Ode to Technology

I just recently discovered a few wonderful gadgets and a great website (thanks to my friends) that anyone with children should investigate. First is the Bissell SpotBot. It is a compact carpet cleaner that you simply place over the stain, turn it on, walk away and it sprays cleaner, scrubs and sucks up the water and cleaner- I borrowed my friends machine to clean some spots on our carpet and it got every stain out. I have to go buy one, I loved it. It is truly a miraculous machine.... I know, I'm easily amused.

Second is Flip Video- This is a small video camera (3x5) that records up to 60 minutes of video. It takes 2AA batteries and will fit in your pocket. It has a USB port that flips out from the side, plugs into your computer downloads the software and videos all together. We borrowed one from a friend to see if we liked it prior to buying, and we absolutely loved it. We videoed more in the 2 days we borrowed it than we have in the 7 years we've had our big video camera. The Flip Video camera was just so convenient, that we were constantly grabbing it to video the girls. It's also not terribly expensive, you can find them on the internet from $120-$150. Be sure to get the one that records 60 minutes as they do have one that records only 30 minutes.

A friend just recently introduced me to the website Freecycle.org. This websites mission is to reduce the waste in our landfills and to give items away free to those who can use them. The posts contain offered and wanted items. You cant sell or trade items, only give them away free. I've already given away a couple of things that we no longer needed. It felt good... with a family of five, I feel like we generate so much waste. It was nice to do something "green" and participate in the recycle process.