I Beat Someone Famous! ~~Ms. Cellaneous

Back in May of 2008, I published some silly pictures on www.youpublish.com just for fun...

A few days ago, someone famous was eating raisin bran and was impressed with the size of one of the flakes. He decided to blog about it. He also surfed the web to see if there was any sort of world record for the size of a bran flake. In his searching, he found my picture of the World's Largest Bran Flake and included my link in his blog post.

This resulted in thousands of people going over to view my World's Largest Bran Flake picture. It is now the most viewed publication on that site. It also comes up as number one in google search rankings.

Pretty funny, huh?

Who is the famous person? His name is Jorge Garcia. Do you know (without looking him up on the web) what he is famous for? I had no idea until my Dad informed me last night via email.

{I could include a picture of the now famous flake here, but I am not going to. !cheesy grin! This way, you get to click on the link to see it and I get even more views. You'll be so impressed, you will want to let all your friends know about it too. heh, heh, heh.}

Sigh! says Mama Rika and the Rest of 'em.

Sorry to my ever-so-patient, loving and loyal readers. Don't give up on me. I'll be back in full swing again sometime. We are going through several major life changes right now and I just haven't seemed to have the time/energy/creativity/excuse, excuse, excuse...to keep up with my blog. I'll pop in from time to time here through the holidays, but my posts may seem a little sparse compared to what they were. Anyway, thanks for sticking with me. Here are a few pictures just for fun.


Perhaps I am crazy for letting a 22 month old help knead the bread dough. He was so cute, though. How could I resist?
This is AWESOME! (At least I think that is what he is thinking.)


Tree climbing--not for sissies!

Baby flop!

How do you like this fashion statement?
Have a FANTASTIC day! Don't forget to be thankful! :) SMILES :)

Five Minutes for Thankfulness with Ms. Cellaneous

The Challenge: Think of something you are thankful for today. Write it in the comments section. Do this every day for the rest of this month.


The Reward: Nothing you can hold in your hands. You will receive warm fuzzies in your heart. You will be able to see things that others are grateful for that you may not have thought of recently.



Come Back: By clicking on our family pic on the top of the right hand side bar, you can easily return to this page.

I'll Start: I am going to begin the challenge by saying I am very thankful for my family. This often comes to mind, but it is an important one. Besides, I have cute pictures to share. :)

The Whole Gang

Chubby (Yes, he needs a different web name.)


Princess

Peanut

Sticky

Bub

Nan

Patch

Mom & Dad

"Sweet Peas & the Pods"

Please join me in being thankful each day. This doesn't even take 5 minutes! It is an easy challenge and well worth the effort! Have a wonderful day!

Taking Control with Mow-GLee

As life gets crazy, you know how it is, when you feel pulled in hundreds of different directions, sometimes ya just feel like flopping down on the floor. This could be completed with one hand on the forehead and a moan of exhaustion. (Or Kevin might just be talking on the phone to his mom and I am just making that other stuff up.) You may be joined in your flopping by others.

But, clearly, things can quickly get out of control once again.

Some days, don't you just feel like you are the one at the bottom of the dog pile?

Lately, I have needed to remind myself to take a deep breath and regroup. Sometimes (er, rather make that lots of times) when I am immersed in a pool full of problems, I forget that I still have choices. Swim. Grab the edge of the pool. Stand up and touch bottom. Get out and go down the slide. Doggy paddle. Have a water fight with a buddy. Options. Life is full of them.

Hope you get to get some giggles in today.

And, don't forget your daily dose of sunshine.

Oh, and, take your vitamins.

Wait! one more thing! Say your prayers. Then don't forget to listen. He answers daily.

thanks, Mom

Track Your Child's Internet Usage with Ms. Wise & Ms. Otherwise

Ever wish you had a system that allowed you to easily keep track of what your kids are doing on the internet? Perhaps you would like a system that makes it difficult for a child that is grounded to be able to access certain sites on the internet? Here's something we have been using for a little while that is very helpful. I thought I would pass the info along to you. This is FREE!

1. Go to www.fss.live.com.

2. Once there, set up an account. (If you already have a .msn or .live email address, you probably already have an account.)

3. Add each child. On each of the computers in your home, you need to set up each of the kids as a user (unless of course you have a computer they are denied use of, then simply do not set them up as a user on that computer). When they want to use the computer, they must log in using their own password. This allows fss to track their usage.

No one will want to log in as someone else, because you have set things up specifically for each child. For instance, in my household, web filtering is higher for Princess than the older kids. So, if Sticky or Bub decided to outsmart the system by logging on as Princess because they won't be able to get to where they want to go! Even still, we have cautioned the kids about sharing their passwords with their siblings because they wouldn't want to risk someone else racking up computer time using their name.

