Stuff I Found Surfing Around

Trying to Fight off the Winter Doldrums?

Me, too! So, since my husband and oldest daughter are across the state at the old house fixing broken pipes so we can finally sell the silly thing (Say a prayer, please!), I'm here alone. Well, I'm never actually alone. But the Littles are all in bed. I've pulled up one of my son's music mixes on the computer (and you would not believe the crazy combination of stuff this kid has on here!), and am having a ball hunting down fun things to keep us active and awake during the long, cold, muddy days ahead.

Here's some of what I found:

For the whole family
As far as I can tell, pert near every state has a website that details all the fun and interesting things you can do there for free, or for very little charge. Here's the one for Colorado. You can search by category, by month, or by region. Great way to make a to-do list of field trips! I'm working on a list right now.

For a fun afternoon's diversion, look up the meanings of your first names at Behind the Name. Look here to find the origin of your family name.

Now, take your names and enter them into this anagram cipherer. You'll be amazed at how many combinations it'll come up with. Some of them are hysterical. (Simcha, over at I Have to Sit Down was having fun with this the other day.)

For the kids

The Catholic Kids website has tons of fun stuff for the children to do when they say they're bored and it's too cold to play outside and they're tired of reading and if they have to watch Blues Clues again they're going to throw a blue-faced fit... My Friend Fun and Games is chock full, too. This internet word game is also tons of funs for kids and Mom, alike.

There's an Amusement Park of Math Games to check out here. I found a Following Directions internet game here . (Am I the only Mom whose kids need practice with this?)

For some fun creating music, click here. If anyone out there is studying composers, run over to Beethoven's Baseball for a fun way to learn.

And for links to TONS of educational games of all kinds, check out the Internet Classroom. You don't need to tell the kids that this stuff is good for them.

Fun For Everyone:

Amazing Art
Have you seen these? They're a unique form of mural, each panel an individual little masterpiece. By clicking on the homepage, you can access the ability to get a close up of each "tile" or panel. It's just staggering to me how they put all of the little paintings together to make the one artistic whole!

You can order the limited edition prints, or order books from this site, as well. (I'm not being paid or in any other way coerced to plug these, btw, I just think they're really neat!)

And here's an absolute must-see: If you have never seen the beautiful, beautiful sketches by Jean Keaton of Our Lord laughing and playing with children, you have just got to run over and take a look. You'll want to order at least one, I guarantee!

Are you familiar with Julian Beever? Go check him out! The kids'll love his sidewalk art! His work is amazing!

Optical Illusions of all kinds make for a very interesting study subject, but are just very cool to enjoy for their very fact! Look here and here to see some more.

Isn't this cool? Looks like it's straight out of one of our all time favorite movies, Nemo, doesn't it? You'd think Bruce was getting ready to come visit you at the side of the pool, but he's made entirely out of mosaics! Look here to see some more.

For All Americans:

To know how to show your appreciation

to our troops, check out

The Gratitude Campaign.

You'll be glad you did!