I’ve always been impressed by those who can sew or knit or crochet. I can’t do any of those things, and not for lack of trying. I had to face the fact long ago that fabric is not my friend. And so I turned to other creative outlets. Like soapmaking.

Making soap with lye and various oils takes a bit of patience and practice. I was looking for a fun activity that would be faster than making soap and just as fun when I found a great tutorial on making candles. After reading through the basics and moving on to the more detailed instructions, I ordered my supplies and waited for delivery.

My first candle making attempt worked out well. The candles were lovely and I thank Candlewic for providing so much information, especially the safety guidelines. If you use these instructions for children, be sure to take note of the History of Candlemaking. Quite an interesting read.

Even though I prefer to buy my container, taper and tea light candles, I’m glad I gave candle making a shot. It was a great learning experience and now that I have the equipment, I can share the fun with my kids and grandkids as fun craft projects.

I hate this time of year. I love summer and would gladly never look at another snowflake again. I know, it’s still technically summer. But it’s also the end of summer for my kids.

School begins for my youngest son on August 20. Can you believe that? It’s just too early. I’m not ready to send him back yet. Doesn’t matter, though. Levi waved his school list in front of me every day this past week and I finally relented. We went School Shopping.

After we piled the cart with loose leaf paper, spiral notebooks, pens, pencils and a couple hundred other things that the teachers want the kids to have, we headed over to the electronics section. We walked past the digital cameras, lingered at the Lenovo Thinkpad display, checked out the release date for Madden 09 and finally stood in front of the jump drives.

This is significant because I can remember when kids (in other words, me) did not need electronics. I remember when I thought it was quite a leap the first time one of my kids was required to pay a school fee for a 3 1/4 inch floppy.

(For the record, it irked me that I couldn’t just send one of my own since I bought them in bulk. The teacher thought she had to buy them from their supplier or they wouldn’t work in the school’s computers!)

Anyway, our kids are now required to come to school prepared with a jump drive. The paper said that 1GB is a minimum requirement but the 2GB was marked down so I got that one. I wonder how long it will be before kids are required to have laptops at school.

Oh, no! My baby is growing up!

Levi is just 12 but he’s definitely growing up. A few days ago he complained to me about the little pimples he’s getting on and around his nose. WHAT? Pimples are a sign of adolescence and Levi isn’t allowed to be an adolescent yet!

I knew things were changing when I had to buy deodorant for him. Now he wants me to look into acne treatments because he doesn’t want to use the same stuff his sister uses.

I really don’t like this “growing up” thing that my kids do. Anyone know how to freeze them in time, to keep them at around 8 or so?

Is this what it means to be a grandma? Every time I go to the store, even the grocery store, I come home with new toys. Last time it was a 10-pack of play doh. My kids, of course, didn’t hesitate to point out that they were never allowed to play with play doh in the house, only outside on the picnic table.

What is it about grandkids, anyway? Why do I look into Kendyll’s eyes and see so much more there than I ever did with my own kids? Why do I rock her and sing to her and not feel in a hurry for her to doze off? Why am I so satisfied just being with her?

I was playing with Kendyll yesterday and something hit me - when she is my age, I’ll either be dead or 96 years old. I don’t know why I thought that and I can’t explain how that made me feel. I never used to think like that but I do more and more now.

Grandkids do strange things to you. When you’re with them, you’re totally in the moment, enjoying the Now. And yet, they bring you back to your own youth, and remind you how quickly time passes while somehow showing you a glimpse of the future.

There is nothing more perfect than a grandchild.

If you’re a parent, you worry about raising your kids with healthy self-esteem and balancing that with humility. We don’t want children who are arrogant but we do want our kids to be confident. Let’s face it, low self-esteem is the underlying cause of so many problems that our adolescents face.

A member of the National Association of Self Esteem, Hey U.G.L.Y. hopes to assist kids and parents in building healthy self-esteem. At this website, U.G.L.Y. is an acronym for Unique, Gifted, Lovable YOU. And everything here leads kids to the realization that they’re fine just as they are.

We all know that kids are fascinated with celebrities and in many cases, idolize them. Hey U.G.L.Y brings many of our kids’ favorite stars down to earth, allowing these celebrities to express, in their own words, the insecurities that they, too, feel. I’m not familiar with many of those quoted on the site but my 14 year old daughter seemed to know each name as she went down the list. More important, she brought the site up on her computer so she could continue reading on her own. That’s a solid endorsement in my book!

With so many stories of celebrities ending up in drug treatment centers or in jail, it’s good to get a few talking to kids about making right choices. The information at the site, for kids and adults, is laid out in easy to read articles. There are also some links to other sites that kids might enjoy, too.

Even if you don’t have children, please pass this site along to parents you know. Helping our kids to make good choices begins with helping them to realize their own value. This is a good step in that direction.

One thing I’ve noticed about educational websites for kids: a lot of adults like them, too. Well, at least this adult does. For the second time in a row, it’s taken me much too long to post a review because I’ve gotten lost in the site. And by that, I mean “gotten lost” in a totally good way.

I took a trip over to the National Geographic for Kids website and figured I’d pick one interesting topic for my focus. Impossible! Everything about that site is fascinating. I particularly enjoyed the story about the bats that come out during the summer in Texas. I kept thinking that I’d have to cover up with some high quality volcom clothing if I lived anywhere near that cave with millions of bats showing up every evening. I just don’t like the idea of those bats swooping down around my head.

There’s so much more to explore at National Geographic for Kids, though. Having watched every Little Foot cartoon as well as Diego’s Dinosaur Adventure more times than I can count, I headed right over to the Dinosaur quiz and then topped it off with the pre-historic Sea Monstor Brainteaser.

