Tim and Sallys Vegetable Garden is another great children’s book.  This book is about two siblings learning how to plant their garden.  We learn about how and when to plant different seeds, what tools are needed, and how to tend to the garden as the vegetables grow.  The book is written in verse, so the lines rhyme which is a skill we are currenlty working on with Madison.  She noticed the the lines rhymed right away, and we are glad to reinforce something we have been working on.  The illustrations in Tim and Sallys Vegetable Garden definitely compliment the story too.  There is also a word list at the end of the book that we also have been working on with Madison.  There is a picture of each item that was in the garden and then what it is is listed underneath.  Lastly, at the very end of the book, there is a Garden Journal, where your little ones can put down their own thoughts about their garden.

Right now is not gardening season here.  However, I have a feeling we will be reading this book a lot more come spring!  Every time we read this now, Madison wants to know when we are planting our garden!

We live in a time we need to teach our children to be comfortable in their skin. Just Be is a clothing line that does just that. They aren’t asking you to be something you are not, but instead to “just be”. Now, you can “just be” fabulous, dignified, cool, sk8r, or even a princess (like Madison). That is just a few you can pick from too!  They have shirt for everyone — toddlers, kids, men and women.  They have been featured in both Inc. and Fast Company.  By wearing these tshirts, you can easily express how you feel or how you want to feel.  If you like to wear what the celebrities are, you will be happy to know that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s kids, Reese Witherspoon’s kids, Faith Hill’s kids, Will Smith’s kids, Sarah Jessica Parker’s kid, Mark Wahlberg’s kids, Gweneth Paltrow’s kids, Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck’s kid, and David and Victoria Becham’s kids all have these shirts.

From my own personal experience, this shirt is high quality.  It washes well, and everybody wanted to know where I got it from.  It is definitely cute, and I can see myself ordering even more of these.  I love a shirt who is asking you to “just be” and not change yourself.

I know this book isn’t 100% family friendly.  However, if you don’t find yourself laughing after reading WTF?: How to Survive 101 of Life’s Worst F*#!-ing Situations, there is something definitely wrong.  This book is about crazy (and some not so crazy situations) you can get yourself into and what their solutions would be.  Now, some of these solutions are inventively therapeutic, sometimes offensive, most of the time not illegal, and usually very funny.  I use WTF quite often (not on here, of course), so I knew I’d like this book right off the bat.  For example, their solution for being in a bathroom without toilet paper range from:

• stare at the holder,
• use a substitute
• shower
• use the sink
• call someone

Now, these suggestions are for a public restroom too!  Each suggestion has about a paragraph telling you how to do the suggestion.  There are so many situations that they address in there.  Some you will encounter at some point in your life and some that you most likely won’t.  However, if you do, you’ll have the solution in this book.  WTF?: How to Survive 101 of Life’s Worst F*#!-ing Situations is seriously hilarious and should be found in quite a few stockings this Christmas.

I personally have a lot of outdoor plants. I was actually outside cutting down a lot of my dead plants today. Since I am allergic to life itself, (Yes, you may laugh at that statement. However, I was allergy tested, and I was allergic to every single thing they tested me for,) I always wear gloves when doing any sort of yard work. I love my Ethel Gloves. First, I have super small hands. I never can find gloves that are 4 sizes too big.  However, these gloves fit like a charm (they also come in several sizes, so if you have bigger hands, they will fit you too).  Second, I love the feel of them.  The inside of these are super soft, so they actually feel nice to wear.  They also have elastic around the wrists.  For me, that is heaven sent, because when I am pulling weeds and dead plants out, I always get dirt into my gloves (which negates the use of the gloves most of the time).  With Ethel Gloves, I did not have that problem.  What is the thing I love most about these?  They are machine washable!

This definitely makes an awesome gift to the woman in your life if she does any sort of gardening outside.  We are always looking for fashionable gloves that fit well and do the job we need them to.  Ethel Gloves fits all of the above, so she’ll love them!

For the last year, I have been in the process of converting all of our CDs into MP3 and saving them to the computer.  We have a lot of CDs, so it is something that is taking me a lot of time.  The sad part is that I still have half of our CD collection to still do.  This is where companies like AbundaTrade come in.  They take your new and used cds and copy them for you.  They make it ten times easier for you.

Now, once you have your CD collection as MP3s for your ipod or mp3 player, what are you going to do with those old CDs?  Now, AbundaTrade.com will buy them from you (they also buy books and DVDs too).  You give them a list of the CDs you have, and they tell you which ones they want. You then box up your CDs and send them in. The great thing is that AbundaTrade.com will send you the necessary materials to box and ship your trade-ins!  Now, you then take your credits and are able to shop on their site for a ton of things.  They have everything from TVs to cameras to a PS3.  If they don’t have the electronic item on their site that you want, you can let them know, and they will see if they can get it!  I love to be able to make extra money without really having to do anything extra.  This is an awesome way to get the CDs you no longer use out of your house and give you some extra cash for either yourself or Christmas!

Why do I love Dragon Naturally Speaking? Let me count the ways . . . .

Ok, so the video doesn’t tell you all ways I love Dragon Naturally Speaking. However, it does show you how easy it is to use the software. Literally, all you have to do is plug in a noise canceling headset to your computer and download the software. You place your cursor where you want to type and away you go. Now, you do have to train the software to your voice. I tend to talk fast, so it had to correct for that. Plus, if you find that it is typing same wrong word, you can train it on that specific word. This isn’t rocket science to figure out (which is good because I have a tendency to NOT read the books or pdf files that comes with software).

I was able to create that video while my kids were up and playing at my feet (and you can tell when they grabbed my leg, because the video starts wobbling. You can also hear them a little too.) However, I did want to show that you can still be involved in doing other things and be able to use Dragon NaturallySpeaking. This more than triples my typing speed when I am typing and dealing with my kids (Take the Dragon NaturallySpeaking typing test if you don’t know what your typing speed is). I am actually writing this blog post using the software too. Here is the official video on how this all works:

As I stated in my video, I am finding that I can get a lot more in the little snippets of time I have during the day plus I am able to get way more done at night. I love being able to go to bed before midnight. I love being able to answer emails and do blog posts when I have Will sitting on my lap drinking from his sippy and watching cartoons. I have five blogs, so being able to write more content in less time is a huge plus for me. Plus, anyone who knows me, knows I have no problems talking. I am able to do my freelance work and reports using this also. I will be recommending this to my boss. Beside blogging, I have used it to make my daily lists of what I have to do each day plus some grocery shopping lists too! I am not the only one who thinks it is great, check out this New York Times Review.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking is really for anyone who works on a computer. If you talk faster than you type, you need this. If you want to be more efficient in your work, you need this. If you just want a new toy to play with, you DEFINITELY need this. Time is money, and the time you save from using Dragon NaturallySpeaking makes it worth every penny.

I am going to let you all in on a little secret that I am doing to do for Christmas this year. See the picture on the left? Those are stamps. I made them over at PictureItPostage and will be affixing them to all my Christmas cards this year. Tell me that isn’t the cutest thing you have ever seen?  There are just so many uses for these stamps.  You can do what I did and put them on Christmas cards.  However, I can see them being used for baby announcements, engagements, holidays and graduations.  You can’t make an invitation more customized and personal than this.  Plus, you don’t see stamps like this too often.  That makes it unique, and people will love it!  You will be the talk of everyone you send these too!

How hard is it to make these?  It is not hard at all.  PictureItPostage allows you to either create these stamps on their site or you can download a program, and you can create them on your desktop.  You can customize the background color and what color the text is on them too!  It literally took me about 10 minute to completely put this together.  Shipping took no time at all.  I am 100% satisfied with this company and would highly recommend you use them also.

Also, they are having a “Get Real” Photo contest that starts October 31st. They want to see the best of the worst when it comes to photos.  They want you to send them your worst pictures that you really don’t want to see the light of day. How do you enter?  On October 31, head over to PictureItPostage and upload your photo. Beginning November 21, all visitors to the “Get Real” contest website will have a chance to vote for their favorite photos.  The winners will be announced December 8.  What can you win?  They are giving away two Canon Digital SLR Camera and five PictureItPostage coupon codes good for 100 customized photo stamps. The ten first prize winners will each receive one PictureItPostage coupon code good for one pack of customized postage stamps.  We all have horrible pictures — now have them work for you!

Make sure you check out PictureItPostage!