Life | 3 Boys And A Dog

GIVEAWAY: The Photographic Life (gift guide winner)

November 12, 2010 By Kelli 14 Comments

The Photographic Life: Photo Tips for Moms,” a new website developed to help moms (and dads) take better photos of their kids. Mary Phillips, a busy Texas mother and professional photographer, has launched a new business, and made it easier for moms (and dads) to take better photos of their kids, no matter what type of camera equipment they have, and it can all be done in the comfort of their own home, at their own speed.

Membership costs are just $1 trial membership, and after that a very affordable $6 per month (or a special deal of $60 a year), and a portion of the membership fees benefits two non-profit children’s charities, The Tiny Sparrow Foundation and Wipe Out Kids’ Cancers.

Mom Says: The Photographic Life made my 2010 Holiday Gift Guides so I am excited about offering this item up for a giveaway to one 3 Boys and a Dog readers. This is an awesome website with tons of information that is great for a mom and a blogger like myself. Photo Tips for Moms NAILED IT!

To Win:

REQUIRED: Visit Photo Tips for Moms, look around, then come back and leave me a comment stating something you learned or liked!

BONUS #1: Follow @PhotoTipsforMoms and @momof3boys3702 on Twitter and RT this contest. The easiest way to retweet is to simply click the green ReTweet on the top right of this post.

BONUS #2: Like Photo Tips for Moms on FaceBook and 3 Boys and a Dog on FaceBook then share this post by clicking the FaceBook share button at the bottom of this post.

Other bonus entries:

#1. Spread the word about this review by: email, forums, blogging, Digg, or putting the link in a meme. (one entry per thing done)
#2. Follow my blog.
#3. Subscribe to my RSS feed.
#4. Put my button on your blog.
#5. Leave a comment on any other post (excluding giveaways!) Be sure to leave a comment here saying which post.

CONTEST ENDS: at Midnight CST on December 3rd

OPEN TO: WORLDWIDE!

*DISCLAIMER: I was sent a redemption code by The Photographic Life to help facilitate my review. Any opinions stated are strictly my own.*

Filed Under: Giveaways, Holidays / Seasons, Parenting, Reviews Tagged With: blog hosting services, blog software, blogger tools, camera equipment, facebook, gifts for moms, giveaway, Giveaways, guide, guides, HGG, Holiday Gift Guide, life, life gift, mom, online social networking, photo tips, photographic, photography, professional photographers, review, social information processing, web 2.0, winner, world wide web

GIVEAWAY: Your Life in Comics (Gift Guide Winner)

November 3, 2010 By Kelli 34 Comments

Bill Zimmerman’s new book, “Your Life In Comics: 100 Things for Guys to Write and Draw.” Targeted to boys ages 9-13, the book uses comic book prompts to encourage young boys to be creative.

Available at FreeSpirit - $9.99

Mom Says: Your Life in Comics made my 2010 Holiday Gift Guides so I am excited about offering this item up for a giveaway to THREE 3 Boys and a Dog readers. My boys were all over this. I have said it before and will say it again… homeschoolers love fun, educational items and this is definitely one of those!

TO WIN (3 winners):

REQUIRED: Visit Make Beliefs Comix, look around, then come back and tell me something you want, liked, or learned.

BONUS #1: Follow @momof3boys3702 on Twitter and RT this contest. The easiest way to retweet is to simply click the green ReTweet on the top right of this post.

BONUS #2: Like Make Beliefs Comix and 3 Boys and a Dog on FaceBook then share this post by clicking the FaceBook share button at the bottom of this post.

Other bonus entries:

#1. Spread the word about this review by: email, forums, blogging, Digg, or putting the link in a meme. (one entry per thing done)
#2. Follow my blog.
#3. Subscribe to my RSS feed.
#4. Put my button on your blog.
#5. Leave a comment on any other post (excluding giveaways!) Be sure to leave a comment here saying which post.

