Posted by Kavitha
Ladies,
How/When do you capture those magical moments of your precious little ones ?
Which camera do you use, what kind of photography skills do you need ?
How to take family/home photos that look like they were taken by a professional ?
Whenever I try to take a shot of my son smiling/laughing/doing something that I want to capture in my camera, he would have turned his face to another direction or gotten bored looking into the camera etc.
Stumbled upon SJ's post where she talks about storing and organizing pics, but not about actual shooting though. Would love to hear from you all about how you shoot great pictures of your babies.
Showing posts with label tips and tricks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tips and tricks. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Say Cheese!
Hi Moms!
I am not a great photographer, but I love taking photos. I guess what I lack in quality, I make up in quantity :-) I have thousands of digital photos of my daughter - I am huge fan of picasa and use it to organise them, etc I'd love feedback from other moms on how they save and organize their photos. Do you create backups on CDs, hard drives, DVDs (someone told me they last longer than CDs)
Also coming to videos - my camera has a video option which I use (far more often than I have ever used my camcorder). Mainly since I always keep my camera handy and also because picasa makes it easy to view the videos. So far I have been shooting clips of 5-8 min at a time, so this works fine. Yes, the quality of video is not as good as with a comcorder, but this works better for me because.... now here is my problem...
I have not been able to download videos from my panasonic camcorder to my computer. I would love what software/hardware you girls use to do this... a friend of mine at work says she has bought a DVD recorder, they connect the camcorder to the TV and as they view the pic on TV they record to a DVD. What do most of you do? or do you now care of the only copy is on the mini-DV tapes and not on your hard drive?
I am not a great photographer, but I love taking photos. I guess what I lack in quality, I make up in quantity :-) I have thousands of digital photos of my daughter - I am huge fan of picasa and use it to organise them, etc I'd love feedback from other moms on how they save and organize their photos. Do you create backups on CDs, hard drives, DVDs (someone told me they last longer than CDs)
Also coming to videos - my camera has a video option which I use (far more often than I have ever used my camcorder). Mainly since I always keep my camera handy and also because picasa makes it easy to view the videos. So far I have been shooting clips of 5-8 min at a time, so this works fine. Yes, the quality of video is not as good as with a comcorder, but this works better for me because.... now here is my problem...
I have not been able to download videos from my panasonic camcorder to my computer. I would love what software/hardware you girls use to do this... a friend of mine at work says she has bought a DVD recorder, they connect the camcorder to the TV and as they view the pic on TV they record to a DVD. What do most of you do? or do you now care of the only copy is on the mini-DV tapes and not on your hard drive?
Friday, June 22, 2007
The Sneaky Chef - A review
You want your kids to grow healthy. But they aren't eating their daily veggies. They just give a blunt 'No!' or sometimes, 'I don't like it', or sometimes even 'I hate veggies' or just leave it in their plate for you to wonder and wonder 'how on earth am I going to get this inside them' .....
Sometimes they go through phases of eating just peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for every meal.. And sometimes this phase goes longer than what a mom can take. So, you swallow your disappointment and try to cook it differently, more interestingly. You put a plate of fancy cut sandwiches and cute looking veggies and dips in front of them - all very colorful and keep your fingers and toes crossed- Does that work? NO! You try to tell them - Veggies are good, darling... If you eat them, you can grow as tall as 'Barney' or 'Diego' or whomever your kid fancies at the time... and then hope and pray that this works... - does it work?
Sometimes they go through phases of eating just peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for every meal.. And sometimes this phase goes longer than what a mom can take. So, you swallow your disappointment and try to cook it differently, more interestingly. You put a plate of fancy cut sandwiches and cute looking veggies and dips in front of them - all very colorful and keep your fingers and toes crossed- Does that work? NO! You try to tell them - Veggies are good, darling... If you eat them, you can grow as tall as 'Barney' or 'Diego' or whomever your kid fancies at the time... and then hope and pray that this works... - does it work?
