Interwebby pet peeves

Okay, here's one of my big pet peeves on the internet: requiring complicated passwords on ordinary websites. On financial websites, sure. Ebay, okay. Something else that might attract a large audience, and thusly, more hackers, maybe. But on an everyday website? Pish. I just signed up at a homeschool curriculum site that required not only a number in the password, but at least one capital letter as well! Oooo, someone might hack into my account and buy stuff in my name there, how terrible!

Where can you find me now?

I'm back to a new homeschooling adventure - NotebookLearning.com Notebooking, or journaling, is a great way to homeschool, and I'm having a blast designing new pages every day. I decided to open up my own blog to give these away for FREE - every day! I try to have at least one new page every weekday, and sometimes I even manage to post on the weekends as well. Many of my pages are designed for a wide range of ages - I'll design them with half-inch primary paper, three-quarter inch primary paper, one inch primary paper, then a standard wide rule page as well.

I hope that you will come visit and let me know if you enjoy my pages!

NotebookLearning.com

Welcome, Top Momma readers!

LOL, I submitted a pic to Top Momma weeks ago. Then they lost my submission. I resubmitted, and it's been weeks since that. In the meantime, I've dropped writing here temporarily because I've been so busy trying to recover from our move, as well as devoting more time to my professional website, Homeschool Help Web.

I hope you'll take a few minutes to look around, and not just run away when you see all the old posts - welcome!

Meez Me!

Frugal Friday: Bonus Tracfone minutes

I recognize the safety aspects of owning a cell phone, but never had the money to commit to a monthly plan - and even if I had had the money before, still probably would not have bothered. But I did buy a Tracfone a couple of years ago, and still use it. It has come in handy more than once, especially during our recent move.

Tracfone minutes can be a little pricey if you're looking at it purely from a "per minute" basis, but the whole point is to just have a phone with some time on it for emergencies, not necessarily the best deal. I do know there are other pay-as-you-go phone services out there now, but when I bought my Tracfone, it was the only service available at the time. All the rest have been followers. So, I have a perfectly good phone, now I just need minutes.

When it comes time to renew my minutes, I always head over here:

Tracfone YahooGroup

and look at the last few posts to see if there are any current really good bonus codes. Tracfone will often email bonus codes to you, but they are usually only for 20 minutes. The bonus codes that the members of the YahooGroup manage to find are often for 60 minutes or more. Some of them simply double however many minutes you buy, so if you buy 60, you get 60 extra, if you buy 300, you get 300 extra! And so on.

I always make sure to read all replies to any posted code, to make sure that people aren't having trouble with it. The archives are public, so you don't even have to join the group if you don't want to.

One thing you should know - the bonus minutes never show up anywhere during the checkout process. (If it's a bad/expired code, I think it does tell you that much. It just doesn't tell you that you have a GOOD code. Bah.) You will only know for sure that they have been applied when you do the phone verification thing and you see your minutes change on the screen. I have not had a bad one yet, but I don't know what kind of recourse is available if you use a code but do not get the bonus minutes. I presume you should be able to call them.

Be sure to check Crystal's Blog for more frugally goodness!

Technorati Tags: Frugal+Friday

Works For Me Wednesday: Bathroom Organization

Yay, I'm back - sort of! We got moved in on the 6th, but I've been busy, busy trying to settle in and unpack. Yikes, we have a lot of stuff!

This week I thought I'd share my latest stroke of brilliance for bathroom organization. We lost having a medicine cabinet as well as a built-in toothbrush holder in the main bathroom when we moved. Not that the toothbrush holder really worked like it should - modern toothbrushes don't fit the old fashioned holders, so all the toothbrushes had to lay across the holder rather than fit into the holes.

At any rate, we no longer have that. I knew I needed something to both take the place of what we had, as well as offer better organization anyway.

During one of my many trips to CVS where I had a lot of Extra Bucks to burn, I bought a wire utensil/napkin caddy. These are intended to sit on a table to hold utensils and napkins, usually for picnics or potlucks. I had a much different idea in mind:


Since there are 3 utensil compartments, it works perfectly for the three of us who use that bathroom the most. It also features folding handles, which I have folded inward instead of outward, thereby creating 3 sections in the large area. (Although these "sections" don't have walls.) I placed a dark colored washcloth underneath to catch drips from the brushes.

It only cost me a dollar on summer clearance, it organizes perfectly, and it will wash easily when the time comes for that. That certainly Works For Me!

Shameless plug for a friend: a friend of mine has two shirt designs in a "Woot Shirt Derby" contest - the winner gets the joy of seeing their design printed and sold as a Woot shirt. If you have ever bought anything at Woot (you must be a previous purchaser to prevent gaming of the vote system) would you please consider logging in and voting for one or both of her shirts? (You can vote for as many shirts as you like, but only one vote per shirt.)

