If you click this you are taken to a screen where you can choose from 68 different artist themes. Each theme consists of several different headers that will cycle through each time you refresh your home page.

I have tried out a few and it is fun to see something new and original each time I do a Google search. Go ahead, express yourself!

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To stay in the know you have two options:

1. Subscribe to Parenting Tips at NeenMachine.com by Email - Get the latest posts from NeenMachine.com right in your inbox! Just click this link and fill out the email subscription information (always kept private!). You will receive a confirmation email to verify your subscription.
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But I am optimistic.

I recently purchased Bento for Mac. This is a home database program. Yes, very geeky. But I figured, hey - I have a team of six to manage and that means a lot of data. Schedules, phone numbers, soccer teams, all that kind of stuff.

One full day later, I know a lot more about Bento and it has a lot of potential. But it can’t do laundry, cook dinner, play with the kids, drive them around, and all of the other parenting stuff that I haven’t been doing because I was learning how to use Bento.

C’est la vie.

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If you are a big Apple fan like me, you probably use your computer to keep yourself organized. Apple’s native applications like iCal and AddressBook are excellent organizing and productivity tools for any busy parent. Or, if you prefer, Microsoft Office for Mac works equally well.

This is great if you are at home, but when you are on the go - it doesn’t help that your schedule and your contacts are trapped in the computer on your desk. But getting a handheld device or PDA that plays well with a Mac has always been a bit of a challenge.

iPhone

So, Apple created the iPhone. Everyone has heard of this incredible device. But it is not right for everyone for a myriad of reasons that I won’t go into here. I have my own reasons for not making the jump to iPhone, the biggest one being the 2 year cell phone contract that I am locked into with another carrier.

Enter the iPod Touch

On the surface, it looks like I am out of luck. But what many people don’t realize is that I can use the iPod Touch as PDA right out of the box. For whatever reason, Apple decided to market the iPod Touch as, well, an iPod. A music player. In reality this handy little device does so much more than deliver tunes. So, if you are not a music aficionado, or if you already have an mp3 player, your may never realize that an iPod Touch as PDA can be an important productivity and organizing tool in your life.

iPod Touch Productivity Applications

The iPod Touch ships with several applications including Calendar, Contacts, Notes, and Email. When it comes to productivity these three applications are what you need. The Calendar and Contacts applications easily sync to your iCal and AddressBook or Microsoft Office on your computer. And, YES, you can input new events and addresses directly into the iPod Touch. The next time you sync with your computer this new information will sync onto your computer and the data will be in both places. (Not to confuse you, but when this device was first introduced by Apple there was no calendar input on the iPod Touch - but since that time Apple has added the calendar input capability)

At this point the iPod Touch Notes application does not sync with the computer. So whatever notes you make on the iPod Touch stay on the device only. The Notes application is useful to parents for making grocery lists, errand lists, organizing projects and the like. Even though iPod Touch Notes has no Mac counterpart - I still love this application.

I don’t find Email to be as useful as the other iPod Touch as PDA applications. This is because iPod Touch only has internet connectivity through wi-fi. This means that you need to have access to a wi-fi netwok either at home or at a hotspot to use the internet and to download your email. But if you want 24/7 email and internet then you should be looking at the iPhone.

Using the iPod Touch as PDA is a natural choice if you use a Mac at home. Even if your platform is Windows, the iPod Touch is still compatible.

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Technology changes faster than we can blink. Our nation is drowning under the weight of our discarded electronics. Many of these old cell phones, digital cameras, video cameras, and computers are in good working order. They’ve just been upgraded, given the pink slip by their owners.

What do we do with these old gadgets? All too often they end up in the basement waiting to be purged. At the next spring cleaning, off to the landfill they go.

What should we do with our old electronics? Recycle computers - give them away! But that takes motivation and energy and effort. Too much effort. Many companies have stepped up to help you with that burden. Some of these companies donate the equipment to charities and you get a deduction. Some sell the equipment, donate the proceeds to charity, and you get a deduction. And some just plain pay you cash. And cash can be a good motivator.

I recently came across a site called Second Rotation. They buy your old electronic gadgets - and they make it really simple.

• Using their user friendly pricing guide, you can quickly find the make and model of the item you want to sell.
• You then answer a series of yes/no questions about whether the item is working and whether you have all the original stuff like chargers and manuals that came with the product.
• Then you rate the overall condition of the product. Second Rotation calculates an estimate of what they will pay you for it.
• If this is acceptable to you then you click accept.
• You ship the product to Second Rotation free of charge.
• They check out your product, if it is up to snuff, they send you a check for the price you agreed to.
• Easy.

