What a fantastic Adsense revenue sharing site the owner of She Told Me has brought us now: Best Reviewer - a place to bookmark your own articles on other sites. There's no problems about linking to your articles elsewhere, pages of your blogs and sites, and, at the same time, you can earn from clicks on the Adsense ads on your pages on Best Review, if you have an Adsense account, and include your Adsense publisher id when joining Best Reviewer.
The top 3, top 5, top 10 and top 20 I refer to in the title of this post is about how you post your bookmarks on Best Reviewer. The minimum allowed per page is 3, and the maximum allowed is 20. It's a great idea to link to perhaps 5 of your articles on various sites, (each needing just a one line description) that all relate to the same topic. You have 5 bookmarks all on one page about a similar topic - creating better findability by search engines!
Oh, and did I mention that below each post of "Tops" that you make, the link to your website or blog (or article writing site profile, or social site profile) will automatically appear, if you included it when you signed up.
Also, when people sign up beneath you, using your referral link, and they post their own tops on Best Reviewer, beneath where their website or blog link appears on their pages, your website or blog link appears too!
Join Best Reviewer now, earn from clicks on your Adsense ads there, and get more traffic to your own content elsewhere.
Original article on, and © copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
What to Offer Freelance Writers on Your Planned New Writing Site
You plan to create a new writing site, but there are already so many out there, how can you make your writing site better than other writing sites? Your goal is to have the best online writing site ever.
To get writers to not only flock to your site and submit many articles to your site, but to also have writers calling your site the best online writing site ever, you’re going to have to give them good reason to.
Research before fully embarking on your project should include:
Logic dictates that you should offer freelance writers as much as you can, all on one site – on a site owned by you.
What makes good writers not even consider joining a new site, or make them leave that site?
Original article on, and © copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
- Studying other writing sites and their blogs and forums
- Reading reviews written by writers who are members at those sites - or who are no longer members!
- Reading the comments of visitors to those reviews
Your findings will most likely indicate that writers like different aspects of different writing sites – explaining why so many freelance writers submit their articles to more than just one site.
- The site is only for writers who reside in a particular country
- There is a fee to join the site
- There is no payment option that the writer can use, or may have difficulty using
- It appears that some members abuse the choice of being able to vote down an article
- People may be struggling to get a Google Adsense account, and this is the only form of payment a site offers
- The site does not allow previously published materials
- The minimum length requirement of the submitted articles is quite long
- Members are not allowed to use their referral links when linking to other sites
- Members are not allowed to link to their own sites or other sites from their profile
- Spam isn’t dealt with quickly or properly
- There are no comment moderation options
- The writers name or date of article does not appear on the published articles
- There is only one way a writer can earn an income from submitting articles to a site
- Users are not also allowed to upload images to an image section, or bookmarks to a bookmark section (because these sections don’t exist on a site.)
- The earnings potential or payment structure is pathetic - and it’s obvious the owner of the site has the potential to make a huge fortune from submitted and published materials
- The site is untidy and difficult to navigate
- The pages take a long time to load
- There are hardly any FAQ, guidelines or tutorials
- Management takes more than 4 or 5 days to reply to an email
- Answered emails do not provide solutions to a problem
- Writers do not retain copyright or full rights of their articles
- It is expected that a tax form be submitted when some writers don’t even earn enough, or writers live in a country that requires tax details only after a person is earning enough
- The site publishes poor quality articles
- A writer has to earn quite a high amount before being paid
- Writers have to wait a long time to receive earned payments
- Page views of their articles
- Ad revenue sharing
- Affiliate sales
- Selling their articles, with or without offering full rights
- Winning prizes
- Activity bonuses
- Voting up other articles
- Referring new users
- Referring visitors to any page of a site
- Making use of referral links and linking to their own or other sites
Saturday, August 7, 2010
She Told Me what? She Told Me! I've joined She Told Me!
SheToldMe is a site you can join and where you can bookmark articles you have elsewhere on the Internet. So what's so great about that? We have twitter, digg, facebook, reddit, stumbleupon and numerous other sites where we can bookmark articles.
Well, does twitter, digg, facebook, reddit, and stumbleupon have ads on their site next to your posts that you can earn some extra income from? Not?
SheToldMe does.
Actually, so does Xomba and, in a way, so does RedGage (earn from pageviews of your blog posts, bookmarks (links) and videos or pictures uploaded) but I'm discussing SheToldMe now.
As per Google Adsense policies and TOS, just three Google Adsense block ads are allowed per page of content. She Told Me has three per page. Your bookmark gets a whole page to itself, and can be as short as 200 characters long (that's about 20 to 30 words.) The one Adsense ad is for She Told Me, the one closest to your title and content is yours, all yours, and then there's one beneath your content area that can belong to whoever referred you to She Told Me.
It's easy to publish content to She Told Me. If you don't yet have a Google Adsense account, get yourself one, and then sign up for She Told Me!
Go through the site and spend some time reading through all there is to know. It's pretty easy to understand the site, but just do it (read a lot) first, so that you don't make any mistakes that slow you up or get you your account banned.
You may be getting good traffic from wherever else you are bookmarking your online articles, but what's wrong with adding a few more sites to your list. You want links on many sites coming to your articles don't you? And, She Told Me is not only another place for trying to get more traffic to your articles, but is also a place that gives you the opportunity to earn some extra income from your bookmarking efforts.
Do make sure to be at least a bit active within the community - comment on and rate up other members' content. The rating button is just to the left of the title of each piece of content uploaded. You would like others to do the same for you, wouldn't you?
Now, if you can get other people to join SheToldMe too, using your referral link, the Adsense ad that appears beneath the content they upload is yours! (It contains your Adsense publisher ID.)
What are you waiting for? Don't say I didn't tell you - say "She Told Me!"
Original article on, and © copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
Well, does twitter, digg, facebook, reddit, and stumbleupon have ads on their site next to your posts that you can earn some extra income from? Not?
SheToldMe does.
Actually, so does Xomba and, in a way, so does RedGage (earn from pageviews of your blog posts, bookmarks (links) and videos or pictures uploaded) but I'm discussing SheToldMe now.
As per Google Adsense policies and TOS, just three Google Adsense block ads are allowed per page of content. She Told Me has three per page. Your bookmark gets a whole page to itself, and can be as short as 200 characters long (that's about 20 to 30 words.) The one Adsense ad is for She Told Me, the one closest to your title and content is yours, all yours, and then there's one beneath your content area that can belong to whoever referred you to She Told Me.
It's easy to publish content to She Told Me. If you don't yet have a Google Adsense account, get yourself one, and then sign up for She Told Me!
Go through the site and spend some time reading through all there is to know. It's pretty easy to understand the site, but just do it (read a lot) first, so that you don't make any mistakes that slow you up or get you your account banned.
You may be getting good traffic from wherever else you are bookmarking your online articles, but what's wrong with adding a few more sites to your list. You want links on many sites coming to your articles don't you? And, She Told Me is not only another place for trying to get more traffic to your articles, but is also a place that gives you the opportunity to earn some extra income from your bookmarking efforts.
Do make sure to be at least a bit active within the community - comment on and rate up other members' content. The rating button is just to the left of the title of each piece of content uploaded. You would like others to do the same for you, wouldn't you?
Now, if you can get other people to join SheToldMe too, using your referral link, the Adsense ad that appears beneath the content they upload is yours! (It contains your Adsense publisher ID.)
What are you waiting for? Don't say I didn't tell you - say "She Told Me!"
Original article on, and © copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
Sunday, August 1, 2010
The signing up process at You Say Too - an Adsense Revenue Sharing site
If anyone has read the about me on this blog, they'll see that I'm keen to make money blogging - even if takes me a really long time, as I can only spend time on it inbetween doing my other work - my work, along with my boyfriend Tony, is freelance web design and writing, from home. A lot of my paid writing or Internet research jobs come from oDesk, and that's cool, as I can work for anyone in the world. Most of my web designing jobs are local, here in East London - although have designed a few sites for people in other towns of South Africa too, mostly communicating via email. Have even helped redesign a site for an International client via oDesk, but, generally, the web design section of my work at home job is for local clients. The writing is from online efforts and earning from Google Adsense, or, as said already, from getting writing jobs on oDesk.
I haven't posted any new blog posts here in a while as I have been busy exploring some online income opportunities. I think I plan to discuss many of them on this blog, or on some of my other blogs, to help others who are thinking of doing the same, or who are wanting some tips, advice, reviews, or more information on the different extra income opportunities I come across. One of these is You Say Too.
As I write this I'm still sort of in the process of signing up - I find the site incredibly slow - but these are my views so far, and obviously probably related mostly to the sign up process:
By following some simple instructions on You Say Too you can feed your Blogger blog posts to the site. Be patient with the site if you find it slow too (I've just checked and it seems my blog (this one) is now there.) - as You Say Too seems a good place to earn a little extra income from the Adsense ads on the site.
If you have a Google Adsense account, you will earn 50% of the revenue that You Say Too makes. To get your posts or blogs on You Say Too seen more, get involved in the community there, make new friends, don't go against any of the TOS (terms of service/terms and conditions/rules), and update your main blog regularly. If you don't have a blog, you can make blog posts directly on the site - of course, remember to get some links to these blog posts by leaving the links to them on social sites or social bookmarking sites - or in other articles you have elsewhere on the Internet.
Now, if you couldn't care less about making some extra income for yourself, but you do care about charities trying to help the world, and you do have a blog you post to regularly, then submit your blog to You Say Too anyway, as part of the revenue from advertising on the site will then go to the charity of your choice instead of to you. You won't even have to join Google Adsense if you don't yet have an account there, as You Say Too will handle the earnings you would have earned through their own Adsense account and will donate it to the charity of your choice. I'm hardly signed up there, so haven't yet noticed if you are able to see on your dashboard how much you have earned that is donated to a charity, but I do suspect that you would be able to check.