CONTEST ENDS: at Midnight CST on November 17th

OPEN TO: USA and CANADA

*DISCLAIMER: I was sent items by Free Spirit to help facilitate my review. Any opinions stated are strictly my own.*

Filed Under: Giveaways, Holidays / Seasons, Homeschooling, Reviews Tagged With: blogs, boy, collaboration, comic, comic books, comic cover, comics, digg, digital media, gift guides, giveaway, Giveaways, guide, HGG, Holiday Gift Guide, Homeschool, life, new books, review, social bookmarking, social information processing, winner, world wide web, your life

A Cluttered Fridge Equals a Cluttered Life! WHAT?

June 1, 2010 By Kelli 6 Comments

**DISCLAIMER: This is NOT my fridge! Photo courtesy of FlickR*

During my weekly organizing session with Simple Organized Sanity this week, Christy Love made reference to an article in the New York Times titled ‘Cluttered Fridge Doors, Cluttered Lives’. She was talking about getting all the notes, stickies, magnets, etc off our our refrigerator doors to make way for a less cluttered house. Her story struck a chord in me… enough to have me looking up the article AND posting about it. LOL!

I don’t fill my fridge doors, my fridge has a little fridge magnet game (at the bottom) for Thomas. It teaches letters and phonics and I LOVE it. LOL! On the top of the right side, I have my BusyBodyBook UNlined Grid Pad. On the left, top, side I post our menu each week. (I have a new toy now that I am so ready to yank out and use AND share with you. Don’t worry, it is coming up this month. ) Oh, and I have a zip-lock baggie in which we put Campbell’s labels, Box Tops, and Pop-tabs for Zack’s school. That is it, not one other thing is on my refrigerator doors.

With that said, I have been places where the doors are so full you can’t even tell what color the fridge is! I don’t see how people can handle that! Doesn’t stuff fall off constantly?

But, I am curious, are your fridge doors cluttered? If so, is the rest of your house cluttered? My house is cluttered, my refrigerator is not.

Technorati Tags: Fridge, Equals, Life, session, Simple, Love, reference, article, York, Times, notes, chord, magnet, bottom, Thomas, BusyBodyBook, Grid, menu, Campbell, Tops, Zack, places, Doesn, Doors, week, refrigerator

**Linked at 5 Minutes for Mom’s Tackle it Tuesdays**

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: christy love, clutter, clutter free, door, engineering, food preservation, food storage, fridge, fridge door, home appliances, human interest, In The Kitchen With Kelli, kitchen, less clutter, life, meaning, means, new york, organization, physics, refrigerator, refrigerator door, seeping, structure, the fridge, your life

My Life…

June 11, 2009 By Kelli 1 Comment

** this is a post I wrote as a Guest Blog a long time ago (like my second article ever) that never actually was put on the site, so I dug it out and am putting it here**

Before Kids:
1. Key words, “My Life.”
2. Able to use the restroom completely alone, but no desire to!
3. Cute (probably expensive) purse holds paper money, lipstick, fingernail file, and pager.
4. My schedule is my own, I don’t need a calendar.
5. Perfect manicure and pedicure to match my tanning bed tan.
6. Driving a brand new Ford Ranger to get me to the unknown parts of the beach… daily
7. Work only enough to buy what I want.

After Kid #1:
1. What does everyone complain about, this little tyke is adorable and doesn’t affect “MY Life” in any way! Babies are EASY!
2. Little sweetie sits contentedly while mommy goes potty.
3. Pocket calendar to schedule work, mommy & me meetings, girls’ night out, date night, doctor appointments, facials, hair cuts for me and Little Sweetie, etc
4. A bit larger purse to carry the bottle and diaper in addition to my things.
5. Love my two-door sports car (3 didn’t fit in the truck, needed a car)
6. Part- time job – with a baby, I needed a more stable income

