Well.  I am design UNsavvy.  Like, my gorgeous blog?  I had NO hand in designing whatsoever.  Want to edit pics?  Don’t ask me.  It ain’t my thing.

That is, until Graphics Toolbox came along!

This is a really interesting program, actually.

Graphics Toolbox was created by a team of software designers with over 20 years of experience in graphics programming. Their plan was to create a program for everyday graphics needs that would be easy to use and understand. The product they created is perfect for a wide range of people - from students to business people.  Here are just a few of the ways you can use Graphics-Toolbox:

• personalized cards and invitations
• science diagrams
• photo editing
• posters and business flyers
• photo cartoons
• scrapbook pages
• blog headers and buttons

There are even nifty online training sessions to help you figure out the program a bit better.

For me?  Probably NOT something I would spend the money on.  I did find it a bit tricky to figure out the buttons, and you do HAVE to use the manual for that.  Trial and error (which is what usually works for me), was not helpful with this program.

Not sure this is the program for you?  Try it for free for 30 days.

Price: $149 for one user license. Discount for 2+ users. Details here.

Disclaimer: The only compensation that I received for this review was a free copy of the materials. I will give honest and truthful reviews, and where concern is warranted, it will be noted.

Finances are tricky…  I think that if you weren’t taught how to properly handle money, then it’s incredibly difficult to teach it to your children.

Family Mint, Helping Kids appreciate money. I mean, honestly, what can be bad about that???  Know what else is great?  Wait…  do you really?  Do You wanna know?  come on, admit it, you totally do…

Okay, okay, it’s…

FREE.

I know, crazy, right?

So, this program, that is really like a virtual bank for yourself and your hooligans (but you are the banker), is completely and absolutely free.

• Family Mint is money management for kids where parents are the bank.
• Kids manage their own money by setting goals and entering transactions.
• Parents motivate kids through:
  ~ Interest rates they set themselves
  ~ Automated allowance
  ~ Matching deposits on important goals

Kids can:

• Set goals for items they want to save for,  and even allocate money to donate to a charity of their choice.
• Log into their own accounts to set goals, or request withdrawals which can be approved or denied by the parent when  he or she logs in.
• View plenty of graphics and visualize where their money came from, where it’s going and how to manage it.

Parents can:

• Log in and see all of their children’s accounts at one time.
• Make deposits and set up automatic deposits of allowance each week, if so desired.
• Set up a set amount of interest on savings, or match deposits made on important goals.

You can use your own hooligans real allowance and savings, or you could just assign them a virtual amount of money to play with.  Either way, what a GREAT learning tool.

This is a bit above my hooligans ability to use on their own, but with some guidance, it’s not too bad at all.

Go, check it out.  It’s Free, seriously, what do you have to lose?

SO, there’s a train coming from Amsterdam going 100 kms an hour, and it passes by a train coming from somewhere not Amsterdam going 150 kms an hour… at what town will they pass each other assuming that they both left the station at the same time?

Yah, I have no idea either.  HA!

Math Tutor DVD sent me two videos to review for them.  One for younger guys about counting, and one for older hooligans about solving word problems.

The one for the younger guys, Young Minds Numbers and Counting, is really very high quality.  Lots of nature pics, and lovely classical music as well (Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Brahms and Vivaldi).

It runs for 35 minutes, and the DVD also includes 15 minutes of bonus material counting puzzle pieces, connect the dots, and a guess the animal game.

You can view a sample excerpt  of the  Young Minds: Numbers and Counting DVD here.  The DVD can be purchased for $19.99 at the Math Tutor website, which is $5.00 off the list price.

My guys were a bit bored after the first little bit of this one.  Sure, it was cute… the numbers were nice, but frankly, I don’t really NEED a DVD to teach my hooligans to count.  HOWEVER, if you just need to catch a break, maybe take a shower for the first time in three or four days, then throw this one in!  You can be absolutely sure that there is no content here that would be inappropriate for wee eyes.