Well, With some kids, some of these ploys work, but with most, it doesn't. So, what does a mom do? Sneak them!!! Yep, Missy Chase Lapine says 'sneak those veggies in the foods kids love'.
Ms.Lapine, the author of the best-seller 'The Sneaky Chef' comes to the rescue. She takes a list of the kid's favorite foods and takes another list of super foods and finds a way to sneak in the stuff from the second list to the first.. How does she sneak it in? She purees the veggies and sneaks them into brownies and pasta sauces and mac and cheese and other stuff...... Well, This idea has been there for a long time. Think of zucchini breads and carrot muffins. But I'd say she takes this approach a step further and have used it in foods that kids usually don't mind eating. She also suggests ways to make ahead a few purees and store them in the freezer for quicker cooking..
Some of her free recipes found in the web and from the Author's website.
- Make-Ahead Recipe: Green Juice
- Make-Ahead Recipe: Purple Puree
- Make-Ahead Recipe: White Puree
- Make-Ahead Recipe - Orange Puree
- Sneaky Chef Brainy Brownies
- Earth Day Milk Shake
- Tomato Sauce
- Mac and Cheese
- Power Pizza
- Peanut butter & Jelly muffins
Some may disagree with this approach... This isn't the right way to get the kids to eat their veggies. I beg to differ.. What's stopping us from keep trying to get them eat their veggies in the usual way, while also sneaking it into stuff they like. And when they start eating their veggies, you can always stop your sneaking in.
While I haven't had the chance to try these stuff on my kiddo yet (She's just 9 mo and eating what I stuff in her mouth) but if she grows up into the kind of kid who hates veggies, I wouldn't hesitate to try this approach.
While I haven't had the chance to try these stuff on my kiddo yet (She's just 9 mo and eating what I stuff in her mouth) but if she grows up into the kind of kid who hates veggies, I wouldn't hesitate to try this approach.
Again, you don't have to use the ideas given in the book only for the recipes mentioned in the book.. Similar approach can be used for Indian cooking too... Making green dosas or colorful idlis or colored rice and parathas or rotis... etc In addition to increasing the nutrition quotient, you can also use veggies into giving color for food stuff without using the harmful chemical food colors. Take this idea and get creative.
A mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do. ;)
P.s. Not affiliated or associated with 'The Sneaky Chef' or 'Amazon.com' or any other links mentioned above.
Sunday, June 3, 2007
How a Mom gets it all Done -- Part 2
Few days ago Archana an energetic mom of two adorable twins had this post. She asked “How do Moms Get It All Done” Very very valid question and as always a lot of our members were very prompt and helpful with ideas and tips. These suggestions were so good that I decided to compile them with some of my own tips thrown in.
A Mom has a hectic life I agree. She zips around doing trillion things, stuff she wouldn’t have imagined doing for herself. All her work is done with a single goal to do the best for her kids. If she wants home cooked food it’s because she doesn’t want her kids to eat unhealthy junk.
If she simply HAS to do the 3 loads of laundry each week its because she can’t bear to see the kids go around in soiled clothes.
So in addition to the daily stuff she does for the kids, the feeding, bathing, playing, entertaining she has to get the household chores done too and that can get overwhelming at times.
Heres some pointers on how to make the load a little lighter and the journey more entertaining
This is a major part I agree, especially in an Indian household where you are cooking and serving Indian food. I love to cook but doing it every day is difficult and on weekdays it takes up a considerable amount of time.
What can You Do ?
Cooking in bulk. On a Saturday or Sunday I cook enough to last me till mid week. Then on Wednesday I cook something again but the mid week cooking is lighter, quicker stuff.
For my daughter I make a stew with different kind of veggies and refrigerate. Then I add either chicken or fish to it during the week. So I will fry a fish filet and add it to the stew say on Monday and then say add some cooked chicken to the stew on Tuesday. Chicken does not taste good if kept cooked for long so at the most a day or two should be ok.