"They Always Attack At Night" and
"Good Night Moon"

Just click on the little button that says, "I'd want one". And if you do go vote, thanks! It will mean a lot to her to see her designs do well.

Works For Me Wednesday: The Backwards Edition!

Shannon is hosting her usual themed WFMW this first Wednesday of the month, only this time, instead of giving advice, we get to ask the wide, wide world of internets FOR some advice! And oh, people, do I need this one!

Dawdlers. How do you hurry them up? I'm beggin', folks!

Hermione is turning 9 today, (Insert obligatory whine about "where HAS the time gone?!") and she dawdles over everything, turning life into a double-length affair. Worst is bathtime and toothbrushing. She gets off in her own little world and has no concept of how much time has gone by. Even when she buckles down and starts in on the job at hand, she tends to go oh so slow, on the pretense of being careful, but really just tiptoeing through the tulips of her mind.

Bathtime got so bad 3 weeks ago that I had to forbid all bathtime play until we move. (Which is - GULP - Saturday!) And the first week after I grounded her, the additional part of her punishment was that I came in the bathroom with her and watched her take a bath, cajoling her through the process to get her finished.

I can't do that all the time, of course. I have other things to do. But this dawdling has got to stop. It's not fair to the other members of the household, and it's not a good habit to be in. I've tried grounding, I've tried standing over her while she does her tasks, I've tried rewards, I've tried timers. Something's gotta give!

So - give it your best shot. She's a sweet kid, it's not a matter of being defiant, it's a matter of being off in her own world. (Although, the result to the rest of the family is the same, no matter the reasons. And believe me, we've talked about how selfish it is to take up and waste everyone else's time so badly.) We need to get this stopped - help!

I'll be gone most of the day, and will be taking down the computer some time on Thursday, so I don't know when I will get a chance to get back to you lovely commenters. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers this weekend, please!

My consciences sit in the back seat

There are days when I feel like the old cartoon or sitcom characters who develop little "conscience" characters who sat on the shoulders, angel on the right, devil on the left. Or Pinocchio with Jiminy Cricket, that cheerful little fellow who tried to get silly Pinocchio to do right.

I have two consciences, however, and they sit in the back seat.

You have to love the precious innocence of the child who wants to do right, and you can't help but be humbled by it. So often, we tell our children by our actions, "do as I say, not as I do" and eventually, they're going to call us on it.

Today we were driving to our new home. It's about 45 minutes away, on a road we've been on just once before. It's a windy, twisty country road, just right for zooming along and enjoying the feel of driving. Harry pipes up from the back seat, "60. Are we allowed to do 60 on this road?" Why, I don't know sugar, I haven't noticed a speed limit sign yet.

Although I had more than a suspicion that it certainly wasn't 60 through there. Ahem.

On the way back, he certainly hadn't forgotten it. He finally spied a speed limit sign and politely informed me, "45, that's the speed limit. So you can drop your speed."

Oh yes, he did. He said that. Did I mention he's 12 going on 30? How very helpful. He's going to drive some poor very lucky woman just a teensy bit nuts someday. Lord bless the child.

His sister is no better, of course. Her specialty seems to be language. We don't allow cussing in any form in our family, not even the "softer" cussing like g*sh and d*rn. But then you get in to all sorts of discussions about just what is cussing and what isn't. It seems it's human nature to need expletives of some kind, even if it's just "Oh!" or "Flitter!" or other such nonsense. But then you get the questions of how close is too close. G*sh is bad, but what about "oh, goodness!". D*rn is forbidden, but how about "drat"?

Which is the one that trips me up. And Hermione catches it every time. "I thought drat was a bad word?" Poor baby. We try to be consistent, but it's so hard sometimes isn't it?

The good Lord certainly knew what he was doing when he gave me these two. They have stretched my mind and my abilities beyond anything I knew possible. My heart overflows with love I never knew was in my grasp. And every day, I feel just a little more humbled to be their mother, entrusted with their spiritual care until they are old enough to make those decisions on their own.

Because most days, they're the ones doing the teaching.

Endings

Tomorrow marks the last Sunday that we will worship with our current church family. We plan to attend on Wednesday evening, of course, but there is something about Sunday that draws you more closely together. First and foremost Sunday is the day to worship our Lord, but the joy derived from doing that in the presence of friends can't be matched by worldly pursuits.

The last time we will partake of the Lord's Supper together. The last time to enjoy our monthly evening singing service in lieu of the regular preaching service. The last time to worship on the Lord's Day from beginning to end as a church family.

