Category: General

I’m currently taking a bloggy break but the lovely Paige is doing a guest post today looking at iPhone/iPad apps for busy mums.

Everyone know that being a mum is a 24 hour a day job, so when it comes to packing activities and tasks into their busy schedules, mums are the queens of multi-tasking.

Fortunately, they don’t have to go it alone. Thanks to the convenience of modern technology like the iPhone or tablet computers, mums have plenty of help when it comes to keeping track of their busy lives. Certainly the iPhone has become one of the most useful devices for categorising and organising our schedules. Here are some of the apps we would recommend for busy Mums:

– Grocery Guru – keep track of your shopping lists with the Grocery Guru. You can organise items by store, occasion (mum’s 70^th birthday party) or in any other way you see fit. This free app makes it easy to keep multiple shopping lists on hand. You’ll also have the option to send and receive lists from other App users so you can divvy up lists for multiple shoppers. This is the perfect app to see you through the busy holidays.

– iTube List – parents of young children will know how invaluable YouTube clips are to buy a few minutes of sanity in their days. The challenge is that it can be difficult to ensure your children only consume kid-friendly content, especially if your kids know how to navigate your mobile on their own. iTube ensures your child only views age appropriate material on YouTube to give you peace of mind with a bit of peace and quiet.

– You Rule Chore List – a fun way to get your kids doing their chores. This handy little app turns chores into a game where kids can “compete” to earn coins to purchase powers for their characters in the game. Parents can control the level of competition and act as referee to assign chores and update kids’ statuses.

– Any To Do – for busy mums that hate traditional to-do lists, this app is great for organising tasks based on their urgency and importance. By arranging tasks in to visual quadrants, visual thinkers will be able to better interpret how they should prioritise their days.

– Easy Spending Expense Tracker – take the complications out of your household budgeting. This app makes it easy to keep track of your day to day expenses and can help you get a better handle on your finances by understanding where you’re spending the most and what opportunities there are to save some dollars.

Busy mums will love the time they can save with these helpful apps and all of the great technology they can get with computer rentals. Will you spend some time on yourself or will you try to cram more into your busy day?

Author Bio: Paige writes in Sydney about technology, computers and electronic devices for a rental finance company.

Violence against women is never ok. As a survivor of domestic violence, I feel it is important to speak about this subject. The following is a collaboration between Nightwolf’s Den & ActionAid Australia

Around the world, up to 70% of women experience physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner at some point in their lives (World Health Organisation, 2005). That’s a shocking figure.

But violence against women extends far beyond the hands of an intimate partner.

There are many forms of violence and sexual violence against women that can affect both women and girls throughout their lives. These include, but are not limited to the traditional practice of female genital mutilation, early marriage, sexual slavery, rape as a weapon of war, forced abortion and forced pregnancy.

What is behind violence against women?

At the root of most violence against women is an entrenched and uneven power relation between men and women. In many countries around the world there is still blatant discrimination in law, policy and decision making that strengthens this power imbalance. There are also more hidden and underground forms of discrimination that are justified under the cloak of tradition and culture.

Violence against women can be deeply entrenched, but it can also be circumstantial such as in areas of conflict where rape and abuse of women are often used as a weapon of war. Up to 500,000 women were raped, for example, during the Rwanda genocide in 1994.

But violence against women can also happen in a more subtle manner. Whether it is verbal, physical, sexual abuse or threatening behaviour, it can have a devastating impact on the life of a woman or a young girl. Women who experience sexual or physical attacks often carry deep and lasting physical and emotional scars and experience feelings of guilt and shame. Even worse, they are often ostracised from their families and communities following the attack.

What can be done?

Safety and protection from violence is a human right. Change needs to come from law and policy makers, but also from grass root level awareness and education programs to challenge entrenched attitudes towards women and the power imbalance between men and women in many countries around the world.

There are a number of initiatives around the world dedicated to empowering women and helping stop violence against them. ActionAid Australia, for example, supports a number of grass roots women’s organisations in central and northern Africa to help women regain their dignity, safety and human rights. Women are powerful forces for change. If you’d like to join the fight to ensure women’s rights, there are a number of things you can do. Whether you help raise awareness or want to donate, charity organisations and women’s rights initiatives around the world will be buoyed by your support. Every voice makes the message stronger – violence against women must stop.

ActionAid Australia is an anti-poverty agency that works towards eradicating poverty and injustice.  ActionAid’s work addresses issues such as poverty, hunger and women’s rights. Violence against women is a gross violation of female human rights, and ActionAid is committed to helping stop all forms of violence against women.

Today we’re taking a break from all things Christmas and I’m handing over my blog to guest poster Sophie of Delivery Hero.

image credit

Spending time with the family is one of the most rewarding things in life. It helps build and strengthen family bonds and establishes memories in the making. But what family time activities can you do on a daily basis that both kids and adults would enjoy. Here’s my top 5 things for keeping everyone entertained.

5 Great Family Time Ideas

Gardening. Get the kids involved in growing plants or vegetables in the garden. Take them to the garden centre and help them pick out their own seeds or plants that they can tend to. They’ll love to feel responsible for something and watch the progress of the plants growing. If you don’t have a garden or it’s the wrong season then consider growing some vegetables indoors. Buy some small plant pots and tomato seeds and get the children to water them everyday.

Eating dinner together. Of course eating dinner together is one of the most traditional ways for families to spend time in each other’s company. Even if you have no time to cook, order a takeaway (www.deliveryhero.com.au/takeaway/sydney/) and catch up on how each other’s days went.

Watch an old movie together. Films such as Gone with the Wind, Mary Poppins and Oliver are all family classics that everyone will enjoy. Or perhaps opt for the Star Wars trilogy if you’re children are a little older.

Baking. Brownies, cookies and gingerbread men are all relatively foolproof recipes and kids’ favourites. Also, check out Nightwolf’s great recipe for cookies and banana bread here. For something a little different try making fudge or toffee.

Build a Fort! A classic family time activity that the kids will love. Use pillow, sheets, cushions and the children’s imagination to build the best fort in the world!

The Many Benefits of Family Time

These are just some of the many family time activities that are a great way to keep kids entertained and help families interact. It’s been proven that the positive supportive relationships that often come from families spending time together are hugely important in the early years of a child’s life. They help with cognitive development, healthy emotional development and social attachment of children. All the more reason to rent out Star Wars and get building that fort!