A couple from our church started a new website for parents, called FamilyIntel, and it's free (they get money from advertisers).
Basically, they give summaries of parenting books. I browsed through their summaries quickly, and just might read Keep the Siblings, Lose the Rivalry since the Jones kids are squabbling ALL THE TIME!
Or how about A Chicken's Guide to Talking Turkey With Your Kids About Sex, since I'm a big, fat chicken. Buck, buck.
Wild Things: The Art of Nurturing Boys looks good, too. To be honest, all the books look good. And the summaries go way beyond the little summaries you find at Amazon.
You can also get an e-mail to be notified when more summaries are posted.
Here's a clip from their website:
"FamilyIntel equips busy families with practical, actionable intelligence to meet the parenting and marriage challenges they face each day. We summarize significant parenting, marriage, and family relationship books and put the key points into quick, easy-to-understand digests. Our book summaries help hurried families who want intelligent solutions from leading experts on raising children and building strong, healthy family relationships. "
Monday, July 27, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Painting a Closet and Fave Painting Tools
I'm painting the closet in the Girl's room today (here's the first one I painted, and you can see my other posts on her room here and here), along with a mirror and this desk to go in the closet to be used as a makeup table.
I might actually finish a room.
I bought this plastic thingy that pops onto the top of the paint can and makes pouring it out easy and it keeps the can clean. The reason you see paint dripping all over the side of the can is because the we did not use the plastic pouring thingy the first time we used this can of paint.
You need a paint brush to paint the corners, but it got to be a pain trying to paint all around the metal shelf in the closet, so I also used my favorite painting tool: A mini foam roller. It's awesome for painting furniture, too. It makes painting inside cabinets and drawers a lot easier.
Mr. Jones and I do not like to clean painting supplies, so we use disposable tray liners, and we throw away the rollers (not the frame, just the foam part). It will take you forever to rinse out a roller . . . I've tried. One thing we do not throw away is the drop cloth. Don't buy the plastic ones. Fork out $8 for a drop cloth at Walmart and use it over and over and over. It's better for the environment people. Yes, I know that doesn't really jive with all the disposable liners and rollers that we toss, but no one's perfect.
So what do you do when you have to let the first coat dry and you don't want to rinse everything? Wrap it all up in plastic wrap. Put a sheet over the paint in the pan, too. Beeeeee lazy. I'm such a lazy painter, that I might not even paint the 2nd coat. I'm going to wait for the 1st coat to dry and see what I can get away with. It is just a closet after all. And I've NEVER painted primer on a wall.
Last thing you might want to consider doing is wearing gloves. Just sayin'.
I might actually finish a room.Dare to dream.
I thought I would share a few of my fave painting tools with you:
I thought I would share a few of my fave painting tools with you:
I bought this plastic thingy that pops onto the top of the paint can and makes pouring it out easy and it keeps the can clean. The reason you see paint dripping all over the side of the can is because the we did not use the plastic pouring thingy the first time we used this can of paint.
You need a paint brush to paint the corners, but it got to be a pain trying to paint all around the metal shelf in the closet, so I also used my favorite painting tool: A mini foam roller. It's awesome for painting furniture, too. It makes painting inside cabinets and drawers a lot easier.
Mr. Jones and I do not like to clean painting supplies, so we use disposable tray liners, and we throw away the rollers (not the frame, just the foam part). It will take you forever to rinse out a roller . . . I've tried. One thing we do not throw away is the drop cloth. Don't buy the plastic ones. Fork out $8 for a drop cloth at Walmart and use it over and over and over. It's better for the environment people. Yes, I know that doesn't really jive with all the disposable liners and rollers that we toss, but no one's perfect.
So what do you do when you have to let the first coat dry and you don't want to rinse everything? Wrap it all up in plastic wrap. Put a sheet over the paint in the pan, too. Beeeeee lazy. I'm such a lazy painter, that I might not even paint the 2nd coat. I'm going to wait for the 1st coat to dry and see what I can get away with. It is just a closet after all. And I've NEVER painted primer on a wall.
Last thing you might want to consider doing is wearing gloves. Just sayin'.Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Dr. Seuss Bags!
Get yourselves to a Target Dollar Spot, ladies, STAT. 
