Mom's Gadgets

Those of you who know me, know that I hang out regularly on Twitter. It’s fun and really doesn’t take that much time - as long as you are careful. But anyhow that’s beside the point. Recently hubs told me about a hilarious tweet he saw.

He doesn’t know (unfortunately) who wrote that or remembers which is a shame. And I truly apologize if this is your tweet. Just realize that you have given me (and hubs) a much needed and good laugh for the day. That’s a good thing because life gets way too serious sometimes.

Anyhow, this is what the Tweet said,

“I’m so tired. I can’t wait to crash on the plane” 

OK, ok, it’s not very funny if something like that actually happens and we certainly don’t wish it upon anybody, it’s just interesting what we say sometimes especially when limited to 140 characters.

Heck I’ve said a few hilarious things myself when taken totally out of context. This is one of my oopsies…

“I’d love to have another 22incher on my desk” 

That was in response to a conversation about computer monitors, how many we all had and how big they were . Have you seen or tweeted something hilarious?

Photo credit: Richard Sweet

Here’s something really fun to do with all those digital pictures you snapped. Make them into Moo Cards.

Moo cards are like mini sized calling cards. You can print just about anything on the flip side. Your family address, a holiday message, an inspirational message, your blog URL.

Very cute, cool and hey a good way to showcase all those pictures. I am thinking the grandparents would just love having some of these cards with their grand children’s photos on them. Kinda like a new age brag book - except they can give it away.

Moo cards cost $19.99 per 100 cards. Print up to 100 of your photos in a box in full color.

What I am especially attracted to are the sticker books - 90 stickers with your own images for $9.99. I don’t exactly know what I’d do with the stickers, but I think the kids would just love to snap some of their very own pictures and maybe drawings then hand a sheet or two to their friends.

I haven’t ordered any, but I think I will give it a go very soon. Have you ever ordered from Moo.com? What’s your experience? What did you do with your cards?

My babies are no longer babies or toddlers for that fact. *Sigh* How time flies! With the baby and toddler stages out of the way, the kids are old enough to do things for themselves and of course help around the house.

Ask any parent, the ‘help’ part is pretty challenging. When they were toddlers, ‘help’ is fun and interesting and full of whoops of joy and “Good girl!” or “Great job!” or “Yay!”. I guess this shouldn’t stop as they grow older but it also gets cheesier to say that when they finish a chore. My eldest will probably say something to the effect, “Mommy, that’s for babies”.

Yelling doesn’t really help either - no surprise there. So how to challenge these kids to get off their butts and help? I’ve tried using a monetary system and that actually has had positive response. But sometimes it fails because I fail at properly updating their pay sheet - bad mommy!

While bumming around the web, I was delighted to come across Kablinga. Kablinga is a site where kids get to turn their chores into a business. It has a web based office space with email so they can accept tasks and communicate with parents about them. It’s also a task manager where they can keep track of what they have done and check them off.

There’s a virtual bank where they can see how they have in it. It even has a built in web store they can spend that money on. If there is an item of bigger value they want, there is a score board to help them keep track how close they are to reaching their goal.

All great ideas and I really can’t wait to try it out for my eldest. This is also super exciting for me because next year, my middle one will be in kindergarten and will be able to read better and knowing her personality, this is something she’ll totally dig.

According to Kablinga FAQs, it is free now and anyone who signs up now gets a free lifetime membership but they will be charging $7 a month to use soon. Guess I’m heading back there to sign up.