4. When a user is done on the computer, they can do one of two things. They can "log out" or "switch user". If they choose the "switch user" option, they do not need to shut down all their browsers, documents, etc. If they choose "log out" everything must be closed. When someone is planning to get back on the computer, switching user is a good way to go. The only downside of using the "switch user" option is that it leaves a bunch of programs running in the background and this can slow down your computer. (Side note: If your computer is not showing both options, go to "help" on your computer and type in those terms and it will show you step-by-step how to make them show up.)

5. Choose the level of filtering you would like. This can vary from blocking only "adult" content sites to customized filtering to allowing only child friendly sites.

6. Turn the activity reporting on. This allows you to see where your child has been and how long they have spent at the computer. It can also tell you if anything has been downloaded to that computer.

7. ou can use the contact management aspect of the program to control who your child is chatting and emailing with through a few places.

8. If a child wants to view a website that you have prohibited, they can send you a request, or if you are nearby, you can simply type in your password right then to allow access if desired.

9. When you find that your child has been spending too much time on a certain site, or is otherwise in trouble, you can go in and block specific sites that they are grounded from. Or, you can block everything and have them ask for your permission every time they want to access something on the internet until you feel they are ready for computer privileges again. (This definitely gets to be a drag after a while.)

10. The key to this program is to regularly check up on internet usage. If you simply sign up for the program and never or rarely check up on the kids, you aren't taking full advantage of the system. You can use it as just a tool to block specific sites, or you can use it more effectively by seeing where your kids are spending their time. If you do this, you can take the time to talk to them about questionable sites, give them input on how to stay safe on a certain site, possibly find a fun site that you would like to join with them, and you can also share information from you to your child and from your child to you. It is really incredible the things children are able to figure out about the computer that most of us parent's would never have thought of.

While it may seem like quite a bit of work to get this system up and operational, it is worth the effort. As with the examples mentioned above, it opens communication lines to help us protect our children until they are mature enough to understand things and to know how to discipline themselves. It is a good tool to help teach these things.

Has anyone else used this system? What tips & tricks do you have to share?

If at First You Don't Succeed...Try an Alternative (Mama Rika)

Feeling stressed and overwhelmed, I didn't answer Princess in a very nice manner when she asked if she could do something. I told her, "No. And I don't want to hear any whining or bugging me about it."


Surprisingly her reception of my comments seemd rather compliant. That is until she turned back around with a grin and asked, "Well, can I bug Dad about it then?"

What a Fun Day! (Mama Rika)

Not only did our favorite football team win on Saturday, but we were able to have wonderful weather for a barbecue and tree climbing! How many monkeys do you see?

Hmmm. I think he can reach the top.

Judging by the expression on both of their faces, you would think they aren't having any fun. However, both the oldest and the youngest had a blast. How could you not when lots of your favorite things are happening...lots of food, football, etc. In fact, Chubby sat on my lap for most of the game munching ice, chips and other things while watching ball! Ball! BALL!

Before the sun was completely down, Peanut had success in getting to the tippy top! :) You would never have known that was his hand had I not pointed it out, huh?

How nice it is to have a few hours of relaxation in the middle of the chaos of life. Sometimes ya just gotta get some, huh?!

p.s. there aren't pics of Nan simply because she chose the mall over football. (Imagine that.)

"Love at Home" Marika Lee's Hymn & Scripture Study Sundays

This week’s song is entitled, “Love at Home”. Click here for music.

Scriptures for this song:
Mosiah 2:17, 41
1 Peter 3: 9-12
Romans 12:10.

Various facts:
Text and music by John Hugh McNaughton (1829-1891)

The story behind the song:
I found it interesting to note that this hymn was very popular until about the 1950's when it started to be dropped from many denominations hymnals. Today, there are hardly any churches that still include it. It is, however, relatively popular in Japan for weddings that want to emulate the western style.

John McNaughton lived in Caledonia, New York, a town close to Rochester. John was called 'The Poet McNaughton' because he composed many popular songs in his day. He wrote one other song that was as famous as 'Love at Home'. It was a song about Union soldiers that had been taken prisoner during the Civil War. A famous singing trio recorde the song and brought it fame.

I am doing a little research online to find these things out. I also have a book entitled "Our Latter-day Hymns The Stories and the Messages" by Karen Lynn Davidson from which I am finding information on these songs. If you want more info, the aforementioned book and the Internet search engines can get you much more than the little bit I shared.

Easy Digestive System Project with Ms. Wise & Ms. Otherwise

Princess and I were supposed to do a couple lessons today on the digestive tract that involved a project that seemed like more trouble and expense than I wanted to go through. Here's my easier modification...


First, gather some supplies. We grabbed markers, a paper plate, yarn, scissors, tape, glue, toilet paper rolls, straws, etc. We talked about the digestive system as we built our girl. Let's call her "Hilda".


Assemble: Princess added yarn hair to a paper plate after I had cut a hole out for the mouth. She then added eyes and nose and glued on some lips.


Teach: Digestion starts in the mouth where our teeth grind up the food into smaller bits and saliva is added to the food.