Of course if you're pretty much struggling along yourself, then don't feel bad to rather choose that the earnings come to you instead of to a charity - as long as when you make it big one day, through your online activities, you remember to help out those less fortunate than yourself - people, animals, causes.
I've branched off the main topic here, so back to it - the signing up process:
Put up with the slow site (if it really is slow in general and not just me - but it seems much slower than other sites I've joined) as perhaps it will improve, and, besides, I've read some good reviews on You Say Too, on other sites.
Choose a user name and password - the user name space allowance is somewhat small - I usually add teresaschultz or Teresa Schultz as my user name, but could only fit in TeresaS on You Say Too.
Add your Wordpress.com or Blogger blog: type in the URL of your blog and the RSS feed. For Blogger the feed comes up automatically after typing in the URL - well mine did.
Add a code to your blog. Simply copy the coding that comes up and add a third party html gadget to your gadgets on your Blogger (not sure what the steps are for other blogging platforms.)
I first added it as a text gadget, as this is how I usually add buttons to my blogs (like the South African blog aggregator myScoop button), but it either didn't take immediately, or didn't work at all. Everything seems fine now that I started all over again (the adding the blog step) and added a third party html gadget instead.
There also seems to be a further exposure opportunity involving possibly placing a widget or box or advert on your site, that displays other people's blog posts (but theirs will display yours too) so, sort of a swopping and helping out set up - I will be checking this out too.
So, that's it for now about yousaytoo - updates and more extra income news, tips and advice coming soon.
There are already some tips and reviews about work at home jobs on my work at home jobs site, if you'd like to check those out too.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
I haven't posted any new blog posts here in a while as I have been busy exploring some online income opportunities. I think I plan to discuss many of them on this blog, or on some of my other blogs, to help others who are thinking of doing the same, or who are wanting some tips, advice, reviews, or more information on the different extra income opportunities I come across. One of these is You Say Too.
As I write this I'm still sort of in the process of signing up - I find the site incredibly slow - but these are my views so far, and obviously probably related mostly to the sign up process:
By following some simple instructions on You Say Too you can feed your Blogger blog posts to the site. Be patient with the site if you find it slow too (I've just checked and it seems my blog (this one) is now there.) - as You Say Too seems a good place to earn a little extra income from the Adsense ads on the site.
If you have a Google Adsense account, you will earn 50% of the revenue that You Say Too makes. To get your posts or blogs on You Say Too seen more, get involved in the community there, make new friends, don't go against any of the TOS (terms of service/terms and conditions/rules), and update your main blog regularly. If you don't have a blog, you can make blog posts directly on the site - of course, remember to get some links to these blog posts by leaving the links to them on social sites or social bookmarking sites - or in other articles you have elsewhere on the Internet.
Now, if you couldn't care less about making some extra income for yourself, but you do care about charities trying to help the world, and you do have a blog you post to regularly, then submit your blog to You Say Too anyway, as part of the revenue from advertising on the site will then go to the charity of your choice instead of to you. You won't even have to join Google Adsense if you don't yet have an account there, as You Say Too will handle the earnings you would have earned through their own Adsense account and will donate it to the charity of your choice. I'm hardly signed up there, so haven't yet noticed if you are able to see on your dashboard how much you have earned that is donated to a charity, but I do suspect that you would be able to check.
Of course if you're pretty much struggling along yourself, then don't feel bad to rather choose that the earnings come to you instead of to a charity - as long as when you make it big one day, through your online activities, you remember to help out those less fortunate than yourself - people, animals, causes.
I've branched off the main topic here, so back to it - the signing up process:
Put up with the slow site (if it really is slow in general and not just me - but it seems much slower than other sites I've joined) as perhaps it will improve, and, besides, I've read some good reviews on You Say Too, on other sites.
Choose a user name and password - the user name space allowance is somewhat small - I usually add teresaschultz or Teresa Schultz as my user name, but could only fit in TeresaS on You Say Too.
Add your Wordpress.com or Blogger blog: type in the URL of your blog and the RSS feed. For Blogger the feed comes up automatically after typing in the URL - well mine did.
Add a code to your blog. Simply copy the coding that comes up and add a third party html gadget to your gadgets on your Blogger (not sure what the steps are for other blogging platforms.)
I first added it as a text gadget, as this is how I usually add buttons to my blogs (like the South African blog aggregator myScoop button), but it either didn't take immediately, or didn't work at all. Everything seems fine now that I started all over again (the adding the blog step) and added a third party html gadget instead.
There also seems to be a further exposure opportunity involving possibly placing a widget or box or advert on your site, that displays other people's blog posts (but theirs will display yours too) so, sort of a swopping and helping out set up - I will be checking this out too.
So, that's it for now about yousaytoo - updates and more extra income news, tips and advice coming soon.
There are already some tips and reviews about work at home jobs on my work at home jobs site, if you'd like to check those out too.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Thought the side of my face was going to explode
Really should have taken a photo! Don't know what's up with me lately, all these odd things happening - perhaps old age? (41 now) This painful hip pain thing that comes without warning, then just as strangely vanishes a day or two later (thank goodness as I can hardly sleep when it decides to visit me) and now, the other day, the side of my face swelling up like I had a just kicked 2010 world cup soccer ball on the inside of my face!
It's happened before, this sudden swelling on the side of my face, when I eat something, but not as badly as this recent time. It happens so suddenly too; without warning. It's not because of eating something sour or acidic, as sometimes it happens, and sometimes it doesn't.
It hadn't happened for a while, and I was beginning to think it was not going to come back again, but come back it did, like a kick in the face!
The first bite of a fresh little flat sugar snap (fresh young peas in pod) and I felt the first twinge, just under my left ear, where the glands get sore if one has an ear infection or tonsolitis. Didn't worry me too much, as as, although I had though it was never coming back again, I knew that sometimes a little twinge was all I felt, and it would go away, with the very next bite of whatever I was eatin. But, no. Next bite made it larger and more painful. I was hungry and kept hoping each bite (of other food too, (avocado pear on toast with black pepper and salt (yum)), not just sugar snaps, would get better, but instead the pain and swelling got worse, and I had to stop eating. It was sore ans swollen right behind my ear too, and down my neck on that side. Looked in the mnirror and it looked like I had triple mumps on the left side of my face! That's what it looked like. What it felt like was that I had a soccer ball in my face, trying to burst out!
I started to panic and thought that maybe my veins would burst, and even half of my throat felt closed up. We keep cortisone tablets in the house due to one of my sons once having had two unexpected and unexplained allergic reactions a few years ago, that we give for bee stings or anything that seems like any allergic reactions might follow, so I took one of those, and went to lie down. It was night already, and about three hours before I would usually go to sleep, and as the swelling did not go down after about an hour, I just stayed in bed, and went to sleep.
In the morning, the swelling was gone, but my glands on that side of my neck were still painful for about a day and half after that. I did not eat until the evening of the next day, as was too scared to! When I did eat, though, all was well, and I really hope it doesn't happen again!
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
It's happened before, this sudden swelling on the side of my face, when I eat something, but not as badly as this recent time. It happens so suddenly too; without warning. It's not because of eating something sour or acidic, as sometimes it happens, and sometimes it doesn't.
It hadn't happened for a while, and I was beginning to think it was not going to come back again, but come back it did, like a kick in the face!
The first bite of a fresh little flat sugar snap (fresh young peas in pod) and I felt the first twinge, just under my left ear, where the glands get sore if one has an ear infection or tonsolitis. Didn't worry me too much, as as, although I had though it was never coming back again, I knew that sometimes a little twinge was all I felt, and it would go away, with the very next bite of whatever I was eatin. But, no. Next bite made it larger and more painful. I was hungry and kept hoping each bite (of other food too, (avocado pear on toast with black pepper and salt (yum)), not just sugar snaps, would get better, but instead the pain and swelling got worse, and I had to stop eating. It was sore ans swollen right behind my ear too, and down my neck on that side. Looked in the mnirror and it looked like I had triple mumps on the left side of my face! That's what it looked like. What it felt like was that I had a soccer ball in my face, trying to burst out!
I started to panic and thought that maybe my veins would burst, and even half of my throat felt closed up. We keep cortisone tablets in the house due to one of my sons once having had two unexpected and unexplained allergic reactions a few years ago, that we give for bee stings or anything that seems like any allergic reactions might follow, so I took one of those, and went to lie down. It was night already, and about three hours before I would usually go to sleep, and as the swelling did not go down after about an hour, I just stayed in bed, and went to sleep.
In the morning, the swelling was gone, but my glands on that side of my neck were still painful for about a day and half after that. I did not eat until the evening of the next day, as was too scared to! When I did eat, though, all was well, and I really hope it doesn't happen again!
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Even I jumped down the sand dune at Igoda yesterday
Well, I guess it's not such a big thing, after all, I'm still only 41, but I guess I've just been in our little home office a lot, and have not been getting out much, and so I felt like it was almost "a big thing" I also jumped down the sand dune during our little outing to Igoda, near East London late yesterday afternoon. Tony is 50 though, and also jumped. I really need to get fit again! The boys were jumping down the sand dunes, and running down the sand dunes, like little monkeys, and the boys and I also tried out a homemade sandboard, but it didn't work. I tried a bit of everything, and got tired quite easily, but it was fun!
Here's two photos of me, trying (Basti, my 12 year old son, is in both photos too):
Here's two photos of me, trying (Basti, my 12 year old son, is in both photos too):
Follow the other three links further above to see more photos of Igoda, and of both Basti and Zooty. Also follow this link which has a photo of Tony, Basti and Zooty at Igoda.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
My 3 boys
Tony, the boys and I took a drive out to Igoda beach yesterday afternoon. Basti and Zooty and I took our cameras with and enjoyed taking some pictures at Igoda, and while I was driving back home afterwards, the boys continued to take some pictures out the car windows.
