Works for me, wanders here and there…

Totally random post today.

Aha moments that happened while we were all sick- guess this could be filed under Works for Me Wednesday, but it's Thursday. I like to buck trends, ha ha ha.

* We had sore cracked lips from dehydration and everything, and not a lip balm in sight. The kids' lips and under the noses and cheeks were looking pretty bad- red, irritated. I did, however, have a tube of Lansinoh (lanolin creme) left over from breast feeding David. (It's made for breast feeding moms to help with cracked, sore nipples, etc.) It worked like a charm! It seemed to do the double duty of both moisturizing and protecting, and the kids' skin and lips healed quickly, within 24 hours. Yay! I love that we used up what was left of that tube as it was nearing the end of its shelf life, but I think it's honestly one of the things I will keep in my mama toolbox in a travel size- I like not having to worry about the kids ingesting it like I do with some of the other lotions and potions. It stayed on their faces even through multiple tissue wipes and my kids' unfortunate tendancy to suck on their top lips when it is raw.

* You know those fancy smancy name rings made of rubber that you can buy personalized and all that for your children's cups and bottles? They are nice and all, but I discovered that office sized rubber bands work the same magic. Snap em around the cup, and then write the child's name on the rubber band with a ball point pen. We also tend to color code the cups. (We have a ton of the little kids sets from Ikea– they are the perfect size for us.) Lorelei usually gets pink (or yellow, if all the pink ones are in the wash), and Ben and Isaiah are always blue and green, respectively. It makes it easy to tell at a glance whose is whatsit. Anything to simplify, right? Although, I would have loved to been the parent that thought up those things.

I have reduced my computer time drastically over the last few months. I was on Facebook for a while, but decided against it- while it was fun to catch up with old friends, it was yet another thing that distracted me from my duties. I really try not to "surf" anymore- I have all my favorite blogs in my Google Reader, and sit down once a day with a cup of coffee to catch up. It's one of my favorite 15 minutes in the day. Sometimes two or three days slip by, but that's alright. I love that I can star and favorite posts to come back to later. Every once in a while, as a little treat, I'll get into all the cool links on everyone's sidebars, visit new blogs. (I have lots of link love in my sidebar too, for those of you reading in feeds.) And this last week or so, I have spent a lot of time rocking and soothing kiddos and not been able to do much else, so I've indulged a bit surfing wise.

 Some really cool stuff that I've bookmarked lately:

Taking Back the Day (Series)- A Path Made Straight
Elise just has this *way* with words and encouragement. Particularly coming out of such a crazy two weeks, her posts have just been a huge shot in the arm to me, reminding me just what is important and what is not.

Practical Life with Little Ones– In the Heart of My Home
This is an old post by Elizabeth Foss from 2006. It was part of a larger series, I think. If you're a homeschooler and you've never read her book, Real Learning: Education in the Heart of the Home, you should definitely do so. I found it at my library just recently, so I'm not quite all the way through. But lovely, and inspiring. This post in particular is just chock, chock full of suggestions about including the little ones in the learning day. I am currently poking through her archives as I have time, wanting to know more about the "mat" time she talks about. (HT: Emma, Charming the Birds from the Trees)

Simple Mom
Mom Advice.com
Two cool resources. Simple Mom is a well written blog. Right now she's focusing on finances 101. Poking around in her archives is quite a resource. Mom Advice is a sort of portal- forums, blogs, articles. Found an old article by a dear friend who has since left blogging (peek a boo, Molly!) and a ton of other stuff. Love the no-money challenge for February too- I just love reading real, practical, people-have-done-it money management tips. Especially when they are from moms like me!

Sorry this is sort of all over the place- sort of resembles my brain these days- but all this stuff was just too good not to pass on. Tell me, what things have you been learning about or surfing around lately? What's your big concern or focus right now? I've been searching articles about homeschooling little ones, and finances (for the obvious reason).