.

We have had some lovely feathered friends at our feeders this month, mostly Goldfinch, Ruby-Throated Kinglets, House Wrens, Cardinals and one Hawk. {yes, a Red Shouldered Hawk landed on the fence in our backyard}  We are looking forward to the Great Backyard Bird Count coming up in February, this is a wonderful project to do with the children along with a unit study on birds. The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual four-day event that engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are across the continent. Anyone can participate, from beginning bird watchers to experts. It takes as little as 15 minutes. It’s free, fun, and easy—and it helps the birds. You can learn more below.

Can you see all 7 birds?

Goldfinch in winter.

This lil guy comes daily, at the same time every day.

Goldfinch

House Wren, my favorite backyard bird.

This is my oldest Micah, some years ago when we first started our birding adventures.

Participating in the Great Backyar Bird count is as easy as 1, 2, 3...

1. Plan to count birds for at least 15 minutes during February 15–18, 2012. Count birds at as many places and on as many days as you like—just keep a separate list of counts for each day and/or location.
2. Count the greatest number of individuals of each species that you see together at any one time, and write it down. (You can get regional bird checklists here.)

3. Enter your results through thier web page.

Feathered friends adventure Manuall

http://www.adventurer-club.org/Awards/FeatheredFriends.pdf

Here is a neat study that we use along with the GBBC.

Nature lesson birds - http://www.pathfindersonline.org/pdf/ayhonors/birds_a.pdf

SOPA & PIPA may sound like cute cartoon characters, but no, no warm-n-fuzzy going on here.

SOPA is an acronym for Stop Online Piracy Act and PIPA is an acronym for Protect IP Act.  So why are online users, business owners, bloggers and  social media enthusiasts in an uproar? Here’s why…

SOPA and PIPA are two bills backed by movie studios & Time Warner, that have been introduced to Congress. These bills would basically censor the web and impose regulations on American businesses.

As written, authorities and rights holders would be able to get court orders to force broadband providers, hosting companies, payment services and search engines to cut off websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. Currently rogue websites based overseas can offer pirated material such as unlicensed film streams out of reach of American law.

The problem is that these bills are flawed, there are simple ways to get around them. These bills will allow US businesses to be shot down with the “YAY” of one judge… frightening!

Can you imagine YouTube going black, frozen, dead?

Check out these short videos to learn more…

Our Internet from Engine Advocacy on Vimeo.

Want to learn more? Feel free to read the full text of the bill {if you’re brave enough}, then check out SOPA’s Senate cousin, the Protect IP Act.

The Senate will vote on PIPA  January 24th. Defend internet freedom and let them know how you feel here. www.stopthewall.us

The beginning of a new year always gets me in the mood to organize and re-organize everything! We have been working hard to de-clutter the house, rearrange rooms and organize drawers with nifty new organizers. Time management and productivity are also areas that I am trying to get in order. In an effort to utilize our new iPad, I found some helpful apps that will surely come in handy as I strive to make better use of my time.

Want to increase your productivity in 2012? Here are a few of my recent downloads and what I found to be the top productivity apps for both the iPad and iPhone.

Motivated Moms 2012 is a pre-planned checklist of chores that will allow you to have a clean, organized home and still have time for yourself. No need for huge cleaning days – just do the chores, check them off and you are done for the day! I love that you can personalize the chores to meet the needs of your family and you can assign color coded chores to each family member. Hooray!

Key features:
• All tasks in the average home are planned out for you throughout the year
• Check off chores as they are done and they drop to the bottom of the list out of your way
• No major cleaning days or Spring Cleaning week, do just a little all year around
• Daily items and those that come up less frequently are scheduled for you
• No need to remember when you last changed the a/c filter or dusted the living room – just do the tasks as they come up; the app keeps track for you.

$7.99

Bento for iPad – Organize contacts, track projects, plan events, and manage things – all in one easy to use iPad personal database! Bento for iPad is one of the top iPad apps and the most popular personal database for iPad. Use it standalone or synchronize with Bento 4 for Mac.