At Igoda, we didn't have much luck with a homemade sandboard, and the boys took to jumping off a sand dune instead. Next time we'll try and get to Igoda earlier so that we don't end up spending less than an hour there, like we did yesterday, and having to leave before dark.
In the three photos taken at Igoda yesterday, Zooty (11) enjoys being covered in sand, Basti (12) pulls a face as he tries to get the sand out of his pants, and in the third photo, Zooty, Tony (50), Basti and our dog Gilly start leaving the beach.
also see
Zooty's Igoda story and photos
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Ouch, I don't know what I've done to my lower back and hip area!
I've had this lower back and right hip area pain before, and luckily it just went away on it's own. This time, though, not even hanging on a door to relieve the pain is working! Last night was awful - I feel like I've hardly slept. No position was comfortable, and every time I turned to try a new position I was in agony! Ouch!
I think the hanging on the door thing might not be helping as much as it usually does because the pain is not in the middle of my back - I can't see myself hanging by one arm and one foot to let the proper area of my side lower back and one hip benefit from the hanging!
I'm sitting at the pc now, with a pillow behind my lower back to help relieve the pain somewhat, and I've taken two Inza (anti inflammatory tablets), and when Tony gets back from walking to the shops about a km and a half away (to check at an atm if one of our clients has paid as we're broke again! (or still)) , I'll have him rub some comfrey cream on the sore area for me, but not sure it's going to help much, or if it does, not quickly enough! I just wish it would quickly come right on it's own like before. Must be a pinched nerve or something. I even had a dream about it last night - when I did sleep.
I don't have medical aid, or money to spend on going to doctors and chiropractors! Hm, my most comfortable position is standing up. I wonder if I can sleep standing up? Was also thinking of taking the boys to a movie if this client has paid (and they'll just have to wait longer before I pay them back the other money I owe them), but then what? I don't fancy standing at the back of the movie to watch it! Maybe another Inza before the movie might help somewhat...
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
I think the hanging on the door thing might not be helping as much as it usually does because the pain is not in the middle of my back - I can't see myself hanging by one arm and one foot to let the proper area of my side lower back and one hip benefit from the hanging!
I'm sitting at the pc now, with a pillow behind my lower back to help relieve the pain somewhat, and I've taken two Inza (anti inflammatory tablets), and when Tony gets back from walking to the shops about a km and a half away (to check at an atm if one of our clients has paid as we're broke again! (or still)) , I'll have him rub some comfrey cream on the sore area for me, but not sure it's going to help much, or if it does, not quickly enough! I just wish it would quickly come right on it's own like before. Must be a pinched nerve or something. I even had a dream about it last night - when I did sleep.
I don't have medical aid, or money to spend on going to doctors and chiropractors! Hm, my most comfortable position is standing up. I wonder if I can sleep standing up? Was also thinking of taking the boys to a movie if this client has paid (and they'll just have to wait longer before I pay them back the other money I owe them), but then what? I don't fancy standing at the back of the movie to watch it! Maybe another Inza before the movie might help somewhat...
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
Friday, June 18, 2010
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on tv 3 tonight
I loved the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when I was a kid. I loved how Charlie savoured every tiny little piece of chocolate he ate.
I was just as thrilled as Charlie when he won a trip to visit Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory and loved every minute of Charlie's journey through Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory.
Well, it's a real sin, then, that I haven't seen the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, starring Johnny Depp as Willie Wonka. My boys have seen the movie at a friend or cousin's house, and will be watching it again tonight on tv 3, in their room, all tucked up in bed for the night, and directly after I give them some more medicine for their bad chests and coughs.
While the boys are watching it, Tony and I need to pop out for a bit, but, inbetween, and even though Tony and I "don't watch tv", I might catch a glimpse or two of Charlie, Willie Wonka, chocolate, and the Chocolate Factory - if not, I think it's really time I at least got the dvd out!
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
I was just as thrilled as Charlie when he won a trip to visit Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory and loved every minute of Charlie's journey through Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory.
Well, it's a real sin, then, that I haven't seen the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, starring Johnny Depp as Willie Wonka. My boys have seen the movie at a friend or cousin's house, and will be watching it again tonight on tv 3, in their room, all tucked up in bed for the night, and directly after I give them some more medicine for their bad chests and coughs.
While the boys are watching it, Tony and I need to pop out for a bit, but, inbetween, and even though Tony and I "don't watch tv", I might catch a glimpse or two of Charlie, Willie Wonka, chocolate, and the Chocolate Factory - if not, I think it's really time I at least got the dvd out!
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
We don't watch tv
There are three tvs in the house we live in at my folks, but we don't watch tv. We might catch a glimpse of what's on the tv in the lounge on our way out or coming back from the shops, going to see a client, or taking or fetching the boys to or from school, but, generally, we don't watch tv. My folks have a tv in their room too, and even the boys have one in their room, on loan from my brother.
The boys often watch tv in my folks' bedroom with them in the evenings, but it's not appropriate when it's almost bedtime, or if they're ill, like now. Their tv has only tv 1, tv 2, and tv 3 channels, and e-tv, though, so, from time to time, I'll check on the Internet what's showing on those channels (especially when they're ill and I'd rather have them tucked up in bed than sitting at the pc playing computer games in our bedroom, even if it's not yet evening), although of course they prefer dstv on Grandpa's tvs.
Tony and I don't really miss tv - we can keep up to date with news on the Internet, brief entertainment on YouTube, and if we feel like a real "sit down" we'll rent a dvd and watch in in the office on one of the computers here. Our little home office is really tiny, but if we take two steps back from our chairs at the pcs (next to each other on the same table), we can flop back into lazy boys there, and enjoy a movie. There's basically no space for anything else in the office, but it's fine, we don't need a lot of space to work on the pcs.
We're quite happy that we don't watch tv; we don't want to get sucked into soapies or a series, that takes time away from our work, or writing blog posts.
The boys are sounding a little rowdy on their pc, and I better see if there's something on their tv channels soon, or else I should maybe go and get them a dvd. I don't want them coughing all night and need to keep them calm.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
The boys often watch tv in my folks' bedroom with them in the evenings, but it's not appropriate when it's almost bedtime, or if they're ill, like now. Their tv has only tv 1, tv 2, and tv 3 channels, and e-tv, though, so, from time to time, I'll check on the Internet what's showing on those channels (especially when they're ill and I'd rather have them tucked up in bed than sitting at the pc playing computer games in our bedroom, even if it's not yet evening), although of course they prefer dstv on Grandpa's tvs.
Tony and I don't really miss tv - we can keep up to date with news on the Internet, brief entertainment on YouTube, and if we feel like a real "sit down" we'll rent a dvd and watch in in the office on one of the computers here. Our little home office is really tiny, but if we take two steps back from our chairs at the pcs (next to each other on the same table), we can flop back into lazy boys there, and enjoy a movie. There's basically no space for anything else in the office, but it's fine, we don't need a lot of space to work on the pcs.
We're quite happy that we don't watch tv; we don't want to get sucked into soapies or a series, that takes time away from our work, or writing blog posts.
The boys are sounding a little rowdy on their pc, and I better see if there's something on their tv channels soon, or else I should maybe go and get them a dvd. I don't want them coughing all night and need to keep them calm.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
I wish the boys would stop coughing now
The boys are on their pc in the next room (our bedroom), and even though the door leading to it from the garage and our office area is closed, their coughing is still very audible. I feel so sorry for their chests and them, and wish all the mooty would now work, or wish time would heal or whatever it is that must happen to stop their coughing must just happen or work now.
My chest is feeling somewhat better, although still coughing from time to time, and nose still blocking up or running (it can't make up it's mind.)
The first week of the school holidays is basically over, and let's hope the rest of it (just over 3 weeks left) can be enjoyed by two healthy and happy boys.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
My chest is feeling somewhat better, although still coughing from time to time, and nose still blocking up or running (it can't make up it's mind.)
The first week of the school holidays is basically over, and let's hope the rest of it (just over 3 weeks left) can be enjoyed by two healthy and happy boys.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
Have to move all my photos to the left
I'm really happy with this new Blogger theme template I've chosen for this blog, only thing is it's not perfect for the photos already uploaded in previous posts.
I uploaded my photos all centred, but there's a white area that appears behind the photos now that seems to only go left, well, mostly anyway. So, instead of trying to find another template I'm happy with (well, I did for a bit, but I like this one I've got at the moment for now), I'd rather re-align all my photos to the left too.
I've done some (working backwards), but still have a few to do.
I will have to do a whole lot more on my other Blogger blog East London Photographs and Wild Ramblings, as basically every post there has a photo or two, so, hm, maybe I'll see if there isn't rather another template that suits that blog better.
Just thinking out loud here. Don't mind me.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
I uploaded my photos all centred, but there's a white area that appears behind the photos now that seems to only go left, well, mostly anyway. So, instead of trying to find another template I'm happy with (well, I did for a bit, but I like this one I've got at the moment for now), I'd rather re-align all my photos to the left too.
I've done some (working backwards), but still have a few to do.
I will have to do a whole lot more on my other Blogger blog East London Photographs and Wild Ramblings, as basically every post there has a photo or two, so, hm, maybe I'll see if there isn't rather another template that suits that blog better.
Just thinking out loud here. Don't mind me.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Desperate times call for desperate measures FREE 3 PAGE WEB DESIGN
We're offering to design 3 pages for static html websites FOR FREE. It's a little crazy, yeah, as the only condition is that you host the site with us too, and register the domain through us too, and we make very little profit on this, but work is so ridiculously quiet right now, we're pretty desperate!
The value is R600, plus the R120 we usually charge to upload the site is thrown in for free too, so you save R720, and get a 3 page website designed, including basic SEO, meta tagging, and alt tagging, just like for our usual paying website design clients.