After Kid #2:
1. New house – the beach house, 12 feet off the ground, was too dangerous for the toddler.
2. Can only potty when DH is home to help and even then I usually have people in with me or at least calling for me.
3. Totally exhausted after working outside the home for 44 hours a week – who knew kids were so expensive?
4. Purse?? Yeah right! That diaper bag holds: diapers, wipes, disinfectant, band-aids, sunblock, baby powder, bottles, sippy cups, rattles, matchbox cars, 2 outfits for each kid, juice, formula, water, tissues, coin money for the gumball machines, planner to record THEIR schedule, camera for pictures, notebook to record the things they say and do, children’s & infant’s pain medicine, cold medicine, cough medicine, kitchen sink…
5. Good-bye car, hello mini-van!
6. Mommy-and-me meetings are great… (in theory) no one wants you to bring kids that are loud, obnoxious, stinky, or seem to multiply. They want ONE, sweet, adorable, smocked clothes wearing, clean kid to come with mommy. When you get past that only child, they no longer look like that… they now only get that way for pictures.
7. What in the world are we thinking?? I take it back, KIDS ARE HARD!

After Kid #3:
1. Stay-at-home mom – who on earth has time to work?
2. Now I am home, yet my house is messier than ever!
3. If I step on one more Lego I am going to SCREAM!
4. Purse? HA HA HA!! Funny… the cargo pants work just fine: bottle in one pocket, juice in another, cellphone and keys in another, extra diaper in another. I can’t lug around purses or diaper bags, it is hard enough keeping up with all these kids! I think we should grow an extra arm for each kid we have. Those octopi have it made.
5. I haven’t had a hair cut in months and everyone keeps complementing me on my LONG hair… my own mother says it has never been this long. That is because it hasn’t been cut in 2 years!
6. This is great!!! Let’s have some more!

P.S. I was unable to take my 30 minutes to write this without 100 interruptions – lol

Filed Under: 3 Boys & A Dog General Posts Tagged With: 3 Boys & A Dog General Posts, 3 Boys & A Dog General Posts, life

Homeschooling Notes: May 21st

May 21, 2009 By Kelli 10 Comments

Can you believe the school year is almost done? I certainly can’t, but I am very excited! Do you know what the end of a school year means to a homeschooler? Time to plan for next year! That means I get to spend some time looking at curriculum. Yep, we are signing up for another year of this.

Those that have been following our Homeschooling path know that we only homeschool our book-ends (oldest & youngest). Tank (youngest) because I have always done a form of preschool with my boys and Tripp (oldest) because of issues that kept happening in the public school.

Anyway, I am calling out to my readers this edition… we can’t make up our minds about which program to use. Since my blog has really taken off and is just getting busier and busier, I need something that is already laid out for me. I have spent literally hours (probably weeks if you add it up) writing his plans, goals, tasks, etc. I have had to make most of the worksheets and tests that we used because we didn’t receive that. This coming year (we think) we want the whole kit and kaboodle. The only problem is since I no longer work outside the home we don’t have much extra money… we can swing a few hundred dollars, but not a few thousand.

Also, we are Christian, but we believe in Evolution. So, we do not mind either way if we use a Christian Based Curriculum or not but we do want it teaching Evolution (yes I know, it is controversial, but maybe I will write a post one day about how we can do both).

Tank is easy, I don’t need anything for him. I can continue just as we have been doing this year but with maybe a few more crafts and things. Tripp will be going into the 4th grade, but is very advanced. Also, he is in the Autism Spectrum and his thing is he HATES to write… not the creativity part of it, the physical writing part of it. With that said, he likes worksheets. LOL! He also needs a grade… in other words he thinks he has to have a test to PROVE what he knows.

So, with all of that knowledge… who do you recommend and why? Please give me some idea either via email (contact me button up top) or via comments.

I can’t wait for everyone’s knowledge to start pouring in!

Kelli

Filed Under: 3 Boys & A Dog General Posts Tagged With: Homeschool, life