Household & Everything In It

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Category Archives: Household & Everything In It

Netflix Instant Queue: Wii vs. Xbox 360

Written on June 9, 2010 by Krisy in All Things Geek, Around the Web, Film & Popcorn, Household & Everything In It, Technology is Cool, Television (doesn't rot your brain)

Recently Wii and Netflix paired up to allow Wii users to watch their Netflix Instant Queue on their Wii Console. I have to admit, I was a bit surprized at how much I liked the Wii’s Netflix interface. I do have to admit though, the Xbox 360 is a bit nicer platform for Netflix.

Xbox 360 offers party view mode, and it looks a bit better on screen, as the Xbox 360 upscales to a better picture resolution. Also, you do not need to keep the Netflix disc in the console at all times, like you do with the Wii. The Wii interface is good for kids and and people who may not be the most tech saavy.My 5 year old loves watching movies from in the Instant Queue on the Wii, because it’s easy for her to navigate, whereas the Xbox controller is still a bit confusing for her. Since we don’t have traditional TV (click link for more info) and therefore no Disney Channel, Sophia (5), can watch all the Hannah Montana she wants on the Wii!

All in all, both are good but for different reasons, if you want a better picture and party mode, go with the Xbox, however if you want a more interface friendly version, stick with the Wii.

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Monday…How to survive the weekend tornado

Written on June 7, 2010 by Krisy in Around the Web, Hey Mommy!!!, Household & Everything In It

Ugh. Monday’s seem to be the worst for stay at home moms. At least for me and some of my friends. The weekends seem to be our days off when it comes to cleaning and etc.. The tornado has dropped in your house quicker than you can say “We’re not in Kansas anymore!” and then comes Monday where we scramble to square away the house before the bus drops the kids back off from school. Sometimes it can be pretty overwhelming and there are times when I don’t even know where to start. Thanks to the great people at Chart Jungle, I don’t have to! In their chores section, they have great lists that provide all the lists of cleaning chores to do room by room. I live by lists and I love these because I do tend forget things as I’m cleaning! You know you do too, especially if you have little ones at home, a never ending phone ringing, or lastly a great blog post idea pops up! The checklists are great and easy to use!

According to Jill Savage, author of Professionalizing Motherhood, states that having a checklist can help moms feel like they have accomplished something. Plus, for me, personally, it’s nice to be able for my hubby to see my completed checklist so I don’t get ther proverbial “what did you do today?” question that most moms hate!

So check out these great checklists to help you start your day!

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A New Greener Way to Clean the Nursery!

Written on June 3, 2010 by Krisy in Hey Mommy!!!, Household & Everything In It

Earth’s Best, makers of healthy and organic baby and toddler foods, have just launched new cleaning products for the nursery! They just released their own laundry detergent and nursery wipes. Earth’s Best has quality foods that are healthy, organic and tasty as well. They also carry a line of Sesame Street endorsed foods and snacks. With two smaller girls in the house, these are a huge hit!

I am looking forward to finding these great prodcuts and tessting them out in our nursery!

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More great additions!

Written on June 3, 2010 by Krisy in Hey Mommy!!!, Household & Everything In It

I just added a new cooking in the kitchen columnist and will be adding relationship columnist as well. I will announce our new King of the Kitchen tomorrow, so you will get a chance to know him and believe me, you will be as excited as I am!

I am really looking forward to the changes that are occurring here on the site and I hope you are as excited as well! What started out as just a little blog that could is finally taking off! I am glad that you are sharing in this exciting adventure and please feel free to let me know some things that you would like to see or learn more about from this blog, I welcome your ideas! Also, if you are interested in becoming a writer for this blog, please contact me at krisy@mygeekvoice.com

Best Wishes,

Krisy

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Shrek vs. Prince of Persia!!!

Written on June 1, 2010 by Krisy in Film & Popcorn, Hey Mommy!!!, Household & Everything In It

Okay, so I have a chance to preview the following movies Shrek Forever After and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Both were good movies, but for totally different reasons.

First Shrek Forever After: This movie was WAY better than Shrek 3! (I have pretty much pretended that Shrek 3 doesn’t exist.) This final Shrek movie has action, humor and a good story as well. Shrek makes a deal with Rumpelstiltskin, which of course turns badly. Shrek has one day to fix this bad deal with true love’s kiss. This movie was funny and the action was good as well. My 5 year old loved it and said it’s the best Shrek movie ever. I would highly encourage you to go this movie with your kids, it’s got great lessons for them and as a parent, you can relate to Shrek as well.

This movie is rated PG and I think it could be a new family favorite! My movie rating 4 out of 5 stars!