Key Features:
• Bento for iPad is based on Bento for iPhone but has been enhanced to make the most of the larger iPad screen.
• Comes with 25 ready-to-use database templates that can be easily customized for whatever you need to organize.
• Details stored in Bento are large and easy to read on iPad.
• In landscape, you get a split screen view showing both your complete records list and a single record’s details simultaneously.
• Rotate iPad to portrait to focus on one record at a time.
• Swipe up or down to see more details for each record.
• Touch the screen to edit information in media fields, choice fields, date fields, ratings fields, and checkboxes.
• Tap to record voice memos, watch videos, view photos, and send emails.
• Browse web links in Safari without leaving Bento.
• Enter numbers with ease using the large, custom on-screen keypad.
• Includes background themes with coordinated fonts to make your data look great on the larger screen.
• Supports full-screen viewing of Adobe® PDFs stored in media fields.

$4.99

Evernote turns the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad into an extension of your brain, helping you remember anything and everything that happens in your life. From notes to ideas to snapshots to recordings, put it all into Evernote and watch as it instantly synchronizes from your iPhone to your Mac or Windows desktop. See why millions of people worldwide use Evernote:

Key Features:
● Create text, photo and audio notes
● Auto-synchronize your notes to your Mac, PC, and Web
● Magically makes text within snapshots searchable
● Mark notes as “Favorite” for quick access
● All notes include geo-location information for mapping and search

Here are some ways to use Evernote for your personal and professional life:
● For research and class notes
● To capture blog ideas and design inspiration
● To stay in-sync with your desktop notes, web clips, and files
● To snap photos of whiteboards and wine labels
● As part of your GTD system to help you stay organized
● To record voice memos

FREE

Daily Notes converts your iPad into a beautiful and elegant journal, cased inside a leather jacket. Whether you want to take notes in meetings, record key points while reading a book or would like to just jot down your passing thoughts – this app is for you.

The app is organized as a set of tabs, each tab having a page for every day. Create tabs for various aspects of your life, play with your favorite color themes/fonts and enjoy the pleasure of notes-taking with Daily Notes.
Key Features:
- Create any number of tabs
- Take notes and manage tasks within each tab
- Select color themes and fonts for each of your tabs
- Simple navigation
- Switch to a tab’s summary view for quick reference
- Dynamic search
- Tag notes for easy lookup
- Filter notes by tags, tabs and/or days
- Email notes with a single touch
- Photo attachments
- DROPBOX Backup
- PDF Export
- Set password
- TextExpander Support
- Built-in User guide

Sample uses:
- Daily journal/diary
- Task management
- Classroom notes taking for students
- Meeting notes and email meeting minutes after
- Project notes with separate tab for each project
- Taking notes as you read a book

$4.99

Intuition: Mom’s Personal Assistant – the first personal assistant designed by moms for moms to help you get things done.

• GET ORGANIZED: Quickly capture and organize your to-dos, tasks and wish lists.
• SIMPLIFY GROCERY LISTS: Easily create, save and re-use grocery lists
• GET HELP: Email your to-do lists, groceries and tips with friends and family
• SAVE MONEY: Find local grocery coupons
• SYNCHRONIZE: Schedule appointments and and sync your calendar with iPhone, iCal and Google calendars via Google.
• LOCATION ASSISTANCE: Receive alerts when you are near stores and locations where you can complete your errands.

Key Features:
• Organize tasks and to-do lists by categories such as family, school or travel. Or by locations, such as home, office, and grocery store
• Customizable grocery lists with hundreds of items to choose from
• Easy viewing of completed tasks so you can see your productivity
• Reusable checklists and shopping lists
• Task due-dates and times
• Task reminders via email and iPhone alerts
• View your schedule by day, month or as a complete list to quickly see what’s due today, tomorrow, or later
• Recurring tasks for events like soccer games, piano lessons or appointments
• Ability to sync with Google Calendar, iCal and iPhone calendar via Google

 FREE

To Do – Organize and prioritize your life with this intelligent task management system. LifeNotes ♡ To Do’s tasks and notes helps you track your everyday tasks and long term goals, prioritize them, and help you bring balance to your life. Share your goals and folders with friends and coworkers! A robust system of Tags allows you to search and organize the items your way!

