Bethanie's Brain

So Ms. Almost-Six has completed kindergarten and now I have all this Stuff piled up - cool little art projects, worksheets, report card, diploma! I'd like to do something with it besides let it take up space on my already-cluttered desk and collect dust. Scrapbooks are an obvious solution. You'd think. But the very idea of scrapbooking makes me shudder. Don't get me wrong - I think scrapbooks are neat. I think all the little doo-dads and stickers you can buy to decorate scrapbook pages are really nifty. I love the thought of organizing all the Stuff into something that resembles a Story. But I know just what would happen if I bought all the nifty doo-dads. They would take up space right next to all the Stuff on my already-cluttered desk and collect dust. My wedding album is a perfect example: I've been married almost nine years and all the wedding album Stuff is still sitting in a plastic bag on an already-cluttered shelf and collecting dust. So I won't go there....

So I have this collection of quotes that I like. I keep it in a Word document on my computer, which is nice because all the quotes are in one place. I have often wished, though, that I could display them somehow - have a new one pop up every day when I turn my computer on or something. I haven't found anything that will do that yet, but I thought, hey! surely there's a widget that I could put on my blog that would do that. I commenced searching. And I discovered that there are LOTS of quote widgets out there, but most of them are stocked with someone else's idea of a good quote. Now that is all well and good, but I wanted to load my widget with my own collection of good quotes, and short of learning java and programming a widget myself, it was looking like I was going to be out of luck. And then I found this: http://blogger-hacked.blogspot.com/2006/09/quote-of-day-widget.html Pretty much exactly what I was looking for! Now in order to add your own quotes, you do have t...

I am so sick of stomping on Cheerios. I am so sick of Ms. Baby walking around with 57 Cheerios stuffed in her mouth. I am so sick of the sound that 57 Cheerios make as they skitter across the floor I just swept, because Ms. Baby hasn't quite grasped the concept of watching where she is going. So someone, please, please , invent a toddler snack dispenser that: a) Will not explode its contents on impact. b) Will only dispense TWO Cheerios at a time. c) Will actually dispense Cheerios when Ms. Baby wants them. d) Cannot be outsmarted by Ms. Baby (good luck on that one...). Anyone with a good idea, please leave contact information in the comments. I may have some capital to get you started on this one. .

New category: Things I Wish Someone Would Invent Not me, 'cuz I haven't got time to invent, patent, etc anything , but I've created this lovely label under which I shall post my ideas for anyone who DOES have the time. Feel free to steal the idea and run with it. Idea No. 1 - Shopping Cart Cupholders It would be great if shopping carts just CAME with cupholders, but I'll bet that's expensive and would totally screw up how the carts nest into each other in the cart corrals. So the next best thing would be some sort of attachment that I could purchase (or rent) that would hook on to an existing shopping cart. Why? Because I haven't got enough arms to juggle the cell phone, the baby's snacks, the baby's drink, my coffee, my purse, the baby's toys, and/or Ms. Five's various items all at the same time without losing my mind and my patience - not to mention somehow getting fruit roll-ups, lunchables and string cheese into the damn cart before every...