Assemble: At the back of the mouth, with tape we attached two toilet paper rolls. I inserted part of one into the other to make it a longer pipe. (Probably would be easier to just use a paper towel roll!) I cut a small hole in the top of the upper tp roll and made sure that lined up with the hole for the mouth.


Teach: When we swallow, food goes down the esophagus. The extra liquid from the saliva helps it to slide down easily. Teach: When the food slides down the esophagus, then it winds up in the stomach. In the stomach, more liquid is added to the food and the stomach squishes and sloshes it up into small bits.

Assemble: Use a zippy bag and add to it things like peanut butter, crackers, honey and other things that will break up easily. Princess had fun squishing and smashing the "stomach" bag. We then attached it to the esophagus.

Teach: When the food leaves the stomach, it enters the small intestine. The average small intestine is 3 times longer than a person is tall. More liquids enter at this stage from the pancreas and liver to help break down the food further. When the food has been broken down into microscopic pieces, it leaves the intestine through the blood vessels as energy that goes to all the body.

Assemble: We grabbed what bendy straws we had and twisted them this way and that way in an attempt to make it seem like the small intestine. Since we didn't have enough straws, we also used a few scraps of paper. We put a graham cracker in place for the liver and a lollipop for the pancreas. Little black licorice with many tiny holes are what we used for the blood vessels.

Teach: Not all of the food gets turned in to energy we can use. What is leftover is waste. The waste then travels on to the large intestine where it stays until ready to exit the body. The large intestine is bigger around than the small intestine, but it is only 4 to5 feet long.

Assemble: For the large intestine, we used a large, fat, green straw.
So here is the final product. I only wish we could have curled the small intestine around better. We had fun and we learned all about the digestive system in a way that made it easy to remember.

And, of course the beauty of this type of science experiment is that you get to eat the parts you want afterward! Chubby had to get in on the action too, you see. :) {Notice how cultured and refined Princess looks as she gracefully points her pinky finger while eating the graham cracker. lol}

One other fun science thing we recently did was to put some cytoplasm (jello) into a cell membrane (zippy bag) and then pressed a nucleus (cherry) into the center of the cytoplasm. This was a cool way to learn about the structure of a cell.

I'm Back, Finally!.....Ms. Cellaneous

Apparently I needed a longer break than I had anticipated! Here it is September 1st and I am not quite sure what happened to August. Here are a few pictures from our trip that I won't be bothering to chronicle. We had a wonderful time visiting family and friends. The only drawback was not being ready to go home yet when it was time to go! One of the things that Chubby really enjoyed was being able to see a bunch of baby goats in an up close and personal kind of way.

Some of us went and saw some cool hot pots.

Here's the gang outside the condo we stayed in for a night. Immediately following this picture, everyone rapidly dispersed upon discovering oodles of ants in the vicinity!

Yes, this is really a random sampling blog to get me going again. That is why Ms. Cellaneous is delivering it. I have lots of ideas about things to blog about in future posts, but this one gets to be a little hodge-podge.

Next up are a couple of spiritual thoughts that I wanted to remind myself of. Hope you enjoy too.

Do you ever find yourself questioning the Lord? If so, you are not alone. In John 3 we read the story of Nicodemus. Nicodemus asks Jesus a question. No matter what Jesus responds, Nicodemus keeps on questioning how it can be so.

I found the story rather interesting because, I think we often look at things from our own viewpoint and can't make sense of what the Lord is trying to tell us. No matter how much education we have, (And Nicodemus was apparently a learned man), we are still judging things from a limited view. If something doesn't seem logical, it probably isn't--to us! If we were able to see things the way the Lord sees, it would make complete sense. Keeping this in mind is what can allow us to go forward with faith.

Joel 2:10 reads in part, "the Lord shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great". I love how this says the Lord will go before us. This terminology is used fairly regularly in the scriptures. I think it is significant because God knows what is coming up ahead and can guide us through the rough spots as we allow him to do so.

I like to think of it in these terms: Perhaps the Lord has some rock climbing equipment or an airplane to help me navigate through/over/around the obstacles that I can see.

Maybe God has something silly in store for me today, like the tummy giggling game...

Anyone can play, even if you are on the phone. :)

Some days I might wind up on the bottom of the dog pile.

Hopefully if that happens I will still remember that God is in charge and that I have the ability to think about think/create/determine/reason a way to get out of my predicament. Or perhaps I will just pray for strength to hold up under pressure.

To wrap things up, here's a few tidbits.

• Nanner & Bub started college classes to finish out their senior year
• Patchy is awaiting his mission call
• Sticky is acting like a true Freshman, complete with adopting trendy phrases. His favorite? "I know, right?"
• Peanut is half way done with his Algebra course already. He started it only a couple of weeks ago and spends hours a day on it because he wants to. Part of me feels like saying, "WAIT! Slow Down!!" The other part says, "Wow! Go Peanut!"
• Princess is very excited to start a co-op science with some other little girls.
• Chubby is into puzzles and copying every sound anyone else makes now.

Hope your September is swell. :)