How do I organize my recipes? Easy! My recipe book is a three ring binder.

At this point not too high tech. Eventually I would like to store all my favorite recipes on the computer.

But for now I tape the recipe on an 8×11 piece of paper, slip it into a page protector (available at Staples or any office supply store) and stick it in the binder. I even went so far as to get tabs to separate the main dishes from the desserts from the appetizers, etc.

The bonus is that when I spill ingredients on the recipe, which I almost always do, I can easily clean up.

These are some other articles about recipes:

• Vegetarian Soup Recipes
• Vegetarian Slow Cooker Recipes
• Slow Cookers
• Rice Krispie Treats

I don’t know if any of you have been following the Julie Amero case. It involves a middle school teacher that was convicted of exposing some students to explicit material on a school computer.

The twist is that the material appeared as a result of adware - you know, those annoying pop-ups that automatically display stuff on your computer that, apparently, can sometimes be offensive.

ECR at 24/7 has very eloquently written about this injustice. It is definitely worth the click to read what she has to say.

Julie Amero will sentenced on Thursday.

Yet another reason to fear the internet.

We have all heard how wonderful iPod’s are - you can do everything from listening to music and audiobooks, to watching TV shows, podcasts, and movies.

I am a bit of a gadget collector so, of course, I had to get one. It’s not the latest version but it is a video iPod. So, how surprising is it that I happily share it with my three year old?

It started with the music. My iPod has a 30 gig hard drive. Being the hip housewife that I am, my music collection took up about five. Ok, with so much available space why not add the Barney and nursery rhyme CD’s as well.

That turned out to be a good move. I usually have the iPod with me and I usually have my three year old with me. And usually we are waiting. Waiting in line, waiting for the other kids, waiting for the grass to grow…… So, when all else fails to keep that toddler occupied, I whip out the iPod and play her some kid tunes.

Well, now you can purchase Disney movies through iTunes to download and play on your iPod. Hmm. Not something I took an immediate interest in. But on recent trip involving air travel I figured why not? - just in case we ran out of other things to do. I purchased and downloaded Disney’s Cinderella.

That was the best move I ever made! Not only did the iPod Cinderella entertain my daughter during that trip but it has come in handy waiting at the doctors office (do NOT touch those germy toys!), during parent teacher conferences, during a public hearing at Town Hall (you could hear a pin drop), I could go on and on.

Cinderella is still the only movie that we have on the iPod but when she tires of it we will be sure to add more.

Recently I read this article by Allison Shields on creating a “don’t do” list to build efficiencies into a law practice and also life in general. This intrigued me.

A Don’t-Do could be an incredibly useful tool for managing a busy home. It boils down to being able to delegate and say, well - “NO”.

I have the traditional To-Do list which I try to put together daily. But how often do I get distracted? At the end of the day I can only cross half the stuff off, if I’m lucky.

In my life, the distractions usually involve doing something that I hadn’t planned on doing like washing #1’s favorite shirt because he “neeeeeds” it for tomorrow, or putting away toys that #3 and #4 have left in the kitchen. Occasionally, I am distracted by other more official items, like volunteering for some event or job because no one else has stepped up to the plate.

Whatever the distraction, a “don’t do” combined with a “to-do” list might just keep me on track. Maybe it would go something like this:

Thursday Don’t Do’s

• Laundry (save for Friday)
• Phone calls (make them on Saturday afternoon)
• Sweeping the floor (delegate to #2)
• Take trash out (ah, yes, the husband)
• Last minute volunteer (not today, will plan for next week)

You get the picture.

Let me know if you try this, and if it works for you.

UPDATE: I tried to install this program over the weekend but have had a lot of trouble. I have not received any response from the company as of yet. So at this point my recommendation is to hold off on using this.

I read the user forums and there are a few other people that are having the same issues as me but a majority of others are using it with success.

I will let you know anything further.

I will round out the week with one more tip on internet safety.

A friend of mine works in the Information Security field and her team uses a program called K9 Web Protection on their home computers. This powerful program was designed for commercial use but the company provides it FREE for home users.

According to the website FAQ’s this is a filtering software. Basically, it will deny access to pages containing offensive content. However, they stress that this program is designed not to “over-block” (this is when the program blocks pages that are really ok) which is the issue that I have had with other programs.

It is available for computers running Windows XP and Vista. Apparently, there will be a Mac version coming out later this year.

I plan to install this later today and work with it over the weekend. I would love to hear any of your opinions about this software, as well.