photoshop for kids!

wow, i never thought of teaching my kids to use photoshop! i'm still learning myself, and i think its just so complicated...but this article really has me thinking. maeven and tyren have both played around with computer paint programs and such...what an idea, to look for tutorials and videos to teach them how to use the photoshop tools to create art. wow. i think i'll be doing some research on this!

if you check out that article, scroll down to read the article and notice the kid's art work! wow!

network marketers, go away!!

good god i'm SO tired of all these scams out there! i get advertisers all the time via my websites, and more often then not they are network marketing scams that are trying to hook unsuspecting and naive mamas.

i read a fabulous article called "Seller Beware", about the world of the work-at-home scams. i already pretty much felt that way about the MLM and network marketing world...it just confirmed my feelings.

i don't want to be advertising this crap. oh sure there are legitimate companies like pampered chef and usborne books and discovery toys and such...but they still have the potential to end up losing women tons of money in the long run. usborne books is the only direct sales company, actually, that i've seen successfully run to the point that still, all these years later, the mom is still doing quite well. i think that's because they really do have fabulous products and all of us clamor to buy those books! but they are the exception to the rule, i think. there's always at least one.

anyway, as a website owner that offers advertising, i'm always bombarded with crap. i always try to turn away the blatant crap, and have even gotten to the point of turning away the lesser known crap. i hate network marketing companies as a whole, so why should i advertise them on my site? well they do pay, bleh. its a real dilemma at times when our family seriously needs the money. but i don't want my sites becoming a repository of crap ads like most of the rest of the net. it really cheapens the website.

and i don't think people take your site so seriously when there's so many crap ads on them. maybe even if there's a bunch of ANY ads, even quality ones! well i suppose it depends on the ad.

well i've accepted some ads that i was ok with. but i just refunded some money and deleted a new network marketing ad. i knew right away that it was one of those scams, like all the thousands of other ones out there. i don't want that on my site. i still have mixed feelings about some of the ads that i still have on my site, but i'm working my way through them.

i don't allow anything that i know is melaleuca on my site anymore. that's scam with a capital S! stories abound on the net about THAT company! the problem is keeping up with which companies are melaleuca! stayin home and lovin it & m.o.m. team come immediately to mind, but i can't remember all the rest...there's a ton!

i need to go through and purge my mommy biz directory again...i think some melaleuca and some other crap have slipped through.

all of this just makes me really want to figure out a way for moms to be able to work from home that is LEGITIMATE! something that they can trust me to tell them about...something that is real and up-front and i can employ other moms to help me with ...something that will benefit me to benefit them, but it will all be totally true and real and easy to understand...hm, the only idea that comes to mind is my idea to have a local family resource site for people to set up like mine. sell a template of what i have. actually i will have to redo my own template first, since i'm not longer working with the designer that designed that one and i want to redo it anyway.

well, that's an idea i've had for awhile and i plan to pursue it at some point truly. i think its a fabulous idea...although i don't know how many others out there will think so too. we'll see, i guess.

first i need to revamp my own site and then figure out how to package it for sale. well, it can be done! :)

i've also already written and published a book to share with other moms how to start their own in-home mommy and me classes! i just wish i could know if there were lots of moms that have benefited from it or not. i've sold like 50, but have yet to hear back from any of them how it went. :(

public bike system

i just found out about this from another blog. how cool!!!

i think every city in our country should have this!! in the world!!! :)

but i'm thinking that the bikes would probably just get vandalized and destroyed in fresno, argh! we have so friggin many losers here that seem to think its ok to damage and destroy things that don't belong to them. bleh.

my latest passion

so lately i'm fired up on a new topic...i found out that shawna, owner of young at art, is helping spearhead the creation of a new "alternative school" here in fresno. i talked to her some about it and have done a lot of thinking about it...and recently stumbled upon a home video i made at harmony day school from back when i went and visited them in 1996. it has got me thinking a LOT about harmony (the school, sadly, no longer exists...but i used to teach at it for 2 years, in sacramento) and REALLY wanting to recreate something similar here in fresno. fresno NEEDS some quality educational choices! i've subbed in the public schools here and i was NOT impressed.

so i had already been heading up a committee to create a homeschool resource center at the discovery center. got sidetracked about that but they already have said we could rent the nature kids building from them (which i think is the perfect building for this), and we just need to get moving again on it. working on that now because this harmony thing has fired me up again about the HS resource center because i'd like them to go hand in hand. so now i'm working with shawna to share what i remember from harmony that she might want to incorporate into her school...and suggesting that they open up the program to homeschoolers as well.

the school idea is a much bigger one, and i don't know that i will be able to follow through completely on it...its better that shawna is in charge of that one. she has the business knowledge on that subject and potentially the funding to work on it. i will just continue to share the actual vision of what it could look like in action.

