Showing posts with label Neat Stuff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Neat Stuff. Show all posts
Rainbows And Other Nonesuch
Last week, I happened to see a pic of a Fire Rainbow and was quite intrigued with it. I wasn't sure if it was actually real, or if it had been photo shopped. Well, I did the research and found out that it was actually a natural phenomena and are commonly known as circumhorizontal arcs. You can see a little more of what I learned here. I have always loved rainbows and the kids liked the pic too so we had some rainbow fun. One of the projects we did was painting rainbows. I recently bought real watercolor paper and paints to use with the children. They have done several pictures now although only their first one was on full size paper. While I love the idea of using the good stuff on them, even I can't sanction spending a ton of money on supplies for three children to use. So each page is cut in half to make it last longer. For the first time in at least 8 years, I actually sat down with some paper and paint to see what I would get. Here is the result.
Click here to get a closer look at it.
Interesting, huh? I'm not quite sure what to think of it. It is obviously a rainbow, and yet it's really overloaded with red. Anger? Or just an abundance of warm happy feelings? And the orange splotch to the right looks like a tree although I'm not quite sure what I was trying when I added that. I think I actually had too much paint on my brush and was rubbing some off on the tape along the edge. Everything is also slightly blurry, such as during a rainfall. Perhaps my path isn't clear and I need to work on that. don't know why those horizontal stripes showed up. They aren't in the copy I made, so perhaps it's from the texture of the paper.
This last week and a half have gone by at light speed and I don't understand where it went. We have been notified where our new unit will be. I was a little upset that we weren't aloud to pick and were actually assigned, but I suppose I can't complain too much. We'll be getting away from this horrible mold. I would have preferred an end unit vs. one smack in the middle of the building, but it is nice and close to the upper play area, so I guess that's a bonus. We will be moving at the end of June. Although, Carey just found out that cats live under and it smells like cat urine. But my friend Stephani lives in the same building, and she hasn't mentioned anything about it so I'm not sure. And I've never been inside her place (we haven't known each other very long) so I couldn't say for myself. Wherever we end up, I am starting to get excited about the move. Carey and I have started talking about when we should start packing and how to go about it since the move is two months away. I got the bright idea of renting a storage unit for a few months and as we get stuff packed up to move, it can either go to the storage unit or we can just get rid of it. Either way, it's out from under our feet and we'll have more room to sort through other stuff better. I have already started a list of the furniture and items we can do with out while it's in storage. I mean, if 90% of the books have been packed and put in storage, there's no reason for the shelves to hang around gathering dust and being in my way. In the end, I'm thinking that with stuff in storage I might find out that there's even more stuff I can do without and may be more willing to get rid of it.
We have shown the boys where our new home will be, and James has known for some time that we needed a new home because the mold was bad and making us sick. So James has started getting excited too and he's already trying to be helpful by packing up poor little Deedee's toys (except her trucks). LOL. The little bugger. He's too smart for his own good. Yesterday, he got in trouble for riding his bike without his helmet. I had warned him twice and the second time I caught him, he lost his bike for the day and it got chained up. I came out later to find him and one of his friends digging through stuff to get to Charles bike. I guess when he discovered that his bike wouldn't go anywhere, he'd steal his brothers. The little buggers.
Oingo Boingo
Argh, my wonderful rat of a husband introduced me to this group, and now I can't get the song Dead Man's Party out of my head. I even woke up with it running through my head! And while I concentrated on thinking of something else, Carey went and turned it in again. Sigh......... I'm not saying this is a bad song, far from it. It's just getting a little annoying.
Amazing Fiddle Player - Click Here for more great videos and pictures!
Carey found this and I thought it sounded really cool.
Google Earth
Thanks for talking about this Keppy. This was a lot of fun. Kind of scarey, too. And while these aren't current, it's still a little disconcerting just how much can be seen now. How do I know these aren't current? Well, the home shots are too green and pretty for the middle of winter/ And there are buildings missing in the shot pic of my parents that have been there for over a year. Still, I enjoyed this. Just float your mouse over each pic and it will tell you what it is. A blue circle or rectangle denotes the proper buildings in pics that have a lot of buildings. Cool, huh? You can download Google Earth here.
Menu Mailers
Several years ago, I learned of the FlyLady. Who is she? Well, she and her team guide you through the babysteps for setting up your routines, getting rid of your clutter, and putting your home and life in order. They are absolutely awesome. This system does work, and in the past I have had my house absolutely spotless thanks to them although, I do admit, in the last year or so, I have gotten away from her. However, l have been working my way back and a conversation with my sister in law re-sparked my interest. So I signed up for everything, again, and got the ball rolling.
When I did this before, not only was my house spotless, but dinner was on time every night, a ton of baking was being done, dishes were done and put away every night, there was no huge backlog of dirty laundry, or laundry waiting to be folded & put away, etc etc. I actually had time to do whatever I wanted and not feel bad about it. I learned how to sew, watched whatever movies I wanted, read a ton, experimented in the kitchen and on and on. I had too much time to kill and I actually got bored sometimes! That goes to show just how well it works. Of course, now I've got four rugrats running around vs. the one I had before, so now I doubt I would have so much extra time to actually become bored.