We go into more detail about this special offer, which ends at 5pm Saturday 26 June (or before) on our 1pic4twenty blog.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
The value is R600, plus the R120 we usually charge to upload the site is thrown in for free too, so you save R720, and get a 3 page website designed, including basic SEO, meta tagging, and alt tagging, just like for our usual paying website design clients.
We go into more detail about this special offer, which ends at 5pm Saturday 26 June (or before) on our 1pic4twenty blog.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Totally thrilled with my new Blogger template and all the other theme options too
Just love the new free templates for Blogger bloggers! Settled on one, but was tempted to change it after just two days, when the boys were going through the various background images for the new templates for their own blogs Lava Reflections and Screeching Falcon.
Zooty's blog Screeching Falcon was one of the top five risers in the blogs on myScoop yesterday - they had just left with their father to spend three nights at him, when I saw this, and so I quickly phoned Zooty to tell him the good news - he was lank chuffed of course. I'm just so sorry I didn't send the flash with them, so that they could write some more blog posts while at their dad on their pc there, that I could upload for them when they get back.
Anyway, back to the new templates for Blogger: They're gorgeous, and wider too, nice spacing area for bigger ads in the sidebars too, and any other info one wants to have appear there too, so that all the info that usually appears in a sidebar no longer has the viewer scrolling down forever to see it all. Nice job, Blogger!
© copyright Teresa Schultz
Zooty's blog Screeching Falcon was one of the top five risers in the blogs on myScoop yesterday - they had just left with their father to spend three nights at him, when I saw this, and so I quickly phoned Zooty to tell him the good news - he was lank chuffed of course. I'm just so sorry I didn't send the flash with them, so that they could write some more blog posts while at their dad on their pc there, that I could upload for them when they get back.
Anyway, back to the new templates for Blogger: They're gorgeous, and wider too, nice spacing area for bigger ads in the sidebars too, and any other info one wants to have appear there too, so that all the info that usually appears in a sidebar no longer has the viewer scrolling down forever to see it all. Nice job, Blogger!
© copyright Teresa Schultz
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Using egg white under feet to lower a high temperature
Yeah, sounds really odd, but mothers get into a panic when their children have a fever and they try anything to help their children. Basti was really ill last night and I was searching the Internet for some answers, help, or tips, and I came across a site called Earth Clinic and a post about a home remedy using egg whites under the feet to reduce a fever quickly.
I did not get to try the fever reducing egg white home remedy, as I'd already tried a whole bunch of other things to bring Basti's high temperature down, and one or some of them must have worked, because when I took his temperature again, it was down. Had it not been down, I would have certainly tried putting sloshy egg whites under his feet. I would have tried just about anything.
The Earth Clinic site does have a disclaimer saying that what they write, or that people comments (who comment on what is written or what others write) should basically not be the end of looking for answers and that a doctor should be the one to be contacted for a completely correct diagnosis and proper treatment, but I was still blown away at how many people were commenting about how the egg white remedy was working or had worked on themselves or on their children, and, in most cases, it seemed to work very quickly.
Mothers (and parents in general) get really desperate when their children are ill. A very high fever can result in fits, and possible brain damage.
I took both boys to the doctor yesterday morning as Basti in particular had a high temperature and sore throat. His face and whole body was hot; his lips were dry.
No infection as such was discovered, and the doctor was reluctant to prescribe antibiotics. When I convinced her to, she said not to use the antibiotics for a day or two to first see how Basti was improving without them, but he got worse and worse and I started using the antibiotics yesterday afternoon.
This is how the evening progressed from 8pm onwards:
8pm temp 39.5
9pm temp 39.8
gave Ponstan
9.15pm temp 39.5
10.45pm temp 39.8
Every 20 to 30 minutes during the above I was giving Basti water to drink and wiping his head, face, neck, throat, ankles and under his arms with a cloth with cold water. And I would leave a folded damp cold cloth on his forehead inbetween, even though it (the cloth) generally warmed up within 5 minutes.
11.pm made him take a shower (on his own; he's 12 and capable even if feeling miserable) in very lukewarm water, bordering on cold, and change into dry clean clothes. I stood outside the door to listen and shout instructions to make sure he stood under the shower spray for about 3 minutes, even though he was moaning he was so cold.
11.10pm temp 39.5
gave Ponstan syrup, left cool cloth on head, put towel on pillow
11.40pm temp 39.4
gave half a glass of water
00.50am temp 38.3
had Basti change his tshirt as wet with sweat
gave half a glass of water and Ponstan syrup
4.40am temp 37.00
gave half a glass of water, Demezin, and Ponstan syrup;
change tshirt and towel on pillow
9.00am temp 36.7
after breakfast gave antibiotic, a bronchodialor syrup, and a Ponstel tablet
Keeping an eye on Basti and making him stay pretty calm; he's chesty and back in bed now (11am), after having played on the computer for half an hour, and writing a blog post for his own blog about how he felt last night. Will be posting it for him shortly. Update: here's Basti's blog post about his high temperature.
During this bout of illness, Zooty's temperature has not yet gone above 37.7 and let's hope and pray it stays that way.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
I did not get to try the fever reducing egg white home remedy, as I'd already tried a whole bunch of other things to bring Basti's high temperature down, and one or some of them must have worked, because when I took his temperature again, it was down. Had it not been down, I would have certainly tried putting sloshy egg whites under his feet. I would have tried just about anything.
The Earth Clinic site does have a disclaimer saying that what they write, or that people comments (who comment on what is written or what others write) should basically not be the end of looking for answers and that a doctor should be the one to be contacted for a completely correct diagnosis and proper treatment, but I was still blown away at how many people were commenting about how the egg white remedy was working or had worked on themselves or on their children, and, in most cases, it seemed to work very quickly.
Mothers (and parents in general) get really desperate when their children are ill. A very high fever can result in fits, and possible brain damage.
I took both boys to the doctor yesterday morning as Basti in particular had a high temperature and sore throat. His face and whole body was hot; his lips were dry.
No infection as such was discovered, and the doctor was reluctant to prescribe antibiotics. When I convinced her to, she said not to use the antibiotics for a day or two to first see how Basti was improving without them, but he got worse and worse and I started using the antibiotics yesterday afternoon.
This is how the evening progressed from 8pm onwards:
8pm temp 39.5
9pm temp 39.8
gave Ponstan
9.15pm temp 39.5
10.45pm temp 39.8
Every 20 to 30 minutes during the above I was giving Basti water to drink and wiping his head, face, neck, throat, ankles and under his arms with a cloth with cold water. And I would leave a folded damp cold cloth on his forehead inbetween, even though it (the cloth) generally warmed up within 5 minutes.
11.pm made him take a shower (on his own; he's 12 and capable even if feeling miserable) in very lukewarm water, bordering on cold, and change into dry clean clothes. I stood outside the door to listen and shout instructions to make sure he stood under the shower spray for about 3 minutes, even though he was moaning he was so cold.
11.10pm temp 39.5
gave Ponstan syrup, left cool cloth on head, put towel on pillow
11.40pm temp 39.4
gave half a glass of water
00.50am temp 38.3
had Basti change his tshirt as wet with sweat
gave half a glass of water and Ponstan syrup
4.40am temp 37.00
gave half a glass of water, Demezin, and Ponstan syrup;
change tshirt and towel on pillow
9.00am temp 36.7
after breakfast gave antibiotic, a bronchodialor syrup, and a Ponstel tablet
Keeping an eye on Basti and making him stay pretty calm; he's chesty and back in bed now (11am), after having played on the computer for half an hour, and writing a blog post for his own blog about how he felt last night. Will be posting it for him shortly. Update: here's Basti's blog post about his high temperature.
During this bout of illness, Zooty's temperature has not yet gone above 37.7 and let's hope and pray it stays that way.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
Thursday, June 10, 2010
So many different chips today when only Simba was just fine for me as a kid
When I started sub a (grade 1) in 1975, in East London, chips had just gone up from 5c a packet to 8c a packet. I think postage stamps cost the same at the time. The small packets of chips were Simba chips and I would buy a packet at breaktime. I'm not sure how many flavours of Simba chips were around at the time, but at the school tuckshop they had only salt and vinegar, tomato sauce (or just tomato?) and smoked beef. Smoked beef was my favourite.
Somewhere down the line, I discovered (or they started making) cheese and onion flavoured Simba chips, and they overtook the smoked beef as my favourite. There were only smooth chips. Then I remember suddenly hearing about and seeing Willards crinkle cut chips in the shops - that was awesome - Willards crinkle cut chips had little bumps in them!
I loved chips. I wouldn't always just crunch away at them, but would sometimes let the chip lay on my tongue awhile, and I would savour the flavour, and let the chip become soggy, before I munched and swallowed.
Lots of tiny bits of broken chips in a packet was not fun for a little kid, as my friends and I would sit at breaktime and compare how big some of our chips were. Some seemed really huge.
A whole larger variety of different flavours of chips crept in later, and fried chicken flavour was also one of my favourite, and what ever happened to that flavour I enjoyed in high school - smoked snoek? That smoked snoek flavour was yummy!
Then there were cheese curls and Nik Naks, and if one was having a braai or party, there had to be chipniks and dips.
oGrady's was another chip I enjoyed - and now they seem to be back again, or maybe they never went away? I used to remember that oGrady's were so thick, and being more thick, seemed to have more spices on them. They were more filling too. The oGrady's chips I buy in the shops now don't seem as thick, but then again nothing seems as big these days as how they seemed when I was still just a kid.
Flings too, I still love, and they're oh so useful and tasty for little toddlers - even if a bit messy, but, wow, so full of flavour. Our dog likes the odd few flings too. :)
Chipstix were also different and tasty.
Pringles were also interesting and very tasty, all stacked neatly and individually on top of each other in a tall container, instead of in a packet. Even though thick oGrady's were tasty, Pringles were thin, but also tasty.