Next up Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. First, let me throw out this disclaimer. I have never played the video game, so I am not basing my rating on that fact. I am simply rating it as a movie. While this was a good action flick and it had a good storyline (and well, let’s face it Jake Gyllenhall is not bad on the eyes), I have to admit, I think it would have been better without the princess. Her acting was good and she was pretty, but her voice was so high pitched and irritating that I would have rather listen to nails on a chalkboard! But if that’s the only thing that I can find wrong, then that’s not too bad. While Disney did produce this movie, I would stick to the PG-13 rating suggestion. There is violence and intense action, but also some sexual innuendo as well. While I previewed this movie, my 5 year old saw it, pretended to swordfight then left the room from boredom. (hey, she’s 5,cut her some slack!) Unlike most video game to movie productions, this storyline didn’t fall flat, the storyline was interesting and kept my attention. I would definitely take the older kids to see this flick!

This movie is rated PG-13 and it could be a family favorite for the older crowd. My movie rating 4 out of 5 stars!

So, enjoy those movies and if you have questions about any of the newer movies or older for that matter and wonder if they are kid friendly or not, please ask me! If it’s out, I’ve seen it!

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Struggling with what to make for dinner?

Written on May 12, 2010 by Krisy in Hey Mommy!!!, Household & Everything In It

Thanks to great sites like All Recipes, you can take all the guess work out of cooking dinner! All Recipes has great menu ideas, your own personal recipe box and it will create a shopping list for you based off the recipes that you have chosen! You can also look up recipes based on what you have in your house already. This is a great site that has helped me overcome the perverbial “Mom, what’s for dinner?” I hope that you enjoy!

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One of the best learning websites for kids

Written on March 25, 2010 by Krisy in Around the Web, Hey Mommy!!!, Household & Everything In It

Our oldest daughter, Sophia is in kindergarten and one of the best websites that I have seen for kids her age is Starfall. The kids learn letter sounds, make stories, and learn to read! After each section, there are great print out sheets to practice the skills that they have learned! This website has helped build confidence in Sophia and she loves the games and stories!

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Healthy Coffee, yep, you read it correctly!

Written on March 24, 2010 by Krisy in Household & Everything In It

: Image via Wikipedia

I have recently discovered coffee that not only tastes good but is healthy too! Gano Excel has coffee that tastes great and is enriched with Ganoderma Lucidium (which is actually a rare type of mushroom). Now before you freak out and wrinkle your nose (come on, you know you did it!), I will start by saying you do not taste the mushroom at all. This type of mushroom helps combat inflammation, depression and also helps regulate your blood sugar.

Now, I am a coffee snob. If it doesn’t taste good to me, I won’t drink it, however it tastes great and I don’t feel the caffeine crash later, that I typically would when drinking normal coffee. You can still put your regular creamer that you like, however, if you try the Tongkat Ali, you won’t need to, it tastes great without it!

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Why I LOVE our Mac Mini!

Written on March 23, 2010 by Krisy in Household & Everything In It, Television (doesn't rot your brain)

: Image via Wikipedia

Back in November, we told Directv to “stick it” after 10 years with them. Why? Well, quite frankly, I got really tired of all the crap on tv, I just wanted to be able to watch what I wanted to watch. Problem: How can one acheive this? Solution: the Mac Mini!

We turned our Mac Mini into our media server and shut off Directv. We use our 47″ Plasma as our monitor and can watch what we want, when we want. Now, I’m not going to lie, there were a few bumps in the road, such as audio. We had to use our computer speakers as the output for a month or two until we got our Mini Display Port and USB Audio Converter from Monoprice. (Which, by the way, they have the best customer service!) Once we got the converter and hooked it up, we were doing just fine! We can buy shows and movies through iTunes or we can rip them using Handbrake, which is great for ripping DVDs into m4v files (which can easily be imported to your iTunes library). If you want to rip the whole DVD however, use Rip It, which will rip the whole DVD, menus and all. (There are also other ways to get tv shows and movies, however if you are smart, you can figure it out.)

The Mac Mini also shows a great picture and the sound is good as well. One thing I would suggest is to buy a wireless keyboard and an Apple Remote. (I will warn you if you have a first-gen iPod Shuffle, don’t leave it next to your remote, they look too much alike and this can cause some irritation when your Shuffle won’t control your tv!) Logitech has some great wireless keyboards, as does Apple as well.

The only small drawback is pricing. It is a big investment upfront. The Mac Mini was approx $700, the HDMI adaptor cable appr0x $60, and the Hard Drives to store our tv shows and movies approx $300 (for 2). This might sound steep and it is a bit, but if you are like me, you know that in 12 months time of not paying Directv, Dish Network or whomever you have for tv, it has paid for itself and that, my friends, is worth it. (Also worth it, the lack of actual DVDS and DVD cases cluttering the house!)

So, while everyone was stressing about Blu-Ray versus HD, we chose neither. We chose digital formats, they last longer, play better and don’t leave a mess in your house! If you have more questions about this type of set up, please feel free to email me at krisy@mygeekvoice.com or leave a comment!

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Day One of P90X

Written on February 15, 2010 by Krisy in Hey Mommy!!!, Household & Everything In It

Well, today is day 1 of the P90X program.I am sure that once I am done working out I will want to die, but not yet. I am working on the P90X Lean, so today marks my Core Synergistics Day. We’ll see how it goes!

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