Saheli said “I make tuvar dal a lot(plain dal/sambar etc.,) so, on weekends I boil it in bulk and store in different containers in the freezer and use them as needed during weekdays.”
SJ said “Daals, chole, rajma, chicken dishes, matar paneer, etc all are very freezer friendly. Just keep in mind, once it comes out of the freezer it should be finished the same day. Palak paneer, cook a lot of the palak base, divide into 3 parts and freeze 2. Next time take out one part, add some fresh seasonings, throw in fresh paneer and you are good to go.”
Chopping Veggies: I usually chop veggies on a day when I am not cooking. So say if I am watching a movie on Friday night, I utilize that time to chop up some of the veggies that I would cook during the weekend. For stuff like Spinach I always get a Bag of washed Baby Spincah which I use in Dal. That way I don’t have to chop the spinach.
On weekends I make onion paste and sometimes ginger and garlic paste and refrigerate. That way mid week cooking gets easy.
Saheli said “I also keep frozen vegs available like beans, karela, broccoli and guvar for days when I don't have time to chop. I also keep the 'instant" items ready like idli mix, dosa mix, dokhla mix.”
Also get your hubby to help with cooking, chopping, doing the dishes etc.. Relax about having home cooked meal every day, have a Sandwich or a salad on a day you are very tired or order out once in a while.
Laundry is ok… you just sort and dump and then the washer does the rest. The biggest chore for both me and D is folding them. Oh how I hate folding laundry !!! I just hope someone would come up with a gadget that folds.
Usually I do 3 loads of laundry and I start from Friday. The folding is another story….
What can You Do ?
Get your kids involved. Sometimes me and my daughter we sit and chat and I fold while she pretends to.
Reena said “ put clothes for washing and drying and let your husband fold it at night.”. Try, might work out and then you are one happy Momma
Sogno said “I used to fold the clothes at night after E fell asleep and while watching TV”
Dee said” Engage your kids in the laundry room and fold the dried clothes when you watch tv or listen to music after the little ones sleep”
If everything fails do what I do. I sometimes dump the dried up laundry in the spare room, shut the door, forget that the room ever existed and then on a day when I am less tired I go and fold. Ok that day has to be sometime during the same week of course, I cannot postpone to next year or something
With small kids around it becomes a bit stressful to do the house cleaning like vaccum etc.
What can You Do ?
Hire help for cleaning. You can get someone weekly, twice a week or monthly. My help comes in once every three weeks. In between we vaccum a bit and clean the bathrooms but NO Deep cleaning for us. So that leaves the weekends less stressed.
The kitchen is cleaned soon after I cook and hubby helps in that, I think kitchen is the most frequently cleaned room actually. Keep boxes of the "Clorox" Wet Kitchen wipes. A quick wiping of the counter tops with those help a lot. Also keep a box of Swiffer dry wipes handy. They are very useful to quickly wipe the floor.
Also restrict the kids to certain areas of the house to make a mess of. That way it’s ok if you only clean those areas each week and leave the rest for major cleaning days.
Teach kids to clean up toys etc. by having a large easily accessible toy chest where they can at least dump their toys and as long as junk is “out of sight” I consider it clean.
Serve meals for kids sitting them on their high chair and in the kitchen or dining area. Don’t let them run around the house with food. That might get messy
Running around grocery stores might be taking up a lot of your time. You loose out on your time with family you think.
What can You Do ?
Make grocery a fun family outing. Doing grocery helps me de-stress too. There are usually 2-3 grocery/farmers market to run around. Some days I just go on my own say on a Thursday evening while hubby takes care of the little one. Roaming around the aisles and looking at the produce gives me real pleasure.
Some weeks on Fridays we all go “to do grocery” . Getting the grocery done before Saturday helps me plan meals and start cooking from Saturday. When we all go together its like a family outing kind. Might not sound hep like going to a “Theme Park” but it IS a family bonding thing. If the family is not interested try to reduce the family trips to “once” a month and rest of the days go on your own to get some me time.
