20% off diapers

Join Amazon Mom via this link and I get a $10 referral credit!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/mom/signup/info?ie=UTF8&refcust=E3DSZWVQGRRO7ZCKYYDPJVLCMY&ref_type=generic

Photography forum

I joined a photography forum last month that I've really been enjoying. Well, as much as one can who realizes how very much she has to learn about a subject she's passionate about. But seriously, it's pretty cool and I got a discounted membership by using the coupon code BLOGHER20. It should still work if you want to use it.

It's called Clickin' Moms. Let me know if you join! We can connect on there.

Vitacost

I have a Vitacost referral link. We both get $10 off our  purchase when you sign up under me.

https://www.vitacostrewards.com/VtsVVlE

Back up your photos

I've needed a complete restore of all my files on several occasions. I have a physical hard drive on which I back up my items, but I don't do this often (every four to six weeks or so). In the meantime, I do take photos every day which I would be quite loath to lose. 

I used to use Mozy.com because it was a monthly fee (easier to fit in budget). I had to use it for a restore once. I am still traumatized. There were about 60 files to download, they were not numbered or ordered in any user friendly way, and I had to download them one at a time and then try to remember which one I'd done last. They were each labeled with a random string of characters. Also there was no way to know what was in each zip file, so if I needed one thing quicker, it was too bad. And some files were several gigabytes, that I didn't want at all (like the windows.old file).  I'm still not completely sure I downloaded everything from that one incident.

After that I switched to Carbonite and I love it. I've used it many times, and it's not just good for when your computer crashes. It makes moving your files to a new computer super painless, too. You can select important files to restore first and the program works in the background - you just leave the computer running and it hums along putting files back in the folders they were in before the crash. 

Well, I'm posting this because if you were looking for a backup software you can use my referral link to buy Carbonite. They're running a special promotion right now where until January 3, if you buy it using my link, we EACH get a $20 Amazon gift card. The cost for unlimited file space backup for one computer is about $60/year. 

Here's the link:

http://pop.to/x643

My next lens. For real. (I think.)

So, in the interest of not waiting until I'm forty to own a lens that is acceptable to me (I'm ready to throw my kit lens out the window), I have been hanging out in photography forums for my camera to see what people are saying about indoor close quarters photography with a variety of lighting possibilities. Because I hate hate hate using the built in flash.

It seems that for my camera, the 28mm 1.8 is a great choice, even though it isn't an L lens.  I love my nifty fifty (also not an L) but takes such close-ups on my crop factor 7D that I can't get a photo of all my children without taking the picture from the next room and sometimes having to hold the camera over my head or stand on a chair. Not so cute (or safe) at nine months pregnant. I just need something with a bit wider of an angle, but still having a wide aperture for shallow depth of field (to blur my messy house in the background - very important!). This 28mm will give me closer to a true 50mm focal length, and I hope to be able to take a picture of all my kids on the couch at once. With number seven coming any day now, it seems pretty important. :)

I feel good about this decision, and I hope not to have to second guess myself again, since it is pretty much mind-bending torture to sort through reviews and specs for these lenses. However, please feel free to leave a comment if you feel strongly one way or another. I won't be actually buying for another month or so. Plenty of time, alas, to flip-flop a couple more times.

Buy this MP3 Album!

My very talented brother in law, Craig, has teamed up with some of his buddies and SteepleChase records to create a jazz Christmas album.


You need to check this out!


 
If you have any mp3 credits with Amazon, or a gift card, now's the time to use 'em up. :)

Let me know how you like it!

Vitacost

To buy my herbs, vitamins, homeopathic and single essential oils, I usually end up with Vitacost.

They have especially competetive prices on oregano oil, which we go through a good bit this cold and flu season if we feel a bug coming on.

I recommend them all the time and I just realized I could be getting credit for referring people!

Here is my referral code:

 http://www.vitacost.com/Referee?wlsrc=rsReferral&ReferralCode=30503563

If you use my code to order for the first time I will get a $10 discount on my next order AND you will get a $10 coupon for your first order!

Here are some of my favorite things to buy on vitacost:

I'll be saving a while.

So apparently I will never be happy with my photographs until I start buying L lenses for my Canon SLR. I tend to shoot mostly indoors or closeups, what with being around a million kids all day who don't really understand the idea of personal space. So, no telephoto needed.  

What I want from my next lens is:

- versatile lens with limited zoom including wider angles (don't need anything over 80mm right now)
- tack sharp focus
- some bokeh
- good low light shooting (which I'm guessing means a pretty wide aperture)

 I think this is my next one.
 
 Or possibly this one:
 

Guess I'll be saving for a while . Donations accepted. 
Oh, and so are other suggestions for your favorite versatile Canon lens for obtaining stellar images.