It covers topics such as adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing whole numbers, decimals, and fractions; as well as covering percent, ratio, and proportion. You can learn more about this DVD, and see screenshots, at the website.

This is basically just a teacher writing on a white board…  My hooligans lost interest in about ten minutes, unfortunately.  The lessons were just a wee bit too long, and really, it’s something that we already do.  Simply not necessary for our family.

AGAIN tho, (there always seems to be a “however” doesn’t there) I can see how this may work for families who need a bit of extra encouragement with solving word problems, and want to use different mediums in order to do so.

This DVD sells for $26.99, and contains approximately 8 hours of teaching time.

Disclaimer: The only compensation that I received for this review was a free copy of the materials. I will give honest and truthful reviews, and where concern is warranted, it will be noted.

My Gramma was an amazing woman.  She was a crafter extraordinaire, she could make anything you could possibly dream of (including the most delicious crepes you can possibly imagine!)  She was a knitter, she crocheted, she was a seamstress, a potter.  She knew how to cross stitch, embroider, weave.  You name it, she could do it, and if she wanted to do it, but didn’t know how?  She would get a book and learn how to do it.

Now that she’s been gone for a few years, I find myself wishing that I had have asked her more questions.  In fact, just a few weeks ago, I was trying to figure out how to sew pleats on a costume for a friend of mine… knowing that there must be some simpler way to do it than the way I was doing it.  I had the fleeting thought, “Oh, I’ll just give Gramma a call… she’ll know!”

While my Gramma taught me a lot of things, and I mean a lot, she did not teach me embroidery.  My mom used to cross stitch, and I know how to do that (my mom taught me), it was never really and truly an interest at the time.  Which means that I never asked her about it.  Which means that now that she’s gone, I’m in the place of figuring it out myself.

The internet is truly a wonderful thing.  You can google pretty much anything.  The internet, however, does not watch you as you make those first few stitches… it does not put it’s hand on yours to guide you through the faltering routine until you pick up the rhythm on your own.

Last weekend the kids and I set out to learn how to embroider.  I did have a very basic knowledge, years of watching my mom cross stitch was still stuck in the back of my brain…

It’s interesting, I thought that the hooligans, mine and Rachel’s, aged from 3 to (almost) 8, would fiddle around and play with it a bit, lose interest, and go do what hooligans do… in our house that means doing their level best to drive me insane.

They amazed me.  Not only were they patient waiting for their turn to have needles threaded, they stuck with the project for hours.  Literally, hours.

It’s amazing how you can give a child a challenge, offer no expectations and just leave them to it, what they will accomplish! They each decided on their own designs, and we simply drew it on the muslin (for the older girls) mesh fabric (for the younger kids). They chose their own colours, I gave a brief tutorial on back stitching, promised that I would thread all needles, and they were off!

A brief interlude to watch a movie (embroidering all the time), a small break to eat dinner, and they persevered until it was time for bed.

I simply can’t believe how much fun they had doing such a simple thing! An art that has been around for thousands of years. The simple act of taking needle and thread to draw on fabric.

And while those first halting stitches are secured on the fabric, while we listen, while we calm to make them smaller and neater, they are learning an art. They are learning to persevere. They are learning the joy that comes with making something from your own two hands. They are learning patience. They are learning that while they are small, they are very very capable. They are learning a craft that they can pass down to their own children one day.

Last weekend was not just about learning to embroider. It was so very much more than that.

143. quiet house while the hooligans are away
144. Spending time puttering… with no stress of deadlines
145. Learning a new craft as a family
146. Being able to help out friends
147. Spaghetti pie
148. massive snow falls… right before spring
149. Not being too old for tickle fights
150. A man who makes you laugh so hard your tummy hurts
151. Visiting new churches, learning how different people worship
152. The whir of the breadmaker
153. The feel of spring in the air
154. Three year olds who sing whatever comes into their head at any time
155. New books
156. New curriculums
157. Humility, in all its shapes and forms
158. Online and irl friends who give you a pep talk right when you need it
159. Sweet snuggling babies
160. Babies snuggled close in their slings