Chips also became no longer just thin or thick, or smooth and crinkled, or puffy like Chipnix, Flings, and Cheese Curls, but new shapes climbed onboard too - like triangle Doritos. My boys often choose Doritos. Doritos has enough different flavours to satisfy most chip fans - or should I say crisp fans - I think somewhere along the line I had a friend or too who came from the UK and I discovered that people in the UK and USA called chips crisps. It made sense as here in South Africa if you told a friend you're buying some chips at the takeaway, they wanted to know if you meant "slap" chips or Simba chips, and since not all packets of chips contained Simba chips, calling chips crisps made a lot of sense (and they ARE crisp, as compared to slap potato chips, cut in strips from a potato and fried or baked and served warm.)
There were also screw shaped chips, ball shaped chips and circle chips.
There were, or are, also chips not made from potatoes, but rather from corn, as in Big Corn Bites, and I still can't decide if I prefer the tomato flavoured ones or the barbeque flavoured ones. Fritos have also always gone down well.
When it comes to cheese flavoured chips, I think hardly anything can beat cheese Nik Naks for loads of flavour.
Melt in the mouth prawn flavoured chips are also one of my latest favourites.
Wow, loads of chips, when all I started with, way back when, was just three flavours of Simba chips!
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
Somewhere down the line, I discovered (or they started making) cheese and onion flavoured Simba chips, and they overtook the smoked beef as my favourite. There were only smooth chips. Then I remember suddenly hearing about and seeing Willards crinkle cut chips in the shops - that was awesome - Willards crinkle cut chips had little bumps in them!
I loved chips. I wouldn't always just crunch away at them, but would sometimes let the chip lay on my tongue awhile, and I would savour the flavour, and let the chip become soggy, before I munched and swallowed.
Lots of tiny bits of broken chips in a packet was not fun for a little kid, as my friends and I would sit at breaktime and compare how big some of our chips were. Some seemed really huge.
A whole larger variety of different flavours of chips crept in later, and fried chicken flavour was also one of my favourite, and what ever happened to that flavour I enjoyed in high school - smoked snoek? That smoked snoek flavour was yummy!
Then there were cheese curls and Nik Naks, and if one was having a braai or party, there had to be chipniks and dips.
oGrady's was another chip I enjoyed - and now they seem to be back again, or maybe they never went away? I used to remember that oGrady's were so thick, and being more thick, seemed to have more spices on them. They were more filling too. The oGrady's chips I buy in the shops now don't seem as thick, but then again nothing seems as big these days as how they seemed when I was still just a kid.
Flings too, I still love, and they're oh so useful and tasty for little toddlers - even if a bit messy, but, wow, so full of flavour. Our dog likes the odd few flings too. :)
Chipstix were also different and tasty.
Pringles were also interesting and very tasty, all stacked neatly and individually on top of each other in a tall container, instead of in a packet. Even though thick oGrady's were tasty, Pringles were thin, but also tasty.
Chips also became no longer just thin or thick, or smooth and crinkled, or puffy like Chipnix, Flings, and Cheese Curls, but new shapes climbed onboard too - like triangle Doritos. My boys often choose Doritos. Doritos has enough different flavours to satisfy most chip fans - or should I say crisp fans - I think somewhere along the line I had a friend or too who came from the UK and I discovered that people in the UK and USA called chips crisps. It made sense as here in South Africa if you told a friend you're buying some chips at the takeaway, they wanted to know if you meant "slap" chips or Simba chips, and since not all packets of chips contained Simba chips, calling chips crisps made a lot of sense (and they ARE crisp, as compared to slap potato chips, cut in strips from a potato and fried or baked and served warm.)
There were also screw shaped chips, ball shaped chips and circle chips.
There were, or are, also chips not made from potatoes, but rather from corn, as in Big Corn Bites, and I still can't decide if I prefer the tomato flavoured ones or the barbeque flavoured ones. Fritos have also always gone down well.
When it comes to cheese flavoured chips, I think hardly anything can beat cheese Nik Naks for loads of flavour.
Melt in the mouth prawn flavoured chips are also one of my latest favourites.
Wow, loads of chips, when all I started with, way back when, was just three flavours of Simba chips!
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
I lost one of Zooty's drawings today and this was a big problem
Zooty likes to draw. Zooty likes anime, sketching, and computer games. I've organized that the the boys have their own blogs now, even though I don't yet allow them Internet on their computer, and I will upload most of their blog posts for them.
Zooty was taking photos of some of his drawings and there was one particular one he'd given me that we couldn't find. Oops, not good. Zooty kept repeating "Mom lost my best drawing, Mom lost my best drawing!"
Tony eventually came to the rescue and located the missing drawing in a box in the garage from the last time we were tidying up the office a bit. So all's well, and Zooty will soon be adding some photos of his drawings to his very own blog, called Screeching Falcon.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
Zooty was taking photos of some of his drawings and there was one particular one he'd given me that we couldn't find. Oops, not good. Zooty kept repeating "Mom lost my best drawing, Mom lost my best drawing!"
Tony eventually came to the rescue and located the missing drawing in a box in the garage from the last time we were tidying up the office a bit. So all's well, and Zooty will soon be adding some photos of his drawings to his very own blog, called Screeching Falcon.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
The beautiful rain in East London has washed a lot clean including our signs
Sounds like I'm moaning I guess, and I can't really as the rain is so badly needed in East London, and in the entire Eastern Cape region right now, actually, and it did a great job of washing the car which hasn't had a wash in ages, while out and about yesterday afternoon taking my mom to see my dad's sister who isn't well.
However, our signs we had out on the front wall are just blackboards really, with the writing in chalk, so we'll have to redo them - not that's it's helping much yet, we're still broke as anything this month, so far. It was still raining this morning, and although it cleared up a bit, the sky is looking dark again. I do hope it rains some more, even though it means we can't yet put our signs out. We need this rain so badly, not only to help lift the current water restrictions in the East London area right now, but to fill our dams to the brim, so that the water will last a long time before the next lot of rain.
The rain is also good for the garden, and hopefully it will help perk up some plants we have here in containers, so that we will be able to sell some more. We're trying to sell a few plants again, while waiting for a few more web design clients to hire us for our web design services.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
However, our signs we had out on the front wall are just blackboards really, with the writing in chalk, so we'll have to redo them - not that's it's helping much yet, we're still broke as anything this month, so far. It was still raining this morning, and although it cleared up a bit, the sky is looking dark again. I do hope it rains some more, even though it means we can't yet put our signs out. We need this rain so badly, not only to help lift the current water restrictions in the East London area right now, but to fill our dams to the brim, so that the water will last a long time before the next lot of rain.
The rain is also good for the garden, and hopefully it will help perk up some plants we have here in containers, so that we will be able to sell some more. We're trying to sell a few plants again, while waiting for a few more web design clients to hire us for our web design services.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
Eish, the boys are missing lots of karate
The boys go to karate lessons in East London twice a week, but we missed taking them three times in a row recently, due to their exams (which hopefully helped as Zooty got 67,3% aggregate, and Basti got 86,5% aggregate.) Basti is trying to keep his high marks up and he did so, and even better by improving on last term's aggregate of 85,1%, and Zooty was trying to improve on his last term's aggregate of 72%. This didn't happen, but it may have been worse if we'd taken time out from learning to fit in three karate lessons.
We try not to miss too many karate classes so that the boys can learn and practice all they can before their next grading session coming up in late July, I think. They will be trying to grade to their brown 2 belt.
The boys did do a karate lesson last week, and were meant to go again earlier this week, but we went to my brother instead, for supper and to celebrate his birthday, thinking we would try not miss any karate lessons for at least the next 4 weeks (8 karate sessions in a row), but now Basti seems a little ill, and we're not going to go tonight either. I'm dosing him up on Viral Guard and vitamin C, keeping him home, and hopefully we'll get to the next karate lesson.
They enjoy their karate lessons, are doing well with it, and have even enjoyed a karate training session on Nahoon Beach.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
We try not to miss too many karate classes so that the boys can learn and practice all they can before their next grading session coming up in late July, I think. They will be trying to grade to their brown 2 belt.
The boys did do a karate lesson last week, and were meant to go again earlier this week, but we went to my brother instead, for supper and to celebrate his birthday, thinking we would try not miss any karate lessons for at least the next 4 weeks (8 karate sessions in a row), but now Basti seems a little ill, and we're not going to go tonight either. I'm dosing him up on Viral Guard and vitamin C, keeping him home, and hopefully we'll get to the next karate lesson.
They enjoy their karate lessons, are doing well with it, and have even enjoyed a karate training session on Nahoon Beach.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Isn't the rain in East London just awesome?
Beautiful sound of rain falling on the roof, and on the ground outside. Beautiful rain giving life to the earth, and to us. East London has been pretty dry, and had water restrictions placed on the 1st of May. This rain East London is having today is just awesome. I'm sure all the little seeds, plants, and roots in the ground are singing (and that's what we actually hear, not the rain!) :)
Of course one day of rain (well, it actually only started after midday) is not going to get East London too far, but it's definitely welcome rain, and we all hope and pray we get some more soon.
It's stunning to have rain. I can almost hear the little plants and trees as they stretch up towards the raindrops falling on them. I can even hear the plants laughing with happiness, can you? Their thirst is quenched.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
Of course one day of rain (well, it actually only started after midday) is not going to get East London too far, but it's definitely welcome rain, and we all hope and pray we get some more soon.
It's stunning to have rain. I can almost hear the little plants and trees as they stretch up towards the raindrops falling on them. I can even hear the plants laughing with happiness, can you? Their thirst is quenched.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
I used to type at school, not compute, savvy?
There were no computer lessons when I was at school, only typing lessons. How things have changed. Imagine how people would miss computers today if they were suddenly all wiped out.