i took a copy of the video (adam burned it to dvd for me) over to shawna so she could see harmony in action. i hope she's impressed. i also went so far as to print up a copy of the map of the unitarian church property where the school used to be located (they had a copy of it on the unitarian's website) and marked the different things she sees in the video, on the map. and wrote up a synopsis of what she was seeing in the video as well. so she would understand a little more about what she's watching. and she said she'd ask me questions after she gets a chance to watch it.

i hope i can help inject some harmony into this new school. it would be just marvelous! i just remember so much about that school that i would want for my kids.

harmony was more than a school...it was a community...a family. that's what i am missing in my life right now. i was thinking of this the other day...why am i so driven by these sort of ideas? its because i grew up in a family that was very much entrenched in a community...in childhood it was a church community and a military community...mostly church. and then later it was harmony and then it was the community of moms at la leche league, and then my mommy and me mini-community for awhile (the families that attended my program were very much like a family)...and when we started homeschooling i had thought that that would be my next community but its turning out to be like pulling teeth to get that group to pull together like a community and attend regular events together and such. its just not happening so far. i feel like i'm beating my head against a wall. i think its just that the specific families in the group are just more happy not being involved in group things. they do it here and there, but its not what i personally want and need.

i feel empty without a community. my dad keeps trying to get me to go to church...but i cannot go back to that again...there's not a church that i've found yet here locally that i would feel at home at. i'm not christian and the only other option that is not another belief system that i equally don't believe in, is the unitarian church and i simply don't like the local unitarian church. it just doesn't give me a feeling of acceptance. i always feel like a stranger going there. i'm used to churches where people embrace newcomers and you are instantly welcome...i feel pretty much ignored going to the unitarian church here. oh well.

so maybe my homeschool resource center will be that community i'm yearning for. i am hoping that by requiring a membership fee that people will be more inclined to get more involved.

one thing's for sure...i'm NOT giving up. i want and need a community and i'm going to build it, dammit! i want my kids to have what i am yearning for. they deserve to grow up in a loving community as well...and so that's what i'm going to create for them. if its the last thing i do!

so for now, i'm going to get back to focusing on that resource center and continue to inject my ideas into shawna's alternative school idea. :) see what comes of it. at the very least, i can get more going for the HS resource center...which shouldn't be too too much work. we'll see. :)

ah i just soooooo look forward to the day that i can feel like i belong to a community again.

goal for this week

to start charting out all the things to do in the central valley when its hot out. and scheduling some field trips and other beat the heat ideas for the whole summer.

its HOT now (110 this weekend!) and it sucks the life outta me. (have i mentioned lately how much i HATE living in the central valley in the summer?) so i've become lethargic and depressed and unmotivated to do anything. which is NOT conducive to happy children. sitting around the air conditioned house doing basically nothing isn't going to continue to work. (not that it works now).

i need a plan, and i need one NOW. so this week my goal is to get some "what to do in the heat" info up on fresno family (which i use for my own reference...which is why i created it actually...just a side benefit that others get to reference it too) and start scheduling some field trips specifically with heat in mind (maggie moo's is the first one i plan to schedule).

i have to turn this summer around. at this rate the summer is going to DRAAAAAAAG...so i have to find some things to do to make it enjoyable for my children (and me!)

so that's my mission this week!

i need some new ideas!

we have this great yard and so many ideas for it...so far things are coming along nicely.

in the past year we dug out a sandpit:

here's the finished product...tyren under the cat-proof (theoretically) net:

now i'm wanting to find something to do with this space here:

that's a concrete slab that we have outside our bedroom windows, on the side of the house. it has a gate (broken...needs to be replaced...on my long list of projects to get to) on one side (that's the wooden one you see on the farthest side in front of you in the pic)...that's the front yard side.

then another gate (metal fence/gate) on the inside (backyard) side of the space:

on the neighbors side of the fence, there is a grape arbor and the grape vines are always coming over our fence...which we don't mind...the kids like the grapes when we can remember to eat them before the bugs get to them. right now they are still sour, as you can tell by tyren's face:

anyway i need some ideas for something to do with that concrete slab area. i think it should be a great play area for the kids...but not sure what to do with it yet. originally i wanted to build a shed for our trikes/bikes/riding toys and build a ramp to the front driveway so we could open that big wooden gate and the kids could take the bikes to the front, or pull them to the backyard through the inside gate. but now i'm thinking that that would kill that play space. it would then just be storage and it has such a great feel to it that i feel like it should be used creatively for the children. so i'm open to ideas!!

i think it might be worth building a mini-arbor and encourage the grapevines to come over more...would help with the extreme heat and sun that beats down on that side of the house in the summer afternoons. would make that space nice and shady then.

i'd like to see it used maybe as a sort of playhouse...if i build the arbor and have the grapevines for shade, then the kids might want to go in there more...

but because it is concrete, then that might make it better for things like playing cars or something...i'm not sure yet...i need ideas! help!

i'm putting maeven to work on thinking of something too...so we'll see what we can come up with...we welcome suggestions!