The At Homer

I recently took on a new site called Everything Cloth, and I'm trying to figure out what to do with The At Homer. While I don't have a ton of followers I do have some, and I feel like Everything Cloth is all about cloth diapers. I'd still like to write about all aspects of conscience parenting, I'm just not sure where that will be. In the mean time, I ask that everyone take a look at Everything Cloth, it's a great site.

I'm so excited because I finally have enough fans on facebook to get my user name. http://facebook.com/theathomer and I uploaded a new profile pic. Since then I've gotten more 'likes', I think because people know what it is about. I'd love some comments from people who have seen the wall. And more likes. Here's the new profile pic:

Lately I've been harassing my husband, almost non-stop, to get me an iPhone. Since the iPhone 4s came out, I want it soooo BAD!!

I know the only real difference is that it has a better camera, but that's exactly why I want it. I hate the pictures my Droid X takes and I want to be able to take decent pics on the go.

My husband asks why I need the phone when I already have the Droid, and the real reason is, I just want to hook it up to my iTunes. It's such a pain to have to use a different program to drag things into my Droid. I already have my ratings, my playlists, etc on iTunes and really, it is the best program for music.

Another reason I want the iPhone is because of the operating system. While I like android, it seems to consistently keep programs open that I'm not using and runs my battery out like nobody's business. I remember how the iPhone turns the programs off when you exit them, which is nice, because it helps with the battery.

Jailbreaking
I liked my jailbroken iphone that I had once before so I will probably do that again. I got all sorts of themes, and cool apps that made it more fun than the standard phone, plus I hate restrictions from Verizon. I mean, honestly, it's my phone and service, what do they care what I do with it?

One of every size
My real mission with the iPhone and my electronics craze is to get one of every size. A laptop for at home, a tablet for on the go, and an iphone to have everywhere. I know it sounds crazy, but I really am an electronics buff and I love these toys.

So tell me, are you electronics crazy like I am, do you want something new all the time? What's your favorite toy?

Teaching my kids about God and Jesus hasn't been the easiest thing to do. There don't seem to be curriculums that match what I want to do, some go way overboard, and most others barely mention religion at all. I've tried sending them to sunday school, but they didn't really like it, so we pulled them out.

They do go to vacation bible school each year, for a week, and have learned quite a bit that way. We talk about god and they pray, and know that God created everything. Basically they know the basics. I wanted to teach them more though, so I talked about it with a friend and she recommended What's In the Bible.

What's in the Bible?
What's in the Bible is a series made by oneof the creators of VeggieTales. Right now there are only 5 of the movies available, and each part of the series is just a DVD. The DVD's cost about $10 each, and have two sections on them.

We only have the first one right now. It's really cute, the puppets are great, and the characters are funny. My husband and I find it interesting and funny and the kids like it too. After watching it the first time we decided to only watch one section at a time. They got easily distracted after that.

Printables
To say the least I do like What's in the Bible. Now on the other hand there are some things I'd like to see in addition to the DVD's. For instance, it would be nice to have a coloring sheet for each section at the very least. When teaching kids something, it's nice to have a back up method to reinforce what they just learned. I think it helps make the topic and given information stick.

Now I did find some coloring sheets but they were deeply hidden in their website. I actually searched the domain for pdf documents to see what I could find. I don't feel like I should post the documents because it was so hard to find them.

The Curriculum
I love that they offer a curriculum to go along with the program, but.. why isn't there a curriculum option for parents and families. The curriculum for each video is about $70-$80, or $350 for the first so many. It is made for churches to use, but I'm sure families are using it as well. I did find some documents for further teaching the subjects, I just wish there was some kind of curriculum for home study on there.

Does anyone else like these movies? What do you think about having a curriculum? How do you supplement it?

Here are some related links to What's in the Bible?

• Jelly Telly
• Coloring Pages

I run my own marketing/business consulting company at http://www.mary-green.com I do a lot of writing, ads, search optimization, etc.

I've decided that since I would really like to help small businesses (or local businesses) I want to offer free marketing support. What I plan to do is let anyone who would like some marketing advice, send me an email and I'll respond with answers for free.

So, if you have questions about your marketing, online or offline (brick and mortar) feel free to email me at mary@mary-green.com There will be no high pressure sales, I will stick to email, tell you what I think about your website, etc. I'd appreciate any help spreading the word.

I had planned on keeping this blog updated more, just because I like writing and sharing my life, and if I can pass on information I have learned, and it helps someone, it feels good.