Typing was fun, and I'm glad I took it as a subject at school - not because I can still type properly and quickly and do touch typing without breaking into a sweat, because I can't anymore, and I tend to look at my fingers a lot these days (don't tell my old typing teacher!) - hm, and I don't even use all my fingers shhhh - but because it was relatively easy and brought up my aggregate. My aggregate would have been considerably lower had I not done typing. It was only really English and typing that I enjoyed at school (and running and long jump.)
Now it's normal for computers to be in schools, and for kids to have computer lessons, and I guess what with what technology being what it is today, it should be (normal.)
I'm 41 now, and wish I'd had computer lessons at school. Although, on the other hand, it's been great fun learning how to use a computer over the last 4 years. I probably wouldn't have been as interested if learning computers at school.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
Typing was fun, and I'm glad I took it as a subject at school - not because I can still type properly and quickly and do touch typing without breaking into a sweat, because I can't anymore, and I tend to look at my fingers a lot these days (don't tell my old typing teacher!) - hm, and I don't even use all my fingers shhhh - but because it was relatively easy and brought up my aggregate. My aggregate would have been considerably lower had I not done typing. It was only really English and typing that I enjoyed at school (and running and long jump.)
Now it's normal for computers to be in schools, and for kids to have computer lessons, and I guess what with what technology being what it is today, it should be (normal.)
I'm 41 now, and wish I'd had computer lessons at school. Although, on the other hand, it's been great fun learning how to use a computer over the last 4 years. I probably wouldn't have been as interested if learning computers at school.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
Sunday, June 6, 2010
The boys now have their own blogs too
Spent quite some time this afternoon setting up blogger blogs for the boys, with their help. They chose their own blog names (titles), and two widgets each for their blogs.
Zooty's blog is Screeching Falcon and Basti's blog is Lava Reflections.
They enjoyed looking for widgets to add to their blogs and they have made their first blog post.
Zooty plans to upload photos of his artwork, or digital art, tshirt designs, and describe the pictures. He will also sometimes just give news or write a little story or idea down.
Basti plans to upload photos, perhaps some photos of art, and his digital art or other designs, and describe the pictures. He too will also have news and stories etc.
They do not yet have their own Internet on their computer (I do not yet allow it, and we can't afford it right now), and I will copy and paste or upload for them, from what they do on their computer. Sometimes, if I'm not too busy, I'll let them sit at my computer and upload their stuff themselves.
Zooty has already made himself a little "business card" design, and will hand some cards out to friends at school, who will hopefully pop in at his blog and leave a comment or two.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
Zooty's blog is Screeching Falcon and Basti's blog is Lava Reflections.
They enjoyed looking for widgets to add to their blogs and they have made their first blog post.
Zooty plans to upload photos of his artwork, or digital art, tshirt designs, and describe the pictures. He will also sometimes just give news or write a little story or idea down.
Basti plans to upload photos, perhaps some photos of art, and his digital art or other designs, and describe the pictures. He too will also have news and stories etc.
They do not yet have their own Internet on their computer (I do not yet allow it, and we can't afford it right now), and I will copy and paste or upload for them, from what they do on their computer. Sometimes, if I'm not too busy, I'll let them sit at my computer and upload their stuff themselves.
Zooty has already made himself a little "business card" design, and will hand some cards out to friends at school, who will hopefully pop in at his blog and leave a comment or two.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
Friday, June 4, 2010
I have not hugged a tree in a very long time
Not quite sure what made me think of trees, and climbing trees - perhaps it was my ex's mother popping in to see my mother and I today - have not seen her since the last time she popped in, before Christmas I think (so about 6, 7, or 8 months back, or was it earlier this year (and not so long ago?) - anyway, it's been a while.)
She was mentioning how the boys like to play tricks on her - they see her from time to time as they go to their father ten or eleven nights a month - who lives about only 1km away from his mother (their other granny.)- Granny says she'll walk out her kitchen and feel something lightly falling on her head, and upon looking up will spot the boys in a big tree above her head, throwing down little twigs.
I'm glad the boys like climbing trees (although don't all kids?) as I loved climbing trees as a kid too. I was such a tomboy!
I remember a tree - a huge wild fig tree with a low branch that branched (duh!) off to the side across the lawn in front of the capark where my mother and I would go fetch my dad from his work as a male nurse in the Margaret Fuller Ward at the Frere Hospital. I would climb up the tree, not very high, but then edge along that long low branch in front of where my mom was parked, and wave at her.
I also remember a tree at Cove Rock, between the parking area and the beach, that I used to think was cool - I can't remember why now, or if I climbed that tree, but what I do remember is that I gave it a hug just before we left to go home after a day at the beach, and told it not to miss me too much because I hoped to be back soon again. I must have been about 8.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
She was mentioning how the boys like to play tricks on her - they see her from time to time as they go to their father ten or eleven nights a month - who lives about only 1km away from his mother (their other granny.)- Granny says she'll walk out her kitchen and feel something lightly falling on her head, and upon looking up will spot the boys in a big tree above her head, throwing down little twigs.
I'm glad the boys like climbing trees (although don't all kids?) as I loved climbing trees as a kid too. I was such a tomboy!
I remember a tree - a huge wild fig tree with a low branch that branched (duh!) off to the side across the lawn in front of the capark where my mother and I would go fetch my dad from his work as a male nurse in the Margaret Fuller Ward at the Frere Hospital. I would climb up the tree, not very high, but then edge along that long low branch in front of where my mom was parked, and wave at her.
I also remember a tree at Cove Rock, between the parking area and the beach, that I used to think was cool - I can't remember why now, or if I climbed that tree, but what I do remember is that I gave it a hug just before we left to go home after a day at the beach, and told it not to miss me too much because I hoped to be back soon again. I must have been about 8.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
What do we do while the boys are at their art lesson?
When the boys' private art lessons teacher popped out of the art class to the parking area, to quickly get something from her car, we were seated in our/my dad's car, pretty much just sitting there. The car window was down and we greeted. The art teacher remarked that we were funny - referring to that we just sat there in the car waiting an hour and a half, for the boys to finsh their art lesson. We just laughed it off, and didn't go into detail as she was in a hurry to get back to class - and we also didn't want to keep her from teaching the boys!
What we do while waiting for the boys on Friday afternoons is:
Save petrol instead of driving around all over the place in the area;
Save petrol by not coming home to do some work on the computers quickly, which, to us, makes sense, as that would be about R25 petrol spent, and just 20 minutes max on the computers.
We do sometimes go to the shop very close by, or to the garage (also very close by) to put some petrol in the tank, or get some air for the tires.
We read free local newspapers we picked up at the shop, and do the crossword.
We take notes in a notebook for when we do get back to our work at the computers.
We relax, and sometimes almost fall asleep - and why not? - we very often work until after midnight, even when we have to be up at 5.40am the next morning, to get the boys sorted for school.
Although we don't like being away from work for as long as we wait for the boys at their art class (plus we get there about 45 minutes early after picking the boys up from school) I think we're also glad we don't yet have a laptop, as we need some time off from work (we work many hours on weekends too.)
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
What we do while waiting for the boys on Friday afternoons is:
Save petrol instead of driving around all over the place in the area;
Save petrol by not coming home to do some work on the computers quickly, which, to us, makes sense, as that would be about R25 petrol spent, and just 20 minutes max on the computers.
We do sometimes go to the shop very close by, or to the garage (also very close by) to put some petrol in the tank, or get some air for the tires.
We read free local newspapers we picked up at the shop, and do the crossword.
We take notes in a notebook for when we do get back to our work at the computers.
We relax, and sometimes almost fall asleep - and why not? - we very often work until after midnight, even when we have to be up at 5.40am the next morning, to get the boys sorted for school.
Although we don't like being away from work for as long as we wait for the boys at their art class (plus we get there about 45 minutes early after picking the boys up from school) I think we're also glad we don't yet have a laptop, as we need some time off from work (we work many hours on weekends too.)
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
Thursday, June 3, 2010
And now a "plants for sale" sign on our wall too
Maybe it will help? Maybe somebody will stop? And we really shouldn't have taken so long to put the plants and sign out again (even though there's way less plants than before). Afterall, it was what we first did for a bit of income, and to get our web design, photography, and writing business going, slowly and surely.
It's also one of the main ideas we try to promote to others who are wanting to work from home, or want to earn a bit of much needed extra income. See You're so desperate for money that you're reading this on somebody else's computer where we detail how one can start making the first efforts at working from home, or earning some extra income, starting with just one packet of plant or herb or flower seeds.
One good thing about not having sold plants for so many months, is that they've grown a bit, and we can charge a bit more.
We have just 5 plants out in front at the moment. Two Gwenya trees (Wild Plum) at R50 each, and 3 ice-cream bush trees/bushes at R30 each. They're in old buckets, buckets that are falling apart, but are at least keeping the soil together, giving the little trees (well one is almost as tall as me)place for their roots to grow, until they get transplanted into somebody's garden.
A bad thing about not having sold plants for so many months is that many of the smaller ones have died, as we stopped looking after them properly, due to our web design photography and writing work taking off - well, not taking off to the extent that we can go on vacation or buy our own car, or move away from my folks to rent elsewhere that is more expensive, but enough to no longer need any help from my parents (we haven't needed my parents help in over a year, and also paid them back for the previous 18 months that they helped us out with.)
But the month of May went dilly (even though February was our best month ever??) and now we're stuck battling to pay our few small accounts, and even small daily living expenses.
So, the plants are out again. And if things carry on like this, we'll have to plant some seeds soon, and sell seedlings. Until things pick up again. We remain positive that things will pick up again, because we know we deliver an excellent service, at unbelievably low prices.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
It's also one of the main ideas we try to promote to others who are wanting to work from home, or want to earn a bit of much needed extra income. See You're so desperate for money that you're reading this on somebody else's computer where we detail how one can start making the first efforts at working from home, or earning some extra income, starting with just one packet of plant or herb or flower seeds.
One good thing about not having sold plants for so many months, is that they've grown a bit, and we can charge a bit more.