Shweta says “We always our grocery shopping -american/indian/ everything on thursday !!! I usually come back by 4.30 and the entire family goes on the trip..!! we pick up pizza on the go as a snack..!!SO even if we do run out of something unless it is very essential we just put it on list for thursdays !!”
Saheli says "Also, I always go with a list for grocery shopping and never ever go empty stomach"
Socializing is a part of a Moms life. Be it her friends or her kids friends. There are parties or get together to arrange or some that you need to attend to. This takes up some amount of the family time and though fun might make the days more hectic.
This I want suggestions about. I love my friends and spending time with them have always been fun. Being away from family its they who are more like family for us and my daughter too. But some weekends there is a bevy of socializing which upsets my plans. So maybe I am attending a party or cooking for one which leaves the weekends more hectic than relaxed. Does this happen to anyone ? How do you handle such situations ? What if this happens almost every other weekend ?
However we handle it, to keep us sane the mantra should be -- Take it easy and let go. You don’t have to be perfect. It’s fine if your kid eats chicken nuggets for dinner once in a while instead of the home cooked meal. Share work with hubby. He might not like you dictating which I tend to do often but let him take up a task he likes and he will excel. To get more quality time with family involve everyone while you are cooking or doing laundry. So let your hubby play with the kids some where nearby while you cook, so that you can join in too.
Do not look at motherhood as a chore, its not, to get the fun out of it do whatever suits you best.
Got ideas -- chip in please
A Mom has a hectic life I agree. She zips around doing trillion things, stuff she wouldn’t have imagined doing for herself. All her work is done with a single goal to do the best for her kids. If she wants home cooked food it’s because she doesn’t want her kids to eat unhealthy junk.
If she simply HAS to do the 3 loads of laundry each week its because she can’t bear to see the kids go around in soiled clothes.
So in addition to the daily stuff she does for the kids, the feeding, bathing, playing, entertaining she has to get the household chores done too and that can get overwhelming at times.
Heres some pointers on how to make the load a little lighter and the journey more entertaining
Cooking
This is a major part I agree, especially in an Indian household where you are cooking and serving Indian food. I love to cook but doing it every day is difficult and on weekdays it takes up a considerable amount of time.
What can You Do ?
Cooking in bulk. On a Saturday or Sunday I cook enough to last me till mid week. Then on Wednesday I cook something again but the mid week cooking is lighter, quicker stuff.
For my daughter I make a stew with different kind of veggies and refrigerate. Then I add either chicken or fish to it during the week. So I will fry a fish filet and add it to the stew say on Monday and then say add some cooked chicken to the stew on Tuesday. Chicken does not taste good if kept cooked for long so at the most a day or two should be ok.
Saheli said “I make tuvar dal a lot(plain dal/sambar etc.,) so, on weekends I boil it in bulk and store in different containers in the freezer and use them as needed during weekdays.”
SJ said “Daals, chole, rajma, chicken dishes, matar paneer, etc all are very freezer friendly. Just keep in mind, once it comes out of the freezer it should be finished the same day. Palak paneer, cook a lot of the palak base, divide into 3 parts and freeze 2. Next time take out one part, add some fresh seasonings, throw in fresh paneer and you are good to go.”
Chopping Veggies: I usually chop veggies on a day when I am not cooking. So say if I am watching a movie on Friday night, I utilize that time to chop up some of the veggies that I would cook during the weekend. For stuff like Spinach I always get a Bag of washed Baby Spincah which I use in Dal. That way I don’t have to chop the spinach.
On weekends I make onion paste and sometimes ginger and garlic paste and refrigerate. That way mid week cooking gets easy.
Saheli said “I also keep frozen vegs available like beans, karela, broccoli and guvar for days when I don't have time to chop. I also keep the 'instant" items ready like idli mix, dosa mix, dokhla mix.”