Just put this on my wish list!! It comes out in a few weeks.

The appliance I didn't know I needed

Honestly, truly, really.
I don't know how I lived without an immersion blender for so long.



I actually used to batch blend this soup in my Kitchen Aid!

And believe, me, these days I make more than 4 servings at a time. I just made a batch for our lunch (6 quarts) and wow was it easy!!
I don't think I can ever go back.

INGREDIENTS

1 teaspoon unsalted butter
1 large leek, white and light green part only, washed and chopped
1 medium baking potato, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 pound asparagus, ends snapped off, tips cut off and reserved, stalks cut into 1-inch pieces
3 cups chicken broth, homemade or low-sodium canned
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1 teaspoon olive oil
8 shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and quartered
PREPARATION

1.
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over low heat. Add the leek and saute until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the potatoes, asparagus stalks, chicken broth and lemon rind. Raise heat and simmer until potatoes and asparagus are tender, about 15 minutes.
2.
Place soup in a blender and puree until smooth. Stir in salt and pepper. Keep warm. Heat the olive oil in a medium nonstick skillet. Add the mushrooms and the asparagus tips. Saute until tender, about 5 minutes. Ladle the soup among 4 bowls. Garnish with asparagus tips and mushrooms. Serve immediately.
YIELD Four servings
http://events.nytimes.com/recipes/5984/1995/04/23/Asparagus-Potato-And-Leek-Soup/recipe.html

What's on my bookshelf?

In the market for a colander?

I paid $30 for this colander a few years ago, and I'd probably do it again if something happened to mine... it's great. The holes are the perfect size and there are plenty of them. And they're evenly distributed. I use this to sprout 6 cups of grain at a time, or other kinds of sprouts. And it's perfect for lots of other uses. And it looks the same as the day I got it. I use this thing every day, no joke.

Take control of your finances

 I've been using YNAB for over 4 years. Back when it was just a spreadsheet program I loved it, but I had to tweak it to get a bank rec. Now that they've upgraded to YNAB Pro, you can actually download your bank statements as often as needed and import the transactions to categorize them, and reconcile with the bank then and there. No more tweaking required - it does everything I need it to do! Well, one day they'll improve their reports features. But I don't really need pretty reports like I need financial security. They're just kind of fun.
Speaking of fun, so is checking my budget and seeing how my month is coming along. It's so fun to me, that I actually do it almost every day. Gets me giddy to see the balances equal out.
I know, I'm weird.
But anyway, you can read more about how I use this software on my main blog, in this post.

John Taylor Gatto

This has been on my wish list for AGES and after reading this I am even more antsy to get my hands on it!

Here's a teaser:
"I know how difficult it is for most of us who mow our lawns and walk our dogs to comprehend that long-range social engineering even exists, let alone that it began to dominate compulsion schooling nearly a century ago. Yet the 1934 edition of Ellwood P. Cubberley’s Public Education in the United States is explicit about what happened and why. "

The beginning of my unschooling journey

This book was a completely fascinating read and, though written by a woman who spent much time in (and believes in) the school system, it revolutionized my thinking on early schooling from "early and a lot" to "none at all."


I was a "whiz kid" myself and always trying to be ahead of myself. Graduated college at 16, that kind of thing. I always wanted this for my kids so the natural thing seemed to be to homeschool them early.

The Collapse of Complex Societies

My husband wrote a review of this book on his blog.

Everyone Must Read

This book really challenges the common "wisdom" of nutrition. Where's the evidence, where are the studies showing that we should be eating 6-11 servings a day of grains? Why do cereals tout themselves as "heart healthy?" What's the deal with the American Heart Association? Who made that dumb pyramid, anyway?

Swagbucks

I do my searches on swagbucks.com.  I've "earned" over $60 so far.

Flour sack towels

I love these towels. I hoard them in a zip lock back out of reach so they are always clean and ready when I need to strain my homemade yogurt. Cheesecloth is so last year.

Holiness for Housewives

I’ve always hated those guilt-tripping “holiness” books that are geared toward some imaginary type of person that the author thinks should exist but I’ve never encountered. You know, the kind of mom that has endless quiet hours for Scripture reading and daily prayer. If you don’t read your Bible for 30 minutes a day and have daily formal devotions, you aren’t living up to your calling.  Even if your calling includes waking every three hours at night and changing endless diapers and making endless meals and cleaning endless messes. (Don’t you know you’re supposed to get up at 4:00 am to do it, if the kids are too noisy during the day?!) With a wave of the hand and a “pfft!” I have always dismissed these books or sermons as completely impractical and a burden on the faithful. “God knows what my calling is and I will not feel guilty for not having devotions every single day!”
Well, this book isn’t anything like that.