I'm grateful that we'll be able to attend this last Sunday, because we all love the monthly singing service, especially Harry. Music really speaks to him like nothing else, and spending most of a worship time in song together is his favorite thing right now. Mine, too, really - I'm as much a songaholic as he is.

It will be the last time that the kids attend Bible Class with a teacher who's watched them grow from babies. The last time I'll get to hold "my" babies and play with them after church, in no particular hurry because we live so close to the building that we can stay without running late. The last time I'll get to check on the lives of various members and see what adventures they've had this past week.

I know I'll see them all again, hopefully soon. We plan to come back for at least one evening in November because my cousin will be preaching for a few days there. But I know it won't be the same. Someone else will probably take "our" bench. (Although, they're welcome to it - that bench is FREEZING most of the time!) We'll have to check and make sure we're not taking someone's seat, and try to figure out where we can squeeze in. We won't be up on the latest news, and will have to try and squeeze it all in in just a few minutes before and after.

It's all part of a new beginning, and I'm happy, I truly am. I'd be happier if I were a little more confident about what kind of church-hunting situation we're going in to, but I know too much to be truly confident. (I won't get into that.) But I know we'll be led to where we need to go. We've been led too much in the last few months into greener pastures not to trust that church, of all things, won't be covered just as well.

It's just hard to let go of something that you've had for 12 1/2 years.

Frugal Friday: Earning extras through reward sites & pay-for-content sites

Back several years ago, when the Dot Com heyday was at its height, one of the big deals was the abundance of "get paid to____" sites. Some were for reading emails (you had to click a link to show you received it), some for clicking on ads directly on the site, some included trivia and more. Using the sites as shopping portals often earned you even more money. I earned several hundred dollars back then; other people who were really good at getting referrals made thousands of dollars. (Most of these would also give you a percentage of a referral's earnings.)

Now, sadly, most of them have gone by the wayside, and many of the ones that are left aren't worth bothering with because it takes far too long to earn enough money to cash out. But there are still a few decent ones out there. The only one I bother with from the old crowd is good old MyPoints.com - email ads are easy to click on, and it's easy to check for surveys that are worth a few more points. I manage to earn a couple or three $5 - $10 gift cards each year, mostly by clicking, some by shopping. I'm frugal with my time, and I still manage to get a little bit every few months.

About a year ago I joined Gather.com, a place where you can write, publish photos, and now even post videos - and they pay you to do so! You get points via some mysterious formula (it's all very hush-hush in order to make it a little harder to game the system) which can then be cashed in for gift cards or even charity donations. I've earned a few $10 Barnes & Noble gift cards (they no longer offer those), two $25 Home Depot cards, and am almost up to my 3rd Home Depot card - and I'm not even very active there!

I've also done the occasional article for AssociatedContent.com, but they don't pay very well. Still, for the occasional throwaway article that you're not too worried about, a few dollars extra in the ol' PayPal account never hurts! Helium.com is a similar site, and while I have signed up with them, I haven't yet written for them, so I can't comment on their ease of use or their payment policies.

There are probably a few others floating around that still pay out enough to make a few minutes here and there worth it - drop me a comment if you know of a really good one! And if you'd like to join MyPoints or Gather and help me at the same time, leave me a comment and I'll send you a referral. I only get a few points, but every bit helps, especially with this move on the horizon!

Not trying to turn this into a giant ad, but these really have helped me stretch our budget, and extra treats from time to time also help making the nasty "budget monster" easier to bear!

Be sure to drop by Crystal's blog for even more frugal goodness - it's always a great treat!

Technorati Tags: Frugal+Friday, reward+sites

Oh. My. Stars. Just SHOOT me NOW!

I needed a 6 month membership to the gym before we started this move. Seriously. And access to a lifetime supply of Ben Gay.

I'm just sayin'.

ARGH.

Works For Me Wednesday: Ziploc baggies

In the process of moving, I'm finding lots of uses for my Ziploc-style baggies:

• Pens, pencils, markers, etc. - We have pounds and pounds of assorted writing and marking utensils, seriously. I've been using gallon sized bags to sort these out and contain them.
• Small toys - Again, a gallon bag is great for all those little army men, magnet toys, small action figures and all their assorted weaponry, etc.
• Puzzles - Gallon sized, again. We have at LEAST two United States puzzles that have lost their boxes during their tenancy here. They now reside in a baggie.
• Office supplies - we have a bunch of erasers to go with all those writing instruments. I rounded them all up from my desk drawer and got them into a sandwich-sized baggie. Now that can just go "plop" into the box of office supplies. Would also be good for rubber bands, staples that escaped the box, etc.
• Gathering scattered items - we have several things that have gotten scattered, such as game pieces, Quidditch balls, playing cards and more. Baggies make a great storage container until you can collect all the pieces. And if the container is lost, they can just stay there!

