Online Story Time

Barnes and Noble has a great online story time. Kids can follow along with the pages of the books shown online (or follow along with their own books at home, if they have them) as authors or celebrities read them out loud. 

This month's story is "Ladybug Girl at the Beach," read by the authors Jacky Davis & David Soman.

Ladybug Girl at the Beach

Jacky Davis and David Soman

They have some really great classic kids' books, too.

Some of the stories you can choose from are:
Where the Wild Things Are
Olivia
Crash! Smash! (My nephew's favorite when he was 5.)
Green Eggs & Ham, read by Rachel Ray
Polar Express
And six more, with a new story added each month.

And it's free. You don't have to sign in. Nothing. Just pick a story and watch/listen.

Super awesome.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/storytime

UBP: The 2011 Ultimate Blog Party!

This week, April 1-8 is the 2011 Ultimate Blog Party, and I'm joining in the fun! It's happening right now, so get over to www.5minutesformom.com and learn all about it. Thousands of bloggers will be participating and following one another - it's a great way to build up your readership on your blog, on Twitter and on Facebook, and there are TONS of giveaways. 

You're supposed to write your own blog party post, introducing yourself and telling a bit about what you and your blog are about, then sign in for the blog hops - there are several categories - and start making new friends. So let's get on with this! (And thanks to Brent from Linkytools for telling me about it!)

My name is Kristin, and I've determined that there are a lot of cool people out there who have cool kids. The thing is, they don't all necessarily know all the basic and/or cool stuff they're supposed to do, or have the opportunities to do, now that they have these awesome kids.

I have to admit right now... I don't have children of my own. I always wanted to, and prepared all my life, keeping notebooks of all the cool stuff I was going to do with them, lists of baby names, the whole drill. I waited too long, then got breast cancer. Chemo induced early menopause and that was all she wrote. 

The good news is that my little brother had a baby not long after that which he and his beautiful wife graciously shared with me almost completely. I researched during their pregnancy and after, I was there for the birth, and I was there almost as a doula for the first two years of his life. 

Photo by Aunt Kristin

I babysat several times a week. They left me with him for weekends when he was a infant. My nephew and I had two years of serious bonding time. I took him on his first train rides, his first pony rides, to his first pow wows. He was my boy. He'd even slip and call me mom sometimes, and she didn't mind. 

When he was two, they moved from L.A. to Austin, to buy a house and raise him in a good neighborhood. I helped them move, drove with my brother to Texas, helped them move in, and have been visiting them regularly - and they visit here - ever since. 

My nephew is six now and called me last week to tell me he just took off his training wheels on his bike, and is riding by himself. My brother sent me the video. Then he called back because he forgot to tell me ALL about Cirque du Soleil.  ; )

We're still very close - all of us, and I still do lots of research and am always looking out for things for them (and me) to do with my nephew, since they both work and just don't have the time I do to devote to it. They're too busy raising him!

I hope that all of my research, reading and reviewing will be of some help to parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc., who don't have the time to think about all this stuff, either, or just aren't as obsessive about it as I am. 

I have a lot going on in my life, but one of my great joys is figuring out cool things to do with my nephew, the best books, puzzles, games, movies, how to keep family traditions that my brother doesn't remember alive for my nephew, and incorporate his mama's heritage, as well. 

And now, last week, my boyfriend and I were named Godparents to our best friend's baby girl, Alexandria. How awesome is that!?

So please check back in, follow me and I'll follow you back, and let's trade tips for cool stuff. I'll be doing recommendations, reviews and giveaways.

Profitable Blogging For Beginners - With Free GoDaddy Web Hosting!

I'm taking a new class that I love. It's a live 'online' class called 'Profitable Blogging for Beginners,' targeted at blogging moms. The class is at a site called Blogelina and is run by a very nice and knowledgeable woman named Tanya Peterson, who says that while she's targeting moms, she wouldn't turn anyone away.  ; )

Tanya Peterson, aka Blogelina

I told some pet blogging friends about it and I think there were five or six of them there last night. We actually first heard about the class in a Two Little Cavaliers newsletter. (Thanks, girls!)

The price can't be beat. It's $5 for four 2 hour live online chat-room-style classes, with a 60 page class manual that you print out. You can have no blog at all, (really, really a beginner) or already have a full blown blog or website, and still find this useful. 