We have just 5 plants out in front at the moment. Two Gwenya trees (Wild Plum) at R50 each, and 3 ice-cream bush trees/bushes at R30 each. They're in old buckets, buckets that are falling apart, but are at least keeping the soil together, giving the little trees (well one is almost as tall as me)place for their roots to grow, until they get transplanted into somebody's garden.
A bad thing about not having sold plants for so many months is that many of the smaller ones have died, as we stopped looking after them properly, due to our web design photography and writing work taking off - well, not taking off to the extent that we can go on vacation or buy our own car, or move away from my folks to rent elsewhere that is more expensive, but enough to no longer need any help from my parents (we haven't needed my parents help in over a year, and also paid them back for the previous 18 months that they helped us out with.)
But the month of May went dilly (even though February was our best month ever??) and now we're stuck battling to pay our few small accounts, and even small daily living expenses.
So, the plants are out again. And if things carry on like this, we'll have to plant some seeds soon, and sell seedlings. Until things pick up again. We remain positive that things will pick up again, because we know we deliver an excellent service, at unbelievably low prices.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
A web design photo editing and writing sign on our front wall now
Although we loaded a client's new website yesterday, we're still pretty short of cash, and work just seems so quiet, so we decided to hang a sign over the front wall now, and see what happens.
The road we live on is not too busy, but not that quiet either, as there's a school near one end, and some shops near the other end.
If people don't actually stop to enquire about the services we offer, we did include our web address and cell number on the sign too, in case they want to jot down the details and call us or visit our website later.
Marketing one's business (in our case web design, photography, and writing related services) can be quite tough. We deliver an excellent service, but what's the benefit of this if nobody knows about us?
The site we uploaded to the Internet yesterday cost the client just R1 120. On one of our other blogs we detail what the client got for his money.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
The road we live on is not too busy, but not that quiet either, as there's a school near one end, and some shops near the other end.
If people don't actually stop to enquire about the services we offer, we did include our web address and cell number on the sign too, in case they want to jot down the details and call us or visit our website later.
Marketing one's business (in our case web design, photography, and writing related services) can be quite tough. We deliver an excellent service, but what's the benefit of this if nobody knows about us?
The site we uploaded to the Internet yesterday cost the client just R1 120. On one of our other blogs we detail what the client got for his money.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Sheesh our worst business month in twelve months
I guess it is to be expected, that we have a bad month or two here and there, when our little business is just over two years old, and only really started showing growth just over a year ago, but sheesh, this worst month (May 2010) has happened just three months after our very best month (Feb 2010).
We’re hanging in there, but it’s a tad difficult, and we’re impatient for lots of new clients.
It will come, I guess, the work, and we’re doing what we can for now.
Still not sure how this happened though, when February was a month that made us really pleased.
Okay, February was even still beneath what we are striving to achieve, but our income for February was more than what we require to cover our very basic monthly expenses.
Why didn’t we save some money, then, you may ask.
Well, February was an expensive month – it was Zooty’s 11th birthday, it was Tony’s 50 th birthday, and Tony’s 21 year old daughter came to visit in March too, for two nights, and we showed her around and ate out. Birthday celebrations happen only once a year, and Tony’s daughter had not seen Tony in over two years, plus I had not yet met her, so we do not regret spending one cent, but now we’re a little stuck, which we didn’t expect.
Can’t even post this to my blog tonight (31 May 2010) as our monthly adsl ran out just after 5 pm – which is awful as we rarely go to sleep before midnight, but at least it (this blog post) will be ready for me to just copy and paste in the morning, then, hey? (When our new monthly adsl allowance starts.)
Oh well, perhaps a new month (June) will bring some new hope.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
We’re hanging in there, but it’s a tad difficult, and we’re impatient for lots of new clients.
It will come, I guess, the work, and we’re doing what we can for now.
Still not sure how this happened though, when February was a month that made us really pleased.
Okay, February was even still beneath what we are striving to achieve, but our income for February was more than what we require to cover our very basic monthly expenses.
Why didn’t we save some money, then, you may ask.
Well, February was an expensive month – it was Zooty’s 11th birthday, it was Tony’s 50 th birthday, and Tony’s 21 year old daughter came to visit in March too, for two nights, and we showed her around and ate out. Birthday celebrations happen only once a year, and Tony’s daughter had not seen Tony in over two years, plus I had not yet met her, so we do not regret spending one cent, but now we’re a little stuck, which we didn’t expect.
Can’t even post this to my blog tonight (31 May 2010) as our monthly adsl ran out just after 5 pm – which is awful as we rarely go to sleep before midnight, but at least it (this blog post) will be ready for me to just copy and paste in the morning, then, hey? (When our new monthly adsl allowance starts.)
Oh well, perhaps a new month (June) will bring some new hope.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Car wheels spashing in water from a burst water pipe in East London
I enjoyed taking these photos this morning of cars slooshing through water that was running across the road from a burst water pipe, in Garcia Street, Cambridge, near to where we live. I couldn't get too close (to the cars) for fear of my camera getting wet, and I don't have a zoom lens, but I'm quite happy with these photos.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
More on the burst pipe matter:
Daily Dispatch DispatchNow blog - Well done BCM!
Burst water pipe lifts concrete gutter and floods road
Broken concrete gutter and wet road
I wanted dad to let go of my leash
Friday, May 28, 2010
The scenic route
We meant to turn right, not left, really. The traffic in the late afternoons near the Gonubie turn off, and into Gonubie is ridiculous, since another route into Gonubie from Beacon Bay has not yet been completed and nobody seemed to do anything with the brilliant idea of an East Londoner some time back about allowing a truck with a big sign in front travelling the wrong way down one of the two outbound lanes from Gonubie, with a row of traffic behind it (temporarily allowing two lanes into Gonubie) in the evenings.
We wanted to avoid this traffic mess, when returning from the East Coast Resorts area earlier this evening, but turning right when coming out of Schaefli Road, then turning left onto the N2, to be able to go over the bridge at the N2/Gonubie intersection instead of under it in that traffic mess, on our way to Cambridge.
But we forgot, and turned left instead, (past the brickfields and Farmarama). We were a little way along when I remembered the traffic we would encounter just otherside Farmarama, and I got all tense.
But then Basti piped up "It doesn't matter - this is the scenic route." And it was. And I relaxed.
We were much more "in the country" that if we'd gone along the highway, and there was a brilliant rainbow lit up against stormy dark clouds off to our left, over the brickfields. An enjoyable and scenic trip that made me think "Every cloud's got a silver lining." - words you can hear in David Essex's Hold Me Close song.
article © copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
We wanted to avoid this traffic mess, when returning from the East Coast Resorts area earlier this evening, but turning right when coming out of Schaefli Road, then turning left onto the N2, to be able to go over the bridge at the N2/Gonubie intersection instead of under it in that traffic mess, on our way to Cambridge.
But we forgot, and turned left instead, (past the brickfields and Farmarama). We were a little way along when I remembered the traffic we would encounter just otherside Farmarama, and I got all tense.
But then Basti piped up "It doesn't matter - this is the scenic route." And it was. And I relaxed.
We were much more "in the country" that if we'd gone along the highway, and there was a brilliant rainbow lit up against stormy dark clouds off to our left, over the brickfields. An enjoyable and scenic trip that made me think "Every cloud's got a silver lining." - words you can hear in David Essex's Hold Me Close song.
article © copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Difficult not to get depressed when looking for a job or new clients in SA
It sucks not being able to find a job - one gets so depressed,
and that just makes it worse, trying to get the energy to try do
something about earning an income. We've had a really bad month, and
are not even sure we can pay our rent (living at my parents and we pay
rent) or our adsl/telephone account - which we have to have to be able to
carry on work online. Or if we do, there's no money over for anything else(petrol to get the kids to school and back, food, our web hosting account, still paying the lawyer divorce fees, art fees for the kids etc etc)
But, somehow, we get through. We work hard, and when there's no work,
we work hard at marketing ourselves. Over 2 years ago we started out selling plants on the pavement in front of my parents' home, and took it from there.
One just has to have the will to take control of one's own income -
and this seems to happen more easily when one is pretty desperate -
and learn and discover, that "hey, I can earn a little income for
myself, and, perhaps, it may even grow into something bigger." But
you have to start somewhere, and more important than that, is to
actually just start (doing something.)
We managed to turn around a bad situation, over two years ago, even though it took some time, and although some months are still pretty tough, our good reputation and our portfolio are growing.
We are seeing a new client tomorrow, and are hoping we get the job
(freelance job) to design a site for them. We are also seeing an old
client next week sometime, hopefully, who wants some small changes and
additions to his site we designed a while ago already.
If these clients don't come through for us, then we would:
Sell some plants from home, on the pavement;
Find some old books lying around the house, borrow R30 to pay for a
"stand" at the beachfront fleamarket on Sunday morning, and hope to
sell a little even if we make only R30 plus cover petrol - it's R30
more than we had before.
We have a lot of info on our sites to help people think about what they can do from home, and there is also tons of info on the Internet. And
it's all free. We use this same info when we get stuck for a bit of income, to see us through. It inspires us to think instead of just sit around and get depressed, and do nothing. We wish that people struggling to find work can also realise that they too can work from home. It's not easy, and may take a long time to earn a decent income, but it could grow into a healthy income, and you won't know if you don't try.
Read. Learn. Earn.
We don't have money to give to people who are struggling. We can't
employ anybody who needs work. We're trying to keep our own heads
above water ourselves, but we do like to help people.
Our mission is just to let people know, that if one has the right
attitude, one can work for themselves, but without the will to do it,
it won't happen.
We saw a woman walking in the streets the other day, going to offices
or anywhere really with a basket of koeksisters she had made, we drove
past her in the street, stopped and bought a packet for R10 - we
didn't feel like koeksisters and gave them to my dad, but we admired
that she was making the effort to work.