This post though comes from my hospital stay since last Friday. I am here for gallbladder issues and I can't wait to go home, most likely tonight, if everything goes well with my MRI.

On Thursday night we had pizza, we needed something fast, because the kids were crazy during the day and pizza seemed to do the job. I know it wasn't on par with our new diet, but it really was an awful day.

In the middle of the night I started having back pain, that came from my gallbladder. I've had it before 3 other times, so I knew what it was. I took some tylenol and laid down hoping that would do the trick. By morning nothing had worked and I called the dr to see if I could come in and get something for the pain. They said to go to the ER if it got worse before my appointment.

Right after the call I realized I wasn't going to make the appt, I was having trouble breathing and was in a lot of pain, I was so uncomfortable. So my wonderful husband dropped me off at the ER. When you have 3 kids you don't get a lot of options with this. It was Friday morning and everyone we knew was at work, plus we have a newborn (4 weeks).

I got right in, and they ordered urine, blood, an xray and an ultrasound. They also put me on an IV for pain meds- morphine (wow that stuff was nice!) I passed out, the pain stopped, etc. The only thing was when they gave me meds by mouth I threw them back up immediately.

After awhile the doctor came in, said I had an infection and needed to be admitted. I said "WHAT!!! it's a gallbladder", he said "Yes, and it can kill you" so I decided to be admitted It took hours to be admitted and I was put on what they call an NPO diet. I couldn't drink or eat ANYTHING, not even water.

They set me up with a hospital grade medela pump, and babies r us, helped us out by giving us a great discount on our own medela metro in style pump. It's quite the beauty.

The doctor came in and explained the whole problem. I most likely had gallstones that were stuck, my white blood count was up, and my liver enzymes were up. So I would be in the hospital for awhile, then get to have some kind of gallbladder surgery. There are two kinds: laproscopic and invasive. It all depended on what happened when they got in there.

Saturday morning the doctor said my numbers were still up so I would be here until Monday at least. A different doctor was here on Sunday and he left me have clear liquids and start a fat free diet if there was no pain (there wasn't).

So now it is Monday, and I am waiting for my MRI at 2pm to see if anything is in fact stuck, then the doctor will come in again (at some point today) and discuss what was seen in the MRI. If I don't have surgery before I go home, I get to go on a fat free diet at home until surgery.

I just can't wait to go home. We've had some good help since I've been in here, but I miss being with the baby. My poor husband is extremely exhausted and has all 3 boys at home right now. I wish I was there. Last night I cried myself to sleep because I just miss being home. I want to take care of my kids, animals, clean the house, organize it, be out of this bed, spend time with the baby at night, etc.

So, that's about it, do you have any hospital stories, any gallbladder issues, extended periods of breastpumping stories you'd like to share?

I love to read and I normally keep all of the books I read because I love to reference them. I'm not much of a fiction reader, though I do love Nicholas Sparks' books. My favorite topics are self improvement, psychology, marketing, family, marriage, etc.

Buying books can get expensive though, if you are an avid reader, when books are anywhere from $15-$30 and you go through 1 or 2 a month, the costs add up. While it's nice to use the library, like I said I like to reference my books, so that is a little difficult to do.

A few years ago a friend of mine told me about http://www.paperbackswap.com it is a website where you can look for books you want to read, and post books you are done with. For each book that is requested from you, you receive a credit to request a book from someone else. There are waiting lists for each book too, so if there is something you'd like to read, you can be put on the list and automatically request it when it is available.

When someone requests a book from you, the website gives you a shipping slip and you wrap it around the book and ship it. We've seen people use plastic wrap over the book to keep it safe in shipping. The shipping isn't expensive either as it is media mail, so at the most it is a few dollars per book.

You do have to post books to send in order to have someone request them, and in my case what I do is post books I've gotten at garage sales and book sales, this makes them very cheap, and instead of paying $15-$30 a book, I instead pay $5 a book or less.

Paperbackswap also has sister sites called dvdswap and cdswap. On these sites you exchange movies and music. The nice thing is, you can transfer credits between the 3 sites to use them for different forms of media.

If you like paperbackswap.com you might want to check out www.swaptree.com as well. It is the same basic idea but all of the items are on one website, including video games as well.

There is a lot you can do in 2011 to work from home. I hope to fill this site with the opportunities I have been presented with since I started working from home in 2004. Good Luck!