Of course, there are other activities and stories as well as games and activities. Whether you homeschool your kids and need a great resource or just want to supplement their regular school learning and give them a worthwhile website to explore, do check out National Geographic for Kids. And if you happen to spend hours there without the kids, I won’t tell.

I’ve got kids. Six of them. And a grandkid. I’ve bought more Christmas presents over the years than most people which is why I’m pretty good at it. For some reason, though, there are certain ages that always throw me off my game.

Eleven year old boys are difficult for me. By that age, all of mine were no longer interested in cars and trucks unless they were in the $300+ price range. Other than an $80 NFL sanctioned football jersey, they’re not that into clothes, either. Video games are an easy choice but that’s it. Until now, that is.

Before I go on, I will confess that I did not wait until Christmas to give this gift. I’m weak. I knew that Levi would love it now since he’s in the middle of basketball practice so I gave it to him already. I’m a bad Santa.

I ordered these dog tags for Levi and had his name, school and year engraved on it. I loved that there were several styles available and that the medal ones that I chose had so many colors! Oh, and just about every sport imaginable is listed, too. There were even options for “Academics” which I thought was really nice. (Sometimes we praise our kids too much for sports and not enough for academics, you know?)

Anyway, there’s always a question about quality when you order online. I’ve been doing my gift shopping online for over seven years so I know that the first order should be small, just in case. Right now I wish I’d ordered these tags for my other kids and a few of their friends, too. The quality is excellent and the price is fantastic. The fact that it’s personalized make it so special, too.

As soon as Levi saw the tag with his name on it (I smeared our last name out of the picture) he put it on. He called one of his friends who also plays basketball to tell him about his new dog tags. And then he asked me where I got it because he thinks his coach might like to give all the kids on the team one!

Remember when I said how hard it is for me to buy for 11 year old boys? Well, one of the great things about 11 year old boys is that when you find something they really like, they don’t care how much it cost and they don’t mind telling you how much they like it. You’ll know they like it because they want all their friends to have one, too. (Girls are not like this but that’s another post.)

Anyway, consider this a Christmas gift hint. From the reaction of Levi’s older brother and sister, I’d say it’s safe to say that older kids would like these, too. So go ahead, click on over and look around. Grab a few dog tags for those special kids in your life who participate in sports or just work really hard at academics. And be sure to NOT follow my lead - save it for Christmas! Or not. Look at how much my kid loves his tag.

I know that I don’t fit the stereotype of a girl in so many ways. Yes, I love makeup and shoes and clothes and anything that shines and sparkles. But I also love to assemble furniture with my own tools, tear apart computers and “remodel” their innards and generally build things or make things that are cool and unusual. And guess what? Someone has come up with a site for people like me!

Actually, Instructables has ideas and directions to make everything from a duct tape wallet to a JavaLog. Most of the items you’ll need are readily available and some can even be non-working parts from other things. Those projects are my favorite - recycling broken stuff into new usable stuff!

For example, if you’ve got a few old network cards around, how about transforming them into a cool notebook? I have every intention of making one of those for myself. If you keep looking around the site, you’ll find ways to reuse everything from old light bulbs, HDMI switches, dryer lint and who knows what else. (Okay, I’m exaggerating. But you get the idea.)

Whether you just like to tinker with stuff, the kids have a science project or you’re homeschooling, you’ll surely find some really great projects here suitable for just about every level of ability and knowledge. All of the projects come with detailed instructions and excellent pictures of the steps. Sign up for free and you’ll have the option of seeing all the instructions and pictures on one page.

Oh, and if you give one of the projects a try, why not come back here and share your experience with everyone? I’d love to see the finished product!

Another one for the kids.

Have you ever been ready to kick back for the night, maybe catch the eleven o’clock news before drifting off to slip, only to discover that your child needs some special office supply product that you know you don’t have in the house. Whether it’s a specific color of pen, a certain brand of crayons, or special paper, you find yourself heading to whatever store is open all night to pay a fortune for this one item for school.

With six kids, it’s happened here more times than I can count. I can’t help with every item that turns up on the kids’ must-have list but I can help you with graph paper. Whether you child runs out, forgot to ask for it at a reasonable hour or even if you’re a homeschooling parent, you’ll want to bookmark this Free Online Graph Paper site.

I’ve tried a few freeware applications over the years for creating graph paper but none were as easy as these pre-made pdf files. Click on the type of graph paper you want, including dots, cross grids, light verticals and others. The form allows you to choose your borders, spacing, line weight, etc. Nothing could be easier!

Go ahead, give it a try. Then bookmark it because you never know when you’ll need graph paper.

I have mixed feelings about this. I’ve had the site bookmarked for quite a while but couldn’t decide what I think about it. I’m going to share it because it just may help someone.

BeNetSafe is an online service that claims to protect your kids on social networking sites like MySpace, Friendster, Facebook, etc. According to the site, they track your child’s internet activity and alert you when there is mention of sex, drugs or other things that are cause for concern.

The site claims to be totally discreet. It claims the kid won’t know.

If you are a parent who knows much less about your computer than your kids know, then maybe this is something that you would want to consider. I have to warn you though that the biggest danger in something like this is the false sense of security that you may get. You still have to watch what your kids do. You still have to be alert.

I’m not sure I like the idea of spying on my kids with this kind of software. I try to keep track of what they do online. They know that I know more about computers than they do so they arent’ going to fool me when I do look around their machines. Yes, I’d like to throw up a huge virtual canvas tent for the kids to play under while online, keeping them all safe and secure. But that isnt’ going to happen. Hopefully, I can keep them safe by staying alert. Others may want to try this type of service. If you do, please report back and tell me how it works. I’m interested to know more about it.