Monday, June 15, 2009

Two for 1

This was actually supposed to be Friday's Steal.

Its a Freebie and I would value it at $200. Let me repeat TWO-HUNDRED DOLLAR VALUE!

Actually I don't know what the value is, but I looked at the current value of Microsoft office and you get pretty much everything you can get from office plus one better. You can save it to almost any kind of document format!

Its inspiring to know there are still free things out there and people that care enough to want you to suceed in life.

This is legitamately free. No Adware involved. Probably one of the best freebies out there. And its not like free music downloads it won't come back to bite you.

Ok so I know you are dying to know what I am talking about.

http://www.openoffice.org/

From thier webpage

OpenOffice.org 3 is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose.

If you are working on something at home and need it to open at school, all you have to do is safe it to a microsoft extension. Say its a paper you wrote. Just save it as a .doc file
If you can never remember what extension to use

Go here for a list of the most commonly used ones

http://www.fileinfo.com/common.php

Or you can do what I do, and look at a file you know is a word document and get the extension that way!

So What are you waiting for, Go Check it out and feel good about yourself that you just got a $200 value free.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Little Things

I am up later than I should be.

There is a lot on my mind right now.

In a meeting on completely unrelated matters, my son was attacked. Accusations were made about my three year old son, that neither he nor I could defend. We were not there. I have been told by two different people at that meeting and both stories are oddly identical on several key pieces of information involving my son.

In as little as two days I have learned so many things. Things I did not want to see, things I did not want to be apart of. I have always been a person that lets things roll off of my shoulders. Anytime a person has come to me, with any problem, regardless of size, I have consistantly and quietly listened to what the person had to say, fixed the problem and forgot about it. I don't let very much get to me when it involves people that are not close to me.

I am disappointed in the person that made the allegations against my three year old. This particular person I would expect to come to me with them. Allow me to deal with them. Instead they are trashing My SON. In front of others. Transforming small three year old behaviors into that of a monster. Making my son appear like an animal for things that this persons own son does.
I have been torn to pieces about this.

However tonight, an unknowing angel blessed me. I recieved a small message from a friend's husband on Myspace, thanking me for helping to care for the children. It was completly out of the blue and led me to tears. This small gesture gave me hope. It put a smile on my face.

This Late night blog serves two purposes:
1. For me to get out a few things on my chest (which I deleted most of it after writing of it)
2. To remind anyone who may read this that Small gestures make a big difference in life. You truely never know when a quick hello, thank you, hug, how are you, etc. is going to make a big impact.

My family and I have some thinking to do. Our problem is not yet resolved. We also have some looking to do because I refuse to be caught anywhere that my child in unwelcome. The comments that were made show me exactly how unwelcome he is. Regardless of how dark the storm is right now though, I know my God is going to make a way. The Thank You note was a sign to me, a reminder that there are other better things going on in this big world. Like the three beautiful children I will be keeping tomorrow.

Parenting Puzzle of the day: Don't=too late

Problem: My children do exactly the thing I told them not to do!

This is a common problem with a simple sounding solution. I say it is simple sounding, because once you think on it enough it seems like common sense and it appears easy to do. Sadly though, Habits are hard to break.

The cause of this problem is our wording. Most of us always tell them no. To use an example from my own life this week. "Will Please don't run in the Church." All my son hears is the Key Words:Will run Church.

When we read, most of us do not actually read every single written word. What we tend to do is pick up the key words and the rest falls in place. This is true with our children. When you tell them not to run. They simply hear RUN!

Every three year old boy and girl knows that the long hallway just outside of the sanctuary is just begging for someone to run down it.

When children hear adults using the same words that they are already thinking. Its natural to link them. So when my three year old is looking at the big long empty hallway, just knowing that it WANTS him to run down it, and I say "Will Please don't run." He just heard his permission to run.

What I should have said instead was "Will, we walk in Church." I did this after telling him not to run, rather than yelling at him for running. Even I have a hard time remembering to rephrase for him. Once I instructed him what TO-DO, I gave him a new thought in his head. He slowed down and waited on me.

It is difficult to change our habits. It takes a conscious effort on our behalf to rewire our thinking, in a way that enables our children to listen. Children want to please us, they just have other things on thier mind as well.

What are some other things you say that you could reword?

Don't pee in your underwear .
We pee in the toilet.

Stop jumping on the couch.
Please sit on the couch, or you can jump on the floor.

Shut Up!
Use our quiet voices outside.

There are other reasons our Children don't listen to us, but that is for another day. Right now let's focus on one thing we can do to help the problem! Try this for a day and report back how it went.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Real inspiration for the day.

Treasure the little happy moments. You will desprately need them when you are cleaning up the second pair of poopy underwear in an hour, from a child who is not afraid to go, knows how to go, has gone, and just was too busy to go. If you do not have something to think back on, some happy sweet little moment, you will find yourself crossing a line you do not want to cross.

Monday's Inspiration

I honestly believe that every time we laugh we add time to our lives! So this monday I would like to give you a few things to make you laugh, and hopefully extend your life!





Friday, June 5, 2009

Friday's Steal

Todays Steal is a free program that helps you in studying the Bible.

Here is a short description from the Manufacturer's Webpage

e-Sword is a fast and effective way to study the Bible. e-Sword is feature rich and user friendly with more capabilities than you would expect in a free software package. The fact that e-Sword is free is just one of the blessings and does not speak of the quality of the software

I have been using this program lately and I really like it. It is easy to use. I can download some extras with it (Most of which are also free, Watch out though, if there is a $ sign next to it, there is a charge, but otherwise most of the extra downloads are free.

My two favorite features are the ability to include your own notes and link them to the text in the Bible and the ability to add your own memory scripture to be tested on!

www.e-sword.net

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Sicilian Casserole

I am working on getting back online to write more. I have a lot of great ideas for entries. I have just been a little busy!

Don't ask me where I found this. I found it somewhere online it is amazing, freezes well, and tastes excellent! I made it last night for the first time, and already found myself changing it up, so I am going to give you the Brittainy version of it.

1 lb. ground beef
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
3/4 cup water
Italian seasoning-to taste
Garlic Powder-to taste
2 cups elbow macaroni
8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, cubed
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup sour cream
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Also optional veggies such as onion, mushroom, greenpeppers. But I don't like them (I bet George would have been shouting my glory if I did use it though he loves them!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Brown ground beef heavy saucepan, stirring to break up ground beef (If you want onions I would brown them at the same time. Drain well.

Add tomato paste, tomato sauce, water, Garlic and Italian seasoning and stir well to blend. (add your other veggies if you want them) Let simmer for 10 minutes to blend flavors.

Meanwhile, cook elbow macaroni as directed on package.

While macaroni is cooking, combine cream cheese and milk in medium bowl. Cook in microwave on medium power for 2-3 minutes, stirring once halfway through cooking. Remove from microwave and stir with wire whisk until sauce thickens and blends to form a smooth sauce.

Drain noodles and add to cream cheese sauce along with sour cream and 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese; stir to combine.

In a square baking dish, place all of cream cheese mixture. Top with all of the ground beef mixture Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
Add Mozerella and Parmesan cheese to taste
Bake another 5-10 minutes until Bubbly

If you wish to freeze this dish, add 1T of cornstarch into your cream cheese and milk (Before you mix it with the noodles)