Also get your hubby to help with cooking, chopping, doing the dishes etc.. Relax about having home cooked meal every day, have a Sandwich or a salad on a day you are very tired or order out once in a while.
Laundry
Laundry is ok… you just sort and dump and then the washer does the rest. The biggest chore for both me and D is folding them. Oh how I hate folding laundry !!! I just hope someone would come up with a gadget that folds.
Usually I do 3 loads of laundry and I start from Friday. The folding is another story….
What can You Do ?
Get your kids involved. Sometimes me and my daughter we sit and chat and I fold while she pretends to.
Reena said “ put clothes for washing and drying and let your husband fold it at night.”. Try, might work out and then you are one happy Momma
Sogno said “I used to fold the clothes at night after E fell asleep and while watching TV”
Dee said” Engage your kids in the laundry room and fold the dried clothes when you watch tv or listen to music after the little ones sleep”
If everything fails do what I do. I sometimes dump the dried up laundry in the spare room, shut the door, forget that the room ever existed and then on a day when I am less tired I go and fold. Ok that day has to be sometime during the same week of course, I cannot postpone to next year or something
HouseCleaning
With small kids around it becomes a bit stressful to do the house cleaning like vaccum etc.
What can You Do ?
Hire help for cleaning. You can get someone weekly, twice a week or monthly. My help comes in once every three weeks. In between we vaccum a bit and clean the bathrooms but NO Deep cleaning for us. So that leaves the weekends less stressed.
The kitchen is cleaned soon after I cook and hubby helps in that, I think kitchen is the most frequently cleaned room actually. Keep boxes of the "Clorox" Wet Kitchen wipes. A quick wiping of the counter tops with those help a lot. Also keep a box of Swiffer dry wipes handy. They are very useful to quickly wipe the floor.
Also restrict the kids to certain areas of the house to make a mess of. That way it’s ok if you only clean those areas each week and leave the rest for major cleaning days.
Teach kids to clean up toys etc. by having a large easily accessible toy chest where they can at least dump their toys and as long as junk is “out of sight” I consider it clean.
Serve meals for kids sitting them on their high chair and in the kitchen or dining area. Don’t let them run around the house with food. That might get messy
Grocery
Running around grocery stores might be taking up a lot of your time. You loose out on your time with family you think.
What can You Do ?
Make grocery a fun family outing. Doing grocery helps me de-stress too. There are usually 2-3 grocery/farmers market to run around. Some days I just go on my own say on a Thursday evening while hubby takes care of the little one. Roaming around the aisles and looking at the produce gives me real pleasure.
Some weeks on Fridays we all go “to do grocery” . Getting the grocery done before Saturday helps me plan meals and start cooking from Saturday. When we all go together its like a family outing kind. Might not sound hep like going to a “Theme Park” but it IS a family bonding thing. If the family is not interested try to reduce the family trips to “once” a month and rest of the days go on your own to get some me time.
Shweta says “We always our grocery shopping -american/indian/ everything on thursday !!! I usually come back by 4.30 and the entire family goes on the trip..!! we pick up pizza on the go as a snack..!!SO even if we do run out of something unless it is very essential we just put it on list for thursdays !!”
Saheli says "Also, I always go with a list for grocery shopping and never ever go empty stomach"
Socializing
Socializing is a part of a Moms life. Be it her friends or her kids friends. There are parties or get together to arrange or some that you need to attend to. This takes up some amount of the family time and though fun might make the days more hectic.
This I want suggestions about. I love my friends and spending time with them have always been fun. Being away from family its they who are more like family for us and my daughter too. But some weekends there is a bevy of socializing which upsets my plans. So maybe I am attending a party or cooking for one which leaves the weekends more hectic than relaxed. Does this happen to anyone ? How do you handle such situations ? What if this happens almost every other weekend ?
However we handle it, to keep us sane the mantra should be -- Take it easy and let go. You don’t have to be perfect. It’s fine if your kid eats chicken nuggets for dinner once in a while instead of the home cooked meal. Share work with hubby. He might not like you dictating which I tend to do often but let him take up a task he likes and he will excel. To get more quality time with family involve everyone while you are cooking or doing laundry. So let your hubby play with the kids some where nearby while you cook, so that you can join in too.
