidental injury has printable activities for teaching
Safe Kids Club: This is an organization that I heard about at MOPS one year I bought their workbooks even though I had a 3 month old at the time, it covers personal safety
McGruff: Games and other resources
August 8, 2008
For Sale: One Completely Useful Pot Without Its Crock
Yes, it's for sale. Not that I want to sell my crock pot, but since I don't have crock for the pot anymore it's not useful for me. Maybe it's useful for you??
This story starts with sugar. I was planning for an easy dinner tonight since I am going to my monthly escape from kids and husband (also known as scrapbooking night). One of those easy crock pot dinners in a bag. No work, just set it and forget it! As I was pulling my crock pot out of the pantry, the cord pulled with it the sugar canister. In slow motion I watched the tiny white granules hit two shelves before filling the crate of Tupperware at the bottom of the pantry. I quickly put the crock pot on the island counter near my children who were waiting for me to start making lunch. Reminding the angels not to touch the crock pot as I worked to clean up the sugar all over the pantry. I knew this was going to be a tough mess to pick up. I pulled out all of the affected plastic items (which ended up being all but 3 or 4 pieces) threw them in the sink. Reminded the 3 year old not to touch the crock pot. I then picked up the towels and cloth napkins that were on one of the shelves that was hit. Reminded the 3 year old not to touch the crock pot. Finally swept up as much as I could from each shelf and the ground. As I was taking my last swipe with the broom I heard a ghastly CRASH a few steps away. I turned slowly to find this:
I wish I could say that my first reaction was to laugh uncontrollable at the complete absurdity of the situation, but I didn't. I yelled "I TOLD YOU NOT TO TOUCH THE CROCK POT!!!" This sent the before mentioned 3 year old into tears which I felt completely guilty about. So I decided to force a laugh and try to get the girls to laugh as well and focus on how funny this day was turning out to be. It didn't work for the 3 year old. She cried nearly the entire time while I swept yet another mess up. As far as the glass and ceramic went, it is amazing that nobody was hurt. I was standing where this picture was taken from with only flip-flops on and the girls were on stools shielded by the island. We found pieces as far away as 15 feet and some managed to jump onto the kitchen table. The mess made one huge pile of glass. And as I was putting what was left of the crock into the garbage, a chunk fell off and hit my foot. For the split second before I looked at my foot I thought, "Now wouldn't that just be perfect." Thankfully, nothing was wrong, just a little red.So now I am left with a lonely pot, missing it's crock. Not to mention back to the drawing board for dinner. The pot needs a new (safer) home, anyone?
I wish I could say that was it for the messes. After the clean up we had lunch and the 3 year old spilled her juice on the floor. My 5 year old keeps saying, "this is such a BAD day!" I tell her, "nope it can only get better." And besides, God's in charge of whether it's bad or good. We are in charge of our attitude and how we handle it.
August 6, 2008
Dirty work
Just got done cleaning the floors. Not ever a fun job but reminded me of my favorite spot remover and I thought I would share it with you all.
We have horrible carpet. Thanks builder! We purchased our house almost finished. We had done the build our own house thing and weren't ready to do that again. We purchased this one with the understanding that we might not LOVE everything but we were happy to not stress about colors and such. So we have builder grade tan carpet. We also have a problem area that not only gets a lot of traffic, but technically it is in our kitchen thanks to our open floor plan. This area is ALWAYS full of ugly splash spots. So today I decided to get these awful spots up (wish I had taken a before pic). I had put it off long enough. I went to the cupboard and found old faithful. Years ago a friend told us about Folex. He even gave us a bottle of it. We have used it so much that it is sadly almost gone. It's so easy too. Just spray, rub with your finger then with a dry cloth. That's it, stain is gone and you can see the proof on your rag, the dirt comes right up! Now I sound like a commercial but this stuff really works. If you want to find it try their website here.
Another carpet product that I really like for whole floor cleaning is by Orek. This is an investment purchase because the machine itself costs $500. We borrowed one from our friend and Realtor when we were selling our house. It's the Orek Orbiter and it is a dry cleaning system. First you treat the carpet with a pre-spray that loosens dirt and oil. Then you shake Orek's dry carpet cleaning powder over the dampend carpet. Then run the Orbiter over it, which rubs the powder in and agitates the carpet. The last step is using a regular vacuum over to pull up the powder which has absorbed the dirt and oil in your carpet. Lots of money, Lots of steps, but the carpet looks new thanks to the stain removal and agitation of the carpet. Without the machine, I have used the the pre-spray and the powder on very difficult. I used a scrub brush to act as the orbiter. Find orek products at their website here. It might be worth the investment for the years of new-looking carpet.