Anyway, one thing I learned from this several years ago was to plan out your menus for the week. This was good for several reasons: it got the food you had used so it didn't go bad, you knew exactly what you needed to buy so there was no aimless wandering around the store (I'm very good at this one), and you saved money by not buying more than you needed as well as not wasting your food. So once a week I would go through my inventories and make up the next weeks menu to be posted so everyone knew what we were having for dinner. Along these lines, there is a menu mailer service affiliated with FlyLady called Saving Dinner by Leanne Ely. If you're too lazy or just don't have the time to make up your own menus, you could subscribe to this service. I have heard of this before, but before now I was never willing to spend money on something I could do myself. However, I haven't been doing this myself lately because I never seem to find the time; this usually takes me about an hour and a half at the least and this isn't when I'm being interrupted.. While I was nosing around FlyLady's site, checking out what was new, I noticed the link for Body Clutter and learned that Menu Mailer had come out with a new mailer specifically set up to help you lose weight.
Carey and I had actually just been talking about this. I would like to lose about 10 more pounds, although I'm not in too much of a hurry over this. It's not good to be dieting when one is nursing. Carey however is really upset about his weight. Last time he mentioned it, he was over 240, which isn't good and this has really got him down. So I decided what the hell, I would check it out. I really liked what I was seeing but then I found the heart healthy menu, which I decided was better for our circumstances. We'll all be eating healthier, which is good and Carey will lose weight as a nice side affect.
I have finally taken the plunge, and subscribed to the Heart Healthy Menu Mailer. There are three plans: 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months. I decided on the 3 month plan for now. It's easy to upgrade, or even change the subscription if I wanted to. They provided sample menus for every plan, and the food looks really good. So I look forward to trying this out.
When I did this before, not only was my house spotless, but dinner was on time every night, a ton of baking was being done, dishes were done and put away every night, there was no huge backlog of dirty laundry, or laundry waiting to be folded & put away, etc etc. I actually had time to do whatever I wanted and not feel bad about it. I learned how to sew, watched whatever movies I wanted, read a ton, experimented in the kitchen and on and on. I had too much time to kill and I actually got bored sometimes! That goes to show just how well it works. Of course, now I've got four rugrats running around vs. the one I had before, so now I doubt I would have so much extra time to actually become bored.
Anyway, one thing I learned from this several years ago was to plan out your menus for the week. This was good for several reasons: it got the food you had used so it didn't go bad, you knew exactly what you needed to buy so there was no aimless wandering around the store (I'm very good at this one), and you saved money by not buying more than you needed as well as not wasting your food. So once a week I would go through my inventories and make up the next weeks menu to be posted so everyone knew what we were having for dinner. Along these lines, there is a menu mailer service affiliated with FlyLady called Saving Dinner by Leanne Ely. If you're too lazy or just don't have the time to make up your own menus, you could subscribe to this service. I have heard of this before, but before now I was never willing to spend money on something I could do myself. However, I haven't been doing this myself lately because I never seem to find the time; this usually takes me about an hour and a half at the least and this isn't when I'm being interrupted.. While I was nosing around FlyLady's site, checking out what was new, I noticed the link for Body Clutter and learned that Menu Mailer had come out with a new mailer specifically set up to help you lose weight.
Carey and I had actually just been talking about this. I would like to lose about 10 more pounds, although I'm not in too much of a hurry over this. It's not good to be dieting when one is nursing. Carey however is really upset about his weight. Last time he mentioned it, he was over 240, which isn't good and this has really got him down. So I decided what the hell, I would check it out. I really liked what I was seeing but then I found the heart healthy menu, which I decided was better for our circumstances. We'll all be eating healthier, which is good and Carey will lose weight as a nice side affect.
I have finally taken the plunge, and subscribed to the Heart Healthy Menu Mailer. There are three plans: 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months. I decided on the 3 month plan for now. It's easy to upgrade, or even change the subscription if I wanted to. They provided sample menus for every plan, and the food looks really good. So I look forward to trying this out.
Coolest Aquisition of the Year
Besides our daughter, the coolest thing we got this year was a 1960 edition of the Game of Life; complete in the original box. We picked it up at Good Will for only $3. The box has some age spots and that old familiar, stored for a long time, musty smell. And the spinner no longer has the little tab to slow it down; it invariably stops on 1, 2 or 3. This frustrated Carey no end because the games were pretty predictable when you're always moving within the same few squares so he dug out one of our many 10 sided dice. Carey says he loves the vintage look of the insurance policies. This edition also still has the awesome REVENGE square that the newer games no longer have. As well, it also still has four colors of pegs; red for man, yellow for woman, pink for girl and blue for boy. This confused Carey for a moment until he actually read the instructions since the newer versions only have pink and blue.
pics forthcoming soon
pics forthcoming soon
Happily N'Ever After
I just found out about this really cute little movie and I can't wait to take the kids. It's from the creators of Shrek and will be in theaters January 5, 07.
The wise Wizard in charge of keeping the balance between Good and Evil has gone on holiday and his two assistants mess things up. An alliance of evil-doers, led by Frieda (Cinderella's stepmother), looks to take over Fairy Tale Land. But when Ella discoveres her storybook existence is about to be ruined, she takes a dramatic turn and blossoms into the leader of the resistance effort. Now, she has to wake up from her romantic dream, stop Frieda, and restore the balance of Good and Evil. Can she save the day and find true love where it's least expected?
Directed by Paul Bolger, the cast includes such notables as George Carlin, Sigourney Weaver, Andy Dick, Sarah Michelle Geller, Patrick Warburton, and Freddy Prinze Jr.
Check out Happy N'Ever After (the official movie site) for a trailer, a larger synopsis, more about the actors, cool downloads and fun games. Check it out at IMDB, too!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)