Do not look at motherhood as a chore, its not, to get the fun out of it do whatever suits you best.
Got ideas -- chip in please
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
How do you get it all DONE?
I have been a mom for a mere 13 months and its exhausting! I am currently a stay at home mom to twins and I am finding that if I excel in one aspect of life one week, something else gets neglected. I feel like I am in a constant battle of trying to get it all done. I have already resolved that I cannot keep the house as neat and tidy as when I didn't have kids and I would rather play with the kids than fold 4 loads of laundry in one day but what I would love to hear from other moms here is what is your secret to having a somewhat sane life managing home and possibly work if you work outside the home? Do you have a routine for cooking, shopping, cleaning, laundry that you want to share? Do you have short cuts for getting your errands and chores done around the house? Do you have some favorite websites or organizers that help you get through your week more efficiently? I will be happy to compile your responses back into this post. Do share. I need new ideas to live more efficiently and do more!
Edited: I thought I would add this based on the current comments - My husband helps me a ton, he comes home by 5:30 even though he has a software job to help me with bed time for our kids. He watches them on the weekends for hours on end so I can run errands, groceries, so on. We also have a gardener to do mowing and weeding and we have a housecleaner every 2 weeks to help. Starting this week my husband is watching the twins in the morning before he goes to work so I can work out at 6 a.m.
I love the feedback I already received would love to hear more about "things" people do that are shortcuts. I guess I want more personal time with family on the weekend than just doing chores and like suggestions for other ideas. Thanks to all for sharing!
Edited: I thought I would add this based on the current comments - My husband helps me a ton, he comes home by 5:30 even though he has a software job to help me with bed time for our kids. He watches them on the weekends for hours on end so I can run errands, groceries, so on. We also have a gardener to do mowing and weeding and we have a housecleaner every 2 weeks to help. Starting this week my husband is watching the twins in the morning before he goes to work so I can work out at 6 a.m.
I love the feedback I already received would love to hear more about "things" people do that are shortcuts. I guess I want more personal time with family on the weekend than just doing chores and like suggestions for other ideas. Thanks to all for sharing!
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Need For Speed: A Mommy's Lunch Manifesto
[This article is posted by Meeta and written by Biggie of The Daily Tiffin Note: This is an excerpt of an article from The Daily Tiffin]
I'm a mom who packs lunch. What's important to a mom? Nutrition and speed: I want to feed my family nutritious food, but spending a lot of time on every meal isn't feasible. I strive to achieve balance between the two -- losing this battle would either have me waking up hours before everyone else to cook lunch, or reaching for a Lunchable processed lunch (the face of the enemy, pictured above).
Spending an hour preparing a weekday lunch is only going to happen in my house if it's a special occasion like a birthday or holiday -- I spend my morning getting myself and a preschooler ready to go out. Although ornate lunches shaped like cartoon characters and whimsical shapes are artistic and intriguing, I know my limits. I would burn out if I tried to do that every day. For me it's got to be sustainable over the long run, which is why I make speed bentos.
Read more
I'm a mom who packs lunch. What's important to a mom? Nutrition and speed: I want to feed my family nutritious food, but spending a lot of time on every meal isn't feasible. I strive to achieve balance between the two -- losing this battle would either have me waking up hours before everyone else to cook lunch, or reaching for a Lunchable processed lunch (the face of the enemy, pictured above).
Spending an hour preparing a weekday lunch is only going to happen in my house if it's a special occasion like a birthday or holiday -- I spend my morning getting myself and a preschooler ready to go out. Although ornate lunches shaped like cartoon characters and whimsical shapes are artistic and intriguing, I know my limits. I would burn out if I tried to do that every day. For me it's got to be sustainable over the long run, which is why I make speed bentos.
Read more
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