AND you get a year's FREE GoDaddy web hosting, which I've never bought before because it's normally $84/year. This has given me the push I need to move to self-hosted blogs and websites. You'll notice I haven't made the switch yet, but it's next on my list, and I've already received my web hosting account information from GoDaddy. Tanya's gotten me all signed up for their Deluxe Linux web hosting plan.  : )

The class meets from 9-11pm EST on Tuesdays, and just keeps repeating starting over with Class #1 every four weeks, with some folks coming back every week to learn and share more. Tanya emails participants the class notes with all the tips and links that were discussed during the class, so they don't have to take notes during the class. Everyone can focus on the chat and slides.

Everyone follows one another's blogs and giveaways, and helps each other figure things out. It's really nice - and fun spending an evening with all these great and enterprising women.

Blogelina also has a free email list and a lot of free tips and stuff. You don't have to buy anything. For that matter, if you really can't afford the $5, Tanya says to email her and she'll work something out! And there's a 30 Day Guarantee. If you're not satisfied after 30 days, you get you $5 back. Srsly.

I paid my $5 by Paypal and enrolled in the class, downloaded class manual, and looked around the Blogelina site. Tanya has another offer for her 'Blogging Bundle - 8 Resources for Your Blog' for $10, a package of other downloads. (This bundle and the class are the only things she's selling). I bought those, too, then found out that if you buy the Bundle, you get the class enrollment free - including the GoDaddy web hosting. 

So I emailed Blogelina and said I'd already paid the $5 for the class, but also bought the other $10 package - and Tanya immediately refunded $5 to my Paypal account. I'm very impressed. You could skip the extra package and just take the class and get the free web hosting for $5. 

I assume Blogelina's trying to get tons of people taking the class so she can eventually charge more money, but first she has to have lots of people raving about it, like me, which we obviously are, so her strategy is working.

Blogelina also has an affiliates program. If you, or anyone, signs up from my referral link, I get a 75% commission - which is, are you sitting down? $3.75. Whether you use my referral link or not (which doesn't change your price), I do think a lot of my friends would like this class, and I would love to have you in the class with me next week, when Class #1 and the whole program starts from the beginning. 

If you get your friends to sign up, and you're in the affiliates program, you'll get a commission, too, but that's not the real deal here. The class and the free web hosting are what this is about!

Hope to see you there.
Kristin

DREAMWORKS: LIVE THE DREAM FLY-AWAY SWEEPSTAKES

Win one of three grand prize trips for four:

• Trip for 4 to Los Angeles (Airfare for 4 and 3 days/2 nights hotel)
• VIP tickets to see SHREK THE MUSICAL at the Pantages Theater
• A chance to meet Shrek and the fairytale gang backstage
• A goody bag full of great SHREK prizes
• A tour of the DreamWorks Animation campus

• Trip for 4 to New York City (Airfare for 4 and 3 days/2 nights hotel)
• VIP tickets to see MADAGASCAR LIVE at Radio City Music Hall
• A chance to meet Alex and friends backstage 
• A goody bag full of fun MADAGASCAR merchandise

• Trip for 4 to Los Angeles (Airfare for 4 and 3 days/2 nights hotel)
• Tickets to the KUNG FU PANDA 2 premiere in Los Angeles
• A goody bag full of fun DreamWorks merchandise

Enter to win here up to once daily: 

http://www.dreamworksanimation.com/theatricals/

Contest ends March 3, 2011

Mailbox Monday!

Welcome to Mailbox Monday ~ A blog hop to boost your subscriber count, hosted by A little of this A little of that…, Simply Stacie, & This Mama Loves Her Bargains.

I hope this will help my fledgling little BohoKids blog find its wings... Please take a look at my past few posts to get an idea of what I'm about. 


For me, it will be Meat Free Mailbox Mondays, which it turns out will be tougher for me than I thought, as I was recently diagnosed with wheat, soy, dairy and nut allergies, and need to eat protein with every meal! I have to admit, I lapsed today and had chicken curry with veggies for dinner. I'm working on it, though.


I look forward to getting to know all of you on Mailbox Mondays. 


♡ Kristin 

Here’s how to join in the fun:


Click on the mail box above and follow the directions.

Everyone is welcome to participate.  Each week a new linky will be generated, so make sure you stop by on Mondays to add your blog.

Help us spread the word about Mailbox Monday! Write a post for your blog and add the blog hop code.

MLK Jr. Day / Meat Free Monday

HH The Dalai Lama, Coretta Scott King and Dexter King 2006

Each 3rd Monday is a national holiday in the United States, celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Many of us have heard or read his famous, “I Have A Dream” speech. Click on the title and you and your older kids can listen to the speech. 