Key Features:

✓ Universal app for iPad + iPhone + iTouch.
✓ Landscape and Portrait modes on all devices.
✓ Beautiful and easy to use. The power and speed is there when you need it!
✓ Organize your goals with true hierarchical folders.
✓ Subtasks! Our Projects and recurring Checklist features are very intuitive.
✓ A separate Unfilled Items section to store quick lists and notes. Move items to goals when you have the time.
✓ True collaboration. Share your folders and goals with friends and coworkers.
✓ Free and securely sync service allows you to sync your tasks wirelessly to backup and share across your iOS devices. Sync is very fast… usually under 1/2 second.
✓ Local Notifications and alarms.
✓ Recurring events. Repeat based on specific intervals -or- by completion date.
✓ Due by, Due before, Due after for due dates.
✓ Star your tasks and notes to bring them to the top of your To Do list.
✓ Use Priority, assign Work Time, and mark Status with your To Do’s and Notes. Shared items status and priority will sync across devices for detailed information as to what you are working on.
✓ Custom Status and pre-defined status so you can detail how your tasks progress.
✓ Time Estimate allows you to keep track of when you need to start a task. LifeNotes ♡ To Do will automatically increase the importance of your tasks at the beginning of your work time, so you know what you should be working on now.
✓ Smart Tag Lists. You can keep and access your boolean tag and location searches (such as “tag x and y in location z” or “tag x or y”) in easily accessible lists to access your data in new ways.
✓ Defer entire goals or folders or just individual items with “Pause”. Keep your To Do list clean!

$3.99

Here is a neat app that helps moms find educational apps for the kiddos…

Moms With Apps  is a catalog of great children’s and family-friendly apps. Search by educational categories and age groups to discover new apps and developers.

Key Features:
The Moms with Apps app has the following features:
✏ Over 1000 apps from top educational app developers
✏ Organized educational subjects (e.g. Early Learning, Math, Science, Special Needs)
✏ Recommended ages for every app and book
✏ Create and maintain a wishlist of your favorite apps
✏ Expert curated app lists
✏ Discover and share great apps through social networking

FREE

We will NEVER get it all done, we need to be flexible and accept the fact that our “To-Do” lists grow faster then we can check things off. Hopefully, we can utilize the resources these smart developers have created to make daily tasks a tad easier to tackle.

If you have a favorite productivity app, please share it in the comments below!

Resolve to live a happy, productive, peace-filled life in 2012!

Hard to believe that another year has passed us by. It has been a wonderful, busy year full of many blessings and amazing experiences. My trip to Guatemala was by far the highlight of my year and the perfect way to start off the new year.  I will be ringing in the 2012 at home with my blessings. New Years day is also my Mother-in-loves birthday, we usually head over to her house and enjoy a traditional New Years day meal of cabbage, black-eyed peas and pork roast!

Here is a wonderful recipe for Black-eyed peas from Frank Davis of New Orleans…

1 pound dried black eye peas
4-6 cups chicken stock
1/2 pound sautéed bacon, diced
1 cup diced yellow onions
1/2 cup diced celery
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon ground thyme
1 tablespoon dried sweet basil
2 bay leaves
3 tablespoons bacon drippings
2 teaspoons Frank Davis Vegetable Seasoning
Sea salt and coarse-ground black pepper to taste, if needed

First, rinse the peas well under cold running water in a colander and set them aside momentarily to drain.

Next, take a 5-quart heavy aluminum Dutch oven (one that has a tight-fitting lid) and bring the chicken stock to a rapid boil. Then drop into the stock the chopped bacon.

Now bring the stock to a slow boil.

Then add and stir in the onions, celery, garlic, thyme, sweet basil, and bay leaves, cover the pot tightly, and over medium-low heat continue to cook until the vegetables soften, which should take about 15 minutes.

At this point, drop in the black eye peas and the bacon drippings and stir the pot well, making sure the mixture is uniformly blended.

Then bring the peas to a boil, but immediately reduce them to a simmer, cover the pot once again, and cook the peas until they become tender and full flavored (this should take about an hour or so on a very low fire).

