Free Program Helps You Deeply Customize Your Wallpaper

John's Background Switcher is a free program that allows you to customize your computer's "wallpaper" with your own photos.

And when I say "customize" I REAAAAALLY mean customize!

Among its many features:

• Pull photos from ANY source, including your internet photo account, random photos from the web, etc.

• Manage how the pictures appear on your desktop.  You can configure a montage, use a single image, whatever!
• Automatically switch out your photos with whatever frequency you set.

I use it on both XP and Vista machines and it's stable.  It handles dual monitors with no problem but has a little trouble with three.

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Store Holiday Stuffed Animals and Books With Your Xmas Decorations

Christmas Decoration Storage Tip:  Round up all of your holiday related stuffed animals, toys and books and store them with your Christmas decorations.  Bust them out again next Christmas for an added layer of holiday fun!

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Use WD40 To Keep Snow From Sticking To Your Shovel

TIP: Spray your snow shovel with WD40 to prevent the snow from sticking and making the chore even more miserable than it has to be.

You can also use a no-stick cooking spray but it won't last as long.

Extra tip: be sure not to get any oil on your gloves!  Makes it tough to hold on to the shovel!

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Use Cookie Cutters For Toast, Pizza!

TIP: Use your holiday cookie cutters for toast and pizza!  In fact, I use non-seasonal cutters all year round!

The best selection of non-seasonal cutters can be found at AC Moore.  Last time I checked, Target had a limited selection and Michael's had squat.

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Communication and Discipline

J & D are really good kids.  And eM and I recognize that a lot of that comes from them.  But we do however give ourselves credit for planning the ways in which we communicate with them and discipline them.

So it's probably no surprise that we're fans of the show Super Nanny.  I found an article on the show's official site that really captured our current communication/discipline processes and gave us a few new ideas.