Look at this cuteness! I love, love, love Dr. Seuss. These are shopping bags I found at Target today. They had buttons, pencils, pens, and little notepads with book covers. I had to control myself. Because they weren't the expensive $2.50 items. Nooooooo, my friend, they were one buck.
Look at this cuteness! I love, love, love Dr. Seuss. These are shopping bags I found at Target today. They had buttons, pencils, pens, and little notepads with book covers. I had to control myself. Because they weren't the expensive $2.50 items. Nooooooo, my friend, they were one buck.What could you do with these? Baby shower. Teacher gifts. Birthday parties. A gift for the librarian. Dr. Seuss's birthday. Anything I'm forgetting?
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Windows Vista Issue with Downloading Photos
I have a new computer, new software, latest Windows service packs installed, yet I just wasted 2 hours of my life, for the 2,654th time, trying to figure out the answer to a Windows glitch. Since I'm sure there are more people out here who have had the exact same issue, I will share the information 2 hours of my life purchased.
Today's Glitch:
My computer does not recognize my camera anymore. I have downloaded photos to my computer several times in the past, but all of a sudden it doesn't work. Could this be because I downloaded and installed Service Pack 2? When I go to Control Panel, Device Manager, Portable Devices, I get the following error message: "Windows cannot start this hardware device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged. (Code 19) Click 'Check for solutions' to send data about this device to Microsoft and to see if there is a solution available." Of course, checking for solutions gave me no solutions. A search of the internet told me that people with different camera manufacturers are having an identical problem.
Solution:
So if you are currently pulling your hair out, here is what I did to fix it. It is an easy solution: I uninstalled the device and then reinstalled it.
Make sure your camera is plugged into the computer. Go to Control Panel, Device Manager and Portable devices, right click on the camera and choose Uninstall. After that is finished, go into the Action menu at the top and choose “Scan for hardware changes” to reinstall the device. This was fast and completely fixed the problem.
If you have the same issue, and you tried this solution, let me know how it worked for you.
One more thing . . .
While typing this post, all of a sudden Windows didn't recognize my wireless network. Happens to me every once in a while. It wants me to do a new install of my network. Instead, I have to reboot my computer and the network magically appears.
Why haven't I switched to a Mac yet?
Today's Glitch:
My computer does not recognize my camera anymore. I have downloaded photos to my computer several times in the past, but all of a sudden it doesn't work. Could this be because I downloaded and installed Service Pack 2? When I go to Control Panel, Device Manager, Portable Devices, I get the following error message: "Windows cannot start this hardware device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged. (Code 19) Click 'Check for solutions' to send data about this device to Microsoft and to see if there is a solution available." Of course, checking for solutions gave me no solutions. A search of the internet told me that people with different camera manufacturers are having an identical problem.
Solution:
So if you are currently pulling your hair out, here is what I did to fix it. It is an easy solution: I uninstalled the device and then reinstalled it.
Make sure your camera is plugged into the computer. Go to Control Panel, Device Manager and Portable devices, right click on the camera and choose Uninstall. After that is finished, go into the Action menu at the top and choose “Scan for hardware changes” to reinstall the device. This was fast and completely fixed the problem.
If you have the same issue, and you tried this solution, let me know how it worked for you.
One more thing . . .
While typing this post, all of a sudden Windows didn't recognize my wireless network. Happens to me every once in a while. It wants me to do a new install of my network. Instead, I have to reboot my computer and the network magically appears.
Why haven't I switched to a Mac yet?
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Back From a Break
Hello Internets.
I'm back. I hadn't intended on taking a break from blogging, but the end of the school year is always excessively busy. 
And I volunteered to help too many people. Yikes, I hate it when I do that. 
When I get too busy, the wheels come off in a big way.
It all snowballs, and then I start avoiding everything altogether.
Does anyone else have this problem?
How has your summer been so far?
I'm back. I hadn't intended on taking a break from blogging, but the end of the school year is always excessively busy. 
And I volunteered to help too many people. Yikes, I hate it when I do that. 
When I get too busy, the wheels come off in a big way.
It all snowballs, and then I start avoiding everything altogether.
Does anyone else have this problem?
How has your summer been so far?