Oh—be sure to stir the pot occasionally to keep the peas from sticking to the bottom.

Finally, just before you’re ready to eat, sprinkle in the vegetable seasoning and the salt and pepper and season the peas to taste.

Remember—you already have salt in the chicken stock, the minced bacon, and the bacon drippings, so you may not need to add much more if any.

Then, when your pork loin and your cabbage casserole are ready, serve the peas directly from the pot, piping hot, over a short pile of steamed rice and accompanied by a hearty chunk of hot buttered corn bread.

There couldn’t be a more “Naturally N’Awlins” way to start a brand new year!

A New Year’s Prayer

May God make your year a happy one!
Not by shielding you from all sorrows and pain,
But by strengthening you to bear it, as it comes;
Not by making your path easy,
But by making you sturdy to travel any path;
Not by taking hardships from you,
But by taking fear from your heart;
Not by granting you unbroken sunshine,
But by keeping your face bright, even in the shadows;
Not by making your life always pleasant,
But by showing you when people and their causes need you most,
and by making you anxious to be there to help.

God’s love, peace, hope and joy to you for the year ahead.

We had a wonderful Christmas with a house full of boys! Our first Christmas morning with my nephew Jaxon….can you pick him out of the bunch? This is my fave shot of the week…all my boys enjoying Christmas morning together! Melts my heart!

My sisters sweet treat for Christmas day…

Like most moms, I snap (or click) everything and love recording every moment and detail of our lives. I most like taking pictures of my boys and my iPhone is my camera of choice. I also enjoy using the latest photo apps to brighten, liven up or just play with my photos, I have my favorites and I use them daily.

I was recently introduced to a very neat, newly-launched app for iPhone called “Cherish“. This app is also compatible with iPod touch (4th generation), iPad 2 Wi-Fi, and iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G.

You can take photos from the Cherish app or add a photo from your album, choose from a number of filters to enhance, brighten and change the colors in your photo.

The best feature of this app is how it organizes your photos. As a mom of 4 boys my photos can get lost in my albums and I am left scrambling to find a specific picture. Cherish organizes your photos by child and lists photos in chronological order by each child’s age! Are you jumping up and down with me yet??? You can easily browse through the Cherish Album and see your child’s photographs, sorted by how old the child was when the photograph was taken! Create multiple albums …. one for each child, one for family and don’t forget the furry four-legged children in the family! When taking your photo, you simply click on the baby face icon to choose the child / album to tag your photo.

When taking your photos with the app you will find two adorable icons to help you get your little ones attention…  a rattle makes a rattle sound and a little duck squeaks! Once you have taken your photo, you can add a note about the photo and upload to Facebook with one click! Your note will be the description of your photo on Facebook. You can also Share email photos or export them to your iPhone photo album.

I love this app, I think many moms will soon find that this is a must have app. The name of the app fits it perfectly…. what better way to save cherished memories of your most cherished babies!  Cherish just launched, be sure to grab your app in the Apple app store here, it’s just $1!

Let me now what you think about this new app in the comments below ….

Giveaway:

Cherish App is giving away 5 Cherish apps, to enter:

Leave a comment and visit the Cherish app website here. While your on the site be sure to “Like” the page and show some love!

We recently hosted a fun Oral-B Stages III & Crest and Oral-B Pro-Health FOR ME party for BOYS… I have four boys and we invited our friends with 3 boys! We also had two princess  gift bags for the two little girls in our lives that did not make the party. Crest & Oral-B Pro-Health For Me, is the first-ever complete collection of oral care products for kids 8-12, with rinse, brush, floss, and toothpaste made just for them. I was shocked to see that my boys really, truly were brushing and flossing just for fun! No more struggles trying to get the boys to floss, they now have nifty flossers and a yummy tasting mouth wash to complete the job off!

With the holidays upon us, staying on top of our children’s oral health is a huge priority around here!

Here are some simple ways to combat the effects of sugar on your kid’s oral care this Holiday!

