Flowers

My daughter has a new camera, and it turns out, a very good eye for photography. She's taken some lovely photos, so I thought I would show off a bouquet of flowers my husband brought home. Just in case you think it was my birthday or anniversary or some special occasion, it was not. My husband brings me flowers just because...I am blessed with a very sweet husband. He brought me home two dozen pink roses which we broke up into two bouquets.

The first picture is just a vase shot. Then she found a 'flowers' setting on her new camera and started taking some more interesting pictures. The next shot is on my porch.


A close up of the flowers in the living room, I can tell by the wall paper in the background.
Finally, black and white, which is always fun and a bit artsy.
I hope you enjoyed my flowers as much as I still am, almost a week later! I will try to post more again soon, she is really doing a fine job.

Loveliness!

Oh the beauty of it!

Read the article here. H/T to Brocante Home Chronicles for pointing this one out!

Touch Typing skills

Funnily enough, after the post I had up for so long about penmanship, I will now offer some links about typing. Penmanship is all important due to all the reasons I listed earlier, and then some, but the ability to type is absolutely essential to survival in today's computer age. With that in mind I was looking to find a typing program to have my children use for 15 minutes a day...or less as time allows...to improve their skills and speed. Here is the best of what I've found:

From the BBC is a fun and somewhat cheesy typing instructional site aimed at ages 7-11. My teens rolled their eyes and begged for something else, but all my 6-11 year olds were very intrigued.

For those kids who can at least use the home keys, there are typing games available for all levels. I played the Frogs Are Off Their Diet game and had a lot of fun with it.

For my teens I found a free downloadable typing instruction program. Actually all ages could use it, it is a basic to advanced typing program with no frills and teachers can make out lesson plans bringing the students to the lesson when they sign in. I have had fun with the program trying it out, it will provide all the practice they need at their pace. At the end of each segment there is a pop up box which provides accuracy (including backspace), true accuracy (all errors, no backspace), characters per minute and words per minute. The students can opt to re-do the lesson or move forward. I downloaded this and intend to use it this school year.

Happy typing!

Not His Paygrade?

Check out this link to A Thorn in the Pew...unbelievable...don't miss the comments written by her readers.


A thorn in the pew: His pay grade? WTH?

Back to the Blog AGAIN!!

Well, I think we may have finally gotten all the bugs out of our internet service, and we've replaced our computer...we may be back in business!

I will have to try and mess with uploading pictures and all of that fun stuff again after I get myself caught up on the web, and learn a bit more about our new computer, featuring Windows Vista. So far, I think this new Windows is great but I'm not very computer savvy, so I may not be the best judge. As a mom, I like all the parental controls, I have an administrator account and I can block out times my teens cannot use the computer. They cannot access the computer at all between the hours of midnight and 8am, unless I sign them on. If I leave my account for ten minutes, then no one else can get on...it is password secured. I tried to figure out how to do this with Windows XP but had no success. I also like that you can switch between user accounts without signing off, which again gives me more control as a parent...they do not need to use my account because I don't want to be signed out. I understand there are a lot of bugs in Vista, but I've not encountered anything, and it is unlikely I will because I don't get into all the aspects of the software.

The BEST thing about my new computer is now I can use my SKYPE account! Anyone out there use SKYPE? It is amazing! I called my friend in England the other day and we talked for almost two hours...the cost was $2.26. It only cost anything because she hasn't got her headset yet. Once she is set up with the headsets, a SKYPE to SKYPE call is free, I called with my SKYPE to her landline. When I called my husband at work, in a different area code, he complained I sounded far away but for 2 cents a minute to anywhere worldwide, we aren't complaining. My friend in England said I sounded quiet when I was actually talking quite loud, so I'm sure improvements will be coming in the service, but for now we are thrilled. I also wonder when she has her headsets and we place a SKYPE to SKYPE call, if the sound quality will be better on her end. As far as my end, all calls, both across the ocean and long distance within the US have been crystal clear, I couldn't be happier with the sound quality.

The Thorn children have had a banner summer with camp, swim lessons and my youngest is now in a library program. We have some excellent programs in our town. Too bad we will be moving, we will miss these wonderful programs.