I just use the cheap dollar store baggies, no need to spend a lot of money for these uses! What other great uses can you think of?

And don't forget to stop by Shannon's for more great tips to make your life easier!

Technorati Tags: Works+For+Me+Wednesday

Win a Western Digital Passport External Hard Drive from 5 Minutes For Mom!

Wow, this is such a great giveaway! I hope I win one - I *REALLY* need to back up some of my important info, but the thought of making backup CDs gives me the heebie jeebies. Shudder.

But the "5 Minutes For Mom" blog is giving away THREE of these beauties! In COLOR, people! See the pretty colors! I. am. drooling.

Go hop on over, and you can sign up, too!

Something to consider when posting pictures online

Basic story: guy posts picture of friend on Flickr, Virgin Mobile uses said picture with no permission, citing "fair use" policies since it was a publicly available picture on Flickr.

One more reason to be cautious about what you post online, and WHERE.

CNN: 16 year old vs. Virgin Mobile

Walgreen's Bragging: part the next

Walgreen's has two really good Register Reward items this week. One is a new product called Advil Maximum Strength, and the other is Advil PM. The Max Strength is on sale for $4, with a RR of $4, making it totally FREE. The PM is on sale for $3, with a RR of $1, making it only $2.

If you go to the Advil site, you can find a $1 off any Advil coupon. I also received a coupon for $2 off the PM formula from Advil in my email this week. There is also a $1 PM coupon in some Sunday coupon inserts this week.

I had my trip all planned, but unfortunately the store I went to ruined my lovely plan by not having the Max version in yet - it's a new product, and they didn't have it. (This is not the first time this store has done this, but it's the only one that I know for sure will take printed internet coupons!)

I bought:

• 1 Advil PM ($3)
• 1 gallon of milk (Barber's brand is on sale for $3.49!)
• 2 giant Hershey candy bars (2/$2)

Total was $8.49 plus 85 cents tax. Minus my $2 printed coupon on the Advil and a $5 RR from a previous week, and my final total was $2.34. But I got a $1 RR back for the Advil purchase, so my final out-of-pocket comes to $1.34!

UPDATE: You too can get some $2 coupons for Advil right HERE.

If the Brooklyn Bridge falls down before Tuesday....

This is a test post to see what quotes come out like.

Once upon a time in a land far away, lived a Greek goddess. Her smarty-pants son Harry was obsessed with computers and mechanical things, often taking apart anything he could get his hands on. Especially if it wasn't working. Or even acting a little funny. And then left all the pieces and screws lying about.

Then it came time to move. The beautiful goddess Demeter began excavating Harry's room so that they could take the actual useable and wanted items to their new castle in a city farther away.

She has no idea how many pounds and pounds of screws she has already removed from said child's room, but she's betting that if the Brooklyn bridge should be in need of repairs in the near future, they can find all they need in her garbage.

And that is a test of the quote feature in this new layout.

Frugal Friday: Tracking expenses

Quick, quick post today.

If you have trouble remembering to write down your expenses while you're out, and misplace reciepts, here's something that might help:

DimeTracker

Just text your expenditures to yourself while you're on the go!

Obviously, this is only frugal if free text messaging is included in your phone plan. And only helpful if you know how to use Excel. Neither of those apply to me, but I think it's a fabulous idea!

Plus, it was written by a homeschool student whose mom is on one of my lists, so I wanted to pass it along.

Be sure to visit Crystal's for more frugal goodness today!

(Pssstttt.... see the little critters under my post? Click one and tell me what you think about this post! Isn't that a neat idea, too?)

(Also, see my handy-dandy Blogrush widget on the right? If you want one of your own, just head on over. They match your blog's content to what shows up in the widget, and everybody helps drive traffic to everybody else - nifty idea, too again!)

I want a Dyson soooo badly!

And 5 Minutes For Mom has arranged another giveaway! And this one is PINK!

Dyson is teaming up with breast cancer research with a pink vacuum - and $40 from the sale of each one goes to research. Plus, in addition to the giveaway where one lucky blogger gets an actual Dyson vac, they will also give the retail value of the vac - $400 smackeroos - to breast cancer research!

So, what are you waiting for? Go sign up for your chance, too!

Works For Me Wednesday: Pot Holder Hooks

I don't keep my potholders in a drawer, taking up space and driving me crazy by keeping the drawer from closing properly. Several years ago, I asked Westley to install a row of hooks along the bottom edge of a cabinet that is close to our stove. I can simply hang the potholders by their loops from the hooks! They're out of the way, and I get more drawer space for other things. That definitely works for me!

Be sure to visit Shannon for more great WFMW tips!

We don't play pool, so WHY....

...do we own a pool cue chalking thingy?!

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?