It's tough. It's not easy. BUT YOU CAN DO IT.
To people struggling:
Go through some articles on our sites, slowly, and carefully, and use the information, or inspiration they give you, and you'll be fine.
Believe that you will be fine. Just do something!
Here are some articles we think are the more important ones on our sites, but, of course, just browse the Internet and learn all you can about what you can do from home:
OVER 250 WORK FROM HOME IDEAS
YOU'RE SO DESPERATE FOR MONEY THAT YOU'RE READING THIS ON SOMEBODY ELSE'S COMPUTER
DON'T SPEND FOREVER TRYING TO FIND WORK. JUST WORK.
USING YOUR KITCHEN TO WORK FROM HOME
USING A FLEA MARKET TO SELL A PRODUCT OR PROMOTE A SERVICE
WE HAVE MONEY TO LAST ABOUT 4 DAYS
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
and that just makes it worse, trying to get the energy to try do
something about earning an income. We've had a really bad month, and
are not even sure we can pay our rent (living at my parents and we pay
rent) or our adsl/telephone account - which we have to have to be able to
carry on work online. Or if we do, there's no money over for anything else(petrol to get the kids to school and back, food, our web hosting account, still paying the lawyer divorce fees, art fees for the kids etc etc)
But, somehow, we get through. We work hard, and when there's no work,
we work hard at marketing ourselves. Over 2 years ago we started out selling plants on the pavement in front of my parents' home, and took it from there.
One just has to have the will to take control of one's own income -
and this seems to happen more easily when one is pretty desperate -
and learn and discover, that "hey, I can earn a little income for
myself, and, perhaps, it may even grow into something bigger." But
you have to start somewhere, and more important than that, is to
actually just start (doing something.)
We managed to turn around a bad situation, over two years ago, even though it took some time, and although some months are still pretty tough, our good reputation and our portfolio are growing.
We are seeing a new client tomorrow, and are hoping we get the job
(freelance job) to design a site for them. We are also seeing an old
client next week sometime, hopefully, who wants some small changes and
additions to his site we designed a while ago already.
If these clients don't come through for us, then we would:
Sell some plants from home, on the pavement;
Find some old books lying around the house, borrow R30 to pay for a
"stand" at the beachfront fleamarket on Sunday morning, and hope to
sell a little even if we make only R30 plus cover petrol - it's R30
more than we had before.
We have a lot of info on our sites to help people think about what they can do from home, and there is also tons of info on the Internet. And
it's all free. We use this same info when we get stuck for a bit of income, to see us through. It inspires us to think instead of just sit around and get depressed, and do nothing. We wish that people struggling to find work can also realise that they too can work from home. It's not easy, and may take a long time to earn a decent income, but it could grow into a healthy income, and you won't know if you don't try.
Read. Learn. Earn.
We don't have money to give to people who are struggling. We can't
employ anybody who needs work. We're trying to keep our own heads
above water ourselves, but we do like to help people.
Our mission is just to let people know, that if one has the right
attitude, one can work for themselves, but without the will to do it,
it won't happen.
We saw a woman walking in the streets the other day, going to offices
or anywhere really with a basket of koeksisters she had made, we drove
past her in the street, stopped and bought a packet for R10 - we
didn't feel like koeksisters and gave them to my dad, but we admired
that she was making the effort to work.
It's tough. It's not easy. BUT YOU CAN DO IT.
To people struggling:
Go through some articles on our sites, slowly, and carefully, and use the information, or inspiration they give you, and you'll be fine.
Believe that you will be fine. Just do something!
Here are some articles we think are the more important ones on our sites, but, of course, just browse the Internet and learn all you can about what you can do from home:
OVER 250 WORK FROM HOME IDEAS
YOU'RE SO DESPERATE FOR MONEY THAT YOU'RE READING THIS ON SOMEBODY ELSE'S COMPUTER
DON'T SPEND FOREVER TRYING TO FIND WORK. JUST WORK.
USING YOUR KITCHEN TO WORK FROM HOME
USING A FLEA MARKET TO SELL A PRODUCT OR PROMOTE A SERVICE
WE HAVE MONEY TO LAST ABOUT 4 DAYS
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Out for the Count
Knocked about, totally "kished" and worn out, what happens to one when one has just had too much? Activities that drain one's energy aren't the end of the world, as long as one has a chance to recover before the next bout. In fact, activities that drain one's energy are usually related to fun, fresh air and exercise, so definitely not the end of the world - instead, they're good for you.
These two photos below depict my sons, Basti and Zooty, in January 2009, asleep in the back of the car, on the way back home to East London from a daytrip to Hogsback, totally pooped, and out for the count, after a day of activities in the quaint little Hogsback.
What fun we had! We hiked to Kettle Spout and Madonna and Child (waterfalls), bought little clay hogs, popped in at Saint Patrick on the Hill, and explored the view at The Edge.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
These two photos below depict my sons, Basti and Zooty, in January 2009, asleep in the back of the car, on the way back home to East London from a daytrip to Hogsback, totally pooped, and out for the count, after a day of activities in the quaint little Hogsback.
Out for the count Hogsback Zooty
Out for the count Hogsback Basti
What fun we had! We hiked to Kettle Spout and Madonna and Child (waterfalls), bought little clay hogs, popped in at Saint Patrick on the Hill, and explored the view at The Edge.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
Grade 6 and 7 school English exams today
Well, the boys have been dropped off at school, and today they write their first SA 2nd term school exam. After today's English exam, they have 7 more days of exams, the poor things - although, I think their exams stress me out more than them sometimes!
Tony went through Basti's English with him last night, in our little home office, while I sat on the back of my folks' little bakkie in the garage with Zooty, going through his.
We'll swop kids some evenings, during the next few days, but, generally, we just can't wait for the exams to be over.
Basti (grade 7) is doing really well at school (85% aggregate last term) and we're hoping he'll stay "right up there" - but the first term was based on tests, while this term it's EXAMS. Scary word, and especially when it's English today, and Basti's spelling is not so hot. His memory is great though, so hopefully all those English rules will be remembered!
Even though exams are generally stressful for all, it's also fun going through the boy's work with them. We let them learn for 30 to 40 minutes at a time, for however many days we can fit in before an exam, but only "ask them questions" the night before the exam is to be written, give them tips etc. If we do it early enough in the evening and notice any wobblies, we send them off for another learning session, and we fit in one more "asking" session.
Zooty (grade 6) is not doing badly at school (72% aggregate last term), but we're hoping to see some improvement, because we know he can improve; that he is capable of improvement. His (all grade 6's in Eastern Cape - not sure if in the whole of South Africa) exams this term are being set by the Department of Education, so we'll just have to wait and see how he does, and cannot really predict how he might do, as we might have been previously able to do, based on exams NOT set by the Department of Education.
Sitting on the back of the bakkie, last night, asking Zooty his English, was fun, but not all that comfortable - might change our asking session place today (Natural Science for Zooty tomorrow, and Afrikaans for Basti).
English was my favourite subject at school, especially writing essays, but I didn't do badly at grammar either - last night I was reminded of what the four different kinds of nouns are: proper nouns, common nouns, collective nouns and abstract nouns - Zooty remembered only two, so that was dealt with, a bit.
He was good at remembering "i before e except after c" though and that it (this rule) does not apply when part of the word sounds like "ay" as in neighbour. Interesting stuff!
I was also proud that he knew that the plural for radius is radii.
Well, I certainly hope they can do something with this English they're learning, once they've left school, and that it won't be merely sitting on the back of a bakkie in their garage, one day, going through English books with their own children, fondly rembering their own days at school - and hopefully also remembering that their mother used to sit on the back of a bakkie with them too, when it was school exams the next day.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
Tony went through Basti's English with him last night, in our little home office, while I sat on the back of my folks' little bakkie in the garage with Zooty, going through his.
We'll swop kids some evenings, during the next few days, but, generally, we just can't wait for the exams to be over.
Basti (grade 7) is doing really well at school (85% aggregate last term) and we're hoping he'll stay "right up there" - but the first term was based on tests, while this term it's EXAMS. Scary word, and especially when it's English today, and Basti's spelling is not so hot. His memory is great though, so hopefully all those English rules will be remembered!
Even though exams are generally stressful for all, it's also fun going through the boy's work with them. We let them learn for 30 to 40 minutes at a time, for however many days we can fit in before an exam, but only "ask them questions" the night before the exam is to be written, give them tips etc. If we do it early enough in the evening and notice any wobblies, we send them off for another learning session, and we fit in one more "asking" session.
Zooty (grade 6) is not doing badly at school (72% aggregate last term), but we're hoping to see some improvement, because we know he can improve; that he is capable of improvement. His (all grade 6's in Eastern Cape - not sure if in the whole of South Africa) exams this term are being set by the Department of Education, so we'll just have to wait and see how he does, and cannot really predict how he might do, as we might have been previously able to do, based on exams NOT set by the Department of Education.
Sitting on the back of the bakkie, last night, asking Zooty his English, was fun, but not all that comfortable - might change our asking session place today (Natural Science for Zooty tomorrow, and Afrikaans for Basti).
English was my favourite subject at school, especially writing essays, but I didn't do badly at grammar either - last night I was reminded of what the four different kinds of nouns are: proper nouns, common nouns, collective nouns and abstract nouns - Zooty remembered only two, so that was dealt with, a bit.
He was good at remembering "i before e except after c" though and that it (this rule) does not apply when part of the word sounds like "ay" as in neighbour. Interesting stuff!
I was also proud that he knew that the plural for radius is radii.
Well, I certainly hope they can do something with this English they're learning, once they've left school, and that it won't be merely sitting on the back of a bakkie in their garage, one day, going through English books with their own children, fondly rembering their own days at school - and hopefully also remembering that their mother used to sit on the back of a bakkie with them too, when it was school exams the next day.
© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010
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