• Save treats like candy, cookies and pies for after mealtime since this is when the amount of saliva produced in the mouth is greater and will therefore better help protect your child’s teeth.
• Dairy acts as a buffer to the acids produced by oral bacteria, decreasing the possibility of tooth decay. So consider serving your children milk or cheese with holiday candies and treats.
• Hard candy can get stuck between kids’ teeth, which can cause cavities. Flossing can help remove the candy particles. Try flossers adorned with your child’s favorite character to help make flossing fun.
• To help pace the amount of candy your child is consuming around holidays store excess candy in a sealed container and establish set times when your child can have a treat.
• Encourage children to drink more water to help prevent tooth decay. If you choose bottled water, check the label for fluoride content. According to the American Dental Association, fluoridated water can reduce the number of cavities children get in their baby teeth.

Now on to the party….

We had a fun time of games, crafts, eating, learning and movie watching!

Thanks to Mom­my­Par­ties and Oral-B, each child was given their very own bag full of Oral B and Crest goodies…
• Pro-Health FOR ME Brushes
• Pro-Health FOR ME Paste
• Pro-Health FOR ME Floss Picks
• Pro-Health FOR ME Rinse
• Cars II Gummy Vitamins

 We had lots of “Healthy Mouth” treats on hand… veggies with dip, salsa and chips, trail mix and berries with whipped cream!

After going over our 26 tips and trivia  for healthier teeth, we played a fun pin the food on the right mouth game… “Yuck mouth or Healthy mouth! The boys pinned 100% right!

This little guy likes to watch movies a bit close,

now that we have covered teeth health we may need to discuss the eyes!

We made a fun ornament craft to show off our bright, clean teeth / smiles…

At the end of the day everyone was able to try their new products.

Our Oral-B Stages III & Crest and Oral-B Pro-Health FOR ME party was a huge success and

just in time with all of the sweet treats that come with this time of year!!

 You can follow @OralB and @Crest on Twitter to stay up to date on the latest  in kids oral health!

I recently  returned from a trip to Guatemala with Save the Children.  We visited a health post in the Vipecbalam community in Nebaj, it was a temporary health clinic set up by the Ministry of Health and supported by Save the Children.  Save the Children is working in these remote locations offering families healthcare and vaccinations from trained community health workers. Unfortunately, many more are not getting the care that Save the Children offers the communities we visited, there is still so much more work to be done. We need many more health workers protecting and saving lives….

Continue reading this post on the ABC News site Million Moms Challenge here.

Health Post

Please be sure to stop by my post on ABC and chime in, you could win an exclusive Million Moms Challenge Gift Pack, which includes an iPad2, a custom-made Million Moms Challenge pendant and a donation in your name to Global Giving!

Thanks to Duncan Hines for sponsoring my writing. There’s no limit to the baking possibilities, so grab your favorite Duncan Hines mix and Comstock or Wilderness fruit fillings and Bake On! www.duncanhines.com.

Last night I attended our homeschool groups annual “Moms Night In” – Mother / Daughter Christmas Tea! We always have the best time together, we end up with a plethora of finger foods and the yummiest of desserts! Imagine a bunch of homeschool moms slaving away in the kitchen baking all day… the possibilities really are limitless!

I think each of us looks forward to the time of fellowship and conversation sans children. It gives us all a chance to visit and relax in way that is not possible when you have little ones underfoot.

After filling up on lots of dangerous goodies, we gather together for a group picture. After pictures, that have us all in stitches, (we all get the giggles during picture time) we sit around the fireplace in the living room for a  “White Elephant” ornament exchange! We can go in circles with this game all the while laughing and cheering each other on as we “steal” each others ornaments. A white elephant gift exchange is a popular holiday party game. Generally, white elephant parties need a minimum of six participants. With a larger group, game play may be more protracted. White elephant parties have been known to result in playful rivalries between players trying to get sought after gifts, in our case ornament! The goal of a white elephant party is usually to entertain rather than to gain. We love this game and have a blast with it every year.

The next big get-together we will for Christmas! Where did the time go? I will have these precious ornament cupcakes set out for our guests on Christmas Eve…

Ingredients

Remember to check out Duncan Hines’ website www.duncanhines.com to find some great recipes for your holiday get-together! I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective.