7 Quick Takes: February 26, 2010 (Vol. 31)

~ 1 ~

I've been a total Olympics junkie.  Since I'm always a fan of late night television anyway, I have had a fabulous time watching it.  Have you been watching the Olympics too?

I have to admit to being emotional when I watch it though.  Eric would say, "When aren't you emotional?"  But, I swear -- if any of those Olympians cry, I think I'm contractual obligated to cry with them.  I just can't help myself.  I cry with them in both victory and defeat.

I just love the Olympics.  I'm already looking forward to the summer Olympics in London.  (Although it is a little unsettling to realize that when the Olympics open in London in 2012, I'll be the mother of a teenager.  Wow.)

~ 2 ~

Molly and I have been talking about what instrument she would like to play when she is older.  Having never taken any kind of lessons when I was growing up, it's funny to me to just automatically think that she'll take music lessons.  But, with two kids already taking piano lessons, it seems like a given.

I told her that she has to start with piano, since she can start that the earliest.  Then, we were chit chatting about the possibility of the cello.  I always wanted to play the cello.  Of course, I should probably just take lessons, rather than live through her.  But, our piano teacher does those lessons as well, and we were able to look at her cello not too long ago.  Molly was pretty impressed.

This discussion made me think about a comedian we watched online talking about how much he loved playing the cello.  Well, except one particular song.  You must go watch the video (and then come back, okay?).  I would embed it, but that has acted funny lately.

(Just a heads up: It's just over five minutes long.  Up until four minutes, it is totally clean.  After that point, he does use three curse words.  All are ones that could be aired on primetime television, I have noticed.  However, that still doesn't mean that kids should watch it after that point.)

~ 3 ~

Why is it that once I turned 30, I had to start having pimples again?  Seriously -- that's not right.  I didn't have them very often when I was a teenager, and I felt lucky.  Flash forward and here I am with breakouts.  Boo!  So wrong.

~ 4 ~

This week, Noah came out on the Wii Fit as being "at risk for being overweight."  I was pretty distraught by this.  He is a big kid, but he's also a really tall 10 year old.  He was pretty bummed, and so was I.

All of the sudden, in the middle of the night that night, I said to myself (outloud), "Hey!  We've never changed his height in Wii Fit!"

Yep, that's what it was.  The next day, I measured his height (4'11", if you're interested) and then we went in to Wii Fit and added in his extra inches.  Apparently he was 4'5" when we got the game.  Let me tell you -- six inches makes a pretty huge difference in BMI measurements.  He was pretty thrilled, and so was I.

We also had to change Jack and Molly's heights, as long as we were at it.  Jack had grown five inches since we first bought the game, and Molly six inches.

~ 5 ~

I told the kids that I forgot about changing heights in the Wii Fit because I am not getting any taller.

"I'll never get any taller than this," I told the kids.

Jack chimed in, "Yeah - but I have heard that when you get older, you shrink."

Thanks, kid.

~ 6 ~

My sister-in-law has been sending us some videos of their new baby, Elizabeth, with their new flip camera.  Does anyone have one of these?  (The flip camera, not baby Elizabeth.)  Do you like it?

I go between thinking it might be something fun to have and we don't really need it.

~ 7 ~

Watching the Olympics has reminded me that I need to teach the kids the words to The Star-Spangled Banner.  It's funny the things that you realize that you need to teach the kids when you homeschool.  For this very reason, we started doing the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of our homeschool co-op this school year.

It may not be a surprise, but singing The Star-Spangled Banner makes me cry.








This post is linked to 7 Quick Takes and Weekly Wrap Up.

photos by: Olympic Rings - Miss Barabanov / cello - FaP ;-) / wii fit - nataliej / American flag in Chicago - Angie @ Many Little Blessings

The Valentine's Dance

Since Eric and I have been dating since high school, all of my memories of formals and semi-formals include him.  That's kind of fun, I think.  I don't have to say to people, "Oh yeah -- do you remember when I went to prom with that guy?" 

I can remember picking out the special dresses, getting hair done, and evenings filled with dancing and friends.  They are great memories.  I'd even go so far as to say that they were definitely some of the finer things in life.

But, I have to say that without a doubt, even more special a memory will be the Valentine Dance that Eric went to this year.  He took another girl to the dance though, but that's okay.  At least I got to help her get ready.  (I even picked out her corsage that was made with sweetheart roses and sprayed with glitter, though Eric got all the credit.  But, I was pretty darn okay with that too.)

So, yeah -- my man took another girl to a Valentine Dance.  But, it was definitely one of the finer things in life.

How Do You Get Caught Up?

I don't know if it's the weather or so much sickness going around or just the time of year, but it seems like a lot of people that I have talked to lately report just feeling behind in just about everything.  I am feeling like that too. 

So, of course, I know that none of us can "do it all," but I would love to hear some of your best tips for getting caught up when you are feeling behind.  Mind you, it doesn't have to be how you get totally caught up, maybe just a tip or two to help in getting caught up.

 (Oh, and on a side note -- Happy Birthday to my wonderful, amazing, super cool Mom!  Love you!)







photo by Sybren A. Stüvel

Earn Money with Sponsored Tweets on Twitter

Before I give my Works for Me Wednesday tip this week, please let me say that I don't want this to come off as saying, "Spam all of your friends and followers on Twitter."  Please take this advice to an eye toward not filling your twitter statuses with advertisements.

Okay, that said, let me continue...

I signed up for Sponsored Tweets, which is a service that connects you with advertisers who will pay you to tweet about things like their company, a giveaway, and free samples.  The nice thing is that you set your own price per tweet, and you can decide which offers you want to tweet about and which you would rather decline.

The writing has been easy, and I have only done tweets that I feel comfortable with (and that I think my followers would actually be interested in), which is nice to have the option.  Also, I am careful to not do more than about one per day, as to not have my statuses turn into ad after ad.

If you are active on Twitter, a sponsored tweet from time to time is a nice way to make a little bit of money. (On the flip side though, filling your statuses with ads is not cool, so don't do it.)

In interest of full disclosure, the links to Sponsored Tweet are my referral link.  If you sign up, I would love if you used me as a referral.  Thanks!