OK, done with the commercial, now back to your regularly scheduled day.
:-)
We have horrible carpet. Thanks builder! We purchased our house almost finished. We had done the build our own house thing and weren't ready to do that again. We purchased this one with the understanding that we might not LOVE everything but we were happy to not stress about colors and such. So we have builder grade tan carpet. We also have a problem area that not only gets a lot of traffic, but technically it is in our kitchen thanks to our open floor plan. This area is ALWAYS full of ugly splash spots. So today I decided to get these awful spots up (wish I had taken a before pic). I had put it off long enough. I went to the cupboard and found old faithful. Years ago a friend told us about Folex. He even gave us a bottle of it. We have used it so much that it is sadly almost gone. It's so easy too. Just spray, rub with your finger then with a dry cloth. That's it, stain is gone and you can see the proof on your rag, the dirt comes right up! Now I sound like a commercial but this stuff really works. If you want to find it try their website here.
Another carpet product that I really like for whole floor cleaning is by Orek. This is an investment purchase because the machine itself costs $500. We borrowed one from our friend and Realtor when we were selling our house. It's the Orek Orbiter and it is a dry cleaning system. First you treat the carpet with a pre-spray that loosens dirt and oil. Then you shake Orek's dry carpet cleaning powder over the dampend carpet. Then run the Orbiter over it, which rubs the powder in and agitates the carpet. The last step is using a regular vacuum over to pull up the powder which has absorbed the dirt and oil in your carpet. Lots of money, Lots of steps, but the carpet looks new thanks to the stain removal and agitation of the carpet. Without the machine, I have used the the pre-spray and the powder on very difficult. I used a scrub brush to act as the orbiter. Find orek products at their website here. It might be worth the investment for the years of new-looking carpet.
OK, done with the commercial, now back to your regularly scheduled day.
:-)
August 2, 2008
Why moms should tweet on Twitter.
I'm all atwitter about Twitter. It would be even more fun if my mom friends were on twitter too. If you don't know what I am talking about, that's totally understandable. Mom's are much too busy to keep up on the latest web-based social networking applications. Some of us are just getting into email. ( I have one mom friend who STILL doesn't have an email account, love her, but I can't ever send her a quick email so we don't keep in touch much.)
So Twitter is the next thing. For those of you who have skipped the Myspace and Facebook revolution because you don't have time to set up a fancy profile or to keep checking your friends' profiles, Twitter is perfect. Twitter allows you to send a message (tweets) to all of your followers (tweeps, instead of peeps, get it?) at once, and to receive your friends' tweets as well. You can even set it up to text your cell phone when your friends tweet if you like. There are lots of options and it is growing more each day. It is a quick way to tell friends, family and followers what you are doing or thinking at any given moment. As moms, Twitter can give us a social outlet and connection even when we don't have time for it. Did you ever wish that you could share the crazy mommy things that happen like "My two year old just pooped on my leg?" (I only say this because a friend recently experienced just that and said it would be nice to just vent in a twitter). Twitter gives you a place to share the fun, crazy and sometimes mundane events of life. It's fun, not time consuming and becoming a part of our culture. Here is a blog article by Cynthia Ware that demonstrates just how Twitter is changing the speed of news. Parent Hacks is on board too (see sidebar for Parent Hacks link).
So sign up and follow me!! I would love to follow you too.
So Twitter is the next thing. For those of you who have skipped the Myspace and Facebook revolution because you don't have time to set up a fancy profile or to keep checking your friends' profiles, Twitter is perfect. Twitter allows you to send a message (tweets) to all of your followers (tweeps, instead of peeps, get it?) at once, and to receive your friends' tweets as well. You can even set it up to text your cell phone when your friends tweet if you like. There are lots of options and it is growing more each day. It is a quick way to tell friends, family and followers what you are doing or thinking at any given moment. As moms, Twitter can give us a social outlet and connection even when we don't have time for it. Did you ever wish that you could share the crazy mommy things that happen like "My two year old just pooped on my leg?" (I only say this because a friend recently experienced just that and said it would be nice to just vent in a twitter). Twitter gives you a place to share the fun, crazy and sometimes mundane events of life. It's fun, not time consuming and becoming a part of our culture. Here is a blog article by Cynthia Ware that demonstrates just how Twitter is changing the speed of news. Parent Hacks is on board too (see sidebar for Parent Hacks link).
So sign up and follow me!! I would love to follow you too.
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