One of my favorite quotes of Dr. King's is this one, from an anti-Vietnam war speech he gave in 1968:

“On some positions cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’

Expediency asks the question, ‘Is it politic?’ 

Vanity asks the question, ‘Is it popular?’ 

But conscience asks the question, ‘Is it right?’

And there comes a point when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because one’s conscience tells one that it is right.”

 -Martin Luther King Jr.

This is the perfect day to discuss what this means with your children. Who MLK, Jr. was, what he did, what segregation was, what racism is, and how these things affect us today.

Martin Luther King, Jr, died at 39 years old. It hardly seems possible, does it? Yet he accomplished so much, and like his hero Mahatma Gandhi, he did it emphasizing compassion and nonviolence. Ahimsa.

Dr. King's son, Dexter, later took that philosophy a step further and became a vegan, as did his mother. Coretta Scott King was a vegan the last 15 years of her life. 

I'm not asking you to be a vegan, or for you or your children to be vegetarians - although if you're leaning that way, I think it's a great idea. I am suggesting that you consider going 'meat free' once a week - for your health, for the environment, and to give a few animals a break. 

Since this is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and Meat Free Monday - how about deliberately having at least one meatless meal, and talking with your kids about why you're doing it?

I'd love to hear your comments.
Kristin  ♡

It's Sunday - What's your Meat Free Monday Plan?

I don't know what mine is yet, but it will have to do with omelets for breakfast, probably a Trader Joe's salad for lunch and Indian food for dinner.

I'll update this on Monday.

But keep it in mind and share if you have any tentative ideas for Meat Free Monday!

Thanks for reading!
Kristin

Let's *Finally* Join The McCartney's With Meatless Mondays.

The McCartney's Meat Free Monday Website

I was driving though Laurel Canyon last night and heard Jackson Browne singing, "Oh Lord - Are there really people starving still??" It burned into me. That was 1976.  Thirty-five years ago. Seriously? 

Seriously. Many of us have dabbled in vegetarianism or veganism, only to revert back to our carnivorous ways for various reasons. There's no reason why we can't join the Meatless Mondays campaign. There are several of them, actually.

We all know the reasons to at least cut back on meat consumption, aside from animal cruelty issues, which are obvious and which we all try not to think about, or think of as the price of being at the top (more or less) of the food chain - with a conscience.

If every family would cut back one day a week, four days a month, 52 days a year, there would be a startling positive impact on the planet, on our own health, and help address those "people starving still."

Johns Hopkins' Meatless Monday Website

Meat is such a wasteful way to get our nutrients - the water, the land necessary to raise all those animals... I don't think I need to go into all the stats about that here. Click on either of the links above and you can learn all the scientific reasons reducing meat intake is a good idea.

And Meatless Monday is actually catching on. Some school and hospital cafeterias, including those at UC Davis and Yale now have meat free Mondays. It's a movement!

Let's do it. It can't be that hard. We all have meat free days, we just need to think about it a little more and schedule them for Mondays, then share with our families, friends and coworkers, people in the market, the restaurants we frequent, etc., what we're doing.

Let the kids (spouses, room-mates) get involved in choosing their favorite meat free dishes. Put it on the calendar so that it's a 'thing' to look forward to.

If you need ideas to get you started, click on the links above, but you probably already have enough vegetarian meals in your repertoire to get started.

HuffPostGreen, which I'm more than a little embarrassed to admit I just discovered, has a great weekly Meatless Monday section with recipes, too.

In fact, I just added a Meat Free Mondays page to this blog (up top), starting with what we're eating today. Tell me what you're doing on your meatless Mondays. Inspire me!

If you don't start today, don't worry. Try to aim for next week.

By the way, I lied on my new Meat Free Mondays page, already. I'm not eating cereal this morning. I'm just chomping on trail mix, and I have to go shopping if I'm having a bagel sandwich, which I may... but you get the idea.

Meat with mine, please. 

Alright, I have to go feed the cat (who will not be participating in Meat Free Mondays) and put on a sweater and/or turn up the heat. It may be Hollywood, but it's freaking cold in here! And dang if I didn't just think that I chipped a tooth or something. I just chewed on a piece of hard nut shell in my trail mix. That blows - 'Ralph's Mt. High Raw Mix!'  I think I will have that Special K.

Let me know how it goes...  ; )
Good luck.

Kristin
   ♡