Second Rotation accepts a variety of gadgets. They recycle computers (laptops), cell phones, gaming consoles, digital cameras, camcorders, mp3 players, and GPS devices. Just remember, you must check that the make and model of your product is listed, as they don’t take everything.

Of course Second Rotation is only one option in electronics recycling. A while ago I wrote about about a company where you can recycle cell phones for a good cause. Donating electronics is always a good choice as well.

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Today happens to be my site’s first birthday. It is no surprise that my very first parenting tip was about internet safety. I hope that you will take the time to celebrate this milestone with me and revisit that first post.

And here are twenty more things to consider.

20 Steps Towards Internet Safety for Kids

1. Centrally locate your computer so you can see what sites your children are visiting.
2. Make a list of acceptable sites and bookmark them. Teach your kids to use these bookmarks.
3. Require your children to ask permission to visit sites that are not on the list.
4. Periodically check your browser’s history of visited sites.
5. Set your browser to block pop up windows.
6. Teach your children not to click on ads or pop up ads.
7. Teach your children not to download anything without permission.
8. Talk to your children about how to identify a questionable site and what to do in that situation.
9. Enable the Google Safe Search filter to aid with internet safety.
10. If you allow instant messaging and chat, watch those interactions like a hawk.
11. Keep a list of your children’s passwords to email accounts and websites and let them know that you may check in periodically.
12. If you allow your children to interact on social websites like MySpace or Facebook, open your own account and add your kids as your friends and vice versa.
13. Surf the net for your kids. Introduce your kids to websites that you approve of and that your kids might enjoy.
14. Limit the time that your kids are allowed to spend on the computer.
15. Only allow internet use during specified times when you know that you will be available to supervise.
16. Get fun software for the computer. Instead of using the internet, kids can spend time creating projects or working with digital photographs, etc.
17. Make sure your anti-virus software and firewall software is up to date.
18. Monitor internet activity when friends are over.
19. Talk to your child about using the internet responsibly when they are at a friends house and what they should do if the other child is not practicing good internet safety.
20. Research and determine if parental internet safety software is needed in your family situation.

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You know I’ve already left a comment at GoodyBlog to enter - so, you better hurry and leave yours! The contest closes at midnight Eastern Time on Friday February 29, 2008.

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The Littlest Pet Shop VIP Iguana:

The Littlest Pet Shop VIP Monkey:

The Littlest Pet Shop VIP Boxer:

And finally, the Littlest Pet Shop VIP Exclusive Yellow Kitty:

.

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It seems that PopCap Games can be found at popcap.com. Ok - online games, nothing too new and exciting about that. But yet what Aimee said intrigued me. Apparently 5,000,000 users play PopCap games each month. And of these PopCap games players 78% are women and the average player is married with at least one child.

Why are women attracted to PopCap games? What is the draw? Of course I had to check it out. In her email, Aimee briefly outlined some of the PopCap games at popcap.com - Bejewelled, Peggle, Chuzzle to name a few. These games are mind challenging - brain games, if you will. I have heard of these, but never actually played them. Aimee even went so far as to say that in addition to being entertaining, playing these games are good for your health. Huh? Apparently, studies have shown that playing a casual game (which is some type of technical term for what PopCap games really are) can lower stress levels. Basically, the games give you the opportunity to take a “mental break”.

The bottom line - PopCap Games are addicting. I enjoyed the Mummy Maze, Bejewelled, and Book Worm. And then I had to tear myself away. If you set your own timer while you play you may reduce stress. But if you play the day away, all of your other responsibilities will still be waiting!

Definitely worth bookmarking.

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I have tried all kinds of rules, time limits, coupons, you name it. And they all do work, as long as I am ready to monitor it and be the “electronics police”. Somedays, I just don’t want this job.

We always have had a no electronics on the weekdays policy which works well, but then the weekends turn into a techno free for all. This past weekend was extremely busy for us and I did not want to fill the few hours of down time with video games and tv. It is always so hard to pull the kids away when their time is up.

So I did something shocking - I said no to electronics for the weekend. And a funny thing happened - my kids played the old fashioned way! They made up stories, they took out the art supplies and created beautiful art projects, they read books, and generally got along with each other.

The house became even more disorganized - there were newspapers spread across the family room floor as the children glued and painted and tried not to get any on the carpet. But it was so much better than being plugged in, that I really didn’t mind.

I will definitely do this more often!

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